Download The Best of Seasons: The 1944 St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns fb2

Bill Borst, self-appointed historian of the St. Louis Browns, has contributed a fine little history of that team's only pennant-winning season and the World Series that it played against its city rival; the St. Louis Cardinals. The 1944 World Series captured the hearts of many, for it represented a wonderful "Cinderella Story" for the Browns. While the Cardinal win was expected--the team won 105 games in that year--the Browns surprised everyone by taking the American League pennant when it won a mere 85 games.

The Browns had been so woeful since the late 1920s that many of the Browns' fans considered it a badge of honor--even a statement of machismo--to root for the hapless team. They took pride in the generally apt descriptor, "First in shoes, first in booze, and last in the American League." In reality, the Browns rebuilt into a decent team during this period, posting three winning seasons in the war years 1942-1945. They finished a distant third in the American League in 1942, but finally won the big one in 1944, capturing their only St. Louis pennant.

But the Browns survived that tough pennant race only to win the honor of serving as a sacrificial lamb for a truly outstanding Cardinal team. The Cards were so overwhelmingly favored in the World Series that it is doubtful that any serious people wagered against them. Cardinals shortstop Marty Marion, reflecting on the seemingly inevitable defeat of the Browns in the series, opined, "If the Browns had beat us, that would have really been a disgrace."

This series represented the only World Series involving Missouri teams to take place in the same city. Common in New York, especially between the Yankees and the Giants, a streetcar series was virtually unheard of elsewhere in the country. Only in 1906 when the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox played the World Series did another instance of a streetcar series take place. As such, this unusual occurrence captured the attention of the public. Moreover, both the Browns and the Cards shared Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, and the Browns were the owners with the Cardinals their tenants. Moreover, with the wartime shortage of housing the two teams' managers, the Browns' Luke Sewell and the Cardinals' Billy Southworth, shared an apartment in the city during the year. This was convenient because when the Cards were in town, the Browns were on the road and vice versa. Finally, the Cardinals had long been considered the best of the National League. Its roster was filled with stars whose fingers were weighed down with championship rings. The Browns had long been the doormats of the American League. It was a series not to be missed.

And the Browns put on a good show. In game one, the Browns prevailed 2-1, perhaps because the Cardinals underestimated the quality of play of the Browns. In game two, it took the Cardinals 11 innings to beat the Browns 3-2 and tie the series. The Browns then pounded the Cardinals 6-2 in game three as pitcher Jack Kramer silenced the Cardinals by striking out 10 and not allowing an earned run. The Cards won game four 5-1 to tie the series, and then went on to win the next two games as well, 2-0 and 3-1. The series was concluded and the Cardinals triumphed. As the streetcar series ended, it took with it the last opportunity for the Browns to produce a winner in St. Louis. After a good season in 1945, they slid back into their normal place at the bottom of the league until their departure from St. Louis for Baltimore in 1953.

This is a fine short history of the Browns and Cardinals in the 1944 season and how they played each other in the World Series.

No, not the Cleveland Browns of the NFL, but the St. Louis Browns. With the Cardinals still playing ball in St. Louis, the storied if sometimes depressing history of the Browns is so often forgotten. In this title we get a glimpse of the 1944 season, when two neighboring teams that did not play in New York faced off for Baseball's ultimate prize. Of course, World War II had created manpower shortages among the better teams that allowed the lowly Browns to win their first and last pennant, but that is immaterial. Those who were unfortunate enough to call themselves Browns' fans got one season to remember before their team left for greener pastures in Baltimore, MD. If you can get a hold of this title, you can marvel at the Midwestern version of the Brooklyn Dodgers.