St. Louis Browns (AA)

The Major League Baseball team now known as the Baltimore Orioles originated in Milwaukee as the Milwaukee Brewers, and then moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where they played for more than 50 years as the St. Louis Browns. This article covers the franchise's history in St. Louis, which began when the team moved from Milwaukee after the 1901 season and ended with the team's move to Baltimore after the 1953 season. As of September 2017, there are only 13 living former St. Louis Browns players.

In the late 19th century, the team existed as the Milwaukee Brewers in the Western League. For the 1900 season, the Western League was renamed to "American League", and in 1901, it was converted to a major league under the leadership of Ban Johnson.

Johnson had originally intended to move the Milwaukee Brewers to St. Louis. When he couldn't find a suitable owner, he was forced to operate the team in Milwaukee for a lame-duck season in 1901. In 1902, however, he found a suitable St. Louis-based owner in carriage maker Robert Lee Hedges, who moved the team to St. Louis and changed their name to the "Browns", in reference to the original name of the 1880s club that by 1900 was known as the Cardinals. Hedges built a new park on the site of the old Browns' former home, Sportsman's Park.

In their first St. Louis season, the Browns finished second. Although the Browns had only four winning seasons from 1902 to 1922, they were very popular at the gate during their first two decades in St. Louis, and trounced the Cardinals in attendance. In 1909, the Browns rebuilt Sportsman's Park as the third concrete-and-steel park in the majors.

During this time, the Browns were best known for their role in the race for the 1910 American League batting title. Ty Cobb took the last game of the season off, believing that his slight lead over Nap Lajoie, of the Cleveland Naps, would hold up unless Lajoie had a near-perfect day at the plate. Browns' manager Jack O'Connor had ordered rookie third baseman Red Corriden to play on the outfield grass. This all but conceded a hit for any ball Lajoie bunted. Lajoie bunted five straight times down the third base line and made it to first easily. On his last at-bat, Lajoie reached base on an error – officially giving him a hitless at-bat. O'Connor and coach Harry Howell tried to bribe the official scorer, a woman, to change the call to a hit – even offering to buy her a new wardrobe. Cobb won the batting title by just a few thousandths of a point over Lajoie (though it later emerged that one game may have been counted twice in the statistics). After news broke of the scandal, a writer for the St. Louis Post claimed: "All St. Louis is up in arms over the deplorable spectacle, conceived in stupidity and executed in jealousy." The resulting outcry triggered an investigation by American League president Ban Johnson. At his insistence, Hedges fired O'Connor and Howell; both men were informally banned from baseball for life.

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