The 1882 St. Louis Brown Stockings season was the first professional baseball season played by the team now known as the St. Louis Cardinals. The team was founded in the earlier St. Louis Brown Stockings franchise. It played in the National Association league in 1875 and in the National League from 1876 to 1877. After a scandal over game-fixing, combined with financial problems, the St Louis Brown Stockings left the National League but continued to play as an independent team from 1878 to 1881. Chris von der Ahe, a German immigrant, purchased the team prior to the 1882 season and joined the new American Association. The St. Louis Brown Stockings posted a 37-43 game record in their first season in the American Association, giving them fifth place. The team played at the Grand Avenue Grounds at the corner of Grand Avenue and Dodier Street in north St. Louis.

The St. Louis Cardinals, a professional baseball franchise based in St. Louis, Missouri, compete in the National League (NL) of Major League Baseball (MLB). As the game of baseball garnered interest in the United States in the 19th century, professional baseball in St. Louis became rooted chiefly in one disestablished Major League club – named the Brown Stockings, the same as the Cardinals' earliest name – which is loosely connected, but does not fall within the scope of, today's Cardinals. The Brown Stockings became St. Louis' first fully professional baseball club when they gained accession in the National Association (NA) in 1875. However, the NA folded after that season. That winter, with five other former NA teams, St. Louis established a new, eight-team league called the National League (NL) and began play the next season. Despite early success, Brown Stocking players were found to be connected to game fixing scandals, which forced bankruptcy and the club's expulsion from the NL. This scandal also abrogated their professional status but some members maintained play as a semi-professional team, primarily operated by outfielder Ned Cuthbert, until 1881.