1.
Sportsman's Park
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Sportsmans Park was the name of several former Major League Baseball ballpark structures in the central United States, in St. Louis, Missouri. All but one of these were located on the piece of land, at the northwest corner of Grand Boulevard and Dodier Street. The physical street address was 2911 North Grand Boulevard, in 1923, the stadium hosted St. Louiss first NFL team, the St. Louis All-Stars. Baseball was played on the Sportsmans Park site as early as 1867, the tract was acquired in 1866 by August Solari, who began staging games there the following year. It was the home of the St. Louis Brown Stockings in the National Association, originally called the Grand Avenue Ball Grounds. Some sources say the field was renamed Sportsmans Park in 1876, the local papers also still used the alternate name Grand Avenue Park until at least 1885. The first grandstand—one of three on the built in 1881. At that time, the diamond and the grandstands were on the southeast corner of the block, the park was leased by the then-major American Association entry, the St. Louis Brown Stockings, or Browns. The Browns were a strong team in the mid-1880s. When the National League absorbed the strongest of the old Association teams in 1892, soon they went looking for a new ballpark, finding a site just a few blocks northwest of the old one, and calling it New Sportsmans Park, which was later renamed Robison Field. They also changed colors from Brown to Cardinal Red, thus acquiring a new nickname. When the American League Browns moved from Milwaukee in 1902, they built a new version of Sportsmans Park and they initially placed the diamond and the main stand at the northwest corner of the block. This Sportsmans Park saw football history made and it became both the practice field and home field for Saint Louis University football teams, coached by the visionary Eddie Cochems, father of the forward pass. These included a 39–0 thrashing of Iowa before a crowd of 12,000, robinson launched an amazingly long pass in the game against the Jayhawks, which was variously reported to have traveled 67 or 87 yards in the air. College Football Hall of Fame coach David M. Nelson called the extraordinary, considering the size, shape and weight of the fat. Sports historian John Sayle Watterson agreed, in his book, College Football, History, Spectacle, Controversy, Watterson described Robinsons long pass as truly a breathtaking achievement. St. Louis finished with an 11–0 record in 1906, outscoring its opponents 407–11, the previous wooden grandstand was retained as left-field bleachers for a while, but was soon replaced with permanent bleachers. The Cardinals came back to their home in mid-1920, as tenants of the Browns, after abandoning the outdated
2.
St. Louis
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St. Louis is an independent city and major U. S. port in the state of Missouri, built along the western bank of the Mississippi River, on the border with Illinois. Prior to European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture. The city of St. Louis was founded in 1764 by French fur traders Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, in 1764, following Frances defeat in the Seven Years War, the area was ceded to Spain and retroceded back to France in 1800. In 1803, the United States acquired the territory as part of the Louisiana Purchase, during the 19th century, St. Louis developed as a major port on the Mississippi River. In the 1870 Census, St. Louis was ranked as the 4th-largest city in the United States and it separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its own political boundaries. In 1904, it hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the Summer Olympics, the economy of metro St. Louis relies on service, manufacturing, trade, transportation of goods, and tourism. This city has become known for its growing medical, pharmaceutical. St. Louis has 2 professional sports teams, the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, the city is commonly identified with the 630-foot tall Gateway Arch in Downtown St. Louis. The area that would become St. Louis was a center of the Native American Mississippian culture and their major regional center was at Cahokia Mounds, active from 900 AD to 1500 AD. Due to numerous major earthworks within St. Louis boundaries, the city was nicknamed as the Mound City and these mounds were mostly demolished during the citys development. Historic Native American tribes in the area included the Siouan-speaking Osage people, whose territory extended west, European exploration of the area was first recorded in 1673, when French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette traveled through the Mississippi River valley. Five years later, La Salle claimed the region for France as part of La Louisiane. The earliest European settlements in the area were built in Illinois Country on the east side of the Mississippi River during the 1690s and early 1700s at Cahokia, Kaskaskia, migrants from the French villages on the opposite side of the Mississippi River founded Ste. In early 1764, after France lost the 7 Years War, Pierre Laclède, the early French families built the citys economy on the fur trade with the Osage, as well as with more distant tribes along the Missouri River. The Chouteau brothers gained a monopoly from Spain on the fur trade with Santa Fe, French colonists used African slaves as domestic servants and workers in the city. In 1780 during the American Revolutionary War, St. Louis was attacked by British forces, mostly Native American allies, the founding of St. Louis began in 1763. Pierre Laclede led an expedition to set up a fur-trading post farther up the Mississippi River, before then, Laclede had been a very successful merchant. For this reason, he and his trading partner Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent were offered monopolies for six years of the fur trading in that area
3.
Chris von der Ahe
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Christian Friedrich Wilhelm von der Ahe was a German entrepreneur, best known as the owner of the St. Louis Brown Stockings of the American Association, now known as the St. Louis Cardinals. Von der Ahe arrived in New York City but quickly moved to St. Louis, later, he bought out the store owner and expanded business by establishing a saloon in the back of the store. He named the team the Browns and hired future Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey to play first base, Von der Ahe took a very active role in the team, even though he knew almost nothing about baseball. He was the first baseball owner with a significant public persona, with his thick German accent bushy mustache and showmanship, he was as much of a story as his players. The Browns dominated the American Association, winning four league championships starting in 1885, and the baseball, beer. He made $500,000 off the team alone. He set the price at 25 cents, hoping fans would spend money on beer. As a result, the Browns led the league in attendance, the term fan is sometimes attributed to von der Ahe. In 1885, von der Ahe erected a statue outside of Sportsmans Park, not of any of his star players. A sportswriter from Denver mockingly dubbed the statue Von der Ahe discovers Illinois, although eccentric, von der Ahe made a number of innovations, including operating a farm club called the St. Louis Whites. Also, tradition holds that von der Ahe was the first to sell hot dogs at the ballpark, Von der Ahe billed himself as the Millionaire Sportsman. In 1887, after a showing in the World Series. In 1891, he was majority owner of the Cincinnati Kellys Killers which played for part of one season in the American Association. In 1892 the team joined the National League after the American Association folded, by this time, Comiskey had lost patience with von der Ahe and left for the Cincinnati Reds. Without Comiskey, the Browns quickly became a last-place team, legal problems plagued von der Ahes ownership, especially in the later years. The league, which prohibited gambling on its grounds, disapproved of the race track, the press called the facility Coney Island West and nicknamed von der Ahe Von der Ha Ha. With losses still piling up, von der Ahe resorted to selling off his best players, in 1898, part of the ballpark burned down during an April game with Chicago, his second wife divorced him, and his bondsman kidnapped him for not paying his debts. In a highly publicized trial connected with the fire, von der Ahe lost his baseball team, the Browns changed hands twice and changed their name twice, first to the Perfectos and then to the Cardinals
4.
Ned Cuthbert
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Edgar Edward Ned Cuthbert was an American professional baseball player. Cuthberts baseball career began in 1865 with the Keystone Club of Philadelphia, after two seasons as a second baseman and outfielder with the Keystones, he moved across town to the West Philadelphia club, playing only four games for them before joining Philadelphia Athletics. With Cuthbert, the Athletics won national championships in 1867 and 1868, a solid batsman and outfielder, Ned jumped to the Chicago White Stockings in 1870. Cuthbert was with a number of teams in the National Association and its successor, the National League, playing in Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. After game-fixing allegations surfaced as part of the Brown Stockings 1877 season, Brown Stockings ownership officially withdrew from the National League, Cuthbert played with the semi-professional Brown Stockings and the St. Louis Red Stockings. Von der Ahe purchased the Brown Stockings in 1880, changed their name to the Browns, in 1882, Cuthbert became the player/manager for the St. Louis team of the newly formed American Association. However, according to Peter Morris A Game Of Inches, base-stealing was part of baseball well before 1865, Ned Cuthbert died of endocarditis in St. Louis, Missouri, and was laid to rest at Bellefontaine Cemetery. List of Major League Baseball player–managers Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference Baseball Almanac The Dead Ball Era
5.
St. Louis Cardinals
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The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball as a club of the National League Central division. Busch Stadium has been their home ballpark since 2006, with origins as one of the early professional baseball clubs in St. Upon the discontinuation of the AA, St. Louis joined the NL in 1892, at time, they were called the Browns. One of the most successful franchises in history, the Cardinals have won 11 World Series championships. Their 19 National League pennants rank third in NL history, in addition, St. Louis has won 13 division titles in the East and Central divisions. While still in the AA, St. Louis won four league championships, the Cardinals have won 105 or more games in four different seasons and won 100 or more a total of nine times. Cardinals players have won 20 league MVPs, four batting Triple Crowns, and three Cy Young Awards. Baseball Hall of Fame inductees include Lou Brock, Dizzy Dean, Bob Gibson, Whitey Herzog, Rogers Hornsby, Joe Medwick, Stan Musial, Branch Rickey, Red Schoendienst, Ozzie Smith, and Bruce Sutter. In 2016, Forbes valued the Cardinals at $1.6 billion, making them the 7th-most valuable franchise in MLB, their revenue the year was $300 million. Since their purchase in 1995, owner William DeWitt, Jr. s investment group has seen enormous growth from the $147 million purchase price, John Mozeliak is the general manager and Mike Matheny is the manager. Professional baseball began in St. Louis with the inception of the Brown Stockings in the National Association in 1875, the NA folded following that season, and the next season, St. Louis joined the National League as a charter member, finishing in third place at 45-19. George Bradley hurled the first no-hitter in Major League history, the NL expelled St. Louis from the league after 1877 due to a game-fixing scandal and the team went bankrupt. Without a league, they continued play as a barnstorming team through 1881. For the 1882 season, Chris von der Ahe purchased the team, reorganized it, and made it a member of the American Association. 1882 is generally considered to be the first year existence of the St. Louis Cardinals, the next season, St. Louis shortened their name to the Browns. Soon thereafter they became the dominant team in the AA, as manager Charlie Comiskey guided St. Louis to four pennants in a row from 1885 to 1888. Pitcher and outfielder Bob Caruthers led the league in ERA and wins in 1885 and he also led the AA in OBP and OPS in 1886 and finished fourth in batting average in 1886 and fifth in 1887
6.
St. Louis Brown Stockings
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The team is the forerunner of, but not directly connected with, the current St. Louis Cardinals Major League Baseball team. After the conclusion of the 1877 season, a scandal involving two players the Brown Stockings had acquired led the team to resign its membership in the NL. The club then declared bankruptcy and folded, the Brown Stockings did not meet a complete demise, however. Organized by outfielder Ned Cuthbert, a few members of the club continued to play the following year. They played whomever they could, wherever they could, and still managed to draw crowds and make a profit, Grand Avenue Grounds – the Brown Stockings home field – was later the site of Sportsmans Park. Outfielder Lip Pike, the previous home run champion in the NA, was again a top hitter. Eighteen-year-old Pud Galvin is credited with leading the league in ERA despite pitching just 62 innings, the Brown Stockings finished 39–29 and in fourth place in their only season in the NA. The St. Louis Brown Stockings entered the National League as a team the following season along with five other former NA teams. George Bradley pitched the first no-hitter in Major League history on July 15,1876 and it was one of Bradleys 16 league-leading and record-setting shutouts that season and his 1.23 ERA also led the league. Bradley and Pike led the Brown Stockings to a 45-19 record, the Brown Stockings won the series. With Bradley losing his effectiveness due to an arm injury in 1877, the Grays and Brown Stockings both filed for bankruptcy in the aftermath of the scandal. However, the Brown Stockings continued to play as an independent barnstorming team on a basis from 1878–1881. However, at time, popularity for baseball was low. The 1879 team started off by winning 24 of their first 25 games, however, the team encountered a different kind of problem. To avert the issue, they played more competitive teams from out of town, in spite of narrowing the competitive gap, St. Louis kept winning, and, as a result, more and more fans started showing up later in the year. The 1880 season was another polar season mixed with antipathy and surging fever, august Solari, who leased Grand Avenue Park, was on the last year of the lease and the gate receipts did little to dissuade him from forgoing resigning the lease. In fact, he threatened to dismantle the ballpark, Cuthbert, who also worked for Von der Ahe at his Golden Lion Saloon, urged him to promote the team more. At this time, Von der Ahe still had not made the realization of baseballs popularity
