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1882 St. Louis Brown Stockings
League American Association
Ballpark Sportsman's Park
City St. Louis, Missouri
Record37–43 (.463)
League place5th
Owner Chris von der Ahe
Manager Ned Cuthbert
Stats ESPN.com
BB-reference
1883 →

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 (which was later renamed Sportsman's Park) at the corner of Grand Avenue and Dodier Street in north St. Louis.

Building the team

Team photograph

Before the 1882 season, Von der Ahe secured a place for the team in the American Association and provided funds to bring players to St. Louis. Between 1882 and 1892, the team he built went on to win four American Association titles.

Al Spink, the team advisor, recommended Von der Ahe sign Charlie Comiskey. Comiskey, who later played with the Chicago White Sox, was a skilled, young, first baseman who had been playing in Dubuque, Iowa. [1]

Ned Cuthbert was a former professional player in St. Louis. Although he had retired from baseball and worked as a bartender in St. Louis, Cuthbert remained prominent in the local baseball community. He had encouraged Von der Ahe to purchase the team. Von der Ahe hired Cuthbert to be his first captain, with all the duties of a field manager. Cuthbert used his experience to attract several players to St. Louis from the East.

Most of the first-year Browns originated in St. Louis, including brothers Jack and Bill Gleason, pitcher Jumbo McGinnis, outfielder George Seward, and catcher Tom Sullivan.[ citation needed]

Regular season

In 1866, Gus Solari laid out a professional baseball field at Sportsman's Park, St Louis. Sixteen years later, on May 2, 1882, the opening day of the St. Louis Brown Stockings' 1882 season took place. Approximately 2,000 spectators watched the game for a fee of one quarter each. [2] The team played numerous local teams in April exhibitions.

McGinnis was the first pitcher and he started 45 of the team's 80 games. [3] Jack Gleason made the team's first hit. It was a lead off single in the first innings. He also scored the first run on Comiskey's three-base hit. The team won their first game with a score of 9 runs to 7. McGinnis contributed two doubles.

In late May 1882, the team was in a tie for first place in its six-team league. They were eight games over .500, putting them one game behind the Cincinnati Reds. There followed a seven-week period when the team lost sixteen more games than they won. They could not contend for the championship. [4]

During the season, more than 175,000 spectators attended the team's games. The favorite players on the team were Comiskey and McGinnis.

Season standings

American Association W L Pct. GB Home Road
Cincinnati Red Stockings 55 25 0.688 31–11 24–14
Louisville Eclipse 42 38 0.525 13 26–13 16–25
Philadelphia Athletics 41 34 0.547 11½ 21–18 20–16
Pittsburgh Alleghenys 39 39 0.500 15 17–20 22–19
St. Louis Brown Stockings 37 43 0.463 18 24–20 13–23
Baltimore Orioles 19 54 0.260 32½ 7–25 12–29

Record vs. opponents


Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Team BAL CIN LOU PHI PIT STL
Baltimore 2–14 3–13 4–7 7–7–1 3–13
Cincinnati 14–2 11–5 10–6 10–6 10–6
Louisville 13–3 5–11 5–11 10–6 9–7
Philadelphia 7–4 6–10 11–5 6–10 11–5
Pittsburgh 7–7–1 6–10 6–10 10–6 10–6
St. Louis 13–3 6–10 7–9 5–11 6–10


Roster

1882 St. Louis Brown Stockings
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

[5]

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Pos= Position, G= Games played, AB= At bats, R= Runs scored, H= Hits, 2B= Doubles, 3B= Triples, HR= Home runs, SB= Stolen bases, BB= Base on balls, Avg.= Batting average, Slg= Slugging percentage

Pos Player G AB R H 2B 3B Avg. HR SB BB Slg
C Sleeper Sullivan 51 188 24 34 3 3 .181 0 0 3 .229
1B Charles Comiskey 78 329 58 80 9 5 .243 1 0 4 .310
2B Bill Smiley 59 240 30 51 4 2 .213 0 0 6 .246
3B Jack Gleason 78 331 53 84 10 1 .254 2 0 27 .308
SS Bill Gleason 79 347 63 100 11 6 .288 1 0 6 .363
OF Oscar Walker 76 318 48 76 15 7 .239 7 0 10 .396
OF Ned Cuthbert 60 233 28 52 16 5 .223 0 0 17 .335
OF George Seward 38 144 23 31 1 1 .215 0 0 12 .236

Other batters

G= Games played, AB= At bats, R= Runs scored, H= Hits, 2B= Doubles, 3B= Triples, HR= Home runs, SB= Stolen bases, BB= Base on balls, Avg.= Batting average, Slg= Slugging percentage

Player G AB R H 2B 3B Avg. HR SB BB Slg
Harry McCaffery 38 153 23 42 8 6 .275 0 0 3 .405
Eddie Fusselback 35 136 13 31 2 0 .228 0 0 5 .243
Ed Brown 17 60 4 11 0 0 .183 0 0 4 .183
Charlie Morton 9 32 2 2 0 1 .063 0 0 2 .125
Joe Crotty 8 28 2 4 1 0 .143 0 0 3 .179
Frank Decker 2 8 0 2 0 0 .250 0 0 ? .250
John Shoupe 2 7 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 .000

Pitching

Starting pitchers

W= Wins, L= Losses, ERA= Earned run average, G= Games played, GS= Games started, CG= Complete games, IP= Innings pitched, H= Hits allowed, R= Runs allowed, ER= Earned runs allowed, HR= Home runs allowed, BB= Base on balls, SO= Strikeouts, WHIP= Walks plus hits per inning pitched

Player W L ERA G GS CG IP H R ER HR BB SO WHIP
Jumbo McGinnis 25 18 2.60 45 45 43 388.1 391 241 112 2 53 134 1.14
John Schappert 8 7 3.52 15 14 13 128.0 131 99 50 2 32 38 1.27
Bert Dorr 2 6 2.59 8 8 8 66.0 53 39 19 0 1 34 0.82
Morrie Critchley 0 4 4.24 4 4 4 34.0 43 31 16 3 7 2 1.47
John Doyle 0 3 2.63 3 3 3 24.0 41 33 7 0 3 5 1.83
Bob Hogan 0 1 1.13 1 1 1 8.0 10 7 1 0 0 4 1.25
Bobby Mitchell 0 1 7.71 1 1 0 7.0 12 13 6 0 2 2 2.00

Other pitchers

W= Wins, L= Losses, ERA= Earned run average, G= Games played, GS= Games started, CG= Complete games, SV= Saves, IP= Innings pitched, H= Hits allowed, R= Runs allowed, ER= Earned runs allowed, HR= Home runs allowed, BB= Base on balls, SO= Strikeouts, WHIP= Walks plus hits per inning pitched

Player W L ERA G GS CG SV IP H R ER HR BB SO WHIP
Eddie Fusselback 1 2 4.70 4 2 2 1 23.0 34 24 12 0 2 3 1.57
Charles Comiskey 0 1 0.00 2 1 1 0 8.0 12 8 0 0 3 2 1.88

Relief pitchers

W= Wins, L= Losses, ERA= Earned run average, G= Games played, SV= Saves, IP= Innings pitched, H= Hits allowed, R= Runs allowed, ER= Earned runs allowed, HR= Home runs allowed, BB= Base on balls, SO= Strikeouts, WHIP= Walks plus hits per inning pitched

Player W L ERA G SV IP H R ER HR BB SO WHIP
Ed Brown 0 0 0.00 1 0 2.0 2 1 0 0 0 1 1.00

References

  1. ^ "Biography of Charles Comiskey". UMKC.
  2. ^ Kittel, Jeff. "The Restoration of 1881: Chris Von der Ahe and the Creation of Modern St. Louis Baseball". This Game Of Games. Weebly.com. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  3. ^ "1882 St. Louis Brown Stockings - Pitching Statistics". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  4. ^ "1882 St. Louis Brown Stockings - Schedule and Results". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
  5. ^ "1882 St. Louis Brown Stockings Roster". Baseball-Almanac.com. Baseball-Almanac, Inc. Retrieved December 22, 2016.