A look back at the Cardinals Post Seasons of Old – Really Old
The St. Louis Cardinals added to their long tradition of success with their 11th World Series championship in 2011, giving baseball fans a great reason to remember the franchise’s early postseason history.
the american association
The franchise began as the St Louis Brown Stockings of the American Association in 1882 and changed its name to the Browns after just one season. It must have sparked something, as they immediately put together a string of nine straight winning seasons.
They won four consecutive pennants from 1885 to 1888 under future Hall of Fame executive Charlie Comiskey and behind pitchers Bob Caruthers and Silver King.
It was during this stretch that the most heated rivalry in St Louis Cardinals history began.
St.Louisvs. Chicago: Act I
Following the 1885 season, the Browns faced National League champion Chicago White Stockings and future Hall of Famer Cap Anson in a “World Championship” exhibition series.
Game 1 in Chicago would herald chaos.
Amid 16 combined errors between the two teams, St Louis took a 5-1 lead into the eighth inning. But Chicago drew a walk, two singles and a game-tying three-run homer as the sun went down. Just in time. The umpires called off the game due to darkness.
The championship series had started with a tie.
But things would really get interesting in Game 2 as the series moved south to St Louis.
1885 “World Series”, Game 2
Terrible officiating ruled the day, with questionable calls almost from the start. Chicago’s King Kelly was erased in the first on a stolen base attempt that most viewers agreed was a clean steal. Things happened upstairs in the third as a shout of “Dirty ball!” he denied extra bases even though the hit was fair.
The local crowd began to get loud and unforgiving.
In that same inning, another St. Louis batter was called for strikes on a high pitch that brought calls to another official. And not the friendly kind.
In the sixth inning things started to completely fall apart. When King Kelly was called safe on a play early, despite clearly being out, St Louis first baseman Charlie Comiskey stormed off the field and declared that he would not play without a new umpire. Anson refused, tempers flared, but the game eventually continued.
But not by much.
A few hitters and a couple of runs by the White Stockings (who tied the game at 5-5) later, Chicago third baseman Ned Williamson hits a spinning ground ball up the first base line. Although he looked like he was headed for dirty territory, he spun back onto the field right at the last moment and passed Comiskey early when someone yelled “Foul!” The go-ahead run was scored when the umpire declared the ball fair, but Comiskey insisted it was a foul and that he had heard the umpire call it that.
The umpire, clearly sensing the mounting pressure, initially reversed his decision to a foul ball. Then it turned around again as Chicago launched an attack. As the controversy mounted, angry fans entered the field, the referee was escorted away by police, and the teams left the field.
Later that night, the game was declared lost by St. Louis and Chicago claimed a 9-0 win. Of course, the Browns disputed this decision as they were ejected by unruly fans, but some witnesses say Comiskey called his team off the field in objection to arbitration before the chaos began.
When all was said and done, the series was two games in and had produced no definitive results.
Game 3 saw St Louis tie the series at one game apiece with a 5-run first inning and a decisive 7-4 victory. They then took the series lead with a 3-2 win in Game 4.
Game 5 brought the exhibition series into the cold refrigerator of Pittsburgh, where the fans, the media and even the players began to lose interest. Chicago easily won 9-2 after darkness ended the game after the seventh inning, then followed it up with another convincing 9-2 victory in Game 6 at Cincinnati (don’t you love exhibition baseball?).
Before Game 7, reports began to come out that teams had decided it would be the final game of the series. The equipment was burned. The fans didn’t show up.
But it was also reported that deals had been made and the loss of Game 2 would be ruled out, making Game 7 the deciding game.
When St. Louis ran away from the White Sox, scoring a combined 10 runs in the third and fourth innings en route to a dark-abbreviated 13-4 victory, it looked like they would be declared World Champions. But league president Albert Spaulding ruled that the loss would stand and declared the series tied 3-3-1.
As if that wasn’t enough drama for these two teams, they would meet in another championship exhibition series next year…with an end to the story.
St. Louis vs. Chicago: Act II
While the first five games of the 1886 championship series provided little classic drama, there were some great moments in St Louis Cardinals history that came out of those early games.
The White Stockings took Game 1, 6-0, behind the arm of John Clarkson.
But St Louis had some epic performances in Game 2 that helped them even the series with a 12-0 win. Bob Caruthers pitched a 1-hit shutout while outfielder Tip O’Neill hit not one, but two inside-the-park home runs.
However, Caruthers got a little greedy in Game 3, when he asked to pitch in his hometown of Chicago. The White Stockings caught up with him early, winning the game 11-4 and taking a 2-1 series lead.
St Louis evened the series again at home, putting together back-to-back 3-run innings at the end of an 8-5 victory in Game 4.
The drama began to unfold in Game 5 when Chicago began to run out of pitchers and had to resort to signing a minor league player. However, the Browns protested that he was not on their 1886 roster and that he should not be allowed to play. The umpires agreed, and the White Sox were forced to send a shortstop and an outfielder to the mound, resulting in a lopsided 10–3 win and a 3–2 series lead for St. Louis.
1886 “World Series”, Game 6
Saint Louis was in a frenzy. The city could almost taste the championship.
Game time was set at around a quarter past 2:00 to ensure that darkness did not come into play. This turned out to be wise when dreamy, cloudy skies set the scene.
Chicago pummeled Caruthers, the Game 2 hero, steadily but couldn’t put the game out of his grasp. They got just one run in the second. They had a runner shot at home to finish off the third. After hitting a solo home run in the fourth, they left two runners on. They finally took a 3-0 lead in the sixth after a routine ground ball went over the St. Louis second baseman and outfielder, prompting a sacrifice fly.
The Browns, meanwhile, mounted zero offense against Clarkson through the first seven innings. But in the eighth they finally broke through with three runs, tying the game with a 2-out, 2-run triple.
Neither team was able to drive in a run in the ninth and the game went into extra innings.
Chicago fell in order in the top half of the 10th.
St. Louis leadoff hitter Curt Welch stepped up to the plate and packed it, determined to get on base with the winning run. He was immediately hit with a pitch.
However, when he took his walk, Chicago manager Cap Anson protested and was able to convince the umpire to nullify the play, ruling that Welch had been hit by the pitch on purpose. However, the St Louis crowd roared with satisfaction when Welch threw the next pitch to center field for a single.
After an infield error and a sacrifice, the Browns had runners on second and third with one out.
Ninety feet of a championship. The taste of a title. The deafening roar of the Browns fans.
Chicago pitcher Clarkson was losing his cool on the mound. The aggressive runner on third, Welch, was getting on his nerves.
What happened next has been told numerous times in the same way.
Catcher King Kelly had seen Welch’s recklessness moving down the line and appeared to have planned a pitch in an attempt to catch him too far from third base.
But if that was the case, Clarkson didn’t get the signal. When she fired a pitch toward home plate, Kelly backed away from her. She managed to take a useless stab at the ball and put her fingers on it, but as she rolled to the backstop, she had to watch helplessly as Welch came home with the championship-winning run.
The Browns not only won the series, but due to financial arrangements they also took home all of the series gate receipts totaling over $13,000!
As the story of the dramatic finale was retold over the years, Welch’s run took on a more aggressive nature, leading to the idea that he had possibly even slipped safely into a home robbery. . This play took on a life of its own and became known as the “$15,000 Slide!”
Regardless, the game lives on not only as one of the most memorable in St. Louis Cardinals history, but as one of the greatest of the 19th century.