Sifting through the cigar box this morning, I came across a card, that I at first glance, I thought was a poorly colored cap of a Cardinals player.
This happy-go-lucky fella is a St. Louis Brown. Bob Young was a member of the last Browns team to play in St. Louis. Brown was a slick fielding 2nd baseman.
According to
sportsecyclopedia (yes, something else named -pedia) the Browns are now the Baltimore Orioles. I had no idea. There is a rich history of baseball. Especially in the '50's. Maybe I will change the name of my blog to, WikiSewingmachineguyOnCardsPedia.
I won't get into all the history of the Browns, you can hit the link for that, but I want to mention that from 1902 - 1953 the Browns made only one World Series appearance. One. That would be tough to be a fan of that team. Much like being a Detroit Lions fan is tough.
I noticed this little guy in the lower left corner of the card. A tentacled pointy eared red faced man. The Browns name is derived from The Brown Stockings. What does this devil-ish thing have to do with anything?
That devil thing is a brownie which is kinda like a pixie except, you know, brown. Get it? Browns... brownie... I think Topps just made it up.
ReplyDeleteAlso, those are antennae, not tentacles. I'm a stickler for crypto-zoological anatomical accuracy.
No, that was for reals! Verifired on Paul Lukas' uni-watch site.
ReplyDeleteThe Browns actually started in Milwaukee in 1901 but Ban Johnson wanted a team in St. Louis to take on the NL. He the got the original Baltimore franchise to move to NY in 1903 to take on the Giants after John McGraw screwed the AL over. Baltimore was then left with a team in the IL until the Browns went east.
Let that be a lesson to any team out there who dare call themselves the Browns. There was another franchise once who also tried to tempt fate by referring to themselves as the Browns, and they too found themselves in Baltimore on a permanent basis.
ReplyDeleteIt's only a matter of time before Baltimore has 2 football teams.