On July 11, 1925, St. Louis Browns first basemen George Sisler hit a triple with the bases loaded in the third inning and then followed it up with a grand slam in the fourth. Sisler’s phenomenal offensive performance led the Browns to a 10-5 victory over the Washington Senators in front of 15,000 fans at Sportsman’s Park.
The full box score from the game can be found here.
September 28th was the last day of the season in 1902, and in apparent celebration, the Browns and the White Sox decided to use an assortment of seven infielders and outfielders on the mound, rather than relying on their pitching staffs. Chicago outfielder Sam Mertes earned the victory, and the Browns’ left fielder Jesse Burkett suffered the loss in the Sox’s 10-4 victory at Sportsman’s Park. This was the last time the winning and losing pitchers were both position players in the same game until 2012, when Chris Davis of the Orioles and Darnell McDonald of the Red Sox also accomplished the feat in Baltimore’s 17-inning victory at Fenway Park.
Ken Williams of the St. Louis Browns homered in his sixth consecutive game on August 2, 1922, setting what was at the time an American League record. However, the Browns still lost to the Athletics, 8-4, at Sportsman’s Park.
The St. Louis Cardinals played their first home night game on June 4, 1940. The Cardinals lost to Brooklyn, 10-1, in spite of a 5-for-5 performance by Joe Medwick, including three doubles. The first evening ballgame in St. Louis, which had taken place on May 24, was actually hosted by the Browns, after the two teams had agreed to split the $150,000 cost of installing lights at Sportsman’s Park.
On August 25, 1936, the Boston Braves established a Major League record by hitting seven doubles in a single inning against the Cardinals. Taking place in the first inning, the attack of doubles led the Braves to a 20-3 victory at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis.
On May 20, 1919, Red Sox pitcher Babe Ruth hit the first grand slam of his career as the Sox defeated the Browns 6-4 at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. The Babe would go on to hit sixteen bases loaded round trippers over the course of his career.
Fun fact for the day:
The shortest player in baseball history was Edward Carl Gaedel, an American man with dwarfism who stood 3 feet 7 inches tall and weighed a mere 65 pounds (which, incidentally, also makes him the lightest player in history). On Sunday 19 August 1951, Eddie Gaedel made his only Major League appearance in the second game of a double header for the St. Louis Browns against the Detroit Tigers. Wearing the number 1/8″ on his jersey, which actually belonged to one of the batboys, Gaedel stepped up to the plate against pitcher Bob Crain at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. To ensure that he drew a walk, Gaedel was instructed not to lift the bat off his shoulders, which left a strike zone of only 1.5″. Sure enough, Gaedel walked on four pitches.
Later that week, American League President Will Harridge declared that Bill Veeck, owner of the Browns, was making a mockery of the game, and Major League Baseball took Gaedel out of the record books. This decision was overturned a year later, and Gaedel was returned to the books.
“Man, felt like Babe Ruth.”
~Eddie Gaedel
On August 29, 1948, Jackie Robinson hit for the cycle, and did so in reverse order. He started off the feat with a home run in the top of the first, tripled in the fourth inning, doubled in the sixth, and singled in the eighth. Through all this, Robinson drove in two RBIs, scored three times, and stole a base. With his help, the Brooklyn Dodgers defeated the Cardinals, 12-7, at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis.
