Cont'd from the T.S. Eliot thread since I got diverted into baseball history that I thought at least some of you wouldn't have known (I sure didn't!) and would appreciate.
In 1885 they (the St. Louis Brown Stockings of the old American Assoc'n) played the National League's Chicago White Stockings, later the Cubs (no, really!), in the first fore-runner of the WS, and it ended inconclusively in dispute. The following year saw a rematch which St. Louis won conculsively, instigating the rivalry that persists 123 yrs on. In 1892 the AA folded & St. Louis joined the NL. In 1899 the team changed their name to --- wait for it --- The Perfectos (!), but a year later, in 1900, they became the Cardinals. In 1902 a new team joined the American league called the St. Louis Browns*. In 1920 the team hired the legendary Branch Rickey as GM & he gave up the lease on Robison park to become tenants of the Browns & share the legendary Sportsman's Park until 1953. With the money he saved, Rickey helped create the first minor league system as we know it today, which bore much fruit for the Redbirds to the present day.
*that same year the Chicago franchise, having been called the Colts during Cap (the 1st 3000 hit man) Anson’s player/manager heyday, and briefly known as the Orphans the year after he retired, adopted the name The Cubs. Another Southside Chicago team joined the AL & took of the name The Black Stockings - in direct contrast to the North-Siders - but after the scandal of the 1919 WS, they ‘purified’ themselves to become the White Stockings. In the mid 50’s the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore to become the Orioles, leaving the rent at Sportsman’s Park entirely to the Cardinals until the first Busch Stadium could be built in 1966.
