I wanted to compile and talk about the uniforms, logos, graphics, hardware, anything uniform & logo related to each championship year, one year at a time. I’ll roll these posts out in subsequent days.
Here are the 1885 American Association Champion St. Louis Browns. (Maybe even the World Champion)
Unfortunately we have only a small amount photographs, and no artifacts from this season. No special World Series uniforms that we know of, no trophies, no rings, no pendants, no flags… we aint found shit. So take a look at what we do know.
A newspaper article claims the team wore three different uniforms in 1885, but we only have evidence and depictions of the one seen to the left. We’re hopeful more descriptions of the Championship Series exists, because teams of this era would typically wear new uniforms in the Championship Series. But we’ll discuss that in subsequent posts. For more info and pictures, check out the 1885 Browns page linked below.
The closest thing to anything championship related is a team photo from a 1926 newspaper labeled “Players Who Won For St. Louis, 41 Years Ago, It’s First Baseball Pennant.” We assume this was part of a feature on the Cardinals making their first official World Series appearance in 1926, looking back at past championship teams.
For more information and visuals, check out the 1885 Browns page.
Despite our lack of visuals for the 1885 Series, there is a long and crazy backstory to this championship year. And here it is.
Von der Ahe acquired and began play in the American Association as the St. Louis Browns in 1882. And after only 3 seasons, the Browns were American Association Champions. This meant they would play in the “World Series” against the winner of the National League. Technically though the World Series name hadn’t been applied, it was typically called the World’s Championship in the 19th Century.
This particular Series may be one of the biggest beginning markers of our St. Louis Chicago rivalry, as the Browns squared off against the Chicago White Stockings, the same franchise that would one day become the Cubs. The teams agreed upon a 12 game exhibition series, but ended up playing only 7 games in a “best of 7.” Quotations necessary, because the series was marred by controversy and remains in debate even today.
Game 1, Chicago Congress Street Grounds, the Browns were leading 5-1 going into the 8th Inning, until Chicago put up a 4 spot in the Bottom of the 8th to tie the game. It was then that the game was called off and declared a tie due to darkness. If this seems odd and ridiculous, just remember that this Chicago franchise didn’t get lights in their ballpark for literally over 100 years after the 1885 Series. Let’s all laugh at more than one century long blunder for Chicago.
Series Tied at 0-0-1
Game 2, October 16th, back in St. Louis at Sportsman’s Park. In the 6th inning, more controversy. But first, let’s fast forward 100 years and 10 days later. Game 6 of the 1985 World Series, Umpire Don Denkinger blows the call at first base in the World Series leading to controversy and the Cardinals unraveling. Remember that? Now rewind 100 years, Umpire Dave Sullivan makes a similar blind man’s call at first base to declare King Kelly safe at first. This sparked huge uproar from the Browns’ Captain, Charles Comiskey, resulting in a long argument. Comiskey threatened to protest the game, but to no avail, the game the continued. Continued only until Umpire Dave Sullivan made another bone-headed call, resulting in more arguments from Comiskey. This time the pressure was too much, and Sullivan reversed the call on the field. Then Chicago’s King Kelly and his team began arguing, resulting in Sullivan reversing the call again. This caused a semi riot, as fans jumped on to the field and headed for the umpire. Sullivan would be removed from the field by security and police. Later from the comforts of his hotel room, Sullivan declared the Browns had forfeited because Comiskey removed his players from the field.
Chicago Leads 1-0-1
Game 3, Dave Sullivan was removed and replaced by a former Browns player, Harry McCaffrey, to umpire. The Browns won Game 3 with no controversy.
Series Tied 1-1-1.
Game 4, Although McCaffrey had no issues in his umpiring, Chicago was upset by the potential bias, so they literally pulled a guy out of the Sportsman’s Park grandstand to umpire Game 4. This promptly blew up in Chicago’s face as the new umpire, being a St Louisan, swung a lot of close calls in favor of the Browns. The Browns won a close and controversial game 4.
Browns Lead 2-1-1.
Game 5, another umpire was brought in, this time “Honest John” Kelly was approved and satisfied by both teams. White Stockings would rout the Browns 9-2 in a game filled with many fielding errors.
Series Tied 2-2-1.
Game 6, the owners of the two teams came to an agreement that because of low attendance and cold weather, Game 6 would be the last game of the Series. Chicago routed St. Louis again 9-2.
Chicago Leads 3-2-1. But the controversy regarding the Game 2 forfeiture was stirred back up in discussions. If not for Sullivan declaring the Browns forfeited in Game 2, the Series would be tied 2-2-1, and a final game would need to be played. The agreement was made by the two Captains, Charles Comiskey and Cap Anson, that Game 2 would be forgotten, tying the Series.
Series Tied 2-2-1.
Game 7, Chicago collapsed with countless errors and bad play, leading to a rout of our own, and the Browns beat Chicago 13-4 in the final game.
Browns Win the World’s Championship.
Many media sources heralded the Browns as the World Champions, but Chicago couldn’t accept the defeat. After lots of arguments from other media sources, the two leagues, and the owners, the Series fell back to obscurity, and the Series was declared unresolved and tied.
In our opinion? The Browns got screwed by bad umpiring and loose rules between the two teams that were made up on the spot. We’ll give this one to the Browns.
Total Pennant Wins: 1
Total World Series Wins: 1
Official Pennant Wins: 0
Official World Series Wins: 0
Want to read some more about this? We found tons of great information from Paul Doutrich’s article on SABR’s website, and from this Kris Paul W website as well.
https://sabr.org/journal/article/champions-tantrums-and-bad-umps-the-1885-world-series/
Cardinals Uniforms & Logos 