Here Comes the King: How Gussie Busch Kept the Cardinals in St. Louis

Despite his unusual ways of boosting gate receipts, Bill Veeck was still in charge of a struggling organization, and was losing money, with the thought that something would have to change.

The early 1950s had been a big struggle for both St. Louis baseball teams, primarily the Cardinals. Cardinals owner Fred Saigh was convicted of tax evasion in 1952, and facing banishment from baseball, was forced to put the Cardinals up for sale, with most of the bids coming from interests out of town.

One of those frontrunners were executives from Milwaukee who had intentions of moving the franchise up to Wisconsin, and time was running out as the 1953 season was approaching for Saigh to find a solid buyer.

Once the convicted former owner was on his way to New York, where he was going to sign over the team to the Wisconsin buyers, it looked like this deal was going to go through, and then what would come to be of St. Louis regarding baseball??

Then, all of a sudden, he got a call.

An entity in St. Louis known as Anheuser-Busch, represented by two bank executives, expressed great interest in buying the Cardinals from Fred Saigh, and stressed the importance and interest in keeping the franchise in St. Louis.

Anheuser-Busch, the St. Louis-based brewing giant, came in and were led by their president, August A. ‘Gussie’ Busch Jr. Busch was able to persuade Saigh to accept less money than what was being offered from outside investors, and they got the deal done with about a week to go before Spring Training.

The 53-year-old Gussie Busch assumed the same role with the Cardinals as the team president.

On March 11, 1953, Busch began his formal statement with his purchase of the club: “During its 100 years of existence, Anheuser-Busch has shared in all St. Louis civic activity. The Cardinals, like ourselves, are a St. Louis institution. We hope to make the Cardinals one of the greatest baseball teams of all time, and we propose to further develop our farm clubs. We’re delighted to be the owners of the Cardinals, and we’re going to try to give the fans everywhere the finest baseball that is known in the United States.”

With Anheuser-Busch’s financial wealth supporting the Cardinals, Bill Veeck now knew that his cross-town rivals had more financial resources than anything he could ever try to match. He felt that a move was necessary and that a new city would be good for his business.

Ironically, it was Anheuser-Busch swooping in and saving the Cardinals that ended up spelling the beginning of the end for the Browns in St. Louis. The two cities that were looking like the best options were Milwaukee and Baltimore.

Then, the owner of the Boston Braves, deserting Boston and leaving it alone to the Red Sox, who had territorial rights to baseball up in Milwaukee. Then, about two weeks after Busch bought the Cardinals, it was announced that the Braves were moving to Milwaukee to draw larger crowds in a city that had previously owned a team called the Brewers and would later welcome a team called the Brewers.

With Milwaukee now out of the question, Veeck got in contact with a group of investors that were interested in bringing a major league team to Baltimore, Maryland at the end of the 1953 season.

With his hands tied, he reluctantly ceded St. Louis to the Cardinals, and moved the Browns to Baltimore, where they became the Orioles.

Greg Erion of the Society for American Baseball Research stated, “With this action, the 51-year run of the St. Louis Browns ended. The team would play in Baltimore in 1954 and end up with the exact record it had in 1953 of just 54 wins and 100 losses.”

The last game for the Browns at Sportsman’s Park was September 27, 1953.

Guess who pitched for the Browns during the 1953 season.

Satchel Paige!

The man was ageless. He was 46 years old and saved 11 games that season and had an era of 3.53 in 57 games pitched.

At any rate, the Browns played the Chicago White Sox and the Browns lost. At the end of the game, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch gathered a handful of photos that were taken at the end of the game, as the players, umpires, and coaches shook hands, and there were several people that attended that game, that all got their picture taken together. Each of those fans attended the first ever Browns game that was played back in 1902.

It was a sad day for St. Louis, no question about that.  

For over 50 years, the city of St. Louis had embraced and supported two major league teams, even saw them go head-to-head in the 1944 World Series, but in the end were reminded that baseball is a business as much as it is a game.

Baltimore had previously owned a Major League ballclub called the Orioles, and the return of the ‘Orioles’ attracted over one million fans to the ballpark in their first season.