I’ve never been much of a St. Louis Cardinals fan, but I’ve
always been a fan of the “STL” intertwined logo on the front of the cap. Lucky
for me, the old St. Louis Browns utilized the same logo on all of their caps
for 1927 until their final year in St. Louis in 1953 before moving on to
Baltimore to become the second incarnation of the Orioles. This particular cap
was used for only two years (1950-51) and in my opinion, was the best color
scheme the organization had, for their hats at least.
When I bought this hat in December of 2011 I didn’t have any
real intention of purchasing any more of their hats. In fact when it came to
all of my hats, I primarily only wanted one per team. Being such a huge fan of
baseball caps it was hard to stay at just one per team, especially with so many
awesome designs and logos each team created over their history. So, when
choosing the numbers, I picked one from between 1950-51 and the other, as
indicated, had to do with an earlier time in the teams’ history.
Starting with the ’22, which obviously stands for 1922 for
those who don’t know shorthand for years. Back in 1915 a 22-year-old rookie
took the field for the Browns with little to know aspirations of being one of
the greatest hitters in Major League Baseball’s history. In his first five
years he had no more than 190 hits in a season, nor did he have an average
higher than .353. Yah, he was that good. In 1920 he had a career best 257 base
knocks on a .407 average. It would be 84 years before his season hit total
would be broken by the greatest Japanese baseball player MLB has seen, Ichiro
Suzuki. That’s right, George Sisler, a Hall of Fame legend in his own right;
however, 1920 was not his best year. In 1922 Sisler went on a hitting tear, but
played in 12 less games than he did in 1920. That year he had 246 hits and held
an astonishing .420 average which helped him lock up his one and only MVP. Just
imagine if he had played those extra 12 games, let alone imagine if he played
162 games like today’s players do. In 1920 Sisler played in every game. 154 to
be exact.
To keep things reflexive I opted to go with #22 for a jersey
number. When looking through the players who had taken the field for the Browns
between 1950 and 51 I didn’t see a lot of players of note, or at least ones
that the casual baseball fan would recognize… except one. At the end of the
1950 season the Browns needed some help coming out of the bullpen so they
looked heavily, and invested in a player who had been two years removed from
the game. Oddly enough, this player had only played for two full season prior
to coming over to St. Louis.
Lucky for him, his team won the World Series his rookie year in 1948 and his is
considered by some to be the greatest pitcher to ever live. Oh! Did I mention
that he was 42-years-old when he made his MLB debut? That’s right; the great
Satchel Paige donned the #22 for the Browns during his first few games with the
Browns before switching back to #29, his number he wore with the Indians. Paige
went 3-4 and only pitched for 62.0 innings that season, before rotating back to
a starting position in 1953.
While some tend to forget about the brief Browns legacy of
the golden era of MLB, I simply can’t. Despite never winning a World Series,
1922 was also the closest they came to winning one. Funny how the number 22
is truly synonymous with the franchise.
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