Part 3: The glory years, Act I (1885-1886)

The foundations of the dynasty had been laid by the end of the 1884 season. Midway through the 1884 season, the Browns acquired Bob Caruthers and Dave Foutz from teams in the collapsing Northwestern League. The two pitchers combined for 22 wins as the 1884 season came to a close. In 1885, they accounted for 73 of the Browns' 79 wins enroute to the club's first Association title. The regular lineup featured five players who had been with the club one or more seasons. Comiskey, who was with the Browns from their first day, played most of the games at first base. Bill Gleason, also present in the lineup for the first Browns' game back in 1882, played every game at shortstop in 1885. Arlie Latham became the Browns' regular third baseman in 1883. Hugh Nicol, the rightfielder, was signed from the Chicago White Stockings prior to the 1883 season, and Tip O'Niell, the leftfielder, was converted to an outfielder by the Browns during the 1884 season after an erratic season as a rookie pitcher with the New York Gothams of the National League in 1883. To this lineup, Comiskey and Von der Ahe added three players. Sam Barkley and Curt Welch were signed from the Toledo club, which disbanded after the 1884 season. Barkley would split time between 2B and 1B during the season, while Welch would play every game in center field. The catching was done by Doc Bushong, a veteran of six years in the National League who was cut by Brooklyn (AA) that spring. In addition to these regulars, the Browns used St. Louis' first super-sub, Yank Robinson. Robinson was a rookie in 1884 with Baltimore in the Union Association, and in 1885 he played every position but shortstop for the Browns. He spent much of the early part of the season at 2B, and filled in for O'Neill in left field after the latter suffered and injury mid-season.

The 1885 St. Louis Browns and how they were acquired

	Regulars
	Sam Barkley	2B-1B	Signed from Toledo (AA) after 1884 season
	Doc Bushong	C-3B	Picked up in spring after cut from Brooklyn (AA)
	Bob Caruthers	P-OF	Signed from Minneapolis of NW League in mid-1884
	Charlie Comiskey	1B	Signed prior to 1882 season from the semi-pro Dubuque Rabbits
	Dave Foutz	P-1B-OF	Signed from Bay City of NW League in mid-1884
	Bill Gleason	SS	Signed prior to 1882 season
	Arlie Latham	3B-C	Rookie in 1880 with Buffalo (NL); signed in 1883
	Hugh Nicol	RF-3B	Acquired from Chicago White Stockings (NL) prior to 1883
	Tip O'Neill	LF	Acquired from NY Gothams prior to 1884 season
	Yank Robinson	OF-2B-C-3B-1B	Came over from the Union Association (Baltimore)
	Curt Welch	CF	Signed from Toledo (AA) after 1884 season
	Substitues
	Cal Broughton	C	With Milwuakee in the Union Association in 1884; went to New York (AA) mid-season
	Mike Drissel	C
	Jumbo McGinnis	P	Signed prior to 1882 season
	Dan Sullivan	C-1B	Released by Louisville in mid-June and signed with the Browns

1885 Browns stats

The Browns moved into first place in the second week of May and never looked back. They put together a 17 game winning streak from May 5th through June 1st (still a franchise record) and a 27 game winning streak at home (a major league record). They finished with a record of 79-33 and a sixteen game lead over Cincinnati.

Following the 1885 season, Von der Ahe arranged a series with the National League champion Chicago White Stockings. After the 1882 season, the champions of the two leagues (the Cincinnati Red Stockings from the Association and the White Stockings) had split an unofficial two game match. There was no match of the champions after the 1883 season, but following the 1884 season, the first official World Series was held between the champion New York Mets of the Association and the National League champion Providence Grays. The Grays won 3 games to 0. The 1885 matchup was the second official World Series and was scheduled to be a best of seven game affair.

The first game was called because of darkness with the score tied at five. In the second game, Comiskey pulled the Browns off the field following a disputed call in the 6th inning. The Browns were trailing 5-4 at the time, and the game was forfeited to Chicago. The Browns and White Stockings split the next four games, putting the series at 2-2-1, plus the disputed forfeit, going into the seventh game. The Browns won the seventh game 13-4, setting up a dispute for the ages over who actually won the Series. Prior to Game 7, Comiskey and Chicago manager Cap Anson reportedly agreed to call the first two games a draw and play the final game for the title. After the Browns won, the press and Al Spalding (the owner of the White Stockings) insisted that the Series wound up tied at 3-3-1. A committee appointed by both leagues agreed, and that is the way it reads in the record books.

The Browns made only one major change before the 1886 season. Sam Barkley departed the club, unable to tolerate Comiskey's management. He initially signed with Baltimore, but he switched to Pittsburgh after they matched Baltimore's offer. Baltimore protested, and after a hearing before a league committee, Barkley was assigned to Pittsburgh and suspended for the season. The ensuing court hassles led to the forced resignation of Association president Denny McKnight (who was a co-owner of the Pittsburgh club) at the start of the 1886 season. McKnight was already in hot water over problems with the New York franchise earlier that spring. The Mets, winners of the Association championship in 1884, had been owned by John Day, who also owned the New York Gothams of the National League. After the Mets won the pennant, Day transfered the best players to his NL club and let the Mets fall apart, for which they were almost expelled before the 1885 season. (The Washington franchise from the Union Association was all set to replace New York.) After a dismal 1885 season, they were purchased by a new owner who wanted the club to play at his amusement grounds on Staten Island. With Washington still looking to join the league, the Association again tried to expel the Mets, while Brooklyn owner Charlie Byrne moved in and signed the few remaining Mets stars for his club. After some more court hassles, the Mets remained in the league for the 1886 season, and McKnight convinced Byrne to return the players. The mishandling of the Mets situation and McKnight's connection with Pittsburgh during the Barkley inceident led to his ouster from the presidency. Barkley was reinstated with Pittsburgh for the 1886 season after a court ruling.

The Browns replaced Barkley at 2B with Yank Robinson, although Robinson also managed to play every other position during the 1886 season, including a stint pitching. The other off-season move by Von der Ahe was the acquisition of pitcher Nat Hudson, who was signed as insurance after Caruthers held out temporarily in the spring for more money. Caruthers ultimately signed and won 30 games in 1886, while Foutz won 41, and the rookie Hudson added 16 more. Hudson's success allowed Von der Ahe to sell Jumbo McGinnis to Baltimore in mid-season. McGinnis suffered a series of injuries and setbacks in 1885 and in 1886 was only lightly used by the Browns. The Browns started the season at 11-4 and led the league from mid-May to the end of the season. They finished at 93-46, twelve games ahead of second place Pittsburgh. Their second straight title set up a post-season rematch with the White Stockings, who repeated as champions of the National League. The 1886 Series was a best-of-seven affair, and was the high point of the ten year run for the American Association.

The 1886 World Series opened in Chicago, where the White Stockings won two of three games. Caruthers hurt his knee the week before the Series during an exhibition match against the St. Louis Maroons and was unable to start the first game, which the club lost, but he started Games 2 and 3, gaining one win and one loss. (The Browns swept all four games from their cross town rivals in the exhibition series, which proved to be the last games for the Maroons before they folded.) The Browns won Game 4 in St. Louis when the umpire halted the game because of darkness after six and a half innings. White Stockings manager Cap Anson requested the adjournment to rest his star pitcher, John Clarkson, who was pitching his third game in four days. While Clarkson rested in game five, the Browns scored a 10-3 victory to take the lead in the Series three games to two. For game six, Clarkson came back for the White Stockings while Caruthers made his third appearance on the mound for the Browns. The Chicago club took a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the eighth before the Browns rallied to tie the game. In the bottom of the tenth, Curt Welch led off with a single for only the fourth hit of the game by the Browns. Dave Foutz moved him to second with an infield hit, and Yank Robinson sacrificed the runners to second and third. Welch scored a few pitches later on a wild pitch to give the Browns a 4-2 Series victory. The play was labeled by the press as "The $15,000 Slide" (even though he scored standing up) in reference to the almost $14,000 pot the Browns earned for winning the championship. The victory was the only undisputed title for the Association over the National League. The star of the season for the Browns was Bob Caruthers, just 22 years old in 1886. He lead the league in On-Base Percentage (.463), won 30 games, and finished second in ERA (2.32) and Winning Percentage (.682). Dave Foutz led the league in both of those catagories. Caruthers also placed in the top ten in several other pitching and hitting catagories.

1886 Browns stats

The 1886 season put the Association at the pinnacle of the baseball world and silenced many of its critics who felt the National League was superior. The Association had just completed its first back-to-back seasons (1885 and 1886) with the same stable eight-team lineup, and late in 1886 the two major leagues nominally solidified their alliance by adopting common rules for the 1887 season. But even as Von der Ahe and the Brwons celebrated their victory, the National League acted again to undermine the Association. Shortly after the season ended, they persuaded the Pittsburgh franchise to jump leagues. (Prior to the 1886 season, the National League had reportedly tried to pursuade the Cincinnati Reds to jump from the Association.) Pittsburgh finished second to the Browns in 1886, but they were still unhappy over the way McKnight had been forced from the presidency. They were also upset because Von der Ahe had refused to sell them Jumbo McGinnis, instead opting to take a lesser offer from the last-place Baltimore club. The League used this wedge to convince the Alleghenys to abandon the Association. With Pittsburgh went Horace Phillips, one of the men most responsible for the formation of the Association, and one of its key backers. After the Pittsburgh franchise switched leagues, the Association was approached by the Detroit Wolverines of the National Lagues with a request for membership; before the Association owners could respond, Detroit settled its differences and remained in the NL. The Association instead awarded a franchise to Frank Robison, owner of a streetcar company in Cleveland, to fill the empty slot. Also departing the Association before the 1887 season was Opie Caylor, another key figure in the formation of the league, who left Cincinnati to work as a journalist in Philadelphia when the Reds club was sold. Caylor was still upset over the suspension of Tony Mullane in 1885, which had been pushed through by Von der Ahe. Although he would return to the Association during the 1887 season to try and save the failing Mets, by the end of 1887, Caylor would turn against the league he had helped create.

Part 2: The early years in the AA (1882-1884)
Part 4: The glory years, Act II (1887-1888)