"He instinctively can find the shining greatness of our American culture and does a good job of highlighting it (although he also does have those rare lapses when he writes about hockey, but that is something caused by impurities in the Eastern waters or something)." Erik Keilholtz
Under the patronage of St. Tammany
Mark C. N. Sullivan is an editor at a Massachusetts university. He is married and the father of three children. Email
The Globe's Bob Ryan recalls a pair of games between Boston and St. Louis in 1950 in which the Red Sox beat the Browns 20-4 and 29-4.
The second game was played on "a 90-degree scorcher of a June day, so Sox management cleared the bleachers while the game was in progress, placing the displaced fans under cover in the grandstand," Ryan writes. "According to Globe columnist Jerry Nason, one press box wag observed, 'They should have invited the Browns to the grandstand instead.'"
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"Hapless" was a word often used to describe the old St. Louis Browns. The only original American League team never to win a World Series, mired for most of a half-century in the second division and perennially outdrawn by the NL Cardinals, the Brownies today are remembered for fielding a one-armed player, and sending a midget to bat.
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In 1935, the Browns drew only 80,000 fans all season. "Our fans never booed us," said Browns pitcher Ned Garver. "They wouldn't dare. We outnumbered 'em."
When Ned Garver won 20 games for a last-place Browns club that lost 100 games in 1951, he performed a remarkable pitching feat. Garver accounted for nearly 40 percent of the Browns' 52 wins that year.
He went on to become mayor of his hometown of Ney, Ohio, and looks back fondly on his days as a Brown:
Even though we were a losing team, I'm proud to be a part of the St. Louis Browns. All of my vehicles still have Browns bumper stickers on them.
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