The ºüÀêÊÓƵ Browns Historical Society and Fan Club will hold its annual Browns reunion luncheon later this month, and it will celebrate a big moment in ºüÀêÊÓƵ' baseball history.
Mike Veeck, one of baseball's great funny men, the man behind and the son of former Browns owner Bill Veeck will be the keynote speaker at the event, which is Sept. 24 at the Missouri Athletic Club.
There are many great stories behind that Streetcar Series, like the two competing managers, who shared an apartment all season and had to figure out who would occupy it during the series.
Post-Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold detailed that arrangement.
People are also reading…
“Every the time the Cardinals were returning home from a road trip, Ms. Edna Sewell would tidy up her family’s apartment, pack any necessities, scoop up her two teenage daughters, Suzanne and Lois, and train home to Akron, Ohio. That was the deal. When the Cardinals were in town, her family wasn’t. It worked wonderfully the entire 1944 season until the baseball team her husband managed shocked baseball with an unexpected World Series between the two ºüÀêÊÓƵ major-league baseball teams. The Sewells — Edna, the girls and father Luke, manager of the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Browns — suddenly had to consider unlikely housemates: Cardinals manager Billy Southworth and his family.â€
While the 1944 World Series was the third consecutive series for the Cardinals, who won 105 games for three straight seasons, the Browns' ascendance was unexpected.
Browns general manager Bill DeWitt Sr. assembled a strong roster of wartime 4-Fs, or men who weren't qualified for military service, and has-beens. The Browns had gone just 72-80-1 the year prior.
The luncheon, which Dan McLaughlin will emcee, also celebrates the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Browns Fan Club, which has been regularly meeting since.
Also attending is Dave Phillips, the crew chief who forced the White Sox to forfeit the second game after Disco Demolition Night destroyed the field at Chicago's Comiskey Park.
Stories told at the luncheon include Eddie Gaedel, Grandstand Manager Night and Disco Demolition Night.
More special guests will be announced later.
The Browns Fan Club is the only active fan clubs from other relocated teams from baseball’s golden years, president Ed Wheatley points out.
For more information or to register, visit the .
The fan club will also host a free event on Sept. 17 at the Missouri History Museum. Starting at 10 a.m. that day, you can view memorabilia from the 1944 World Series. At 11 a.m. in the auditorium, the group will host a remembrance of the 1944 seasons of both teams. The memorabilia room reopens at 1 p.m. after the presentation.