The Browns entered baseball's year-old American League in 1902. With the help of five star players lured from their National League crosstown rivals, the Cardinals, the Browns finished in second place. It was a highly inaccurate portent of what was to come.
Low and Lower
In the next fifty seasons, the club ended in the upper half of the league standings only a dozen times. Fourteen times they finished last and twelve more times next to last. Sharing a fan base and, for most of their history, a ball park with the more successful Cardinals, they were never able to sell enough tickets to finance purchases of top-flight players or invest in a productive minor league farm system.
They had occasional surges, most notably with teams in the early 1920's led by future Hall of famer George Sisler, who twice batted over .400 and long held the record for most hits in a season with 257. Featuring a balanced pitching staff led by 24-game winner Urban Shocker, the 1922 Brownies led the league into July and finished a heart-breaking one game behind Babe Ruth's Yankees.
But after three more seasons with winning records in the 1920's, the Browns posted consistent losing records throughout the 1930's. Managing an 82-69 record in 1942, good for a third place finish, the team reverted to form with a sixth-place finish in 1943, as most of the physically fit young players went off to war.
The Unique Year
Most of the teams were staffed in 1944 with the medically deferred or those too young or too old to be drafted at the very height of World War II. This may have been the equalizer that made possible the Browns' uniquely successful quest for a pennant. Shortstop Vern Stephens had already established his hitting credentials and remained one of the league's leading run producers for several seasons after the war. He batted just under .300 that year and hit 20 home runs. Nelson Potter, with 19 wins, and Jack Kramer, with 17, were the leading pitchers. While neither had dazzled before 1944, both were well regarded and continued as regular stsrting pitchers into the late 40's. In fact, Kramer had a brilliant 18-5 record for the Boston Red Sox in 1948.
The Brownies opened with nine consecutive victories, but their small but loyal band of supporters were reluctant to hope for too much. Nevertheless, the team battled the Detroit Tigers for first place all season, overtaking them in the last week and clinching the pennant on the very last day. Their record of 89-65 gave them a one-game margin, and the nearly impossible had happened.
The Cinderella year glowed even brighter as the Browns took two of the first three World Series games from the Cardinals, winners of three consecutive National League pennants. But the Cards rallied for three straight wins and the world championship.
The Final Years
After a third place finish in 1945, the last war season, the Browns never again had a winning record or a finish above sixth place. An attempt to move them to Los Angeles failed, but after the 1953 season, the club was sold and moved to Baltimore, where they took a famous name from the past and became the Orioles.
With the injection of money from the new owners for new players, the Orioles were serious pennant contenders by 1960 and won their first world championship, a feat that had always eluded the Browns, in 1966.
Sources: Baseball-Almanac.com
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