The 1953 St. Louis Browns – 54-100

In a KOD themed as the “Biggest Loser”, perhaps no franchise epitomizes losing in baseball quite like the St. Louis Browns.

In their 53 years as an American League club, beginning with their inaugural 1901 campaign as the Milwaukee Brewers before moving to St. Louis for the 1902 season, the Brownies were able to put together only 12 seasons of .500+ baseball.

The had nine seasons of 100 or more losses, and in seasons of 154 games this took some first class losing to accomplish.

Here’s another way to look at how inept this franchise was in it’s history. Their greatest team did not even win a pennant. They did have one pennant winner, the 1944 squad which won 89 games. But most historians would tell you that the 1922 team, which won 93, the only 90+ win team in Browns’ history, would have run roughshod over the ’44 pennant winners.

The franchise moved to Baltimore after the 1953, with this ’53 squad holding the tradition of bad American League baseball in St. Louis by losing an even 100 games.

Their manager was former Cardinal great Marty Marion. The club featured some familiar names, players who earned a degree of fame elsewhere. On the pitching staff were Don Larsen, he of the perfect World Series game with the Yankees three years later. Larsen went 7-12 for the ’53 Browns. Marion’s teammate on some powerful Cardinal teams of the 1940s, lefthander Harry Brecheen, had a fine 3.07 ERA for this ’53 Browns squad, but that earned him only a 5-13 mark. Other names of interest on the pitching staff include Virgil Trucks, Bob Turley, Bobo Holloman and yet another Cardinal cast off, Max Lanier.

Marion did not use any of his pitchers as workhorses, instead spreading the innings around almost like a manger today. No pitcher pitched even 200 innings, which was rare in ’53, and no starter made more than Duane Pillette’s 25 starts.

Offensively this club was downright offensive, finishing dead last in the American League in runs scored and batting average. Their best player was right fielder Vic Wertz, he of World Series fame one year later as the man who hit the ball that Willie Mays made the sensational catch and spin throw on that we’ve all seen replayed hundreds of times.

Wertz lead the club in homers and RBI, with modest totals of 19 and 70, respectively. Things were so bad for this club, that their regular thirdbaseman and shortstop hit .213 and .219 respectively. The man that had the most at-bats at catcher, Clint Courtney, managed to knock in only 19 runs. But they did have a couple of part-time players who had decent seasons, Roy Sievers (.270,8,35 in 285 Abs) and veteran Vern Stephens (.321 in 165 Abs), who was on his second tour of duty with the Browns.

Manager Marion even got into three games, batting seven times. But as was typical with this last of the Browns, he went hitless in those 7 at bats.

Even in a league of losers, it’s hard to imagine this team being able to win more than perhaps a dozen ball games.

--submitted by Bike Mike--