OUR FUTURE RIVALS - ST LOUIS EXPLORERS
While it most certainly will be one-sided for at least the first few seasons I expect our biggest rival in the National Baseball League's Western Division will be our nearest opponent geographically. The St Louis Explorers have a rich history that traces all the way back to 1882 and the start of the American Base Ball Association. That is the same league that the previously mentioned Kansas City Cowboys participated in for two very unsusccesful seasons. The Explorers, known as the St Louis Perfectos at that time were one of four teams (Baltimore, Brooklyn and Cincinnati were the others) to be invited to join the National loop when the ABBA ceased operations following the 1892 season. The move expanded the National Base Ball League into 12 teams consisting of a pair of 6 team divisions.
The name change to the current Explorers occured prior to the 1897 season but whether they were known as either the Explorers or the Perfectos there were a lot of lean seasons in the early days for the St Louis club. Over their first 33 years they never finished higher than 3rd place and were never closer then 5 games out of first when the curtain came on the season.
That finally changed in 1915 when the Explorers earned their first division title. It came as a surprise to say the least as they had lost 100 games just 6 years early and had finished 16 games back each of the previous two seasons. However the club, which had never reached as many as 90 wins in a season in their previous 33 years, finished with a 101-57 record to put them 21 games ahead of second place Cincinnati. It was the heart of the deadball era so pitching was key and the Explorers had 3 strong pitchers that season in Hampton Bunker (27-16, 2.19), Orlando Nolan (21-10, 2.56) and a 22 year old future Hall of Famer by the name of Edgar Bath (21-11, 2.84). St Louis would beat the Eastern Division champion New York Knickerbockers in 6 games to win their first World Series. A decade later the Explorers and Knickerbockers would be the class of the league and wage a number of October battles.
1915 was the beginning of the Golden Era of St Louis baseball as the Explorers would win 12 division titles and 5 World Series during the ensuing 16 years. It would also establish that aforementioned rivalry with New York but the Gotham side would get the best of the Explorers more often than not. From 1924 to 1928 they met in the World Series 5 straight years with New York coming out on top in 4 of them. St Louis had much more success against other Eastern clubs, beating Brooklyn in both 1921 and 1923 and topping Buffalo in the 1930 Fall Classic.
Brooklyn was not only kind enough to lose the World Series twice to St Louis but they also hand delivered the man who would go on to be the face of the Explorers franchise and arguably the greatest pitcher in NBL history.
Brock Rutherford made his big league debut as a 20 year old with Brooklyn in 1918. He went 15-5 the following season and then as a 22 year old he won 25 games to help Brooklyn reach the World Series where they would fall to Detroit. In 1921 Rutherford won the pitching triple crown and again led Brooklyn to the Series, but St Louis would be waiting and won in 6 games despite Rutherford tossing an 11-inning complete game 1-0 victory in his only start.
Both Brooklyn and St Louis failed to win their respective divisions in 1922 despite another strong season by Rutherford. In the fall of 1922 this happened:
Quote:
In one of the head-scratching-est trades in league history, Brooklyn sent their young pitching phenom, Brock Rutherford, and a good outfielder, Antony Shipman, to St. Louis for a minor league outfielder and Emery Connelly, a 36-year-old pitcher who had not started a big league game since 1908.
*reprinted from the official history of the American Circuits.
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Both clubs bounced back in 1923 and won their respective divisions with Rutherford (27-11) winning his second career pitching triple crown. The Series went the distance with St Louis prevailing despite Rutherford losing both of his starts. It was the first of 8 straight World Series appearances for the Explorers but they would win only 2 more of them. Rutherford would pitch until he was 43 years old and help St Louis to two final World Series wins late in his career when they won back to back titles over New York in 1937 & 1938. In all, Rutherford led the club to 10 division titles and 5 World Championships.
When it was all said and done Rutherford won 544 games in his career, a total only surpassed by turn of the century pitcher Royal Ricketts' 635 career victories. The pitcher of the year award, named after Ricketts, was not awarded until 1937 otherwise Rutherford would have had a boatload of them. He did win the first two with back to back 28-5 seasons at age 39 and 40. Rutherford retired following the 1941 season after winning 8 pitching triple crowns. Only one other pitcher won as many as four. He is also the career leader in strikeouts, shutouts and winning percentage as well as post-season complete games. His 13 wins were also a post-season record until surpassed by Joe Shannon of Houston but Shannon had the benefit of an extra playoff round after the addition of a second league.
So it is obvious any discussion about the history of the St Louis Explorers starts and ends with Brock Rutherford. St Louis did reach the World Series one more time after Rutherford left, falling in the full 7 games to their long-time rivals from New York but that is the only post-season appearance for the franchise since Rutherford's retirement.
The past two years St Louis has finished 3rd in the 5 team National Baseball League Western Division but they were 87-75 last year and just 5 games back of Chicago with Detroit sandwiched in between the two of them. Looking at the current (1954) version of the Explorers they have managed a pretty quick start, sitting atop the division with an 8-4 record. They have a great pitcher in 28 year old lefthander Swanee Lee (22-6, 3.00 last year) who has had 4 straight twenty-win seasons and is off to a 2-1 start this year. Their strength a year ago was their offense led by 28 year old third baseman Rod Seals (.308,25,109).
I will continue introducing you to the other franchises that Kansas City will compete against in the Western Division of the National Baseball League in the near future.