Browns and Mud Hens arrive 1945

G.D. Fronabarger took this picture March 11, 1945 of Cape Girardeau welcoming an early contingent of the St. Louis Browns and the Toledo Mud Hens at the Frisco railway station. Browns manager Luke Sewell is standing in the center of the front five men.

March 12, 1945 Southeast Missourian

Champs Given Big Welcome

Big Crowd Greets Browns, Toledo Teams

Manager Luke Sewell of the American League champion St. Louis Browns could put a baseball team on the field today, in numbers, but not in position, following arrival of nine players Sunday for the opening of the 1945 spring training season's initial workouts today. The champs' understudies, the second-place Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association, fared considerably better and today boasted 23 players, 20 of whom arrived Sunday.

Cape Girardeau, where the baseball fever is mounting higher with each season, gave the two teams a noisy welcome at noon Sunday when a crowd of between 1000 and 1500 fans jammed the areaway at the Frisco passenger station. On the train were Manager Sewell, now the circuit's managerial wizard, Pitchers Al Hollingsworth, Newman "Tex" Shirley, and Earl Jones, Infielder Len Schulte, up from Toledo, and Leslie Arnold, a recruit catcher from Peoria, Ill.

A Band on Hand

Traveling Secretary Charles DeWitt arrived later in the day as did the Southern Association's 1944 one-armed sensation, Pete Gray, Shortstop Vernon Stephens, Pitcher Sigmund Jakucki and Catcher Frank Mancuso. And, rolling in today was Milton Byrnes, who came from St. Louis.

Manager Sewell, never one to be over-optimistic and hardly a ranking pessimist, in commenting on the coming season, just said: "I can't tell you a thing about it. We'll just be in there trying to repeat our 1944 performance. With the war and all, baseball is just another thing that has to be worked out, but we're in just as good a position as the others."

Back from a recent trip through the China-India-Burma theater of operations with a USO troupe, Manager Luke saw what the world series and baseball talks did for the morale of the men on the fighting fronts, and he's determined to go ahead.

Today the players on both clubs were summoned to Houck Field House at 10:30 a.m. for the first practice session. This was to include calisthenics and instructions, with the added probability of track work in the stadium. The Arena dirt floor will not be in shape before Wednesday, it was said, for indoor work.

The weather for the opening of the 1945 spring training camp was ideal--warm and with a touch of spring in the air. That was quite in contrast to the weather just 10 days later a year ago when the clubs on March 20 were met with a driving sleet and storm on their arrival.

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A story in the March 15, 1945 Southeast Missourian reported that heavy showers sent both teams to the Arena Building for indoor work for the first time. The first days provided excellent weather and that a mechanical device known as a pitching machine was introduced at Fairground Park in Cape Girardeau.

The Browns' one-armed outfielder, Pete Gray, was followed by a Pathe newsreel cameraman, who said theaters over the country would be showing the film on their sports spots. Gray debuted for the Browns on Opening Day, April 17, 1945 at Sportsman's Park against the Detroit Tigers. In 1946, Gray played in Triple-A for the Toledo Mud Hens. He was the subject of a 1986 made-for-television movie, "A Winner Never Quits." After the 1953 season, the Browns ended their 52-year stay in St. Louis. The team relocated to Baltimore, Maryland and became the Baltimore Orioles.

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[Luke Sewell was a catcher and served as player-manager for the St. Louis Browns during the 1942 season. He played his final game as a player on Aug. 1, 1942 at the age of 41. Sewell continued to manage the Browns and led them to the 1944 American League pennant. It was the team’s only championship in its 52 years in St. Louis. They lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1944 World Series. He stepped down as manager after a seventh-place finish in 1946.]

Here is an earlier blog about a Browns and Mud Hens baseball game played in Cape Girardeau.