NOVEMBER 17, 1953 |ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI • On this date in baseball history stockholders of the beleaguered St, Louis Browns franchise voted to change the team’s name from the St. Louis Browns to the Baltimore Orioles.
The name change was the final step in the transition from former owner Bill Veeck to a new group of owners which would start the 1954 baseball season near the shores of Chesapeake Bay rather than the banks of the Mississippi river.
The Browns began as the Milwaukee Brewers in 1901 – a charter American League franchise – not to be confused with the present day Brewers. The team stayed only one year in Milwaukee, moving to St. Louis in 1902 and becoming the Browns, which was the color of their uniforms.
In all the years spent in St. Louis (and one in Milwaukee) the Browns went to the post-season once. They won the American League Pennant in 1944, losing the World Series to the cross-town St. Louis Cardinals.
The franchise’s change of scenery did them good. The Baltimore Orioles have been to the post-season more than a dozen times since moving to Baltimore. They won the World Series in 1966, 1970 and 1983.
CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 18, 1953
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