1882 St. Louis Brown Stockings season

Building the team

Von der Ahe got the Browns into the American Association ahead of the 1882 season and bankrolled their roster. Al Spink pushed for signing Charlie Comiskey, a young first baseman from Dubuque. Ned Cuthbert, a retired local pro who had urged Von der Ahe to buy the club, became captain and field manager, using his connections to bring in Eastern players. The team’s core was local: brothers Jack and Bill Gleason, pitcher Jumbo McGinnis, outfielder George Seward, and catcher Tom Sullivan.

Regular season

On May 2, 1882, the opening day of the season took place at Sportsman's Park, where a professional baseball field had been laid out in 1866. About 2,000 spectators paid a quarter each to attend. Jumbo McGinnis was the first pitcher and started 45 of the team's 80 games. Jack Gleason made the team's first hit, a leadoff single, and scored the first run on Charlie Comiskey's three-base hit.

The team won 9–7, with McGinnis contributing two doubles. In late May, the team was tied for first place, eight games over .500 and one game behind Cincinnati, but then lost sixteen more games than they won over seven weeks. More than 175,000 spectators attended games that season.