RetroSimba

A week before the Cardinals played in the World Series, they participated with the neighboring Browns in an event to help people in need during the growing economic crisis.

On Sept. 24, 1931, the National League Cardinals and American League Browns played an exhibition game in St. Louis to raise funds for the unemployed.

More than $30,000 was raised for the relief fund of the St. Louis Citizens Committee on Relief and Employment at a time when the Great Depression was gripping the nation.

Desperate times

The stock market crash of October 1929 launched the United States into its worst economic downturn. By 1930, the country’s industrial production dropped in half, leading to severe job loss, and the ensuing panic caused many banks to close.

Adding to the misery were the climate conditions that created the Dust Bowl. A devastating drought hit the Midwest and Great Plains in 1930 and was followed by massive dust storms in 1931.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in the nation was at 15.9 percent in December 1931. It was above 20 percent each year from 1932 to 1935, peaking at 24.9 percent in December 1933.

In St. Louis in September 1931, the Citizens Committee on Relief and Employment arranged for the baseball exhibition game for the benefit of the unemployed.

Similar charity games had been played elsewhere that month. On Sept. 9 in New York, an exhibition between the Giants and Yankees netted $60,000 for unemployment relief and another in Chicago between the Cubs and White Sox netted $44,489, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported.

Organizers of the St. Louis game said they didn’t expect to raise as much as the bigger metropolises, but they did hope to top the $22,168 netted for a Sept. 23 exhibition in Boston between the Braves and Red Sox.

Financial support

Team owners Sam Breadon of the Cardinals and Phil Ball of the Browns agreed to cover all expenses, so “every nickel of the receipts will be used to aid the needy and unemployed of St. Louis,” Red Smith reported in the St. Louis Star-Times.

“Relief and unemployment bodies are going to need every penny that can be raised,” the Star-Times noted. “Here is a chance to help swell the fund and at the same time get one’s money’s worth of sport.”

A special appeal was made to persons of prominence. An entire box of seats in the first or second row could be bought for $100. A whole box consisted of four or five seats.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, $100 in September 1931 is the equivalent of $1,820 in 2021.

On the eve of the game, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported 61 boxes were sold at $100 each.

The game was played at 3 p.m. on a cool, overcast Thursday afternoon. “It felt more like football weather,” the Star-Times observed.

A crowd of 20,237 showed up at Sportsman’s Park. All except 13 were paid admission. The 13 who got in for free were telegraph operators assigned to work the press box, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported.

Citizens Committee chairman Tom K. Smith estimated the threatening skies kept another 5,000 spectators from attending.

The mood was festive. “They came with cowbells and paper horns and lusty throats,” the Globe-Democrat reported. “Hundreds of women fans arranged in fall finery turned the stands into a bright mosaic.”

Sid Keener of the Star-Times noted, “The patrons were keyed up to a high pitch.” The underdog Browns “received as much applause and genuine rooting” as the Cardinals.

City champs

St. Louis mayor Victor Miller was tasked with tossing the ceremonial first pitch and “threw two bad ones; Jimmie Wilson, Cardinals catcher, reaching into the dirt to get one. The mayor also missed Wilson’s return throw,” the Globe-Democrat dutifully reported.

The Cardinals were designated the home team by a flip of a coin.

A week earlier, the Cardinals clinched the National League pennant. On the day of the exhibition game, their season record was 98-53, with three games remaining before the World Series began on Oct. 1 versus the Athletics. The Browns were 60-90, with four left to play, and were headed for a fifth-place finish, 45 games behind the Athletics.

The starting pitchers were spitball specialist Burleigh Grimes, 38, for the Cardinals and Dick Coffman, 24, for the Browns.

As Red Smith noted in the Star-Times, “There was little charity in the Cardinals’ hearts or bats for Dick Coffman.”

With the help of two errors by Browns first baseman Jack Burns, the Cardinals scored four runs in the first against Coffman, who was relieved by Lefty Stewart before the inning ended.

Stewart, who led the 1931 Browns in wins (14), shut out the Cardinals for 8.2 innings, limiting them to four hits.

Grimes held the Browns scoreless until they rallied for six runs against him in the fifth. The Browns scored another run in the seventh against Flint Rhem and won, 7-4. Goose Goslin had three hits, two RBI and two runs scored for the Browns.

The game, played in a snappy 1:56, ended with redemption for Jack Burns, who “made a spectacular diving catch” of Frankie Frisch’s bid for a double down the first-base line, the Globe-Democrat reported.

Daunting task

“The Browns gained the city baseball title for 1931 and the poor of St. Louis gained thousands of dollars,” Red Smith wrote in the Star-Times.

A total of $30,250 from ticket sales went into the relief fund of the Citizens Committee. That amount is the equivalent of $550,556 in 2021. Another $290 was donated by Browns and Cardinals players, the Globe-Democrat reported.

Citizens Committee chairman Tom K. Smith said, “The community responded much more nobly than any of us expected at the start and the committee is deeply grateful. It is a magnificent showing.

“Large as the sum is, it is but a pittance to what the burden of caring for the needy and unemployed will call for during the ensuing winter,” Tom Smith added. “The sum realized here today will meet the relief demands on the Citizens Committee for about 10 days. This will give the public some idea of the magnitude of the task before us.”

The unemployment rate didn’t drop below 10 percent until December 1941, the month the nation entered World War II, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. By December 1944, the unemployment rate was at 1.2 percent.

As for the 1931 Cardinals, they went on to win the World Series championship. After getting stung by the Browns in the charity game, Burleigh Grimes excelled in the World Series, winning the third and seventh games.