A Unique Trade Proposal

President Von der Ahe left for Cleveland last night to make a proposition to President Robison. His idea is that the Cleveland Club lend to the St. Louis Club pitchers Cuppy and Wallace, second baseman Childs and shortstop McKean, in exchange for catcher Douglas, pitcher Kissinger, shortstop Cross and outfielder Parrot. In return the St. Louis Club will give to the Cleveland Club one-fourth of the profits derived from base ball in this city this year and at the end of the year the players will be returned to their original clubs. Secretary Muckenfuss, of the Browns, believes that the deal will be consummated. There are only a few others, however, who share his belief. If such a deal were made the local club would indeed be the beneficiary. Cuppy, Wallace, Childs and McKean form the nucleus of a winning team. The quartette are all stars. Cleveland would receive about $10,000 or $15,000 of the profits of the Browns, as it has been demonstrated in St. Louis in days gone by that a winning team can earn at least $50,000.

-Sporting Life, February 6, 1897


How is this a good idea? Von der Ahe was willing to give up one quarter of the profits to rent four players for one year? It doesn't make a lot of sense.

The interesting thing about this is the financial information we get at the end. The implication is that the Browns were netting "at least $50,000" a year during the 1880's. For comparison's sake, it's known that the Browns only cleared $12,000 in 1896.

Now that I think about it, the Browns would only have to clear $16,000 on the year to break even on the deal and you would think they would have no problem doing that if they put a better product on the field. But it still seems extraordinarily shortsighted.

Becker Holds The Majority Of The Stock

As The Sporting News goes to press, the stockholders of Sportsman's Park and Club are holding their annual meeting for the election of five directors, puruant to a warrant issued by Justice of the Peace Henry S. Harmon, at the request of E.C. Becker and B.S. Muckenfuss, two of the stockholders. The majority of the stock is held and will be voted by Mr. E.C. Becker, who acquired it from Chris Von der Ahe to secure advances. Neither Chris or any of his retainers will be elected to the Board and thus Von der Ahe will be without any claim to recognition from the League, should he attempt to represent the local club at the meeting.

-From The Sporting News, February 25, 1899

I've been trying to figure out what exactly happened to the Browns in 1898/1899 for awhile now and I still don't think I have the thing figured out properly. Most general accounts say that the Robisons purchased the club after Von der Ahe went bankrupt and while that's a nice summary, it's not remotely close to what happened.

The problem is that there are at least three story-lines converging here. First, you have the financial collapse of Von der Ahe. This is something that was building for several years and came to a head in the summer of 1898. Second, you have the political machinations of the National League. There was a group of owners attempting to contract teams and establish a more "stable" eight team league. The "St. Louis situation" was caught up in this and a solution to the St. Louis problem, acceptable to League magnates, became central in how the League would be structured in 1899. Third, you had the Becker/Muckenfuss/Robison cabal taking control of the Browns and restructuring the organization. Of course, saying that there was a cabal is an oversimplification and glosses over the relationship between Becker, Muckenfuss, and Von der Ahe and the long-held desire of Frank Robison to get involved in the St. Louis market (and to escape difficulties in Cleveland). On top of all of that, you have the courts involved. To say the situation was muddled is an understatement.

Another Look At The Browns' Debt

President Von der Ahe, of the St. Louis Base Ball Club, last week elected his Board of Directors. Of course, the stock holders went through the form of an election, but as Mr. Chris Von der Ahe owns about seven-eighths of the stock the election was merely a matter of courtesy. Anyhow the following directors were elected for the ensuing year or rather as long as they do what is right with the great base ball interests of Mr. Von der Ahe: Chris Von der Ahe, J.W. Peckington, Charles Higgins, Benjamin Steward Muckenfuss and Edward Becker...

Next week a meeting will be held and a statement will be made regarding the business done during last year in horse racing and base ball. It is stated that the Browns cleared $12,000 on the season.

Von der Ahe acknowledges that there was only one year in all his experience as a magnate in which he lost money on base ball. That was during the Brotherhood year. And in the future he promises to stick entirely to base ball and become a pillar in the church. This change in Chris' temperament is accounted for by an interview which appeared in the "Republic" the other day, in which a director of the St. Louis Club says:

"We buried about $40,000 in the chutes, which, all stories to the contrary, paid us about 25 per cent on the investment. That leaves us still $30,000 in the hole on the chute question. Then we paid Fred Foster $42,000 for his interest in that track and we lost some money running races in opposition to the other tracks. Oh, we had a mazy time of it when we went against the racing game. I think that we will make money out of the chutes, and we have it fixed so that we will not lose another cent on the race track, so I think we have gotten over our worst days."

It is hoped that this is true and that the St. Louis Club will use some of its profits in the future purchasing new players.

-From Sporting Life, January 23, 1897

Some notes:

-Based on this information, we can say that Von der Ahe still had complete control of the Browns going into the 1897 season, controlling "seven-eights of the stock" and that Edward Becker was already on board as a minority stockholder. Becker, within the next year and a half, would come to control eighty-five percent of the stock and rest control of the team from Von der Ahe.

-The Browns were a profitable organization from a baseball perspective. The financial difficulties that pushed the team into receivership were a result of outside economic interests rather than a failure of the Browns to make money.

-Based on the information from the Republic, it looks like Von der Ahe over-expanded between 1892 and 1896 (the new ballpark, the racetrack, etc) and was unable to generate enough cash flow to cover the debt that he took on in that expansion. In January of 1898, the total liabilities of the club would be listed as $58,718 and most of that was what was owed on the ballpark bonds and money lent to the club by Becker in an attempt to keep Von der Ahe afloat. A total debt of $127,000 was listed for the corporation itself and that included the investments in the racetrack and the chutes as well as the debts of the club. If my math is correct (and assuming the chutes brought in another $10,000 in 1897), the investments in the ballpark, the racetrack, and the chutes alone were responsible for more than seventy percent of the corporations' debt. Becker's loans to the club (which were a direct result of Von der Ahe's over-expansion) amounted to about ten percent of the debt.