Comiskey Is Very Sore

George Munson, the Browns' Secretary, returned from the Pacific Coast yesterday morning. Mr. Munson combined pleasure with business, and made the trip his wedding tour. He was asked last night in regard to the feelings of Foutz, Bushong and Welch at leaving St. Louis. He declared that all regretted leaving here where they had helped win so many championships, although each would receive quite an advance in salary. Comiskey is very sore over the release of his men and thinks it rather hard that he should be compelled to fight with raw material next season. Bushong will soon leave the coast to come to St. Louis and sell the house which he owns. He will then take up a permanent residence in Brooklyn.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, December 6, 1887

This report of Comiskey's take on the sales is rather significant. My understanding, which I think is based on G.W. Axelson's book, was that Comiskey believed that some of the players were causing problems in the clubhouse and that their egos were getting out of control. Therefore, he was supportive of the moves. He absolutely did not say anything negative about the moves in the book. However, based on Munson's observations, Comiskey was not at all happy with the moves.

The other thing that should be noted here is that Comiskey had no hand in the moves. It's largely assumed that Comiskey was the baseball brains behind the Browns' operation and while I'm sure he had some input and his opinion was valued, it's obvious that Von der Ahe ran the club. This is a point that I've made numerous times but it never hurts to beat a dead horse a bit more.

The 1887 World Series: A Hustler From Way Back

George Munson, secretary of the St. Louis ball club, made a flying visit to Boston yesterday to look after some of the details of the great game on the Union grounds next Tuesday in the world's championship series. Mr. Munson, who is acting as advance agent for the club, is known the country over as Von der Ahe's right bower. George is a hustler from way back and is noted for the great amount of work he can accomplish in a short space of time.

Secretary Munson went over to the Union grounds with Superintendent Murnan and inspected the arrangements in progress for the game. The grounds have been greatly improved. All the bad places have been filled up and rolled. The catcher's territory has been evened up by filling in the bicycle track with loam and is in excellent condition. The approaches to each base have been covered with loam and clay and well rolled to permit of all the sliding that either the Browns or Detroits may want to attempt. The seats and grand stand have been repaired and strengthened. Mr. Munson was very much pleased with the condition of the grounds. He said he anticipated an enormous crowd if the advance sale of tickets indicated anything. "Whether there are 10 men or 10,000," said Mr. Munson, "they will see some wonderful ball playing. Your cranks here talk about Johnson being the greatest centre fielder. I'll admit he's a good one, but your Johnson shouters have never seen Curt Welch. Out in St. Louis they thing the equal of Welch doesn't exist and they are pretty near right. Welch covers the whole diamond. As an actual fact he has been known to put a man out at third base. The Browns play altogether different ball from the league clubs you have had in Boston, and whether they win or lose, their style will be a revelation to Boston cranks."

Mr. Munson returned to New York last night and will go to Philadelphia tomorrow to arrange the details of Monday's game in that city.

-Boston Daily Globe, October 15, 1887

The 1887 World Series: Get Your Tickets Now

Reserved seats for the world's championship games can be had at Appler & Hodge's, 618 Olive street, and the Lindell Hotel cigar store. Only a limited number are on sale.

Secretary Munson, of the St. Louis club, goes to Pittsburg to-night in the interest of the world's championship games. From there he goes to New York; and will be in advance of each game about four days.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 7, 1887

The 1887 World Series: The Champions' Return

Next Saturday and Sunday the champion Browns will be at home, and will play the Clevelands. The brown-hosed boys should be granted a royal reception on this return trip, for it is a memorable one in their career, for they bring home with them for the third consecutive time the American Association pennant. A telegram received from Secretary Munson, of the Browns, yesterday, states the Browns will play an exhibition game at New York to-day. President Von der Ahe and President Stearns, of Detroit, held a conference at Philadelphia relative to the series of games for the world's championship, and it was decided that two of these games would be played in Philadelphia, one on the grounds of the Athletics, and the other on the grounds of the Philadelphias. It will therefore be seen that at least some of the games for the world's championship will be played in the East.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 11, 1887

The exhibition game in New York was, rather famously, never played. I'll get back to that in a couple of days because there are a few things bothering me about the incident that I want to talk about.

George Munson's Obituary

George Munson, one of the best known sporting authorities in the country and for four years secretary and manager of the old St. Louis Browns Baseball Club, died [in St. Louis] last night of double pneumonia. During Munson's service with the club, the Browns won the pennant four consecutive years. Munson came here from New York in 1883.

In the days when Chris Von Der Ahe, the quaint old owner of the St. Louis Browns, four-time pennant winners, was in the heyday of his career as a baseball magnate, George Munson was secretary of the St. Louis club. He was the man who successfully advertised the Browns and who looked after the financial business of the club, something for which Von Der Ahe was unfitted, except in the way of reckless disbursements.

At that time Munson was one of the best known and most popular men in baseball. He had more friends than any club official in the league and was the best "hustler" in the National League.

Munson and Von Der Ahe parted about the time the latter inaugurated his policy of employing cheap teams and selling all his good players. Von Der Ahe's downfall was rapid after Munson left him and he is now old and penniless.

Munson became publisher of the Horse Show Monthly, a St. Louis publication, and branched out in the advertising business in which he was successful up to the time of his death. He and Von Der Ahe was lavishly entertained in St. Louis last spring by Charles Comiskey, owner of the Chicago White Sox, who was the first baseman of the Browns when they were champions.

-Dallas Morning News, March 16, 1908

Munson died on March 14, 1908 and I'm just going to pass on commenting about the way Von der Ahe is portrayed in this article because sometimes even I get tired of beating a dead horse.

A Photo Of George Munson

I found this picture of George Munson in one of Bill Burgess' threads at Baseball Fever. Bill always finds the best darn pictures.

Burying The Hatchet

Broad and big-hearted Jim Byrne captured Chris Von der Ahe (on) Thursday night, invited him into the Lindell Hotel and introduced him to Charles Comiskey, captain, and George Munson, secretary of the Chicago Brotherhood Club. Tom Loftus, manager of the Cincinnatis, and Latham the only, were also there and as the old trio shook hands...Lath gave a war whoop that could be heard on the roof of the Lindell. It was the first time Von der Ahe, Comiskey and Munson had spoken to each other since last fall, when they parted company. Von der Ahe seemed ready to bury the hatchet. The others were in the same humor and over brimming glasses of wine they drank to the days of auld lang syne when base ball was on top and the Brotherhood and other nightmare things were unknown.

Comiskey suggested to Von der Ahe that they bury the hatchet and play a series of games between the Chicago players and the St. Louis Brown Stocking team.

Von der Ahe thought it a good scheme and said he would enter into it if the League and other American Association clubs interposed no objection.

Other propositions were made and accepted and the probability is that the old ill feeling that has existed between Von der Ahe, Comiskey and Munson has been wiped out for good.

-The Sporting News, October 18, 1890


The Chicago Brotherhood club and the Cincinnati League team were in St. Louis to play a game on October 18th. This meeting laid the foundation for both Comiskey and Munson's return to the Browns in 1891.

A Little Spring Cleaning

I have a few notes laying around that I need to do something with and I thought I'd just throw them up on the blog, Joe Falls style:

-I got an email from Bill Burgess the other day sharing some information about David Reid and George Munson. Bill said that after ten years of searching he has finally discovered that Reid was born on May 14, 1848 in Nashville, TN. Ten years of searching-that's dedication. You have to hand it to Bill. Great work. He also discovered that Munson was born on August 15, 1858-not in 1860, as it was previously believed.

-Richard Malatzky has found the elusive death certificate for Packy Dillon. Dillon died on July 27, 1902 in Mehlville, Missouri. He was buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis on July 29, 1902. Thanks to the fantastic work of Richard and others, we now know that Packy Dillon was Patrick Henry Dillon (b. January 2, 1853, St. Louis; d. July 27, 1902, Mehlville).

-Peter Morris sent me the following piece from the July 29, 1868 issue of the Cincinnati Daily Times:

"Base Ball has not a good foot-hold in St. Louis. There is a great spirit of hostility between the two clubs (the Empires and the Unions), and this hurts both. Neither has much chance for practice, except with each other, which they will not do...We should judge the Empires to be a club of workingmen, unable to bear much expense, and with small opportunity to bear much practice..."

This is rather interesting because it illustrates a point that I don't think I've ever made here at TGOG. St. Louis is seen as one of the country's great baseball cities and it is. But it hasn't always been. While it appears that baseball was popular in the city from the beginning, the game's popularity has waxed and waned in St. Louis over the years. The story of baseball in St. Louis is not one of constant growth from 1859 to the present. There was been set-backs and desperate moments when the very survival of the game in St. Louis was in question.

-I should also take this opportunity to thank the friends and readers of this site. I get a tremendous amount of support and encouragement from a variety of people who take time out of their busy day to help me. It's an amazing thing, I'm truly blessed, and I thank them all.

Person George Munson

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David Reid

In a post about George Munson, I mentioned the death of David Reid, a prominent 19th century sportswriter. Al Spinks wrote that there "were few newspaper men, if any, who were more prominently and actively identified with the National Game from the inception of professionalism up to his retirement..."

At Baseball Fever, Bill Burgess has a great thread about baseball writers. One of the more than three hundred writers that Bill chronicles is David Reid. Bill dug up Reid's obituary in The St. Louis Republican and posted it in his thread. The obituary was published in the May 3, 1885 issue of the Republican and I'm presenting it in full below.


Dave Reid Dead; Sudden demise of a Well-Known Sporting Editor.

David Lytton Reid, one of the best known sporting writers and base ball enthusiasts, died at the residence of his friend and chum, George Munson, 1321 Pine street, very unexpectedly last evening at 9:40. His death was a very unexpected after a very brief illness. Late Friday afternoon, while at Grand and Easton avenue, he was suddenly taken with a congestion chill, resulting in severe cramping of the stomach and the pain became violent after he arrived at Mr. Munson's room on Pine street. He laid down on the lounge for a while and his wants were administered to by Mrs. Brothers, who at his suggestion called in Dr. Rutledge and after a short while relief was afforded and he passed an easy night, relieving to a great extent the anxiety and fears which the symptoms first aroused. In the morning he woke up early about 6 o'clock, and seemed greatly refreshed over his night's rest. He spoke cheerfully of his condition, and in response to inquiries stated that he was very greatly relieved. During the day, however, he became worse, and toward evening the hand of death became visible over his cold body. Surrounded by a large number of friends, he quietly passed away at 9:10 P. M., being conscious to the last. His death will be a severe blow to his legion of friends throughout the country, his many excellent qualities of heart and mind endearing him to all with whom he came in contact. He was best known by his remarkable knowledge of national game affairs, his writings on base ball having been recognized everywhere as authoritative and thoroughly reliable. Dave Reid was a name familiar to all baseball men, managers, players, and all those associated with the national game, and his untimely death will be all the more mourned, because of the loss of one whose versatile talents and fine abilities as a writer and grand characteristics as a man made him a prominent figure in the everyday walks of life. He was born in Nashville, Tenn., nearly thirty-seven years ago. His parents soon removed to New York city, where he was reared and received his education. He began life in the dry goods business, but his remarkable natural bent for newspaper work soon found cultivation in the large range of the metropolitan press. He wrote largely for the New York Clipper, Herald, Sunday Dispatch, New York Times, Sunday Mercury and other noted New York papers. Early in the seventies he moved to Philadelphia and became one of the managing editors of the Philadelphia Sunday Dispatch, devoting the greater portion of his time and talents to the base ball department, which was recognized as the leading authority on the national game, and established for the paper a grand reputation.

He was secretary of the Athletic club of Philadelphia in its palmiest days - 1872-73. He came to St. Louis, about ten years ago. He was the official scorer of the original Brown stockings club, and for several years did most of the base ball writing for the St. Louis Times. During the base ball season of 1883, and for some years afterwards he was sporting editor of the Republic and afterwards held the same position on the Post-Dispatch and at the time of his death was running the baseball department of that paper. He has also done a great deal of work for the Critic, Sunday Sayings and other weekly local papers. He was also for more than a year amusement editor of the Post-Dispatch. He was unmarried, but leaves a mother and two brothers in New York city.

George Munson

George Munson was a prominent baseball man in the late 19th century. A sports writer, the secretary and manager of the St. Louis Browns during their championship run, and an entrepreneur, Munson was described by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as “more nearly an institution than an individual…”

Munson was born in Iowa in 1861 and entered Cornell University in 1876. According to the Cornell Alumni News, Munson took “an optional course and did not graduate.” Leaving the university in 1879, he moved to St. Louis and took a job as a sports writer with the St. Louis Republican where he worked with David Reid.

In 1885, Reid was working for the Post-Dispatch and had taken a job as secretary of the St. Louis Browns. In the late afternoon on May 1st, Reid became ill and went to the house of his friend Munson to lie down. He never recovered and died the next evening at the age of 37. Munson replaced his friend as secretary and manager of Chris Von der Ahe’s Browns.

Described by the Post-Dispatch as “the business head of the organization,” Munson would see the Browns to four consecutive championships from 1885 to 1888. He was involved in every facet of the team from player procurement to selling advertising space on the outfield wall.

In October of 1887, according to the New York Times, Munson was in New York to arrange games at Washington Park in Brooklyn and at the Polo Grounds between the Browns and their NL champion opponents, Detroit, as part of the “world’s championship” series. When asked how he felt about his team’s chances after they had dropped two of the first three games, Munson said, “Will our boys win? Well, to prove what I think about the matter I have a well filled wallet that I am willing to risk on the result.” Regardless of Munson’s confidence, the Browns lost the fifteen game series ten games to five.

Munson had a rather tumultuous relationship with Von der Ahe, which given the character of Der Boss President is not exactly surprising. The Post-Dispatch wrote that Munson and Von der Ahe “were estimated to have quarreled four times a day-that is, (Von der Ahe) did the quarrelling and…Munson did the work.” Von der Ahe certainly did admire and appreciate the work that Munson did for the Browns, at least after Munson had moved on. Der Boss never found another employee who could compare to Munson and referred to him, simply, as “the best”.

Munson was elected as the first president of the Base Ball Reporters Association of America. The group was formed in 1897, according to Harold Seymour in Baseball: The Early Years, “for the purpose of bringing about a standard method of scoring games and to advance the interests of baseball through the press.”

In 1890, Munson had had enough of Von der Ahe’s drama and left the Browns to work with the new Players League. The New York Times reported in January of 1890 that “George Munson, late Secretary of the Browns, is busy getting things in shape for a Brotherhood ball club in St. Louis. He said today that he had $50,000 subscribed. He is negotiating with the Players League, and seems confident that St. Louis will be admitted to the circuit.” When his plans for a St. Louis team in the Players League fell through, Munson went to Chicago and took a job as secretary for the PL’s Pirates, who were managed by his old friend Charles Comiskey and had several other former Browns on the roster. In May of 1890, according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, he was involved in a failed attempt to transfer either the Pittsburgh or Cleveland NL team to St. Louis.

In 1891, Munson was the editor of Reach’s Official American Association Base Ball Guide and was involved in raising stock for an American Association team in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that year that Munson was working for the Cincinnati team as secretary and was a stockholder in the club. He also went back to work that year as a press agent and advisor for Von der Ahe, whom he would continue to work for until 1894.

It was in his capacity as advisor to Von der Ahe that Munson was involved in one of the more bizarre incidents in baseball history. According to the New York Times, in March of 1891, Munson, Von der Ahe, Von der Ahe’s attorney Walter McEntire, and Al Spink “called upon Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Thomas Estep to swear out a warrant, charging conspiracy” against Mark Baldwin. Baldwin, a big league pitcher with the Pittsburgh NL club, had been hired by the League to get AA players to jump their contracts and sign with NL clubs. Baldwin had targeted Browns ace Silver King and Columbus player Jack O’Connor, both of whom were living in St. Louis. While Estep saw “no ground for a criminal warrant”, Baldwin was eventually arrested and jailed on bribery charges. In The Beer & Whiskey League, David Nemec writes that “Von der Ahe then pulled strings to have the case delayed so that Baldwin would be detained indefinitely in St. Louis and would be unable to continue his poaching for the League.” “Baldwin,” according to Seymour, “did not like being thrown into a jail infested with cockroaches and bedbugs, and retaliated against Von der Ahe’s harassment with a suit for $20,000, charging false arrest and malicious prosecution. Four years later a jury awarded him $5,000.” The only good thing to come of this mess was that Pittsburgh, Baldwin’s employer, gained a permanent nickname. Because of their poaching of AA players, the Pittsburg National League Baseball Club would forever be known as the Pirates.

In the mid 1890’s, Munson was involved in attempts to sell the Browns. As Von der Ahe’s financial and personal life deteriorated into tragedy, Munson was unable to broker a deal that would save Der Boss’s empire. By 1894, the two parted ways for the final time.

After his time with the Browns, Munson was involved in numerous entrepreneurial ventures. The Post-Dispatch wrote that “…Munson dabbled in skating rinks, racetracks, theaters, newspapers, theater programs, dog shows, horse shows, and nearly every other variety of enterprise calculated to attract public attention. Most of his adventures were successful.”

Munson died of pneumonia on March 8, 1908, leaving behind a wife, Lizzie, and two children, Porter and Daisy. His obituary in the Post-Dispatch was rather glowing. “He knew more people than any other one man in St. Louis ,” it said, “and was known by more…When the question of how a broken-down baseball player or any other member of the fraternity was to be taken care of in life or in death came up, George Munson was the man relied on to get the necessary contributions. In every public charity he was always a busy figure.”