1876 St. Louis Brown Stockings season

1876 St. Louis Brown Stockings
League	National League
Ballpark	Sportsman's Park
City	St. Louis, Missouri
Owner	C. O. Bishop
Managers	Mase Graffen, George McManus

The St. Louis Brown Stockings joined the newly formed National League as a charter member in 1876. Although both St. Louis and Hartford finished the season 6 games behind the pennant-winning Chicago White Stockings, the Brown Stockings were officially the third place team as, in 1877, the standings were determined by number of wins, not games behind. As Hartford had 47 wins and St. Louis only had 45, Hartford finished in second and St. Louis finished in third. Nonetheless, St. Louis had won its season series against Chicago 6 games to 4 – winning all of its season series against all National League opponents. Due to the politics between the teams at the time, an unofficial five-game post-season was created between those two teams to determine the "Championship of the West." St. Louis won the series 4 games to 1. According to Stathead, the 1876 Brown Stockings hold the lowest team ERA in MLB history (1.22).^[1]

Team photograph

Regular season

Season standings

• v
• t
• e

National League

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Chicago	52	14	.788	—	25‍–‍6	27‍–‍8
Hartford	47	21	.691	6	23‍–‍9	24‍–‍12
St. Louis	45	19	.703	6	24‍–‍6	21‍–‍13
Boston	39	31	.557	15	19‍–‍17	20‍–‍14
Louisville	30	36	.455	22	15‍–‍16	15‍–‍20
Mutual	21	35	.375	26	13‍–‍20	8‍–‍15
Athletic	14	45	.237	34½	10‍–‍24	4‍–‍21
Cincinnati	9	56	.138	42½	6‍–‍24	3‍–‍32

Record vs. opponents

1876 National League record v t e Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Team	BOS	CHI	CIN	HAR	LOU	NY	PHI	STL
Boston	—	1–9	10–0	2–8	5–5	8–2	9–1	4–6
Chicago	9–1	—	10–0	6–4	9–1	7–1	7–1	4–6
Cincinnati	0–10	0–10	—	1–9	2–8	1–7	3–5	2–7
Hartford	8–2	4–6	9–1	—	9–1–1	4–4	9–1	4–6
Louisville	5–5	1–9	8–2	1–9–1	—	5–3–1	6–2–1	4–6
New York	2–8	1–7	7–1	4–4	3–5–1	—	3–4	1–6
Philadelphia	1–9	1–7	5–3	1–9	2–6–1	4–3	—	0–8
St. Louis	6–4	6–4	7–2	6–4	6–4	6–1	8–0	—

Roster

Lip Pike

1876 St. Louis Brown Stockings
Roster
Pitchers George Bradley Catchers John Clapp		Infielders Joe Battin Herman Dehlman Denny Mack Mike McGeary Dickey Pearce		Outfielders Joe Blong Ned Cuthbert Lip Pike		Manager Mase Graffen George McManus

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	John Clapp	64	298	91	.305	0	29
1B	Herman Dehlman	64	245	45	.184	0	9
2B	Mike McGeary	61	276	72	.261	0	30
3B	Joe Battin	64	283	85	.300	0	46
SS	Denny Mack	48	180	39	.217	1	7
OF	Ned Cuthbert	63	283	70	.247	0	25
OF	Joe Blong	62	264	62	.235	0	30
OF	Lip Pike	63	282	91	.323	1	50

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Dickey Pearce	25	102	21	.206	0	10

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
George Bradley	64	573.0	45	19	1.23	103

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Joe Blong	1	0	0	0	0.00	0

References

• 1876 St. Louis Brown Stockings season at Baseball Reference

1. "Team Pitching Season Finder: For Single Seasons, from 1871 to 2021, Standard stats, requiring Earned Run Average <= 1.71, sorted by lowest Earned Run Average". Stathead Baseball. Retrieved April 23, 2021.