Monday, October 21, 2013

Today in 1913 - The Victors Return

Welcome to the penultimate edition of our "Today in 1913" series. Like our series, the 1913 campaign was finally winding down.

While the Brews had been playing in the snow at Denver, Milwaukee was buried under its first significant snowfall of the season, as noted in this cartoon from the Milwaukee Journal's Fred Bernau:

One hundred years ago today, the Brewers arrived in Milwaukee via train from Denver. They had won first the American Association pennant, and then the minor league championship, and now they were due to enjoy the spoils.

If anyone was expecting a grand procession at the train station, as Milwaukee saw when the Brews brought the AA pennant home, they were disappointed. Most players had gone directly to their offseason homes (Cy Slapnicka signed a contract to go into vaudeville until baseball started up again), but pitcher Newt Randall and catchers Johnny Hughes and Doc Marshall were on the Milwaukee train. Marshall quickly departed for a winter ball contract in New Jersey, but Randall and Hughes made their winter homes in Milwaukee. Pitcher/coach Tom Dougherty was also a Milwaukee resident, but had left the train as it passed through Chicago. He was expected to come up to the Cream City later that week. Manager/third baseman Harry "Pep" Clark, for his part, had journeyed directly to his home in Ohio to take a well-earned few weeks off before returning to the Athletic Park offices to prepare for 1914. The 1913 Brewers had thus officially disbanded.

The Denver series hadn't been the cash cow that some had predicted, but between the exhibition games at Athletic Park and the swing into Denver, it was reported that each man in a Brewer uniform took home an extra $500. That's nearly $12,000.00, adjusted for inflation, nice spoils for our victors.

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