Baseball History 1: 1944 St Louis Browns Mystery Cache
Baseball History 1: 1944 St Louis Browns
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Baseball History Cache #1 - The 1944 St Louis Browns
Do not go to the above coordinates. You must solve the following puzzle to get the true coordinates of the cache. There you will find a peanut butter jar with the log and some swag. I'm also starting the cache with a travel bug. Please grab it and move it on. You can remove the cache container from its perch to sign the log and go through the swag but please place it back as you found it.
This series of puzzle caches are not meant to burn many brain cells. To solve them will just require a bit of Google searching and some research. I don't follow baseball today as closely as I did in the 60's and 70's when I was growing up as a big time Reds fan. Indy was the farm team for the Reds, so I got to follow the players careers from the minor leagues on. Victory Park has been a great addition and I enjoy the occasional Indians game, but what I wouldn't give to go back in time and watch some of the greats of the game.
This series will introduce you to various teams, players or even specific games that I have found interesting.
First up is the 1944 St. Louis Browns. Yes, prior to 1953 St. Louis was home to two major league teams. The Cardinals are still there, but the Browns were the city's entry in the American League. The Brown were lovable losers. In 52 seasons as the Browns, they finished last 14 times and next-to-last 12 other times. There was a saying about the team that went, "First in shoes, first in booze, last in the American League". After the 1953 season the Browns were sold and moved to Baltimore, becoming the Orioles
Only once in those 52 seasons did the Browns win a pennant and that was in 1944. Baseball in the war years struggled to find enough quality players to keep going, but FDR felt the game was too important for the morale of the country to not continue. It took the depleted war years for the magic to happen for the Browns. Once before, in 1922, had the Browns seriously challenged for a pennant, only to lose out by a single game to the New York Yankees. As the 1944 season was coming to an end the Browns were locked in a pennant race with the Detroit Tigers. Going into the final weekend the Tigers had a 1-game lead but the Browns swept the Yankees in 4 straight games, winning the climatic final game of the season to clinch first place, winning 89 games.
The Browns did not have terribly impressive team statistics. Their leading hitter, Mike Kreevich, hit .301. Vern Stephens led the team with 20 home runs, and no pitcher won 20 games. There were no future hall of famers on the team, although three players played in the All-Star game.
More exciting to St. Louis fans was the inter-city match up in the 1944 World Series, as the Browns would face the St Louis Cardinals. Unlike the Browns, the Cardinals had a rich team history and many championships. The Cardinals had the luck of having some good players who were exempt from the draft, including future hall of fame Stan Musial. The two teams shared Sportsman Park. The World Series started out well for the Browns as they won two of the first three games, and might have taken all three had errors not sunk them in game 2. Unfortunately, fielding errors and unearned runs would sink them as the Cardinals won three straight to take the series 4-2, ending the Browns dream season.
Some reasearch into the 1944 Browns statistics will lead you to the numbers you need to find this cache.
The cache is located at N39 ab.cde W086 fg.hij.
A = Number of wild pitches made by Nels Potter during the 1944 season
B = Number of saves by pitcher Bob Muncrief during the 1944 season
CD = Number of hits by Red Hayworth during the 1944 season
E = Number of triples hit by Vern Stephens during the 1944 season
FG = Number of RBI's during the 1944 season for Chet Laabs
H = Number of hits George McQuinn got during the 1944 world series
IJ = Number of times Milt Byrnes walked during the 1944 season
You can check your answers for this puzzle on Geochecker.com.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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