View From the Cheap Seats

On this date in 1918, the St. Louis Cardinals received Austin McHenry from the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association in exchange for Marty Kavanaugh and Dutch Distel.

The outfielder was described by scribes of the day as a “veritable demon at the bat” despite the perception that his talents were unpolished and he “was not on speaking terms with the finer points of the game.”

Known for his hustle, during his first four big league seasons, McHenry markedly improved every year. He eventually came to be thought of as the heir apparent to Roger’s Hornsby as the Cardinals’ resident superstar, turning in a performance worthy of MVP Award consideration in 1921 by hitting .350 in 152 games with 102 runs driven in.

Tragically, less than a year later, his enormously promising career came to an entirely unexpected end. By the middle of the 1922 season, the young outfielder confessed to St. Louis skipper Branch Rickey that he feared he was going blind when questioned why his batting production had suddenly become erratic. He was sent home to rest in early July, but never made it back to the big leagues. Instead, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor and died four short months later at just 27 years old.

Another of McHenry’s Milwaukee teammates, William “Pickles” DilHoefer, followed him to the Redbirds in 1919 — and in an early appointment with the grave - passing away at 27 years old in 1921 from Typhoid Fever.

While the AA Brewers share a name with the current National League Central Division rivals of the Cardinals, they’re not related to the American League club of the same name that played in Milwaukee in 1901. That MLB team’s lineage actually flows through St. Louis.

A charter member of the American League, that club moved south in time for the 1902 season to become the St. Louis Browns for the next half century before moving to Baltimore in 1954 to become the Orioles..

The outrageous demand of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred that the people of Wisconsin spend nearly half a billion dollars on renovations to the Milwaukee Brewers’ ballpark I just the latest example of how hopefully he is out of touch with fans.

While baseball’s ownership ranks may be flush with billionaires who have more money than brains, a lot of families who buy tickets are struggling to make ends meet. Is now the time to threaten to take away their beloved home team if they don’t pay the billionaires a handsome ransom?

Is there ever a time for that?

The relationship between teams and their fan base isn’t a one-way street. Teams ask is for more an more, often without any reciprocity in terms of ownership investing the benefits from their luxurious new facilities in the product on the field. How much can they really expect from us? It seems the only limit is their imagination.

While I’m not a fan of the Brewers’ players, I can respect the fact that their fans usually punch above their weight as a smallish market. Currently, Milwaukee is 13th in baseball with an average of 28,143 tickets sold per home game. That’s better than the large market Texas Rangers (27,743) and San Francisco Giants (27,737) and in the upper half of baseball.

Does that support meaning nothing to the other owners in baseball? Vancouver, Nashville, San Antonio and Portland, OR are already being mentioned as new hosts for the Brewers. It’s terribly insulting to the people that have supported that franchise for 53 seasons. It’s not unlike the situation in Oakland where Athletics owners have turned up their nose at every stadium proposal and concession made to them, driving away faithful supporters as they finally got Nevada to outbid California in financial contributions for a new stadium.

Something has to be done to make owners at least partially responsible for their high-dollar demands. After all, no one is saying Milwaukee’s baseball park is dangerous or obsolete — it’s only 23 years old. They want more amenities to increase revenue flow and the “fan experience.” It’s more than a little bit ironic that fewer fans will be able to experience the ballpark at all as costs continue to rise.

At some point, someone has to tell the billionaires no. But how. They’ve stolen the fans’ came and are now blackmailing us with it.