# 1952 St. Louis Browns season

The 1952 St. Louis Browns season was a season in American baseball. It involved the Browns finishing 7th in the American League with a record of 64 wins and 90 losses. This was the franchise's penultimate season in St. Louis.

## Offseason

* November 27, 1951: Al Widmar, Sherm Lollar, and Tom Upton were traded by the Browns to the Chicago White Sox for Joe DeMaestri, Gordon Goldsberry, Dick Littlefield, Gus Niarhos, and Jim Rivera.

## Regular season

In 1952, Rogers Hornsby, an alleged former member of the Ku Klux Klan, took over as manager of the Browns. Despite past accusations of racism, Hornsby was less hesitant to use pitcher Satchel Paige than Indians manager Lou Boudreau had been four years before. Paige was so effective that when Hornsby was fired by Browns owner Bill Veeck, his successor Marty Marion seemed not to want to risk going more than three games without using Paige in some form. By July 4, with Paige having worked in 25 games, Casey Stengel named him to the American League All-Star team, making him the first black pitcher on an AL All-Star team. The All-Star game was cut short after five innings due to rain and Paige never got in. Stengel resolved to name him to the team the following year. Paige finished the year 12–10 with a 3.07 ERA for a team that lost ninety games.

### Season standings

vteAmerican League :
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
| New York Yankees | 95 | 59 | .617 | — | 49‍–‍28 | 46‍–‍31 |
| Cleveland Indians | 93 | 61 | .604 | 2 | 49‍–‍28 | 44‍–‍33 |
| Chicago White Sox | 81 | 73 | .526 | 14 | 44‍–‍33 | 37‍–‍40 |
| Philadelphia Athletics | 79 | 75 | .513 | 16 | 45‍–‍32 | 34‍–‍43 |
| Washington Senators | 78 | 76 | .506 | 17 | 42‍–‍35 | 36‍–‍41 |
| Boston Red Sox | 76 | 78 | .494 | 19 | 50‍–‍27 | 26‍–‍51 |
| St. Louis Browns | 64 | 90 | .416 | 31 | 42‍–‍35 | 22‍–‍55 |
| Detroit Tigers | 50 | 104 | .325 | 45 | 32‍–‍45 | 18‍–‍59 |

### Record vs. opponents

1952 American League recordvte Sources: :
| Team | BOS | CWS | CLE | DET | NYY | PHA | SLB | WSH |
| Boston | — | 12–10 | 9–13 | 16–6 | 8–14 | 12–10 | 11–11 | 8–14 |
| Chicago | 10–12 | — | 8–14–1 | 17–5 | 8–14 | 11–11 | 14–8 | 13–9–1 |
| Cleveland | 13–9 | 14–8–1 | — | 16–6 | 10–12 | 13–9 | 15–7 | 12–10 |
| Detroit | 6–16 | 5–17 | 6–16 | — | 9–13 | 5–17–1 | 8–14 | 11–11–1 |
| New York | 14–8 | 14–8 | 12–10 | 13–9 | — | 13–9 | 14–8 | 15–7 |
| Philadelphia | 10–12 | 11–11 | 9–13 | 17–5–1 | 9–13 | — | 14–8 | 9–13 |
| St. Louis | 11–11 | 8–14 | 7–15 | 14–8 | 8–14 | 8–14 | — | 8–14–1 |
| Washington | 14–8 | 9–13–1 | 10–12 | 11–11–1 | 7–15 | 13–9 | 14–8–1 | — |

### Notable transactions

* July 28, 1952: Darrell Johnson and Jim Rivera were traded by the Browns to the Chicago White Sox for Jay Porter and Ray Coleman.
* August 14, 1952: Jim Delsing, Ned Garver, Bud Black and Dave Madison were traded by the Browns to the Detroit Tigers for Dick Littlefield, Marlin Stuart, Don Lenhardt and Vic Wertz.

### Roster
## 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 | Clint Courtney | 119 | 413 | 118 | .286 | 5 | 50 |
| 1B | Dick Kryhoski | 111 | 342 | 83 | .243 | 11 | 42 |
| 2B | Bobby Young | 149 | 575 | 142 | .247 | 4 | 39 |
| SS | Joe DeMaestri | 81 | 186 | 42 | .226 | 1 | 18 |
| 3B | Jim Dyck | 122 | 402 | 108 | .269 | 15 | 64 |
| OF | Jim Rivera | 97 | 336 | 86 | .256 | 4 | 30 |
| OF | Bob Nieman | 131 | 478 | 138 | .289 | 18 | 74 |
| OF | Jim Delsing | 93 | 298 | 76 | .255 | 1 | 34 |

#### 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 |
| Fred Marsh | 87 | 247 | 69 | .279 | 2 | 27 |
| Gordon Goldsberry | 86 | 227 | 52 | .229 | 3 | 17 |
| Marty Marion | 67 | 186 | 46 | .247 | 2 | 19 |
| Cass Michaels | 55 | 166 | 44 | .265 | 3 | 25 |
| Al Zarilla | 48 | 130 | 31 | .238 | 1 | 9 |
| Vic Wertz | 37 | 130 | 45 | .346 | 6 | 19 |
| Leo Thomas | 41 | 124 | 29 | .234 | 0 | 12 |
| Les Moss | 52 | 118 | 29 | .246 | 3 | 12 |
| Jay Porter | 33 | 104 | 26 | .250 | 0 | 7 |
| Darrell Johnson | 29 | 78 | 22 | .282 | 0 | 9 |
| Tom Wright | 29 | 66 | 16 | .242 | 1 | 6 |
| George Schmees | 34 | 61 | 8 | .131 | 0 | 3 |
| Earl Rapp | 30 | 49 | 7 | .143 | 0 | 4 |
| Don Lenhardt | 18 | 48 | 13 | .271 | 1 | 5 |
| Ray Coleman | 20 | 46 | 9 | .196 | 0 | 1 |
| Roy Sievers | 11 | 30 | 6 | .200 | 0 | 5 |
| Hank Arft | 15 | 28 | 4 | .143 | 0 | 4 |
| Willy Miranda | 7 | 11 | 1 | .091 | 0 | 1 |
| Jake Crawford | 7 | 11 | 2 | .182 | 0 | 0 |
| Stan Rojek | 9 | 7 | 1 | .143 | 0 | 0 |
| Mike Goliat | 3 | 4 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 |

### 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 |
| Duane Pillette | 30 | 205.1 | 10 | 13 | 3.59 | 62 |
| Tommy Byrne | 29 | 176.0 | 9 | 14 | 4.68 | 91 |
| Bob Cain | 29 | 170.0 | 12 | 10 | 4.13 | 70 |
| Ned Garver | 21 | 148.2 | 7 | 10 | 3.69 | 60 |
| Dick Littlefield | 7 | 46.1 | 2 | 3 | 2.72 | 34 |

#### Other 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 |
| Gene Bearden | 34 | 150.2 | 7 | 8 | 4.30 | 45 |
| Earl Harrist | 36 | 116.2 | 2 | 8 | 4.01 | 49 |
| Stubby Overmire | 17 | 41.0 | 0 | 3 | 3.73 | 10 |
| Marlin Stuart | 12 | 26.0 | 1 | 2 | 4.15 | 13 |
| Bobby Hogue | 8 | 16.1 | 0 | 1 | 2.76 | 2 |
| Cliff Fannin | 10 | 16.1 | 0 | 2 | 12.67 | 6 |
| Johnny Hetki | 3 | 9.1 | 0 | 1 | 3.86 | 4 |
| Lou Sleater | 4 | 8.2 | 0 | 1 | 7.27 | 1 |

#### 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 |
| Satchel Paige | 46 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 3.07 | 91 |
| Dave Madison | 31 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 4.38 | 35 |
| Ken Holcombe | 12 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3.86 | 7 |
| Hal Hudson | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12.71 | 0 |
| Bob Mahoney | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18.00 | 1 |
| Pete Taylor | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13.50 | 0 |

## Farm system

| Level | Team | League | Manager |
| AAA | Toronto Maple Leafs | International League | Joe Becker and Burleigh Grimes |
| AA | San Antonio Missions | Texas League | Jo-Jo White |
| A | Scranton Miners | Eastern League | Zack Taylor |
| B | York White Roses | Interstate League | Jim Crandall |
| B | Anderson Rebels | Tri-State League | George Hausmann |
| C | Stockton Ports | California League | Harry Clements and Tony Freitas |
| C | Pine Bluff Judges | Cotton States League | Hillis Layne |
| C | Aberdeen Pheasants | Northern League | Bruce Ogrodowski |
| C | Pocatello Bannocks | Pioneer League | Ed Fernandes |
| D | Independence Browns | Kansas–Oklahoma–Missouri League | Fred Collins |
| D | Wellsville Rockets | PONY League | Gene Crumling and Rocco Sgro |
| D | Ada Herefords | Sooner State League | Bill Enos, Virl Loman and James England |