# 1876 St. Louis Brown Stockings season

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).

## Regular season
### Season standings

vteNational 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 recordvte Sources: :
| 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
## 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 |