1953 St. Louis Browns season

The 1953 St. Louis Browns season was the 53rd and final season in Browns history. The Browns finished 8th in the American League with a record of 54–100, games behind the AL and World Series champion New York Yankees.
After the season, the Browns moved to Baltimore, where they are now known as the Baltimore Orioles.

Offseason

October 14, 1952: Ray Coleman, Bob Mahoney, Stan Rojek and $95,000 were traded by the Browns to the Brooklyn Dodgers for Billy Hunter.
October 16, 1952: Joe DeMaestri and Tommy Byrne were traded by the Browns to the White Sox for Hank Edwards and Willy Miranda.
October 27, 1952: Jake Crawford was traded by the Browns to the Detroit Tigers for Neil Berry, Cliff Mapes and $25,000.
December 4, 1952: Jay Porter, Owen Friend and Bob Nieman were traded by the Browns to the Detroit Tigers for Johnny Groth, Virgil Trucks and Hal White.

Regular season

May 6, 1953: In his first major league start, the Browns' Bobo Holloman pitched a no-hitter against the Philadelphia Athletics. The 27-year-old Holloman struck out three, walked five, and helped himself offensively by batting in three of the Browns' runs with a pair of singles in the Browns' 6–0 victory.
June 3 through July 7, 1953: The Browns lost twenty consecutive games at home. This remained the longest home losing streak in North American major professional sports until the Edmonton Elks lost their twenty-first game on July 29, 2023.
September 27, 1953: The Browns ended their 51-year residence in St. Louis, losing to the Chicago White Sox at home 2–1 in 11 innings to complete a sweep by the White Sox, giving the Browns 100 losses for the year. Official attendance was 3,174.

Notable transactions

July 23, 1953: Bobo Holloman was purchased from the Browns by the Toronto Maple Leafs for $7,500.
September 1, 1953: Neil Berry was selected off waivers from the Browns by the Chicago White Sox.

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

	Player
C	Clint Courtney	106	355	89	.251	4	19
1B	Dick Kryhoski	104	338	94	.278	16	50
2B	Bobby Young	148	537	137	.255	4	25
SS		154	567	124	.219	1	37
3B	Jim Dyck	112	334	71	.213	9	27
OF	Vic Wertz	128	440	118	.268	19	70
OF	Dick Kokos	107	299	72	.241	13	38
OF	Johnny Groth	141	557	141	.253	10	57

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player
Don Lenhardt	97	303	96	.317	10	35
Roy Sievers	92	285	77	.270	8	35
Les Moss	78	239	66	.276	2	28
Vern Stephens	46	165	53	.321	4	17
Bob Elliott	48	160	40	.250	5	29
	65	106	21	.198	0	9
Neil Berry	57	99	28	.283	0	11
Ed Mickelson	7	15	2	.133	0	2
Jim Pisoni	3	12	1	.083	1	1
Johnny Lipon	7	9	2	.222	0	1
Dixie Upright	9	8	2	.250	1	1
	3	7	0	.000	0	0
	17	6	1	.167	0	0
Frank Kellert	2	4	0	.000	0	0
Babe Martin	4	2	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		IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	38	192.2	7	12	4.16	96
Duane Pillette	31	166.2	7	13	4.48	58
Virgil Trucks	16	88.0	5	4	3.07	47
Bob Turley	10	60.1	2	6	3.28	61
Dick Littlefield	36	152.1	7	12	5.08	104
	26	117.1	5	13	3.07	44
	32	99.2	4	10	6.23	36
	33	94.1	2	6	6.39	23
Lou Kretlow	22	81.0	1	5	5.11	37
	22	65.1	3	7	5.23	25
Max Lanier	10	22.1	0	1	7.25	8

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player		W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Marlin Stuart	60	8	2	6	3.94	46
Satchel Paige	57	3	9	11	3.53	51
Hal White	10	0	0	0	2.61	2
Bob Habenicht	1	0	0	0	5.40	1

Awards and honors

1953 Major League Baseball All-Star Game

Satchel Paige, reserve

Casey Stengel kept to his word and named Paige to the 1953 All-Star team despite Paige not having a very good year. He got in the game in the eighth inning. First Paige got Gil Hodges to line out, then after Roy Campanella singled up the middle, Eddie Mathews popped out. He then walked Duke Snider and Enos Slaughter lined a hit to center to score Campanella. National League pitcher Murry Dickson drove in Snider, but was thrown out at second base trying to stretch the hit into a double. Paige ended the year with a disappointing 3–9 record, but a respectable 3.53 ERA. Paige was released after the season when Veeck once again had to sell the team.