St. Louis Stars (baseball)
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The St. Louis Stars were a Negro League baseball team that competed in the Negro National League from 1922 to 1931. Founded when Dick Kent and Dr. Sam Sheppard took over the St. Louis Giants franchise from white promoter Charlie Mills, the Stars eventually built one of the great dynasties in Negro League history, winning three pennants in four years from 1928 to 1931.
The club played in Stars Park (SE corner of Compton and Laclede, ), completed in mid-season 1922 as one of the few ballparks built expressly for the Negro Leagues. The park became famous for its 269 foot left field wall, built to accommodate a trolley car barn. Despite special rules that in some years counted home runs hit over the car barn as ground-rule doubles, the park proved very friendly to power hitters over the years.
The Stars inherited almost the entire roster of the 1921 Giants (who had finished in second place), with the exception of Hall of Fame center fielder Oscar Charleston. Without Charleston, the Stars dropped to fourth place in 1922, though with a creditable 35-26 record. In 1923 they slipped badly, finishing with 28 wins and 44 losses, good for only sixth place. Midway through the year they acquired several players from the Toledo Tigers when that team folded, including new manager Candy Jim Taylor. A 37-year-old third baseman, Taylor tied for the 1923 league lead with 20 home runs (19 hit in St. Louis).
More importantly, over the next few years Taylor put together one of the most impressive assemblages of talent in Negro League history, including Cool Papa Bell, whom Taylor converted from a left-handed pitcher into a brilliant defensive center fielder and leadoff man; Mule Suttles, first baseman and all-time Negro League home run king; Willie Wells, considered by many historians to be John Henry Lloyd's only serious rival as greatest shortstop in Negro League history; and Ted Trent, pitcher and wielder of one of the most effective curve balls in the league.
In 1924, the Stars improved to 42-34 and fourth place. The next year they won the second-half title with an impressive 38-12 record after only narrowly losing the first half (69-27 overall), but lost the playoff series to Bullet Rogan and the Kansas City Monarchs. When Taylor left to manage the Detroit Stars and Cleveland Elites in 1926, the Stars slumped to 49-30, good for third place overall, though Mule Suttles enjoyed an historic season at bat. According to John Holway's Complete Book of the Negro Leagues, he hit .498, and led the NNL in doubles (27), triples (21), and home runs (27, the all-time Negro League single season record). He returned in 1927, and in 1928 the Stars took over the league, winning the first half going away, and compiling the best overall record by a good margin (66-26). They defeated the Chicago American Giants, second-half winners (and Negro League world champions for two years running) in an exciting playoff series, 5 games to 4.
The Stars continued their winning ways in 1929, but were just edged out in both halves of the season by the Kansas City Monarchs, despite Willie Wells's 27 home runs (tying Suttles's 1926 record). The following year they took their second NNL pennant, defeating the Detroit Stars in the playoff. In 1931, the Stars were awarded the pennant when the league disintegrated partway through the season; unfortunately, the club folded along with the league.
In 1937, another club named the St. Louis Stars joined the Negro American League as a charter member and played in that circuit until 1939, but this was an entirely different organization.
The St. Louis Cardinals have honored the Stars by wearing replica uniforms during regular-season baseball games on several occasions, including July 4, 1997 (at home vs. Pittsburgh), August 1 and 2, 1998 (at Atlanta), June 29, 2003 (at Kansas City), August 12, 2006 (at Pittsburgh), and August 14, 2007 (at Washington).
