“The Year St. Louis Became A Baseball Town” by Terry Lemons (The History Press, 2026, 191 pages, $24.99)
Let me be upfront: I am an unabashed, devoted St. Louis Cardinals fan of 70-plus years. Early on, my dad and three uncles made sure I had my baseball priorities in order: The National League was the better league; Stan Musial was the best player; and our team was the St. Louis Cardinals. One of my earliest memories is attending a Sunday doubleheader between the Milwaukee Braves and the Cardinals at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis in 1957 that had definite pennant implications (unfortunately, the Warren Spahn-led Braves swept the day).
1926 is the year referred to in the title of this book by author Terry Lemons. That’s the year that the Cardinals made it to their first-ever World Series (then called the World’s Series), only to face Babe Ruth and the mighty New York Yankees.
Lemons, a St. Louis native and graduate of the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, worked as a reporter for newspapers in Springfield, Mo., and Little Rock. He spent over a quarter of a century handling communications and outreach for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, and he has resumed his writing career upon retirement.
While the story of the 1926 series is no secret and has been retold many times, Lemons mines newspapers of the day for fascinating stories and details that have been forgotten. Part of this book’s charm is its portrayal of a different era, when newspapers, trains and the radio played a much bigger role in the national life than today.
The book’s cast of characters include many individuals of historical importance to the game of baseball. Prominent among them is Branch Rickey, who created the farm system by which Major League teams develop their own talent through Minor League affiliates while he was the Cardinals general manager. (Rickey is better known for integrating baseball by bringing Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.)
Lemons takes readers back to the final month of the 1926 regular season as the Cardinals ended it with 24 games on the road, traveling by train to all seven of the other National League cities. The regular season came down to the wire, but on Sept. 24, the Cardinals captured their first National League pennant in New York with a win against the Giants.
Lemons then provides a game-by-game acount of the World Series, which the Cardinals won four games to three. Each contest was interesting but three that stand out are Game 2, when alcoholic 39-year-old pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander led the Cards to their first World Series win; Game 4, when Ruth hit three home runs; and Game 7, when Cards player-manager Rogers Hornsby surprised everybody by bringing Alexander back in to pitch in the seventh inning. The game- and series-ending play involved Ruth and was the only time a World Series has ended in that fashion.
A principal theme of the book is the euphoria generated among Cards fans and the way it’s shaped their behavior ever since. Of the 16 Major Leagues teams in 1926, St. Louis was located the farthest west and south. In a sense, they became a wide swath of America’s team that year. Today the Cards stand second only to the Yankees in World Series championships, with 11.
I end by noting that this year’s team is the youngest team in the Major Leagues, and they are gamely contending for a wild-card spot. For Cards fans, hope springs eternal.
Contact Ted Ayres at Tdamsa76@yahoo.com.
