When Gussie Busch stood at the confluence of beer and baseball

While Anheuser-Busch may no longer own the Cardinals, the legacy of Gussie Busch’s gift to the people of St. Louis continues to live on.

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“Not many people wrote to me when I was just a brewery president, but as owner of the Cardinals…I began to receive thousands of letters.”

St. Louis sat at a crossroads in 1953. The census of 1950 registered an official population of 856,796; by the 1960 census, the City would suffer a loss of 100,000 residents. And while industry continued to thrive in the Gateway City, more and more jobs were heading to St. Louis County. In the middle of this critical decade, August (Gussie) Anheuser Busch Jr. steered his century-old family business towards the distinction of becoming the largest brewery in America by 1957. Gussie Busch had wisely opened a series of regional breweries, starting with Newark, New Jersey in 1951, cementing Anheuser-Busch’s top place in the American brewing industry.

In the middle of all of this rapid growth, Busch had also turned his attention to another St. Louis institution: The Cardinals. Playing at the old Sportsman’s Park at Grand and Dodier, the team was sharing space with the Browns, who actually owned the stadium. The Cardinals’ owner, Fred M. Saigh, Jr., had more problems that just a baseball team that was struggling to win games. Sentenced to prison for tax evasion, Saigh was forced by the National League to sell the Cardinals; several potential owners flirted with purchasing the team and moving them out of St. Louis. Busch, perhaps more famous for his horsemanship and hunting skills, decided it was time for his brewery to make a daring new move by purchasing the Cardinals.

The rest, as they say, is history. A 1953 issue of the Anheuser-Busch employees’ newspaper, The Budcaster, tells the story from the point of view of the brewery. Anheuser-Busch, at this point, was a corporation, and stockholders had to be convinced of the wisdom of the purchase. Of the 4,475,000 shares held by investors, Busch convinced the holders of 3,488,048 to vote in favor of buying the Cardinals; the owners of only 4,250 shares voted no. At what certainly must be judged as a bargain price, Busch and his brewery purchased the Cardinals for $3,750,000; Anheuser-Busch also bought Sportsman’s Park for $800,000 from the Browns. Seeing the writing on the wall, the Browns’ owner let the team move to Baltimore.

Like much of St. Louis’s proud but aging infrastructure, Sportsman’s Park had begun to show its age by the 1950s. Anheuser-Busch reportedly invested between 6 and 7 million dollars, including the famous neon eagle sign whose wings flapped when a run was scored (motorists can still see the relocated sign from westbound Highway 40 just east of Grand). Cardinals fans were elated at the new energy that Busch infused into their favorite team; not everyone was happy, however, as Budweiser was rejected as the new name for the stadium. Busch found an easy way around such problems, naming the park Busch Memorial Stadium—in memory of his family, not a product. Busch Beer, of course, came out shortly thereafter.

The Budcaster published photographs by the brewery’s photographers of Gussie posed in his new Cardinals jersey, holding a baseball bat with team greats such as Stan Musial. Musial was well on his journey to becoming one of the greatest players in the history of baseball, and the Cardinals boasted one of the highest payrolls at the time. Busch invested even more money in a private railcar, with the Cardinals and Anheuser-Busch logos on either end of it, so he could travel to Florida to watch Spring Training. He was also as devoted to winning just as much as keeping the Cardinals in St. Louis; more than a few underperforming team employees were sent packing in the years after the brewery took over.

But Busch was also legendary for his hospitality, and invited the entire team out to his home at Grant’s Farm. The Budcaster and its photographers were also there to chronicle the historic event, leaving posterity several amazing photographs of Musial and other legendary Cardinals players dining with their families. Musial and his young family sit at a table facing the camera, capturing a memorable, glowing document of the Cardinals player out of uniform. Also of note, when one looks behind the Musial family, an African-American player’s family sits among his fellow white teammates, not shunted off to the corner. Busch and the Cardinals rebelled against their Florida Spring Training host town, St. Petersburg’s segregationist policies, eventually winning after threatening to move to a new training facility.

The Cardinals’ party contained all of the requisite elements of a trip to Grant’s Farm, which would open to the general public shortly after the team’s purchase. Guests were able to meet Busch’s pet elephant, and other animals that made up the zoological collection of the family’s Tierpark. Wives received gifts from Busch, personally, and their children were allowed to pick gifts from a wide array of possibilities laid out on a table. Square dancing continued into the evening.

It is perhaps hard to fully encapsulate the love that many St. Louisans feel towards Gussie Busch for not only keeping the Cardinals in our city, but for the success he helped engineer during the decades of brewery ownership. Perusing the Internet, Cardinals fans still regularly speak of their gratitude and respect for Busch’s stewardship of the Cardinals. Likewise, retired brewery employees still speak glowingly of their former boss, and his culture of respect for his workers—how many CEOs can boast of such loyalty today? While Anheuser-Busch may no longer own the Cardinals, the legacy of Gussie Busch’s gift to the people of St. Louis continues to live on.

Special thanks to Tracy Lauer at Anheuser-Busch Archives and Jacklyn Barron of Weber Shandwick for sharing the accompanying images for this article.

Chris Naffziger writes about architecture at St. Louis Patina. Contact him via email at naffziger@gmail.com.

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