Photography by Alise O'Brien
"The ball once struck off, away flies the boy to the next destin'd post, and the home with joy."
—"Base Ball," 1744, anonymous
Trophy collections and tapestry fabrics aren't a natural match. But when one top Cardinals executive (one of the team's seven owners) and his wife bought and remodeled a home in Ladue, the couple managed to balance his love of baseball with her European sensibilities.
The wife credits her husband's taste, as well as the classic look of baseball heirlooms passed down from his father and grandfather, who were also involved in the game. These include a complete set of mounted, framed press pins from the Cards' early years (one of only two such collections in the world) and a baseball trophy that dates back to the heyday of the St. Louis Browns and Sportsman's Park.
Though she knew how she wanted the house to feel-- "warm, and somewhat masculine"—she called on Corinne Jones of Jacqueline Maritz Interiors to help her locate the fabrics, furniture and floor coverings. Part of striking the balance between America's pastime and Old Europe is giving both themes full play in certain areas of the house. "The basement is his shrine," the wife says, alluding to glass cases of rare baseball ephemera downstairs. But jewel tones, European fabrics and heirloom-quality furniture match surprisingly well with framed Honus Wagner-era baseball cards.
In the end, the wife did find that she had to enforce a bit of restraint on her husband's behalf. "There's a baseball theme now, but it's not the normal stuff," she says matter-of-factly. "I really had to put the brakes on--or the whole house would be baseball."
