Ending April 30, 2024
The population of St. Louis at the turn of the century was nearly six hundred thousand citizens. Over the next two decades it added two hundred thousand to the rolls. Baseball fans were lavished, if not smothered, with three major league teams plus, since 1906, a solid Negro League independent club called the St. Louis Giants. The Giants, not long after joining the Negro National League, changed their name to the Stars. In any event, competition for fans was stiff. In 1914, for example, the American League Browns had attendance of 244,700 while the National League Cardinals brought in 256,000. Figures for the Federal League and the Giants are not readily available. In the Helmar T206 series there are thirty-one St. Louis subjects split among the four teams. Only one card is relatively difficult to acquire, that being one of the Cardinals.