October 23, 1886: The $15,000 Slide

October 23, 1886: The St. Louis Browns, Champions of the American Association, win the World Championship of baseball, by beating the Chicago White Stockings, Champions of the National League, 4-3 in 10 innings at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. They win the series, 4 games to 2.

Although the teams had played each other for the previous season's title, also won by the Browns, this game is the real beginning of the rivalry between the teams now known as the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs, respectively. This is sometimes considered the greatest rivalry in the National League, although more people think of the greatest as the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. the San Francisco Giants.

Pitching his 4th game in 6 days, John Clarkson holds the Browns hitless for 6 innings, as the White Stockings build a 3-0 lead. The Browns tie the game in the 8th, and in the 10th, Clarkson throws a wild pitch, Curt Welch scores "the $15,000 Run" on "the $15,000 Slide."

That figure was estimated in the press. In fact, when the Browns were presented with the entire gate receipts from the series, it comes to $13,920, about $413,000 in 2022 money. Each of the Browns' 12 players gets about $580 ($17,200, exceeding the originally-cited amount).

Despite having future Hall-of-Famers Clarkson, 1st baseman (and manager) Adrian "Cap" Anson and catcher Mike "King" Kelly, and stars 2nd baseman Fred Pfeffer, 3rd baseman Ned Williamson and center fielder George Gore, the White Stockings were beaten.

In addition to center fielder Welch, the Browns stars included pitcher "Parisian" Bob Caruthers, 1st baseman (and manager) Charlie Comiskey (yes, the man who would own the later American League team named the Chicago White Sox), shortstop Bill Gleason, 3rd baseman Walter Arlington "Arlie" Latham, and left fielder James O'Neill, whose nickname "Tip" led to a lot of men who spelled their names "O'Neill" being nicknamed Tip, including 1980s Speaker of the House Thomas P. O'Neill -- but not 1990s Yankee right fielder Paul O'Neill.

Latham, also nicknamed "The Freshest Man On Earth," was the last survivor of the 1886 St. Louis Browns, living until 1952. Welch didn't last nearly as long, drinking himself to death in 1896.

UPDATE: The Cardinals have a team Hall of Fame. However, from their founding period, 1882 until their 1st "real" World Series win in 1926, only Charlie Comiskey has been elected.

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October 23, 1886 was a Saturday. There were no other baseball games played, hockey was still all-amateur, and basketball wouldn't be invented for another 5 years. But there were college football games played that day:

* The College of New Jersey, later to be renamed Princeton University, hosted the University of Pennsylvania, and won, 55-9. (Rutgers College played 4 games that season, none of them on this day.)

* Lafayette College went to Hoboken, New Jersey to play Stevens Institute, and won, 5-0.

* Harvard University went to Andover, Massachusetts to play Andover College, and won, 86-0.

* Yale University traveled to Williamstown, Massachusetts to play Williams College, and won, 76-0.

* Dartmouth College hosted Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at Hanover, New Hampshire, and won, 11-6.

* The University of Massachusetts and Amherst College, both located in Amherst, Massachusetts, played each other, and Amherst beat UMass, 13-0.

* Swarthmore College went to Carlisle, Pennsylvania to play Dickinson College, and won, 28-15.