Despite the team disbanding after the 1877 season, five members of that team –
second baseman/
manager Mike McGeary,
outfielder Ned Cuthbert,
shortstop Dickey Pearce,
third baseman Joe Battin and
pitcher Joe Blong stayed together and informally played under the Brown Stockings name in 1879. However, the team encountered a different kind of problem. The Brown Stockings could not match their 1875 attendance average of around 2,300 per game due to their complete domination of the local amateur clubs; they averaged well under one thousand in that year after attendance fall offs between those two years. To avert the issue, they played more competitive teams from out of town. In spite of narrowing the competitive gap, St. Louis kept winning, and, as a result, more and more fans started showing up later in the year. For months, it was Cuthbert talking about baseball with Von der Ahe, who understood very little about the actual game, that he began to realize its significance because of its profitability.
The formation of the Sportsman's Park and Club Association Von der Ahe purchased the remainder of the lease on Grand Avenue Park, sold minority stock and raised enough money to renovate the dilapidated park. John W. Peckington, another local saloon owner, became a minority owner, creating The Sportsman's Park and Club Association.
The formation of a new all-professional league Again led by Cuthbert, the Brown Stockings continued to win in convincing fashion in 1881, finishing with a 35–15 record. Notable opponents included the
Brooklyn Atlantics, the
Philadelphia Athletics, the Akrons, and the
Louisville Eclipse. The club also continued to prosper at the gate. An evolving baseball renaissance that flourished in St. Louis coincided (and possibly spilled over into) the rising enthusiasm of beer magnates over baseball in five other major cities—Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Pittsburgh. Proprietors who saw the Brown Stockings' unprecedented success and profitability after disenfranchisement began spirited dialogue with Von der Ahe about constructing a new league that could rival, and compete, with the National League. Further, the parties involved chiefly represented cities the NL had excluded. NL-imposed restrictions upon Sunday play and alcohol consumption at their parks was prohibitive to the very means these owners made their fortune. Ultimately, owners of the expansion teams announced the establishment of a new all-professional league called the
American Association from the Hotel Gibson in Cincinnati on November 2, 1881. With that act, the St. Louis newspapers lauded Von der Ahe for resurrecting a "corpse" and transforming it "into the liveliest being imaginable." ==Notable alumni==