In life, and certainly in the sports world, players and teams are always COMING & GOING. It’s just a part of life. Take a look @ the COMING & GOING in St. Louis. Some are recent, some a long while ago but still “sting”.

…the most recent COMING & GOING applies to the MLB All-Star game. Several of the players “voted in” by the fans have declined the invitation to play.  A wide variety of reasons but…when you come down to it…they just didn’t want to do it. That’s been a common, growing habit in recent years. But…now many other MLB players are upset because a rookie pitcher, Jacob Misiorowski, has been added to the All-Star roster. He’s only pitched in 5 MLB games, the 6-foot-7 rookie is 4-1 with a 2.81 ERA and has 33 strikeouts and only 12 hits allowed in his 25⅔ innings. He threw a 100.5 fastball for his 1^st pitch of his career. My thoughts..I’m happy to see a “fresh” face who’s anxious  to play in the All-Star game. Some MLB players are upset with his appointment to the Squad.  My feelings… The players who stepped aside for various reasons, some valid-good reasons, some not so much have NO SAY in this matter. Although the Fans choose the All-Star players yet some MLB players are unhappy about his naming to the roster. I’m wondering…Why aren’t they unhappy with the original players who “turned down” their spot? Are they all really “hurt”?

GOING…on the way out!! …Ya know…I don’t think that there will be an All-Star game much longer. It originated so we could see the star players from both leagues. Currently, we already can see all the stars playing regular season with the new intra-league schedule and the almost universal chance to watch the vast majority of games from our own house. The new schedule that has each team play every other team, makes it possible for us to watch all the players in the regular season. We don’t need an All-Star game to see the MLB’s best players.

…Further, do we need to REALLY need to be supporting the MLB players financially in ANY way? After all, their minimum salary for 2025 is $760,000! Again, That’s the minimum!! I’d like to start a petition to abolish the All-Star game—Send it GOING to the “good ol’ days” of MLB baseball. The new 4 day layoff extends what is already a long, long, long season. The World Series this year will probably end around Mid-October(counting spring training—that’s 8 months of MLB baseball)!! Doesn’t the MLB players/owners realize that by that time of the year, unless YOUR team is in the World Series, you’re tired of it. I’d propose sending the All-Star GOING down the road to the same spot that once saw pitchers batting for themselves in MLB games!

…The highlight of the MLB season should be the World Series. Since 1973, the lowest viewing numbers in the World Series were in recent years. In 2023-9.02m watched the 5 Series games; #2 in fewest viewship was 9.75m in 6 games in 2020; #3 in lowest viewing numbers for World Series was 2021, in 6 games 11.744m viewers. So, 3 of the last 6 World Series are listed in the lowest numbers of viewing of World Series games. That’s not a good trend for the MLB. The most viewed World Series games were watched were way back in 1978; #2 in viewing was in 1980; #3, it was 1981. I guess the MLB owners/players can’t or don’t want to see the slide if your most important games of the year are declining in viewership, I’d be worried. I’d get GOING on finding ways to improve the interest in the World Series.

…Despite being GONE over 70 years Ago, there are still many baseball fans from St  Louis who miss the St. Louis Browns. The Browns GOING to Baltimore in 1953 is still moaned about in some StL baseball quarters. The “move” was approved on Sept 28, 1953 when the MLB owners unanimously agreed upon the move of the St. Louis Browns to Baltimore. The move followed a season in which the Browns went 54-100 and the attendance was “down”. They drew a tiny  crowd of only 3,174 to their season finale, an 11-inning loss to Chicago. The final straw– when Gussie Busch bought the Cardinals in 1953. The Browns owners realized immediately that they didn’t have the financial ability to compete with Gussie for the caliber of players to have success, attention and fans…so they quickly sold the team. Then moved them to Baltimore in late 1953.

… Despite the departure of the StL Browns decades ago, the last 2 Browns players (Ed Mickelson & Billy Hunter) have just passed away not long ago.  Michelson was often referred to as “The Last Brown in Town”. He coached High School baseball in the Lou @ U City for 12 years (1958-70) then coached @ Parkway Central for 13 years.  

…Mickelson bounced up/down from the MLB to the minors with the StL Browns. Although he did leave a few historical moments for the Cardinals & Browns.  Unfortunately for him, the 1941 COMING of Stan Musial’s to the Cardinals shortened his career. Mickelson was good….but Stan was one of the best players all-time! In Mickelson’s  1^st game as a starter (Stan wasn’t feeling well), he faced Hall of Fame Player-Warren Spahn. No break there-Spahn was a HOF pitcher!   Spahn twirled a 2 hitter that day and…Mickelson had one of them. A fact that he never forgot! He bounced back & forth in professional baseball…minors to the Majors.  

…Then, He moved on to the StL Browns. He played in their final game (before moving to Baltimore) and drove in the final run of a 2-1 loss in the final game EVER as a St Louis Browns player. Justifiably, Mickelson was proud of that special moment.  This historic RBI occurred on September 27, 1953, in a 2-1 loss against the Chicago White Sox. Mickelson just passed away on June 27^th, 2025@ 98 years of age!

… Billy Hunter coached baseball several years @ Towson U (close to Baltimore) after his retirement from the MLB. Both left many memories related to the Browns Billy Hunter started with the StL Browns also in ’53 & ’54 as a shortstop. Hunter batted .219 with 16 home runs, and 144 RBI in 630 games over his six-year (1953–58) AL career. He then moved to become a Coach @ Baltimore (remember, Browns moved to Baltimore) and a manager for Texas. Hunter was the last Browns player when he passed away on July 3, 2025 @ 97 years of age.

….The Browns may have moved from St Louis earlier except for the war concerns on the horizon. Just prior to Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Browns had plans of moving the team to LA. The bombing of Pearl Harber instantly ushered in WW2 & crushed any ideas of the Browns moving to LA at that moment!! By the time the war had ended, those plans had ”passed by”

…The Browns still, even after all these decades, have interest here in St. Louis. Many remember some of the Browns players who often became stars later on in their careers.   George Sisler, Don Larsen, Bob Turley, Roy Sievers, Satchel Paige, Tom Lasorda, Bill Veeck, Pete Gray, Ned Garver and of course the 1 ab of a midget-Eddie Gaedel. All wore the Browns uniform at some point. I was too young to see the Browns play but reading about them makes them seem like a real set of “characters” who could play good, very good MLB baseball. The GOING for the Browns happened over 70 years ago, yet, there still is an interest in the St Louis area for the St Louis Browns.

…Another team that St Louis has seen COMING & GOING were the St. Louis Hawks. For you younger readers, that was an NBA team. The StL Hawks played in the NBA from 1955 to 1968. The Hawks won the Western Division 6 times during their time in St. Louis. They reached the NBA Championship round twice but lost both times to Boston Celtics. Their very best regular season was their final season in St. Louis! The Hawks finished the 67-68 regular season with a 56-26 record but lost in the Division Semifinals (1^st round) to the San Francisco Warriors.

…But, the Hawks really, really “blew it”. They traded away Bill Russell in 1956 (right after they drafted him) for Cliff Hagan & hometown star, Ed Macauley. Russell became a super star center for the Celtics. In his 13 years in the league, he led them to 11 NBA Championships. A super rebounder  who could start the fast break quickly and control the boards for the Celtics (maybe better than anyone else)and was an excellent defender who blocked many shots.

… After the 1958 NBA Finals, the Hawks had their peak home attendance years in the next three seasons, averaging 8,548 in 1958-59, 8,409 in 1959-60 and 8,561 in 1960-61.

… Coached by Richie Guerin and bolstered by standout players such as Zelmo Beatty, Lenny Wilkens, Joe Caldwell, Bill Bridges, Paul Silas and Lou Hudson, the Hawks opened the 1967-68 season by winning 16 of their first 17 games, but ticket sales still remained flat. (according to the owner, Ben Kerner)

…Owner Ben Kerner was very unhappy with the attendance in this final year in St. Louis. He took a real blast at ST Louis upon his departure when he claimed that the fans weren’t attending the games because the team had too many African-American players! I guess he never attended SL Cardinals games with stars like Lou Brock, Ozzie Smith, Bob Gibson, Vince Coleman and many others African-American “favorites”. Once Kerner decided to move his  franchise, it was just a matter of “where”. He was GOING take his time to Atlanta for the following season. His GOING away from the Lou was sad for me and many other basketball fans. My “favorite” Hawk was Slater (Dugie) Martin. He was a point guard for the Hawks.

…Further, in that same year (67-68) the St Louis Blues were COMING to the Lou as they played their inaugural season. No doubt, it was another factor in the Hawks moving OOT. The hockey-Basketball season did coincide (even conflict) with each other. Although it wasn’t cited directly by Kerner on his way out. He sold the team to an Atlanta group that closed the deal in a hurry. Hence, the Atlanta Hawks were formed & still are in the NBA.

…YET another StL team that was COMING & GOING were the St. Louis Stars Soccer team. The St. Louis Stars played in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1967 to 1977. They were known for their focus on local American talent(a novel thought the USA could produce soccer players and several were from St. Louis( another unique idea in NASL), which contrasted with other NASL teams that relied heavily(almost exclusively) on foreign players. StL fans want winning teams AND StL home-grown players. Can you have both?

…COMING & GOING In the MLB & NFL are expected to be high. The annual turnover rate on an MLB roster is typically around 40-50%. That means that each year, roughly 40% to 50% of a team’s roster will be different from the previous year. I would have thought that the NFL would have a higher turnover rate. But, the turnover rate on an NFL roster, on the average, experience a 35-40% turnover rate when considering only the 53-man active roster. If practice squad players from the previous year are also included, the turnover rate is closer to 25-35%. Sooo…baseball has a higher turnover rate than Football!! WOW!

…Of course, the quickest teams to COME & GO were the Rams. Yes…I was a Rams fan! As a football fan and a hometown team, I followed them closely. Like almost all of the NFL fans, I was frustrated & bitter when Stan Kroenke moved to LA. I saw a millionaire moving a team to make more money. Like many fans, I boycotted the NFL games on TV for awhile.  But…upon retrospect, the NFL really didn’t have the desire to stop him. I mean…. LA vs St Louis…which area has more football fans, more people, and by far more money. Upon retrospect, I understand his motive (more money)but still find it hard to swallow. After a couple years of straight-Arming the NFL, I’m back to watching them. Heck…they are the best football players in the world. Further, the percentage of close games that are decided in the last 2 minutes of the game makes the games exciting. Last year, a NFL team trailing in the final two minutes rallied to win in regulation in 18 different games.

…Prior to the Rams, St Louis was the home of the StL Football Cardinals from 1960-1987. There’s been lots of COMING & GOING with this franchise. Only 3 times did the Big Red reach the playoffs-1974,1975,1982. It was strange to me from the very beginning. With the St. Louis Cardinals well established, wouldn’t it have seemed logical to change the name of the Football team when they arrived in St. Louis? While the Big Red did have some good seasons, they’ve NEVER won the Super Bowl, even to today!! In fact, They’ve only PLAYED in 1 Super Bowl-losing to Pittsburgh 27-23 in Super Bowl XLlll (43). They are 1 of 12 NFL teams without a Super Bowl title. The seemingly endless seasons of mediocrity eventually led to fan apathy in St. Louis, then lower attendance. The team is still owned by the Bidwells. Michael Bidwell, son of Bill Bidwell, is the current owner. From the outside, things don’t look much different currently. Last year-2024, Arizona was 28^th of 32 NFL teams in attendance! In 2023, Arizona was 30^th in the NFL in attendance. Will they be GOING elsewhere soon??

…COMING & GOING isn’t limited to teams. There is plenty of COMING & GOING with College Coaches. Too many to list here. The “leader of the pack” to me is Rick Pitino. Pitino has coached at the many different college basketball programs, having led 8 different programs to the NCAA tournament. He wins games with his teams. He is the first coach to take 3 different schools to the NCAA Final Four and to win an NCAA Championship at two different schools according to Iona University Athletics. He has coached at Boston University, Providence College, the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville, Iona, Univ of Hawaii, New Mexico and currently is at St. Johns! You don’t think his mail has trouble finding him, do you😊There are many, many more examples of college coaches “COMING & GOING”

…Well, it’s been fun COMING & GOING with the  St Louis Teams….but now is the GOING part of the Buzz for me! Thanks for your read! Any comments on any of the ideas above are always invited. …Thanks to Ed McKee for the suggestion & some of the info that he provided on the Browns. There’s always COMING & GOING with ideas for the weekly sports Buzz. Have a good week as time continues to COME & GO 😊 Bob