Whether they end up winning or losing the World Series, the St. Louis Cardinals are one of Major League Baseballs model franchises. They have an outstanding farm system that keeps grinding out prospects year after year and the fan base is one of the most rabid and loyal in all of baseball. It wasnt always so, though. In the late 40s and early 50s, the team went through a financial crisis that almost resulted in the team moving out of town. Though successful on the field in the 40s (four World Series appearances and three victories), Cards owner Sam Breadon was determined to build his own ballpark. Since 1920, the Redbirds had been renting Sportsmans Park from St. Louiss other team, the Browns. Breadon had set aside $5 million to construct his own facility. However, there was a five year limit for him to get this done before he would be facing some severe tax ramifications. Unable to find the land for a new ballpark, he wound up selling the Cardinals to Fred Saigh and his partner Robert Hannegan. Things continued to deteriorate under this duo, though, and by 1949 and in poor health; Hannegan was forced to sell his share of the team back to Saigh. The Cardinals slide on field went on unabated and by 1953, Saigh had to put the club up for sale. There were no local buyers stepping forward to purchase the club, so Saigh listened to offers from Houston and Milwaukee interests. He ultimately struck a deal with a Milwaukee group for $4 million to buy the team. That wasnt the end of it, though. A group of owners got together and vetoed the Milwaukee deal, instead pressuring Saigh to sell the club to beer baron "Gussie" Busch of Anheuser-Busch fame who vowed to keep the team in St. Louis. Saighs take was $3.75 million - less than he would have made had the team gone to Milwaukee. The Busch owned Cardinals ended up buying Sportsmans Park from the cash strapped Browns and they ended up moving themselves to Baltimore in 1954. After winning the World Series in 1946, the Cards did not win again until 1964, when they defeated the Yankees. As for Fred Saigh, he wound up going to prison for five months of a15 months sentence for Federal income tax evasion. After he was released from prison, Saigh went back into private business and amassed a large block of Anheuser-Busch stock. In fact, he became the second-largest stock holder in the company next to the Busch family itself. By the time he passed away at age 94, Fred Saigh was worth $500 million. He left $70 million of that to charity, establishing the Fred Saigh Foundation. Though Fred Saigh may have been the Cardinals worst owner, in a way he helped ensure the Cardinals would win the battle for the fans affections with the Browns and helped make St. Louis a one team town by selling the team even if somewhat reluctantly to Gussie Busch. A few weeks ago, I wrote about next year being the 100th anniversary of Wrigley Field. I wondered if anyone was still alive from the last time the Cubs appeared in the World Series. It turns out there is one player left. That mans name is Lenny Merullo. He is 96 years old and played in three of the games of 45 Series. Lenny Merullo went on to become head scout with the Cubs from 1950 to 1972 and one of his grandsons Matt played for six years in the Majors, mainly with the White Sox. Heres hoping hes still around for the Cubs big celebration next year and is well enough to make an appearance at Wrigley. Carolin... 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Keith scored a goal and added an assist to lead the Blackhawks to a 3-1 win over the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night. Kane and Nick Leddy also scored for Chicago, which has won five of six. Shea Weber scored for the Predators. Keith scored the games first goal at 1:29 of the opening period on a slap shot from the left side that beat Nashville goaltender Carter Hutton on the stick side. "I try to have a good gap and be good defensively," Keith said. "As a defenceman, thats your first and foremost job is how you defend. Its something I take a lot of pride in. The offence kind of just takes care of itself." Making his fourth consecutive start, Hutton had his three-game winning streak snapped. On Monday, he was selected the NHLs third star of the week. Hutton spent the past two seasons in the Blackhawks organization before signing with Nashville in the off-season. Weber tied it at 3:03 of the first with a power-play goal. On the right side, Roman Josi faked a shot and then sent a pass to Weber at the top of the right circle where the Nashville captain beat Chicago goaltender Antti Raanta with a one-timer. That was the only goal Raanta allowed in the first, despite 17 Nashville shots on goal in the period. Chicago only allowed 11 Nashville shots over the final two periods combined. "I just thought we just mismanaged a few situations tonight that gave them enough momentum," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said. "We should have got points out of this game. We played well enough to do that, but the second period and the third period, they did a good job. We coulddnt get any forecheck going.dddddddddddd We couldnt get any sustained pressure." The Blackhawks answered back at 16:14 of the first with a highlight reel power-play goal by Kane. Skating down the right side, the left-handed shooting Kane lifted a tough angle backhand just underneath the crossbar for his team-leading 20th goal of the season. "Its a play that we have been trying off the breakout on the power play with the entry," Kane said. "I just tried to hit that spot, lucky enough, it went in." It was the 10th straight game in which Kane has recorded at least one point, two shy of his career best. "Hes got a lot of tools," Hutton said. "He can do a lot of things with the puck. Hes a pretty special player. We gave him time and space like that he kind of made us pay." Leddy scored on the power play at 11:33 of the second to cap the scoring. Standing on the left side, he put home the rebound of Brandon Saads shot from the right side. The puck entered and exited the net so quickly, it was initially ruled no goal on the ice, but a quick video review credited Leddy with his fourth of the season. "I liked our game," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. "I liked our attention to detail, very businesslike and came out to a good start. The power play was big again for us." Notes: The Blackhawks have scored at least one power-play goal in their past 10 games. Chicago LW Bryan Bickell returned to the lineup after missing 14 games with a lower-body injury. Predators G Marek Mazanec missed the game with an illness. Magnus Hellberg was recalled under emergency conditions from Milwaukee of the AHL to serve as Huttons backup. cheap nfl jerseys authentic jerseys nfl wholesale wholesale jerseys cheap jerseys wholesale jerseys ' ' '