“She actually attended National League owner meetings. The (other owners) spent a lot of time trying to convince her she should sell the team because she was a woman but she had been raised in a family that had been a baseball family,” said Homan. “The family had had clubs both in St. Louis and Cleveland (the Spiders) and she knew all about baseball.”

The Robisons family already had showed its business sense, at least as far as the St. Louis franchise was concerned by bringing many Spiders stars including Cy Young, to the Perfectos in 1899, sending some of the Perfectos the other way to Cleveland. The standings reflected the move. The Perfectos were 39-111 in 1898 but 84-67 the next year. By contrast, the Spiders were 81-68 and 20-134, respectively. Helene Britton maintained Cardinals ownership for five years before selling.

Allie May Schmidt was working on table decorations in February 1921 at the Men’s Fellowship dinner at the Ferguson Presbyterian Church and future Hall of Famer Rickey was to be the guest speaker. The story goes that when Rickey walked into the church basement, he saw cardboard cutouts of Cardinal birds, perched atop twigs made of string, that Schmidt had hand-painted. Rickey was “quite taken” by the decorations, said Homan.