Career
Walsingham began as a ticket-taker with the Cardinals, but by the early 1940s he had become a vice president of the Redbirds. When Breadon parted company with his longtime general manager, Hall of Famer Branch Rickey, at the close of the 1942 campaign, Walsingham became the club"s chief of baseball operations, although the General Motors title was not formally assigned to him. He was part of a management triumvirate that included Breadon and the Cardinals" chief scout, Joe Mathes.
In January 1953, Saigh was forced to dispose of the Cardinals after his conviction on income tax charges.
Walsingham stepped in as the team"s official National League representative and chief executive, as rumors swirled that he would assemble a syndicate to buy the franchise. However, August "Gussie" Busch came forward as the team"s new owner.
The "beer baron" would operate the Cardinals for the next 36 years. Walsingham eventually left the Cardinals to become an executive vice president with the Baltimore Orioles (ironically, the transplanted Street Louis Browns, who battled the Cardinals unsuccessfully for the affections of Street Louis fans through 1953) during the 1957 and 1958 seasons.
By the end of the 1950s, however, he returned to Saint Louis to become an executive with Gussie Busch"s Anheuser-Busch brewery.
Walsingham died in Saint Louis of a heart ailment at age 59 on April 13, 1969.
