Dubuque-Chicago, 1879

Picture this: The 2005 Chicago Cubs using a day off in their National League schedule to play an exhibition game in Dubuque, Iowa. It’s improbable today, but an event of that order occurred-twice-more than 125 years ago. In the summer of 1879, Dubuque’s professional team, the eventual champion of the start-up Northwestern League, split two exhibitions with the National Leaguers from Chicago. The visitors were the White Stockings; today, the franchise is the Chicago Cubs.

In-season exhibitions were common m the first 75 years of pro baseball. Dubuque’s games against the White Stockings were noteworthy because the rosters featured so many future Hall of Famers, major league managers, and among the Dubuque nine, future big­ league players. And there was an acrobat.

The Hall of Famers were Adrian “Cap” Anson, the White Stockings player-manager; Dubuque player Charles Comiskey, who changed the way first base is played and became a powerhouse owner in the American League; and Dubuque pitcher Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn, whose dominance as an “ironman” remains legendary. Coincidentally, each was enshrined in Cooperstown in 1939-60 years after the Dubuque exhibitions.

The records of the Hall of Famers have been extensively documented elsewhere, so only an abbreviated review is necessary.

Anson joined the White Stockings in 1876 and became their player-manager in 1879, the year of the Dubuque exhibitions. He managed the team to five NL pennants and bit at least .300 in 19 of his 22 seasons as a player. Anson was the first manager to move preseason training to a warm locale in the South, one of the first to rotate pitchers, and an early advocate of base stealing and the hit-and-run. Not all his contributions to the game were as positive. Anson was tempestuous and bigoted. He enforced team rules with his fists, baited opponents and umpires, and refused to take the field against any team with a black player.

Dubuque’s star pitcher in 1879, Radbourn joined Providence (National League) in 1881 and started piling up astounding statistics for effectiveness and endurance. Throwing “submarine” style even after the rules permitted overhand deliveries, Radbourn completed more than 97 percent of his starts. His best season was 1884, when he went 59-12, pitched 678 2/3 innings, struck out 441, and posted an earned­ run average of just 1.28. Over 11 major league seasons (including one in the Players League), his career record was 309-195 with a 2.67 ERA.

Comiskey is best known as a founder of the American League and the charier owner of the Chicago White Sox. (Chicago’s National League team abandoned its While Stockings nickname in 1890. Comiskey appropriated it for his new team in 1901, the inaugural season of the American League. The name was soon condensed to “White Sox.”) A Chicago native, Comiskey first made his mark on the game as a player. He developed a new way of playing first base. Instead of standing with a foot on the bag as each pitch was delivered, as was then the practice, he experimented with playing away from the base. He snared more batted balls but could still run to the bag in time to receive an infielder’s throw.

Comiskey’s leadership, innovative defense, and solid offense earned “The Old Roman” the job of player, captain and, later, manager of the St. Louis Browns, then of the American Association but today known as the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League. (Comiskey’s St. Louis Browns are not to be confused with the American League team that used the nickname from 1902 through 1953.) Except for one season (1890) with the short-lived Players League, Comiskey played in St. Louis from 1882 until 1891. He then became player-manager of the Cincinnati Reds (1892-94)

Including Comiskey, three members of Dubuque’s 1879 team went on to manage at the major league level and helped form and stabilize minor leagues. The others were “Ted” Sullivan and Tom Loftus.

Born in Ireland in 1851, Timothy Paul Sullivan came to the United States when he was about 10. He got the baseball hug while studying at St. Mary’s College in Kansas, where Comiskey was his roommate. Thus began a lifelong personal and professional friendship between Sullivan and “The Old Roman.” A few years later, the friends married sisters from Dubuque.

For most of 1883, Sullivan managed the St. Louis Browns, who lost the American Association title to the Philadelphia Athletics by just one game. (Comiskey managed 19 games that season.) The next year, Sullivan won 35 of 39 games with the St. Louis Maroons of the Union Association before taking over the lowly Kansas City Unions (13-46). After a couple of years managing in the Texas League, which he helped create, Sullivan in 1888 managed the Washington Senators, then of the National League.

Sullivan’s greatest contributions to the game were as a scout and an administrator. He briefly owned the minor league franchise in Clinton, Iowa (Northern Association). In addition to serving as Comiskey’s confidante and aide, he helped establish several minor leagues, including the Northwestern, Southern, Atlantic Association, and Texas.

An outfielder and captain of the 1879 Dubuque team, Tom Loftus became highly regarded in baseball circles. “Always of sunny disposition and the soul of good humor,” the Chicago Tribune said of Loftus, “he probably possessed more friends both in baseball and business than almost anyone else connected with the game.” When he arrived in Dubuque, Loftus had three games of National League experience, in his native St. Louis (1877). In 1883, he joined his pals Comiskey and Sullivan on St. Louis’ American Association team, but it was a brief reunion; Loftus saw action in only a half-dozen games.

Though the game placed him in various cities during the season. after 1879 Loftus made his home in Dubuque, where he entered the saloon business. His big-league managing experience included the Milwaukee Grays (Union League, 1884), Cleveland Spiders (1888-89), Cincinnati Reds (1890-91), and the Chicago Orphans (NL, 1900-01). He was part owner and manager of Washington’s American League franchise (1902-03). Loftus also owned or managed teams in Columbus and Grand Rapids. He came out of baseball retirement in 1908 when he was drafted to serve one year as president of the Three-I League, which was wracked by political division. Working from Dubuque, Loftus provided the leadership that kept the league intact.

Loftus died of throat cancer in 1910. At the funeral in Dubuque, his honorary pallbearers included Comiskey, Sullivan, and American League president Ban Johnson. Other members of the 1879 Dubuque squad included:

Bill Gleason, a shortstop, played eight seasons in the American Association, including St. Louis’ string of four championships. He and teammate Arlie Latham are credited with the idea that resulted in designated coaches’ boxes along the first- and third­- base lines. Upon retirement, he joined the St. Louis Fire Department and rose to the rank of captain. On a tire call, he suffered a serious injury when he came into contact with an electrical wire.

Jack Gleason, Bill’s older brother, played most of his top professional games in the AA. He also became a St. Louis firefighter and was hurt in the same incident as his brother.

Laurie Reis, pitcher and outfielder, who had played a handful of games for the Chicago White Stockings the previous two seasons before joining Dubuque.

Catcher Tom Sullivan (no relation to Ted) went on to play a few years for Buffalo and the St. Louis Browns before landing a political job affiliated with the St. Louis Police Department.

The acrobat was Al Alveretta, an outfielder for Dubuque. He scored the only run of the second game against the White Stockings, Alverella was also known as a cross-country runner. When he left baseball, he joined his brothers in an acrobatic troupe. Later, he managed a Philadelphia theater.

This was the group that would take on the White Stockings.

The 1879 season was the first for Northwestern League and the first for a professional team in Dubuque. The team’s local hackers included U.S. Senator William Allison and D. B. Henderson, a future Speaker of the U.S. House. During the off­ season of 1878-79, league member Rockford (IL) swooped in to sign the entire Milwaukee team after it lost its National League franchise. However, Ted Sullivan, who helped found the league and agreed to run the Dubuque team, responded by signing a batch of players from Peoria, including Loftus and Radbourn, and recruiting his friend Comiskey. As the season got under way, Loftus recalled years later, “We were a lot of youngsters who looked good only to ourselves and our manager.” However, Dubuque tarted winning-and often.

Sullivan arranged for Anson to bring his White Stockings to Dubuque for an exhibition on July 29, 1879. Local anticipation ran high. Railroads serving the region offered excursion rates for parties of at least 20 fans departing for Dubuque from the same town.

Some 2,000 fans jammed Base Ball Park, on the north edge of Dubuque, for the event. Sullivan hiked ticket prices lo 35¢ for general admission, 50¢ for “amphitheater” seats and a quarter for children under 14. Curiously, he did not charge extra for reserved seals.

Pre-game entertainment included a 100-yard race between two White Stockings. Outfielder George “Orator” Shaffer won $20 by crossing the line a few feet ahead of pitcher Terry Larkin.

Larkin might not have yet caught his breath at 3:45 P.M., when Dubuque leadoff hitter Jack Gleason stepped to the plate. (In those days a coin toss usually determined which team batted first.) Dubuque slapped out a couple of first inning hits, but Larkin recovered to hold bis hosts scoreless.

The Old Roman, playing outfield instead of first base, sparkled at defense. “Comiskey distinguished himself in the field by his remarkably fine catching of difficult flies,” the Dubuque Herald reported, “one of which he held after running over one hundred feet and rolling over and over but holding to the ball with a death grip.”

However, Comiskey’s outstanding defense could not offset his teammates’ repeated blunders. The White Stockings received an unearned run in the first inning after an Anson single. The score was still 1-0 in the Chicago half of the sixth inning when Dubuque turned especially generous. It handed Chicago four unearned runs on no hits.

“It seemed as though they were playing to see who would make the largest record in the error column,” the Herald observed. ”W(illiam) Gleason carried off that prize and especially distinguished himself by his remarkable fumbles.”

Exactly 100 minutes after the first pitch, umpire Robert F. Ross signaled the game’s last out. The final score: Chicago 8, Dubuque 1.

The Herald’s game report, tucked next to com­munity briefs and an obituary on an inside page, carried the headline “A Comedy of Errors” and opened, “The Chicagos departed for home … well pleased with their first visit to the Key City.” Apparently so. They agreed to return to Dubuque within the week. Dubuque fans, who saw their team collapse under major league pressure, were less enthusiastic about the rematch on August 4, 1879. Ticket sales dipped.

However, in the second game Duhuque went with its best pitcher: Radbourn. Three years earlier, while playing for Bloomington, IL, one of the best amateur teams around, Radbourn had beaten the White Stockings.

“Radbourn kept the audience roaring by his deceptive down shoot, which the Chicagos would vainly strike at and saw wind magnificently,” the Herald reported. He shut out the White Stockings on four hits. The Dubuque defense was still shaky, but it held firm at critical moments.

Shortstop Will Gleason, the defensive goat in the previous game, redeemed himself by making a spectacular running catch and connecting for three of Dubuque’s four hits against Chicago’s Frank Hankinson.

Dubuque scored the game’s only run in the sixth inning. Alveretta, the acrobat, reached first on an error. He advanced to second while Comiskey was caught in a rundown between third and home. After stealing third, Alveretta scampered home when a Chicago infielder made a wild throw to first.

The hosts had some other breaks go their way. Anson did not play and Chicago’s starting catcher, Frank “Silver” Flint, suffered a dislocated finger on his throwing band in the second inning and finished the game in the outfield. (Flint’s injury contributed to the collapse of the 1879 White Stockings, who fell from first to fourth with a 14-21 conclusion to the season.)

“When the third man on the Chicago side was put out in the last inning,” the Dubuque newspaper reported, “the audience with one impulse sprang to their feet and tossed up their hats and hurrahed and hurrahed again on the assured victory of the Dubuques.” Final score: Dubuque 1, Chicago 0.

Historical references in Dubuque make much of the second game, but little or no mention of the first. Some articles elevated the White Stockings to defending National League champions and made the case that Dubuque, therefore, was the best team in baseball. The White Stockings did win the title in 1876, but they had placed no better than fourth the next two campaigns. There was talk of squeezing in a third and deciding game to the series, but it was not to be. Within two years all the Dubuque stars were gone, soon to make their mark on the major leagues.

BRIAN COOPER is executive editor of the Telegraph Herald, Dubuque, Iowa. He is writing a biography of Hall of Fame pitcher Urban “Red” Faber, a narrative of Dubuque County.

 

Sources

Baseball Magazine

Chicago Tribune

Dubuque Daily Herald

Dubuque Daily Times

Dubuque Telegraph Herald

Elfers, James E. The Tour to End All Tours. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. In addition, personal correspondence with author.

National Baseball Hall of Fame

Retrosheet. Some information in this article was obtained free of charge from, and is copyrighted by, Retrosheet, 20 Sunset Road, Newark, DE 19711.

The Sporting News

Washington Post