2026 Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference research presentations
The 17th annual SABR Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference will be held on April 24-25, 2026, at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. All baseball fans are welcome to attend.
Here are abstracts for the 2026 Ivor-Campbell Conference research presentations:
RP01: So You Want to be a Ballplayer: How National Association Clubs Built their Nines
Justin Mckinney
Between 1871-1875, 328 players and 25 different teams appeared in the National Association. These ranged from the dynastic and thoroughly professional Boston Red Stockings to the questionably credentialled Fort Wayne Kekiongas and Keokuk Westerns. This presentation will explore the various approaches that NA clubs took in building their clubs, ranging from poaching high priced talent from other clubs to grabbing anonymous scrubs off the local sandlots. The demographic makeup of the league will also be explored, including the preponderance of foreign born players, the heavy influence of Brooklyn, New York City, and Philadelphia born players and the growing trend of western recruitment. The rapid evolution of team building philosophies during these five years serves as the basis for modern professional baseball as we know it.
RP02: John Goldie: The One True Scotsman of the NABBP Era
David Rader
Before Jim Thorpe became the premier all-around athlete, a 17-year-old Scottish immigrant named John Goldie arrived at New York City in the year 1854. He became a regular gold medalist in the Highland Games, the Scottish track & field meet held annually by the New York Caledonian Club since 1857. Goldie also began appearing in local base ball box scores in 1859, the third season of the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP). Although he was exposed to base ball late in life, by 1862 he was the first baseman for the vaunted Mutual club of New York.
Goldie was a great all-around player in his prime: an exceptional power hitter, speedy baserunner, an intelligent “player of the points,” and second only to Joe Start as a fielder of first base. His career peaked in 1867, as the starting first baseman of the champion Union club of Morrisania, NY. Goldie also made one of the most famous hits of the era: his game-winning home run in the bottom of the 10th inning of a championship match against his former club, the Mutuals, possibly the first walk-off extra-inning home run in championship base ball history.
Unfortunately, Goldie died in 1871 of tuberculosis before he had an opportunity to play in the National Association. I believe he is the greatest base ball player whose career was confined exclusively to the era of the National Association of Base Ball Players.
My presentation would present a chronology of John Goldie’s NABBP career. We would follow Goldie as he arrives on the Harmonia in the year 1854, how his trade as an electrotypist was his foot in the door to championship base ball, and his early matches through his acquisition by the Mutuals in 1862. We’ll then explore his peak seasons, his play in championship matches, his mid-season jump to the Union club in 1867, his famous home run (and a second one like it), and the finals years of his career and his life.
RP03: Once Upon a Time in Boston: The Michael T. “Nuf Ced” McGreevy Collection
David Krell
The name “Nuf Ced” McGreevy rings out among 19th century baseball historians.
They know him as the inspiration that elevated Boston’s devotion to baseball through founding a group of fans nicknamed Royal Rooters, owning a saloon called Third Base, and showcasing an unyielding passion to reinforce the communal feeling that emerges at a ballpark.
But McGreevy’s contributions go beyond these highly significant items. Way beyond.
This presentation will highlight an undervalued and overlooked part of his legacy. Thanks to McGreevy’s diligence, passion, and generosity, the Boston Public Library houses his collection of photographs, artifacts, and ephemera capturing the early years of baseball, not only in Boston but throughout the National League in the late 19th century. It’s an unparalleled amalgamation chronicling an era when baseball evolved from a pastime to a profession.
McGreevy donated his collection to the library in 1923, making it a vital archive for baseball historians, scholars, authors, and fans wanting to learn more about baseball’s development. Among the 19th century items in the McGreevy Collection are photos of McGreevy with an amateur team wearing “Nuf Ced” on their jerseys, the 1890 Boston Nationals at South End Grounds, and the Royal Rooters at Eutaw House in Baltimore during a road trip in 1897.
These and other 19th century items in the collection will be showcased through PowerPoint, complemented by background information, historical context, and fresh analysis. Additionally, this presentation will include a poem about Boston’s professional baseball history, which began in 1871 and has continued throughout the subsequent 150 years thanks to the incredible foundation that McGreevy fostered.
This presentation will fill a void in 19th century baseball scholarship by highlighting McGreevy’s collection and the medium of photography, which goes largely overlooked in its importance to the national pastime.
RP04: Predators … on the Mound; Prey … at the Plate
Herm Krabbenhoft
The primary goal of every pitcher when facing an opposing batter is to prevent the player from getting on base. The pitcher — aka The Predator — can accomplish his objective entirely by himself by striking out the batter — aka The Prey.
Because the strikeout precludes the ball being hit into play, the strikeout is the defensive team’s most valuable type of out. The strikeout precludes any base runners (including the batter) from advancing or scoring … which can happen with a batted ball — even if the batter or a base runner is retired.
For much — indeed most — of professional baseball’s history (i.e. since the founding of the National Association in 1871), pitchers also batted. Therefore, pitchers were a significant part — 11.11% — of the offensive lineup. Thus, prior to the institution of the “Designated Hitter” in 1973 (American League) and 2022 (National League), pitchers uniquely performed as both the predator (in the pitcher’s box) and the prey (in the batter’s box).
OBJECTIVE: Determine which pitchers have simultaneously been the best at being the most-dominant predators — in striking out batters — and the best at being the least-vulnerable prey — in being struck out as batters. For this presentation our focus is on the 19th century, specifically since 1893, when the current 60-feet-6-inches distance between home plate and the pitcher’s slab was initiated.
RESEARCH PROCEDURE: Utilizing a combination of the relevant ICI game-by-game performance spreadsheets, play-by-play narratives, Retrosheet box scores, and game accounts in newspaper articles, we ascertained the requisite strikeout stats for each of the full-time pitchers for each season during the 1893-1900 time period and, thereby, generated separate rank-ordered lists of the pitchers as predators (i.e., striking out batters) and the pitchers as prey (i.e., being struck out as batters). Then, employing standard evaluation methods [e.g., rank-sums; (SO/BFP)/(SO/PA) quotients; etc.], we determined which pitchers emerged as the best in combined predatory dominance and prey invulnerability for each season as well as for the entire 1893-1900 time period.
RESULTS: (1) While the exact ordering of the top combo predator-prey pitchers in each given season varied slightly depending on the particular evaluation method utilized, the players comprising the rank-ordered lists were pretty-much the same. For example, for 1899 (the final season of the 12-team National League) the top predator-prey combo pitchers who were included in each of the top-eight evaluation lists were (in alphabetical order): Ted Breitenstein, Nixey Callahan, Clark Griffith, Kid Nichols, Cy Seymour, Jesse Tannehill, Vic Willis, and Cy Young; (2) The overall composite top combo predator-prey pitchers for the entire 1893-1900 time frame will be disclosed.
RP05: No Trouble With the Curve: the Pitch That Changed the Trajectory of Amos Alonzo Stagg’s Life
Erin McCarthy
Amos Alonzo Stagg wasn’t always known as a football great—in fact, the legendary coach became the most famous collegiate athlete of his era on the baseball diamond at Yale College where he established himself as the most dominant hurler of his age and beyond. How did he accomplish this feat? He knew how to throw a curve.
According to Stagg’s autobiography, professional baseball came to his hometown of Orange, New Jersey, in 1876 when he was about 13; soon after that, he taught himself how to throw “the out”—a relatively new pitch. While working his way through high school he developed a “small stock of curves,” organized an amateur summer team, and “began to earn a local reputation.” It was this reputation that led a former teammate to encourage Stagg to join him at Phillips Exeter Academy to play baseball. Stagg’s decision to attend Exeter, for a brief two terms, was, arguably, the most significant of his life. At Exeter, as he quickly earned the top pitching spot and chalked up wins, he attracted the attention of several high profile college teams, opening the door to an elite college education which previously seemed well out of reach. Stagg’s untold story at Exeter, the focus of this paper, is compelling and provides the missing link in his all but impossible “Alger-ish” journey from an impoverished, immigrant neighborhood in New Jersey to the prestigious University of Chicago, where he served as Head Football Coach for forty years. This research corrects Stagg’s athletic origin story to include this essential baseball narrative. While his Exeter baseball chapter remains largely unknown, his later accomplishments on and off the diamond as a player and coach are well documented, but, regrettably, overlooked including his five consecutive collegiate baseball championships, invention of the batting cage, and taking four University of Chicago baseball teams to Japan. narrative. While his Exeter baseball chapter remains largely unknown, his later accomplishments on and off the diamond as a player and coach are well documented, but, regrettably, overlooked including his five consecutive collegiate baseball championships, invention of the batting cage, and taking four University of Chicago baseball teams to Japan. narrative. While his Exeter baseball chapter remains largely unknown, his later accomplishments on and off the diamond as a player and coach are well documented, but, regrettably, overlooked including his five consecutive collegiate baseball championships, invention of the batting cage, and taking four University of Chicago baseball teams to Japan.
RP06: The Fort Mackinac Never Sweats Baseball Club
Bill Sproule
Mackinac Island is in Lake Huron between the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan. It was an indigenous settlement before European colonization in the 17th century and for many years it was the center of fur trade around the Great Lakes. Fort Mackinac was built by the British during the American Revolutionary War. It was the site of two battles during the War of 1812 before the northern border was settled and the U.S. was given control of the island. After the war the Fort gradually declined in military significance and was used as a strategic troop reserve. The Army would essentially deploy troops to the Fort until a need arose to transfer them to other locations.
Following the Civil War, the island became a popular tourist destination and in 1875 the federal government designated Mackinac Island as a national park, the country’s second national park. The park bought new life and importance to the fort as the commanding officer was appointed park superintendent, and more soldiers were assigned to the fort. With little fear of attack and limited military responsibilities, the soldiers enjoyed island life and baseball became increasingly popular.
While early baseball games were limited to scrimmages and pick-up games against villagers and summer visitors, the soldiers soon organized a more formal team that would play teams from communities off the island. The team played their games on a ball field adjacent to the fort, and they adopted the nickname “Never Sweats.”
In 1895, the federal government closed Fort Mackinac and transferred the national park properties to the State of Michigan to become the Mackinac Island State Park, the first state park in Michigan. The ball field became available to the island community and local teams eagerly took advantage of the opportunity as the soldiers left.
The Fort has been restored to how it looked during the final years of its occupation and interpreters depict U.S. Army soldiers from this same period. The ball field is still used today and the history of Fort Mackinac soldiers playing baseball is preserved through an annual vintage baseball game on the original field.
The presentation will explore the history of Mackinac Island and the Fort, the Never Sweats, and Mackinac Island today and what makes it one of the best summer travel destinations in the United States.
RP07: Sports the Wright Way: The First Family of American Sports
Jeff Orens
In 1835, Samuel Wright, his wife, and infant son Harry emigrated from Sheffield, England to America, settling in New York City. There Sam raised four sons as cricket players, modeled after his own love of, and talent for, the game. By the late 1850s, three of those boys would shift their allegiance to the growing sport of base ball. Two of them, Harry and George, would eventually be only the second pair of brothers ever inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Venerable sports journalist of the time, Henry Chadwick, called Harry the “Father of Professional Baseball” for all his efforts to move the sport from amateur to professional status while forming and managing superlative teams. Chadwick simply referred to George as the “King of the Shortstops.”
In addition to playing games of bat and ball, Sam, Harry and George would each become involved with selling sports equipment. My research has uncovered that from as early as the mid-1850s, Sam was working with a well-known English cricket family, the Lillywhites, to import cricket goods and guides for sale in the US. Harry followed suit in the early 1860s, and by the end of that decade he and George opened a sporting goods business together. George would eventually make a small fortune in this industry on his own while becoming nationally known for popularizing sports well beyond base ball, including lawn tennis, golf, and ice hockey. Some even termed him “Father of American Golf” for his effort in promoting that sport. Meanwhile, Harry in the 1870s developed patented base ball game scorecards and joined in partnership with base ball maker L. H. Mahn to sell balls.
George’s two sons matured into national tennis champions before following their father into his sporting goods business. They inherited much of the superior athletic abilities of their father, each modest in height and weight but with lightning quickness and surprising power. This enabled them to handle a tennis racquet with such touch as to adapt old base ball techniques such as placing severe spin on the ball to produce startling shots and winning results. One of these boys, Beals, became such a tennis star that he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, completing the unique feat of a family having a father in one sport’s hall of fame and a son in an entirely different sport’s hall of fame.
For all their impact on the sporting world of America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Wright family could make a strong case that they were unrivaled as the “First Family of American Sports.” This presentation covers the maturation of base ball and sports in America in the mid- to late-1800s, focusing on the Wright family as they pursued their passion for playing and popularizing various sports while selling sports equipment to the public.
RP08: Characteristics of 19th Century Ballplayers
Ben Alter
Over 2,200 young men played major league baseball in the 19th Century. They played for 85 different franchises located in 19 states and Washington, DC. Who were they? What were their physical characteristics? Where were they from? Where did they play? How long did they play? This presentation answers these and other questions regarding 19th Century ballplayers.
Here are some of the findings that will be discussed in the presentation:
- The average size of a ballplayer increased from 5’8”, 165 lbs in 1871 to 5’10.5”, 175 lbs in 1900;
- The average age of new players rose from a low of 21 years in 1876 to 24 years by 1897;
- One hundred forty-two players were foreign born. The vast majority came from Great Britain, Ireland, or Canada. Half of the Canadian-born ballplayers began their major league careers from 1882-1884. Only one 19th player was Latin American. The percentage of new, foreign-born major leaguers declined from 9% from 1871-1885 to 4% from 1886-1900;
- More than half of National Association ballplayers hailed from the three Mid-Atlantic states. Over one-third of ballplayers in 1871 and 1872 were from New York City. In contrast, just over one-quarter of major leaguers debuting in the 1890’s came from the Mid-Atlantic, and less than 5% from NYC. The percentage of players from the Midwest more than tripled from the 1870’s to the 1890’s;
- Even though three of the most famous southern ballplayers (Ty Cobb, Joe Jackson, and Moonlight Graham) began their careers in the first decade of the 20th Century, few 19th Century ballplayers were born in the former Confederacy. None are in the Hall of Fame. Just seven ballplayers before 1883 were born in the Old South. New Orleans claims the most 19th C ballplayers (14), followed by Richmond, VA (7);
- Just 52 players in the 19th Century were born in western states. Thirteen of them were Californians who debuted in 1884;
- Some teams, like the 1871 Philadelphia Athletics and the 1882 Louisville Colonels, recruited mainly local talent. In contrast, no players on the 1871 Boston Red Stockings were born in Massachusetts. Ft. Wayne Kekiongas players mostly came from Baltimore and New York City; none came from Ft. Wayne;
- Beginning in 1882, pitchers were in increasingly high demand. From 1885 to 1900, there were more new pitchers each season than new infielders or outfielders;
- The percentage of left-handed ballplayers increased from 13% in the 1870’s to 23% in the 1890’s. Most of the lefties were pitchers;
- Ballplayers’ careers averaged four years for most of the 19th Career length increased after 1895, reaching 6.7 years in 1900. Over 42% of all 19th Century ballplayers played only one season. One-third of them played in 1884 or 1890.
RP09: The McGraw-Jennings Baseball Incubator at St. Bonaventure in the 1890s
Kerry Gleason
Introduction: The 1890s were a critical time in the development of baseball, not only for organizational and league evolution, but for the actual playing of the game. No two players from this era were more influential than John J. McGraw and Hughie Jennings. They bartered their baseball knowledge for a college education, room and board at St. Bonaventure College. As coaches, they used that unique situation to test and implement “scientific baseball,” inventing plays and strategies which are still in practice on a daily basis throughout professional baseball.
Objective: To share research on how McGraw and Jennings used their professional experience to coach the collegiate team at St. Bonaventure in successful baseball innovations that have created excitement in the sport for more than 130 years.
Methods: Includes historical documents at the A. Bartlett Giamatti Research Center at the National Baseball Hall of Fame; documents, artifacts and photographs from archives at St. Bonaventure University’s Friedsam Memorial Library; interviews; newspaper accounts; biographies of McGraw and Jennings.
Findings: John McGraw coached baseball at St. Bonaventure from December 1892 to March 1893. McGraw and Hughie Jennings coached baseball together at St. Bonaventure in the winters of 1893-1894, 1894-1895 and 1895-1896. Jennings coached baseball at St. Bonaventure in the winter of 1896-1897. In the basement of Alumni Hall, McGraw and Jennings taught scientific baseball and “invented”: the hit-and-run; the bunt-and-run; the Baltimore Chop; the double steal; the squeeze play; the drag bunt; the cutoff throw. Each of these are still employed in baseball at every level of play across the globe.
Conclusion: In addition to their stellar play with the Baltimore Orioles dynasty and other teams, and their long service as pennant-winning and championship managers, McGraw and Jennings can be recognized as critical inventors and innovators within the rules of the game whose contributions have endured.
RP10: Little Mac: John McGraw’s Journey to Major League Baseball
Steve Kuzmiak
This narrative explores John McGraw’s path to joining the 1891 Baltimore Orioles. The story begins with his father’s arrival from Ireland, when the family name was still McGrath. After settling in Truxton, New York, John Sr. and his brothers purchased a 220-acre farm for $10,000 in 1868, only to lose it during the Panic of 1873. John Sr. married Ellen Comerfort, and together they had eight children, with John the second oldest, being born on April 7,1873.
Young John’s first job was driving cows for local dairy farmers. His father eventually found work with the railroad and secured John a position as a candy butcher, selling goods to passengers. Around this time, tragedy struck. While baseball lore holds that four McGraw children died of diphtheria in 1884, census records show three died of the disease in 1883, while Ellen died giving birth to their eighth child, Nellie, who lived until 1956. The losses drove John Sr. to heavy drinking, and the children were dispersed to various homes. John was taken in by Mary Goddard at the Truxton Inn.
It was then that his baseball talent emerged. He pitched for the Truxton Grays, then for East Homer at $2 a game, raising his fee to $5 after early success. Local player and entrepreneur Bert Kenney recruited him to Olean in 1890, converting him from pitcher to infielder. After struggling defensively, McGraw was released, but soon played for Hornellsville, Canasteo, and later Wellsville. In Wellsville, earning $60 a month, living in a hotel, and enjoying local hero status, McGraw had his first taste of stardom.
One teammate, 21-year-old Al Lawson, organized the “Ocala All Stars,” a barnstorming team that toured Florida and Cuba. McGraw gained notoriety on the trip, receiving Sporting News coverage and the nickname “El Mono Amarillo” (“Yellow Monkey”). His growing reputation brought him multiple offers. He accepted all the offers and advances.
In 1891, he joined the Cedar Rapids Canaries after his contract disputes were settled with the league. When the team folded after the season, McGraw was signed by the Baltimore Orioles, launching his Major League career.
McGraw’s Florida and Cuba wanderings profoundly shaped him. His fascination with Florida later fueled disastrous real estate investments, while exposure to Cuba introduced him to gambling, a lifelong weakness. Yet the recognition and connections from this journey directly paved the way to his first big-league opportunity.
RP11: From Collapse to Revival: How the San Francisco Examiner Tournaments Saved California Baseball (1893-1900)
Steve Rennie
When professional baseball collapsed in California in 1893, many considered it the end of organized baseball on the Pacific Coast. But an unlikely savior emerged: newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst and his San Francisco Examiner, which staged ambitious statewide amateur tournaments in 1896 and 1897 that put baseball back on the map when the sport was at its lowest point. The 1897 tournament coincided with the height of Klondike gold fever in San Francisco, as the city buzzed with excitement and economic optimism that made people more willing to spend on entertainment like baseball.
This presentation examines how the Examiner tournaments bridged California’s failed professional leagues of the early 1890s with the successful revival that led to sustainable leagues by century’s end. Drawing from contemporary newspaper accounts, league records, and historical baseball publications, this research reveals how Hearst’s circulation-boosting scheme accidentally created the infrastructure and renewed public interest needed for baseball’s resurrection on the Pacific Coast.
The 1896 tournament initially limited participation to players 18 and younger, attracting teams from across the state. The following year’s open-age policy drew roughly 40 teams from cities including Fresno, Bakersfield, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, and Sacramento. Future Hall of Famer Frank Chance played for Fresno and was spotted and signed by Chicago’s National League club, showing how the tournament became an unexpected talent showcase.
The tournaments also generated significant controversy that actually strengthened baseball’s foundation. When teams like Oakland Reliance and Sacramento Gilt Edge were banned from the 1897 tournament for playing exhibition games, the resulting upheaval led directly to new baseball grounds being built at Eighth and Harrison Streets in San Francisco. When those grounds opened in October 1897, 5,000 fans showed up.
This renewed public interest sparked by the tournaments led directly to two new professional leagues forming in April 1898: the Pacific States League and a revived California League. While these initially struggled financially and merged into an eight-team circuit briefly called the Pacific Coast League, they proved that professional baseball could work again in California. By 1899, the California League had streamlined to six teams, though rural franchises in places like San Jose and Watsonville still struggled with poor attendance. The league found its sweet spot in 1900 when it trimmed down to four cities that could actually support professional baseball: San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, and Stockton. All four teams made money in 1901.
The Examiner tournaments show how a newspaper could save a dying sport in the 1890s. Hearst discovered that baseball tournaments sold newspapers, while communities rallied around their local teams, creating a cycle where media promotion and civic pride fed off each other. The tournaments brought together teams from across the state, established regular competition schedules, and most importantly, proved that thousands of fans would pay to watch baseball again. This combination of organized play and renewed fan interest made California baseball’s revival possible by century’s end.
RP12: Perry Werden in the 19th Century
Stew Thornley
In 1895 Perry Werden hit 45 home runs, a professional record that stood until Babe Ruth took up the business. His prodigiousness was padded by the ballpark in Minneapolis, a band box one block off the city’s main drag, and Athletic Park – through photos, maps, and statistics – will be analyzed in this presentation, as will Werden’s life and baseball career through the 19th century. It includes his big home-run years and the effect of a move to a more spacious ballpark (albeit one that eventually became known as “cozy”), Nicollet Park, in 1896.
As is the case with many 19th century players, Werden’s full name, place and year of birth, and other information differ among various sources. Even his 1894 home-run total has been changed (increased by one) from when it first published in SABR’s Minor League Baseball Stars.
Throughout his life, little was publicized about his personal life. Census records and his 1934 death certificate are inconsistent. It appears Werden was married while playing in his native St. Louis and was married to (and divorced from) a different woman in Minneapolis in the 20th century. The derivation of his early nickname of Peach Pie varies from pitching for a bakery team with that name to a more colorful yarn of him losing his job delivering pies when he abandoned his cart to join a baseball game.
The Peach Pie designation was forgotten when he got to Minneapolis, where the locals lovingly called him Moose due to his size (which is evident in an 1896 team photo).
Werden’s love of the outdoors led him to eventually become a permanent resident of Minneapolis and the ultimate man about town in Minneapolis in the 20th century, which included notoriety as an umpire in various professional leagues. However, he was the bane of arbiters in the 1890s, not to mention official scorers, one of whom he slugged in 1894, causing him to avoid Grand Rapids, Michigan, for fear of being arrested.
While much can be written and said about Werden post-1900, the presentation will include only a brief summary of that period with the focus on the 19th century.
RP13: William Witman: Source of Turmoil of Reading Teams in the Pennsylvania State League
Brian Engelhart
Abstract: The brief life of the Pennsylvania State League (“PSL”) extended from 1892 season through the 1896 season, with teams from nineteen different cities in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania participating at one time or another – ranging from very large (Philadelphia for portions of two seasons; Pittsburgh for a brief time) to smaller towns (such as Danville). Each PSL season began with eight teams participating, but due to teams disbanding or jumping to other leagues or cities, the list of league participants at seasons end differed from those who started the campaign. It was this fatality/turnover rate that enabled more than twice as many cities to participate in the PSL over the course of its existence than the eight available spots.
Of all PSL cities, Reading underwent the most changes. While having teams participate in each season of the PSL’s existence, Reading saw its teams suffer two midseason dissolutions, began two other seasons without a team in the league because the prior team left town during the offseason. On the other hand in three times Readings team voids created by disbandment or off season departures were filled by transfers of teams from Danville, Allentown, and Shamokin, respectively. Other than Reading, no other PSL city participated in every season, nor collectively had as many transactions involving disbandment or transfers (both in and out of town). Notably the Reading team was one of the four that remained in active play at the end of the 1896 season (the team had been transferred from Shamokin earlier that season.)
The source of most of turmoil involving Reading’s teams was Willaim Witman, a local baseball aficionado who managed the Reading team several of the seasons it was in the PSL. He also owned the best ballpark in town. At the outset of both a career as a real estate developer and as well as a politician, Witman would have less than stellar experiences in each endeavor in the next century- he would go bankrupt and also conduct four unsuccessful campaigns to become mayor of Reading. Witman’s various baseball ventures in the nineteenth century were each plagued with a number of problems, including disputes with management of the PSL, squabbles with other owners, suits against partners, and other situations where he pulled the teams out of the league mostly because of poor attendance. These experiences were omens of Witman’s future misfortunes in the next century.
Summary: A discussion of Witman’s often amusing antics and the sometimes-comical events related to various Reading teams, is not only frequently humorous, but will provide insight into the history of the PSL and other early minor leagues. Among the sources for this was Paul Browne’s, fine work, “The Coal Barons Played Cuban Giants,” published by McFarland & Company, Inc., 2013, supplemented by local newspaper articles.
RP14: When Joe Leggett Legged It
Tom Gilbert
The police were looking for Joe Leggett at Christmastime of 1877. They intended to arrest him for embezzling thousands of dollars in liquor license fees that he had collected for the city of Brooklyn. Instead of turning himself in, Joe Leggett disappeared, abandoning his wife and young children. He was never found.
Leggett’s life after late 1877 has long been one of the biggest biographical gaps in our record of Amateur Era baseball. Along with Dr. Joseph Jones, Leggett built and ran the great Brooklyn Excelsiors club of the 1850s and 1860s. He was an officer of both the Excelsior club and the NABBP. One of baseball’s top hitters, Leggett served as the Excelsiors’ catcher and field captain. He also scouted, coached and trained the club’s pitchers, including three of the greatest pitchers of the day: Jim Creighton, Asa Brainard and Arthur Cummings. Famed for his knowledge of pitching and physical training, and his fearlessness in playing – without any protective equipment — right behind the batter, Leggett was there at the invention of modern pitching itself. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, however, when baseball journalists and historians began to ask questions like who invented the curveball and how fast pitching came about, Leggett was mostly forgotten. He certainly could not speak for himself, which partly explains why he has been denied his rightful place in baseball history.
What happened to Leggett? Rumor had it that he had changed his name and headed out to the West. His family later thought he died in the mid-90s in a Texas jail, but they had no actual evidence. What really happened to him has been a mystery for 150 years.
That is, until now.
A dust-covered box in a Washington, DC warehouse contains the whole story of Joe Leggett’s second act. How I found it is a tale in itself. My FRED talk will explain where Joe Leggett went, what he did and why and how he spent the last two decades of his life living under an assumed name on the western frontier. It will also discuss whether he may have been aided by former Excelsior teammates; whether or not Henry Chadwick, as he hinted more than once, knew more than he could tell; and whether in fact Leggett’s whereabouts were an open secret in the New York and Brooklyn baseball world. I will discuss the contradictions of Leggett’s character. Was he the charming and popular athlete that Colonel John Woodward, his commander in the Civil War, called “the greatest fellow in the world” or was he a thief, alcoholic or gambling addict – or two or all three of those?
Finally, I will address what light this trove of new information shines on key trends and events in baseball in the late 1850s and early 1860s, including the rise of professionalism and the shadowy influence of gambling and gamblers.
RP15: Joe Start: Unheralded 19th Century Superstar
Irwin Chusid
Many ball-playing amateurs in the 1850s couldn’t adapt to the evolution in rules, equipment, and professionalism. There were short-term exceptions, but no one weathered these upheavals with sustained skill like Joe Start. He adjusted to radical changes and continued to play at a superior level for over 25 years (1859–1886).
When Start began playing at age 16, pitchers tossed underhand with a stiff wrist 45 feet from the plate; a one-bounce catch was an out. There were no leagues, no enclosed fields, no season schedules, and few clubs outside the NYC area. Gloves did not exist, nor did professional players. Everyone was an amateur.
By the time Start hung up his spikes in 1886 at age 44, pitchers threw overhand at fearsome speeds. The one-bounce out was long gone, and most fielders wore gloves. Baseball was big business, and players were paid professionals who wore uniforms on the field.
Yet despite the revolutionary overhaul and growth of the sport, Joe Start remained a solid, first-rank player. He adapted to rule changes, new equipment, and heightened performance standards as quickly as they arose. Until his final year, Joe was always in the starting nine.
Peter Morris called Start “a forgotten superstar who remained the standard for first basemen from the early 1860s until his retirement.” Sportswriter William Rankin, in 1910, asserted: “It was Joe Start who made first base a fielding position. Up to the early [1860s] the first baseman stood at the base and caught balls thrown there, but [did not] leave the base to get batted balls. Start revolutionized the first base system of play.”
Because of his solid sportsmanship, mature temperament, leadership ability, and longevity, Start earned the nicknames “Old Reliable” and “Old Steady” — and by the 1880s, often simply “Old.” He was renowned as a man of honor and integrity. In an era when drunkenness, gambling, and club-jumping threatened to destabilize the game’s growth, Start was never blemished with scandal.
A case could be made that Start was the Cal Ripken Jr. of his day: dependable excellence over a 20+ year career. Except Ripken did not have to deal with basic rule overhauls from season to season.
There are countless highlights to Start’s career: playing regularly for the dominant Atlantic Club from 1862 to 1870; a late-inning triple that helped the Atlantics break the Red Stockings’ 81-game winning streak in 1870; leading NL’s Providence club to championships in 1879 and 1884. During Start’s nine years with the Atlantics, the team record was 212 games won, 44 lost — a winning percentage of .828.
Start was 27 when he joined the National Association in the inaugural professional season. At that age, when most premier players were in their prime, Start already had 12 statistically untabulated seasons under his belt. Yet he still racked up impressive career numbers in the NA and NL.
For more details on the Ivor-Campbell Conference, visit SABR.org/ivor-campbell19c