Off the Beaten Path: Boston Red Stockings Exhibition Travels, 1871-1875

“The Boston nine are just scooping things their own way, and as a consequence are tiptilting their athletic nasals to the surrounding ether.” — Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago), June 7, 1874

 

In addition to regular-season games (called “championship” games at the time), the Boston Red Stockings played well over 100 exhibition games between 1871 and 1875, which included tours to Canada and England. But they also traveled around New England and beyond, often drawing large crowds who would never see the baseball champions otherwise. While the author is not attempting a comprehensive list, below are several exhibition games of note the Red Stockings played “away,” and while they didn’t count in the standings, they were often significant in the places they stopped. Some, however, probably wished a “mercy rule” had been in effect.

Providence, Rhode Island, June 23, 1871

Boston 24, Brown University 3

“The Brown boys play in the field was for the most part good,” wrote the Providence Evening Press, “but in batting they were far inferior to their strong opponents.” A crowd of 2,500 came and watched the spectacle, no doubt rooting hard for the underdogs. The Boston victory did not dampen the spirits of Brown, as “they seemed to be well satisfied with even so severe a defeat against so strong a nine as the Bostons.”1

Hamilton, Ohio, June 30, 1871

Boston 27, Hamilton Resolutes 0

The Boston victory at Hamilton, “that sanguinary village” in the words of the Cincinnati Daily Gazette, featured excellent Boston fielding, some “heavy batting” by Cal McVey, and a double play started by Harry Wright that was called “a nice piece of workmanship.”2

Worcester, Massachusetts, August 2, 1871

Boston 35, Worcester Mazeppas 3

A crowd of 300 saw the Red Stockings breeze by the Worcester team at the Agricultural Park. “The playing was not very brilliant,” noted the National Aegis, while the Springfield Republican commented that the “Worcester people think the game was rather uninteresting.”3

A Trip “Downeast,” September 18-22, 1871

The Red Stockings “went on an invitation tour ‘down east,’ we would call it,” remarked the New York Clipper, “but the Reds call it a northern tour.” Neither description was fitting for the first stop, Athol, Massachusetts, located in Worcester County, west of Boston. The Red Stockings did go “downeast,” however, in the old New England phraseology, with stops in Maine that included Portland, Lewiston, and Brunswick. “Everywhere they were most cordially received,” wrote the Clipper, “as the most gentlemanly exponents of professional ball playing the opposing clubs had ever met with, and the fine exhibition of the beauties of the game made by the Reds on their tour, has done much to advance the game in popularity in all the cities and towns they have visited.”4

Athol, Massachusetts, September 18, 1871

Boston 50, Summit 1

“The Summits of Athol were whipped,” remarked the Springfield Republican on the 50-1 loss to the Red Stockings; and “that in a dead ball game,” the Clipper commented. However, “the game was witnessed by an immense crowd.”5

Portland, Maine, September 19, 1871

Boston 27, Portland Resolutes 2

Just the announcement that the Red Stockings were coming to town, reported the Portland Daily Press, “was sufficient to draw a large number of spectators to Forest City Park.” Mainers were able to see firsthand “the famous brothers, George and Harry Wright, the former being universally recognized as the champion base ball player of America.” Not much was expected of their opponent, the “junior” Portland Resolutes, who would not “be able to contend with their distinguished rivals.” Yet, a “gallant fight” was put forward by the Resolutes, who exceeded expectations.6

The game began at about 3:00 P.M. and the Resolutes held Boston scoreless for two innings of the game, or “they choked the ‘Reds’ twice, amid the tumultuous applause of the spectators.” When the Resolutes scored their first run of the game, in the sixth inning “the entire concourse of spectators broke forth into the wildest demonstrations of joy, hats were thrown up and there seemed to be no limit to the pleasure of the moment.” But while Portland “played an excellent field game,” their batting was noted as being far inferior to Boston’s, which “displayed that remarkable skill and ability which has gained for them so many victories over the famous clubs of the country, and has made their name a household word in all points of the United States.” The Resolutes proved no match, as it “was evident that the superior strength, skill and practice of the Red Stockings was too much for their younger and more inexperienced opponents.”7

The Portland Advertiser had fun describing the play of Boston’s Sam Jackson: “Jackson, a jolly fat boy to appearance, but the flesh which so lavishly clothed his skeleton, was all muscle, and it appeared that he was wanted to run for two or three men who were lame. His short fat calves flew from base to base so rapidly that, like old Fezziwig in the Christmas Carol, he appeared to wink with his legs.”8

Spalding pitched a “straight, swift ball, at which the Portland boys struck after it had passed them, until they got used to it,” wrote the Advertiser. Then, to totally confuse the batters, Harry Wright came in to pitch, throwing “slow twisters, deceitful and desperately wicked.” Boston catcher Cal McVey was called “the coolest fish that ever picked a ball from the end of a bat, his eyes on every part of the field at once, his whole attention nevertheless fixed on the flying pigskin.” It was McVey who started a quadruple play to end the game, when the batter struck out and McVey “stopped it with his open palm, giving the striker his run and forcing men from all the bases, and then stepped instantly to the home base, and passing the ball to third, second and first, ending the game by a coup de main.9 (Often in exhibition games, the Red Stockings would give amateur teams four or five outs per inning, although the accounts do not mention this here.) The Advertiser estimated that the Boston players averaged between 160 and 180 pounds, and 21 to 25 years of age, “models of manly symmetry, and—it is fair to add—of gentlemanly bearing.”10

September 21, 1871, Lewiston, Maine

Boston 41, Androscoggins 7

This game in Lewiston drew a large crowd at the Androscoggin Driving Park, which saw the Red Stockings “bat gently” at first, but eventually “they gave very hard raps. Their playing is very fine in all respects,” wrote the Lewiston Evening Journal. The Androscoggin team, according to the Journal, “played well considering that they are out of practice.”11

September 22, 1871, Bowdoin College, Brunswick Maine

Boston 24, Bowdoin College 1

“The Boston Red Stockings paid us a visit,” wrote the Bowdoin College newspaper The Orient. The game was played at the Sagadohoc Fairgrounds (later known as the Topsham Fairgrounds) at 10 A.M.12 “This was the best contested game played by the Bostons during their Eastern tour,” The Orient claimed.13

Belfast, Maine, August 6, 1872

Boston 35, Belfast Pastimes 1

The reader may be surprised to learn that this romp over the local team has lasting influence on baseball history, yet “it was the lore, not the score, that lives on to this day,” wrote Walter Griffin of the Bangor Daily News.14 In Belfast, Robert Patterson Chase was the home-team official scorer who introduced the Belfast players to the crowd as they came up to the plate, while a Boston scorer did the same on the other side. Chase, with the flair of the local coastal town in him, announced the players this way: “Moody at bat, Boardman on deck, Dinsmore in the hold.” These nautical terms (the “hold” was the area of the ship below the main deck) appealed to the Boston scorer, who brought them with him back to Boston, where they became part of the regular jargon of baseball.

This story was largely forgotten to history until Jay Davis, the editor of the Waldo Independent newspaper in Belfast, was on vacation in Houston, Texas, and encountered the story on a scorecard at the Astrodome in the 1980s. Davis discovered a 1937 article about Chase in the Republican Journal in Belfast, a story which also ran in The Sporting News in 1938. Chase himself thought the terms were long since forgotten until hearing a World Series radio announcer using them. Chase wrote to George Wright, then the last surviving member of the Red Stockings, who recalled the 1872 game and the amusement the Boston players received at Chase’s descriptions.

The 35-1 loss to the Red Stockings meant “all the Maine town got out of that contest was the distinction of being a contributor to the lexicon of the game.”15

August 16, 1872, Oil City, Pennsylvania

Boston 9, Oil City Senecas 3

The 9-3 Boston victory was cut short after six innings due to rain. “The Oil City Boys have demonstrated that they can play a rattling game of baseball,” wrote the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “We hope they will come this way again and can promise them a good audience if the rain does not interfere.”16

August 21, 1872, Detroit, Michigan

Boston 35, Detroit Empires 2

On their last stop before entering Canada, the Red Stockings visited Detroit and beat the Empires 35-2, in a game the Detroit Free Press expounded upon in a lengthy front-page recap. “There was considerable curiosity to see this club,” the Free Press wrote, “as the Red Stockings, whether of Cincinnati or of Boston, had never been in Detroit.” The physical strength of the Boston players impressed those fans of the amateur Empires. “They are an exceedingly fine-looking and athletic body of men,” the Free Press account said. “The contrast between the Bostons and the Empires, in point of size and weight, was particularly striking, the latter appearing mere boys by the size of the former, while the Bostons looked physically like giants in comparison.” Boston turned a triple play when the Empires anticipated George Wright dropping a pop fly (one of his tricks until the infield fly rule was created) amid shouts of “drop it, drop it!” with the bases loaded in order to double up the runners. Instead, Wright caught it, and two runners who were too far off their bases were doubled up.17

A return match in Detroit on August 21, 1873, proved little had changed, as Boston won that contest 37-4.18

New Haven, Connecticut, May 7, 1873

Boston 23, Yale 0

The game at Hamilton Park saw the Yale nine suffer a “humiliating defeat,” but “they consoled themselves with the reflection that they are not the first club the Bostons have used so badly,” wrote the Hartford Courant.19

St. Louis, Missouri, August 13, 1873

Boston 37, Turners 3

“The event of the season,” in the words of the St. Louis Times, took place at the ballpark on Grand Avenue in St. Louis, and a great amount of local interest was expressed at the arrival of the Red Stockings, “these most formidable knights of the ‘bat and ball.’” Seven of those “formidable knights,” however, arrived at the ballpark a mere two hours before game time, having been delayed in Columbus, Ohio. Both teams also wore nearly identical uniforms, except St. Louis “wore white hats instead of caps,” and “the Bostons are, to a man, a hardy, athletic looking set.”20 Boston scored 15 runs in the ninth inning.

Despite the lopsided score, it was apparent that Boston showed little enthusiasm in the game, wrote the Times. Weather and travel were certainly factors. The 400 fans found it “almost impossible to find a shady spot, as the sun shone directly into the faces of the spectators, the seats being arranged so as to face west. An improvement might be made in this respect by placing the seats on the westside of the grounds.”21

Rockford, Illinois, August 18, 1873

Boston 22, Philadelphia White Stockings 2

There was much anticipation for this game as “three of the Boston club are old Rockford boys (Al Spalding, Ross Barnes, Bob Addy) whose reputation as gentlemen and base ballists has suffered no decrease since they left the Forest City,” wrote the Rockford Daily Register.22 The game was also a crucial contest as Boston was in third place behind front-running Baltimore and the second-place White Stockings. (Although Baltimore had more wins than Philadelphia, the White Stockings had a better winning percentage.) Both teams had split their previous six games. However, Philadelphia’s Levi Meyerle was away for a death in the family, and Denny Mack suffered a freak injury.

Staying at the Holland House, Mack decided to go for a ride with George Wilson, clerk at the hotel. The horses were brought from the livery stable and both Mack and Wilson got into the carriage. Before the reins were secured, one of the horses sprang forward. Wilson reached out to grab the horse by the head, but a kick sent him to the ground. The horses became frightened and “started up Wyman Street at a furious rate dashing over stone heaps and boxes in a manner that threatened at every moment to demolish the buggy and throw out the remaining occupant.” The carriage crashed upon making a sharp turn, with Mack thrown to the ground. “The violence of the shock had rendered him almost insensible,” and he was helped back to his hotel room. Mack suffered a bruised left leg and hip.23

With being shorthanded, Johnny Ryan, “considerably out of practice,” played third base and Boston had to lend the opposition catcher Dave Birdsall, a move that now made this game an exhibition. While the 800 spectators were naturally disappointed, “the unfortunate combination of circumstances which attended the Philadelphias may form some excuse,” wrote the Daily Register.24

Ludlow, Kentucky, June 1, 1875

Boston 17, Ludlow 5

Around 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the Red Stockings arrived on a four-horse omnibus, ferried over the Ohio River. The sun was “boiling down”25 in the words of the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, while the Cincinnati Daily Gazette commented on the inadequate grounds in Ludlow. “A high hill on its southern aspect is supposed to be the favorite place from which to view a game, being shaded by umbrageous elms,” the Tribune wrote, “but the visitor is much disappointed on taking his seat to find that he cannot get a view of but a small portion of the grounds, and is obliged, after all, to go out into the glaring sun and stand up.”26 Harry Wright, perhaps feeling nostalgic for his days in Cincinnati just over the river, wore a “C” on his uniform. The game was never in doubt for Boston, but as the 1,200 spectators were leaving, “a violent rain-storm came, catching the whole crowd in its fury, and thoroughly quenching all the enthusiasts engendered by the festive field support.”27

A much closer contest was played on August 13 when the Red Stockings rested Al Spalding and Andy Leonard while also playing regulars in different positions. When the score was 7-7 after seven innings, changes were made and the Red Stockings escaped with a 9-7 win.28

Manchester, New Hampshire, July 29, 1875

Boston 22, Manchester Atlantics 5

A “big time” was anticipated, and posters were distributed around Manchester, reported the Mirror and Farmer, as the Red Stockings were coming to town to play against the amateur Manchester Atlantics.29 The Red Stockings were on their way to Canada to play the Guelph Maple Leafs, and a stop in Manchester was on the itinerary. “Everybody who knows anything of ball will want to see the ‘Reds,’” the Mirror and Farmer wrote. Although the game would not be of high interest like a championship game, “it will be a good deal to see Spalding pitch and Wright play short-stop.”30

The Mirror and Farmer wrote that the game “was a disappointment to anyone who expected to see the ‘Reds’ play sharp,” and “from their play here, no correct idea could be formed of their power and skill when working against a professional club.” The score was 22-5, Boston, yet the Red Stockings “could easily have whitewashed their opponents and run up their own score to a surprising number.” The reporter believed the Red Stockings were muffing plays on purpose and would only “trot along around the bases,” becoming easy outs. George Wright was seen “several times throwing to first base without care,” and the team as a whole was “evidently not caring to make much exertion.” Even when they attempted brilliant plays in the field, it was “merely to amuse the lookers-on,” which numbered around 600.31

Ludlow, Kentucky, August 16, 1875
Boston Red Stockings 14, Cincinnati Reds 5

Very few exhibition games could match the intensity of this contest as “the spirit of ’69 blazed up brightly in the hearts of Cincinnatians yesterday, and caused a general pilgrimage to Ludlow,” wrote the Cincinnati Daily Gazette. They were flocking to see their newly rebuilt Cincinnati Reds, and the “cars on the Third and Fourth street line were crowded to overflowing with sweltering humanity, every individual apparently impressed with the idea that his future happiness depended upon his getting to the base ball field as soon as possible.”32 The game seemed to be more symbolic than anything for the fans of Cincinnati to show the rest of the baseball world they still were a baseball city. An estimated crowd of 5,000 to 8,000 crammed into every square inch. The new Cincinnati team got its old Red Stockings name back in 1876, moved into a new ballpark, and joined the new National League.

Boston led 6-1 in the fifth inning when a fight broke out in the stands. Jim Garman, the deputy marshal of Ludlow, was trying to enforce order but instead wound up getting into a fistfight with “a Covington rough.” The marshal grabbed a bat and was going to hit the man with “a blow which might have proved fatal,” when a Cincinnati policeman named Mr. Mitchell grabbed his wrist and prevented the blow. Garman and his assistants grabbed Mitchell and led him out of the park.

With Boston leading 14-5 in the eighth inning, “the crowd had become unmanageable and very disorderly, encroaching on the play-ground of the catcher and right field so as to leave the players in their positions insufficient room to play,” wrote the Gazette. In remembering the Cincinnati Red Stocking glory years of 1869-1870 “there was no scene so humiliating as this,” the Gazette lamented. The paper blamed the scene on the small park, lack of Ludlow police, and the fact that the “noisy, fighting crowd of Kentuckians learned long since that Cincinnati officers are destitute of all color of authority on the sacred soil where the bloodless and friendly contests are waged.”33

The game actually ended on a close play at first base in the eighth inning, which led to fans crowding around the players in anticipation of an argument with the umpire, Ham Avery. Seeing the chaos and the impossibility of continuing, Avery called the game.

BOB LeMOINE came up with the idea for this book while researching the beginnings of professional base- ball in Boston, wondering “How did all of that come together?” He often daydreams about time traveling to the 19th Century too see early baseball games, horse and buggies, and meet the legendary stars. Actually, he’d just like to see a game for 25 cents. Bob works as a high school librarian and lives in Barrington, New Hampshire.

 

Notes

1 “The Great Ball Game. Brown University vs. Boston Red Stockings,” Providence Evening Press, June 23, 1871: 3.

2 “Base Ball. Bostons Defeat Resolutes of Hamilton, Ohio—Score, 27 to 0,” Cincinnati Daily Gazette, July 1, 1871: 4.

3 “Base Ball—Boston Nine vs. Mazeppas,” National Aegis (Worcester, Massachusetts), August 5, 1871: 4; “New England News Items,” Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, August 5, 1871: 8.

4 “The Red Stocking Tour North,” New York Clipper, September 30, 1871: 205.

5 Ibid; “New England News Items,” Springfield Republican, September 20, 1871: 8.

6 “Base Ball. The Red Stockings of Boston and the Resolutes of Portland,” Portland Daily Press, September 21, 1871: 3.

7 Ibid.

8 The Portland Advertiser article, “The Red Stockings in Portland,” appeared in the Lewiston (Maine) Evening Journal, September 21, 1871, page 3.

9 A coup de main is a sudden attack, according to Merriam-Webster.

10 “The Red Stockings in Portland.”

11 “City and County,” Lewiston Evening Journal, September 22, 1871: 3.

12 “Base Ball,” Portland Daily Press, September 23, 1871: 3.

13 “Bowdoin’s Baseball History,” The Orient, March 11, 1872: 250.

14 Walter Griffin, “Belfast Museum Gussying It Up for Big Season,” Bangor (Maine) Daily News, June 16, 2007: C2.

15 Edgar G. Brands, “Between Innings,” The Sporting News, March 24, 1938: 4; Paul Dickson, “at bat, on deck, in the hold.” Dickson Baseball Dictionary 3rd ed. (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2011), 31-32; see also Belfast Historical Society & Museum, https://belfastmuseum.org/museum_exhibits.html.

16 “Sporting News. Base Ball,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 17, 1872: 3.

17 “Base Ball. The Bostons Defeat the Empires By a Score of 35 to 2,” Detroit Free Press, August 22, 1872: 1.

18 “Base Ball. The Boston Red Stockings Against the Empires, of Detroit,” Detroit Free Press, August 22, 1873: 1.

19 “News of the State,” Hartford Courant, May 9, 1873: 2.

20 “Base Ball at St. Louis,” St. Louis Times, August 14, 1873, printed in the Cincinnati Daily Gazette, August 15, 1873: 10.

21 Ibid.

22 “Base Ball,” Daily Register (Rockford, Illinois), August 18, 1873: 4.

23 “Disastrous Runaway,” Daily Register, August 18, 1873: 4.

24 “Base Ball,” Daily Register, August 19, 1873: 2.

25 “The Ludlows and Boston Red Stockings,” Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, June 2, 1875: 8.

26 “Base Ball. Match Game Between the Red Stockings, of Boston, and the Ludlows, of Ludlow,” Cincinnati Daily Gazette, June 2, 1875: 3.

27 “The Ludlows and Boston Red Stockings.”

28 “Base Ball. Bostons vs. Ludlows—Close and Exciting Game—Ludlows Defeated by a Score of 9-7,” Cincinnati Daily Times, August 14, 1875: 4.

29 “A Big Time,” Mirror and Farmer (Manchester, New Hampshire), July 17, 1885: 8.

30 Ibid.

31 “Base Ball. ‘Bostons’ and ‘Atlantics’—22 to 5,” Mirror and Farmer, July 31, 1875: 2.

32 “Base Ball. The Battle of the Red Stockings,” Cincinnati Daily Gazette, August 17, 1875: 8.

33 Ibid.