Ivers Whitney Adams was born on May 20, 1838, in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, the oldest of six children of Walter and Sarah (Whitney) Adams.1 His father worked as a carpenter in rural Ashburnham, 50 miles northwest of Boston. Adams was educated in the Ashburnham public schools, but never attended college. Although Adams came from humble origins, he became a wealthy man in the city of Boston.

Adams left Ashburnham in 1857 to pursue a business career in Boston. Initially, he was a clerk at Houghton, Sawyer & Company, a dry-goods firm. In the mid-19th century, a clerk was an apprentice businessman, who worked for very low pay to learn the business in hopes of eventually becoming a highly compensated partner in the business. Adams left Houghton, Sawyer in 1860 to be a clerk at John H. Pray, Sons & Company, which specialized in carpets.2 In the mid-1860s, Adams, still single, lived in a boarding house on Cambridge Street in downtown Boston near his work.3 Since the main office of John H. Pray, Sons & Company was at 192 Washington Street, Adams was an occasional spectator at the afternoon baseball games played on the nearby Boston Common ball field by the Lowell Base Ball Club, one of the three top amateur teams in the city.

On October 4, 1866, Adams married Sarah Shepard.4 They lived in a large house with several live-in domestic servants at 2 Delle Avenue in suburban Roxbury, which had recently been annexed to the city of Boston and renamed the Boston Highlands neighborhood.5 Adams was still a clerk at John H. Pray, Sons & Company, but he was part of the emerging white-collar middle class that filled the void between the rich and the poor social classes.6 Adams still watched a few ballgames played on the Boston Common on his way home from work, since he commuted to work from the Roxbury Crossing station on the Boston & Providence railroad line, whose Boston train terminal was adjacent to the Boston Common.

Before 2,000 spectators on the Boston Common on June 10, 1869, the all-professional Cincinnati Red Stockings, led by Harry Wright, trounced the amateur Lowell club, 29-9.7 With such a large attendance, Adams saw a bright future for professional baseball in Boston and began to plot how to establish a professional team in the city.8 Adams was not just an avid sportsman, but also a savvy businessman. He realized the potential that a professional baseball team could do for Boston’s business community, to elevate Boston into the same realm as New York City and Philadelphia as one of America’s leading cities that local businessmen, including Adams himself, could leverage for economic gain. It took Adams nearly two years to realize this goal and form a company to sponsor a professional baseball team.9

Adams had to first locate a new playing ground for Boston baseball teams. The Boston Common, once marginalized land next to the Charles River, was now valuable public land as a landfill project, begun in 1866, filled in the Charles River basin to create an elite neighborhood now known as the Back Bay. The city was issuing fewer permits to play baseball on the Common, to reduce the noise and activity that might impede the sale of house lots in the Back Bay. On June 24, 1869, the Lowell club began to play its games at the new Union Grounds, located two miles from the Boston Common on a five-acre parcel in Roxbury along the Boston & Providence railroad line.10

In 1870, when the Cincinnati team returned, 5,000 spectators jammed the Union Grounds on June 4 to watch Harry Wright’s team crush the Harvard College team, 46-15.11 Adams then seriously pressed forward to establish the first professional team in Boston. In November 1870, when the Cincinnati team was being disbanded, Adams recruited Wright and his brother George to form the nucleus of the new Boston team.12 After Adams made Harry Wright the captain of the team, Wright recruited several other highly skilled ballplayers to complete the team by the time of the ballclub’s first organizing meeting, on January 20, 1871, at the Parker House.

Adams was the leader of a band of five men, all in their 30s, who served as the officers and directors of that first professional baseball club in Boston. Adams, 32, was the president; Wright, 36, was the secretary; John Conkey, 31, a broker, was the vice president; Harrison Gardner, 30, a dry-goods merchant, was the treasurer; George Burditt, 38, an accountant, was the fifth director, in addition to the aforementioned four officers.13

At that founding meeting of the ballclub, Adams initiated a number of policies that were the foundation of Boston professional baseball for a quarter-century. First, he established the club as a corporation, which required that he marshal a bill through the state legislature.14 Importantly, the new baseball club was called Boston, after its city location, not by a nickname that most other teams of the era used, such as the Mutual club in New York or the Athletic club in Philadelphia. Adams used his business connections to raise $15,000 in capital by selling shares in the new corporation, convincing prominent local merchants such as Eben Jordan (founder of the department store Jordan Marsh), Charles Pierce (owner of the Baker’s Chocolate factory and future mayor of Boston), and John F. Mills (proprietor of the Parker House hotel).15 The capital enabled Adams and Wright to immediately field a championship-caliber team.

Adams also established the strategy of attracting spectators to watch the baseball games: “shareholders, members of the club and those of our friends who may take sufficient interest in the success of this enterprise.”16 The operative word in the strategy was “friends,” who were businessmen in the same emerging upper middle-class social status as the club’s officers and members (200 people who purchased season tickets). The laboring class was not part of the target audience. Adams bought into Wright’s philosophy that the admission price to ballgames should be 50 cents, not the 25-cent fee that the Lowell club had been charging.17 Patrons could purchase game tickets at the Wright & Gould sporting goods store, co-owned by George Wright.18

The strategy for the ballgrounds was also devised by Adams. He decided to rent the land where the Union Grounds were located and build “a covered building capable of seating about a thousand people,” with reserved seats for the shareholders, members, and friends.19 Bleacher seating along the baselines would come a few years later. This location later was known as the South End Grounds, where the Boston Braves franchise played its games until 1914.

Behind the capable leadership of Harry Wright, the Boston team finished the 1871 season in second place in the National Association standings, runner-up to the champion Athletic club of Philadelphia. Adams was re-elected president for the 1872 season; however, after serving as the club president for just ten months, he declined a second term since “his business engagements would not permit of his giving the proper time to the duties of the office.”20 Three weeks after stepping down as club president, Adams resigned from his position at John H. Pray, Sons & Company to start his own firm.21 His role in establishing the ballclub had helped Adams achieve the next step in his business career; cynics would say he used the ballclub for personal gain.

However, after the Great Boston Fire of 1872 destroyed the buildings and inventory of the John H. Pray, Sons & Company, Adams returned to the carpet firm to rebuild its business. He was now part of ownership, the only nonfamily partner in the management team that had been exclusively John A. and William H. Pray.22 His promotion from clerk to partner was lucrative because the demand for floor coverings escalated in Boston during the 1870s. Carpets were needed by residents in the new upper-class Back Bay neighborhood, but the rise of middle-class “streetcar suburbs” within five miles of downtown Boston stimulated carpet demand even more. The middle class sought to emulate the “trappings of gentility” of upper-class household furnishings, as “the carpet, the sofa, and the piano [were] all artifacts of the new middle-class way of life” in the late 19th century.23

While Adams was making money selling carpets, the Boston baseball team captured four consecutive National Association championships, from 1872 through 1875, and then two National League pennants in 1877 and 1878. Business was booming in Boston, as the baseball success had indeed helped turn Boston into one of America’s leading cities, Adams’s original goal. By the time the Boston team had won its sixth title in seven years, Adams was well on his way to becoming a millionaire as a partner at John H. Pray, Sons & Company.

In 1882 Adams retired from John H. Pray, Sons & Company as a wealthy man.24 At age 44, he never had to work another day in his life; he, his wife, Sarah, and their five children (Alfred, Clara, Ivers S., Walter, and Mary) could live a life of leisure.25 They moved from their home on Delle Avenue to a more upscale neighborhood in the Grove Hall section of Dorchester, building a huge house at the corner of Washington Street and Columbia Road.26 Adams also purchased a fishing ground on the shores of the Nepisiguit River in New Brunswick, Canada.27 He continued to dabble in the business world as a member of the board of directors at the American Net and Twine Company, the firm his father-in-law, James S. Shepard, had founded to manufacture cotton-twine fish netting to displace hemp twine.28

Adams rarely was in the baseball spotlight after 1871, but he did occasionally attend get-togethers. On June 21, 1897, he was a guest at a dinner given by George Wright for a touring baseball team from Australia.29 On September 24, 1908, he spoke at a postgame dinner following an old-timer’s game played at the Huntington Avenue Grounds.30

In his later years, Adams donated funds to his hometown of Ashburnham, to establish a water system and to erect a statue that depicts a young boy walking to school.31

Adams died on October 10, 1914, in Boston.32 He is buried at New Cemetery in Ashburnham.

This biography is included in “Boston’s First Nine: The 1871-75 Boston Red Stockings” (SABR, 2016), edited by Bob LeMoine and Bill Nowlin.

Sources

Books

Blumin, Stuart, The Emergence of the Middle Class: Social Experience in the American City, 1760-1900 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989).

Devine, Christopher, Harry Wright: The Father of Professional Baseball (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2003).

Sterns, Ezra, “Ivers W. Adams,” in History of Ashburnham, Massachusetts (Town of Ashburnham, 1887), 592-594.

Tuohey, George, A History of the Boston Base Ball Club (Boston: M.F. Quinn, 1897).

Newspapers

“The Boston Base-Ball Club,” Boston Daily Advertiser, January 21, 1871.

“Ivers W. Adams Dead,” Boston Globe, October 11, 1914.

“John H. Pray, Sons & Company,” Boston Congregationalist, April 17, 1873.

“Organization of the Boston Club as a Corporate Company,” Boston Daily Advertiser, December 8, 1871.

Boston Daily Advertiser, 1869-1872.

Boston Herald, 1869-1870.

Archival Material

Boston Public Library, Boston City Directory from 1860 to 1914.

Massachusetts State Archives, marriage records prior to 1910.

US Census Bureau, federal census records for decennial years from 1860 to 1910.

Notes

For better or worse, everyone had a favorite memory and an opinion of Bob Addy, even when their views seemed contradictory. Cap Anson famously described him as an “odd sort of genius” because, to the horror of the single-minded Anson, Addy “quit the game because he thought he could do better at something else.”4 Yet others found his passion for baseball unsurpassed. “Bob Addy is the modern wonder,” declared one sportswriter. “If base ball ever dies out, we believe Bob will want to die. His whole soul is wrapped up in the sport. To see him run in from the extreme field, and hear him beg for a high in-field ball, like a child begging for a bun, is amusing.”5 Cone agreed that Addy’s “temperament was such that he could never miss seeing a game.”6

On one point there was no dispute: that he was unforgettable. “Everybody remembers Bob Addy,” declared a Hartford Courant reporter in 1886 – twelve years after Addy had spent a mere six months playing ball in that city.7 More than three decades after Addy had played his last major league game, the nickname of rookie Shoeless Joe Jackson prompted a sportswriter to recall that “the famous second baseman, Bob Addy, did that very often, as he was much troubled with sore feet.”8

But it was not just his eccentricities and his wit that made Bob Addy so memorable. For one thing, he was one of the best players of his era in spite of being very late to take up baseball. In addition, he played the game with a spirit of reckless abandon that led teammate George Bird to call him “about the toughest fellow I ever saw. He would go after anything, any way, and his hands were broken and battered out of shape.”9 Finally, Bob Addy was the first Canadian major leaguer and, unlike many early Canadian-born players, he had actually grown up there.

When and where Bob Addy was born has long been a disputed issue, with most sources indicating that he was born in Rochester, New York, in 1845. Addy seems to have given this information out in his later years, but there is overwhelming evidence that he was actually born in Canada. He was living in Port Hope, Ontario, when the 1861 Canadian census was taken – his birthplace was listed as Upper Canada (Ontario), and his age was given as 19. Nine years later, he was living in Rockford with many of his baseball teammates and was reported to have been born in Canada around 1842. It was not until the 1880 census that he was first listed as being born in New York.

While the census data points to a Canadian birthplace, it is other evidence that clinches the matter. A. G. Spalding, who knew Addy from their days on the Forest City Club of Rockford, described Addy as “originally a Canadian cricketer.”10 Canada was also given as Addy’s birthplace in an 1874 book written by George Wright.11 Finally, when the Forest City Club stopped in Hamilton, Ontario, during an 1870 tour, the locals learned of his Canadian birth and Addy became “the object of special pride on the part of the Canucks, they claimed him from the start as one of them.” This made Addy the subject of kidding from his teammates and he finally declared: “I don’t care nothing for them, I tell you I don’t care nothing about ’em.’”12

Exactly when he was born remains unclear. Late in life he began claiming an 1845 year of birth, but the evidence suggests otherwise. His tombstone has 1838, which would be very intriguing if true, but the source of this information is not known. The 1860 and 1870 censuses suggest that he was born around 1842, and that seems most plausible.

Bob Addy reportedly “belonged to several cricket clubs in the Dominion,” but any details are lost to history.13 Nor is much known about his early years except that he was born shortly after his parents emigrated from Ireland and that his father, whose name appears to have been James, had died by 1857.

It becomes easier to follow Addy’s trail in 1861, when he appears in Port Hope on the Canadian census, already working in his lifelong profession as a tinsmith. Listed with him are his mother Ellen (age 44, born Ireland), his younger brother James (17, born Upper Canada, a saddler), and his older brother George (25, born Ireland, a clerk). George’s presence in Port Hope is a bit odd, since he had been listed in Ogle County, Illinois, on the 1860 U.S. census and got married in that county in February of 1861. So perhaps he was still in the process of relocating to the United States.

By 1866 George Addy was a well-established Ogle County produce dealer with two young children, and Bob had followed him there. Both brothers also started playing on the Clipper Base Ball Club of the nearby town of Rochelle. While the club itself had limited success, Bob Addy made the sort of indelible impression that he so often did. A. G. Spalding would later recall paying a fateful visit to Rochelle in June of 1866 with the Forest City Club of Rockford, during which “Robert Addy startled the players of the Forest Citys by a diving slide for second base. None of us had ever witnessed the play before, though it may have been in vogue. Certainly we were quite nonplussed.”14

On the basis of Spalding’s comments, Addy has often been credited with inventing the slide. It would be nice to report that this was true, but baseball innovations are rarely that clear-cut. Slides seem to have gradually evolved from accidental slips while trying to make a sudden stop at a base into deliberate evasive maneuvers. While a slide in 1866 would still have been a novelty, there is no way to definitively pinpoint the first intentional slide.15

What we can be sure of is that Addy’s play made a vivid impression the visiting players. “He showed wonderful ability as a ball player in this game,” recollected Spalding, “by practically playing the whole game, captain of the team, pitcher, catcher, and, in fact, took every position where the player had developed weakness by making an error.”16 Both his standout play and his tendency to try to cover the entire field would become recurring themes of the career of the “celebrated base ball character.”

Addy was soon offered a place on the Forest City Club and a job at a Rockford hardware store, both of which he accepted. It was a coup for the Forest Citys and the start of the club’s highly successful policy of recruiting players from the surrounding countryside.

The Forest City Club was still experimenting with lineups, and Addy played all four infield positions during the remainder of the 1866 season. He began a two-year stint as a club director in 1867, and it was during these years that the Forest Citys began using a regular lineup in which Addy played second base and batted leadoff. The new stability paid off on July 25, 1867, when the Forest Citys traveled to Chicago to face the Nationals of Washington, a seemingly invincible club that was making a historic tour of the South and Midwest. Spalding recalled that “we were all frightened nearly to death, with possibly the exception of Bob Addy, who kept up his nerve and courage by ‘joshing’ the National players as they came to bat with witticisms.”17 Addy also launched his reputation as a clutch performer by scoring four runs and turning a key double play as the Forest Citys pulled off a stunning 29-23 upset that put the club on the national map.18

The Forest Citys made a gradual transition from amateurism to professionalism over the next three years, a process that entailed the replacement of several starters. Only three players remained fixtures in the club’s lineup: Spalding, Addy, and a young protégé of Addy’s named Roscoe Barnes. Spalding and Barnes went on to become superstars in the first major league, the National Association (1871-1875). Addy is much less remembered today, in large part because his National Association statistics are not on a par with Spalding’s and Barnes’s gaudy numbers. But those who saw him play, especially during his years in Rockford, believed that he too was a star of the first magnitude.

George Wright wrote that Addy was “a thorough ball-player, and a most earnest worker; a splendid base runner, a good batter, and a lively fielder. He is a valuable member of any organization from the fact of his steady play having [a] tendency to infuse confidence into the minds of his fellow-players.”19 Anson recalled Addy as “a good, hard, hustling ballplayer, a good base runner and a hard hitter.”20 As late as 1876, he was still considered “one of the hardest working players and best run-getters in the country.”21

Such judgments do not mean much when they are not supported by the statistical record, and a superficial look at Addy’s National Association and National League statistics suggests that he was a run-of-the mill major leaguer. But such a conclusion can only be drawn by overlooking the key fact that by the time those leagues were formed, Bob Addy was already on the downside of his career – exactly how far past his prime he was again depends on the knotty issue of his correct age. While we have less extensive statistics from the 1869 and 1870 seasons, when Addy was in his prime, the available records show that he deserved to be regarded as one of the game’s best players.

In 1869 Addy averaged well over five hits per game, a figure that ranked him first among all the players on the more than 400 clubs that were members of the National Association of Base Ball Players.22 While the absence of at-bats make the comparison from club to club an imperfect one, he also easily topped a club that included Ross Barnes and many other future major leaguers in both hits per game and total bases.23 Barnes was only 19 that year, but the following year, it was again Addy who led the star-studded Forest City Club in batting, collecting 204 hits in 56 games.24

These two glorious seasons almost never happened. As the start of the 1869 season approached, Addy was talking seriously about heading west to “seek his fortune.”25 But in the end he decided to stay in Rockford for another summer, and he enjoyed a season that has to be ranked as the best of his career, since his five-plus hits per game were compiled while making the switch to the game’s most demanding defensive position.

Forest City catcher George King had chosen to retire after the 1868 season, so Addy moved behind the plate. Catchers wore no equipment except a rubber mouthpiece, making the position extraordinarily dangerous, and they also needed great dexterity to prevent passed balls. Working with a hard-throwing pitcher like Spalding was especially onerous, but Addy made a seamless transition to the new position. Even more impressively, when he saw Doug Allison of the “Red Stockings” of Cincinnati standing close to the plate to catch, he immediately made the same decision.26

The 1869 season is remembered as the undefeated season of the “Red Stockings” of Cincinnati, but it was also a memorable campaign for the Forest Citys. The Rockford club, although still ostensibly amateur, lost only four games all season – all of them to the openly professional Red Stockings. In one of those contests, the Forest Citys came within two outs of pulling off an upset that would have changed baseball history.      

The match was played in Cincinnati on July 24, and “Addy was the hero of the game in every way. Not only was he catching directly behind the bat, something he had done only at critical moments until two weeks before, but he allowed only two passed balls to [Cincinnati fill-in catcher Asa] Brainard’s five, scored four runs in five times at bat, one a home run, and continued the game after having been knocked flat by a foul in the sixth inning.”27 Addy’s insistence on remaining in the game after the gruesome injury led a Cincinnati paper to praise his “commendable pluck.”28

More than half a century after the fact, Addy’s brother-in-law Victor Wheeler still remembered the game vividly. “Bob was absolutely unafraid,” he recalled. “He would step into the fastest ball and it didn’t seem that anything could get away from those twisted fingers of his, strong as steel cables. Down in Cincinnati that day they carried him to the players’ tent on the grounds, with part of his teeth knocked loose, and sent for a doctor. Addy wouldn’t stay. He came back on the field and took up his place behind the batter. Then the game had to stop while Cincinnati stood up and cheered him for ten minutes.”29

Led by Addy’s heroics, the Forest Citys were clinging to a 14-12 lead as the game went to the bottom of the ninth inning. But after the first batter was retired, the Red Stockings mounted a three-run rally to preserve their undefeated season.

Bob Addy left Rockford at the conclusion of the 1869 season and announced that he would not be returning. But “the week before the election Bob was back again, swearing to locate permanently, and establishing himself in a tinning and jobbing shop opposite the court house.”30  He returned to second base in 1870 as the Forest Citys completed the transition to open professionalism. The club compiled a 42-13-1 record during a prolonged schedule that included Addy’s previously mentioned return to Canada and that climaxed with an October 15 victory over the Red Stockings. On one of the club’s few off-days, on August 13, Addy found time to get married in Rockford.

The winter following the 1870 season saw the birth of the National Association and the departure of three club stalwarts, as Spalding, Barnes, and Cone all chose to sign with Boston. The Forest Citys nonetheless decided to enter the new league, and Addy thus became the club’s longest-tenured member (with the exception of Al Barker, who played sparingly). A much younger lineup resulted, with Addy the grizzled veteran among a group of newcomers who included the nineteen-year-old Cap Anson.

Scott Hastings is now listed in record books as the manager of the 1871 Forest Citys, but there seems to be no basis for this designation. Most baseball clubs of the 1870s did not have anyone whose role resembles that of today’s manager, so listings of this sort are just an exercise in futility. Hiram Waldo, a Rockford bookseller, was the man who signed players and made player personnel decisions, while Addy was named the club’s captain and made in-game decisions.31

Addy got off to a sizzling start, pounding Asa Brainard, the former Red Stockings pitcher, for four hits in the club’s second National Association game and then collecting five hits two games later to lead the Forest Citys to a thrilling extra-inning come-from-behind victory over the Kekiongas of Fort Wayne. But then he cooled off, and so did his teammates. The season was not a success, but neither was it anywhere near as bad as the 4-21 record that appears in the record books – the club actually won eight of its 25 games but had to forfeit four wins when Hastings was ruled to have been ineligible.32

The Great Chicago Fire put a temporary halt to professional baseball in the region then known as the West and a permanent end to the brilliant career of the Forest City Club of Rockford. For a while, it appeared it would also mark the end of Bob Addy’s career, as the newlywed elected to remain in Rockford and pursue business.

He returned to the diamond in 1873 with the White Stockings of Philadelphia (one of two National Association entries from that city that year). His new club won seventeen of its first nineteen games to grab a commanding lead in the pennant race. But in early June, Addy requested and received his release. Despite his short stay in Philadelphia, he had made such a vivid impression that he was “he was presented with a magnificent gold watch by the directors of the club, and was tendered a dinner.”33

Business concerns were said to have been the reason for his return to Rockford, but a more personal matter may have been the determining factor. Bob and Ida Addy’s only son was a boy named George. Following in the family tradition, George would later give contradictory information about his date of birth, but it appears most likely that he was born on August 1, 1873.

Shortly after that date, following a two-month absence, Bob Addy signed to join Spalding and Barnes with Boston. The Red Stockings were nine games behind his old team at the time of the signing, but he provided a much-needed spark. He batted .355 in 31 games, and Boston won twenty-six of those games to cruise to the pennant. Tim Murnane later credited Addy with having “pulled the Bostons through for the championship by his fine work at right field and timely hitting and baserunning in 1873.”34

The hard-won pennant was jeopardized by claims that Addy was ineligible because of having played for a club in Rockford after leaving Philadelphia. But former Forest City Club officer A. N. Nicholds attested that Rockford had no club of any kind, and that Addy had merely taken part in a contest involving “little boys.” The controversy simmered down, and Boston was awarded the pennant.35

Addy spent the 1874 season in Hartford, his last year as a regular infielder. At season’s end, it was announced that he planned to organize a new professional club in Springfield, Massachusetts. But he was slow to sign players, prompting speculation that he would only enlist the services of a pitcher and catcher and would cover the rest of the field by himself.36  Eventually plans for the Springfield Club were abandoned, and Addy instead returned to the White Stockings of Philadelphia where, according to one rather far-fetched retrospective article, he pretty much ended up fulfilling the prediction that he would have to cover the entire field.

The roster of the White Stockings was strewn with talented players who had suspect reputations. According to this article, “in one game eight of the players were fixed to lose. The one true man was Bob Addy … It was thought by those who were engineering the ‘skin’ that it would not be necessary to buy Addy, and besides he had the reputation of being a square player.” Throughout the contest, Addy did “great work in the field and was striving to win, covering a wonderful amount of ground,” even while his teammates were conspiring to lose. Finally, at a pivotal moment Addy made a long run and saved the game by catching a ball that a teammate intended to let drop.     When the teammate realized what had happened, “his disgust was supreme, and in a tone of contempt and scorn he remarked: ‘Look here, Bob Addy, do you want to play the whole game?’”37

The story is at the very least exaggerated, and may be pure fabrication. Yet it is fascinating how well it captures two of the characteristics that were at the heart of Bob Addy’s reputation as a “celebrated base ball character”: his tendency to venture into the territory of teammates and his scrupulous honesty in an era when rumors of game-fixing were rampant. As Anson would say, “He was honest as the day is long.”38

After the 1875 season the National League was formed as a successor to the National Association. The main motive for this coup was that it legitimized Chicago’s William Hulbert’s signing of Boston’s four best players, the so-called “Big Four” of Spalding, Barnes, Jim “Deacon” White, and Cal McVey. From Rockford’s perspective, the development was most ironic: five years earlier, the National Association had been launched when Boston had signed Spalding and Barnes, and the two young men who had grown up in Rockford had led Boston to four straight pennants. So their return to Illinois seemed a case of turn-about being fair play.

The demise of the National Association left the fate of many players, including Addy, up in the air. It was at first reported that he would remain in Philadelphia with a club that would combine some of the most talented and unsavory players from a city swarming with men who embodied both traits. The New York Times reported with dark irony that the managers of the new club had “engaged such able and honorable players as Dick Higham, John Nelson, George Zettlein, Billy Craver, Treacy, Meyerle, Bob Addy, and Shafer. Mr. Bob Addy will officiate in the capacity of Captain. The one great advantage in having a nine of this kind is that they always play to win – perhaps. As an evidence of the high standing of this club, it is only necessary to state that at a recent election all the officers were required to subscribe an oath to the effect that they would not countenance the selling of a single game. Some people are curious to know why the imposing of such an oath was necessary.”39

But as the Chicago Tribune was quick to point out, the Times had done an “injustice to Addy in classing him with such a gang.”40  Like many of his teammates, Addy was owed money at the end of the 1875 season and was anxious to leave Philadelphia.41 Meanwhile, Spalding had been named captain of the new club in Chicago and Anson had been added to the club’s contingent of Forest City alumni. Spalding soon offered Addy a spot on the team and the two men who had already been teammates in Rockford and Boston were reunited for the third time.

Upon his arrival in the Windy City, Addy made his usual indelible impression and displaying the now-familiar traits. An account of the team’s home opener reported, “every man was where he belonged, from impassive White around to the agile Addy, and from the sure-handed Iowa infant [Anson] down through the grades of height to Capt. Bob Shorty, who teetered all over the infield as he thought there was occasion.”42

His wit also remained conspicuous. When a July exhibition game to raise funds for an orphanage was rained out, the Tribune observed that “the orphans were unlucky – in fact, to use the words of that venerable philosopher, Robert Addy, it was to have been expected that they would be unlucky, for if they hadn’t been unlucky they wouldn’t have been orphans at all.”43

Exactly how venerable Addy was by this time can only be estimated, but he was most likely nearing forty and now exclusively played the outfield. Nevertheless, he was as energetic as ever, and several game accounts describe slides like the one that had startled Spalding a decade earlier. According to one of these reports, “Addy opened the second inning and took his base on called balls. He at once stole second in his usual underground manner, and to the great detriment of his good clothes.”44

Chicago won 36 of its first 43 games to take a commanding lead in the race for the National League’s inaugural pennant. But Addy got off to a slow start at the plate and found himself sharing time in right field with Oscar Bielaski and Fred Andrus. His benching apparently was not Spalding’s decision; a Cincinnati Enquirer sportswriter maintained after the season that “a higher authority than Spalding laid Addy off the nine and put Bielaski in his place – Bielaski, whose batting shows him eighty per cent weaker than Addy, and five per cent weaker as a fielder.”45  

But the pennant race suddenly tightened up in August when the White Stockings were swept at St. Louis. Addy was reinstalled in right field and again showed his knack for clutch performances. He pounded out four hits in a crucial game against St. Louis and continued to swing a hot bat as Chicago maintained its lead.46

In September, with the pennant within sight, Boston came to town for a game that featured numerous players from the old Red Stockings-Forest City rivalry. Addy, Spalding, and Barnes all took the field for the home side, while the visitors included Andy Leonard and both Wright brothers. For good measure the umpire was Fred Cone, the third player who had left the Forest Citys after the 1870 season to play for Boston.

Boston jumped to a six-run lead, but Chicago roared back and finally pushed across two decisive runs in the ninth inning for a 12-10 win. According to a game account, “Addy and White carried off the honors very easily, both in fielding, batting, and run-getting. The former made five wonderful catches, those off [Jim] O’Rourke, [Jack] Manning, and [Harry] Schafer being as fine bits of play as ever were seen in any game. Addy’s base-running also drew out great applause.” The dramatic win allowed Chicago, in the words of the Tribune’s reporter, to reach “a step in the championship race which is next door to the absolute securing of the pennant.”47

The labyrinthine phraseology was necessary because of some disputed games, but there was now little doubt about the league’s first pennant-winner. Four days later, the last shred of doubt was eliminated when Chicago defeated Hartford. Once again, Addy was the hero in the clincher, making “a couple of extraordinary catches” in the ninth inning of the 7-6 nail-biter, one of which seemed “fairly impossible until taken.”48

Bob Addy had now played an important role for championship teams in both the National Association and National League, but his mid-season benching still rankled, and he was not interested in returning to Chicago.49 He instead signed with Cincinnati, prompting a reporter to offer this satirical warning to the fans of that city: “whatever happens on your ball-field the Hon. Bob will have part and lot in it; if a man is to be run out between third and home, Bob will show up and take a hand in it like as if he had been standing there all the while.”50

Upon his arrival in Cincinnati, Addy made the same kind of impression that he had made throughout his career. Before played his first league game with his new team, it was reported that “The Hon. Bob Addy seems to be a sort of demi-god in Cincinnati; if he stubs his toe the fact is recorded with due solemnity; if he tumbles down while fielding the ball, it is immediately telegraphed throughout the entire country, headed, ‘Sad disaster;’ and if he makes a base hit, the local reporters spoil their entire reserve of lead-pencils, in making a half-column note of it.”51 Alas, it was Cincinnati’s season that proved a sad disaster. After a 3-11 start, Addy took over as captain, only to see the team disband a few days later. Following a two-week hiatus, the team was reassembled, but the club finished with a dismal 15-42 record in a season that ended Addy’s major league career. In an odd twist, he also played a role in the end of Spalding’s pitching career – on June 5, Addy smashed a line drive that hit his old batterymate in the chest and literally knocked Spalding out of the box in what proved to be the final start of his illustrious major-league career.52

In November, Cincinnati announced that it was releasing Addy on the ground of drunkenness.53  But whether this was the real reason remains open to doubt. A Chicago sportswriter quipped that the charge, “sounds oddy,” and pointed out that “Bob, though never a reliable player, has always been considered an honest man.”54 More to the point, Addy had a two-year contract, and the allegation enabled parsimonious Cincinnati owner “Si” Keck to avoid paying him for its second year.55

“Philosopher Bob” returned to Chicago that winter and opened a skating rink on the corner of Madison and Ada streets. To drum up business, he even organized a game of baseball on ice.56  Addy’s new enterprise prompted one reporter to quip that “Bob stands up better on ice than he does on land.”57

But Addy soon gave up the skating rink business and finally did what he had so often talked of doing by heading out west, where he remained for the rest of his life. He brought along his young son George but not his wife Ida. She was still alive according to Bob’s listing the 1880 census, but otherwise she remains a mysterious figure. Her marriage record gives her name as Ida Belle Seeley, while her son’s marriage record says that it was Ida Enose, but she cannot be identified under either name. Nor is anything known about what became of her after Bob moved west.

Even after permanently settling in the West, Addy’s doings continued to be chronicled in the eastern press. In 1879 he was reported to be playing baseball in Salt Lake City for a team known as the Gentile Club.58  Seven years later, a claim that he had become a Mormon with twelve wives was widely reprinted.59 Other unfounded reports had him in Oregon and California.

The reality seems to have been more prosaic. By the time of the 1880 census, he was living in Evanston, Wyoming, and he was still there at the end of the decade. Around 1891, he moved to Pocatello, Idaho, where he opened a hardware store and, on the first day of 1892, was remarried to a much younger woman named Louise Emma Clark. The marriage produced one child, a daughter named Ellen Louise, who was born on December 1, 1897.

As we have seen, Bob Addy continued to be remembered with great fondness in baseball circles long after his retirement. His feelings toward the game are more difficult to ascertain, but it certainly appears that he retained his passion for baseball. As late as 1890 he was still playing for the town team in Evanston.60 His last known involvement with baseball came in 1899 when he took part in a “fat versus lean” game in Pocatello. Appropriately, the man who had been known for roaming the field at will started the contest with the “fat” side but ended it with the “leans.”61 One can imagine one of his fellow players exclaiming, “Look here, Bob Addy, do you want to play the whole game?”

Bob Addy died in Pocatello on April 9, 1910, after a severe attack of apoplexy.62  His widow passed away in 1929, and their daughter died in 1974. At least one grandson is still alive as of 2009. His son from his first marriage moved to Spokane, Washington, and then to Oregon, where he is believed to have died in 1957. His brother George was last heard from in 1900, when he was living in Philadelphia and made news by making a desperate trip to England. The purpose of the voyage was to prevent his youngest daughter Arlan, a soprano who was singing with the D’Oyly Carte Opera, from marrying Dr. Henryk Arctowski, the Polish explorer who had recently returned from heading the celebrated Antarctic Expedition. But after meeting Arctowski, George Addy dropped his opposition and gave his blessing to the wedding.63

This biography is included in “Boston’s First Nine: The 1871-75 Boston Red Stockings” (SABR, 2016), edited by Bob LeMoine and Bill Nowlin.

Sources

Coverage of the Forest City Club is usually based upon A. G. Spalding’s fascinating but unreliable America’s National Game: Historic Facts Concerning the Beginning, Evolution, Development, and Popularity of Base Ball, with Personal Reminiscences of Its Vicissitudes, Its Victories, and Its Votaries (1910) (reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992). I have instead relied primarily on two sources: an extraordinary 44-part history of the club that was written by Horace E. Buker and published serially in the Rockford Republic in 1922 and a five-part series by John Molyneaux that appeared in Nuggets of History, a publication of the Rockford Historical Society (“The Sinnissippi Base Ball Club,” 43: 1 (March 2005); “The Forest City Base Ball Club: The Amateur Years,” 45: 1 (March 2007); “No Longer Amateurs: The Forest City Base Ball Club in 1868,” 46: 2 (June 2008); “‘We Can Beat the Spots Off the Best Club That Ever Lived’: The Forest City Base Ball Club in 1869,” 46: 3 (September 2008); “The Eastern Tour – The 1870 Season of the Forest City Baseball Club,” 47: 3 (September 2009)). Other sources that were of help included coverage of the 1896 Harry Wright Day celebrations in the Rockford Register-Gazette on April 13 and 14, 1896; the reminiscences of Fred Cone (“Baseball Thirty Years Ago,” Lima News, July 15, 1899) and Charles Page (E. C. Bruffey, “Bruffey Tells of Charles T. Page, Atlanta Constitution, August 10, 1919: A4; Atlanta Constitution, March 14, 1909); “Spalding’s Start,” Sporting Life, June 20, 1908, 16; Harriet Spalding, Reminiscences of Harriet I. Spalding (East Orange, New Jersey: PUBLISHER, 1910); Peter Levine, A. G. Spalding and the Rise of Baseball (New York: Oxford University Press, 1909); a history of baseball in Rockford written by James McKee that appeared in Sporting Life on April 9, 1884: 4; Harvey T. Woodruff, “Forest Citys a Noted Team,” Chicago Tribune, March 31, 1912: C2; Adrian C. Anson, A Ball Player’s Career (1900: reprint, Amereon), and William J. Ryczek’s When Johnny Came Sliding Home: The Post-Civil War Baseball Boom, 1865-1870 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1998). Joe Overfield’s profile of Addy in Nineteenth Century Stars, eds. Robert L. Tiemann and Mark Rucker, (Kansas City: Society for American Baseball Research, 1989) was also very valuable. Coverage of Addy’s time in the National Association and National League is mostly based on contemporaneous newspaper accounts and on William J. Ryczek’s Blackguards and Red Stockings: A History of Baseball’s National Association, 1871-1875 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1992). Specific sources are cited in the notes.    

Notes

“No matter how great you were once upon a time – the years go by, and men forget,” wrote W. A. Phelon in Baseball Magazine in 1915. “Ross Barnes, forty years ago, was as great as [Ty] Cobb or [Honus] Wagner ever dared to be. Had scores been kept then as now, he would have seemed incomparably marvelous.”1 One might be shocked at such a lofty judgment, or simply brush it off as empty hyperbole from a sportswriter for whom everything was better a generation or two earlier. But was it accurate?

A pioneer of baseball, the right-handed Ross Barnes was one of the best hitters over a six-year stretch (1871-1876) that the sport has ever seen. He was the undisputed master of the fair-foul hit, a speedy and innovative base stealer, and a daring second baseman with a rifle arm in an era when fielders did not wear gloves. A cornerstone of the great Boston teams in the first professional baseball league, National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (1871-1875), Barnes batted over .400 in three out of five seasons helping his club capture four consecutive championships. In the inaugural campaign of the National League the following season, Barnes topped the circuit in almost every offensive category, including hitting (.429) to lead the Chicago White Stockings to the title. Barnes’s end came quickly. Struck with a debilitating illness at the height of his career in 1877, he played only three more, mostly ineffective seasons and retired in 1881 as a shell of his former self.

Testimonials about Barnes’s accomplishments abound in the sports pages of the late 19 th and early 20th centuries. In 1887, the Chicago Tribune reported that Bob “Death to Flying Things” Ferguson, a longtime former player and respected manager in the NA and NL, regarded Barnes as the “best batter and ball player that ever lived” and also noted that the generation of players following Barnes drank too much.2 The Sporting Life, in an 1898 article, considered Barnes, along with George Wright and Cap Anson “one of the fellows who built the foundations of the game as it is played.”3 Barnes was the “king of second baseman, as well as the finest batsman and run-getter of all time” pronounced former NA ballplayer-turned-nationally-syndicated sportswriter Tim Murnane in 1903.4 Mike Scanlon, a Washington, D.C. baseball institution who wrote about the sport for 50 years beginning in the 1860s, opined in the Washington Post in 1906, “I believe [Barnes] was a greater player than [Nap] Lajoie is to-day.”5 Hall of Fame pitcher and sporting goods pioneer Al Spalding, whose transformation from a sandlotter in a Midwestern town to the era’s most acclaimed hurler was closely tied to Barnes for about a decade, named Barnes the second baseman on baseball’s all-time team in multiple issues of the Spalding Guide prior to World War I.6 A more impartial arbiter, William Connelly, writing for Baseball Magazine in 1914, selected Barnes to baseball’s third all-time team, after Nap Lajoie and Eddie Collins.7

Phelon’s observation about fading memories was prescient. Barnes’s accomplishments and contributions to the game gradually began to a fade as those with memories of him passed. By the 1950s Barnes had been consigned to a footnote in baseball history. In light of renewed interest in 19th century baseball and with the efforts of the Society for American Baseball Research, Barnes’s legacy has attracted more attention. In 2013 SABR’s Nineteenth Century Baseball Committee selected Barnes as the “Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legend.”8

Roscoe Charles Barnes was born on May 8, 1850, in Mount Morris, a small town in upstate New York, about 45 miles southwest of Rochester. For many decades well after his playing career ended, Ross Barnes was often misidentified as Roscoe Conkling Barnes. The mistake arose because of his middle initial and the name of a well-known US representative and later US senator from New York from 1867 to 1881, Roscoe Conkling. Ross Barnes’s parents were Joseph, a farmer, and Mary (Weller) Barnes, both native New Jerseyians, who married in 1832 and subsequently welcomed at least eight children into the world between 1834 and 1854 (five boys, John, Fletcher, Joseph, Ross, and Franklin; and three girls, Lucy, Sara, and Martha). According to the 1860 US Census, the family resided in Lima, about 20 miles northeast of Mount Morris. By 1865 or 1866, the Barnes clan had relocated to Rockford, a fast growing industrial city of about of about 8,000, located 90 miles west-northwest of Chicago.

During four unimaginably destructive years of civil war which claimed approximately 620,000 lives (about 1 in every 25 males), many Union and Confederate soldiers were exposed to baseball. When they returned to their respective towns across the country after the war, they brought “base ball” with them, thereby increasing its popularity. No longer just a sport played predominantly in the East, baseball was emerging as a national pastime. The New York Times described Rockford of the 1860s as “the cradle of the great American sport in the West.”9 Though it is difficult to determine when young Ross began to play baseball, by 1866 he was a member of the Pioneers, a local 16-and-under amateur team on which another famous Rockford resident, Al Spalding, also played. By late 1866 or early 1867, the Rockford Forest Citys, an adult amateur team signed both Barnes and Spalding, whose fates would be linked for the next decade.

Playing shortstop for the Forest Citys from 1867-1870, Barnes established a reputation as one of the best all-around, young players in the game. Three games deserve mention. Barnes, Spalding, and the Forest Citys gained national exposure in what baseball historian John Thorn considered among the most, if not the most important, games in baseball history.10 Rockford upset the seemingly invincible National Club of Washington, which had embarked on one of the first tours in baseball history, 29-23, on July 25, 1867 in Dexter Park, Chicago. The Forest Citys subsequently enjoyed “phenomenal success” and also toured nationally.11 On June 24, 1869, the Rockford amateurs were on the verge of handing the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first openly professional baseball team, their first loss in a game described by the Chicago Tribune as “the most exciting and hotly contested game of base ball ever played” in Cincinnati.12 Trailing 14-12 after eight innings, Cincinnati, led by player-manager Harry Wright, his brother George, and Charlie Gould scored three runs in the ninth to win and thus preserve the first and only undefeated season in professional baseball history. Rockford avenged the loss the following season when the defeated Cincinnati 12-5 on October 15, handing the professionals one of their six losses in 74 contests.13

Harry Wright did not forget Barnes or Spalding when he was hired to form the first professional baseball team in Boston in early 1871. In addition to taking several of his own players from Cincinnati, notably his brother, Gould, and Cal McVey, as well as the club’s name, the Red Stockings, he traveled to Rockford and signed Barnes and Spalding. The core of the club that would eventually dominate the National Association was in place.

Founded on March 17, 1871 in New York City, the National Association was the first professional baseball league; however, neither Major League Baseball nor the Baseball Hall of Fame (as of 2016) considers it one. Over the course of its five-year existence, the NA was marred by franchise instability. The league consisted annually of eight to 13 teams; however, there were at least 23 different clubs, but only three, the Boston Red Stockings, New York Mutuals, and Philadelphia Athletics fielded a team for all five seasons. The league also lacked a central authority, like the National Commission (1903-1920) or its replacement, the Commissioner of Baseball, to oversee baseball and ensure its integrity. Consequently the NA was plagued by contact jumpers as well as gamblers.

Boston, considered among the favorites to win the NA’s inaugural championship, got off to a rough start, winning just seven of its first 15 games (one tie), which were often scheduled just days in advance. Signed as a second baseman, Barnes moved back to shortstop when George Wright, widely regarded the best player in the county at the time, was injured. Once Wright returned, the Bostons went on a roll, winning 13 of their last 16 to battle the Chicago White Stockings and the Philadelphia Athletics in what proved to be the only pennant race in the NA’s history. A crushing 10-8 loss to Chicago on September 29 ended Boston’s hope for a title. Though Harry and George Wright, as well as Spalding grabbed most of the attention, Barnes was arguably the most exciting offensive player in the league. The 21-year-old scored the most runs (66 in 31 games) and totaled the most bases (91). He also ranked second in extra-base hits (19), third in batting average (.401), and tied for fifth in RBIs (34).

Boston dominated the National Association over the next four years, running away with the title each year with records of 39-8, 43-16, 52-18, and 71-8. Unlike other teams, Boston benefitted from uncharacteristic continuity among its players. Barnes, George Wright, McVey, Andy Leonard, and Harry Schafer started for all four seasons; Spalding notched an unfathomable 185 of the team’s 205 victories. In 1873, Boston acquired catcher Deacon White, perhaps the best offensive and defensive catcher in the NA.

In his second season in the NA, Barnes gradually emerged from George Wright’s shadow to become the league’s most feared hitter. In this era, pitchers stood 50 feet from the mound and threw underhand; batters, known as strikers as in cricket, called for either low or high balls, and were not penalized for fouling pitches (unless they were caught). Described by William Connelly of Baseball Magazine in 1915 as a “demon with the bludgeon,”14 Barnes batted a league-high .430 and .431 in 1872 and 1873 respectively, as well as pacing the circuit in slugging percentage, extra-base hits, and total bases in both seasons; in 1873 he scored a league-record 125 runs in 60 games. After missing 19 games in 1874, yet batting .340 and finishing sixth in runs scored (the top six and eight of the top 10 run scorers were from Boston), Barnes returned in 1875 to set the NA record for hits (143) and led the league in runs (115). He owns the career record for a number of offensive categories in the NA, including batting average (.391), runs scored (459 in 265 games), doubles (101), and slugging percentage (.518), while batting primarily in the leadoff position.

What made Barnes a feared hitter? At 5-foot-8 and 145 pounds, Barnes was of average height and weight, and about the same size as George Wright. Spalding, for example, was the tallest at 6-foot-1. Barnes excelled by taking a cerebral approach to the game, augmenting his natural athletic abilities. During his career and in the few decades thereafter, Barnes was often described as a scientific hitter, for example by the New York Clipper in 1878.15 Barnes was “not of the class of chance hitters who, when they go to bat simply go in to hit the ball as hard as they can without the slightest idea where it is going,” wrote the Boston Globe. “He studied the position and made his hits accordingly.”16

As a scientific hitter, Barnes mastered the art of hitting “fair-fouls,” a legal hit during all five years of the NA and the first year of the NL. According to Peter Morris in his ground-breaking study A Game of Inches, Dickey Pearce is credited for having developed the practice in the 1860s.17 Fred Cone, a native Rockford resident who played with Barnes on the Forest Citys, and with the Boston Red Stockings in 1871, provided an excellent description of the fair-foul hit in Baseball Magazine in 1899. “The trick was to cricket the ball with a hard swing so that it would strike fair and bound off into foul territory,” said Cone. “If the ball could be cut hard down near the base line, it would get away from the fielder and roll on for two or three bases.”18 Some researchers have dismissed Barnes’s batting accomplishments, suggesting that he took advantage of a loop-hole. Bill James, for example, argued in the Historical Baseball Abstract that Barnes is not among the 125 best second basemen in the history of the sport because he was primarily a fair-foul hitter.19

A closer examination of Barnes career might suggest a different conclusion. Robert H. Schaefer, in his insightful article on fair-foul hitting in the National Pastime, provided a compelling argument that players in the 1870s did not consider a fair-foul a “second-rate means of attaining first base or that it was a cheap hit” on the contrary, “it was universally regarded as requiring exceptional finesse. Only the most highly skilled strikers were able to execute it with consistency.”20 The fair-foul was almost impossible to defend against; however, few batters were able to hit them hard like Barnes. Far from being a one-trick pony capable only of fair-foul hit, Barnes was a complete hitter who sprayed balls to all fields as attested by countless game summaries from Boston and Chicago newspapers. If anything, Barnes took advantage of defensive shifts. If the third baseman played close to the bag in an attempt to defend against the fair-foul, Barnes hit the ball in the gap between second and third base. When the National League banned the fair-foul prior to the 1877 season, few players, managers, or executives felt Barnes, widely hailed the best hitter in the sport, would suffer. “I don’t think it [new rule] will affect his average in the least,” said Charles E. Chase, vice president of the Louisville Grays. “He can bat equally well to any portion of the field,” but also added, “He undoubtedly gained many runs for his club last year by his scientific fair fouls.”21

In addition to his hitting exploits, Barnes might have been the NA’s most dangerous player on the base paths. According to Tim Murnane, who played against Barnes in both the NA and NL, Barnes “had no superior as a baserunner.”22 Barnes holds the single-season stolen base record (43 in 1873) as well as the career-record (103) in the NA. Murnane, whose 30 steals in 1875 were one better than Barnes’s 29, also noted that Barnes was the “first player to throw himself wide of the base and hold onto the bag.”23

Teammate Fred Cone claimed that Barnes’s “fielding was the cleverest ever seen.”24 Barnes played during an era when fielders did not wear gloves (they became standard equipment in the 1880s), and infielders and catchers (who wore no mask) were especially prone to injury. Fielding errors were a major part of the game. Games averaged approximately 14-16 errors during the five years of the NA; and more than two-thirds of all the runs scored were considered unearned. The second baseman was arguably the most active infielder; he covered all of the ground from second to first, short center and short right field, and second base on steal attempts. The New York Clipper lauded Barnes’s “shrewd judgment” as a fielder and considered him a “base-playing strategist” with no equal.25 Once described as the “Johnny Evers of his day,”26 Barnes teamed with George Wright to form the most formidable infield in the NA. Barnes “could cover more ground than any man I ever saw,” wrote Tim Murnane. “He had a long reach and could pick up ground balls when on the dead run from either side.”27 With his strong, whip-like throws, Barnes led second basemen in assists for four consecutive seasons (1872-1875), and in double plays three times. Perhaps most tellingly, Barnes led all second sackers in fielding percentage from 1872-1874, and again with Chicago in the inaugural season of the NL.

Throughout his playing career, Ross was described as honorable and a gentleman, good-looking, well-dressed, and concerned about his appearances.28 He had a medium complexion, with dark hair and dark eyes, and typically sported a fashionable moustache, often a thick walrus one. Despite his outwardly aristocratic appearance, Barnes supposedly had a prickly personality and gave the impression of a prima donna. William Ryczek, in his study on the history of the National Association, noted that Boston manager Harry Wright often used harsh words to keep Barnes in his place.29 During Boston’s four-year stranglehold on the NA championship, the club was anything but a harmonious group. According to Al Spalding, “there was a time when the whole infield wouldn’t speak to Ross Barnes.”30 The Chicago Tribune reported that for the entire 1872 season Barnes and first baseman Charlie Gould “never exchanged a word, and glanced at each other like opposing game chickens,”31 leading some to conclude that their feud led to Gould’s retirement at season’s end.32

In 1874 Boston and the Philadelphia Athletics, the most prominent baseball clubs of the NA, interrupted their season on July 16 to depart on a historic good-will trip to England to foster interest in the sport by playing exhibitions among themselves and against English cricket teams.33 Discovering little interest for baseball in Old Country, the teams finally returned stateside on September 9, and resumed play in the NA. But the mood in Boston was not as jovial as when they departed.

During Boston’s almost eight-week absence, speculation had arisen that the club might not field a team the following season. Rumors persisted through the offseason and into the 1875 campaign when the Chicago Tribune made an earth-shattering announced in mid-July that the Chicago White Stockings’ president William Hulbert had signed Barnes, Deacon White, Cal McVey, and Al Spalding.34 Boston, which had largely been spared of debilitating contract jumping, was dealt a death blow. The signings “shook the baseball world by its very centre” and were “greatest sensation in the history of baseball” wrote Harry Palmer in Outing.35 Some wondered if the “Big Four,” as they were described thereafter, would depart in midseason, but they didn’t, and led Boston to what proved to be the last title in the NA.

Hulbert’s signing of the “Big Four” was a calculated move in an effort to stack his own team in what he hoped would be a new professional league, organized and run by business men for the sake of earning profits. The result was the founding of the National League on February 2, 1876. The eight-team league consisted of six teams (Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Hartford, St. Louis, and Mutual of New York) from the NA and two new teams (Cincinnati and Louisville). No longer was the Eastern seaboard the epicenter of the baseball world.

Playing a prearranged schedule of 66 games from late April to late September, Chicago cruised to the championship. Barnes led the league in practically every offensive category, including batting average (.429), slugging percentage (.590), runs scored (126), hits (138), doubles (21), triples (14), extra base hits (36), and total bases (190), while playing in every game. Had there been an MVP award, it would likely have been a toss-up between Barnes and Spalding who won 47 games in his final, full season.

Barnes made history on May 2 at Avenue Grounds in Cincinnati when he hit the first home run in the history of the National League in Chicago’s 15-9 defeat of the Reds. With two outs in the fifth inning, Barnes smashed what the Chicago Tribune called “the finest hit of the game, straight down the left field to the carriages for a clean home run.”36 In his next at-bat Barnes almost repeated his feat by lining one to the fences for a triple.

In the offseason, team owners engaged in a heated discussion about fair-foul hits and bunting. According to the Chicago Tribune, there were several proposals for rule changes: eliminate bunting altogether; require a batter to take a full, hard swing at the ball; ban fair-foul hitting completely; or a combination of all three.37 There is no proof that rule changes were directed at Ross Barnes. The Tribune noted that requiring batters to swing forcefully at the ball would almost certainly curtail bunting, as well as fair-foul hitting (which were often hit like a bunt); however, Ross Barnes would not be affected by such a change. Indeed the daily offered yet more proof of his overall hitting ability. “[Barnes] always hits [the fair-foul] with a full swing of the bat, and just as hard as he strikes any other kind of ball.”38 Ultimately, the fair-foul hit was banned.

A career .399 hitter over his first six seasons in professional ball (1871-1876), Barnes’s batting average dropped precipitously to .272 in 1877 leading many researchers in the latter half of the 20h century and beyond to conclude that Barnes was indeed just a fluky fair-foul hitter who was unable to adjust to the rule change. That judgment seems incorrect.

The 27-year old Barnes left the Chicago White Stockings in mid-May 1877, suffering from a mysterious illness. On May 19 the Chicago Tribune reported that “Barnes has been physically incapable of exertion; he is as weak, debilitated and worn as would be any strong man after six month’ sickness.”39 He returned to his home town of Rockford to recover, and was expected back in June.40 However as June came and went, and Barnes was unable to play, rumors also spread. The Tribune refuted claims by their rival paper, the Chicago Times, that Ross was fabricating his illness and should be released. “The slam at Ross Barnes is scandalous and utterly unfounded,” wrote the Tribune. The paper also published a telegram purportedly from Barnes, “I seldom leave the house now. I don’t feel badly, but I grow weaker every day.”41 When Barnes showed up at Chicago’s ball park, the Twenty-Third Street Grounds, on August 7 for the first time since his last game on May 17, the crowd gave him a “hearty round of applause.”42 However, “the King of the Game” could not rekindle his old magic. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Barnes “showed the effects of sickness” upon his return;43 and subsequently, that Barnes “seemed to have lost all of his former vim, and played without energy or life.”44

SABR member Robert H. Schaefer has argued compellingly that Barnes suffered from the ague, a malaria-like chronic disease which caused fevers, chills, and debilitating muscle aches and pains.45 Contemporary newspapers reported about rumors that Barnes never fully recovered from the illness which apparently sapped his natural athleticism and speed, prematurely ending his professional baseball career after two more ineffective seasons (1879 and 1881).46

Chicago did not offer Barnes a contract for the 1878 season; however, the ball player was not yet finished with business in the Windy City. In early 1878 he became the first professional ballplayer to file a lawsuit against the club to redress a contract grievance. Barnes claimed that he was not paid for three months of his $2,500 salary when he was sick and could not play. According to the Chicago Tribune, the “case is a new one in the experience of ball clubs, and the outcome will be looked forward to with the interest of the professional ballclubs.”47 Ultimately Judge M. B. Loomis in the Cook County Courts ruled against Barnes later that year.48

Barnes was a baseball nomad in his final years as an active player. In 1878 he signed as a player-manager with the London (Ontario) Tecumseh of the International Association. Some researchers consider the IA to be the first “minor league” or even a rival to the NL. In 1879, Barnes joined his former teammates Cal McVey and Deacon White on the Cincinnati Reds. Barnes batted .266 for the fifth-place club in an eight-team league. Out of baseball the following season and reported to be a “commercial traveler for a Western wholesaler” according to the Chicago Tribune, Barnes’s career came full circle when he accepted manager Harry Wright’s offer to rejoin Boston.49 Now 31 years old, Barnes played primarily shortstop (as he had for Cincinnati). Described as “useless as a fifth leg on a horse,” Barnes batted .271 and tied Tom Burns to lead all shortstops with 52 errors while the Red Stockings finished in sixth place.50

After the 1881 season with Boston, Barnes returned to his home in Rockford. He occasionally played in amateur games with the Forest Citys, and even contemplated a few comebacks, but the most prolific hitter in the first few years of baseball never donned another uniform. In nine professional seasons, Barnes batted .360, collected 860 hits, and scored 698 runs in 499 games.

Barnes was apparently in good financial position after his playing career. The extended Barnes family was well established in Rockford. Brothers John, Fletcher, and Franklin became successful industrialists and bankers. Newspapers reports in the 1880s claimed that Ross Barnes had a net worth of $100,000, and was a successful member of the Chicago Board of Trade.51

Barnes returned to baseball in 1890 as an umpire in the newly formed Player’s League. Founded by baseball’s first union, the Brotherhood of Professional Base-Ball Players led by John Ward, it lasted only one season, but included many of the stars on the NL. Barnes soon discovered that “umpiring isn’t as pleasant as he expected it to be” and “came in for a regular kicking roast at the hands of the players.”52 The experience was a bitter one for Barnes, who felt as though he had been manipulated into becoming an umpire.53

A bachelor, Barnes spent the rest of his life in the Windy City, as well as maintaining a regular presence in Rockford.54 He was reportedly involved at one time in the hotel business and also worked as an accountant for the Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company. On May 5, 1915, Barnes died at the age of 64 in his apartment in the Hotel Wicklow on 666 N. State Street in Chicago. The cause of death was reported as both a dilation of the aorta and stomach problems.55 He was buried in his parents’ plot at Greenwood cemetery in Rockford.

According to the rules of the Baseball Hall of Fame (as of 2016), only players with a minimum of 10 years of major-league experience are eligible for induction. Barnes falls one year short. Unlike some of his teammates, Barnes was not involved in the game as a manager, owner, or organizational pioneer which would allow him to be considered for induction as a non-player. For example, teammate Harry Wright played only four full seasons (all in the NA), but is considered the father of professional baseball by many; and Al Spalding pitched only six full seasons, yet went on to found a sporting goods empire, and served as an executive of the Chicago White Stockings. There have been efforts, led by social media sites like Facebook, urging the Hall of Fame to reconsider its rules in light of Barnes’s contributions to baseball in its earliest professional phase. Perhaps one day, Ross Barnes, will join his teammates, the Wright Brothers and Spalding, and those to whom he was so favorably compared, such as Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Nap Lajoie, and Eddie Collins, and be enshrined with baseball’s best in the Hall of Fame.

Notes

1 W. A. Phelon, “The Month’s Parade,” Baseball Magazine, April 15, 1915: 123.

2 Chicago Tribune, June 5, 1887: 13.

3 The Sporting Life, May 23, 1898: 14.

4 Tim Murnane (1903) quoted from “One of the Greatest Players of All Time Was ‘Ross’ Barnes,” Boston Globe, February 6, 1915: 5.

5 ”Old Fans Recall Days of Nationals Triumph,” Washington Post, June 10, 1906: 2.

6 See for example, Spalding’s Official Baseball Guide. 1907. Henry Chadwick, ed. (New York: American Sports Publishing, 1907).

7 William Connelly, “The Greatest Baseball Team of All History,” Baseball Magazine, May, 1914.

8 “SABR 43: Ross Barnes Selected as Overlooked 19 th Century Baseball Legend for 2003,” SABR.org. http://sabr.org/latest/sabr-43-ross-barnes-selected-overlooked-19th-century-baseball-legend-2013.

9 “Diamond Find Veterans,” New York Times, April 12, 1896: 3.

10 John Thorn, “July 25, 1867: The most important game in baseball history?,” SABR.org. http://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/july-25-1867-most-important-game-baseball-history. And “Base Ball. The Great Tournament. Opening Game Between the Nationals and Forest City Club – A Close and Exciting Outcome,” Chicago Tribune, July 26, 1867: 4.

11 “Diamond Find Veterans,” New York Times, April 12, 1896: 3.

12 “Base Ball. Rockford Boys at Cincinnati,” Chicago Tribune, July 25, 1869:1

13 “The Sporting World. The Rockford Amateurs Defeat the Cincinnati Professionals,” Chicago Tribune, October 16, 1870: 3.

14 Connelly.

15 “No. 4 – Roscoe C. Barnes, Second-Baseman,” New York Clipper, 1878. [Undated article].

16 “One of the Greatest Players of All Time Was ‘Ross’ Barnes,” Boston Globe, February 6, 1915: 5.

17 Peter Morris. A Game of Inches: The Stories Behind the Innovations that Shaped the Game (Guilford, Connecticut: Ivan R. Dee, 2006).

18 E.G. Westlake, “Baseball Thirty Years Ago,” Great Bend (Kansas) Weekly Tribune, July 21, 1899: 6.

19 Bill James, New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (New York: Free Press, 2001), 533.

20 Robert H. Schaefer, “The Lost Art of Fair-Foul Hitting,” The National Pastime, Number 19, 1999: 5.

21 Chicago Tribune, March 4, 1877: 7.

22 Tim Murnane (1903) quoted from “One of the Greatest Players of All Time Was ‘Ross’ Barnes,” Boston Globe, February 6, 1915: 5.

23 Ibid.

24 The Sporting Life, May 23, 1898: 14.

25 “No. 4 – Roscoe C. Barnes, Second-Baseman,” New York Clipper, 1878. [Undated article].

26 “Barnes was the Johnny Evers of his day,” Arizona (Phoenix) Republic, July 28, 1911: 12.

27 Tim Murnane (1903) quoted from “One of the Greatest Players of All Time Was ‘Ross’ Barnes,” Boston Globe, February 6, 1915: 5.

28 Sam Crane “Sam Crane Writes Series of Stories on Fifty Greatest Ball Players in History.” Undated article. Player’s Hall of Fame file.

29 William J. Ryczek, Blackguards and Red Stockings. A History of Baseball’s National Association, 1871-1875. (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1992), 26.

30 The Sporting Life, January 15, 1898: 7.

31 Chicago Tribune, January 19, 1879: 12.

32 Ryczek, 26.

33 John W. Bauer, “Summer 1874: New game in the Old World. US teams tour England,” SABR.org, http://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/summer-1874-new-game-old-country-us-teams-tour-england.

34 “Base Ball. The Nine Next Year,” Chicago Tribune, July 20, 1875: 5.

35 Harry Palmer, “America’s National Game,” Outing, July 1888,:354.

36 “Sporting News. Fourth Game and Victory of the Chicago White Stockings,” Chicago Tribune, May 3, 1876: 5.

37 “Base-Ball. More About the New Rules,” Chicago Tribune, November 26, 1876: 7.

38 Ibid.

39 “Base-Ball,” Chicago Tribune, May 19, 1877: 2.

40 “Base Ball Topics,” The Times (Philadelphia), May 31, 1877: 2.

41 Chicago Tribune, July 22, 1877: 7.

42 “The Six league Clubs Engage in Championship Contests,” Chicago Tribune, August 8, 1877: 5.

43 Cincinnati Enquirer, August 29, 1877: 7.

44 Cincinnati Enquirer, October 8, 1877: 5.

45 Robert H. Schaefer, “The Lost Art of Fair-Foul Hitting,” The National Pastime, Number 19, 1999: 6.

46 See Cincinnati Enquirer, January 11, 1879: 6 and Chicago Tribune, June 15, 1879: 7.

47 Chicago Tribune, November 10, 1878: 7.

48 Ibid.

49 Chicago Tribune, December 5, 1880: 7.

50 Cincinnati Enquirer, October 2, 1881: 9.

51 Pittsburgh Daily Post, April 20, 1887: 6 and Pittsburgh Dispatch, February 1, 1889: 6.

52 Sporting Life, May 3, 1890:10.

53 Sporting Life, January 3, 1891: 2.

54 It appears as though Ross Barnes was married for 14 months. According the marriage indexes in Cook County, Illinois, Barnes married Ellen F. Welsh on August 14, 1900. The couple was granted a divorce in October 1901. “Mrs. Barnes is divorced,” Rockford Morning Star, October 22, 1901.

55 Sporting Life, February 13, 1915 and March 6, 1915.

While the Boston Red Stockings of 1871 had many players who would go on to distinguished baseball careers, outfielder Frank Barrows was not one of them. In his only year in the new National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, Barrows played in 18 games for Boston, batted.151 (13 hits in 86 at-bats), and drove in 11 runs.

Franklin Lee Barrows was born on October 22, 1844, in Hudson, Ohio, to Rev. Elijah Porter and Sarah (Lee) Barrows. The family moved to the Boston area when his father was appointed professor of Hebrew language and literature at the Andover Theological Seminary in Newton, just outside Boston. Franklin attended nearby Phillips Academy in 1859 and then remained in New England, where he developed his interest in baseball.1

Barrows played for the Boston Tri-Mountains in the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP), the first national baseball organization, from 1867 to 1870. Tri-Mountain was first established in 1857. “From an historical perspective,” wrote one commentator, “The Tri-Mountains are important because they were the first of the organized clubs playing the ‘Massachusetts game’ to abandon it in favor of the ‘New York game.’ This was an inevitable step on the path to victory for the latter and it is the New York version that modern baseball descended from.”2

During Barrows’ tenure with the team, for which he played second base and occasional shortstop, Tri-Mountain posted records of 19-3 in 1867, 12-9 in 1868, and 7-9 in 1869. Barrows occasionally was mentioned in newspaper accounts of games. Playing on the Boston Common on August 6, 1867, against the challengers, the Annawan Club of Mansfield, the Tri-Mountains, lacking three of their usual nine, were edged, 28-27. Barrows was singled out for praise by the Boston Journal: “Barrows’ fielding was excellent, he having caught five flies, besides putting out two on bases.”3 In a New England Tournament held in September 1867, Barrows hit a “home run by a splendid strike to centre field” in the fifth game.4 Tri-Mountain won the deciding game over Lowell, 42-22, on September 29 before 3,000 to 4,000 spectators and won the silver ball. Barrows pulled off a double play in the game, tagging the baserunner and then throwing to first, and he also “made the best hit of the day, sending the ball over Rogers head at left field, on which he made a clean home run.”5

The team opted to go professional in 1870 with somewhat disastrous results. While its overall record was 6-7, it was 0-4 against the four professional teams it played. Tri-Mountain lost to the Philadelphia Athletics 45-4, the Cincinnati Red Stockings 30-6, the Mutuals of New York, 25-11, and the Chicago White Stockings 36-16, and never played another pro season.

Barrows was one of only two members of the team to play a professional career, along with a 1868 teammate, pitcher Tom Pratt, who played in only one major-league game, for the Philadelphia Athletics, on October 18, 1871. (He had two hits in six at-bats.) He was later joined by Elvio Jiménez and Clarence Dow as the only players to have six at-bats in their only major-league baseball game.

In the spring of 1870, “Mr. Frank Barrows” was listed as one of the umpires of several baseball games between Harvard University and the Boston Red Stockings.6 It was likely through that association that he became acquainted with Harry Wright and joined the Red Stockings for the 1871 season. He also umpired a game between Harvard and the Athletic Club of Philadelphia in May.

The Red Stockings signed Barrows in mid-January of 1871; he and Harry Schafer were the last two players signed.7 The team played its opening game on April 6 at the Union Grounds, against a “picked nine,” beating them, 41-10. Barrows played for the picked nine as did Dave Birdsall. The two played in another game, as opponents, six days later. Near the end of the month, Barrows was named as the 11th man on the Red Stockings.8 The team went on the road and played a few preseason games, among them a game on May 2 in Washington against the Olympics. Barrows didn’t play when the Red Stockings played the franchise’s first game, on May 5 in Washington, but served as one of the two scorers in the game.

Barrows made what would today be considered his major-league debut on May 20, 1871, when he batted leadoff (flying out to second baseman Al Reach) and went 1-for-5 in an 11-8 win over the Philadelphia Athletics. After collecting his first professional hit in the fifth inning, singling over the head of second baseman Reach, he scored along with Roscoe Barnes on a single by Dave Birdsall.

It’s not known whether Barrows was right-handed or left-handed, either as a batter or in his throwing. His height and weight are likewise unknown.

While baseball reports of this era were sparse in their depiction of the games, Barrows did capture the attention of the fans when he made a fine defensive play in right field against the Chicago White Stockings on June 2. In the fourth inning, Chicago’s Jimmy Wood “sent a hot fly to right field, which Barrows … took most handsomely, making one of the best catches ever seen on this grounds, and for which he received loud applause.”9

For much of the season Barrows shared left field with teammate Fred Cone. However, there were few other highlights reported to the newspaper. On August 7 he played center field and had a double in a 23-7 win over the Philadelphia Athletics, while on September 13 he had one hit and scored a run in a 20-17 victory over the Troy Haymakers. One of the most dramatic moments of the season came in a September 9 game against the Athletics, which drew an estimated 5,000 to the Boston grounds. The Red Stockings were down 14-11 after eight innings. Boston, batting first in the game, rallied in the top of the ninth and took a 15-14 lead when Barrows came up and added another insurance run by singling in Al Spalding. One more run scored behind him, and then the team shifted to defend its three-run lead. Barrows speared a ball hit by Ned Cuthbert for the first out. Birdsall caught a foul tip for the second out. Then John Radcliff lofted a ball to Barrows. The crowd held its breath, but he caught it and “a series of shouts ensued, exceeding any demonstrations of the kind ever witnessed here. The crowd fairly yelled, and hats went up into the air, while their owners danced about apparently frantic, while the ladies waved their handkerchiefs, evidently as much pleased as anyone over the victory snatched by the Reds from the very jaws of defeat, who won not only the game but the championship series with the Athletics.”10

Barrows played his final game on October 7, a 12-3 win over the Haymakers. He singled once.

The Athletics placed first in the National Association standings at year’s end, with both the Chicago White Stockings and the Boston Red Stockings two games behind.

The Red Stockings’ batting average in 1871 was .310. Barrows’.151, was by far the lowest on the team. (Sam Jackson was second lowest at .224.)

Barrows did not return to the Red Stockings for the 1872 season, nor did Cone or Jackson, but Barrows’ name did crop up in a box score for the Middletown (Connecticut) Mansfields in 1872 when he played in the first game of an intrasquad doubleheader. “In the first game, the Seniors whitewashed the Juniors 24-0. Frank Barrows, who had played with the Boston Red Stockings in 1871, manned right field for the Mansfields. This may have been a tryout for Barrows, who had been spotted with the club for several weeks, or perhaps he was a last minute replacement for Buttery, who was home visiting family.”11

Barrows was also listed as a substitute umpire in the National Association for that 1872 season. One of the games he umpired was the July 20 game when the Red Stockings hosted the visiting Troy team.

In 1897, when he was 52 years old, Barrows played in an exhibition game along with other old-time major leaguers, against a team from Australia. Playing right field on a team that featured former Red Stockings teammates George Wright and Albert Spalding, Barrows scored a run for the “Old Boston” team against the Australian All-Star team.12

In his career after baseball, Barrows entered the wool trade. The Boston City Directory of 1880 listed his occupation as wool buyer, wool sorter, and overseer of a worsted mill.13

Barrows moved to the Central Massachusetts city of Fitchburg where he worked as an overseer at the Star Worsted Mills for several years. He was also a noted champion bowler in that city.

After spending much of his life as a bachelor, the 56-year-old Barrows met Josephine F.G. (Gulliver) Gould, a widowed Falmouth bookkeeper, a native of Pittsburgh. Mrs. Gould had a son, William, by her first marriage. The couple married in Boston on December 17, 1902, and lived the rest of Barrows’ life at 72 Grove Street in Fitchburg.

On February 6, 1922, Barrows was stricken with a heart ailment and died at the age of 75. He was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Notes

1 Thanks to Bob Richardson for helpful suggestions regarding Barrows’ family background.

2 Patrick Mondout, “Boston TriMountains,” baseballchronology.com/baseball/leagues/NABBP/Clubs/Boston-Tri-Mountains.asp.

3 Boston Journal, August 7, 1867: 4.

4 Boston Herald, September 27, 1867: 2.

5 Boston Journal, September 30, 1867: 4.

6 Harvard Advocate, May 27, 1870: 134.

7 Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, January 16, 1871: 8.

8 Rosters were considerably smaller at the time. Boston Journal, April 24, 1871: 4.

9 Boston Post, June 3, 1871.

10 “Another Victory Achieved By the Red Stockings,” Boston Journal, September 11, 1891: 1.

11 David Arcidiacono, Major League Baseball in Gilded Age Connecticut (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2009), 85.

12 Paul Batesel, Players and Teams of the National Association 1871-75 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2012), 43.

13 Ibid.

A versatile man who lived on both coasts, played multiple positions for different teams in different leagues, and even went by different names, Tommy Beals played reserve roles for three championship teams in the last three seasons of his six-year professional career. A subpar hitter, Beals on defense “was an exceedingly active player and covered an immense amount of ground.”1

On June 18, 1845, two Connecticut natives, Albert Beals (born in 1820 or 1821), a photographer, and Fannie (or Fanny, born in 1822 or 1823) Lamb, married. In August 1850 in either Hartford or New York City,2they had a son named Thomas Lamb Beals. The Beals family lived in Watervliet, New York, north of Albany, in 1860 and in Gold Hill, Nevada, in 1870.

Beals first received notice in 1867 when, playing right field for the Union Club of Morrisania, he “made the most brilliant catch of the game”3in the eighth inning of a 14-12 win over the Brooklyn Atlantics. Beals “distinguished himself … when he played for the Unions, for it was then in the time of lively ball games, when an outfielder had more work to do than the present time.”4

At the age of 20 in 1871, Beals, playing under the name W. Thomas (he played as W. Thomas from 1871-1873), made his National Association debut for the Washington Olympics in a July 27 game against the Troy Haymakers. He got his first hit (a single) and made his first error on July 28 in a 10-6 loss to Troy. He finished his rookie season batting .194 in 10 games. In 1872, he started the season batting 4-for-21, but finished on an 8-for-19 run to close the season with a .306 batting average. Beals hit ninth in the order in all 19 games he played in 1871 and 1872.

The Olympics franchise lasted just two years, and the Washington Blue Legs took over the Olympic Grounds for 1873. Beals played for this new team, his last season in Washington, and hit .272 in 37 games.

Over his career Beals split his time almost evenly between the infield (58 games) and outfield (60 games), but in 1873 he caught for the only time in his professional career, putting in 13 games behind the dish.

Beals joined the Boston Red Stockings in 1874 and enjoyed his best day with the bat that year in his first game for his new team on May 9. Still batting ninth, he went 5-for-7 with a triple, three runs scored, and four RBIs as Boston rolled, 28-7, over the Baltimore Canaries at the South End Grounds. The performance earned him a promotion to the second slot in the batting order, which he would occupy more than any other over the rest of the season.

Along with the Philadelphia Athletics, Boston took a European tour in the middle of the 1874 campaign. As the last man on the roster, Beals took tickets at one game5and umpired another.6Back from Europe, Beals also drove in four runs in a home game on October 24 as Boston beat the Hartford Dark Blues, 11-8. As a team, Boston had just seven RBIs in this game because the visitors committed an astounding 21 errors.

The primary spare outfielder in 1875, Beals received more playing time in his last year in Boston than he did in 1874. In a 16-2 rout of Philadelphia on May 11, “The principal feature of the game on the side of the Bostons was the extraordinary play of Beals in the centre field, who caught three very difficult flies in splendid style and was loudly cheered.”7

Beals seemed to have a mixed relationship with teammate George Wright. While one source asserts, “George Wright and Tommy Beals went many a day without the interchange of a friendly word,”8another reports that Wright, later a member of the second class of inductees to the Hall of Fame, named his oldest son Beals after Tommy.9

In 1876 Beals left Organized Baseball and moved to Colorado, where he worked as a miner. He later headed to the West Coast, where he would spend his post-baseball career. SABR’s Minor League Database reveals that Beals played for the San Francisco Mutuals and the Oakland Pioneers of the California League in 1879, but his name appeared on a list of retired players at the end of that year.10Another report two months later had Beals “and the management of the Chicago Club … in correspondence … on … an engagement [in Chicago for the 1880] season.”11

Ross Barnes, Cal McVey, Al Spalding, and Deacon White, four Boston players, left for the Chicago White Stockings in 1876, the first season of the National League. The Red Stockings, aware of Chicago’s interest in Beals, asserted that Boston still controlled the rights to him.

Spalding, now secretary of the White Stockings, unsurprisingly disagreed, telling a reporter, “I don’t believe Boston has any desire to raise such a foolish question as the expulsion of Beals five years after their difficulty with him, and, under the verbal agreement which he had with them about the matter, they have no chance to argue the case.”12

The imbroglio seemed to present an awful lot of fuss about a player of the caliber of Beals, who not surprisingly struggled after missing four years of professional play. While only 29, Beals nevertheless was the oldest player on Chicago’s squad of 13.

The 1880 season began on May 1, but Beals did not crack the lineup until July 13, when he played second base and batted eighth, oddly one spot higher in the order than star slugger Cap Anson.13

In 1880, the last season Beals played, he hit just .152, but at least had a more mixed record in the field. After a 9-4 win over the Worcester Ruby Legs on August 26, a report on the game lauded Beals, who had “played the base as well as it could be played. He was particularly strong on thrown balls, and cooperated with [catcher Ned] Williamson in a style that is not surpassed by any second-baseman living. He has a clever way of receiving the ball and at the same time standing in the way of the runner – a thing which requires some nerve, but is the way to play second base.”14

After three off days, the same two teams met, with decidedly poorer results for Beals, “who played as though he had never seen a ball-field before. … It may well be doubted whether Beals should be permitted to play second base again.”15

A little more than one month later, “Beals … declared his intention of abandoning the ball-field once more, and this time for good, although he has had advantageous offers to play in League clubs next season.”16

Beals “quit the game to enter business”17but for a time ended up in government. After marrying Emma MacGregor in Virginia City, Nevada, on September 2, 1884, Beals served in the state legislature from 1894 to 1896 as a Republican member of the Assembly representing Virginia City. He put in a year on the Judiciary Committee.18According to the US Census, Beals worked in San Francisco as a photographer (like his father, who had died on December 4, 1884) in 1900 and as a railroad conductor in 1910, the job he held when he died.19

A widower at the end of his life, Tommy Beals died in San Francisco on October 2, 1915, at the age of 65. His ashes are interred at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California. In 1979 a member of the cemetery staff wrote the following letter to the late Bill Haber, one of the 16 founding members of the Society for American Baseball Research: “Replying to your letter of April 6th regarding information on relatives of the late Thomas L. Beals who was cremated at our cemetery on October 4, 1915, we are sorry to advise that we have no way [of] checking out any survivors.”20

Notes

1 Henry Chadwick, Spalding’s Base Ball Guide 1896 (New York: American Sports Publishing Company, 1896), 162.

2 The death certificate of Beals and an October 4, 1915, obituary from an unidentified newspaper lists his birthplace as Hartford; baseball-reference.com and Census records show New York as his place of birth. Likewise, Census records from different years give different dates of birth for both of his parents as well as different spellings for his mother’s first name. Thanks to reference librarian Cassidy Lent of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum for scanning the Hall’s file on Beals.

3 James L. Terry,Long Before the Dodgers: Baseball in Brooklyn, 1855-1884 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2002), 66.

4 Harold Kaese, The Boston Braves 1871-1953 (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2004), 13.

5 William J. Ryczek, Blackguards and Red Stockings: A History of Baseball’s National Association, 1871-1875 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2002), 159.

6 “The American Base-Ball Players in London,” New York Times, August 4, 1874: 2. Beals umpired in eight National Association games from 1872 to 1875. See retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B/Pbealt101.htm(accessed August 5, 2015).

7 Boston Daily Globe, May 12, 1875: 4.

8 “Base-Ball,” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 19, 1879: 12.

9 Jacob C. Morse, “Hub Happenings,” Sporting Life, August 6, 1898: 19. “Beals and Wright were such close friends that the latter named a son after him: Beals Wright (1879-1961), who like his father George and his uncle Harry made it to the Hall of Fame … the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Elected in 1956, Beals won gold medals in singles and doubles at the 1904 St. Louis Olympics, and the U.S. Championship the following year.” John Thorn, “The Unions of Morrisania,” April 10, 2013, ourgame.mlblogs.com/2013/04/10/ (accessed August 5, 2015).

10 “Base-Ball,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 28, 1879: 12.

11 “Sporting,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 15, 1880: 7.

12 “Sporting News,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 23, 1880: 5.

13 “Sporting Events,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 15, 1880: 8.

14 “Sporting Events,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 27, 1880: 5.

15 “Sporting,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 31, 1880: 8. Beals made three errors in this game, more than in any of the other 44 games for which the author found defensive data in either online or newspaper accounts.

16 “Base-Ball,” Chicago Daily Tribune, October 10, 1880: 7.

17 “Boston Stars of ’77 Famous Ball Team,” The (New London) Day, July 13, 1904: 2.

18 leg.state.nv.us (accessed August 4, 2015). Beals had two sons, Thomas and Albert. The October 4, 1915, obituary of Beals from an unidentified publication in the National Baseball Hall of Fame mentions only Albert.

19 Paul Batesel, Players and Teams of the National Association, 1871-1875 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2002), 23.

20 The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum file on Beals includes a copy of this letter.

David Solomon Birdsall was born on July 16, 1838, in New York City’s Lower East Side, to Solomon and Sarah Birdsall. He was the oldest of four children, with siblings Eliza Jane, John, and Sarah E. coming later. David’s father is listed as a policeman in the 1860 US census and in the few City Directories in which his name appears. By 1860 David had left the family and was working as a store clerk, living on Second Avenue in 1867, not far from his parents. It is likely he joined the base ball craze sweeping New York City in the 1850s, playing for various neighborhood teams. Officially Birdsall played one game in 1858 at second base for the Metropolitans.2 The 1890 Civil War Veterans Census indicates that David enlisted in the war effort in July 1861 and served four years as a private. Such duties seemed not to interfere with his occasional ballplaying; he “is first prominent with the Harlem team for three years” (1860-62), and the (Bronx) Unions of Morrisania in 1863.3 It was with Morrisania that Birdsall got his reputation as a dependable player. Through the 1860s he caught and pitched for the Unions as they slowly became a respected club. When position-player teammate Charlie Pabor started pitching in the mid-1860s, the Unions improved. In 1866 they compiled a 25-3 record, the same year cricketeer-turned-baseballist George Wright first crossed diamond paths with Birdsall. Wright played nine games for the Unions.

In 1868 infielder Wright played in all 43 Union games as did Birdsall – behind the bat. At 37-6 the Union amateurs ranked behind only the Athletics of Philadelphia (47-3) and New York Mutuals (47-7), while edging out Harry Wright’s Cincinnati Red Stockings by one victory. Morrisania had won 29 straight games before losing 13-12 to the pre-iconic Cincinnati Red Stockings in late August. Harry then coaxed brother George to Porkopolis to help create what became the unbeaten juggernaut Red Stockings of 1869 and most of 1870.

Birdsall also moved in 1869, taking his talents to the Washington Nationals, who finished 13-13 but were only 4-12 against the best amateur clubs.4 The Wrights and Cincinnati (57-0) beat the Nationals 24-8 in June 1869; Birdsall managed one hit. At age 32 Birdsall returned to his Morrisania mates in 1870 and caught 18 games in their 20-19 season (7-18 versus “professional” teams). He met his old friends the Ohio River Wrights on June 15. Asa Brainard surprisingly shut out the usually strong Unions, 14-0. It was the day after the Red Stockings’ extraordinary win streak had been suddenly snapped by the Brooklyn Atlantics, 8-7 in 11 innings. In Brainard’s “chicago” win, Birdsall had one of the five Union hits, walked twice and lined into a double play started by his quick-handed pal George Wright.

Having shown his worth playing with and against the Wright brothers, it is no surprise that when the signings for the new professional league were announced in late January of 1871, Birdsall was inked with the Boston club. The New York Clipper of January 28, 1871, under a story dateline of January 21, listed all team rosters to that date.5 It was the day after Ivers Whitney Adams held his Parker House lunch, announced his grand intention of fielding the finest team in the new National Association and asked some deep-pocket friends to buy stock in it. Starting with manager Harry Wright and his stellar brother George, down to Birdsall, all were in the fold before there was an actual team. It is not difficult to figure that because George and Harry knew of Birdsall’s worth firsthand, they picked him as “insurance” for the Red Stockings roster. Twenty-five years later, at his death, Sporting Life surmised that Boston acquired Birdsall because of “his successful catching of the wild and swift left-handed Pabor” of Morrisania.6

Reasons for employing Birdsall might not have been that evident to the unschooled base ball masses. He was the second oldest Red Stocking (only player-manager Harry Wright was older) and had the slightest physical stature of anyone on the team. At 126 pounds, he did not have a catcher’s physique, but he had been a nimble and notable backstop his entire 12-year amateur career. Cincinnati right fielder Cal McVey would do the bulk of catching for the 1871 Reds, but resting him was of prime importance to the team, and Birdsall was key to that plan. Durable Dave caught the preseason games and most Reds exhibitions, giving McVey days off but allowing the club to make side money. Birdsall, who most often played right field, and Cal often traded positions in some one-sided Association games.

Birdsall batted third in front of cleanup slugger McVey in most of the 1871 games, and his hitting was a surprising plus for the Reds. Except for an early twisted ankle (missed two games), at 33 Birdsall held up well. With all the other better-hitting, younger players in the league, Birdsall (.303) finished second in runs scored (51) to teammate Ross Barnes (66) and third in team hits behind McVey and Barnes. A strategically rested McVey benefited greatly, leading the league in hits (66), finishing second to Athletic star Levi Meyerle in batting average, .492 to .431, and McVey was second in RBIs to New York Mutual pitcher Rynie Wolters, 44 to 43. But with shortstop George Wright injured for half the Reds’ games, the Scott Hastings contract fiasco (his NA Commission-determined ineligibility culminated in forfeits giving Philadelphia two wins in games they lost to Hastings’ Rockford, Illinois, club) and the blowing of four “safe” leads, the Reds finished second to Philly (20 wins to 21), dampening Birdsall’s productive season.

In the very first game, on May 5 in Washington (Olympics), Dave accounted for four runs in the 20-18 win, despite being struck out twice by loser Asa Brainard. On May 29 his four hits and four runs aided a 25-11 win over the Rockford Forest Citys. His “career high” day also came versus Rockford, when on July 10 his five hits and five runs off loser Bill “Cherokee” Fisher helped whip the host Westerners, 21-12. Back at the South End Grounds on September 2, Birdsall scored five runs on three hits against the hapless Cleveland Forest Citys, in a 31-10 victory.

Things changed a bit in 1872 as Birdsall began to wear down. He played in 16 of 48 games and hit just .211. But he was McVey’s energy-saving substitute again, catching two or three games each month, all exhibitions and the final innings of some slaughters, saving Cal from the continuous chore of catching Al Spalding’s speedballs. But reliable Dave still had his offensive moments. On May 9 Birdsall helped pound new Brooklyn Eckfords pitcher Jim McDermott, 20-0, with three doubles and three RBIs, a combined two-hitter for Spalding and Harry Wright. Later Birdsall contributed a run and an RBI to a ninth-inning rally that edged the tough Mutuals, 4-2. The Reds won the first 10 games he played in, giving them a 33-4 record. He caught the year’s finale, against the Eckfords, a 4-3 win for Spalding over Reds nemesis George Zettlein. Dave was an important cog in the first Boston championship season (39-8-1).

Birdsall might have retired in 1873 because of Association-wide faster pitching, but instead stayed on to help his club as best he could. Though much less evident, his “insurance policy” talent was again illustrated, as he caught most of the April exhibitions. It took two young “Jims” bound for stardom to replace him. McVey left Boston and new catcher James “Deacon” White (formerly of Cleveland, inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013) needed time to get settled.

Birdsall started the first three games of the season and those were the last of the total 48 he played in official Association competition. The defending champion Red Stockings lost two of those first three games before Deacon White stepped in for good and helped capture a second straight NA championship. Bridgeport, Connecticut, native and 1872 Middletown Mansfield budding star James “Orator” O’Rourke replaced Birdsall in right field. Birdsall, however, was a fixture in moneymaking exhibitions throughout the year, playing in more than 20, catching in half of those. On occasion when the opposing team would be minus a player, stalwart catcher Birdsall would fill the toughest position for the amateurs, allowing the game to be played and the gate to be collected.

Birdsall’s final game with his Red Stockings comrades was one of spontaneous fun. In late December, Harry Wright assembled what was left of his team in wintry Boston, gathered some top local amateurs and announced in the Christmas Day Boston Daily Advertiser that there would be a game that morning at the South End Grounds, no admission to be charged. It was to be 10 innings with 10 players to a side. The temperature hovered at 34, and the wind was calm under a partly cloudy sky. On a hard, bumpy, but dry field the Wrights faced the Spaldings as the “pick up” teams battled to an 18-16 Wright brothers victory. The two winning runs appropriately scored in the intended 10th frame. Dave caught Spalding for the final time and scored three runs. Harry, George, and younger brother Sam Wright played with Bob Addy, Charlie Sweasy, and Jack Manning, while Spalding’s group included Birdsall, future National League Beaneaters owner Art Soden, Fred Cone, and Jamaica Plain baseball manufacturer Louis H. Mahn. About 500 hearty holiday souls attended.7

During the 1873 season, “impartial” Dave Birdsall was called upon to umpire one July game, in Brooklyn, as he and the Reds traveled with the Athletics from Philadelphia to Boston. The Atlantics beat the Athletics, 14-7. Choosing to remain a Boston resident, yet no longer a member of the team in 1874, Birdsall kept his hand in the game he loved by umpiring three South End games. Boston won two.

The 1880 US census has Birdsall at 222 Harrison Avenue with his wife and child. He had married a woman (Fanny from either Eastern Canada or Vermont) in 1872. Daughter Carrie (Caroline Sarah) was born on January 8, 1873. There is no Massachusetts record of the marriage or any clue as to what happened to Fanny. The daughter’s birth is recorded under Caroline “Bird.” At her birth the Birdsalls lived on Oxford Street (now part of Chinatown), before moving to 222 Harrison, where Dave would stay until his death.

Proudly listed with the “Boston Base Ball Club” in the City Directories of 1872 and ’73, Birdsall was a clerk starting in 1874 and for the rest of his working days. He was involved in several businesses, the first being with the Melodeon Billiard Hall, then owned by John Henry Flack. There were a dozen pool halls along lower Washington Street then, the Melodeon, a former theater, being the most lavish. Flack was a tournament player in Massachusetts who died suddenly in 1880. He owned a second billiard establishment at which Birdsall also worked.

Birdsall then briefly joined Elisha A. Holbrook at his billiard business before becoming employed by the Old Colony Railroad at its Kneeland/South Street depot/ticket office. In the mid-1880s he hooked up with Causeway Street liquor dealer John M. Benson. By 1894 and until his death, Birdsall was a clerk at 56 Kilby Street, Humphrey Dyer’s restaurant in bustling Liberty Square. Back during his 1870s billiard parlor days on Washington Street, Birdsall’s location was between the sporting-goods stores of both Wright brothers, so he likely saw them frequently.

Only six weeks prior to Birdsall’s death, Sporting Life reported that he had a “recent hospital stay and was hobbling around with the aid of a stick.”8 The prognosis of his “coming out all right” was wrong; Birdsall died on December 30, 1896, leaving his daughter. The New York Clipper ran a nice obituary lauding his playing career and adding that had Birdsall lived in pain since an operation in 1895.9 Birdsall was an Elks Lodge member, and was listed as one of the mourners, and perhaps an usher, at the funeral of baseball icon Mike “King” Kelly in November 1894, since the near-destitute King was buried by that organization.

Dave Birdsall is buried five headstones (15 feet) from Kelly in the Order of Elks Plot at Mount Hope Cemetery in the Mattapan section of Boston. A miffed Sporting Life writer complained that only two old ballplayers attended his funeral, local Jack Manning (1873 and 1875 Reds) and the Stockings’ only third baseman, Harry Schafer, who devotedly came up from his native Philadelphia. A Sporting Life blurb revealed that in 1871 both George Wright and Birdsall met Schafer in New York and they all boated up to Boston to begin training for their first Red Stocking season.10 Over the decades Birdsall’s daughter, Caroline, lived in Boston and Cambridge, working for a clock company until she died in 1951 in Allston.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted Retrosheet.org, census information, city directories from Boston and New York, and numerous daily Boston newspapers.

Notes

1 “Another Veteran Gone,” Sporting Life, January 9, 1897: 9.

2 Marshall D. Wright, The National Association of Base Ball Players 1857-1870 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2000), 21.

3 Sporting Life, January 9, 1897: 9. The Morrisania section of the Bronx begins about 0.7 miles east of Yankee Stadium and is bound by Webster and Prospect Avenues (east to west) and 161st St. to 169th St. (south to north). It is less than a square mile.

4 Wright, 251.

5 New York Clipper, “Players Who Have Signed Papers,” January 28, 1871: 338.

6 J.C. Morse, “Recollections Awakened by the Death of Birdsall,” Sporting Life, January 9, 1897: 7.

7 “A Ten Inning Game,” New York Clipper, January 3, 1874: 315.

8 “Another Vet Gone,” Sporting Life, January 9, 1897: 9.

9 New York Clipper, January 9, 1897: 719.

10 “Recollections …,” Sporting Life, January 9, 1897: 7.

In the team’s July 12 game against the Fort Wayne Kekiongas, Cone collected five hits in a lopsided 30-9 victory.

Joseph Frederick Cone was born in May of 1848 in Rockford, Illinois, to Mander and Sarah (Odell Bushnell) Cone. He is listed in baseball records as growing to 5-feet-9 with a playing weight of 171 pounds. We do not know whether he was right- or left-handed.

Young Fred grew up on his parents’ farm in the village of New Milford, four miles south of Rockford, with brothers Edward and Hiram Cone. As a boy he played for a junior club called the Unions and then joined another local team, the Sinnissippis (derived from an area near Rockford called Sinnissippi), for the 1866 season.

Cone became the regular first baseman for the Forest City juniors in 1867.1 The club had been established two years earlier and made a successful transition from an amateur squad to a professional team. During that 1867 season, Forest City made quite a name for itself by defeating the Nationals from Washington, 29-23.

Cone went on to play first base for two seasons with Forest City (1868 and 1869) before first baseman Joe Doyle was signed for the 1870 season. Cone then played left field, where “he gained a good reputation.”2

Said Cone regarding the signing of Doyle, “He wore no big glove to protect his hands, yet he was lightning on thrown balls, no matter how badly they broke. Up in the air, down in the ground, in fact any old way, he would get them and save many an error. In getting into fast double plays he was a wonder.”3

Cone’s reminiscences about his playing days with the Forest Citys appeared in a July 15, 1899, issue of the Lima News: “All players in those days were social lions, the old-timers say. Carriages were provided for them whenever they went to other cities to play and all sorts of invitations were extended to them. The fans were enthusiastic as they are to-day and the spectators used to become familiar and take the players into their confidences. Batting and fielding averages formed the small talk at sociable and dinner parties. An astonishing amount of loyalty to the home team was displayed by businessmen, lawyers, judges and the profound thinking economists.”4

Cone also recalled the popularity of the sport when the champion Unions of Morrisania, New York, made the trip from the East to play the Forest Citys in Rockford: “The banks closed, business men shut up their stores and the judge of the county court gravely informed his lawyer friends that the court had to sit en banc with a number of other estimable judges – of baseball – in a well-known stand out in the remote part of the city given over to the baseball players.”5

“That game with the Unions was one of the best we ever played, although we lost,” said Cone.6

During that period, future Hall of Famer Albert Spalding and another future Red Stockings teammate, Ross Barnes, also starred for the Rockford club.

Cone also noted memories of a game played by the Forest Citys in Rockford on October 15, 1870, against the Red Stockings:

“Mr. Spalding has preserved in a scrapbook the score of that never-to-be-forgotten game at Rockford in which the gaudy pennant of the famous Red Stockings was trailed in the dust of defeat by the score of 12 to 5. Each side made three home runs and not a Red walked to first on ‘called balls’ which showed that Spalding had great control in that contest. The scrapbook also noted, ‘(Bob) Addy, (Ross) Barnes, (Tom) Foley, (Gat) Stires, (Joe) Simmons and Cone played great ball.’”7

After the 1870 season managing the Cincinnati Red Stockings, Harry Wright was enticed to Boston to head the first professional baseball team there, and he raided the Rockford Forest City team to bolster his lineup. As the Rockford Weekly Register-Gazette put it, “(H)e has paid the Rockford Forest City Club the high compliment of engaging Barnes, Spalding, and Cone; whereat the Chicago Tribune laments that these were not secured for the White Stockings.”8 Wright brought the men to play for the Boston version of the Red Stockings for the 1871 National Association season.

Originally, Wright had only intended to take Barnes and Spalding, but “a great catch which Cone made in left field, followed by a throw to the plate which retired a runner, was witnessed by Mr. Wright and he immediately added Cone’s name to the list of recruits that he wanted.”9

Barnes, Spalding, and Cone lived in a rooming house on Heath Street in the “Boston Highlands” section of the city, about a mile from the grounds and next door to the one where Harry Wright boarded. Al Spalding wrote the Rockford newspaper in late April, before the season began, that “as we are all together, we don’t get very lonesome.”10

The Red Stockings’ first game of the season was played in Washington on May 5. Cone played left field and batted eighth in the order, as he did in almost every game of the season, only occasionally batting seventh. Boston won the coin toss and sent the Olympians to bat first; the Red Stockings came from behind with five runs in bottom of the ninth inning, to win 20-18. Every player on the team scored at least one run; Cone and Cal McVey were the only players to score just once. Cone singled over second base in the eighth and came around to score after a walk and an errant throw to second base on an infield grounder. Cone had walked twice earlier in the game, but was stranded both times.

In a game with the Troy Haymakers on May 9, Cone was involved in a play which that caused severe injury to shortstop George Wright. On a fly ball hit into short left field in the sixth inning, Wright called for the ball but the hard-charging Cone did not hear him because of a passing train and the two players collided.

The injury did not seem serious at first, but it was the same leg Wright had injured in 1870, and after a 20-minute delay he was sent to the hotel in a carriage. He was slow to heal, causing him to miss 16 games (half the team’s total of 31).11

The play also affected Cone, who injured a wrist and missed several games. Cone shared an outfield spot with teammate Frank Barrows, who played in 18 games.

The Haymakers and Red Stockings squared off again on May 16, and Cone was one of six Red Stockings to score in the first inning, but Troy got its revenge and won, 29-14.

In his only major-league season, Cone played in 19 of the 31 games, as well as several exhibition games. He batted .260 (20-for-77) with 16 runs batted in and 17 runs scored. He had three doubles and a triple, but was more of a threat on the bases as he stole 12 bases while being caught only once. His .260 batting average ranked him ninth on the team, but his .329 on-base percentage placed him fifth.

Defensively, Cone committed seven errors in 48 chances, for an .854 fielding average, which would seem abysmal by later standards, but was in fact tied with Ross Barnes for third-best on the squad. The Red Stockings as a team recorded an .834 fielding average. Cone had two outfield assists.

Where the 1871 Boston team had fielded a roster of 11 players, the 1872 team made do with just 10 players all season long. Fraley Rogers, Andy Leonard, and Harry Wright were the outfielders. Cone was not needed. He was in Boston as late as April, and was the umpire in a couple of games between the Red Stockings and Harvard, but was not retained for the ballclub.

He was considered for a Chicago professional team in 1873, but nothing seems to have come of it.12 In 1876 he signed with Chicago as “assistant manager, and substitute.” But after appearing in at least one exhibition game, he left the club and took a job with the Matteson House hotel.13 

Cone continued working in the hotel business after his baseball career ended. While playing for Rockford, he had been a hotel clerk and worked for a man named Harry Starr in the Holland House. The Rockford Daily Register reported in 1883 that “Cone is now one of the best hotel clerks in Chicago and flashes his diamond studs behind the Grand Pacific counters.”14

Cone married Elizabeth (Munger) Holley on December 2, 1881. The couple had no children.

In later years, he became the night manager of the Grand Pacific and later worked for the Wellington and Great Northern hotels in Chicago.15

Shortly after Harry Wright died, a “Harry Wright Day” was held in several cities on April 13, 1896. Cone was among those who traveled to Rockford, reuniting in an exhibition game with Spalding, George Wright, Addy, and a number of others from the Forest City teams of the 1860s.

Cone became quite opinionated about the progress of the game of baseball and in an 1896 interview with the Rockford Daily Register expressed his disdain for the way the game was being played in the professional ranks.

“From what read in the papers I have come to the conclusion that they don’t play ball nowadays. I don’t want to see the time-honored game dragged in the dust,” the paper quoted him as saying.16

Cone noted that the current crowds, estimated at 6,000, were a far cry from the cozy crowds of his day.

“I did not feel at home among the crowd. It was no good-natured, howling crowd, but they all sat there with a long look on their faces, as if something terrible was about to take place. What do people go to a ball game for if it is not for a good time?” he said.

Cone also expressed surprise at the “gloves” worn by the players in the field, as opposed to playing barehanded as many players in his day did.

“Try as hard as I could I was unable to pick out the catcher among the crowd of players. All because they had a big bunch of cotton on their hands. Even the fielders wore them,” he said.

“After the game was started the first batter knocked a little weak fly over third base and the crowd yelled. I could not see what they yelled for, as I was ashamed of the batter. Then I found the catcher. Oh, what a sight he was. On his breast he wore a mattress that was large enough for a family of six to sleep upon, and talking about gloves, it was a corker, big as a large pillow. Around his head he wore enough steel to keep all the firm of the ‘Long, Short & Co.’ in confinement for years to come. How that poor, imposed upon fellow could see is more than I can make out.”17

A note in an 1896 issue of the New York Times regarding an old-timers game said, “Fred Cone, who made his advent into Rockford in 1868 with his overalls in cowhide boots, as a member of the Stillman Valley ‘Plowboys,’ now wears a gorgeous diamond in his shirtfront and is the day clerk of the Victoria Hotel.”18

After an illness of seven weeks, Cone died at his home on Oakwood Boulevard in Chicago of apoplexy at 6 A.M. on April 13, 1909 at the age of 61. He was survived by his wife of 30 years and a brother E. Frank Cone. Funeral services were held at Graceland Chapel in Chicago, where he was buried.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to John Wilheim for sending details on Cone’s activities in Chicago.

Notes

1 Peter Morris, William J. Ryczek, Jan Finkel, Leonard Levin, and Richard Malatzky, Base Ball Pioneers, 1850-1870: The Clubs and Players Who Spread the Sport (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2012), 230.

2 “The National Game,” Rockford Weekly Register-Gazette, March 25, 1871: 8.

3 Base Ball Pioneers, 230.

4 “Baseball Thirty Years Ago – What Has Become of the Members of the Forest City Ball Team of 1870,” Lima (Ohio) News, July 15, 1899: 24.

5 “Baseball Thirty Years Ago.”

6 “Baseball Thirty Years Ago.”

7 “Baseball Thirty Years Ago.”

8 “The National Game,” Rockford Weekly Register-Gazette, January 21, 1871: 9.

9 “J. Fred Cone Buried Today,” Daily Register-Gazette (Rockford, Illinois), April 15, 1909: 2.

10 “Our National Game,” Rockford Weekly Register-Gazette, April 29, 1871: 8.

11 William J. Craig, A History of the Boston Braves: A Time Gone By (Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press, 2012), 78. Initial reports had Wright, “the acknowledged King of the Base-ball Field,” suffering a broken leg. See “George Wright Injured,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 10, 1871: 8.

12 “Base Ball,” Chicago Tribune. July 24, 1972: 6.

13 “Base Ball,” Rockford Weekly Register-Gazette, January 7, 1876: 3. The November 3, 1875, Boston Journal mentions Cone as a “business manager” as well. The Chicago Tribune of April 26, 1876, reported: “Cone has severed his connection with the Chicago Club, and has taken a situation with the Matteson House. The act was wholly voluntary on his part, and resulted from his seeing that the White Stocking team of twelve men was too large, and must in some way be reduced.”

14 “A Man About Town,” Rockford Daily Register, July 14, 1883: 3.

15 Base Ball Pioneers, 230. See also “Fred Cone Makes Changes in Place of Employment,” Rockford Morning Star, March 17, 1904: 2.

16 “The World of Sport,” Rockford Daily Register, August 29, 1896: 3.

17 “The World of Sport.”

18 “Diamond Field Veterans: Stars of a Quarter of a Century Ago to Play a Ball Game,” New York Times, April 12, 1896: 3.

Charles Harvey Gould was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on August 21, 1847, the fourth child of Elizabeth Fisk and George W. Gould, a produce merchant who started by selling butter and eggs along the Ohio River waterfront and built the enterprise into a thriving wholesale business. As a youngster, Charlie worked as a clerk in his father’s business. At the age of 15 he was playing first base for the Buckeyes, the best ball club in the Queen City. He stayed with the Buckeyes from 1863 through 1867 and earned a reputation as an outstanding fielder. It is said that he won a baseball-throwing competition by throwing a ball 302 feet 3 inches, quite a feat considering the condition of the balls used in the contest.1

In 1866 Aaron B. Champion, a Cincinnati lawyer and entrepreneur, formed the Cincinnati Base Ball Club. The club won two games and lost two during its initial season, both losses coming at the hands of the Buckeyes. The team played its home games on the grounds of the Union Cricket Club. One of the cricketers, Harry Wright, had been a star player for the famed Knickerbocker baseball club in New York before becoming a professional cricket player. Wright decided that baseball had a brighter future than cricket, so he accepted Champion’s offer to join the Cincinnati Base Ball Club, as captain and center fielder. Soon Wright was named manager, with duties that today would be considered responsibilities of the field manager, general manager, traveling secretary, and scout.

In 1867 the Cincinnatis were a strong aggregation, augmented by several paid performers Wright had brought from the East. The club won 17 games, while losing only one. Among the victories was a 109-15 drubbing of the Holt Baseball Club in Newport, Kentucky. The one loss was a 53-10 beating at the hands of the Washington Nationals. The defeat was a particularly bitter pill for Harry Wright, as Washington’s star player was shortstop George Wright, Harry’s brother.

Champion and Wright were determined to make the club not only the strongest in the Midwest, but one that could compete successfully with the powerful teams in the East. In order to accomplish this they had to obtain the best players in the country, which meant they had to pay the price. In 1868 the National Association of Base Ball Players still had a rule against pay for play, but the rule was frequently violated, sometimes openly, more often by subterfuge, such as providing salaries for sham jobs in a sponsor’s business (The rule was repealed during the winter of 1868-69). Champion and Wright took full advantage of any opportunities to acquire star players. Champion remained president of the club, responsible for players’ salaries. Wright became his man for all seasons.

Before the 1868 season began Wright hired seamstress Bertha Betram to create new uniforms. She made white flannel jerseys, with a bright red C stitched on the front; white knickers with a clasp below the knee, and long, bright red stockings, giving rise to the clubs new nickname – the Red Stockings. The 1868 club won 41 of the 48 games they played that season, including two victories over their Queen City rivals, the Buckeyes, 28-10 and 20-12. Local bragging rights clearly now belonged to the Red Stockings.

Seven losses were seven too many for Champion and Wright. They were in pursuit of perfection.

In 1869 they fielded the first openly all-professional club in the history of baseball. Most prominent among the acquisitions was Harry Wright’s brother, George, perhaps the best ballplayer of his era. Also prominent among the new professionals was Charlie Gould, the ex-Buckeye who had been hired away from his former team. At six feet, Gould was the tallest player on the squad. At a time when most first sackers were anchored to the bag, Gould, with his height, his unusually long arms, and his agility, was able to play off the base and still get back to the bag in time to catch a throw from a fellow infielder. So adept was he at catching balls thrown his direction that his teammates said throwing to him was as easy as throwing a ball into a bushel basket. Bushel Basket became Gould’s nickname.

The only native Cincinnatian on the team, Gould was popular with Queen City cranks (as fans were called in those days.) He was affable, fun-loving, and accessible to the cranks. He enjoyed practical jokes, as long as they were not malicious. He did not participate in the rowdy behavior that characterized some of his teammates.

On April 17, 1869, the Red Stockings played their first exhibition game as an all-professional club, defeating a local team of amateur all-stars, 24-15. Charlie Gould started at first base and collected four hits. On May 4 the Red Stockings met another Cincinnati squad, the Great Western Club, in their first official game of the season, and trounced their opponents, 45-9. After defeating all the local opposition, the Red Stockings embarked on a trip to the East.. Gould played first base in every game, batted second in the lineup, and was frequently a star of the game. One of his more outstanding games came at Springfield, Massachusetts, when he accumulated six base hits and eight stolen bases, as the Red Stockings defeated the Mutuals, 80-5

The undefeated Cincinnatis steamed into New York City, prepared to meet three of the strongest teams in the nation. On June 15 they defeated the New York Mutuals in a hard-fought contest, 4-2. The next day they routed the Brooklyn Atlantics, 32-10. The Red Stockings completed their three-game sweep of Gotham’s finest by trouncing the Brooklyn Eckfords, 24-5. They continued their victorious swing through the East with wins in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and wherever a game could be scheduled. The final game on the tour came in Wheeling, West Virginia. The Red Stockings were leading the Baltic Base Club by the score of 53-0 before the game was halted because of rain. Gould collected six hits in the four innings played before the rains came.

Returning to the Queen City, the Red Stockings continued their winning ways, highlighted by a 71-15 blowout of their erstwhile rivals, the Buckeyes. To prove it was no fluke, the Stockings prevailed in a rematch, 103-8. On August 26, the Troy Haymakers visited Cincinnati. The result was one of the most controversial games ever played. With the score tied, 17-17, Troy’s president pulled his team off the field to protest an umpire’s decision. The umpire, John Brockway, awarded the game to Cincinnati on a forfeit. However, the NABBP Judiciary Committee held that the game was officially a tie – the first blemish on the Red Stockings’ 1868 record.2 It was later revealed that the protest had been staged. Haymaker owner John Morrissey had wanted the game to end in a tie so that he could collect on his bets that Cincinnati would not win the game. After the season ended the Troy club apologized for its disgraceful behavior.3

Having defeated the best in the East and the Midwest, the Red Stockings had only one more world to conquer. They went west. They won games in St. Louis, Omaha, San Francisco, and Sacramento by huge margins and returned home undefeated. Harry Wright listed the club’s record as 56 wins and one tie. Various newspapers reported the victory total as 57, 58, or 61, depending on whether rain-shortened contests were included.4 The average score was something like 40-10. Charlie Gould was fourth on the team with 21 home runs.

His salary for 1869 was $800. In addition, every man on the team received a $50 bonus for completing an undefeated season.

In April 1870 the Red Stockings boarded steamboats and headed South. They defeated the Louisville Eagles, 94-7, and headed for New Orleans. The Cincinnatians defeated the five teams they faced in the Crescent City by scores of 51-1; 80-6; 39-6; 26-7; and 24-4. On the way back the Red Stockings stopped in Memphis long enough to demolish the Oriental Base Ball Club, 100-2. Returning home the club continued winning by huge margins, the most lopsided being a 108-3 blasting of the Union Base Ball Club of Urbana, Ohio. By the fifth inning of this game Gould already had collected 11 hits. The next day the Red Stockings whipped the Dayton Base Ball Club, 108-9. They defeated the Forest City club of Cleveland and headed east, handily beating teams in upstate New York and Massachusetts. When they reached New York City, they defeated the Mutuals, 16-3, for the 27th consecutive victory of the 1880 season.

On June 14, they faced the Brooklyn Atlantics. At the end of nine innings, the score was tied, 5-5. The Atlantics began to leave the field, satisfied with a tie. Wright and Champion both protested, citing the rule that in case of a tie at the end of nine innings the game must continue “unless it be mutually agreed upon by the captains of the two nines to consider the game as drawn.”5 Rather than lose the game by forfeit, the Atlantics allowed the game to resume. In the top of the 11th inning, the Red Stockings scored two runs to take the lead, 7-5.The Atlantics came back in the bottom of the frame and tied the game at 7-7. With Bob “Death to Flying Things” Ferguson on first base, pitcher George Zettlein came to the plate. He smacked a hard grounder to the right of Charlie Gould at first base. The Bushel Basket, reputedly the best fielding first baseman of his time, unexpectedly muffed the ball. Retrieving the ball and seeing Ferguson heading for second base, Gould fired the ball wildly toward second. The ball bounced into left field, and Ferguson scored the winning run. The Red Stockings’ long winning streak had come to an end on an error by the Bushel Basket.

During the season, dissension struck the club. Two major cliques emerged, divided over opinions about drinking and discipline. The Wright brothers, Gould, and McVey opposed what they considered rowdy behavior; the others had a different view about off-field conduct.

On August 2, 1870, Aaron Burt Champion unexpectedly resigned as president of the club. The vice president and secretary also announced their resignations. Under new leadership in the front office, the Red Stockings finished the 1870 season with a record of 68 wins, six losses, and one tie. However, Stephen D. Guschov quotes from a pamphlet issued by Champion’s successor A. P. C. Bonte noting that the executive board decided that they could not afford to pay the “enormous salaries now demanded by professional players” and would revert to amateur status in 1871.

On November 30, Harry Wright announced that he had agreed to become the manager, captain, and secretary of the new professional club being organized in Boston. Less than two months later George Wright joined his brother in the Hub. Charlie Gould and Cal McVey soon were on their way to Beantown. Boston ownership asked Wright if he could bring any other former Cincinnati players to the fold, but Wright demurred. He wanted no drinkers, growlers, or shrinkers on his team.

On St. Patrick’s Day, 1871, a new organization was formed. Called the National Association of Professional Baseball Clubs, it is generally considered baseball’s first major league. Boston became a charter member. Wright christened the team the Boston Red Stockings and led it to a second-place finish in the circuit’s inaugural season, two games behind the pennant winning Philadelphia Athletics. Wright righted the ship the next season and won the league championship in each of the four remaining years of the loop’s existence. In the Baseball Encyclopedia, Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette paid tribute to Wright: “In a league with questionable organization, officiating, and, in some cases, honesty of its participants, British-born Harry Wright was the pillar of class and professionalism.”6

Gould was Boston’s regular first baseman in 1871 and 1872. He had moderate success as a batter, hitting .285 in 1871and finishing in the league’s top 10 in doubles and home runs. His average declined to .255 in 1872, but he led the league in triples and made the top 10 in extra-base hits. In the field he continued to excel, twice leading the league in putouts and double plays He finished second or third each year in range factor. On the negative side, he led the loop’s first basemen in errors both years.

Unsigned in 1873, Gould caught on with Baltimore in 1874, but had a miserable year at the plate, hitting only .224. In 1873 or 1874 Gould married a young Ohio woman, Laura Netherly. The couple had five children. Twin girls, Laura and Laulie, were born in July 1874. Laura died in infancy. A son, Morton, was born in 1876; a daughter, Florence, in 1879; and another son, Charles, in 1886.

In 1875 Gould joined the New Haven Elm Citys as a player-manager for the club’s only big league season. His first managerial experience was not a good one. New Haven folded in mid-season with a record of seven wins and 40 losses.

Despite the debacle in Connecticut, Gould was given another chance to manage. Cincinnati had joined the new National League in 1876, reclaimed the name Red Stockings, and hired its former home town hero Charlie Gould as its first National League manager. He had even less success in Cincinnati than he had in New Haven. The Red Stocking finished in last place with a record of nine wins and 56 losses. That was the end of Gould’s managerial career. He played a few games in 1877, appearing in his final game on July 12 at the age of 29.

For the remainder of 1877 and the next two seasons, Gould remained with the Red Stockings, acting for a time as the team’s assistant secretary, taking minutes at stockholders’ meetings, and making travel arrangements. In 1879 he was a groundskeeper and equipment manager, purchasing brooms, buckets, and balls and seeing that the ball park was kept in shape.7

By 1880 Gould’s employment by the Red Stockings had ended. Over the next several years he held various positions with the Cincinnati Police Department and the Sheriff’s office. He later worked briefly in such jobs as streetcar conductor, insurance agent, clerk and storeroom manager for the Pullman Palace Car Company.8

In 1913 Gould left his hometown and went east to live with his son, Charles. He died at his son’s home in Flushing, New York, on April 10, 1917, at the age of 69. Gould’s body was brought back to Cincinnati and buried in the family plot in Spring Grove Cemetery. A tombstone was not placed on the grave until 1951, when Warren Giles, general manager of the Reds, had a monument erected to honor Gould as the Reds’ first National League manager. Ironically, Gould was not a very good manager. He was a fair hitter and a superb fielder. He should be remembered as a baseball pioneer with the Red Stockings and as the first major leaguer born in the Queen City.

This biography is included in “Boston’s First Nine: The 1871-75 Boston Red Stockings” (SABR, 2016), edited by Bob LeMoine and Bill Nowlin.

Notes

George William Hall was born on March 29, 1849, 1 in Stepney, England, to George R. and Mary Hall; he was the third of five children. Hall’s father, an engraver, emigrated from England to the United States around the time Mary birthed their fourth child, Edwin. Mary and her four children immigrated to the United States soon thereafter and arrived at New York on July 26, 1854.2 George developed an affinity for baseball in his adolescent years in Brooklyn and proved to be an adequate fielder and skilled with the bat.3

Hall began his baseball career as an amateur and played for the Excelsior Juniors of Brooklyn in 1868 and as a first baseman for the Cambridge Stars (New York) in 1868 and 1869.4 In 1870 he joined the Brooklyn Atlantics and was responsible for ending the most famous undefeated streak in professional sports history. On June 14, 1870, the Cincinnati Red Stockings brought their unblemished 57-0 record to the Capitoline Grounds in Brooklyn to face the Atlantics. Henry Chadwick’s Base-ball Manual for 1871 estimated that nearly 10,000 people watched as the Atlantics and the Red Stockings played an intense match. Cincinnati led 3-0 after three innings, but the Atlantics rallied to score four runs in the following three innings. “The game now began to get quite exciting, and every movement of the players was watched with eagerness.”5 The teams traded the lead and were tied 5-5 after nine innings. Cincinnati refused to accept a tie-game outcome and sought to finish the match. In the 11th, the Atlantics tied the score again. Charles Ferguson was on second and George Zettlein at first. Hall batted next but what unfolded next is unclear.

Hall stepped up to the plate and hit Asa Brainard’s pitch to George Wright, who tossed the ball to Charlie Sweasy. At this point, the reports begin to differ. Cincinnati newspapers agree that Sweasy muffed the ball and hurried a throw to catcher Doug Allison, who did not catch the ball. “Hall hit to Wright, who threw to Sweasy, who muffed and threw to Alison, who missed it, and Ferguson scored the winning run. [Long and tremendous cheering.]”6 The New York Tribune simply states that “Hall closed the game in triumph for the Atlantics; his hit released Ferguson, who ran over the plate, winning the game by one run.”7 The Brooklyn Daily Eagle held that Hall got a hit. “Hall batted Zettlein out at second, and was nearly put out at second himself, but Sweasey dropped the ball passed in by George Wright, and Fergy got home, making the winning run.”8 Most newspapers held that Sweasy dropped the ball and threw the ball errantly to home plate, allowing Ferguson to score but it was Hall’s action that initiated the play that ended Cincinnati’s unbeaten streak. Chadwick’s guide called the game “The Match of the Season of 1870.”9

Despite the incredible victory, the Atlantics reorganized as an amateur club in 1871. Because of this, Hall decided to take his services elsewhere and found a home as a center fielder for the Washington Olympics of the newly christened National Association. Hall batted .294 in 1871 and continued to impress fans and players with his speed. In 1872 the Olympics reorganized as a co-op team and Hall again decided to move on, this time to Baltimore. He spent 1872 and 1873 as a member of the Baltimore Canaries (also known as the Lord Baltimores). Hall batted .340 in his two years with Baltimore and ranked third in the league in doubles and triples in 1872. Baltimore folded in 1874 despite strong second-place finishes in 1872 and 1873. The Panic of 1873 affected Baltimore’s proprietors and the funds for the Canaries quickly vanished.10 Financial uncertainty led Hall to leave Baltimore before the 1874 season and sign with the Boston Red Stockings for half of his 1873 salary.11

George Hall’s experience highlights the volatility and financial unease of 19th century baseball clubs. Prior to the formation of the National League, clubs, and especially their players, were at the mercy of gate receipts in order to stay afloat. An ambitious schedule and the need to travel from city to city made it difficult to remain financially stable and profitable on a consistent basis. Thus, players like Hall found it difficult to make a living playing the game they loved. However, players made important – and at times detrimental – personal connections when they jumped from club to club. Hall is no exception, as he met a shady character named Bill Craver and was likely introduced to his future wife, Ida Layfield, a Maryland native, while a member of the Canaries.12 George and Ida were married in 1876 while George played for the Athletics of Philadelphia.13

In 1874 Hall joined the best baseball club in the National Association, the Boston Red Stockings. The Red Stockings were crowned National Association champions in 1872 and 1873 and fielded a roster that included five future Hall of Famers, George Wright, Harry Wright, Jim O’Rourke, Deacon White, and Al Spalding. Although Hall’s career hitting statistics suggest he was a slightly above-average player, his addition to the best professional squad in the National Association speaks volumes. Both Wright Brothers, Andy Leonard, and especially Cal McVey knew how dangerous Hall could be with the bat. Additionally, McVey was Hall’s teammate in Baltimore in 1873, where the two batted .380 and .345 respectively. It’s possible that Harry Wright signed Hall at McVey’s urging. With Boston Hall split time in the outfield with the aging legend Harry Wright and others. Combined with his offensive skill, Hall’s defensive prowess improved the Boston outfield. The New York Clipper commented, “Hall was the crack player south of Philadelphia at centre field.”14 Hall’s versatile defensive talents blended nicely with the evolving understanding of outfield play. Prior to 1874, the right fielder was considered the weakest of the three, with the best outfielder playing in left field. By 1874 the Clipper opined that right field was the most active due to the lack of a shortstop on that side, but all outfield positions essentially required equal skill.15 “As a general thing, however, the three positions required the same qualities, viz., long-distance throwing, sure catching, and good judgment in the guaging [sic] of balls.”16 Pitching improved in several ways so fewer balls were hit to the outfield. Thus, by 1874, outfielders were standing much closer to the infield than in the game’s early days. Hall’s speed helped him in this style of play because he could quickly track a ball down if one were hit well, deep into the outfield. His arm was likely good to above average because he played all outfield positions successfully.17 Outfielders like Hall had to be incredibly athletic to succeed. “It will not do, therefore, to put any but the best men in those positions,” the Clipper opined.18

The Red Stockings’ first National Association game of 1874 was against the New York Mutuals on May 2. Hall’s first professional contest played with Boston was a significant one as he replaced Harry Wright in the lineup, “filling (Wright’s) position acceptably at centre-field.”19 He had one hit, scored a run, and made two putouts in center field. But Hall’s season was mediocre– actually the worst of his professional career. This is possibly due to his limited playing time; Hall played in only 47 of the 71 scheduled league games. His role on the club was again as a rotating outfielder, splitting most of his time with Harry Wright. Hall batted .288 and had 64 hits, one home run, and 34 RBIs, all figures either career lows or close to them. Still, Hall played a role in one of baseball history’s grandest tours: the 1874 World Base Ball Tour.

The Clipper called the tour “The Grand International Tour.”20 In the winter of 1873 Harry Wright proposed that the Red Stockings and Athletic of Philadelphia sail across the Atlantic in the summer of 1874 and expose Europeans to the American game. Hall returned to his country of birth on July 27, 1874, and played his first game on July 30 at the Liverpool Cricket Grounds in front of 500 onlookers. He scored two runs in the 14-11 loss to Athletic. On July 31 Hall hit one of Boston’s five home runs as the Red Stockings beat the Athletic, 23-18. This trend continued for the entire tour as he proved to be an offensive force. He hit in every game but one and belted at least two home runs.21 The London Times noted that Hall was a good fielder.22 He established himself as one of the best players on the tour. The teams returned to America on September 9. The tour proved to be a financial failure; the English reacted indifferently to the American game. “Some American athletes are trying to introduce us to their game of base-ball, as if it were a novelty; whereas the fact is that it is an ancient English game, long ago discarded in favour of cricket,” the Times lectured.23 The Red Stockings completed their season on October 30 with a loss to Hartford. Boston finished 1874 atop the National Association standings with a 52-18-1 record.

Despite playing for a champion, Hall signed with the Athletic of Philadelphia for the 1875 season. The reasons are unknown but Philadelphia may have offered a higher salary to Hall, who hit extremely well against the Athletic in Europe. In his first season with Philadelphia, Hall hit .299, with 107 hits, 4 home runs, and 62 RBIs. His play was above average (2.3 WAR) but Philadelphia finished a distant third to Boston in the final standings. The Red Stockings were a major catalyst in the National Association’s collapse in 1875 – they were simply too good and attendance waned. Chicago businessman William Hulbert formed the National League officially in February 1876. He viewed the National Association as corrupt, mismanaged, and, worst of all, weak. Hall decided to stick with Philadelphia for 1876, a decision that set up his best season in professional baseball.

The National Association’s best clubs from 1875 squared off against one another on April 22, 1876, in Philadelphia.24 Hall had several clutch at-bats that kept Philadelphia in the game. Regardless, the Athletics dropped the opener to the Red Caps, 6-5. Once again Hall was at the center of baseball history as he played a crucial role in the National League’s origin story. Although the game is now a famous first, Hall’s play in a forgotten game later that season was arguably his best performance.

The Cincinnati Reds arrived in Philadelphia and began a three-game series against the Athletics on June 14. (The first game was scheduled for June 13 but was rained out.) Both teams were bad; the Athletic carried a 5-15 record into the set while the Reds sported a balmy 4-17 record; no wonder that “the attendance was small.”25 Despite their poor record, Philadelphia put on a powerful offensive display. “The extraordinary batting of the Athletics on this occasion has perhaps never been equaled, and certainly, has not been excelled. … Hall’s wonderful batting was the feature. …”26 During the game, Hall tallied five hits in six plate appearances, “once making a clean home-run by driving the ball over the right-field fence, and making, besides, three three-basers [triples].”27 It is likely that his omitted fifth hit was a single because the Clipper noted all Athletics who registered extra-base hits that day. Thus, George Hall was probably a double away from being the first major-league player to hit for the cycle.28 His home run – one of his league-leading five in 1876 – was rare for two reasons: 1) He hit a home run in the fifth inning and 2) the ball bounded over the fence (a legal home run at the time). Such home runs were rare in the 19th century. That he hit a dead ball deep enough to bound over the fence in the middle of a game in which the Athletics notched 20 runs on 23 hits is even more impressive. The ball was surely a misshapen blob at that point. Three days later Hall hit two home runs off Amos Booth of the Reds, becoming the first player to hit more than one in a game.29 The veteran had his best offensive season in 1876, batting.366 with 98 hits, 5 home runs, and 45 RBIs in 268 at-bats. His league-leading five home runs crowned him professional baseball’s first “home run king.”

Despite Hall’s success, the 1876 Athletics were a bad team, mostly young and inexperienced.30 Financial woes hit the club hard, and it failed to complete its scheduled final Western road trip, no-shows for series in Chicago and St. Louis. The club also owed every player between $200 and $500 in back pay. Rumors circulated in Philadelphia that a new club would be organized, using the players from 1876.”31 Hall told the team management that he would stay,32 but, the Athletics were barred from the National League for the 1877 season, leaving him without a team.

Hall soon found a home along with former teammate Bill Craver on the Louisville Grays. The Grays were a formidable team with pitching ace Jim Devlin on the roster. While Chicago and Hartford failed to translate their 1876 success into the 1877 season, Louisville transformed itself from a mediocre team in 1876 to pennant contenders. On August 13 the Grays had a four-game lead over St. Louis with a 27-13 record. St. Louis offered Hall a contract for 1878. (He also expressed interest in joining the Cincinnati nine for 1878.) For whatever reason, he had no interest in signing again with Louisville, even though his salary was a healthy $2,800.33 Hall was a major catalyst for Louisville’s success in 1877, batting .323, but he was also a major factor in the club’s downfall.

The Grays were leading the pennant race by 3½ games midway through August. Suddenly, with 20 games left in the season, Louisville began to drop games. Between August 17 and September 26, the Grays went 2-11-1 and ended the season on October 6 with a 35-25 record, good enough for second place, but a distant seven games behind. Hall led the team in hitting on August 17 but hit just .143 on the final road trip.34 His performance and that of a few teammates increased suspicion that games were being fixed. John A. Haldeman, a baseball writer for the Louisville Courier-Journal, learned that four players, including Hall, had been persuaded by gamblers to throw games.35 Furthermore, after the ill-fated Eastern road trip, Hall sported a new diamond pin and cluster diamond ring.36

Speculation about the purported Louisville scandal increased at season’s end. Club owner Charles Chase interviewed Jim Devlin, who said he played loosely only during exhibition games. “Hall had seen Devlin enter Chase’s office that morning and was now filled with anxiety that he had blown the whistle on him.”37 Hall offered to tell Chase about the scandal’s mechanics if Chase “promised to let [him] down easy.”38 Eventually Hall admitted to fixing games. On October 26, at a meeting of the Grays’ board of directors with the entire team to discuss the Grays’ last 20 games, Hall maintained that he accepted payment only to throw non-League games.39 Four days later, the directors expelled Hall and others from the Louisville club. Despite that, and the League rule barring players convicted of disreputable play from signing with other National League clubs, St. Louis signed both Devlin and Hall for the 1878 season.40 On December 5 the National League Board unanimously banned Hall, Devlin, Bill Craver, and Albert Nichols from signing with any National League club until reinstated.41

The National League never reinstated Hall, and he eventually faded into obscurity. Rumors spread that he continued to play for nonleague teams, but no evidence of that has been founed. Hall moved back to Brooklyn with his wife, Ida, and took up steel engraving, his father’s trade. The couple had six children. Ida died of acute nephritis in 1912 and was buried in Brooklyn’s Evergreen Cemetery. In his later years, George either quit or retired from the engraving profession and became a clerk in a New York art museum. He died of heart trouble on June 11, 1923, and was buried next to his wife.

Hall was involved in some of professional baseball’s earliest key moments and established himself as one of the era’s better players. Baseball historian and statistician Bill James labeled him baseball’s “Least Admirable Superstar” of the 1870s.42 Hall’s role in baseball’s largest scandal of the 19th century continues to overshadow his skill as a player. He completed his career with a .322 batting average with 13 home runs, 252 RBIs, and 538 hits.

Notes

1 Hall’s birth date is disputed. Most sources claim March 29, 1849, as his date of birth while his death certificate states that it was June 22, 1849.

2 They immigrated to the United States aboard the Sir Robert Peel. Year: 1854; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Microfilm Roll: Roll 143; Line: 22; List Number: 928.

3 James D. Smith III, “George William Hall,” from the archives of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

4 Ibid.

5 Henry Chadwick, Chadwick’s Base Ball Manual, baseballchronology.com/baseball/Books/Classic/Henry-Chadwicks-Baseball-Manual/Page-2.asp#70RedStockings1stLoss.

6 “Base-Ball: The Atlantics of Brooklyn Beat the Champions by a Score of 8 to 7 in a Game of 11 Innings, the Rest on Record,” Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, June 15, 1870.

7 “Base-Ball: Atlantics vs. Red Stockings,” New York Tribune, June 15, 1870.

8 “The Atlantics Triumphant,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 15, 1870.

9 Chadwick’s Base Ball Manual.

10 Joe Tropea, “Your Baltimore Canaries: A Very Brief History of Baltimore’s Second Professional Base Ball Team,” Maryland Historical Society, April 3, 2013. mdhs.org/underbelly/2013/04/03/your-baltimore-canaries-a-very-brief-history-of-baltimores-second-professional-base-ball-team/.

11 George V. Tuohey, A History of the Boston Base Ball Club (Boston: M.F. Quinn & Company, 1897), 68; Baseball-reference.com cites, per Preston Orem, that Hall’s salary was $1,000 with Baltimore in 1873 and $500 with Boston in 1874. If this is true, then the financial situation must have been truly perilous for Hall to accept half his salary with an employer 400 miles north of Baltimore.

12 Borough of Brooklyn, New York. Death Certificate number illegible (1912), Ida Aurelia Hall; Bureau of Vital Records, New York.

13 The 1900 US Census states that George and Ida were married for 24 years (1876). 1900 U.S. census, Kings County, New York, population schedule, New York City (page 16), dwelling 280, family 340, George W. and Ida A. Hall; digital image, Ancestry.com, Accessed September 25, 2015.

14 “Baseball: The Players of 1873. Outfielders,” New York Clipper, March 28, 1874.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid.

17 As an outfielder, Hall’s career fielding percentage (.856) was slightly above the league average (.824). His Range Factor per 9 innings of 2.17 and Range Factor per Game of 2.19 were also above the league average (RF/9: 1.99, RF/G: 2.01). Per baseball-reference.com, baseball-reference.com/players/h/hallge01.shtml.

18 “Baseball: The Players of 1873. Outfielders.”

19 “Boston vs. Mutual,” New York Clipper, May 9, 1874.

20 “Baseball: The Grand International Tour,” New York Clipper, March 7, 1874.

21 Box scores are available for only 9 of the 15 games played in Europe. Eric Miklich, “1874 World Base Ball Tour,” 19cbaseball.com/tours-1874-world-base-ball-tour.html.

22 “Base Ball.” Times of London, August 7, 1874.

23 GRANDMOTHER. “Base-Ball.” Times of London, August 13, 1874.

24 On the first major-league game, see John Zinn, “April 22, 1876: A New Age Begins With Inaugural National League Game,” in Bill Felber, ed., Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (Phoenix: Society for American Baseball Research, 2013), 97-99.

25 “Baseball: Athletic vs. Cincinnati,” New York Clipper, June 24, 1876.

26 Ibid.

27 Ibid.

28 Not enough substantial evidence exists to credit Hall with hitting the first cycle in professional baseball. In addition to the Clipper’s account, the June 15, 1876, Cincinnati Enquirer states that Hall totaled 14 bases (four for a home run, nine for three triples, and one for a single). The Times of Philadelphia, June 15, 1876, credits Hall with a home run, two triples, a double, and a single (totaling 13 bases). Major League Baseball Historian John Thorn agrees with the information provided in both the Clipper and Enquirer. The accepted first cycle in the major leagues was completed by Curry Foley in 1882.

29 David Vincent, Home Run: The Definitive History of Baseball’s Ultimate Weapon (Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books, 2007), 6.

30 William A. Cook, The Louisville Grays Scandal of 1877: The Taint of Gambling at the Dawn of the National League (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2005), 78.

31 Ibid.

32 Cook, 84.

33 Cook, 124.

34 Cook, 130.

35 Ibid.

36 Cook, 137.

37 Cook, 139.

38 Ibid.

39 Cook, 139-141. George Hall’s testimony: “About three or four weeks after Al Nichols joined the Louisville Club, he made me a proposition to assist in throwing League games, and I said to him: ‘I’ll have nothing to do with any League games.’ This proposition was made before the club went on its last Eastern trip. He made the proposition to throw the Allegheny [Pittsburgh] game, and I agreed to it. He promised to divide with me what he received from his friend in New York, who was betting on the games. Nichols and I were to throw the game by playing poorly. While in Chicago, on the club’s last Western trip, I received a telegram from Nichols, stating that he was $80 in the hole, and asking how he could get out. I told Chapman that this dispatch was from my brother-in-law, who lived in Baltimore. I did not reply to the dispatch. Devlin first made me a proposition in Columbus, O., to throw the game in Cincinnati. He made the proposition either in the hotel or upon the street. We went to the telegraph office in Columbus, and sent a dispatch to a man in New York by the name of McCloud, saying that we would lose the Cincinnati game. McCloud is a pool-seller. The telegram was signed ‘D & H.’ We received no answer to this telegram. I did not know McCloud. Devlin knew him. McCloud sent Devlin $50 in a letter, and Devlin gave me $25. One of us sent a dispatch to McCloud from Louisville saying, ‘We have not heard from you.’ He sent then sent the $50 to Devlin; this was the 1-0 Cincinnati game. We telegraphed to McCloud from Louisville that the club would lose the Indianapolis game. I never received any money for assisting in throwing this game. I think it was the 7 to 3 game. Devlin said that he did not want to sign the order to have his telegrams inspected; said it would ruin him. There was another game Nichols and I threw. It was the Lowell Club of Lowell, Mass. He and I agreed to throw it. He did all the telegraphing. Never got a cent from Nichols for the games he and I threw. My brother-in-law has often said I was a fool for not making money. He has said this for several years past. His talking this way caused a coldness between us. When I was in Brooklyn the last time he asked me if we could not make some money on the games, and I told him I would let him know when we could. He bet on the Allegheny game and lost. Telegraphed him from here about the Indianapolis game. Had a talk with him in June, I think in Brooklyn, about selling games. Have sent two or three telegrams to him – not over three. His name is (Frank) Powell, and he lives (at 865 Fulton Street) in Brooklyn. Nichols first approached me about throwing games. Nichols asked me, on the last trip, if I could get somebody to work Brooklyn for me. I can’t tell you where it was that Nichols first approached me about throwing league games. When I told him that I would have nothing to do with League games, I meant that I would go in with him on outside games. I made the proposition about the Cincinnati game to Devlin. Last night I said he made it to me. I made the proposition in Columbus. Nichols spoke to me in Cincinnati about selling the Cincinnati game, and I said I would see about it. Nichols said: ‘George, try and get Jim in.’ He suggested that I should write a letter to Devlin. Devlin was not in the room when I wrote it. In the note to Devlin I think I said: ‘Jim how can we make a stake?’ I left the note on the marble-top table in our room at the Burnett House, Cincinnati. When I next saw Devlin he was in the room putting on his ball-clothes, and it was there that he said: ‘George, do you mean it?’ And I said: ‘Yes, Jim.’ After Devlin accepted the proposition I told Nichols that Jim was in it. Nichols was not in with us on the Cincinnati game. Think I wrote the letter to Devlin in Columbus, but won’t be certain. Think I destroyed the note at that time. Did not take it out of his pocket two or three days afterwards and destroy it. Am certain of this. Never got a cent for the Indianapolis game. Devlin said that he had never heard from McCloud about the money for it. Received but $25 from Devlin.”

40 “Baseball: The League and Its Work,” New York Clipper, January 20, 1877.

41 “Baseball: League Association Convention,” New York Clipper, December 15, 1877.

42 Bill James, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (New York: Free Press, 2001), 15.

Described as being “very fond of athletic sports and particularly baseball”1 during his childhood, Heifer was born in Reading on January 18, 1854, and was the only boy of the four children of Daniel and Elizabeth Heifer.2 By the time he was 20, Heifer had developed his talents on the diamond to the extent that during the 1874 season he was a member of the starting lineup of the Active Baseball Club of Reading, the top team in the area, which played as the Actives. Significantly, in that season the Actives changed their schedule from competing against only Reading area teams to playing teams from outside the area as well. With the expanded range of opponents, the team achieved a great degree of success3 against such Pennsylvania opponents as the Centennials of Lebanon, the Modoc and Alpha clubs of Philadelphia, the Resolute club of Renovo, the Morgan club of Lancaster, the Expert club of Harrisburg, the Antelopes of Allentown, and the Lewisburg club.

Playing primarily in the outfield, but also occasionally filling in at shortstop and pitcher, Heifer established himself as the most talented member of the Actives, and was said to have the attitude of a player who “always played to win.”4 Exact statistics as to the Actives’ record in 1874 are not available, but their success is evident from their having begun their season with a June 6 game against Lebanon and, while playing a few games a week, not suffering their first defeat until nearly two months later, on August 3, an 11-6 loss on to the Easton Baseball Club before a crowd of about 4,000, the largest crowd ever to witness a baseball game in Reading up to then.5

According to the Reading Eagle, the Easton Club was “regarded by knowing professional players to be the very best club in the country not on the professional lists.” Coincidentally, a major factor in the success of the Easton team was its pitcher, Reading native George Washington Bradley, who was a year away from starring for the St. Louis Brown Stockings of the National Association.6

The Eagle described Easton’s victory as “one of the most closely contested (games) that either club has ever played,” with Bradley’s pitches, coming in “very swiftly and during the first part of the game … not hit.”7 However, with the score tied at 4-4, Easton broke the game open with five runs in the eighth inning. (The game account in the Reading Times attributed the rally to Easton’s “doing some heavy batting,” while the Eagle blamed Easton’s runs to be the product of “bad luck, overthrows and a general demoralization” on the part of the home team.)8 Playing in the outfield that day for the Actives, Heifer scored a run but was otherwise not mentioned in the game accounts in either the Times or the Eagle – probably a good thing, since those accounts focused for the most part on various errors by the Actives.

Heifer’s two hits and “several admirable catches”9 in the outfield were among the few bright spots for the Actives in a 31-12 loss to Easton a week and a half later that was described by the Eagle as “the worst game of base ball ever played.”10 While the Actives’ bats were for the most part again held in check by Bradley (eight of their runs were scored in the ninth inning when the team was already down by 19 runs), their play in the field was characterized as being full of “inglorious muffs and wild overthrows … (making it) startling the score against them was not nearer one hundred.”11

On September 26, 1874, the Actives invited the Philadelphia Whites (Pearls) of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players to play an exhibition game and help the Actives dedicate their new “ball grounds” at 19th and Perkiomen Avenues in Reading. In the first game played in Reading by a major-league team (the National Association being the major league at that time), the Actives lost, 15-0. Managed by Bill Crane (three years before his banishment from baseball for throwing games), the Whites rode the pitching of future Hall of Famer Candy Cummings, who “delivered a … curve ball which is very deceptive.”12 The Whites were declared to have “Chicagoed” the Actives – the slang term at that time for a shutout.13 Heifer provided the offensive highlights for the home team, being the sole Active to get as far as third base.14

A week later, on October 1, the Actives hosted another National Association team, the Chicago White Stockings (referred to by both the Eagle and the Times as the “Giants”). With White Stockings pitcher George “Charmer” Zettlein holding the Actives’ bats in check, the White Stockings won, 13-5.15 Notably, this time the Actives avoided being Chicagoed by a major-league team, as Heifer led their offensive attack with two hits and two runs batted in.

The next time a National Association team played an exhibition in Reading was the afternoon of May 21, 1875, when the Boston Red Stockings played the Actives, who by that time were captained by Heifer. Whatever drama Heifer experienced over the course of his brief major-league career later that season, it was less than the drama surrounding the events that led to his signing by the Red Stockings that day.

Noting that the Red Stockings “had not lost a game to any of their professional brethren this season,” (their league record at that point was 19-0), the Reading Eagle contrasted the Actives and the Red Stockings “as being like a cooking stove compared with an iron furnace.”16 Reporting on the arrival of the Red Stockings in Reading for the game, the Eagle mentioned that the Red Stockings had “vanquished the Philadelphia (Whites)” the day before in a league game by an 8-6 score17 and predicted that the Boston team would “walk away with everything during 1875.”18 (The Eagle’s prediction proved correct, as the Red Stockings went on to win the Association championship with a sterling 71-8 record in what would be the league’s last season.)

The Red Stockings’ manager, future Hall of Famer Harry Wright, watched the Actives go through their pregame warmups, focusing his attention on Heifer. Wright’s scouting of Heifer was rewarded; Heifer made “some wonderful catches in left field.”19 Wright continued to focus on Heifer during the game, noting his “nerve, coolness, and steady play.”20

As for the game itself, in front of a crowd of 1,000 the Red Stockings won, 27-11. It was only the Actives’ second game of the season, and they demonstrated some rust as they made an unspecified number of errors in the first two innings and spotted the visitors to a 13-0 lead.

Whatever drama existed in the events of Heifer’s brief career with the Red Stockings, it did not match the drama in the circumstances that led to his signing. Heifer’s play throughout the game involved anything but rust as he “batted the Boston pitchers with great ease,” getting four hits including a double, driving in two runs and scoring two. He also pitched part of the game, then moved to the outfield, where he made a “thrilling one handed catch that startled (Wright).”21

Aside from what Heifer had shown in the game of his power, fielding, speed, and great arm, what no doubt excited Wright even further was that at 5-feet-10 and 175 pounds, Heifer was a big man for the times. All of these factors led Wright to sign Heifer to a contract immediately after the game as a means of strengthening the Red Stockings’ bench in preparation for a trip to St. Louis.

During his first few weeks with the Red Stockings, Heifer’s activities were limited to practices and pregame drills on the road trip to St. Louis. Heifer some years later said that “those Boston men fired balls (at me) as a caution” as “they were testing (my) ability as a (first) baseman.”22 This process in the days before fielder’s gloves left Heifer with a pair of sore hands, but his performance in the drills evidently satisfied Harry Wright, and on June 3 in the sixth inning of Boston’s 10-5 victory over the host St. Louis Red Stockings, Heifer, who had started the game in right field, was moved to first base when catcher Deacon White injured his thumb. White moved to right field and first baseman Cal McVey replaced him behind the plate. In its account of the game, the Boston Globe said that Heifer “played very acceptably,” although the paper referred to him throughout as “Franklin.”23

Two days later, in a June 5 game against the other St. Louis team, the Brown Stockings, Heifer was again in the starting lineup, playing first base and facing fellow Reading native George Washington Bradley, who had made his debut with the Brown Stockings on May 4. Earlier that week, Boston had handed Bradley his first loss of the season, 10-3. On June 5, Bradley avenged his first loss by pitching the Brown Stockings to a narrow 5-4 victory, the Boston team’s first loss of the season. The Boston Globe wrote that Bradley and “the ‘Brown Sox’ were carried off the field on the shoulders of their friends.” Playing first base, Heifer was credited with seven putouts but got no hits and wasn’t mentioned by the Globe. (Two days later, with Heifer not in the lineup and with St. Louis fans alive with Brown Stocking fever, a crowd described by the Globe as “the largest ever seen on a ball field in this city, about 8,000” saw the Red Stockings pound Bradley for 24 base hits on the way to a 15-2 victory. Bradley was said to be suffering from an attack of vertigo that day.)

Heifer played in 15 more games for the Red Stockings that season, until he was released in mid-September. He played nine games at first base and six in the outfield, and pitched in two games. In 50 at-bats he had 14 hits for a .280 batting average of .280 with three triples and five RBIs. In Heifer’s final game with Boston, a 10-4 Red Stockings victory over the Brooklyn Atlantics on September 9, he hit a single scored twice and was credited with 14 putouts at first base.24 Despite his solid batting statistics, Heifer’s release was attributed to a decision by Red Stockings directors to cut payroll, “with Heifer being dropped because the other but inferior players had more local influence with directors.”25

Heifer had earned Wright’s respect as a player; the manager called him “a ballplayer that could be depended upon every time.”26 The respect grew into a friendship between the two; indeed, at any game where Wright was managing and knew Heifer was in attendance, he would invite Heifer to sit with him on the bench with the players.27

Back in town “for a visit” (according to the Eagle’s game account), Heifer was inserted back in the Actives lineup for an October 8 game in Reading against the Burlington Club of New Jersey. The Actives won, 15-3. According to the game account, Heifer, who was in town “for a visit,” played second base for “his old and first love club … and filled that position very creditably.”28 “(H)e has improved wonderfully in appearance, and his style of play has greatly changed for the better,” the Reading Eagle gushed.29

With the Actives for the entire 1876 season, Heifer was playing a prominent role in a highly successful campaign during which the team barnstormed on a Western trip, playing semipro or professional teams in Harrisburg, Altoona, Hollidaysburg, Johnstown, Pittsburgh, and New Castle, Pennsylvania; Mansfield, Columbus, and Cincinnati, Ohio; Wheeling, West Virginia; and Covington and Louisville, Kentucky.30 Named captain of the Actives early in May before the team embarked on the trip, Heifer played shortstop for most of the games, filled in from time to time in the outfield, and pitched on occasion. Several game accounts in the Eagle over the course of the Western tour singled him out as a leader of the club, usually writing something like “Heifer played a good game,” with little elaboration. (Individual Actives statistics do not appear to ever have been published.)

That season the Actives also played two exhibition games in Reading against teams in the newly formed National League. Heifer played in both. The first was a 9-2 loss to the Chicago White Stockings on June 9. The White Stockings arrived in Reading with a league record of 17-3, and went on to win the first National League pennant with a record of 52-14. Heifer was familiar with a number of the White Stockings, who were his former teammates on the Red Stockings, most notably manager-pitcher Al Spalding, who held the Actives to six hits. In its headline the Reading Times termed the game an Honorable Defeat.”31 The Actives stayed close until Chicago scored five runs in the ninth. The Eagle described Heifer as having “showed himself to good advantage” playing second base, where he was involved in turning a double play.

The other National League team the Actives faced in 1876 was the Cincinnati Reds, and in this game, played on September 1, the Actives won, 8-4. A notable contrast to the White Stockings, the Reds arrived in Reading with a league record of 7-45, on their way to a 9-56 final record (proof that teams didn’t have to be good to barnstorm).32 Although Heifer made an error in the course of the victory, his “fine playing in the entire game made up for (his) few slip ups.”33 The visitors were said to have commented that “they had never met a finer amateur club of ball players.”34

On July 3 the Actives played the St. Louis Red Stockings, an independent team comprised mostly of former St. Louis Browns who did not sign with any National League team, the most notable being 19-year-old future Hall of Famer James “Pud” Galvin, the team’s primary pitcher. Galvin, who eventually won 365 major-league games, was not at his best against the Actives, giving up nine hits in a 5-0 loss. Heifer led the Actives’ attack with three hits. The Eagle said, “The visitors seemed astounded at the terrific batting and the sharp fielding of the home champions,” adding, “The home team has not played a better game this season and the fielding of … Heifer … (and several other Actives) was the most brilliant ever to be seen” at the Actives’ field.35 The Actives’ Len Lovett allowed only five hits to the visitors. (Presumably smarting from the beating by the Actives, Galvin took the mound again the next day and threw a no hitter against the Philadelphia Athletics.)36

Heifer began the 1877 season with the Actives until economic hard times forced the team to disband in July. After this, he began a baseball odyssey in which he played for 10 teams over 11 seasons, with his first stop being with Erie of the League Alliance. In August, Erie disbanded, and Heifer signed with another League Alliance team, Buffalo. It is likely that one of Heifer’s Buffalo teammates was 17-year-old infielder John Montgomery Ward, who was at the beginning of a Hall of Fame career.

With no team in Reading, Heifer began the 1878 season with the Binghamton Crickets of the International Association, but the team disbanded on July 19 after playing 12 games. Heifer moved to the Syracuse Stars in the same league, the league’s eventual second-place finisher with a record of 26-10.

After beginning the 1879 season with Worcester Grays of the National Association, Heifer retired because of issues with rheumatism after playing in only 11 games. In 1884 he returned to the game to manage the Actives, now playing in the Eastern League, but the team disbanded on August 4 after going 28-27. Heifer played in 23 games, batting .307 and playing several positons.

In 1886 and 1887, Heifer played for three teams that didn’t finish their seasons. He began the 1886 season with the Providence Grays of the Eastern league, appearing in eight games, until the Grays disbanded on June 2 after compiling a 7-14 record. At the outset of the 1887 season he played for the Oswego Starch Boxes of the International Association, but the team disbanded on May 31 after compiling a 3-23 record. Heifer then joined the rejuvenated Reading Actives in the Pennsylvania State Association, but the Actives were not rejuvenated for very long; the entire league disbanded on July 20, with the Actives having a final record of 20-23.

That 1887 season was Heifer’s last year playing or managing baseball. He entered the contracting business, performing excavation as well as hauling of heavy materials for the Reading Traction Company. His business was an apparent success; according to the Eagle, it involved “many wagons, carts and horses.”37 His success was relatively short-lived. On August 28, 1893, Heifer died of typhoid fever contracted after he had been suffering from malaria.

After his death an unnamed former teammate told the Reading Eagle, “Of all the old Active club players no one on the nine ever inspire more confidence than did ‘Heck’ Heifer. He had an encouraging smile and words of advice for all, (with) a great deal of the teamwork of the Active club (being) due to his points and suggestions.”38 The teammate recalled Heifer as having a “good keen eye. With bat well raised in motion he waited for a high ball over the plate, and the ball generally went safe into the field.” He described Heifer as hitting generally to straightaway center field, but “then again he excelled in right-field hitting.”39

The teammate most fondly remembered Heifer for the intangibles he brought to his teams, describing him as a “great leader” and “a man of few words while on the ball ground … never known to question (the) umpire’s decision. … He would simply say ‘that settles it’ and there was no more said.”40 The former teammate concluded, “It would be well for the younger generation of ball players to take a pattern of this modest excellent young man and follow in his footsteps. He was kind, modest, quiet, quick to hear and slow to speak; never used profane language; never (indulged) in coarse talk; never insulted anyone, but was a gentleman at all times and under all circumstances and a novel man in every respect.”41

Heifer was survived by his wife, Esther, and a son, Frank. Heifer’s great-grandson Frank Heifer, until his retirement in 2000, was superintendent of the Pottstown, Pennsylvania, School District. A picture of Heifer, a former volunteer fireman, hangs in the Reading Firemen’s Museum.

This biography is included in “Boston’s First Nine: The 1871-75 Boston Red Stockings” (SABR, 2016), edited by Bob LeMoine and Bill Nowlin.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Frank Heifer, Heifer’s great-grandson, and Andrew Heifer, Heifer’s great-great-grandson, for taking part in interviews that assisted in the preparation of this article.

Also thanks to the Reading Fireman’s Museum for allowing the use of Heifer’s picture.

Sources

In addition to the sources noted in this biography, the author also accessed Heifer’s player file from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and the following sites:

baseball-reference.com.

retrosheet.org.

news.google.com/newspapers.

SABR Bioproject: sabr.org/bioproject/.

Much of the material in this article, as well as the sources, were also used were used in “Days of Grin and Heck: Berks County’s First Two Major Leaguers,” which appeared in The Historical Review of Berks County, Summer 2014, Volume 79, Number 5.

Notes