Kid Camp

He won 31 games as a 20-year-old minor-leaguer and became one of the top young pitching prospects in the country. One publication described Kid Camp as follows: “He is a wonder. Quick and agile as a cat with muscles of iron, he is a representative of the highest type of ball players.”1 Another predicted that he might “develop onto a second Amos] Rusie.”2 A different source noted that Camp possessed “good curves and speed and several very peculiar motions of delivery”, adding, “He uses the   cartwheel swing and a … flip-flop change of pace.”3 But he flamed out in two brief major-league trials, and many reasons were put forward to explain why he never lived up to his potential. At the time no one knew that he was in the early stages of consumption, a condition that would claim his life at age 26.

Kid Camp was born Winfield Scott Camp4 on December 8, 1869, in New Albany, Ohio, to Winfield and Mary (Ingram) Camp. His father worked as a butcher. He grew up with brothers Robert (aka Lew Camp) and David and sisters Emma, Mary, and Mercy. By 1880, when he was around age 10, the family moved to Oskaloosa, Iowa; sometime in his teens, they moved to Omaha, which he called home all the rest of his life. Young Winfield began to be called “Win” for short. Later, playing on teams with his older brother Lew, he was often called “Kid,” the nickname that stuck.

In 1888 Camp played center field for Crane Brothers, “crack amateurs of Omaha.”5 That same year W. E. Rockwell6 was managing the Garneau Cracker Company team, another of the top amateur nines in Omaha. At the time Camp was described as a “bare-footed youngster, playing ball on the commons” but had developed a reputation as a fine outfielder. One day the Garneau team was short a man and Rockwell, who was acquainted with Camp, pressed him into service in center field. When the Garneau pitcher was knocked out of the box, Rockwell persuaded Camp to try pitching. Although he had never done so before, he had success,7 and in 1889 honed his pitching skills on an independent team in Seward, Nebraska.

In 1890 Rockwell was hired as manager of the Seattle club of the independent Pacific Northwest League and he brought Kid and his older brother Lew for the team. Camp posted a 12-9 record in 23 games8 with a sparkling 0.94 earned run average.9 The local paper said of Camp, “He combined good speed, excellent control and splendid curves with good judgement, and never grows rattled, no matter how hard he is hit.”10

He returned to Seattle in 1891 and went 31-20 in 57 games, posting a 1.23 ERA in 459 1/3 innings pitched. Late in the season he returned to Omaha because his mother was ill, but later in the fall returned West and was picked up by Portland for a postseason series against San Jose for the Pacific Coast Championship.

Former New York Giants pitcher Billy George, who played outfield on the Portland club, tipped off Pittsburgh Pirates manager Al Buckenberger about the young phenom that winter. Buckenberger – with intermediary Russ McKelvy, a former Pittsburgh pitcher who had come to liveg in Omaha 11 – telegraphed Camp for his terms. In late January 1892 it was reported that Pittsburgh had signed Camp, but the Seattle club protested, claiming that he was on their reserve list and had “never consented to release him or given any other club leave to negotiate with him.”12 This set up a contentious battle over Camp’s contract rights.

After a new National Agreement was established in 1891, the Pacific Northwest League paid $1,000 to the Board of Control as “protection,” an assurance that National League teams could not arbitrarily draft and sign league players. W. E. Rockwell, now acting as president of the Pacific Northwest League, sent a letter to National League President Nick Young reminding him of this fact. Rockwell even secured legal representation and threatened a breach of contract suit.13  Young’s defense was that the Board of Control was abolished during the recently concluded winter meetings in Indianapolis and that those agreements were no longer enforceable; in other words, “tough luck.” As a result, Camp started the 1892 season with Pittsburgh.

He made his major-league debut on May 2 in the second game of a doubleheader against the Bridegrooms in Brooklyn. Pittsburgh starter Pud Galvin was knocked out of the box and Camp pitched the final four innings, allowing two runs and four hits in an 8-0 Pirates loss. The next day, Camp pitched three relief innings in a loss to Philadelphia. He rode the bench for the next month until he was given his first start on June 2 against New York. Working with Connie Mack behind the plate, the rookie was “pretty severely handled,”14 dropping a 7-4 decision to the Giants.

Camp’s fourth, and as it would turn out last, outing came on June 6 against the Beaneaters in Boston. Replacing starter Mark Baldwin after a fifth-inning rain delay, and already down 9-4, Camp surrendered two homers, walked three, hit a batter, threw a wild pitch, and added a throwing error in an eventual 17-4 loss.15 When he was released a few days later, the Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette declared harshly, “The young man was given a fair trial, but did not show many evidences of ability,”16

Dollar figures weren’t published, but it was reported that Seattle then purchased his release from Pittsburgh17 and he returned to his former team. He pitched for the Seattle Hustlers, which had become a member of the Pacific Northwest League, amassing a 9-4 record in 13 games. When the Seattle club disbanded late in August, he finished the season with Oakland.

His reasons for not staying on the West Coast were not revealed, but in 1893 Kid joined the Augusta (Georgia) Electricians of the Southern Association. Brother Lew started the season with the SA rival Atlanta Windjammers, so that may have influenced his decision to play in the South.

Late in the 1893 season Lew was signed by the National League’s Chicago Colts. The Colts then signed Kid in February 1894, so both Camp brothers were under Chicago contracts. It might be assumed that Kid merely followed his brother to Chicago – but according to reports, owner James Hart had been “negotiating to get [Kid] for some time.” Colts manager Cap Anson had also been impressed with Camp during his brief showing in Pittsburgh the previous season.18

Camp pitched a few innings in relief in an early-season win over Detroit and was given a start in an exhibition game against the Indianapolis Hoosiers of the Western League on April 23. Although he dropped the decision, 9-4, only three of the runs (thanks to 10 Chicago errors) were earned. The Chicago Tribune game story remarked that “Pitcher Camp alone failed to lose his head and Anson predicted that, “his new hurler will be one of the king pitchers before the season closes.”19 Camp followed that up with four scoreless relief innings against Louisville on April 29.

When the Colts returned home from their road trip, Camp was apparently still in their long-range plans – it was reported that “Camp, who did the best of all the twirlers, will take his regular turn in the box.”20 He got a start against Cincinnati on May 6, but struggled with his control, surrendering eight walks, one hit batsman, and two wild pitches. Even so, he was charged with just one earned run in a 6-6 tie. Camp was one of two pitchers (along with Willie McGill) taken on a road trip to Cleveland. He started the May 8 game and pitched well through six innings, down just 4-3, at which point “the Clevelands successfully gauged his slow ball and rapped it all over the field.”21 In the final three innings Camp was battered for 14 runs in an 18-3 loss. Shortly thereafter, Anson released both Camp brothers. The only explanation given for Kid’s release was that his “arm had gone back on him.”22

He then signed on briefly with the Sioux City (Iowa) Cornhuskers of the Western League, who turned him over to a league competitor, the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Rippers. By June, he was with Indianapolis and in July he appeared in at least one game for his hometown Omaha Omahogs of the Western Association.23 This concluded Camp’s professional career.

Later in the summer of 1894 the first reports of health issues surfaced. In August he “was seized with a severe hemorrhage of the lung” requiring surgical intervention, and his condition was described as “very critical.”24 Several causes were suggested. One was “too hard work in the box while he was too young to stand the strain.25 Another held that on a road trip to Cincinnati while playing for Pittsburgh, he “contracted a cold from which he never recovered. His arm became numb and stiff.”26 According to still another theory, “After he commenced to be successful, he imagined that he was a sport and did little but smoke cigarettes.”27

There were reports of slight improvement over the winter, even that Camp might resume pitching again, or work as an umpire. In the subsequent months, however, his health was described as “delicate” and he steadily declined. Winfield Scott “Kid” Camp succumbed on March 2, 1895, and was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Omaha. He was only 26 years old, never married, and left no immediate descendants.28

One of his obituaries provided the following epitaph. “Win was an exemplary young man, honest, sober, industrious and upright, and his passing is not only a loss to the profession in which he gave promise of becoming a bright light, but a source of deep sorrow to his throngs of young friends.”29

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Bill Lamb and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Rod Nelson.

Sources

Unless otherwise noted, statistics from Camp’s playing career are taken from Baseball-Reference.com and genealogical and family history was obtained from Ancestry.com. The author also used information from clippings in Camp’s file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.

Notes

1 “Twas a Pretty Game,” Tacoma (Washington) Daily Ledger, May 15, 1891: 5.

2 “To Try Young Blood,” Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, January 29, 1892: 6.

3 “Work of the Champions,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 7, 1891: 7.

4 Robert Plantagenet Llewellan Camp was the full name of his older brother, who was known as Lew Camp during his baseball career. The Plantagenets were a royal house of Kings in England that included Henry II and Richard III. Plantagenet was also the name of a racehorse in the Cincinnati area around the time of Lew’s birth. There was also a politician in Columbus, Ohio named Richard Plantagenet Llewellyn Baber around this time. Winfield, who went by Kid Camp, was named for Winfield Scott, who fought in the Mexican War, was a Whig Party candidate for President, and later became commanding general of the United States Army. Why the Camps decided to give their sons such unusual names could not be found.

5 “The Seattle Team,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 13, 1890: 3.

6 Rockwell is listed as Billy (W. Elmer) in Baseball-Reference.

7 “Favorite Ball Players,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 19, 1991: 7.

8 The 1891 Spalding Official Base Ball Guide, 170, and season-end records published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (“Record of the Players,” October 26, 1890: 7) credit him with a 13-10 record.

9 Both the Spalding Guide and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, referenced above, credit him with a 1.08 “Runs Earned per Game,” recognized as the top mark in the league.

10 See “Favorite Ball Players,” above.

11 “Camp’s Terms Accepted,” Pittsburgh Post, January 30, 1892: 6.

12 “They Want the ‘Kid,’” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 8, 1892: 2.

13 “‘Kid Camp Steal,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 12, 1892: 3.

14 “Sporting,” Pittsburg Press, June 3, 1892: 5.

15 “Boston’s Terrors,” Pittsburg Dispatch, June 7, 1892: 8.

16 “Pitcher Camp Released,” Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, June 9, 1892: 6.

17 “Base Ball Notes,” Pittsburgh Post, June 23, 1892: 6.

18 “Base-Ball Men Meet in New York,” Chicago Record, February 26, 1894: 2.

19 “Minor Leaguers Beat the Colts,” Chicago Tribune, April 24, 1894: 11.

20 “Colts Are Without a Head,” Chicago Tribune, May 2, 1894: 8.

21 “Pounded for All Kinds of Hits,” Chicago Tribune, May 9, 1894: 11.

22 “The World’s Doings,” Buffalo Commercial, May 16, 1894: 1.

23 “Took a Little Vengeance,” Omaha Daily Bee, July 12, 1894: 5.

24 “May Never Play Again,” Omaha Daily Bee, August 18, 1894: 2.

25 See “May Never Play Again,” above.

26 “Death of Winfield Scott Camp,” Omaha Daily Bee, March 3, 1895: 6.

27 “Kid Camp Dead,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 17, 1895: 2.

28 There was a report that Kid Camp and his brother were late in reporting to Chicago early in 1894 because they had both received a smallpox vaccination and, “their wives would not allow them to travel until the wounds had healed. “Two More Sunday Games Arranged,” Chicago Tribune, March 21, 1894: 11. However, no marriage license or announcement for Kid could be found, and none of his obituaries mentioned a surviving spouse.

29 See “Death of Winfield Scott Camp,” above.