John Clapp

John Clapp was a part of so many beginnings in baseball history that his middle name should have been Genesis. He was the second batter that the Cincinnati Red Stockings faced in their Eastern tour of 1869; in the opener of Al Spalding’s groundbreaking tour of the British Isles in 1874, he delivered the game-winning hit. A charter member of five National League franchises, he managed four of them, including one that became the New York Giants. He caught the first no-hitter in NL history, was one of the first major-leaguers to wear a catcher’s mask, and tested the reserve clause before it was a month old. The first catcher known to have been victimized by a double steal,1 he may also be the earliest confirmed practitioner of pitch framing.

Strong-armed and confident, Clapp stood close to the plate, for much of his career catching pitches and foul tips with only fingerless gloves and a rubber mouthguard for protection. Arguably the sport’s best defensive catcher between 1873 and 1878, Clapp’s habit of whipping the ball back to the pitcher spawned a quick-pitch style that made George Washington Bradley the NL’s first dominant pitcher.2 A right-handed high-ball hitter who struggled once batters could no longer specify pitch location, Clapp consistently hit to the opposite field and rarely struck out.3 Among 1870s regular backstops, only Hall of Famer Deacon White compiled a higher WAR.4  A “cool, easy going fellow not easily rattled,” Clapp’s demeanor served him well as a ballplayer but didn’t help him win much as a big-league skipper – he led just one winning team in six seasons. Sporting Life bluntly called him “not much of a manager.”5

In his prime, Clapp was “the most perfect specimen of an athlete I had ever seen,” according to ballplayer-turned-sportswriter Tim Murnane.6 Clapp’s “very fine … build” attracted America’s greatest realist painter, Thomas Eakins, to make him, along with a Philadelphia Athletics teammate, the centerpiece of the artist’s only baseball-themed work.7 Weight gain turned Clapp into a punchline before turning 30,8 but nobody took liberties with his integrity. He earned the nickname “Honest John” for turning in a gambler who tried to entice him into a game-fixing scheme and boycotted play on the day that an assassinated US president was laid to rest, an act that may be why the NL banned him in 1882.

John Edgar Clapp was born on July 15, 1851, to Charles and Maria Clapp in Ithaca, New York, a town on the southern tip of Cayuga Lake that became home to Cornell University a decade later. The 1860 US census lists John as the third oldest of five boys in the family, with John’s father identified as a house painter. A sister, Carrie, joined the family in 1865. John’s father and his two older brothers, Charles Jr. and George, joined the Union Army during the Civil War, each of them serving until after the end of hostilities.9

At the age of 15, John played center field for the second nine of Ithaca’s Forest City Club.10 Two years later, he left home to catch for the Independents of Mansfield, Ohio.11 On May 31, 1869, the Independents hosted the all-professional Cincinnati Red Stockings in the first game of their 32-day eastern tour. Catching and batting second, Clapp collected two hits off Cincinnati change-pitcher Harry Wright, as the Independents absorbed a 48-14 shellacking.12

Clapp spent the next year back in Ithaca, working both as a housepainter (with his father and two brothers) and as a fireman.13 Clapp’s youngest brother Aaron played for an amateur club in Oswego, New York, but John appears to have stayed away from organized baseball in 1870.

Shortly after his 20th birthday, Clapp re-emerged on the baseball scene, catching for the amateur Clipper Club of Ilion, New York. Batting leadoff, he hit a team-leading .413, with 52 hits in 19 games.14 After the season, Clapp wrote to Wright, hoping to secure a position with the Red Stockings club that Wright had founded in Boston. After Wright challenged him to prove he was qualified, Clapp pivoted to the Mansfields of Middletown, Connecticut.15     

Named for a local Civil War hero, Clapp’s second Mansfield nine was a top-flight amateur club whose 21-year-old owner, Ben Douglas Jr., had big dreams. Smitten with a suggestion made by Wright on how to attract more professional teams to tiny Middletown, Douglas had persuaded his compatriots to join the National Association for the 1872 season.16 Clapp joined a team that included 21-year-old Bridgeport native Jim O’Rourke, a 21-year-old Murnane, and, for a few days in August, pitcher Asa Brainard of Cincinnati Red Stockings fame. The team’s catcher, Clapp was chosen captain because, according to Murnane, he wore a red belt with big white letters that spelled CAPTAIN to the team’s first practice. “Mr. Clapp certainly could not play without wearing that belt, and he could not very well wear that belt without being captain.”17

The Mansfields disbanded after 24 games with just five victories, more than any other Association cooperative club. Typically batting leadoff, Clapp hit .278, with a team-high .402 slugging percentage, the only home run by a position player, and no strikeouts in 97 at-bats.

Clapp’s strong showing with the Mansfields earned him a contract for 1873 from the Athletics of Philadelphia, a club that featured 21-year-old first baseman Cap Anson and manager/pitcher Dick McBride.18 The Philadelphia Inquirer sang the new backstop’s praises. “Clapp is a remarkably good catcher, being a swift and accurate thrower, sure catch, and possessing plenty of pluck to play that position properly.”19 In the season opener, he made six “magnificent” catches behind the bat, and in June caught the first NA shutout ever suffered by the defending champion Boston Red Stockings.20 He also held his own with the bat, hitting .304 over 45 games for the fifth-place Athletics.

Clapp started the 1874 season in right field for Philadelphia, with shortstop Mike McGeary catching, because McGeary’s throwing arm was supposedly stronger.21 Reinstalled behind the plate in late June, Clapp responded by hitting three home runs in the next three games, including two in one game off 18-year-old Tommy Bond, destined to be the NL’s first 200-game winner.22

By July 16, the Athletics had built a solid 23-10 record, second only to Boston. That day, both teams set sail for an 18-game, month-long tour across England, Scotland, and Ireland. Summaries of Philadelphia’s come-from-behind victory in the series opener say little about how the game unfolded, but years later Murnane credited Clapp with delivering the ninth-inning, game-winning hit off Boston pitcher Al Spalding, the tour organizer.23 Clapp caught most of the games on the tour, did poorly in his one attempt at cricket, and umpired the last two contests, which were held in Dublin.24 The Athletics faded in the race for the NA pennant after returning to the States, but Clapp registered career highs in slugging percentage (.436) and OPS (.732).

The Athletics opened the 1875 season facing Philadelphia’s third entrant in the National Association, the Centennials, with Clapp doing the umpiring. Five weeks later, he also oversaw the last match of that short-lived franchise.25 First called upon to arbitrate games the year before, he umpired a total of 14 championship (regular) season NA games across the two seasons.

The Athletics built an impressive record through the summer, going 46-15, which put them in second place, but dissension grew as the club grew slow at paying its ballplayers.26 Owed as much as $700, Clapp refused to play in the team’s final three games, claiming that his contract had expired.27 Clapp’s obituary asserts that he resigned when the club refused to rescind a $200 fine it levied on him for playing a game for his Ithaca hometown in July.28 Whatever the reason, Clapp auctioned off his services for the 1876 season. The St. Louis Brown Stockings outbid the Boston Red Stockings and Hartford Dark Blues, giving Clapp a club-high salary of $3,000 that was also described as the most ever for a catcher.29

One of eight teams that abandoned the National Association for William Hulbert’s new National League in his February 1876 putsch, St. Louis went into the season counting heavily on pitcher George Bradley. A solid but not exceptional hurler the year before, with 33 wins and a roughly NA-average ERA, he became transcendent when paired with Clapp. That change was largely credited to Clapp’s influence. After Bradley’s first shutout on May 5, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat asserted that “Clapp left nothing to be desired for perfect coolness and finish of execution.”30 On July 15, Bradley held Hartford hitless for the first no-hitter in NL history, with Clapp catching and collecting three hits in a 2-0 squeaker. Bradley’s league-leading 1.23 ERA for the third-place Brown Stockings propelled him to 45 wins for the year, 16 of them by shutout – a single-season major-league record equaled only by Grover Cleveland Alexander. A dozen years later, Wright, who previously had dismissed Clapp as not ready for prime time, called Bradley and Clapp “the finest battery I ever saw.”31 Behind the plate for 61 of the team’s 65 games, Clapp had the second-highest fielding percentage among regular NL catchers, scored a team-high 60 runs, and hit .305, second highest on the team.

During the offseason, Clapp was enlisted by St. Louis management to help recruit Mike Dorgan of the independent Syracuse Stars, to serve as his backup.32 Dorgan signed a contract offered by Clapp, but balked after receiving a letter from the Brown Stockings requesting that he sign a second contract with different terms. The matter was settled before the start of the season, but Clapp’s reputation took a hit for what was seen as a bait-and-switch maneuver.33 Another, more painful hit that Clapp absorbed in early August 1877 ushered both catchers into a new era.

In the first inning of an August 8 game in St. Louis, Jumbo Latham of the Louisville Grays fouled off a pitch that smashed into the left side of Clapp’s face. Fearing his cheekbone was broken, Clapp left the game. He was replaced by Dorgan, who went behind the plate wearing a mask. The device, invented just a few months earlier, had been worn by only two other major leaguers in a regular season game.34 Nine days later, Clapp returned to his catching duties wearing a mask as well.35 In the interim, a Brooklyn Eagle editorial called on professional catchers to stop shunning masks, and used Clapp’s injury as an example of what they could prevent.36 Sentiment turned, and before long, few catchers would get behind the plate without wearing one.

With Bradley having moved on to Chicago,37 the Brown Stockings were a sub-.500 team in 1877. Clapp hit a career-high .318 and taught Bradley’s replacement, Tricky Nichols, the quick pitch approach that Bradley had perfected – but it wasn’t enough to produce a winning team.38 Facing financial losses they couldn’t stomach, the Brown Stockings disbanded after the season, making Clapp a free agent yet again.39 

A new NL club, the Indianapolis Blues, signed Clapp as its manager and backup to 22-year-old catcher Silver Flint for the 1878 season.40 Playing left field on May 8, Clapp collected the only hit off Sam Weaver of the Milwaukee Grays in a controversial one-hitter that newspapers in both Indianapolis and Milwaukee called a no-hitter.41

Edward “The Only” Nolan was Indianapolis’ lone hurler for its first 22 games, but his five errors and “wilfully-poor [sic] pitching” in start number 22 alarmed club officials.42 As Nolan sweated out a brief suspension, Clapp gave a start to a 21-year-old rookie, Jim McCormick. When Nolan was suspended for good in September, Clapp made McCormick his everyday pitcher. Playing 44 games in the outfield and only nine behind the plate, Clapp registered the third-highest fielding percentage among NL outfielders, and once again hit over .300, but the Blues finished 24-36-3 (.400), saddled with arguably the league’s worst offense.43

When financial losses forced the Blues to withdraw from the NL after the season, Clapp cast his lot with yet another club new to the NL, the Buffalo Bisons. His batterymate was 22-year-old Pud Galvin, whose astonishing 72 wins the year before led the club to the International Association crown. Still only 27 years old, Clapp had bulked up to 186 pounds but retained enough of his quickness to impress the Buffalo press.44 “John Clapp is about the liveliest individual for a heavyweight that we ever saw,” wrote the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser.45 “He catches easily, and when his immense hands close on the ball it remains firm. He throws by a quick movement of the forearm, and always returns the ball to Galvin on the fly.” Clapp and Galvin also exchanged signs, though it is unclear which of the two was responsible for pitch selection.

Early in the 1879 season, Clapp played opposite his brother Aaron for the first time as a major-leaguer. A first baseman for the Troy Haymakers, Aaron knocked a game-winning, ninth-inning hit in that first encounter, a 1-0 win over the Bisons.46 Moved to the outfield when Troy brought on a young Dan Brouthers,47 Aaron’s major league career was limited to that one season.

Returning behind the plate again exposed Clapp to serious injury on a daily basis. He suffered a swollen eye from a foul ball in May, and in June suffered a broken finger and a wound from a mask wire driven into his face.48 During a September game he was hurt so badly from a ninth-inning foul tip that both sides agreed to call off the rest of the game.49

The July birth of a daughter to Clapp and his wife Josie (the child of an Ithaca housepainter, as Clapp was) surely softened some of those blows. The child was the couple’s second – their first, a daughter named Edith, had arrived in 1874.50

After the season, in which Buffalo finished in third place, Clapp and Galvin were invited to join members of the Cincinnati Reds on a four-month barnstorming tour across California, with Clapp serving as captain.51 While the troupe was on the west coast, Reds directors decided they wouldn’t field a team for the next season. Another Cincinnati club, the Stars, announced their intention to take the Reds’ place and set about signing players for the 1880 season. Clapp was expected to be heading to Albany but instead signed a contract with the Stars.52 That didn’t sit well with Buffalo management, as they had included Clapp on the club’s very first reserve list.

A few weeks before Clapp signed his Stars contract, NL owners had agreed to a number of rule changes governing player contracts, in an effort to stem league-wide financial losses.53 One of those updates allowed each team to designate (reserve) five rostered players who could not be signed by any club that was a party to the agreement. Buffalo threatened to block the Stars’ application for admission over the Clapp signing, and persuaded Boston management to join them.54 NL president Hulbert disagreed, reasoning that the Stars weren’t signatories to the reserve agreement. Buffalo relented, the Stars were admitted, and Clapp’s contract was recognized.55 Soon after arriving home from the tour, which was cut short by financial woes, Clapp was named Cincinnati team captain and manager.56

In his role as catcher, Clapp faced a tall order replacing Jim “Deacon” White, who briefly retired after guiding his bespectacled younger brother, Will White, to single-season major-league records for complete games (75) and innings pitched (680) the year before. As the season approached, the Cincinnati Enquirer expressed confidence that Clapp would fill Deacon’s shoes. “In White and Clapp the Cincinnatis have the most enduring, toughest pitcher and catcher in the country.”57

Clapp started the 1880 season on a tear, with six multi-hit games in his first seven, and a 14-game hitting streak.58 He finished in the NL’s top 20 in batting, with a career-high 16 doubles and a team-high 3.6 WAR, but White absorbed a league-leading 45 losses as the Stars finished the year dead-last.59

Well before the season ended, Clapp’s world came crashing down. On July 18, his infant daughter, Bessie, died of cholera.60 Learning that club management had docked Clapp’s salary for the time he spent attending her funeral, the Cincinnati Commercial declared, “A business man who would serve a clerk so would be called too mean to live.”61 When the Stars bowed out of the NL right after the season ended, Clapp jumped ship to the Cleveland Blues, a franchise that had taken the Indianapolis Blues’ name, as well as several of its best ballplayers, after they went bust.62

The Blues paid the by-then 202-pound Clapp $1,800, a salary $400 higher than that of Jim McCormick, their pitcher, and Clapp’s former batterymate – despite McCormick winning a league-high 45 games the year before.63 This was a striking example of how important a capable catcher was in that era. The team captain in 1880, McCormick surrendered that role to Clapp in mid-May, presumably to focus on adjusting to the increased distance between pitching box and home plate (50 feet versus the former 45 feet).64

Weeks before taking on that role, Clapp had received a letter from a J.W. Watson offering him $100 to help fix an upcoming game. A second letter, in which Watson revealed himself to be dry goods salesman J.S. Woodruff from Chicago, included a promissory note for $100 and a scheme by which Clapp could reap financial rewards for fixing other games. Clapp took the letters to Cleveland president-manager J. Ford Evans. Looking to draw out Woodruff, Evans sent the salesman a letter in which, posing as John, he agreed to the scheme. The letter asked Woodruff to provide the names of any other ballplayers who were in on it and requested “a good long letter” detailing additional instructions. After receiving Woodruff’s self-incriminating reply, famed detective William Pinkerton hand-delivered a message from Clapp to Woodruff, revealing that he’d been found out. “I am very glad you have selected me as your victim,” Clapp wrote, “as I am able to withstand all such temptations.”65  The Cleveland Leader detailed the plot in a Decoration Day story headlined, in part, “Given Away by Honest John of the Cleveland Team.”66

Clapp’s successful turn as a crime-fighter failed to translate into success on the diamond. He and McCormick were rarely in synch, with neither willing to take direction from the other.67 McCormick finished 1881 with a 26-30 record, as the Blues stumbled to a seventh-place finish.

Before the season drew to a close, Clapp was barred from playing on any NL team in 1882. No reason was publicly given. A high salary demand was widely assumed why,68 but according to the Leader, Clapp was punished for his actions associated with a late-September benefit game played in New York.69 Blues players had tried to boycott the affair, scheduled on the day that assassinated U.S. President James Garfield was laid to rest back in Cleveland, but relented when Evans threatened them with dismissal. Clapp wasn’t in the lineup, suggesting that he refused to play out of respect for Garfield.70 The harsh penalty came on top of the heartache Clapp suffered from burying another child just weeks earlier, his only son at that time, John William.71 Cast out of the league, Clapp joined the team he refused to play against, the New York Metropolitans.

Founded two years earlier by businessman John B. Day and manager Jim Mutrie, the Metropolitans were an independent team that played their home games at the original Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan. The team’s primary catcher, and by midseason its captain,72 Clapp shepherded a staff that included college-educated Jack Lynch and a hurler destined to be one of the most prolific hitters in American Association history, Tip O’Neill.73 The club took the League Alliance pennant over the inaugural edition of the Philadelphia Phillies and held their own against AA and NL teams, winning 22 of 51 combined.74 In 51 games against major-league competition, Clapp hit .208, with a .906 fielding percentage in the 39 games that he caught – slightly below average for NL backstops in 1882.75

Reinstated by the NL after the season, Clapp became the manager, captain, and change-catcher for Day’s new NL team, the Gothams.76  In January, he went into business with his Metropolitans batterymate Lynch, as co-owners of a saloon and betting parlor known as The Club, in the Little Italy section of Harlem.77

On Opening Day of the 1883 season, Clapp watched as his 23-year-old catcher, Buck Ewing, put on a clinic at the Polo Grounds. Ewing’s nine assists against the Boston Beaneaters set a major-league single-game record that still stands after the 2024 season.78 Ewing’s stellar play, a case of malaria, and the addition of a third catcher to the roster (John Humphries, a Cornell graduate whom Clapp had trained a few winters earlier), kept the New York skipper on the sidelines for all but 21 games.79 In between those appearances, Clapp may have taught Ewing how to frame pitches. Ewing and Sandy Nava have been named by author Peter Morris as the first catchers documented framing pitches, in 1884, but a Wisconsin newspaper description makes clear that Clapp was doing so a year earlier.80

Discontented with the Gothams’ sub-.500 finish in 1883, owner John Day gave the manager’s reins to attorney Jim Price, anointed pitcher John Montgomery Ward captain, and relegated Clapp to catching duties only.81 The deposed Clapp was released in mid-May, having not played in a regular season game. He joined business partner Lynch with Day’s New York Metropolitans, who were enjoying their second year in the American Association, but the Mets, as they were commonly called, were set at catcher with Bill Holbert and Charlie Reipschlager. Failing to get into a single game, Clapp announced his retirement in August.82 Over his 11 major-league seasons, he had caught 472 games with a fielding percentage of .887, batted .283 with over 700 hits, and struck out only 51 times in 2,635 plate appearances.

Clapp turned his attentions in retirement to his newborn baby daughter Florence, being a good Samaritan, and running the Harlem saloon, which had become a favorite of Mets ballplayers.83 Clapp’s affinity for his former mates was rewarded when he was selected grand marshal of a torchlight procession through central and lower Manhattan, celebrating the Mets’ AA championship. Clapp headed the parade astride “a dark horse with a tall hat on his head,” with the Metropolitans following behind in an open stagecoach.84

Clapp and Lynch opened a second Harlem establishment in May 1885, with a saloon and club-room on the first floor, billiard room on the second, and lodging on the third.85 Within months, financial losses forced the partners to put their original saloon in the hands of creditors. The situation was blamed on Lynch’s inability to attend to the business and Clapp’s absence owing to a long-term illness he was fighting.86 Less than a year after it opened, Clapp and Lynch sold their three-story pleasure palace and ended their business relationship.87 Clapp’s financial woes became so dire that members of both the Metropolitans and the Giants (formerly the Gothams) raised money on his behalf.88

Clapp recovered from his health problems and returned to baseball in 1886, working as an umpire in the International League for a few months.89 He took up playing semipro baseball over the next few years, for an Ithaca nine as well as clubs in nearby Waverly and Waterloo. The last mention of “Old John Clapp” as an active ballplayer came in 1891.90  

That same year, after briefly taking up the family trade (house painting), Clapp joined the Ithaca police force.91 Three years later, he investigated a deadly hazing incident on the Cornell University campus in which a group of sophomores piped chlorine gas into a freshman class banquet. Many were left incapacitated and a Black woman cooking for the event was killed. The incident drew nationwide attention, but the culprits were never brought to justice.92

On December 16, 1904, Clapp suffered a stroke and died after helping a fellow officer lug a drunken man out of the snow and into a police station.93 Survived by his daughters Edith and Florence (Flora) and sons John Jr. and Edgar (born in 1882 and 1886, respectively), Clapp was buried beside his wife at Ithaca’s Lake View cemetery. She had died three years earlier after spending the last two years of her life as an invalid.94

In its obituary, the Elmira Telegram said Clapp was “the soul of honor and industry, a model of domestic virtue and kindness and a credit to his name and to Ithaca.”95 Tim Murnane called his former teammate “a perfect athlete and game to the core,” adding “John E. Clapp must go on the baseball records as a classic.”96

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Bill Lamb and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Jeff Findley.

Photo credit: John Clapp with the Independents of Mansfield, Ohio, circa 1868 (SABR-Rucker Archive)

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author utilized Base Ball’s 19th Century ‘Winter’ Meetings: 1857-1900 (Phoenix: SABR, 2018), and two books by Peter Morris: A Game of Inches (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2006) and Catcher: How the Man Behind the Plate Became an American Folk Hero (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2009). He also consulted FamilySearch.com, Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, Statscrew.com, and stathead.com. Unless otherwise noted, season statistics were taken from Baseball-Reference.com.

Notes

1 Peter Morris, A Game of Inches (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2006), 180.

2 Boston Globe ballplayer-turned writer Tim Murnane, a one-time teammate of Clapp’s, made that claim in 1889. He did so indirectly, calling Clapp the equal of Charlie Bennett, widely considered the best defensive catcher of the 1880s. Tim Murnane, “Wonder in His Time,” Boston Globe, January 21, 1889: 6.

3 “Base Ball,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 15, 1892: 16. Clapp collected more walks than strikeouts in every year that he played in either the National Association or National League.

4 White (23.7) and Clapp (14.3) were followed by Doug Allison (6.8). Part-time catcher Cal McVey compiled a WAR of 20.1, but only 182 of his 530 appearances were behind the plate.

5 Frank V. Phelps, “John Edgar Clapp,” Nineteenth Century Stars (Kansas City: SABR, 1989), 29.

6 Tim Murnane, “Wonder in His Time,” Boston Globe, January 21, 1889: 6.

7 Titled Baseball Players Practicing, the 1875 watercolor depicted Philadelphia’s  Wes Fisler at bat, waiting for a pitch, with Clapp, a catcher at the ready, behind him. In a letter to a fellow artist in which he described the scene, Eakins called Clapp and Fisler “very fine in their build.” A watercolor over charcoal on paper, the original resides in the collection of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum. Kelly Kane, “The Master Who Gave Watercolors a Sporting Chance,” American Watercolor, September 16, 2024, https://americanwatercolor.net/the-master-who-gave-watercolors-a-sporting-chance/; “Thomas Eakins: Baseball Players Practicing,” Rhode Island School of Design Museum, https://risdmuseum.org/art-design/collection/baseball-players-practicing-36172, accessed February 11, 2025.

8 After the Cleveland Leader reported in April 1881 that Clapp weighed 202 pounds, nearly 40 pounds over his supposed 1872 playing weight, the Cincinnati Enquirer suggested the Cleveland “include John Clapp’s pants” as it planned an enlargement of National League Park’s grandstand. “Base Ball,” Cleveland Leader, April 2, 1881: 6; “John E. Clapp, Noted Old-Time Baseball Catcher, Passes On,” Boston Globe, December 19, 1904: 3; “Base-Ball,” Cincinnati Enquirer, March 20, 1881: 10. 

9 1865 NY Census, Ithaca, NY, 2nd Ward, June 8, 1865, page 19. An undated roster from the 21st Regiment lists 43-year-old Charles Sr. and 18-year-old George as enlisting in 1863, but makes no mention of Charles Jr, who presumably served in another regiment. Charles Sr. appears in a photograph of 21st Regiment veterans taken years later by an Ithaca professional photographer. “Twenty-First New York Calvary,” https://dmna.ny.gov/historic/reghist/civil/rosters/cavalry/21stCavCW_Roster.pdf, accessed February 2, 2025; “Civil War Veterans of the 21st New York Cavalry Regiment,” Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.73953/?st=image, accessed February 2, 2025;

10 “Base Ball in New York,” New York Daily Graphic, January 4, 1883: page unknown; Ithaca (New York) Journal, September 16, 1866: 1. The box score listed a “Messr. Clapp” as one of two scorers, presumably one of John’s kin.

11 “Base Ball,” Buffalo Courier, August 7, 1868: 2; Mark Alvarez, The Old Ball Game (Alexandria, Virginia: Redefinition, 1990), 111.

12 “Tour of the Cincinnati Club,” New York Clipper, June 12, 1869: 74. The Independents fared no better against the Eckfords when that club visited Mansfield in mid-August, losing 34-19 during the Brooklyn club’s 11-game Western tour. “Review of the Season of 1869,” New York Clipper, December 4, 1869: 277.

13 1870 US Census, Ithaca, NY, July 18, 1870, page 162; “Fireman’s Election,” Ithaca Journal, January 4, 1870: 1.

14 “Clipper Club Record,” New York Clipper, January 6, 1872: 317.

15  Peter Morris, Catcher: How the Man Behind the Plate Became an American Folk Hero (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2009), 88.

16 Middletown’s population in 1870 was 11,126 according to the U.S. Census, making it the seventh largest municipality in the state. Douglas got the idea to join the NA from Harry Wright. Wright had brought his Boston Red Stockings to Middletown for an exhibition game in the summer of 1871, but balked when Douglas asked to schedule matches with Boston in 1872. He then told Douglas that if the Mansfields joined the NA, the Red Stockings and other professional teams in the Association “would have no choice but to play them.” “Population of Connecticut Towns 1830 – 1890,” Office of the Secretary of State of Connecticut, https://portal.ct.gov/sots/register-manual/section-vii/population-1830—1890, accessed January 6, 2025; David Arcidiacono, Major League Baseball in Gilded Age Connecticut (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2010), 56.  

17 Tim Murnane, “Murnane’s Baseball Stories,” Boston Globe, January 24, 1915: 39.

18 Ithaca Daily Journal, April 11, 1873: 4.

19 “Base Ball,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 31, 1873: 2.

20 “Athletic vs. Baltimore,” New York Clipper, May 3, 1873: 34; “Athletic vs. Boston,” New York Clipper, June 21, 1873: 90.

21 “The First Grand Championship Match,” New York Clipper, April 25, 1874: 29.

22 “Base Ball,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 2, 1874: 2; “Athletic vs. Atlantic,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 8, 1874: 2.

23 “Base Ball,” Brooklyn Eagle, August 17, 1874: 3; “Wonder in His Time.”

24 Clapp was credited with one run in the single cricket inning that he played. In contrast, Boston shortstop George Wright, an avid and accomplished cricketeer along with his brother Harry, scored 129 runs in 9 innings. Clapp also was one of several ballplayers who took a shine to English fashion. The New York Clipper described him buying collars, former Mansfields of Middletown teammate Jim O’Rourke loading up on garments from a British tailor, and Boston outfielder Andy Leonard “claim[ing] the honor of owning the ‘boss’ umbrella.” “Cricket,” Brooklyn Union, September 15, 1874: 3; “The Americans in Ireland,” New York Clipper, September 19, 1874: 194; “The Americans in England,” New York Clipper, August 29, 1874: 171.

25 “Ball, Base and Bat,” Philadelphia Times, April 22, 1875: 1.

26 The Philadelphia Times reported that the team’s players “have no disposition” to support the battery of Lon Knight and Clapp. “The Ball Field,” Philadelphia Times, October 2, 1875: 1; “Pick Ups,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 26, 1875: 8.

27 “The Ball Field,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 27, 1875: 8; “The Ball Field,” Philadelphia Times, October 16, 1875: 4.

28 “Officer Clapp Dies on Duty,” Ithaca Journal, December 19, 1904: 3; Morris, Catcher, 71.

29 “Pick Ups,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 26, 1875: 8; “The Athletics,” New York Clipper, October 23, 1875: 234. First reported as $3,000, subsequent mentions of Clapp’s salary during the 1876 season ranged from $2,500 to $3,500. Six years later, the New York National Police Gazette was still reporting that Clapp’s 1876 salary was the highest yet paid for a backstop. The St. Louis Republican claimed the Brown Stockings bid so much for Clapp due to deterioration in the health of their previous backstop, Tom Miller. A weak hitter who was bumped to a backup role with Clapp’s signing, Miller had begun showing early signs of the kidney disease that would take his life during the 1876 season. “Small Hits,” St. Louis Republican, April 19, 1876: 8; “John E. Clapp,” New York National Police Gazette, October 14, 1882: 12; Richard Hershberger, “Tom Miller, SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/tom-miller-2/, accessed February 4, 2025.

30 “The Season Opens,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 6, 1876: 3; St. Louis Globe-Democrat, May 6, 1876: 4.

31 “Base Ball Notes,” Sporting Life, October 7, 1888: 3.

32 Dorgan had filled Clapp’s shoes for the Mansfields of Middletown after that club’s unsuccessful turn in the NA.

33 “How the St. Louis Browns Thought to Catch Dorgan on the Fly,” Syracuse Courier, February 12, 1877: page unknown.

34 “A Lost Art,” St. Louis Times, August 9, 1877, page unknown. The Louisville Grays’ Charley Snyder and the Scott Hastings of the Cincinnati Reds had worn the devices several weeks earlier. Dorgan had long been considered to have been the first major leaguer to wear a mask in a game, until the author identified that both Snyder and Hastings had previously worn one. Larry DeFillipo, “August 8, 1877: Brown Stockings’ Mike Dorgan wears a catcher’s mask and widespread adoption soon follows,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/august-8-1877-brown-stockings-mike-dorgan-becomes-first-major-leaguer-to-adopt-a-catchers-mask/#_edn27, accessed February 5, 2025.

35 “Pastimes,” Chicago Tribune, August 18, 1877: 5.

36 “The Wire Mask Protection,” Brooklyn Eagle, August 16, 1877: 3. One other catcher was mentioned by name in the editorial as having recently suffered a facial injury from a foul ball – Charley Snyder, who was hit in the face the week before he first wore a mask. “Beaten by the Bostons,” Louisville Courier-Journal, June 29, 1877: 1; DeFillipo, “August 8, 1877.”

37 Bradley struggled mightily pitching for the White Stockings without Clapp’s steady hand. The New York Clipper was clearly referring to Clapp after a June Bradley loss to Hartford, when it said, “he requires a catcher par excellence to enable him to pitch with his best effort.” Morris, Catcher, 66. “Hartford vs. Chicago,” New York Clipper, June 30, 1877: 107.

38 Morris, A Game of Inches, 340.

39 “St. Louis Prospects,” Chicago Tribune, December 16, 1877: 7.

40 “Clapp, the Catcher,” Indianapolis Sentinel, December 15, 1877: 4.

41 Larry DeFillipo, “May 8, 1878: Rookie Sam Weaver tosses 1-hitter according to official scorer, but not all his colleagues,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/may-8-1878-rookie-sam-weaver-tosses-one-hitter-according-to-official-scorer-but-not-all-his-colleagues-in-first-ever-win-for-the-nl-milwaukee-grays/#_ednref13, accessed February 5, 2025.

42 Based on a game log compiled by the author from box scores published in the Indianapolis News.  “Providence, 7: Indianapolis, 4,” Boston Globe, June 21, 1878: 1.

43 Milwaukee scored few runs (256 versus 293) and few extra-base hits (87 versus 94), but no team had a lower batting average or slugging percentage than Indianapolis.

44 “Sporting News,” Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, April 12, 1879: 3.

45 “Sporting News,” Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, April 18, 1879: 3.

46 “Troy City vs. Buffalo,” New York Clipper, May 24, 1879: 66.

47 “Around the Bases,” Buffalo Morning Express, June 27, 1879: 4.

48 “How They Stand,” Buffalo Morning Express, May 24, 1879: 4; “The Clevelands Crow,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 25, 1879: 8; “Baseball Notes,” New York Clipper, June 7, 1879: 85.

49 “Base Ball,” Buffalo Courier, September 27, 1879: 2.

50 “Sporting News,” Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, July 23, 1879: 3. The exact date of the couple’s marriage is uncertain. Josie’s obituary in the Ithaca Journal puts the date at May 21, 1878, but the 1875 New York Census lists the couple living with Josie’s parents, with Clapp identified as a “son-in-law.” “Josephine B. ‘Josey’ Tompson Clapp,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8979382/josephine-b-clapp, accessed February 6, 2025.

51 “Notes,” Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, September 29, 1879: 3; “Off at Last,” Cincinnati Enquirer, October 4, 1879: 4.

52 “Base-Ball,” Cincinnati Star, November 10, 1879: 8. Clapp had reportedly planned to leave Buffalo to join his brother Aaron on the Albany team of the National Association. A month before Clapp’s signing with the Stars was reported, the Buffalo Courier claimed that he had already signed a contract to play for Albany. Subsequent accounts suggest that Clapp had actually spurned the Albany offer, which did not provide him with a large enough salary and/or advance. “The Latest,” Buffalo Morning Express, October 7, 1879: 4, and “Base Ball,” Buffalo Courier, October 7, 1879: 2; “Base Ball,” Cleveland Leader, November 12, 1879: 5; “Baseball Notes,” New York Clipper, November 22, 1879: 277.

53 “Important Action of the League,” Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, September 30, 1879: 3.

54 “Baseball Notes,” New York Clipper, November 29, 1879: 282.

55 “The League,” Buffalo Morning Express, December 3, 1879: 4.

56 “Baseball,” New York Herald, January 5, 1880: 9.

57 “Notes, News and Personals,” Cincinnati Enquirer, April 4, 1880.

58 Clapp went 23-for-59 (.390) during his streak. Based on a game log compiled by the author from box scores published in the Cincinnati Enquirer.

59 Three of Clapp’s two-baggers came in consecutive at-bats on July 10, on balls he hit over the right field fence at Buffalo’s Riverside Grounds. “League Batting,” Cincinnati Enquirer, October 6, 1880: 2; “A Close Contest,” Buffalo Courier, July 12, 1880: 2.

60 “Deaths,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 20, 1880: 5.

61 “Base Ball Matters,” Buffalo Express, October 12, 1880: 4. After his first two-bagger Clapp was picked off second by Pud Galvin, his former batterymate.

62 The Stars withdrew from the NL after refusing to support amendments to NL policies that would ban the sale of liquor at league games and bar playing on Sundays – both of which the club had relied on to stay afloat. “Base Ball,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 4, 1880: 1.

63 “Base Ball Notes,” Boston Globe, April 21, 1881: 1. Clapp’s salary was also $400 higher than that of Cleveland’s budding offensive star, second-year second baseman Fred Dunlap.

64 “Baseball,” New York Clipper, March 12, 1881: 403; “In and Out-Door Sports,” Cleveland Leader, May 19, 1881: 5. One pre-season prediction had Clapp serving as manager and Clapp’s former teammate in both Philadelphia and St. Louis, Mike McGeary, serving as captain heading into the 1881 season.

65 “Base-Ball,” Chicago Tribune, May 29, 1881: 16.

66 “Hip! Hip! Hurray!” Cleveland Leader, July 12, 1880: 10.

67 Catcher, 164.

68 Before the start of the 1881 season, the Cincinnati Enquirer published a tongue-in-cheek article stating that during recent meetings in Buffalo, NL owners discussed banning highly paid, respectable ballplayers in favor of “loafers who have no other means to live but to play ball.” Clapp was one of eight players listed by name who would fall victim to such a ban. None of the other eight suffered Clapp’s fate. “The Basest Kind of Ball,” Cincinnati Enquirer, March 13, 1881: 10.

69 “The League Meeting,” New York Clipper, October 8, 1881: 463. At that same time, nine other ballplayers were blacklisted (prohibited from playing for any professional club) for “dissipation and general insubordination:” Bill Crowley, John Fox, Edward Nolan, Mike Dorgan, Sadie Houck, Emil Gross, Lew Brown, Buttercup Dickerson, and Lip Pike. Over a year later, Brooklyn Eagle reported that Clapp had been blacklisted for demanding too high of a salary. “The League Convention,” Brooklyn Eagle, December 11, 1882: 1.

70 “The Clevelands Arrive,” Cleveland Leader, October 7, 1881: 3; “Base-Ball,” New York Times, September 27, 1881: 3.  

71 “Sporting News,” Buffalo Post, September 1, 1881: 3.

72 “Record of the Metropolitans,” New York Sun, July 10, 1882: 3.

73 O’Neill ranks second lifetime among Association batters in RBIs, third in home runs, fourth in hits and among those with at least 1000 plate appearances, is second in batting average and slugging percentage,

74 Unrelated to the League Alliance of the 1870s, this short-lived association was a “holding pen” for teams that NL owners considered adding to their ranks in 1883. New York and Philadelphia were its only members in 1882. “League Alliance,” Baseball Reference, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/League_Alliance. Accessed February 13, 2025.

75 Based on game log compiled by the author from box scores published in the New York Times, New York Sun, and New York Clipper.

76 “Answers to Correspondents,” New York Clipper, April 28, 1883: 82.

77 “The Metropolitan Club,” New York Clipper, January 13, 1883: 695; “The Diamond Field,” Nashville Tennessean, July 16, 1883: 5.

78 Stephen V. Rice, “May 1, 1883: Mickey Welch wins first game in New York Giants franchise history,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/may-1-1883-mickey-welch-wins-first-game-in-new-york-giants-franchise-history/, accessed February 7, 2025.

79 “Sporting,” Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, May 15, 1883: 3; “Base Ball,” Buffalo Commerical Advertiser, March 4, 1880: 3.

80 Game of Inches, 170; “Base-Ball,” Boscobel (Wisconsin) Dial, August 28, 1883: 4. Clapp also may have provided Ewing with lessons in leadership, as he swapped the captain’s role with his young catcher for a time. “Notes,” Sporting Life, May 13, 1883: 4.

81 Clapp may well have seen the writing on the wall, making it known in January that he had no interesting in managing another season. “The League Club,” Sporting Life, January 9, 1884: 2.

82 “Diamond Chips,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 27, 1884: 5; “The National Game,” New York Sun, August 16, 1884: 3.

83 “Notes and Comments,” Sporting Life, July 16, 1884: 6; “Notes,” Cincinnati Enquirer, October 12, 1884: 10. Sometime in August, Clapp, along with the Mets’ beefy slugger Dave Orr, reportedly helped save four boaters from drowning on the Long Island Sound. Trophy balls from New York’s many triumphs were also prominently displayed at Clapp and Lynch’s saloon. “Notes and Comments,” Sporting Life, September 3, 1884: 6.

84 “The Metropolitan’s Reception,” New York Clipper, October 25, 1884: 508; “Baseball Players in Line,” New York Times, October 28, 1884: 5. Trailing the Mets stagecoach was a phalanx of ballplayers from dozens of area baseball clubs.

85 “Baseball,” New York Clipper, May 16, 1885: 131.

86 “Diamond Dust,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 8, 1885: 7. A Cleveland Plain Dealer report in September 1885 claimed Clapp was dying of consumption (tuberculosis), and one published by the Syracuse Standard the following March said he had been so ill “that his life was despaired of.” “Base Ball Notes,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 29, 1885: 5; “Ball Games of the Season,” Syracuse Standard, March 19, 1886: 4.

87 “Athletic,” New York Clipper, April 24, 1886: 90. A few years later, Boston Red Stockings president Arthur Soden cited Clapp’s troubles as a cautionary tale for ballplayers considering going into “the liquor” business while still active. “Base Ball Notes,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 25, 1888: 5.

88 “Notes and Comments,” Sporting Life, September 9, 1885: 5.

89 Appointed in March, Clapp was briefly removed in July for incompetency and resigned in August. “International League Meeting,” New York Clipper, March 27, 1886: 25; “The Sporting World,” Oswego (New York) Daily Times-Express, June 30, 1886: page unknown; “Gloves and Masks,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, August 26, 1886: 6.

90 “Notes and Comments,” Sporting Life, May 11, 1887: 9; “Around the Bases,” Wilmington (North Carolina) Messinger, March 5, 1891: 2; “‘Honest John’ Clapp Dead,” Waverly (New York) Free Press, 1905: page unknown. “News Notes and Comments,” Sporting Life, November 8, 1890: 4. Long after he’d left home to become a professional, Clapp had maintained a connection to baseball in central New York. In addition to the 1875 Ithaca-Binghamton match that may have precipitated his decision to leave the Athletics, Clapp caught for Binghamton in an 1883 battle with Elmira, hired along with pitcher Tip O’Neill “to make ‘a sure thing of it.’” Helena (Montana) Herald, September 17, 1883: 2; Catcher, 312.

91 “‘Honest John’ Clapp Dead,” Waverly Free Press, 1905: page unknown; “Briefs,” Groton (New York) Journal, April 2, 1891: page unknown.

92 “The Cornell Freshmen,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, February 21, 1894: 7; “Trying to Find Guilty Students,” New York Herald, February 23, 1894: 10; “The Cornell Murder,” Sacramento Union, February 22, 1894: 2. “Hazing at Cornell: A Tradition?” Ithacing in Cornell Heights, https://ithacating.com/2010/08/12/hazing-at-cornell-a-tradition/, accessed February 8, 2025.

93 “Officer Clapp Dies on Duty.” Two days earlier, Clapp had been promoted from patrolman to sergeant, filling a vacancy created when his predecessor committed suicide the day before.

94 “Josephine B. ‘Josey’ Tompson Clapp.”

95 “Johnny Clapp Dead,” Elmira Telegram, December 25, 1904, page unknown.

96 “John E. Clapp, Noted Old-Time Baseball Catcher, Passes On,” Boston Globe, December 19, 1904: 3.