What was remarkable about this feat was the nature of the baseball used for the game, the spacious, irregular shape of the playing field, and Pike’s size. The ball Pike struck was not the “dead ball” of later decades, but a livelier ball that was often used for an entire game. After a few innings the ball’s condition was not suitable for power hitting. The playing field had an irregular shape with spacious power alleys that sprawled from 300 to about 400 feet in center field.2 Batting ninth, the 21-year-old left-hander in his first year with the Athletics stood only 5-feet-8 and weighed 158 pounds. Years after his playing days were over, fans still talked about the batting prowess and long-distance slugging of the “Iron Batter.” Another Pike feature that contributed to his notoriety was his Jewish faith.

Pike’s father was a refugee from Holland who settled in New York among the Dutch Jewish merchant families. Born in 1845, the second of five children, Lipman grew up in Brooklyn. Against their father’s wishes, he and his older brother, Boaz, played baseball. By 1865 Lipman was good enough to be invited to play for the renowned champions of the National Association, the Atlantics of Brooklyn. He was 20 years old when he appeared in his first game for the Atlantics. The following year Pike made a career move and joined the Atlantics’ major rival, the Athletics of Philadelphia, who lured him by paying him $20 a week.3 The year before he signed with the Athletics, the club leased a new playing ground from the city and outfitted it. Located between 15th and 17th and Montgomery and Columbia Avenues, this irregularly shaped field was the Athletics’ home site until 1871. The grounds were formerly a bivouac and staging area for the Union Army. Here soldiers and workmen for a natural history museum, the Wagner Free Institute, played pick-up ball games. The first regular sanctioned game was played on May 12, 1865.4

Pike’s first season with the Athletics (1866) was marked by historic contests with the Atlantics of Brooklyn. Record crowds attended each game. The first game drew over 30,000 spectators, and the crowds were so dense that it had to be called after one inning. Between the next two Atlantic contests Pike and the Athletics played the Alerts. In this contest Pike used his remarkable speed to beat out long hits that soared to gaps in the spacious center field, a distance of about 400 feet. His other home runs were lofted over 290 feet, clearing a seven-foot-high fence bordering Columbia Avenue in right field. In all the Athletics stroked 12 home runs and won the game 67–25.5

Not much attention was given to Pike’s great game. There were no bold headlines or commentaries about his feat. It was reported merely as another victory for the Athletics. The Athletics finished their National Association schedule with a 23–2 record. But Pike’s tenure in Philadelphia was tenuous. Questions were raised about the loyalty and reliability of paid professional ballplayers.6 As a result, he and other professionals were purged from the team. In 1867 Pike found himself playing for Association teams in New Jersey and New York.

By the time he ceased full-time play a dozen years later, Pike had won four home run titles and set the professional National Association career record for home runs. He was also fourth in RBIs. Despite all of that, Lipman Pike would always be known for what he accomplished in his first full year as a professional ballplayer on the sweltering afternoon of July 16, 1866.

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.

Notes

Spalding had won 38 in 1872 and 41 in 1873. In 1874, he won his 41st game on October 13 — but the season still had a few weeks to go. The Red Stockings had played only six regular-season games in July and none at all in August. They were busy traveling. Spalding won victory number 42 on the 14th, number 43 on the 15th, number 44 on the 16th, and number 45 on the 17th. Five days, five games, five wins, all on the road. When the road trip wound up, on October 23, Spalding had 48 wins. He beat Hartford on the 24th, and then had to take the Lord’s Day off to rest. Sitting on 49 wins, he awaited the arrival of Philadelphia’s team, the Whites (sometimes called the Pearls), on Monday the 26th.

Manager Harry Wright may have given it a passing thought, “Who shall I pitch against Philadelphia?” but chances are that he spent little time pondering the question. There were only three games left on the schedule and Al Spalding had already worked in 63 of the team’s 67 games.

The two teams knew each other well. They had met each other eight times, with Boston winning six of the eight contests. But both teams had also traveled to England during that midseason “break” that centered on August.

Somewhere between 800 and 1,000 spectators took in the game which began at “2½ o’clock.” Though Dave Birdsall had played for Boston the three prior years, he had not in 1874; Birdsall served as umpire.

The Bostons batted first and scored seven runs. The runs came thanks to a leadoff triple by George Wright and a single by Spalding, followed by a Deacon White single, and a Cal McVey “double-baser.” There was a home run (“a clean drive over the fence at left field”) by Jim O’Rourke, followed by another three-baser by George Wright.1 Mixed in were two Philadelphia errors. We’re not sure who reached base and who made out, nor do we know how many may have been on base when O’Rourke homered, but we do know that seven runs crossed the plate. It was written that only two of them were earned.2 The Philadelphias got no runs in the first, but scored twice in the bottom of the second.

There had been a chance for Philadelphia to break through in the second inning, when they loaded the bases on three base hits and got a run on a ball hard-hit by striker Denny Mack that was fumbled by Boston’s Harry Schafer. There was still nobody out, and Chick Fulmer at the plate. But Fulmer fouled out. The Philadelphia pitcher, Candy Cummings, singled to center, driving in the second run, but McVey’s throw from center field to Deacon White at the plate cut down Tom York, who’d tried to score, and the threat was over.

Boston replied with two more of its own in the third, re-establishing the seven-run cushion.

While Philadelphia didn’t score again until once in the seventh, Boston added one run in the fourth, two more in the fifth, and its 13th run in the top of the seventh. With the score 13-3 after eight, the Red Stockings added two more in their half of the ninth. Philadelphia scored no more. The final was 15-3, Boston, and Al Spalding recorded his 50th win of the season. It was already late October, and there was to be no baseball in November, but Spalding added two more wins on the following two days, only to lose his final decision of the year on October 30. His record was 52-16. He’d just turned 23 in early September.

Much of the scoring was due to differences in fielding. Boston committed seven errors in total, but Philadelphia shortstop Jim Holdsworth made six by himself, and the catcher, Nat Hicks, made four more. All told, Philadelphia was charged with 16 errors.3

Despite the disparity in scoring, and the relative ineptness of Philadelphia’s fielding, the Boston Daily Advertiser‘s front-page account allowed that the lead “did not appear to discourage the visitors, and all of them, excepting Cummings, who acted as if he was either sick or sulky, played with vigor and pluck.”4

At the beginning of the sixth inning, Cummings left the game and George Bechtel came in from right field to pitch, with Pete Donnelly taking over right field. Bechtel only allowed four (or maybe three) hits in the final four innings.

The game ran 1:50.

The Boston Globe enthused about the weather, but said the game itself “was not remarkable in any one particular, but several brilliant plays were made.”5 The Boston papers all noted the one-handed catch the Red Stockings’ Tommy Beals made, running deeper into right field to haul in the ball and them tumbling into a “heels over head” somersault with the ball firmly in hand. Philadelphia’s York also made a “beautiful running catch” and their first baseman Mack was singled out for his good fielding.

None of the coverage, which included the Boston Journal, noted that Spalding had won his 50th game of the season. It was one of the 65 complete regular-season games he threw in 1874.

After the game, both teams attended the performance at the Boston Theatre, by invitation of the management.

Sources

Numerous contemporary newspapers were consulted to prepare this account. Bob LeMoine checked the Philadelphia Inquirer, which appears to have devoted only one line to the game.

Notes

1 Boston Daily Advertiser, October 27, 1874: 1.

2 Ibid.

3 The Boston Globe account says that Boston committed seven errors, and Philadelphia committed 16. The Advertiser, which sometimes had better baseball coverage at the time, agrees that Boston was charged with seven, but ascribed 20 to Philadelphia. We have simply gone with the more conservative figure here.

4 Boston Daily Advertiser.

5 Boston Globe, October 27, 1874: 5.

The baseball game played on May 8, 1878, between Providence and Boston would not have been considered one of the 100 greatest games of the 19th century except for one enduring and still controversial question: Did Providence center fielder Paul Hines, in the eighth inning of this match, achieve the first unassisted triple play in major-league baseball? Or was it a misunderstanding encouraged by the publicity-seeking Hines that eventually grew into a myth?

In an essay titled The Unassisted Triple Play, Don Meyer defines an unassisted triple play as occurring “when a defensive player makes all three outs in one continuous play without any other teammate touching the ball.”1

The game was played at the Messer Street Grounds in Providence in front of 4,500 fans. In the earliest report of the game, printed in the Boston Evening Transcript the next day, Hines is credited with a “triple play” only, with no mention of its being unassisted: “In the eighth inning there was great excitement, when, through errors of the Providence club, Jim O’Rourke scored and Jack Manning and Ezra Sutton were on bases. Jack Burdock struck a fly—just beyond Tom Carey—which Hines caught after a long run, ran to third base and put out Manning and threw to second, putting out Sutton and making a triple play.” Providence won the game, 3–2. However, the story in the Providence Journal the next day reported that “Manning and Sutton proceeded to the home plate,” meaning that both rounded third.

According to 1878 rules, if both players passed third base, they would have been out when Hines stepped on the bag, and the play would have indeed been unassisted. Arthur Irwin was quoted in an 1897 book, A History of the Boston Base Ball Club, as saying, “The greatest play I ever saw was made by Paul Hines. … he caught a low fly ball behind the shortstop on a full run, continuing on to third base where he put out the two men … from second and third bases, making the treble play unassisted.”

On August 24, 1902, the New York Times wrote that “it was not until the fall of 1888 that the public was informed (through a magazine article) that (an unassisted triple play) had been accomplished.” Apparently the claimed achievement was soon contradicted by Providence second baseman Charles Sweasy. The Times quoted him as stating: “I assisted Hines in making the triple play mentioned so largely in the public prints. The ball was struck by Burdock to short left field. Hines started for it on a dead run, and succeeded in catching it, but nearly stumbled. Regaining his feet, however, he kept on running to third base, reaching that station before Manning could return, thereby putting Manning out. Sutton, who had reached third, seeing Hines coming with the ball, started back to second. Hines touched third and started to catch Sutton; but, Sutton being a good sprinter, Hines saw that he could not catch him, and threw the ball to me at second base in time to catch Sutton before he reached it.” The rules did not require Hines to throw to Sweasy to put Sutton out. Did he do it just to be certain?

The question was visited again in the May 1947 issue of Baseball Digest, which said that former Boston first baseman Tim Murnane, later a baseball writer in Boston, was “the first to bestow this honor upon Hines.” The article said, “Some years later the claim was disputed by George Moreland and an investigation proved Murnane to have been in error. … Providence was leading, 3–0, when an eighth-inning error gave Boston a score, putting Manning on second with Ezra Sutton on first and none down. Blackie Burdock, Boston’s famous second baseman, hit a fly to deep short. Hines went after it like a deer, nailed the ball on a 35- yard run and kept on going to third, tagging Manning, who had overrun the bag, and then throwing to Sweasy at second to catch Sutton for a triple play.”

So, is it a debunked myth or a disputed accomplishment? Was it simply the product of the fuzzy memories of old teammates and/or Hines’s desire for public acclaim? While the early reporting seems to establish that it was indeed an unassisted triple play under the rules of the time, and that Hines’ unnecessary throw to second merely confused the issue, the debate lives on, in part because of the very rarity and extreme difficulty of the unassisted triple play. There are more perfect games on record than unassisted triple plays. So, no matter where fans of baseball history stand on the question, it’s still fun to talk about.

Related links

• Resolving the dispute about Paul Hines’ unassisted triple play, by John Thorn (Our Game)
• “Revisiting the Hines Triple Play,” by Richard Hershberger (Spring 2016 Baseball Research Journal)
• Click here to view the SABR Triple Plays Database, a comprehensive listing of all MLB triple plays since 1876

Notes

1 http://www.vfcc.edu/aboutVFCC/?p=showthinkAboutIt&id=190

They did it under the shrewd front-office guidance of Albert Spalding, and with a Stone Age version of Murderers’ Row that included Hall of Famers Adrian “Cap” Anson and Mike “King” Kelly, and one of the 19th century’s great sluggers, Abner Dalrymple. Dalrymple was considered so dangerous at the plate in his prime that he became the first player to be intentionally walked with the bases loaded.

Then there was center fielder George “Piano Legs” Gore, one of the era’s most valuable players, who was on seven pennant winners, all in the 1880s. On June 25, 1881, he did something truly extraordinary, running into the record book as the first player to steal seven bases in a game. (Only Billy Hamilton, in 1894, has matched the feat.)

Gore was a complete ballplayer. He hit for average, sometimes for power (he was the second person to smack five extra-base hits in a game), he could field, and he could throw.

He could also run really, really well.

Gore finished his 14-year career with more runs (1,327) than games played (1,310), reflecting the sturdy legwork of a player who earned his nickname because of superhero-shaped calf muscles.

In 1880 Gore led the National League in batting (.360). His average took a nosedive in 1881 (he finished at .298), but he was an artist at getting on and around the bases, and that Saturday game in June, a 12–8 win over the visiting Providence Grays, was probably his masterpiece.

According to the Chicago Daily Tribune, about 2,000 fans saw an offensive outbreak that “was full of action and at all times interesting. … Chicago won by virtue of superiority in every point of play, but notably so in base-running. Gore’s performances in this respect were something phenomenal.”[fn]1. Chicago Daily Tribune, June 26, 1881.[/fn]

Gore reached base five times in five plate appearances, had three solid singles and a walk, scored five runs, and generally made life really stressful for the Providence battery, pitcher Bobby Mathews and catcher Emil Gross. Gore stole second base five times—or every time he reached base—and stole third twice.

At the time, stolen bases were not part of the official statistical records in the National League, but the Tribune nonetheless noted that Gore had set “a record which as a whole has probably never been equaled in a League game.”[fn]Ibid.[/fn]

The game itself wasn’t a thing of beauty: “The contest was characterized by numerous errors in fielding,” the Tribune reported. The teams combined to make 14 errors (10 by the Providence club). There were three passed balls (all by Gross), and only one of Chicago’s dozen runs was earned.[fn]Ibid.[/fn]

At the time the White Stockings were in the midst of their longest winning streak of the season (eight games) and hottest stretch (they went 18–3 from June 4 though July 13). Gore’s record-setting performance came in the second of a three-game set at home against Providence, during which Chicago outscored the Grays 39–20.

As the two teams took the field for Saturday’s game, Chicago was in first place with a threegame lead over the second-place Buffalo Bisons, and Providence was in last place, one win behind Cleveland.

Chicago took a 3–0 lead in the first. Batting second, the left-handed-swinging Gore reached on either an error or a fielder’s choice, stole second, and scored on Anson’s double. He had base hits in the second, fourth, and sixth innings— subsequently stealing bases and scoring each time. Those helped Chicago build a 10–4 lead through six innings.

Gore walked in the eighth and scored on Ned Williamson’s two-run triple to give Chicago a 12–4 lead. Providence scored its last four runs in the top of the ninth on four hits and a wild pitch.

National League rules banned Sunday baseball at the time, so the two teams finished their three-game set on Monday, a 19–12 Chicago victory.

After the series the Grays turned their fortunes around, posting the best record in the league for the stretch run (35–17–1). That included a change in field managers, with outfielder Tom York replacing second baseman Jack Farrell. It was Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn’s rookie season, and he led Providence with a 25–11 record.

Chicago went 33–18 after the Providence series to finish 56–28, winning the pennant by nine games over the second-place Grays. It was a familiar pattern—Chicago won three straight pennants, 1880–82, and Providence finished second each time.

And Gore? He kept on running wild, and not just on the basepaths. Anson considered Gore one of the best players of the era, and even included him on his list of all-time greats, but claimed, “Women and wine brought about his downfall.” Gore was suspended from the 1885 World Series for drunkenness, and a year later Chicago sold him to the New York Giants because of all the drinking and cavorting. He helped New York win two pennants.

In his 14 major-league seasons, Gore led the league in runs scored in 1881 (86) and 1882 (99), then scored 100 or more runs a season for seven of the next nine years and is one of the most prolific run scorers of all time (1.02 runs per game). He batted .306 for his career with a .386 on-base percentage, and led the league in walks three times in an era when pitchers stood only 45 (then 55½) feet away.

Ironically, Gore never “led” the league in stolen bases—the National League didn’t start keeping official records on the statistic until 1886. He stole 23 bases that year, a career-high 39 the next, and is credited with 170 stolen bases for his career. But Gore always will be remembered for the day he swiped seven in one game.

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.

The Buffalo squad had just returned from a road trip and their meeting with Cleveland was the fourth time the two teams met in 1882. Hugh Daily took to the mound for the Bisons against Cleveland’s George Washington Bradley. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, “it was a regular walk-over from the word ‘go.’”1 After Daily retired Cleveland in the top of the first inning, Blondie Purcell led off the bottom half with a single to left field. With one out, Dan Brouthers singled, and with two outs, Deacon White singled, loading the bases for Foley, who “sent the ball over the left-field fence for a home run.” According to the Buffalo Commercial, “that’s how the ice was broken.”2

In the bottom of the second, Buffalo sent 11 batters to the plate and they combined four singles, three doubles, and a triple (by Foley) to bring home eight more runs. The Bisons added two runs in the bottom of the third, on hits by Brouthers, Richardson, White and Foley, raising their lead to 14-0.

Buffalo added a run in the fifth, aided by Foley’s double, and then iced the cake with five runs in the seventh inning. Cleveland avoided the shutout by getting a run in the top of the sixth. Fatty Briody reached base on a passed ball, Fred Dunlap doubled him to third base and he scored on a fly ball by Jack Glasscock. In this thrashing, Buffalo scored 20 runs on 28 hits. The Cincinnati Enquirer box score listed Buffalo as having 13 earned runs, while the box score in the Chicago Tribune gave the Bisons credit for 12 earned runs.

Foley was clearly the hero for the Bisons on this day. He hit a grand slam in the first inning, a triple in the second, a single in the third and a double in the fifth. He had 10 total bases in six at-bats. He became the first player to hit for the cycle. Foley also scored four runs. The Blues’ Bradley, victim of the Buffalo onslaught, had pitched 16 shutouts for St. Louis in 1876. Every Bison in the lineup had at least two hits; Brouthers had five and Foley had four. Foley’s home run was the only one of the game. Bill Phillips and Orator Shafer each hit triples for the Blues, but neither came around to score. Buffalo’s winning pitcher, Hugh Dailey, held the Blues batters to six hits. He “took everything as cooly as though playing a practice game with an amateur nine — but they couldn’t hit him.”3 Unfortunately, Bradley did not have the same success. The Bisons “sent it all over and outside the pastures until the fielders’ legs were weary and their courage gone.”4

The Cincinnati Enquirer wrote of the Cincinnati defeat: “The game proved a Waterloo for the visitors, and was robbed of all interest at an early stage by the terrific slugging. Nothing like it was ever seen before.”5 The Chicago Tribune said, “The Buffalos today showed some of the batting ability which they seemed to have kept in store all the season, and scored twenty runs while the Clevelands were perforce constant with a solitaire.”6 The Buffalo Commercial gave all the statistics: “In slugging it was a Jumbo-of-a-game. The Buffalos went to the bat 52 times in eight innings, made 28 hits with a total of 40 [total bases], reached base 33 times, and ran 103 bases, making 20 runs and earning 13.”7

In two previous seasons, Curry Foley had been a pitcher for the Bisons. During the 1882 season he played right field. He pitched once that year.8 Foley was described as “a below-average pitcher but an above-average hitter.”9 He was also one of the very few left-handed pitchers in the National League’s early seasons.

Sources

In addition to the sources mentioned in the Notes, the author consulted baseball-reference.com, mlb.com, retrosheet.org, and sabr.org. The author thanks Dirk Lammers of nonohitters.com for his valued assistance with obtaining box scores. In addition, I referenced the following:

Dirk Lammers, “Foley 1st to hit for cycle 132 years ago today,” http://nonohitters.com/2014/0525/foley-1st-to-hit-for-cycle-132-years-ag….

Entering 2020, only nine players, including Curry, have a grand slam as part of their cycle:

Photo credit

Curry Foley, SABR-Rucker Archive.

Notes

1 “A Pitcher’s Heart Broke,” Cincinnati Enquirer, May 26, 1882: 5.

2 “The Clevelands Sustain a Waterloo Defeat,” Buffalo Commercial (Buffalo, New York), May 26, 1882: 3.

3 “A Great Game,” Buffalo Express (Buffalo, New York), May 26, 1882: 4.

4 Buffalo Express.

5 Cincinnati Enquirer.

6 “Buffalo 20, Cleveland 1,” Chicago Tribune, May 26, 1882: 7.

7 Buffalo Commercial.

8 Brian McKenna, “Curry Foley,” http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/d8a0584a.

9 “Curry Foley,” http://baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Curry_Foley.

The pitching matchup featured two of the American Association’s greatest hurlers. Will White drew the starting assignment for the Red Stockings. The bespectacled right-hander was on his way to a winning a league-leading 43 games and leading the circuit with a 2.09 earned-run average. He was opposed by arm-weary Bobby Mathews. The Athletics reluctantly turned to the right-hander after having lost faith in Jumping Jack Jones, who had been knocked around for 11 runs and 13 hits in the series opener, and fear of overworking George Washington Bradley.1 The Athletics’ pitching staff was simply depleted by this point in the season.

The Red Stockings won the coin toss and elected to bat first. With one out in the top of the first, first baseman John Reilly tripled to left and scored on a passed ball. The Athletics responded in a “business-like manner” with five runs in their half of the frame.2 Jud Birchall led off with a single past shortstop and moved to second on a passed ball. Harry Stovey followed with a single to left to score Birchall. Stovey stole second and scored when Lon Knight hit a ball past shortstop that Jimmy Macullar, who was playing in place of sore-armed Chick Fulmer, was too slow to reach. Mike Moynahan followed with a hot liner to second that Bid McPhee only managed to knock down as Knight advanced to second. Jack O’Brien flied out to right, allowing Knight and Moynahan to advance a base. Fred Corey sent an easy fly ball to left that Joe Sommer muffed, allowing another two runs cross the plate. One out later, Cub Stricker singled to drive in the Athletics’ fifth run of the inning.

The score remained 5-1 until the top of third, when Corey sent a long drive to left-center and circled the bases for the first major-league home run of his career. This made the score 6-1 and it stayed that way until the top of the sixth.

The Red Stockings’ White led the sixth off with a single that “curved out of Corey’s reach” at third. The pitcher came around to score when Hick Carpenter sent a fly ball over the head of Birchall in left for a triple. “Reilly next tapped the ball down in front of the plate, but Rowen threw wildly to Stovey, and Stricker in turn fired the ball over Corey’s head, and both ‘Hick’ and Long John came home,” the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.3 This cut the Athletics’ lead to 6-4.

The Athletics answered with four runs in their half of the sixth. Rowan opened the inning with “a tap to Macullar, who, after fumbling it awhile threw wildly to Reilly,” allowing Rowan to reach second.4 Stricker followed with a home run to left-center that was “assisted by slow fielding.”5 After Mathews fouled out to Pop Snyder behind the plate, Macullar failed to come up with Birchall’s hit and was sent to play right field, “where he had the pleasure of chasing Stovey’s hit for a home-run.”6 It was the 14th and final home run of the season for 26-year-old first baseman, who earlier in the year became the first major-league player to hit 10 home runs in a season. The previous record was held by Charley Jones, who hit nine four-baggers in 1879 while playing left field for the Boston Red Stockings of the National League.

Entering the seventh inning, the Athletics appeared to have a safe 10-4 lead. However, with Mathews tiring and some shoddy Athletics defense, Cincinnati mounted a ferocious comeback. McPhee opened with a single to short center and took second on a passed ball. Macullar plated McPhee with a single past shortstop and White, who was given a second and third opportunity after Corey and Birchall missed pop fouls, singled to put runners on first and second. After Carpenter was called out on strikes, on a couple of questionable strike calls by umpire John Kelly, Knight dropped Reilly’s pop fly to right field to load the bases. Jones followed with a bases-clearing triple to right to trim the deficit to 10-8. One out later, Pop Corkhill singled to right to drive in Jones. Corkhill then stole second and scored the tying run when Snyder singled and Moynahan threw wildly to the plate.

With the crowd yelling and cheering wildly, “McPhee brought the spectators up to the highest pitch of enthusiasm by a long hit to left over Birchall’s head on which he made the circuit, bringing Snyder in before him.”7 The inning came to a merciful end when Macullar was retired at first after a dropped third strike. The Red Stockings sent 11 men to the plate and when the dust settled, eight runs crossed the plate and the Red Stockings held a 12-10 lead.

Cincinnati returned the favor with subpar defense of their own in the bottom of the eighth. Mathews reached on an error by Carpenter and hits by Birchall and Moynahan loaded the bases with two outs. O’Brien, who started the game in center field and finished it behind the plate after Rowen’s hands gave out, lofted “an easy fly” to right that Macullar failed to handle, allowing two runs to score. After eight innings the score was tied, 12-12.

Neither team scored in the ninth and the Red Stockings failed to push a run across in their half of the 10th. In the bottom of the inning, Stovey pushed an infield single past White and took second on a passed ball. He moved to third on a fly ball by Moynahan. When a pitch ticked off the hands of Snyder, “Stovey daringly broke for home” and outraced the catcher to the plate with the winning run.8

The slugfest, witnessed by a crowd estimated at 2,000, was, like many games during the era, marred by sloppy defensive work. The Red Stockings got 15 hits off Mathews and the Athletics collected 14 hits.9 The time of the game was 3 hours.10

The loss all but mathematically eliminated the defending champions. With eight games remaining for the Athletics and seven for the third-place Red Stockings, the best Cincinnati fans could hope for was an improbable tie with the Athletics. The Browns edged the New York Metropolitans, 3-2, and remained three games behind the Athletics, setting up a showdown between the Athletics and the Browns in St. Louis. Meanwhile, back in Philadelphia, a mass meeting of citizens was held at the Athletics’ headquarters to begin organizing a reception parade as the city prepared for a much-anticipated championship.11

Stovey’s reign as the single-season home-run leader was short-lived. The next season Ned Williamson, shortstop for the Chicago White Stockings of the National League, slugged 27 home runs to become the new major-league single-season home-run king.12

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author relied on Baseball-reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 Edward Achorn, The Summer of Beer and Whiskey (New York: Public Affairs Press, 2006), 201.

2 “Stubbornly Fought,” Cincinnati Enquirer, September 19, 1883: 2.

3 “Stubbornly Fought.”

4 “Stubbornly Fought.”

5 “Stubbornly Fought.”

6 “Stubbornly Fought.”

7 “Stubbornly Fought.”

8 Achorn, 201.

9 The box score in the Times (Philadelphia) credits the Athletics with 13 hits.

10 The box score in the Times (states the time of the game was 2 hours and 20 minutes.

11 “The Champions: A Grand Reception to Be Given to the Victorious Athletics,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 19, 1883: 8.

12 Williamson’s 27 home runs in 1884 were largely attributed to the dimensions of Chicago’s home ballpark, White Stocking Park (a.k.a. Lake Front Park). In 1884 the distances were 180 feet down the line to left, 280 feet to left-center, 300 feet to dead center field, 252 feet to right-center, and 196 feet down the line to right. The right-handed-hitting Williamson hit 25 of his 27 home runs at White Stocking Park and never hit more than nine home runs in any other season.

So when Radbourn pitched all 16 innings of a brilliant 1–1 tie on June 6 in Providence against the defending National Leagues champion Boston Beaneaters—a “phenomenal game, the like of which will probably never be seen again,” the Providence Journal raved—Sweeney knew he had to do something special to win back the city’s attention and applause.2

June 7 was the kind of late-spring day that made New England hearts soar—sunny, warm, and breezy—and a fine Saturday crowd of 7,387 thronged Boston’s South End Grounds, the rotting wooden ballpark crammed in between Columbus Avenue and several sets of railroad tracks. In a feat of bravado, even for 1880s pitchers, Boston Beaneaters ace Jim “Grasshopper” Whitney worked again after pitching 16 innings the day before, and he was superb, allowing only two runs and six hits while striking out 10. But Sweeney, a 21-year-old right-hander with a square jaw and burning, wide-set eyes, was stoked to pitch one of the greatest games in major-league history. That was clear from the moment the 5-foot-10, 181-pound Californian stepped into the 6-by-4- foot pitcher’s box.

“Outs and ins, drops and rises seemed to be all the same to Sweeney,” the Boston Globe reported. “He could give them all, and pitched some of the most deceptive curves imaginable.”3 The son of Irish immigrants was “in magnificent form, and he pitched with such remarkable strategy and speed that Boston’s heavy hitters were forced to go down before him one after another,” the Providence Journal wrote.4

He struck out five of the first six batters who faced him—all without the modern advantage of foul balls being strikes. Eight of Sweeney’s first nine outs were strikeouts. After six innings, he had mowed down 14 men. Providence broke a 0–0 tie in the fifth, when Boston center fielder Jack Manning juggled a fly, permitting the Grays’ Arthur Irwin to scoot in from third. But Manning more than made up for it moments later, catching a line drive at full sprint and firing the ball to first to double up the runner there. When Boston captain and first baseman John Morrill whipped the pill across to third to catch the Grays’ Jerry Denny sliding in there, the Beaneaters had pulled off a stunning triple play. “Immediately there was the wildest excitement and confusion,” the Globe reported. Men threw their hats in the air, women flashed smiles and waved handkerchiefs, and everyone carried on joyfully.

In the seventh inning, after the Grays had taken a 2–0 lead, Sweeney surrendered a walk to Whitney— though the Journal was certain it should have been another strikeout, since in the reporter’s eyes Charlie split the plate five times. The Grasshopper later scored on an error, to cut the lead to 2–1.

As the ninth inning opened, the crowd exhorted the Beaneaters to close the gap. But the real story was Sweeney’s astounding performance. With his zipping fastball and biting curve, he was smashing the major-league strikeout record. Sweeney whiffed Morrill, a very tough out, for strikeout number 17. Manning, next up, swung “at the sphere as if he would lift it over the centre-field fence, but only empty air met the willow, and he, too, retired on strikes.” Bill Crowley, a 27-year-old from Philadelphia who would hit .270 that year, stepped into the right-handed batter’s box, and stared down Sweeney. But it was no match, as Crowley whiffed to end it. The mighty crowd, silent for most of the day, erupted in cheers for the visiting pitcher’s astonishing feat. “NINETEEN STRUCK OUT; Sweeney’s Mysterious Curves Baffle Boston’s Batters,” read the Globe’s headline the next day. “It was “a record,” the Journal predicted, “which will not be broken in many a day.” Hugh “One Arm” Daily officially tied it, on July 7, but that was against vastly weaker competition, the Boston Reds of the hapless Union Association, whose very status as a major league has been sharply questioned by such savants as Bill James.5 But it wasn’t officially broken until more than a century later, on April 29, 1986, when another bigheaded young man posted a 20-strikeout masterpiece in Boston. His name was Roger Clemens.

Alerted by telegraph, Providence leaders rushed to provide a grand welcome home. When the Grays arrived at Union Depot at 7:45 p.m., horse-drawn carriages and Herrick’s Providence Brigade Band were waiting. Men plucked up Sweeney and carried him on their shoulders to his carriage, the band struck up “Hail to the Chief,” the lesser players piled in, and the triumphal parade set off from the station. Colored flares lit up a dusky sky thick with coal smoke. The “streets were one vast blaze of red fire and the crowd packed the sidewalks thicker than sardines,” Sporting Life reported.6

One observer who clearly did not share in the delight was Radbourn. His incessant brooding about the man of the hour, the focus of the accolades, the arrogant Sweeney, led to a rupture in the club later in the season—and to the most brilliant sustained pitching performance in history, as Old Hoss, working virtually alone, day after day, went on to win 60 games.

But that was ahead. For weeks after the June 7 masterpiece, the crowd at the Messer Street Grounds taunted Radbourn, “nagging him to ‘break the record’ ” that Sweeney had set. Not surprisingly, this was said to bother the proud veteran “exceedingly.”7

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.

Notes

1 “Ball Players Who Won’t Play,” New York Times, July 23, 1884.

2 Providence Journal, June 7, 1884.

3 Boston Globe, June 8, 1884.

4 Providence Journal, June 9, 1884.

5 Bill James, “State of the Union,” The New Bill James Historical Abstract (Free Press, New York, 2001), p. 21-22.

6 Sporting Life, June 18, 1884.

7 Fall River Daily Evening News, September 5, 1884.

Trouble, however, lay ahead. Sweeney’s brilliant performance against Boston fueled his alcohol-laced ego, while Radbourn grew sulky about losing his role as the Grays’ dominant starter. In mid-July the Grays felt compelled to suspend the Hoss for all-around cussedness, including open contempt for his teammates (he had begun dressing in the visitors’ locker room) and ostentatiously blowing his stack during one game, endangering catcher Barney Gilligan.1

After Radbourn had fumed on the sidelines for a week, a new crisis erupted. On July 22 Sweeney, incensed at the orders of Grays manager Frank Bancroft to leave the pitcher’s box during the game he had started and trade places with the right fielder, instead stormed off the field and declared his intent to quit the team. The Grays directors expelled him and then came exceedingly close to folding the club, having no real pitchers left. Old Hoss, after all, wanted to leave Providence, and had little interest in pitching any more for the Grays. But National League President A.G. Mills begged Providence to stay afloat, and the Grays decided to go forward, as manager Bancroft coaxed, or perhaps bribed, the moody Radbourn to rise above his bitterness and return.2 The reinstated Radbourn won his 25th game on July 23, and his 26th on July 26, and Providence was back, breathing down Boston’s neck.

On Monday the 28th, at Philadelphia’s Recreation Park, located along Ridge and Columbia (now Cecil B. Moore) avenues, Radbourn got a well-deserved break from pitching. Cyclone Miller, whom the Grays had stolen from the outlaw Union Association, got the start, and “showed up strong,” surrendering only one hit in the first four innings. But in the fifth Miller lost his edge, as he tended to do in later innings. The mediocre Phillies bunched three singles, along with a base on balls, and by the time the carnage was over, Providence trailed 4–3.3

After Providence stormed back with four runs in the sixth to go ahead 7–4, manager Bancroft decided to play it safe by ordering the erratic Miller to trade places with Radbourn, who to that point had been stationed out in right field. Radbourn proved untouchable for the next four innings, allowing no hits as the Grays coasted to an 11–4 win, taking over first place in the National League.4 The Grays would go on to win the pennant easily with Radbourn pitching almost every game.

The July 28 game was hardly a great one, and no one would pay the slightest attention to it all these years later, if not for one thing: It set off a fiery debate among baseball aficionados about whether Radbourn really won 60 games during his immortal 1884 season, or only 59. We have the late Frederick Ivor-Campbell, a brilliant baseball scholar and Radbourn expert, to thank for the controversy.

The editors who compiled the epochal first edition of Macmillan’s Baseball Encyclopedia (1969) knew that creating a standardized and official collection of baseball numbers would be a difficult task because rules for statistics had changed dramatically over the years. The concept of pitching wins, for instance, did not even exist during Radbourn’s immortal season of 1884; fans just looked at the records of the teams themselves, forming a general impression of which pitcher was doing the best work. To draw early baseball into the grand sweep of the record book, a Special Baseball Records Committee had to be created. “Most of the important issues concerned the period before 1920, a time that was somewhat chaotic in baseball for record-keeping procedures,” the Encyclopedia editors noted, in a grand understatement.5 The committee resolved to count pitching wins and losses prior to 1920 by using the 1950 rule, which had established inflexible guidelines for defining wins and losses, sparing scorers the judgment calls they had been making.6

Using the 1950 rule, the Encyclopedia gave Radbourn the grand total of 60 wins, the all-time record for a single season, and one of baseball’s golden numbers. Since Radbourn finished all 73 of the games he started that year, most wins and losses are beyond dispute. But Ivor-Campbell, delving into the July 28 game, discovered that the Encyclopedia had erred in assigning Radbourn a victory that day, meaning he should have been given only 59 wins.7 According to the 1950 rule, if a starter pitches five full innings (as Miller did), and if a reliever comes in with his team ahead and preserves the victory, the starter gets the win, not the reliever.8 It did not matter that Radbourn pitched nearly half the game — and pitched markedly better than Miller.

Though the Encyclopedia kept claiming Old Hoss had won 60, other sources, such as Total Baseball (1989), came to accept the less exalted 59 as the official total. In 2019, SABR researcher Frank Williams dug into the case again and determined that, by the standards of the day, Radbourn should be credited with 60 wins, since he was the most effective pitcher in that July 28 game. Baseball-Reference.com now lists Radbourn with 60 wins as a result. But, as Ivor-Campbell well knew, some of this was like the efforts of medieval clerics to estimate how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. Any number is inclined to be a modern extrapolation and interpretation, since the statistic of pitching wins simply did not exist in Radbourn’s day.

Whichever win total we use, it is undeniable that Radbourn’s performance in 1884 was one of the greatest, grittiest performances in baseball’s long history — something recognized in his time and well over a century later.

An earlier version of this article was published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.

Notes

1 Radbourn blew up in the July 16 game against Boston. See Providence Journal, July 17, 1884. Dressing-room detail from Providence Evening Telegram, July 17, 1884.

2 Recounted in my book Fifty-nine in ’84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), p. 204-7.

3 Sporting Life, Aug. 6, 1884.

4 Ibid.

5 The Baseball Encyclopedia (Toronto: Maxwell Macmillan Canada, 1969), p. 2,327.

6 Ibid, p. 2328, decision No. 12.

7 Ivor-Campbell describes his discovery in an April 20, 1991, article, “How Many Wins for Radbourne in 1884 – 59, 60 or 61?” which he provided to me in manuscript form.

8 The Baseball Encyclopedia, Appendix C, p. 2,335.

Remarkably, from the standpoint of baseball’s role in American culture, the breaking of Keefe’s streak represented just the second-biggest development involving the Giants and White Stockings that day.

Keefe began his streak by defeating Philadelphia. Two days earlier, John Clarkson of the Boston Beaneaters had beaten the Giants ace, 4–2, in Boston. The defeat dropped Keefe’s record for the season to 8-6, and the fourth-place team’s record to 25–21.

But over the next two months both the pitcher and team got hot. The Giants won 32 of 39 games between then and August 10, seized first place at the end of July, and opened up a 7½-game advantage by August 10. During his stretch of 19 straight wins, Keefe allowed just 50 runs; the Giants scored 111.

Before breaking the record, Keefe tied it on August 8, with a 4–1 victory over Indianapolis. Curiously, both his achievement in tying the record, then breaking it by defeating Pittsburgh, 2–1, on the 10th went unreported.1 It wasn’t as if the old record was buried decades in the past; the National League was in only its 13th season of play. The previous record had been achieved only four seasons before, when “Old Hoss” Radbourn of the 1884 Providence Grays went undefeated from August 7 through September 6 on his way to the still unequaled record of 59 wins in a season.2 Nor was Radbourn unknown to New Yorkers or their baseball press. He had defeated their own Metropolitans of the American Association, three straight games, during baseball’s first “World Series” in the fall of 1884, and was pitching for Boston at the time of Keefe’s feat.

For New York’s baseball cranks, the important story of the August 14 game was that the first-place Giants led Chicago, their archrival, by 6½ games as play began. The fact that Keefe had not lost in his last 19 decisions only added to the pre-game interest, with more than 10,000 New Yorkers making their way to the Polo Grounds.

The crowd on hand to watch Keefe try for 20 straight included some of the city’s rich and famous. Among them were the cast of McCaull’s Light Opera Company, including Colonel McCaull and such headliners as DeWolf Hopper, Mathilde Cottrelly, and Marion Manola. The next morning the New York Times reported that about 80 members of the opera company “came up to the game in large horse drawn tally-ho coaches, and kept cheering the New-Yorks from start to finish”3 despite the Chicago victory.

Keefe’s defeat did not dent his reputation. “In justice to Keefe … it is only fair to state that the defeat was not due to any poor work on his part,” the Times correspondent wrote. “He pitched the ball with his accustomed skill, but the contest was lost by poor work in the field.”4 Keefe allowed only two earned runs as did Chicago’s pitcher, August “Gus” Krock.

Keefe’s 19-game winning streak was equaled in 1912 by another Giant, Rube Marquard, who ironically also lost to Chicago in his bid for 20 straight. In the 1930s a third Giant, Carl Hubbell, won 24 straight games, but that string extended over two seasons, the final 16 of 1936 and the first eight of 1937.

After Keefe’s defeat the Times correspondent interviewed the McCaull’s Light Opera Company cast, reporting that they were distraught. “DeWolf Hopper was exasperated. … Miss Cottrelly thought it was too real mean, and Miss Manola regarded it as the height of impoliteness on the part of Cap Anson and his men to take the game from the Giants,” the correspondent recounted.5 Despite the defeat, the Light Opera Company honored an invitation it had extended the day before to host both teams to their performance of Prince Methusalem that evening at Wallack’s Theater, at Broadway and 30th Street.6 Besides, their Giants were still in first place by a respectable margin, and would remain there until the end of the season.

In formal attire, the members of both teams arrived at Wallack’s Theatre to the cheers of those outside and inside. But the evening’s highlight was still yet to come. During the intermission of Prince Methusalem Hopper strode to the center of the stage. After much applause for his performance up to that point, he began a recitation of a poem that had never been heard publicly before. The audience was in a state of rapture. When Hopper finished, the place went wild with cheering.7 Tim Keefe’s incredible streak of 19 straight victories ended on the afternoon of August 14, 1888, but DeWolf Hopper’s streak—reciting “Casey at The Bat” well into the next century (10,000-15,000 times by his estimate)—had just begun.

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.

Notes

For the Saturday afternoon contest, Anson picked right-hander Addison Gumbert to start for Chicago, while Cleveland player-manager Patsy Tebeau put 25-year-old right-hander Lee Viau on the mound.2

The first inning was scoreless. Each team collected one hit and, notably, Chicago left fielder Walter Wilmot, a 27-year-old Wisconsin native who led the NL in triples in 1889 with 19 and tied for the league lead in home runs in 1890 with 13,3 drew a walk against Viau.

The Colts took the lead in the top of the second. Gumbert walked and catcher Bill Merritt, hitting ninth in the order, singled to center. Center fielder Jimmy Ryan – who had hit for the cycle when the Spiders visited Chicago in July – lined a triple to right to drive in two runs. Then Wilmot walked again; when Viau’s throw to pick him off first went astray, Ryan hustled home from third for Chicago’s third run.

The Spiders struck back in their half of the third. Viau was hit in the ribs by a pitch, causing an injury that eventually forced him from the game. Second baseman Cupid Childs doubled to center to drive in Viau and shortstop Ed McKean followed with another double to score Childs. A passed ball allowed McKean to move to third and a single by Tebeau momentarily tied the game, 3-3.

In the fourth, the Colts went ahead to stay. Ryan hit another triple. Wilmot walked for the third time and then stole second.4  Rookie third baseman Bill Dahlen’s single scored Ryan and Wilmot and gave the Colts a 5-3 lead. They added another run after Dahlen took second on the throw to the plate, went to third on a wild pitch, and scored on Anson’s fly out.

Viau left the game after the fourth inning and was relieved by 24-year-old Cy Young. Though in just his first full season in the majors, Young had earned a reputation in the press for his unorthodox delivery, earning such labels as “the rolling mill man,”5 with “eccentric motions.”6 Still, he had already made 1891 his first of what would be 19 consecutive seasons with double-digit wins.

Chicago picked up a run off Young in the fifth as second baseman Fritz Pfeffer garnered another walk off Cleveland pitching, stole second, and was driven home by Gumbert’s single, making it 7-3.

As the game progressed, Wilmot continued to draw walks, but newspaper accounts are not clear about when they happened. He likely came to the plate in the fifth inning and received his fourth walk. Walk number five came in either the sixth or eighth inning, and the sixth walk came in either the eighth or ninth inning.

In any event, the final three walks came off Young, and one led off the eighth.7

Dahlen followed by reaching first on an error by third baseman Tebeau, and Wilmot’s heads-up running landed him on third.

Wilmot scored and Dahlen went to third on another Spiders error. Anson, as he had in the fourth, brought home Dahlen with a fly ball. Chicago made it a 10-run day when right fielder Cliff Carroll was walked by Young, took off on a steal of second, and continued home when Young threw the ball into center field.

Perhaps fittingly, given the Spiders’ sloppy play, Chicago’s three runs in the eighth came without a hit, as the Colts turned two walks, three Cleveland errors, and a sacrifice into three runs. Of the total 14 runs scored in the game, box scores credited only four as being earned, two by each team. Cleveland’s rough day in the field was shown by the team’s nine errors, including three by second baseman Childs.

But the most noteworthy number of the day was six: the number of walks the Colts’ Wilmot received. Sporting Life reported, “The feature of the game was Ryan’s fielding and batting. … Wilmot went to base on balls six times – a most remarkable occurrence.”8 As of 2025, Wilmot’s six-walk feat has been matched only one once in a nine-inning game, by Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx for the Boston Red Sox in 1938.9

The Chicago Tribune was effusive in its praise of Wilmot, commenting, “Walter Wilmot is the proud possessor of quite a collection of baseball trophies in the shape of long, ugly-looking scars on his figure from not too gentle contact with mother earth, old bats full of memories and base hits, old shoes, old spikes, and a baseball record. … It is not often that one attains distinction by doing nothing … but Walter secured his record by no greater exertion than statuesque posing at the plate.”10

In the prose of the day, the Tribune added, “[T]he familiar old malady bearing the homely name of rheumatism is now in undisturbed possession of Walter’s left shoulder, and there are more pleasant things to contemplate than swinging a forty ounce club at a flying ball with rheumatic pains playing hide and seek in one’s joints.”11

The Chicago Inter Ocean also took note of Wilmot’s accomplishment, in colorful language: “But the feat of all was that of Wilmot, who stood at the plate like a clothing store dummy, and skipped to first on balls no fewer than six times. It is the record of the year.”12 Wilmot added to his laurels with two runs scored in the contest though he had no official at-bats. For the season, Wilmot had 55 bases on balls.

The Chicago press was full of praise for Anson and his young Colts. Anson himself was not reserved about voicing his optimism for the team. Despite having just a three-game lead over the Boston Beaneaters entering the final week of August, Anson proclaimed, “We get that pennant if we have to use an ax … and it won’t be an ax-cident either.”13

Chicago was perhaps too optimistic, and while the Colts did finish strong, going 20-14 the rest of the season, Boston won 30 of its final 41 games to take the pennant by 3½ games. The Beaneaters of 1891 were led by such notables as Harry Stovey, Herman Long, Bobby Lowe, John Clarkson, and Kid Nichols, along with manager Frank Selee.14

Wilmot played in nearly 1,000 games in his 10-season major-league career with the NL’s Colts, Washington Nationals, and New York Giants. He finished with exactly 1,100 hits and 350 walks.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Mike Huber and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Walt Wilmot, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information.

The author also used John Thorn, Phil Birnbaum, and Bill Deane, eds., Total Baseball, 8th Edition (Toronto: SPORT Media Publishing, 2004).

Notes

1 Chicago’s National League team was known as the Colts for the group of young players signed by Anson in 1891. Colts continued as the accepted nickname throughout Anson’s tenure in Chicago. After the 1897 season, Anson was fired from the team after 19 years at the helm. The team became known as the Orphans in 1898. Orphans continued as the accepted nickname through 1901. Ed Coen, Baseball Research Journal, Vol 48. No. 2 (2019), https://sabr.org/journal/article/setting-the-record-straight-on-major-league-team-nicknames/.

2 Tebeau took over as player-manager of the Spiders in July when previous manager Bob Leadley resigned. Leadley reportedly resigned on July 11 “and left for his home in Detroit on the afternoon train.” “Two of a Kind – Another Great Game Played at League Park by Cleveland and Brooklyn,” Cleveland Leader, July 12, 1891: 6.

3 Mike Tiernan of the New York Giants and Oyster Burns of the Brooklyn Bridegrooms also hit 13 home runs in 1890.

4 “Same Old Story, Clevelands Play Like Wooden Men Against the Team of Adrian C. Anson,” Cleveland Leader, August 23, 1891: 3.

5 “Seven Games in a Row,” Chicago Inter-Ocean, August 23, 1891: 3.

6 Cleveland Leader.

7 Game accounts do not make clear when Wilmot came to the plate. Leading off the eighth could have been the fifth or sixth walk. As Chicago scored three times in the eighth, it’s also possible he could have been due at the plate in the ninth and received his sixth walk then.

8 Sporting Life, August 29, 1891: 3.

9 As of 2025, three players have received six walks in extra-inning games since 1901: Andre Thornton of the Cleveland Indians in a 16-inning game on May 2, 1984; Jeff Bagwell of the Houston Astros in a 16-inning game on August 20, 1999; and Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals in a 13-inning game on May 8, 2016.

10 “Anson Is Still Winning,” Chicago Tribune, August 23, 1891: 5.

11 Chicago Tribune, August 23, 1891: 3.

12 “Seven Games in a Row,” Chicago Inter Ocean.

13 “Seven Games in a Row.”

14 The Spiders finished fifth in the NL, 22½ games behind Boston.