Boston Red Stockings: The 1871 Season

Boston can now boast of possessing a first-class professional Base Ball Club,” declared the Boston Journal, “as all the efforts tending to establish an institution of this kind here culminated yesterday.”1 Professional baseball in Boston began on January 20, 1871, through the efforts of Ivers W. Adams, who had been working toward this achievement for at least a year. While baseball in Boston dated to 1854 with amateur games played on Boston Common,2 several factors kept the city as the only major urban area in the Northeast without a serious baseball team. For one, it took time for the New England Game version of baseball (which included a smaller diamond and consequent shorter distance from home plate to the pitcher’s mound, more players on the field, and outs being recorded by “soaking,” or plunking a runner with the ball) to give way to the more prevalent New York Game.3 Another factor was the lack of an adequate playing field, which was solved when the Union Grounds (later called the South End Grounds) were built in 1869 in Boston’s South End. But besides these, people with big pockets were needed to fund a professional team, and Adams was the one with connections to do so.

Adams was in attendance when the Cincinnati Red Stockings visited the Boston area in 1869-1870, and he began dreaming of a professional baseball club in Boston. He began having correspondence with George and Harry Wright. George Wright came to Boston to meet with Adams in November of 1870, once the Cincinnati team was officially disbanded. Now the door was open for Adams’s dream to come true.

Harry Wright had the influence to assemble a new team. Three players came with him from Cincinnati: his brother George, Charlie Gould, and Cal McVey. Harry Wright then brought Dave Birdsall from the Union Club of Morrisania, Harry Schafer from the Philadelphia Athletics, and Al Spalding, Ross Barnes, and Fred Cone from the Rockford, Illinois, team.

The Massachusetts Legislature incorporated the team with $15,000 capital, made possible by several prominent businessmen.4 Adams met these fellow Boston-area entrepreneurs at Boston’s Parker House, and in his remarks to them emphasized that these Wright brothers “were the only two men possessing the knowledge and the ability to manage and discipline a nine … and [in] whose honesty and integrity I could place implicit confidence.”5 Two hundred memberships in the club were sold, granting the purchasers free admission to games all season long as well as use of the clubhouse.6

The next step involved joining a league of professional teams, which had been on the horizon as the worlds of amateur and professional baseball were coming to a parting of the ways. The 1870 fall meeting of the National Association of Base Ball Players had been “a fiery affair marked by hot words between the two camps, and it ended with the amateurs staging a walkout,” wrote David Voigt.7 It was clear that baseball would be expanding from the world of fun and recreation to fun, recreation, and big business. Possessing the vision of a new professional league but little time to properly organize and hammer out specifics, these new pioneers quickly created a new league on March 17, 1871.

As the rain pattered on the roof, delegates from 10 teams met at the Collier’s Rooms Saloon at Broadway and 13th Street in New York City. Eight delegates reached for their billfolds and submitted the $10 fee to join the new league. The charter teams were the already established franchises of the Philadelphia Athletics, New York Mutuals, Washington Olympics, Troy (New York) Haymakers, Chicago White Stockings, Rockford (Illinois) Forest City, Cleveland Forest City, and one newcomer: the Boston Red Stockings. Two delegates were stingy with their money, so the Brooklyn Eckfords and Washington Nationals did not join. A few days later, a ninth club, the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Kekiongas, paid the fee and joined. So that they didn’t have to reinvent the wheel, the founders adopted the same constitution and bylaws from the existing National Association, “as far as the same did not conflict with the interests of professional clubs,” the New York Clipper reported. “‘The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players’ thereby sprang into existence,” the Clipper declared.8 The word professional was simply inserted into the league name they were familiar with, moving from the NABBP to the NAPBBP. “The formation of the new professional league,” wrote William Ryczek, “was accompanied by little fanfare. Ten men on a rainy night in a New York City saloon had set the course for professional sports in America, an imperfect beginning to be sure, but a beginning.”9

Harry Wright was responsible for all the scheduling of the Boston team since the NAPBBP did not have a set schedule. It was generally agreed upon that teams would play one another five times before the season ended on November 1, with three of the first five being counted as “championship” games. “This was an extremely time-consuming process, often requiring extensive negotiation. Fully 90 percent of Wright’s correspondence from 1871 to 1875 consisted of inquiries or responses to inquiries about possible games,” wrote Warren Goldstein.10

While today a famous baseball phrase is “Who’s on first?” the NAPBBP season of 1871 could have made a skit called, “Who’s in first?” The NAPBBP never set clear guidelines on how the standings would be structured: Would teams be ranked according to number of games won or by the number of series won? Because of the lack of clarity, you could pick up a newspaper on a given day and see a different team in first place than in the newspaper in the next town, and often the same newspaper was inconsistent from day to day. These issues were left to be sorted out at the end of the season. “This led to an early brand of parity,” wrote Ryczek, “as virtually any team could claim possession of first place by choosing the method which best suited their circumstances.”11

On April 6, 1871, Boston played an exhibition game against a picked nine, winning 41-10. It was the first professional baseball game played in Boston.

On April 8 Boston played the Lowell, Massachusetts, club. The Boston Journal noted that Boston was “improving in their play wonderfully, so much so as to make it not improbable that they will at the very outset rank as the foremost club in the country.”12

Boston’s first regular-season game was played on May 5 against the Washington Olympics in Washington, D.C. Washington had five former Cincinnati Red Stockings players to Boston’s four, and the game generated national interest. If not for a rainout, this game would have been the first official game in the National Association and in professional baseball, and justifiably so. Instead, the Fort Wayne Kekiongas, who would disband before the season was over, hosted the first official game.

On Monday, May 8, Boston faced the Brooklyn Atlantics in an exhibition game at Brooklyn’s Capitoline Grounds, the same location where Cincinnati’s winning streak had come to a sudden end the previous June. Despite the raw, chilly cold, 2,000 spectators turned out even though “no one expected the Brooklyn Nine to win the game.” The Brooklyn pitcher was wild, and the Boston strikers weren’t able to “punish” him because “it was rare that they could get a ball from him within any far reach of the bat.” The umpire stayed true to the rules of calling balls early on, however, “if he had followed the rules very closely and called balls in the order of delivery, the Bostonians would still be on their first inning.” Boston won 25-0.13

On May 9 Boston won 9-5 at Troy, despite losing George Wright to a leg injury. Wright and Fred Cone collided on a fly ball when Cone couldn’t hear Wright call for the ball because of the blare of a train whistle.14 Significant also is the Journal’s mention that the Boston club was “now quite as well known by the name ‘Red Stockings’ as by their original title. …”15

Boston returned home May 16, and played Troy in the first home opener in Boston professional baseball. Both “nines made their appearance on the field, and were greeted with hearty cheers by the large crowd of spectators in attendance, numbering some 2500,” the Journal wrote.16 But sloppy play ruined the Red Stockings’ inauguration of the Boston grounds, and the Post commented, “(W)e could have wished it were played elsewhere.”17 Boston lost, 29-14. On May 20 the Red Stockings got back on track and defeated the Philadelphia Athletics 11-8 before a crowd of 3,000. The next game, on May 24 against the Olympics, ended in a 4-4 tie, “not satisfactory to a large amount of spectators.”18 Only about 500 spectators came out for the next two games, against Rockford, as the Boston temperature hit the rare 90s at the end of May. The Boston bats were hot as well; they won 25-11 on May 29 and 11-10 on May 30.

“The financial success of the venture was in doubt for some time, but local pride in the team grew stronger, with each successive game,” wrote George Tuohey, a 19th-century sports historian, “and many of the contests, especially those with the Athletics of Philadelphia, attracted thousands of people.”19

Then the Red Stockings endured their longest losing streak of the season, three straight, albeit over the course of two weeks from June 2 to June 17. George Wright returned on June 17, but the Red Stockings “rather disappointed their friends, as it was thought they would make a better show with the Mutuals,” wrote the Journal of the 9-3 loss.20 They broke out of their slump in a big way on June 21, defeating Fort Wayne 21-0 on a shutout by Spalding, “one of the most remarkable games of record,” the Boston Advertiser opined.21 A 20-8 loss at Philadelphia put the Red Stockings’ record at 6-6 at the end of June, and they would spend July and August on the road.

The Red Stockings would be nearly unstoppable from then on, however, going 14-4 to finish the season and outscoring their opponents 249-159. The streak began as America celebrated its 95th year of independence. The “two branches of the old Red Stockings—the Boston club and the Olympic club of Washington,” met before a crowd near 5,000 on July 4.22 Boston won 7-3. In three straight victories over Rockford, Fort Wayne, and Cleveland, the Red Stockings pounded out an amazing 63 hits and 63 runs. Boston lost 15-11 on August 22 at the New York Mutuals, ending the road trip. They were 12-9 and 4½ games behind Philadelphia.

Fort Wayne played its final game on August 29, hobbled by player defections. The Kekiongas were a co-op club whose players shared gate receipts. Star pitcher Bobby Mathews and infielder Tom Carey, “the two in whom the most confidence had been placed, willfully broke their plighted word and became in the eyes of our citizens dishonored Messrs,” leaving for greener pastures. “The course adopted by these young men is very reprehensible,” a hometown newspaper said.23 The Brooklyn Eckfords replaced the Kekiongas so as not to disrupt the schedules of contending teams, although the Eckfords themselves would not have an official record in the standings.

Back in Boston, the Red Stockings found home cooking a delight, winning six straight games. A 31-10 thrashing of Cleveland on September 2 saw Boston score 23 runs in the last two innings. The game was halted after eight innings; because Cleveland “had not a ghost of a chance for winning, they requested that the contest end there.”24 The Red Stockings defeated Philadelphia 17-14 on September 9, moved to within 2½ games of first-place Chicago, and were suddenly gaining ground in the standings. They trailed by only one game after a victory on September 27 that gave them a record of 18-9. The only loss in September was in Chicago, the last game played at Lake Front Park before it was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire. Boston lost 10-8 despite having two runners on in the ninth and Ross Barnes smashing two long foul balls with home-run distance.

After the tragic fire, Chicago played the remainder of its schedule on the road. Its players, who had lost everything in the fire, depended on donated uniforms from other teams and “not two of the nine were dressed alike, all their uniforms having been consumed in the fire. They presented a most extraordinary appearance from the parti-colored nature of their dress. All who could get white stockings did so, but they were not many. One man wore a Mutual shirt and Eckford hose; another an Atlantic shirt, Mutual pants, and Flyaway hose, and so on; each man being obliged to borrow a shirt from anyone who was willing to lend,” wrote the Chicago Tribune.25 Philadelphia defeated Chicago 4-1 on October 30 in Brooklyn before a scarce 500 fans. The Boston Herald reported that “it is generally believed that it sends the whip pennant to Philadelphia, though nothing is certain until several points are decided by the committee.”26

A fitting end to this thrown-together season was confusion about who actually won the pennant. The NAPBBP met in Philadelphia on November 3. James Kerns, president of the Philadelphia club, said “the rules governing the championship were faulty, and considerable doubt existed whether they were to be interpreted as meaning the most number of games won or series won,” reported the Clipper. “He suggested that the rules be changed so that each club would be obligated to play five games with every other contestant, and all games to count, the club winning the most and losing the least number of games be declared the champions.”27 Another issue was the number of exhibition games played, since teams saw the opportunity to draw crowds and played games which didn’t count in the standings. Sometimes patrons paying full price at the gate did not know the game was only an exhibition, “a circumstance not conducive to good public relations.”28 Sometimes the teams themselves didn’t agree on whether a completed game was official or not.

From that point forward, most wins were the governing factor, but in 1871 it was ruled that the team with the most series wins was the champion: Philadelphia, which had one more victory than Boston. The nine unfinished games of Fort Wayne were ruled as forfeited victories for their opponents. The league also decided that four victories by Rockford didn’t count and their victories went to their opponents (two of them to Philadelphia, because of an “illegal” player). Rockford had acquired Scott Hastings, a member of the New Orleans Lone Stars, who had played Rockford in an exhibition game before the season. Hastings liked Rockford so much that he decided to join the team. Other teams protested, citing the NAPBBP rule that a team could not “raid” players from another team during the season. The rule restricted a player from playing for a new club within 60 days of departure.

“The Boston Nine have just completed their first season, and it has been very successful,” wrote the Boston Traveler. “Though they did not secure the emblem of championship, they have shown themselves the real champions of 1871, having defeated the winners of the pennant three out of four legal games, and as they also, at the close of the season, show a better average than the Athletics, to whom a mere accident gave them the whip pennant.”29 Harry Wright sent an official letter on behalf of the NAPBBP on November 23 “declaring officially that the Athletics were the champions of the United States for 1872.”30 Unlike today, the championship year represented not the season in which the championship was one, but the following year in which the pennant flapped in the breeze to the pride of its fans.

At the December 7 meeting, the Boston Base Ball Association was incorporated. Adams was re-elected president of the club, but declined, so John A. Conkey was elected in his place. “If we have been instrumental in elevating the standard of our national pastime, to the accomplishment of which object we have turned our special attention, then we have cause for satisfaction,” Adams remarked “We look forward to the coming season with confidence.”31

With a year of experience under their belts, the new Red Stockings were now primed to dominate the NAPBBP, winning four straight pennants from 1872 to 1875. Their dominance actually led to the end of the league itself, and the more structured National League was formed in 1876.

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

 

Notes

1 “The Boston Base Ball Club. A Permanent Organization Effected. All the Players Engaged,” Boston Journal, January 21, 1871.

2 Harold Kaese, The Boston Braves, 1871-1953 (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1954), 4; John Thorn, “Early Baseball in Boston, Part 2,” https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/2012/07/07/early-baseball-in-boston-part-2/. Accessed July 6, 2015.

3 Christopher Devine, Harry Wright: The Father of Professional Baseball (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co, 2003), 79 [Google E-book Edition].

4 George V. Tuohey, A History of the Boston Base Ball Club … A Concise and Accurate History of Base Ball From Its Inception (Boston: M.F. Quinn & Co., 1897), 61. [Google Books version].

5 Tuohey, 61.

6 “The New Boston Club,” New York Clipper, January 28, 1871: 338.

7 David C. Voigt, American Baseball: From Gentleman’s Sport to the Commissioner System (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966), 35.

8 “Base Ball. The Professionals in Council. A National Association Organized,” New York Clipper, March 25, 1871: 402.

9 William J. Ryczek, Blackguards and Red Stockings: A History of Baseball’s National Association, 1871-1875 (Wallingford, Connecticut: Colebrook Press, 1992), 14.

10 Warren Goldstein. Playing for Keeps: A History of Early Baseball (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2009, 20th Anniversary Edition), 143. [Google E-Book Edition].

11 Ryczek, 55.

12 “Base Ball. The Boston-Lowell Match. The Former Victorious, Score, 40 to 1. Gossip,” Boston Journal, April 10, 1871.

13 “Base Ball,” Boston Journal, May 10, 1871: 4.

14 “Boston and Vicinity,” Boston Journal, May 11, 1871: 4.

15 “Boston and Vicinity,” Boston Journal, May 11, 1871: 4.

16 “Boston and Vicinity,” Boston Journal, May 11, 1871: 4. Actual attendance accounts in newspapers ranged from 2,500 to 8,000.

17 “Base Ball. Match Between the Boston Nine and the Haymakers, of Troy—the Boston Club Badly Beaten,” Boston Post, May 17, 1871: 3.

18 “Base Ball. The Boston-Olympic Match,” Boston Journal, May 25, 1871: 4.

19 Tuohey, 62.

20 “Base Ball: the Mutual-Red Stocking Match—Defeat of the Bostons by a score of 9 to 3,” Boston Journal, June 19, 1871: 1.

21 “Base Ball. The Visit of the Kekiongas—Their Defeat by the Boston Nine,” Boston Advertiser, June 22, 1871: 1.

22 “Base Ball. A Victory for the Boston Wing—Bostons Defeat the Olympics by 7 to 3,” Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, July 6, 1871: 5.

23 “Kekiongas,” Fort Wayne Sentinel, September 6, 1871: 4.

24 “Base Ball. Saturday’s Matches—Bad Defeat of the Clevelands by the Bostons,” Boston Journal, September 4, 1871: 4.

25 Chicago Tribune, November 3, 1871: 1.

26 “Base Ball,” Boston Herald, October 31, 1871: 2.

27 “Special Meeting of the Professional Association,” New York Clipper, November 11, 1871.

28 Ryczek, 57.

29 “Season Record of the Boston Nine,” Boston Traveler, November 16, 1871: 2.

30 “Base Ball,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 27, 1871: 2.

31 “The Boston Club—Annual Meeting—Election of Officers,” Boston Journal, December 8, 1871: 1.