Wanted: One First Class Shortstop
This article was written by Robert H. Schaefer
This article was published in 2002 Baseball Research Journal
The fall of 1878 found Harry Wright in a tight spot. The tale of how Harry’s troubles came about is a long one, finding its roots way back in 1868. Wright had been managing and captaining the leading nines of professional baseball since that year. The next season the precedent-breaking all-professional Cincinnati Red Stockings established a new record for winning ball games. A major reason for Captain Harry’s success was his younger brother, George, arguably the leading player of the 1860s and early 1870s. George Wright resigned from a strong club in Washington, D.C., to join Harry in Cincinnati in 1868 and was financially very well rewarded for it. When the Cincinnati nine disbanded at the end of the 1870 season, Harry was given carte blanche to organize a professional club in Boston. The first player Harry enrolled for this new nine was brother George. In recognition of his ball-playing genius, George was again the highest-paid member of the nine.
In a major coup, Harry signed the best three players of the famous Rockford Forest City club: outfielder Fred Cone, infielder Ross Barnes, and pitcher Al Spalding. Barnes was definitely the leading shortstop of the West. But when Barnes agreed to join the Wrights in Boston, he also agreed to move to second base in deference to George. For the next five years (1871-1875) Wright and Barnes formed the national pastime’s most famous double play combination. While with Boston, Barnes led the association’s sec ond basemen in fielding three times, won two batting championships, and posted three .400+ batting averages. By 1875 his brilliance had eclipsed that of George Wright.
The Boston Red Stockings proved to be as mighty a juggernaut as was the original Red Stockings of Cincinnati. They dominated the National Association, the first organization of professional baseball teams, and captured four consecutive pennants. However, Harry’s Boston empire crumbled when, in blatant violation of all existing rules, Chicago team president William Hulbert lured the Boston’s so-called “Big Four” to the Windy City for the 1876 season.
Hulbert, through the personal intervention and influence of Al Spalding, persuaded Ross Barnes, Cal McVey, and Jim White to sign contracts with Chicago for the 1876 season. Spalding also defected to Chicago. In those days of unrestrained free agency, the National Association rules strictly prohibited one club from engaging players from a second club while they were still under contract to that club. The contracts of the Red Sox players didn’t expire until November 1, and the Chicago signing took place on July 4, an unconscionable rule violation by Hulbert. The theft of the “Big Four” emasculated the Bostons and ended their National Association Championship Whip Pennant monopoly.
In fact, this breach was so egregious, Hulbert concluded that he’d be expelled from the National Association. In a preemptive strike, he established his own organization, the National League, leaving the old Association a hollow shell. The Association never was officially declared defunct — it simply ceased to exist. Hard-hitting Adrian “Babe” Anson joined the Chicago nine from the Philadelphia A’s, making Chicago the odds-on favorite to capture the initial league pennant.
As evidenced by voluminous correspondence between Wright and Hulbert in the years following 1875, Wright harbored no detectable animosity toward Hulbert. Captain Harry must have been a practical man and reckoned there was no point in holding a grudge. Besides, there simply was no way he could even the score against Hulbert. Although Wright was a brainy baseball man, he didn’t wield the raw power that Hulbert had at his disposal. In an age of unabashed “boosterism” Hulbert declared, “I’d rather be a lamp post in Chicago than a millionaire in any other city.” He had the best of all possible worlds, for he became a millionaire in Chicago.
Chicago did win the League pennant in 1876, and Ross Barnes won its very first batting title with his fourth .400+ season. However, the Chicago nine didn’t fare well in 1877, and tumbled to fifth place in a six team league. There were two reasons for their collapse. First of all, the best hitter in all of professional baseball, the one and only Barnes, was rendered totally ineffective by a crippling illness. In addition to missing 66% of the games played, he plummeted from being the terror of the league to the ranks of very ordinary hitters.
Barnes contracted the ague, a Victorian-era name for malaria, over the winter of 1876-1877. He was still suffering from its lingering effects when the season opened the first week of May. Barnes was unable to perform adequately on the diamond, and in mid May the Chicago Club furloughed him without pay. Barnes went home to Rockford, Illinois, about 90 miles northwest of Chicago, to rest and recuperate. On Thursday, May 31, the Rockford Weekly Gazette reported: “Ross C. Barnes, the famous base ballist, is to visit his relatives in this city.”
He rejoined the Chicago nine in late August and appeared in a total of only 22 games the entire season. Barnes’s batting average fell to a mere .272-a stupendous drop from his lusty .429 the season before.
At the end of the 1877 season Barnes sued the Chicago club for the wages they withheld while he was recovering at home. The court found in favor of the Chicago club, as Barnes admittedly failed to deliver the services specified in his contract. This legal action rendered Barnes persona non grata in Chicago. The club did not engage him for the 1878 season, and Barnes had to scramble to find a new job coming off a horrible season.
Coincident to Barnes’s fall from his place of preeminence, 1877 was the first year that the modern rule governing foul balls was placed in effect. Harry Wright personally authored this rule with the deliberate intent of legislating the vexing fair-foul hit out of existence. As Barnes was the acknowledged master of the fair-foul, now banned by the new rule, several modern historians have concluded that there was a cause-and-effect relationship between the elimination of the fair-foul hit and Barnes’s poor performance that year. This conclusion conveniently ignores the fact that Barnes suffered a debilitating illness from which he never fully recovered. He was permanently handicapped by the lingering effects of the disease, and his star never again sparkled with its former luster.
Barnes signed with the Ontario Tecumseh of the International League for the 1878 season. His contract required him to play second base and captain the nine. Some observers of that day considered the International League to be the equal of the National League. However, the National League refused to grant parity to any other organization of professional baseball teams. They adamantly and blindly pursued this policy until brought to their knees by Ban Johnson in 1901-1903. Barnes hit an anemic .235 that year, but reached his career high in fielding, .922.
The second reason for Chicago’s fall in 1877 is that Al Spalding, who had compiled a glittering pitching record of 251-65 (a winning percentage of .794) over the years 1871-1876 made a surprising adjustment to the Chicago nine. During the winter of 1876-1877, Spalding, in his dual role of team captain and manager, persuaded St. Louis’s leading pitcher, George Washington Bradley, (45-19, 1.23 ERA in 1876) to abandon the Mound City in favor of the Windy City. This move allowed Spalding to retire from the pitcher’s box and play first base. On the face of it, coming off a season where he posted 47 victories, Spalding’s decision is unfathomable.
Apparently, Spalding sensed that his days as a pitcher were over. In 1877, he appeared in just four games as a pitcher, with only one start, and hurled a total of 11 innings. His record was one win and no losses. It was also his last year as an active player, as he turned his considerable talents to developing his expanding sporting goods business.
As Chicago’s fortune declined, Harry Wright’s Boston nine regained the supremacy they had previously enjoyed and won the league pennant in 1877 and 1878, Then fate once more dealt Captain Harry an unkind blow, and put him in the tight spot mentioned earlier. The city of Providence had organized a league entry for the 1878 season and finished in third place. The nine was captained by center fielder Tom York. The team Directors convinced George Wright that he was just the man to captain the nine in 1879. George was always an outstanding player. He is credited with revolutionizing the position of shortstop, and was a heavy hitter as well. But George, rightly or wrongly, was always in Harry’s shadow in terms of being a leader. A measure of the esteem accorded Harry is that in his own time he was given the accolade of “The Father of Base Ball,” a title he modestly spurned. Perhaps the opportunity in Providence was one George had always sought but, as long as he was associated with Harry, could never attain. George agreed to the terms offered by Providence, and suddenly Harry’s championship nine needed a first-class shortstop. George departed both Boston and Harry, ending 11 consecutive years of playing under his brother’s management. This left Harry in a bind, because then as now, first-class shortstops that can hit are not found hanging around on every street corner desperately seeking employment. Harry’s thoughts turned to his old second baseman, Ross Barnes.
Barnes was staying at the Tecumseh Hotel on September 26, in London, Ontario, when Wright’s letter arrived inviting him to rejoin the Boston nine. He thought over the letter, and carefully crafted a response to his old friend. The first thing he advised Wright was that he had made arrangements to follow a “legitimate” business over the winter. Whether or not Barnes would return to the diamond depended upon his success in his new field. He made it clear that baseball was a second priority to him.
Barnes next asked Wright how much money he was willing to pay for a good shortstop, emphasizing that money was Barnes’s sole objective. Barnes requested that Wright name his highest figure in his next letter. But acceptance of any offer was contingent upon the outcome of Barnes’s venture into the business world, and he specified that he would accept Wright’s offer only in the event of his failure in business. How much of this position was to increase his bargaining power and extract more money from Wright is moot. Finally, Barnes asked Wright to delay filling the shortstop position until the outcome of his business enterprise became clear.
In the meantime, shortstop par excellence Davey Force heard that Harry Wright needed to fill George’s shoes at shortstop for 1879 and volunteered for the job. Force had never been a member of one of Wright’s nines, although they had been adversaries on the diamond for many years. Force’s letter to Wright is dated October 6, 1878, and was written on the letterhead of the Haynes Hotel in Springfield, Massachusetts. Force played for the International League Buffalo club, and told Wright, confidentially, that he no longer wanted to play alongside McCasey. He offered his services to Wright despite the fact, as he candidly stated, he had already signed with Buffalo. Force’s jumping a contract was not without precedent. In 1875, he reneged on his contract with Chicago in favor of a more lucrative one with Philadelphia. When the National Association board of directors failed to enforce Hulbert’s contract with Force, Hulbert vowed vengeance. Some baseball historians believe that this incident motivated Hulbert to form the National League and sabotage the Association.
Force was considered one of the leading infielders of his time, equally at home at shortstop, third base, and second base. In the days of bare-handed fielders, Force was famous for his glove. Prior to 1877 he used the fair-foul hit on a regular basis. Although Force didn’t gain fame and notoriety equal to Ross Barnes as a fair-foul hitter, his batting average was severely affected after that type of hit was banned. The horizontal curve came to the fore in the same years that Force’s average declined, and that apparently also contributed to the reduction in Force’s hitting. More to the point, Force never was the outstanding, dominating hitter that Barnes was in his prime.
Now, completely on his own initiative, Force wrote to Wright asking to be considered for Boston’s shortstop job in 1879. Sadly, there is no record of Harry Wright’s response. It is easy to speculate that Wright refused to be party to an illegal contract and the ugly scandal that would ensue if he accepted Force’s offer. The fact is that Force remained with the Buffalo nine for 1879,
To fill the void George’s departure had created, Harry juggled his players around. For 1879 he moved his 29-year-old third baseman, Ezra Sutton, to the vacant shortstop position, moved first baseman John Morrill to third, and used four different players to cover first. Sutton hit .248 (the overall league batting average for 1878 was .259) and fielded for an average of .864, playing 51 games at short and 33 at third base. Harry’s Boston nine finished second in 1879.
Ross Barnes evidently got the kind of salary offer he was looking for from his old teammate Cal McVey. McVey was the Cincinnati captain in 1879, and he organized his nine with the 29-year-old Barnes at shortstop. Barnes hit .266 as the Cincinnati club finished sixth. Barnes’s fielding average was a shabby .849, with 61 games at short and 16 at second base. McVey did not complete the 1879 season as the Cincinnati captain.
The 30-year-old Davey Force remained with Buffalo for the 1879 season. Against Force’s strong advice, the club transferred from the International League to the National League. They finished a dismal seventh in the eight-team league. Force hit .209 and fielded .929, living up to his reputation of good glove, no stick. He played all but one of his 79 games at shortstop.
At the age of 32, George Wright played all of his 85 games as the Providence shortstop. He hit for a .276 average and posted a fielding average of .924.Oh, by the way, George led the Providence nine to the National League championship that year. It would be the final full-season championship either of the Wright brothers ever won.
Despite the myriad changes that have encompassed the world of baseball since 1879, one thing has remained constant: a first-class shortstop is very hard to find.
BOB SCHAEFER is retired from the aerospace industry. This is a chapter in his forthcoming book, Forgotten Fragments From Baseball’s Past History.
NOTES
1. Rhodes, Greg, & John Erardi. The First Boys of Summer. p. 133.
2. Ryczek, William. Blackguards and Red Stockings. p. 26.
3. Nemec, David. The Great Encyclopedia of 19th Century Major League Baseball. pages 17, 30, 32, 45, 46 & 59.
4. Spalding, Albert. America’s National Game. p. 203.
5. Harry Wright Correspondence, Volumes 1, 3 & 4 (1870-1878).
6. Pietrusza, David. Major Leagues. p. 23.
7. The Chicago Tribune, September 9, 1877, quoted the Syracuse Courier following an exhibition game played between Chicago and Syracuse: “Barnes whose incapacity to play with his nine until within the past week has had more to do with the decline and fall of the Chicago champions this year than is generally supposed, appeared at second, but he presented a pitiful spectacle there. It was an exhibition of fallen greatness. A long and tedious siege against disease has reduced the man, whose every swing of the bat was once worth at least a base, to almost a skeleton. He plays without vim and seems to do what little he does out of sheer compulsion. Ball-tossing and willow wielding are lost arts to Ross Barnes.”
8. Chicago Tribune, April 8, 1877: “Barnes has been for some days ailing and under command of a physician, who has ordered him not to practice at present.”
9. Chicago Tribune, May 19, 1877: “The wisest thing the Chicago Club of 1877 has done since its assembling was yesterday, when they laid off and furloughed their ablest player-the one who has won more victories than any other man in the Champion team, and whose record for batting and run getting for the past four years has been better than any other in the business. It has been evident ever since the team assembled that ‘Ross; as he is everywhere known, was not in condition, and his painful efforts to play when he could not play have tended not a little to the defeats which the team has sustained. … Yesterday it became evident to the management that to play Barnes was to throw away chances, and he accordingly was allowed to go home to Rockford until he is once more himself, and when himself he is the best man who ever stepped in the ball field.”
10. New York Mercury, November 16, 1878: “The suit of Ross Barnes against the Chicago Club for salary claimed to be due him on his contract for the season of 1877 was argued before Judge Loomis of the County Court, Chicago, on November 9. The judge reserved his decision until the 18th. It will be remembered that Barnes was engaged by the club for 1877 at a salary of $2,500, but in May when the season began, he was compelled by illness to quit playing for three months. When he returned he claimed $1,000 salary due him for the time he was absent, which claim the directors refused to allow. He then brought suit for the amount and the evidence in the case was submitted to judge Loomis, as stated above. The case is a new one i11 the experience of ball clubs and the outcome will be looked forward to with interest by professionals generally.”
11. New York Mercury, April 12, 1879: “In the Chicago Appellate Court, Apr. 2, Judge Bailey announced the decision of the court affirming the judgment in the case of Barnes against the Chicago Baseball Club.”
12. New York Clipper, October 30, 1876: “Harry Wright’s latest effort to improve the game was an experiment which was tried in the match between the Bostons and Hartfords, at Boston, on Oct. 28, on which occasion was put into practical effect a rule the object of which is to do away with the class of hit known as fair-fouls.”
13. Harry Wright Correspondence, Volumes 1, 3 & 4 (1870-1878).
14. Harry Wright Correspondence, Volumes 1, 3 & 4 (1870-1878).
15. New York Clipper, December 12, 1874.