Farrell: Bat Masterson and Pud Galvin, the gunslinger and the ballplayer

From SABR member Steven G. Farrell at Frontier Tales on March 1, 2017:

San Francisco’s Parker House was the best place in the Bay area to go to if you wanted a quality casino outfitted with a swanky barroom. Monte, faro, poker, blackjack, roulette wheels, pretty dancehall girls and honest dealers all rolled into one beautiful paradise to lose your hard-earned bankroll in. The Parker House was also the place where all of the big smokes and celebrities went to be seen and to see other big smokes and celebrities. So it wasn’t at all strange for William Barclay Masterson, the famous gambler and notorious lawman, to rub elbows at the long bar imported from England with James Galvin, star baseball pitcher formerly of the Buffalo Bisons and now a reluctant member of the San Francisco Athletics. The two were formally introduced to one another by Muldoon, the gang leader of the notorious “Hoodlums.” Galvin was being escorted around the Barbary Coast by James J. Corbett, the heavyweight boxer, who was pestering John L. Sullivan for a title fight; and Bat was visiting from Dodge City with his fellow deputy marshal Wyatt Earp. Everybody in town knew of Muldoon, the bad man, especially the police force and his arch-enemies the “Hounds.”

“A bottle of whiskey, waiter!” Muldoon shouted at a passing waiter as the small group of five men found an empty and clean table a fair piece away from the clutter at the bar.

“Make it Irish whiskey,” suggested Galvin.

“And bring us a deck of cards,” put in Corbett.

“Make it an unopened deck of cards,” added Bat.

“So here we all sit: the baseball player, the boxer, the gunslingers and myself,” said Muldoon, pouring out neat shots.

Read the full story here: http://www.frontiertales.com/2017/03Mar/bat_masterson.php



Originally published: March 15, 2017. Last Updated: March 15, 2017.