After a cup of coffee with Detroit in 1881 – he struck out in half his plate appearances and mishandled three of his seven chances – Wise signed first with Cincinnati of the American Association and then with the Boston Nationals. Cincinnati sought, but failed, to obtain an injunction to prevent Wise from breaking his contract, in the first court case in the history of professional baseball.vi

Boston won the National League pennant in 1883 despite Wise’s making a league-leading and career-high 88 errors.vii In one stretch, he first fanned four times against future Hall of Famer Monte Ward and followed up with four errors the next day. With Boston clinging to a small lead and less than ten days to go in the season, Wise made a pair of errors in a one-run loss that caused a reporter to lament, “It is very seldom that the loss of a game can be directly attributed to the poor play of any one player, but yesterday not only the loss of the game but every run scored by Buffalo was a pure gift of Sam Wise.”viii

After Boston responded by pounding Buffalo 18-4 the next day, a reporter for the same paper, perhaps the one who had blamed Wise just one day before, stood up for the embattled shortstop:

The scandalous reports about Sam Wise … are utterly ridiculous. Every one knows that no player in the team is a harder worker and a more earnest fielder than he. Considering the chances he tries for and accepts, it is wonderful that his record is as good as it is. His errors do not arise from any cause but those of over-anxiety, over-confidence and eagerness to make plays. It must be recollected that he is a young player, this year being his second on the diamond as a league fielder…. The many encomiums that his fine play of yesterday received showed beyond a doubt how well his services are appreciated.ix

Wise slumped badly at the plate in 1884. He had a seven-game error streak during which he batted ninth. But Wise rewarded Boston with four strong years. In 1885, he led National League shortstops in chances per game. In one pair of games against Chicago, Wise went 8-for-10 with three doubles, three triples, seven runs scored, and 15 flawless chances.

Despite his superb range at short, Wise played many positions, suggesting that his glove did not completely compensate for his arm. He played predominantly at first base in 1886 because of an arm injury, and reached new highs in batting and slugging while doing so, suggesting that a lesser defensive role freed him to focus on his hitting.

Healed and back at shortstop,x Wise shattered these marks in 1887, his career year, when he finally seemed to put together the offensive and defensive parts of his game and reporters likened him to future Hall of Famers. “Sam Wise has played short stop this season equal to the best work ever done by George Wright; his left-hand stops have been something wonderful.”xi

A Boston Herald correspondent “sent in as his choice of the three best batsmen – Sam Wise, Cap Anson, and Dan Brouthers.” While Anson and Brouthers outhit Wise by more than 50 points over the course of his career, they barely outpaced him in 1887, when Wise went 6-for-6 in one game, and finished fourth in slugging and fifth in batting. In one 15-game stretch, he hit .507 and slugged .971. After the season ended, the Boston Globe presented Wise with a silver bat to honor him, rather than the much more famous King Kelly, as Boston’s best hitter.

After a tumultuous offseason that featured dissatisfaction with his contractxii and rumors of a trade of middle infielders with Chicago for Fred Pfeffer,xiii Wise had a more typical up-and-down season in 1888, his Boston swan song. One game typified his campaign and his career:

Samuel W. Wise, the prince of short stops, played an unenviable role in the exhibition at the South End grounds yesterday afternoon, and is responsible in a large measure for Boston’s defeat. Aside from a fatal and inexcusable muff of an easy fly in the eleventh inning, his playing was “bang-up” and several times elicited the heartfelt applause of the large concourse of spectators.xiv

Wise again led shortstops in chances per game and batted throughout the lineup. He tried batting right-handed in both the leadoff and cleanup positions, but struck out both times. Over one 21-game period, Wise scored only three runs while making 14 errors, at least three of which, including the one mentioned above, led directly to losses. During his last two weeks in Boston, he fanned three times on nine pitches against former teammate Charley Buffinton; Wise also smashed three triples and fielded 11 chances without mishap during a doubleheader. He could see that his Boston tenure would soon end: “Sam Wise feels all broken up. He loves to play, but the management can’t see where he would strengthen the team. Sam would like to get his release. He says he has played in one town about long enough.”xv

Wise got his release, which made front-page news.xvi In his remaining major-league seasons, Wise alternated weak years with strong ones. After a mediocre year in Washington in 1889,xvii he jumped to Buffalo in the Players League and drove in 102 runs. Connie Mack played with Wise in Buffalo. When Mack’s Athletics won the World Series in 1929, Wise’s widow wrote Mack, who replied in part, “What a great player Sam was. He could field and throw. I have never forgotten him as so many things came up while we were together at Buffalo that have always kept him in my mind.”xviii

After a middling season with Baltimore of the American Association in 1891, Wise went to the minors for a year before returning to Washington in 1893. Now 36, he made a surprising comeback. He again led the National League in chances per game and hit .311, setting or tying career highs in hits, doubles, and triples.

Whether for athletic or business reasons,xix Wise, despite his strong 1893 performance, spent the rest of his playing days in the minors, where he hit over .300 in five of six seasons.

Sam Wise died in Akron “from a prolonged attack of appendicitis. Wise was 52 years old at the time of his death.”xx

His name lives on the list of triples leaders for the Braves franchise. In 2012 Wise remained tied for eighth with 71 triples, four slots down from his former teammate John Morrill, who went with him from Boston to Washington in 1889.

Notes

At least that’s what millions of viewers around the country saw on NBC as a new television series debuted that night. This, of course, was the initial episode of Cheers, which was set in Boston and utilized the real Bull & Finch Pub for its exterior shots. Over the next 11 years, viewers tuned in to watch the hijinks of Sam Malone and his patrons. But while viewers across the country were watching a fictional Red Sox reliever, what were the actual Red Sox doing in 1982?

They were wrapping up yet another disappointing season. They were contenders early on but faded with the heat of the summer. They peaked on June 23, when they had a five-game lead in the American League East. They last held sole possession of first place in the division on July 30. Going .500 in July and August put them on the ropes, and a 13-15 September knocked them out of contention entirely. But a late-September visit from the Milwaukee Brewers gave the Red Sox one last chance to affect the division race.

The division had come down to the Brewers and Baltimore Orioles. The Red Sox were a distant third, 9½ games out of first. The Brewers had a four-game lead with five games left and a season-ending series with the Orioles ahead, starting with a doubleheader the next night. The Brewers had already put the Red Sox away in the first two games of the series. With their magic number at 2, they hoped to clinch the East that night. If the Brewers won and the Orioles lost in Detroit, that season-ending series would be a moot point for determining the division standings.1

On this cloudy, brisk New England fall night with 21,268 in attendance, the Red Sox sent ace Dennis Eckersley to the mound trying to avoid a sweep. Looking to wrap up the division and stamp their ticket to the American League Championship Series, Milwaukee turned to Jim Slaton. Slaton was a swingman who got the start because of the next day’s doubleheader in Baltimore.2 If the Brewers were going to put away their division rivals in head-to-head play, they would have to make sure that their best pitchers were rested.3

Eckersley started the game off by striking out Paul Molitor and retiring Robin Yount and Cecil Cooper on groundballs. The Red Sox were poised to strike in the bottom of the first after Carl Yastrzemski’s two-out single moved Jim Rice to third, but Slaton avoided damage by inducing a lineout by third baseman Carney Lansford.

Eckersley threw another one-two-three inning in the top of the second. In the bottom of the inning, the Red Sox once again tested Slaton. After setting down rookie Wade Boggs with a groundout, Slaton gave up a single to left to Rick Miller, who stole second with Glenn Hoffman batting. Hoffman grounded out to short for the second out; Gary Allenson walked to put runners on first and second with two outs.

But Jerry Remy was unable to capitalize, grounding to first for the final out of the inning. The game remained tied going into the third. The inability of the Red Sox to take advantage of these early opportunities concerned manager Ralph Houk, who told reporters, “I was getting worried. We hit seven line drives in two innings and couldn’t score. I thought the Brewers were destined to win.”4

Eckersley started the third by striking out Roy Howell. Charlie Moore  singled to left. Moore stole second, but Eckersley retired the next two batters; the Brewers had failed to capitalize.

Slaton began the bottom of the inning well enough. He got Dwight Evans out on a fly ball to center. Jim Rice reached first on a single to left, but Carl Yastrzemski flied out to right for the second out.

This was looking to be Slaton’s cleanest inning yet but he had to set down Lansford to get out of it. Slaton almost did, by inducing the reigning American League batting champion to hit a routine grounder to short,5 but Yount’s error allowed Lansford to reach base. Rice moved to third.

Boggs came to the plate in a skid, having recorded two hits in his last 39 at-bats.6 Despite his recent struggles, he was emerging as one of the best hitters in baseball and was batting .343 entering the game. He recaptured his earlier magic with a double to left that scored Rice. The Red Sox took the lead, 1-0.

Boston went back on the attack in the fourth. Allenson walked; Remy’s sacrifice moved him to second. Evans doubled to left center, driving in Allenson. Rice followed with a single to left to score Evans for a 3-0 lead.

That finished Slaton. Brewers manager Harvey Kuenn brought in Jamie Easterly, who inherited Rice on first. Yastrzemski’s single moved Rice to third. Easterly struck out Lansford for the second out, but Boggs came through with another timely hit, a single to left center to bring Rice home. The Red Sox now led 4-0.

Eckersley continued to cruise against Milwaukee’s league-leading “Harvey’s Wallbangers” offense. Yount threatened with a double to left. But it was the only hit of the inning and Eckersley recorded another scoreless inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, Moose Haas came on to replace Easterly, who had kept Boston scoreless in the fifth. After Evans lined out to right to start the inning, the Red Sox built their lead with another offensive surge. Haas gave up three straight singles, to Rice, Yastrzemski, and Lansford. With Rice on third base for the fourth time in the game, Boggs drove him in with a sacrifice fly. Miller scored Yastrzemski on a single to left center. It was now 6-0 and the Brewers’ hopes of clinching the division at Fenway Park were dimming.

The Brewers failed to score in the top of the seventh and the Red Sox piled on with an Evans home run in the bottom of the inning to extend the lead to 7-0.

Milwaukee finally made a home-run-fueled charge in the eighth but it fell short. Jim Gantner led off with a single, and Molitor’s two-run homer broke the shutout. Yount followed with a single, and Cooper hit another two-run home run. Boston’s lead was down to 7-4, and Eckersley’s night was done. Houk summoned Bob Stanley from the bullpen.

Ted Simmons greeted Stanley with a double off the left-field wall.7 There were still no outs and formidable veteran Ben Oglivie was up next, with major-league home-run leader Gorman Thomas following in the parade of sluggers. But Stanley was up to the challenge. He retired Oglivie and Thomas on groundballs. Roy Howell fanned to end the inning.

The Red Sox extended their lead to 9-4 in the bottom of the eighth with a pinch-hit two-run home run by Tony Pérez. Although Stanley yielded two singles and a stolen base, he closed out Milwaukee in the ninth.

To make matters worse for the Brewers, the Orioles won on a four-run ninth-inning rally at Detroit. Milwaukee now had to win one game against Baltimore in order to take the division.8 And as it happened, it took the Brewers until the final game of the season to get that win and seal their division title.9

As for that TV bar on Beacon Street? Tensions were running high there too. Later that fall, waitress Carla Tortelli nearly lost her job for physically assaulting a New York Yankees fan.10 Over the years, the bar became a stop for Boston sports figures, both real and fictional. Boggs appeared on the show in 1988, a fictional Red Sox reliever used Sam’s lucky bottle cap to help him overcome a slump, fictional Boston Bruins goalie Eddie LeBec married Ms. Tortelli, and Boston Celtics star Kevin McHale appeared in multiple episodes.

“Cheers” gave Boston sports a presence in prime time for the next 11 years.

Sources

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

www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1982/B09300BOS1982.htm 

www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS198209300.shtml 

Notes

1 Bill Brophy, “Yost the Toast of Fenway,” Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), September 30, 1982: 1.

2 This was Slaton’s seventh start of the 1982 season. He had last started on August 10.

3 Steve Daley, “Now, a Showdown … Brewer Lead Cut to Three Games,” Chicago Tribune, October 1, 1982: 1.

4 Bill Brophy, “Brewer Pennant Drive Stalled,” Wisconsin State Journal, October 1, 1982: 1.

5 “Brewer Pennant Drive Stalled.”

6 Michael Madden, “Red Sox Leave Brewers Hanging, 9-4,” Boston Globe, October 1, 1982: 38. Boggs had singled in five trips at home against Boston on September 20; afterward, but for a double on September 26, he was hitless entering this game. His average had dropped from .371 to .343. Boggs finished the season at .349 and won the AL batting title the next season.

7 “Red Sox Leave Brewers Hanging, 9-4.”

8 “Brewer Pennant Drive Stalled.”

9 Baltimore outscored Milwaukee 26-7 in taking the first three games of the final series, tying the race. The Brewers came back to cruise 10-2 behind Don Sutton, acquired at the 1982 trade deadline, to win the division title in the last game of the season, on October 3.

10 Ron Miller, “An Affectionate Look at Obnoxious Characters You Love to Hate,” Boston Globe, November 28, 1982: 10.

The rapid expansion of major league baseball from eight major league teams in 1881 to 16 teams in 1883 required nearly 100 additional players to stock the new franchises. This narrative analysis traces the history of the independent Akron, Ohio team of that era and the important role it played in producing a good crop of players for both the new American Association and the established National League. It should serve to indicate the trials of building and maintaining such a team and the fragile nature of the whole enterprise.

In June of 1879, Akron, a bustling community of about 16,000 people, organized an independent baseball team to compete against similar teams in neighboring communities. On July 21, the Akron team met and defeated a team from Orrville 15 to 10. Six days later the new Akron team eked out a narrow 7 to 6 win over Garrettsville.

The playing captain of the new team was a 22-year-old Akron native, Samuel Washington Wise. Sam served initially as a catcher for the new team. Early in August, John Moran, an experienced player with the Worcester, Mass. Team of 1878, was secured to play center field.

While the Akron team campaigned as an amateur team the players were undoubtedly paid for their services. Additional victories totaling six in all followed the initial club successes. Garrettsville, the Ashland Anchors,

Elyria and the Aetnas of Warren, Ohio were bested before Garrettsville snapped the Akron streak 6 to 4 on September 5, 1879.

Especially noteworthy in this victory string was the Akron win over Elyria by an 11 to 7 score. Captain Sam Wise was the hero of this game with a double, triple and home run to show for his afternoon’s work.

After the loss to Garrettsville, the Akron team was further strengthened by additional experienced talent as second baseman Michael Dorsey who had played with Auburn, New York and Rockford, Illinois, joined the team. Victories over Seville, Ravenna, Mansfield and the Forest City club of Cleveland followed, and a challenge game with the new Cleveland National League team was arranged for October 8, 1879 in Akron. Two thousand people turned out and receipts of $204.80 were realized from the game. Admission price was 25 cents and spectators who arrived after the fifth inning were charged ten cents to enter the grounds for the balance of the game.

The Akron club had secured new uniforms of white shirts and breeches trimmed in brown with a letter “A” on each shirt front. Brown stockings and caps completed the home team’s uniform. The Akron lineup for the game with Cleveland included a new pitcher, John Neagle, who had worked for the Cincinnati Reds early in 1879. James Green, a young recruit from Cleveland, served as the Akron catcher as Captain Wise moved to third base. The balance of the infield had Ed Swartwood at first base, Mike Dorsey at second and Charlie Morton from Cleveland at shortstop. John Moran in center provided a tested middle fielder while Darrow and Ed Johnson filled the right and left field spots.

Still the Akron team proved no match for the Cleveland team as southpaw Bob Mitchell easily bested Neagle by a 9 to 2 score. A second game on September 9, 1879 was attended by about 800 fans and saw Cleveland win again by a 12 to 5 score. Two games followed the Cleveland series as Akron easily whipped Kent 31 to 1 and staged a benefit intra-squad contest to conclude the 1879 season. Akron showed a very creditable 17-3 win-loss record for its first season’s effort.

In 1880, the Akron Baseball Association organized again for the new year and a number of the regulars from the 1879 team reported for practice. John Neagle was on hand to do the pitching and Dorsey, Morton, and Wise provided three quarters of the infield while John Moran returned to the center field spot.

By mid-June the new grounds at Perkins Street west of Union Street were ready including a grandstand for 800 fans. The opening game on June 16, 1880 saw John Neagle pitch Akron to an impressive 7 to 3 win over Elyria. The catcher for the Elyria team was Moses Fleetwood Walker, who in 1884 would become the first Black professional baseball player in the major leagues with Toledo of the American Association. Interestingly, the Akron team’s substitute pitcher, Ed Johnson, was also a Black. Ed also played first base and in the outfield for Akron during the 1880 season. After beating Elyria a second time, the Akrons faced the Cleveland National League team on July 1, and received a 14 to 0 lacing.

Robert Iredell, who had been listed as the Akron manager, resigned on July 16, and was replaced temporarily by Clarence P. Knight as the business manager of the club. Jim Green and Ed Swartwood were also back in town and ready to rejoin the club at mid-season. Akron responded to these changes by whipping the famous Findlay Nine Spots 15 to 5, the Cleveland Whites 5 to 1, Norwalk, Ohio twice, and Elyria 9 to 7 before the end of July, 1880 was reached. A resounding loss to the Worcester, Mass. National League team was followed by wins over the amateur Cleveland Greys, Norwalk, and Ravenna.

On August 10, Charles Morton became the Akron team manager and he immediately began to recruit a number of new player prospects. Anthony J. Mullane came from Pennsylvania to join the Akron team. Samuel Leech Maskrey, Mike Mansell and Rudolph Kemmler also joined the team in August as the team began to shape up. Cleveland defeated Akron by a 9 to 6 score on August 28. Neagle and Green were the battery for Akron with John Mansell at first base, Dorsey at second, Morton at shortstop and Wise at third. Mike Mansell patrolled center field as Maskrey and Mullane filled the other outer garden points. A loss to Boston followed the Cleveland game and on September 1, 1880 second baseman Mike Dorsey, disappointed with his hitting, announced his intention to retire at the close of the season.

On September 8, Akron upset the famous Chicago White Sox 4 to 3 with about 600 fans on hand. Tony Mullane pitched the upset win for Akron and Rudolph Kemmler was his catcher. Mike Mansell with four hits in four at bats was the hitting star for Akron.

Cleveland and Cincinnati followed Chicago into Akron and defeated the local heroes although the Reds just got by with a 3 to 2 win. A late season loss to Buffalo completed Akron’s meetings with NL teams. The team did play an intra-squad game and decisively defeated the Western Reserve College nine on September 29, 1880 before the season’s close.

Statistics published by the Akron club for the season showed the team with six hitters over the magic .300 mark including Tony Mullane, John Mansell, Mike Manaell, Sam Wise, John Moran and Jim Green. The business dimensions of this, season were revealed in the financial report made for the season. (Note that the breakdown of bills is 22 cents short of the listed total.)

Akron Baseball Association, 1880

The Akron Baseball Association, preparing for its third season, held a reorganization meeting on April 20, 1881. George W. Crouse was chosen the club president and Charles Morton was named team manager, a position involving duties of the business manager and traveling secretary. Ed Swartwood was named the field captain.

Team personnel showed substantial continuity from the 1880 club. John Neagle was retained as the starting pitcher although Tony Mullane was expected to join the team as a second hurler. Only at second base was a new face expected and for this spot Akron secured John A. McPhee, who had played the same position for Davenport, Iowa in 1880. Bid McPhee became a regular at once and held the spot all season long. He was 22 years old in 1881. Leech Maskrey, John Mansell and Jim Green were the early season outfielders for Akron.

Cleveland routed Akron 25 to 1 in the opening game of the 1881 season, but two victories over the Cleveland Whites early in May gave the Akron rooters hope for the new season. Tony Mullane reported and replaced John Neagle on the mound for these victories. When Tony wasn’t pitching he played in the outfield because of his hitting ability.

Losses, to Boston, Troy and Worcester of the National League produced no great outpouring of local fans. Receipts for the Boston game totaled only $80.15 indicating that about 400 to 500 fans witnessed the game. Late in May, Akron whipped the Beaver Falls, Penn. team and also amateur teams from Cleveland, the Malleables and the Whites. In June, John Neagle left the team and headed East to join the newly organized New York Metropolitans for a reported salary of $100 a month.

During the last two weeks in June 1881, Akron journeyed to Louisville and engaged in a memorable series with the famous Eclipse Club of that city. The series attracted national attention as Akron won three of five games played. It was the game that Akron neither won nor lost that received the greatest newspaper acclaim. Akron and Louisville played 19 innings to a 2 to 2 tie on June 24. Tony Mullane and John Reccius of Louisville toiled in vain to record a win that would never come. Pete Browning, the original Louisville slugger who made Hillerich and Bradsby bats famous, was in the Louisville lineup that day for the Eclipse Club.

After this successful trip, the Akron club returned home and talk of disbanding was heard in the local press.

However, by mid-July, the club was reorganized and new players were on hand. Billy Taylor, formerly of Worcester and William A. “Blondy” Purcell from Cleveland were signed to Akron contracts.

Detroit edged Akron 8 to 7 on July 18, as Purcell took the mound loss. Cleveland shut out Akron four days later, but the local’s defeated Meadville and Mercer, Pa. teams and the Cleveland Whites before the end of July.

After defeating Canton 24 to 0 with Mullane pitching a no-hitter, the Akrons traveled to Louisville and edged the Eclipse club by a 5 to 4 score on August 4. On August 10, Akron met and defeated Buffalo on its home grounds in Akron by a score of 9 to 4 with Mullane the winning pitcher. Pud Galvin, the Buffalo pitcher and a Hall of Fame member was knocked out of the box in the second inning and finished the game in left field. Billy Taylor played first base for Akron and Andy Piercey, formerly of the Chicago NL team, was the new shortstop. Purcell covered center field.

Two days later Buffalo, stung by this loss, battered the Akrons 17 to 4. After whipping East Liverpool, Akron dropped a 4 to 0 game to Detroit on August 15. Four days later the local heroes bounced back and defeated Detroit 8 to 6 as Tony Mullane gathered the mound victory. Receipts for the game reached $65.00.

There followed a trip to St. Louis where Akron split two games with the Browns, and added another win, 14 to 2 over Louisville, before coming home to close the season on September 7, with a 14 to 0 win over the Oberlin team.

Later in September 1881, some of the Akron players, as a barnstorming group, played in St. Louis, but the team officially disbanded for the season on September 9. Most of the players were hired by major league teams for 1882 and Akron did not field a professional team that year. Late season reports indicated that the Akron club cleared about $400 on its trip to St. Louis in August 1881. The Akron fans had seen excellent baseball for three seasons and a number of major league players jumped to the big show from this Akron team.

Tony Mullane pitched for Louisville in the AA in 1882, winning 31 games and losing 23. He had a batting average of .255 working in the outfield on a part time basis. Mullane, the idol of feminine fans in his day, played 13 years in the majors and won a total of 287 games while losing 214 during that period.

Bid McPhee became the Cincinnati Red regular second baseman in 1882 and held that position for a total of 18 years in the AA and NL. Bid played in 2125 games for Cincinnati during a span of nearly two decades and finished with a lifetime batting average of .281.

Cyrus Swartwood joined Pittsburgh of the PA in 1882 and led that league in batting in 1883 with a .369 season average. Ed finished nine years in the majors with a .309 lifetime batting average. Billy Taylor and Charles Morton also played with Pittsburgh in 1882. Morton served as Toledo’s only major league manager in the years 1884 to 1890. Leech Maskrey became a regular Louisville outfielder in 1882, while Rudy Kemmler spent time catching with both Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. John Mansell did limited work in the outfield for the Philadelphia Athletics.

Blondy Purcell was with Buffalo of the NL in 1882 and he continued in the major leagues through 1890. Sam Wise, the local hero and Akron native, joined Boston of the National League and played 77 games at shortstop and third base for the beantown team after leaving Akron. Sam played ten more seasons in the majors and was the leading Akron baseball star until George Sisler reached the majors in 1915.

By actual count, ten of 16 Akron players of 1881 were playing major league baseball in 1882. It may be truly said that long ago Akron, Ohio, a city of slightly over 16,000 people, produced a baseball team that helped to make a new major league possible. Financially the team was never a success and obviously a city of this size could not support a major league team, but it is interesting to know that this team produced ten major league players in 1882. The Akron team further demonstrated ample ability to meet major league teams on nearly an equal basis during several seasons of active competition.

• Homers in Washington Ballparks
• Homers by Washington Teams

Homers In Washington Ballparks

SWAMPOODLE GROUNDS

• First HR: George Wood, 29 April 1886, Phillies
• Last HR: Hardy Richardson, 21 Sept 1889, Beaneaters
• Total hit in park: 137

BOUNDARY FIELD

• First HR: Deacon McGuire, 18 April 1891, Senators
• Last HR: Tom O’Brien, 14 Oct 1899, Giants
• Total hit in park: 392

AMERICAN LEAGUE PARK I

• First HR: Frank Foutz, 30 April 1901, Orioles
• Last HR: Billy Sullivan, 26 Sept 1903, White Sox
• Total hit in park: 166

GRIFFITH STADIUM

• First HR: Eddie Collins, 6 May 1911, Athletics
• Last HR: Billy Bryan, 17 Sept 1961, Athletics
• Total hit in park: 2,126

ROBERT F. KENNEDY STADIUM

• First HR: Bob Johnson, 9 April 1962, Senators
• Last HR: Chase Utley, 22 Sept 2007, Phillies
• Total hit in park: 1,733

NATIONALS PARK (2008)

• First HR: Chipper Jones, 30 March 2008
• Total hit in park: 148

Homers By Washington Teams

NATIONALS/SENATORS (1901–1960)

• First HR: Billy Clingman, 27 April 1901
• Last HR: Bob Allison, 28 Sept 1960
• Total: 2,786
• Home: 957
• Away: 1,829

Most For Team, Batter (Career)

Most For Team, Batter (Season)

SENATORS (1961–1971)

• First HR: Billy Klaus, 15 April 1961
• Last HR: Frank Howard, 30 Sept 1971
• Total: 1,387
• Home: 650
• Away: 737

NATIONALS (2005–2008)

• First HR: Terrmel Sledge, 4 April 2005
• Total: 521
• Home: 219
• Away: 302

I played a game of base-ball, I belong to Casey’s nine,
The crowd was feeling jolly, and the weather it was fine;
A nobler lot of players I think were never found,
When the omnibuses landed that day upon the ground.
The game was quickly started, they sent me to the bat,
I made two strikes, says Casey, “What are you striking at?”
I made the third, the catcher muffed and to the ground it fell,
I run like a divil to first base, when the gang began to yell:2

Mike “King” Kelly need not say any words to the assembled audience. The song said it all for him. A song that despite its seemingly admonishing tone reflected the regard the cranks held for this player who embodied all the good – and sometimes the less reputable side – of the national pastime, and he had captured the affection of another man who owned the Kelly name.

(Chorus)

Slide, Kelly, slide, your running’s a disgrace,
Slide, Kelly, slide, stay there, hold your base;
If some one doesn’t steal you and your batting doesn’t fail you,
They’ll take you to Australia, slide, Kelly, slide.3

How the song came to be written brings up the history of another Kelly – James W. Kelly, an Irish comedian and author of popular songs during the last decades of the nineteenth century. He was born in Philadelphia in 1854 and was called “a mirth provoker.”4 He was described as “having a wonderfully expressive face, a musical voice of limited range, which he knew how to use to the best advantage, and that mother wit, said to be one of the distinguishing traits of the Celtic race, from which he sprang. Though not a musician, he had a natural ear for melody, and composed the airs of all his own songs.”5 Parodies were his most reliable formula, and he carried over themes and cadences that ended up in other of his renditions. Why he was so smitten with King Kelly could be chalked up to being his namesake, or King Kelly deserved a stirring ballad to complement his outsized image on the baseball diamond. King Kelly needed no introduction to the cranks across the country. 

“Slide, Kelly, Slide” immediately became a favorite on the vaudeville circuit and was also a financial gold mine for the publisher, Frank Harding, who purchased James Kelly’s interest in it. Harding published 27,000 copies of the words and music, and Henry Wehman, the Park Row publisher who secured the right to print the words, sold 40,000 copies of it. James Kelly probably made more money out of this composition than any of his other popular songs.6 At the height of his career, James W. Kelly was the highest-paid performer on the variety stage, receiving as much as $400 per week. The Boston Vaudeville Club paid him regularly $100 for a single performance. Unfortunately he did not possess many frugal habits – “being a hail fellow well met, his large earnings were dissipated with the rapidity with which they were made.”7 He died on June 26, 1896, at his mother’s home in New York City of an attack of acute gastritis at the age of 42.

’Twas in the second inning they called me in, I think,
To take the catcher’s place while he went to get a drink;
But something was the matter, sure I couldn’t see the ball,
And the second one that came I broke my muzzle, nose and all.
The crowd up in the grand stand they yelled with all their might;
I ran towards the club house, I thought there was a fight;
’Twas the most unpleasant feeling I ever felt before,
I knew they had me rattled when the gang began to roar:8

(Chorus)

James Kelly wrote 15 comic songs. His most popular along with “Slide, Kelly, Slide” were “Come Down, Mrs. Flynn” and “Throw Him Down, McCloskey,” a ballad that celebrated a popular boxer of the time and the chorus of this song hinted at the rhythm and cadence of his most famous song:

“Throw him down, McCloskey,” was to be his battle cry –
Throw him down, McCloskey, you can lick him if you try,
And future generations, with wonder and delight,
Will read on histr’y’s pages of the great McCloskey fight.9

The tragic demise of King Kelly in 1894 and also that of James W. Kelly in 1896 did not spell the end of the song. The cranks kept up the chorus “Slide, Kelly, slide!” at baseball games. Soon the phrase found its way into the American slang dictionary – another addition bequeathed by baseball. The phrase turned up in odd and interesting places. An apocryphal tale relates that as King Kelly was carried into a Boston hospital on a stretcher that toppled over, tossing him to the ground, he weakly lamented, “This is my last slide.”10

Ultimately, any person with the name Kelly was fair game to have the phrase used to their advantage. Any report of icy sidewalks or any warning of uncertain footedness conjured up the warning: ‘Slide, Kelly, slide!” Fred C. Kelly, a Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist, wrote about the burden the name Kelly placed upon him, and how it soured him on playing baseball as everyone insisted he “slide!” – when he didn’t want to.11

But what was it that connected Mike “King” Kelly with the “slide”? The story and the legend of Mike Kelly lived on long after his death. James J. Corbett, in his syndicated column “In Corbett’s Corner,” reminisced in 1919 about Kelly and his connection to the slide. Corbett called it a stunt, that Kelly had perfected the head-first slide, a tactic that was considered either brave or foolhardy, and was discouraged by managers as potentially injurious.12

In 1907 at a preseason meeting in New York City, a new rule was adopted that if one baserunner passed another in an attempt to score while the other was being “tagged” out, the runner who passed would be declared out – all this thanks to an incident made famous by Mike Kelly. The new rule was calculated to prevent such stunts as the world-renowned slide pulled off by Kelly when he was a member of the Chicago team during a game in Boston in 1885.

“It happened in the last half of the ninth inning, when the score stood 1 to 0 against Chicago. Kelly was on first base and Ed Williamson was on second, and Anson knocked a fly ball out into right field. At the instant the fielder caught the ball both Kelly and Williamson made a dash for second and third. The ball was simply returned to the second baseman, but Kelly slid in and beat it by a hair. When Kelly arose from the ground and saw Billy Sunday at bat, he grabbed his arm, and pretending to be writhing in agony, he signaled to the umpire to call time. Then he called to Ed Williamson to come and pull his arm. While Ed was doing so, Kelly whispered to him as follows: “Say, Ed, when the pitcher throws the ball in, I’m going to start for third. This will draw the ball down to catch me, and then you make a dash for the plate and I’ll be right behind you. By the time you get near the plate the catcher will be waiting for you with the ball, but get as near as you can to the plate, then open your legs wide and I will try to slide in.”13

At the appointed time Kelly dashed for third. The ball was shot down to that base, and then Ed made for home, while the third baseman sent the ball back to the catcher. Kelly by this time had rounded third and was right behind Williamson, for whom the catcher was waiting with outstretched arms. When within a few feet of the plate, Williamson halted, suddenly spread his legs wide apart, and as the catcher jumped forward to tag Ed, Kelly slid between Williamson’s legs and had his fingers on the plate before the catcher knew what had happened. Chicago made another run in the 10th inning, and this won the game.14

Kelly turned to the crowd and shouted: “It’s all over! The game’s won! You can’t get it back! Open the gates and go home!”15 He laughed, and at first the crowd was enraged and protested he didn’t touch third base. Sam Wise yelled, “He cut the bag by 5 yards!” But then a great cheer arose from the crowd of 10,000 for the trickiest ballplayer who ever walked the diamond. This trick was original with Kelly, and many players have since tried it.16

As baseball stories go, the tale of Kelly’s slide spread across the land. The feat quickly became material for the song, as no one had ever heard of such a ploy to score a run, but James W. Kelly saw a lucrative opportunity by exploiting that move and the phrase and song “Slide, Kelly, Slide!” live on forever in baseball history.

They sent me out to centre-field, I didn’t want to go,
The way my nose was swelling up, I must have been a show;
They said on me depended victory or defeat,
If a blind man was to look on us, he’d know that we were beat.

Sixty-four to nothing was the score when we got done,
And everybody there but me said they had lots of fun;
The news got home ahead of me, they heard I was knocked out,
The neighbors carried me in the house, and then began to shout:17

Slide, Kelly, slide, your running’s a disgrace,
Slide, Kelly, slide, stay there, hold your base;
If some one doesn’t steal you and your batting doesn’t fail you,
They’ll take you to Australia, slide, Kelly, slide.18

Notes

1 “Mike Kelly Receives the Pennant,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 12, 1890: 3.

2  “Slide, Kelly, Slide.” Copyright, 1889, Frank Harding. Words and Music by J.W. Kelly.

3 Ibid.

4 “Exit J.W. Kelly, the Famous Rolling Mill-Man Responds to the Final Call,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 27, 1896: 1.

5 Ibid.

6 “John W. Kelly’s Songs,” Duluth News-Tribune, July 7, 1896: 6.

7 “Exit J.W. Kelly,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 12, 1890: 3.

8 “Slide, Kelly, Slide.”

9 “John W. Kelly’s Songs.”

10 “Greatest of All,” Oregonian (Portland), December 29, 1907: 7.

11 Fred C. Kelly, “The Burden of a Name,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 23, 1911: 4.

12 James J. Corbett, “In Corbett’s Corner,” Macon (Georgia) Telegraph, January 19, 1919: 10.

13 “Runners Did Not Pass Each Other,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 5, 1907: 16.

14 “Kelly’s Slide Home,” Dallas Morning News, March 31, 1907.

15 “How Kelly Cut Third,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 18, 1897: 18.

16 Ibid.

17 “Slide, Kelly, Slide.”

18 Ibid.

Novelist supreme Charles John Dickens was not a sportswriter and died (1870) 23 years before the 1893 Beaneaters season began, but the opening lines of his 1849 famed epic, A Tale of Two Cities, are perfect to describe the situation base ball found itself in by May 1893. Former player and Philadelphia sporting-goods entrepreneur A.J. Reach’s Official Base Ball Guide was on the stands by late March and told of how 1892 had been a disappointment to fans, players, and owners, but that 1893 would likely be better. There would be no competitors to the 12-team National League and the NL schedule was cut back to 132 games from 154. Opening days were in late April, the pitcher’s mound was moved back essentially 5 or 10 feet to facilitate more offense, owners had colluded and cut the largest player salaries (abhorrent to them and investors), and, finally, the split-season champion gimmick of 1892 was abolished. Because of these changes, there was springtime hope.1 

Outside of baseball circles appeared the daily newspaper promotional reminders of mankind’s self-backslap of great achievements, in the form of the wondrous Chicago Columbian Exposition, the World’s Fair, within the spectacular 640-acre “White City,” a nineteenth-century Disneyland, which included the first (specially constructed) Ferris wheel as one of many attractions. Baseball would open on April 27, and the fair would commence entertaining the world on May 1. Unfortunately, few saw the national doom of May 4 on the horizon. On that day the National Cordage Company, based in New Jersey but with tentacles all over the East Coast, went into receivership as it neared bankruptcy. NCC manufactured rope and had tried to corner the hemp market.2 Overspending, wild speculation, and other reckless misdeeds by out-of-control businessmen combined to ignite the Panic of 1893, much larger in scope than the disastrous Panic of 1873.

The NCC fiasco followed the “red flag” bankruptcy of the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroad (February 20) due to much the same policies. Even the nation’s gold reserves almost disappeared because of bank runs caused by these developments. The economic catastrophe brought about became national as eventually 500 banks closed, 15,000 businesses collapsed, and unemployment soared to 20 percent by the summer. Within a week’s time, what should have been a pleasant start to the baseball campaign instead found the sport merely hoping to survive a huge problem it had no part in creating. Hindsight analysis of the Panic explains that it took nearly four years for things to crawl back to normal thanks in part to clever financier J.P. Morgan, who loaned the government millions to help restore order. The daily life atmosphere was treacherous, but it didn’t stop the World’s Fair crowds or enthusiasm for baseball.

Reach’s Guide had interesting news specifically for Boston’s fan base. “The great slump in base ball interest in Boston has puzzled students of the game everywhere. Up to 1890 Boston bore the deserved reputation of being the best base ball city in the country. No other city could make a pretense of disputing that claim with her. Last year (1892) with a winning team, the club could scarcely draw patronage to pay expenses. This year, it is expected, will see Boston return to the old crowds.”3 The Guide’s attendance stats showed that the South End Grounds drew just under 124,000 fans, placing ninth in the 12-team League (total draw was 1.67 million).

In October 1892 the game had a lucrative “World’s Championship Series” between Boston and Cleveland. It drew more than 20,000 in Cleveland’s three games and almost 12,000 in Boston for three more. The Spiders and Beaneaters played a 0-0 tie in the first game and then Boston won the next five, making a joke of the best-of-nine event. Even winning the championship at home didn’t bring out as many Boston fans as expected. The Beaneaters had now won two consecutive pennants and looked to equal the Chicago White Stockings of 1880-81-82 as three-time NL champs. Only its ancestral National Association Red Stockings of 1872-73-74-75 had won four straight along with the American Association (“Beer and Whiskey League”) St. Louis Browns of the mid-1880s. 

Arthur Soden’s Beaneaters were a solid bunch and were kept hustling under the watchful eye of manager Frank Selee,then in his fourth season. The only changes made from 1892 were the release of aging stars, now deadweights, John Clarkson (p), Joe Quinn (2b), Mike King Kelly (c), and slugger Harry Stovey (of). Their slots were filled by younger teammates. Utilityman Bobby Lowe settled in at second base and Charlie Bennett and Charlie Ganzel formed the best catching tandem in the game. Cliff Carroll (of) was obtained from St. Louis and pitcher Hank Gastright arrived from Pittsburgh in July to round out the defending champions’ roster. The pitching core of Charlie “Kid” Nichols, “Happy Jack” Stivetts, Harry Staley, and Gastright threw all but 36 innings for the year.  With the expanded schedule in 1892, both Nichols and Stivetts had won 35 games. The infield of Billy Nash (3b), Herman Long (ss), Lowe, and Tommy Tucker (1b) was superb while flychasers Hugh Duffy and Tommy McCarthy could hit, run, and field with any opponent.

Starting sluggishly, the Beaneaters were 12-11 in late May but that changed during their decade-longest 34-game homestand (24-10), which included an eight-game winning streak. Later three nine-game streaks helped them into first place to stay by July 28. The “friendly and beautiful confines” of the South End Grounds were always helpful to the Beaneaters (49-15). Only Nichols, Stivetts, and Staley pitched in the first 58 games, but in July Gastright was bought from Pittsburgh and went 12-4. His acquisition is notable because Pittsburgh finished second to Boston that year. It was the only season of the 1890s when the Pirates sniffed the pennant, yet they parted with a good pitcher. Pittsburgh finished second in pitching (4.08 ERA) to St. Louis (4.06) and third in batting average, .299 to Philadelphia’s .301. The Smoky City stars were Jake Beckley (.303), Denny Lyons (.306), Jack Glasscock (.341), Jake Stenzel (.362), Mike Smith (.346), George Van Haltren (.338), Connie Mack (.286), and pitcher Frank Killen (36-14). The Pirates beat Boston in the season’s series 6-4-1, with one postponed game not played, but they still finished five games out.

Despite being fifth in both ERA (4.43) and batting average (.290), the Beaneaters raised the pennant. They were second in runs, 1,008, to Philly’s 1,011 (played two more games). Boston finished 30-6 against Baltimore, St. Louis, and Louisville to gain their edge. Leading the club were Duffy (.363, fourth) and McCarthy (.346), while reserve catcher Bill Merritt hit .348 in 39 games. Long topped the circuit in runs scored (149), with Duffy close behind with 147. Billy Nash knocked home 123 mates (NL fourth). Lowe scored 130 runs and was tied for third in home runs with 14 to Ed Delahanty’s 19, two guys who were later etched together forever in the record books. Nichols finished 34-14, second in wins to Pirate Killen (36) and tied with Cy Young of Cleveland. Head to head, Kid and Killen split two games in September. Staley surrendered the most home runs in the League, 22, of Boston’s 66 total, topping the circuit. Offensively, Beaneater bats whacked 65 round-trippers, second to Philadelphia’s 80.

The most noteworthy personal mark of the Beaneaters season belongs to veteran Staley (18-10) because it still lingers, more than 125 years later. On June 1 at the South End Grounds vs. Louisville’s Hal Rhines, Harry belted two of his seven career home runs in a 15-4 win, plating nine runs in the process. It remains the Boston-Milwaukee-Atlanta franchise RBI record. It was equaled by Atlanta pitcher Tony Cloninger (two slams) on July 3, 1966. Stivetts (20-12) had the honor of tossing the only shutout at the South End Grounds all season when he blanked Chicago, 7-0, on August 31. On the opposite side of things, Cincinnati hurler Elton “Icebox” Chamberlain no-hit the champs on September 23 in Cincy, 6-0, in seven innings before the game was called due to darkness.

Of the players who made their first appearance in that NL season, the best careers belonged to Jimmy Bannon (he joined the Beaneaters in 1894), Bill Lange, Bill “Boileryard” Clarke, Heinie Reitz, George “Candy” LaChance (of the 1902-05 AL Bostons), and George “Tuck” Turner. Ending their careers were Clarkson, Quinn, King Kelly, Cliff Carroll (pickup who hit .224), Parisian Bob Caruthers, Smiling Tim Keefe (342 wins), four-time home-run champ Stovey, Sam Wise of the 1880s Bostons, Ed “Cannonball” Crane, and Boston catcher Charlie Bennett, who lost parts of both legs in a train accident in January 1894. He is often cited as the best catcher of the nineteenth century.

Among those notables who passed away were 1870s batting star Lipman Pike (.322), one of the first players paid for his talents; Elmer Sy Sutcliffe (.288), William Darby O’Brien (.282), John J. Fox (13-28), and Clarence G. Dow, 2-for-6 for the Boston Unions in September 1884. At his death the Boston Globe, Boston Post, and Sporting Life claimed Dow was thought of as the most reliable baseball statistician in the country.  

In Reach’s 10-cent, 150-page publication for 1894, the 1893 campaign was declared a financial success despite the economic woes of the country. Attendance swelled and helped pay off a huge debt the League had incurred a few years before. Reach thought the reason the number of .300 hitters grew from a dozen in 1892 to more than 60 in 1893 was in great part the mound distance change.  He claimed, “The Public interest in the game was thereby most certainly stimulated. The more uncertain quantity in games under the increased batting gave fascination to the sport and the crowds which filled the grounds of the various clubs attested to the popularity of the new rule and its workings.”4 According to Baseball-Reference.com, 193,000 saw games at the South End Grounds, ranking seventh of the 12 teams.

Sources 

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

Appleton’s Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events for the Year (annual 1893-1897). (New York: D. Appleton & Company, annuals 1893-1897).

Stevens, Albert Clark. “An Analysis of the Phenomena of the Panic in the United States in 1893,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 8 (January 1894): 117-48. (Oxford University Press). jstor.org/stable/1883708.

Notes

1 Before 1893 the pitcher’s “box” was a five-foot area beginning 50 feet from home plate. The back boundary line was therefore 55 feet away but the hurler had the right to move around in his box to deliver a pitch. For 1893, new Rule 5 decreed: The pitcher’s boundary should be marked by a white rubber plate, twelve inches long and four inches wide, so fixed in the ground as to be even with the surface, at the distance of sixty feet and six inches from the outer corner of the home plate, so that a line drawn from the center of Home Base to the center of Second Base will give six inches on either side.

2 “Cordage Trust Goes Under,” New York Times, Friday, May 5, 1893: 1.

3 Reach Official Base Ball Guide (Philadelphia: A.J. Reach Co., Philadelphia, 1893), 44-45.

4 Reach Official Base Ball Guide (Philadelphia: A.J. Reach Co., Philadelphia, 1894), 10.

Introduction

The most important events of the season were the founding, organization, and successful completion of its championship season by the American Association of Professional Base Ball Clubs (AA), and the market responses by the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (NL), the incumbent, and the death of longtime NL President William Ambrose Hulbert. The AA sought status as an equal, but NL clubs interacted with each AA club as an unaffiliated one without NL privileges. To protect itself, the AA implemented independence and preemption policies that affected player relations, contracting, salaries, and club profits. Ultimately, the AA survived and its entry introduced market competition that improved the quality of baseball games and business practices.

The financial condition of some NL clubs at the end of the 1881championship season was not sustainable and generated internal tension during the 1882 season. The Worcester and Troy clubs were in small markets and Troy had lost its lease to its ball grounds. The Providence club had indebtedness. The direction of the Boston club was in turmoil, with groups of stockholders battling for control.1

Following the AA’s organization during early November, its clubs neither collectively nor individually requested membership within the League Alliance (NLLA), whose clubs formally affiliated with the NL for protection and privileges. By this action, the AA and its clubs signaled to the NL and its players their intent to achieve equal status. There were key differences between the NL and the AA. The AA was less centralized than the NL’s management system, with fewer club restrictions and more enlightened labor relations.2 After the Athletic Club signed William Crowley and Cincinnati signed Charley Jones, players who had been expelled by NL clubs, the NL interpreted the actions as hostile and undermining its new blacklist.3 Ominously for the NL, AA clubs succeeded in signing to 1882 contracts at least 13 former NL players, including at least one subject to the NL’s five-man rule, the early reserve clause.4 While the AA did not sign players who had signed contracts for the 1882 season with NL clubs, NL club managements in both Detroit and Boston signed players who had previously signed contracts with AA clubs.5 The AA business response was an “independence policy” which prohibited exhibition games between AA and NL clubs. When the AA clubs proved profitable, the new AA showed it would likely survive another season without NL patronage. Its “preemption policy” – the contracting of players during the 1882 summer for their labor services during 1883 – demonstrated that players would sign AA contracts offering higher salaries and that the AA had confidence that its clubs would be going concerns. In response, the NL sought an accommodation that established an early form of Organized Baseball.

Prior to its winter meeting, the NL had revised its blacklist policy, adding “carelessness and indifference” to dishonesty and insubordination as reasons for ineligibility.6 In addition, the standard player contract was revised to include behavior codes.7

Meeting of the National League Board of Directors
December 6, 1881, Tremont House, Chicago

The NL’s Board of Directors met at Chicago’s Tremont House on December 6, 1881, and adjourned immediately to the following morning.8 When in order, the Board accepted the review of 1881 championship season results and the treasurer’s report by NL Secretary-Treasurer Nicholas Young. The directors resolved to award Chicago the “championship of the United States for the year 1881.” The meeting proceeded to labor relations, suspensions, and the blacklist. The board denied the petition by player Phil Baker.9 It refused to take any action in regard to the petition for reinstatement submitted by player Charles Jones.10 The meeting concluded after the re-election of Young as secretary-treasurer.

Annual Meeting of the National League
December 7-9, 1881, Tremont House, Chicago

The annual meeting of the NL was held in Chicago at the Tremont House, on December 7, 1881.11 The primary elements of the annual meeting were membership, the blacklist policy, and the NL response to the organization of the AA. After losing money in 1881, the Providence club reportedly planned to withdraw its membership if the NL failed to reinstate its players.12 Both the Troy and Providence clubs were reportedly offered a franchise at Philadelphia, a more lucrative location for visiting clubs.13 Several clubs, as many as five, were alleged to seek more liberal bylaws regarding outside club relationships.14

The meeting continued on Thursday, December 8, when the NL amended its constitution and playing rules, adopted a motion to hold the next annual meeting at the Hotel Dorrance, Providence, Rhode Island; authorized the NL president to reconvene the annual meeting at any time prior to April 1, 1882; elected the 1882 NL umpires; delegated Young to arrange the publication of the NL book; awarded the baseball supply contract to A.G. Spalding Brothers; and appointed uniform15 and schedule committees.16

Among constitutional amendments approved, one changed voting rights. A club with representation on the board of directors was permitted to change its delegate at any time. At an NL meeting, each club was allowed one vote and two delegates.17

The clubs revised the rules in regard to relationships of the players and their membership status with clubs and the NL. The secretary was ordered to maintain a record of violations to NL bylaws and to report it to the president. Players without an official NL contract could not appear in more than five championship games rather than five days as before, without a signed contract. A released player could not play with an NL or NLLA club for 20 days after his release, during which the player was not permitted to return to his former club, but would continue to be paid in full for the 20 days. However, to receive payment for salary, the released player could be required to work for the club.18

Another change was that official correspondence between clubs was to be between club presidents.19

The meeting resumed at 9:30 A.M. on Friday, December 9, when the NL accepted the report prepared by the uniform committee, amended NLLA regulations, elected officers, and amended its blacklist policy. The uniform committee recommended that the 1882 NL uniform consist of white tie, pants, and belt, and leather shoes. Each club was to show a different color stocking. Each shirt and cap related a different color with the field position.20

In response to the organization of the AA, the NL amended NLLA regulations to enhance exclusivity and privileges.21 Any club that submitted an application for membership would be accepted with the consent of three NL clubs.22 NLLA members were provided exclusive territories the same as NL clubs (one Alliance member per city). Within the territory, the NLLA club was to be the only club with which NL clubs played games when abroad during the championship season. NLLA members were entitled to attend NL meetings as nonvoting delegates. NLLA clubs were required to provide NL clubs a choice of the higher of a $100 guarantee or 50 percent of game receipts.23 The NL admitted Philadelphia (although the club had neither grounds nor players) and the Metropolitan Club of New York to its NLLA.24 This action removed the New York club from further consideration for AA membership in 1882 and introduced an NL competitor to the AA club in Philadelphia. A consequence would be that traveling AA clubs could not easily arrange games in New York and its Athletic Club would not easily schedule games with non-AA visiting clubs.25

The NL re-elected Young as secretary and Hulbert as president.26 Elected directors were Brown (Worcester), Hotchkin (Troy), Jewett (Buffalo), and Thompson (Detroit).27

In its labor relations, the NL revised its player behavior codes to try to increase the expected costs of player misbehavior. The NL adopted the Saratoga resolution confirming its blacklist policy.28 NL clubs would not employ or play in games with a person as player, manager, or umpire if that person appeared in the NL blacklist. In effect, players in the list were ineligible to be engaged within organized professional baseball as player, manager, or umpire.29 The reserve list prevented clubs from acquiring the best talent. When an NL club used its privilege of suspension, it potentially penalized itself, because a suspended player could be placed on the blacklist by the NL. Blacklisted players had a limited right of appeal, but suspended players had no recourse with the NL, only their clubs. Regarding reinstatement, the NL required a unanimous vote to approve a player’s request.

The NL strengthened its position relative to the AA with its changes to the NLLA. The New York Metropolitan Club decided to not accept NL membership because of the 50-cent admission.30 The Philadelphia partnership of Reach and Phillips turned down NL membership because the available players not under contract were considered too low in skill for the risk entailed in membership.31 However, both clubs accepted NLLA membership with its exclusive territory privilege and mutual recognition of contracts.

Special Meeting of the National League
March 7, 1882, Rochester, New York

By March 7, 1882, when the NL held a special meeting at Rochester’s Osborn House, President Hulbert was seriously ill and absent.32 The delegates elected Boston’s Soden as chairman pro tem.33

Following Secretary Young’s recommendation, the delegates elected umpires, unanimously accepted the championship schedule prepared by the schedule committee, and unanimously resolved that all exhibition games played in April against NLLA members were to be played under NL rules. After a discussion, the NL continued to deny reinstatement for any player appearing in its blacklist.34 The delegates committed their clubs to not contracting with players for the 1883 season (or later) prior to October 23, 1882.35

The Metropolitan and Philadelphia NLLA clubs attempted to dictate terms to NL clubs for April exhibition games. The NL insisted upon its centralized terms for preseason games, threatening to ignore the NLLA privileges.36

American Association Meeting
March 13-14, 1882, Philadelphia

The Association meeting was held in the Continental Hotel at Philadelphia on March 13, 1882. The meeting was thought important enough for one baseball writer to declare that its outcome would determine whether the AA had an 1882 season.37

The press was interested in prospective relations between the NL and AA due to their conflict, but a desire to see if their clubs would play exhibitions.38 Because the AA clubs were not NLLA members, the NL did not recognize the contracts made between players and AA clubs. Hulbert said, “The League does not recognize the existence of any association excepting itself and the League Alliance.”39 By this meeting, three players who had signed contracts with AA clubs had also signed contracts with three NL clubs. Sam Wise contracted with Cincinnati (AA), then Boston (NL); Dasher Troy with Athletic (AA), then Detroit (NL); and Bill Holbert with Allegheny (AA), then Troy (NL). These actions revealed that the NL would not respect AA clubs’ contracts and that some players preferred to play in the NL. Although most AA club managers publicly opposed challenging the NL blacklist, other club managements were reported to be interested in contracting with some of the blacklisted players.40 To achieve their objectives, they would seek reinstatement for these players via the AA.41

The meeting also promised excitement over the sixth franchise. William Barnie was expected to withdraw membership for his Brooklyn Atlantic Club, removing a New York area franchise for the AA.42 In anticipation of that action, Allegheny player Myers obtained a release from his club conditioned upon the withdrawal of Brooklyn and promised financial backing from Baltimore organizers.43 In addition, representatives from Washington, Baltimore, Wilmington, Wheeling, and Indianapolis were expected to request AA membership.44

Once the meeting started, Brooklyn’s resignation and Baltimore’s application for membership were accepted.45

The meeting proceeded to NL relations. Caylor motioned that players expelled, suspended, or blacklisted by the NL or College Association after March 12 be permitted to appeal to the directors or the AA. When Reid offered to amend the motion by striking the date, the amendment failed.46 The AA adopted a compromise. A player expelled or blacklisted by the League or College Association after March 16, 1882, could appeal to the AA for reinstatement.47 If the AA Board of Directors determined the expulsion unjust, it could extend honorary membership to the player. A player who appeared on the blacklist on or before March 15, 1882, could not be engaged by an AA club until reinstated by the NL.48 Harold and Dorothy Seymour observe that this policy was a direct challenge to the NL.49 The policy could have been viewed by the NL as a challenge by the AA to the NL’s attempts to credibly control player behavior.

In regard to Wise, Troy, and Holbert, the AA asked their clubs, Cincinnati, Athletic, and Allegheny, not to expel them. In response to the Troy and Wise matters, the AA reportedly retained lawyers in each League city, New York, and Philadelphia, to enjoin Troy and Wise from playing with League clubs.50 The AA resolved to test its contracts in court by an injunction against Wise at Boston, and it decided not to expel him. The Holbert case with Allegheny was put aside pending the outcome of the Wise case.51 One reason cited for the modest AA action on Wise was that some of the AA clubs desired to play exhibitions with NL clubs. AA clubs could not play NL clubs if their rosters included ineligible players.52 Seymour and Seymour view the AA’s decision to test the baseball contract in a civil court as a “war measure” and a direct confrontation with the NL.53

The Troy matter affected proposed interleague exhibitions. Lew Simmons desired that AA clubs not play Detroit during April due to the presence of Troy on the club’s roster. Detroit manager Bancroft was present at the meeting and claimed to have no knowledge of the Athletic claims, but said Detroit would release Troy if the Athletics would agree to contract with Troy. Detroit otherwise wished to maintain its promise with Troy. Simmons was cited as unwilling to contract with Troy.54

The AA created an Association Alliance (AAA),55 similar to the NLLA. Harold and Dorothy Seymour consider the establishment of the AAA another challenge to the NL.56 The AA modified its bylaws and constitution to give clubs that applied for AAA membership and agreed to be governed by the AA constitution and bylaws all privileges of AA membership except the ability to vote at AA meetings.57 With its AAA, the AA directly competed with the NL to gain influence with the other professional clubs, on more equal terms.

The proposed schedule for the six clubs included 16 games against each opponent, or 80 championship games total.58

When the meeting continued on March 14, the AA accepted the resignations of board members William Barnie (whose club withdrew) and Charles Fulmer (who left management of the Athletic Club). In their places, the AA elected Lew Simmons (Athletic Club) and J.H. Pank (Eclipse Club).59 The AA adopted the 1881 NL playing rules60 and adopted the Mahn ball.61 The Association adopted different rules governing the umpire. The home club had the right to select the game umpire and pay all umpire expenses.62 The clubs were permitted to serve alcohol at their games.63 Unlike the NL, AA clubs could approach players for purposes of contracting for the 1883 season. Although Simmons preferred a date to protect his roster from depredations, Thorner argued successfully that without any date, AA clubs could counter NL offers.64

In the meeting’s aftermath, two important events occurred. First, longtime NL President W.A. Hulbert died of heart disease on April 10, 1882.65 Until its annual meeting, Boston’s Soden served as interim president.66 In Chicago, A.G. Spalding was elected the club president, and future NL President A.G. Mills was elected a director.67

The second important event was the “independence policy” adopted by the AA, which reflected the break in relations between the AA and the NL. Several preseason exhibition games between AA and NL clubs were scheduled and some were played. In mid-May, the Athletic club notified AA Secretary Williams that it had suspended Troy. If an NLLA club played any game with the Detroit NL club in which Dasher Troy appeared on the field, AA clubs would not be permitted to play games with that NLLA club.68 On May 29, 1882, Detroit played the NLLA club at Philadelphia with Troy in the lineup, and thereafter AA clubs refused to play games with NL and NLLA clubs.69 With a desire to continue the series of exhibition games with AA clubs, NL clubs quickly appealed to the Athletic club to reinstate Troy, with a promise by Detroit to release Troy to “end the difficulty.” However, the Athletic club continued to refuse to reinstate Troy.70 Compounding the difficulty, Cincinnati soon thereafter expelled Sam Wise.71 The independence policy was later judged to be a success and credited with providing the Association with the legitimacy that it was an equal with the League.72

National League Special Board of Directors Meeting
June 24, 1882, Russell House, Detroit

On June 24, 1882 at Detroit’s Russell House, a special meeting addressed alleged crooked umpiring by umpire Dick Higham.73 Meeting in secret session, a committee of the NL’s Board of Directors considered the allegations brought by the Detroit club’s President William G. Thompson that Higham tipped NL game results to gamblers. Thompson provided a letter in which a well-known Detroit gambler was instructed how to bet on games in which Higham was scheduled to be the game official. Although Higham pleaded his innocence, handwriting experts attested that the letter was in his hand. Freeman Brown also testified that Higham was seen in Worcester with a known gambler.74 The NL directors voted unanimously to expel Higham.75

American Association Special Meeting
July 2, 1882, Gibson House, Cincinnati

On July 2, 1882, except for the Baltimore club, all AA clubs were present and represented by delegates at Cincinnati’s Gibson House.76 At stake was the legitimacy of the AA and its 1882 championship season. The AA made unusual midseason changes to its umpiring system in response to the Eclipse club’s actions after a disagreement with the umpire’s work during a championship game and in conflict with the St. Louis club, which sought the expulsion of the Eclipse club from the AA.77 The 1882 season marked the start of the transition from the days when umpiring was an unknown profession to the modern professional system in which umpiring is a career choice.

At St. Louis on June 29, Eclipse withdrew from a game at the end of the fourth inning, citing “alleged unfair decisions” by the umpire, Pat McGee. McGee then properly forfeited the game to St. Louis. Eclipse left the city and failed to play the scheduled championship games on June 30 and July 1.78 Under AA rules, the Eclipse club should have been expelled for refusing to play the two games. Complicating the violation by the Eclipse club, McGee, the umpire, had provided an affidavit to St. Louis that Eclipse management had informed him that Tony Mullane’s arm was lame and requested McGee to “go easy” on Mullane in exchange for Eclipse advocating McGee for an AA umpire position. St. Louis owner Chris Von der Ahe was rumored to submit charges and request the AA to expel Eclipse.79 The negotiated solution was messy and rewarded Eclipse. The AA agreed that games the umpire had forfeited to St. Louis were to be replayed on July 5 and 6. The home games at Louisville scheduled for the week of July 2 were postponed until later in the season. The negotiated agreement over the umpire dispute may have preserved the 1882 season, but weakened the AA by establishing divisions and reinforcing cliques.

The AA proceeded to make changes to its umpire system. Secretary Williams was to select as umpire three names from six submitted names of well-known former players. These three men were to be signed to contracts and receive a salary. When traveling, the umpire was to travel with the visiting clubs, and all of the clubs were to share the traveling expenses.80

In a final bit of business, the AA resolved to enforce the rule that clubs must immediately contract with players.81

After the meeting, the AA increased tensions with the NL through its “preemption policy.” During July 1882 AA clubs began to sign NL players to 1883 contracts. The Allegheny club innovated a form of labor contract, the option, which, upon acceptance of consideration, was a promise by the player to sign an AA contract in October 1882 for the 1883 season. The option contract allowed the NL player to state that he had not contracted with an AA club for the 1883 season, and also revealed the amount an AA club was willing to bid for an NL player’s services.82 The willingness of several AA clubs to negotiate 1883 contracts with NL players, and their contracting with AA players for the following season, generated considerable notice in the press, and signaled that the AA was likely to continue as a viable competitor to the NL with its labor reserve policy. One baseball writer noted, “No end of worriment is being caused to the League clubs from the fact that the American clubs are offering the former’s most prominent players much higher salaries than the League managers. Many League players who have been held by the ‘five-men rule’ now openly express their intention to join the rival association.”83

League Special Meeting
September 22, 1882, Parlor C, Continental Hotel, Philadelphia

Delegates to the NL special meeting84 agreed that each club could engage its players or players from non-NL clubs beginning September 25, 1882.85 While NL players were not known to have signed 1883 contracts, many AA clubs had already contracted with AA players offering higher salaries than paid during 1882.86 Some AA clubs had large cash balances that some were willing to use as signing bonuses or advances on 1883 salaries.87 This new date was one month earlier and revealed that NL clubs recognized the financial success of AA clubs and their need to field competitive teams.88 The NL reaction demonstrated that the NL could be flexible when its viability was at stake.

The 1882 season featured a pennant race between Chicago and Providence. In an unusual motion, the Buffalo club obtained permission to schedule three of its home games with Chicago at either Chicago, New York, or Philadelphia. A purpose of Organized Baseball is to regulate and determine the championship, and the NL action appeared to favor Chicago over Providence.89 The Providence club opposed and voted against the motion, which created ill feelings.90

The meeting turned to franchise relocation. The NL admitted the Philadelphia and Metropolitan clubs, and accepted the resignations of the Troy and Worcester clubs.91 The two clubs suffered from poor records and low attendance, and the shared gate receipts sometimes failed to cover visiting NL clubs’ travel expenses. Both clubs were reported to have received subsidies to complete their games during the 1882 season.92 As NLLA members, the Metropolitan and Philadelphia clubs knew the NL’s rules, were located in the largest cities, drew large crowds, and played competitively in games against NL clubs.93

Several NL clubs failed to obtain reinstatement for the blacklisted players.94 The maintenance of the blacklist may have been a way for the NL to apply leverage on players to remain with NL clubs. After the meeting, AA President Dennis McKnight alleged that the NL threatened players with the blacklist if the player refused to sign an 1883 NL contract, and stated, “In this way they hope to drive some of the players who have already joined the American clubs to break their contracts.”95

American Association Special Meeting
October 23, 1882, Columbus, Ohio

At the final special meeting to conclude the 1882 AA season, relocation, expansion, and player reinstatement provided much speculation. One reporter expected the AA to reinstate all NL players except the Louisville Four.96 The AA was also expected to discuss the expulsion of the champion Cincinnati club.

In the morning, the Board of Directors met to decide the charges brought against the Cincinnati club for playing NL clubs during October.97 While some directors desired to expel Cincinnati to strengthen the AA’s credibility, a compromise maintained Cincinnati’s membership98 on acceptance of a reprimand and fine.99

After dinner, the AA held its membership meeting. The membership “understood” the Baltimore club to have resigned.100 Applications for membership were submitted from a New York club; the Merritts of Camden, New Jersey; the Aetnas of Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Baltimore; a second Baltimore club; and a second New York club.101 The AA decided to increase its numbers to eight, and admitted clubs from Baltimore, Columbus, and New York.102 The AA brought in some who had been present at its organization. The Baltimore vacancy was filled with William Barnie, who was backed by “wealthy residents.”103 James Mutrie managed the Metropolitan club of New York, and H.B. Phillips managed Columbus.104

The AA agreed to not hire from each other’s rosters until the annual meeting.105

When the AA discussed the NL blacklist, it was noted that the NL had contracted with men who were expelled from AA rosters. The AA resolved to reinstate all men blacklisted by the NL, except for those by reason of crookedness (e.g., the Louisville Four and umpire Dick Higham). Jones, Gerhardt, Crowley, Fox, Dorgan, Houck, Gross, Haskins, Pike, Dickerson, and Nolan were immediately eligible to play as members of the Association.106

Conclusion

By any account, the business of the 1882 season is of interest today. The entry of a new major league, the efforts to innovate, survive, and remain relevant served lovers of baseball then and influenced the business of baseball for years to come. The 1882 season concluded with a championship for Cincinnati in the AA and a somewhat disputed championship for Chicago in the NL. In retrospect, it is a surprise that the AA’s championship season was successfully completed, while the NL concluded with questions to the legitimacy of its championship as well as its financial viability.107

Clubs experimented with marketing programs and uses of their grounds. They marketed ladies days, and offered doubleheaders on July 4, 1882.108 The grounds represented a large outlay for some baseball organizers, and when their clubs traveled away for weeks, they were underutilized. Where NL club grounds were solely for showing NL championship games, the AA innovated and permitted its clubs to more effectively use their grounds with spectacles, events, concerts, shows, and exhibition baseball games.109

The NL had an exciting pennant race. The New York Clipper exclaimed that in no previous season had the race been “so close and exciting at this stage as it is now.”110

The speculation of franchise expansion and relocation was as emotional and exciting then as today. The AA initially located franchises in large population centers during 1882, to focus on admissions. Indeed, Voigt credits the AA’s entrance for the nationwide baseball boom that followed.111 Among the population, “There are as many pro players as ever.” Across the North, “[E]very interior town has an amateur team.”112 NL policies and practices removed franchises that happened to be in large population centers, and may have reduced salary demands and travel costs. However, five of the six AA clubs had higher attendance than did Chicago, the NL’s top draw, which had three times the number of customers as the next-drawing NL club.113 The New York Clipper boasted, “It is our one characteristically national pastime, and it is too good a sport to be permitted to die out.”114 With the success of the AA, the NL had to adjust if it was to maintain its quality.

To meet the public interest, the NL had to move its own franchises to improve its businesses. As most club revenues were derived from attendance fees, the NL’s proportional gate-sharing policy encouraged a shift in franchises to more populated places. All else equal, the market for player services had changed. The New York Clipper predicted that the NL would abandon the “five-man rule” because AA clubs were willing to pay the highest salaries.115 By entering larger markets, the NL acquired the resources necessary to maintain pace with the AA’s willingness to pay labor more, offer a competitive service, and prevent new competitors to its business model. To accomplish these changes and protect its new markets, the NL successfully negotiated what subsequently became known as the National Agreement, the organized structure with rules and regulations for associations recognized in Organized Baseball. For 1883, the NL removed franchises from Worcester and Troy, convenient locations along east-west railroad mainlines, and entered New York City and Philadelphia, while the AA expanded to eight clubs by placing franchises in New York City and Columbus, Ohio.

Sources

Besides the sources mentioned in the Notes, Spalding’s Base Ball Guide and Official League Book for 1882 (Chicago: A.G. Spalding & Bros., 1882, reprint, Horton Publishing, 1988) was consulted.

Notes

1 At the annual meeting, Soden was elected president which ended Harry Wright’s 11-season relationship with Boston. New York Clipper, December 24, 1881: 658.

2 David Nemec. The Beer and Whisky League: The Illustrated History of the American Association – Baseball’s Renegade Major League (Guilford, Connecticut: The Lyons Press, 2004), 20-21. Harold Seymour and Dorothy Seymour, Baseball: The Early Years, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1960), 98-99, 138. Cincinnati Enquirer, November 3, 1881: 5; November 4, 1881: 4; November 6, 1881: 2; New York Clipper, October 29, 1881: 515; November 5, 1881: 532; November 12, 1881: 556; Pittsburgh Daily Post, October 11, 1881: 4; November 3, 1881: 1; November 4, 1881: 1; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 4, 1881: 1.

3 Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 9, 1881: 3; Cincinnati Enquirer, October 23, 1881: 12; November 3, 1881: 5; November 4, 1881: 4; November 5, 1881: 5; November 6, 1881: 2; November 24, 1881: 2; December 7, 1881: 4; New York Clipper, November 12, 1881: 556; January 7, 1882: 687.

4 Seymour and Seymour, 142. Charles Snyder, a catcher formerly of the NL’s Boston club, contracted to captain the Cincinnati club.

5 Detroit contracted with Athletic signee Dasher Troy and Boston contracted with Cincinnati club signee Sam Wise.

6 New York Clipper, October 8, 1881: 463.

7 Cincinnati Enquirer, October 23, 1881: 12; New York Clipper, October 22, 1882: 504.

8 The following delegates were recorded present: the chairman, Hulbert, and directors Brown (Worcester), Hotchkin (Troy), Smith (representing Jewett, Buffalo), and Thompson (Detroit). New York Clipper, December 17, 1881: 633.

9 The NL Providence club expelled Baker for signing a contract, accepting advance money, then signing a second contract with the Washington National Club, and finally failing to perform to his Providence contract. Boston Post, December 8, 1881: 1; New York Clipper, December 17, 1881: 633.

10 Jones had played professionally as a major leaguer in Cincinnati, was with the semipro club during 1881, and signed a contract with the AA Cincinnati club. For Cincinnati to perform, its contract with Jones required the NL or its Boston club to reinstate Jones. New York Clipper, December 24, 1881: 652. Hulbert said the NL would never reinstate Jones because he failed to appeal within the proper time period. See New York Clipper, October 22, 1881: 504. Thompson observed that the Board no longer had any authority to act because Jones had failed to apply during the required time period. New York Clipper, December 17, 1881: 633.

11 Club delegates included W.A. Hulbert and A. G. Mills (Chicago), A.H. Soden and Harry Wright (Boston), J. Ford Evans (Cleveland), H.B. Winship (Providence), Freeman Brown (Worcester), H. Smith and J. Jewett (Buffalo), A.H. Hotchkin (Troy), and W.J. Thompson (Detroit). Present were John Day (Metropolitan Club), Robert Ferguson (Troy), and Albert G. Spalding (Chicago). New York Clipper, December 17, 1881: 633.

12 New York Clipper, November 12, 1881: 555; December 10, 1881: 615.

13 New York Clipper, December 10, 1881: 615.

14 New York Clipper, December 3, 1881: 603.

15 Hulbert, Hotchkin, and Winship.

16 New York Clipper, December 17, 1881: 633. Hulbert and Soden comprised the schedule committee.

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid. Chicago Inter Ocean, December 8, 1881: 3.

19 Chicago Inter Ocean, December 8, 1881: 3.

20 Ibid. The uniform came to be widely disliked by players.

21 Cincinnati Enquirer, December 9, 1881: 2.

22 New York Clipper, December 17, 1881: 633.

23 Obviously, if gross receipts exceeded $200, then the NL club was to receive half of the gross or gate receipts. The agreement specified that receipts were not to include any extra fees for grandstand admission or “special privileges.” New York Clipper, March 18, 1882: 855. The option of gate or gross receipts for use in calculation was to induce the Metropolitan Club to NLLA affiliation. Cincinnati Enquirer, December 9, 1881: 2.

24 New York Clipper, December 17, 1881; 633.

25 Under NL regulations, outside clubs that played with the Athletic Club in the NL Philadelphia territory would be prohibited from home games with visiting NL clubs.

26 Hulbert initially declined because Mills was expected to accept. See Cincinnati Enquirer, December 9, 1881: 2. A humorous but also serious event occurred. Evans from Cleveland declared for four years, Hulbert had repeatedly disrespected him without cause. After consultation, the delegates agreed to “cane” Hulbert, presenting him with a gold-headed cane. Cincinnati Enquirer, December 10, 1881: 2; Chicago Inter Ocean, December 10, 1881: 7.

27 Chicago Inter Ocean, December 10, 1881: 7; Cincinnati Enquirer, December 10, 1881: 2.

28 One reporter stated this policy was in response to widespread insubordination during 1881. New York Clipper, December 17, 1881: 633.

29 The NL presented unanimity in its public statement. However, several clubs sought the removal of their players from the NL blacklist, including Providence (Gross), Detroit (Houck), and Worcester (Dickerson). The Providence club threatened to withdraw its membership if its players were not reinstated. Cincinnati Enquirer, December 9, 1881: 2; New York Clipper, November 12, 1881: 555; December 17, 1881: 633.

30 New York Clipper, December 10, 1881: 615; December 17, 1881: 633; February 11, 1882: 773.

31 H.B. Phillips was to manage a club to be located at 24th Street and Ridge Avenue for sporting-goods magnate A.J. Reach, who was its treasurer. The club was admitted with neither grounds nor players. Phillips soon resigned to become superintendent of the 24th and Ridge grounds. Reach then reported that he had a lease of those grounds, and he formally organized the Philadelphia Ball Club and Sporting Association. New York Clipper, October 15, 1881: 486; November 19, 1881: 567; December 10, 1881: 615; January 14, 1882: 703, 705; January 28, 1882: 736.

32 The New York Clipper extended praise, calling the NL’s meeting, “The shortest special business meeting of the League known in its history …,” completed in less than two hours. New York Clipper, March 18, 1882: 860.

33 Delegates present represented Chicago and Cleveland (A.G. Spalding), Buffalo (Jas. Moffatt, and J.A. Mugridge), Detroit (W.G. Thompson), Boston (A.H. Soden), Providence (Harry Wright), Worcester (W.O. Wilder), and Troy City (A.L. Hotchkin).

34 New York Clipper, February 25, 1882; 803; Cincinnati Enquirer, March 8, 1882: 2.

35 New York Clipper, March 18, 1882: 860.

36 Rather than the privilege of a choice of $100 guarantee or 50 percent of receipts as for games during the championship season, Day and Reach offered April dates and a 45 percent share of the gate receipts. When the NL threatened that its clubs would play outside clubs at New York and Philadelphia, Day declined to schedule games with NL clubs at the meeting. Cincinnati Enquirer, March 8, 1882: 2; New York Clipper, February 25, 1882: 803; March 18, 1882: 860; March 25, 1882: 7.

37 New York Clipper, March 11, 1882: 844.

38 Mutrie, manager for the Metropolitan Club, was present to arrange dates with visiting AA clubs. New York Clipper, March 18, 1882: 855. Von der Ahe was reported to want NL clubs to visit St. Louis and play exhibitions against his club. Cincinnati Enquirer, March 11, 1882: 2.

39 Seymour and Seymour, 140.

40 Cincinnati Enquirer, March 13, 1882: 8.

41 New York Clipper, March 11, 1882: 844.

42 Barnie reported his intention to withdraw his membership. After it was accepted, he secured Brooklyn’s Union Grounds and was accepted into the NLLA. He opposed the $65 game guarantee policy. Cincinnati Enquirer, March 13, 1882: 8, New York Clipper, January 28, 1882: 737; February 18, 1882: 792; February 25, 1882: 803, April 8, 1882: 39. In Nemec’s account, Barnie had neither leased the Union grounds nor signed players, so he proposed moving his franchise to Columbus, but lacked investors. The AA awarded a franchise to Baltimore, the connection being McKnight as Association president and Myers, the Pittsburgh-signed shortstop. Henry Von der Host, a brewer, entered ownership later during the 1882 season. See Nemec, 24-25.

43 Cincinnati Enquirer, March 13, 1882: 8. Baltimore backers had organized a club, engaged Myers to manage, leased Washington Park, and had contracted with five players. New York Clipper, April 15, 1882: 55.

44 New York Clipper, February 18, 1882: 792; February 25, 1882: 803.

45 Delegates present included H.D. McKnight (Allegheny), Charles Fulmer and Lew Simmons (Athletics), Justus Thorner, O.P. Caylor, and F.B. Wright (Cincinnati), J.H. Pank (Eclipse), and Chris Von der Ahe and David L. Reid (St. Louis). New York Clipper, March 18, 1882: 855.

46 Ibid. St. Louis and Allegheny clubs supported the motion.

47 The adopted resolution read as follows:

“Any base ball player, manager or umpire who shall after March 15, 1882, be expelled, suspended or blacklisted by the National League or College Association of baseball players may appeal from said disability to the Board of Directors of the American Association; the said board at its next subsequent session shall hear evidence from said expelled person as to the justice or injustice of said expulsion, and if, upon such investigation, it shall appear to the entire satisfaction of the said Board of Directors that such expulsion, and if, upon such investigation, it shall appear to the entire satisfaction of the said Board of Directors that such expulsion is unjust or unmerited said person shall be declared to be eligible as an honorable member in the American Association, with full privileges of that body. If such injustice be not proven, then the disability imposed upon the player by said league, college or association shall be affirmed by the American Association. No player who shall be resting under sentence of expulsion or suspension or be on any so-called black list on March 15, 1882, shall be permitted to play with any American Association club until such disability be removed by the power that imposed it.”

See Philadelphia Times, March 14, 1882: 4.

48 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 13, 1882: 1; Cincinnati Enquirer, March 13, 1882: 8; Times (Philadelphia), March 14, 1882: 4.

49 Seymour and Seymour, 141.

50 New York Clipper, February 25, 1882: 803.

51 New York Clipper, March 18, 1882: 855. On May 3, 1882, papers were served on Boston club President Soden and Wise to appear at the U.S. Circuit Court on May 5. On the appointed date, Cincinnati’s attorneys stated that the loss of Wise was irreparable, damages could not be estimated, and demanded an injunction. The defendants responded that the court had no duty to interfere. The court adjourned until May 11 for further consideration and decided not to enjoin Wise from playing. On May 11, Judge Nelson considered Cincinnati’s arguments then dismissed the suit “on account of lack of jurisdiction” on May 12. The Cincinnati club responded with an appeal to the Supreme Court, and Soden and Wise were served notices to appear on June 1. When the decision on appeal was received, Cincinnati notified Secretary Williams that it expelled Wise, effectively ending exhibitions between AA and NL clubs. New York Clipper, May 13, 1882: 123; May 20, 1882: 139; May 27, 1882: 158; August 12, 1882: 335.

52 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 13, 1882: 1; Cincinnati Enquirer, March 13, 1882: 8; Times (Philadelphia), March 14, 1882: 4.

53 Seymour and Seymour, 141.

54 Cincinnati Enquirer, March 15, 1882: 5.

55 New York Clipper, March 18, 1882: 855.

56 Seymour and Seymour, 141.

57 Cincinnati Enquirer, March 15, 1882: 5.

58 New York Clipper, March 18, 1882: 855.

59 Ibid.

60 Ibid.

61 Ibid. The manufacturer would seal and directly ship the ball. In the NL, the secretary provided the official balls.

62 Cincinnati Enquirer, March 15, 1882: 5. New York Clipper, March 18, 1882: 855. In the NL, the umpire traveled with the visiting club. New York Clipper, March 25, 1882: 7.

63 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 13, 1882: 1; Cincinnati Enquirer, March 13, 1882: 8; Times (Philadelphia), March 14, 1882: 4. The St. Louis and Cincinnati delegates stated the privilege was worth $4,000 to $5,000.

64 Cincinnati Enquirer, March 15, 1882: 5.

65 Cincinnati Enquirer, April 11, 1882: 2.

66 New York Clipper April 22, 1882: 75.

67 New York Clipper, May 6, 1882: 107.

68 New York Clipper, May 20, 1882. To avoid complications, Detroit planned to avoid using Troy in games against the Metropolitan or Philadelphia clubs. New York Clipper, May 27, 1882: 158.

69 New York Clipper, June 3, 1882: 175.

70 As an inducement to the Athletics, NL clubs offered to play games against them in Philadelphia after the championship season. New York Clipper, June 24, 1882: 219. Unfortunately for Troy, on July 11, 1882, he was seriously injured when Chicago’s George Gore spiked him in the right leg during play in the third inning. New York Clipper, July 22, 1882: 285. Expected to be unable to play for a considerable time period, Troy received one-month salary and an unconditional release. New York Clipper, July 22, 1882: 283. Even then, the Athletic club refused to reinstate Troy because it claimed that Detroit had not provided it official notice of Troy’s release. New York Clipper, July 29, 1882: 298.

71 See endnote 51.

72 New York Clipper, August 19, 1882: 349.

73 The committee consisted of James A. Mugridge (Buffalo), chair, Gardner Earl (Troy), and Freeman Brown (Worcester). Board member William G. Thompson (Detroit) brought charges and was excused. Interim NL President A.H. Soden (Boston) was absent. Chairman W.A. Hulbert was deceased. Thompson charged Higham with violating section 45 of the NL constitution and playing rule 47. A complete review of the evidence and report of a committee of the board for this matter is in Harold V. Higham, “The Disqualification of Umpire Dick Higham,” in Larry R. Gerlach and Bill Nowlin, eds., The SABR Book of Umpires and Umpiring (Phoenix: Society for American Baseball Research, 2017), 402-407.

74 The newspapers stated four experts were present, Higham states three experts were given in the Official Report. New York Clipper, July 1, 1882: 235; Cincinnati Enquirer, June 25, 1882: 2, Higham: 405.

75 Ibid.

76 The delegates were Von der Ahe (St. Louis), McKnight (Pittsburgh), Simmons (Philadelphia), Cramer (Cincinnati), and Pank (Louisville). Managers Cuthbert of St Louis and Dwyer of Louisville were also present. See Cincinnati Enquirer, July 3, 1882: 8.

77 Cincinnati Enquirer, July 2, 1882: 2; New York Clipper, July 1, 1882: 243; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 26, 1882: 4.

78 New York Clipper, July 8, 1882: 255.

79 Cincinnati Enquirer, July 2, 1882: 2.

80 New York Clipper, July 8, 1882: 254. Williams appointed to its official umpire corps Joseph Simmons of Rochester, New York, Thomas Carey of Baltimore, and Michael Walsh of Louisville. New York Clipper, July 15, 1882: 265.

81 New York Clipper, July 8, 1882: 254.

82 Seymour and Seymour, 142. For instance, Detroit catcher Charlie Bennett had accepted $100 and promised to sign a contract for $1,700. Bennett refused to sign the contract, which encouraged Chicago’s Ned Williamson and Buffalo’s James Galvin to fail to carry out their promises with Pittsburgh. When Pittsburgh filed suit in court to compel Bennett to sign the labor contract with Pittsburgh, the court held for Bennett.

83 New York Clipper, August 12, 1882: 335.

84 Delegates present were from the following clubs: Boston (A.H. Soden and A.J. Chase), Detroit (W.G. Thompson), Troy (A.L. Hotchkin), Cleveland (Geo. W. Howe), Worcester (Fred Simester), Providence (H.B. Winship), Buffalo (James Moffat), and Chicago (A.G. Spalding).

85 Cincinnati Enquirer, September 22, 1882: 5.

86 New York Clipper, August 5, 1882: 319. By early July, AA clubs were reported to have made offers to NL players for the 1883 season. New York Clipper, July 29, 1882: 298. Shortly after the NL meeting, St. Louis was reported to have signed Whitney, Radbourne, Mullane, McGinnis, Deasley, Rowen, Denny, Comiskey, W. Latham, William Gleason, and Cuthbert. Several of these players were in 1882 NL rosters. Also, the Athletic Club was reported to have contracted with Whitney and Deasley. New York Clipper, September 30, 1882: 448, 451.

87 NL clubs had tried to cease the practice of salary advances. AA clubs made known their large profits. For instance, the Allegheny club had a $2,700 cash balance by mid-July, and its stockholders directed the board to contact the leading players to contract for the 1883 season. New York Clipper, July 22, 1882: 283. The Detroit club observed, “[Association clubs] are taking our players because they can afford higher salaries.” New York Clipper, September 30, 1882: 451.

88 At least one observer thought that offers from AA clubs would result in players leaving the NL: “[S]everal League clubs will be astonished when they learn what player of their teams have been ‘Troy’d’ and ‘Wise’d’ from their ranks for the American Association. It is a poor rule that won’t work both ways. The League initiated the Troy and Wise business, and now they have the poisoned chalice placed to their own lips.” New York Clipper, September 30, 1882: 451. Baseball observers believed that the AA was viable for 1883 and that its clubs were likely to hold their players as well as bid for services of NL players, “All the club of the American Association are in a prosperous condition, and, with strengthened nines, expect to have a still more successful season, financially, in 1883.” New York Clipper, August 5, 1882: 318.

89 One reporter noted the disadvantage to Providence’s championship prospects. The NL agreed that if the Chicago and Providence clubs tied for the championship, the two clubs could schedule a series of not more than nine games. The Buffalo and Chicago clubs wanted the greater revenues each would earn even though Chicago was to receive the visitor’s share of the gate. New York Clipper, September 30, 1882: 448.

90 Times (Philadelphia), September 23, 1882: 3. New York Clipper, September 30, 1882: 451.

91 Times (Philadelphia), September 23, 1882: 3. The New York Clipper reported that neither club “voluntarily resigned.” The members voted affirmatively 6-2 a resolution that Worcester and Troy not be represented in the League during 1883. September 30, 1882: 448. The Troy club reportedly denied it had resigned, that it had not violated any portion of the NL constitution, could not be removed from membership, and would not willingly resign. Times (Philadelphia), September 26, 1882: 1. With some intrigue, “several” AA clubs reportedly applied for membership. Times (Philadelphia), September 23, 1882: 3.

92 New York Clipper, September 30, 1882: 448, 451; Times (Philadelphia), September 23, 1882: 3. In July 1882, the Worcester Club was rumored to withdraw and release its players. Instead, it reorganized under new shareholders and hired Jack Chapman as manager. New York Clipper, July 8, 1882: 255; July 15, 1882: 265; July 22, 1882: 283; July 29, 1882: 298, 301. If forced to resign, Worcester threatened to not complete its schedule, which included three games with Chicago. New York Clipper, October 7, 1882: 467.

93 Times (Philadelphia), September 23, 1882: 3. Reach was under some pressure because the NL informed him that it would locate a club at Philadelphia if he did not enter. NL clubs could not play exhibitions with Reach’s club if an NL franchise was located there. New York Clipper, October 7, 1882: 467.

94 New York Clipper, October 21, 1882: 499.

95 New York Clipper, October 7, 1882: 467. Many NL players would not sign AA contracts out of fear of the blacklist. Cincinnati Enquirer, September 22, 1882: 5.

96 Nine clubs were reported to have requested a franchise location. New York Clipper, October 21, 1882: 499. One writer expected reinstatement for all except the Louisville Four. Cincinnati Enquirer, October 23, 1882: 2.

97 Cincinnati was reported to have arranged to play Cleveland, Chicago, and Providence. Cincinnati intended to release its players to avoid violating the AA constitution and bylaws. The Athletic Club planned the same action to schedule games with Reach’s club. Two games between the Cincinnati and Chicago clubs were played at Cincinnati. In response, the AA notified Cincinnati management that its club would be expelled if it played games with Cleveland and Providence. New York Clipper, September 30, 1882: 448; October 7, 1882: 467.

98 Cincinnati Enquirer, October 24, 1882: 2.

99 New York Clipper, November 4, 1882: 536.

100 The withdrawal was often reported. New York Clipper, August 19, 1882: 346; September 23, 1882: 430; September 30, 1882: 448; November 4, 1882: 536.

101 Applications were also reported from organizers at Brooklyn and Toledo, Ohio. New York Clipper, September 9, 1883: 399, October 7, 1882: 467; October 21, 1882: 499; November 4, 1882: 536.

102 Cincinnati Enquirer, October 24, 1882: 2; New York Clipper, November 4, 1882: 536.

103 New York Clipper, November 4, 1882: 536.

104 New York Clipper, October 28, 1882: 515. The AA provided the Metropolitan Club with a preferential claim to membership and notified it of the competing application for a franchise at New York. New York Clipper, September 2, 1882: 381. In Nemec’s account of this meeting, Mutrie brought into the AA the Metropolitans of the NLLA. (Beer & Whiskey League, 2004), 39.

105 Cincinnati Enquirer, October 24, 1882: 2. As the AA did not impose a reserve policy, NL players enjoyed open competition for offers from interested AA clubs.

106 Cincinnati Enquirer, October 24, 1882: 2. Jones soon signed a contract with Cincinnati. New York Clipper, November 11, 1882: 547.

107 Buffalo’s three end-of-season home games were played at Chicago, against the Chicago club.

108 New York Clipper, May 20, 1882: 139, 141; June 3, 1882: 173; June 24, 1882: 219; July 1, 1882: 235.

109 New York Clipper, March 4, 1882: 825.

110 New York Clipper, August 5, 1882: 314.

111 Voigt, 125.

112 New York Clipper, August 5, 1882: 317.

113 Detroit noted that during its Eastern trip, it made more revenue from fewer games with NLLA members New York and Philadelphia, than from more NL championship games at Troy, Worcester, Boston, and Providence. New York Clipper, September 2, 1882: 381; October 21, 1882: 499.

114 New York Clipper, August 5, 1882: 314.

115 New York Clipper, August 19, 1882: 349.

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