Theodore A. Dorgan, who used the nom de plume “Tad” as his signature, was the best-known baseball cartoonist of the early part of this century. It was he, according to Lee Allen, who first called a frankfurter on a roll a hot dog. Probably the most famous of all baseball cartoonists was the late Willard Mullin who plied his trade for the New York World-Telegramand The Sporting News. His rendition of the Brooklyn Bum, with his torn pants, battered hat and shoes, made the Brooklyn Dodgers famous and recognizable far beyond the confines of America’s sports pages. Burns Jenkins of the long-departed New York Journal American, Murray Olderman of the Newspaper Enterprise Alliance, Bill Gallo of the New York Daily News, and Gene Mack of the Boston Globe are others who gained national reputations with their baseball cartoons.

Not nationally known at all was Christopher Smith who drew topical baseball cartoons in Buffalo in 1877; but he could well have been the very first of his breed. In his adopted city (he had been born Christoff Schmidt in Germany in 1841), he was known as Christo Von Buffalo. As Theodore A. Dorgan was to do a few generations later, he used a shorter signature on all of his cartoons, signing each one, “Christo,” with the tail of the “C” forming a flourish under the rest of the signature.

The Buffalo club of 1877, the city’s first professional nine, was neither an artistic (apart from Christo) nor a financial success. Formed in mid-season, the team was by necessity made up of callow youths, castoffs and ne’er-do-wells. It played a 40-game schedule against National League and International Association clubs, winning ten games, losing 27 and tying three. At season’s end on October 26, its books showed a cash balance of just $490.19, plus 47 bats and three baseballs. It was explained that the supply of baseballs would have been greater had it not been for the practice of the time which dictated that the losing team give a ball to the winning team. Gate receipts totaled $4324.19, out of which came such expenses as $3833.59 for salaries, $85.42 for bats and $25 paid to Mark Stinson, who had been injured when the bleachers collapsed during a game against Louisville.

The Buffalos were managed by a triumvirate of local businessmen: Edward R. Spaulding, assistant cashier of the Farmers and Mechanics National Bank and son of Elbridge Spaulding, long-time congressman and well-known as “Father of the Greenback;” Elihu Spencer, agent for Equitable Life, and John Van Velsor, Proprietor of a Main Street bakery. For neophytes, their accomplishments were quite remarkable. First of all, they signed a 17-year-old phenom named Larry Corcoran, who had been pitching for the Livingstons of Geneseo, N.Y., and then at the end of the season, after they had re-signed him at $600 for 1878, changed their minds and bought up his contract for $50, simply because they had no catcher who could hold him.

By such a small event as this was the course of baseball history changed. Corcoran went on to become one of the solid pitchers of the game’s early years (1880-87) and hurled three no-hitters, while Jim Galvin, signed in his place, was destined to become the greatest pitcher in Buffalo baseball history and a Hall of Famer.

The Buffalo management also had the perspicacity to sign another 17-year old with great potential but did not have the patience to hold on to him. John Montgomery Ward joined the team in September 1877 but was not resigned for 1878 because of his extreme youth. Among others who played for this pioneer Buffalo nine were Jim (Chief) Roseman, who was to play ten years of major league ball, and Andy Cummings, a gypsy ballplayer whose sad story was epitomized by a dispatch out of Covington, Ky., dated January 6, 1889: “Andy Cummings, the once noted player, has been sentenced to the Kentucky Penitentiary for chicken stealing. Whiskey is to blame.”

The men who operated the Buffalo club were imaginative, to say the least. They offered reduced prices for ladies. They maintained a ticket office in a downtown music store and permitted an injured player to sell scorecards at the ballgame. These scorecards, which sold for a nickel, contained ads for local merchants as well as the lineups for the competing teams. The Buffalo club also hired an official scorer who meticulously recorded every pitch of every game. The printed score sheets he used (the writer has three of them in his possession) recorded 23 different elements of the game, ten under batting, six under fielding and seven under errors, plus a tabulation of called balls and called strikes by both teams. In modern scoring, each position has a number. The Buffalo scorer accomplished the same thing by using letters — “A” for first base, “B” for second base, “D” for third base, etc.

So that Buffalo fans could keep close tabs on the games, a large scoreboard was set up on the field. It was Christopher Smith’s job to record the-inning-by-inning results. But Smith, who with his brothers Gus and George, ran a sign and paint shop on Sixth Street, about a mile from the Niagara St. park where the Buffalos played, had talent far beyond the ability to print nice neat ciphers on the scoreboard. He used this talent to draw on poster paper a topical cartoon, giving his pictorial view of the high or low spots of the game. After each cartoon was completed, it was taken to Joseph Garson’s clothing store in downtown Buffalo, where it was displayed in the window for all to see.

How many cartoons Smith drew is not known, but 34 of the originals are still in the possession of the family of Dr. William Smith of Hamilton, Ohio, a nephew of the artist. It was the privilege of this writer to see the entire collection and to make copies of the more interesting ones.

Christo’s cartoons are well composed and their captions are typical of the gentle but sometimes biting humor of this form of art. After a game in Rochester, which had been marked by several bitter disputes with the umpire, Christo depicted umpire Mandeville with the head of a jackass, between whose huge ears was lettered “soft spot.” His caption read, “Honest umpiring (sic) played out in Rochester.”

His cartoon following the September 28 game against the Alleghanys of Pittsburgh (final score, Alleghany 7, Buffalo 2) is done with a background of belching smokestacks and is captioned: “They say Pittsburgh looks like hell with the lid knocked off. That accounts for the Alleghany boys playing so like the devil.” Central to the cartoon is a fallen bison, getting a shot of “strengthening bitters” from a bat held by a Buffalo player.

After a September game with Indianapolis, which the visitors won, 7-0, Christo’s cartoon is composed of the scoreboard with the artist adding the ninth goose egg to the Buffalo line score. “If practice makes perfect, our scorer has the lower line down fine,” reads the caption.

After the last game of the season on October 16, a 3-0 loss to bitter rival Rochester, Christo showed his anger and disappointment by stuffing all the Buffalo players into a huge traveling bag, labeled, “The remains of a sorrowful baseball club.” Waiting in the wings is a railroad car ready to transport them to “all parts of the United States. Across the bottom of this cartoon is the further admonition: “An owner wanted. Buffalo please don’t apply.” Signed “Christo.”

It is unlikely that Christo continued his baseball cartooning after the 1877 season. At least that is the conclusion that one must come to after an extensive search of old Buffalo newspaper files.

But the fact remains that in 1877 he drew at least 34 topical baseball cartoons, and unless subsequent research unearths someone who did it earlier, then we must consider Christopher Smith the first to practice an art that was for so many years a daily feature of America’s sports pages.

Aside from Hunt, many other batters throughout baseball history have routinely used the hit-by-pitch as an offensive weapon. This brings up an obvious question: Who was the best of all time at reaching base on an HBP? Previous research on this topic has relied on rudimentary statistics, such as the total number of hit-by-pitches in a season or career. While these traditional measures do provide some insight, their inherent drawbacks limit their usefulness. This article will briefly outline these deficiencies and introduce a new and improved metric for effectively comparing hit-by-pitch statistics of players, including those from different eras. This metric will then be used to identify the players who employed the hit-by-pitch to their greatest (or least) advantage. A discussion section of this paper will focus on the most noteworthy performances identified and describe some of the reasons why those players stood out so much from their peers.

DEVISING A NEW HBP METRIC

One obvious drawback with simply comparing players based on their HBP totals is that those figures do not factor in how many opportunities each player had to get plunked. Even among the group of players with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title in a given season, there may be some players with roughly 50 percent more plate appearances than others. Effectively comparing career HBP totals is even more problematic using these traditional methods, since some players may enjoy 20-year careers (or more), while others may be forced to retire after only a dozen or so years in the major leagues.1 Clearly, the formula devised for an improved HBP metric must include the total number of plate appearances.

Another significant issue that limits the effectiveness of using raw HBP totals to compare players from different eras is the fact that hit-by-pitch rates have varied significantly over the years, as shown in Figure 1. The graph, which was generated from statistics in the Lahman Baseball Database, demonstrates that hit-by-pitch rates have ebbed and flowed throughout baseball history, from an all-time high of 1.24 percent of all plate appearances in 1899 to a low of 0.32 percent in 1941.2

Figure 1. HBP Percentage per Plate Appearance.

Yearly rates combined for the American Association (1884–91), National League (1887–2017), Players League (1890), American League (1901–2017), and Federal League (1914–15).

Since HBP rates have fluctuated so dramatically over the years, simply dividing the number of hit-by-pitches by the number of plate appearances to calculate a HBP average wouldn’t be sufficient to effectively compare HBP statistics across the different eras. For instance, a batter getting hit in 5 percent of his plate appearances in 1941 would be far more significant than someone being plunked at the exact same rate in 2001, when hit batsmen were roughly three times more common. A better approach would be to devise a metric that also adjusts for the HBP rate of the corresponding season.

However, a closer look at the numbers shows that there are many seasons in which the individual leagues have had significantly different HBP rates. For example, the American League HBP rate in 1909 was roughly 40 percent higher than the corresponding National League rate. Conversely, the senior circuit’s HBP rate was 21 percent greater than in the American League in 2013.

Figure 2. HBP Percentage per Plate Appearance.

Data shown for the American Association (1884–91), National League (1887–2017), and American League (1901–2017). Data for the Players League (1890) and Federal League (1914–15) are not shown due to legibility issues.

Due to the disparate HBP rates of the individual leagues, the proposed metric will adjust for the hit-by-pitch rate of the corresponding league and season instead of using a combined rate for all leagues. This will allow players to be compared relative to their league peers rather than those who may have played under markedly different conditions (e.g. opposing pitchers, fastball usage rates, and umpire strike-zone interpretations that may alter the percentage of pitches delivered high in the zone).

METHODOLOGY

Adjusted HBP, also known as HBP+, will be used to normalize hit-by-pitch numbers across leagues and seasons. Single-season HBP+ numbers can be calculated for a player using the following formula:

This formula adjusts HBP numbers so that players who get hit with pitches at the same rate as the league average will have an HBP+ of 100. Players who are struck twice as often as league average will have an HBP+ of 200, and those who are hit at half of the league rate will have an HBP+ of 50.

Career HBP+ numbers can be calculated for a player using a similar formula:

Please note that Expected HBP is calculated as per the single-season HBP+ formula.

DATA ANALYSES

Data were downloaded from the Lahman Baseball Database and loaded into an Oracle database.3 The author wrote several SQL queries to produce the data for the tables and figures in this article.

The Lahman Baseball Database contains complete hit-by-pitch data for the following leagues/seasons: American Association (1884–91), National League (1887–2017), Players League (1890), American League (1901–2017), and Federal League (1914–15). Batting data from other seasons and leagues were excluded from the SQL queries.

DISCUSSION

Single-Season HBP Leaders (Traditional Metric)

Before we turn our attention to the single-season HBP+ leaders, let’s take a brief look at the top marks in our traditional metric, the total number of hit-by-pitches in a season, as shown in Table 1.

The list is dominated by Baltimore Orioles from the 1890s such as Hughie Jennings, Dan McGann, and Curt Welch. The Orioles of that era were a juggernaut, winning three consecutive National League pennants from 1894 to 1896 using an aggressive brand of small ball. The architect and manager of those teams, Ned Hanlon, was a strong proponent of using the hit-by-pitch as an offensive weapon, and his clubs led the National League in hit-by-pitches for seven consecutive seasons: the 1894–98 Orioles and the 1899–1900 Brooklyn Superbas.4 The hit batsmen on Hanlon’s squads peaked in 1898, when the Orioles were plunked an astounding 160 times in 154 games, more than the combined total of the St. Louis Browns and Pittsburgh Pirates, who finished second and third in hit-by-pitches respectively.

Table 1. Single-season HBP leaders

Single-Season HBP+ Leaders

Calculating the single-season HBP+ leaders across baseball history produces quite a different list than using the traditional metric. These rather eye-popping results can be found in Table 2. Not only does Hunt hold the top two spots of all time and five of the top 15 entries, but his 1971 season surpasses all others by an exceedingly wide margin. That year, Hunt was hit by a pitch almost 15 times more frequently than a league-average batter. To put that figure in perspective, to surpass the league-average home-run rate by a similar multiple, he would have had to have slugged a whopping 175 home runs in 1971, a season in which Willie Stargell led the National League with 48 round-trippers. Of course, Hunt was anything but a power hitter; the slap hitter spent most of his career batting leadoff or second in the order, and he was clever enough to understand his limitations and use every tool at his disposal to get on base, including intentionally getting in the way of a pitch.5

Hunt was quite open about his hit-by-pitch techniques. “First, I would blouse the uniform—this big, wool uniform, I would make sure it was nice and loose,” he recalled in a 2015 interview. “Then I’d choke way up on the bat and stand right on top of the plate. That way, I could still reach the outside pitch. That was the Gil Hodges philosophy on hitting: The two inches on the outside corner were the pitcher’s, the rest was his. I thought, ‘If I can take away those two inches, and he’s not perfect, I can put the ball in play and get some hits. And if he comes inside, I can get on base that way, too.’”6

Rule 5.05(b)(2) of the Official Baseball Rules clearly states that a batter hit by a pitched ball is not entitled to first base when “the batter makes no attempt to avoid being touched by the ball.” To get around this stipulation, Hunt developed a spin move to help deceive the plate umpire. “The ball would be headed toward his elbow or his ribcage,” said Dave Van Horne, the longtime Montreal Expos broadcaster. “He would turn his back away from the pitcher and deflect the ball with that spin move, so that he avoided those direct hits. To the average person, it would look like he was trying to get out of the way of the pitch, when, in fact, he just wanted to stand in there and take it.”7

Another aspect that may have boosted Hunt’s hit-by-pitch totals was the fact that the feisty player was almost universally disliked by both opponents and teammates.8 He had a mean streak and a short temper, and he was not averse to resorting to fisticuffs on the field.9 One habit that didn’t exactly endear Hunt to other players in the league was his routine of picking up the ball after getting plunked and casually flipping it back to the pitcher in an act of defiance. One opponent, San Diego Padres catcher Bob Barton, took exception to Hunt’s attempt to return the ball to pitcher Steve Arlin after he got plunked in consecutive at-bats in an August 1971 game, which led to Hunt yanking off Barton’s mask and punching him in the face. The benches emptied, and when order was restored, Hunt was the only player ejected from the game.10

While Hunt was an average hitter who used the hit-by-pitch to help extend a middle-of-the-road career, the same cannot be said of Don Baylor. In a stellar 19-year career, Baylor slugged 338 home runs, won the Silver Slugger award three times, and was named the American League MVP in 1979. He was also quite happy to stand in the batter’s box and let pitches hit him. Not only did he lead the American League in HBPs in eight different seasons, but in a three-year period from 1984 to ’86, Baylor posted three of the top five single-season HBP+ marks in history, getting hit almost nine times more often than his American League peers. “My first goal when I go to the plate is to get a hit,” he said in a 1987 interview. “My second goal is to get hit.”11

 The primary reason Baylor was hit so often was that he crowded the plate. “When the ball is inside, I don’t back away,” he said. “Common sense says back away, but I guess common sense isn’t that common. I just stiffen up and take the blow.”12 Baylor had a stubborn streak and he refused to be intimidated by the opposing pitcher. “There was always that confrontation,” he said. “You’re not going to beat me, and I’m not going to give in. I’m going to be right here. If you hit me, I’m coming right back again. I’m going to be right on the plate and you’re not going to move me off the plate.”13

Other than Hunt and Baylor, the only name that appears more than twice on the single-season HBP+ leaders in Table 2 is Chet Lemon, the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox center fielder who was known for both his outstanding fielding and potent bat. Lemon’s raw HBP numbers from 1981 to ’83 may be rather modest, but they were partially masked by a moderate number of plate appearances and the fact that he played at a time of relatively low HBP rates. Although he led the American League in hit-by-pitches four times, Lemon spent most of his career in Baylor’s HBP  shadow, and he is not particularly well known as an HBP specialist by baseball fans today. Like Baylor, Lemon stood almost on top of the plate. “I actually didn’t mind being pitched inside, I wanted to be pitched inside,” he said. “I felt I could always turn on pitches. If you look at my hits, like all those doubles, I think you’ll find that I went down the left-field line in most of them.”14

Table 2. Single-season HBP+ leaders (min. 3.1 PAs per team game)

* Strike-shortened season.

Career HBP leaders (traditional metric)

Table 3 contains a list of the career hit-by-pitch leaders. Hall of Fame shortstop Hughie Jennings holds the record with 287, while Biggio, another Hall of Famer, is in second with 285 during his 20 seasons with the Houston Astros. As expected, the career leaders in this traditional metric are dominated by batters who played in an era of relatively high HBP rates and/or those who enjoyed lengthy careers.

Table 3. Career HBP leaders

* Active as of 2018.

Career HBP+ leaders

Table 4 contains a tally of the top 20 hitters in career HBP+ and, not surprisingly, Hunt appears in the top spot. Although his career HBP+ of 713 is still comfortably ahead of Baylor’s 550, the figure is considerably lower than Hunt’s peak single-season numbers. In his first five years in the major leagues, Hunt “only” registered an HPB+ of 372, but his use of the hit-by-pitch as an on-base tool really kicked into gear following his trade to the San Francisco Giants just prior to the 1968 season.15 From that point on, Hunt led the National League in hit-by-pitches every year for the rest of his career, posting an HBP+ of 941 in those seven bruising seasons.

Jennings holds the third-best career HBP+ at 477. In the five-year period 1894–98, he was hit by a stunning 202 pitches, a figure that represents over 70 percent of his career total. Jennings also stood extremely close to home plate when he batted. “Hughie had a way of riding the plate, standing up as close as he could get and shoving his body out over it,” said his Orioles teammate Jack Doyle.16 While some may dismiss the hit-by-pitch statistics from this rough-and-tumble era, the achievements of Jennings, along with McGann, Tommy Tucker, and Kid Elberfeld, should not be minimized. For instance, if one excludes the batters on Hanlon’s Orioles, the HBP rate for the rest of the league was 1.1 percent of all plate appearances in 1898, which is not that much different from the HBP rate in the American League in 2001 (1.05) or the National League in 2006 (1.03).

Aside from the trio of Hunt, Baylor, and Jennings, both Frankie Crosetti and Minnie Miñoso merit special mention as being head and shoulders above all others in career HBP+. Crosetti, a player and coach with the New York Yankees for 37 seasons, led the American League in hit-by-pitches eight times, including 1942, when he appeared in a mere 74 games. Crosetti was proud of his hit-by-pitch accomplishments, which were made possible by one of his coaches, Art Fletcher, who taught him the art of avoiding injury while getting hit.17 Fletcher, ranked 11th overall in career HBP+, had an opportunity to perfect that technique years earlier as a member of the New York Giants, a team managed by the former third baseman of those pugnacious Orioles of the 1890s, John McGraw.

As baseball’s first Latin American superstar, Minnie Miñoso possessed a lethal combination of speed and power. Miñoso, along with Willie Mays, helped reintroduce speed as an offensive weapon in the 1950s, and in addition to his other talents, he led the American League in hit-by-pitches a record 10 times. Like most other HBP+ leaders, Miñoso crowded the plate, and he was not opposed to leaning into a pitch to “steal first.”18 He was also fearless in the batter’s box; after having his skull fractured on a pitch from Bob Grim in 1955 that hit him above the left eye, he bounced back and hit better than ever upon his return.19

When Miñoso broke in with the Cleveland Indians in 1949, he became only the eighth openly black player in major-league history, a mere two years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. In April 1951, he was traded to the White Sox, making the Cuban native the first black player on either of Chicago’s MLB teams. Much like the seven black players before him, Miñoso endured discrimination and segregation, although he also had to deal with language and cultural issues that the others did not. Years later, Orlando Cepeda would refer to Miñoso as “the Jackie Robinson of Latino players.”20 “He was everybody’s hero,” Cepeda reminisced. “I wanted to be Miñoso. [Roberto] Clemente wanted to be Miñoso.”21

Racism may have contributed to Miñoso’s elevated hit-by-pitch rate, a subject he broached in a 2015 interview, mere days before he passed away suddenly. “What was I doing wrong in the game, that they’d purposefully want to hit me? They didn’t do it because I’m nice-looking, and I didn’t do it to get the record. I crowded the plate, because if you only have to look middle-outside, you can kill a pitcher, and if it’s outside it’s a ball,” he said. “My father and my mother taught me there was a way to pay somebody back if they tried to break your arm or break your face: Pay them back on the field with a smile on your face.”22

Biggio holds the modern-day high for the most career hit-by-pitches, so it is a bit of a surprise to see him only ranked 20th in career HBP+. However, he did make 12,504 plate appearances during his lengthy career, much of which was played at a time of relatively high HBP rates.23 Fans looking for a relatively recent example of a HBP machine would be wise to refer to Jason Kendall, the rugged catcher who played most of his career with the Pirates. Not only did Kendall place well ahead of Biggio with a career HBP+ of 327, but he is the only player since 1900 to have been hit by 30 or more pitches twice in a season (as of the end of 2017). Two other twenty-first century players, Rickie Weeks and Andres Galarraga, also rank higher than Biggio in career HBP+.

Table 4. Career HBP+ leaders (min. 5,000 PAs)

Career HBP+ laggards

If Hunt was the most distinguished hitter at reaching first base on a hit-by-pitch, then who was plunked the least often compared to his peers? The answer to that question can be found in Table 5, which lists the batters with the lowest career HBP+ in baseball history.

Coco Crisp, who was hit only five times in his 15 years in the big leagues, holds the distinction of having the lowest career HBP+ for players with more than 5,000 plate appearances. His HBP+ of 8.4 means that he was hit with a pitch roughly 12 times less often than his contemporaries. There are several reasons why Crisp was hit so infrequently, starting with the structural advantage of being a switch-hitter, which means that he was always batting against an opposite-handed pitcher. Due to typical pitch trajectories, hurlers hit opposite-handed batters significantly less often than they do same-handed hitters.24

However, the fact that Crisp hit from both sides of the plate doesn’t explain why he was struck by pitches so much less frequently than other switch-hitters in the American League. Crisp, an agile center fielder, also had a willingness to scoot out of the way of inside pitches, and a video review of a half-dozen examples from 2012 to 2016 of extreme inside pitches that he successfully dodged shows his quickness and dexterity at work.25 However, perhaps the most significant reason for his extremely low HBP+ is the fact that the book on Crisp was to feed him a steady diet of outside pitches. An analysis of PITCHf/x data from the last 10 years of his career shows that only 22 percent of pitches thrown to him were on the inner third of the plate or further inside.26

One of the more obscure players listed in Table 5 is Bones Ely, who at 6-foot-1 was the tallest man to play shortstop regularly in the big leagues during the nineteenth century.27 The steady-fielding Ely was 155 pounds soaking wet, so his low HBP numbers could at least be partially chalked up to self-preservation. A controversial figure throughout his career, he was let go by the Pirates during the 1901 season on suspicion of recruiting players to join the upstart American League. Ely’s release led the way for Honus Wagner to be converted from an outfielder to a shortstop, a move the 27-year-old Wagner was initially hesitant to make due to Ely’s popularity with Pittsburgh fans.28

Table 5. Lowest career HBP+ (min. 5,000 PAs)

* Active as of 2018.

CONCLUSIONS

By factoring in the number of plate appearances and the league-wide HBP rate, the HBP+ metric provides an effective means of comparing hit-by-pitch numbers of players from different eras.

Although the HBP rates in the late nineteenth century were the highest ever recorded, the hit-by-pitch accomplishments of players of that era should not be downplayed. Ned Hanlon’s Baltimore Orioles and Brooklyn Superbas were among the first teams to use the HBP as an offensive weapon, and his club skewed the hit-by-pitch rates of the entire National League for several seasons. Of all of Hanlon’s batters, none were as proficient at leveraging the hit-by-pitch as Hughie Jennings, although Dan McGann was also among the very best of all time at taking one for the team. In addition, two other nineteenth-century ballplayers, Tommy Tucker and Kid Elberfeld, appear in the top 10 for career HBP+.

When viewed through an HBP+ lens, Ron Hunt’s modern-day record of 50 HBPs in 1971 stands out as one of the most impressive single-season records in baseball history. His feat represents an HBP+ of 1,463, which means that he was plunked at a rate that was almost 15 times greater than his National League peers that season. His career HBP+ of 713 easily surpasses all others, a clear indication that Hunt is worthy of being referred to as baseball’s all-time HBP king. Perhaps the Montreal Expos press guide summed it up best with its cheeky assessment of Hunt: “He gets good flesh on the ball,” it said.29

Aside from Hunt, nobody had a penchant for getting hit with a pitch like Don Baylor. Between 1984 and 1986, Baylor notched an HBP+ of 854 or greater, giving him three of the top five single-season marks. By a comfortable margin, his career HBP+ of 550 is the second best of all time. Chet Lemon, whose hit-by-pitch skills were overshadowed by Baylor in the 1980s, quietly posted exceptional HBP numbers. Lemon ranks seventh all time with a career HBP+ of 370.

Hughie Jennings, Frankie Crosetti, and Minnie Miñoso put up equally impressive career HBP+ numbers despite playing under considerably different conditions. While the trio is well behind Hunt and Baylor in career HBP+, they are still significantly ahead of all other major-leaguers.

In recent years, no batter had a better knack for reaching first base on a hit-by-pitch than Jason Kendall. Other players from the early part of the twenty-first century with a similar aptitude include Rickie Weeks, Andres Galarraga, and Craig Biggio.

GARY BELLEVILLE is a retired Information Technology professional living in Victoria, British Columbia. He spent seven years as an editor and lead writer for baseball blogs devoted to local independent league and college wood-bat teams. Gary served as an official scorer in the West Coast League for two seasons, and he worked for the Asheville Tourists in the South Atlantic League. He grew up in Ottawa and graduated from the University of Waterloo with a Bachelor of Mathematics (Computer Science) degree. He patiently awaits the return of his beloved Montreal Expos.

Notes

1 This paper will use a similar approach as The SABR Baseball List and Record Book and only consider players with at least 5,000 plate appearances for the list of career leaders in the new HBP metric. Single-season leaders will require at least 3.1 plate appearances per team game. Society for American Baseball Research, The SABR Baseball List and Record Book (New York: Scribner, 2007).

2 This paper does not offer opinions on why HBP rates have fluctuated across the different eras of baseball history. While that topic may be of interest to some and it may be the subject of further research, this article will focus on the development of an improved HBP metric and the resulting insights from reviewing the all-time leaders in this metric.

3 Lahman Baseball Database, March 31, 2018, http://www.seanlahman.com/baseball-archive/statistics/.

4 Jack Smiles, ”Ee-Yah”: The Life and Times of Hughie Jennings, Baseball Hall of Famer, (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2005), 48.

5 Jonah Keri, “The Year Ron Hunt Got Hit By 50 Pitches,” FiveThirtyEight, February 3, 2015, https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-year-ron-hunt-got-hit-by-50-pitches/.

6 Keri.

7 Keri.

8 Bill James, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, (New York: Free Press, 2001), 520.

9 Keri, “The Year Ron Hunt Got Hit By 50 Pitches.”

10 Keri.

11 Jack Friedman, “For Don Baylor, Baseball Is a Hit or Be Hit Proposition,” People, August 24, 1987, https://people.com/archive/for-don-baylor-baseball-is-a-hit-or-be-hit-proposition-vol-28-no-8/.

12 Friedman.

13 Jose De Jesus Ortiz, “Don Baylor brings rugged style back to game,” Houston Chronicle, March 28, 2004, https://www.chron.com/sports/astros/article/Baseball-Notebook-Don-Baylor-brings-rugged-style-1959380.php.

14 Mark Liptak, “Flashing Back . . . with Chet Lemon,” White Sox Interactive, ND, http://www.whitesoxinteractive.com/rwas/index.php?category=11&id=2719.

15 Benjamin Pomerance, “Where Are They Now: Ron Hunt,” Baseball Savvy, January 14, 2011, http://www.baseballsavvy.com/w_hunt.html.

16 Smiles, ”Ee-Yah,” 79.

17 Tara Krieger, “Frankie Crosetti,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/460d26a7.

18 Mark Stewart, “Minnie Minoso,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/796bd066.

19 Larry Moffi and Jonathan Kronstadt, Crossing the Line: Black Major Leaguers, 1947–1959, (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2006), 43.

20 Jay Jaffe, “Baseball pioneer and seven-time MLB All-Star Minnie Minoso dies,” Sports Illustrated, March 1, 2015, https://www.si.com/mlb/2015/03/01/minnie-minoso-chicago-white-sox-cubs-mlb-cuban-obituary.

21 Los Angeles Times, “Minnie Minoso dies; Chicago’s first black big-league baseball player,” March 1, 2015, http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-minnie-minoso-20150302-story.html.

22 Christina Kahrl, “’If Jackie Could Make It, I Could Too,’” ESPN.com, http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/page/blackhistoryMLBminoso/white-sox-great-minnie-minoso-integration-fan-appreciation-cuba-hof-slight.

23 As of the beginning of the 2018 season, Craig Biggio ranked 11th in baseball history with 12,504 career plate appearances. Biggio’s 34 HBP in 1997 translates into an HBP+ of 516; although that was the highest single-season HBP+ mark of his career, it was still well out of the top 20 of all time due to his extraordinary 744 plate appearances and a robust league-wide HBP rate of 0.88 percent.

24 Mike Fast, “Spinning Yarn: Why are Batters Hit by Pitches?” Baseball Prospectus, August 17, 2011, https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/14807/spinning-yarn-why-are-batters-hit-by-pitches/.

25 Neil Weinberg, “The Man Who Hasn’t Been Hit in Almost Six Years,” Fangraphs, January 13, 2017, https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-man-who-hasnt-been-hit-in-almost-six-years/.

26 The PITCHf/x data was extracted from the two 5×5 heat maps (from both the right and left sides of the plate) for the 2007 to 2016 seasons on Coco Crisp’s Fangraphs player page at https://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1572.

27 Jacob Pomrenke, “Bones Ely,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/3a97d15b.

28 Pomrenke.

29 Jonathan Fraser Light, The Cultural Encyclopedia of Baseball, 2nd ed., (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2005), 412.

Even though we later moved from Baltimore, I still kept track of the International League and the Orioles in particular by reading the Sporting News.  In 1947, the Orioles had a bad team and were mired deep in the second division. Thus, most of the fans’ attention was riveted on the thrilling three team pennant race among Montreal, Jersey City, and those same Syracuse Chiefs. By vacationing each summer in Central New York, I had lost much of my contact with the Orioles; but, ironically, I had picked up the thread of what was happening in the pennant race by reading the Syracuse newspapers and listening to the local broadcasts. It was awkward for me to get my perspective through the prism of Syracuse as the home team instead of Baltimore. But those 1947 Chiefs were an exciting ball club.

Syracuse and all of Central New York were baseball crazy in the summer of `47. One had to begin and end Syracuse’s 1947 International League season with one name- Hank Sauer. Hank was playing left field for the Chiefs and was leading the league in everything but broken bats. He was destined to become the Sporting News’s minor league player of the year. All over Central New York, people were talking about Sauer and the Syracuse ball club. It whetted my appetite to see a game, so my dad took me over to MacArthur Stadium in Syracuse to see the 1947 version of the Syracuse Chiefs. It struck me as odd to see the Chiefs clad in the white uniform of the home team. Their opponents for that doubleheader were the seemingly invincible Montreal Royals. The Royals were managed by Clay Hopper and appeared well on their way to a third consecutive pennant. At the time (mid-June), it seemed that Jersey City and Syracuse would furnish only token competition for the high-charged Royals. The veteran Jewel Ens was the Syracuse skipper and he had an interesting ball club at his disposal.  Future major leaguers and veteran Triple A minor leaguers combined to present the fans of the area with a genuinely superior brand of baseball. Nevertheless, outside of several members of the pitching staff, only Sauer would spend any appreciable time in the major leagues subsequent to the 1947 season.

The veteran Eddie Shokes played first for the Chiefs. He was a slick fielder but not much of a power hitter. The rest of the infield consisted of Frank Drews at second combining with shortstop Claude Corbitt to complete many double-plays; and, of course, the veteran third-baseman Al Rubeling (a Syracuse fixture). While Sauer was in leftfield, the Chiefs had two classy fielders who shared the Centerfield position: Jodie Beeler and Frank Davis. In right field was the veteran Al (Dutch) Mele, destined to have an extremely productive year of his own (.3 17, 20 homers, and 100 RBIs). Dick West and Dick Bosiak did the catching. The Syracuse pitching staff was a good one. It consisted of two future Cincinnati Reds: Howie Fox (19-9) and Herm Wehmeier (15-8), along with veteran minor leaguer Jim Prendergast (the league’s only 20-game winner), and Alex Mustaikis, Dixie Howell, Dutch Schultz, and John Bebber. When this team took the field, I couldn’t help but be impressed.

But their competition that day was the mighty Montreal Royals of 1947. Clay Hopper’s outfit looked formidable. Even their uniforms (visiting team gray coupled with Royal blue) gave them a particularly ominous appearance. This team was the immediate successor to the one that featured the sensational 1946 debut of Jackie Robinson.  Jackie was the hero of the `46 pennant winners and the batting champion of that year, as well as the instrument of Branch Rickey’s attempt to break baseball’s age-old color line. This year’s club had another bright and upcoming black star-catcher Roy Campanella. By mid-June, “Campy” had already established himself as the league’s premier defensive catcher as well as a potentially powerful home run hitter.  Jackie Robinson’s successor at second base was the veteran Gil Torres (picked up off of the Washington Senators’ roster). The shortstop was Al Campanis who would go far in the Dodger organization in several capacities. Third base was handled by Johnny Welaj. At first base was their only legitimate power hitter, Ed Stevens (28 Hrs and 107 RBIs). The outfield consisted of four players who played about equal time. Butch Woyt was in center; Dick Whitman played left; Walt Sessi had a good year as a part-time performer; and the once highly regarded prospect-Earl  Naylor-held down right  field. Their pitching was comprised of the following: Ed Heusser, veteran major leaguer, led the way with a 19-3 record; Jack Banta (15-5) and Al Gerheauser (15-12) ably backed him up along with John Van Cuyk, Chet Kehn, Rube Melton, Erv Palica, Joe Smolko, and Dick Mlady.

This team wiped out the Chiefs in a doubleheader. Nevertheless, even in a losing cause, Hank Sauer made his considerable presence felt by hitting a home run in each game and driving in six runs for the day.  By the end of the day, he was far ahead of anybody else in each of the three Triple Crown categories: batting average, home runs, and runs batted in. Though I had been impressed with the winning Royals, I came away from the game absolutely convinced I had just seen one of the more destructive hitters in the game.

It’s hard to describe the aura surrounding Sauer in the middle of the summer of 1947. The effect he had on Central New York was electric. He became a source of civic (and area) pride the likes of which Syracuse would not experience again until their national championship football team of 1959. I left the park that day convinced that the Montreal Royals would run away and hide from the rest of the league and that Hank Sauer would win the league’s triple crown handily. I proved to be wrong in both assumptions.

In early August my family and I returned to Wilmington, Delaware (our vacation over), and my direct contact with Sauer’s progress was terminated. Even at such a tender age, I was an inveterate reader of the Sporting News, the Bible of baseball information. I could hardly believe my eyes! Jersey City suddenly in mid-August had made a race of it in the pennant chase; and, also suddenly, Sauer seemed not quite as imposing as earlier in the season.

From reading the Sporting News, I found out that there was considerable bad blood between the Jersey City and the Montreal clubs (completely extraneous to the newly red-hot pennant race). It seems that the Jersey City manager, Bruno Betzel, had piloted the Royals to the pennant in 1945, and had naturally assumed that he would be re-hired for the `46 season. But Mr. Rickey had other ideas and elected Clay Hopper for his manager. This embittered Betzel and as his Little Giants from Jersey began to close in on the slumping Royals towards the end of the season, he relished the prospect of sweet revenge. There were even reports that he offered cash bonuses to his players if they could upend the Royals in the pennant race. League president Frank Shaughnessy had to reprimand Betzel in public for such an indiscretion.

But beyond these pennant rumblings, there was also the prospect of Sauer no longer being a shoo-in for the league’s triple crown. Rochester’s Vernal (Nippy) Jones had temporarily taken the batting average lead away from Sauer and he and Hank would alternately lose and re-gain the lead through most of August. Also, Baltimore’s Howie Moss had come out of nowhere to seriously challenge Sauer’s once prohibitive lead in home runs. This event struck a responsive chord in me. I vividly remembered Moss as one of the leading sluggers on Baltimore’s `44 champions. Well, he was playing again for the Orioles, and on a bad ball club. All summer everything had been Sauer this and Sauer that. Now, as August waned, both sluggers (Sauer and Moss) had passed the 40 home run total. This was the first and only time that would happen in the history of the International League.

Paradoxically, the majors (in the late summer of 1947), had a comparable home run battle taking place. The Giant’s Johnny Mize, after a long early lead, was being seriously challenged (in a late-season closing rush) by Pittsburgh’s young slugger-Ralph Kiner. I was quick to note the similarity in both homer races: Mize and Sauer had had things their own way all summer; now, Kiner and Moss were coming on like gang-busters.

I had become fascinated with recent developments in the International League. Jersey City was closing fast and Moss had just passed Sauer and became the first International League player to reach the 50 home run total since 1935 when another Baltimore player, George Puccinelli, had struck for 53. I took a serious look at the 1947 Jersey City line-up. The veteran International League player Jack Graham played the first base for Betzel’s gang and set the Jersey City club home run record in 1947 with 34. He was also destined to drive in 119 runs.  Both of these totals (while impressive) would place him a distant third to Sauer and Moss. Burgess Whitehead played second base in tandem with Virgil Stallcup’s shortstop, while George Myatt held down the hot corner. They had an outfield consisting of Bill Barnacle in left, Les Layton in center, and former Oriole Felix Mackiewicz in right. Mickey Grasso and Sal Yvars did the catching. Their pitching staff was headed by Sheldon Jones (13-3) before he was re-called by New York. Others included Jake Wade (19-3), Hub Andrews, Jim Goodwin, Jack Kraus, Bob Cain, and Bill Ayers.

This team began to take off and on the last day of the season, managed to nip the Royals by a half a game. It marked one of the greatest comebacks in league history. Montreal and the entire Dodger organization were in a state of shock. Betzel had his revenge. Meanwhile Sauer himself reached the 50-homer total as the season reached its close, placing him second to Moss’s final total of 53. Nippy Jones’s .339 edged Sauer’s .338 for the batting title. The only title he was destined to win was the RBI title, finishing with 141. It was quite a performance nevertheless, earning him the League’s Most Valuable Player Award.

Those were great years-the 1940s. The war was over and the American public was determined to “return to normal.” Those communities too far away from big league cities enjoyed their own minor league entries with a fervent loyalty seldom seen today even at the major league level. It was before the advent of television and its ubiquitous reach, and before everything had to be “big league.” There were some vibrant franchises in the International League that year, and all was right with the minor league world.

Introduction

The Winter Meetings of 1990 were held amid a dispute between the major and minor leagues and uncertainty arising from an agreement between the major-league owners and the players union concerning collusion. The minor leagues were mainly asking for additional support for their farm teams from the major-league parent. With respect to the collusion issue, the union had charged that the owners had colluded with each other during the latter part of the 1980s, and such collusion resulted in market issues for free-agent players. An agreement between the owners and the union was announced one month before the scheduled Winter Meetings, but since details of the agreement had not been fully established at the time of the announcement and the subsequent Winter Meetings, a lingering uncertainty remained.

The Dispute

In early May of 1989 David Simon, the president of the Los Angeles Sports Council, announced that the 1990 Winter Meetings would be held in Los Angeles.1 However, a cloud hovered over these meetings in the form of a dispute between the major and minor leagues concerning the contract between the two parties. The National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (NAPBL), the minors’ umbrella organization, which was in charge of scheduling and organizing the Winter Meetings, was questioning several issues, including the amount of compensation to be paid directly to the minor-league clubs by the major-league parent. Commissioner Fay Vincent also advocated improving salaries and working conditions for minor-league umpires.2

Both parties agreed that if an agreement was not reached before November 1, 1990, the combined Winter Meetings would be canceled and the major leagues and minor leagues would meet separately. No agreement was reached, and the 26 major-league clubs pulled out of the Los Angeles meetings.3 Bill Murray, chief negotiator for the major leagues, said they hoped the dispute would be settled by November 15, but that would be too late to have the combined meetings.4 Major-league officials also announced that they would attempt to set up alternate meetings for their clubs, while the NAPBL took the position that the meetings would be held in Los Angeles with or without the participation of the major-league clubs.

Quickly reacting to the situation, the commissioner’s office rescheduled the major-league portion of the meetings for the Hyatt Rosemont Hotel at O’Hare Airport in Chicago. Reflecting on the situation, Roland Hemond, general manager of the Baltimore Orioles, said there was no substitute for one-on-one trade discussions. “In a face-to-face setting, you have the principals of each club involved,” he said. “You might have your club president, your manager, your owner present. That gives you the opportunity to caucus for a few minutes, have a quick discussion and come back and say, ‘You’ve got a deal.’ When you do it over the phone, you might have to go back and talk to your people and they have to talk to theirs. There’s more time for something to get in the way of a deal.”5

By November 15 the dispute still was not settled. The contract had an end date of January 12, 1991. As that date neared, it was reported that Major League Baseball was making plans for a reorganized system of minor leagues that could include as many as 170 teams.6 This never materialized, because an agreement was reached in early December of 1990.

The Collusion Agreement

In September 1990 George Nicolau, an arbitrator, found baseball owners guilty of collusion in their treatment of free agents after the 1987 and ’88 seasons. He ruled that baseball club owners must pay players a total of $102.5 million in lost salary for those years. Another arbitrator, Thomas Roberts, had previously awarded $10.5 million for lost salary in 1986, for a total $113 million in damages. The two sides still had to settle or have decided four other issues: (1) damages for lost 1989 and 1990 salaries, (2) interest on all the damages awarded, (3) second-look free agency for 21 former free agents, and (4) damages on individual claims for such matters as lost mobility.7 On the day the arbitrators announced the award, Charles O’Connor, the owners’ chief labor representative, stated that all the details with respect to the collusion agreement could be resolved by the end of 1990.8

On November 3, 1990, it was announced that the club owners had agreed to pay $280 million in damages, to end the efforts of the union in its conspiracy cases against the owners.9 However, no determination had been made as to how many players would share in the settlement, or how money would be distributed. Donald Fehr, director of the players’ union, said, “There’s been a tentative understanding reached by the lawyers. It’s subject to working out a lot of details.”10

It was also agreed that new-look free agent status would be granted to 16 players who had been free agents after the 1987 season.11 These free agents and their appropriate teams were:

• Jack Morris, Detroit
• Dave Smith, Houston
• Mike Witt, New York Yankees
• Dave LaPoint, New York Yankees
• Dennis Martinez, Montreal
• Danny Darwin, Houston
• Larry Andersen, Boston
• Juan Berenguer, Minnesota
• Mike LaCoss, San Francisco
• Charlie Leibrandt, Atlanta
• Mike Heath, Detroit
• Jack Clark, San Diego
• Gary Gaetti, Minnesota
• Brett Butler, San Francisco
• Dave Henderson, Oakland
• Chili Davis, California

However, these 16 players were not to actually become free agents until the two sides ratified the collusion settlement.

While this collusion agreement was not necessarily directly related to the 1990 Winter Meetings, the agreement and the fact that ratification had to occur before the 16 players became free did permeate the atmosphere of the meetings and affected some of the signings and transactions.

First Joint Venture

Against that backdrop, the Major League Winter Meetings kicked off with a state-of-the game address by Commissioner Fay Vincent. The commissioner was at home in Connecticut due to a bout of pneumonia and his address was read at the meeting. Vincent called for the creation of a program to better prepare young players for the pressures of the major leagues. Vincent portrayed this effort, plus the imminent naming of a joint committee to study the economics of baseball, as attempts to improve the relations between the parties. He also commented on the collusion agreement: “Should it be approved, then finally we can put this episode behind us for good and move forward.”12

Donald Fehr, executive director of the players union, was invited to join the leadership of the joint venture and agreed to present Vincent’s proposal to the union. Fehr also offered a note of caution: “The fact is, if the relationship improves, it hinges almost entirely on whether the collusion settlement goes through and whether the free-agent market continues to show signs that it is operating and well. If the relationship does improve, everybody has to be encouraged. It doesn’t mean you agree on everything; if it could avoid unnecessary squabbling, that would be a step in the right direction.”13

Rule 5 Draft

The Rule 5 Draft was a Winter Meetings fixture. Players eligible for the draft were those not on their team’s 40-man roster who either signed initial contracts at 19 or older and had spent three or more years in the minor leagues, or signed their initial contract when younger than 19 and had spent four or more years in the minor leagues.14

The price to draft a player was $50,000. A drafted player must remain on the drafting team’s 25-man roster or be offered back to his original club for $25,000. If a team did not have space on its 40-man roster, it could not participate. The following players were drafted:

Free Agent Signings

With the meetings occurring just slightly more than a month after the majors and minors chose to hold separate meetings, one might assume that the amount of activity would be less than usual. However, the opposite was true, as the 1990 meetings proved to be memorable in terms of free-agent signings and trades.

On December 3, there was a flurry of free-agent signings. The San Francisco Giants, convinced that their center fielder, Brett Butler, a new-look free agent, would be leaving the club, signed the 1990 National League batting champion, Willie McGee, to a four-year contract worth $13 million and indicated they would not make a serious attempt to re-sign Butler. Not wanting to go into 1991 without a center fielder, Giants president and general manager Al Rosen grabbed McGee.15

McGee had actually finished the 1990 season in Oakland, and once he moved across the Bay Bridge, the A’s responded by getting Willie Wilson to commit to a two-year contract. Wilson had spent his entire 15-year career with the Kansas City Royals, where he won a batting title (1982) and a stolen-base crown (1979), was named to two All-Star teams, and helped the Royals win the 1985 World Series. Other signings announced on December 3 were third baseman Terry Pendleton signing with the Atlanta Braves for four years at $9.8 million; right-handed pitcher Kevin Gross signing a three-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers; and the Detroit Tigers inking right-hander Bill Gullickson. Pitcher Dennis Martinez, another new-look free agent righty, decided not to test free agency but announced that he was staying with the Montreal Expos for a three-year contract believed to be worth $9.5 million.16

December 4 saw second baseman Steve Sax sign a four-year deal with the New York Yankees, reportedly worth $12.4 million. Yankees Vice President George Bradley said of the deal, “He is a winning ballplayer and along with Mattingly gives us the start of a solid nucleus to build the club around.”17 The Brewers announced that right-handed reliever Edwin Nunez had signed a two-year contract. The Giants continued being active by signing left-hander Dave Righetti for four years at $10 million, while the Boston Red Sox also signed a southpaw, one-time All-Star Matt Young.

The signings continued on December 5 and 6. On December 5, the Atlanta Braves signed first baseman Sid Bream, the Mets signed outfielder Vince Coleman in an attempt to replace Daryl Strawberry (who had previously signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers), and the Milwaukee Brewers signed first baseman-outfielder Franklin Stubbs. The following day, two outfielders inked new contracts as the Cubs signed George Bell, the 1987 AL MVP, while the Orioles grabbed eight-time Gold Glove winner Dwight Evans.

The Trade

The 1990 Winter Meetings are mainly remembered today for one of the most significant offseason trades in the history of baseball. The seeds for such a deal were planted during the World Series. Toronto Blue Jays general manager Pat Gillick and Joe McIlvaine, the new general manager of the San Diego Padres, discussed outfielder Joe Carter, who had been acquired by San Diego the year before and had led the Padres in RBIs. Gillick followed up with McIlvaine at the general manager meetings, and their discussion resumed at the Winter Meetings. On December 4 McIlvaine proposed a swap of Joe Carter for Toronto first baseman Fred McGriff. McIlvaine knew that Toronto needed to make room for young first baseman John Olerud, and the Padres needed a first baseman with Jack Clark about to become a new-look free agent. Toronto had also lost outfielder George Bell, who was about to sign with the Chicago Cubs, and needed an outfielder to replace him.

While Gillick was willing to deal McGriff, he had problems with a one-for-one swap given that McGriff was three years younger than Carter. Gillick suggested that Roberto Alomar, the young switch-hitting second baseman for the Padres, be included in the deal. Alomar was already a three-year veteran at the age of 22. McIlvaine was supposedly aware that there were issues between Alomar and his manager, Greg Riddoch. However, McIlvaine was not willing to give up two players for McGriff.

Garry Templeton was the San Diego shortstop and was nearing the end of his career. McIlvaine wanted to replace him and envied Toronto’s Tony Fernandez, a smooth fielding, switch-hitting shortstop. McIlvaine was not optimistic that Toronto would trade Fernandez but Gillick supposedly felt his shortstop was somewhat moody and was willing, provided he got Alomar.

On December 5, 24 hours after the initial discussions at the Winter Meetings, McIlvaine mounted a podium in one of the meeting rooms, said, “We thought we’d give you a good old-fashioned baseball trade,” and announced that Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar would be going to Toronto for Fred McGriff and Tony Fernandez.18 No money changed hands.

While the reaction was somewhat mixed as to who got the best of the deal, many realized that Alomar had the highest upside. Jack McKeon, who had been both a manager and general manager for San Diego in 1990, said in 2012 that he would have never considered trading Alomar.19 Alomar and Carter led Toronto to World Series victories in 1992 and 1993, and Alomar was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. McGriff won a home-run title for San Diego in 1991, then was traded to Atlanta, where he helped the Braves win the 1995 World Series. Fernandez, on the other hand, did not last long with San Diego and eventually returned to Toronto.

Other Significant Trades

At the beginning of the meetings, the California Angels traded right-handed pitchers Willie Fraser and Marcus Moore and outfielder Devon White to Toronto for infielder Luis Sojo, outfielder Junior Felix, and a player to be named later, who turned out to be minor-league catcher Ken Rivers.

On December 3, the New York Yankees traded outfielder Oscar Azocar to the San Diego Padres for a player to be named later (outfielder Mike Humphreys).

On December 4, several deals were announced. The Baltimore Orioles traded outfielder Dave Gallagher to the Los Angeles Angels for two minor-league pitchers, lefty Mike Hook and right-hander Dave Martinez. The Chicago White Sox dealt right-handed pitchers Shawn Hillegas and Eric King to the Cleveland Indians for outfielder Cory Snyder and minor-league infielder Lindsay Foster. The Oakland Athletics traded outfielder Darren Lewis and a player to be named later (minor-league right-hander Pedro Pena) to San Francisco for infielder Ernie Riles.

The following day saw one more deal, as the Giants traded right-handed relief pitcher Steve Bedrosian, the 1987 National League Cy Young Award winner, to the Minnesota Twins for right-handed pitcher Jimmy Ard and a player to be named later (minor-league southpaw Jimmy Williams). This concluded a very active Winter Meetings for the Giants.

Conclusion

Today, the 1990 Winter Meetings are viewed as being quite memorable. What most fans of the game remember is the trade of a future Hall of Famer.20 There can be no doubt that the trade of Roberto Alomar was a significant factor in the Toronto Blue Jays winning two pennants and two World Series. The business side of the game is also remembered for the major leagues organizing their own meetings in Chicago, independent of the NAPBL. The collusion agreement also cast a cloud over the meetings as it forced teams to evaluate their positions and led to some fascinating free-agent signings. It is also interesting to note that many in the baseball community felt that the collusion agreement would result in greater harmony between the owners and the players union. However, as the history of the 1990s tells us, this wasn’t to be the case.

Notes

1 “Baseball’s 1990 Winter Meetings Will Be Held in Los Angeles,” Los Angeles Times, May 2, 1989.

2 Peter Schmuck, “Major-League Clubs Withdraw From Winter Meetings,” Baltimore Sun, November 2, 1990.

3 Ibid.

4 articles.philly.com/1990-11-01/sports/25929736_1_major-leagues-minor-leagues-national-league.

5 Peter Schmuck, “Hemond Is Looking to Raise Trade Heat at Winter Meetings,” Baltimore Sun, November 30, 1990.

6 Claire Smith, “Baseball; Baseball Is Scouting Minor League Homes,” New York Times, November 20, 1990.

7 Murray Chass, “Players Get $102.5 Million in Collusion Case,” New York Times, September 18, 1990.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid.

12 Claire Smith. “Baseball; Union-Management Plan to Help Young Players,” New York Times, December 4, 1990.

13 Ibid.

14 baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Rule_V_Draft.

15 Peter Schmuck, “Giants Get McGee as Butler Insurance/Winter Meetings Notes,” Baltimore Sun, December 4, 1990.

16 Michael Bamberger, “Free-Agent Signings Dot Winter Meetings,” philly.com, December 4, 1990.

17 Peter Schmuck, “Orioles Make Pitch to Price/Winter Meetings Notes,” Baltimore Sun, December 5, 1990

18 Brent S. Gambill, “Anatomy of a Trade: The 1990 Padres-Blue Jays Blockbuster,” baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=19068.

19 Ibid.

20 Tyler Kepner, “A Blockbuster That Proved Worthy of the Hall of Fame,” New York Times, January 5, 2010.

In baseball’s modem era there have been many outstanding minor league teams. Coming to mind immediately are the 1937 Newark Bears, the 1934 Los Angeles Angels, the 1925 San Francisco Seals, the 1939-1940 Kansas City Blues, the 1933 Columbus Red Birds, the 1928-1931 Rochester Red Wings, and those special minor league dynasties, the 1919-1925 Baltimore Orioles of Jack Dunn and the 1920-1925 Fort Worth Panthers of Jake Atz.

To choose one as dominant from such a galaxy is a formidable task. Instead, a nomination will be offered for greatest minor league team of the game’s early years. Certainly the Eastern (International) League, which traces its beginnings back to 1884 and is still going strong, boasted several outstanding teams in its early years, including George Stallings’ pennant and Junior World Championship Buffalo clubs of 1904 and 1906. The Western League of 1899, which became the American League in 1900 and then achieved major league status in 1901, was loaded with major league players, past and future. The records of these teams and leagues notwithstanding, the vote here goes to the 1878 Buffalo Bisons of the International Association.

THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION

The International Association, the game’s first minor league, was organized at Pittsburgh on Feb. 20, 1877, when representatives of various clubs met to formulate rules of operation and to elect officers. William A. (Candy) Cummings, reputedly the first curveball pitcher, representing Lynn, Mass., was elected president; Harry German of London, Ont., became vice president and James A. Williams of Columbus, Ohio, was elected secretary- treasurer and chief administrative officer. Also represented were clubs from Guelph, Ont., Manchester, N.H., Rochester, N.Y., and Pittsburgh. These were the seven which had paid an extra fee and would be competing for the championship. They were to play a set schedule of games, very short by modern standards, but there was no limit to the number of outside games. Twenty-five cents was the admission rate for championship games, and the visiting clubs received a $75 guarantee, or half the gate, whichever was larger.

The league survived its first season and it is an oddity of baseball history that the first minor league championship was won by a Canadian ball club, the Tecumsehs of London. Its players, however, were American. Their roster included Joe Hornung and Fred Goldsmith, the league’s leading pitcher with a 14-4 mark. According to averages compiled by SABR member Ray Nemec, the leading batter was Steve Brady of Rochester with a .358 mark. More famous names were the aforementioned Candy Cummings, who fared poorly for Lynn (1-7), King Kelly, who appeared in three games for Columbus, and Jim Galvin of the Alleghenies, who hurled the minors’ first shutout—2-0 over Columbus on April 30.

During the winter, elaborate plans were made for the 1878 season. Not only was the league expanded to 11 teams (four including, the champion Londons were to drop out during the season), but also concerted efforts were made to sign National League players. The New York Clipper was a strong supporter of the Association and offered to donate a championship pennant and gold badges to players with the best fielding averages at each position.

Buffalo, one of the new cities, had been represented by a professional nine only since August of the previous summer. The 1877 Buffalo club was not league affiliated, but played an ambitious schedule against National League, International Association and independent clubs. While its record was unimpressive (10-27 with three ties), it did number on its roster three players who were to make names for themselves in the future—John Montgomery Ward, Larry Corcoran and James Roseman.

ASSEMBLING THE TEAM

Buffalo management cleaned house completely after the disappointing 1877 season, even dropping the promising teenage pitcher Corcoran (“He was a poor team player and showed no sympathy for his catcher”) and proceeded to round up a group of young and promising players plus a sprinkling of experienced hands. With no reserve clause in effect, it was possible to negotiate with any ballplayer once the season was over. The distinction between major and minor league was not important, if indeed there was any distinction at all. That the National League of the day was a major league and the International Association a minor league was not recognized then, but was decided by historians long after the fact. It was therefore possible for the Buffalo club to sign the diminutive Davey Force, a capable shortstop with eight years’ experience with National Association and National League clubs, as well as second baseman Charley Fulmer, a seven-year veteran.

But it was in the signing of young players that the Buffalo club showed its greatest perspicacity. Signed was the young battery of the Alleghenies of Pittsburgh, 22-year-old Jim Galvin and his 19-year-old catcher, husky Tom Dolan.

Center fielder Dave Eggler was recommended by Alfred Wright, sports editor of the Philadelphia Mercury, and agreed to come for “seven months for seven hundred dollars.” Another Philadelphian, Cyrus (Dick) Allen, a dental student-ballplayer, was signed for third base; Steve Libby, a rangy hard-hitter from Scarborough, Maine, was the first baseman, and Bill Crowley and Bill McGunnigle were the other two outfielders. McGunnigle was also the “change” pitcher, while John “Trick” McSorley was the substitute on the squad. During the season second baseman Denny Mack and outfielder Joe Hornung were added to the team. George L. Smith was the manager and Fulmer was the captain, later succeeded by Force and then Galvin.

The payroll was substantial for the times. Salaries ranged from the $700 paid to Eggler, McGunnigle and McSorley to the $1,000 for Allen and $1,200 for Force. The year-end financial statement of the club, which is on record in the Erie County Clerk’s Office in Buffalo, shows a total expenditure of $11,068.23 for salaries of players and employees. From the total, $81.77 for “fines imposed on players” can be deducted.

Almost as challenging as assembling the team was the task of getting a new ballpark ready. During the winter, a block of land on the city’s west side had been leased, and there was precious little time considering Buffalo’s disagreeable winter and spring weather. But by the dint of unflagging efforts by the contractor, Riverside Park was ready for practice by mid-April.

The practice game on April 15 against a local amateur nine was the first of a 116-game schedule that was not to end until Oct. 25. In that six-month period, the Bisons (they were called that from the beginning) won not only the International Association championship, the New York State championship and the bitter intercity competition between Buffalo and Rochester, but also defeated National League clubs in 10 of 17 games. Every one of the six National League clubs, including the famous Bostons, who were 41-19 in league play, were victimized at least once as the Bisons were 1-2 with Boston, 2-1 with Cincinnati, 2-2 with Providence, 3-2 with Chicago, and 1-0 with both Indianapolis and Milwaukee. Against all competition, the Bisons were 81-32 with three ties. They registered 17 shutouts and were shut out themselves just five times.

The Buffaloes were not a particularly hard-hitting team, relying instead on sharp fielding and the incredible pitching of Jim Galvin. With the pitching distance at just 45 feet and a dead ball in use, home runs were a rarity. The Bisons hit but two the entire season. The first, off the bat of Steve Libby, came on June 21 in a game at Buffalo against Binghamton and was reported as follows in the Buffalo Express: “Libby struck the ball squarely and it went on a beeline to the left field comer. For a few seconds the crowd did not comprehend the magnitude of the hit. Suddenly the fans became frantic and the applause was the loudest ever heard here, lasting several minutes. Several ladies threw bouquets at the blushing Libby as he crossed the plate.” The other Buffalo home run was hit by Galvin at Utica. His drive bounced past the center fielder and lodged itself in the spring of a carriage parked against the fence. Before the ball could be retrieved, the Buffalo pitcher was able to round the bases.

On June 12 in a game at Buffalo, the Bisons suffered their most humiliating defeat of the year, bowing to the bitter rival Rochester, 16-3. Local fans, many of whom had bet heavily on the game, gave vent to their frustrations by attempting to mob umpire George Campbell at the end of the game. Only prompt action by two stout policemen prevented serious trouble. A few days later, the Buffalo Express reported that the Buffalo club had hired two private detectives to investigate Campbell and that they had uncovered some shocking information. They learned that Campbell had sold out to two gamblers (one from Rochester and one from Syracuse) for $200 with a resultant profit to the gamblers of $1,600. Campbell, who lived in Syracuse, denied everything and immediately brought suit for libel against the newspaper.

The legal papers for this action are inconclusive because Campbell never showed up for the trial. It will never be known if he was the game’s first dishonest umpire. Two of the year’s most exciting games were played against National League clubs. The first was a 13-inning, 4-2 victory against the Chicago White Stockings played at Buffalo on Aug. 19. It was a bitterly fought game and at one point manager Bob Ferguson of Chicago became so incensed at the umpire that he threatened to pull his team from the field. Only the soothing words of Cap Anson (“Of all things don’t leave the field, Bob,” according to the Buffalo Courier) kept him at his post. In this game, Galvin demonstrated his mastery of the pick-off play by knocking off no fewer than five White Stockings runners. The second notable game against a “league” club took place in Boston on Oct. 2, when Buffalo beat the champions in 12 innings, scoring six runs in the bottom of the 12th after Boston had scored one run in the top half.

THE IRONMAN PITCHER

The real story of the 1878 Bisons was Jim Galvin, the stocky, mild-mannered pitcher with a buggy whip for an arm. It is doubtful if any pitcher in baseball history, including Charles Radbourne in his epochal year with Providence in 1884, ever had a season to match Galvin’s ironman performance in 1878. Of the 116 league and non-league games played by the Bisons, he pitched in 101, of which 96 were complete games. He won 72, lost 25 and tied three. Seventeen of his wins were shutouts and he was 10-5 against National League clubs. He started and finished the first 23 games the team played and was finally relieved by McGunnigle in the 24th. The next day he “rested” by starting in right field, but then came on in relief. From Sept. 2 to Oct. 4 , the Bisons played 22 games and Galvin started and finished every one of them.

On Oct. 2 he beat Boston in the 12-inning game previously mentioned; the next day he beat Providence in 13 innings and then the following day was the loser in another game at Boston, after which it was announced he had a sore arm. McGunnigle pitched the next two games, but Galvin came back on Oct. 8 to beat Utica in the game that clinched the International Association pennant for Buffalo.

How many innings did Galvin pitch that season? Unfortunately, the box scores of five of his incomplete games do not indicate the number of innings he pitched. It can be stated, however, that he pitched a minimum of 895 innings and a maximum of 905.

Five players on the Buffalo team—Force, Libby, McGunnigle, Hornung and Galvin—were chosen on the New York Clipper all- star team, with the selections being based solely on fielding averages. With the exception of Steve Libby, whose record shows just one game for the 1879 Buffalo National League club, all of the 1878 Bisons went on to major league careers of varying lengths. Galvin, of course, became a Hall of Famer. Force continued in the majors until 1886 and Joe Hornung until 1890. The old campaigner returned to Buffalo in 1891 and 1892 to play with that city’s Eastern League club, still disdaining the use of a glove. Bill McGunnigle played and managed off and on in the majors until 1896 and along the way gained the distinction of being one of the first managers to be fired after winning a pennant (Brooklyn, 1890). Dick Allen, after a year of major league ball, became a dentist and later a lecturer in dentistry at Buffalo Dental School. Fulmer was in the majors until 1884 and later became a magistrate in Philadelphia.

Despite the team’s great record, the 1878 season was not a howling financial success. The team’s bank account at season’s end showed a balance of just $248.94. Apparently this was enough of a nest egg to permit the team to apply for membership in the National League. The application was accepted and the team went on to play “league” ball until the tag end of the 1885 season, when the franchise was sold. It is interesting to note that the Bisons, with much the same team that won the International Association pennant in 1878, finished in a tie for third place in their first year in the National League.

As for the International Association, it struggled along for two more seasons before fading into oblivion. But it had played its role in the game’s history: it has been the first of the minor leagues and one of its teams, the 1878 Bisons, were baseball’s first great minor league club.

     Let me stay out of that discussion and concentrate instead on what I feel was the greatest minor league team of baseball’s early years.  The Western League of the 1 890s was a strong circuit, and the American League of 1900, which used many players of the 12-team National League of 1899, and which became a major league in 1901, obviously had to be high caliber. However, going back further, a strong case can be made for a single club, the 1878 Buffalo Bisons of the International Association. First, some background.

     The International Association, the game’s first minor league, was organized in Pittsburgh on February 20, 1877, when officials of various clubs met to formulate rules of operation and to elect officers. William A. (Candy) Cummings, reputedly the first curve ball pitcher, and representing Lynn, Mass., was elected president; Harry Gorman of London, Ontario, was chosen vice president, and James A. Williams of Columbus, Ohio, became secretary-treasurer and chief administrative officer.  The other teams were from Guelph, Ontario, Manchester, N.H., Rochester, N.Y., and Pittsburgh. These were the teams which had paid an extra fee and which would be competing for the championship. They had to play a set schedule of games, very short by modern standards, but there was no limit to the number of outside games that a team could play. Twenty-five cents was the admission rate for championship games, and visiting clubs received a $75 guarantee, or half the gate receipts, whichever were larger.

    The league survived its first season, and it is an oddity of baseball history that the first minor league championship was won by a Canadian city, London. It’s players, however, were American. This included Fred Goldsmith, the leading pitcher with a 14-4 mark. According to averages compiled by SABR member Raymond Nemec, the leading batter was Steve Brady of Rochester with a .358 mark. More famous names were the aforementioned Candy Cummings, who fared poorly for Lynn with a 1-7 record, King Kelly, who caught in three games for Columbus, and Jim Galvin of Pittsburgh, who hurled the minor’s first shutout, 2-0 over Columbus on April 30.

    Over the winter, elaborate plans were made for the 1878 season.  Not only was the league expanded to 11 clubs (four, including the champion London Tecumsehs, were to drop by the wayside during the season), but concerted efforts were made to sign National League players. The New York Clipper, a strong supporter of the Association, offered to donate a silk pennant to the championship club, as well as gold badges to the players with the best fielding averages at each position.

    Buffalo, one of the new cities in the Association, had been represented by a professional nine only since the previous summer. The 1877 Buffalo team was not affiliated with any league, but did play a heavy schedule of games against National League, International Association and independent clubs. While its record was unimpressive (20-30), it did number on its roster three players who were to make a name for themselves in future years-John Montgomery Ward, Larry Corcoran (just 1 6 when he joined the team) and James Roseman.

    The Buffalo management cleaned house completely after the disappointing 1877 season, even dropping the promising Corcoran (“He was a poor team player and showed no sympathy for his catcher”), and then proceeded to round up a group of young and promising players mixed with a sprinkling of experienced hands. There was no reserve clause in those days, and it was possible to negotiate with players as soon as their season was over. The distinction between major and minor was not important, if there was any distinction at all. That the National League was major and the International Association minor was something decided by historians long after the fact. It was therefore possible for the Buffalo club to sign the diminutive Davey Force, a capable shortstop with eight years experience with National Association and National League clubs, as well as second baseman Charley Fulmer, a seven-year veteran.

    But it was in the acquisition of young players that the Buffalo management showed its greatest perspicacity. It signed the young battery of the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, 22-year old Jim Galvin and his 19-year old catcher, husky Tom Dolan. Centerfielder Dave Eggler was recommended by Alfred Wright, sports editor of the Philadelphia Mercury, and agreed to come for “seven months for seven hundred dollars.” Another Philadelphian, Cyrus (Dick) Allen, a dental student-ballplayer, was signed for third base; Steve Libby’, a rangy, hard-hitter from Scarborough, Maine, was the first baseman, and Bill Crowley and Bill McGunnigle were the other two outfielders. McGunnigle was also the “change” pitcher, while John (Trick) McSorley was the substitute on the ten-man squad. During the season, second baseman Denny Mack and outfielder Joe Hornung were added to bring the complement up to 12. George L. Smith was the non-playing manager and Fulmer was the captain, being succeeded in this post during the season by Force and later by Galvin.

    The payroll of the 1878 Bisons was minuscule by today’s standards. Salaries ranged from the $700 paid to Eggler, McGunnigle and McSorley to the $1000 for Allen and $1200 for Force. The year-end financial statement of the club, on record in the Erie County Clerk’s Office, Buffalo, shows a total expenditure of $11,068.33 for salaries of players and employees. From this total $81.77 in “fines imposed on players” can be subtracted.

    Almost as big a job as rounding up a team was the task of getting a new ball park ready for the start of the season. Over the winter months, a block of land on the city’s West Side had been leased, and it was only by dint of the greatest effort, considering Buffalo’s disagreeable winter and spring weather, that the diamond was made ready for practice by mid-April.

    The practice game against a local amateur nine on April 15 was the first of an ambitious 116-game schedule that was not to end until October 25. In that six-month period, the Bisons not only won the International Association championship, the New York State championship (which was not Organized Baseball), and the bitter inter-city competition between Buffalo and Rochester, but also defeated National League clubs in ten of 17 games. Every one of the six National League clubs, including the famed Boston Sox who were 41-19 in League play, was victimized at least once, as the Bisons were 1-2 with Boston, 2-1 with Cincinnati, 2-2 with Providence, 3-2 with Chicago and 1-0 with both Indianapolis and Milwaukee. Overall the Bisons won 81, lost 32 and tied three. They scored 17 shutouts and were shut out themselves just five times.

     The Buffaloes were not a particularly hard hitting team, relying instead on sharp fielding and the incredible pitching of Jim Galvin. In that era of improved pitching from the 45-foot distance and the dead ball, the home run was a rarity. The Bisons hit but two the entire season. The first, off the bat of Steve Libby, came on June 21 in a game at Buffalo against Binghamton, and was reported as follows in the Buffalo Express: “Libby struck the ball squarely and it went on a beeline to the leftfield corner. For a few seconds the crowd did riot comprehend the magnitude of the hit. Suddenly the fans became frantic and the applause was the loudest ever heard here, lasting several minutes. Several ladies threw bouquets at the blushing Libby.” The Bisons’ other home run was hit by Galvin in a game at Utica. It was a long drive that bounced past the centerfielder and lodged itself in the spring of a carriage that was parked against the fence. Before the ball could be retrieved, the Buffalo pitcher was able to round the bases.

     On June 12 in a game at Buffalo, the Bisons suffered their most humiliating defeat of the year, bowing to bitter rival Rochester by a score of 16-3. Local fans, many of whom had bet heavily on the outcome of the game, gave vent to their frustration by attempting to mob Umpire George Campbell at the end of the game. Only prompt action by two stout policemen prevented serious trouble. A few days later the Buffalo Express reported that the Buffalo club had hired two private detectives to investigate Campbell with shocking results. It was discovered that Campbell had sold out to two gamblers (one from Rochester and one from Syracuse) for $200, with a resultant profit to the gamblers of $1600. Campbell, who lived in Syracuse, denied everything and immediately brought suit for libel against the newspaper. The legal papers for this action, which are in the writer’s possession, are inconclusive, because Campbell never showed up for the trial. Was he the game’s first dishonest umpire? We will never know.

    Two of the team’s most exciting games were played against National League clubs. The first was a 13-inning, 4-2 victory over the Chicago White Stockings, played at Buffalo on August 19. It was a bitterly fought game and at one point Manager Bob Ferguson of Chicago became so incensed at the umpire that he threatened to leave the field. Only the soothing words of Cap Anson (“Of all things, don’t leave the field, Bob,” according to the Buffalo Courier) kept him at his post. In this game Galvin demonstrated his mastery of the pick-off play by knocking off no fewer than five White Stocking runners. The second notable game against a “League” club took place in Boston on October 2, when Buffalo beat the champions in 12 innings, scoring six runs in the bottom of the 12th, after Boston had scored one run in the top half.                                            

    The real story of the 1878 Bisons was Jim Galvin, the stocky, mild-mannered pitcher with a buggy whip for an arm. It is doubtful if any pitcher in baseball history, including Charles Radbourn’s singular role with Providence in 1884, ever had a year to match Galvin’s 1878 iron-man performance. Of the total 116 league and non-league games played by the Bisons, he pitched in 101, of which 96 were complete.  He won 72 games, lost 25 and tied three. Seventeen of his wins were shutouts and he was 10-5 against National League clubs. He started and finished the first 23 games the team played and was finally relieved by McGunnigle in the 24th. The next day he “rested” by starting in right field, but then came on in relief. From September 2 to October 4, the Bisons played 22 games and Galvin started and finished every one of them. On October 2, he beat Boston in the 12-inning game mentioned above; the next day he beat Providence in 13 innings, and then the following day was the loser in another game at Boston, after which it was announced he had a sore arm. McGunnigle pitched the next two games, but Galvin came back on October 8 to beat Utica in the game that clinched the International Association pennant for Buffalo.

    How many innings did Galvin pitch that season? Unfortunately, the box scores of his five incomplete games do not indicate the number of innings he pitched. It can be stated, however, that he pitched a minimum of 895 innings and a maximum of 905.

    Five players on the Buffalo team-Force, Libby, McGunnigle, Hornung and Galvin-were chosen on the New York Clipper all-star team, with the selections being based solely on fielding averages. With the exception of Steve Libby, whose record shows just one game for the 1879 National League Buffalo club, all of the 1878 Bisons went on to major league careers of varying lengths. Galvin, of course, became a Hall-of-Famer. Force continued in the majors until 1886, and Joe Hornung did the same until 1890. The old campaigner returned to Buffalo in 1891 and 1892 to play with the city’s Eastern League club, still disdaining the use of a glove. Bill McGunnigle played and managed off and on in the majors until 1896, and along the way gained the distinction of being one of the first managers to be fired after winning a pennant (Brooklyn 1890). Dick Allen, after a year of major league ball, became a dentist and later a lecturer in dentistry at Buffalo Dental School. Fulmer was in the majors until 1884 and later became a magistrate in Philadelphia.

    Despite the team’s great record, the 1878 season was not a howling financial success for the Buffalo owners. The team’s bank account at the end of the season showed a balance of just $248.94. Apparently, this was a sizeable enough nest egg to permit the team to apply for membership in the National League. The application was granted and the city went on to play “League” ball until the end of the 1885 season. It is interested to note that the Bisons, with much the same team that won the International Association pennant in 1878, finished in a tie for third place in their first year in the National League.

    As for the International Association, it struggled along for another two seasons before fading into oblivion. But it had played its role in the game’s history-it had been the first of the minor leagues, and one of its teams, the 1878 Bisons, was baseball’s first great minor league club.