1872 Preview - Boston Red Stockings

The 1871 season was a pretty dismal failure for Harry Wright's boys in my simulation. The team won only 12 of 30 games, and they had little to no success in stopping other teams from scoring. This was primarily due to their poor defense, a problem they hope has been rectified for the 1872 campaign. Unlike some of the other established teams, Boston made little attempt to hire any of the players from the disbanding teams in Fort Wayne, Chicago or Rockford.

P - Al Spalding - The future sporting goods millionaire had a solid season in 1871. Historically, he pitched for Boston all five years of the National Association, and was by far its best pitcher. In the simulation, he is likewise remaining with the Bostons. In contrast to most players of the day, Spalding frowned upon drinking and gambling.
C - Cal McVey - He had been an outstanding player with Harry Wright's Cincinnati club, and was one of the best catchers in the National Association in 1871.
1B - Charlie Gould - There has been a perception for several years now that Gould does not pull his weight adequately. (He was, though a good fielder, probably the worst hitter on the Cincinnati Red Stocking team.) He hit poorly in the simulation in 1871.
2B - George Wright - Like Spalding, he would live long enough to become rich selling sporting goods after his base ball career. (Indeed, Wright would actually live long enough to see himself elected to the new Baseball Hall of Fame when he was in his eighties.) He was considered one of the best players of the late 1860s and early 1870s and was playing for the top teams in the country by the time he was in his mid-teens. He hit a comparatively weak .276 in 1871, so he'll be looking to bounce back.
3B - Harry Schafer - Not a lot seems to be known about his life outside of base ball, but he was a decent fielder and hitter historically, and one of the most durable players of the National Association. He hit .314 for the club in 1871, which was better than expected. (Historically, he never hit .300 for an entire season.)
SS - Ross Barnes - He was Harry Wright's big acquisition for 1871, and while his hitting was as advertised (.320), he was a weak fielder at shortstop. A lot of observers seem to think it would be wise to switch Barnes and George Wright, but Harry Wright claims to be sticking with the plan.
LF - Fred Cone - Again, not much information available on Cone. Historically, he only played in the National Association for one season, but in the simulation he's back for another year after hitting a solid .318 for Boston.
CF - Frank Barrows - The big story of the offseason was Harry Wright's decision to stop playing every day and focus on managing the club. To replace him, they plan on using Barrows, who hit .200 in the simulation for 1871, which was actually 49 points better than he did in his only historical big league season.
RF - Fraley Rogers - He was a big league rookie in 1872, and it was his only full professional season. Not much else is known about him except for the fact that died after shooting himself in 1881 at the age of 31.

On the whole, this club looks much like they did last season. If they can get the runs allowed under control they have the hitting to be a very good team. However, it's not clear how doing the same thing they did last year is going to help when they couldn't stop teams from scoring then.

1872 Preview - Baltimore Canaries

It's a little surprising how little there is online about one of the National Association's more stable teams. The Canaries were referred to as Lord Baltimore in box scores of the time, and were also called the Yellow Stockings, which should give a pretty good indication of where "Canaries" came from. It's not completely clear whether they were a team formed to play in the 1872 NA, or whether they were a leading local club that just decided to put up the entry fee in 1872. Since few clubs of the 1870s were actually formed just to join the National Association (instead, the Association simply was something that existing clubs chose to enter), it seems like they'd been around before. However, unlike other teams of the era, there's not a clear record of other teams playing them on tours. (For example, both the Olympic and National clubs of DC hosted the 1869 Red Stockings when they visited, but there's no record of the Canaries doing so.)

At any rate, Baltimore was one of the more stable teams of the early 1870s, and one of the few new National Association teams to actually complete its schedule. Historically, they were quite good, finishing second in the Association. This was because they picked up quite a few established top players for the season, including Scott Hastings, Lip Pike, George Hall, Bill Craver, and Bobby Mathews. In the simulation, things turned out differently - Baltimore's pickups tended to be a lot more marginal, which will probably hurt their chances of competing in 1872.

P - Cherokee Fisher - Fisher, a drinking man, pitched for Rockford in 1871, and historically he did indeed end up in Baltimore for the 1872 campaign, where he again quickly wore out his welcome.
C - Tom Foley - Foley was the center fielder for the ill-fated Chicago club of 1871. Historically, he never played pro ball again. In the simulation, he hit only .248 for the season, so he was not particularly sought after in the offseason. However, for Baltimore he's the best of some mediocre choices as catcher.
1B - Denny Mack - He hit .321 in part-time duty with Rockford in 1871 in the simulation. Historically, he played for Philadelphia for 1872-74. He was also involved in alleged game-fixing, but for whatever reason he and the other players were not expelled from the league, and he went on to play through the mid-1880s, ultimately serving in the NA, the National League, and the American Association. He died at the age of 37 in 1888 after being "seized with a fit," according to the New York Times. That could mean a lot of things - epilepsy and/or alcoholism seem to be the most common in newspapers of the day.
2B - Bub McAtee - Historically, he returned to play for his hometown of Troy in 1872 (after spending 1871 in Chicago) for his final pro season. Hit .317 for Chicago in 1871 in the simulation, and was a solid player. He was strictly a first baseman, but Baltimore has no one better to play second, so he'll be learning a new position.
3B - Henry Kohler - He didn't play much as a professional, so little is known about him, but he was a Baltimore native who headed west to play for the Kekionga club in 1871. He didn't play much (in reality or the simulation), and returned home to Baltimore in 1872. (Again, this is true in both reality and the simulation.)
SS - Mart King - A native of Troy who played for Chicago in 1871, then historically returned home to Troy after the Fire of 1871. In the simulation, he managed to catch on with Baltimore, although it's not clear how well he'll do at shortstop, a position he did not play in reality.
LF - Al Barker - In reality he played in one game for Rockford in 1871. In the simulation he got into four. This is the quality of player Baltimore appears to be stuck with in 1872.
CF - Bob Armstrong - Last season, knowing nothing about him except his hometown of Baltimore, I inferred that he was one of the easterners lured to play for the Kekionga club. This sort of fits with his return to Baltimore. In the simulation he hit .263 for Kekionga.
RF - Joe Simmons - In reality he was a mediocre National Association outfielder who spent 1871 in Chicago, then played for a couple other teams over the next few years. He never played in Baltimore in reality, but he seems like a good fit for the club, in that he's adequate but really not very good. Hit .238 in 1871 in the simulation.

This club looks very, very weak for the 1872 season. Instead of finishing second as they did in reality, look for them to be at or near the bottom of the standings.

1871 Gold Glove Awards

For the Gold Glove Award, which historically wasn't given out until the 1957 season, I'm relying both on players' defensive reputations as I know of them, and their fielding statistics from the 1871 simulation. One of the interesting things about early base ball is how much more important the fielders were. Indeed, base ball until the late 1870s was basically viewed as a struggle between batter and fielders - much like today's slow-pitch softball. As a result, baseball fans were trying to come up with good measures to quantify fielding skill right from the start. The big controversy of the 1870s was whether a player's errors or his positive plays were more important to track. This struggle was won by the error, which led to about 130 years of confusion about fielding skill.

At any rate, here are the players who were considered the top fielders of 1871:

Pitcher - George Zettlein, Chicago White Stockings
Catcher - Deacon White, Forest City (Cleveland)
First Base - Bub McAtee, Chicago White Stockings
Second Base - Charlie Smith, Mutual-Haymaker
Third Base - Levi Meyerle, Athletic
Shortstop - Dickey Pearce, Mutual
Left Field - Charlie Pabor, Forest City (Cleveland)
Center Field - Dave Eggler, Mutual
Right Field - Joe Simmons, Chicago White Stockings

1871 Most Valuable Player - Ezra Sutton

By a very close vote, Ezra Sutton, third baseman for the Forest City club of Cleveland, has edged out infielder-outfielder John Hatfield of Mutual for the Most Valuable Player Award of 1871. Sutton led the league with a .383 batting average this season, and had 54 hits and 83 total bases.

Historically, Sutton was one of the best players in base ball for nearly two decades. He was born in 1849, and by 1869, when he played for the Alert club of Rochester, NY, he was often mentioned as one of the best third basemen in base ball. He was recruited by Cleveland for the 1870 campaign, as they brought in many easterners to try to compete with the top east coast clubs. Both historically and in my simulation, this proved mostly unsuccessful. In reality, Sutton left the team after it disbanded and ended up becoming a star in Boston from the late 1870s through the late 1880s.

Sutton's life after base ball was not a happy one. He settled down and became a successful businessman running a mill with his brothers (which was the trade in which they'd all grown up), but that business evidently failed in the early 1890s. By the late 1890s, Sutton developed locomotor ataxia, a disease that affects the nervous system and makes a person unable to control body movement. He was paralyzed by shortly after the turn of the century.

Online accounts of Sutton's ailment sometimes discuss the fact that locomotor ataxia is most commonly seen as a tertiary effect of syphilis that comes on many years (sometimes decades) after the primary symptoms. Evidently the issue is whether it's fair to possibly unfairly besmirch the reputation of a man who died over 100 years ago.

From what I can see, it seems at least fairly likely that Sutton did indeed suffer from syphilis. It was extremely common (and a common cause of death) in the 19th century, and one source I found suggests that part of the trend toward marriage very early in life was to combat the 19th century scourge of syphilis. Of course, the disease had long existed, but it seems to have become much more prevalent in 19th century urban environments, where there was much more anonymous prostitution. If the source is correct, syphilis is at least in part responsible for the trend away from men getting married only after they had the funds to set up a household. By the early 20th century, it was common for men to marry in their late teens, which was more the exception than the rule in previous generations. Not until the late 20th century was this trend reversed - and now that I think about it, it's possible that the coming of a cure for syphilis may have had something to do with this. It'd be interesting to see whether there are any parallels between how/whether syphilis affected behavior in the late 19th century and how/whether AIDS affected behavior in the gay community in the 1980s and 1990s.

At any rate, whether or not Sutton had syphilis, he was certainly paralyzed by the early 20th century. In 1905, his wife's dress caught fire and she burned to death right in front of him (well, sort of - she lingered for several weeks before dying) while he sat unable to move or help. Ultimately, word of his plight reached other old-time ballplayers and they helped provide for him in the last couple years of his life. He died in 1907.

A sad story, to be sure, but while he played Sutton was one of early base ball's most enduring stars, and certainly his talent seems to shine through in the simulation as well.

Final Standings, Awards for 1871

The final 1871 standings for the NA simulation:

Mutual 23 wins, 10 losses
Athletic 18 wins, 9 losses
Forest City (Cleveland) 16 wins, 13 losses
Chicago White Stockings 14 wins, 14 losses
Olympic 13 wins, 17 losses
Boston Red Stockings 12 wins, 18 losses
Kekionga 11 wins, 7 losses
Forest City (Rockford) 9 wins, 16 losses
Haymaker 8 wins, 20 losses

Thus Mutual wins the first all-professional base ball championship. The Mutual nine ended up being:

Frank Fleet, pitcher
Dick Higham, catcher
Joe Start, first base
John Hatfield, second base
Bob Ferguson, third base
Dickey Pearce, shortstop
Steve King, left field
Dave Eggler, center field
Tom Patterson, right field

The awards given out this first season will be the Most Valuable Player award, Cartwright Award (meant to mimic the Cy Young Award, which in reality didn't start until the 1950s), the Rookie of the Year, the Gold Glove Award, and the Old Timer of the Year (for players 35 and older). The MVP is currently up for a vote and it appears the voters are about evenly split between Hatfield of Mutual and Ezra Sutton of Forest City. However, the other awards can and will be given out.

The Cartwright Award for the game's best pitcher will go to Dick McBride of Athletic, one of the game's best veteran pitchers. He was the winning pitcher in all 18 of Athletic's game (while Mutual divided up the pitching duties), so his victory is no surprise.

For Rookie of the Year, the challenge is figuring out who wasn't part of the base ball scene in 1870. All five of the nominees for MVP seem to have been, so we need to look at the near-miss nominees. Among them, we have Rockford's Chick Fulmer, a Philadelphian about whom little is known. In 1871, he was 20 years old, and in the simulation he played shortstop for Forest City and batted .374. Even though I suspect he might have been a prominent player in 1870 (otherwise why would a Philadelphian be playing ball in the wilds of Illinois?), he'll do as our first Rookie of the Year.

The Old-Timer of the Year is pretty easy, since there were hardly any 1871 professional players age 35 or older. Since professional ball was only a couple years old, only very young men were likely to spend that much time playing. (Interestingly, and contrary to widespread belief, playing baseball has always been a pretty decent living for players, particularly given the fact that few of them were educated men before the mid-20th century. At any rate, the best old-timer was none other than Harry Wright himself. Although his team disappointed, Wright was a solid center fielder and captain for the club.

We'll look at the Gold Glove winners in an upcoming post.

Fire in Chicago

We've reached October 8-10, 1871 in the simulation - the Chicago fire. Although the loss of life was relatively small for such a large fire (estimated at 200-300), one-third of the city of Chicago, at the time America's fifth-largest city, was destroyed. In this way it is probably relatively comparable to Hurricane Katrina - serious loss of life, but even more serious property destruction.

Ironically, it was not even the worst fire in the Midwest to start on October 8. That same day, the Peshtigo Fire near Green Bay, Wisconsin burned an area twice the size of Rhode Island and utterly destroyed 12 frontier communities. That fire killed several thousand people, hundreds of whom were simply buried in mass graves because there was no one left alive who could identify them. It also jumped Green Bay to burn the thumb of Wisconsin - to get an idea of how crazy that is, check out the map on this page.

Supposedly, the Rockford club was on its way to Chicago to play a game sometime during the fire, and they turned around and went home when they saw the flames. No telling whether that story is true (if it is, they never made up the game), but certainly most of the Chicago players lost everything - their homes, their ballpark, their life savings if it was in Chicago banks. The club finished out the season but dropped out of National Association play for the next couple seasons, as everyone's efforts were needed to rebuild the city.

October 1 - Mutual Has Pennant Locked Up

The Mutual club was the unofficial champion of base ball in 1868, and as they continue their winning ways they are now assured of being the official champion of 1871. The club did not play as well in September as in previous months, but they did enough to maintain their lead and secure their spot at the top of the Association.

The standings on October 1:

Mutual 22 wins, 9 losses
Forest City (Cleveland) 16 wins, 13 losses
Athletic 15 wins, 9 losses
Chicago White Stockings 13 wins, 12 losses
Olympic 13 wins, 17 losses
Kekionga 11 wins, 7 losses
Boston Red Stockings 11 wins, 17 losses
Forest City (Rockford) 9 wins, 16 losses
Haymaker 7 wins, 17 losses

Interestingly, in the 1870s the baseball season did not begin until late April or early May, and it typically ended at the end of October, not the beginning. It seems strange that a league that played 50 or fewer games would push its schedule well into the East Coast winter, while modern 162-game schedules are loathe to do so. It's not clear why the teams played such a late schedule, although I've found a reference or two to teams complaining about the hot weather of summer. This seems to be corroborated by the fact that relatively few games were played in August in the 1870s, although of course most teams played a ton of exhibition games that didn't count in official standings.

At any rate, I don't know anything definitive about why baseball schedules ran so late in the early days of professional baseball. Here are the league leaders as of October 1:

Batting Average:

Sutton, Forest City (Cleveland) - .383
Fulmer, Olympic - .374
King, Haymaker-Mutual - .363
Foran, Kekionga - .350
Start, Mutual - .349
Flowers, Haymaker - .343
Hatfield, Mutual - .340
Wood, Chicago - .331
Berthrong, Olympic - .330
Glenn, Olympic - .330

Runs:

Hatfield, Mutual - 54
Start, Mutual - 49
Barnes, Boston - 45
Higham, Mutual - 45
Kimball, Forest City (Cleveland) - 44
Waterman, Olympic - 44
Leonard, Olympic - 43
Hall, Olympic - 41
King, Haymaker-Mutual - 41
Wright, Boston - 40

Hits:

Hatfield, Mutual - 55
Sutton, Forest City (Cleveland) - 54
Start, Mutual - 53
Higham, Mutual - 48
Hall, Olympic - 47
Barnes, Boston - 45
Burroughs, Olympic - 45
Schafer, Boston - 44
Fulmer, Forest City (Rockford) - 43
McVey, Boston - 42
Mills, Olympic - 42

Total Bases:

Hatfield, Mutual - 88
Hall, Olympic - 83
Sutton, Forest City (Cleveland) - 83
King, Haymaker-Mutual - 81
Schafer, Boston - 70
Start, Mutual - 69
Waterman, Olympic - 68
Wood, Chicago - 67
Barnes, Boston - 65
McVey, Boston - 65

September 1 - Mutual Comfortably in Pennant Lead

The simulated September 1, 1871 standings:

Mutual - 19 wins, 6 losses
Athletic - 13 wins, 7 losses
Forest City (Cleveland) - 13 wins, 10 losses
Chicago White Stockings - 12 wins, 10 losses
Kekionga - 11 wins, 7 losses
Olympic - 10 wins, 17 losses
Boston Red Stockings - 8 wins, 13 losses
Haymakers - 6 wins, 12 losses
Forest City (Rockford) - 6 wins, 16 losses

After a 7-5 start, Mutual has lost only one Association game in two months. Since coming over to New York, new acquisition Steve King has hit .400 for Mutual and has become one of the team's best players. On the whole, it looks like the Mutual club is going to have little challenge in their attempt to win the first ever all-professional base ball title.

Historically, Chicago and Athletic were locked in a neck-and-neck struggle for the top spot, and Boston would go on a hot streak in September to pull themselves into the mix as well. Looking over Boston's schedule, it appears that it will be difficult to repeat such a feat in the simulation - they haven't played well and the schedule is tough for them this month.

Here are base ball's leaders:

Batting Average

Sutton, Forest City (Cleveland) - .384
Start, Mutual - .368
King, Haymaker-Mutual - .365
Pike, Haymaker - .364
Malone, Athletic - .358
Fulmer, Forest City (Rockford) - .351
Foran, Kekionga - .350
Berthrong, Olympic - .348
Flowers, Haymaker - .347
Wood, Chicago - .346

Runs

Hatfield, Mutual - 45
Higham, Mutual - 40
Kimball, Forest City (Cleveland) - 39
Start, Mutual - 39
Waterman, Olympic - 38
Hall, Olympic - 35
Leonard, Olympic - 34
Geo. Wright, Boston - 33
Meyerle, Athletic - 32

Hits

Start, Mutual - 46
Hatfield, Mutual - 45
Burroughs, Olympic - 43
Sutton, Forest City (Cleveland) - 43
Hall, Olympic - 41
Higham, Mutual - 41
Waterman, Olympic - 39
Wood, Chicago - 37
Fulmer, Forest City (Rockford) - 34
Meyerle, Athletic - 34
Mills, Olympic - 34

Total Bases

Hatfield, Mutual - 71
Hall, Olympic - 68
Sutton, Forest City (Cleveland) - 64
Wood, Chicago - 62
Start, Mutual - 61
Burroughs, Olympic - 58
King, Haymaker-Mutual - 58
Waterman, Olympic - 57
Anson, Forest City (Rockford) - 53
Pike, Haymaker - 53

August 1 - Mutual Wins 7 of 8 to Take Over First Place

The National Association standings on August 1, 1871:

Mutual 14 wins, 6 losses
Chicago White Stockings 10 wins, 6 losses
Athletic 10 wins, 7 losses
Kekionga 9 wins, 5 losses
Forest City (Cleveland) 9 wins, 8 losses
Boston Red Stockings 8 wins, 9 losses
Olympic 8 wins, 14 losses
Haymaker 5 wins, 9 losses
Forest City (Rockford) 4 wins, 13 losses

Mutual appears to be pulling away from its rivals. They have five Association games scheduled for the month of August, including two with Chicago, so we should know soon whether they are going to run away with the championship or return to the pack.

In addition, the first ever trade of players between two professional clubs occurred on July 30, as the first-place Mutual club, with more talent in the infield than the outfield, sent infielder Charlie Smith, who had been starting at second base, to the Haymaker club of Troy in exchange for outfielder Steve King. Haymaker will start Tom York in King's old place in left field and will install Smith at second. Reportedly, King was not happy to leave his home in Troy (I say this because in reality he stopped playing professionally once Troy was out of the league, although he probably had the talent to catch on elsewhere), but he was pleased to move to a first-place club despite the long travel from his home.

Historically, it was Athletic that was starting to pull away at this point, as they had 15 wins with Chicago and Olympic as the next-closest competitors with 12. They ended up struggling in August and falling behind Chicago.

Here are the league leaders in 1871-used statistical categories:

Batting Average

Sutton, Forest City (Cleveland) - .417
Pike, Haymaker - .391
Hastings, Forest City (Rockford) - .380
Malone, Athletic - .377
Fulmer, Forest City (Rockford) - .373
Barnes, Boston - .361
Start, Mutual - .360
Craver, Haymaker - .344
Spalding, Boston - .342
Berthrong, Olympic - .338

Runs

Waterman, Olympic - 34
Higham, Mutual - 33
Hatfield, Mutual - 32
Kimball, Forest City (Cleveland) - 30
Smith, Mutual-Haymaker - 30
Hall, Olympic - 28
Sutton, Forest City (Cleveland) - 28
Barnes, Boston - 27
Leonard, Olympic - 27
Start, Mutual - 27
Geo. Wright, Boston - 27

Hits

Start, Mutual - 36
Higham, Mutual - 35
Sutton, Forest City (Cleveland) - 35
Hall, Olympic - 34
Waterman, Olympic - 34
Burroughs, Olympic - 33
Hatfield, Mutual - 32
Mills, Olympic - 31
Barnes, Boston - 30
Smith, Mutual-Haymaker - 29

Total Bases

Hall, Olympic - 54
Hatfield, Mutual - 50
Waterman, Mutual - 50
Sutton, Forest City (Cleveland) - 49
Burroughs, Olympic - 46
Start, Mutual - 46
Pike, Haymaker - 44
Barnes, Boston - 43
Schafer, Boston - 43

Simulation Update - Chicago Leads on July 1

We've reached July 1 in the simulation, so here's an update on the overall team standings:

Chicago White Stockings 8 wins, 4 losses
Athletics 7 wins, 4 losses
Forest City (Cleveland) 7 wins, 5 losses
Mutuals 7 wins, 5 losses
Kekiongas 6 wins, 3 losses
Olympics 6 wins, 10 losses
Haymakers 5 wins, 6 losses
Boston Red Stockings 5 wins, 7 losses
Forest City (Rockford) 3 wins, 10 losses

Thus far, it is a very close race, with both Forest City and Kekionga staying much closer than could have been predicted. Meanwhile, it appears that the division of Harry Wright's Cincinnati Red Stockings club did not work out for either group, as both Boston and the Olympic club have struggled. The Chicagos just pulled into sole possession of first place with a win over Olympic on June 30.

Here are the leaders in the offensive categories which were considered relevant at the time:

Batting Average

Barnes, Boston - .426
Fulmer, Forest City (Rockford) - .424
Sutton, Forest City (Cleveland) - .417
Start, Mutual - .407
Pike, Haymaker - .400
Hastings, Forest City (Rockford) - .389
Waterman, Olympic - .362
King, Haymaker - .362
Armstrong, Kekionga - .359
Berthrong, Olympic - .347

Hits

Waterman, Olympic - 29
Barnes, Boston - 26
Berthrong, Olympic - 26
Fulmer, Forest City (Rockford) - 25
Sutton, Forest City (Cleveland) - 25
Hall, Olympic - 24
Start, Mutual - 24
Burroughs, Olympic - 23
Mills, Olympic - 23
Hatfield, Mutual - 22
Pike, Haymaker - 22

Runs

Waterman, Olympic - 25
Berthrong, Olympic - 23
Sutton, Forest City (Cleveland) - 23
Hatfield, Mutual - 22
Kimball, Forest City (Cleveland) - 22
Barnes, Boston - 20
Higham, Mutual - 20
Leonard, Olympic - 20
Meyerle, Athletic - 20
Radcliffe, Athletic - 20

Historically, on July 1, 1871, Athletic, Mutual and Olympic were all tied with 9 wins each. Also, on June 28, 1871, Athletic and Haymaker played a game that ended up with a final score of 49-33 in favor of the Philadelphia nine. (In the simulation, that same game was won by Athletic 22-9.)

First Player to Hit for the Cycle

Historically, it seems that no one ever hit for the cycle before 1882, although I admit to being a bit skeptical of that statistic. (Home runs were rare in the 1870s, but not that rare, and there were players in the ultra-dead ball years of 1904-10 who hit for the cycle.)

In any event, we won't be waiting that long in the simulation, as Dave Eggler of Mutual just managed the feat on June 19, 1871, in an 11-4 victory over first-place Forest City of Cleveland. In fact, Eggler went 5 for 5, with a single, a triple, a home run, and two doubles. Eggler is hitting .308 on the season, with 12 runs scored and 10 driven in. The win gave the Mutual club six victories on the season, just one behind Forest City.

First Shutout of National Association

In reality there were a total of four shutouts in 1871, including the first National Association game ever between Forest City and Kekionga. In my simulated replay, the first shutout occurred on Saturday, June 3, 1871, as the Haymaker club visited Philadelphia to take on the Athletics. The Athletic fielders committed only one error (generally the average in 1871 was about 10 per game), and the Haymakers got only six hits, as Athletic got its first win in a convincing 12-0 drubbing of the men of Troy.

1871 Update - Forest City Still Leads on June 1

We go from May to June as the first month of National Association base ball is complete, and here are the current standings:

Forest City (Cleveland) 6 wins, 2 losses
Haymaker 4 wins, 2 losses
Boston Red Stockings 4 wins, 3 losses
Olympic 4 wins, 5 losses
Mutual 2 wins, 0 losses
Kekionga 2 wins, 3 losses
Chicago White Stockings 2 wins, 4 losses
Forest City (Rockford) 2 wins, 6 losses
Athletic 0 wins, 1 loss

Individually, the top players thus far have been the aforementioned Ezra Sutton (18 runs, 18 hits, .429 batting average), Rockford shortstop Chick Fulmer (12 runs, 19 hits, .487 batting average), and Boston infielder Ross Barnes (12 runs, 18 hits, .474 batting average).

Forest City of Cleveland has four Association games scheduled this month as part of an east coast swing, so some of the other contenders may have a chance to gain some ground. Athletic and Mutual, two clubs that should be competitive, will start playing more games as well, so a cleasr picture of the Association pennant race should emerge soon.

1871 - Forest City takes sole possession of first place with win over Olympic

Saturday, May 20, 1871 - The Forest City base ball club of Cleveland pulled into sole possession of first place in the National Association, defeating the Olympic club of Washington, 9-8. Young third baseman Ezra Sutton of the Forest City club was the hero of the game, as he went 3 for 5, including a bases-loaded triple in the third inning to open Forest City's scoring. At this point in the season, Sutton leads the league in hits (15) and triples (3) and is second in both runs scored (14) and runs driven in (12).

In real life, Sutton was a beast at the plate in 1871 as well. His strong performances out in the sticks with Cleveland ended up winning him first a starting job with Athletic club, and then with the Boston Red Stockings after Athletic disbanded in 1876. He'll certainly end up going somewhere once Forest City goes belly-up after the 1872 season in my simulation, but of course I'm not controlling where players go, so we'll just have to wait and see.

May 20, 1871 OTBBS Update

A couple weeks into the inaugural professional season and here's what we have so far:

Forest City (Cleveland) 4 wins, 1 loss
Olympic 4 wins, 2 losses
Haymaker 2 wins, 1 loss
Mutual 1 win, 0 losses
Boston Red Stockings 1 win, 2 losses
Kekionga 1 win, 2 losses
Chicago White Stockings 1 win, 4 losses
Athletic o wins, 0 losses
Forest City (Rockford) 0 wins, 2 losses

So both Cleveland and Washington are doing better than expected, and Troy is also hanging in there surprisingly well. Base ball from the 1850s through the 1870s was much more about the struggle between the batter and the fielders than between the batter and the pitcher, and the results reflect this: Forest City and Mutual have been the two best-fielding teams so far, and have a 5-1 record between them.

As for the batsmen, Ezra Sutton of Forest City has been one of the key players, having scored 12 runs thus far in the early going while making only 15 outs.

Today's game should be a good one: Forest City will host Olympic, with early leadership of the Association on the line.

The 1871 Season Begins

I'm probably going to start simming ahead, but I thought I'd put the spotlight on the first game of the first professional league ever, between the Cleveland Forest Citys and Fort Wayne Kekiongas. In the real world these was an extremely unusual game for the time - a 2-0 defensive battle. In OOTP 11, it was a more normal 12-5 battle won by the Forest City club, as John Bass, Art Allison and Ezra Sutton all came up with multi-hit games.

I'm going to move ahead to the end of May and then post some more about the standings and statistics.

1871 Preview - Washington Olympics

The first thing to remember about the Olympic Club of Washington is that their name had nothing whatsoever to do with the modern Olympic Games because Baron de Coubertin, the guy who created the Olympics, was nine years old in 1871. So the "Olympic" reference in the club's name would either be to the ancient Olympic games, where dudes ran around in the nude, or to the Greek gods - a lot of literary references from 1700-1900 use the adjective "Olympic" to refer to Zeus & pals, when modernly we'd usually use "Olympian." I can't find anything that explains which it is, but it always boggles my mind that we're talking about a time so long ago that the Olympics didn't exist. My mind wants to associate this baseball team's name to the modern Olympic Games.

Anyway, they were one of the few top-level amateur teams in the 1860s that was not from the New York area - Chicago, Rockford, and the Cincinnati-Boston Red Stockings were all outstanding but all of them either openly or secretly paid their players. Atlantic, Excelsior, Eckford, and Mutual were the big New York teams, and only Athletic (Philadelphia) and Olympic (Washington) were able to play at that level.

With the advent of a professional baseball league in 1871, Olympic decided to make a run at the title. When Harry Wright's Cincinnati Red Stockings was broken up after the 1870 season, Olympic tried to hire his best players, which resulted in half of the team going with the Wrights to Boston and half going to DC to play for Olympic. The result was increased competitiveness, as both teams were good but neither was dominant. (Indeed, one important thing to remember about the history of baseball is that the more mercenary the game has become, the more competitive balance has been retained. We'll see this throughout the history of the game.)

Olympic was the less strong of the two teams made from the remnants of the Red Stockings, and following the 1871 season most of those key players left for other teams. This left them in serious trouble both competitively and financially, and the club did not survive the 1872 season as a professional baseball team.

P - Asa Brainard - Again, SABR has a great bio for him. Many sources say that his name is the source of the term "ace" pitcher, although I admit to being skeptical; the word "ace" to denote a skilled person was in common usage in the 19th century. SABR seems equally skeptical, saying that it would be decades before "ace" was used to talk about a team's best pitcher. (These seem mutually exclusive, but I don't think they are; whenever "ace" came to be used for pitchers, it was likely because the term was pervasive in society rather than because of one player. Furthermore, it's used to denote the best pitcher on a team; in the 1870s the same guy pitched every game so there'd be no need to distinguish between multiple pitchers.) Brainard played for top teams all the way back in the late 1850s, and was a teammate of the legendary James Creighton with the champion Excelsior club. After the Civil War, Excelsior never regained its dominance, which ultimately led Brainard to head west to play for Harry Wright's Cincinnati Red Stockings. After the breakup of that team, he was part of the contingent to head to Washington. He was a drinker and ladies' man, and after leaving organized baseball in the late 1870s he ran a pool hall in Philadelphia. He married a banker's daughter in the early 1880s and ultimately moved to Denver to run the billiard hall of a fine hotel there. He died of pneumonia in Denver in 1888.
C - Fred Waterman - He played third base for the Cincinnati Red Stockings, then went with the Washington contingent in 1871. He was a native New Yorker who played for some of the top New York teams in the 1860s - Empire and Mutual - before heading west. His career did not last long after his time in Washington, and not much is known beyond that, other than the fact that he died in Cincinnati in 1899.
1B - Everett Mills - He was from Newark, NJ, and was a solid infielder throughout the 1870s. His 1908 obituary mentions him playing with the Eurekas and the Red Stockings when those teams were among the best - not sure if that's an error or if he played with them in the 1860s.
2B - Harry Berthrong - There's some great information here which was evidently provided by a descendant of Berthrong. He was a Civil War veteran who played for the top Washington baseball teams from 1865 through the early 1870s. He gained fame as a portrait painter, particularly painting the portraits of political candidates in the late 1800s for use in their campaigns. He died in 1928 at the age of 84.
3B - Davy Force - He was a solid professional infielder throughout the 1870s and through the mid-1880s. His biggest claim to fame was probably his contract controversy in 1874 that exposed the eastern-western split in professional base ball. In the 1874-75 offseason, Force signed contracts with both the Chicago and Philadelphia clubs. When the Association ruled that Force belonged with Philadelphia, Chicago president William Hulbert determined to create a new baseball organization where the club owners held the power and the western teams were in control. And that's how the National League came to be.
SS - Andy Leonard - Leonard was born in Ireland and raised in Newark, NJ, and he was an outfielder on the Cincinnati Red Stockings club. He signed with Washington in 1871, but rejoined Harry Wright after the season and was a star outfielder for Wright on the powerhouse Red Stocking teams of the 1870s. Failing vision forced him from the game in 1880, and he worked for a sporting goods company owned by George Wright until his death in 1903.
LF - George Hall - He was one of the best-hitting outfielders of the 1870s, and was still one of the top players in the game when he was banned for life after the 1877 season for his involvement in the Louisville scandal. He, like the other implicated players, admitted to conspiring to throw some non-league games, for which he received a lifetime ban. (The strong suspicion was that the players had thrown the pennant as well, since Louisville suspiciously fell apart after an early-season lead.)
CF - Henry Burroughs - Not much known about him. He played in the big leagues for a couple years, and died in Newark, NJ in 1878 at the age of 33.
RF - John Glenn - No, not the astronaut. He was a solid outfielder from 1871-77 for several teams. His death is one of those stories that raises a lot of questions. On November 10, 1888, the 38-year-old Glenn allegedly "attempted to assault a little girl." Based on the 19th century reporting style this could mean anything, but given the fact that a lynch mob formed to kill him, presumably we're talking about some kind of sexual assault. While the police were holding the mob at bay, an officer's gun accidentally (?) went off, killing Glenn. Here is the obituary; if only there were some way to find out more.

Look for Washington to be reasonably good but not a real contender in 1871, just as they were in reality.

1871 Preview - Troy Haymakers

Upstate New York loves its baseball almost as much as it loves its crazy religious sects. In large part, that's how the Baseball Hall of Fame ended up there, and that also explains the fact that tiny Troy, NY, spent a decade trying to support a top-flight professional baseball team. Of course, this was always a stretch - Troy simply isn't large enough to support a competitive team, as is the case with Kansas City today. They ran out of money midway through 1872 and this version of the Troy club folded.

P - John "Lefty" McMullin - Depressingly little out there about him, considering that he was one of base ball's first left-handed pitchers.
C - Bill Craver - Craver was a Civil War veteran who had an unsavory reputation from the start. He started playing organized baseball in 1866, and was soon playing for top-flight teams in upstate New York. However, there were always stories about his association with gamblers, and ultimately he was banned for life because of his involvement in the infamous Louisville scandal of 1877.
1B - Clipper Flynn - He was from the Troy area, and didn't play in the big leagues for very long. He died in 1881 at the age of 32.
2B - Ed Beavens - Another player about whom little is known. Played for Troy and the Atlantic club of Brooklyn.
3B - Steve Bellan - I've always thought he was perhaps the most interesting guy in 1870s baseball. Bellan's actual first name was Esteban, and he was born in Havana, Cuba in 1850. The common practice among wealthy Cuban families of the day was to send their sons to Jesuit universities in the U.S. for their education, so Bellan was sent to Fordham University, which has a cool web page about Bellan. He started playing baseball while he was there, and after graduating in 1868 he joined some of the top amateur teams in New York. Ultimately, he played three seasons as a big league professional before returning to Cuba at the age of 24 or 25. In Cuba, he promptly joined the new baseball leagues starting up there, and in 1874 he played in the first organized baseball game in the nation. He then was the player-manager of the Havana club from 1878-86 and led them to a couple of Cuban League championships. He died at the age of 82 in Havana, nearly 30 years before Castro came to power.
SS - Dickie Flowers - Runner-up to Count Sensenderfer for best 1871 name. Born in Philly, and died there in 1892 at the age of 42. Beyond that I don't know much; he only played in the bigs for two years.
LF - Steve King - No, not the batshit crazy Iowa politician. He was a local boy who played for Troy for a couple years, and then never played top-level professional baseball again.
CF - Ed Connor - Again, short career and not much out there on him. He only played in the 1871 season.
RF - Lip Pike - Pike was the first great Jewish baseball player (great bio of him here). He started playing baseball at the highest levels in 1866, and was one of a group of three Philadelphia players to be accused that year of being a professional. When he escaped the incident without punishment, it went a long way toward making professionalism acceptable in baseball. By 1871, he had already played for most of the top teams - Athletic Club of Philadelphia, Mutual of New York, and Atlantic of Brooklyn. He was lured to Troy to become the captain (akin to a player-manager), and would ultimately play for many teams (oddly, usually very weak teams) throughout the 1870s. He also became famous for racing a horse around the bases in 1873 and winning. Following his playing days, he became a haberdasher in New York and died of heart disease in 1893.

In the simulation, Troy should be decidedly second-rate. Pike is very good, and some of the other players can hold their own, but they lack the star power of the richer teams.

1871 Preview - Rockford Forest Citys

The Forest City club of Rockford, Illinois was actually one of the first teams to pay players, although they were not an openly professional team. As a result, Rockford employed star players Ross Barnes and Al Spalding in the late 1860s before they left to join Harry Wright's team. In 1871, with all the teams openly paying players, Rockford lost its advantage and quickly found themselves overmatched both financially and on the base ball diamond. The team folded following the 1871 campaign.

P - Cherokee Fisher - He was a star pitcher from the mid-1860s through the mid-1870s, but was as well known for being as drunk as for being a great pitcher. He traveled from town to town, playing for a different team each season, and the general belief was that his alcoholism had something to do with that drifting. Unlike many drunks of that era, he did not drink his way to an early grave - he became a Chicago police officer after his playing days, and lived to the age of 67.
C - Scott Hastings - I always think of the crappy backup center for the Pistons (and what's with all the Pistons references?), but he was actually a journeyman catcher of the 1870s. Hastings was involved in deciding the National Association champion in 1871, because he jumped to the Rockford club early in the season from a Louisiana team, and didn't wait the required 60 days before playing in any games. As a result, Rockford was forced to forfeit several games, which gave the title to Philadelphia.
1B - Cap Anson - Of course, back then he was just "Adrian Anson," since he didn't become the "cap" of anything until the mid-1870s. He turned 19 years old just before the season started, and wasn't yet the superstar he would become. I'm going to leave off giving him a detailed bio here, since he's the one 19th century player most knowledgeable modern fans know about.
2B - Bob "Magnet" Addy - Good defensive player who played for Rockford for several years and lasted as a professional until the mid-1870s. My favorite story about him is that after his career he tried to generate interest in a version of baseball played on ice. (Still sounds better than hockey!)
3B - Ralph Ham - Not much out there on him. He was from Troy, New York, so he could have been a hired gun brought in for the season, since Rockford was one of the most well-known teams in the west around 1870.
SS - Chick Fulmer - Strange situation. Fulmer was a regular professional player in the top leagues into the 1880s, but there's just no personal information on him. He was a Philadelphia native who lived until 1940 - one of the longest-lived original major leaguers.
LF - Pony Sager - He didn't play very many games as a professional. Like Cap Anson, he was from Marshalltown, Iowa, so presumably he was hired at the same time - when the Rockford club made a trip to Marshalltown in 1870. (They also tried to sign Anson's two brothers, but both turned down the opportunity.)
CF - George Bird - Again, not much known about him other than the fact that he lived to be 90 years old. He was from near Rockford, so he was one of the few players on the team who was not a hired gun.
RF - Gat Stires - He was born in New Jersey, lived to be 83, and only played in a few professional games. Other than that I got nothing.

So this team has some decent hired guns, but for the most part they couldn't hire enough talent to compete with the big boys, and their record seems likely to reflect that.

1871 Preview - Philadelphia Athletics

As with the Mutual club, the naming convention at the time was actually Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia. The Athletic club was the top team in Philadelphia from its founding in 1860, and frequently battled on equal footing with the top New York-Brooklyn clubs - Atlantic, Excelsior and Mutual.

Athletic actually won its only championship in 1871, and it was a controversial one. According to David Nemec's outstanding Great Encyclopedia of Nineteenth Century Major League Baseball, the final standings were so close that the ultimate outcome turned on both a late-season game between Chicago and Philadelphia after the Chicago fire ruined the homes and ballpark of the Chicago club*, and a few early-season games that Rockford allegedly should have forfeited. When both issues went in favor of the Athletics, they won their first and only championship.

The team was disbanded after being kicked out of the National League in 1876, although the new Philadelphia team that would form in the early 1880s "Beer and Whiskey League" would be named after them. That team also didn't last, but the American League Philadelphia entry was also named the Athletics in 1901. And that's why the Oakland A's are named that today. I don't know what the deal is with the stupid elephant on the sleeve, so that's an item for another day.

P - Dick McBride - Union Army veteran and sweetly mutton-chopped pitcher who was the player-manager in 1871. Lifelong Philadelphian who was born in the city in 1845, and died there in 1916.
C - Fergy Malone - He was primarily a catcher - a left-handed throwing catcher. He was also one of the few major league players born in Ireland. (However, many players in the 1890-1910 era were of Irish descent.) Not much else on him out there, other than the fact that he died in Seattle in 1905. A trip to Seattle wasn't exactly normal in those days - makes you wonder what he was doing there. (Not watching basketball, right Slick? HEY-O!)
1B - Wes "Icicle" Fisler - Love the nickname, but again there's not a lot out there on this guy. He spent most of his life living in the Philly area, and played only for them for 1871-76. I don't even know where the nickname comes from.
2B - Al Reach - He was one of the stars of the 1860s, and was age 30 by 1871. He retired from playing around the end of the Association era, and promptly started up a sporting goods company that made him millions before he sold to Al Spalding in 1889, and helped found the Phillies franchise in the early 1880s. He died in early 1928 at the age of 87, which really underscores how long ago this era was. By the time the 1927 Yankees were doing their thing, some of these guys were well into their eighties.
3B - Levi Meyerle - Another lifelong Philadelphian, and an absolutely outstanding hitter in his prime. He was the primary reason the Athletics won the championship in 1871, as he hit .492 for the team. Even with the fair-foul hit (where a ball could bounce in fair territory and then roll foul and still be in play - a practice banned in the 1876-77 offseason), that's still pretty impressive.
SS - John Radcliffe - Another native Philadelphian who played for a few years but didn't leave much of a record other than his alleged fixing of games. In 1874, an umpire came forward and accused Radcliffe, Denny Mack, Candy Cummings, Bill Craver and Nat Hicks of having worked together to throw games. Originally, Radcliffe was convicted and banned, but was later reinstated for reasons that seem a little obscure. A pretty good hitter in the early 1870s.
LF - Ned Cuthbert - He was a solid player about whom little seems to be known. He was a starting outfielder into the 1880s, but does not seem to figure into many stories. He has been credited with inventing the stolen base, but this is disputed - some accounts have stolen bases as part of the game in the 1850s. In any event, many players of the 1870s later in life described their game as station-to-station in comparison to the early 20th century dead ball game. I seem to remember at least one anecdote from George Wright talking about this.
CF - Count Sensenderfer - Best name of the 1871 players. Another lifelong Philadelphian who played for the team throughout the Association era. Sensenderfer went into politics after his playing career, and was a County Commissioner as well as a member of various Democratic committees.
RF - George Bechtel - He was a good outfielder and pitcher in the 1860s and early 1870s, and has the dubious distinction of being the first player ever banned for life from the professional game for throwing games. He tried to get Jim Devlin of Louisville to throw a game in 1876, and was turned in by Devlin, who ironically was banned for life a year later for throwing games. (Maybe he just didn't want to throw games with Bechtel?)

On the whole, the Athletic club seems to have the most local boys. This may be popular with the home crowd, although I suppose we'll have to see whether Philly is just better than other parts of the country at producing big leaguers.

* - Not only did it burn up the homes and ballpark of most of the Chicago players, it burned most of the Chicago banks, too. And in 1871, there was no FDIC insurance. If the bank burned down, your life savings could just be gone. So yeah, it was pretty devastating to the Chicago team. And the rest of the city.

1871 Preview - New York Mutuals

The Mutual Base Ball Club of New York (which is how they were known - the modern day naming convention of first the city and then the nickname had not yet evolved) was founded in 1857, the year the National Association of Base Ball Players was founded. Although they were never as strong as 1860s powerhouses Excelsior of Brooklyn or Atlantic of Brooklyn, they did win the Association championship in 1868, and with the advent of openly paid ballplayers (most sources suggest that star players were secretly paid throughout the 1860s) they were well-equipped to compete.

They looked like they would evolve into the first base ball powerhouse, but in the 1870s they continued their record of being pretty good but not great. Ultimately, this got them into franchise-ruining trouble, as the team refused to make a money-losing western swing in 1876, and with the center of the base ball universe having shifted to Chicago, they got kicked out of the league for it.

P - Frank Fleet - I don't know much other than the fact that he's a native New Yorker.
C - Dick Higham - SABR's biography project has an excellent bio of him. The son of a big cricket star of the 1850s, Higham was born in England, came to America as a child, and played for New York for most of the 1870s. His biggest claim to fame was being banned for life as an umpire in 1882 for allegedly throwing games.
1B - Joe Start - Start was a native New Yorker who was in mid-career by 1871. He was a base ball star even before the Civil War, and played for some of the great Atlantic club teams of the 1860s. He played in the major leagues until the mid-1880s and lived until 1927, dying at the age of 84.
2B - Charlie Smith - He only played in the big leagues in 1871, so little is known of him.
3B - Bob "Death To Flying Things" Ferguson - Like Joe Start, Ferguson was a veteran of the Atlantics who was in mid-career by 1871. He scored the winning run for the Atlantics in their historic victory over the Cincinnati Red Stockings. He was the player-manager of the 1871 Mutuals, and has been credited with being the first switch-hitter. (Certainly, managers started recognizing the platoon advantage in the 1870s.) After his career he became an umpire (a very common career path at the time), and umpired until the early 1890s. He died of apoplexy at age 49, and this obituary speculates that his death may have been brought on by too much smoking. (It's always interesting to find pre-20th century references to the dangers of smoking.)
SS - Dickey Pearce - Pearce was already 35 years old in 1871, and his base ball career was winding down. He and the ill-fated James Creighton (who died in 1862 just as he was becoming famous as the game's best pitcher) were the first two base ball superstars. Pearce actually created the modern shortstop position in the 1860s, as he realized most of the balls were hit to that area of the field and thus moved there for defensive purposes. He first joined the Atlantics in the mid-1850s, and was a star of the many champion teams of the 1860s. There is a phenomenal detailed bio of Pearce here - too much to say about a guy who was basically at the end of his career when professional base ball was taking off.
LF - John Hatfield - He was another star of the 1860s, although one with a more unsavory reputation. He played with the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1868, the last season before professional players were expressly allowed, but he already had a reputation as a "revolving" player - one who would jump from team to team. It is almost certain that he was being paid somehow for his services, and when he amassed debts in Cincinnati he left for his old club in New York. According to his obituary, Hatfield also set a record in 1872 for throwing a base ball for long distance.
CF - Dave Eggler - He started with the Mutuals in 1868, and was a solid professional throughout the Association years and into the early 1880s. For such a solid, long-term veteran, there's not a lot of biographical material on him, although Wikipedia does offer the unsourced statement that he died in 1905 after being hit by a train.
RF - Tom Patterson - Even less is known about Patterson, who played throughout the Association era. From his ratings, he looks like a better fielder than hitter.

So for the most part, the Mutual club is hoping to contend in 1871 by using players who were stars of the 1860s. Not all of them are past their prime, but this could still spell trouble with strong teams in Boston and Philadelphia.

1871 Preview - Fort Wayne Kekiongas

Fort Wayne, Indiana is a strange place for an elite professional sports team, and yet the Kekiongas were the first of three different teams to try to compete at their sport's highest level while calling Fort Wayne home. (In the 20th century, the Fort Wayne Daisies would represent the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, and of course the Fort Wayne Pistons would make it to the NBA finals twice before moving to Detroit.) In the 1870 census, Fort Wayne had 17,718 inhabitants, and northeastern Indiana wasn't exactly a huge metropolitan area surrounding the city, so even for the 1870s it was a very, very small town trying to compete with Chicago, New York, Boston and Philadelphia.

The Kekionga name actually encapsulates a fair amount of early American history. (Most of the history that follows is taken from Wikipedia's article on Fort Wayne.) At the site of present-day Fort Wayne, the Miami nation founded a settlement in the mid-1600s called "Kekionga," which rapidly grew into an important settlement for the Miami. The location took on added importance in 1697, when the French set up a fort and trading post on the site, due to the site's strategic location at the confluence of three rivers, and its location between the French settlements in Quebec and St. Louis. Kekionga remained primarily a settlement of the Miami despite the presence of the trading post, and ultimately the French ceded the territory to the English at the end of the French and Indian War in 1760. (Note, of course, that the people actually living on the land were given little consideration by either nation.) The settlement was renamed Fort Miami.

In 1763, as part of the Pontiac Rebellion (again, note that this is a "rebellion" rather than a "war for independence"), the Miami wiped out the English and regained control of Kekionga for the next 30 years. In 1790, the Washington administration decided to secure Indiana for American settlers, and sent the army to battle the Miami near Kekionga. At first, the army had little success, until they decided to wipe of the village of Kekionga while the warriors were away. That "victory," led by Mad Anthony Wayne, led to the establishment of Fort Wayne. Less than 100 years later, the now-settled Fort Wayne area had a professional base ball team, and of course they named it after the destroyed Miami settlement from the area. (The city's seal contains the word "Kekionga" to this day.)

So this relatively small village with an Indian name joined the National Association to take on the nation's top base ball clubs. It seems to be a formula for something other than success, but they did have a few players who were destined for long careers as professional ball players.

P - Bobby Mathews - This Maryland native pitched for the Baltimore Marylands as a teenager before being lured to Fort Wayne. He is credited by some for being the first spitball pitcher and the first breaking ball pitcher. He had a much longer career than most pitchers of the early 1870s, pitching as a professional until the late 1880s. He died of syphilis at age 46. (Again, hooray for modern medicine!)
C - Frank Selman - I didn't find much information about Selman, but he died in Baltimore at age 55, all of the other professional teams he played for were in Baltimore or Washington, DC, and Bobby Mathews' bio mentioned that he was one of several top Baltimore players lured to Fort Wayne for the 1871 season, so I'm going to assume he came over along with Mathews.
1B - Jim Foran - He was a native New Yorker who played only one season of professional base ball, but hit quite well. Not much online about what he did after his big league career; I only know he died in Los Angeles at the age of 80 in 1928.
2B - Jimmy Hallinan - Hallinan was one of the first of many Irish ball players of the 19th century. He was associated with the amateur Aetna base ball club of Chicago for most of the early 1870s (generally his time with the Kekiongas was regarded as a brief interlude) before playing for some of the top teams of the mid-1870s. This thread suggests he had a serious alcohol problem, as many players of the time did, and he evidently became too ill to play in the summer of 1878. He died in late 1879 of an "inflammation of the bowels" at the age of 30. Here is his obituary from a couple of leading papers.
3B - Wally Goldsmith - Goldsmith was another player with Maryland connections who was evidently lured to Fort Wayne in 1871. He played for a few years in the National Association, but only ever played regularly on bad teams.
SS - Tom Carey - He was a solid but unspectacular infielder throughout the 1870s. One interesting fact I have is that he was born J.J. Norton. I'm picturing some guy with a Don Draper-like double life, though I'm sure the reality was probably much less exciting.
LF - Pete Donnelly - I don't know much about Donnelly. He played for three different National Association teams and never made much of a mark. He died at age 40 of tuberculosis, and evidently was active in local politics.
CF - Bob Armstrong - All I know about him is that he was born in Baltimore in 1850. From that, I'm going to infer that he was another Maryland guy lured to Fort Wayne.
RF - Bill Kelly - I know nothing at all about him. Common name, short career.

On the whole, it does not appear that the experiment of professional base ball in Fort Wayne is likely to be successful. Certainly the team won't have the financial resources to survive long, and they don't appear likely to be competitive on the field either.

1871 Preview - Cleveland Forest Citys

This team actually simply went by Forest Citys, not "Cleveland" or "Cleveland Forest Citys." Modernly, they have been called the Cleveland Forest Citys to distinguish them from the Rockford club, which was also known simply as the Forest Citys. It definitely gives you a sense of a different time - I don't think forests are typically what people associate with Cleveland these days. The Forest Citys were an independent professional club in 1870, although they were somewhat lower in quality than the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the Brooklyn Atlantics, or the Chicago White Stockings. Historically, this continued in 1871, as the Cleveland club didn't do too well in the new National Association and only survived for two seasons.

The 1871 Cleveland club has some good players, but they tend to be guys like Ezra Sutton and Deacon White, who were at the beginning of their careers rather than mid-career stars. It seems likely that if teams from Cleveland and Rockford had survived, they would have furnished teams from bigger, richer cities with star players in the same way that small-market teams today tend to furnish mid-career talent to the Yankees and Red Sox.

P - Al Pratt - I found this excellent bio of Pratt, who lived an interesting life. He served in the Union Army at age 15, then played for several base ball teams in western Pennsylvania and Ohio before ending up with the Forest Citys. After being washed up as a pitcher by the mid-1870s, he became a bartender and a key figure in the creation of the outlaw "Beer and Whiskey League" in 1881.
C - Deacon White - White started playing for the Forest Citys in 1868, before there really was any kind of professional base ball. He played against the 1869 Cincinnati club, and is expected to be the star of this club.
1B - Jim Carleton - Not a lot is known about him - he looks like a decent player, although in real life his professional career ended when the Forest Citys left the National Association.
2B - Caleb Johnson - He's another player with a short career who never played for anyone other than the Forest Citys.
3B - Ezra Sutton - Sutton's first top-level base ball team was the Rochester Alerts in 1869. He played against the Forest Citys and they evidently liked what they saw, because they lured him to Cleveland in 1870. He would go on to be probably the best third baseman of the early days of base ball, and his career would last until the late 1880s.
SS - John Bass - He seems to be a pretty good hitter, who in reality had short stints with three different professional teams before dying of tuberculosis at the age of 40. One of the first ball players born in the South, although it's not clear whether he actually grew up there.
LF - Charlie Pabor - This New Yorker was the player-manager of the 1871 club, and was one of the mainstay players of the National Association. He also had one of the oddest nicknames in base ball - "The Old Woman in the Red Cap." (I haven't been able to find anything explaining this, although I love it.) He left professional base ball when the National Association disbanded and became a police officer in New Haven, CT.
CF - Art Allison - He played professional base ball for several years in the 1870s, but doesn't seem to have left much of an impression. Also played first base.
RF - Gene Kimball - He was from Rochester, NY and evidently lived there after his playing days - he died in Rochester in 1882. He only played one season in the National Association. I wonder if he came to the Forest Citys the same way Ezra Sutton did.

Although Cleveland has some interesting characters, this team probably won't fare too well; they certainly don't seem to have the talent that some of the eastern clubs have.

1871 Preview - Chicago White Stockings

The ill-fated White Stockings entered the 1871 season the champions of the base ball world. They had joined the NABBP (National Association of Base Ball Players) in 1870 when that league allowed professional teams, and promptly won the Association's final championship. When the National Association replaced the NABBP in 1871, Chicago joined, expecting to win again. They did indeed keep things close all season before losing the pennant, but of course that wasn't the real story in Chicago in 1871. On October 8-10, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire tore through the city, destroying approximately 1/3 of the city of Chicago, including the home park of the White Stockings. Although the team finished out the season, the city and the team were so devastated that they had to drop out of the National Association for the next two seasons.

For this simulation, it's hard to tell how Chicago will do. They don't seem to have as many stars as some of the other big-city teams, which leaves me wondering how they were the best team of 1870 and the second-best of 1871 to begin with.

P - George Zettlein - Zettlein was a Civil War veteran who pitched for Brooklyn in 1870. He was the winning pitcher in the game that ended Cincinnati's amazing winning streak.
C - Charlie Hodes - Like Zettlein, he had played in Brooklyn before being lured to Chicago. He died in 1875.
1B - Bub McAtee - From Troy, NY, which, like Rockford, IL, was a base ball hotbed in the 1860s and 1870s. Also had a short career and died young.
2B - Jimmy Wood - He was the player-manager of the team in 1870-71, and is one of many people credited with inventing the concept of spring training. His career ended rather gruesomely in the 1873-74 offseason when he lanced an abscess with a pocketknife, the wound became infected and gangrenous, and his leg was amputated. (Makes you appreciate modern medicine.) He should be the star of this squad.
3B - Ed Pinkham - This was his only professional season on record, and he didn't seem to make a huge impression.
SS - Ed Duffy - Not much known about him. He only played in 1871.
LF - Fred Treacey - Despite the fact that he played six seasons of professional base ball, little is known about Treacey.
CF - Tom Foley - Another one-year player, although he seems to be an adequate hitter.
RF - Joe Simmons - A transplant from New York who also wasn't that great either as a hitter or an outfielder.

On the whole, this team does not look like a contender - they look like a team with lots of spare parts, which is what they were for significant stretches of the season.

1871 Preview - Boston Red Stockings

In reality, the Red Stockings were pretty much the same team as the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, famous as the first professional baseball team of all time. Of course, since the Cincinnati Red Stockings didn't have any other professional teams to play against, they wiped out all their competition. The team didn't lose a game for all of 1869, and they started out 1870 the same way. However, the Brooklyn Atlantics, widely considered the best team in the east, played them in Brooklyn on June 14, 1870, and beat them 8-7 in 11 innings. Once the Cincinnati club had been beaten, no one cared much about them anymore, and they started losing money. The city decided they were through paying for such expensive professionals, so team manager Harry Wright took the nucleus of the team to Boston for 1871.

Although historically Boston was the dominant team of the National Association, they would at least have some competition from the other clubs, all of which were now professional.

For my simulation, I have all of the players from the 1871 Boston Red Stockings on the team:

P - Al Spalding - Future sporting goods magnate and star pitcher for the 1870 Rockford club.
C - Cal McVey - A 21-year-old who played the outfield for the Cincinnati Red Stockings.
1B - Charlie Gould - He was a local boy in Cincinnati who followed Wright to Boston.
2B - Ross Barnes - Starred for the Rockford team from 1868-70, then was lured to Boston by Wright.
3B - Harry Schafer - A Philadelphian who was not part of the Cincinnati Red Stockings.
SS - George Wright - Harry's little brother, he was a star in the late 1860s and should continue to be one.
LF - Fred Cone - He is from Rockford, so presumably he was lured to Boston with Barnes and Spalding.
CF - Harry Wright - The mastermind, and one of the great players of the 1860s. A little past his prime by 1871.
RF - Frank Barrows - A little-known player who was not from the Cincinnati club or lured over from Rockford.

This looks like a strong team, but only half of the Cincinnati club is here, together with the best players from the 1870 team from Rockford, Illinois, which was evidently a hotbed of baseball in the late 1860s. From their real-life histories, I expect McVey, Barnes and George Wright to be stars, and possibly Harry Wright if he can hold off the ravages of age.

This is where I'll be posting the results of my new historical replay of baseball starting all the way back in 1871. I'm using the new Out of the Park Baseball 11 to sim the league - basically, what I'm doing is watching things develop and making sure all the players start out on the correct teams and the real, as-played schedules are used. Beyond that I will take no active part in the league. So let's see how things turn out!

I'll do team-by-team previews of the 1871 season next.