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.