1872 Preview - Middletown Mansfields

The Mansfields of Middletown, CT, were a club that was first established in 1866 following the conclusion of the Civil War. The Mansfields were named after General Joseph Mansfield, a Civil War general who lived in Middletown and was killed at the Battle of Antietam in 1862. The amateur Mansfield club improved each year until, in 1870, they were voted the top amateur base ball club in Connecticut. That year, they also got enclosed base ball grounds, which allowed them to charge for admissions.

They often scheduled games against top amateur and professional clubs, and in 1872 Harry Wright suggested they pay the $10 fee to join the National Association so they could get routine games against top competition. They did so, but while they were a very good amateur team, they had never beaten one of the top professional clubs, and Middletown was a small town, not able to support a rich professional team like the Mutuals, Athletics, or Red Stockings. Top-level professional base ball was to be a one-year experiment in Middletown.

Here is a good source for information on Middletown base ball.

P - Cy Bentley - Bentley played only one big league season, because he died of consumption a couple months before the 1873 season began, at the age of 22.
C - John Clapp - Clapp was called "Honest John," suggesting he was one of the few players of the time who did not associate with gamblers and other "low characters." His professional base ball career lasted until the early 1880s, and he was considered a good hitter.
1B - Tim Murnane - He was a solid but unspectacular big leaguer throughout the 1870s, but his real impact was as a sportswriter. He spent 30 years as a baseball writer for the Boston Globe, and did a great deal to publicize the early days of base ball. He shows up everywhere as a primary source for the goings-on of the early days of base ball. In 1872 he was a 19-year-old rookie up from having played a couple seasons with a club in Savannah, Georgia.
2B - Chick Fulmer - He had a very good season (.374) with Rockford in the 1871 simulation, and signed with little Middletown for this season. Historically, he actually ended up with the powerful Mutual club in 1872, then returned to his hometown of Philadelphia in 1873.
3B - Jim Tipper - Historically, Tipper played for most of the Connecticut-based clubs of the 1870s as a professional, but didn't distinguish himself too greatly. His obituary from the 1890s (he also died relatively young of consumption) mentioned his great fielding, but it was really mostly to remark on the fact that the players of the 1870s played without gloves.
SS - Ed Duffy - Historically, the Irishman Ed Duffy never played top-level base ball again after his turn with Chicago in 1871. In the simulation, he hit a solid .274 with Chicago and played a solid shortstop, so he was signed by the Middletown club.
LF - Ham Allen - Not much known about him, other than the fact that he was a Civil War veteran.
CF - Frank McCarton - He played one season as a big league ballplayer at the age of 17, and did very well - hitting .329 for the Mansfields historically. Then he never played professional ball again. There's a picture of him a little later in life here, that was posted by a descendant of his - evidently he went on to be a New York City police officer.
RF - Bob "Magnet" Addy - Addy hit .317 for Rockford in my simulation, good enough to get him a job with Middletown. Historically, he sat out the 1872 season, or at least did not play with any of the National Association teams.

They don't look like the worst of the new teams by any stretch - in fact, they probably have the talent to be fairly decent in my simulated 1872. Of course, the finances are another matter, which is why we won't be seeing this team around following this year.