Baseball™S Immortal Red Stockings
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Baseball's Immortal Red Stockings by LEE ALLEN The origin of baseball as an amateur endeavor is shrouded in doubt. It was, originally, a game for boys, and grew up without printed rules or documentary evidence of any kind as to its earli- est days. But the origin of professional baseball is undisputed: The first entirely professional team was supplied by the Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869, a club that played from Maine to Cali- fornia wherever opposition could be found. The Red Stockings engaged in sixty-five games without once losing, traveled nearly twelve thousand miles by rail and boat, appeared before more than two hundred thousand spectators, and scored 2,395 runs to 575 for their opponents. The importance of the Red Stockings to baseball history does not lie in their extraordinary achievement on the field, impressive though that was. Their contribution consisted of establishing the fact that baseball could succeed on a professional basis. They drew so much attention to the game that clubs began to spring up in their wake as indiscriminately as dandelions. These clubs grew so strong that by 1871 they were able to form baseball's first major league, The National Association of Professional Baseball Players, forerunner of the National League of which Cincinnati is still a member. The first baseball club of any kind was organized in Cincinnati in 1860 by Matthew M. Yorston, a resident of the city. He made by hand the baseballs that were used, and the team played informally at various sites in the downtown area: at the foot of Eighth Street, near the present location of the Crane & Breed Manufacturing Company; at the Orphan Asylum lot on Elm Street, where Music Hall now stands; on the old potter's field that is now Lincoln Park; and eventually in the Millcreek bottoms, where the Red Stockings were at home and where the Union Terminal was later built. As an amateur team, the Red Stockings were formed on July 23, 1866, at the law offices of Tilden, Sherman & Moulton, in the old Selves Building, 17}^ West Third Street. The original mem- bers included some of the most prominent citizens of the city. 192 The Bulletin Among them were Alfred T. Goshorn, Aaron B. Champion, Henry Glassford, William Tilden, J. William Johnson, and George B. Ellard. Baseball at the time supplied activity for gentlemen at leisure, and among the Cincinnatians interested enough in the sport to participate were Bellamy Storer, Drausin Wulsin, Stanley Matthews, J. Wayne Neff, John R. McLean, and Andrew Hickenlooper. There was no thought of professionalism, at least until August 1865, when William Henry (Harry) Wright, a native of England and resident of New York, was brought to Cincinnati at a salary of $1,200 a year to serve as bowler for the Union Cricket Club, which had been in existence since 1856. Wright was more interested in baseball, however, than cricket. In 1867 the Red Stockings leased the Union Cricket Club's grounds, and many of the cricket players became members of the baseball team, an event that gave the comparatively new game greater emphasis. Attendance increased rapidly at the baseball games, and Wright became the leader of the movement to form a professional team. This was the natural outgrowth of the desire for victory. The lower classes supplied the best players, and these athletes were principally interested in money, an attitude that is not difficult to understand. But the decision to turn professional was not received enthus- iastically in all quarters. One of the early amateur players, George A. Wiltsee, later in life explained the point of view. In 1916, in a conversation with William A. Phelon, baseball writer for the Cincinnati Times-Star, he said: Professional ballplayers were under a social ban, and the amateurs were not supposed to associate with them or even recognize them off the field - the only conversation between the two classes was on the diamond, and limited to subjects of the game. When the great Eastern players who composed the majority of the Reds were imported to Cincinnati, a trick was resorted to - a trick which has been copied at many a college and by many a semi-professional or alleged amateur ball club in more modern days. All these professionals were given jobs in the business houses of the team's backers - jobs where they reported every morning, were visible to callers or doubtful skeptics, and drew small salaries, although few of them ever did a stroke of work. In this manner, the gap between amateur and professional was bridged; the Reds became, nominally, local businessmen who didn't have to play Baseball's Immortal Red Stockings 19 3 — From Harper's Weekly, July 3, 1869 RED STOCKINGS OF 1869 194 The Bulletin ball for a living and, slowly, month by month, the barrier between 'gentlemen' and 'professionals' was broken down. The team assembled as the Red Stockings of 1869 was as follows: PLAYER AGE "OCCUPATION" POSITION SALA Harry Wright 35 Jeweler Center field $1,200 Asa Brainard 25 Insurance Pitcher $1,100 Douglas Allison 22 Marble cutter Catcher $ 800 Charles H. Gould 21 Bookkeeper First base $ 800 Charles J. Sweasy 21 Hatter Second base $ 800 Fred A. Waterman 23 Insurance Third base $1,000 George Wright 22 Engraver Shortstop $1,400 Andrew J. Leonard 23 Hatter Left field $ 800 Calvin A. McVey 20 Piano maker Right field $ 600 Richard Hurley 20 None Substitute $ 600 It is interesting to observe that Gould was the only player on the squad who was a native Cincinnatian. Leonard and Sweasy were residents of Newark, New Jersey; George Wright, Waterman, and Brainard came from New York City; Allison from Phila- delphia, New Jersey, and McVey from Indianapolis, Indiana. George Wright, a brother of Harry, was the first acquisition. He was such a celebrated shortstop that small boys used to say, "I'd rather be Wright (George) than President." The pitcher, Brainard, was next obtained, and it was then believed imperative to find a catcher who could hold him. Colonel John P. Joyce, secretary of the club, and Alfred T. Goshorn went East to find one, and stopped first at the Continental Hotel in Philadelphia. Goshorn was not feeling well and remained in his room, but Joyce went out for a walk. He ended up in the suburb of Manyunk, and perched on a fence to watch a sandlot game. Doug Allison was catching, and Joyce's first impression was that he was ungainly. But at bat Allison suddenly began to move with grace and hit a long home run to center field. After the game, Joyce introduced himself to Allison and took him on a carriage back to the Conti- nental. Telling Doug to wait, he rushed up to Goshorn's room and said, "Goshorn, I've got him." They both went to the street, and Allison was found sitting there in the carriage, a tanned and freck- led country boy whose boots and clothes were covered with brickyard clay. On his head was a twenty-five cent straw hat with half the rim gone. Joyce and Goshorn bought him a suit, made him get a haircut, and took him on the train back to Cincinnati. Baseball's Immortal Red Stockings 195 It seems singularly appropriate that this great, undefeated team should have had as its president a man named Aaron Burt Champion, a gentleman of real distinction and a man who devoted his life to public service. Born at Columbus, Ohio, on February 9, 1842, he attended Antioch College when the famed educator, Horace Mann, was president of that institution. He became an attorney and began to practice in Cincinnati in 1863. In 1872 he was a delegate from the second Ohio district to the national convention at Baltimore which nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency. As attorney for the Thompson- Houston Electric Company, he was considered to be the most knowledgeable man on electrical matters of any attorney in the western country. He was also active as a trustee for Antioch and president of the board of the House of Refuge. It was during the presidency of Champion that the Red Stockings adopted the uniform that became their trademark and still survives. Baseball players originally wore cricket uniforms, but at the suggestion of George Ellard an order was placed with a Mrs. Bertha Bertram, who conducted a tailor shop on Elm Street, near Elder, for short, white flannel trousers, white flannel shirt, and the famed red stockings. When the pitcher, Asa Brainard, came to Cincinnati, he boarded at the home of a family named Truman, a once wealthy clan whose male members had been associated with Truman & Wilson, the firm that came to be known as Wilson, Hinkle & Company; Van Antwerp, Bragg & Company; and eventually the American Book Company. (This firm was engaged in publishing, one of its publications being the McGuffey readers.) But somehow the Trumans became impoverished and had to take in boarders, one of whom was Brainard. Almost immediately after moving in with the family, he became ill of smallpox. He was nursed back to health by Mary Truman and her sister, Margaret. When Asa recovered, he and Mary became married. Mary and Margaret Truman, by this time enthusiastic followers of baseball, began sewing red stockings to supplement those supplied by Bertha Bertram. The season of 1869 opened on April 17, with the Red Stock- ings defeating a picked nine of local players, 24 to 15. After handily winning several other games, the team set out on its first road trip, accompanied by Harry M. Millar, a writer on the old 196 The Bulletin Commercial.