The Story of Henry Havelock Oxley, Major Leaguer
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\ , 5 jtJm M™ ham The original Polo Grounds, where Henry Oxley made his Major League debut THE STORY OF HENRY HAVELOCK OXLEY, MAJOR LEAGUER Well, it's not so much what I want to picture Field of Dreams), the one-line Island-Born ask as what I want to get a feel for. If entry that summarizes "Moonlight's" someone asks, you can say, UI played for evanescent career would likely have During the early days of 1858, rival the New York Giants." Willie Mays or remained forever invisible among the Charlottetown newspapers, the Christy Mathewson could say the same brilliant records of baseball's stars. Examiner and the Islander, carried dis- words, but they'd have a very different Two decades before Graham's major patches out of India relating the death meaning. What was it like to brush league debut, another player destined of British army officer Sir Henry against fame like a stranger hurrying past in a crowd? to be a "one-liner" put on his New Havelock, a hero of the Sepoy Ray Kinsella to "Moonlight" Graham York uniform and trotted out on to the Rebellion. On 4 January 1858, a Cove- (from Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella) infield grass of the Polo Grounds. His head blacksmith, Alexander Oxley, and name was Henry Oxley and he will be his wife, Mary (Stead), welcomed the ccording to The Baseball Ency- remembered as the first Prince arrival of their second son. They named A clopedia, Archibald "Moonlight" Edward Island-born player in major him Henry Havelock Oxley. Graham appeared in just one game for league baseball. Alexander Oxley had been born in the New York Giants of 1905. If it had Charlottetown in 1826. His wife was not been for his magical comeback in By Michael A. O'Grady the daughter of William Stead, a black- Shoeless Joe (and the resulting motion smith in Wheatley River, and Mary 13 (Lawson) Bovyer from Stanhope. The Among fellow Islanders and Irish Edward Island-born friends and neigh- Oxleys were married in 1848. For the immigrants, Henry Oxley was raised. bors in East Boston. next dozen years, Alexander attempt- In the narrow alleys, crowded streets, ed to hammer out a living at his forge and few vacant lots of East Boston, he on the Stanhope East Road.* By 1860, learned the game of baseball. For a "Play Ball!" however, he had made the decision to boy growing up in a crammed tene- join the vanguard of Island emigrants ment that might admit little sunlight In 1875, at the age of 17, Henry Oxley to the "Boston States." He booked pas- and even less fresh air, baseball (or "Harry" as he was known on local sage for himself and his family, which offered an escape. In its early, urban- diamonds), was playing organized at this point included five-year-old ized form, the game was aggressive baseball in Chelsea, the neighbouring Alexander, Jr., and young Henry, and and physical, which was appealing to town to East Boston. One of his set sail from Charlottetown to Glou- the tough young men and boys who Chelsea teammates, James "Truthful cester, Massachusetts. played it. On a higher level, the Jim" Mutrie, would go on to become It would have been impossible for ordered nature of baseball was allur- one of the winningest managers in Henry Oxley to have played baseball ing; the game stood in contraposition major league history and would figure on Prince Edward Island before he left to the usual squalor of the congested prominently in Oxley's own baseball for the United States. Although varia- urban environment. future. The following season, Oxley tions of the game's English ante- Attractive as the game was to those and Mutrie teamed up again, this time cedent, rounders, and other bat-and- who played it, baseball did not meet in Fall River, a textile center south of ball games were undoubtedly played with universal interest or approval. As Boston. Mutrie played at shortstop in the colony, baseball was not intro- historian Ronald Story points out, and Oxley in center field for a team duced on the Island until at least the "Nineteenth century adults did not that captured the New England latter half of the 1860s. really want their adolescent sons play- Association championship in 1876 and ing baseball." He refers to numerous featured five future major leaguers in stories of "fathers tracking down sons its lineup. Boston-Raised and whipping them off the ball field, o f Throughout the latter half of the mothers throwing iron pots and boil- 1870s, Oxley lived and worked in East The Oxleys settled in East Boston, ing water at team organizers, [and] of Boston. He is listed in the Boston city which would become an enclave for tempestuous quarrels over ball play- directories for that period as a machin- Island emigrants in the second half of ing instead of chores and serious ist. Presumably, he continued to play the nineteenth century. Already there, work." It can never be known if young baseball with area teams. In 1882, in large numbers, were the Irish, who Henry Oxley played baseball in the Oxley signed with the Star Base Ball had disembarked from their immi- face of disapproval or with parental Club of Beverly, on the Massachusetts grant ships in East Boston and then support, but it can be presumed that North Shore. He played with the immediately sought a livelihood in the he did play. Certainly, the level of "Stars" the following season, as well, factories and on the docks of that part achievement he later attained in the and also in Springfield, in the western of the city. Like the Boston Irish, sport set him apart from his Prince part of the state. In 1884, he moved to Prince Edward Islanders attempted to create a home-like community within their new surroundings. The transference of occupational and social characteristics to their new home was typical of the Island emi- grants. Displaced by an outmoded economy, they did not leave Prince Edward Island in pursuit of fortune and fame; rather, they sought a viable continuation of the humble way of life that they had left behind.** The Boston Directory for 1860 shows that Alexander Oxley was employed as a blacksmith, the same work he had done in Covehead. *According to Stanhope: Sands of Time, a road- widening operation in the 1920s unearthed arti- facts associated with Alexander Oxley's black- smith shop. **See Alan A. Brookes' discussion of emigration Playground in a Tenement Alley by Lewis W. Hine. Henry Oxley learned to play base- to the "Boston States" in Number 2 (Spring- ball among fellow immigrants in a Boston alley like this one, not in the wide-open Summer 1977). fields of his native Prince Edward Island. 14 Lynn, another North Shore communi- youngsters. Second-generation Irish ty and, at that time, America's leading +%m$m+ and Germans dominated the players' manufacturer of shoes. ranks, the Irish to the extent that The Lynns, as the local nine was sportswriters wondered if they had called, belonged to the Massachusetts been born with "a special talent for ball Association of Base Ball Clubs. The GRAND >BM,L playing." players were paid and considered The 1884 season was the first in themselves professionals, although it which National League pitchers were was necessary for them to augment ^OTM^^—or THK—/p^gS^S* permitted to use an overhand delivery. their baseball earnings through other There was no pitcher's mound; the ball employment. Oxley continued to work ^M 1 was delivered from a four-by-six-foot as a machinist while catching for the box, just fifty feet from home plate. A Lynns. The Lynn Item regularly SflVN ' pitcher was allowed a windup that praised the man "behind the bat." included a few quick steps and a jump, "Harry Oxley Distinguishes Himself," as long as he released the ball without the headlines exulted after one game: stepping out of the box. This latter rule "Oxley's play was exceptionally bril- was violated so often that Manager liant. He had four beautiful foul tips, Tnwn nauTnBirerh^ Mutrie of the Metropolitans had a piece and his work at the ash was remark- of thick glass laid down in front of the able, he getting a hit every time he pitcher's box to discourage illegal deliv- stepped to the plate." M0UDAY EVE3OTG, MAY 14, 1883, eries. Three strikes and the batter was The 1884 season had barely begun out, but six balls were required for a when the Lynn catcher began attract- A relic of "Harry" Oxley's minor league walk, and batters had the option of call- ing the attention of major league clubs. career - a dance card from a fund-rais- ing for a low or high pitch. The "brush- In late April, with his team in Boston, ing ball sponsored by the Beverly back" was already in vogue. 'Truthful Jim" Mutrie, now manager of (Massachusetts) Stars. On the back of Spalding supplied the Official the card, Oxley and some of his team- the American Association New York ,f League Ball, of which teams kept a Metropolitans, took the train up to mates are listed as %ids for the event. supply of both "dead" and "live" ver- Lynn to meet with his former team- sions. The former were sometimes mate. According to the Boston Globe of Harry Oxley was a major league base- "deadened" in an icebox overnight and 1 May 1884, Mutrie "offered Harry ball player, joining a game that was still put into play when the other team was Oxley $1000, with $200 advance money, evolving into what it is today.