The variegated garb of the Cincinnati Reds of 1882 was mandated for all American Association clubs.
William Ambrose Hulbert died on April 10, 1882, three weeks before Opening Day of the league he had founded. Albert Goodwill Spalding took the reins of the Chicago White Stockings from their fallen leader and by turns became a force in league affairs, a sporting-goods magnate, and a world-touring missionary for the game that had given him everything.
In 1880 Hulbert had expelled the Cincinnati franchise for selling “spirituous and malt liquors” on the grounds, which in truth violated neither his sensibilities nor league statute. With this heavy-handed action Hulbert, the former firebrand, may have sparked an insurrection of his own: a rival league, the American Association (AA) of 1882, centered in the fun-loving, hard-drinking, and now deeply resentful city of Cincinnati.
Men like Chris Von Der Ahe, a saloon proprietor from St. Louis, believed that workingmen ought to be able to see a game for a quarter rather than the fifty cents that the league charged. He also thought that patrons ought to be permitted to mix their baseball with beer and whisky, as baseball lovers in bygone days had celebrated the game with chowder and grog, and on Sundays, too. In 1882, he and likeminded speculators formed the “Beer-and-Whisky League” with six clubs, two fewer than the National League of that year; these six, however, represented locales that far surpassed their rivals’ eight in composite population, so the American Association was born as a major league no matter what the senior league called it, and no matter that in the first 22 exhibition contests between the leagues, the new circuit won none.
On September 28 of 1882 the NL club of Troy defeated the Worcester club 4–1 before an audience of … six. Both teams would be dropped from the league at season’s end, to be replaced by new franchises in New York and Philadelphia, the very cities the NL had abandoned in 1876.
By 1883, the association would outdraw the league by some 70 percent. The NL had the superior talent, but the AA had the fans.
The Images:
The NL clubs chipped in to buy a headstone and baseball marker for William Hulbert.Arthur Soden, managing partner of the Boston club, was named to succeed Hulbert as league president on an interim basis, but his permanent successor was Abraham G. Mills (above), whom Hulbert regarded as a genius for having come up with the reserve clause.The Chicagos of 1882 won the NL flag by three games over Providence despite their comical outfits. Cap Anson (center) and King Kelly (far right) were the stars.George Wright (second from right, middle), who had led the 1879 Grays to the flag, returned, along with brother Harry (by his side), but the rising stars were pitchers John Ward (far right) and Hoss Radbourn (second from right, top).Opening series ticket, St. Louis Browns vs. Eclipse of Louisville. The Reds won the AA’s first championship but later in the decade the Browns would win four pennants in succession (1885–1888).The St. Louis Browns of 1882 were led by captain Charles Comiskey, their first baseman (fifth from left). This image was taken later in the season, after the players in both circuits rebelled against the clownish silk shirts/coats.The Buffalo club of the NL in 1882 was led by a one-armed pitcher, Hugh Daily (aka Daly), here depicted in his only known image, old-time luminaries Davy Force, Jim O’Rourke, and Deacon White, and future star Dan Brouthers.An improbable but illuminating survivor: a baseball used during an 1882 Decoration Day game between two independent clubs that had been invited to join the AA but declined because their midseason contests with NL clubs were so lucrative: the Metropolitans and the Phillies. In 1883 the former would enter the AA while the latter would join the NL.Here are the nattily attired Mets of 1882, with spotted ties and jerseys, plus wool warmup coats. Tip O’Neill, who would hit .485 with the St. Louis Browns of 1887, was at this time a young pitcher ((third from left, top).A “dandy” whose impeccable grooming and well-waxed mustache earned for him the nicknames of “The Count” and “The Apollo of the Box,” Tony Mullane of the Reds may be more responsible than anyone else for the innovation of Ladies’ Day. He also won 30, 35, and 36 games in the American Association in 1882, 1883, and 1884. Durable enough to pitch 400 innings a season, Mullane possessed one other ability that set him apart from other hurlers: He was ambidextrous.In 1882, Eliza Green became baseball’s first female official scorer, for the Chicago White Stockings.After playing for pay with the White Sewing Machine company team in 1881, Fleet Walker enrolled at Michigan largely to play baseball. By 1883 he would enter the new Northwest League, and then in 1884 the American Association.
