The Base Ball Guides, Part 2
Examining the 1870s, in both Beadle and De Witt
Last week I stumbled upon an old file in which I had gathered notes from my reading of the old, today ignored Base Ball Guides from 1860 to perhaps 1885. I had read the actual guides on microfilm, long before any were digitized, but today you may peruse most of them online; see my friend Sean Lahman’s helpful index (https://bit.ly/2zxVEvt). Last week we reviewed the guides from 1859 to 1869. Below I’ll winnow out some highlights from the first half of the 1870s, as professional play evolved into league play. Where the notes to myself, re-read after all these years, may seem cryptic I have provided bracketed annotation or illustration.
BEADLE, 1870
p. 45: “IMPORTANT WORDS ABOUT PROFESSIONALISM” end the one-year trial in which professional clubs were admitted into the formerly if not altogether purely amateur National Association of Base Ball Players. “Ring” tactics were opposed: “Not content with lowering the national game to the level of the hippodroming of the turf, they aim to get control of the National Association….” [Further: “At a fair estimate there are not far from a thousand regularly organized base-ball clubs located in our country, from Maine to California, and from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. Of these, not fifty can in any way be ranked as professional clubs; indeed, a recent account of the number limits the list to sixteen. And yet is the ambition of this very small minority to rule the whole thousand….
“At a fair estimate there are not far from a thousand regularly organized base-ball clubs located in our country, from Maine to California, and from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. Of these, not fifty can be ranked in any way as professional clubs; indeed, a recent account of the number limits the list to sixteen.”]
p. 50: Recognizing that the Haymakers of Troy had acted improperly in August of 1869 to walk off the field after achieving a mid-game tie with the Cincinnati Red Stockings, at 17-all, the National Association ruled that beyond the umpire’s award of a forfeit an additional twenty runs would accrue to the credit of Cincinnati, rendering the final score of the game 37–17 and securing the Reds’ unblemished season.
p. 52: Chadwick renounces outs and runs, favoring first base by hits [“The only true estimate of a batsman’s skill, is that based on the number of times he makes his bases on hits, not by errors of the fielders, but by what is known as ‘clean’ hitting.” Chadwick’s batting average still employs as its denominator the number of games played rather than at bats; this latter, enduring innovation must be credited to H.A. Dobson of Washington, D.C. See: “Chadwick’s Choice: The Origin of the Batting Average”: https://bit.ly/2ZFwLsY]
pp. 61–64: History of Cincinnati Reds, 1866 on, with special detail on the monumental 1869 campaign [Reds in 1869 “got together the first regularly trained professional nine” — emphasis Chadwick’s.]
DE WITT, 1870
p. 16: “The best bat in the market this season, is that known as the “Red Stocking” brand, modeled after a bat used by George Wright. [Wright was the hero of the age, and the first baseball player to grant his endorsement to various products. Likewise, so were the Red Stockings.]
BEADLE, 1871
Peck & Snyder ad — offers photos of leading players! See Clipper for list of players available!! [These portraits were also presented as cameos, for the 1871 season, within a carte de visite for each professional league club.]
p. 40 for National Association in shambles — amateurs and pros split
Wansley reinstated [Duffy had been reinstated the previous year, and Devyr earlier, thus absolving all three Mutual players in the game tossed to the Eckfords in 1865.]
Craver expelled for shady play [would be one of Louisville Four expelled in 1877, with Devlin, Hall,and Nichols; see “I am Honest, Harry”: https://bit.ly/36xeNKj]
Professional teams in 1870: Athletics, Atlantics, Reds, Forest City (Cleveland and Rockford), Chicago, Troy, Niagara of Buffalo, Mutual, Eckford, Union, Olympic (DC), National (DC), Riverside of Portsmouth, O.; Keystone (Philadelphia), Maryland, Liberty of Springfield, Grove City of Kankakee
Athletics of Bkn had Tommy Bond, Alphas had Sam Jackson; both would wind up with Boston Red Stockings
Mansfield of CT had Tipper, Furniss, Arnold, Bentley
Oldest baseball emporium as of 1870 — E.I. Horsman, 100 William St. — went on to become notable dollmaker.
1871 DE WITT
p. 34: “General Rules for the Game on Skates” [The bases, except the home base, should b marked out somewhat in the shape of a masonic “rule and compass, thus” …
p. 47: Chadwick: “We give below the short-hand system of recording the details of a game of base-ball used by Mr. Kelly, the well-known reporter of the New York Herald.” This is followed by an ornate, intricate system of scoring with many special characters drawn in by hand.
1872 BEADLE
p. 10: Balance is sought between batting and bowling in cricket, same in baseball
Amateur club Excelsior of Boston had the collegian Jack Kent (Harvard) at 1B [went on 1874 tour to England with Boston Red Stockings].
Has heights and weights of professional players, plus birthplaces [early encyclopedists could otherwise not have researched these figures]
1872 DE WITT
p. 54: long description of Olympics-Boston game (National Association), at Brooklyn Union Grounds, 5/27/71
p. 64: Box score for game of 10/6/71 lists at bats! [this is an innovation leading up to Dobson’s new formulation of the batting average]
Pennant deciding game of 10/30/71 — “Bannock” (Brannock?) played 3B for Chicago, Berkenstock RF for Athletics [The latter was called onto the field from the stands; 40 years old, he had not played for the Athletics for four years; see: https://bit.ly/2X4VULF.]
Mutes 3B Charley Smith “had to retire” before the season was half over — mental illness
p. 97: Roster of Boston Red Stockings has “Izee Wright” as shortstop!! [George and Harry had a brother Isidore, I know, but there is no record of him playing in NA game.]
1873 BEADLE
p.41 ff. New pitching rules permit pitch, toss or jerk, but not roundarm or overhand throws
John J. Ryan played 7 games for Boston in ’72, but none in the NA
Eckford played Balt. 8/9, Atlantics 8/19 and 9/24 — Atlantics and Eckfords were co-ops; A’s, Boston, Mutes, Baltimore were salaried [An innovation of the National League in 1876 was to banish all cooperative clubs (gate-sharing).]
*** Batting averages — “Percentage 1B hits to times at Bat” — are given for 1872 play of Boston team; Barnes bats .404 in 44 NA games [today corrected to .430 in 45 games]
*** Fielding Averages are given for 1872 play as chances accepted per game — supplied by Mr. Reed of Philadelphia. [This is, in effect Range Factor, which failed to supplant Fielding Pct.]
1873 DE WITT
p. 81 Rule IV, Sec. 5 — Chadwick interpretation of runner’s need to return to base on caught ball validates 1878 Hines “triple play” — on a caught ball, runner on first passes second, he must return to first, touching second first and “if the ball be returned in and held on either [emphasis mine — JT] base before the base runner returns to it he is out.” [See: https://bit.ly/3d9fLPp]
1874 BEADLE
Rule approved for 1874 of 10 men to a side, 10 innings [No league game was ever played to this standard, despite Chadwick’s urging.]
The peripatetic Asa Brainard with Baltimore in ’73 [different teams each year since 1866, excepting Cincinnati for 1869–1870]
Jim Devlin in 21 games for Philadelphia [later upped to 23, but none as a pitcher in this year or the next]
1874 DE WITT
p. 14: “…we hear old players talk of base-ball having become “played out,” and of its not being as lively as it was ten years ago.”
pp. 14–18: high scores of summer games indicate crooked play, according to Chadwick
Pool selling in 1873 common only at Brooklyn’s Union Grounds — banned there for 1874
p. 22: Right short-stop introduced [would play out to mixed reviews]
p. 38: Batting averages given per game rather than per at-bat “because only a few of the professional clubs employ competent scorers … to record the details of their games, and consequently no such data is at command for a general list of averages.”
p. 55: Play by play of game of 9/12/73 between Phila and Atlantic (Zettlein vs. Britt)
p. 61: Walks not counted in computing earned runs: “While it is no discredit to a batman to take a base on called balls, it certainly is not an outcome to be proud of; and it may therefore be set down as neither for nor against the earning of a run, and consequently we leave it out altogether.”
1875 BEADLE
p. 45 ff. : the ten-man, ten-inning rule in practice, with box scores — “left shortstop” and “right shortstop” [The first such game was the Jimmy Wood benefit, July 29, 1874, between Chicago and the Atlantics. Second and third games were amateur contests, NY v. Bkn picked tens (8/17 and 10/5).]
Chicago and Philadelphia accused of fielding “unreliable men” [must mean Craver, Bechtel, Zettlein, Devlin]
1875 DE WITT
p. 50: Sketches of the players on tour of England; erroneously includes Deacon White, excludes Kent of Harvard — also includes Al Reach, in error.
George Wright — “until he injured his leg he had no equal in the position”
p. 52: heading reads “THE ATHLETIC BLUE STOCKINGS” [the Philadelphia Athletics indeed wore blue hose but excepting this are never so named]
Fisler — called “West” rather than Wes (given name Weston)
John McMullin of A’s “led at the bat, being very successful in ‘fair-foul’ hitting, or what cricketers would call ‘snicks to short leg.’”
Anson is “the least active fielder of the nine, but excels in heavy batting.”
pp. 53 ff. Box scores of all games on tour!
p. 67 lists umpires of NA games!
p. 69 lists modern BAs for Boston! Also PO + A
p. 71 Guelph club defeats “Ku Klux Klan” of Oneida, NY at Watertown, 13–4
McMullin awarded to Philadelphia White Stockings for 1875, not Athletics. Radcliffe reinstated “not on the ground that the charges against him were not true.” Boyd’s expulsion by Hartford upheld. Miller given to Hartford rather than St. Louis. NEXT DAY Judiciary Committee reinstated Boyd. [Danger signs for future of National Association, entering what would turn out to be its final year.]
The Baseball Guides, Part 2 was originally published in Our Game on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.