America's National Game/Chapter 8
CHAPTER VIII.
1865
AS SHOWING the rapid growth in popularity of Base Ball from the time of the formation of the National Association of Base Ball Players, in 1857, to the breaking out of the Civil War, in 1861, the following figures, though often published heretofore, will be found of interest:
The number of clubs represented by delegates in the first convention, held in 1857, was 16; in 1858, 25; in 1859, 49; in 1860, 54, and in 1861, only 34. The great falling off in '61 was due, of course, to the beginning of hostilities in that year, and from that time until the close of the war the attendance of club representatives at national annual meetings was very small.
But in 1865, at the close of the Civil War, so great was the furore for Base Ball that 91 clubs had representation in the convention—over 48 being from the State of New York alone, while 14 clubs had representation from Pennsylvania and 13 from New Jersey. The presence of scattering delegates from Portland, Me.; Leavenworth, Kansas; St. Louis, Mo., and Louisille, Ky., showed how the fever was spreading.
The tenth annual convention of the National Association of Base Ball Players, held in 1866, had a most sensational attendance, in the largest assemblage of representatives ever gathered in a similar convention up to that time. Delegates were present from clubs in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Ohio, Massachusetts, Iowa, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Maine.
It was at this convention that Arthur Pue Gorman, afterward United States Senator from Maryland, was elected President of the National Association.
The eleventh annual convention, held in 1867, was another surprise. It had representation from 237 clubs from the following States: Connecticut, 22; Illinois, 56; Indiana, 21; Maryland, 20; New York, 24; Ohio, 42; Pennsylvania, 27; Wisconsin, 25.
An analysis of these figures is of interest as showing that between the tenth and eleventh conventions of the National Association an epidemic of Base Ball fever had swept out into the West, and that, whereas in 1866 only a few Western States were represented by a mere handful of delegates, in 1867 the four States of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin had 145 clubs represented, which was nearly double the representation of the entire country the year previous. There was also something to inspire conjecture in the fact that in this year, while the great State of New York, where Base Ball had its birth, was represented by only 24 clubs, Illinois alone had 56—more than double the number of the Empire State, and delegates from Indiana and Wisconsin were about equal in numbers to those from New York.
This great and rapidly increasing interest in the game throughout the West was productive of noteworthy results. Not only were many clubs being formed in the Mississippi Valley and beyond the Rockies, but really formidable teams were springing up on every hand. The great clubs of the Atlantic States, too, were beginning to sit up and take notice of the records of some of the players of the Middle West, while a very natural longing to "take the conceit out" of the "farmers" gained possession of the Eastern clubs.
Meanwhile the names of the foremost players of the Eastern clubs were becoming as familiar as "household words" to Western fans, so that desire to see the Wright Brothers (Harry and George), Leggett, Berthrong, Williams, McBride, Reach, Fox, Start, Chapman, Ferguson and other notables, was prevalent everywhere. Thus it came about naturally, through the wish of the Eastern players to vanquish the West, and the hope of the Western boys to test conclusions with the fellows who had made the game famous, that a tour was arranged having as its object the playing of a series of matches between an Eastern club and teams in cities of the West.
The National Base Ball Club, of Washington, D. C, though an amateur organization, with membership largely confined to government employes who had developed ability to put up a strong game, conceived the idea of taking upon itself the task of cleaning up the "Wild and Wooly West." Mr. Arthur Pue Gorman, of Maryland, himself a fine player and an enthusiastic supporter of the game, favored the scheme and at once gave to it his personal aid and encouragement.
On the 11th of July, 1867, therefore, the Nationals, accompanied by a party of friends, started upon a trip to the West that was to include in its itinerary the States of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Illinois. The club was under the personal management of its President, Col. Frank Jones, and with him were the following players:
George Wright, shortstop and captain; W. F. Williams, a young law student, pitcher; Frank P. Norton, clerk in the Treasury Department, catcher; G. H. E. Fletcher, clerk in the Third Auditor's Office, first base; E. A. Parker, clerk in Internal Revenue Office, second base; George H. Fox, student at Georgetown College, third base; S. L. Studley, clerk in Treasury Department, left field; Harry W. Berthrong, clerk in Comptroller's Office, center field; Harry C. McLease, of the Auditor's Office, right field; E. G. Smith, clerk in the Fourth Auditor's Office, substitute. Henry Chadwick was a member of the party and official scorer.
The President of the Nationals had arranged a schedule of games to be played on this trip, the list being as follows:
Capital Club, of Columbus, Ohio; Cincinnatis and Buckeyes, at Cincinnati, Ohio; Louisville Club, at Louisville, Ky.; the Westerns, at Indianapolis, Ind.; the Empires and Unions, at St. Louis, Mo.; the Excelsiors and Atlantics, at Chicago, Ill., and the Forest City Club, of Rockford, Ill., which had been winning favor at the game, also at Chicago.
This schedule involved the playing of games in five States of the South and West and traveling a distance of over 3,000 miles by rail and boat, at an expense of more than $5,000. The sportsmanlike nature of the game in those days may be known from the fact that, from beginning to end, the visiting club bore all its own expenses, absolutely refusing to share any gate money at any game on the trip.
The tourists left Washington at four o'clock p. m. of the day of their departure, a large company of friends being present to see them started on their journey, and the following gentlemen having interest enough in players and game to accompany the Nationals on their tour: Messrs. Hodges, Cronin, Brown, Patterson, Munson, St. Clair, Ewer, Gramar, Dorsey, Stewart, Corvan and Price. They were met on their arrival at Annapolis, Md., by Mr. Gorman, who subsequently joined the party at Chicago.
At Columbus, the scene of the first game, the Nationals were received with demonstrations of marked favor and most profuse hospitality. On July 12th they met the Capital Club nine on a very poor field in the suburbs of the city. Two namesakes were pitted against each other as pitchers in this contest, J. Williams, afterwards Secretary of the American Association, appearing for the Capitals, while W. Williams filled the pitcher's box for the Nationals. The Western Williams did not make good in this game, a total of twenty-seven base hits being made from his delivery, while the Columbus team got only ten hits from the National Williams. The score at the end of seven innings—which were quite enough to satisfy spectators and players—was 90 to 10 in favor of the Washington club, an unprecedented score for the West up to that date.
After the customary banquet and other social functions common to the game in those days, the Nationals left for Cincinnati, where they arrived on the 14th, and on the 15th, after a full day's enjoyment of the hospitality of Cincinnati's players and people, they played the Cincinnatis, on the Union grounds, which had been opened on July 4th. As at Columbus, the Nationals were again victorious, this time by a score of 53 to 10 in a full game. For the Cincinnatis, the afterwards famous Harry Wright pitched, and the noted cricketer, Rogerson, caught.
I have already remarked that cricket is not Base Ball. It was not until Harry Wright put cricket in the background that he became noted as a Base Ball player and manager.
The following day the Nationals met the rivals of the Cincinnati Club, in the Buckeyes, also of the same city, and defeated them, 88 to 12, in a six innings game. On July 16th the Nationals left Cincinnati for Louisville, by the steamer "General Buell," and next day engaged the Louisville team at the Cedar Hill grounds. The result was a defeat for Louisville by a score of 82 to 21, in nine innings.
July 19th, the club from the Nation's capital city arrived at Indianapolis, en route to St. Louis. Here they played the Western Club, of the Hoosier capital, winning by the score of 106 to 21 in a full game. It was in this game that McVey, afterward to win enduring fame on the diamond, played at second base for the Westerns, and made his bow to the public as a future great one. The game was played on the old Camp Burnside Grounds.
On the 22d of July the Nationals played their first game at St. Louis with the Unions of that city, on one of the hottest days of a very hot season, the mercury registering 104 in the shade on the ball grounds. Notwithstanding the torrid heat, the game lasted four hours and a half, and the poor clerks from the government offices at Washington had to circle the bases for a grand total of 113 runs to 26 for the Unions in a nine innings game. Next day the Nationals had no trouble in defeating the Empire Club of St. Louis by 53 to 26, in six innings.
From St. Louis the Nationals went to Chicago, where occurred the most sensational incident of the entire trip. On July 25th this great team of splendid ball players, that had visited Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville and St. Louis, winning every game played, and by scores ranging from 113 to 26 to 53 to 26, in large cities, met a nine from the pretty little city of Rockford, Illinois, and suffered their first and only defeat; for, utterly crushed and humiliated by the unexpected drubbing by the schoolboys, after a game next day with the Chicago Excelsiors, which they won easily by a score of 49 to 4, the Nationals turned their faces homeward, and the players were soon again at their desks at Washington, D. C.
The late Henry Chadwick, in his Base Ball memoranda, which came into my possession at his death as the gift of his estimable wife, describes the National-Forest City game in these words:
"A Base Ball tourney had been held in Chicago on July 4, 1867, in which the Excelsiors of that city and the Forest City Club, of Rockford, had been the leading contestants. The former had defeated the Forest City nine in two games, by very close scores of 45-41 in one, and 28-25 in another, when the Forest Citys were invited to meet the Nationals at Chicago on July 25th, a day which proved the most notable of the tour. The contest took place at Dexter Park, before a vast crowd of spectators, the majority of whom looked to see the Nationals have almost a walk-over. In this game A. G. Spalding was pitcher, and Ross Barnes shortstop for the Forest City nine; these two afterwards becoming famous as star players of the Boston professional team of the early seventies. Williams was pitcher for the Nationals and Frank Norton catcher. The Nationals took the lead in the first innings by 3 to 2; but in the next two innings they added but five runs to their score, while the Forest Citys added thirteen to theirs, thereby taking the lead by a score of fifteen to eight, to the great surprise of the crowd and the delight of the Rockfords. The Nationals tried hard to recover the lost ground. The final result, however, was the success of the Forest Citys by a score of 29 to 23 in a nine innings game, twice interrupted by rain."
The Chicago papers taunted the Nationals on their defeat, and anticipated a signal victory for their "Champions of the West," the Chicago Excelsiors, next day. The crowds present on the 26th, when the Excelsiors met the Nationals, was the largest ever seen at a match out West up to that time, though the admission fee was half a dollar. From the very outset of the contest the Nationals played the finest game of their tour, not only in pitching and batting, but especially in fielding, while the Excelsiors, after the first innings, which ended seven to nothing against them, "went up in the air," as the saying is, and came out of the fight the most demoralized set of ball players ever seen in Chicago. To be beaten at all was bad enough, but to be whipped by a score of 49 to 4 by a nine their Rockford rivals had beaten the day before, was galling in the extreme.
Next day the Chicago Tribune charged the Nationals with throwing the game to Rockford "for betting purposes." Mr. A. P. Gorman and President Jones, of the Nationals, visited the Tribune office and compelled a retraction of the charges.
Thus ended the great Western tour of the Washington Nationals, the first tour of an Eastern Base Ball club to the West.
I recall an incident in connection with this game which may be of interest. I was the pitcher of the Forest City Club in this victory over the famous Nationals, and, as a lad of seventeen, experienced a severe case of stage fright when I found myself in the pitcher's box, facing such renowned players as George Wright, Norton, Berthrong, Fox, and others of the visiting team. It was the first big game before a large audience in which I had ever participated. The great reputations of the Eastern players and the extraordinary one-sided scores by which they had defeated clubs in Columbus, Cincinnati, Louisville, Indianapolis and St. Louis, caused me to shudder at the contemplation of punishment my pitching was about to receive. A great lump arose in my throat, and my heart beat so like a trip-hammer that I imagined it could be heard by everyone on the grounds.
I knew, also, that every player on the Rockford nine had an idea that their kid pitcher would surely become rattled and go to pieces as soon as the strong batters' of the Nationals had opportunity to fall upon big delivery.
In the first innings, the Rockfords made two runs and the Nationals three, which in those days was called good ball playing. In the second innings, five runs by the Nationals and eight by the Rockfords gave the latter a lead by ten to eight. In the third, the Nationals drew a blank and Rockford made five runs, thus putting Rockford to the good by a score of fifteen to eight for the Nationals. The fourth and fifth yielded three runs to the Nationals and one to the Rockfords. In the sixth innings the Nationals made seven runs and the Rockfords eight, which made the score at the end of the sixth innings. Nationals, 18; Rockford, 24.
While the Forest Citys had by this time gotten pretty well settled and their stage-fright had disappeared, yet none of us even then had the remotest idea that we were destined to win the game over such a famous antagonist. The thought or suggestion of such a thing at that stage would probably have thrown us into another mental spasm.
At this psychological moment, Col. Frank Jones, President of the National Club, rushed up to George Wright, who was about to take his position at the bat, and said, in a louder voice possibly than he intended:
"Do you know, George, that this is the seventh innings and we are six runs behind? You must discard your heavy bat and take a lighter one; for to lose this game would be to make our whole trip a failure." Col. Jones' excited manner plainly indicated his anxiety.
This incident inspired the Rockfords with confidence and determination, and for the first time we began to realize that victory was not only possible, but probable, and the playing of our whole team from that time forward was brilliant. I have always given Col. Jones credit for Rockford's victory.
None but a ball player can understand how much of a factor little incidents of this kind are in a closely contested match.
In the game of the following day, when the Nationals administered their crushing defeat to the Chicago Excelsiors, George Fox, of the Nationals, made the longest hit I ever saw in any game on any grounds. It was one of those terrific, swift drives just over the heads of the outfielders that is so difficult to judge. The ball was hit in such a way and with so much force that it flew on a straight line to such an amazing distance that it became a subject of comment to all who witnessed it for years thereafter.