I can remember almost as well as if it were but yesterday my first
experience as a ball player at Rockford. It was early in the spring, and
so cold that a winter overcoat was comfortable. I had been there but a
day or two when I received orders from the management to report one
afternoon at the ball grounds for practice. It was a day better fitted
for telling stories around a blazing fire than for playing ball, but
orders were orders, and I obeyed them. I soon found that it was to test
my qualities as a batsman that I had been ordered to report. A bleak
March wind blew across the enclosure, and as I doffed my coat and took
my stand at the plate I shivered as though suffering from the ague. This
was partially from the effects of the cold and partially from the
effects of what actors call stage fright, and I do not mind saying right
now that the latter had more than the former to do with it. You must
remember that I was "a stranger in a strange land," a "kid" both as to
years and experience, with a knowledge that my future very largely
depended upon the showing that I might make.
Facing me was "Cherokee Fisher," one of the swiftest of the old-time
underhand pitchers, a man that I had heard a great deal about, but whom
I had never before seen, while watching my every move from the stand
were the directors of the team, conspicuous among them being Hiram
Waldo, whose judgment in base-ball matters was at that time second to no
man's in the West, and a man that I have always been proud to call my
friend.
I can remember now that I had spent some considerable time in selecting
a bat and that I was wondering in my own mind whether I should be able
to hit the ball or not. Finally Fisher began sending them in with all
the speed for which he was noted. I let a couple go by and then I
slammed one out in the right field, and with that first hit my
confidence came back to me. From that time on I batted Fisher
successfully, but the most of my hits were to the right field, owing to
the fact that I could not at that time successfully gauge his delivery,
which was much swifter than anything that I had ever been up against.
In after years a hit to right field was considered "the proper caper,"
and the man who could line a ball out in that direction at the proper
time was looked upon as a most successful batsman. It was to their
ability in that line of hitting that the Bostons for many years owed
their success in winning the championship, though it took some time for
their rivals in the base-ball arena to catch on to that fact.
After that time I was informed by Mr. Waldo that I was "all right," and
as you may imagine this assurance coming from his lips was a most
welcome one, as it meant at that time a great deal to me, a fact that,
young as I was, I thoroughly appreciated.
The make-up of the Rockford Club that season was as follows: Hastings,
catcher; Fisher, pitcher; Fulmer, shortstop; Mack, first base; Addy,
second base; Anson, third base; Ham, left fielder; Bird center fielder;
and Stires, right fielder; Mayer, substitute.
This was a fairly strong organization for those days, and especially so
when the fact is taken into consideration that Rockford was but a little
country town then and the smallest place in size of any in the country
that sup-ported a professional league team, and that the venture was
never a paying one is scarcely to be wondered at. To be sure, it was a
good base-ball town of its size, but it was not large enough to support
an expensive team, and for that reason it dropped out of the arena after
the season of 1871 was over, it being unable to hold its players at the
salaries that it could then afford to pay.
There were several changes in the make-up of the team before the season
was over, but the names of the players as I have given them were those
whose averages were turned in by the Official Scorer of the league at
the end of the season, they having all, with one exception, played in
twenty-five games, that exception being Fulmer, who participated in but
sixteen. I led the team that season both in batting and fielding, as is
shown by the following table, a table by the way that is hardly as
complete as the tables of these latter days:
Players. Games Avg base hits Avg put out Avg assisted
Anson, 3d b 25 1.64 2.27 3.66
Mack, 1st b 25 1.20 11. 0.44
Addy, 2d b 25 1.20 2.72 3.33
Fisher, p 25 1.20 1.16 1.88
Stires, r f 25 1.20 1.27 0.33
Hastings, c 25 1.12 3.33 0.83
Ham, l f 25 1.00 1.50 0.55
Bird, c f 25 1.00 1.66 0.11
Fulmer, s s 16 1.00 2.35 3.57
These averages, in my estimation, are hardly to be relied upon, as
changes in the personnel of the team were often made without due notice
being given, while the system of scoring was faulty and not near so
perfect as at the present writing. This was not the fault of their
compiler, however who was obliged to take the figures given him by the
club scorer, a man more or less incompetent, as the case might be.
Before the regular season began my time at Rockford was mostly spent in
practice, so that I was in fairly good shape when the day arrived for me
to make my professional debut on the diamond. My first game was played
on the home grounds the Rockford team having for its opponent the Forest
City Club of Cleveland, Ohio, a fairly strong organization and one that
that season finished fourth on the list for championship honors, the
Athletics of Philadelphia carrying off the prize.
I had looked forward to this game with fear and misgivings, and my
feelings were by no means improved when I was informed that owing to the
non-arrival of Scott Hastings, the regular catcher, I was expected to
fill that responsible position, one to which I was a comparative
stranger. There was nothing to do but to make the best of the situation,
however, and this I did, though I can truthfully say that for the first
five innings I was as nervous as a kitten.
We were beaten that day by a score of 12 to 4, and though I had a few
passed balls to my credit, yet on the whole I believe that, everything
considered, I played a fairly good game; at least I have been told so by
those who were in a better position to judge than I was.
With that first game my nervousness all passed away, and I settled down
to play a steady game, which I did all through the season. As I have
said, however, the Rockford team was not a strong one, and of the
thirty-two record games in which we engaged we won but thirteen, our
winning scores being as follows: May 17th, at Rockford, Rockford 15,
Olympics of Washington 12; May 23, at Fort Wayne, Rockford 17, Kekionga
13; June 5th, at Philadelphia, Rockford 11, Athletic 10; June 15th, at
Philadelphia, Rockford 10, Athletics 7; July 5th, at Rockford, Rockford
29, Chicago 14; July 31st, at Rockford, Rockford 18, Mutual 5; August
3d, at Rockford, Rockford 4, Kekionga 0 (forfeited); August 7th, at
Chicago, Rockford 16, Chicago 7; August 8th, at Chicago, Rockford 12,
Cleveland 5; September 1st, at Brooklyn, Rockford 39, Athletics 5;
September 2d, at Brooklyn, Rockford 14, Eckford 9; September 5th, at
Troy, Rockford 15, Haymakers 5; September 16th, at Cleveland, Rockford
19, Cleveland 12.
In the final revision many of these games were thrown out for one reason
and another, so that in the official guides for that year the Rockford
Club is credited with only six games won and is given the last position
in the championship race, several of the games with the Athletics being
among those declared forfeited.
I learned more of the world that season with the Rockfords than I had
ever known before. Prior to that time my travels had been confined to
the trips away to school and to some of the towns adjacent to
Marshalltown, and outside of these I knew but little. With the Rockford
team, however, I traveled all over the East and West and learned more
regarding the country I lived in and its wonderful resources than I
could have learned by going to school for the half of a lifetime. The
Rockford management treated the players in those days very nicely. We
traveled in sleeping cars and not in the ordinary day coaches as did
many of the players, and though we were obliged to sleep two in a berth
we did not look upon this as an especial hardship as would the players
of these latter days, many of whom are inclined to grumble because they
cannot have the use of a private stateroom on their travels.
I made acquaintances, too, in all parts of the country that were
invaluable to me in after days, and though I had not finished sowing my
wild oats I think the folly of it all had begun to dawn on my mind as I
saw player after player disappear from the arena, the majority of them
being men who had given promise of being shining lights in the base-ball
world.
Of the men who played with me at Rockford but few remained in the
profession, and these but for a season or two, after which they drifted
into other lines of business. Bob Addy, who was one of the best of the
lot, was a good, hard hustling player, a good base runner and a hard
hitter. He was as honest as the day is long and the last that I heard of
him he was living out in Oregon, where he was engaged in running a tin
shop. He was an odd sort of a genius and quit the game because he
thought he could do better at something else.
"Cherokee" Fisher was originally a Philadelphian, but after the
disbandment of the Rockford Club he came to Chicago, securing a place in
the Fire Department, where he still runs with the machine. He was a good
man in his day and ranked high as a pitcher.
Charles Fulmer was a fair average player. He, too, drifted out of the
game in the early '70s, and the last that I knew of him he was a member
of the Board of Aldermen in the Quaker City.
Scott Hastings, the regular catcher, was a fair all-around player, but
by no means a wonder. After he left Rockford he went to Chicago, where
he was employed for a time in a wholesale clothing house. He is now, or
was at last accounts, in San Francisco and reported as being worth a
comfortable sum of money.
The other members of the old team I have lost sight of and whether they
are living or dead I cannot say. They were a good-hearted, jovial set of
fellows, as a rule, and my association with them was most pleasant, as
was also my relations with the Rockford management, who could not have
treated me better had I been a native son, and to whom I am indebted for
much both in the way of good advice and encouraging words; and let me
say right here that nothing does so much good to a young player as a few
words of approbation spoken in the right way and at the right time. It
braces him up, gives him needed confidence in himself, and goes a long
way further toward making him a first-class player than does continual
fault-finding.
It had been an understood thing, at least so far as the old gentleman
was concerned, when he gave his consent to my playing with Rockford for
a season, that I should at the end of it return home and resume my
studies, but fate ordained otherwise. Several times during the season I
was approached by members of the Athletic Club management with offers to
play as a member of their team the next season, that of 1872, and they
finally offered me the sum of $1,250 per annum for my services. This was
much better than I was doing at Rockford, and vet I was reluctant to
leave the little Illinois town, where I had made my professional debut,
and where I had hosts of friends.
When the end of the season came and the Rockford people offered to again
sign me et the same old figures I told them frankly of the Philadelphia
offer, but at the same time offered to again sign with Rockford,
providing that they would raise my salary to $100 per month. The club
had not made its expenses and they were not even certain that they would
place a professional team in the arena during the next season. This they
told me and also that they could not afford to pay the sum I asked for
my services, and so without consulting the folks at Marshalltown I
appended my name to a Philadelphia contract, and late in the fall bade
good-by to Rockford and its ball players, turning my face towards the
City of Brotherly Love, where I played ball with the Athletics until the
formation of the National League in 1876, and it was not until five
years had elapsed that I revisited my old home in Marshalltown, taking a
bride with me.