The first trip that was ever made across the big pond by American ball
players and to which brief reference was made in an earlier chapter,
took place in the summer of 1874. London was, as a matter of course, our
first objective point, and I considered myself lucky indeed in being a
member of one of the organizations that was to attempt to teach our
English cousins the beauties of America's National Game.
The two clubs selected to make the trip were the Bostons, then
champions, and the Athletics, and the players who were to represent
them, together with their positions, are given below:
BOSTON POSITIONS ATHLETIC
Catcher John E. Clapp
A. G. Spalding Pitcher Jas. D. McBride
Jas. O'Rourke First base West D. Fisler
Ross C. Barnes Second base Jos. Battin
Harry Schafer Third base Ezra B. Sutton
Geo. Wright Shortstop M. E. McGeary
A.J. Leonard Left field Albert W. Gedney
Cal C. McVey Right field A. C. Anson
Harry Wright Center field Jas. F. McMullen
Geo. W. Hall Substitute Al J. Reach
Thos. H. Beals Substitute J. P. Sensenderfer
Sam Wright, Jr. Substitute Tim Murnane
James White of the Boston team declined to go at the last moment, his
place being taken by Kent of the Harvard College team while Al Reach was
kept from making the trip by business engagements. Alfred H. Wright of
the "New York Clipper" and Philadelphia "Sunday Mercury," and H. S.
Kempton of the "Boston Herald" both accompanied us and scored the
base-ball games that were played on the trip, while the first-named
officiated in the same capacity when the game was cricket. In addition
to these men, both clubs were accompanied by large parties of friends
who were anxious to see what sort of a reception would be accorded to us
by our British cousins, who had never yet witnessed a base-ball game,
their nearest approach to it having been to look on at a game of
"rounders."
The entire cabin of the steamship Ohio had been engaged for ourselves
and our friends, and on July 16th a great crowd assembled at the wharf
to see us off and to wish us God-speed on our journey. The trip across
was fortunately a pleasant one and as we were a jolly party the time
passed all too quickly, the seductive game of draw poker and other
amusements of a kindred sort helping us to forget that the old gentleman
with the scythe and hourglass was still busily engaged in making his
daily rounds.
It was my first sea voyage, and to say that I enjoyed it would be to
state but the simple truth. The element of poetry was left largely out
of my make-up and so I did not go into ecstasies over the foam-crested
waves as did several of the party, but I was as fond of watching for the
flying fish that now and then skimmed the waves and for the porpoises
that often put in an appearance as any of the rest of the party. If I
speculated at all as to the immensity of the rolling deep by which we
were surrounded, it was because I wished that I might be able to devise
some plan for bottling it up and sending it out West to the old
gentleman to be used for irrigating purposes. That such an amount of
water should have been, allowed to go to waste was to me a matter for
wonderment. I was looking at the practical side of the matter, and not
at the poetical.
July 27th we arrived at Liverpool and as the majority of us had grown
tired of the monotony of sea life we were glad enough once more to set
foot on solid land. With fourteen games of ball to be played and seven
games of cricket we had but little time to devote to sight-seeing,
though you may be sure that we utilized the days and nights that we had
off for that purpose.
There was considerable curiosity on the part of our British cousins to
see what the American Game was like and as a result we were greeted by
large crowds wherever we went. We were treated with the greatest
kindness both by press and public and words of praise for our skill both
at batting and fielding were to be heard on all sides. Exhibition games
between the two clubs were played at Liverpool, Manchester, London,
Sheffield and Dublin, the Boston Club winning eight games and the
Athletics six.
When it came to playing cricket we proved to be something of a surprise
party. In these games we played eighteen men against eleven and defeated
with ease such, crack, organizations as the Marylebone, Prince's, and
Surrey Clubs in London, the Sheffield Club at Sheffield; the Manchester
Club in Manchester and the All-Ireland Club in Dublin, while the game
with the Richmond Club was drawn on account of rain, we having the best
of it at that time. While I was, comparatively speaking, a novice in
this game, at which the Wrights were experts, they having enjoyed a
reputation as first-class cricketers in America for years, yet I managed
to make the highest score of all in our game with the All-Ireland
Eleven, and to hold my own fairly well in the other cricket games that
were played.
It is impossible for me to speak too highly of the treatment that was
accorded to us on this trip both in England and Ireland, where peer and
peasant both combined to make our visit a pleasant one. We were
entertained in royal style wherever we went and apparently there was
nothing too good for us. Lords and ladies were largely in evidence among
the spectators wherever we played and among our own countrymen residing
in the British metropolis we were the lions of the day.
The contrast between the crowds in attendance at our games there and
those that greeted us at home attracted my attention most forcibly. An
English crowd is at all times quiet and sedate as compared with a crowd
in our own country. They are slower to grasp a situation and to seize
upon the fine points of a play. This, so far as base-ball was concerned,
was only to be expected, the game being a strange one, but the same fact
was true when it came to their own National game, that of cricket. There
was an apparent listlessness, too, in their playing that would have
provoked a storm of cat-calls and other cries of derision from the
occupants of the bleaching boards at home.
It was our skill at fielding more than at batting that attracted the
attention of the Britishers and that brought out their applause. Our
work in that line was a revelation to them, and that it was the direct
cause of a great improvement afterwards in their own game there can be
no reason to doubt.
Between sight-seeing and base-ball and cricket playing the thirty days
allotted to our visit passed all too quickly and when the time came for
us to start on our homeward journey there was not one of the party but
what would gladly have remained for a longer period of time in "Merry
England," had such a thing been possible. It was a goodly company of
friends that assembled at the dock in Queenstown to wish us a pleasant
voyage on August 27th, which was just one month to a day from the date
of our arrival, and we were soon homeward bound on board of the
steamship Abbotsford. The voyage back was anything but a pleasant one
and more than half the party were down at one time and another from the
effects of seasickness. Old Neptune had evidently made up his mind to
show us both sides of his character and he shook us about on that return
voyage very much as though we were but small particles of shot in a
rattle-box.
We arrived at Philadelphia Sept. 9, where we were the recipients of a
most enthusiastic ovation, in which brass bands and a banquet played a
most important part, and after the buffeting about that we had received
from the waves of old ocean we were glad indeed that the voyage was
over.
The impression that base-ball made upon the lovers of sport in England
can be best illustrated by the following quotations taken from the
columns of the London Field, then, as now, one of the leading sporting
papers of that country:
"Base-ball is a scientific game, more difficult than many who are in the
habit of judging hastily from the outward semblance can possibly
imagine. It is in fact the cricket of the American continent,
considerably altered since its first origin, as has been cricket, by the
yearly recourse to the improvements necessitated by the experience of
each season. In the cricket field there is at times a wearisome monotony
that is entirely unknown to baseball. To watch it played is most
interesting, as the attention is concentrated but for a short time and
not allowed to succumb to undue pressure of prolonged suspense. The
broad principles of base-ball are not by any means difficult of
comprehension. The theory of the game is not unlike that of 'Rounders,'
in that bases have to be run; but the details are in every way
different.
"To play base-ball requires judgment, courage; presence of mind and the
possession of much the same qualities as at cricket. To see it played by
experts will astonish those who only know it by written descriptions,
for it is a fast game, full of change and excitement and not in the
least degree wearisome. To see the best players field even is a sight
that ought to do a cricketer's heart good; the agility, dash and
accuracy of tossing and catching possessed by the Americans being
wonderful."
This, coming at that time from a paper of the "Field's" high standing
was praise, indeed, but the fact remains that the game itself, in spite
of all the efforts made to introduce it, has never become popular in
England, for the reason perhaps that it possesses too many elements of
dash and danger and requires too much of an effort to play it.
Commenting after our return to this country upon this tour and its
results, Henry Chadwick, the oldest writer on base-ball in this country
and an acknowledged authority on the game, said:
"The visit of the American base-hall players to England and the success
they met there, not only in popularizing the American National Game but
in their matches at cricket with the leading Cricket Clubs of England,
did more for the best interests of base-ball than anything that has
occurred since the first tour through the country of the noted Excelsior
Club of Brooklyn in 1860. In the first place, the visit in question has
resulted in setting at rest forever the much debated question as to
whether we had a National Game or not, the English press with rare
unanimity candidly acknowledging that the 'new game of base-ball' is
unquestionably the American National Game. Secondly, the splendid
display of fielding exhibited by the American ball players has opened
the eyes of English cricketers to the important fact that in their
efforts to equalize the attack and defense in their national game of
cricket, in which they have looked only to certain modifications of the
rules governing bowling and batting, they have entirely ignored the
important element of the game, viz., fielding; and that this element is
so important is a fact that has been duly proved by the brilliant
success of the American base-ball players in cricket, a game in which
the majority of them were mere novices, and yet by their ability as
fielders in keeping down their adversaries' scores they fully
demonstrated that skill in fielding is as great an element of success in
cricketing as bowling and batting, if it be not greater, and also that
the principles of saving runs by sharp fielding is as sound as that of
making runs by skillful batting. But, moreover, they have shown by this
self-same fielding skill that the game of base-ball is a better school
for fielding than cricket, the peculiarity of the play in the former
game requiring a prompter return of the ball from the outfield, swifter
and more accurate throwing, and surer catching than the ordinary
practice of cricket would seem to need.
"Another result of the tour has been to show our English cousins the
great contrast between the character and habits of our American
base-ball professionals and those of the English professional cricketers,
taking them as a class. One of the London players warmly complimented
the American players on their fine physique as athletes and especially
commented on their abstemious habits in contrast, as the paper stated
'with our beer-drinking English professional cricketers.' In fact, the
visit of the baseball players has opened old John Bull's eyes to the
fact that we are not as neglectful of athletic sports as he thought we
were, for one thing, and in our American baseball representatives we
presented a corps of fielders the equal of which in brilliancy of play
England has never seen even among the most expert of her best trained
cricketers. So much for our National Game of base-ball as a school for
fielding in cricket. We sent these ball players out to show England how
we played ball, but with no idea of their being able to accomplish much
at cricket; but to our most agreeable surprise they defeated every club
that they played with at that game, and Bell's Life does the American
team the justice to say that an eleven could no doubt be selected from
the American ball players that would trouble some of the best of our
elevens to defeat.
"The telegrams from England in every instance referred to the games
played as between twenty-two Americans and eleven English, but when the
regular reports were secured by mail it was found that it was eighteen
against twelve, quite a difference as regards the odds against side. The
first dispatch also referred to the 'weak team presented against the
Americans,' but the score when received showed that the eighteen had
against them in the first match six of the crack team which came over
here in 1872, together with two professionals and four of the strongest
of the Marylebone Club. Englishmen did not dream that the base-ball
novices could make such a good showing in the game, and knowing nothing
of their ability as fielders they thought it would be an easy task to
defeat even double their own number, the defeat of the celebrated Surrey
and Prince's Club twelves in one inning, and of the strong teams of
Sheffield, Manchester and Dublin by large scores, opened their eyes to
their mistake, and very naturally they began to hold the game that could
yield such players in great respect.
"Worthy of praise as the success of our base-ball representatives in
England is, the fact of their admirable deportment and gentlemanly
conduct on and off the field, is one which commends itself even more to
the praise of our home people. That they were invited to so many high
places and held intercourse with so many of the best people fully shows
that their behavior was commendable in the extreme. Considering
therefore the brilliant success of the tour and the credit done the
American name by these base-ball representatives, it was proper that
their reception on their reappearance in our midst should be
commensurate with their high salaries, for in every respect did they do
credit to themselves and our American game of `base-ball.'"