It was some time in the fall of 1875 and while the National League was
still in embryo that I first made the acquaintance of William A.
Hulbert, who afterwards became famous as the founder of that
organization and the man whose rugged honesty and clear-headed counsels
made of base-ball the National Game in the truest and broadest sense of
the word.
At that time Mr. Hulbert was the President of the Chicago Base-Ball
Club, and in company with A. G. Spalding he came to Philadelphia for the
purpose of getting my signature to a contract to play in the Western
metropolis.
It was the ambition of the Chicago management to get together a
championship team, and with that object in view they had already signed
the big-four who had helped so many times to win the pennant for Boston,
viz.: Cal McVey, first base; James White, catcher; Ross Barnes, second
base; and A. G. Spalding, pitcher, and the latter, who was to captain
the Chicago team, had suggested my engagement as third baseman. I
finally agreed to play with the team at a salary of $2,000, or $200 more
than I was then getting with the Athletics.
I well remember Mr. Hulbert's appearance at that time. He stood in the
neighborhood of six feet, and weighed close to 215 pounds. He had a
stern expression of countenance and impressed one right from the start
as being a self-reliant business man of great natural ability, and such
he turned out to be. He was good-hearted and of a convivial nature when
business hours were over, but as honest as the day was long, and would
tolerate nothing that savored of crookedness in any shape or form. As an
executive he had but few equals and no superiors. He was quick to grasp
a situation and when once he had made up his mind to do a thing it took
the very best sort of an argument to dissuade him.
During the winter of 1875-6 the National League sprang into being, the
Hon. Morgan G. Bulkeley of Hartford, who was afterwards elected Governor
of Connecticut, being its first President, he being succeeded by Mr.
Hulbert the following year. The clubs composing the league were as
follows: Athletics of Philadelphia, Bostons of Boston, Hartfords of
Hartford, Chicagos of Chicago, St. Louis of St. Louis, Louisville of
Louisville, Ky., Mutuals of New York, and Cincinnati of Cincinnati,
Ohio.
When I came to consult with the future Mrs. Anson in regard to my
proposed change of base she not unnaturally objected to my going so far
from home, for I had learned to regard Philadelphia as my home by that
time.
I naturally thought it would be an easy matter for me to get my release
from Chicago, and being naturally anxious to please her I made two trips
to Chicago that winter for the purpose, and finally did what no ball
player ever did before--offered $1,000 to be released from my promise.
It was no go, however, as both Messrs. Hulbert and Spalding had made up
their minds that I should play on their team, and both of them knew me
well enough to know that I would keep my word at all hazards, no matter
what my personal likes or dislikes in the matter might be.
The last few months of my stay in Philadelphia passed all too quickly,
and a short time before the opening of the regular season found me in
the Garden City ready to don a Chicago uniform and do the very best I
could to help win the pennant for the latest city of my adoption.
The constitution of the new league provided for an entrance fee of $100
per club, and also provided that no city of less than 75,000 inhabitants
could become a member. It also provided that each city should be
represented by one club only, this prohibiting the danger of local
opposition, such as the Professional Players' Association had suffered
from in Philadelphia, St. Louis and other cities. Other reforms were the
adoption of a player's contract, which enabled the clubs to keep their
players and prevented them from being hired away by rival organizations.
This was the first step toward the reserve rule that followed later. It
also provided for the expelling of players who were guilty of breaking
their contracts or of dishonesty, and such players were to be debarred
forever afterwards from playing on the league teams. Gambling and liquor
selling on club grounds were prohibited and players interested in a bet
on the result of games or purchasing a pool ticket were liable to
expulsion.
The make-up of the Chicago team in full for the National League's
initial season was as follows; A. G. Spalding, pitcher, captain and
manager; James White, catcher; A. C. Anson, third base; Ross Barnes,
second base; Cal A. McVey, first base; J. P. Peters, shortstop; J. W.
Glenn, left field; Paul A. Hines, center field; Robert Addy, right
field; and J. F. Cone, Oscar Bielaski, and F. H. Andrus, substitutes.
All through the season of 1876 the most intense rivalry existed between
the Chicago and Boston Clubs. The management of the latter organization,
smarting under the fact that the "big four" had been hired away from
them by the Western Metropolis, had gotten together as strong a team as
was possible under the circumstances, the list including Harry Wright,
manager; J. E. Borden ("Josephs"), T. H. Murnane, F. L. Beals, H. C.
Schafer, A. J. Leonard, J. H. O'Rourke, J. F. Manning, F. T. Whitney,
George Wright, John F. Morrill, Lewis Brown, T. McGinley, and W. R.
Parks.
Our strongest opponents, however, proved to be the Hartford Club, of
which Robert Ferguson was captain and manager, and which numbered among
its players Allison, Cummings, Bond, Mills, Burdock, Cary, York, Remsen,
Cassidy, Higham, and Harbidge.
As I have said before, it was anything to beat Chicago, so far as the
Bostons were concerned, but this feat they were unable to accomplish
until the very tail end of the season, and after we had beaten them in
nine straight games.
The first game that we played on the Boston grounds that season I
remember well, because of the enormous crowd that turned out to witness
the contest. The advent of the "Big Four" in a new uniform was of course
the attraction, and long before the hour set for calling the game had
arrived the people were wending their way in steady streams toward the
scene of action. Every kind of a conveyance that could be used was
pressed into service, from the lumbering stage coach that had been
retired from active service, to the coach-and-four of the millionaire.
Street cars were jammed to suffocation, and even seats in an express
wagon were sold at a premium.
It was Decoration Day, and therefore a holiday, and it seemed to me as
if all Boston had determined to be present on that occasion. By hundreds
and thousands they kept coming, and finally it was found necessary to
close the gates in order to keep room enough in the grounds to play the
game on. With the gates closed the crowd began to swarm over the fences,
and the special policemen employed there had their hands more than full
of trouble.
The "Big Four" were given a great ovation when they put in an
appearance, and of course the whole team shared in the honors that were
showered upon them. The game that followed was, as might have been
expected, played under difficulties, but thanks to the excellent
pitching of Spalding and the fine support given him by the entire team
we won by a score of 5 to 1, and the Hubbites were sorer than ever over
the "Big Four's" defection.
Our other victories over the Boston aggregation that season were as
follows: June 1st, at Boston, Chicago 9, Boston 3; June 3d, at the same
place, Chicago 8, Boston 4; July 11th, at Chicago, Chicago 18, Boston 7;
July 12th, at the same place, Chicago 11, Boston 3; and July 15th,
again, Chicago 15, Boston 0; September 15th, at Boston, Chicago 9,
Boston 3; September 16th, Chicago 7, Boston 2; and September 22d, at
Chicago, Chicago 12, Boston 10. September 23d we met Boston for the last
time during the season, and, anxious as we were to make our victories
over them ten straight, that being the number of games called for by the
schedule, we failed to do so, being beaten by a score of 10 to 9.
I think that Harry Wright was happier that day when O'Rourke crossed the
home plate and scored the winning run than he would have been had
somebody made him a present of a house and lot, so anxious was he to win
at least one game from Chicago during the season.
Both the Athletics and Mutuals failed to play out their scheduled games
in the West that fall, and as a result they were expelled at the annual
meeting of the League held in Cleveland the December following, leaving
but six clubs to contest for championship honors in 1877.
That first year of the League was not a success when viewed from a
financial standpoint, as not a single one of the clubs that composed it
made any money, even the Chicagos, who carried off the pennant, quitting
loser. The men who had organized it were by no means discouraged,
however, and that they finally reaped the reward of their pluck and
perseverance is now a matter of history.
In the fall I again signed with Chicago, as did Spalding, McVey, Barnes,
Peters, Andrus, and Glenn of the old team, while Jim White returned to
his first love, the Bostons. The new-corners on the team were Bradley,
who had pitched for the St. Louis Club the year before, and who was
accounted as being one of the best in the business, and H. W. Smith a
change catcher and outfielder.
This was a year of disaster as far as Chicago was concerned, and we
brought up the tail end of the pennant race, the whip going to Boston,
which won 31 games and lost 17, while Louisville stood second on the
list with 28 games won and 20 lost, to its credit, Hartford being third,
St. Louis fourth, and Chicago fifth, the Cincinnatis having failed to
weather the financial storm, being expelled from the League because of
non-payment of dues.
There would doubtless have been a different tale to tell in regard to
the championship of 1877 had it not been for the crookedness of some of
the Louisville players. The team on paper prior to the opening of the
season was justly regarded as one of the strongest that had ever been
gotten together, and going off with a rush in the early part of the year
its success seemed to be almost assured. By the middle of the season the
team had obtained so great a lead that the race seemed to be all over
but the shouting.
In those days poolrooms were a much greater evil than they are at the
present time, and the betting on baseball was hot and heavy. The
Louisville having such a lead were favorites at long odds. When the club
started on its last Eastern trip they had some twelve games to play, out
of which they had less than half to win in order to land the pennant. On
this trip enough games were thrown to give Boston the pennant, and when
the directors of the Louisville Club came to sift matters down they had
but little difficulty in finding out the guilty parties, who were A. C.
Nichols, William H. Craver, George Hall and James A. Devlin.
How much money this quartette netted by its crooked work is not known to
this day, but it has been proven that Devlin secured but a beggarly $100
as his share, as once the others had him in their power they could
compel him to do just whatever they pleased under threats of exposure.
These four players were promptly expelled for selling games by the
Louisville Club, whose action was later ratified by the League, and
though they made application time after time in later years to be
reinstated, their applications were denied and they passed out of sight
and out of hearing as far as the base-ball world was concerned.
They were all of them good ball players, better than the average, and
Devlin, a really great pitcher, undoubtedly had a brilliant future
before him. The inability to stand temptation, however, caused his
downfall and left him but little better than a wreck on the shores of
time.
The year, taken as a whole, has been generally set down as being the
darkest in the history of the League. As in the preceding year, all the
clubs lost money and the outlook seemed indeed a dark one.
The darkest hour comes just before the dawn, however, and the following
year saw a change for the better in base-ball prospects.