Chapter 15

At the annual meeting of the League held in Providence R. I., December 6th, 1882, the Worcester and Troy Clubs resigned their membership, neither of them being cities of sufficient size to support a team as expensive as one good enough to have a chance for championship honors in such company must of necessity be, and New York and Philadelphia were elected to fill the vacancies. At the same time A. G. Mills was elected to fill the vacancy in the League Presidency caused by the death of Mr. Hulbert.

The League Circuit in 1883 again consisted of eight cities, while the number of games necessary to constitute a series had been increased from twelve to fourteen. The only change in the personnel of the Chicagos was the substitution of Fred Pfeffer for Joe Quest at second base. The fight between Chicago and Boston, Providence and Cleveland was veritably a battle of the giants, and as a result excitement throughout the country ran high and big crowds everywhere were the rule.

The Boston team, with M. Hines and Hackett as catchers, Buffington and Whitney, pitchers; Morrill, first base; Burdock, second base; Sutton, third base; Wise, shortstop; Horning, left field; Smith, center field; Radford, right field; and Brown, substitute, proved to be a trifle the strongest, they carrying off the pennant with a total of 63 games won and 35 lost, while Chicago came next on the list with 59 games won and 39 lost. Providence, which stood third, won 58 games and lost 40, while Cleveland, which came fourth, had 55 games won and 42 games lost to its credit.

Buffalo, New York, Detroit and Philadelphia followed in the order named.

Brouthers of the Buffalo team again stood first on the list of batsmen with a percentage of .371, while your humble servant had fallen down to the twelfth place on the list, my percentage being .307.

The event of the season, or of the year perhaps, I should say, was the adoption of a document then known as the tripartite agreement, now known as the National Agreement, which was formulated by A. G. Mills, John B. Day and A. H. Soden, representing the League; O. P. Caylor, William Barnier and Lewis Simmons, representing the American Association, and Elias Mather of the Grand Rapids, Michigan, Club, acting for the Northwestern League.

This document, among other things, provided that no contract should be made for the services of any player for a longer period than seven months, beginning April 1st and terminating October 31st, and that no contract for their services should be made prior to October 20th of the year on which such services terminated.

It also provided that on the 10th day of October of each year the Secretary of each Association should transmit to the Secretary of each other Association a reserve list of players, not exceeding fourteen in number, then under contract with each of its several club members, and of such players reserved on any prior annual reserve list, who had refused to contract with said club's members, and of all other eligible players, and such players, together with all other thereafter to be regularly contracted with by such club members, are and shall be eligible to contract with any other club members of either association party hereto.

The object of this was to prevent what was then at that time a growing evil, the stealing of players by one club from another, and that it was successful in that respect there can be no denying.

The reserve clause was not popular with many of the players, however, and it was this that later on led to the Brotherhood revolt and a general shaking up in base-ball circles.

Such had been the boom in base-ball in 1883, and so promising did the outlook seem from a monetary standpoint for a similar boom in 1884 that Henry V. Lucas, of St. Louis, evidently believing that there was millions in it, organized and took hold of the short-lived Union Association, the failure of which wrecked him in both purse and spirit.

This Association was organized at Pittsburg in September, 1883, and was launched with a great flourish of trumpets, the cities agreed upon for the circuit being Washington, St. Louis, Altoona, Pa., Boston, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Chicago.

Of the fifty League players, who, it had been given out, would break their contracts and join them, not a baker's dozen showed up when the time came. Only five of the original clubs played out their schedules, these being the St. Louis, Cincinnati, Boston, Baltimore and Nationals of Washington, they finishing in the order named, Boston and Baltimore being tied for the third place.

The Union Association season opened on April 17th. Within six weeks of that time the Altoona Club gave up the fight, being succeeded by Kansas City. The Keystone Club of Philadelphia lasted until August, and was then succeeded by the Wilmington, Del., Club, which had been persuaded to desert the Eastern League by Mr. Lucas. In September they, too, passed it up and Milwaukee took the vacant place, they lasting but a short time.

The Chicago Union Association Club, a weak sister at the best, played along to almost empty benches until August, when it gave up the fight and transferred its team to Pittsburg, but that city refused to support it and it finally gave up the ghost about the middle of September.

In the meantime the League, which had expelled the deserting players, was having a most exciting and prosperous season, though the majority of clubs had signed many more players than they had any use for, the object being to keep them away from the Union Association. For the Chicago Club that season no less than nineteen players were signed, some of whom were seldom called upon to play.

The regulars, that is, the men who were depended upon to do the playing, were Corcoran, Goldsmith and Clarkson, pitchers; Flint and Kelly, catchers; Anson, first base; Pfeffer, second base; Williamson, third base; Burns, shortstop; Dalrymple, Gore, Kelly and Sunday in the outfield.

In some way or other we got started off with the wrong foot first, as the horsemen would, say, and the end of May found us in the fifth place, Boston and Providence being the leaders, and at the end of June we had not improved our position.

From that time on the Providence Club played great ball, the wonderful endurance of Pitcher Radbourne being one of the features of the season, and though we rallied in September and October, winning every game that we played in the last-named month, the best that we could do was to beat New York for the fourth place, each club winning 62 games and losing 50.

The championship record showed 84 games won and 28 lost for the Providence Club, 73 games won and 38 lost for Boston, and 64 games won and 47 lost for Buffalo, while Philadelphia, Cleveland and Detroit brought up the rear.

In the matter of averages James O'Rourke again led the list, with a percentage of .350 to his credit.

The position that the club occupied at the close of that season was not satisfactory to me, as I felt that it should have been better, but there was no use crying over spilt milk, the only thing to do being to try it again.

At the close of the season Corcoran, whose pitching days were about over, was released, as was also Goldsmith, whose work had not been of the first class, and Clarkson and McCormick, the latter having played with the Cleveland team the year before, were relied upon to puzzle the opposing batsmen, the other members of the team being Flint, Kelly, Anson, Pfeffer, Williamson, Burns, Dalrymple, Gore and Sunday. O. P. Beard, C. Marr, E. E. Sutcliffe and Joe Brown were all given a trial, but released early in the season.

The St. Louis Club, of which Mr. Lucas was the President, was taken in in order to fill the vacancy caused by the withdrawal of Cleveland, and this act on the part of the League so incensed President Mills that he resigned, the three offices of President, Secretary and Treasurer being combined in Nicholas E. Young, who is still at the head of the League affairs, with headquarters at the National Capital.

The records of 1885 show that there were really but two clubs in the race from start to finish, these representing the rival clubs of New York and Chicago, and as between them it was nip and tuck almost to the last minute.

At the end of the month of May the New York team was in the lead, they having won 17 out of the 21 games they had played that month, while Chicago, which stood second, had only won 14 out of the 20 games that it played. The month of June saw a change in the program, however, Chicago winning 21 games out of the 23 played that month, while New York only won 15 out of the 20 that it took part in.

During the month of July it looked like anybody's race as between the two leaders, each winning 18 games, though Chicago sustained but six defeats as against seven for the representatives of the Eastern metropolis. In the succeeding month New York had a shade the better of it, they winning 18 out of 21 games played, while Chicago won only 15 out of 19. In September it was again our turn, however, and we won 17 games out of 20, New York having to be content with 13 out of 19.

The last of September and the first of October saw the pennant "cinched," so far as we were concerned. The New Yorks finished the season with four games at Chicago and three of these they needed in order to win the championship. They had already won nine out of the twelve games that they had played with us during the season, and looked upon the result here as a foregone conclusion. They reckoned without their host, however, on this occasion, as we won three straight games from them, the scores being 7 to 4, 2 to 1, and 8 to 3 respectively.

Our totals for the season showed 87 games won and 25 lost, as against 85 games won and 27 lost for the Giants. Philadelphia came third with 56 games won and 54 lost, while Providence occupied the fourth place with 53 games won and 57 lost. Boston, Detroit, Buffalo and St. Louis finished as named.

There were a good many funny stories told about those closing games between New York and Chicago. The admirers of the Giants came on to witness the games in force, and so certain were they that their pets would win that they wagered their money on the result in the most reckless fashion.

Even the newspaper men who accompanied them on the trip caught the contagion. P. J. Donohue, of the New York "World," since deceased, was one of the most reckless of these. He could see nothing in the race but New York, and no sooner had he struck the town than he began to hunt for someone who would take the Chicago end of the deal.

About nine o'clock the night before the playing of the first game he appeared in the "Inter Ocean" office and announced that he was looking for somebody who thought Chicago could win, as he wished to wager $100 on the result. He was accommodated by the sporting editor of that paper. The next night after the Giants had lost P. J. again appeared on the scene and announced his readiness to double up on the result of the second game. He was accommodated again, and again. New York was the loser.

Still a third time did P. J. appear with an offer to double up the whole thing on the result of the next game. This looked like a bad bet for the local man, but local pride induced him to make the wager. For the third time the Giants went down before the White Stockings, and that night P. J. was missing, but a day or two afterwards he turned up quite crestfallen, and had a draft on New York cashed in order that he might get back home again.

Mr. Donohue was not the only man who went broke on the result, however. There was not a man on the delegation that accompanied the Giants that did not lose, and lose heavily on the games, which went a long ways toward illustrating the glorious uncertainties of base-ball.

The season of 1886 saw another change in the National League circuit, Buffalo and Providence dropping out of the fight. The vacant places were taken by Kansas City and Washington. The Detroit Club, thanks to a deal engineered by Fred Stearns, was greatly strengthened by securing the quartette of players from the Buffalo Club known as the "Big Four," these being White, Rowe, Richardson and Brouthers, which made them a most formidable candidate for championship honors, and which, indeed, they might have won had it not been for the Philadelphia Club, of which Harry Wright was the manager.

Commenting on the League season for that year Spalding's Official Guide for 1887 says: "The past season of 1886 proved to be a very profitable one to a majority of the eight League clubs, those of Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Detroit all finding it a successful season financially, while Chicago profited by bearing off the honors of the League championship for the sixth time during the eleven years' existence of the National League.

"The clubs of St. Louis, Kansas City and Washington, however, failed to realize expectations, all three being on the wrong side of the column in profit and loss, As hitherto, good and bad management of the club teams had a great deal to do with the results of the season's campaign, financially and otherwise.

"A feature of the season's championship contest was the telling work done by the Philadelphia Club. This club closed their first season in the League as the tail end of the eight clubs which entered the list that year, the eight including Cleveland, Providence and Buffalo. In 1884 Philadelphia closed the season as sixth. In 1885 they finished third and in October of 1886 they held third place, but finally had to close a close fourth, after giving Detroit and Chicago a terrible shaking up. In fact, the championship games in Philadelphia, the latter part of September and first week in October, were among the most noteworthy of the season, for from the 22d of September to the close of the season in October the club in games with Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City and Washington won 13, lost 3 and had two draws.

"The struggle for the pennant after the May contest lay entirely between the Chicago, Detroit, New York and Philadelphia Clubs, the other four having no show from the very outset.

"A notable incident of the campaign was the fact that in the closing month it lay entirely in the hands of the Philadelphia Club to decide whether' the pennant was to go to Detroit or Chicago.

"When Chicago left Philadelphia for Boston the last of September all Detroit was in a fever of excitement at the prospect of their club's success. The only question of interest was, 'Would they go through Philadelphia safely?' It was only when Harry Wright's pony League team captured the Detroits twice out of four games, one being drawn, that Chicago felt relief from anxiety as to the ultimate outcome of the pennant race. It was a gallant struggle by Philadelphia, and it made the close of the campaign season one of the most exciting on record.

"The League schedule had been raised that season from sixteen to eighteen games, nine to be played on the grounds of each club, and of these only twenty-four remained unplayed at the close of the season, fifteen of which were drawn with the score a tie."

This was one of the hardest seasons that I had ever gone through, and when it was over I felt that we were lucky, indeed, to have captured the pennant for the third successive time.

The champion team of that year showed but little change in make-up from that of the preceding year, Clarkson, McCormick and John Flynn being the pitchers; Kelly, Flint and Moolie, catchers; Anson, first base; Pfeffer, second base; Burns, third base; Williamson, shortstop; Dalrymple, left field; Ryan and Gore, center field; and Sunday, right field.

It was a close race that season between, Mike Kelly and myself for the batting honors of the League, and Michael beat me out by a narrow margin at the finish, his percentage being .388 as against .371, while Brouthers came third on the list with .370.

That was the last season that the championship pennant was flown in Chicago up to the present writing, and looking back at it now it seems to me an awful long time ago.