Chapter 17

Should I omit to mention herein the two series of games that the Chicagos played with the St. Louis Browns, champions of the American Association, in 1885 and 1886, somebody would probably rise to remark that I was in hopes that the public had forgotten all about them. Such is not the case, however. The games in both cases were played after the regular season was over and after the players had in reality passed out of my control, and for that reason were not as amenable to the regular discipline as when the games for the League championship were going on. The St. Louis Browns was a strong organization, a very strong one, and when we met them in a series of games for what was styled at the time the world's championship, in the fall of 1885, they would have been able, in my estimation, to have given any and all of the League clubs a race for the money.

In the series of games, one of which was played at Chicago, three in St. Louis, one at Pittsburg, and two at Cincinnati, we broke even, each winning three games, the odd one being a tie, and as a result the sum of $1,000, which had been placed in the office of the "Mirror of American Sports," of which T. Z. Cowles, of Chicago, was the editor, to be given to the winning team, was equally divided between the two teams.

At the close of the season of 1886 the St. Louis team, having again won the championship of the American Association, another series of games was arranged and a provision was made that the gate money, which hitherto had been equally divided between the two clubs, should all go to the winner. The series consisted of six games, three of which were played in Chicago and three in St. Louis. The first and third of these games we won by scores of 6 to 0 and 11 to 4, but the second, fourth, fifth and sixth we lost, the scores standing 12 to 0, 8 to 5, 10 to 3 and 4 to 3 respectively, and as a result we had nothing but our labor for our pains.

We were beaten, and fairly beaten, but had some of the players taken as good care of themselves prior to these games as they were in the habit of doing when the League season was in full swim, I am inclined to believe that there might have been a different tale to tell.

There was a general shaking up all along the line before the season of 1887 opened. The Kansas City and St. Louis clubs, neither of which had been able to make any money, dropped out, their places being taken by Pittsburg and Indianapolis.

The sensation of the year was the sale of Mike Kelly to the Boston Club by the Chicago management for the sum of $10,000, the largest sum up to that time that had ever been paid for a ball player, and Mike himself benefited by the transaction, as he received a salary nearly double that which he was paid when he wore a Chicago uniform.

The Chicago team for that season consisted of Mark Baldwin, Clarkson and Van Haltren, pitchers; Daly, Flint, Darling and Hardie, catchers; Anson, Pfeffer, Burns and Tebeau, basemen; M. Sullivan, Ryan, Pettit, Van Haltren and Darling, fielders. Pyle, Sprague and Corcoran, pitchers, and Craig, a catcher, played in a few games, and but a few only.

The season, taken as a whole, was one of the most successful in the history of the League up to that time, both from a financial and a playing standpoint. The result of the pennant race was a great disappointment to the Boston Club management, who, having acquired the services of "the greatest player in the country," that being the way they advertised Kelly, evidently thought that all they had to do was to reach out their hands for the championship emblem and take it. "One swallow does not make a summer," however, nor one ball player a whole team, as the Boston Club found out to its cost, the best that it could do being to finish in the fifth place.

The campaign of 1887 opened on April 28th, the New York and Philadelphia Clubs leading off in the East and Detroit and Indianapolis Clubs in the West. At the end of the first month's play Detroit was in the lead, with Boston a good second, New York third, Philadelphia fourth and Chicago fifth. The team under my control began a fight for one of the leading positions in June, and when the end of that month came they were a close fourth, Detroit, Boston and New York leading them, while Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Washington and Indianapolis followed in the order named.

The boys were playing good ball at this stage of the game and our chances for the pennant had a decidedly rosy look. During the month of July we climbed steadily toward the top of the ladder, and at the end of that month we were in second place, and within striking distance of Detroit, that team being still the leader, while Boston had fallen back to the third and New York to fourth place. These positions were maintained until the last week of August, when the Chicago and Detroit teams were tied in the matter of games won. At this time it was still anybody's race so far as the two leaders were concerned.

The middle of September saw a change in the condition of affairs, however, Detroit having secured a winning lead, and from that time on all of the interest centered in the contest for second place between Chicago, Philadelphia and New York. By the end of September New York was out of the fight so far as second place was concerned, the battle for which had narrowed down to Chicago and Philadelphia, which finally went to the latter after a hard struggle.

The Detroits that season won 79 games and lost 45, the Philadelphias won 75 games and lost 48, the Chicagos won 71 games and lost so, Boston, Pittsburg, Washington and Indianapolis finishing in the order named.

The champions of that year also succeeded in doing what we had failed to accomplish, that is, they beat the St. Louis Browns by one game in the series for the world's championship that was played after the close of the regular League season.

In the matter of the batting averages for that year I stood second on the list, with a percentage of .421, having taken part in 122 games, while Maul, of the Pittsburg team, who led the list with .450, had only taken part in sixteen games, these figures including bases on balls as base hits.

The League circuit for 1888 remained the same as in 1887, and all of the clubs made money with the exception of Detroit, Washington and Indianapolis, and their losses were small.

The attendance at the games everywhere was something enormous, and the race between the four leaders a hot one from start to finish.

Early in the spring the Chicago club management pocketed another check for $10,000 for the release of a player, the one to join the Hub forces this time being John Clarkson, a man who had often pitched the Chicago Club to victory, and a player that I personally regretted to part with. With the assistance of this really great pitcher the Boston management hoped to get even for their disappointment of the preceding season and once more fly the pennant over their home grounds, to which it had for some years been a stranger.

With Clarkson and Kelly out of the way we were looked upon prior to the opening of the season as a rather soft mark by the other League clubs, but that they reckoned without their host is shown by the records. We were in it, and very much in it, from start to finish, finishing in the second place, the championship going to New York, the team from the Eastern metropolis winning 84 games and losing 47, while Chicago won 77 games and lost 58, Philadelphia came third on the list with 69 games won and 61 lost, and Boston fourth with 70 games won and 63 lost, Detroit, Pittsburg, Indianapolis and Washington following in the order named.

The Chicago team that season consisted of Baldwin, Tener, Krock and Van Haltren, pitchers; Daly, Flint, Farrell and Darling, catchers; Anson, Pfeffer and Burns on the bases; Williamson, shortstop, and Sullivan, Ryan, Pettit and Duffy in the outfield.

Among the men signed, and who were given a trial, were Hoover, Sprague, Brynon, Clark, Maine and Gumbert.

In the matter of batting averages I again led the League with .343, Beckley of Pittsburg being second with .342, a difference in my favor of only a single point.

A long time before this season was over I became interested financially in a proposed trip to be made by the Chicago Club and a picked team, to be called the All-Americans, to Australia and New Zealand, A. G. Spalding, Leigh S. Lynch and one or two others being associated in the venture. The management of this trip and the details thereof were left entirely in the hands of Messrs. Spalding and Lynch, the latter-named gentleman having been associated with A. M. Palmer in the management of the Union Square Theater at New York, and having passed some time in Australia in connection with the theatrical business, had a wide acquaintance there. When the subject was first broached, it is safe to assert that there was not a man connected with the enterprise that had any idea that the journey would be lengthened out to a trip around the world, but such proved to be the case.

In February of 1888 Mr. Lynch departed for Australia in order to make the necessary arrangements there for the appearance of the tourists. Posters of the most attractive description were gotten ready for the trip, and long before the season was over the fact that we were going became known to every one in the land who took any interest in base-ball whatever, the proposed trip even then exciting a large amount of interest. Mr. Lynch, who had returned, had awakened considerable interest among the Australians, and long before the actual start was made the prospects, both from a sight-seeing and money-making standpoint seemed to be most alluring.

One would naturally have thought that with such a chance to travel in strange lands before them, every ball player in America would have been more than anxious to make the trip, but such was not the case, greatly to my astonishment, and to the astonishment of Mr. Spalding, upon whose shoulders devolved the duty of selecting the players who should represent the National Game in the Antipodes.

Ten players of the Chicago team signed to go at once, these being Ned Williamson, Tom Burns, Tom Daly, Mark Baldwin, Jimmy Ryan, Fred Pfeffer, John Tener, Mark Sullivan, Bob Pettit and myself, but the getting together of the All-American team was quite a difficult matter. Many of the players who had at first signed to go backed out at almost the last moment, among them being Mike Kelly of the Bostons and Mike Tiernan of the New Yorks. The following team to represent All-America was finally gotten together: John M. Ward, shortstop and captain; Healy and Crane, pitchers; Earle, catcher; Carroll, Manning and Wood on the bases, and Fogerty, Hanlon and T. Brown in the outfield. George Wright accompanied the party to coach the two teams in their cricket matches. One of the pleasantest incidents of the year 1888 that I can recall to mind occurred during our last trip to Washington. Frank Lawler, who was them a member of Congress from Chicago, and who was as big-hearted and wholesouled a fellow as ever stood in shoe leather (he is dead now, more's the pity), learned of our projected trip and procured for us an audience with President Cleveland at the White House, where we met with a most cordial reception, and I think I am violating no confidence when I say that had we been at home when the election took place in November following, he would have received the vote of every man in the team, though I am afraid this would not have affected the result to any appreciable extent.

When I was introduced to him as the captain and manager of the Chicago Club he shook hands with me in a most cordial fashion and remarked that he had often heard of me, a fact that did not seem so strange to me as it might have done some seventeen years earlier, when my name had never been printed in anything besides the Marshalltown papers.

The impression that I gained of President Cleveland at that time was that he was a level-headed, forceful business man, a genial companion, and a man that having once made up his mind to do a thing would carry out his intentions just as long as he believed, that he was right in doing. For each and every member of the team he had a cheerful word and a hearty grip, and when we finally took our departure he wished us a pleasant trip and a successful one.

I had made up my mind to take Mrs. Anson with me, and so, as soon as the playing season was over, we began making the necessary preparations for our departure. These did not take long, however.

The afternoon of October 10th the Chicago and All-American teams played a farewell game in the presence of 3,000 people on the League grounds at Chicago, which was won by the Chicagos by a score of 11 to 6, and that night we were off for what proved to be the first trip around the world ever made by American ball players, a trip that will ever live in base-ball annals and in the memories of those who were so fortunate as to make it.