Class of 1885, 2/2: Charles DeBost

Charles S De Bost (1826-1894), Builder
Eligible: 1876
Contributions: The best catcher, and perhaps the best player of the 1850s. Captain and leader of the Knickerbocker Club for many years, DeBost starred in the 1858 Fashion Course All-Star games. Flamboyant on the field, was famous for his on-field clowning as well as his skill behind the plate.

We had a splendid catcher in the person Charles S. Debost, who would be a credit to the position even today, I am sure. He was a good batter also, and a famous player in his day.

-- William R Wheaton, 1887

It is hard to identify who the best players were before professional-level statistics began in 1871, so we rely largely on anecdote. We know that George Wright was probably the best player in baseball immediately before that year, and we know that Jim Creighton and Joseph Leggett were probably the best ten years before that. We know that Doc Adams was highly regarded in the mid-1840s, and the names of the best players of the 1830s, and our entries here have sought to reflect their stature in the game during its infancy. Charles DeBost was perhaps the best player of his generation, and deserves to hold a place among the game's immortals.

While we don't have enough information to give him a batting average, we do have a fair amount of information on DeBost, a lot of it from John Thorn, William J Ryzek, and their entry in Base Ball Founders: The Clubs, Players, and Cities of the Northeast that Established the Game. 

DeBost was born August 4, 1826, and, orphaned at a young age, was raised along with his siblings by their grandparents in Southampton, Long Island. Trained as a cloakmaker, we know that DeBost was, by 19, already regarded as one of the best ballplayers in the city - he was invited to join the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, an honour generally reserved for the best ballplayers around, and typically for lawyers, clerks, and doctors - that the Knicks deigned to invite a Long Island cloakmaker's apprentice to play with them indicates his level of skill. He also served as their catcher, one of the premier defensive positions at a time when the game was an exercise in defense.

DeBost played his first game with the Knicks on October 31, 1845, long before the game became an intersquad sport in 1846. His play was brilliant -The Spirit of the Times noted: "Debost, as behind man, has no equal." I should note that his name is reported as spelled several different ways, and Ive tried to remain true to source material where possible. His official name was De Bost, he is generally written as 'DeBost', but spelling gets as diverse as 'Deborst'.

1862 Knicks, DeBost bottom left

DeBost stayed with the club until 1847, when he resigned from the club, though he returned in 1850 and stayed with the Knicks until he retired from the sport in 1859. His playing was always highly praised. Even at the turn of the century, those who saw him remembered him as the best catcher of all time. In 1858 the clubs of New York assembled something of an All-Star team to compete against the best of Brooklyn in a three-game series at the Fashion Race Course (thenceforth known as the Fashion Course Games), and DeBost was one of only three players to take part in all three games. He apparently acquitted himself well, being presented with the game balls for both games the New York side won (the game ball was the prize for the winning club, and was typically presented to the captain or the game's best player).

DeBost was hailed as the best catcher of the 1850s by most sources. William Ryzek claims that the Knicks would typically cancel any game DeBost could not attend.

But he was also one of the game's great entertainers. "This gentleman's appearance is generally the signal for some demonstration of applause or hilarity." While many appreciated his on-field antics, including the crowds that flocked to see him clown his opponents, the nascent baseball purists were not so kind: "We think that the Knickerbockers were defeated, through the foolishness, fancy airs and smart capers of De Bost," wrote the Atlas. "Like a clown in a circus, he evidently plays for the applause of the audience at his 'monkey shines,' instead of trying to win the game. This is reprehensible, especially when playing against a Brooklyn club, where the reputation of the New Yorkers as players is at stake. But so long as the spectators applaud his tom-foolery, just so long will he exert the part of a clown." When DeBost complained to the publication they ran an apology, but added: "We still fail to discover the extreme grace and refinement displayed, when a player in a match attempts to catch a ball with that portion of his body that is usually covered by his coat tail."

While some baseball men may not have appreciated his clowning, his baseball fellows loved him. He served through most of the '50s as an officer of the Knicks, and he was invited back to the old-timers' celebration in 1875, where he reportedly played in his trademark spirited fashion. He died in 1894, aged 68, and was buried in Brooklyn's Greenwood Cemetary alongside many of baseball's early pioneers, but his legacy lives on in the two game balls from those 1858 Fashion Course games - his son Charles submitted them for consideration to the Mills Commission in 1907, and in 1909 they were declared the oldest baseballs in existence. They ended up in the Hall of Fame when it was founded in the 1930s but if you're wondering how much they might be worth, know that the third game ball was sold in 2005 for half a million dollars, the most valuable piece of baseball memorabilia of all time.

The 1858 Fashion Course ball presented to DeBost and auctioned in 2005

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