Class of 1886, 1/2: Tom York

Thomas Jefferson York (1850-1936), Player
Eligible: 1886
Contributions: A consistently good player, York was a solid hitter, outfielder, and baserunner from the birth of professional baseball (1871) through his retirement in 1885. He was never the best player in baseball, but he carried his success across 15 years and three pro leagues. He retired 7th all-time in runs, RBI, and wRC; 2nd in triples and 4th in doubles.

York was born in Brooklyn in 1850, and would have grown up watching the explosion of competitive baseball in New York city. In 1869, just as the Cincinnati Reds were touring the country as the first openly professional team, York joined his first affiliated club, Brooklyn's Powhatan. He played two seasons for Powhatan and earned a reputation as a hard-nosed Brooklyn ballplayer and a stellar defensive outfielder (remember at the time a player's reputation was defined by his defensive ability).

 

York turned pro with the rest of baseball in 1871 with the founding of the NAPBBP, the National Association, signing with the Troy Haymakers. At just 20 years of age he wowed observers with spectacular speed in the outfield and on the bases, collecting 7 triples, good for 5th in the league. 

 

York was what was known as a 'revolver' - a player who jumped teams regularly for the highest bidder, and joined the Baltimore Canaries for 1872-73, then the Philadelphia Whites for 1874. He continued to impress with his outfield defense, and only Dave Eggler rates higher in defensive runs from '72-'74. 

 

What seems clear to me is that York has been mislabeled as a 'power hitter'. He is pretty consistently mentioned as a powerful bat, and I can see how historians would label him as such - his .384 SLG was 9th best all-time as of his retirement in 1885 (min. 3000 PA). When you read early reports of his career, however, it's clear that his bat never garnered much respect - but his legs did. York was fast. Reports raved about his speed in the outfield and on the bases, and one can only conclude that he wasn't a particularly heavy hitter, but that he stretched hits into doubles and triples at an extraordinary rate. York hit just 14 home runs in his career, and drove in only 502 runs, but ripped 89 triples. He collected a bunch of bases and earned a solid slugging percentage not with the power in bat but the speed in his legs. It would seem to me that his reputation as a power hitter was applied by baseball historians looking at his extra-base hit totals, and not by his contemporaries. 

 

York changed teams once again in 1875, going to the Hartford Blues for the final season of National Association play. He would stay there for '76 and '77, when Hartford jumped to William Hulbert's National League. Over the three years he started to come into his own in his mid-20s, and emerged as one of the preeminent outfielders of the time. Among outfielders over the three years York ranked 5th in slugging (.384), wRC+ (115) and defensive runs (20). 

 

York, Middle row, far right, with the 1876 Hartford Blues

The prime of York's career started when he joined the Providence Grays, where he shared a star-studded outfield with Dick Higham and one of the league's premiere sluggers, Paul Hines. York, 27, managed to be the best player of the lot, hitting .309 and leading the league with 10 triples and 125 total bases, good for a 155 OPS+. 

 

York would spend five years in Providence before switching teams again, this time to Cleveland. This period, however, 1878-1883 represents the prime of York's career. Over the six years York hit .280 (7th in baseball), slugged .398 (8th), and put up a 126 wRC+ (5th). 

 

Always seen as a leader, York helped Hartford to the 1879 NL Pennant. He'd had success as player/manager of the 1878 club, and was re-instated as player/manager in 1881 after Jack Farrell started the powerful club off to a disappointing 24-27 start. With York at the helm, the '81 Greys went 23-10 and finished 2nd to the loaded Chicago club. 1878 and 1881 represented his only two opportunities at managing, but he made the most of them and posted a winning percentage of .602. His success as manager, and the trust he garnered in order to be given two clubs to lead, is echoed in the baseball media's opinion of York : one newspaper referred to him in 1880 as affable, reliable, hard-working, and courteous. 

 

By the time that 1883 season in Cleveland came around, York was a very different player than the one that showed up in Troy over a decade previous. Never a patient hitter in his youth, York led the league in walks. He was still good for his share of extra-base hits, but a lot of the triples from the 70s were now doubles. He couldn't steal bases very well, and his fielding had gone from outstanding to awful. Now 32, York's legs were shot. Always a hard-nosed player, York had basically never missed a game, and since the inception of organized professional baseball, no player had played in more games than Tom York (858). By age 30 he had a good case of chronic rheumatism as well. One has to to think he was simply worn down. 

 

In 1884 York was sold to the Baltimore Orioles of the upstart American Association. Now battling a debilitating rheumatism he announced plans to retire, but the Orioles promised him $5000 and a cut of concession revenues, and York was induced to spend the next two years in Baltimore, though by this time he had little left. He still drew lots of walks and was good for extra base hits, but he hit just .232 across the two years and was a definitive liability in left field and on the bases. Neither team accomplished much and the league disbanded a few years later. 

 

York was unable to find a contract for the 1886 season. 

 

Like many retired legends of early baseball, York turned to umpiring in retirement, umpiring regularly for the AA and NL in 1886, before giving that up when the meagre paycheck did not justify the amount of abuse umpires had to suffer. The Baltimore Sun regretted his resignation and reported that the AA had lost a good umpire. 

 

York spent much of the next two years at home, but returned to baseball in 1888 to manage the Albany Governors of the International Association. Over the next decade he would be attached to various minor league teams and leagues as a manager or executive, but his relationship with the major leagues was over. Sometime around 1900 he was hired by John McGraw, as many retired ballplayers were, to work at Polo Grounds. York was employed as an usher and security guard for the press box. The New York Telegraphs describes : 

 

York has the pleasant post of trying to keep the actors, tonsorial artists and plumbers out of the press stand. It is old tom who examines your pink paste board and decides whether you are eligible for a seat in the press cage.

 

York as Polo Grounds usher in 1922

In 1925, to celebrate 50 years of play, the NL hosted a gala in the offseason to honour the stars of NL history, but the show was stolen, allegedly, by six living men who had played in baseball's very first 'regular' season, 1871. Among them was Tom York, now 74. Interestingly, York alleged that the baseball players were more popular in his day - walking home in uniform with legions of kids following - than the stars of that time, with one exception : Babe Ruth. Ruth, York admitted, was also a better hitter than anybody he ever played with, which is the only example I can think of of an old ballplayer believing a current player was better than the ones in 'his day.'

 

In 1936, as the NL was preparing to celebrate 60 years since its inaugural season, they decided to invite the few living players from that season to the All-Star Game festivities. York was among the invitees, but passed away on February 17, 1936. 

 

York, far left, at the 1925 National League gala

York left behind a legacy as a man involved in every level of baseball since before the game turned professional, until it reached the heights of popularity as America's Pastime. He retired as one of the greats of the game, but also a man dedicated to the sport - as an official, a coach, an on-field leader and a standout player. 

 

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Next : 1886 2/2 Thomas Tassie

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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1880s Overview
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Class of 1885, 1/2: Tommy Bond

Thomas Henry Bond (1856-1941), Player
Eligible: 1885
Contributions: A control artist, Bond led the league three times in BB/9, finishing top ten in the league eight times. He was also a dominant power pitcher, leading baseball in strikeouts from 1874 to 1879 by a wide margin (614 to second-place 408). His resultant lifetime 5.04 lifetime K/BB would stand for 123 years, finally surpassed by Chris Sale in 2017. Baseball's best pitcher from the time of Spalding in the late National Association era until the early 1880s, retired with highest WAR of all time.

Tommy Bond was the successor in a long line of tricksters. Before the leagues became more established, the greatest pitcher in the land was the trickiest man in the box. Creighton hid an underhanded throwing, Spalding was a master of "headwork" - adjusting arc and speed, and Candy Cummings invented a whole new trick pitch, the curveball. Like his predecessors (including his mentor, Cummings) Bond pushed the rules to their limit, hiding a submarine-style low-sidearm action that was technically illegal to deliver the ball with previously-unseen accuracy and speed. Along the way he would carve a reputation as the best pitcher in the world.

Thomas Henry Bond was born in Granard, Ireland, in April 1856. Immigration records show the family settling into Brooklyn in 1862. Undoubtedly, Bond grew up playing ball on the neighbourhood streets and sandlots, but he first appears on a roster, the semi-pro Washington Nine, in 1873, aged 17. He would also play for one of the city's top semi-pro teams, the Brooklyn Athletics, that season. Bond appears to have been highly sought-after for the unprecedented velocity he could achieve with his nearly-sidearm (and thus nearly-illegal) delivery, and he had been invited to try out for the professional Brooklyn Atlantics of the National Association in 1872, but they couldn't find a catcher able to handle his velocity (remember the pitcher was only 45 feet away and there were no gloves yet).

After spending 1873 as a semi-pro, Bond debuted as a professional in 1874, still just 18, with the Brooklyn Atlantics, managed by NA veteran and amateur legend Bob Ferguson. Bond was the team's starting pitcher, which in 1874 meant he threw 497 of the team's 506 innings (Ferguson gave him one game off in June). Bond threw well, putting up a 2.03 ERA, good for a ERA+ of 101. He ranked as one of the better pitchers in the league by K/9 (4th) and BB/9 (1st), making a name for himself as the game's top control pitcher outside of possibly Al Spalding. As a result, Bond led his league in K/BB for the first of four times - as a teenager. The brightest moment of his rookie campaign came late in the year - on 20 October he held the New York Mutuals hitless for 8 2/3 innings, when Joe Start doubled. There wasn't even a word for what he'd lost yet - it would have been baseball's first no-hitter.

Before the 1875 season Ferguson signed on to manage and play for the Hartford Dark Blues. Ferguson asked his young pitcher to join him, and Bond obliged. Because the season would expand from 56 to 82 games, Hartford also signed Candy Cummings, possible inventor of the curveball, serial contract jumper, and in 1875 on the shortlist for #2 pitcher in the world outside of Spalding (George Zetlein and Dick McBride being the other two contenders). Cummings, aside from being the master of his tricky curveball, was also one of the game's best control artists, and was assigned the job of mentoring Bond. Bond played right field for most of the first half of the season, until Cummings began to wear down, at which point the two shared pitching duties. The rest did both men well - Cummings had a return to form and Bond broke out as a star, posting an ERA of 1.41 (167+) in 352 innings.

The 1876 Hartford Dark Blues

Bond took advantage of the opportunity, and when the Dark Blues fled the dissolving NA for William Hulbert's fledgling National League in 1876, Bond was Hartford's premier pitcher. He and Cummings had similar ability to control the ball, but Bond's largely-illegal underhanded throwing made him able to miss bats at an unprecedented rate (he was striking out almost two men a game). Bond threw another 408 innings while Cummings threw just 216. He put up a 1.68 ERA (143+) and led the league with a 1.96 FIP. His 6.77 K/BB was not only the first of three times he would lead the NL in K/BB, it set a record that would stand until 1880.

Bond's career took a turn partway through the 1876 season. In August he accused his manager, Ferguson, of throwing a match against Boston. Ferguson went to Hartford's president, Morgan Bulkely (then president of the NL as well), who demanded proof which Bond was unable to supply. Accused of defamation, he was suspended, and though Bond issued a public retraction Candy Cummings pitched the game's final 20 games. Boston took advantage of the situation and swooped in to sign the disgraced ace for the 1877 season.

At 20 years of age, Bond was established as the best pitcher in baseball, but his career record stood at just 72-61 as he played for second-class ballclubs. In joining Boston, Bond would have a crack at playing alongside some of the game's best: Jim ORourke, Deacon White, George Wright, and the legendary manager Harry Wright. The team went 42-18 and won the NL Pennant, Bond's first taste of success. He did his part, leading the league with 40 wins, a 2.11 ERA, and a 4.72 K/BB over 521 innings.

Bond kept up his success. Over the next two years he threw another 1088 innings for Boston, going 83-38 with a 2.01 ERA (122+). In two seasons, he put up 28.2 WAR, and he led Boston to the 1878 Pennant, his second.

This was essentially the height of power for Bond. Going into the 1880 season everything seemed to be going right. He turned 24 on April 2, and since 1874 he had been baseball's dominant pitcher. He was its best power pitcher and its best finesse pitcher, he had led the world (NA and NL) in WAR since 1874 and in all of baseball history (going back to 1871) was second only to Al Spalding. Bond had studied under the legendary Candy Cummings, won pennants, and led the league in every imaginable statistic along the way. But he'd also been throwing at the highest levels since he was a schoolboy, and at unimaginable volume: Before that 24th birthday he'd thrown nearly 3000 innings as a professional, and averaged 536 innings during his first three years in Boston. Nobody knew it yet, but Bond's arm was already shot.

Signs of shopwear were already present. Bond struggled early in the season and blamed it on his new catcher, rookie Phil Powers. Manager Harry Wright recognized the signs of fatigue and had young outfielder (and fellow Irishman) Curry Foley throw 238 innings, limiting Bond to *just* 493. His 49 complete games were the fewest since he split the 68-game 1876 schedule with Candy Cummings. He went 26-29 and his 2.67 ERA was good for just a 84 ERA+. Within six months of being regaled as the pitcher of his era, Bond was done.

Boston brought him back for the 1881 season to see what he had, but by then the NL had moved the pitcher's box back from 45 feet to 50, accommodating faster pitchers like Bond had once been. With nothing left, the greater distance proved too great a challenge, and after a 19-hit shellacking from Detroit Bond retired with a 0-3 record. The Cincinnati Commercial Tribune crowed that "the fifty-foot rule has shelved Tommy Bond as a pitcher." Bond joined his brother in business in New York that summer, but returned to Boston, where the renowned Irish pitcher enjoyed great fame, by the fall.

The following March, 1882, Harvard's baseball team invited the local legend to work out with them, perhaps to hand down some sage wisdom to the young players. We don't know how much coaching Bond did that spring, but we do know that some of the baseball team's youth seemed to rub off on the veteran hurler. Tinkering with a new delivery, Bond, now 26, felt 'new life' in his arm, and was offered a contract by the NL's nearby Worcester Ruby Legs. Unfortunately, Bond still had nothing - he threw just 12 innings across two starts, walking seven men as his famous control dissolved at 50 feet. He insisted on sticking around the club, getting into six games as an outfielder, a role he sporadically filled during his career, despite his career .238 batting average. He even managed seven games, though he retired once again in June. Bond was connected to other clubs, but nothing came of it, though he did appear for the semi-pro Memphis Eckfords later in 1882. His retirement looked permanent. He stayed away from baseball in 1883, though he made a few appearances as an umpire in the Boston area following the abrupt resignation of umpire WE Furlong

In 1884  Bond was approached by Boston baseball heroes Harry Wright and Tim Murnane to join Boston's new Union Association club. By this time, baseball had removed most of the stern restrictions on deliveries, and pitchers were throwing much as they are today, and Bond found new speed and accuracy with a shoulder-level delivery. Now 28 years old Bond threw 189 decent innings for Boston, putting up a 3.00 ERA that was good for a 101 ERA+ and a 9.14 K/BB that was reminiscent of the younger Bond and one of the best in the fledgling major league. He also made his way into the outfield several times and ended up hitting an impressive .296 with eight doubles, in 162 ABs, one of the better hitters in the league.

Bond had a falling out with Boston in July and left the team, catching on with the Indianapolis Hoosiers of the American Association. He put up a 5.65 ERA in five games with his new team and retired for a third and final time, moving back to Boston for good. He spent the 1880s as a substitute umpire for several leagues and college circuits, even going 3-0 in sporadic appearances for a Brockton independent league team in 1886. He fathered three children with his wife Louise, whom he had met in his earlier Boston days and worked for her family business until taking a job with the Boston Assessor's office, which he worked for 35 years.

Louise passed away in 1933, and in 1936 Bond appeared publicly on a baseball diamond for the last time, still able to play catch with his old teammates at an old-timers game. Bond was 80. He would pass away in 1941 at his daughter's house in Boston, and was buried at Forest Hills.

Bond was a dreamer, and I would struggle to find another person who fought so hard to stay in a game that passed him by. By age 25 baseball was done with him, but Bond came back year after year with new mechanics, renewed optimism, under new rules, at a new position. He tried hitting, managing, even umpiring, jumping teams, leagues, even levels of professionalism. Anything to stay in the game. I'm reminded of the great essay by Bart Giamatti, The Green Fields of the Mind:

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer ... and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.

Tommy Bond was the best in the world at the most popular sport in his country for a number of years. He was truly great. Though he played at the very beginning of professional baseball, only 31 other pitchers have posted a higher JAWS score, and he still ranks 58th in bWAR. It must have crushed him to show up one day and not have anything left. Even when his arm was spent he kept coming back, willing himself into the game. "Hope springs eternal", Pope wrote, and baseball has always had a particular affiliation with that sentiment, and Tommy Bond embodied that as much as anybody to ever pick up a baseball.

Previous: 1884 2/2 Abraham Tucker
1880s Overview
Next: 1885 2/2 Charles DeBost

Class of 1884, 2/2: Abraham Tucker

Abraham W Tucker (1793-1868), Builder
Eligible: 1871
Contributions: Founding member of the Gotham/New York Base Ball Club in 1837, instrumental to the prototypical game's growth in popularity among the sporting class. Father to William H Tucker, who helped co-write the Knickerbocker rules in 1845. Influential enough to the game that the Knicks named him an honorary member upon their founding in 1846.

Famed baseball writer and statistician Henry Chadwick grew up in New York in the 1840s and began covering the nascent sport of baseball for the local papers in the 1850s. He later watched over the growing professional game like a careful grandfather, and throughout his time observing the game, he developed his own theories about its genesis and lineage, and maintained his own careful history of the sport. While the later stages of his life was hallmarked by his failure to promote his own (more accurate) history of baseball (that it was the descendant of English bat and ball games) against the fantasies of Al Spalding and AG Mills in the early 20th century, when he died in 1908 he left his invaluable trove of records to his great rival, Al Spalding.

In 1911 Spalding published America's National Game, drawing from his own recollections (he was a star from baseball's amateur era in the late 1860s) as well as Chadwick's papers, and this served as the first great attempt at telling the story of baseball's inception. In this work he mentions 11 men who founded the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club and, as such, he considered the fathers of the sport, "gentlemen who... should be honoured and remembered as the founders of the national game by the million baseball players of the present day". Of these men, six (Cartwright, Adams, Wheaton, Curry, Lee, and William H Tucker) have been previously covered in these electronic pages. Others, like Dr. Ransom and James Fisher had no reported impact on the development of baseball, and will not be covered here, but there is one more name I'd like to draw upon: William H Tucker's father, Abraham Tucker.

If possible, we know less about the life of Abraham Tucker than we do his fellow 1846 honorary Knick, Col. James Lee. We know that he was born in 1793 and lived most of his life in New York City, with his profession listed in 1822 as the proprietor of a 'segarstore' on Bowery street. His son and previous Hall inductee, William H Tucker would eventually help him run the store and remained his partner until Abraham's death in 1868. That's most of what we know about him.

Abraham is important for reasons we don't really know, but what we do know is that in 1846, after the Knickerbocker formed, they decided to honour two of the city's legendary old ballplayers with honourary membership: James Lee, and Abraham Tucker. Both men had been playing ball since perhaps as early as 1812 on public grounds that would become Madison Square, and both men we already known ballplayers at the forming of the Gotham Club in 1837, the first team to codify the rules of the game that became the sport we know today.

This is a weird entry because we basically have to take other people's word for this one. Tucker is notable for his membership in the Gotham and whatever status he achieved in the game was enough for him to be recognized by baseball's first real organized body in 1846. One imagines he could have been a great player, organizer, rulemaker, or some other champion of the game. Perhaps he is notable for fathering one of the games first rule writers. In any case, the Knicks and two of the early game's most prolific historians and great primary sources, Al Spalding and Henry Chadwick, all considered Abraham Tucker to be one of the game's great influencers.

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1880s Overview
Next: 1885, 1/2: Tommy Bond

Class of 1884, 1/2: George Zettlein

George Zettlein (1844-1905), Player
Eligible: 1878
Contributions: One of the great stars of the amateur-only late-1860s, Zettlein translated well to the fledgling professional leagues, and put up 24.8 WAR, third all-time as of his retirement, despite his entire pro career being after his established prime.

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1870 was the final year baseball was conducted, at least on paper, predominantly by amateur clubs. The following year the best clubs in baseball would admit to hiring and fielding teams largely or completely composed of players being paid for their services, and while the practise was perhaps 20 years old by the time, the Cincinnati Red Stockings are often credited with the shift in the baseball world. The 1869 club went fully professional, and went on to post baseball's only perfect season, 57-0. Their streak continued well into 1870. Cincinnati manager Harry Wright wrote letters bragging of his nine's skill to the preeminent baseball writer of the time, Henry Chadwick, and they showed their prowess by taking a barnstorming tour to the South, dominating team after team all the way to New Orleans and ending up back in Cincinnati as the weather warmed into June. By the time they finished their homestand their undefeated streak had run to 71 games.

The mighty Red Stockings then turned their gaze to the East, where weather was finally warm enough for touring, and where the stiffest competition (and the most lucrative gates) were waiting. They organized a road trip from Cleveland to Washington, DC that would see them (presumably) embarrass the most renowned clubs in baseball, and they didn't disappoint. They were 80-0 by the time they arrived in New York, and punctuated that with a 16-3 drubbing of one of baseball's best clubs, the New York Mutuals. By now fans were flocking to see if any game opponent could stop the Red Stockings - 7,000 people, a massive crowd at the time, gathered to see if the Mutuals were game.

On June 14, 1870, the Red Stockings visited the Brooklyn Atlantics. The Atlantics had a deep and talented team, with several players who will appear on these pages like Dickey Pearce, Joe Start, and Fred Smith. They were perhaps the National Association's most prestigious club, with eight league pennants, including the 1869 title (the Red Stockings were ineligible for their professional status). If anybody could beat the Red Stockings, it was thought to be Brooklyn, and 12,000-15,000 (some reports saying 20,000) people showed up to see if it could be done. What followed was one of the great games of early baseball history.

Cincinnati was loaded with talent, but they had never faced Brooklyn's ace before. George Zettlein was a big righty, which wasn't special, but he was perhaps the hardest thrower they had ever faced. What proved to be a problem, though, was that he never tired. He threw hard in the 1st, but continued to throw hard as the game wound on. He was touched for three runs early, but buckled down and the Red Stockings struggled to get more (keep in mind it was normal for them to put up 70 runs against quality pitching at the time). Sloppy fielding by Cincinnati allowed Brooklyn a 4-3 lead early, though the game was tied up 5-5 at the end of 9 innings. As the rules at the time did not dictate extra innings, the teams began to walk off the field, the Red Stockings' undefeated streak safe, now at 81 games. But the damndest thing happened.

As the crowd bayed, 'Play it out! Play it out!' Harry Wright calmly walked off the field, had his players pack up their bats. Brooklyn were happy to take the tie, a mighty feat in itself, and go home, but their veteran star pitcher, who had been throwing blazing fastballs all afternoon, would not have it: "No. We will play to a finish if it takes us all night. Let it not be said that the Atlantics shirked." Insulted, Harry Wright agreed to continue the game at the other captain's challenge. Zettlein got the  Red Stockings in order in the tenth, but they got him for two more runs in the top of the 11th. In the bottom of the frame all hell broke loose.

Brooklyn got the leadoff man on, and it became clear Cincinnati ace Asa Brainard (another amateur legend we'll hear more about) was beginning to tire. Joe Start took an offering over RF Cal McVey's head for an easy double. According to some reports, the ball rolled into the crowd, where the rambunctious Brooklynites jumped on McVey's back as he tried to retrieve the ball. By the time the ball got back to the infield Start was on third and the score was 7-6. The Red Stockings finally got an out on the next batter, but then Bob Ferguson singled in Start to tie the game at 7. Zettlein himself singled, bringing the winning run to second, but George Hall hit a crisp bouncer to short, setting up shortstop George Wright, widely regarded as the best defensive shortstop in the first 50 years of baseball history, for an inning-ending double-play. He biffed it, throwing wide of second, and Ferguson, running hard all the way, scored the winning run and ended the Red Stockings' legendary winning streak. George Zettlein, by outduelling Brainard and limiting unstoppable Cincinnati's damage, not to mention collecting his own crucial 11th-inning hit had become a hero in his own right.

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George Zettlein was born in Williamsburgh (Brooklyn), NY, 12 July 1844. Very little is known about his early life, hampered in no small part by his German last name and the difficulties this gave records-keepers at the time, but it is believed he and his two sisters were orphaned at an early age. It is believed he enlisted in the army early in the Civil War, but found the life of a foot soldier tedious, signing up for the Navy in early 1863. No service records exist but he was able to convince the Navy to give him a pension much later in life, with a trove of evidence consisting of medical records and soldier/seaman testimonies that he was present at a number of significant battles including New Orleans, Vicksburg, and Mobil. He apparently sustained some injuries in the war and applied for and received a pension later in life.

Still just 21 years old, Zettlein returned to Brooklyn after the war and joined the Eckford club, one of baseball's best clubs. He spent one year with them then switched to the Atlantic club for 1866, turning them into a powerhouse. They won National Association championships in 1866 and 1869, and, as noted above, toppled an unbeatable Cincinnati Red Stockings club in 1870. Zettlein was regarded as the hardest thrower of the late 1860s, famously durable, and was perhaps baseball's best pitcher before the rise of Spalding. Zettlein was fantastic but not without weakness - he relied on being able to throw blistering fastballs for strikes; he never tried to adopt Candy Cummings's curveball, and he shunned the "headwork" that made later pitchers like Spalding and Mathews so successful. In 1872 the Clipper wrote that he was "a splendid army without a shrewd tactician at its head."

Once the league turned openly professional in time for the 1871 season, Zettlein (who had already jumped clubs once in his young career) was one of the game's foremost mercenaries. He left Brooklyn to sign with the Chicago White Stockings, and jumped clubs five more times in the next four years. He was no journeyman - he won the NA's first ERA title - the first professional pitcher to win an ERA crown - and put up a 135 ERA+ in almost 1000 innings over his first three seasons of professional play, third in WAR to Spalding and McBride over that time. George Zettlein was a hit man.

After 1871 Zettlein cycled through Troy (NY), the Brooklyn Eckfords, and Philadelphia before landing back with Chicago for 1874. Now 29, it looked like the thousands of competitive innings began to catch up with him as the amateur-era legend went 27-30 with a 2.43 (90 ERA+), leading the league in walks and runs allowed. He bounced back with in 1875, however, going 29-22 with a 1.59 ERA (144 ERA+), though he did defect from Chicago and play the last half of the season back with Philadelphia.

1875 would be the final season for the National Association, and it was the end of Zettlein as an effective player. He did pitch 234 sub-par innings for Philadelphia in their new National League outfit in 1876 before retiring for good, aged 31. By the end of 1876 he was notorious for betting on games, and a member of the NA Philadelphia club in 1875 was known for placing bets on his own club during the game as the odds shifted.

At the time of his retirement he was third in baseball history in WAR (just 0.2 behind McBride for second), third in innings, fifth in strikeouts, and 6th in K/9 among pitchers who threw at least 1000 innings. He ranked third all-time in ERA+ and 2nd in FIP - and remember that this was all a second career for Zettlein - he had already been an amateur-era great from 1865-1870.

It is also worth remembering that he played his entire career after a significant wartime record in which he suffered a hernia that plagued him throughout his life, and forced him to wear a truss for much of it. Zettlein often claimed the hernia was the result of being his by too many baseballs in the pitcher's box (his peers claimed this was also the cause of a low mental capacity and his lack of craftiness as a pitcher.

Ultimately Zettlein's legacy is that of a great we never really got to see at his heights. His best days were before reliable and organized leagues and records, and he played most of his career as an injured Civil War veteran. He was the best hard thrower of his generation and his contemporaries acknowledged his greatness. He was also a wonderful character and one of the best of all time as of his retirement.

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1880s Overview
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Class of 1883, 2/2: Frank Pidgeon

Francis Pidgeon (1825-1884), Builder
Eligible: 1875
Contribution: Founder of the Brooklyn Eckford, one of the top New York teams of the amateur era, one of the top pitchers of the 1850s, participated in the Fashion Course Games of 1858. Fought viciously against professionalism until his retirement from the game.

One of the great characters from the Roman Republic is Cato the Younger, a skilled orator and politician who fought tooth and nail against Caesar in the Roman Senate, who led the opposition to Caesar's Triumvirate, who was immune to bribes and rooted out corruption, and who killed himself in 46 BC when it was clear Caesar was going to instill himself as dictator. In many ways, Frank Pidgeon was the Cato of baseball. A star of the early sport, Pidgeon pushed back fiercely against the encroaching professionalism of the game until he walked away at the height of his popularity in protest. Like Cato, Pidgeon would be a tragic figure of the game's history.

Pidgeon, 1858

Pidgeon was born on 11 February, 1825 in New York City. As a young man he worked in shipbuilding until leaving New York, as with many young professionals in the city, as a Miner '49er before returning the following summer to marry Mary Orr, who would bear him six children. Pidgeon would continue his career in shipbuilding after returning to New York. In 1851 he also submitted a patent for an improvement to the thimble-making process.

Going to California in 1849 was a popular endeavour for young professional men in New York at the time, and so was playing baseball. Like many young men, Pidgeon met in the parks of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and New Jersey for rigorous exercise in the form of recreational baseball. In 1855 Pidgeon organized a group of Brooklyn shipbuilders and mechanics to form the Eckford Base Ball Club, named for Scottish-American shipbuilding magnate Henry Eckford. He served as it's first president. Because the men worked long hours at the docks, it was rare for them to meet more than once per week, and no other organized club agreed to meet them for competitive play.

In 1856, after challenging every club in the area, the Union of Morrisania and the Baltics agreed that the winner of one of their matches would play the Eckford. This is not to suggest a kind of championship bracketing, but that Eckford was a kind of aperitif for the winner, easy competition for extra play after the real match. Union, one of the better teams in New York in the mid-1850s, won their game against the Baltic, but were upset by Eckford, 22-8. Demanding a rematch against the lucky underdog Eckford, Union lost again a month later, 22-6. The fledgling baseball press began covering the Eckford as legitimate competition. They were a regular competitor in 1857, and after expanding their membership to include volunteer firemen in 1858, went 5-1, one of the best teams in the city.

For his part, Pidgeon was one of the game's premier players at least until the rise of Jim Creighton in 1860, and likely until his 1863 retirement. Famous for his 'headwork', Pidgeon excelled at changing speeds and arcs, throwing off batters when overhand deliveries were illegal and pitching tools were limited to pitching 'fairly to the bat'. He was also a talented batter and skilled fielder, playing a number of infield and outfield positions well. Pidgeon was selected to participate in the 1858 Fashion Course games, a three-game All-Star series pitting the best of Brooklyn against the best of New York. Pidgeon played game one at shortstop (a loss) and pitched games two and three, suggesting his status as the best pitcher in Brooklyn. He beat New York 29-8 in Game 2 (throwing 290 pitches) and threw 436 pitches in a Game 3 loss.

Eckford lost championship series to the Atlantic Club in 1859 and 1860, wasn't competitive as Pidgeon sat out the 1861 season, and finally took the NABBP championship title from the Atlantic in 1862. Pidgeon suffered a leg injury during a game in 1863 and not only retired from the sport, he walked with a limp for the rest of his life. Eckford would go on to be undefeated Association champions for 1863. Following the season, Pidgeon moved his family to Saugerties, NY, and opened a successful contracting business, becoming fabulously wealthy by 1870, building a mansion in Saugerties and maintaining properties all over New York state. He filed another patent, for a steam-driven plough, and took up painting.

Eckford ball club in 1858, Pidgeon centre

While Pidgeon played just eight seasons of competitive baseball, his influence on the sport extends far beyond the field of play. As Eckford's founder, he regularly served as club president or secretary through 1863, and served on the Eckford delegation to the very first meeting of New York area clubs, what would become the NABBP, in 1857, where he chaired a motion and led a committee to meet with city officials to secure a plot of ground for baseball play in Central Park.

In 1859 he authored the rule barring professionalism from baseball. Often ignored or creatively skirted, the rule banned any player for playing for compensation of any kind. Papers at the time argued for professionalism, claiming that compensation would even the playing field between rich and poor men - everyone could afford to play ball if there was money in it, not just the doctors and lawyers that could afford a day off work. Pidgeon responded that only men who could afford to play would ensure that games included honorable men who would respect the game, and that young men should be building their careers, not focusing on playing baseball: "a man who does not pay his obligations and has it in his power to do so is a knave and not fit to be trusted in the game of ball or anywhere else". Pidgeon didn't just see professionalism as a moral wrong, he also saw professionalism as a threat to the parity of the young game. Teams of skilled labours like his Eckford could not possibly keep pace with the wealthy clubs if they could snatch all the good players by paying them more. Reports throughout the early 1860s tied Pidgeon to a move to the Atlantic, his chief rival, and while it is not clear whether he was ever approached, he denied the rumors and remained loyal to his Eckford.

Pidgeon would continue fighting for amateurism after his 1863 retirement, and by the end of the decade was the last great champion of the cause. In 1870 he made his last stand to the NABBP. Baseball had been clandestinely professional for several years, and following the openly-professional and widely successful 1869-70 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the clubs of the Association wanted to turn fully professional for the 1871 season. At the convention in the fall of 1870 a number of all-amateur clubs, including our old heroes, the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, tabled a motion to ban player emoluments, in any shape of form, once and for all. The motion was championed by Pidgeon, who stumped for votes on behalf of the motion and spoke in its defence at the convention. In what historian William Ryzek called 'amateurism's last stand,' 17 of the 26 present clubs voted to turn professional, with ten of them breaking away to form the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, which began professional play, as planned, in 1871. The original Association added 'amateur' to it's title (becoming the NAABBP) and lasted just four more years.

Pidgeon stepped away from baseball after it turned professional. His construction company was very successful and, due to his underbidding, won many government contracts and employed many people. The downside to his lowballing was that he had to run a tight ship and had maintain a shoestring budget. In 1881, the practice of underbidding caught up to him. An investigation into Brooklyn city finances meant that payment to Pidgeon's company was withheld, and since Pidgeon had so much overhead and a suppressed cash flow, creditors came after his assets and he had to close his doors. During the 1870s his son Frank jr. had broken off from Pidgeon's company, and Frank Sr. found employment with Jr's company for several years. In 1884, while walking on the Hudson River Line train tracks, Pidgeon was struck and killed by a train. Contemporary reports claimed he was unable to get off the tracks due to his old baseball injury, but with his baseball and business careers in shambles, and some reports claiming that he was facing the train and ignorant of warnings, rumors of suicide have pervaded.

In a way, Pidgeon was the last gunslinger of the amateur era, and he went out on his shield defending amateurism in the game. He was also a key organiser of Brooklyn baseball, and perhaps the game's best pitcher from 1855-60. The ignominy of his retreat from baseball was mirrored by the tragedy of the last few years of his life, and Pidgeon cuts a rather romantic figure as one of the last heroes of the early days of baseball in New York.

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