 Cincinnati Reds Blog |
|
|
A day-to-day record of the mind of a Cincinnati Reds fan.
For Phillies news and view see the Phillies Blog Online ticket broker selling the best in Cincinnati Reds Tickets, Houston Astros Tickets, St. Louis Cardinals tickets, Jimmy Buffett tickets, Dave Matthews Band tickets, NY Yankees tickets and all other baseball tickets to events across the country.
Links
Please visit our sponsors
Coast to Coast Tickets Get tickets to see the Los Angeles Angels, the New York Mets and Baseball's best in MLB All Star Game
Try these cheap Cincinnati Reds tickets, Boston Red Sox tickets, New York Yankees tickets, plus NFL tickets like New England Patriots tickets, Dallas Cowboys tickets, and college football tickets
Looking for great sports betting information? Sportsbetting3.com is the place to be. In addition, this website offers fantastic Belmont Stakes betting news, odds, and results. Finally, if you love blackjack, you just have to visit the top online casino review site, Jaxcasinos.com
Other links of interest
The best and most intelligent baseball discussion on the web is at
Phillies Blog Looking for a Cubs blog? Try The View From the Bleachers! The View From the Bleachers Check out the vast array of baseball blogs at Baseball Blogs.org A Reds fan with a very thoughtful blog (not just about the Reds) is Brian Baute: brianbaute.com The online sports almanac by fans and for fans is Fanbase Another nice team-specific site is at Twinsgeek My favorite Pirates blog is Honest Wagner: Honest Wagner You can check out the Phillies at Phillies Flow The latest on the Cubs is at ChicagoCubs-baseball.com Fantasy baseball info from FantasyBaseballSupport.com Big Fly Sports MLB Shop10% off to our readers Here's a wide-ranging all-sports site American Legends 
A new blog service is eWoss: eWoss |
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Cincinnati Reds History, Part III: wherein the History of the Cincinnati club in the American Association from 1882-1889 is recounted. After the Cincinnati franchise's rather ignominious expulsion from the National League, the only major league at the time, following the 1880 season, the city of Cincinnati was without major league ball for 1881. That is not to say the city was without baseball. A thriving semi-pro industry continued, and amateur teams competed all over the city and the surrounding area. Detroit replaced Cincinnati in the NL for 1881, and life went on. Many of the Reds scattered. Hick Carpenter played for Worcester in 1881, Will White briefly played for Detroit, Deacon White went to Buffalo, while local John Reilly just went back to the sandlots. Others went back to a life without baseball. The National League was holding quite a monopoly on the pro baseball market, and some individuals felt the high-handed tactics of NL President William Hulbert were bad for the game, or at least their profits. The minor leagues were very primitive at this time, and few loops survived a season, though this would improve in the 1880s. There was interest in forming a rival league, especially since the NL had abandoned two of the country's largest cities in New York and Philadelphia, and did not have representation in other large cities, including the Queen City. Sometime during September of 1881, two men met and talked baseball. One was Horace Phillips, who was directing the fortunes of Philadelphia's leading club, and thought his city should be represented in the top echelons of baseball. The other was O.P. Caylor, a lawyer, newspaperman, and Cincinnati resident. Caylor had left the Cincinnati Enquirer under less than harmonious circumstances that would become important in years to come. For now, he was ripe for a new challenge. Phillips did most of the talking at this meeting, but it was Caylor who would lay the groundwork for the new venture. Phillips had sent telegrams to parties he believed would be interested in the new pro venture, but only Caylor had shown. Now Caylor would send out telegrams to the same group, intimating that they were the only city not represented at the meeting, but if they acted quickly they could still get in on the ground floor. Caylor's gambit got results, as on October 10 of the same year 12 men met in Pittsburgh and got organized. On November 2 most of the same group met in Cincinnati, and the American Association was born. Six cities were granted franchises. No New York group was judged ready to enter, but teams were chartered in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Louisville, and St. Louis, as well as Cincinnati. With train travel improving, moving from city to city was easier. The AA had a certain western flavor, as opposed to the NL occupation of New England and the Great Lakes area. Cincinnati got many of the things it wanted in the new venture: Sunday baseball was approved, and beer sales at the ballpark were not only allowed, but encouraged, since breweries were backing three of the six franchises. Also, admission was set at 25 cents, as opposed to the 50 cent price of the NL. The AA would try to appeal to the masses. In Cincinnati, that sounded like money. The franchise took over the Bank Street Grounds where the old NL team had played in 1880, and made ready. Caylor took charge of the Red Stockings, and set about procuring players. He got Will White on board, and used him as a sounding board for baseball decisions. Caylor quickly signed up Hick Carpenter as the third baseman, and offered employment to Cincy veteran Charley Jones, blackballed by the NL. Several players had been barred from the loop for a variety of offenses, often minor ones, and part of AA formation had been that the NL's blackball would be ignored. This would be a part of the agreement that would not be fulfilled in 1882, though Jones would make it to Cincinnati in 1883. If Jones couldn't play in 1882, he did send down some mates from the Akron club he was with to bolster the Cincinnati ranks, most importantly second baseman Bid McPhee. McPhee would become a favorite and a mainstay in Cincy. Pop Snyder was lured from Boston to be the catcher and field leader for the club. The team was soon set. On Opening Day, the lineup was: Joe Sommer, LF; McPhee, 2B; Carpenter, 3B; Snyder, C; Dan Stearns, RF; Bill Tierney, 1B; Chick Fulmer, SS; Jimmy Macullar, CF; and White, P. Snyder decided one game for Tierney was enough, especially after he made the last out with two runners on and the Red Stockings a run down, and signed up the umpire of that first game, Harry Wheeler, to take over. The Reds played in multi-colored uniforms, as did all AA teams that year, with colors to designate the position on the field. Unfortunately, there was no color photography at the time, but it makes a colorful array. Along the line, someone figured out that you could tell the players' positions by careful observation of the field. Wheeler and Stearns ended up changing positions, but that was mostly the team's lineup for the year. It worked, as Cincinnati won that first AA pennant with a 55-25 record. Carpenter was the team's top hitter, batting .342 with 67 RBI. Snyder hit .291, Sommer .288, and Fulmer .281 to pace the offense. McPhee hit just .228, but played terrific defense. White posted a 1.54 ERA and was 40-12, taking the mound in 54 of the 80 regular season games. He led the league in wins and innings and was fourth in ERA. Carpenter was second in batting average, first in hits and RBI. With Cincinnati at the top of the league, the American Association was the first new pro league to make it all the way through a season with all its franchises intact. Buoyed by their success, the AA voted to add teams from New York City and Columbus, OH, and to admit the blackballed NL players, making was for Charley Jones to join the Red Stockings. The team also managed to sign 1B Long John Reilly away from that New York club, as Reilly would return to the site of his major league debut in 1880. O.P. Caylor also got Pop Corkhill for center field, and tried to sign Cincinnati native Buck Ewing and his teammates Mickey Welch and Pete Gillespie from the sinking NL Troy franchise. Ewing had agreed to a deal and to bring his mates along to his hometown, but reneged when Troy was transferred to New York and the new club made him a better offer. Caylor was incensed, but there was nothing to be done. The Red Stockings contended all through 1883 before fading at the end of the season. Corkhill did not live up to expectations, batting just .216, but elsewhere the lineup was solid. Reilly batted .311 and belted 21 doubles and 14 triples. Carpenter batted .299 and Jones .294. The team faded when Will White, again handling most of the pitching chores, tired at the end. He was 43-22 in pitching in 65 of the season's 98 games. Cincinnati finished third, five games out. Reilly was fifth in batting average and second in slugging. Reilly was second in runs scored and Carpenter was third. Jones led the league with 80 RBI and Reilly was one behind. White led the league in wins and ERA. 1884 would prove to be an interesting year as the Red Stockings, now mostly referred to simply as "Reds," would have some competition in town. A young man named Henry Lucas decided to form a third major league, around his own franchise in St. Louis. It might have had a chance, if he hadn't stacked the deck in favor of his own team and made a joke of the pennant race early. One of the teams in on the ground floor was a Cincinnati squad owned by Justus Thorner and John McLean, both original part owners of the Red Stockings of 1882 but forced out in ownership struggles. McLean was also publisher of the Cincinnati Enquirer, now the only newspaper in town but then simply the biggest. The Enquirer was just getting started on a campaign against AA Reds magnate O.P. Caylor, but then it was mainly interested in boosting the Union Association. One of the first acts of Thorner and McLean was to secure the rights to the Bank Street Grounds, forcing the AA Reds to find new digs. They settled on a site at Findlay Street and Western Avenue, two blocks to the south of the Bank Street area and closer to city center, at the site of a former brickyard. The new American Park, as was common then, was constructed rather hurriedly of wood, and a portion of the stands collapsed as the spectators left after the Reds' first game there. It was quickly rebuilt, although fire was always a concern at those old wooden parks. It would be rebuilt several times in the coming decades, eventually becoming the site of Crosley Field and thus home to the Reds through the middle of 1970. In response to the UA threat, the American Association expanded to 12 teams for 1884, adding Toledo, Brooklyn, Indianapolis, and Washington. The new teams would inhabit the bottom of the league, and only Brooklyn would do reasonably well financially. The other cities were still pretty small, and Washington had an especially bad team. Will White was given field leadership of the team, and OF Joe Sommer and Jimmy Macullar were let go when their services seemed superfluous. They also were not happy with management. That made for a depth problem when SS Chick Fulmer batted just .175 and was released. The Reds had trouble filling that hole, although they got solid hitting from other sources. Reilly hit a terrific .339 with 54 extra-base hits, Jones hit .314, Pop Corkhill recovered to hit .274, and Bid McPhee broke out with a .278 average. Hick Carpenter slumped to .255, though. The shortstop hole wasn't filled until the Reds picked up Frank Fennelly from the collapsing Washington franchise, and he hit .352 down the stretch. It was too late, as the Reds finished fifth, eight games out. Will White was a culprit, as he struggled with a new rule giving a batter first base when hit by a pitch, and with rules allowing a more overhand delivery. White was 34-18 but his ERA rose to 3.32 and he pitched less than half the team's games. Reilly was second in the league in batting and led in home runs. Jones led the league in on-base average and was second in runs scored. The AA scored a moral victory, boasting an African-American player in Moses Fleetwood (Fleet) Walker, a catcher for Toledo. Walker batted .263 in 42 games, and his brother Welday also played briefly for the Blue Stockings. Unfortunately, the Toledo franchise was voted out of the AA after the year, having had a tough time financially, and Walker nor any other dark-skinned man would play major league baseball until Jackie Robinson did it in 1947. The Cincinnati entry in the Union Association finished second in the league, but 28 games back. They were at about .500 at midseason, having spent their money on the Bank Street Grounds rather than acquiring players. The "Outlaw Reds" then managed to score Jim McCormick, Pebbly Jack Glasscock, and Fatty Briody from Cleveland's NL franchise, enough to boost the team to second place. Glasscock batted .419 in 38 games, and McCormick was 21-3 down the stretch. Although often listed as a major league, the UA was nothing of the sort, only an overblown attempt at one and an ego boost for Henry Lucas. His St. Louis franchise was admitted to the NL for 1885, and finished last. Glasscock and McCormick's stats in dominating the league showed the real lack of strength of the loop, as they were like major leaguers towering over a low minor league. Which they were. The UA folded, and the AA went back to eight teams for 1885, dropping Indianapolis, Toledo, and the Virginia team that had replaced Washington, and also a Columbus team that was in a too-small city (though that would change). The Reds beefed up their mound corps by signing Larry McKean from Indianapolis and Tony Mullane from Toledo, though they would lose the services of Mullane for 1885 when he was suspended for his excessive contract-jumping. He would be back. Aaron Stern resigned as club president, and O.P. Caylor took over all on-field operations, with Cincinnati city treasurer George Herancourt keeping track of the team's books. The UA "Outlaw Reds" were still hoping to land another berth, and when Justus Thorner jumped at a hoax invitation to join up with the National League, he became a laughingstock. Partner and Cincinnati Enquirer publisher John McLean blamed Caylor, and vowed revenge. And you may have heard the old saying about not picking fights with people who buy ink by the barrel. The Enquirer would not let up on Caylor. Shortly after the 1885 season was underway, the AA voted to allow any arm angle for pitchers, meaning overhand throwing was now legal, and not to allow outs on foul balls caught on the first bounce (known as the foul-bound rule). Hitting dipped on these new measures, as the overhand pitching more than overbalanced the lack of foul outs. The Reds still put on an offensive show, with Charley Jones batting .322 with 41 extra-base hits, Frank Fennelly batting .273 with his own 41 XBH, John Reilly batting .297, Hick Carpenter .277, and Bid McPhee .265. Jones was among the leaders in several offensive categories, and Fennelly led in RBI with 89. The solid offense could not quite overcome the dip in pitching. Will White's arm was about shot, and he went 18-15 with a 3.53 ERA. 19-year old Larry McKeon was 20-13, 2.86, but settling on another starter was tough. Local George Pechiney finally was called on and did well, going 7-4 in 11 starts. The Reds finished second at 63-49, but were a distant second place, 16 games back. Over the winter, John Hauck, "the wealthiest brewer in Cincinnati," bought controlling interest in the team. Caylor continued to run things. 1886 was not to go quite so well, and the Enquirer never let Caylor hear the end of it. The schedule expanded to 140 games, and the Reds ran into serious injury trouble in May. At about the same time, Hick Carpenter (sprained ankle), Long John Reilly (broken ankle) and Pop Corkhill (broken finger) were all out, and outfielder Fred Lewis led the team in batting average at .318 but was often so drunk he was in no shape to play. Reliable Bid McPhee missed just one game, and batted .268. Reilly hit .265. Carpenter slumped to .221. Charley Jones hit .270, but also hit 36, and the future was coming into question. Fennelly batted .249, Corkhill .265. Tony Mullane returned from suspension and was the pitching bulwark, posting a 33-27 record. His ERA was 3.70, a little worse than average. Counted on for regular duty, Pechiney was not as effective, at 15-21 with a 4.14 ERA. Will White pitched just three games. He was done at age 31. Larry McKeon was 8-8 but sported an unsightly 5.08 ERA. The Reds finished fifth, their first (and only) journey into the AA's second division. The Enquirer routinely insulted Caylor in the most vile ways. They also dragged Mullane into it, purporting to hold a document that showed he was consorting with gamblers to throw games. That sort of thing can't be tolerated, so the Reds called the paper into court and demanded the press produce the evidence. They couldn't, and the courts cleared Mullane of all charges. Still, the charges were in the air, and the publicity wore on the team. After the season, owner John Hauck sold the team back to Aaron Stern, and Caylor resigned his post and headed to Philadelphia to become a newspaperman once again. He had had enough of the abuse, and it is hard to blame him. More new rules were passed for 1887: the batter could no longer call for either a high or low pitch. To make it up to them, a walk was lowered to five balls, and a strikeout raised to four strikes. Also, walks were officially counted as hits, just for 1887. It made for an interesting mixture. The Reds bounced back in 1887, though it certainly wasn't smooth sailing. Mullane found himself suspended for a time for insubordination, and was only reinstated when his pitching slot could not be adequately filled. The Reds picked up Hugh Nicol, a speedy little guy, to play outfield. Nicol wasn't much of a hitter, though, and was also an veteran drinker. Corkhill hit .311 and Reilly .309 to pace the offense. Fennelly batted .266 with his usual power. McPhee was at .289. George Tebeau hit .296. Charley Jones hit .314 as a part-timer. A picture of the tall Reilly towering over the stubby Nicol survives, and is quite comical. Elmer Smith, at 19, became an ace pitcher with a 34-17 record and 2.94 ERA. Mullane was 31-17, 3.24. Billy Serad was 10-11, 4.08. The team bounced back to second place, but finished 14 games out. In the offseason, ticket prices for the AA were set at a minimum of 50 cents for 1888. This was quite a change from the 25 cent admission the league had been founded upon. The second division clubs had trouble selling tickets at that price, and when one team broke ranks at the end of June, others quickly followed. The bottom rung clubs also would transfer games to the other teams, because they could make more money from a road gate than a home one. As a result, the Reds played 79 of their games in 1888 at home, just 58 on the road. The Reds fell to fourth in 1888, but were closer to first, 11.5 games back. John Reilly hit .321 and drove in 103 runs, Pop Corkhill batted .271, Hick Carpenter .267. But Frank Fennelly folded, hitting just .196 and drawing his release. The pitching was solid, with Mullane, Elmer Smith, and Lee Viau in rotation. 1889 marks the first recorded year of Opening Day festivities in Cincinnati. Now, it is a big city holiday. Not quite as much fanfare on this first occasion, but there was plenty of pomp and circumstance at the ballpark. 1889 also marks the first record of "Ladies Day" at the ballpark. Designed to take advantage of Tony Mullane's good looks, the Reds scheduled a day for women to be let in free on Mondays, usually a down day for attendance. Of course, a man would certainly have to accompany the lady, and he would have to pay admission. The women, it is said, liked to gaze at Mullane's countenance. The promotion became a success and was widely imitated. The Reds came in fourth again in 1889, 18 games off the pennant pace. Reilly slumped to .260, McPhee hit .269, Carpenter .261, and new shorstop Ollie Beard .287. Bug Holliday was a hot rookie with a .321 average. Elmer Smith's arm was bothering him, and Tony Mullane was slipping, but Jesse Duryea debuted with 32 wins. The 1889-90 offseason was a hotbed of labor unrest. The owners were trying to put in a salary cap: actually a salary system, with the top players to receive $2500 per year. The players, whose mobility had been continually curtailed since the beginning of the National League in 1876, were up in arms over this development. As a result, players' leader John M. Ward talked with some money men to put up capital for a new league, to be run by players for players. Most members of this player Brotherhood were from the National League, with fewer in the AA. As the offseason began and plans were made, it was obvious a war was on. Most defections would be from the NL. To bolster its ranks, the NL owners made Cincinnati an offer to bolt leagues and join the National League. Fed up with the AA management, Aaron Stern agreed. The Cincinnati Reds were transferred to the National League for the 1890 season. Hick Carpenter was released, and an era ended. And here our narrative will come to a close for Part III. Next time, we will look at the return of the Reds to the senior loop, soon to become the only major league again, and the misadventures of the 1890s and the beginning of the 20th century. Major research for this essay comes from David Nemec's terrific book, The Beer & Whiskey League, the Illustrated History of the American Association. It is filled with great tidbits and rare photographs. Also, the author owes a tremendous debt to the resource of Sean Forman's invaluable baseball-reference.com. Labels: cincinnati reds history |
Comments:
|
