baseball™s immortal red...

Baseball's Immortal Red Stockingsby LEE ALLEN

The origin of baseball as an amateur endeavor is shrouded indoubt. It was, originally, a game for boys, and grew up withoutprinted rules or documentary evidence of any kind as to its earli-est days.

But the origin of professional baseball is undisputed: Thefirst entirely professional team was supplied by the CincinnatiRed Stockings of 1869, a club that played from Maine to Cali-fornia wherever opposition could be found. The Red Stockingsengaged in sixty-five games without once losing, traveled nearlytwelve thousand miles by rail and boat, appeared before morethan two hundred thousand spectators, and scored 2,395 runs to575 for their opponents.

The importance of the Red Stockings to baseball history doesnot lie in their extraordinary achievement on the field, impressivethough that was. Their contribution consisted of establishing thefact that baseball could succeed on a professional basis. They drewso much attention to the game that clubs began to spring up intheir wake as indiscriminately as dandelions. These clubs grewso strong that by 1871 they were able to form baseball's firstmajor league, The National Association of Professional BaseballPlayers, forerunner of the National League of which Cincinnati isstill a member.

The first baseball club of any kind was organized in Cincinnatiin 1860 by Matthew M. Yorston, a resident of the city. He madeby hand the baseballs that were used, and the team playedinformally at various sites in the downtown area: at the foot ofEighth Street, near the present location of the Crane & BreedManufacturing Company; at the Orphan Asylum lot on ElmStreet, where Music Hall now stands; on the old potter's field thatis now Lincoln Park; and eventually in the Millcreek bottoms,where the Red Stockings were at home and where the UnionTerminal was later built.

As an amateur team, the Red Stockings were formed on July23, 1866, at the law offices of Tilden, Sherman & Moulton, in theold Selves Building, 17}^ West Third Street. The original mem-bers included some of the most prominent citizens of the city.

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Among them were Alfred T. Goshorn, Aaron B. Champion,Henry Glassford, William Tilden, J. William Johnson, andGeorge B. Ellard. Baseball at the time supplied activity forgentlemen at leisure, and among the Cincinnatians interestedenough in the sport to participate were Bellamy Storer, DrausinWulsin, Stanley Matthews, J. Wayne Neff, John R. McLean, andAndrew Hickenlooper.

There was no thought of professionalism, at least untilAugust 1865, when William Henry (Harry) Wright, a native ofEngland and resident of New York, was brought to Cincinnatiat a salary of $1,200 a year to serve as bowler for the Union CricketClub, which had been in existence since 1856. Wright was moreinterested in baseball, however, than cricket. In 1867 the RedStockings leased the Union Cricket Club's grounds, and many ofthe cricket players became members of the baseball team, anevent that gave the comparatively new game greater emphasis.

Attendance increased rapidly at the baseball games, andWright became the leader of the movement to form a professionalteam. This was the natural outgrowth of the desire for victory.The lower classes supplied the best players, and these athleteswere principally interested in money, an attitude that is notdifficult to understand.

But the decision to turn professional was not received enthus-iastically in all quarters. One of the early amateur players, GeorgeA. Wiltsee, later in life explained the point of view. In 1916, in aconversation with William A. Phelon, baseball writer for theCincinnati Times-Star, he said:

Professional ballplayers were under a social ban, and theamateurs were not supposed to associate with them or evenrecognize them off the field - the only conversation betweenthe two classes was on the diamond, and limited to subjectsof the game. When the great Eastern players who composedthe majority of the Reds were imported to Cincinnati, atrick was resorted to - a trick which has been copied at manya college and by many a semi-professional or alleged amateurball club in more modern days. All these professionals weregiven jobs in the business houses of the team's backers -jobs where they reported every morning, were visible tocallers or doubtful skeptics, and drew small salaries, althoughfew of them ever did a stroke of work. In this manner, the gapbetween amateur and professional was bridged; the Redsbecame, nominally, local businessmen who didn't have to play

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ball for a living and, slowly, month by month, the barrierbetween 'gentlemen' and 'professionals' was broken down.

The team assembled as the Red Stockings of 1869 was as follows:

PLAYER AGEHarry WrightAsa BrainardDouglas AllisonCharles H. GouldCharles J. SweasyFred A. WatermanGeorge WrightAndrew J. LeonardCalvin A. McVeyRichard Hurley

"OCCUPATION"35252221212322232020

JewelerInsuranceMarble cutterBookkeeperHatterInsuranceEngraverHatterPiano makerNone

POSITIONCenter fieldPitcherCatcherFirst baseSecond baseThird baseShortstopLeft fieldRight fieldSubstitute

SALA$1,200$1,100$ 800$ 800$ 800$1,000$1,400$ 800$ 600$ 600

It is interesting to observe that Gould was the only playeron the squad who was a native Cincinnatian. Leonard and Sweasywere residents of Newark, New Jersey; George Wright, Waterman,and Brainard came from New York City; Allison from Phila-delphia, New Jersey, and McVey from Indianapolis, Indiana.

George Wright, a brother of Harry, was the first acquisition.He was such a celebrated shortstop that small boys used to say,"I'd rather be Wright (George) than President." The pitcher,Brainard, was next obtained, and it was then believed imperativeto find a catcher who could hold him. Colonel John P. Joyce,secretary of the club, and Alfred T. Goshorn went East to find one,and stopped first at the Continental Hotel in Philadelphia.Goshorn was not feeling well and remained in his room, but Joycewent out for a walk. He ended up in the suburb of Manyunk, andperched on a fence to watch a sandlot game. Doug Allison wascatching, and Joyce's first impression was that he was ungainly.But at bat Allison suddenly began to move with grace and hit along home run to center field. After the game, Joyce introducedhimself to Allison and took him on a carriage back to the Conti-nental. Telling Doug to wait, he rushed up to Goshorn's room andsaid, "Goshorn, I've got him." They both went to the street, andAllison was found sitting there in the carriage, a tanned and freck-led country boy whose boots and clothes were covered withbrickyard clay. On his head was a twenty-five cent straw hatwith half the rim gone. Joyce and Goshorn bought him a suit,made him get a haircut, and took him on the train back toCincinnati.


It seems singularly appropriate that this great, undefeatedteam should have had as its president a man named Aaron BurtChampion, a gentleman of real distinction and a man whodevoted his life to public service. Born at Columbus, Ohio, onFebruary 9, 1842, he attended Antioch College when the famededucator, Horace Mann, was president of that institution. Hebecame an attorney and began to practice in Cincinnati in 1863.In 1872 he was a delegate from the second Ohio district to thenational convention at Baltimore which nominated HoraceGreeley for the presidency. As attorney for the Thompson-Houston Electric Company, he was considered to be the mostknowledgeable man on electrical matters of any attorney in thewestern country. He was also active as a trustee for Antioch andpresident of the board of the House of Refuge.

It was during the presidency of Champion that the RedStockings adopted the uniform that became their trademark andstill survives. Baseball players originally wore cricket uniforms,but at the suggestion of George Ellard an order was placed witha Mrs. Bertha Bertram, who conducted a tailor shop on ElmStreet, near Elder, for short, white flannel trousers, white flannelshirt, and the famed red stockings.

When the pitcher, Asa Brainard, came to Cincinnati, heboarded at the home of a family named Truman, a once wealthyclan whose male members had been associated with Truman &Wilson, the firm that came to be known as Wilson, Hinkle &Company; Van Antwerp, Bragg & Company; and eventually theAmerican Book Company. (This firm was engaged in publishing,one of its publications being the McGuffey readers.) But somehowthe Trumans became impoverished and had to take in boarders,one of whom was Brainard. Almost immediately after moving inwith the family, he became ill of smallpox. He was nursed backto health by Mary Truman and her sister, Margaret. When Asarecovered, he and Mary became married. Mary and MargaretTruman, by this time enthusiastic followers of baseball, begansewing red stockings to supplement those supplied by BerthaBertram.

The season of 1869 opened on April 17, with the Red Stock-ings defeating a picked nine of local players, 24 to 15. Afterhandily winning several other games, the team set out on its firstroad trip, accompanied by Harry M. Millar, a writer on the old

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Commercial. The first sports writer to travel with a professionalbaseball club, Millar also served the team as scorer; his scorebookis preserved today in the Albert G. Spalding collection of baseballliterature in the New York Public Library.

The first stop was at Yellow Springs, where Antioch Collegewas defeated. The team then rolled on to Mansfield, Cleveland,Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, Troy, Boston, New Haven,and Brooklyn, routing the opposition in all those communities bydecisive scores. The first real test came in Brooklyn on June 15when the Red Stockings struggled against the Mutuals of NewYork and barely defeated them, 4 to 2, an unprecedented scorefor that early day. There was an enormous amount of gamblingon that game, for the Mutuals had a formidable club. A crowdof fully ten thousand persons filled the Union Grounds at Brook-lyn, and hundreds of others looked on from housetops overlookingthe field. By this time the Reds had won seventeen games withoutdefeat, and it seemed that all New York wanted to see the streakbroken.

Meanwhile, in Cincinnati, a crowd of two thousand milledaround the Gibson House awaiting the telegraphed score. Whenthe news of the victory finally came through, red flares were set,salutes fired, and cheers echoed through the streets. A wire wasdispatched to the team, as follows:

Cincinnati, 0. June 15, 1869

Cincinnati Baseball Club, Earle's Hotel, New York:

ON BEHALF OF THE CITIZENS OF CINCINNATI,WE SEND YOU THIS GREETING. THE STREETS AREFULL OF PEOPLE, WHO GIVE CHEER AFTER CHEERFOR THEIR PET CLUB. GO ON WITH THE NOBLEWORK. OUR EXPECTATIONS HAVE BEEN MET.

ALL THE CITIZENS OF CINCINNATI,

PER S.S DAVIS

The noble work did continue. The Red Stockings won threegames in Philadelphia, one at Baltimore, two at Washington,and one at Wheeling before returning home. In July more vic-tories were earned in Washington, Rockford, Illinois, St. Louis,


and Milwaukee. By this time the entire nation was watching tosee who would be the first to send Cincinnati to defeat.

The closest call came in late August in Troy, New York.There the Reds met a team known as the Haymakers, owned bya remarkably unique character named John Morrissey, who was,among other things, a pugilist, gambler, and Congressman.Morrissey placed a large bet on the Haymakers that day, somesaying the amount wagered was $60,000, a figure that may beapocryphal. But whatever the truth of the matter, Morrisseynever had to pay off. With the score tied, 17 to 17, in the sixthinning, Morrissey instructed his players to get into an argumentwith the umpire and use this as a pretext to stop play. This wasdone, and the game was ruled a tie. Under present rules the vic-tory would be awarded the Red Stockings by forfeit. The Hay-makers later offered a written apology for the incident, but inthe records the game remained a tie.

In September the team visited California, winning five gamesin San Francisco from teams known as the Eagles and Pacifies.The boys returned home in October, after stops in Nebraska,Illinois, and Indiana, and brought the season to a close on No-vember 5, defeating the Mutuals again, 17 to 8.

It was at a banquet following the season that Aaron B. Cham-pion rose to his feet and said, "Someone asked me today whom Iwould rather be, President Ulysses S. Grant or President Cham-

— From In Memoriam — Aaron B. Champion

AARON B. CHAMPION

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pion of the Cincinnati Baseball Club. I immediately answered himthat I would by far rather be the president of the baseball club."

Who were these men who called themselves Red Stockings,and how did they fare in later life? It has been possible to traceall of them except Richard Hurley, the substitute, who went tolive in Washington and disappeared in the stream of that city'slife. But here is what is known to have happened to the others:Earry Wright - The manager of the Red Stockings, a kindly,gentle man became famous as a field leader in the major leagues.Patriarch of the professional game, he wore a beard and command-ed the respect of his players in about the same way that ConnieMack later did. Wright managed in Boston, Providence, andPhiladelphia from 1871 to 1893, then became the NationalLeague's supervisor of umpires. He died of pneumonia at theage of sixty at Atlantic City on October 3, 1895, and is buried atWest Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

George Wright - Harry's young brother was the best shortstopin baseball in the 1870's. He retired as a player following theseason of 1882 and founded the sporting goods house, Wright &Ditson, in Boston. That business prospered to such an extentthat he became a millionaire. He died on August 21, 1937, atBoston at the age of ninety of heart trouble, and is buried inHolyhood Cemetery, Brookline, Massachusetts.

Asa Brainard - The pitcher retired as an active player in 1874.He deserted his wife and little son, Truman Brainard, in Cummins-ville; when the boy died in January 1879, aged seven, the motherentered the Widows' Home. In August 1882 Asa was reportedrunning an archery club at Port Richmond, Staten Island. Afterbeing badly hurt in the back of the hand by an arrow, he driftedto Denver, Colorado, where he operated a poolroom. He becamethe first of the Red Stockings to die, breathing his last at Denveron December 10, 1888.

Charles H. Gould - The only Cincinnatian on the team, hemanaged the Red Stockings in the National League in 1876, thefirst season that the circuit operated. He then became, successive-ly, a clerk in the Cincinnati Police Department, a conductor onCar 612 of the Fairmount Electric Street Car Line, and a pullmanconductor on the run to New Orleans. He eventually died at thehome of a son, Charles Fisk Gould, at Flushing, Long Island, April10,1917. He was buried at Spring Grove. When Warren G. Giles,

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then president of the Reds and now president of the NationalLeague, learned in 1951 that Gould lay in an unmarked lot, hehad a suitable shaft of granite erected to his memory in a ceremonywitnessed by the entire Cincinnati team.

Doug Allison - Brainard's catcher remained in baseball through1883, then became a federal employee in Washington, serving asa post office clerk, and guard at the National Museum. He was atalented crayon artist, and remained a lifelong baseball fan.Letters that he wrote to August (Garry) Herrmann, president ofthe Reds from 1902 to 1927, are now preserved at the NationalBaseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York.He died of heart disease in Washington on December 19, 1916.

Charles J. Sweasy - For years the fate of this player representeda peculiar puzzle because two obituaries exist. One relates that hedied at Newark, New Jersey, on March 30, 1908; the second hasFort Worth, Texas, on March 24, 1939. Internal evidence wouldindicate that the Newark death is correct and that the Fort Worthman was an impostor. It is known that after Sweasy retired as aplayer in 1878 he went to Newark and became a street vendor,peddling oysters. The Texas "Sweasy" was a pioneer brewer inthat state, founder of a liquor house, a Presbyterian, and an Elk.He was survived by one sister, three nieces, and two nephews —all of whom refused to answer questions by mail concerning theidentity of their deceased relative.

Andrew J. Leonard - Aside from the Wright brothers, Leonardwas perhaps the most accomplished player on the team. Born inIreland but a lifelong Bostonian, he played until 1882 and died atthe Eoston suburb of Roxbury, August 22, 1903.

Calvin A. McVey - This player, like Gould, became a managerof the Reds in the National League, piloting the team during thethe season of 1879. He then moved to California, engaged in busi-ness in San Francisco, and was wiped out by the fire that followedthe esrthquake in 1906. The National League granted him a smallpension, and he died in the poorhouse at San Francisco, August20, 1926.

Fred A. Waterman - Although Gould was the only nativeCincinnatian on the Red Stockings, Waterman became a residentof the city after concluding his baseball career in 1875. Hejoined the Cincinnati police force in 1880, after which he becamea private watchman at the old Fifth Street Garden in 1884.

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His subsequent decline, as traced through city directories, readslike the progressive degeneration of Hurstwood in TheodoreDreiser's "Sister Carrie." Waterman was at various times aclerk, bartender, bricklayer, plasterer, and day laborer. A lifelongbachelor who lived at 535 West Fourth Street, he died of tuber-culosis at Cincinnati Hospital, December 16, 1899. Newspapersrecalled that he had been a member of the Red Stockings, and apopular subscription of funds resulted in his being spared theignominy of a burial in the potter's field. His remains were placedin Wesleyan Cemetery.

The Red Stockings took the field again in 1870, with all theregular players returning, and started the year in the same spec-tacular fashion, continuing the string of victories. Early in theyear they visited the South, winning games by such one-sidedmargins as 79 to 6, 94 to 7, and 100 to 2.

But defeat came eventually, and under heartbreaking cir-cumstances. Cn the afternoon of June 14, 1870, before a crowd ofnine thousand at the Capitoline Grounds at Brooklyn, the RedStockings were defeated by the Atlantics, 8 to 7, in eleven innings.The setback ended a string of triumphs that had reached 130starting in 1868. After nine innings, the game between the RedStockings and Atlantics was tied, 5 to 5. The Atlantics wanted tocall the game a draw, but Harry Wright's boys insisted on playingextra innings. When the Reds scored twice in the eleventh, itappeared that victory would be theirs. But the Atlantics ralliedfor three runs and the game. A key play occurred when anexuberant Brooklyn spectator jumped on the back of Cal McVeyas he was in the act of fielding a fairly hit ball, thereby permittinga run to score.

President Champion announced the sad news in a telegram toCincinnati:

NEW YORK, JUNE 14, 1870 - ATLANTICS 8; CIN-CINNATI 7. THE FINEST GAME EVER PLAYED.OUR BOYS DID NOBLY, BUT FORTUNE WAS A-GAINST THEM. ELEVEN INNINGS PLAYED.THOUGH BEATEN, NOT DISGRACED.

AARON B. CHAMPION,

CINCINNATI BASEBALL CLUB


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Baseball fans are notoriously fickle, and their lack of supportof the team following that first defeat provided an early exampleof the fact. Attendance at the games declined, the players becamerestless, and five other defeats followed before the season wasover. Other teams were springing up now, and many of them madegenerous financial offers to the Cincinnati players.

That the great team would break up was becoming apparent,a feeling confirmed by a circular sent out by the new president,A.P. Bonte, on November 21, 1870, and which read as follows:

Dear Sir: According to the custom, the Executive Boardreports to the members of the CINCINNATI BASEBALLCLUB its determination in reference to the baseball seasonof 1871. We have had communication with many of the lead-ing baseball players throughout the country, as well as withthe various members of our former nine.

Upon the information thus obtained, we have arrived atthe conclusion that to employ a nine for the coming season, atthe enormous salaries now demanded by the professionalplayers, would plunge our club deeply into debt at the end ofthe year.

The experience of the past two years has taught us thata nine whose aggregate salaries exceed six or eight thousanddollars can not, even with the strictest economy, be self-sustaining.

If we should employ a nine at the high salaries now asked,the maximum sum above stated would be nearly doubled. Thelarge liabilities thus incurred would result in bankruptcy orcompel a heavy levy upon our members to make up a defi-ciency. We are also satisfied that payment of large salariescauses jealousy, and leads to extravagance and dissipation onthe part of the players, which is injurious to them, and is alsodestructive of that subordination and good feeling necessaryto the success of a nine.

Our members have year after year contributed liberally forthe liquidation of the expenses incurred in the employment ofplayers. We do not feel that we would be justified in callingupon them again; and, therefore, for the reasons herein stated,have resolved to hire no players for the coming season. Webelieve that there will be a development of the amateur talentof our club, such as has not been displayed since we employedprofessionals, and that we will still enjoy the pleasure ofwitnessing many exciting contests on our grounds. We takethis opportunity of stating that our club and grounds are


entirely free of debt; and, deeming it our first duty to see thatthey remain so, we pursue the course indicated in this circular.

For the executive board,

A.P. Bonte, President

So died the Red Stockings, but their legend was alreadysecure. Their feat of playing an entire season without defeat wasunparalleled. More important, their action in bringing publicityto the city and the game led to the formation of teams that madepossible a professional league of players. All nine of the RedStockings joined that league, the National Association of Pro-fessional Baseball Players, in 1871. Two of the team, George andHarry Wright, are now members of the Hall of Fame at Coopers-town, a select gallery that includes only eighty-six of the tenthousand men who have played in the major leagues.

The last chapter of the story of the Red Stockings took placeat Cincinnati on October 25, 1916, when the tokens and relics ofthe historic team were sold at public auction. Included were agroup picture of the team, a faded uniform, three of the originalbaseballs used in 1869, the cap of Asa Brainard, and a rubbermouthpiece used by Allison, the catcher.

At the Stacey auction rooms on Gilbert Avenue, these senti-mental relics were sold by the estate of Harry Ellard, who hadguarded them until his dying day. There were two principalbidders: Garry Herrmann, who wanted the mementos for the officeof the Reds; and William C. Kennett, Jr., son of a man who servedthe Reds as president in 1880. Such sentiment as Herrmann feltcould not compete with the bidding of Kennett, who purchased thesouvenirs. They were later destroyed in a fire at his home.

But one reminder of the glorious story escaped. The old clockthat ticked away the hours in the office of the club is now measur-ing time at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.It was kept by the family of Aaron B. Champion and donated tothe Hall of Fame in 1960 by Robert Champion Rowe.

In a letter to the author of this article, Aaron Burt ChampionRowe, a descendant of the president of the Red Stockings, recentlywrote:

In October of 1919 as my grandmother (Mrs. A. B. Cham-pion) lay dying, she in some of her lucid moments hoped to

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hear of the Cincinnati Reds winning a World's Series. Shedied just before the final game and she never knew of thescandal that followed. But downstairs in the kitchen of thathouse the old clock was ticking out those fateful moments.When we moved in 1924, the clock was taken down. I am re-minded of some lines in Longfellow's poem - "The Old Clock onthe Stairs."

'0 precious hours! 0 golden prime,And affluence of love and time!' "

HOW A REPORTER ADJOURNEDTHE CITY COUNCIL — 1861

The City Council met as usual last evening, and was called toorder after the members present had got through with their wontedpreliminary confabulation. Several papers of no value to any butthe owner were offered, and passed by the unanimous vote of therespective individuals offering them. The representative of a time-honored constituency introduced a bill to paint a lamp-post in theEighteenth Ward, which caused the lightning bolts of eloquence andthe thunder gusts of oratory to electrify the hall in a manner un-dreamed of by Demosthenes and never attempted by Cicero. Proba-bly the twilight of this glorious anniversary would have shed adim luster over one of the City Fathers, as in Websterian attitude hedemonstrated the impracticability of the project spoken of, whilehis brethren in authority paid the silent homage of attention to hiswords of wisdom, but for the announcement, privately circulatedby an ingenious local, that a dispatch had been received at the news-paper offices, containing the sad news of the defeat of the Federaltroops at Alexandria, and the contemplated march of Beauregardinto Washington immediately. The sympathetic nerves of the CityFathers were stirred, and with unutterable anguish portrayed in eachcountenance, a motion to adjourn was passed instanter. The officialdignitaries, after a vigorous feat of pedestrianism, reached the news-paper offices only to learn that they had been the subject of a mer-cantile transaction, commonly called a "sell."

Cincinnati Daily Gazette,July 4, 1861.

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