David Stieb

Dave Stieb made his only appearance on the writers' ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2004.

A case can be made with sabermetrics that Stieb - not Jack Morris - was the best pitcher of the 1980s and would be a worthy addition to Cooperstown. But by traditional measures, the former Toronto Blue Jays ace might have looked far short of a plaque, with sciatica and other ailments chasing Stieb away from the game in his mid-30s and limiting him to 176 wins. Stieb drew just 1.4 percent, or seven votes, of 506 votes cast in 2004 - and that was that.

On one hand, Stieb said he wasn't that surprised with the outcome.

"I said right off the bat, 'I don't belong in the Hall of Fame, I did not win enough games and so forth,'" Stieb told Sporting News in a recent phone interview from Reno, Nev., where he does land development work.

But there's a caveat.

"I surely did not deserve to be just wiped off the map after the first-year ballot," Stieb said. "It's like, please, amuse me and string me out for two, three years."

Hall of Fame voting can be brutal in this regard, with numerous fine one-and-done candidates from Stieb to Bobby Grich to Ted Simmons and many others.

"It's like an insult," Stieb said. "What it told me was in (the writers') minds, I didn't even do anything worth recognizing."

There's good news for Stieb, though. This fall, he'll be eligible for the first time as a veterans candidate on the Modern Baseball Committee ballot. Is Stieb about to be wiped off the map once more, or could delayed recognition come?

Why: A few significant hurdles remain for Stieb's Hall of Fame case. The first is that the Modern Baseball Committee ballot, which spans MLB figures who made their greatest contribution to the game between 1970 and 1987, looks like it will be packed.

Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker and Dale Murphy will all be newly eligible. So will Morris, who spent 15 years on the writers' ballot and just missed induction through it. Stieb has heard, by the way, that some people think Morris was the best pitcher of the 1980s because he had the most wins of the decade at 162. Stieb, who had the second-most wins in the decade at 140, doesn't think the stat should be the decider.

"The biggest thing to look at is the kind of team he was on (the Detroit Tigers) and the kind of team I was on," Stieb said. "They were pretty much real good already in the whole '80s, '80 to '89, whereas we didn't really get good until like '84, '85."

Morris had the most wins, but Stieb had the lower ERA "and he wasn't even close to me, I think.

"To me, ERA is indicative of who's better," Stieb said.

Other statistics attest to this as well. Stieb had the highest Wins Above Replacement among pitchers for the '80s, by a wide margin at 48.6, while Morris ranked 12th at 30.4.

In case anyone's wondering, Stieb's heard of WAR.

"Pat Hentgen told me years ago, he goes, 'Man, you know how they're using that WAR a lot, that stat?' I go, 'Yeah.' He goes, 'They use that like crazy now to gauge how good someone really is.' He goes, 'If they looked at that when you were playing, you would have won four Cy Young Awards in a row,'" Stieb said, noting it would have been 1982 through 1985 when he led for WAR three consecutive years and finished second the fourth.

By Wins Above Average, the chasm between Stieb and Morris in the '80s is even wider: 28.1, best in the decade for Stieb; 9.0, 31st-best for Morris.

"He was an awesome pitcher," Stieb said. "He was an animal, a bulldog-like [workhorse], and wanted to win like no one else. I totally respect him and his skills and what he did. But if you had to look at everything, I think I was the best."

The problem, of course, is that Hall of Fame committees don't generally get too deep into the weeds with sabermetrics.

Injuries also played a role in curtailing Stieb's career and preventing him from accumulating more of the counting stats Hall of Fame voters so value. Stieb never went on the disabled list until excessive working out in 1991 gave him a herniated disk in his back, aggravated by a collision near first base that spring. This led to other issues, which ultimately culminated with Stieb's release from the Blue Jays after the 1992 season.

After a short stint with the Chicago White Sox and a six-week run with the Kansas City Royals' Triple-A club, Stieb went home to his family.

"I was living in Lake Tahoe and just loving life and being with my kids and stuff," Stieb said. "I just didn't even care about baseball while I was on the mend."

Instead, he spent a few years playing in the outfield for a local softball team as one of its home run hitters before the majors beckoned again for a short comeback in 1998.

Stieb wound up at 176-137 with a 3.44 ERA for his career, respectable numbers no doubt in his eyes but not Hall of Fame worthy. He takes the same hard stance with other candidates, even friends. Asked to assess the Hall of Fame chances of good friend and fellow '80s ace Bret Saberhagen, Stieb pulled up Baseball-Reference.com.

"He's like me," Stieb said, looking at Saberhagen's numbers. "He's got no chance."

Stieb noted Saberhagen's JAWS rating, the stat created by Jay Jaffe of Sports Illustrated which rates Saberhagen as the 66th-best pitcher in baseball history and Stieb as 67th-best. Stieb looked at some of Saberhagen's other accomplishments.

"All he's got on me is two Cy Young's and a World Series that he actually pitched in," Stieb said. "And I don't think that's enough to make it to the Hall of Fame."

What is Stieb's standard for Cooperstown?

"The Hall of Fame is more indicative of somebody having consistency throughout their whole career and dominating numbers throughout their whole career," he said.

If only Stieb gave himself more credit for accomplishing this.

Rest in Peace Frank

Horrible news about one of baseball’s all-time greats: Hall of Famer Frank Robinson has died at age 83. He had been suffering from bone cancer.

Robinson’s impact on the game cannot be overstated. A fixture in baseball for over 60 years, Robinson was the 1956 Rookie of the Year and won the MVP Award in both the National and American Leagues, in 1961 with the Reds and in 1966 with the Orioles. He was also the 1966 Triple Crown winner. For his career he was a .294/.389/.537 hitter who smacked 586 career homers, placing him 10th on the all-time list. He appeared in 14 All-Star Games and was the 1966 World Series MVP. A part of his game that often goes unnoticed: he led the league in getting hit by pitches seven times in his career. He crowded the plate and dared pitchers to throw him inside.

They did and he never backed off. A fierce but not necessarily fiery competitor, Robinson was known to slide hard and otherwise play hard in every aspect of the game.

That alone justified his induction into the Hall of Fame, which occurred in his first year of eligibility in 1982. But he was also a trailblazer, becoming the game’s first African-American manager when the Indians hired him as their player-manager for the 1975 season. He would go on to manage for the Giants, the Orioles, the Expos and, upon that franchise’s move to Washington, he became the Nationals first manager. His career record was 1065-1176, but a lot of that had to do with the fact that he took over some pretty bad teams.

He rarely had teams which underachieved their talent level, and his managerial abilities were on perhaps their best display in Baltimore in 1989 when he turned around a dreadful Orioles club and was named the 1989 AL Manager of the Year.

In the middle of his managerial career he moved into Major League Baseball’s front office where he was a key advisor to Commissioner Bud Selig, serving as the game’s vice president of on-field operations. As baseball’s so-called Dean of Discipline, he handed down suspensions and the like. After returning to the dugout to manage the Expos and the Nationals he returned to work as a special advisor to Selig and then Rob Manfred until his death.


Robinson is survived by his wife, Barbara, a son and a daughter. Bless you, and rest in peace.

A tip of the Cap

Cap Anson

Cap Anson, baseball's first superstar, was the dominant on-field figure of nineteenth-century baseball. He was a small-town boy from Iowa who earned his fame as the playing manager of the fabled Chicago White Stockings, the National League team now known as the Cubs. A larger-than-life figure of great talents and great faults, Anson managed the White Stockings to five pennants and set all the batting records that men such as Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth later broke. Anson was the second manager (after Harry Wright) to win 1,000 games and the first player to stroke 3,000 hits (though his exact total varies from one source to another). Although he retired from active play in 1897, he is still the all-time leader in hits, runs scored, doubles, and runs batted in for the Chicago franchise.

Adrian Constantine Anson, named after two towns in southern Michigan that his father admired, was born in a log cabin in Marshall (later Marshalltown), Iowa, on April 17, 1852. Adrian was the youngest son of Henry and Jeannette Rice Anson, and was the first pioneer child born in the town that his father had founded. Henry Anson, who was born in New York State and had drifted westward as a young adult, was a surveyor, land agent, and businessman who brought his wife and oldest son Sturgis to Iowa in a covered wagon. He found a promising valley in the center of the state, built a log cabin, and laid out a main street. Henry worked tirelessly to build and promote Marshalltown, and is recognized to this day as the patriarch of the city. Jeannette Anson was a sturdy pioneer housewife who died when Adrian was seven years of age, leaving behind an all-male household.

Adrian, whose family proudly claimed descent from the British naval hero Lord Anson, was a strong, strapping boy with reddish hair and a self-admitted aversion to schoolwork and chores. Not until his teenage years, when baseball fever swept through Marshalltown, did Adrian find an acceptable outlet for his energy and enthusiasm. He practiced diligently and earned a place on the town team, the Marshalltown Stars, at the age of 15. The Stars, with Henry Anson at third base, Adrian's brother Sturgis in center field, and Adrian at second base, won the Iowa state championship in 1868.
Henry Anson enrolled his sons in a preparatory course at the College of Notre Dame for two years beginning in 1865, but Adrian was more interested in baseball and skating than in his studies. A later sojourn at the state college in Iowa City (now the University of Iowa) ended similarly. Young Adrian Anson wanted to play professional ball, and his break came in 1870 when the famous Rockford Forest City club and its star pitcher, Al Spalding, came to Marshalltown for a pair of games. The Forest City team won both matches, but the Anson clan played so impressively that the Rockford management sent contract offers to all three of the Ansons. Henry and Sturgis turned Rockford down, but Adrian accepted and joined the Forest City squad in the spring of 1871.
The 19-year-old Adrian, dubbed "The Marshalltown Infant," batted .325 for Rockford and established himself as one of the stars of the new National Association. The last-place Rockford team disbanded at season's end, but the pennant-winning Philadelphia Athletics quickly signed Adrian to a contract. He rewarded the Athletics with a .415 average in 1872, third best in the Association. He played third base for the Athletics that season, but spent the next three seasons shuttling from first to third base with occasional stops at second, shortstop, catcher, and the outfield. The hard-hitting utility man quickly became one of Philadelphia's most popular athletes.

Boston Red Stockings manager Harry Wright had always dreamed of introducing baseball to England, his home country, and in 1874 Wright and his star pitcher Al Spalding organized a mid-season trip to England. The Red Stockings and the Philadelphia Athletics took a three-week respite from National Association play and sailed to the Old World, where they played both baseball and cricket for British crowds. Adrian Anson led all the players on both teams in batting during the tour, and, more importantly, began a friendship with Spalding. Both were young men from the Midwest, less than two years apart in age, and both had willed themselves to prominence in the baseball profession. Each found reasons to admire the other, and their relationship would play an important role in Anson's life for the next 30 years.
During the 1875 season, Chicago club president William Hulbert signed four of Boston's brightest stars, including pitcher Al Spalding, to play for his White Stockings in the new National League in 1876. Spalding recommended that Hulbert also sign two Philadelphia standouts, Ezra Sutton and Adrian Anson. Sutton and Anson reached agreements with Hulbert, though Sutton later reneged on his deal and returned to the Athletics. Anson moved to Chicago in early 1876, and the White Stockings, managed by Spalding and powered by Anson and batting champ Ross Barnes, won the first National League pennant that year.

On a personal note, Anson began dating Virginia Fiegal, daughter of a saloon owner, during his Philadelphia days. He met Virginia when he was 20 and she only 13 or 14, though this was not considered unusual at the time. Their relationship hit a roadblock after Adrian signed his contract with Chicago, when Virginia strongly objected to Adrian's desire to leave Philadelphia. Anson was no contract-jumper, so he offered William Hulbert $1,000 to buy his way out of the agreement. Hulbert refused, and Anson, unwilling to break his contract and not wanting to lose Virginia, asked Virginia's father for his daughter's hand in marriage. Adrian and Virginia were wed in November 1876 and started a family that eventually produced four daughters, all of whom grew to adulthood, and three sons who died in infancy.
Adrian Anson, powerfully built at 6-feet-2 and over 200 pounds, was the biggest and strongest man in the game during the 1870s. Some reports state that he did not take a full swing at the plate; instead, he pushed his bat at the ball and relied upon his strong arms and wrists to produce line drives. An outstanding place hitter, Anson and the White Stockings worked an early version of the hit-and-run play to perfection. So good was Anson's bat control that he struck out only once during the 1878 season and twice in 1879. He also served as Spalding's assistant on the field, enthusiastically cheering his teammates and arguing with opponents and umpires. Anson had managed the Philadelphia Athletics for the last few weeks of the 1875 season, and looked forward to the day that he would succeed Spalding as leader of the White Stockings.
The Chicago team failed to repeat as champions under Spalding in 1877. Spalding then moved into the club presidency, but passed over Anson and appointed Bob Ferguson as his successor. Ferguson's regime was a failure, and Spalding named Anson as captain and manager for the 1879 season. He was now "Cap" Anson, and in one of his first decisions, the former utility man planted himself at first base and remained there for the rest of his career. His 1879 team challenged for the pennant, but fell apart after Anson was sidelined due to illness in late August. However, Anson's 1880 White Stockings, fortified by newcomers such as catcher Mike Kelly, pitcher Larry Corcoran, and outfielders George Gore and Abner Dalrymple, won the flag with a .798 winning percentage, the highest in league history.

Two more pennants followed in 1881 and 1882 as Anson, who won the batting title in 1881 with a .399 mark, cemented his stature as the hardest hitter and finest field general in the game. He used his foghorn voice and belligerent manner to rile opponents and frighten umpires, and made himself the focus of attention in nearly every game he played. His outbursts against the intimidated umpires earned him the title "King of Kickers." His White Stockings followed Anson's lead and played a hustling, battling brand of ball that won no friends in other league cities, but put Chicago on the top of the baseball world. As baseball grew in popularity, the handsome and highly successful Cap Anson became the sport's first true national celebrity.
Regrettably, Anson used his stature to drive minority players from the game. An 1883 exhibition game in Toledo, Ohio, between the local team and the White Stockings nearly ended before it began when Anson angrily refused to take the field against Toledo's African-American catcher, Moses Fleetwood Walker. Faced with the loss of gate receipts, Anson relented after a loud protest, but his bellicose attitude made Anson, wittingly or not, the acknowledged leader of the segregation forces already at work in the game. Other players and managers followed Anson's lead, and similar incidents occurred with regularity for the rest of the decade. In 1887, Anson made headlines again when he refused to play an exhibition in Newark unless the local club removed its African-American battery, catcher Walker and pitcher George Stovey, from the field. Teams and leagues began to bar minorities from participation, and by the early 1890s, no black players remained in the professional ranks.
Chicago was the highest-scoring team in baseball, and Anson, as its cleanup hitter, was the leading run producer in the game. The Chicago Tribune introduced a new statistic, runs batted in, in 1880 and reported that Cap Anson led the league in this category by a healthy margin. The statistic was soon dropped, but later researchers have determined that Anson led the National League in RBIs eight times. He is credited with driving in more than 2,000 runs, behind only Henry Aaron and Babe Ruth on the all-time list despite the fact that National League teams played fewer than 100 games per season for much of Anson's career.

Anson hit more than 12 homers in a season only once. He swatted 21 round-trippers in 1884 by taking advantage of the tiny Chicago ballpark, which featured a left-field fence only 180 feet from home plate (balls hit over the fence had been ruled as doubles in previous seasons). On August 5 and 6, 1884, Anson belted five homers in two games, a record that has been tied (by Stan Musial, among others) but never broken. However, Anson drove in most of his runs with sharp line drives that the barehanded infielders found nearly impossible to stop. Fielding gloves found their way into the National League by the mid-1880s, but Anson's production continued uninterrupted. He batted .300 or better in each of his first 20 professional seasons, and by 1886 he was baseball's all-time leader in games played, runs, hits, RBIs, and several other categories.
He was less successful as a fielder, leading the league in errors several times and setting the all-time career mark for miscues by a first baseman. However, Anson was fearless in stopping hard-thrown balls with his bare hands, and his size made him an excellent target for his infield mates. He was an integral part of the celebrated "Stonewall Infield" with third-baseman Tom Burns, shortstop Ed Williamson, and second-baseman Fred Pfeffer. This unit remained together for seven seasons, from 1883 to 1889, and formed the backbone of the Chicago defense.

Anson had been a teetotaler since his younger days, but his White Stockings were a hard-drinking crew that kept their captain up nights with their behavior. His 1883 and 1884 teams failed to win the pennant, partially due to off-the-field controversies, but in 1885 the White Stockings reclaimed their place at the top of the league. New pitcher John Clarkson posted a 53-16 record and led the team to the pennant after a spirited race against the New York Giants. However, Anson's team played poorly in a postseason "World's Series" against the St. Louis Browns of the American Association. The series ended, officially, in a tie after a disputed Browns victory caused no end of controversy. In 1886 Anson drove in 147 runs in 125 games and led the White Stockings to the pennant once again, but his charges lost the six-game World's Series against the Browns when some of the Chicago players appeared to be inebriated on the field.

Spalding and Anson decided to break up the team, selling Mike Kelly to Boston for a then-record $10,000 and dropping veterans George Gore and Abner Dalrymple, among others. The 1887 squad was a better-behaved bunch, but finished in third place despite Anson's outstanding performance at bat. The 35-year-old captain won the batting title with a career-best .421 in a year in which walks counted as hits (though later researchers removed the 60 walks from his hit totals, leaving his average at .347 and giving the title to Detroit's Sam Thompson). In early 1888 Spalding sold John Clarkson, baseball's best pitcher, to Boston for $10,000. Several new men tried, and failed, to fill Clarkson's shoes, and the White Stockings finished second despite another batting championship by Anson.
After the 1888 season Spalding, owner of the sporting goods company that still bears his name, took the Chicago club and a team of National League all-stars on a ballplaying excursion around the world. Virginia Anson accompanied the party as Anson directed the White Stockings in New Zealand, Australia, Ceylon, Egypt, and the European continent. The trip lost money for its backers, including Anson, but it introduced baseball (and advertised Spalding's business) to countries that had never seen the sport before. The six-month adventure was the high point of Cap Anson's life, and takes up nearly half of Anson's autobiography, published in 1900. At the conclusion of the trip, in April of 1889, Spalding signed Anson to an unprecedented 10-year contract as player and manager of the White Stockings.

By 1890, Anson was a stockholder in the Chicago ballclub, owning 13 percent of the team. A company man through and through, he bitterly criticized the Brotherhood of Professional Ball Players, whose members quit the National League en masse in early 1890 and formed the Players League. Anson, one of a handful of stars who refused to jump to the new league, hastily assembled a new group of youngsters (which the newspapers dubbed Anson's Colts) and finished second that year. Spalding worked behind the scenes to undermine the rival circuit, while Anson led the charge in the newspapers, denouncing the jumpers as "traitors" and gleefully predicting the eventual failure of the upstart league. The new circuit collapsed after one season, but Anson's role in the defeat angered many of his former players

Some reporters called Anson "the man who saved the National League," but many former Players Leaguers hated the Chicago captain for his attitude toward them. Such stars as Hugh Duffy and George Van Haltren refused to return to Chicago after the collapse of the rival circuit, costing Anson much-needed talent. In 1891, Anson's Colts held first place until mid-September, but an 18-game winning streak vaulted Boston into the lead amid rumors that Boston opponents threw games to keep the pennant out of Anson's hands. Chicago finished in second place, and Cap Anson believed for the rest of his life that he lost the championship through the machinations of his former Players League rivals.

Anson, after more than 20 years as a player, began to slow down. His average dipped below .300 for the first time in 1891, though he led the league once again in runs batted in with 120. He had never been a great fielder, but covered so little ground at first base that the pitcher and second baseman had to help out on balls hit to the right side. As stubborn as ever, Anson was the last bare-handed first baseman in the major leagues, finally donning a glove in 1892. At bat, Anson produced one last hurrah with a remarkable .388 average in 1894 at the age of 42, but his slowness on the basepaths bogged down the Chicago offense. As a manager, his increasing strictness and inflexibility angered his charges. He was baseball's biggest celebrity, even enjoying a run as an actor on Broadway in a play called A Runaway Colt in December of 1895, but his Colts fell steadily in the standings.
His position as manager was weakened in 1891 when Al Spalding stepped down as team president. Anson might have been willing to retire from the field and accept the position, but Spalding, who retained controlling ownership in the team, appointed former Boston manager Jim Hart to the post. Anson held little regard for Hart, who had served Spalding as business manager of the round-the-world tour four years before, and the two men clashed often over personnel and disciplinary matters during the next several seasons.
Spalding and Hart reorganized the club in 1892, and Anson signed a new contract with the Chicago ballclub. This agreement retained Anson's 13 percent stake in the team, but cut one year off his previous 10-year pact, though Anson claimed that he did not discover the discrepancy until later. At any rate, the new agreement expired on February 1, 1898. Anson, who by 1894 was the oldest player in the league, stubbornly kept himself in the lineup despite his dwindling production and his deteriorating relationships with Hart and the Chicago players. He batted .285 in 1897, a respectable figure today but well below the league average, and his Colts finished in ninth place. Spalding and Hart declined to renew his contract, and after 27 seasons, Cap Anson's career was over. The 45-year-old Anson retired as baseball's all-time leader in games played, times at bat, runs, hits, doubles, runs batted in, and wins as a manager.
Spalding offered to hold a testimonial benefit for Anson and raise $50,000 as a going-away gift, but Anson proudly turned it down, explaining that accepting such an offer would "stultify my manhood" and smacked of charity. The former Chicago captain then accepted a position as manager of the New York Giants, succeeding Bill Joyce, who had been sharply criticized by the national press for his part in an ugly on-field brawl. Giants owner Andrew Freedman promised Anson full control of the team, but continually interfered with personnel and management issues. He also ignored Anson's request to trade or release Joyce, who remained on the team and retained the allegiance of many of the players. Anson led the Giants to a 9-13 record before Freedman fired him and reinstated Joyce after the controversy over the brawl died down.
After his humiliating exit from the Giants, Anson tried to obtain a Western League franchise and move it to the South Side of Chicago, but Spalding, whose approval for the move was necessary under to rules of the National Agreement, refused permission. This act ended the decades-long friendship between the two men. Anson then served as president of a revived American Association, which attempted to begin play in 1900 but folded due to financial pressures. After this defeat, Anson expressed his bitterness in his autobiography, A Ball Player's Career. "Baseball as at present conducted is a gigantic monopoly," stated Anson, "intolerant of opposition, and run on a grab-all-that-there-is-in-sight basis that is alienating its friends and disgusting the very public that has so long and cheerfully given to it the support that it has withheld from other forms of amusement."
Cap Anson was finished with the National League, and although he lived for another two decades, he would never again hold any official position in organized ball. Instead, Anson opened a bowling and billiards emporium in downtown Chicago and served as a vice-president of the new American Bowling Congress. He captained a team that won the ABC five-man national title in 1904, making Anson one of the few men in history to win championships in more than one sport. He then turned his energies to what appeared to be a promising political career. Elected to a term as Chicago city clerk in 1905, Anson soon became embroiled in numerous controversies that he was, by personality and temperament, unable to overcome. He lost a bid for renomination, and his career in public office ended ignominiously. His bowling and billiards business floundered, and in late 1905 the cash-strapped Anson sold his remaining stock in the Chicago ballclub and severed his 29-year connection with the team.
He then devoted himself to semipro ball, investing most of his remaining money in his own team (called Anson's Colts) and building his own ballpark on the South Side. This effort was a money-loser, and in desperation Anson donned a uniform in 1908 and played first base at the age of 56. He could still hit, but was nearly immobile in the field, and his Colts finished in the middle of the City League standings for three seasons. In those years, Anson played many games against the Chicago Leland Giants, the leading African-American team of the era, without apparent complaint. Anson, his finances stretched to the limit, sold his team after the 1909 season and returned to the stage. He created a monologue and performed it in vaudeville houses throughout the Midwest for the next few years.
Anson's later life was filled with disappointment. The National League offered to provide a pension for the ex-ballplayer, but Anson stoutly refused all offers of assistance. He declared bankruptcy in 1910, and by 1913 he had lost his home and moved in with a daughter and son-in-law. Virginia Anson died in 1915 after a long illness, and the widowed ex-ballplayer resumed his stage career in a skit written by his friend Ring Lardner titled "First Aid for Father." The skit starred Anson and his daughters Adele and Dorothy, and the Anson clan crisscrossed the nation, sharing bills with jugglers and animal acts in small town and big city alike. Vaudeville allowed Anson to support himself, but barely, and he retired, penniless, from the stage in 1921. He died on April 14, 1922, three days shy of his 70th birthday, and was buried in Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago.

The National League paid his funeral expenses. Seventeen years later, on May 2, 1939, Anson and his former friend and mentor Al Spalding were named to the Baseball Hall of Fame by a special committee.

Albert Goodwill Spalding

Albert Spalding had three exceptional careers in baseball. He became the best pitcher in professional baseball. After starting his own sporting goods business while still a player, he retired soon after and built the most dominant sporting goods business in America. His influenced was used to help start the National League and then used to help extinguish two rival leagues competing with National League. He then became the most influential person in baseball and was essentially the governing body of the National League into the 19th century. He seemingly was behind the decisions that the National League made regarding maintaining their attempted monopoly on baseball and would also have the distinction of spear heading the ridiculous myth about Abner Doubleday and the origins of baseball in American. He was a giant and a pioneer of the game, innovation was his real middle name.

  After his retirement as a player, Spalding remained active with the Chicago White Stockings as president and part-owner. In the 1880s, he took players on the first world tour of baseball. With William Hulbert, Spalding organized the National League. He later called for the commission that investigated the origins of baseball and credited Abner Doubleday with creating the game. He also wrote the first set of official baseball rules.

ALBERT SPALDING had three exceptional careers in baseball. He became the best pitcher in professional baseball. After starting his own sporting goods business while still a player, he retired soon after and built the most dominant sporting goods business in America. His influenced was used to help start the National League and then used to help extinguish two rival leagues competing with National League. He then became the most influential person in baseball and was essentially the governing body of the National League into the 19th century. He seemingly was behind the decisions that the National League made regarding maintaining their attempted monopoly on baseball and would also have the distinction of spear heading the ridiculous myth about Abner Doubleday and the origins of baseball in American.
Spalding started playing baseball for a junior nine in Rockford, IL from 1863 to 1866. He played first base and then became a pitcher and in 1866 he pitched for the Forest City Club of Rockford. He helped defeat the powerful Nationals of Washington, 29-23, during their famous 1867 Midwest tour in which they would finish the trip at 9-1. In that game, Spalding would only allow the Nationals to score more than five runs once and "whitewash" them in three different innings. The next day the National would play the Chicago Excelsiors, Forest City's rival, and lose 40 to 4. The Nationals would score five or more runs in five of the nine innings and amass 21 runs in the third inning. Spalding was then lured by the Chicago Excelsiors for the beginning of the 1868 season and was given a $40 per week job as a grocery store clerk.
Legend Harry Wright brought Spalding, at a salary of about $2,000, and Ross Barnes, Spalding's shortstop on the 1867 Forest City Club, to Boston to play for the Red Stockings during the inaugural season of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players in 1871. Spalding would lead the league in wins with 19, but Boston would finish second to a solid Philadelphia Athletics club. In 1873, Harry Wright having visions of his 1867-1870 Cincinnati Club took Boston on an August tour of Canada. The Red Stockings would win all 14 games and outscore their opponents 524-48 but the gate receipts barely covered the traveling expenses, which did not please the stocker holders.
In the winter of 1873, after only having played three years of truly professional baseball, Harry Wright selected his star 23 year-old pitcher, Albert Spalding, to sail to England and to garner interest for a baseball tour featuring the Boston Red Stockings and the Philadelphia Athletics. The tour did little to raise interest in England and was not a financial success and again angered the stocker holders.


For the final four seasons of the NA, Spalding would lead the league in wins and the Red Stockings would finish first. In 1875, Boston would finish 71-8 and Spalding would achieve a career high 54 wins. During that season he also had personal winning streaks of 22 and 24 games.
During the National Association's five year existence Albert Spalding was its best pitcher. He was the first professional pitcher to win 50, 100, 150 and 200 games and finished with a 207-56 record. He also finished fifth in hits.
During the National Association's final season in 1875, William Hulbert approached Spalding and asked him to play for him in a newly forming league. Even though Spalding was still under contract with the Red Stockings, Hulbert who was the President of the Chicago White Stockings and soon to be founder of the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, convinced Spalding to leave Boston at the end of the season. Hulbert offered Spalding $4000 and a quarter of the gate receipts to be the pitcher, captain and manager of the White Stockings. Once Spalding agreed to the contract Hulbert used Albert's influence to help recruit three other Red Stocking players and then took him to Philadelphia to sign another formidable player, Cap Anson.
In 1876, Albert Spalding, along with his brother Walter and an $800 advance, opened a small athletic equipment store in Chicago. On the playing field, Spalding would lead the National League in wins with 47 and with the White Stockings winning the first NL championship; Spalding won his fifth straight championship. He became the first professional pitcher to win 250 games.

Spalding ventured into the print media and first published a league book which contained the baseball constitution, previous season's statistics, the current playing rules and the next season schedule in 1877. The booklet was entitled 1877 Constitution and Playing Rules of the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs. This annual guide would continue to be printed well after the turn of the century and during the 19th century Spalding would use this forum to help voice his opinions on the players, state of the game and the direction that the game should follow. He retired from baseball as a player after only appearing in one game in 1878 to pursue the lucrative market in baseball products which he created. He would end his playing career with a pitching record of 252-65, for a .795 winning percentage and a .313 batting average. There has been no pitcher in the history of baseball to compile the pitching record of Albert Spalding and he also became the fist pitcher to win 250 professional games.

Spalding became the White Stockings secretary and Hulbert's right hand man in 1878. The Spalding became the official ball used by the National League in 1878 and he supplied the NL with free baseballs and gave them one dollar for each dozen that they used. In 1878 he also published the first official Spalding's Base Ball Guide. He employed Henry Chadwick, who was the premier baseball writer and carried the title of "Father of the Game," to edit his annual guide. The Spalding Sporting Goods Company paid the NL a fee for exclusive publishing rights. In 1879, Spalding opened a bat factory. During the 1880's, he bought out many of his competitors but continued to sell sporting goods under their original brand names to give the illusion of competition. Spalding was reportedly turning a million bats per year by 1887. Starting in 1899, A. G. Spalding & Bros. allowed other retailers to order directly from their catalog. In 1891, Spalding had ten large factories located in different parts of the US, where are manufactured vast quantities of athletic goods; such as uniforms and clothing for sportsmen's wear, baseballs, tennis balls, athletic suits of all kinds, bicycles, boats, fishing tackles, sporting shoes, and an endless variety of gymnasium outfits. He had 14 branches in the United States selling his vast line of sporting goods.


He employed more than 3,500 people by 1896, and had plants scattered across the eastern half of America. Spalding eventually bought Wright & Ditson, a sporting goods manufacturer out of Boston and the maker of the Players' League Official Base Ball, A.J. Reach, a sporting goods company out of Philadelphia and the maker of the official baseball for the American Association and Peck & Snyder, a popular sporting goods manufacturer out of New York.


After William Hulbert's death in April 1882, Spalding became the owner and President of the Chicago White Stockings at the age of 31. In April of 1891, he stepped down from the Chicago Colts; the nickname was changed in 1890, to concentrate on his sporting goods business. During his tenure in Chicago's front office, his teams never finished below .500, finished first five times, second four times, third twice and fourth three times. His White Stockings tied the St' Louis Brows 3-3-1 in the 1885 World's Series and lost the 1886 World's Series to St. Louis, 4-2. In 1892, the first year without Spalding's direct involvement, Chicago finished in seventh place and under .500. Spalding sold the club in 1902.
Albert Spalding started the trend which exists today of a player who's personality and view change once they attain a high profile front office position. Spalding simply despised the baseball player. He felt that their excessive drinking, gambling and malicious behavior as well as the fans, helped fell the National Association. He wanted clean upstanding players to promote and mold the game. Being a very successful business man, Spalding had no tolerance for the players and forget that he was once a top player. He wanted robots to play baseball and foresaw a steady stream of income from baseball and did not want that opportunity ruined. He felt that the league and its officials knew what was best for the players and that they were a necessary evil.

Spalding urged NL clubs to hire a detective agency to follow the players and file weekly reports. He wanted to improve the social standing of the players and particularly the drinking habits of many players. When some player's on Spalding's club violated his "no liquor" policy, he hired a detective to shadow those players. Seven players were addressed by Spalding and fined enough to cover the expense of the detective's services.
Bob Ferguson was hired to captain the 1878 White Stockings. After finishing fourth, he was fired and replaced by Adrian "Cap" Anson. Spalding later spoke harshly of Ferguson and despised how he handled the players below him.
Spalding had a very influential voice in 1886 when the Eastern NL clubs, headed by Boston Bean-eaters owner Arthur Soden, threatened to leave the league. The visiting team received 15 cents on every 50 cents admission but the Eastern owners wanted a guarantee of $100 per visiting club. Spalding explained to Soden that the League would go on without them. In the end an agreement was reached that gave all visiting clubs were guaranteed $125, except on state and national holidays when the admission totals were split fifty-fifty.
After losing the 1886 Worlds Series to the American Association's St. Louis Browns, Spalding sold his star player, Mike "King" Kelly, to the Boston Bean-eaters for a monumental sum of $10,000. The 1886 NL batting champion was loathed by Spalding for his life style and constant maintenance. He also shipped center-fielder George Gore to the New York Giants. After the 1887 season Spalding shipped John Clarkson, the NL's top pitcher, again to the Beaneaters and also for $10,000. The cantankerous owner disliked the high-strung pitcher and did not want to have his manager Cap Anson's ego compete with Clarkson's. At the end of the 1889 season both the New York Giants and the Boston Bean-eaters finished ahead of the third place White Stockings.


The NL formulated the reserve clause on September 29, 1879, in Buffalo, NY Spalding as well as other “baseball people” felt it was a way for the owners to help keep salaries manageable by not attempting to out bid each other for star players. This severely limited the player's right to attain the most money as "free-agents." This ruling by the NL owners further distance themselves from the players and eventually lead to the formation of the Union Association, the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players and the 1890 Players' League of Base Ball Clubs. With the reserve clause instituted each team was allowed to reserve five players for the 1880 season, 11 players in 1883, 12 players in1886 and 14 in 1887.
Because of the reserve clause and the general mistreatment of base ball players, National League star player John Montgomery Ward had secretly formed the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players along with fellow ball players in 1885. On November 11, 1886, the Brotherhood held a general meeting in NY which made its existence official. National League President Nick Young, prompted by Spalding, contacted Ward and asked for a meeting to hear the Brotherhoods objectives. Spalding wanted to maintain his income in the baseball business and wanted no competition.
League officials were secretly planning to further impose authority over the players and were waiting to unleash the Salary Classification Plan, devised by John T. Brush owner of the Indianapolis Hoosiers. This plan rated players and assigned salaries to each level. A player given an "A" rating received $2,500, a "B" player received $2,250, a "C" player received $2,000, a "D" player received $1,750 and an "E" player received $1,500. The plan was announced in November 1888, and not until Brotherhood founder John Montgomery Ward had left America on Spalding's 1888-1889 world tour baseball tour. Spalding organized a five-month barnstorming trip from November 1888 to March 1889. Ward outraged by the Salary Classification Plan thought about returning to America but was persuaded to stay on the tour by Spalding.
Albert's purpose of the baseball tour was to open the eyes of the world to the baseball products he manufactured and sold. He chose clean-cut players so as not to give the wrong impression of baseball to the potential customers he was about to reach. One team was Spalding's Chicago White Stockings and the other was a "picked nine," headed by John Montgomery Ward. The world tour stopped at thirteen countries and every continent. Games were played in Honolulu, Australia, Colombo, Cairo, Rome, Paris, the British Islands and America. Spalding had to constantly mediate differences between Ward and Cap Anson, the captain of the White Stockings.
In March of 1889, while playing in Paris, Ned Williamson; Chicago's regular shortstop, attempted to steal second after a walk and injured his knee. Williamson's wife was on the trip and brought him to a hospital in Paris. He was told by doctors that a few days rest would heal the injury, but that was not the case. The teams arrived in London and Williamson played one more game, but was still in tremendous pain. While the tour was completed Williamson remained in a London hospital. After returning to America, Williamson was still ailing and did not play until August. After returning to the field Williamson had lost several steps and in 47 games in 1889, managed only 5 extra base hits in 173 at bats and hit .237. Because Williamson played few games in 1889, Spalding deducted $800 from Williamson's season pay and then had the audacity to charge Williamson $500 for his wife's "accrued world tour expenses." Because of Williamson's popularity with the players of the National League, instances such as this helped add fuel the fire for the players to form their own league in 1890, called the Players' National League of Base Ball Clubs. Williamson would play one more season in the Players' National League's only season and hit .195 for the Chicago Pirates.
When the tour was complete, Ward in June of 1888, urged the NL owners to re-consider their harsh measures and asked to talk the issue out. The owners stalled and the players announced that they may strike. In September 1889, it was leaked that the players had a more effective solution. Spalding asked the Brotherhood for a meeting but Ward refused, citing the NL's stall tactics in June. Ward announced that the players intended to form their own league for the 1890 season in October. Seeing another rival league compete with the NL and the possibilities of lost revenue, Spalding threatened his reserved players with injunctions to stop them from moving to different teams. The Players' League of Professional Base Ball Clubs was formed on November 5, 1889.
Spalding was elected to the NL's three man "War Committee." Through the print media he defended the reserve clause and attacked the PL. A team was even placed in Chicago, which further irritated Spalding. He had been successful in keeping the American Association (1882-1891) out of his city and the Chicago Browns of the 1884 Union Association only lasted until August before they moved to Pittsburgh and finished the season as the Stogies.
Spalding hired people to check the attendance counts of the PL, who claimed that they out drew the NL. The New York club was hit hard and the owner claimed he needed $80,000 or would be forced to sell out to the PL. Spalding took out $25,000 worth of stock and other owners also bought stock and the NY franchise was saved.
At the end of the 1890 season all three leagues suffered great financial losses. Three Players' League owners requested a meeting with Spalding and John B. Day, owner of the NL New York Giants, in October. Later, owners of the American Association joined in the talks. In the end the Players' League was dissolved and Spalding even bought the PL's Chicago team for $18,000.
There should be little doubt that Albert Spalding saw the great income difference between being a player and a manufacturer and distributor. He retired at a time when he was unequalled as a pitcher and began a career that did not have and would have no limits on the amount of money he could make. He represented baseball in America and throughout the world and was extremely influential in its growth as his products were sold here and abroad. Spalding was the National League and fought to propagate the business in spite of the players and rival leagues.

He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Old Timer's Committee in 1939.

Old Hoss Radbourn

The Old Hoss

In the early days of the new century, baseball players handled two jobs, and sometimes three in order to make a living. Their day job was usually as a laborer, a brick layer, a carpenter, or a plumber's assistant. Something easily taught, and picked up. 

The infancy of baseball stimulated a bond between the members of each club and produced matches that had a friendlier purpose. When the game gained recognition and spectators attended in large numbers the organizers and players saw this new financial potential. On July 20th 1858, the first "Great Base Ball Match" in NY was held at the Fashion Race Course on Long Island between all-star teams made up of players from existing New York and Brooklyn clubs. The 50 cent admission was collected to cover the cost of preparing the grounds and an estimated 4,000 spectators saw the match. It is believed that this was the first time an admission fees was collected for a match. Extra stages, ferries and trains were instituted to accommodate the attendees. New York won that match, the first of three, 22-18. This game exhibited the importance of baseball in New York.
The game grew in popularity and the players of the local clubs became recognizable figures not only from their play on the field but from the reports in the newspapers. Most players were given nicknames which further helped identify them to the public. This also separated them from the public, but included the players in the growing fraternity of American athletics. The player's on-field feuds with each other as well as occasionally reported off-field issues helped them become larger than life figures.

Charles “Old Hoss’ Radbourn

1854–1897

A butcher by trade, Charles Radbourn received his moniker for his incredible endurance and dependability in an era when most teams employed a two-man pitching rotation. As a starting pitcher for the Providence Grays (1881-1885), Boston Bean eaters (1886-1889), Boston Red Stockings (1890) and Cincinnati Reds (1891), Radbourn compiled a 309-195 career record. In 1884 he won the National League's pitching Triple Crown with a 1.38 ERA, 60 wins and 441 strikeouts. His 60 wins in a season is a record which will never be broken.


Once asked if he ever tired of pitching so often, he replied, “Tired out tossing a little five-ounce baseball for two hours? I used to be a butcher. From four in the morning until eight at night I knocked down steers with a 25-pound sledge. Tired from playing 2-hours a day for 10 times the money I used to get for 16 hours a day?”
 
On July 22, 1884, Providence Grays pitcher Charlie Sweeney, 17-8, misses practice because he is drunk. He starts against the Philadelphia Quakers and, with the Grays ahead, 6-2, in the seventh inning; manager Frank Bancroft brings in Joe "Cyclone" Miller. Sweeney refuses to leave the "box" and is suspended. The Grays play the final two innings with only eight players and lose, 10–6, on eight unearned runs in the ninth inning. Sweeney is kicked off the team and lands in the Union Association with the St. Louis Maroons. Providence is left with only one starting pitcher—Charley “Old Hoss” Radbourn.
The following day, Providence Grays pitcher Radbourn begins what may be the most remarkable feat in baseball history. “Old Hoss” pledges to pitch every game for the rest of the season if the Grays would agree not to reserve him for the following year. He pitches in nine straight games, winning seven, losing one and tying one. He takes a “day off” and plays right field before returning to pitch six more consecutive games. He plays shortstop for a single game and then pitches in 20 more consecutive games, winning 10 before having his 20-game win streak stopped. He would lead the NL in wins with 60, an ERA of 1.38, innings pitches with 678.2, (1.1 innings shy of the record set by Will White, 680, of the Cincinnati Reds in 1879) strikeouts with 441, complete games with 73 and winning percentage with a .833 mark. The Grays would win the pennant by 10½ games over the Boston Beaneaters.
At the close of the season Providence officials accepted New York Metropolitan s” (AA) manager Jim Mutrie's challenge to a three game postseason match. All of the games took place at the Polo Grounds in New York and were played under American Association rules, which forbade overhand pitching. This was no hindrance to Radbourn, who threw side arm.
On October 23, 1884, the Providence Grays (NL) whitewash the New York Metropolitan s (AA), 6–0, behind Radbourn, in what is considered to be the first official postseason inter league game. Radbourn would allow two hits and strikeout nine. Tim Keefe is the loser.
The very next day, Radbourn three hits the Metropolitan s and wins 3–1 in a game called after seven innings due to darkness. Grays third baseman Jerry Denny hits a three-run homer in the fifth inning. It is the first home-run in World Series history. Tim Keefe loses for the second time.
On October 25, 1884 the Providence Grays defeat the New York Metropolitan s, 11–2, in the final game of the series. Radbourn wins for the third time in three days. Buck Becannon takes the loss as Tim Keefe, New York Metropolitan s losing pitcher in games 1 and 2, umpired the contest.
Radbourn would pitch all three games, allow only 11 hits, strikeout 16, walk none and not allow an earned run. New York would bat .143 against Radbourn. Providence outscored New York 21-3 in winning all three games.


Despite his ability to sign with the club of his choosing, Radbourn remained with the Grays until 1886, when he joined the Boston Bean eaters. It was during his four-year stint with Boston that Radbourn gained notoriety of another sort. During a Boston/New York team photograph in 1886, he became the first public figure to be photographed extending his middle digit to the camera.
After a mediocre tour of duty with the Bean eaters, Radbourn joined the Boston Red Stockings of the Players' League in 1890, where he would lead the short-lived league in winning percentage (.692). The following year, he spent his last major league season with the Cincinnati Reds.
After retiring to Bloomington, Illinois, Radbourn owned and operated a billiard parlor and saloon. He would lose an eye in a hunting accident when his gun discharged accidentally. Less than six years after he threw his last pitch, Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn died at home of paresis on February 5th, 1897. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.