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ALLEGHENY CLUB OF
ALLEGHENY CITY
HISTORY
In some cities, the
history of regulation baseball is a continuous one from the day the
Knickerbockers’ rules were introduced. In other cities, a hiatus occurred
during the Civil War and the post-war players were mostly different from the men
who played before the war. In still others, the establishment of the new way of
playing was discontinuous, with a series of unsuccessful attempts being made
before a permanent club was formed.
Based on the
fragmentary and very imperfect knowledge that we have, Pittsburgh-Allegheny
appears to be a prime example of the latter pattern. (Pittsburgh and Allegheny
City were separate but adjoining cities until the latter was annexed in 1907.)
While it is to be hoped that additional information will emerge, at this point
we know more about an 1857 match that was later described as having been played
by the “regulation rules,” but which in fact used many of the looser rules of
other versions.
The match in
question took place in the spring of 1857 on the West Common in Allegheny City.
The “long talked of game” attracted “a large concourse of citizens” to watch
the two sides, which represented Pittsburgh and Allegheny. A lengthy account of
the contest appeared the following day in the Pittsburgh Post. While the
account does not provide many details about the rules being used, it is clear
that the Knickerbocker rules were not being followed in many particulars. Most
notably, fifteen players a side were used, and all players had to be retired
before an inning was completed.
Those are the only
details about how the match was played from the 1857 account, but additional
information was provided in a 1904 article. According to that article, which
was based upon the recollections of one of the players, Allegheny police
sergeant Michael F. Lynch, the 1857 match was “first baseball game played in
Allegheny county, under the regulation rules and upon a regulation diamond.”
That description suggests that some effort was made to incorporate some of the
Knickerbockers’ innovations, such as the reconfiguration of the bases.
But even if that was
the case, many elements of the match reflected the looser approach of earlier
versions. The participants used a “soft, rubber ball” that was delivered by the
pitcher so that its flight “described a semi-circle.” Instead of a stick, the
batter “employed a paddle resembling in a great degree that used in playing
cricket. It was next to impossible to miss the ball and so light was the ball
that it often went far afield and home runs were the rule rather than the
exception.” One of the results was that Lynch, who played shortstop, had little
to do, since there were no “hot grounders to encounter, and the flies were
usually of that high order, which made their capture by a man at his position
well nigh impossible.”
That is all we know
about how the historic match was played, but the account in the next day’s
Post does provide many additional details about the contest itself, as well
as giving some hints as to why it took some time for baseball to become
established in Pittsburgh. Three innings were scheduled to be played, but the
difficulty of retiring so many batters meant that darkness was approaching by
the end of the second inning.
The Pittsburgh side
had 68 runs at that point to only 49 for the Alleghenys, so were naturally
willing to end the match at that point. But the Allegheny squad insisted on
playing the third inning and umpire T. M. Smith agreed with them, so play
continued. The Alleghenys took advantage to double their score with a 49-run
outburst. Pittsburgh finally got its chance to bat and had scored nine runs
with ten batters were “still in” (i.e., not retired) when the Alleghenies
decided that it was too dark to continue.
As a result, the
game account reported that, “There was some little dissatisfaction manifested at
the conclusion of the game, the Pittsburghers holding that the match should have
been played out, and that were it not for this understanding they would not have
commenced the third inning at the hour they did; the umpire, however, gave in
his adhesion to the course pursued, and has ordered the game to be resumed this
afternoon. We do not know whether the Pittsburghers will abide by his decision
or not, but, as he was the mutual choice of both parties, we presume they
will.” Adding to the controversy, the Post’s account included this cryptic
statement: “Below we give the result of the game as far as played, and in doing
so, we are requested to state by the umpire, Mr. T. M. Smith, that figures
calculated to mislead the public as to the part the Alleghanians took in the
game have been given out.”
The 1904 account
gave no indication of whether the interrupted match was ever completed or of
whether the ruffled feathers were ever smoothed. Perhaps they were not, as it
does not appear to have been until 1860 that a serious attempt was made to form
a club in the Pittsburgh-Allegheny region that would play by the Knickerbocker
rules.
The
Allegheny Base Ball Club was organized on June 8, 1860, and played at least four
match games that year, winning all of them. The club played one more match game
in 1861, then like so many clubs lapsed into inactivity for the remainder of the
war with the exception of an 1863 game against a picked nine. Other than a list
of 1860 officers, which consisted of President J. J. Moore, Vice President James
M. Carr, Secretary W. H. Lockhart and Treasurer Robert Elton, nothing is known
about the makeup of this club.
The
Allegheny Base Ball Club sprang back to life after the war and described itself
as a continuation of the pre-war club, but it is difficult to be sure how true
this was. James M. Carr, the vice president of the prewar club, was a director
in 1866 and did represent the club at that year’s convention of the National
Association of Base Ball Players, but none of the prewar officers were included
on the listing of officers.
Details
about other activities of the postwar Allegheny Base Ball Club also include many
gaps. In 1865, the club played its first match in mid-July and completed only
five contests. The most notable one occurred in September when the mighty
Athletics of Philadelphia traveled to Pittsburgh for four days of competition
with the best ball clubs in the area. To nobody’s surprise, the Alleghenys were
walloped 65-15, and similar fates befell the Lincoln Club of Pittsburgh, the
Enterprise Club of Allegheny, and a picked nine of the best local players.
Nonetheless, the trip was a milestone event for baseball in
Pittsburgh-Allegheny, with the Athletics being met on their arrival by a
delegation from the three host clubs and accommodated at the Allegheny House.
The only
road trip that the Alleghenys made in 1865 was a visit to East Liberty,
Pennsylvania, that resulted in a win over the Collins Club. Otherwise, all of
the Allegheny Club’s matches in 1865 were against the newly organized Enterprise
Base Ball Club of Allegheny City. The Enterprise Club won two of the three
contests, with a fourth match one that was attempted on November 29, 1865,
having to be abandoned because of “a snow-storm coming up and driving off the
contestants.” In addition to winning the head-to-head series, the Enterprise
Club lived up to their name by playing nearly twice as many matches as the
Allegheny Club. Thus at the end of the 1865 season, it looked as though the
younger club was on its way to becoming the local standard-bearer.
The 1866
incarnation of the Allegheny Club boasted sixty active members and thirty-one
honorary members, along with a uniform of blue pants and a white shirt with blue
facings, topped with a white cap with “blue hand.” (Peverelly) Once again,
however, it was the Enterprise Club that earned local bragging rights in 1866 by
winning both of the contests between the two clubs. In addition to being able
to bill itself as “champions of Allegheny County,” the Enterprise Club again
showed far more initiative, playing at least ten matches that year and making a
tour that took it to Johnstown, Altoona, Harrisburg and Philadelphia. In stark
contrast, the Allegheny Club played only five known matches in 1866, all of them
against clubs from Allegheny City. The club did not even try its luck against
any rivals from Pittsburgh, although that city was now home to the Anchor,
Atlantic, Eureka, Good Will, Laurence, Lincoln, Mutual, Olympic and Osceola
Clubs.
As a
result, by the spring of 1867 it looked as though the Enterprise Club would
continue to be regarded as the premier club in Allegheny City. The younger club
even announced plans to make a Western tour in the summer of 1867.
Instead,
the activities of the Enterprise Club fell off in 1867 and the Allegheny Club
again became the most prominent club in the city. The reasons for this are not
entirely clear, but one interesting explanation stands out. In 1866, an
eighteen-year-old Civil War veteran named Al Pratt had been the catcher of the
Enterprise Club, handling the offerings of another teenager named Woodruff
McKnight. But in 1867, Pratt joined the Allegheny Club as a pitcher and his
acquisition proved crucial
When the
summer of 1867 arrived, it was Allegheny Club rather than the rival Enterprise
Club that traveled west to Detroit along with a party of thirty to compete in
what was billed as a world championship tournament. Although efforts were made
to attract powerhouse Eastern clubs, the Alleghenys turned out to be the only
entrant that didn’t hail from either Michigan or Ontario. As such they were
expected to win, but instead were upset in the championship game when the
Unknowns of Jackson, Michigan, staged a ninth-inning rally.
Despite
the disappointing outcome, the Allegheny Club did not go home empty-handed. The
club’s battery of Pratt and Ambrose Lynch were selected as the tournament’s best
pitcher and catcher, respectively – Pratt was presented with a gold-mounted
opera glass while Lynch received a belt mounted with solid silver. For
finishing second, the club was awarded an eight-piece tea set with a baseball
design, created by Detroit jeweler M. S. Smith and valued at $250. The
Alleghenys were also recipients of a set of blue silk flags for being the
entrants who had come from the greatest distance. (Detroit Post, August
21, 1867)
Just as
importantly, the Allegheny Club earned considerable acclaim at the tournament
for both their fine play and their gentlemanly conduct. While the tournament
was marked by rancor between the champion Unknown club and their Detroit hosts,
both sides agreed that the conduct of the Allegheny Club was exemplary. In
particular, the club’s first baseman, a man named H. Nichol, was singled out for
praise as a result of his sportsmanlike acknowledgment that he had not in fact
retiring a Jackson player who had been ruled out by the umpire. (Detroit
Advertiser and Tribune, August 19, 1867)
That,
however, was pretty much the club’s swan song. In 1868, Al Pratt accepted an
offer to pitch for a club in Portsmouth, Ohio, receiving in return $60 per month
plus college tuition. (Sporting News, March 23, 1895) Pratt went on to a
long professional career, but it was not until the mid-1870s that the
Pittsburgh-Allegheny area boasted its first prominent professional club. Even
that club made few ripples and Al Spink would later maintain that it was not
until the 1880s that Denny McKnight and Horace Phillips became “the first to
give Pittsburg a real place on the professional baseball map.” (A. H. Spink,
The National Game, 86) McKnight, incidentally, was the brother of Woodruff
McKnight, the onetime pitcher of the Enterprise Club.
Thus the
years between the 1857 match that supposedly brought regulation baseball to
Pittsburgh/Allegheny and the establishment of professional baseball some two
decades later, the history of baseball in the region was characterized by a
series of fits and starts. The sense that the city’s history was discontinuous
is accentuated by several intriguing stray ends.
The most
notable is that Al Pratt, who was born and raised in Pittsburgh, claimed to have
been unfamiliar with the game until after he enlisted in the Union Army in 1864.
(Sporting News, March 23, 1895) Adding to the confusion, an obituary for
a man named Thomas McNally, who was born in 1847, stated that he had organized
the Allegheny Base Ball Club. Since McNally was born in 1847, organized
Allegheny BBC (clipping from Pittsburg Press, date appears to be October
25 and first three digits appear to read 190 but last digit unreadable). Then
in 1935, an obituary of a man named “Ike” Ross credited him with introducing
baseball to Pittsburgh sixty-nine years earlier. (Sporting News, July 18,
1935) While claims such as these must be taken with a grain of salt, they
increase the impression that Pittsburgh-Allegheny was one place where the
baseball seed had to be planted numerous times before finally flourishing.
MEMBERS
Algernon
S. Bell: A. S. Bell was the club president in 1866. He died in either 1879 or
1880 at the age of 40.
Alf.
Bryan: Bryan was the shortstop of the first nine in 1866.
A. M.
Cameron: A. M. Cameron was a club director and the catcher for the first nine in
1866. There was also an Alex Cameron on the first nine that year.
James M.
Carr: James Carr was the club’s vice president in 1860, and represented the club
at the NABBP convention in 1866. He was listed on the 1870 census as having
been born around 1831 in Pennsylvania but was last listed in the Allegheny city
directory in 1871.
Robert
Elton: Robert Elton was the club treasurer in 1860. The only man by that name
on that year’s census in Allegheny County had been born in 1818 in Pennsylvania,
so he may have been a non-playing member.
A. R.
Girty: A. R. Girty was the first nine’s pitcher in 1866.
W. K.
Hamilton: Hamilton was the club’s vice president in 1866.
William
H. Lockhart: W. H. Lockhart, who was born in Scotland in May of 1838, served as
club secretary in 1860. He later served in the Civil War and his wife Ellen
filed for a Civil War widow’s pension in September of 1904.
Ambrose
Lynch: Ambrose Lynch, the star catcher of the Alleghneys was born in Ireland in
1839. He enlisted in the Union Army and served for three years in
Pennsylvania’s 38th Infantry. After his ballplaying days ended,
Lynch was convicted of murdering a deputy sheriff. He was pardoned in 1885, but
had contracted tuberculosis while in prison and died of the disease in late June
of 1888.
J. C.
McLaughlin: McLaughlin was the left fielder of the first nine in 1866.
J. J.
Moore: Moore was the club’s president in 1860.
H.
Nichol: Nichol was the club’s first baseman at Detroit tournament who was
commended for his honesty
Albert G.
Pratt: Al Pratt was born in Pittsburgh on November 19, 1847. Though only 16, he
enlisted in the Union Army in 1864 and had a distinguished service record.
After a three-month stint in the 193rd Pennsylvania Infantry, Pratt
reenlisted in the 61st Infantry Regiment, which became one of
Pennsylvania’s most famous fighting regiments. After his regiment played a key
role at Petersburg, Pratt joined in the pursuit of Robert E. Lee. Along the
way, Pratt was also exposed to baseball for the first time and upon his return
home he joined the Enterprise Club as a catcher. He then became the pitcher of
the Allegheny Club in a move that likely tipped the local balance of power back
to that club. After the 1867 season, he accepted an offer of $60 per month plus
college tuition to play for a club in Portsmouth, Ohio. He joined the Forest
Citys of Cleveland in 1869 and would play professional baseball for several more
seasons, earning a reputation as one of the hardest-throwing pitchers in the
game. When Pittsburgh finally got a professional club, Pratt became its first
manager. He later operated a sporting goods store and died in Pittsburgh on
November 21, 1937, two days after his ninetieth birthday.
William
Ralston, Jr.: William Ralston Jr., was born around 1844 in Pennsylvania. He
served as club secretary in 1866 and was the club’s second baseman. He was also
captain of the club when they attend the tournament in Detroit and had the honor
of giving a speech at the tournament’s conclusion that was warmly received.
Frank
Rhinehart: Frank Rhinehart played right field for the first nine in 1866.
Thomas
Sproul: Thomas Sproul was the Allegheny Club’s third baseman in 1866.
Others:
Men who played in the 1857 match included Beckler and Frefogle for Pittsburgh
and Stevenson and Michael F. Lynch for Allegheny.
Sources: Samuel Fleming, Samuel Kilgore, The Iron City: a compendium of facts
concerning Pittsburgh and vicinity, for strangers and the public generally
(Pittsburgh: G.W. Pittock and K. McFall, 1867); Pittsburg Post, April 4,
1904 (reprint of account of 1857 game); Detroit Post, numerous issues in
August of 1867, especially August 21, 1867 and Detroit Advertiser and Tribune,
numerous issues in August of 1867, especially August 22, 1867 for Detroit
tournament; Sporting News, March 23, 1895 for Pratt’s reminiscences.
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