Peter Morris, Baseball Historian

Baseball Fever

A Game of Inches

Level Playing Fields

But Didn’t We Have Fun?

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Accordingly, it appears that not a single match game of baseball was played in Chicago in either 1861 or 1862.  Two new clubs did compete for the city championship in 1863, with the Garden City capturing the two-out-of-three series by beating the Osceolas on August 23, but the contests attracted little attention.  No match games were played in 1864, but the year did see the only notable baseball development that took place in Chicago during the war.

Soldiers in the 19^th Illinois Infantry had formed a club known as the Turchin Base Ball Club, which was named in honor of its commander, Russian-born Brigadier General John B. Turchin.  On March 18, 1864, the members met at their camp in Graysville, Georgia, and passed an intriguing resolution.  One of the soldiers had picked up a piece of chestnut wood on the battlefield of Chickamauga that was ideally suited to making a baseball bat.  So the members of the Turchin club arranged to have it sent to Chicago and finished, then kept at the Tribune office and awarded to the city’s best baseball club.  In return for this generous gift, the members of the 19^th Illinois asked only that they be allowed to challenge the winners upon their return from the war. (Chicago Tribune, April 18, 1864)

But even this donation failed to revive baseball in Chicago.  Indeed, the only recorded game played in the city in 1864 was an intrasquad game played in late June by members of the Turchin club, as the 19^th Illinois had returned to Chicago in June in preparation for being mustered out. (Chicago Tribune, June 28, 1864)

The Civil War ended in April of 1865, but the assassination of Abraham Lincoln again cast a pall over Chicago.  The Excelsiors did reorganize that year, and were joined by their old rivals the Atlantics and by at least three new clubs, the Pacifics, the Pioneers and the Ogdens.  But most of the men who had been active ballplayers before the war had ended their playing days, and formal competition between the Excelsiors and the other local clubs was limited at best.

Things began to change that December, when a meeting was held in Chicago to form the National Association of Base-Ball Players of the Northwest.  The Excelsiors were represented at that meeting by G. Charles Smith and A. J. Smith.

By the following spring, the Excelsiors were raring to go.  As had been the case before the war, the players sported stylish uniforms, “consisting of white trousers extending to the ankle and a white shirt of English flannel.” (“Baseball in Days Gone By,” Davenport Tribune, August 24, 1888.  The Chicago Inter-Ocean of April 12, 1874 also observed that the Excelsiors were noted for their stylish uniforms.)  The club also spent a great deal of time considering the possibility of adopting a team badge to complement their uniforms.  A special committee was appointed to come up with a design, and the committee’s report provoked a lengthy discussion among the membership, with the result that the matter was eventually returned to the committee. (Chicago Tribune, August 9, 1867)

The Excelsiors now boasted a spanking new playing nine.  A few of the pre-war players continued to participate in intrasquad games, but the remainder retired from active play.  Their places were taken by promising young local players, with the apparent exception of pitcher C. J. McNally, who was described by one source as an arrival from this east. (letter to the Chicago Evening Post from “Byron, An Original Excelsior,” reprinted in the Milwaukee Sentinel, July 30, 1868)  With this young squad, the Excelsiors did not challenge any of the top Eastern clubs, nor did they pursue the Eastern course of charging admission to home matches.

As a knowledgeable observer explained, “No gate money was charged except to tournament games.  Public liking for the game wasn’t educated up to the standard where it was willing to let go of its money unless something particularly great in the way of base ball was promised.  This could be had only when a half-dozen or more clubs got together and played a series of games, lasting five or six days.  Such an occasion was called a tournament.  These tournaments came off in country towns, almost invariably during fair time, and it was a great day for every one at the fair when in addition to the regular program, including horse-races and the like, a game of base ball was to be seen.” (“Baseball in Days Gone By,” Davenport Tribune, August 24, 1888)

One of the reasons for this policy was that the Excelsiors faced a dilemma that would plague Chicago ball clubs for most of the nineteenth century.  Chicago was still a small city in area, but it was surrounded all on sides by prairies that were inviting for ball playing.  This meant that it was easy for baseball clubs to find a location on the outskirts on which to play, but prohibitively expensive to set up grounds within the city limits.  As a result, the Excelsiors never found a permanent base of operations.  When they first reorganized after the war, they held their practices at their old grounds at West Lake and Ann Street.  At some point, they moved to grounds at State Street between 22nd and 23^rd, but this location was no better suited to hosting a crowd.  This meant that the Excelsiors had to make special arrangements for any important match played in Chicago.

Because of that daunting reality, the biggest events on the Excelsiors’ schedule in 1866 were a tournament in Rockford at the end of June and another one in Bloomington in October.  The Excelsiors took home first place in both tournaments and ended the season with a perfect 6-0 records, marking them as a club that might soon threaten the dominance of baseball by the Eastern squads.

Despite the successes, the 1866 season also brought signs that trouble lay ahead.  The Excelsiors had won a tightly fought game against the Detroit Base Ball Club at the Rockford tournament, and the Michigan club soon issued a challenge for a match to determine regional supremacy.  But instead of a series that could have created a new level of excitement for baseball in both Chicago and Detroit, the challenge led to a nasty spat.

The Detroit Base Ball Club angrily accused the Excelsiors of being poor sports when the Chicago club would not agree to play a home-and-home series, even after the Michigan club offered to pay the Excelsiors’ train fare and hotel bills. (Chicago Tribune, October 11, 1866; Detroit Advertiser and Tribune, September 29, 1866)  They were not the only club to express irritation with the Excelsiors, as the up-and-coming Forest City Club of Rockford passed an angry resolution declaring that “we regard the reply of the Excelsior Base Ball Club, of Chicago, deferring the acceptance of our challenge till next spring, as a virtual refusal to play with us.” (Chicago Tribune, November 21, 1866)

For their part, the Excelsiors maintained that they were being asked “to exhibit themselves in the inclosed grounds of the Detroit club, to provide a fund from which the Detroit players can so generously ‘pay their expenses,’ leaving a handsome surplus.” (Chicago Times, October 14, 1866)  They noted that they were amateurs who worked for a living and could not afford to accept every challenge they were issued.  They added that, “Such a course would involve them in an endless series of games with clubs of questionable ability.” (Detroit Advertiser and Tribune, September 29, 1866)

The wording of the last remark seems deliberately provocative and may help to explain why the Excelsiors were involved in so many disputes.  But if the Excelsiors sometimes showed a lack of diplomacy, both they and the Detroit Base Ball Club were responding in reasonable fashion to the difficulties created by the game’s awkward transition to professionalism.  This dilemma applied with special force to ambitious clubs in cities like Detroit and Chicago, which is why each club was so adamant about its position.

In east coast cities like New York City and Philadelphia, there were plenty of strong clubs that could create spirited local rivalries that spectators were willing to pay to watch.  Trips to other cities were also viable and could lead to even more intense competition and still larger crowds.  But states like Michigan and Illinois that boasted only one large city had no such options and this created a difficult dilemma for the best clubs in those cities.

The modest scale on which the Excelsiors operated was revealed by the club’s financial statement, which showed that the club spent only $1,399 during the 1866 season.  But with no opportunity to collect admission fees, the club’s receipts were an equally modest $1,453.  While the sources of these revenues were not spelled out, it is likely that most, if not all of it, represented membership fees. (Chicago Tribune, April 12, 1867)  Accordingly, it is understandable that club members would be unwilling to take on additional expenses, since these would necessitate increased dues.       

So both the Excelsiors of Chicago and the Detroit Base Ball Club were trapped in the middle and both clubs would be unable to find a solution.  Detroit’s representative club rented a nice enclosed ballpark to host matches, but – as was symbolized by their exchange with the Excelsiors – proved singularly unsuccessful in their efforts to attract suitable rivals there to play them.  The Excelsiors took the opposite approach, never having a home ground suitable for charging admission.

These challenges made both clubs slow to switch from amateur play to professionalism, and it caused them further difficulty when they finally hosted the top Eastern clubs.  The hiring of professionals made Detroit’s top club subject of many attacks and it had disbanded by 1869.  But the Detroit Base Ball Club was lucky by comparison with the Excelsiors of Chicago, which would be the recipients of far more abuse than any other baseball club of the era.

Such an outcome could not possibly have been foreseen by the Excelsiors after their two tournament triumphs in 1866.  All was optimism in Chicago, and the mood was best symbolized in December when the Excelsiors used the occasion of the second meeting of the National Association of Base-Ball Players to unveil their new clubroom in the Phoenix Block of LaSalle Street.  “The rooms are fitted up in a very tasteful manner,” remarked a Tribune reporter, “and are ‘set off’ considerably by the trophies which the Excelsior boys have won within the last two years from clubs in various parts of the West.  Among the silver-ware is a handsome set which was given to the Excelsiors by citizens of Rockford, last summer, for gracefulness in attitude while playing.”

The centerpiece of the display, appropriately enough, was the bat “presented to the Club by the Nineteenth Illinois Infantry.  It was taken from a tree in Chickamauga swamp, and sent to Chicago in the rough.  Soon after its arrival it was put into proper shape, and a piece of silver, with engraving, showing from whom received and for whom intended, inserted in its side.  We venture the assertion that the Excelsiors will never willingly part with that bat.” (Chicago Tribune, December 19, 1866.  The Chicago Inter-Ocean of April 12, 1874, also mentioned these “handsome club rooms.”)

As the 1867 season started, the Excelsiors busied themselves in making preparations.  Their planning, however, reflected the pressures the club was under as the game moved relentlessly toward professionalism.  To show that they appreciated the honorary members who financed the first nine’s activities, the club made plans to reward these members with engraved certificates. (Chicago Tribune, January 18, 1867.  Intriguingly, the club also decided to apply to the state legislature for a charter.  The reasons for this decision are unknown, as is whether the charter was granted.)  The Excelsiors also accepted a challenge from the Atlantics, but without a suitable home field, they had to ask the Amateur Club for permission to play the match on their grounds, located at the corner of Michigan Avenue and 30^th Street. (Chicago Tribune, May 22, 1867)

Several additions were made to the first nine, such as David Alston, who had played for the cross-town Atlantics in 1866.  None of the new players, however, seem to have been imports from the east meaning that, with the likely exception of McNally, the club was still made up of amateurs. (An article in the Chicago Tribune on December 30, 1877, listed all of the professionals who had played in Chicago.  Of the men on the Excelsiors at the start of the 1867 season, only McNally and third baseman Tom Foley were listed, and the article specifically noted that Foley did not become a professional until 1869.)

The optimism grew when the Excelsiors began the season with victories over both of its strongest in-state rivals, the Atlantics of Chicago and the Forest Citys of Rockford.  On July 4, the Excelsiors beat the Forest Citys for a second time, setting the stage was now set for the biggest baseball event ever undertaken in the city.  The powerful Nationals of Washington were scheduled to come to town in late July for a showdown that would finally the Excelsiors the chance to flex their muscles against one of the top eastern clubs.

Perhaps mindful that Chicago residents were only willing to pay to watch baseball in the tournament format, a “tournament” was arranged at Chicago’s Dexter Park, a racetrack close to the stockyards.  Over a five-day period, the visitors would first play the Forest City Club, then the Excelsiors, and finally the Atlantics.

The mood in Chicago turned to optimism and perhaps overconfidence when the opening match produced a stunning upset.  On a rainy day, the young Rockford club and teenage pitcher Albert Goodwill Spalding pulled out a 29-23 victory that amazed the baseball world.  To many, the outcome of the next day’s game was now a foregone conclusion – with the Excelsiors having recently beaten the Forest Citys and the Forest Citys having knocked off the Nationals, it seemed only logical to assume that the Excelsiors would easily handle the visitors from the East and establish themselves as one of the best clubs in the country.

Those expectations could not have been more wrong.  According to an account written in 1874, “The crowd of the first day was small compared to that which assembled to witness the second discomfiture of the ‘Nationals.’  Fully 15,000 people were on the grounds.  They came to see the victory.  They sat around and poked fun at those materials, and offered large odds against them, and cheered their own boys on to triumph, and swore with emphasis that Chicago could not be beaten, even in the little matter of base-ball.  The game commenced, and the crowd soon stopped singing and commenced to whistle; their open countenances grew cadaverous, and they looked bewildered as they contemplated the progress of events.  They had seen enough before the game was over, and moved for the gates.  Chicago had been betrayed; her confidence had been misplaced; her proud escutcheon had been trailed in the mire by the men she thought invincible.  In fact, the Excelsiors were beaten by a score of 49 to 4, and the sport-loving community pocketed their losses and reserved their crows for some future occasion.  The Excelsiors were a by-word and a reproach, and they proceeded to disintegrate as rapidly as possible.  They couldn’t be hired for money to play the veriest ‘muffers’ in the city after that Waterloo.” (Chicago Inter-Ocean, April 12, 1874)

Needless to say, this account includes some exaggeration and by no means did the Excelsiors cease to play baseball after this match.  Yet it is difficult to overstate the extent to which this single game served to transform the club from one in which Chicago took great pride to the objects of scorn and ridicule.

The initial response to the trouncing of the Excelsiors was to assume that a fix had occurred.  Baseball was still a novelty to Americans, and most of them saw no reason that a superior club should always be able to beat a slightly lesser rival (in the same way that one might expect a faster runner to always beat a slower one every time they raced).  This viewpoint was most prominently voiced by the many Chicagoans who had bet on the Excelsiors, but it also found official expression in the Chicago Tribune.  In an editorial entitled “Base Ball As A Confidence Game,” the Tribune accused the Nationals of deliberately losing the game to Rockford “to induce the sporting men of Chicago to venture their money.  They did so and the Nationals have pocketed it.  It is estimated that $20,000 changed hands, that that amount of money has been withdrawn from circulation here, and will go East, and we shall not draw against it immediately.” (Chicago Tribune, July 28, 1867)

The editorial prompted Frank Jones, the president of the Nationals, to pay a visit to the Tribune and a retraction was published the following day. (Chicago Tribune, July 29, 1867)  But the magnitude of the Excelsiors’ defeat remained the talk of the town.

A number of theories emerged.  The Excelsiors themselves advanced the most likely explanation, pointing out that the Nationals were tired from a schedule of nonstop travel and matches when they lost to the Rockford club.  In addition, they noted that the rain and the treacherous playing conditions negated the superior skill of the Nationals. (letter from the Excelsior club signed by vice president C. J. Blair and secretary Will Lowe, published in the Chicago Tribune, July 31, 1867.  Similar explanations were given in the Chicago Tribune, July 29, 1867, and in “Baseball in Days Gone By,” Davenport Tribune, August 24, 1888)

Others, however, were intent on pointing the finger at the Excelsiors.  One popular theory was that the players became overconfident: “the modest people of Chicago lauded them to the skies, and with petting spoiled them … The boys began to think they were invincible, and they daily grew in pride and self-complacency.” (Chicago Inter-Ocean, April 12, 1874)  One writer even claimed the Excelsior players had “felt it incumbent on them to do a little entertaining” of their guests on the evening before the game, with the result that “some of the boys weren’t as steady as they ought to have been the day of the game.” (“Baseball in Days Gone By,” Davenport Tribune, August 24, 1888)

The 49-4 score reminded many of a similar score recorded the year before.  At the Rockford tournament, an overmatched country club from Pecatonica, Illinois, had been trounced 49-1 by the Detroit Base Ball Club and had received a horn inscribed with the word “practice.”  When the Pecatonica nine learned of the Excelsiors’ defeat, they held a meeting and concluded that “the Excelsiors have fairly taken from us our hard-earned laurels; therefore, be it Resolved, That the Secretary be instructed to send the horn to the Excelsior Club.” (Chicago Tribune, July 31, 1867) 

The Pecatonica club was not the only one that took advantage of the opportunity to remind the Excelsiors that they were no longer invincible.  A nine made of up newspapermen issued a challenge to the club, “to play a game of base ball during the present month, with a view of showing to the world that the Excelsiors are not the worst players in the State.” (Chicago Tribune, August 9, 1867)  A brand-new club in Newton, Iowa, also joked about issuing a challenge. (Chicago Tribune, August 5, 1867)  Before long, it was reported that many “muffin” clubs had been formed with the aim “of resting from the Excelsiors their victorious laurels … But it was all in vain … The silver-mounted horn still remains with the Excelsiors.” (Chicago Tribune, August 17, 1867) 

While the Excelsiors seem to have taken the gibes in good humor, their inner feelings can readily be imagined.   The game against the Nationals had itself been humiliating, with one later account maintaining, “It was great fun for the visitors and spectators.  The latter howled and roard [sic] and screamed and jeered and addressed the Excelsiors in inimical terms till they felt like committing hari-kari.  When the game was over the Chicago players stole home through the back streets, and they didn’t talk base ball again for many a day.” (“Baseball in Days Gone By,” Davenport Tribune, August 24, 1888)  The ongoing barbs only made the sting worse.

The Excelsiors now began to move toward professionalism, though they started off by providing players with job offers rather than salaries.  John Zeller, a longtime starter for the Mutuals of New York, was lured to Chicago in the aftermath of the game against the Nationals and “set up in the saloon business by the club, on Randolph street, near La Salle.” (letter to the Chicago Evening Post from “Byron, An Original Excelsior,” reprinted in the Milwaukee Sentinel, July 30, 1868)  Another new player named Keenan from Bloomington was added to the first nine and he too reportedly received some form of remuneration. (Chicago Tribune, December 30, 1877) 

In the two months after the Waterloo defeat, the Excelsiors played only one game, trouncing the overmatched Rustics of Danby by the score of 124-2.  But by the end of September, the club was ready to test the strength of its revamped squad.  With Zeller and Keenan now in the lineup, the Excelsiors beat the Egyptians of Centralia, the Capitols of Springfield, and the Bloomington club and readied themselves for a long-awaited showdown against the Detroit Base Ball Club.

Before that series could begin, the Excelsiors made yet another addition to the roster when, as one newspaper put it, Rockford’s young star pitcher A. G. Spalding was “seduced” into joining the Excelsiors. (Detroit Post, October 21, 1867)  As Spalding himself told it, he given a forty-dollar-a-week position as a bill clerk at a Chicago wholesale grocery “with the understanding that I was to pitch for the Excelsiors during the Base Ball season.”  He was also specifically warned not to mention his salary to his fellow employees, since, as he soon discovered, more experienced clerks were making only ten dollars per week. (A. G. Spalding, America’s National Game, 512)    

The first game of the series with Detroit took place in Chicago on October 5 and did not live up to the advanced billing.  Spalding did not play, and Keenan instead pitched the Excelsiors to a surprisingly easy 49-20 victory.  A reporter from the Detroit Post blamed umpire Ambrose Lynch for allowing Keenan to deliver endless wild pitches, while insisting that Detroit’s pitcher not lift his forward foot after delivering the ball.  The reporter also grumbled that there hardly any women and only one policeman in attendance, with the result that the spectators engaged in “betting, hissing the umpire, getting in the way of Detroit players, and oaths and loud talk.”  The Detroit players, however, maintained that they had been fairly beaten. (Detroit Post, October 8, 1867)      

The second game of the series took place in Detroit on October 19^th and was a different story.  With Spalding and Keenan sharing the pitching duties for the Excelsiors, the game was tightly fought throughout and the hometown side was clinging to a three-run lead when the visitors began their final at-bats.  Then, with the fans who had made the trip from Chicago enthusiastically blowing on the famed Pecatonica horn, the Excelsiors mounted a furious comeback.  Clutch hitting, along with “wild throws and foolish plays” by the Detroit fielders, enabled the visitors to bat around a couple times and cruise to a 36-24 win. (Detroit Post, October 21, 1867)       

Upon their return to Chicago, the Excelsiors held a meeting and passed a resolution thanking those who had made the trip an enjoyable one, including the members of the Detroit Base Ball Club and the proprietors of the Russell House, where they had lodged.  They expressed especial gratitude to H. C. Wentworth of the Michigan Central Railroad for “his kindness in placing at their disposal, for the trip, the magnificent sleeping car ‘Kalamazoo,’ and in other ways enhancing the pleasure of the otherwise tedious journey.” (Detroit Advertiser and Tribune, October 24, 1867)  The resolution is an important reminder that, while the Excelsiors became embroiled in more than their share of disputes, the club also had many pleasant interchanges that received less publicity.   

That off-season was another pivotal and tumultuous one for the Excelsiors.  Baseball was moving rapidly toward professionalism and it was becoming all but impossible for truly amateur clubs to compete.  While the Excelsiors had lost only one game since the end of the war, that defeat had been so decisive and embarrassing that change was necessary.

So the Excelsiors continued to bring in new players from the east.  The grocery that had employed Spalding failed and he and Keenan both moved on, being replaced by a new pitcher from Philadelphia named Harry Lex.  Another new player named James Hoyt was also added, probably from the east, though he played little and his identity remains mysterious.  Zeller and McNally were also retained, giving the Excelsiors a very new look.

What is notable is that Chicago’s marquee club may not have had any more professional players than it did at the end of the 1868 season, having merely replace Spalding and Keenan with Lex and Hoyt.  But the distinctively east-coast flavor of the club changed how they were perceived.  As a later article put it, “the Excelsior Ball Club of Chicago, by hiring Lex and one or two other outside players, made themselves virtually a professional organization – or, as we should say now-a-days, a ‘semi-professional club.’” (Chicago Tribune, September 27, 1876.  The article erroneously stated that these events occurred in 1869.)

Mention of this new reality was tactfully avoided by the local press in the lead-up to the 1868 season, but there can be no doubt that the residents of Chicago were well aware of the new composition of the Excelsiors.  By bringing in these imports and creating a lineup that was a mix of Eastern professionals and Chicago amateurs, the ingredients for public disfavor and internal dissension were in place.  If the new nine could emerge as a national power, then all was likely to be forgiven, but losing would now be unacceptable.

Worse, the Excelsiors had finally put together an ambitious schedule, with the result that the early part of the 1868 season was a disaster.  After opening with a win over the lightly regarded Eurekas of Chicago, the Excelsiors lost on June 12 to the Forest Citys of Rockford, who now again included Spalding.  It was an ominous sign that, despite the Eastern imports, the Excelsiors were no longer even the top club in Illinois.

Matters got worse when the Excelsiors were trounced by the Athletics of Philadelphia and Atlantics of Brooklyn, then lost again to their rivals from Rockford on Independence Day.  They hit rock bottom a couple weeks later when the Buckeyes of Cincinnati arrived in town.  The Buckeyes had just squeaked out a one-run win over the Detroit Base Ball Club, so the Excelsiors were confident of finding posting a victory.  Instead the Buckeyes won by the lopsided margin of 43-22.

A club that had lost only one match in the first three seasons after the war had taken on an Eastern face and promptly lost five straight games.  Outrage predictably followed, with a Tribune reporter writing, “The Excelsiors must do one of two things.  They must give up playing entirely, and disorganize, carrying with them the prospects of base ball in this section, or they must practice.  They cannot hope to make players at a moments [sic] notice.  Base ball requires practice, if any game does, and enough of it, if they hope to retrieve their fortunes and again hold the first place among Western clubs, they must foot out from among themselves the men who have rested upon them like so many incubi, who have clogged their progress and made them weak at the bat and in the field, and replace them by others who are willing to practice, and who are devoid of the conceit that good fortune must attend them.  It is better to have poor players who have the will to practice, than to rely upon those who rest upon laurels gained in the past.  There are men among the Excelsior nine who have no right to be there, and until this truth is recognized, it will be idle for the club to expect to win.” (Chicago Tribune, July 22, 1868)

The extent of the Excelsiors’ woes was revealed at a meeting held at the club’s LaSalle street rooms the following week.  Club president W. F. Wentworth chaired the meeting and listened to one discouraging report after another.  Two of the longtime starters of the first nine, C. J. McNally and Aleck Kennedy, had resigned, as had the mysterious James Hoyt.  With several gaping holes in the lineup, the Committee on Nines was instructed to hold a practice game and fill with members of the second nine.  There was even serious discussion of consolidating with the Eurekas.

The club’s finances also reflected the gloomy mood.  A Mr. Treadway, who was a member of the Committee on Subscriptions, “said he had made several attempts to collect funds, but met with no success.  He was sure some small sums could be obtained from the members of the Board of Trade, but they felt somewhat diffident at present about contributing.”    

Only B. R. Chambers expressed a glimmer of optimism, maintaining that, “the Excelsior club had as good material in it as any other, and because the club had sustained two or three defeats was no reason that the members should become disheartened.  The Rockford Club had one player who received a salary of $250 a year.  That club had no better record than the Excelsiors.  They had lost more balls than the Excelsiors had won.  The Detroit Club was in about the same situation.”  He believed that the problem was that the club was forced to play Foley at catcher instead of his natural position, and that if a good catcher were secured and Foley could again play third base, the club would improve dramatically.

Chambers also thought the club’s finances were not all that bad.  While he admitted that he had been too busy with business to try to collect any money, he believed that a subscription drive could raise the needed funds.  At last, it was agreed to replenish the club’s treasury by means of an “assessment” of $5 for honorary members and $3 for active members. (Chicago Tribune, July 28, 1868)

The fund-raising initiative did collect enough money to keep the club going, but the club’s losing ways continued in their next game, played on August 10^th against that year’s eventual champions, the Unions of Morrisania.  The margin of defeat was a respectable 31-21, but the Excelsiors received more bad news when John Zeller fractured his knee so severely while rounding the bases that there were concerns that he would be crippled for life. (Chicago Tribune, August 20, 1868)

With their losing streak now at six and their contingent of Eastern imports now reduced to just Lex, the Excelsiors brought in another platoon of New York professionals – Fred Treacy, Joe Simmons and the much-needed catcher, Bill Lennon from Brooklyn.  The club also began making optimistic plans for its first-ever real tour, which would see the club play games in Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland and Cincinnati. (Chicago Tribune, September 10, 1868)

The club warmed up for the tour by hosting the Detroit Base Ball Club on September 12^th and lost by a 15-12 score, marking the first time the Michigan club had beaten its longtime rivals.  The disappointment of the Excelsiors turned to sorrow after the game when James Alston, the brother of David Alston, was struck by a train on his way home and killed.

The Excelsiors’ tour also proved a mixed bag.  Impressive wins over the Niagaras of Buffalo and the Forest Citys of Cleveland prompted a rare note of commendation in the press.  “The national game is in great favor in Chicago at present,” crowed a Tribune reporter.  “The present season the play has been nearly up to its old mark, and within a few days it has been exceeded.” (Chicago Tribune, September 20, 1868)  Lennon’s play behind the plate was especially good and he was declared “the best catcher in the West.” (Chicago Tribune, September 20, 1868) 

But other stops were less successful.  In Detroit, the Excelsiors jumped to a 17-3 lead after two innings, only to see the home team come back and tie the score at 31 apiece.  When the game was called due to darkness in the ninth inning and declared a draw, the Excelsiors angrily protested.  According to the Detroit papers, the Chicago players neglected the “customary courtesies” of cheering for their opponents and the umpires, stating that “It ain’t our style.” (Detroit Free Press, September 19, 1868; Detroit Post, September 19, 1868)

Then when they got to Cincinnati, the club was beaten by the embarrassing score of 22-4.  Four runs was an extraordinarily low score for 1868, but of the Excelsior batters only “Woody” Stearns was able to hit the tantalizingly slow deliveries of Harry Wright with any effect. (Chicago Tribune, September 22, 1868) 

The Excelsiors concluded the 1868 season with a trip to St. Louis in October, where they posted lopsided wins against three of that city’s best clubs.  But none of the clubs were national powers and the results received little attention in Chicago.

Less than a month later the Excelsiors bowed to the inevitable.  The obituary of the club appeared in the Tribune on November 7, 1868, which recorded, “The Excelsior Base Ball Club is no more, it having dissolved its organization.  Several reasons for the event are assigned, among them the insolvency of the club, which fell badly in arrears for its current expenses; and also the fact that several of the star players have left the city.  It is probable, however, that the remaining members of the first nine will constitute the nucleus for a stronger organization to be formed next spring, although, perhaps, under a different club name.  This will undoubtedly be done, since it is imperative that Chicago should boast of a base ball club which can not only beat anything in the West, but which shall be able to vindicate Chicago’s importance as the first city on the continent, by bidding defiance to any and all clubs in America.  We look to see such an organization perfected next year.”

That off-season the National Association of Base Ball Players also gave in to the inevitable and acknowledged professionalism.  Many cities leaped at the new opportunity and rushed to sign up players, but no such activity occurred in Chicago.  As the season began, a New York reporter commented, “The Excelsiors may be doing something to bring up the club to first-class playing merit; but, if so, they are doing their work very quietly.” (New York Tribune, April 3, 1869, reprinted in the Chicago Tribune, April 7, 1869)  But the Excelsiors were in fact dead, and the Chicago baseball scene in 1869 was restricted to amateur play that received little attention.

In 1870, Chicago got its first professional club and at least one Excelsior member, Fred Erby, became prominently involved in the city’s professional clubs.  Several of the outside imports also became major figures in professional baseball.  But almost all of the young Chicago men who had built the Excelsior club turned their back on baseball and appear to have remained bitter about the treatment they had received from the public and press. 

Even reunion games, which became common in other cities, were rarely staged in Chicago.  Reminiscences about the Excelsiors were occasionally published.  “There was more fun in the games then than there is now,” wrote one old-timer in 1888.  “The old Excelsiors say so.” (“Baseball in Days Gone By,” Davenport Tribune, August 24, 1888)

But nostalgic pieces about the Excelsiors were rare, and subsequent mentions of the club were usually about the humiliating loss to the Nationals or about some other failure.  The 1874 article cited earlier was particularly blunt.  After stating that the Excelsiors became “a by-word and a reproach” after the loss to the Nationals, it added that the club members “abandoned the sports of the diamond and contracted matrimonial alliances, and went into mercantile pursuits.  Most of them are still doing business in the city, but they take no interest in base ball; in fact they say they never did admire the game.” (Chicago Inter-Ocean, April 12, 1874) 

POST-WAR PLAYERS

The unusual history of the Excelsiors, which saw the club receive relentless coverage in the press and saw most of the members distance themselves from the game, makes it a challenge to recreate their identities.  An additional problem is the number of different club members whose last name was Stearns.  The following is my best effort.

David Gordon Alston: David Alston was born around 1846 in Chicago.  Like many of the pre-war club members, his ancestry was Scottish and both of his parents had been born in the old country.  His father became a very wealthy Chicago businessman who owned an oil and paint store, in which David worked as a clerk.  After playing for the cross-town Atlantics in 1866, David Alston became one of the Excelsiors’ regular outfielders in 1867.  But he appears to have been one of the locals who lost playing time to imports in 1868, as he did not play regularly for the Excelsiors.  Tragedy struck his family that year when his brother James was hit by a train on the way home from the club’s September 12^th game.  Alston did serve as umpire in a few National Association games in the 1870s, but he is not known to have otherwise remained involved in baseball.  He died in Chicago on April 20, 1893. 

Benson Beriah Banker: Ben Banker was born on March 19, 1843, in Peasleeville, New York, and the family moved to Boston during the 1850s.  In 1864 he served a three-month stint in the Union Army.  After the war, the whole family relocated to Chicago and Banker became one of the Excelsiors’ regulars in 1867, only to lose his spot on the first nine in 1868.  He stayed in Chicago for a few years, working as a schoolteacher, but by 1873 he had returned to Boston, where he got married and lived for the rest of his life, raising five children and working as a clerk and as an accountant.  He died on February 28, 1913.

Blakeslee: This man played the Excelsiors for most of the 1867 season, but he made so little of an impression that the 1888 article that provided details on almost all of the other regulars said of him only, “Blakesly, whose first name is forgotten, was pitcher.”

Stephen B. Budd: Stephen Budd was one of the few players who see regular action for the Excelsiors in both 1866 and 1867, also serving as a club director in 1866.  When the Excelsiors played in the 1866 Rockford tournament, the Chicago Times listed a “J. W. Budd” as being one of their starters, but this was almost certainly a mistake.  Stephen Budd was born in New York state around 1835, but was living in Chicago by 1860.  By 1870, he had a wife and son and was working as a commercial merchant.  He died in Chicago on August 21, 1886, when his days with the Excelsiors were still well enough remembered for his passing to warrant a mention in Sporting Life.

Frederick C. Calloway: The Excelsiors had more than their share of umpires, including Calloway, who was described as “the first umpire that was ever brought from the East.  Mr. Calloway, the name of the gentleman, came from Newark, N. J., and from long practice dodging the mosquitoes of his native swamp land was able to see all over the diamond at once, and thus made a most excellent umpire.  There is something blithe-like and debonair about Mr. Calloway.  Those lissome whiskers, that jaunty straw hat, bespeak the New Jersey sport, and Mr. Calloway, there is every reason to believe, was on easy terms with himself.  He liked Chicago after a fashion and as a mark of his good favor had his picture taken here.” (“Baseball in Days Gone By,” Davenport Tribune, August 24, 1888)  Calloway was born in New Jersey around 1842 and he returned to Newark after the Excelsiors disbanded.  

B. R. Chambers: Chambers was the only club member to express optimism at the club’s meeting in late July of 1867.  The only man in Chicago with those initials was Beverly R. Chambers, who was born in Ithaca, New York, and came to Chicago in 1858.  He worked as a clerk, a bookkeeper, and then joined his father’s jewelry business.  Chambers was described as a “popular society and club man,” But he never married.  In 1879, he contracted Bright’s Disease and he never recovered his health, dying in 1886.

Fred W. Erby: Erby was not a member of the first nine but he was very active in the club’s activities and was one of the few Excelsior members who took an active role in the professional clubs that succeeded them city hall.  He also did some umpiring in the National Association.  Born in 1847 in Pennsylvania to German-born parents, he worked in a hat store, at city hall and as a restaurant proprietor.  After his wife died, he moved to Seattle and was still working as a restaurant manager as late as 1910.

Thomas J. Foley: Tom Foley, who was born in Chicago around 1847, was the only homegrown member of the Excelsiors to play professional baseball after the club’s end, being a regular for the White Stockings in both 1870 and 1871.  (He is not to be confused with the Tom Foley who effectively acted as the manager of the White Stockings.)  His playing days ended after the Chicago Fire, though he did umpire a few National Association games.  He became a mailman and died in La Grange on January 4, 1896.

John J. Gillespie: Gillespie was a prominent pre-war member who served as club president in 1866.  His life is described in the pre-war section.

Alphonso Goodrich: Goodrich was a member of the Excelsiors’ first nine in 1866.  He was also a club director that year and served as vice president in 1868, but he was identified only as “A. Goodrich,” leaving some doubt about his identity.  He had good reason to be reticent, as an 1872 article reported: “For umpire, the two nines agreed upon Mr. Goodrich, the fearful and wonderful catcher of the Amateurs of 1870.  Goodrich was always distinguished as the worst ball-player in Chicago, but it was not until yesterday afternoon that he acquired the distinction of being positively the poorest umpire on record.  He evidently entertained a lofty scorn for all rules relating to the calling of balls and strikes, while his ideas as to fair and foul balls, and the proper time of expressing his views with reference thereto, are entirely original, to say the least.  Most umpires would, on the spur of the moment and under the excitement of the occasion, sing out ‘foul’ as soon as the hit was made.  So would Goodrich, unless there was a man on first base, in which case he retains his presence of mind to a remarkable degree.  His eminently judicial mind deplores a hasty utterance, and the result is that the man on first is down to second by the time that Goodrich has concluded the hit to be foul, and then the rash runner receives his punishment by being easily put out.  Goodrich’s umpiring is of a kind calculated to make the game more interesting on account of the delightful uncertainty as to his rulings, which also tend to develop forcible and explosive expressions on the part of players and spectators.” (Chicago Tribune, July 27, 1872, 6)  The 1888 article, however, identified Goodrich as a lawyer, leaving no doubt that he was Alphonso Goodrich, a Chicago divorce lawyer who acquired considerable notoriety during the 1870s.  The scandal-mongering Chicago Times dubbed Goodrich the “divorce shyster” and ran a long crusade to have him disbarred. (Chicago Times, reprinted in the Indianapolis Sentinel, February 11, 1876)  Eventually after being disbarred, Goodrich continued to find himself in hot water, being accused among other things of involvement in several fraudulent schemes and of continuing to practice law after his disbarment. (Chicago Tribune, November 14, 1893; Chicago Inter-Ocean, May 10, 1889)  Goodrich died in Chicago on January 9, 1915, at the age of 72.

James H. Haynie: Haynie was yet another club umpire and, according to the Detroit Post of August 27, 1867, he was also the baseball reporter for the Chicago Republican

James Hoyt: The mysterious Hoyt was most likely an Eastern professional but he was never identified and wasn’t from any of the prominent Eastern clubs. An 1877 article described him only as being out of baseball.

Keenan: Keenan was reportedly from Bllomington but nothing more is known about him.

Alexander D. Kennedy: Kennedy was secretary and captain of the Excelsiors in 1866.  He was born in Illinois in 1842 to Scottish-born parents, and appears to have been a cousin of early club member W. W. Kennedy.  He became a fire insurance agent and was still alive in 1895.  He may have died on March 14, 1917.

Billy Lennon: Lennon was the catcher the Excelsiors desperately needed when he arrived in late 1868 only.  Born in Brooklyn around 1848, he had previously played for the Excelsiors of Brooklyn and he and Treacy were members of the Mohawks of New York when both joined the Excelsiors.  He later played in Philadelphia, where he and teammate Ed Mincher married sisters.  He played a few more years of professional baseball, including stints with two major league clubs, then returned to Baltimore where he worked as a saloon keeper and for his father-in-law.  He died on August 19, 1910, in Philadelphia.

Harry Lex: Harry Lex, the professional pitcher imported for the 1868 season, is believed to have been from Philadelphia.

William Lowe: Lowe was the club secretary.

C. J. McNally: McNally is another mysterious player who was described as an Eastern import by one source.  He was listed as both C. J. McNally and C. McNally, but in 1888 an old-timer referred to him as John McNally.  He pitched the decisive game of the 1866 Rockford tournament, prompting a Detroit reporter to complain: “McNally, the Chicago pitcher, did not pitch his balls but bowled instead.  That the Detroit boys did not ask judgment and obtain the ruling out of this pitching, can only be explained on the supposition mentioned that they thought themselves able to beat their opponents against all odds.” (Detroit Advertiser and Tribune, July 3, 1866) 

John Oberlander: Oberlander was born around 1846 in New York.  He moved to New Orleans for awhile, but was back in Chicago in 1900.

Guss. R. Owen: Owen was the club secretary in 1866.

Joe Simmons: Simmons was one of the New Yorker who joined the Excelsiors toward the end of the 1868 season.  He was born Joseph Chiribel on June 13, 1847, in New York City, but used the name Simmons for baseball. He had previously played for the Gotham and Empire clubs, and went on to a long professional career as a player and manager, including another stint in Chicago with the White Stockings.  He died in Jersey City on July 24, 1901, at age 55

G. Charles Smith, treasurer in 1866 is described in the pre-war section.

Albert Goodwill Spalding played only one game for the Excelsiors but went on to a Hall of Fame career as a player, manager, executive and sporting goods magnate.

George Stearns. There were at least four men with the surname of Stearns who were actively involved in the Excelsior club, and the habit of the newspapers of the day to refer to men by their surnames makes it very difficult to keep them straight.  George Stearns was the only one of the four not related to the others.  He had played for Rockford and the Chicago Tribune of April 10, 1868, reported that he had just joined the Excelsiors.  He is listed as a regular that year in Marshall Wright’s book, but that may be a mistake as most accounts suggest it was John and Woody Stearns who were regulars that season.  To add confusion, the Chicago Times’s list of the players in the Rockford tournament had both John W. Stearns, Jr., and M. W. Stearns.

James Stearns: James Stearns was a brother of John and Woody Stearns who died unexpectedly in 1873 at the age of 33.  An obituary said that the Excelsior club was “largely indebted to Mr. Stearns for its high character,” but it appears that he was mostly an organizer rather than a player.

John Walker Stearns, Jr.: Stearns was the captain of the Excelsiors and appears to have played catcher and first base, though that is confused by the number of Stearnses on the club.  He followed his father into the wholesale grocery business.  He was born on June 19, 1846, never married, and died in Chicago on October 20, 1918.    

Woodbury Eaton “Woody” Stearns: Woody Stearns was born on March 2, 1851, and followed his brother into the grocery business.  He too never married and lived for most of his life with his brother and two unmarried sisters.  He died only five days before his brother on October 15, 1918.

C. G. Teed: Teed umpired the pivotal game between the Excelsiors and the Detroit Base Ball Club.  In the Detroit News-Tribune of March 15, 1903, David Barry maintained that Teed, who was supposed to be from LaPorte, Indiana, was in fact a member of the Excelsiors.   Whether that was true or just sour grapes has not been determined.

Fred Treacey: Treacey was one of the three New Yorkers who joined the Excelsiors late in the 1868 season.  He went on to a fine major league career, but remained a shadowy figure.  He probably died in Brooklyn on January 26, 1891, but that has not been proven.

Willard F. Wentworth: Wentworth was the club president.  He was born in New Hampshire around 1838.  He became the proprietor of the Tremont House and died in Chicago on December 28, 1910.

Gardner Willard: Willard was a Harvard student who played for the Excelsiors when not in school.  He was born around 1845 and served in the Chicago Mercantile Battery, Illinois Light Artillery.  He never married and died in Chicago on March 20, 1915.

John Zeller: Zeller played for the Excelsiors in 1867 and 1868.  The knee injury he suffered in the club’s game against the Unions of Morrisania proved so severe that it not only cost him his career but also his leg.  He returned to New York and became a saloon and lunch counter owner, dying there on February 13, 1900.

Other club members: C. J. Blair was the club’s vice president in 1867; George S. Cleveland was another of the club’s umpires; J. S. Gibbs was another club officer; E. Hill; Mackey played for the first nine in 65; E. Morris; J. Owens; Quick of the first nine in 65, who was probably the L. Quick who played for the Excelsiors before the war; C. Sweet; Taylor; D. B. Thompson, a member of the first nine in 1866; Treadway; Whitney.

Click here for the club's prewar history.