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A Game of Inches Updates, Chapters 19-21
The nature of a book of firsts is that it is always a work in progress. Although A Game of Inches was published only last year, I have already
received and uncovered a great deal of new information. I encourage anyone who
has read the book to contact me with questions,
concerns, comments, updates, and corrections. A few simple corrections have been
made in new printings, but longer updates will have to wait for the next
edition. For now, I’ll be putting such updates to both volumes on these pages on
an ongoing basis, so check back frequently if interested.
Links to Updates to Other Chapters
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapters 4-5
Chapters 6-8
Chapter 9
Chapters 10-12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapters 15-17
Chapter 18
Chapters 22-26
CHAPTER 19: VARIANTS
19.11 Water
Baseball
The National Police Gazette of August 4, 1883,
mentioned a game of baseball in water being played in Baltimore, though it
didn’t provide details.
CHAPTER 20: INCLUSION
20.1.7 African-American Major Leaguers
Under Bumpus Jones, I want to cite Chris Rainey’s fine
biographical sketch of him, which can be read
here.
I want to add this paragraph to the end: “When Jackie
Robinson finally became the first acknowledged African-American to play in the
white major leagues in over six decades, it was no accident that he too was a
collegian. Negro League great Buck Leonard, for example, was initially dismayed
that Robinson had been selected for the role because he believed that other
African-Americans were better ballplayers. But Leonard came to realize that
Robinson’s college background was a great asset, making him better prepared for
a hostile environment while also making it harder for racists to dismiss him
with stereotypes (Brad Snyder, Beyond the Shadow of the Senators, 231;
John Holway, Voices from the Great Black Baseball Leagues, 267).”
20.1.8 African-American Tours
This sentence will be inserted after the first one: “That
same year the Pythians of Philadelphia traveled to Washington, D.C., for a
couple of matches.”
20.1.9 Color Line
In the eighth paragraph, the words “such as John B. Foster
would draw attention to the tacit agreement” will be replaced with:
“raised the issue. Talk in 1886 that the New York National
League club would sign African-American pitcher George Stovey prompted one
scribe to wonder, ‘would the League permit his appearance in League championship
games?’ (Sporting Life, September 8, 1886; quoted in Mike Roer, Orator
O’Rourke, 138). Nine years later, John B. Foster added,”
I plan to replace the third and fourth paragraphs from the
end with these revised ones: “By the 1930s, the myth that there was no color
line in baseball was becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. This was not
for want of trying; White Sox President J. Louis Comiskey seemed to be reading
from the same script as Halas when he maintained ‘the question … has never
crossed my mind. Had some good player come along and my manager refused to sign
him because he was a Negro I am sure I would have taken action or attempted to
do so, although it is not up to me to change what might be the rule. I cannot
say that I would have insisted on hiring the player over the protest of my
manager, but at least I would have taken some steps – just which steps I cannot
say for the simple reason the question has never confronted me’ (Philadelphia
Tribune, March 9, 1933; quoted in Neil Lanctot, Negro League Baseball,
223-224).
“Yet no matter how adamantly the owners stuck to their story, the
success that barnstorming Negro League clubs had against white clubs could not
be explained away. Even after efforts were made to reduce such games, the
questions persisted. When reporters pressed the question, a few Negro League
stars were given sham tryouts (Jules Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment,
30-46). But no strategy could continue to obscure the increasingly obvious fact
that baseball had a color line.”
20.1.16 African-American Umpires
I need to mention that a African-American ballplayer named
Harry Herbert umpired one game in the Connecticut State League in 1898 (Mike
Roer, Orator O’Rourke, 217).
I’ll add this to the end of the second paragraph: “The long
delay before Ashford’s promotion caused considerable press commentary, and this
pressure likely had a lot to do with his belated ascension to the American
League (Mark Armour, “Emmett Ashford,” National Pastime 27 (2007),
55-56).”
20.1.19 White in Negro Leagues
I need to cite Larry Gerlach’s article on Klep – “Baseball’s
other ‘great experiment’: Eddie Klep and the integration of the Negro leagues,”
Journal of Sport History (25): 453–481 – which did much to correct
inaccurate statements about Klep that appear in other sources.
I also need to add to the end: “Four years later, two more
white players, Louis Clarizio and Louis Chirban, played for the Chicago American
Giants (Neil Lanctot, Negro League Baseball, 354).”
20.2.2 Women Players
I’d like to add this description: “During the initial game
in New York between the Blondes and Brunettes, Miss Lyle tried to scoop up a
ball on the short bound. She was slightly off in her calculations, and the ball
slipped up under her skirt. She squirmed around like an eel in her frantic
efforts to dislodge it, to the great amusement of the spectators. Seeing that
she could not shake it out she squatted on her cushion and fished it out with
her hand, while the crowd were convulsed with laughter.” (National Police
Gazette, October 13, 1883)
20.2.17 African-American Women
I intend to add something about the reality that, although
these women were talented athletes, they were hired because of being terrific
gate attractions rather than strictly on merit. The issue is covered well in
Alan Pollock’s Barnstorming to Heaven, especially pages 112 and 244, and
in Neil Lanctot’s Negro League Baseball, pages 382-383.
20.2.3 Women in Organized Baseball
In the second paragraph, I plan to add this after the
second sentence: “A game account in the Reading Eagle gave a lengthy description
of her appearance, noting her ‘gray uniform with skirt coming to the knees,
black stockings and a jaunty cap. Her hair was not cropped short, but was done
up in the latest fashion.’ The Eagle’s reporter was far less impressed with her
pitching, commenting ‘She, of course, hasn’t the struggle to get much speed on
and has poor control. But, for a woman, she is a success.’” Then I’ll change
Dunlap’s name to “Frances ‘Sonny’ Dunlap.” Finally, I’ll add this citation at
the end of the paragraph: “Women Players in Organized Baseball,” Baseball
Research Journal 1983, 157-161.
20.3.1 Jewish Major Leaguers
This will be added to the end: “Nonetheless, Jewish major
leaguers remained rare in the nineteenth century. In 1897, O. P Caylor wrote,
‘When [Danny] Friend made his appearance with the Chicagos in 1895, it was
generally believed and so understood that he was a Hebrew. I took occasion then
to call attention to the fact that the Jew in professional baseball playing, in
spite of the remunerative returns, had never been an element of competition with
the Irish and Germans. Friend promptly denied that he was a Hebrew, and that
reduced the case to one in which no member of the Jewish race ever attained
prominence as a ball player. Why it is so none has ever tried to explain. It
may be that the indolent life of the diamond is not in accord with the
constantly active ways of the true Hebrew (Philadelphia North American,
March 25, 1897).”
20.3.2 Hispanic Major Leaguers
I need to revise the entry to reflect that Lou Castro was
born in Colombia.
I should also note that Mike Gonzalez filled in as a
manager in the major leagues on a couple of occasions.
20.3.3 Native American Major Leaguers
I need to note that there is doubt about whether James Toy
was indeed a Native American. Lee Allen described him as such on the basis of
Toy’s nephew’s claim that Toy was a Sioux Indian. Ed Rice assesses the merits
of this claim on pages 26-30 of his book Baseball’s First Indian and
finds that there is no conclusive evidence supporting the nephew’s assertion.
That does not, however, necessarily mean that Toy did not have Native American
blood. Toy’s mother, who raised him, was unquestionably white, but his father
either died or left the family when the ballplayer was very young and his
identity remains unclear. So it remains quite possible that the nephew’s claim
was correct. In any event, neither Toy nor Sockalexis was the first Native
American to play major league baseball, as Oran and Visner preceded both of
them.
20.3.5 Deaf Major Leaguers
I’ll reword the second sentence, replacing “the extent of
his hearing loss is not entirely clear” with “his hearing loss was not total”
and adding this additional source: “Paul Hines, who has been with the Providence
Club five years, and who is very deaf, has overcome his infirmity in a measure
by means of an acoustic cane.” (St. Louis Globe-Democrat, March 25, 1883)
And an additional source for Allison is an 1879 note that
he “has grown deaf and infirm” (St. Louis Globe-Democrat, July 27, 1879,
3)
I will also mention another candidate – Civil War veteran
William Craver, whose 1892 pension application reported that he was “almost
wholly unable to earn a support by manual labor by reason of left hand crippled
– deafness proceeding from yellow fever.” (Craver’s Hall of Fame clipping file,
Craver’s invalid pension, June 28, 1892)
21.2 Ticket Takers
An addition to the end: “Alan Pollock noted that the
Indianapolis Clowns, the legendary mid-twentieth-century African-American
barnstorming team, sometimes revived this practice – especially when they
suspected they were not getting their fair share of the gate receipts (Alan
Pollock, Barnstorming to Heaven, 62).”
21.3 Ushers
I’ll probably add this to the end: “Richard Bak claims that
it was only after Ty Cobb went into the stands during a 1912 game to attack a
heckler that it became standard for all major league parks to employ ushers
(Richard Bak, Peach, 93-94).”
21.5 Official Scorers
I want to add something to the end along these lines:
“Indeed the attention devoted to the official scorer during the nineteenth
century often seems wildly disproportionate. For example, National League
owners had countless important issues to discuss following the completion of the
league’s first season in 1876. At their annual meetings, they faced such
crucial issues as whether to expel the New York and Philadelphia entries,
whether to replace those franchises, devising the first schedule, and fixing the
problems caused by hometown umpires. And yet press accounts of the meeting made
it sound as though standardized scoring was one of the owners’ greatest concerns
(Chicago Tribune, December 10, 1876, 7).
“This preoccupation seems remarkably short-sighted and yet perhaps
it wasn’t. After all, baseball’s unparalleled statistical record is the direct
result of this early emphasis on standard practices – and it may even be argued
that taking this issue so seriously is responsible for the allegiance of all of
the fans who delight in baseball statistics. In any event, baseball continued
to make the official scorer a priority and in 1897 National League President
Nick Young began appointing all official scorers, a move that was hailed as a
‘change [that] will give the players some sort of justice’ (Chicago Tribune,
March 10, 1897, 8).”
21.8 Batting Practice Pitchers
I want to add a reference to
my
biographical profile of Grampp.
I should have been more emphatic about my disagreement with Wright and Nadel’s claim that
Grampp was ambidextrous – in fact, all the evidence I’ve found contradicts their
assertion.
21.10 Trainers
Quite a few additions:
I want to say a bit more about the use of trainers during
the 1880s in other sports, especially boxing, horse racing, cycling and track
and field.
According to Larry Lupo, the Metropolitans had a trainer in
1886 (Larry Lupo, When the Mets Played Baseball on Staten Island, 86).
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on May 4, 1887
that Tom Taylor – who was described as the brother of boxer Steve Taylor – had
been “engage to train and look after the arms of the Philadelphia Club’s
pitchers.” The St. Louis Globe-Democrat provided this intriguing
description of his work a few days later: “One of the unique characters who
distinguish the Philadelphia club is an enthusiastic person named Tom Taylor. He
is the attendant, or, as he calls himself, the ‘trainer,’ of the Philadelphia
players. He looks after their wants on and off the field, rubs them down, and
evidently considers himself an indispensable part of the club’s equipment. He
sits on the players' bench during all the games and watches every point with the
absorbed attention of a devotee. He is usually accompanied by a big kit of
bottles, surgical instruments, and other articles of more or less utility, and
the players apparently have implicit confidence in Tom’s judgment, or perhaps it
is that they regard their enthusiastic admirer as a mascot.” (St. Louis
Globe-Democrat, May 15, 1887, 8)
And here’s another intriguing note from 1887: “President
Von der Ahe was not slow to emulate the example set by Manager Schmelz, says the
Cincinnati Enquirer, and every member of the St. Louis Browns has had
work in the gymnasium. Indeed, Von der Ahe was really the first man to bring
this style of preliminary work into prominence. He fitted up a nice gymnasium
on his grounds in the spring of 1885, and hired a competent instructor. The men
were not allowed to shirk but were compelled to go through a rigid course of
training for an hour and a half every day. They were kept at it for nearly
three weeks, and at the end of that time were as ‘hard as nails.’ Other teams
may have taken gymnastic practice, but it was not of the thorough and systematic
kind insisted upon by President Von der Ahe. What was the consequence? The St.
Louis Browns came on the field in elegant condition, ready to play ball from the
start, while most of their opponents were heavy in flesh and sore from what
little exercise they had taken. They were but pygmies in comparison with the
finely trained Browns, and in consequence St. Louis had practically a walk-over
for the championship. The lesson of 1885 was not lost in 1886, and the
following spring found the Browns down to gym work under the same professor.
Other managers had by this time dropped to the fact that preliminary practice
was a good thing, and some of them went through the form of getting their men
into shape. Taking baths in a gym and playing hearts and cent-ante are not
calculated to do much good, and while the players in most of the teams were
fooling away there [sic] time Von der Ahe’s aggregation were working really
hard. The consequence was that the St. Louis Browns once more had the best of
it, and again walked away with the pennant. This year every team in the
American association was hard at work in the different gyms, and the writer
ventures the prediction that if St. Louis is once again successful in the race
it will not be until one of the hardest fights ever witnessed in the history of
the national game. The championship race of the American association will be a
close one this season, or the writer is badly mistaken.” (Rocky Mountain News,
(Denver, CO), April 13, 1887, 10) Based on this, it seems likely that many
teams were employing trainers during off-season workouts by this time, but that
it took longer for most to believe it worth hiring one year-round.
“President Freedman, of the New York Club, has hit upon a
plan to keep his players in good physical condition next season. He says ‘I
intend to engage a professional trainer next season, whose sole duty will be to
look after the condition of the players. If any of them violate the rules of
the club, he will know of it, and when he says a player has got out of shape
because of dissipation, the player will be immediately suspended without pay.
The trainer will travel with the team and have absolute charge of the condition
of the men. There will also be a manager, who will have power to govern the
playing of the team according to his own ideas. There will be no more drinking
and carousing, for such offenders will be severely dealt with.” (“Here’s A New
Wrinkle,” Chicago Inter-Ocean, October 6, 1895, 10) The article went on
to say that no trainer had as yet been engaged, but that Billy Newman had been
highly recommended.
Finally, I’ll add this to the end: “Harrison ‘Doc’ Weaver,
trainer for the Gashouse Gang Cardinals, signed autograph requests for the
players. At least in that instance it could be argued that the task was related
to Weaver’s job duties since it reduced the arm strain on his players (Gene
Karst, “The Great Days, The Great Stars,” National Pastime 2 (Fall 1982),
50).”
21.11 Team Doctors
The indefatigable Cliff Blau directed me to an article in
the Brooklyn Eagle on June 25, 1888, that mentioned that Brooklyn
president Charles Byrne had “sent Dr. McLane this morning to Philadelphia to see
how [Dave] Orr was.”
21.12 Public Address Announcers
I want to say a little more about Pat Pieper, who was a
fascinating character. Pieper was seventeen when he started working for the
Cubs in 1904 as a popcorn vendor. He was still working as a peanut vendor in
1916 when he heard that the team’s announcer had quit, so he stopped owner
Charles Weeghman for a trial. Weeghman was bemused but he obliged and was
impressed enough to give Pieper the job. For the next six years he used a
three-pound megaphone to keep Cubs’ fans up-to-date on what was going on. It
was not easy work – as he later recalled, “I used to have to run up and down the
foul lines with my megaphone to make any kind of announcement. On some of those
hot Wrigley Field days, I’d lose six or eight pounds.” (Chicago Tribune,
February 18, 1971, E4) In 1922, he switched to a more powerful but less
portable fourteen-pound megaphone and in 1932 he began using a p.a. system. (Chicago
Tribune, September 18, 1940, 23; Chicago Tribune, August 30, 1953,
D7)
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