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A Game of Inches Updates, Chapters 22-26
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 19-21
22.2.1 World Series
As another telling indicator of how little significance was
attached to the 1882 post-season series between Chicago and Cincinnati, David Fleitz notes that for the first game Chicago’s Cap Anson left Mike Kelly behind
in New York and stationed pitcher Larry Corcoran at shortstop, a position
Corcoran had not played all year. When Cincinnati won the first game, however,
Corcoran returned to the pitcher’s box for the second game! (David Fleitz,
Cap Anson, 104-105)
In the fifth paragraph, following the first sentence I’ll
add: “According to John J. O’Malley, the series was the brainchild of New York
manager James Mutrie, who issued the initial challenge (John J. O’Malley,
“Mutrie’s Mets of 1884,” National Pastime Spring 1985, 41).”
22.3.1 Trophies
I may also note in the first paragraph that a 1909 article
reported that two inscribed baseballs from 1858 were then in the possession of
Charles DeBost, who father had played for the Knickerbockers. The two balls
were inscribed with scores from the 1858 Brooklyn-New York City Fashion Course
series and “have odd one-piece covers the leather having been cut in four
semi-ovals still in one piece, the ovals shaped like the petals of a flower.” (Protoball
website; “Oldest Baseballs Bear Date of 1858,” unidentified newspaper clipping,
January 21, 1909, held in the origins of baseball file at the Giamatti Center at
the HOF)
I’ve now discovered conclusive evidence that the parian
vases were used for several years. The Chadwick Scrapbooks include an 1881
description of a parian vase, which was 3 feet, 3 inches tall. And an 1887
article reported that the vase had been received from Messrs. Ott and Brewer of
Trenton and was “as delicate and artistic as $500 could make it.” (Boston
Globe, October 3, 1887) So obviously DiClerico and Pavelec were not
mistaken about the year.
22.6.1 Interleague Play
An addition to the end of the first paragraph: “Bill Veeck
later claimed that his father’s last words were, ‘Push inter-league play, and
beware of [sportswriter] Westbrook Pegler’ (Lee Lowenfish, Branch Rickey,
410).”
22.6.2 Tripleheader
I should have mentioned where each game was played: the
1890 game was Pittsburgh at Brooklyn; the 1896 game, Louisville at Baltimore;
the 1920 game, Cincinnati at Pittsburgh.
And I’ll add this at the end of the first paragraph: “The
first two tripleheaders occurred on the Labor Day holiday, so one game was
played in the morning followed by an afternoon doubleheader. In the 1920
tripleheader, play started at noon and continued until darkness ended the third
game after six innings (A. D. Suehsdorf, “The Last Tripleheader,” Baseball
Research Journal 1980, 30-32).”
22.6.4 Triangular Doubleheader
In the second sentence, after “doubleheaders played,” I
intend to add “in the white major leagues” and then follow that with a couple of
sentences about how doubleheaders featuring three or four teams became a regular
practice in the Negro Leagues (citing Neil Lanctot, Negro League Baseball,
185-186).
22.6.5 Intercollegiate Match
I need to mention that a baseball club at New York
University was mentioned in Spirit of the Times on April 9, 1859.
I want to revise the last sentence. There was competition
for the college championship in the late 1870s, and teams were proclaimed (or
proclaimed themselves) champion. But there was no formal competition until the
Intercollegiate Base Ball Association was formed in December of 1879. (Troy Soos,
Before the Curse, 58)
23.1.3 Baseball Reporters
In addition, John Thorn informs me that William Bray
preceded Chadwick as the Clipper’s baseball and cricket reporter.
23.1.5 Interviews
While I still agree with Starr’s basic contention that the
interview genre developed in the 1860s, I’ve learned of some earlier
(non-baseball-related) instances from Patricia Cline Cohen’s The Murder of
Helen Jewett and from Brayton Harris’s Blue and Gray in Black and White:
Newspapers in the Civil War.
23.3.2 Taboos against Mentioning a No-hitter
Red Barber has some other interesting comment on this
subject in his book 1947: When All Hell Broke Loose, pages 224-226.
24.1.1 Tour
I want to include this quotation, which nicely speaks to
thee importance of the Excelsiors’ tours: “Another Brooklyn club that I recall
is the old Excelsior, to which base ball in this country owes more for its
establishment on a broad and firm foundation as a national sport than to any of
the clubs that were contemporary with it or that have followed it. It was the
Excelsior Club of Brooklyn that began those base ball tours through the country
that did so much to advance the popularity of the game. I speak here more
particularly of the New York and Brooklyn clubs of the later sixties because
fate dumped me in ‘them diggins’ after the war, but there are many old
Philadelphians whose memories, like my own, will go back to the visit of the
Excelsiors to this city in 1860. Unfortunately the seed sown by the Excelsiors
in those early tours was cast in stony places, for the war intervened and
consequently the years between 1861 and 1865 shone with less brilliancy than was
to be expected from the furor created all over the country by the Brooklyn boys
in those ante-bellum years.” (“By an Ex-Editor,” Philadelphia Inquirer,
July 16, 1893)
24.1.4 Team Buses
I want to give some meat to this entry by adding: “The
development was not a welcome one for the Negro League players who started to
rely upon them to criss-cross the country. As Donn Rogosin explained, early
buses were basically big cars with benches for seating, which made sleeping
extremely difficult. While they gradually became more comfortable, sleeping
during overnight trips remained a challenge. Veteran stars like Dave Malarcher
and Judy Johnson, accustomed to the comparative luxury of Pullman travel, could
not make the adjustment and retired (Donn Rogosin, Invisible Men, 77-78).
“The new form of transportation brought many other hardships. Clubs
began to put together grueling schedules and to travel unceasingly. Buses broke
down frequently, and the potential for accidents always loomed (Neil Lanctot,
Negro League Baseball, 154-155). Storage room was also in short supply on
early buses. According to his son, Syd Pollock bought one of the first buses
with enough storage to carry a full compliment of the team’s equipment in 1948
(Alan J. Pollock, Barnstorming to Heaven, 57).
“Despite these drawbacks, two basic realities ensured that they
would hitherto be an essential part of the experience of African-American
ballclubs. The first was the tremendous saving that they represented over train
travel. The second was that discrimination in the South meant that it could be
difficult to find lodging for African-Americans, and sleeping on the bus was too
often the only option available. Even when it wasn’t, sleeping on the bus was
another way for clubs in dire straits to economize.
“By World War II, buses had become so integral to the Negro Leagues
that the prospect of wartime restrictions on bus travel in 1943 posed a grave
threat. Negro American and National League officials lobbied long and hard for
an exemption, maintaining that the survival of their leagues was at stake. They
pointed out that their arduous travel schedules and the difficulty of finding
lodging in the South made buses a business necessity. Cum Posey went further,
implying that a denial of their request for an exemption would cause some to
conclude ‘They don’t allow Negros in white Organized Baseball, now they make it
impossible for them to play Baseball.’
“Initially the Office of Defense Transportation (ODT) denied their
pleas and the 1943 season started with both leagues again traveling by trains.
But soon the policy was reversed, with the Negro American League receiving an
exemption in June and the Negro National League obtaining one for the 1944
season. Similar requests by white minor leagues, however, were never granted –
ODT officials recognized that segregation made buses a necessity for the Negro
Leagues (Neil Lanctot, Negro League Baseball, 128-134).”
24.1.5 Automobiles
An addition to the end: “The development of station wagons
did, however, make cars a more practical means of transportation and the
Philadelphia Stars of the Negro American League responded by traveling in two
stations wagons (Neil Lanctot, Negro League Baseball, 378).”
24.1.9 Accidents
I’ll use this quotation from Henry Chadwick to illustrate
the statement in the first paragraph: “it has come to be that a ball team on
board a train amounts to a sort of mascotte for a safe journey, so seldom have
serious accidents occurred in baseball travelers.” (Chadwick Scrapbooks, 1891)
24.2.1 Preliminary Workouts
At the start of the third paragraph, I will add a
cross-reference to the new material being added to the entry on Batting Cages
(14.4.10).
24.2.2 Southern Tours
After the fourth paragraph, I plan to add this new one: “As
the 1880s wore on, baseball interest in the South increased dramatically.
Blondie Purcell organized barnstorming tours of the South by major leaguers
after the 1881 and 1882 seasons (National Police Gazette, October 7,
1882). The Southern League debuted in 1885 and was an immediate success. Major
league teams were quick to capitalize with preseason trips that proved
lucrative. Cincinnati made an especially successful tour before the 1888 season
–reportedly the entire trip cost the team $2,000, while revenues in New Orleans
alone amounted to $1,700 (Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 1, 1888).”
This will be added to the end: “Even so, some resistance to
the entire concept persisted. In a 1903 Sporting Life editorial, Francis
Richter noted that, ‘President Ban Johnson, of the American League, does not
think well of sending teams on long Southern trips for spring practice. In this
matter Mr. Johnson is not alone. Many magnates share his convictions on this
subject, though they send their teams South. They do this simply because some
pro-Southern managers set the pace; the rest follow unwillingly partly not to
give the roving teams any possible advantage and partly to avoid possible local
charges of needless economy.’ Richter predicted that such trips would
eventually end (Sporting Life, April 11, 1903).”
24.2.3 Training Camps
After the fourth paragraph: “Recognition of the value of
this practice spread quickly, as was noted in this article that appeared just
prior to the start of the 1887 season: ‘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).”
24.2.6 Steam Boxes
It turns out that Irwin actually tried to introduce steam
boxes two years earlier while managing Philadelphia, as is described in this
article: “Manager Irwin has a scheme to reduce weight in ball players, which he
proposes to try on the members of the team. He is going to put sweat boxes at
the grounds. The boxes will be heated by steam, and will be low enough to allow
a man’s head to project when in a sitting position, thus avoiding the injurious
effect of breathing the foul air of the sweat box. A man to rub the players
down after their sweat will be engaged, and in this way it is hoped to get the
heavy-weight members of the team into something like condition by the opening of
the season. These vapor baths are highly commended by trainer Will Bryan, of
the Pennsylvania University, who introduced them at the University with markedly
beneficial effects upon the foot ball candidates.” (Sporting Life,
January 13, 1894)
I also found this contemporary mention of Irwin’s attempt
to introduce them to the Giants: “Arthur Irwin will introduce his little joker –
the sweat box – to the Giants. Amos Rusie will be kept in it a week and ‘Sir
Artie’ will see that the fat boy is fed regularly during the revived
inquisition.” (Sporting News, December 14, 1895)
CHAPTER 26: MISCELLANEOUS
26.1.1 Beards and Moustaches
The exact date of the game in which Anson wore the fake
beard was September 4, 1891.
I’ll add this to the end of the fourth paragraph: “The
following year, Boston repaid the favor. At the suggestion of former White
Stocking Mike Kelly, most of the Boston players donned fake whiskers and amusing
costumes for their July 11, 1892, game against Chicago (“King Kelly’s Costume
Caper,” Baseball Research Journal 1977, 143-144).”
26.1.2 Glasses
I need to do more to stress that much of the resistance was
because early glasses were very unsuitable for strenuous movement of any kind.
Toward this end, I’ll probably mention that pitcher Carmen Hill broke his
glasses during a game on September 27, 1927, and had to be replaced. (Stuart
Shea, Wrigley Field, 120)
Cliff Blau found an intriguing note in the Baltimore Sun
on May 7, 1897, that mentioned that John McGraw had told the umpire that since
Sam Thompson wasn’t playing and didn’t need his glasses, perhaps the umpire
should wear them. I’m surprised by this note, since my strong sense is that the
idea of an athlete wearing glasses would still have been considered very
noteworthy in 1897. And to date I haven’t found any other references to
Thompson wearing glasses, as I would have expected to be the case. So I can’t
help wondering if there is some other explanation, such as that he was in fact
wearing sunglasses and McGraw was stretching to make his point/insult.
26.5.5 Death Resulting from a Professional Game
I may expand this entry to mention some other deaths:
Researcher George A. Thompson discovered that a player
named Thomas Willis died as results of injuries suffered at Hoboken’s Elysian
Fields in 1859. While chasing a ball that rolled into a hollow, Willis slipped
and struck his head on a sharp rock, fracturing his skull. (New York Evening
Express, October 22, 1859, 3; New York Times, October 22, 1859, 8)
Brian McKenna suggested that I mention that fans have
occasionally died from bleacher collapses during games, including an incident
following a May 1, 1884, game in Cincinnati in which one fan was killed and
twelve injured.
Mention could also be made of the fatal on-field heart
attacks suffered by Negro League player Clyde Nelson during a 1947 game (Alan
Pollock, Barnstorming to Heaven, 157-159), and by National League umpire
John McSherry on April 1, 1996.
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 19-21
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