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GATE CITY BASE BALL CLUB OF ATLANTA
The Gate City Base
Ball Club of Atlanta was formed in 1867, making it one of the first prominent
Southern clubs. The Gate City Club also played an important role in spreading
baseball to other parts of Georgia and to other Southern cities. Unfortunately,
contemporary accounts of the club’s doings are very difficult to come by, but
later accounts leave us with an intriguing glimpse into this pioneer club.
According to Atlanta
journalist and early ballplayer Smith Clayton, the city’s first ball club was
known as the Atlanta Base Ball Club and it began to play in 1866. The city was
familiar with the “time-honored pastime of townball or bull pen” but baseball
was a novelty. As a result, fielders often forgot themselves and threw the ball
at the base-runners, while there was great excitement “when by accident the
catcher would take a foul on the bound.” (Smith Clayton, “After 22 Years,”
Atlanta Constitution, May 27, 1888, 5)
Nevertheless, baseball fever soon swept Atlanta. The city’s baseball pioneers
discovered a plot of vacant land near the Oakland Cemetery that was ideally
suited for their needs – the field was covered “with a carpet of short, green
grass” and “surrounded by a grove of stout young oaks.” (Smith Clayton, “After
22 Years,” Atlanta Constitution, May 27, 1888, 5; Smith Clayton, “By Way
of As You Like It,” Atlanta Constitution, September 15, 1911, 8) They
began practicing there and in no time “hundreds of people [were] flocking to the
grounds three afternoons in the week to see the gentlemen blister their white
hands in the effort to stop the ball and wear themselves into absolute
exhaustion in running from base to base.” (Smith Clayton, “After 22 Years,”
Atlanta Constitution, May 27, 1888, 5)
The excitement
spawned the birth of a rival known as the Gate City Base Ball Club. The new
club practiced for a few weeks and held a “dress rehearsal” to get used to their
new uniforms, which consisted of “light blue knee pants with a broad red stripe,
orange shirts, and black glazed military caps.” Then Robert Dohme, the captain
of the Gate City Club, boldly challenged the Atlanta Base Ball Club.
The historic match
was scheduled for May 18, 1866, and there was great anticipation as the big day
approached. “The public were paralyzed,” recalled Clayton, “at the audacity of
the Gate Citys in calling the great Atlantas out and were filled with profound
pity for the daring youngsters. For many days before the match it was the
universal theme of conversation. So great was the interest felt that men
neglected their business, and gathered in groups on the street corners to
discuss the great event and to utter profuse predictions concerning the
disastrous defeat that was sure to befall Captain Dohme and his men.”
When game day
finally arrived, the weather was perfect and a huge throng turned out. There
was no seating at the grounds at all, except for a huge arm chair for the umpire
and stray chairs for the players to share. But that didn’t deter the
spectators, and “By ten o’clock the people began pouring out to the ball
ground. The wealth, beauty and fashion of Atlanta rolled out in carriages, and
the rest of the populace took it afoot, for there were no street cars in those
days. It was strictly a free show, and by two o’clock the grounds were
encircled by cordons of carriages, several deep, the grove was densely crowded
with pedestrians and the trees overhead were alive with human beings.” The time
finally came for the players to make their appearance and they did so in style
-- “Presently, music was heard in the distance and pretty soon the two nines
marched upon the field headed by a colored brass band.”
The game turned out
to be as lopsided as everyone expected but it was not the Gate City Club that
ended up at a short end. The newly formed club counted 25 runs in the first
inning alone, while the Atlantas were puzzled by the slow twisters of Gate City
pitcher Jimmy Gregg, which “started as if going just where the hitter wanted it,
and would then fly up under his chin or curl around his feet or zig-zag out into
the sociable crowd.” It took the Atlanta Club most of the game to match the
first-inning output of the Gate Citys, with the final score a staggering
127-29. In spite of the one-sided score and the four and a half hours it took
to play the game, the excitement over the match was so great that the crowd
stayed until the very end.
The Atlanta Base
Ball Club was demoralized by the trouncing and soon disbanded. By contrast, the
exultant Gate Citys took the ceremonial ball presented at the match’s conclusion
and “covered it with gilt, on which was written in black letters the date of the
memorable match and the name of the club from which it was won, and placed it in
Taylor’s drug store on exhibition. People would go in there and look at that
ball as if it was some great man lying in state.” (Smith Clayton, “After 22
Years,” Atlanta Constitution, May 27, 1888, 5)
The spoils of the
historic match went to the victors in more ways than one. The Gate City Club
also inherited the splendid ball field of their now-defunct rivals and began
issuing challenges to the clubs that had sprung up in other Southern cities.
While dates and scores are not available, Clayton maintained that the Gate City
Club won nine matches before their first defeat. (Smith Clayton, “After 22
Years,” Atlanta Constitution, May 27, 1888, 5) Over the next few years,
the club won thirty-six ceremonial balls that “glazed with gold and bore the
date of the match game in which captured, and where played” along with “several
trophy bats of exquisite workmanship.” (Smith Clayton, “By Way of As You Like
It,” Atlanta Constitution, September 15, 1911, 8)
An exact list of
opponents is also unavailable, but the accounts we do have suggest that baseball
had spread to a significant number of Southern cities. Clayton reported that
the vanquished clubs represented such cities as Chattanooga, Augusta, Macon,
Savannah, Columbus and Montgomery. (Smith Clayton, “After 22 Years,” Atlanta
Constitution, May 27, 1888, 5) A 1906 article also cited wins over clubs
from Mobile, New Orleans, Rome, Columbia, Charleston and Richmond. (Gordon Noel
Hurtel, Atlanta Constitution, October 21, 1906, C2)
In addition, Clayton
believed that the Gate City Club’s greatest match was one played in Knoxville on
July 4, 1866. The host Holston Club had “sworn to down the Gate Citys. Several
hundred people went up from Atlanta to see the game. The Holstons had
everything fixed up for a grand ball, which they proposed to give the night
after the game to celebrate their grand victory over Atlanta. The Gate Citys
got to Knoxville, and were treated most royally by the Holstons before the
game. They were wined and dined world without end. The game was played before
nearly 10,000 people. It was the most stoutly contested game ever played in
Tennessee. It was not decided until the last inning, when the Gate City got
there. The score was 21 to 19, and although professionals may smile, for those
times it was a superb fight. The Holstons were so chagrined at their defeat,
that none of them spoke to the visiting players after the game. They
countermanded the order for the ball that night – and refused to have anything
whatever to do with the great Atlanta team ever after.”
Fortunately, the young women of Knoxville were more gracious to their guests. A
Miss Laura Baxter had baked a cake to present to the winners and she presented
it to the Gate City Club as promised. (Smith Clayton, “After 22 Years,”
Atlanta Constitution, May 27, 1888, 5)
Another memorable
victory came against a club from Chattanooga. The match went on “pretty much
all day” and Smith Clayton, who was not yet a member of the club, missed his
dinner in order to watch until the end. But he felt amply compensated when the
hometown heroes emerged triumphant by the count of 86 to 27. (Smith Clayton, “By
Way of As You Like It,” Atlanta Constitution, September 15, 1911, 8)
The success of the
Gate City Club was all the more sweet because the club “was composed of young
men who belonged to the best families in the city, and who played ball for
glory.” As Gordon Noel Hurtel, would put it, “It was no hired team, playing
for money, but it was composed of loyal citizens who played ball from pure
patriotic motives. At that time nearly every city in the south had a local
baseball team, and they played for ‘blood,’ as was said. No games were thrown
away; there was no juggling with the umpire; no money was charged to see the
games, and every player was prompted by a loyal desire to see his native city
win out.” (Gordon Noel Hurtel, Atlanta Constitution, October 21, 1906,
C2)
As a result,
baseball interest in Atlanta remained at fever pitch. According to Hurtel, at
the home games of the Gate City Club, “Ladies crowded the grounds and wore the
team colors as is now done in football.” (Gordon Noel Hurtel, Atlanta
Constitution, October 21, 1906, C2) Clayton confirmed, “There was the local
fire, the corps d’esprit, in those days, real town against town, and maybe the
fans were not something fierce.” (Smith Clayton, “By Way of As You Like It,”
Atlanta Constitution, September 15, 1911, 8)
The unbroken string
of triumphs eventually came to an end. In 1867, a University of Georgia student
named J. H. Rucker organized a college nine named the Dixies and boldly
challenged the Gate City nine. The first match, played on the day before
Christmas in 1867 resulted in a comfortable win for the Atlanta side. But a
rematch followed in Athens in August of 1868 and “so great was the interest
taken in the game that the commencement exercises, which were to have been held
in the chapel that afternoon, were suspended for lack of an audience. To the
great amazement of the Gate City club, the Dixie club was victorious in this
game by the score of 51 to 14.” (D. G. Bickers, “History of First Georgia
Baseball and Football Teams; Some Famous Stars,” Atlanta Constitution,
May 30, 1915, C14)
It appears that a
club from Griffin, Georgia, may have also beaten the Gate Citys, although again
the lack of contemporary accounts makes it difficult to be sure of how often or
by whom the club was defeated. (“Steve Grady Remembers Macon-Atlanta Battle on
Brisbine Diamond,” Atlanta Constitution, November 30, 1919, A2) More
important, by this time, many of the original club members were moving on with
their lives and devoting their time and attention to more pressing matters.
According to Smith Clayton, the Gate City “original nine were never defeated.
They would have won the game at Athens but for the fact that they played with
several of their second nine.” Clayton knew whereof he spoke because he took
Bob Dohme’s place at shortstop for that game (with Dohme instead umpiring) and
“did not stop a ball.” (Smith Clayton, “After 22 Years,” Atlanta Constitution,
May 27, 1888, 5)
The Gate City Base
Ball Club endured long enough to collect thirty-six ceremonial balls, but
eventually faded out of existence. In the elegiac words of Hurtel, “Then came
the day when paid ball teams took the place of the volunteer clubs, just as paid
fire departments caused the passing of the old volunteer fire fighters. Maybe
it gave the people more scientific ball, but it surely witnessed the decadence
of a sport that had far more to recommend it than that in which aliens and
hirelings bear the city’s name and battle for her prestige.” (Gordon Noel Hurtel,
Atlanta Constitution, October 21, 1906, C2)
MEMBERS
Hugh Angier: Hugh
Angier was not an original member of the Gate City nine, but became the club’s
left fielder and was included in an 1867 photograph of the nine. Unfortunately,
there were two men of the same age named Hugh Angier in Atlanta at the same
time. The former member of the Gate City was reported to be alive in 1906, so
he was likely an Atlanta civil engineer who eventually moved to Naples and was
still living there in 1926.
Willis Robert
Biggers: Willis Biggers was born on January 17, 1846, the son of a physician.
He was the first chief of the Atlanta fire department after the war and was a
lieutenant in the Gate City Guard. He was subsequently elected city clerk but
contracted tuberculosis and died in Atlanta on June 25, 1882.
George S. Cassin:
According to Clayton, George Cassin was “a born catcher. He was quick as
lightning and active as a cat, and would often play right up under the bat; and
he could throw to second like a shot out of a shovel, often getting the ball to
Biggers before the runner measured half the ground from first. But the trouble
was that Biggers couldn’t always hold ’em, and when they passed him, as they
frequently did, they would be sure to give the center fielder a long chase among
the carriages on the hill.” Cassin was born around 1849 in South Carolina and
became a physician. He was also member of volunteer fire department and became
very active in local politics, serving on the board of education. Cassin was
seriously injured in 1892 when a cable fell on his head and knocked him
unconscious. He apparently recovered, but when he died in Atlanta on December
10, 1897, some blamed the accident for his death and a lawsuit ensued.
Smith A. Clayton:
Smith Clayton was not an original member of the Gate City Club, but most of what
we know about the club comes from his reminiscences. He was born in December of
1850, the son of an Atlanta judge. He became a club member in 1868, but blamed
his poor play at shortstop for the Gate Citys’ first loss at the hands of the
club from the University of Georgia. Clayton himself then attended the
University of Georgia and became a reporter, working for the Atlanta Journal
and later for the Atlanta Constitution. He mostly wrote feature
articles. Clayton never married and around 1913 his failing health forced him
to retire. He died in April of 1916 at a Home for Incurables.
John W. Collier:
Gate City center field John Collier was born on September 6, 1846, in Decatur,
Georgia. The family moved to Atlanta at two, where his father, Judge John
Collier, helped craft the city charter. The younger John Collier acted as a
courier for General Lucius Gartrell during the war. After the war, he joined
the Gate City Club, while his brother Charlie was a member of the Dixie Club
that gave the Gate Citys their frist defeat. Charlie later became mayor of
Atlanta, while John W. Collier became an auditor in the city comptroller’s
office. He still held that position when he died in Atlanta on April 25, 1910.
Robert Dohme: Bob
Dohme was the shortstop and captain of the Gate City nine, and the club was so
closely identified with him that it was sometimes referred to as Dohme’s Gate
City Club. He was born in Germany in May of 1845, but his family moved to
Danville, Kentucky, when he was five. He fought in the Union Army but moved to
Atlanta after the war, remaining there for the rest of his life with the
exception of a few years in Rome, Georgia. For almost of that time he was a
grocer, being one of the principals of the Dohme and Duffy Gate City Tea and
Coffee Company on Whitehall Street and later of a grocery called Dohme &
Corrigan. He sold the latter business in 1902 and died in Atlanta on July 2,
1904, of Bright’s Disease, having outlived two wives.
Jimmy Gregg: Jimmy
Gregg was the pitcher of the Gate City Club and his twist deliveries baffled
opposing batters. But there was no man by that name in the census in Atlanta,
so his identity remains just as baffling.
Tom Johnson: Tom
Johnson was the club’s third baseman and best hitter. Clayton described him as
“the hitter en grande. He rarely failed to knock the ball over the fielders’
heads, and very often he would lift it over the carriages and the umpire would
have to call time until the relays of small boys could get it back to the
fielders. Tom never swung his bat, but seemed just to tap the ball in a sharp,
quick way.” He became famed for his home runs and according to Clayton, he hit
a ball in a game in Chattanooga that was not found until two weeks later and
then was determined to have traveled “a quarter of a mile to the inch.” Tom
Johnson appears to have been a military man, but his common name has made him
difficult to firmly identify.
William N. Judson:
Bill Judson was born on August 19, 1843, in Warrenton, Georgia. By 1860, his
father, a marble dealer, had moved the family to Atlanta, where their neighbors
included fellow Gate City club member George Cassin. Bill Judson enlisted as a
Confederate soldier in the 9th Georgia Battalion Artillery, being captured at
the Cumberland Gap and spending eighteen months as a prisoner at Camp Douglas.
After the war, he became a physician and set up an Atlanta practice with Dr.
John and Willis Westmoreland. He died on August 14, 1893 in Indian Springs,
Georgia.
William C. Sparks:
Bill Sparks played right field for the Gate Citys in their first game, but
afterward “was promoted to first base, which he played as no man has ever played
it since. He could pick up the swiftest ball batted or thrown, with either his
right or left hand, right from the ground as easily as most professionals can
take a ball with both hands.” Born in Kentucky in 1848, Sparks was a butcher by
trade. Like many members of the Gate City Base Ball Club, he was active in
civic matters, serving as an early volunteer firefighter and as Captain of Gate
City Guard. He ran an Atlanta meat market for many years and as of 1912 was
reportedly the only member of the club who was still alive.
Reuben W. Tidwell:
Rube Tidwell was the only son of William de Graffenried Tidwell, who owned a
1,500-acre plantation in Meriwether and Coweta counties before the war. Reuben
was born on the plantation on December 30, 1840, and father and son both fought
in the Confederate Army and returned home to find the plantation destroyed.
William Tidwell did his best to build a new and much smaller plantation, while
his son moved to Atlanta and founded a successful wholesale and tobacco house.
Rube was not an original member of the Gate City nine but was included in an
1867 photograph of the nine. He married the sister of fellow club member Bill
Judson on September 20, 1868. He died on March 16, 1915.
Dick Williford:
Williford was the center fielder of the original nine, but his identity is a
complete mystery.
Sources: Smith
Clayton, “After 22 Years,” Atlanta Constitution, May 27, 1888, 5; Smith
Clayton, “By Way of As You Like It,” Atlanta Constitution, September 15,
1911, 8; D. G. Bickers, “History of First Georgia Baseball and Football Teams;
Some Famous Stars,” Atlanta Constitution, May 30, 1915, C14; E. C.
Bruffey, “Steve Grady Remembers Macon-Atlanta Battle on Brisbine Diamond,”
Atlanta Constitution, November 30, 1919, A2; untitled articles in the
Atlanta Constitution on July 22, 1884 and October 21, 1906, C2
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