SABR Lecture on 19th Century Base Ball in Kentucky

This morning I had the privilege to talk with members of the newly formed Lexington Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) about 19th Century Kentucky Base Ball. Videos of the discussion and subsequent Q&A session are provided below and available on YouTube by searching "SABR Lecture on 19th Century Base Ball in Kentucky."

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Information on the Sweet Lou Johnson Lexington Chapter of SABR can be found on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/sweetloujohnsonlexington.

SABR Sweet Lou Johnson Lexington Chapter's Next Meeting

Day: Thursday, May 17

Time: 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Location: Lexington Public Library Eastside Branch, 3000 Blake James Drive Lexington, KY 40509

The '88 Colonels-Exhibitions Begin

In the days before all teams went south for spring training, clubs often played local or minor league nines to get into shape for the coming campaign.

The beginning of April 1888 saw the resumption of base ball activities in the Falls City. On April 1, the Memphis Club of the minor league Southern League made April Fools of the Colonels, defeating them 8-6.

John Ewing pitched for the Memphis club, and his curve ball gave Louisville fits all afternoon. The Courier-Journal bemoaned the "inability of Louisville batters to hit at the proper time the swift curves delivered by Ewing." The Louisville paper complimented the 25 year-old's skill, stating he struck out seven and fielded the position well. The Courier-Journal stated John Ewing had the potential to be as good a player as his brother Buck Ewing.

Buck Ewing was one of the finest players of the 19th Century, playing a multitude of positions, and playing all of them well. His best renown came as a catcher for the New York Giants, had a career 47.6 Wins Above Replacement (WAR), one of the best of the decade. His exemplary play led him to the Hall of Fame in 1939.

Time would tell if John could match his brother Buck and Louisville would hear more from him later on in 1888. But on this day, he did quite well.

The local press tried minimizing the defeat of the Derby City nine, as the Courier-Journal stated,"the playing yesterday should not be taken as an example of what the Louisville team can do." The the paper said Colonels took little to no outdoor practice at this point in the season, while the Memphis club had a few weeks worth of outdoor practice in order to shake off the rust of a long winter's layoff.

According to the Courier-Journal, the Memphis Nine included Davy Force, a stalwart second baseman, third baseman, and shortstop of both the National Association and the National League. Force began his professional career in 1871 with the Washington Olympics of the National Association. Historians consider the National Association baseball's first professional league and Force lasted the entirety of its existence from 1871 to 1875. The Association died after the 1875 season, and Force joined the NL after its founding. He spent the bulk of his time there playing for the Buffalo club. His career in the NL ended in 1886. Like many players then and now, he apparently didn't stop when his time in the show ended. Against Louisville, Force collected one hit in five and played shortstop and right field.

Louisville's star, Pete Browning, didn't take the field against Memphis.

The first game didn't go well, but baseball's a daily game, and the next days brought success to the Colonel nine.

On April 3, The Colonels played a local amateur nine called the Deppens and decisively defeated them, 9-0. Louisville pitching walked nine, but struck out ten. Outfielder Hub Collins went 3 for 5 and Louisville committed no errors (a rare occurrence in this era). Pete Browning made his first appearance in this game, going 1-5.

The next day, Louisville soundly defeated the Deppens again, this time neither team played as tightly, as the Colonels won 19-9. The solid defense of the day previous didn't hold, as both teams gave up only four earned runs a piece.

The Courier-Journal advertised a visit by the defending National League champion Detroit Wolverines in games for Saturday, April 7 and Monday, April 9.

A good crowd of 2,000 showed up on Saturday April 7, but didn't get a chance to see the Wolverines square off against the Colonels. A train accident in Nashville prevented Detroit from making it to Louisville on time. As fortune would have it, the St. Paul Apostles of the Western Association arrived in Louisville from Cincinnati and agreed to play the Colonels and satisfy the crowd with a game (and ensure a pay day for both clubs).

Louisville handled the Apostles with relative ease, 11-3. Browning paced the Colonel attack, going 3-5 with two doubles and one single. Pitcher Toad Ramsey scattered five hits. It's safe to say the Louisville fans went home happy, even if they didn't see the NL champs.

Louisville still had rust to knock off in advance of a difficult AA season, but they'd generally played well, even if it wasn't against big league competition. The biggest challenges laid ahead.

Resources for this post came from articles in the Courier-Journal from April 2, April 4, April 5, and April 8, 1888. Information on Davy Force came from pages 94-95 of Nineteenth Century Stars: 2012 Edition, edited by Robert Tiemann and Mark Rucker and published by the Society for American Baseball Research. Buck Ewing's career information came from his page on Baseball-Reference.com. (As a history major, I apologize for not having my sources in the Chicago Manual of Style!)

Them's the Rules!

With the turn of the calendar to April, most vintage base ball clubs have either begun play or will begin play shortly. All ballists look forward to the day they can put their uniform on again, go out there, bang out hits, and make incredible catches on the fly, or bound. But with that comes a responsibility. Know the rules and customs of the era you're playing.

Vintage base ball clubs do not play one uniform era, it runs the gamut from the late 1850s to the turn of the 20th Century. The reasoning for this is legion. Some groups portray specific clubs (i.e the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, The New York Mutuals, the Brooklyn Atlantics, etc.) and they play the rules observed by the clubs they're portraying. Some nines play rules popular among clubs in their region. My club, the Bluegrass Barons, plays in a region that plays by the 1865 rules and most clubs portray themselves around 1869. The Tennessee Vintage Base Ball Association plays by 1864 rules. Each club or region does it a little differently in this regard, however, that doesn't excuse not knowing the rules and customs.

In my experience, I've seen people lose tempers and get upset over misinterpretation or ignorance of the rules, whether it's because they're playing by a set of rules different from their own or for the fact they've never sat down and read the rules of the game they're playing. There's no excuse for this, if we're going to portray the game as it was in 1860, 1870, or 1900, we as vintage ballists need to know what the rules say.

The old axiom of "ignorance of the law is no excuse," applies for base ball as well as it does the law. Just because a player doesn't know something is a rule, doesn't mean they cannot be called out on it. This doesn't just mean for the rules of their club's era, but also for clubs they play against.

My club plays by rules approved by the National Association of Base Ball Players for the 1865 season, the "Fly" Rule. This rule stated that a ball had to be caught on the fly in fair territory in order to be an out. Many clubs play by the rules of the previous era, known as the "Bound" Rule. This set of rules stated a ball could be caught on the fly or one bound in fair territory and be considered an out. (Both the "Bound" and "Fly" rules allowed for balls caught on one bound in foul territory and considered an out.) Just because I play by the fly doesn't mean I should know just those rules, I need to know the bound rule as well. By knowing those rules, I can play that game more competently and be able to answer spectator questions about the rules. That's part of being a vintage ballist.

The availability online of rules makes it easy for anyone interested to learn the rules of the era they want to portray. The Vintage Base Ball Association (VBBA), which helps oversee the 450 or so vintage clubs in existence in America has rules for just about every possible variant of the game on their website. Along with that, there are people in this organization who can help clarify and interpret what they say. They've done a yeoman's work in researching base ball's past and it's so easy to access.

Many times, I've seen local custom determine how the game is played more than the rules governing the era. What I mean by this is certain aspects of on-field play, such as sliding, stealing, leading off, and defensive shifts are all regulated by custom, and this custom in many instances usurps the rules. I've played in many areas where a runner can only get a two step lead off, I had a pitcher in a game last year who told me that I lead to far off (more than two steps) and that he'd start trying to pick me off if I didn't get back in accordance with the "rules." The thing is, there's nothing in the rules which limit the amount a runner can lead off. It's strictly a ground rule of that club, however over time, these ground rules become "The Rules."

The same goes for defensive shifts, many games we play require a straight up outfield defense and for the infield to play two steps off the bag, with the exception of either the second baseman or shortstop, one of those can play as far off the bag as they wish, so long as the other part of the combination is two steps off. There's never been a limitation as to how the defense can play in this regard. As the game evolved, so did the tactics by which clubs played. Clubs always played to win and they sought better ways to go about it. The limits we place on play we do ourselves.

That said, should we not impose such rules? That's not for me to say, that's up to the members of each nine. However, IF a club decides to play with certain ground rules, let the spectators know. It's alright to not call strikes (as the rules beginning in the late 1850s stated for batters unwilling to swing at hittable pitches after receiving a warning), but the club should be able to explain this to the crowd, that the fact they don't do this is a ground rule and not what the rules of the era stated. Don't let custom take the place of actuality. It's okay to have these rules as long as a club can explain that to the spectatorate, but let's not enshrine our ground rules into an equality with the actual rules of the era.

I'm not saying clubs shouldn't have ground rules or local customs, but they should also not conflate them to being the actual rules, nor should they take offense if teams they play do not have such edicts in effect on their grounds. Vintage base ball is supposed to be fun, but also supposed to be "vintage," which means we must know the rules and customs of the era we're playing.

The vintage base ball player is a teacher as much as a hobbyist, we're imparting knowledge to the crowd as much as we're having fun.

April 1, 1888-Introducing the 1888 Louisville Colonels

One goal I have for this blog is to introduce the reader to Louisville's history in Major League Baseball. Louisville has a strong minor league tradition and of course has the Louisville Slugger bat. What many fans do not realize is Louisville had major league teams throughout the 19th Century.

In 2018, I want to focus on the 1888 Louisville Colonels club of the American Association. I will follow the Courier-Journal and attempt to make a weekly blog post regarding the 1888 club. Before I do so, a brief background is in order.

Louisville was a founding member of the National League (NL) in 1876, it lasted two seasons and contended for the pennant in 1877 before an unfortunate (in many ways) losing streak caused the Grays to fade from contention. Sadly, it turned out that four prominent players on the team threw the results of games for money. One of baseball's first gambling scandals came from Louisville, of all places. The NL banned the four players from professional baseball for life. The Louisville team also didn't survive past 1877 and didn't field a major league team again until the advent of the American Association in 1882. We'll cover that scandal in-depth in a later post, this requires a great deal of research.

The American Association came about as a response to the demand for professional baseball and the fact the NL had a more puritanical view of the sport that caused trouble. The League prohibited alcohol sales and Sunday matches, charged higher prices, and generally appealed to a more upper crust clientele. The NL brooked no disobedience from its rules, for instance, they banished the Cincinnati club for renting its home grounds to amateur clubs for Sunday baseball games and alcohol sales. (The current Cincinnati club returned to the NL in 1890 after an eight-year stint in the American Association).

Other cities had been banished and men with means who desired to participate in baseball took the steps to initiate a rival organization to the NL. In 1882 they founded the American Association, with Louisville being a charter member. The AA allowed liquor sales and cheaper admission to games, and had a vibrant history from 1882 to 1891. Louisville was in the Association its entire existence, and after its collapse in 1891 (more on that in a later post).

Louisville returned to the NL in 1892 and stayed in the League until 1899, when it contracted from 12 to eight clubs.

Now that I've given a (very) brief introduction to Louisville in the majors, it's time to go back in time 130 years to 1888. Grover Cleveland's in the White House, but would lose his seat in that year's election to Indiana's Benjamin Harrison. There are 38 states in the Union, the Great Blizzard of 1888 killed 400, and the great captains of industry made money hand over fist as the Gilded Age roared on.

In Louisville, the Colonels finished fourth in the eight team AA, with a 76-60 record. They had one of the strongest offenses in the American Association, Louisville looked to improve on a strong 1887 campaign with the 1888 team.

In the April 1, 1888 Louisville Courier-Journal ran an introduction to the club, stating "there are but few persons in this city to whom the faces of the players of the Louisville club are not familiar." In addition to the incomparable Browning, other notable players of the Louisville nine included some of the below names. We'll become familiar with them over the next few months.

Undoubtedly, Pete "The Gladiator" Browning boasting a beefy .402/.464/.547 (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging average), paced the Colonel attack. Browning, a Louisville native and "the ideal of every small boy in the country" according to the Courier-Journal, was in my opinion, the AA's premier batsman. Unfortunately, his outfield defense was truly horrific, even by the standards of the era of rudimentary gloves (or none at all).

Tom "Toad" Ramsey headed the rotation in 1887 and looked to do the same in 1888. In 1887 he won 37 games and lost 27 with a 3.43 ERA over 561 innings pitched. These are extreme numbers to a 21st Century eye, but were common in the 19th Century. Penny-pinching clubs carried 15 or so players and the limited amount of arms meant pitchers took more innings than the modern counterpart. This is not an indictment on the modern player, pitchers of that era tended to burn arms out at a quicker rate, and lengthy careers for pitchers weren't common.

In addition to Ramsey, Guy Hecker and "Ice Box" Chamberlain bolstered the rotation. Hecker went 18-12 with a 4.16 ERA in 1887, he'd been one of the Association's premier pitchers, with a 52-win season for Louisville in 1884. He was towards the twilight of his career, as seasons of heavy workloads took their toll.

Chamberlain came to Louisville in 1886 and had a good campaign for Louisville in 1887, with the Courier Journal stating "he was one of the surprises of the year." However, he proved difficult to sign over the winter, with the Courier-Journal reporting "it is by no means certain he will play ball this season."

Scott Stratton was another pitcher on the opening day roster for the Louisville club, a young lad of 18, called a "promising young pitcher." He would have some impressive seasons in the future for the Falls City.

Lave Cross came to Louisville as the backup catcher, another young talented player with a massive career ahead of him. However, he was still just a prospect for the coming season.

Jim "Chicken" Wolf, a native of Louisville and childhood friend of Browning, patrolled the outfield with his fellow Falls City colleague. He had a tendency to overeat and be overweight (the nickname "Chicken" came from his penchant for stewed chicken). Despite his extra baggage, he proved a fully competent big league player.

The Louisville Courier-Journal had nothing but effusive praise of the Colonels for the coming season (the press tended to be on poles of praise or contempt of clubs in those days), the next few months would be a test as to whether the club deserved the kind words.

(To help me complete this introductory look at the Colonels of '88, I used the April 1, 1888 article titled "Louisville's Players" and the 1887 and 1888 Louisville Colonel team pages on baseball-reference.com)