Elsewhere, the U.S. Army's Commanding General, the hero of Stones River, Third Winchester, and Cedar Creek, and the savior of Yellowstone National Park, General Phillip Sheridan suffered a massive heart attack. "Little Phil" the pugnacious fighter and terror of rebel soldiers opened June fighting his biggest battle, one just to live.
Amidst those headlines, the Louisville Colonels made their own news, none of it good. By this point, the bad tidings didn't simply confine themselves to the diamond, but off of it as well. On June 1, the Baltimore Sun reported "Certain members of the Louisville Club have entered into a combination to oust John Kelly from the management," the paper went on to say, "they refuse to play for him and always lose the game when is well in hand."
When asked about this article, Louisville President William L. Lyons stated he'd heard these rumors, but could find no evidence of their truth. He said the biggest problem facing the club was the debilitating injuries at catcher and the subpar performance of his infield. The Colonels were simply not as good as he, or anyone else, thought they'd be when the season began.
He said, "if some of our players were released they would not be able to hold positions in any but minor league clubs." Which indicated he thought it a talent rather than moral issue, and also did a great job of publicly trashing the men who took the field every day for his team. He went on to say he'd suspend any player he suspected of deliberately subpar play.
Pete Browning, when asked, stated there was no truth to the reports of a conspiracy against John Kelly.
The same day, the Courier-Journal reported there was no substance to the story of a conspiracy and they'd found no evidence to back it up. The players, according to the article regretted something like this getting out as they felt worse for him than themselves over the streak of recent poor results.
According to the Courier-Journal, the fact that many of the recent losses suffered occurred in the later innings made it appear the Colonels were deliberately trying to lose, or not giving their best efforts. Kelly himself didn't see anything which indicated the club played in any way dishonestly.
For the Derby City faithful, this must've invoked painful memories of the 1877 Louisville Grays, who had a commanding lead in the National League, until some of their best players conspired to throw crucial games, thereby losing the pennant. Rumors of gambling players weren't uncommon in this era, so news like this always tended to go to the darker end of the spectrum.
Kelly, realizing his job may well be on the line, and to reset the season, had a meeting with his players prior to the June 1 match against Baltimore. He stated he'd start fining players for mental miscues in the field and on the bases. He also warned his players against eating heavy dinners (in this instance I believe this is the colloquial use of "dinner" for lunch, with what's commonly referred to as dinner being "supper.") as "a loaded stomach clouds the eye and you can't see the ball." (Don't laugh, as even well into the 20th Century, baseball people thought strange medical notions could deliver diamond results. I seem to recall reading about front offices telling pitchers with arm troubles to have their tonsils removed to help their gimpy arms).
The talk seemed to give new energy to the slumping Louisville club as they defeated Baltimore 14-2 that afternoon. Guy Hecker started, giving up seven hits. Louisville banged out 19 of their own, as every Colonel in the lineup got at least one hit. Chicken Wolf went 3-5 as did shortstop Bill White.
The next day, Louisville and Baltimore closed out the series by playing two. The Orioles swept the day and made "the most of every opportunity which Louisville this year has been offering every club with which it comes in contact." They batted around Scott Stratton in the first match, winning 11-5.
Louisville did better in the second contest, losing 5-4, as Toad Ramsey pitched well until the eighth inning, when he left the game after beginning to feel unwell.
After the double defeats, Louisville departed Baltimore for Cleveland, to begin a four game series there on June 4.
On the off-day, the Courier-Journal elaborated on the accusations the Colonels laid down to get John Kelly fired. "Nothing in the conduct of the men seem to indicate a conspiracy or even dissatisfaction." The article once again noted the Colonels were frankly, not a good team.
It had also been their misfortune to start their season playing against the strongest clubs in the league. Up to this point, they'd played 20 of their first 35 games against Brooklyn, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, the top three clubs in the standings. They'd gone 2-18 against such a formidable schedule. They'd not done much better against the rest of the Association, save Kansas City.
The biggest problem thus far centered around their infield. Second baseman George Mack, shortstop Bill White, and third baseman Joe Werrick committed many errors in the field, giving many good teams more outs than they may have otherwise had. To make matters worse, their batting did not make up for the defensive slack. For instance, George Mack slashed the following for 1888: .217/.320/.289 (that's batting average, on-base percentage, slugging average) with an offensive wins above replacement (WAR) of .5 (his fielding percentage stood at .907). The rest of the infield was little better.
First base had a revolving cast of characters, pitcher Guy Hecker played there on occasion, as did three other players throughout the season. The outfield and pitching staff for the most part could stand against any in the league, but the infield play killed the Colonels.
Back to the June 4 article, it identified Hecker as the potential source of discontent within the team, stating he had was an opinionated man who did not hesitate to share his ideas. He had some disagreements with Kelly, but the article said the two talked and everything seemed fine.
Louisville started it's series against Cleveland in losing fashion, losing the first two games 8-5 and 6-5. The Courier-Journal stated little about these games and I don't have access to a Cleveland paper from this era, so I don't have a whole lot to share about these contests. However, compared to the news of June 6, 1888, these games really didn't matter much.
On June 6, William L. Lyons, the President of the Louisville Club and three other board members sold their interest in the Colonels to Mordecai Davidson, the club secretary who'd been with the team since the beginning.
The discord of the on the field ineptitude the Colonels showed on their eastern trip came to a head this meeting. Lyons, as he'd stated to the Courier-Journal, wanted to release first baseman Skyrocket Smith, George Mack, Bill White, and Joe Werrick and purchase an entirely new infield. Davidson thought the idea reckless and firmly disagreed.
One must remember in 1888 baseball clubs didn't have farm teams from which they could call up young players. They had to find and sign talent from the many minor league clubs around the country and hope they panned out. If not, the club plopped down a lot of money and got had nothing in return for such an outlay.
With the leadership at an impasse, Lyons decided he'd had enough as President of the Louisville Club. With this Davidson took over the leadership of the Louisville Colonels. The Courier-Journal stated the young businessman was well-liked by the players.
He hoped to get the club back on track, stating baseball was "too firmly established in Louisville for the citizens to allow the club to go to pieces and interest in the game to die out." He said he'd look into the problems and make corrections, thereby improving Louisville's standing. The paper also said Kelly probably would be released as manager, something then as now is typical when new ownership takes over a club. They want their people, and if the club's not performing well, the axe falls sooner.
Apparently, rumblings of a change had occurred for the days proceeding the sale. The Courier-Journal reported Guy Hecker's wife mentioned in a letter to him which he received when the team played in Brooklyn and stated Davidson looked as if he'd take control of the club. Hecker showed the letter to the other players and they told Kelly. The Courier-Journal intimated this may have been what caused the insinuation of player dissatisfaction.
Louisville celebrated the change in ownership on June 6, by losing a 23-19 defense/pitching optional match with Cleveland. Hecker started and Cleveland hit him hard. His defense didn't back him up, as the Falls City nine committed 13 errors on the day, and if not for the scorer's "charitable scoring" the total could've been much higher. Hecker did with the bat what he couldn't get done in the box, going 5-6 with three doubles. Pete Browning went 4-6 with a triple. All-in-all a sloppy day.
While the Democratic National Convention unanimously nominated President Grover Cleveland in St. Louis The John Kelly Era for the Colonels came to an end the next day as he submitted his resignation. The Colonels got swept by Cleveland (not the president) that day 13-4.
In his letter, he told Louisville's outgoing president Lyons "my request for new blood has been urgent, but the directory does not seem inclined to expend money to strengthen the nine." He went on by saying, "very naturally it is not my wish to be at the head of a losing club, when a comparatively small outlay, judiciously made would, I do not hesitate to say accomplish the end we all have in view, namely to win games."
The Courier-Journal stated rumors had Guy Hecker taking over the club, but he shot down such ideas. Other players said they didn't like Hecker and would not play for him if he became the manager. It appears most of the dissent on the Colonels came from Hecker, but to the degree we saw earlier in my post is difficult to surmise, he seemed a clubhouse cancer for sure.
Despite what many fans think, managers don't have total control over the outcome of games. They do have influence, don't get me wrong. They can mismanage certain elements of the game (calling for bunts, underutilizing young players, playing marginal talent, poorly constructing batting orders, and pitching staffs, for more evidence, reference Bryan Price), but for the most part, they put out the lineups the front office gives them. If the club puts together a talented, competent roster, they have better odds of winning than if they don't. Managers as I said, can negatively impact the team's play to a degree, but even a Sparky Anderson or Joe Maddon can only coax so much out of a club. It's difficult to tell simply from reading articles from 130 years ago, but John Kelly apparently did the best he could to produce a competitive ball club with little in the way of resources at his disposal.
The Louisville club on paper had some real assets, it had the nonpareil Pete Browning, a talented Chicken Wolf, and a capable pitching staff for sure. It also had some glaring holes, namely the infield and a terribly depleted crop of catchers. Good clubs cannot have many holes and it is the job of the front office to fill them. If the management is unable or unwilling to do so, no manager or no team will win. This is the case so far with the 1888 Colonels.
I liken it to the start of the 2018 season for the Cincinnati Reds. They too have some talented pieces (more than the '88 Colonels did for sure), but there were holes that injury to key players and front office inertia exposed to start the season. These issues contributed to a horrific 3-18 start for the club. Reds manager Bryan Price lost his job over the horrendous stretch of ball, and he did bear some of that blame for reasons mentioned above, but he wasn't solely to blame. The front office made glaringly bad roster decisions (Yovani Gallardo anyone?) which really caused the bulk of the Reds troubles.
A new manager in Jim Riggleman so far has shown a much better club, and so far he's been more innovative in roster management for sure, but can you lay the vast improvement at his feet? Some of it, sure, but it's talent which made the difference. The return from the DL of important pieces (Eugenio Suarez, Scott Schebler, Michael Lorenzen, and Anthony DeSclafani) and the improvement of young talent made the Reds better. A more talented roster makes all the difference.
In short, winning is a product of function and loss of dysfunction, always has, always will. A squared away front office makes the moves to put a winner on the field, it's energetic, and innovative. A dysfunctional front office doesn't do those things, the club suffers, and so too do the fans. A Pete Browning (or a Joey Votto) can only do so much.
The next few days for Louisville would bring a new manager, and new hope. In the next post, we'll find out who that was and how he'd fare.
Once again the Courier-Journal, Baltimore Sun, newspapers.com, and baseball-reference.com all contributed the meat of this blog. I'm merely the interpreter/misinterpreter.
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