October 10th In 19th Century St. Louis Baseball History

On this day in 1881, Cincinnati baseball backers meet in Pittsburgh with H. Denny McKnight and issue a call to other independent club operators to meet November 2nd to form a major league independent of the NL.

In 1884, Pat Deasley‚ who will hit .205 for St. Louis (AA) this year‚ gets all 3 of his team's hits off Tim Keefe‚ but cannot prevent the 3-1 loss to New York.

In 1887, the World Series opens in St. Louis with the Browns beating the Detroits 6-1. P Bob Caruthers holds the Wolverines to 5 hits and has 3 safe hits himself.

And just for fun, in 1885, Phillies SS Charlie Bastian goes 5-for-10 in the last 2 games to raise his average up to .167‚ the lowest ever for a SS with over 350 at bats.

-from Baseball Library

A couple of notes:

• The Pittsburgh meeting in 1881 was the second of three meetings that would lead to the establishment of the American Association. This meeting was attended by Chris Von der Ahe, O.P. Caylor, Horace Phillips, John Day, Denny McKnight, and others. The meeting was organized by Phillips with McKnight acting as official host. The first meeting, in which only Caylor (representing Cincinnati) answered Phillips' invitation, was held in Philadelphia in September.
• I mentioned Charlie Bastian because I thought it was kind of interesting and it immediately made me think of Steve Jeltz. Jeltz, in 1988, would come close to breaking Bastian's record when he hit .187 in 379 AB while playing short for the Phillies. I believe that Steve Jeltz, in 1988, was the worst everyday ballplayer of all time.