Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Not Exactly A Blockbuster


On December 4, 1886, the Maroons traded Alex McKinnon to the Pittsburg Alleghenys for Otto Schomberg and $400. Three months later, Schomberg would be sold to the Indianapolis Hoosiers.

Make sure to take some time today to remember the immortal Schomberg for McKinnon deal. And please celebrate responsibly.

Update: It was brought to my attention that the McKinnon/Schomberg deal was the first player trade between National League teams (see comments). For an overview of 19th century player transactions, you should check out David Ball's work here. Also (and I just noticed this), Schomberg wasn't exactly sold to Indianapolis in 1887. The Black Diamonds folded, Indianapolis was admitted into the League to take their place, and many of the Maroon players ended up there.

4 comments:

Jason Christopherson said...

The only Old Judge card I own is of McKinnon. It's a ghostly image--just barely visible. Perhaps appropriate, as he died in the middle of Pittsburg's season in 1887.

Jeffrey Kittel said...

I'm not really into collecting baseball cards but I've always wanted to buy an Old Judge card. I didn't have any card particularly in mind but I thought one of the cards would look good framed and hanging on my wall. Then I found this site-http://www.rainfall.com/posters/baseballcards/catalog1.htm. They sell 8x10 and poster size reprints of the Old Judge cards. Now I'm trying to figure out where I can hang a framed poster size Fred Dunlap Old Judge card.

Anonymous said...

Great aches from little acorns grow. The Shomberg-McKinnon deal may look minor now, but it was the very first player trade (as distinct from player purchase) between two National League teams.

Jeffrey Kittel said...

Interesting-I never considered that. According to David Ball's work (http://world.std.com/~pgw/19c/Trades.rtf), the first trade between teams was in August of 1885 when Louisville sent John Connor and $750 to Chattanooga (Southern League) for Tom Ramsey unless you count the Esterbrook/Keefe for Begley/Hankinson transfers in April of that year. The first trade between major league teams was in November of 1886 between the Browns and Cincinnati (Nichol for Boyle and $350). So the Shomberg/McKinnon deal in December of 1886 does look like the first player trade between NL teams. I guess I shouldn't have been so snarky with my comments about what looks like a rather historically significant trade.

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