Information On Dunlap's Early Baseball Career

Fred Dunlap. This famous second baseman was born in Philadelphia and is 29 years of age. He is 5 feet 8 inches in height and weighs 167 pounds. He first played ball at Gloucester, N.J., in 1874, and in the fore part of the season of 1875 he played with the Greighers and the latter part with the Kleinz, of New Jersey, as catcher and short stop. In 1876 he played with the Chester team the first part of the season and the latter part with the Quicksteps, of Wilmington, Del., as a pitcher; in 1877 he was with the Aulairris, of New York, as a second baseman; in 1878 with the Hornellsville and Albany clubs, of New York; in 1879 he played with the Albanys...Dunlap is the king of second baseman, and a first-class all-round player.

-Sporting Life, 1887, Volume 10, Number 4

I was only able to find a bad text copy of this edition of Sporting Life so I was unable to get the exact date for its publication. Also, I had a great deal of difficulty deciphering some of the club names such as Aularriis, Greighers and Hornellsville so I may not have the names spelled correctly.

But this is good stuff. All the information about the clubs that Dunlap played for prior to Albany is new to me.

Note: Brilliant reader David (and over time I will steal all of Joe Posnanski's gimmicks) pointed out that over at Baseball Reference, they have SABR's minor league data up and it lists Dunlap as playing for Auburn in 1877 rather than Aulairris. The Aulairris reference is most likely a result of the corrupted text that I had and my inability to read it.