Monday, February 22, 2010

The 1876 Brown Stockings: Hard Fought And Beautifully Contested


Between 800 and 1,000 people witnessed the game to-day. It was hard fought and beautifully contested throughout, Louisville winning by superior batting and fielding. Men were on bases in every inning except two, and as the score was close, it gave the game additional interest. Louisville went first to the bat, and scored singles in the second, fifth, sixth and eighth innings. In the second, Hastings took first on three balls. Fulmer and Somerville put in hot grounders past first, which scored Hastings. With Somerville on first and Fulmer on third,, Clapp and McGeary accomplished a beautiful double-play. Somerville ran down to draw a throw from Clapp, and it was drawn very prettily, Clapp throwing to McGeary and catching Somerville, and McGeary returning in time to catch Fulmer at the home plate.

In the third inning Somerville hit safe, and got second on a force hit by Collins. Ryan went out on a long fly to Pike. Somerville ran to third. Pike threw straight into Battin's hands, who muffed, and another run was scored.

Safe singles in the sixth inning by Hague, Snyder, Fulmer and Somerville earned another run, fine playing by St. Louis disposing of the side, and leaving men on first and third bases.

Ryan's single and Gerhardt's three-baser earned the last run scored in the eighth. Battin's long hit between center and left in the fourth gave him two bases. Cuthbert sent on a fly to Devlin. Blong made a two-baser to right center and sent Battin home. An error by Gerhardt allowed Blong to score, and, St. Louis doing no batting the rest of the game, the score remained at two. Bradley, the first striker in the eighth inning, led off with a beautiful three baser, but the succeeding strikers were not equal to the emergency. Dehlman foul tipped to Snyder. Pike hit hard to third, of which Hague made an excellent stop, and threw Bradley out at home. Clapp closed the inning by making a weak hit to Devlin, and as the strikers in the ninth inning went out in batting order, the game closed in favor of Louisville. The umpiring, by Wm. Walker, of Cincinnati, was excellent. The best playing for the Browns was done by Pike, Clapp, McGeary and Battin. In the sixth inning Pike fielded a ball splendidly home from far center, and retired Snyder. Louisville won the game essentially on batting, the Browns playing an excellent fielding game.
-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, August 11, 1876

2 comments:

David Ball said...

I notice the notorious Dan Collins got as many hits by himself as the entire Louisville team had in the previous game.

Jeffrey Kittel said...

Bradley was off his game. Or he had he had picked Louisville to score in the sixth and eighth in a pool.