The Collins Affair, Part One

Dan Collins, center fielder of the St. Louis Red Stockings, left for Louisville last night, treating the management in a shameful manner. On Thursday he was paid his salary to the 1st of the month, and yesterday he vanished, saying never a word. He had asked for a release, in order that he might join the Louisvilles, but was informed by Mr. McNeary that he could not be spared. The club has fulfilled the terms of its contracts with all its players, to the letter, and been especially kind to Collins in retaining him when he was playing a game at third that would put an amateur to blush. The following telegram was sent to the President of the Louisville club last night, and it remains to be seen whether that gentleman and the League will disgrace themselves by hiring Collins under the circumstances:

St. Louis, August 4.-W.N. Haldeman, President Louisville B.B.C.; Louisville, Ky.: Collins has left for Louisville without any release from us, and we protest against his engagement by your club. We do not owe him a cent; have fulfilled our part of the contract to the letter, and his engagement will reflect great discredit on the National game.

Thomas McNeary,

Manager St. Louis Reds.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, August 5, 1876

This has nothing to do with anything, but still: While looking at Dan Collins' page at B-Ref, I noticed that he scored a one on the Hall of Fame Monitor. Can somebody explain to me how you get one HoF Monitor point? Do you get one point for showing up and putting a uniform on? Does every player score at least a one on the HoF Monitor? Can you score a zero? Can you get a negative score?

Well, shoot. I had to go and look into this and it's not nearly as interesting as it looks at first glance. No, you can not have negative HoF Monitor points (although I'd still give Steve Jeltz a negative 32) and you have to do something specific to earn points. It looks like Collins picked up his point by leading the NA in strikeouts as a pitcher in 1874. He had 18 K's that year. So Collins picked up his HoF Monitor point by striking out 18 guys in the National Association. I can't say that the accomplishment really impresses me that much. While that mighty achievement does give him more HoF Monitor points than Jeltz or Yuniesky Betancourt, he still falls short of such immortals as Kiki Calero and Oliver Perez.

I'll have more on the Collins Affair over the next couple of days. Consider yourself warned.