In the palmy days of the old Northwestern League there were three pitchers whose fame had spread all over the section of the country in which they twirled the sphere. Dave Foutz was then the Bay City's mainstay, and came very nearly being the whole team. So well was this recognized that when Mr. Von der Ahe wanted to buy Foutz, the management said, "Well, the team goes with Dave" and the Browns' President was compelled to buy the entire team before he could secure Foutz. At the same time Getzein, the "pretzel pitcher," of the Detroit Club, was doing yeoman work for the Grand Rapids team and some of the battles between Getz and Fouz are talked of to this day in that portion of the country. During this time Bob Caruthers was doing the pitching for Minneapolis, where he first gained fame as a twirler. Now these great pitchers are to battle once again for supremacy, not in Union League Clubs, however, but on the two crack clubs of the world. Certainly history repeats itself.
-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 9, 1887
So there are several nice storylines to follow in the 1887 world's series. We have the battle between Foutz/Caruthers and Getzein. We have Dunlap returning to St. Louis. We have the sluggers vs. the defense/base running club. We have the champions trying to retain their crown. We have the usual League vs. Association stuff. And we have the possible negative impact of high ticket prices. I'm sure there will also be some gambling/pool related stories as well.
This is some good stuff. The series seems to lack the intensity and high-profile of the St. Louis/Chicago battle of 1886 but there's more than enough here to keep our interest. Plus, there's the possibility that the Globe will turn on Von der Ahe and the Browns once they start losing. I wasn't all that excited about this series and thought it was a bit of a letdown after the 1886 series but I'm looking forward to seeing how this all shakes out.
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