Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The 1884 Maroons: Chicago Plunks Dunlap



There was a large attendance at the Union Grounds yesterday, the attraction being the Chicago and St. Louis Unions.  It was the final contest of home series of spring championship games, and the fine performance of the same clubs on Saturday caused a general anticipation of an interesting and exciting struggle, and between 6,000 and 7,000 people turned out to witness.  The result was quite disappointing, the game being one of the poorest ever played on the grounds.  The weather was very hot and sultry when play was called.  During the first half of the second inning a heavy shower necessitated a delay of fifteen minutes, and thereafter the ball was wet and difficult to handle, and the diamond became so slippery that it was quite amusing to see the fielders slipping in their efforts to intercept the ball, and the runners slipping by the bases, falling in trying to stop and scrambling back on all fours.  In one instance Rowe's feet shot from under him and he sat down with a dull thud, and in another Daily lost his footing in the pitcher's box and measured his length.  In the second inning Dunlap was hit by a pitched ball on the left forearm, on which a big lump was raised.  During the interruption caused by the rain, he left the field, Hodnett coming out and taking right field, Brennan moving to the center, and Rowe, who took charge of the nine, going to second.  The home nine batted Daily from the start, scoring fifteen hits with a total of nineteen bases off his delivery.  In five times at the bat Dickerson scored four hits, three drives by third and a slow one in the same direction that Leary could not handle in the time to score an assist.  Rowe made three hits, Taylor two and Quinn two.  Whitehead struck out three times, twice missing the first three balls pitched to him.  The visitors hammered Taylor for ten hits, so scattered that they did not earn a run.  Gross, Krieg and Leary led for their side at the bat, each scoring two hits.  Daily made one base hit and drove to left a fly that Dickerson had to go back after, each hit eliciting hearty applause.  Whitehead's work at short was the feature of the home nine's fielding.  Baker made a difficult foul fly catch, taking the ball close to the north wing of the grand stand.  In the fourth inning he let in two runs by a wild throw to Gleason.  Rowe piled up four errors at second.  After fielding a ball in front of second, he threw so wide to Whitehead, covering second, only fifteen feet away, that the ball went untouched out to center field, giving Ellick second and Householder one, and right afterward a passed ball was charged to Gross.  Notwithstanding his errors, McLaughlin played brilliant at second.  Krieg made a fine running catch at left that was loudly applauded.
-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, June 23, 1884

3 comments:

The Baseball Idiot said...

It looks like Hodnott came in to replace Dunlap. They have him listed last in the box score.

Do you know if this is just how they listed it, or was there a rule in place that a substitute for an injured player then batted last?

Just curious.

Jeffrey Kittel said...

That's a good question and I don't have an answer for you. Substitutions are so rare in the era that it doesn't really come up much. I did take a quick look at A Game of Inches and, while Morris writes about both batting orders and substitutions, I didn't find the answer anywhere in the book (which is a bit shocking actually).

If I had to guess, I'd say that Hodnett batted in Dunlap's spot and they just listed him last in the box score. But I wouldn't bet the farm on it.

Cliff Blau said...

I'm pretty sure it's just how they listed it. I've seen other box scores where they had the substitute above the player he replaced.