No Equal Hereabouts

The second game of the match between [the Empire and Aetna] took place on the afternoon of the 23d, at St. Louis Base Ball Park, in the presence of a goodly number of spectators.  The grounds were in admirable condition and the weather all that the most ardent lover of the game could desire.  The playing, though not characterised by any very brilliant display, was a close contest and showed an improvement on the play of the former game some two weeks since, especially at the bat.

The Empire's Wirth is to be credited with a fine running fly and some very excellent play at 1st base, which was more in his old style than anything he has given lately.  Fitzgibbon, pitcher, did well, and is evidently improving, his balls being delivered with more accuracy and regularity.  Murray, short-stop, did some handsome fielding to 1st base, and captured his share of the "flies."  Barron, catcher, "filled the bill" admirably, though he is not fully at home in that position, and we cannot but think that it is a mistake to take him from his own position of short stop, in which he has no equal hereabouts.  Of the Aetnas we must say they played a fine fielding game, displaying much activity, and in throwing of balls more accuracy and skill than their opponents.  Kenney, catcher, did great execution both behind and at the bat.  Savignac at 1st is a promising player, as also O'Brien, 3d base, who should use more care in batting and running the bases.  Tighe, at 2d, is in the right place, and did safe business at the bat, but was "out of luck."  Messrs. Whalen, Carroll and Wheeler filled their positions with credit and did some fine batting.

The result of the game we give below, and, considering all things, it is creditable to the Empire Club, if it is not of the same huge proportions as the previous one.  Mr. H. Smith of the Union Club, filled the position of Umpire with much credit to himself and general satisfaction to the players.

-Missouri Republican, May 25, 1869


James Barron, who is described here as the best shortstop in St. Louis, was one of the cornerstones of the great pioneer-era Empire Club.  He was a mainstay at shortstop, playing with the first nine from at least 1867 to 1875, and a member of seven championship clubs.  Barron was also the Empires' field captain in 1869.

General Sherman Visits The Ballpark

W.A. Kelsoe, in A Newspaper Man's Motion-Picture Of The City, describes the second Brown Stockings-White Stockings game:

"The second game between the Chicago Whites and the St. Louis Browns, played here Saturday, May 8 (1875), resulted in another victory for the home club, but this time St. Louis made only four runs and Chicago scored three, all in the last inning. The crowd was even larger than at the first game, being estimated at over 8,000 people. One of the spectators was General Sherman, who viewed the game from a seat with the reporters in the press stand. He seemed to enjoy the game fully as much as he did the trotting when with General Grant at the 'Big Thursday' races of the St. Louis Fair a few months before, in October, 1874. The headquarters of the United States Army were still in St. Louis, southwest corner of Tenth and Locust streets. It was a splendid game throughout, 'the best ballplaying ever seen west of the Mississippi,' said City Editor Stevens in one of his headlines for my report of the contest. Ed. Cuthbert, noted as an outfielder, caught three flies in this game and ended the eighth inning with a foul-bound catch, fouls taken on the first bound then counting as outs. Chicago had now had seventeen innings in succession (counting those of the first game) without making a single run. Then came the last inning of the second game, when Bradley, the St. Louis pitcher in both games, was batted for three safe hits, as many as Chicago had made in the other eight innings, and three runs resulted, every one of them earned. The umpire was James Baron, shortstop of the old Missouri champion Empires."

Sherman, who had been appointed Commanding General of the United States Army by President Grant, had moved his headquarters to St. Louis in order to escape the political infighting of Washington D.C. Prior to the Civil War, Sherman had lived in St. Louis and served as president of the Fifth Street Railroad. Interestingly, Sherman writes in his memoirs "that Mr. Lucas...held a controlling intrest of stock" in the railroad and was one of the people who wanted to hire him for the job. Lucas was most likely J.B.C. Lucas, one of the richest men in St. Louis and president of the Brown Stockings. Sherman, who died in 1891, is buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.

The "St. Louis Fair" that Kelsoe mentions is, of course, not the World's Fair that was held in 1904 but rather an event that was held annually in the city. In 1856, a group called the St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Association purchased a site of 50 acres north of the city on Grand Avenue and set up the Fairgrounds, which included what was at the time the largest amphitheater in the United States, a mechanical hall, a agricultural hall, a floral hall, a Gothic fine arts hall, a three stories high "Chicken Palace" for displaying poultry, a race track, and a grandstands. According to the Fairground Park website, "(the) fair was an immediate success and soon became noted all over the country. It was, in reality, a gigantic country fair. There were booths for vending wine, beer, and other delicacies. There were displays of livestock, poultry, vegetables, grains, and the latest inventions in farm machinery, tools, household gadgets, etc." In 1860, the first baseball game ever held in St. Louis took place on the Fairgrounds.

I think that Sherman's presence at the game shows the significance of the Brown Stockings' May 6th victory over Chicago. The hoopla that followed that game brought out not only a larger crowd, as noted by Kelsoe, but also one of the city's most prominent citizens.