A Nice Picture Of Lip Pike

Lipman Emmanuel Pike

I found this picture of Lip Pike over at John Thorn's website and thought I'd share it with all of you.  I like Thorn's site and recommend that you take a look at it, if you haven't already.  He's been posting articles from Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game, which are excellent and informative.  It's good stuff.  

Photos Of The 1876 Brown Stockings

Your 1876 Brown Stockings

As I mentioned yesterday, Paul Batesel sent me the cropped Packy Dillon photo.  He also sent me these pictures, cropped from the above team photo of the 1876 Brown Stockings.  The individual pictures look fantastic and Paul did a great job with them.  Much thanks to him for passing them along.

John Clapp

George Washington Bradley

Herman Dehlman

Joe Battin

Mike McGeary

Denny Mack

Ted McGinley

Ned Cuthbert

Lipman Emmanuel Pike

Bad Dickey Pearce

Paul also sent me the cropped photo of Joe Blong but it was in a different format and I haven't bothered to change it into a jpg yet.  So you don't get to see that.  Sorry.

Also of note, and something that I never considered until just now, the inclusion of McGinley in the photo means that the photo was taken after June 23, 1876, when McGinley joined the team.  For some reason, I always just assumed that the photo was taken at the beginning of the season.

Again, big hat tip to Paul.  These pictures are just great.      

The Israelites

The Israelite Base Ball Club has organized for the season with the following players:  M. Levy, c.; S. Lowenstein, p.; B. Isaacs, 1b.; P. Linz, 2b.; F. Jacobs, 3b.; P. Reilly, s.s.; J. Cashbaum, l.f.; E. Samuels, c.f.; B. Munchweiler, r.f.  Would like to hear from all clubs whose players are under 18.  Address all challenges to Isadore Stern, 1109 Chouteau avenue.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 24, 1884


I think this is cool.  We have white clubs and black clubs and Irish clubs and clubs of all sorts, shapes and sizes.  Now we have a Jewish club.  I'm sure they made Lip Pike proud.

A Worthless, Ungrateful Whelp

Speaking of people who've been more than helpful, brilliant reader and friend of the blog David Ball sent along this note about Lip Pike, from a letter that William Hulbert wrote to Freeman Brown on September 9, 1881:

Lipman Pike has for many years been notorious as a shirk, fraud and beat. He has made trouble in every club that has hired him; he has made trouble between clubs. He is a conspicuous example of the worthless, ungrateful low lived whelp, that the League will do well publicly to throw overboard by means of a published black list.

A few months ago, I posted something about Lip Pike talking about the 1876 McGeary affair where he basically flat-out stated that Mike McGeary was a crooked ballplayer and had thrown a game. David, in the comments, noted that Pike had a reputation as a troublemaker and I think I told him that I had never come across anything like that. Well...here it is.

Much thanks to David and everybody who has helped out with the research. I have more stuff in the inbox but I think it's time to get back to the Brown Stockings and wrap up the 1876 season.

The 1876 Brown Stockings: Pike Speaks His Mind

A Globe-Democrat reporter ran across Pike, the popular center-fielder of the Brown Stockings, yesterday afternoon, and while engaged in a brief conversation with him, asked his reasons for signing with the Cincinnati nine next year. "When I was away in New York, this spring," replied he, "I was asked my opinion of the Mutual game, alleged to have been thrown by McGeary, and I openly informed my questioner that I had no doubt that McGeary had sold the game; that he was a crooked player. I also expressed the same opinion here in St. Louis. For these honest expressions of my opinion, to which I still adhere, Remson was engaged in my place for next year. Seeing that I had no chance here, I have signed to play in Cincinnati next year, although I have become fond of St. Louis, and would have preferred to stay here."

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, July 24, 1876

Mr. Lipman Pike, center-fielder of the St. Louis ball club, in a card published in the morning papers yesterday, sees fit to disown certain statements which he made to a Globe-Democrat reporter on Sunday, and which were published the following day. Why he should disown them is well known to the Directors and friends of the St. Louis club. Not only were the statements published made to the reporter, but many others, which were of no interest to the community at large. No third person being present at the interview, the question of fact can not be proven. Mr. Pike, however, informed another attache of this journal, on Sunday afternoon, that he had made the statements accredited to him in regard to McGeary but that he had not made them to a reporter. In his card he states that he had no conversation whatever with a Globe-Democrat reporter on Sunday, although on Sunday night, in the presence of half a dozen witnesses, he referred to the reported interview, and asked why his remarks had been printed, even going so far as to use threatening language. To those who are acquainted with Pike's relations to the St. Louis Club, nothing more on this subject need be said. He may regret his foolish remarks, but will fail to make this paper shoulder the responsibility of them.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, July 26, 1876

Let's get this out of the way first: Pike disowned his remarks a day after they appeared in the Globe. I don't find that to be significant because I don't believe the Globe was making it up. I believe what Pike said in the Globe on July 24, I believe the Globe's defense that was published on July 26 and I think it's reasonable to believe that Brown Stockings management had Pike disavow his statement or Pike did it one his own due to the inflammatory nature of his remarks. This appears to be nothing more than a 19th century attempt at damage control. But, bottom line, I believe what Pike said on July 24.

And now on to the good stuff.

Are you kidding me? I honestly couldn't believe this when I first read it. You never find anything this good. Lip Pike flat out said that he thought McGeary sold the game and flat out said that McGeary was crooked. This is direct evidence that members of the Brown Stockings believed that McGeary was a dirty ballplayer, were unhappy about it and voiced their unhappiness.

Pike also states that, because he voiced his opinion about McGeary, he was being replaced by Remsen and that he was not wanted on the club in 1877. I believe that this is evidence of a pro-McGeary group within Brown Stockings management that either failed to recognize the growing culture of corruption that was enveloping the club or was willing to ignore it. When confronted with the evidence of McGeary's actions in New York, their reaction, according to Pike, was to replace the men who brought that evidence.

There is no actual evidence that Remsen was signed to replace Pike but Pike believed that it was so and believed he was being replaced because he had accused McGeary of crookedness. And so he signed with Cincinnati. Pike signed with Cincinnati in 1877 specifically because of how the Brown Stockings handled the McGeary situation.

Pike was not the only member of the Brown Stockings who believed that McGeary was crooked. Cuthbert basically walked off the field in disgust during the McGeary game in New York. Bradley was swept up in the accusations against McGeary and signed a contract to play elsewhere in 1877 at the first opportunity. While we don't know how every member of the team felt about McGeary, we've seen enough evidence to say that their were divisions in the clubhouse.

So we have divisions among the players and we have divisions among management and nobody is dealing with the situation. Either nobody has the authority to solve the problem or the people with the real power in the organization don't want to solve the problem. I find it unbelievable that with all the talk that had been going around baseball during the period that the directors of the Brown Stockings didn't realize that the corrupting influences of gambling and game-fixing weren't a real problem. They had to know that this was a serious situation and either were unable to stop it or, what may be worse, they chose to ignore it and sweep it under the rug. As a result, they lost some of their best players. As a result, the corrupting influences spread. As a result, the Brown Stockings died in 1877.

I think that the true story of the 1875-1877 Brown Stockings is that of a club that allowed corrupting influences to envelope the team, did nothing to arrest that spread and collapsed as a result. The 1877 gambling scandal was not an isolated incident. It was part of a larger pattern of corruption that stretched back into 1876 and, most likely, 1875. The club directors were aware of the problem. They knew that players were fixing games. They did nothing to stop it and, in fact, emboldened the fixers by allowing them to win a power struggle withing the club. J.B.C. Lucas and Orrick Bishop are as responsible for the Brown Stockings' breakup as Joe Blong and Mike McGeary.

Lip Pike told them that they had crooked ballplayers on their club and they got rid of Lip Pike. Mase Graffin suspends McGeary and Orrick Bishop comes out to Philadelphia to sweep everything under the rug and undercuts his manager at the same time. Chadwick and Spink were telling them not to sign these guys and they did anyway. They have a crooked umpire on the payroll. They sign more crooked ballplayers from Louisville. Etc. Etc. Etc. It was a mess run by some of the most prominent citizens of St. Louis. These upstanding gentlemen almost destroyed professional baseball in the city, motivated (one assumes) by greed and a desire to win at all costs.

And here we are, only half way through the season.

Lip Pike Is Dead

Lip Pike, once famous as a ball player, is dying at Brooklyn of heart disease.

-Chicago Daily Tribune, October 12, 1893

"Lip" Pike, the old centerfielder, is dead. He was famous in the day of the old Atlantics and St. Louis Browns.

-Chicago Daily Tribune, October 13, 1893

Pike died on October 10th. His widow died in 1909 and her obituary in the New York Times (August 29, 1909) is rather interesting:

Mrs. Lipman E. Pike, widow of the famous baseball player of thirty years ago, died on Friday...She was a well-known figure at the Polo Grounds and all other baseball fields throughout the country during her husband's life. She kept an elaborate set of scores of all the baseball games she ever attended and was at one time supposed to know more about the game than any other woman in the United States.

On Neutral Ground (or It's About Frakkin' Time)

It's like we finally get to New Brunswick and instead of finding a White Castle we find a Burger Shack. For those who don't know what that means, all I can say is: Let's burn it down, Pookie!

The following detailed account of the Brown Stockings' game with the Philadelphias, on Wednesday, is clipped from the Cincinnati Commercial:

The seventh game of the championship series between the Philadelphia Club and the Brown Stockings, of St. Louis, was played at Ludlow Park yesterday, in the presence of about 600 spectators. It was a necessity with both clubs to play the game, as the season is drawing to a close, and the clubs entered for the the whip pennant have too many games yet to play to permit of their passing a day in idleness, or in playing semi-amateur clubs, such as the Stars and Ludlows. As a pecuniary speculation the affair was a failure, but as an exhibition of the beauties of the "National Lunacy" it was considerable of a success.

The St. Louis team was as strong a one as the club can muster. Seward was the only substitute in the list, and he fielded and batted up to the highest standard. The Philadelphia nine was also composed of the picked players of the club, and every man at the outset of the game was in his home position. Mr. Mack, of the Star Club, was chosen umpire, and called play at 3: 40 p.m., with the Philadelphias at the bat, they having lost the toss.

The Quakers opened the play in a style that augured well for their success. Murnan and McGeary, the first two strikers, made clean hits for bases, and were each in turn thrown out while attempting to steal second. The throwing of Miller and the skill with which Battin handled the ball are deserving of special note, as the men who were put out in this manner are among the best runners and base stealers in the profession. Their failure to play this point had a very dampening effect on their comrades, and proportionately elated the Browns.

When the St. Louis nine went to the bat, Pike made his base on an error of Murnan after Cuthbert had been retired. Base hits by Battin and Pearce followed, and Pike scored his run, being helped to it by Addy's failure to stop Pearce's hit for a single base. Bradley drove a hot grounder to Fulmer, who failed to stop it, as also did McMullen at center field, these errors giving two more runs to St. Louis. There the tally stopped, however, and no runs were scored on either side in the following inning. In the third inning the Philadelphias got their third blinder, while on a one-base hit by Pearce, and a two-baser by Bradley, two runs were added to the St. Louis score, completing their total for the game. Neither of these runs was earned, as McGeary's carelessness gave Pearce a life at second base on a hit that Addy fielded in promptly enough to have nabbed him had McGeary been quick enough in putting the ball on to Dickey.

The Philadelphias failed to score until the ninth inning. In the fourth inning, Addy was left on third base, and in the seventh inning Meyerle was thrown out at home base while attempting to run in on Miller's throw to Battin to catch Fulmer, who, as a substitute for Snyder, was stealing to second. Meyerle's hit in this inning sent the ball over center field fence, but he was restricted to one base on it. In the ninth inning McGeary made a good base hit to left field, and got second on a wild return of the ball by Cuthbert. A passed ball gave him third, and he came in at Addy's expense, that tricky player hitting to right field and being thrown out at first by Battin.

There were some very clever plays in this game. Battin and Miller, of the St. Louis Club, guarded their positions splendidly, and while Miller's throws were made quickly and accurately, Battin was always on hand to hold them, and it was like walking into a man trap for a Philadelphia player to endeavor to steal to second base. Battin's fielding record in this game is a most remarkable one. Pearce also played well both in the field and at the bat, and displayed his usual excellent judgment in directing his men in their plays.

Te best playing done on the Philadelphia side was done by Meyerle, Snyder and McGeary. Snyder caught without an error, although the pitching at times was quite irregular. Fulmer played poorly at short field, and in the fourth inning was transferred to third base, where he rendered a better account of himself. After this inning McGeary played at short and Meyerle at second base. Addy had one error at right field, but played a lively, skillful game. The victory was the fifth to be placed to the credit of the St. Louis Club, although the Philadelphias in one of the two games of the series in which they were successful, scored sixteen runs against nine consecutive whitewashes of their opponents.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 24, 1875

The final score to this rather odd game was 5-1 in favor of the Brown Stockings.

So the first two batters get on for Philadelphia but are both thrown out trying to steal and then later Bob Addy gets a hit and drives in a run only to be thrown out at first. That's a good bit of strangeness. I don't think I've ever seen the first two batters of a game get on and then thrown out stealing.

Also, we have the Commercial's take on why the game was played in Ludlow: "It was a necessity with both clubs to play the game, as the season is drawing to a close, and the clubs entered for the the whip pennant have too many games yet to play to permit of their passing a day in idleness, or in playing semi-amateur clubs, such as the Stars and Ludlows." The game had to be played because the season was almost over and a club couldn't be wasting their time playing the Stars and the Luds. But wasn't that exactly what St. Louis and Philadelphia were doing? It's kind of a non-explanation. It doesn't address why specifically St. Louis and Philadelphia were playing in Ludlow on September 22, 1875 but rather generally addresses the idea that they needed to play. The game was played because it was necessary to play the game.

What was Philadelphia doing in Cincinnati? We know the Brown Stockings were there wasting their time playing the Stars and the Luds. Did they arrange to meet in the city and play? Was the game arranged before the Brown Stockings left St. Louis? Was the game arranged at the last minute as a matter of convenience?

I think after a week's worth of posts on the topic I may have more questions then when I started looking into this. But that's life. And I was going to post the "Burn it down, Pookie!" clip for you but decided that, besides being NSFW, it was seriously inappropriate at a family-friendly blog like TGOG. But here's the link. Just don't play it around the children.

The Perfect Harmony Which Prevails

The St. Louis Club, however, relies far more for success in the coming campaign on the friendship which exists among the players themselves, the perfect harmony which prevails in the nine, and the confidence reposed in each other by officers and players than on mere playing skill. Bradley, Pike and Cuthbert were the disturbing elements in the St. Louis nine last year, which is the only reason why Pike, at least, was not re-engaged this season. A better-natured and more harmonious team than the Browns of '77 could not be gathered together. "While I would like to win the championship," remarked one of the Directors at the game on Wednesday, "I would be far more gratified to see the boys work in harmony throughout the season, and establish a reputation for gentlemanly conduct on and off the field," and this sentiment is universally endorsed by admirers of the game in St. Louis.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 1, 1877

So let me see if I can understand this correctly. With Bradley, Pike and Cuthbert, the Brown Stockings finished 39-29 in 1875, an outstanding 45-19 in 1876, and were the best club in the West both seasons. But Bradley, Pike and Cuthbert were "disturbing elements"* and had to go. In 1877, the Brown Stockings finish 28-32, lose money, have trouble meeting their payroll, have their manager and various players accused of bribing umpires and throwing games,and after the season try to sign a bunch of fixers from Louisville. As a result of all of this perfect harmony, the Brown Stockings collapse and almost destroy professional baseball in St. Louis. I think, in retrospect, it may have been a better idea to just keep the disturbing elements and try to win some baseball games.

And one more thing to chew on: the 1876 Brown Stockings had Joe Blong starting everyday in the outfield. What do you have to do to be labeled a disturbing element on a club with Joe Blong on it? Seriously, they got rid of Bradley, Pike and Cuthbert but kept Blong, Mike McGeary and George McManus. I'm thinking that that's poor team management.

*I love this particular turn of phrase and I'm going to start using it at work. "I'm sorry but can you stop being a disturbing element and actually do something productive?" And I'm stealing this whole asterisk thing, without apologies, from Joe Posnanski. Except I'm not going to put the note in the middle of the piece. I find that too jarring.

That's One Way To Get In The Park

Last Thursday, when the Browns and Athletics were playing, a boy, sitting on top of the seats on the Grand avenue side, yelled out to another boy in the street to keep an eye out for the ball, as Pike was at the bat. Pike generally sends a ball or two over the fence on the avenue, and the lad that gets it takes it in, thereby gaining free admission to the Park.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, August 17, 1875

C. Orrick Bishop And The Brown Stockings

Bishop had played amateur baseball while attending Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, and pursuing legal studies in Louisville. His playing career ended when he opened a law practice in St. Louis during 1867, but Bishop remained active in promoting local amateur baseball. This long-time love for the sport persuaded Bishop to accept a major role in the development of the Brown Stockings. Team officials, impressed by his intimate knowledge of the game, appointed him as managing director and entrusted him with recruiting players for the team. Approaching this mission very seriously, Bishop spent a month away from his thriving legal practice to travel the East Coast in search of ballplayers. He focused his efforts in Brooklyn and Philadelphia, cities whose teams had previously traveled to St. Louis.

Bishop signed three players-shortstop Dickey Pearce, right fielder Jack Chapman, and first baseman Herman "Dutch" Dehlman-from the roster of the 1874 Brooklyn Atlantics. While in Brooklyn, Bishop also secured the services of Lipman Pike, who had played the previous season with the Harford Dark Blues...

Bishop discovered the rest of his starting nine in and around Philadelphia...(specifically among) the Easton, Pennsylvania, amateur team...

Bishop had put together a fine team, and the Brown Stockings' shareholders commended him for performing his duty "in a manner highly satisfactory to his confreres in the new venture." But by hiring a starting lineup of ballplayers born in either New York or Pennsylvania, Bishop had risked alienating some sectors of St. Louis society that yearned to see the city represented by homegrown talent.

-From Before They Were Cardinals

I think the interesting question here is who specifically made the decision to bring in the "Atlantic/Easton professionals." While I had always assumed that it was a collective decision by the Brown Stockings board, Jon David Cash makes it sound here as if it was Bishop's decision alone. As managing director, he was tasked by the board to put together the team and he then proceeded to head East to sign the players. Certainly he had the support of the board in this decision to bring in "outsiders" but a great deal of credit must be given to Bishop.

This decision to bring in the Eastern players was a watershed event in the history of St. Louis baseball and had a tremendous impact on the future of the game in St. Louis. I don't think that it's a coincidence that the Brown Stockings' board was made up of several members of the Union Base Ball Club, whose former president was Asa Smith, the visionary and forward-thinking modenizer of the St. Louis game in the 1860's. Certainly Smith had had a tremendous impact on the thinking of his fellow club members who sat on the Brown Stockings' board and I believe that if Smith had been alive in 1875 he would have approved of bringing in the Eastern players.

A Statistical Look At The Early National League

A while back I put up a link to Walk Like a Sabermetrician. The reason for the link is that they're running a fascinating series on the early National League-taking a statistical look at the league from 1876 to 1881. Since they just posted the entry for the 1878 season, I thought this would be a good time to mention it.

Obviously, from my point of view, the most interesting entries were the ones for the 1876 and 1877 seasons when the Brown Stockings were playing in the NL. Specifically of interest was that they like John Clapp quite a bit and rate him as the best catcher in the league for both '76 and '77. The Browns had a much better season in 1876 than in '77 and that shows up in the analysis. The Browns placed Clapp, Joe Battin, and Lip Pike on the All-Star team for '76 and they felt it necessary to explain why they didn't place George Bradley on the team. Clapp again made the team for 1877 and was joined by Mike Dorgan, who they rate as the best rookie hitter in the league that year. Also of note, St. Louisan John Paul Peters made the All-Star team at shortstop for both seasons.

It's good stuff and I certainly recommend taking a look at it.

Person John Clapp

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Lip Pike

Reputed to be organized baseball's first Jewish player and manager, Lip Pike began playing with junior clubs in Brooklyn in the early 1860's. In 1866, he joined the Philadelphia Athletics where he quickly became one of the league's leading hitters. Pike returned to New York the following year and played two seasons for the Mutuals. The Tammany Hall connections he made with the Mutuals would pay off for Pike in his latter years.

In 1869 Pike joined the Atlantics where for two seasons he played second base in all 106 Atlantic contests. In 1869 he was the team's second leading hitter behind first baseman Joe Start. Pike was an outstanding fielder and base-runner, but he was particularly known as a dead-pull left-handed power hitter. In its 1893 tribute to Pike, the Sporting News described his hitting prowess: "in his day he could hit the ball as hard as any man in the business...during his career (he) had sent the ball over the right field fence of nearly every park in which he had played." According to the New York Times, Pike once hit a towering drive that struck and bent the flagpole high atop the pagoda in the outfield at Union Grounds in Brooklyn.

From 1871 through 1875, Pike played for a succession of National Association clubs: Troy, Baltimore, Hartford, and St. Louis. He batted .321 for the five seasons, and doubled as player-manager for Troy in 1871 and Hartford in 1874. Pike continued his outstanding hitting, batting .323 for St. Louis when they joined the National League in 1876. In 1877, he moved to Cincinnati where he batted .298. Pike completed his final full season in 1878, batting .311 for Cincinnati and Worcester.

Pike played in several games for Bill Barnie's minor league Atlantics in 1881 and played in a few matches for Worcester. In 1887, he played one final game with the New York Mets of the American Association, going hitless in four times at bat. Pike turned to umpiring, officiating in American Association games in 1887 and 1889, and in the National League in 1890. With his playing days at an end, Pike also worked for the Tammany Hall political machine, and according to the Sporting News operated a "sporting resort" near the Brooklyn Bridge.

In the early morning hours of October 10, 1893, Lip Pike died at the age of 48 at his home at 106 North Oxford Street in Brooklyn. According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, "Many wealthy Hebrews and men high in political and old time base ball circles attended the funeral service." Pike was buried in Cypress Hill Cemetery.

-From Long Before the Dodgers: Baseball in Brooklyn, 1855-1884

Remembrance Of Things Past

We were very proud of our St. Louis Browns, and equally jealous of the Chicago White Sox. One never gets this partisanship out of the blood. Only last Saturday the sculptor, Ruckstull, now sixty-eight, and sunk deep in the hollow of a library leather chair from which he was freely reading Montaigne's archaic French, paused at some mention of memory and said: "What a heaven sent gift memory is!" And then, with an accusing challenge, "Can you name the whole nine of the first St. Louis league team when they won that first series from Chicago in 1874?"

And trying to beat each other to it, we alternated and interfered and reached a flushed crescendo in a run of competing explosions, telling: "Bradley, pitch; Miller, catch; Dehlman, Bannon, Hogue, on bases; Dickey Pierce at short; and in the field? Cuthbert, Chapman, and-and Haight."

But we couldn't remember Chicago. We remembered the whiskers on some of those Lake Front athletes, as luxuriant as those now worn by the Cough Drop Brothers. And all the time the sculptor was commanding attention with a hand on which the hypnotic feature was an ossified contusion of the first phalange of the little finger, pitched to him on our old railroad nine of that epoch.

-From The Print of My Remembrance

Augustus Thomas (pictured above as a young man), author of The Print of My Remembrance, was a playwright and journalist who was born in St. Louis in 1857. As a young man, he worked on the railroad in St. Louis which explains the reference to "our old railroad nine."

I guess I should point out the irony of discussing how wonderful a thing memory is and then not being able to remember correctly the year the Brown Stockings joined the NA. Thomas and Frederick Ruckstull also misidentified the Brown Stockings starting nine. "Bannon" was Joe Battin and I don't know who "Haight" was but the name they were looking for was Lip Pike.

The Browns Of The Interregnum

(The) original Brown Stocking Club which first represented St. Louis in the National League...died in 1878 when the news came that Hall, Devlin, Nicholls, and Craver had been expelled from the Louisville Club for crookedness. This announcement was a death blow to the St. Louis Brown Stockings Club of that year by reason of the fact that Devlin and Hall, two of the expelled players, had signed with St. Louis for the following season. In 1879 St. Louis had no baseball to speak of. In 1880 a nine called the St. Louis Browns, under the management of the veteran Cuthbert, played games on the co-operative plan and furnished patrons with the only base ball that was going that year. That nine included Cuthbert, Shenck, Decker, McDonald, Croft, McGinnis, Pearce, Bowles, Cunningham and Morgan. This team played twenty-one games, losing but one, and that to the Louisville Reds, a semi-professional organization, by a score of 14 to 8. Its success in fact led to the organization of what is now known as the Sportsman's Park and Club Association, a company which was really organized for the purpose of refitting the present Sportsman's Park for baseball purposes. After the park had been fully equipped the Brown Stockings of the previous year were asked to reorganize and take possession of it. This they did with a nine which included the Gleason brothers, Baker, Seward, McCaffory, McSorley, McGinnis, Magner, McDonald, Gault and Cuthbert. This nine, like that of the previous year, played great ball, and the famous Akron team was the only nine it met that year that proved too much for it. It was so successful, in fact, that in the fall of 1881 steps were taken to put a professional team in the then talked of American Association.

-From The Sporting News, October 11, 1886


Al Spink had much to do with the Interregnum Browns and wrote the following in The National Game:

At this time my brother William Spink was the sporting editor of the Globe-Democrat and I held that sort of position on the then Missouri Republican, now the St. Louis Republic. After the failure to land a professional team in St. Louis in 1878 we did our best and worked together to replace the game here on a substantial footing.

But the baseball-loving public, disgusted at the way they had lost the splendid team they had hoped for, would have none of it.

Out of the remnant of the old St. Louis professional team we organized a nine that included holdover veterans like Dickey Pearce, Edgar Cuthbert, Lipman Pike, Mike McGeary, Joe Blong, Arthur Croft, Charles Houtz, Tom Sullivan, Packie Dillon, Danny Morgan and others.

This team played games on Sundays sometimes at Grand Avenue Park, now Sportsman's, and sometimes at the Reds' Park on Compton avenue, to which Shakespeare would have termed a beggardly array of empty benches. One day in the summer of 1878 we went to the pains of bringing the Indianapolis Browns here, a team that had won the championship of the International Association and that included in its ranks such famous players as the "only" Flint and the "only" Nolan.

But this team and our picked nine of professionals did not take in enough money at the gate at its initial game to pay the street car fares of the twelve players on the Mound City bob-tailed cars from the park back to their hotel quarters downtown.

The season of 1879 was as unfruitful of results as that of the season which preceded it. A picked up team of left-over professionals was again organized, called the St. Louis Browns and it stood ready to play any team of players that happened on Sundays to drop into Grand Avenue Park. During the close of the season of 1879 the game showed signs of returning to life, and with my brother William, I again set out to reconstruct the old edifice and bring it back to its own.

Together we brought about the meeting which at the close of the season of 1880 led to the organization of the Sportsman's Park and Club Association, an organization effected for the purpose of fitting up Grand Avenue Park for baseball purposes. This organization included Chris Von der Ahe, president; John W. Peckington, vice president; W. W. Judy, treasurer; and A. H. Spink, secretary.

The Grand Avenue Park, which at this time contained a weather beaten grandstand and a lot of rotten benches, was torn away and in its place was erected a new covered stand and an open "bleachers."

Sitting out in the field early in the spring of 1881 before the new grandstand was completed, I organized the St. Louis Browns of that year, Edgar Cuthbert, the only one of the old professionals still remaining in the city assisting me in the selection of a nine which included George Baker and George Seward, catchers; George McGinnis, pitcher; Edward Gault, first base; Hugh McDonald and Dan Morgan, second base; Jack Gleason, third base; William Gleason, short field; Harry McCaffrey, center field; Edgar Cuthbert, left field; and John T. Magner, right field.

It was agreed as we all sat there on the green sward that we would work together to build up the sport and each player promised to be prompt at each game, to do his level best at all times and to take for his pay just as small a percentage of the gate receipts as the general welfare of the park and its owners would allow.

On Sunday, May 22, 1882, these grounds were really opened with an exhibition game between the newly organized St. Louis Browns and the St. Louis Reds. The Reds won by 2 to 1...

Despite the good attendance at this opening game between the Reds and Browns the outlook seemed cold and bleak, for St. Louis stood badly then in the eyes of the outside world.

The Atlantic Base Ball Club Of St. Louis

Bill Kelsoe, in A Newspaper Man's Motion-Picture Of The City, makes two references to the Atlantics of Brooklyn playing in St. Louis. He mentions a game played between the Reds and the Atlantics on July 29, 1874 and another between the Empire Club and the Atlantics on May 2, 1875. When I read those references, I was immediately skeptical (as seen in this post).

The Atlantics did come to St. Louis in 1868. They defeated the Union 68-9 on June 27th and then beat the Empire 53-15 two days later. This is the only record of an Atlantics' visit to St. Louis that I can find. The only other link that I can find between St. Louis and the Atlantics of Brooklyn is the fact that Lip Pike, Dickey Pearce, and Jack Chapman all played for the Atlantics before joining the Brown Stockings in 1875.

My assumption was that Kelsoe, who in writing his book used both the records of numerous St. Louis newspapers as well as his own personal recollections and those of his acquaintances, had simply confused the 1868 visit of the Atlantics of Brooklyn with games played in 1874 and 1875 by a St. Louis amateur team also called the Atlantics. He was, after all, writing almost fifty years after the fact and these things happen. When going through my notes, I found a reference to an Atlantic Base Ball Club in St. Louis that supports my assumption. This Atlantic Club was an amateur team that played its home games at the Compton Avenue Base Ball Park owned by Thomas McNeary.

In the April 5, 1875 edition of the St. Louis Globe, there is an account of a game played between the Reds and the Atlantics in which the Reds emerged with a 32-4 victory. Playing for the Atlantics that day were Libby, Price, Williams, Jones, Rippy, Myers, Kelly, Mueller, and Devinney. The Globe states that it was the intention of the Atlantics to join the Missouri State Association that year and compete for the amateur baseball championship of Missouri. The officers of the Atlantics were listed as J. Walter (president), E. Hogan (secretary), George Waugh (treasurer), and L. Meyer (director).

One has to assume, based on this evidence, that the team that defeated the Reds at the Compton Avenue Park in 1874 and the team that was beaten by the Empire at the Grand Avenue Park in 1875 was the Atlantic Base Ball Club of St. Louis and not the Atlantics of Brooklyn.

The Glorious Uncertainty Of Baseball

On May 30, 1875, a baseball game was played at the Compton Avenue Ballpark in which, according to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, "the glorious uncertainty of base ball was never more thoroughly illustrated..." The Reds regulars took on "a picked nine sailing under Empire colors" that included Pud Galvin, Tom Dolan, Charlie Levis, and Jim Spaulding. Spaulding was the only player on the team that I can confirm was a member of the Empire Base Ball Club.

The Reds, who had jumped to a 5-0 lead in the first, were cruising along with an 11-3 lead when the wheels came off in the bottom of the seventh inning. The first seven men the Empires sent up to the plate reached base. A poor throw by Art Croft turned a lead off single into a double. A grounder to pitcher Joe Blong should have resulted in a out at third but umpire Lip Pike called the runner safe. A runner reached first on a strikeout when the ball got away from Silver Flint. There was three passed ball and four stolen bases. The Empire scored ten runs, five of them unearned, and took a 13-11 lead. To add injury to insult, Flint took a foul ball to the face and was down for fifteen minutes.

The Empire overcame an eight run deficit and ended up winning the game 16-12.

A Brillant Struggle Between The Home Clubs

On May 29, 1875, "(about) one thousand spectators were in attendance" to witness the Reds play the Brown Stockings at the Grand Avenue Ballpark in the second and last game of the season between the two clubs. The Browns won the game 6-0 in what the St. Louis Globe-Democrat described as a "brilliant struggle".

"The Browns succeeded," wrote the Globe, "by good fielding and the weak hitting of their opponents...while (the Reds), by equally good fielding, kept the score of the Browns down to six runs." George Bradley, pitching for the Browns, held the Reds to five hits while "Chicagoing" the crosstown rivals. The Browns' Joe Battin, Lip Pike, and Jack Chapman were singled out by the Globe for their fine hitting while Joe Ellick and Charlie Houtz got two hits apiece for the Reds. The defensive play of the game was probably Ned Cuthbert's "brilliant running catch" in short left field that retired Joe Blong in the ninth inning.

I am continually amazed at the fact that these teams only played two games against each other. By contrast, the Athletics and Whites, both of Philadelphia, played ten games. The Centennials of Philadelphia played almost half of their 14 games against the other Philadelphia teams. The New York Mutuals and the Brooklyn Atlantics played seven games against each other.

While it's true that the Reds did not schedule NA games after July 4th, the opportunity was there in the first half of the season for the Reds and Browns to play each other. The fact that they didn't lends credence to the Globe's insinuations that there was animosity between the two organizations.

Packy Dillon

Packy Dillon, who played three games for the 1875 St. Louis Red Stockings of the National Association and had a total of 13 at-bats in the ‘big leagues’, is one of the more obscure players in the history of professional baseball. His tenuous claim to fame is being a catcher on an uncompetitive, tenth place team that dropped out of a borderline major league in the middle of its only professional season during baseball’s “Dark Ages”. His obscurity as a baseball player is matched only by the lack of information that we have about his personal history.

According to baseball reference books and websites, Packy Dillon was born in St. Louis, Missouri and died in Guelph, Ontario on January 8, 1890. He had a brother named John, who also played for the St. Louis Reds and is an even more obscure historical figure than Packy. Those are most of the known facts about Dillon’s personal life and it’s possible to make an argument that none of them are accurate. Even Dillon’s name is up for debate. He’s listed in the Baseball Encyclopedia as Packard Andrew Dillon and at Baseball Reference.Com as Patrick Dillon. Another source lists him as Patrick C. Dillon. His nickname, in contemporary sources, is spelled variously as Packy, Packey, and Packie.

A “Dillon” is listed as a member of the Union Club of St. Louis in the early 1870’s and of the Reds in 1874. While it is an assumption that this is Packy Dillon, it seems a safe one if it is true that Dillon was born in St. Louis and living in the city at the time. The 1875 Reds were, for the most part, made up of the best local amateur players as well as players already on the club so Dillon’s inclusion on the roster in 1875 would presuppose his already being a known commodity in the St. Louis baseball community. The Brooklyn Eagle, on March 9, 1875, published the Reds roster for the upcoming season and listed Dillon as an infielder on the club. In the March 15th edition, Dillon was identified as the Reds starting first baseman. The St. Louis Democrat, in its March 21, 1875 edition, identified Dillon as the Reds starting catcher for the upcoming season. Most references to Dillon in the St. Louis papers identified him as a catcher and it’s possible that the Eagle erred in claiming he was to play first base in 1875. Again, it’s a safe assumption that Dillon was the club’s first baseman or catcher in 1874 or was a top first baseman/catcher on another St. Louis amateur club such as the Union or Empire.

Prominently mentioned in preseason reports, Dillon was one of the Reds who took part in informal practices in mid March before the manager of the Reds had finalized the roster. The first hint of an injury that would ruin Dillon’s NA season was found in the St. Louis Democrat on April 19th. Describing a game between the Reds and the Niagaras that had taken place the day before, it was mentioned that Dillon, “the catcher of the Red Stockings,” could not play because of a “sore hand”.

Dillon made his professional debut with the Reds on May 4, 1875 in a 15-9 loss to the St. Louis Brown Stockings. This game, played at Red Stocking Base Ball Park on Compton Avenue, was the first professional league game ever played in St. Louis. He also played in the first away game by a St. Louis professional baseball team on May 6th, 1875 when the Reds traveled to Keokuk, Iowa to take on the Westerns. Packy Dillon’s final game for the 1875 Red Stockings occurred on May 8th when the Reds beat the Westerns 6-1 to gain the first road victory by a St. Louis professional baseball team. By mid May, the St. Louis papers were reporting that Dillon had suffered a broken hand. His “major league” career had lasted all of three games and 13 at bats

After their 12-5 loss to the Washington Nationals on July 4, 1875, the Reds ceased operations as a franchise in the NA. While the Reds continued to play games against local amateur teams and picked nines and attempted to organize a Southern road trip, their roster was in disarray. Pitcher Joe Blong had been expelled from the team for hippodroming and captain Charlie Sweasy had bolted the club to join the Cincinnati Red Stockings. By August, almost half of the Reds, including Packy Dillon, had left the team to find employment elsewhere. Dillon ended the 1875 season playing for the Covington Stars along with former Reds Silver Flint, Trick McSorley, and the disgraced Joe Blong.

One of the more interesting moments in the Reds eventful 1875 season occurred in November. On the 7th and 11th of that month, the reorganized Reds played two games in St. Louis against a picked nine team. Playing for the picked nine were former Reds Packy Dillon, Trick McSorely, and Joe Blong. Also playing for the picked nine were several members of the 1875 St. Louis Brown Stockings, including Pud Galvin, Lip Pike, and Joe Battin. The Reds lost both games.

In 1876, W.B. Pettit was building a successful professional team in Indianapolis that would eventually join the National League two years later. Raiding the Covington team, Pettit brought in Dillon and two of his teammates to play for Indianapolis in 1876. In 1877, Pettit signed Flint to catch for the Indianapolis club and Dillon was looking for another team. Returning home to St. Louis, Dillon rejoined the Reds for the 1877 season. If Dillon had remained on the 1877 Indianapolis club, a championship team that was celebrated in Indianapolis for many years, it’s likely that we would have more information about the man through the numerous articles written about that team over the years in the Indianapolis press.

After the 1877 season, Dillon is, for the most part, lost in the mists of time. How long his playing career lasted after 1877 is unknown and there are few references to him in the sporting press. In 1881, Al Spinks, speaking about the 1875 Reds, referred to Dillon as a “crackerjack” ballplayer. The Sporting News, in 1886, mentions that Dillon had played in a benefit game for Tom Sullivan on May 8th of that year. Dillon was also mentioned by The Sporting News in their October 4, 1886 issue. Reporting on the death of former Red Tom Oran, it was mentioned that Dillon was now in the “commission business.” There’s a subtle suggestion in the article that Dillon’s playing career had come to an end.

There are several basic questions about Packy Dillon that have yet to be answered. The first and most basic of these involves his real name. Was his first name Patrick or Packard? Was his middle initial ‘A.’ or ‘C.’? Was his last name really Dillon? Or was it Dylan or Dilon or Dillan? The safest assumption is that his name was Patrick Dillon. Packy was a common shortened form of Patrick and it’s tough to imagine a 19th century Irish-American named Packard. There is no reason to believe that his surname was not Dillon other than the fact that baseball players of his time where known to sometimes play under assumed names.

The question of Dillon’s date of birth also needs to be addressed. While all the reference material lists his date of birth as unknown, it’s safe to assume that Dillon was somewhere between 16 and 28 years old in 1875 and therefore he was born between the years 1847 and 1859. The average age of the Reds in 1875 was about 21 and it was remarked upon in the press of the time how young the team was. It was mentioned that one member of the team was 16 and it’s known that Tom Oran and Charlie Sweasy, at 28, were the oldest members of the team. If one believes that Dillon was not the 16 year old team member and that he wasn’t a veteran like Sweasy or Oran then it’s safe to assume that Dillon was in his early 20’s and most likely born sometime between 1850 and 1855.

Another question about Packy Dillon involves his family, specifically the relationship between him and the Reds’ John Dillon. John Dillon, who was usually referred to as ‘Jack’ in contemporary sources, is listed in modern baseball reference material as Packy Dillon’s brother. I have never seen a source that mentions any relationship between the two other than that of teammate. While it is possible that the two were brothers and one would have to assume that there is a basis for the claim, the common nature of the surname ‘Dillon’ in St. Louis in the 19th century leaves open the possibility that the two men were not brothers. This is certainly a serious problem when trying to research Packy Dillon. The identification of a brother is one of the best leads one has when attempting to identify Dillon in contemporary records and if John is not Packy’s brother then most of the leads go cold.

Other questions regarding Dillon that still need to be investigated include his place of birth and his place and date of death. Dillon is listed in modern baseball reference material as having been born in St. Louis. There is no evidence of this that I can find. It’s certainly known that Dillon was living in St. Louis in the 1870’s and 1880’s. However, there is no primary source material that establishes his place of birth or his place of residence prior to the 1870’s. The same holds true for his place and date of death. While secondary source material states that Dillon died on January 8, 1890 in Guelph, Ontario, I have no primary sources that confirm this. While I can not believe that this information is accurate without confirmation from primary source material, I also have not found any definitive source that contradicts this information.

If one accepts the secondary source material as being accurate with regards to his place of birth and his relationship to John Dillon and one makes educated assumptions about his given name and age, then it is possible to find information about Packy Dillon in contemporary records. In general, when looking for Dillon in sources such as census data, birth records, death records, etc, I have based my search on the assumption that his first name was Patrick, his brother’s name was John, he was born in St. Louis in the early 1850’s, and he died in Ontario in 1890. Again, it must be stated that, while it’s logical to assume these things about Dillon, these are nothing but assumptions.

Given those caveats, it is arguable that Packy Dillon was the bastard son of Irish immigrants. A Patrick Dillon was born in 1854 to James and Ellen Dillon, Irish immigrants who would not marry until 1858. While census records state that Patrick was born in St. Louis, it’s possible to imagine that his parents immigrated to America either upon learning of Ellen’s pregnancy or shortly after the birth of young Packy and then settled in St. Louis by the late 1850’s. Dillon also had two younger brothers, John, born in 1859, and James, born in 1864. In the 1880 census, they were living in St. Louis and both James and John listed their occupation as ‘teamsters’ while Patrick listed his as ‘produce huckster’.

This Patrick Dillon was married to Martha F. Dillon. Martha, who is also listed in some sources as ‘Mary’, was born in Ohio in 1859. They had one son, Edward, who was born in St. Louis in 1879. It’s known that Packy Dillon was in the Cincinnati area in 1875 and it’s entirely possible that, while playing with Covington, Dillon met Mary, won her hand, and took his new bride back to St. Louis. Also, there are numerous Patrick and Mary Dillon’s buried next to each other in cemeteries throughout Ontario, where one can assume Packy Dillon was laid to rest.

James and Ellen Dillon’s son John would have been 16 years old in 1875 and William Rzcyek writes that the Reds had a 16 year old on the roster (although he identifies the 16 year old as Trick McSorely who according to most sources was born in 1852). Jack Dillon’s lack of playing time in 1875 (1 AB) could easily be explained by his age and inexperience. It’s possible that the Reds, in the manner of teams at the time, kept the young Jack on the roster simply as a glorified gopher, someone who could take tickets and do the ground keeping.

This Patrick Dillon fits all of the assumptions that we make about Packy Dillon. His name is Patrick. He was either born in St. Louis or, at the very least, was living in St. Louis during the 1860’s-1880’s time period, had a brother named John, and was born in the early 1850’s. By 1890, he disappears from public records, leading one at assume that he might be deceased. There is no other Patrick Dillon in the public records who fits all the assumptions that are made about Packy Dillon. While, of course, it’s impossible to say for sure that this Patrick Dillon is Packy Dillon, the baseball player, I can not find a better candidate.