Not Being Overrun With People

As an evidence of the harm done St. Louis by the publication of bare-faced falsehoods comes an alleged tirade indulged in by Patsy Tebeau, published in your last issue. How can Patsy Tebeau, or anyone else, discuss the proposition to transfer base ball games from St. Louis to some other city, when no such proposition has been made? Ah, there is the rub. It has been published in St. Louis that such a transfer was contemplated; published without any warrant, however, without a single fact to base the publication upon; published and copied in other cities as a fact, because it is not yet known, though gradually becoming so, that some publications that appear in the city of St. Louis are not worthy of reproduction. Here are the facts:

Secretary Dreyfuss, of the Louisville Club, had written to President Von der Ahe requesting that the games for August 16, 17 and 18 be transferred to Louisville. Chris' reply was as follows: "I must say that for pure, unadulterated, unmitigated nerve, your proposition to transfer to Louisville the three games scheduled at St. Louis, August 16, 17 and 18, easily wins the 'blue ribbon.' Ye gods! Since when has there been such a thing as a 'crowd' at a ball game in Louisville. On our last visit there we did not make expenses, and with any approach to favorable weather here we will get more out of one game than three in your village. Judging from past results it would be much more to our advantage to transfer those three games to some little outside town rather than Louisville-if we were in the transfer business. We are not being overrun with people at our park, but compared with those at Louisville and Cleveland, it is as a World's Fair to a school picnic. I have never yet had to transfer a game; when I do, it will not be to Louisville-not this year, anyhow."

-Sporting Life, August 17, 1895

Hey Look, It's A Picture Of Patsy Tebeau

Are you guys as tired of these portraits from The Sporting News as I am? At one point, I was all excited about these things but I'm pretty much over it. Still, they have their uses when it's six in the morning and you haven't slept in two days and have been out all night. I lead a seriously interesting life. My evening/night/morning was much more interesting than this post could ever hope to be.

Anyway, there are a couple of interesting tidbits from the TSN blurb that accompanied the Tebeau portrait. It said that his first professional team was "the Jacksonville, Illinois, Club in 1885" and that he also played for "the St. Joseph Club of the Western League" in 1886. In 1887, Tebeau was with Denver before he was sold to the Chicago White Stockings.

And since I've been pretty much off-topic all week, I seriously recommend Aimee Mann's new cd, Smilers. I honestly think it's her best work yet. You should check it out. And I promise to pull it together here and get refocused on whatever it is I'm trying to do with this blog. Seriously, I should just start a new blog where I can write about music and drinking and women and politics. It would probably be a much more interesting read.

Jack Powell

Jack Powell is the big right-handed pitcher of the St. Louis Browns in this 1910 season. He is one of the old members of that team. He has been with them since the organization of the New Browns in 1902. Powell's great forte is pitching with fearful speed. He also has perfect control...He was born at Bloomington, Ill., where he was discovered by Patsy Tebeau in 1895. That year Tebeau signed Powell for the Cleveland Spiders. For years Powell, Cuppy and Young were the pitchers of that team and they were then the best trio in the business. Powell was one of the men brought by the Robinsons to St. Louis when they transferred their Cleveland National League team to this city

-The National Game

John Joseph (Jack) Powell, pitcher for the Cleveland Spiders, was brought to trial in June, 1897, on a charge of playing ball on Sunday. He was fined $5 and court costs, which came to a healthy $153. Stanley Robison, owner of the Spiders, announced his intention to appeal the issue, but Sunday ball in Cleveland was discontinued for the rest of the century.

-The Historical Baseball Abstract



Powell's 1899 season for the Perfectos is rated the ninth best pitching season in Cardinals history according to this post over at Fungoes. I've talked about this list before and some of the problems I have with it but in 1899 Powell did put up the ninth most pitching Win Shares in Cardinals history. Take it for what it's worth.

Powell does have rather interesting stats. You should head over to Baseball Reference and check out his page. He had a lot of top ten finishes in numerous categories (both good and bad) and his similarity scores are fascinating. The four most statistically similar pitchers to Powell are all Hall of Famers-Eppa Rixey, Red Faber, Vic Willis, and Ted Lyons. Does this mean that Powell is or should be a Hall of Famer? No. It's just one of those odd things that's interesting to kick around.

The above photo comes from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat Collection at the University of Missouri's Digital Library, and, while undated, was most likely taken in 1911 or 1912.

Rowdy Jack O'Connor

There are few professional players in the ranks to-day who have led as active a life and as long a one in the professional field as Jack O'Connor.

He is the man selected by President Robert Lee Hedges to manage the 1910 St. Louis Browns.

O'Connor is a St. Louis boy. He was born up on North Broadway forty-two years ago and learned to play ball on the prairies which were then numerous out there.

It was from these lots that graduated perhaps the greatest baseball catcher that ever lived, Frank Flint of the Chicago White Stockings, and next to Flint in the olden days there were few better receivers than this same O'Connor.

O'Connor first came into prominence as the catcher of the crack Shamrock team-a nine that hailed from North St. Louis and that could beat anything in that neck of the woods.

It included in its ranks such later famous players as Pat and George Tebeau, Sam Smith, Joe Herr, George Sharinghaus, Jack (Dutch) Reinagle and Ed Struve.

O'Connor's first professional engagement away from home was with the St. Joe Club of 1886. That team, managed by Nin Alexander, now of Pana, Ill., in the Western League, went through that entire season with ten men and came within one game of winning the pennant from Denver after they had spent thousands on their team to strengthen it...

O'Connor caught such grand ball for St. Joseph that he had no trouble in 1887 securing a position with Cincinnati. The following year he went to Columbus, of the American Association. In 1890 he played with Denver.

In 1891 he joined Cleveland, where he played until 1899, when with the rest of the Cleveland team, he was removed to St. Louis.

In 1900 he was sold to Pittsburg, where he played until 1902, when he jumped to the New York Americans. There he remained until 1906, when he joined the Browns. He remained in St. Louis until 1909, when he was signed by Little Rock. He played in that city for four months and did good work until he came to St. Louis in August, 1909. He acted as scout for the Browns during August, September and October, 1909.

As far as baseball knowledge goes, O'Connor bears the highest reputation among the best judges of play in the world. Baseball men say that he is without doubt one of the cleverest judges of play that has ever graced the game.

O'Connor has made a deep study of baseball, and few men in the game have a superior knowledge of the sport. He has a knack of doing the unexpected or outguessing his adversary. It was Jack, for instance, who, while catching the Browns, made big John Anderson, then with Washington, throw the ball against the pavilion. Jack pretended to be the Washington first baseman and "Big" John heaved the ball to him. Then Jack sidestepped and let the horsehide roll, while a pair of Brownies scored. This was only one of the tricks that earned for Jack the title of "Brains."

When playing ball in Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Pittsburg, New York and other towns, O'Connor always spent his winters in North St. Louis. Jack is well fixed financially. He owns considerable real estate in the "Goose Hill" district, the scene of his early triumphs as a ball player...

O'Connor learned his baseball under (Patsy) Tebeau. The pair played together with the old Shamrocks, and were afterwards together with Cleveland and St. Louis...

To sum it all up Jack O'Connor is one of the best baseball men in the country...

-From The National Game

The pictures of Jack O'Connor posted above come from The Chicago Daily News collection of photographs at American Memory and were taken in 1906 when O'Connor was playing with the AL Browns.

More On George Tebeau

After George Tebeau died on February 4, 1923, several articles appeared in The Sporting News chronicling his life. His obituary, which was published in the February 8, 1923 issue of TSN, was interestingly headlined "Former Enemies To Honor Dead Tebeau" and is quoted below:

Tebeau had a notable career in baseball as player, manager, and magnate and as the latter, he became famous for his quarrels with fellow magnates. He was born in St. Louis in 1861 and began his career in Denver twenty years later. He soon advanced to the majors as a player, then returned to the minors as an organizer and club owner. He had owned the Denver, Louisville, and Kansas City Clubs, and had been interested in several others. His last venture was the organization of an independent league known as the Mid-Western in Colorado and Wyoming in 1921...

His last appearance in baseball was at the meeting of the minors in Louisville at which time he had two deals on hand. One was the sale of his ball park in Kansas City and the other a claim against the Denver Club for an alleged repudiation of a lease of his park in that city.

John B. Foster, in the February 15, 1923 issue of TSN, had a long piece about George and Patsy Tebeau:

(The Tebeau brothers) were fighters. Pat did most of his fighting on the ball field. George did a great deal of his on the ball field but much more as an owner of a baseball club when he began to meet with other owners and learned something of the politics of a league...

When George played with the Cincinnatis years ago he was called "White Wings." Odd name for a ball player who was one day to be recognized as one of the shrewdest of schemers in the minor leagues. They called him "White Wings" about the time that well known ballad floated from the open windows of every Western boarding house...Tebeau may have been called "White Wings" because he never grew weary but more likely it was because of the splendid figure that he made when running for a fly ball...

As a ball player George gave great promise but he never quite arrived...The first year he appeared in fast company as a player it was predicted that he would make one of the league's best batters. He never did. The first year that he appeared as an owner it was predicted that he would make a failure, but he nearly owned the league before he finished and dominated it thoroughly...

The Federal League broke him as a power in baseball. He bore the brunt of the fight in Kansas City and suffered greater reverse than any other man in the game and yet such was the enmity that he had aroused by the forcefulness of his nature and the fight that he had made for control that he found few sympathize with him.

According to The New York Times, Tebeau was involved in the organization of the American Association in 1901 and owned the Kansas City club in that league. Tebeau expanded his American Association empire the next year when he was involved in the reorganization of the Louisville club. In 1904, he purchased the Denver club in the Western League. Tebeau's entry into the Western League was a complicated venture that involved the elimination of the Western League's Kansas City team, which was a direct competitor of Tebeau's American Association Kansas City team. It appears that Tebeau owned and operated all three clubs from 1902 until he sold the Louisville club in 1909.

George Tebeau

George Tebeau, who played in the field for the old Cleveland, Cincinnati and other major league clubs, is today one of the wealthiest and most influential men connected with the National game.

At one time, Mr. Tebeau was charged with running syndicate baseball, it being alleged that he owned the Denver, Kansas City, and Louisville Clubs.

Today, however, it is generally admitted that Mr. Tebeau controls only one club in the American Association-the Kansas City.

George Tebeau is sure enough a self-made man.

He began his baseball career on the lots in North St. Louis where the Water Tower stands now.

He first gained prominence locally when he played with the Shamrocks of North St. Louis in 1885. While with them he proved himself a great all around player, filling all the positions on the team, pitching when a pitcher was needed and catching when the regular receiver was down and out, but his home position was left field. He was so alert and plucky in his work that in 1886 he received a call from Denver and he did so well out West that Denver clung to him for (several) years.

...(His) fame as a player spread and he came into major league company playing in turn with the Cincinnati, Columbus, Grand Rapids, and Cleveland Clubs.

In the three last named organizations he was associated with (Tom) Loftus and from the latter Tebeau perhaps learned those rudiments of the game that in later years made him the most successful and wealthy of minor league managers.

Tebeau, although a most aggressive and pushing player and manager, had many fine traits, his reputation for honesty and square dealing being always above par.

Tebeau comes of a family of ball players in St. Louis, his brother, Oliver (Pat) Tebeau, being famous as the third baseman of the great Cleveland Club.

Tebeau, who played right field under his brother Pat at Cleveland some fifteen years ago and who was much pleased with his $1,200 salary, is rated a millionaire.

Tebeau earned a little money out of the old Western League and is getting good money out of the American Association. Two years ago he ran three clubs. First of all he sold Denver. Last August he disposed of Louisville for $100,00. He can get $175,000 for his Kansas City Club, it is said. Incidentally he will probably make $60,000 out of the latter club this year, as he evidently has an improved team, and Kansas City, just like every other town in the land, is baseball enthusiastic, and anything like a winning article will get the fans out in force.

Some seven or eight years ago Tebeau leased a hole in the ground, a poor bit of real estate, for an annual rental of $900. He likewise got an option to purchase it for $65,000 at any time during a period of ten years. Now Kansas City is going to have its new railroad station. Tebeau's ball park is so located that it must be grabbed up. The railway people have kept on increasing their bid until now there is a chance of Tebeau getting a million or so out of the ground and he deserves every penny he can get.

From The National Game

Note: The above picture shows the old brick water tower at Bissell Point that Al Spink mentioned in his piece on George Tebeau.

Tebeauism

While writing about the rowdyism of the late 19th century, Harold Seymour had this to say about Patsy Tebeau in Baseball: The Early Years:

One of the most notorious teams for rough stuff was Patsy Tebeau's Cleveland Spiders. President Byrne made the Spiders pay four dollars for repairs when they tore up the clubhouse after losing three straight to Brooklyn, and he charged them $1.25 for a ball Jesse Burkett threw over the fence. In a midseason game at Louisville in 1896 "Tebeauism" was at its worst. The Spiders were in rare form, ragging the umpire all day and mobbing him for calling the game on account of darkness. The fans then attacked the Spiders, who ended the day in jail. The League Board fined Tebeau $200, but President Robison, angrily denouncing the League, got an injunction to prevent both the collection of the fine and the boycotting of Cleveland by other League clubs if Tebeau played-which they had planned to do.

The Sporting News, upon Tebeau's death in 1918, wrote that Tebeau "belonged to the blood and iron brigade of baseball and was in his glory in the days when the game was not for weaklings...players of these modern days are milksops compared to the men who fought the diamond battles of the late eighties and the nineties, when Patsy was at his best. He came from the Goose Hill and Kerry Patch schools, the very names of whose graduates made umpires shudder and whose arguments were not finished with mere words and back talk." The same article went on to tell several Tebeau stories, all of which involved violence, threats of violence, and obscenities (that were represented in the article by blank spaces) directed towards umpires, fans, the opposition, and his own players.

When told that he was a rough and a rowdy and that he had "out-Baltimored" Baltimore, Tebeau replied that "I play ball as I find it played against me...Do you expect me to stand still and see them bring the hearse for me on the ground? If they do there'll be two us that will go out in it."

The New York Times had a nice Tebeau story in its August 9, 1894 issue:

Capt. Tebeau of the Cleveland Club came near being mobbed after to-day's game (in Pittsburgh). He had to wait under the grand stand until the crowd left the park. In the ninth inning, with two of the Cleveland men out, Tebeau commenced to abuse Hoagland for certain decisions, and threatened to put on the gloves with the umpire and settle it according to prize-fighting rules. The crowd was so mad at Tebeau that he had to be hustled out of reach...Tebeau was hit in the face by a young boy on his way from the grounds to the hotel in the omnibus.

What I Actually Meant To Say

I've had a long week that involved too much work, too little sleep, and probably one too many trips to the local pub. When I sat down to post yesterday, I had no clue what I was going to write about and ended up posting what seems in retrospect a relatively incoherent piece on Chippy McGarr. Oh well, not every post can be a Light In August. So let's see if I can pull it together long enough to make some sense out of all of this.

The Browns juggernaut had another successful season on the field in 1887, cruising to their third straight pennant. They were led by the outstanding pitching of Bob Caruthers, Dave Foutz, and Silver King. At the plate, Tip O'Neil had his best season, winning the triple crown and leading the AA in just about every major offensive category. Caruthers and Foutz, who played 61 and 65 games in the field respectively, were the second and third best hitters on the team.

While the Browns cruised to the pennant, their on-field success did not translate into financial success for Chris Von der Ahe. With the loss of the Pittsburgh club to the National League after the 1886 season, attendance (and revenue) was down across the AA in 1887. The lack of a competitive pennant race also had a depressing effect on attendance in St. Louis. The profitable Sunday games were threatened due to the activities of Sabbatarians who controlled the State Legislature in Missouri. The World Series versus Detroit did not generate the revenues anticipated. And as revenue was declining, Von der Ahe's expenses, in the form of player salaries, were increasing. While the Browns were certainly still a profitable operation, Von der Ahe, who relied on his baseball profits to fund his other business interests, was feeling the squeeze.

As a result of this downturn in his economic situation, Von der Ahe explored numerous options. Speculation was ripe that the Browns would follow the Alleganhys into the League (in exchange for a $25,000 bonus). Other rumours making the rounds in 1887 were that Von der Ahe would sell the Browns to Joseph Pulitzer for $100,000, move the club to New York, or buy a controlling interest in the Philadelphia Association club and transfer some of the abundant talent on the Browns to his new team in order to make the AA a more competitive venture.

While Von der Ahe certainly explored all of these options, in the end rather than take any radical steps he simply chose to cut expenses and raise revenue the "old fashioned" way-by selling his players. According to Jon David Cash, Von der Ahe "traveled to the East and traded away the rights to five valuable players from his championship team. For a total of $18,750, he sold to the Brooklyn Trolley-Dodgers the services of Albert 'Doc' Bushong and the two men who had served as a pitcher-right fielder tandem for the Browns, Dave Foutz and Bob Caruthers. In Philadelphia, Von der Ahe arranged another transaction, sending shortstop Bill Gleason and center fielder Curt Welch to the Athletics for catcher John 'Jocko' Milligan, shortstop James 'Chippy' McGarr, center fielder Fred Mann, and an additional eight thousand dollars." These transactions not only helped to address Von der Ahe's financial situation but it also strengthened Philadelphia and Brooklyn, making for a (theoretically) more competitive league.

As to Chippy McGarr and Lou Sockalexis, McGarr was born, raised, and lived in Worchester, Massachusetts, home of the College of Holy Cross. It seems that in the offseasons while McGarr was playing with Cleveland, he helped coach the Holy Cross baseball team. Sockalexis was the star athlete at Holy Cross and McGarr, recognizing his talent, pressed Cleveland manager Patsy Tebeau to sign Sockalexis. Tebeau had Jesse Burkett, another Cleveland player and Worchester native, confirm McGarr's scouting report. After Burkett also told Tebeau to sign Sockalexis, Tebeau spent almost a year trying to sign the player to a contract. After a complicated courtship that involved Sockalexis disappearing for a time and then enrolling at Notre Dame, Cleveland finally signed Sockalexis for the 1897 season.

Chippy McGarr

In 1887, the Browns held what David Nemec described as "the biggest fire sale in major league history." While fans of the Florida Marlins might want to argue that point, Chris Von der Ahe did move Bob Caruthers, Curt Welch, Doc Bushong, and Bill Gleason in November of 1887 to various teams for a combination of cash and players. The reasons for the fire sale included the need to reduce payroll, a desire to recoup declining profits, Comisky's unhappiness with the attitudes of some of his stars, and possibly an attempt to strengthen other teams in the AA. One of the players that the Browns received in the fire sale was James McGarr.

There is an argument to be made that Chippy McGarr was one of the worst everyday players in the history of baseball and should be on the list of the all-time worst third basemen. From 1894 to 1896, McGarr, playing everyday for Cleveland, never had an OPS+ higher than 62. At the same time that he wasn't hitting, McGarr committed 125 errors over those three seasons.

McGarr, who lived in Worchester, Massachusetts and helped coach the Holy Cross baseball team, was instrumental in Cleveland signing Lou Sockalexis in 1897. McGarr had been telling Cleveland manager Patsy Tebeau about the Holy Cross star for several years and recommended that the team sign him.

Patsy Tebeau's Obituary

While doing research on George Tebeau, I found Patsy Tebeau's obituary at The Deadball Era. A sad ending.

Tebeau, who died in 1918, is buried in Cleveland.

Oliver Wendell Tebeau

Patsy Tebeau, described by Al Spink as "the champion first baseman," was a St. Louis native who played in the National League from 1887 to 1900 for Chicago, Cleveland, and St. Louis.

In The National Game, Spink wrote the following:

Tebeau learned to play ball in North St. Louis.

There was a large family of Tebeau's and they all loved the game, loved it so well that two of the boys, Oliver and George became famous in its annals.

They learned to play on the prairie near the old Water Tower on Grand Avenue.

"Pat" Tebeau, the name Oliver was best known by, and his brother George, were the star players of the Peach Pie team of North St. Louis and later were the brightest on the Shamrock nine, which held forth in the same neighborhood.

Pat's first professional work was with the St. Joe team of the Western League in the early eighties and then he came into the limelight as the captain, manager and first baseman of the Cleveland League team.

It was Tom Loftus, then manager of the Clevelands, that saw in "Pat" Tebeau the sort of spirit needed to make a good commander, and when Loftus gave up the reins he put them in the hands of "Pat." That they were well handled goes without saying.

Tebeau was not only a fine first baseman, but a hitter of the first flight.

Tim Hurst, who was an umpire in the League in the 1890's and managed the Browns in 1898, told the following story about Tebeau:

I have been asked to tell of the hardest decision that I ever made...The most important, I think, occurred several years ago during a game between Cleveland and Baltimore at Cleveland.

It was the ninth inning, and the score was tied. Childs was on second base for Cleveland, with but one out, and Pat Tebeau was at the bat. Hoffer was pitching for Baltimore and Robinson was catching. Hoffer was using a dinky outcurve that broke some distance from the plate and Tebeau was having great trouble in meeting squarely. On several occasions he walked out of the box to hit the ball and I had repeatedly warned him about it.

Finally when Childs reached second, Tebeau saw an outcurve coming and ran ten feet out of the box to hit it. He met the ball squarely before it "broke" and drove it to the center-field fence for two bases. Childs easily scored, making the game 3 to 2 in favor of Cleveland. The crowd was whooping and yelling over the victory.

Robinson ran up to me and called my attention to the fact that Tebeau had run out of the batter's box. I knew he was right, and during the tumult I called Tebeau out and sent Childs back to second. The crowd was absolutely stunned.

Tebeau came running in from second with tears in his eyes. "You didn't call me out for that?" inquired Patsy.

"Sure, I did. You know that you stepped out of the box, and you are only getting what is coming to you."

"Well, I might have stepped out a few feet," he wailed. "But you ought not to give a decision like that in the presence of this home crowd."

That tied up the game and it went along until the twelfth inning, when Baltimore won. You can imagine that I was a very popular guy in Cleveland that night.

Patsy Tebeau

Here's a picture of Patsy Tebeau from 1888.