The New St. Louis Cops

The comments of The Clipper on baseball matters in St. Louis have had the effect of creating quite a little stir there in regard to the organization of nines to take part in the coming campaign of 1875.  One result is a proposition to organize another professional nine as a local rival to the St. Louis stock company club, the new club to be run on the co-operative principle.  Nothing better could be devised in the interest of the St. Louis Baseball Association than the organization of just such a rival team.  The advent of the Philadelphia nine in 1873 put thousands of dollars into the pockets of the Athletics, and the new Centennial nine of that city ought to help both the Philadelphia and Athletic nines this year, if it is properly managed.  There is nothing like rivalry to give interest to baseball contests.  Heretofore the West has had too little rivalry; but this coming season there will be plenty of it, ,what with the Chicago "Whites," the St. Louis, the Western Keokuks, and the new St. Louis "Cops," as the co-operatives are called.  The St. Louis stock company "regulars," it is proposed, shall be opposed by a co-operative nine composed of local players.  This will impart considerable interest to a series of matches between the eastern imported stock and the western native material.  The St. Louis club would by all means encourage the organization of the nine in question, and give them a chance to play upon their grounds.

-Mears Baseball Scrapbook, Volume Four, 1856-1907


This article raises a lot of questions.  Dating the articles in the Mears Collection can be a bit tricky and, to the best of my knowledge, this appeared in the Clipper in November of 1874, which throws a wrench into my thinking about when and why the Reds joined the NA.

The best available research shows that, in January of 1875, the Reds had still not made the decision to join the NA and that the decision wasn't made until February.  I believe that the reason the Reds eventually made the decision to join the professional ranks was that the Brown Stockings decided to play their home games at the Grand Avenue Grounds rather than the Compton Avenue Grounds, which was operated by Thomas McNeary.  McNeary, who also operated the Reds, was one of the early investors in the Brown Stockings and, I believe, had every intention of getting the new club to play at his ballpark.  In late November of 1874, the Brown Stockings had still not decided on a home ground.  Based on all of that information, my thinking has been that sometime in late 1874 or early 1875, the Brown Stockings decided to play their home games at the Grand Avenue ballpark and McNeary then began to consider the option of placing the Reds in the NA.  Even with the Brown Stockings playing on Grand, if McNeary entered the Reds into the NA, he would still have professional baseball, and the draw of the big professional clubs, at his ballpark.  The whole thing was about drawing fans to the Compton Avenue Grounds and making money.  McNeary's plan A, having the Brown Stockings play at his ballpark, fell through and he moved on to plan B, having the Reds play in the NA.

This article, however, brings all of that into question.  According to the Clipper, the idea of having another professional team in St. Louis, operating on the co-operative plan, dates to November of 1874, when the Browns had still not made up their minds about where to play.  The Clipper suggests that the whole scheme was about producing rivalries, building up interest in the game and, one would imagine, drawing more fans and making more money.  It's also insinuated that the idea for a second St. Louis team came from the Eastern baseball press (Henry Chadwick?) rather than being something that sprung up locally.  There is nothing here that suggests a fallout between the Brown Stockings and McNeary.

There is also nothing here that specifically mentions the Reds.  It's possible that the idea of a second club predated McNeary's decision to enter the Reds into the NA and he took up the idea after a previous attempt to organize a co-op club (the St. Louis Cops) failed.  It's possible but unknown.  The most likely explanation of all of this is that the Clipper is talking about the Reds but it's not it's not conclusive.

What we now know for a fact, however, is that the idea of a second St. Louis club competing in the NA in 1875 dates from November of 1874.   

Gossip

The Red Stockings of this city talk of running into the professional business with a co-operative nine, but we can learn nothing official in regard to their progress.

-St. Louis Republican, January 31, 1875


This was in a column titled "Base Ball Gossip."  I'm guessing that the Brown Stockings had made up their minds to play to the Grand Avenue Grounds and Thomas McNeary, the president of the Reds and an early investor in the Brown Stockings, was not pleased with the decision.   

Two Splendid Enclosed Parks

During the past year or two a great deal of interest has been manifested in athletic exercises of every description in this section of the country, and as a result the coming season promises to be the most active in the annals of field sports. From present indications there will be two splendid enclosed parks within the limits of the city at the disposal of the fraternity. The enterprise with which Mr. Christ Von der Ahe has connected himself, having been duly incorporated, is already at work enlarging and improving the old Base Ball Grounds on Grand avenue, and every convenience for sportsmen and spectators will be provided. The St. Louis Sportsmen's club will, as in the past, make this park their headquarters; the cricketing organizations and the Brown Stocking ball tossers will also play there, and many foot races will doubtless be run to a conclusion on these grounds. Then there will be a hand ball court, bowling alleys, etc. Mr. Thomas McNeary, proprietor of the Compton Avenue Park, has sold his entire interest to his younger brother, Frank. All the difficulties that existed with the lessees having been removed, Frank has already commenced fitting up the ground for the coming campaign...Mr. McNeary contemplates improvements that will make his park as attractive and well adapted to the purposes for which it is intended as any in the country. In view of the fact that the famous Brown Stockings are already arranging for an aggressive campaign on the ball field, Mr. McNeary contemplates the reorganization of the old Red Stockings, and will equipt and place them in the field if he meets with sufficient cooperation from the former members to warrant him in doing so.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, March 27, 1881

Interesting article. It gives us a glance at the beginning of Von der Ahe's baseball career and, at the same time, the end of McNeary's.

The Collins Affair, Part One

Dan Collins, center fielder of the St. Louis Red Stockings, left for Louisville last night, treating the management in a shameful manner. On Thursday he was paid his salary to the 1st of the month, and yesterday he vanished, saying never a word. He had asked for a release, in order that he might join the Louisvilles, but was informed by Mr. McNeary that he could not be spared. The club has fulfilled the terms of its contracts with all its players, to the letter, and been especially kind to Collins in retaining him when he was playing a game at third that would put an amateur to blush. The following telegram was sent to the President of the Louisville club last night, and it remains to be seen whether that gentleman and the League will disgrace themselves by hiring Collins under the circumstances:

St. Louis, August 4.-W.N. Haldeman, President Louisville B.B.C.; Louisville, Ky.: Collins has left for Louisville without any release from us, and we protest against his engagement by your club. We do not owe him a cent; have fulfilled our part of the contract to the letter, and his engagement will reflect great discredit on the National game.

Thomas McNeary,

Manager St. Louis Reds.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, August 5, 1876

This has nothing to do with anything, but still: While looking at Dan Collins' page at B-Ref, I noticed that he scored a one on the Hall of Fame Monitor. Can somebody explain to me how you get one HoF Monitor point? Do you get one point for showing up and putting a uniform on? Does every player score at least a one on the HoF Monitor? Can you score a zero? Can you get a negative score?

Well, shoot. I had to go and look into this and it's not nearly as interesting as it looks at first glance. No, you can not have negative HoF Monitor points (although I'd still give Steve Jeltz a negative 32) and you have to do something specific to earn points. It looks like Collins picked up his point by leading the NA in strikeouts as a pitcher in 1874. He had 18 K's that year. So Collins picked up his HoF Monitor point by striking out 18 guys in the National Association. I can't say that the accomplishment really impresses me that much. While that mighty achievement does give him more HoF Monitor points than Jeltz or Yuniesky Betancourt, he still falls short of such immortals as Kiki Calero and Oliver Perez.

I'll have more on the Collins Affair over the next couple of days. Consider yourself warned.

Thomas McNeary, The Brown Stockings, Eastern Trips And Bad Dickey

It is expected that the new grounds, negotiations for which are proceeding, will be inaugurated with a game with the Chicago Club, after which the St. Louis Club will set out on its first Eastern tour. The new grounds will, it is said, be very near the city (a desideratum the present grounds lack), and very ample both for the players and spectators.

-Chicago Tribune, November 22, 1874

I've been looking at the organization of the Brown Stockings in 1874 and thought this note from the Trib was particularly relevant.

Thomas McNeary was involved in the original meetings organizing the club and had gone so far as to purchase some of the club's stock. However, by the beginning of 1875, he was making plans to place the Red Stockings in the National Association in competition with the Brown Stockings. I had speculated that his plans changed once the Brown Stockings decided to play their home games at the Grand Avenue Grounds rather than McNeary's Compton Avenue Grounds.

The above article shows that the Brown Stockings did not originally intend to play their home games at the Grand Avenue Grounds and were looking for grounds closer to the population center of the city. While I can't say for certain that they were looking at playing at the Compton Avenue Grounds (even though I think it was a bit closer to the center of the city), I do think this lends a bit of evidence to the idea that McNeary got involved with the club in the hope of getting them to play at his baseball grounds.

Also of interest is the notion that the Brown Stockings had originally planned on making an early trip East in 1875. If I'm remembering correctly (and not confusing 1875 with 1876), the Globe was disappointed that the club did not play the Eastern clubs early on and instead opened the season against the weaker Western clubs. These original plans to go East in May helps explain the Globe's sense of disappointment.

Apropos of nothing, about eight times today I came across Dickey Pearce being referred to in 1874 as "Bad Dickey." I know there's been some discussion here and elsewhere about 19th century nicknames and how much they were used at the time and I thought I'd just pass it along. Even Harry Wright referred to Pearce as Bad Dickey in a letter. It is, by the way, a great nickname and reminiscent of Bad Henry Aaron. Oddly enough, B-Ref doesn't have it listed as Pearce's nickname.

The Guardians Of Baseball High Culture

Between 1881 and 1882, St. Louis newspapers offered sparse coverage of the city's colored clubs...Why the poor coverage? One answer was column space.  Critics complained that editors gave baseball too much column space.  And the press doted on the white professional club, the Brown Stockings, which it viewed as a lucrative, civic-minded enterprise.  On the other hand, the Black Stockings colored nine hardly qualified as the city's iconic sports symbol...Throughout the 1870's, the white press' coverage of colored baseball declined.  In 1878, when the Globe-Democrat reported only games the sports editor "deemed sufficiently interesting," colored clubs became the first casualties.  In 1876, newspapers reported over thirty games; in 1877, only three contests appear in print, among them the Black Stockings vs. Our Boys (the "Blacks" won 6 to 4).  Colored clubs disappeared from the sports pages until 1881.  Of course, the Red Stockings, Brown Stockings, and Empires received coverage.  And sports editors devoted attention to white business and trade nines.  Coverage seems to have been based on their social and business relations with newspapers.  This exclusion represented only part of a strategic plan, that being the desire of the professional league to control labor, eliminate the numerous teams competing for attention (the Globe-Democrat identified over 200 nines in the city), and consolidate the market.

In the Mound City, guardians of baseball high culture-the Spink brothers, the McNeary brothers, Gus Solari, and Christopher Von der Ahe-wielded the civic clout and socioeconomic control to push an exclusionary agenda. 

-James Brunson, Henry Bridgewater's Black Stockings of St. Louis, 1881-1889

While Brunson goes on to place Bridgewater and the Black Stockings within the context of Reconstruction era St. Louis and the politics inherent to the era, I find his interpretation of the actions of the Spink brothers, McNeary, Solari, and Von der Ahe to be fascinating.  Throw in J.B.C. Lucas and some of the members of the Union Club and one can construct an argument that there was a cabal of men attempting to organize and control the St. Louis baseball market.  

However, the problem with the argument is that these men were actually in competition with each other.  While certainly the Spink brothers used their position as editors to promote and publicize the game, this was well within the tradition of "upbuilding" and a common practice of time.  But, in the late 1870's, when they were involved in the running of the Interregnum Brown Stockings, they were in direct competition with McNeary's Red Stockings.  McNeary originally was a part of the group that organized the NA Brown Stockings but, after the club decided to play its home games at the Grand Avenue Grounds, he placed the Red Stockings in the NA to directly compete against the Brown Stockings.  McNeary's Compton Avenue Grounds competed with Solari's Grand Avenue Grounds for clubs, games, and fans and the Reds were in competition against the Grand Avenue Club.  Von der Ahe had worked with Solari when they were both board members of the Grand Avenue Club and part of the Sportsman's Park and Club Association but essentially forced him out in the early 1880's.  

While these men worked together to promote baseball in St. Louis, they were just as often competitors.  There was no cabal.  There was no grand strategic plan.  The only exclusionary agenda was that of single-minded businessmen who were attempting to make money and establish the professional game in St. Louis.  They weren't out to destroy the black clubs or the mercantile clubs or the old amateur clubs but, rather, their goal was to establish something more.  These men were instrumental in transitioning St. Louis baseball from the amateur to the professional era and by simply looking at the history of the period-the starts and stops, the failures and successes-one can see that there was no over-arching grand vision being driven by a monopolistic establishment. 

As I said, I see some merit to the argument.  If one was looking at the situation from the view of someone like Bridgewater, who was not a member of the white St. Louis establishment, then you might see a monopolistic baseball establishment that marginalized Bridgewater's contribution.  But in the end, what I see is a group of businessmen fighting each other for control of the baseball market rather than working together to monopolize the market.           

Where's McNeary?

The St. Louis Reds held a meeting last night at the residence of their manager, Mr. John A. Stickfort, No. 208 South Fourth street, a large number being present and joining the club. They organized by electing Mr. L.C. Waite, the veteran base-ball reporter, President. Mr. John A. Stickfort was elected manager and Treasurer, and Billy McSorley, field captain of the nine. Following are the positions and members of the team: Maloney, catcher; Donovan, pitcher; Ruenzi, first base; W. Kolley, second base; McSorley, third base; Brady, short stop; Collins, left field; A. Kolley, center field; Bowman, right field; Liebke and Miller, substitutes. Mr. Kelley, of the Compton Avenue Park, was present and arranged for the Reds to play the Athletics at the Compton Avenue Park next Sunday. The battery of the Reds is a good one, Donovan, the pitcher, being a graduate of the Memphis Reds, and the other players being old hands at the game.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, June 14, 1883


So where's Thomas McNeary in all of this?

Al Spink, in The National Game, wrote that McNeary founded the Reds and the Compton Avenue Grounds in the 1860's and continued to run them until his death in 1893, at which time his brothers continued to operate the club and the park for one more season. However, I've already written about how Spink was wrong about the date of the founding of both the club and the park. The best evidence shows the Reds to have first taken the field in 1873 and the Compton Avenue Grounds to have been established in 1874 (although baseball had been played on the property going back to the immediate post-Civil War period). I've also written that the final club known as the Red Stockings that played at the Compton Avenue Grounds disbanded in 1889. To complicate the matter even more, I've recently shown that McNeary disbanded the first incarnation of the Reds following the 1876 season and that they were not reformed until 1878 at the earliest and possibly not until as late as 1880.

The above piece from the Globe implies that McNeary had no involvement with the latter, mid to late 1880s incarnation of the Reds. The significance of this is that we can say with a high degree of certainty that the 1873-1876 incarnation of the Reds, led by McNeary and playing at his Compton Avenue Grounds, was a unique entity. There were attempts by McNeary in the late 1870s and early 1880s to reestablish the club that were met with various degrees of success. By 1883, however, it appears that McNeary was no longer involved in baseball and any club known as the Red Stockings after that date had no connection to him. There only connection to the Compton Avenue Grounds, after 1883, is that they may have played some games there.

The Reds Return In 1878?

The outlook for fine sport in this city this season is good, in spite of the fact that the famous Brown Stockings are no more. Mr. Thomas McNeary, aided by L.C. Waite, Esq., are quietly at work securing a team to play under the old Red Stocking banner, and their knowledge of the game assures the success of their selections. This club will occupy the Compton avenue grounds, which are in prime condition, and the boys will show some first-class play during the summer.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, March 24, 1878

It's difficult to say if the Reds actually took the field in 1878. Waite was involved in the organization of the International Association that year and was listed as representing the Reds but I haven't been able to find any record of the Reds playing a game that year. After the club disbands following the 1876 season, the next reference to a McNeary led Red Stocking club I can find is a game played in 1880. There is a reference to "the Red Stockings" in 1879 but the team mentioned is actually the Grand Avenue Club who, it appears, wore a uniform with red stockings.

The Reds Throw Up The Sponge

Tom McNeary, of the St. Louis Reds, has thrown up the sponge, and will not put a nine in the field this season. This announcement will be received with regret by the many friends of the "ponies" who have so ably represented St. Louis in past seasons. Mr. McNeary did not allow the Reds to disband without carefully considering the situation. The International Convention at Pittsburg, he claims, was a failure, the only man who would stand up for the rights of the semi-professionals being Gorham, of the Tecumsehs. No sooner had the Convention concluded its labors than half a dozen of the internationals joined the League Alliance without waiting to see whether an obnoxious section of the agreement would be stricken out, as the Internationals had decided it should be. Although the Indianapolis Club owes the Reds three return games, they refused to play them a single one without a guarantee. The Reds, were they in existence, could by the League Constitution only play one League club in St. Louis-the Brown Stockings-other League teams being prohibited from entering their territory. For these and other reasons which carry pecuniary weight with them, the Reds have gone under. Mr. McNeary spent considerable money in his efforts to keep the Reds together, it being the strongest team composed entirely of home talent in the country, and intended placing a strong nine in the field this season, but found that he could not compete with the high salaries offered elsewhere under such disadvantages as have been enumerated above.

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

This is rather important information. There were clubs called the Red Stockings that played at the Compton Avenue Grounds into the mid-1880's and there are references to McNeary running the club and grounds until his death. However, based on the above article, the incarnation of the Reds that included their 1875 NA team only existed from 1873 through 1876. While trying to run down the accuracy of this piece, I was unable to find any reference in the Globe to a game played by the Reds in 1877 and, as will be seen over the next few days, there is plenty of evidence to support the idea that McNeary folded the club.

It was certainly an eventful four seasons for the Reds. The 1873 and 1874 clubs were a serious challenger for the Missouri amateur championship and gave the Empire Club all they could handle. The success of the club in those two seasons and their challenge to the Empires helped to increase the popularity of baseball in St. Louis and lead to St. Louis putting clubs on the national championship stage. The Reds' 1875 season was one of the more eventful in the history of St. Louis baseball although it can not be described as anything other than a failure. The 1876 club was loaded with talent and was successful on the field but the club struggled to adapt to the new realities created by the advent of the National League and can be seen as a victim of the League's success.

The 1873-1876 Red Stockings of St. Louis certainly had a record of which they could be proud and theirs is a fascinating tale that has been neglected over the years. Hopefully, TGOG has taken a step in rectifying that neglect.

A Blue Stockings/Sunset Game

The Blue Stockings and Sunsets, rival colored organizations of this city, contest for supremacy this afternoon, at the Red Stocking Park.

-The St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 12, 1875

The information is in bits and pieces-meager scraps scattered all about-but I'm starting to find it. While I'm certainly no expert on black baseball, all the information that I've seen has ignored the 19th century history of the game in St. Louis. In the one book I have on the subject, the first mention of an African-American team in St. Louis is Charles Mills' Giants early in the 20th century. There's at least forty years of baseball history previous to this that has been neglected.

One interesting thing, it appears that many of the games played by the black clubs in the 1870's and 80's were held at the Compton Avenue Park. I'm not sure how significant this is. It may speak to the character of Thomas McNeary or it may indicate that McNeary, due to the poor location of the grounds and the failure of the Reds as a NA entity, simply needed the money and took any tenant or game he could get.

A Great Doubleheader

Manager McNeary, of the Compton Avenue Park, has arranged to give his patrons the worth of their money to-day. Commencing at 11 there will be a game between the Black and Blue Stockings, rival colored organizations, for the local championship. The colored lads play surprisingly well, and those who witness the contest will ace proof of their efficiency. In the afternoon, at the regular hour, the Red Stockings and the Nationals of East St. Louis, champions of Southern Illinois, will cross bats. Either game will be well worth seeing, but one admission fee will cover both.

-The St. Louis Globe-Democrat, August 14, 1881

This is just a fountain of information. We have an African-American club I've never heard of, the Black Stockings, playing the Blues in a championship game. We have the Nationals described as the champions of Southern Illinois. And we also have an interesting glimpse at baseball during the Interregnum, when there was no major league baseball in St. Louis and the game was struggling to survive.

Thomas McNeary's Obituary

Thomas McNeary, for years the proprietor of Uhrig's Cave, a popular place of amusement in St. Louis, died yesterday, aged fifty-one years. He suffered from a complication of diseases, including paralysis and heart trouble. He first became known as manager of the Red Stocking Base Ball club. He leaves an estate worth $200,000.

-The New York Times, September 23, 1893


So McNeary died on September 22, 1893.

Al Spink wrote in The National Game that after McNeary died his brothers, John and Frank McNeary, continued operating both the Compton Avenue Park and the Reds. Therefore, according to Spink, the Reds, whose founding he places in the 1860's, were still playing baseball in the 1890's. I'm not sure if I accept this. Spink's date for the founding of the Reds conflicts with E.H. Tobias who wrote that the Reds began playing in 1873. Joan Thomas, in St. Louis' Big League Ballparks, wrote that the Compton Avenue Park was built in 1874. I always assumed that McNeary built the park and established the team around the same time and have no sources that show the Reds playing games before the 1870's so I'm inclined to accept Tobias' date for the founding of the club. As to the Reds playing after the passing of McNeary, I have no sources for their playing games after 1889. The best evidence to date has the Reds playing baseball from 1873 to 1889. Spink's 1860's to 1890's date range is an outlier that can't be accepted at face value.

Uhrig's Cave, mentioned in McNeary's obituary, was one of several limestone caves that exist in St. Louis. These caves were used as a means of cool storage especially by brewers. Uhrig's Cave, located at what is now the corner of Washington and Jefferson, was first used in the 1850's by the Camp Springs Brewery (which later changed its name to the Uhrig Brewery). According to Lost Caves of St. Louis, "(in) those days, when the city and its population clustered on the levee, Uhrig's was the site of a handsome grove and was only a short buggy ride from the center of town. Uhrig's became a popular spot, and many St. Louisans enjoyed a cool glass of beer there. the success of the business gave rise to the use of caves for entertaining guests, and tables were placed in one of the larger rooms of the caverns." Concerts and picnics were also held at the cave and a beer garden was established there shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War.

In 1884, the Uhrig brothers sold their site to Thomas McNeary, a saloonkeeper. McNeary and his brothers became impresarios as well as salonkeepers, and ushered in the period of Uhrig's Cave's greatest glory. Uhrig's was the first entertainment spot in St. Louis to use electric lights. At its peak, Uhrig's Cave held an audience of three thousand, with weeknight admission prices of fifty to seventy-five cents, and a Sunday rate of twenty-five cents...

But this period of glory was short-lived. In 1888, the McNearys lost their liquor license and the cave was abandoned for a time. In 1900, the family turned the former beer garden into an enclosed theatre, which did not succeed. From 1903 to 1908, the cave was successively the site of a roller-skating rink, a bowling alley, and a mushroom farm. A shifting population and the introduction of streetcars drew theatregoers and beer drinkers to the west, and the McNeary's finally abandoned all attempts to keep Uhrig's Cave open.

In 1908, the McNeary's gave a ninety-nine year lease to a syndicate of businessmen. The group erected a mammoth auditorium, which covered not only the cave, but the beer garden, the theatre and a great deal of the surrounding area as well. The cornerstone was laid on August 22, 1908, and the building was called the "Coliseum." The businessmen planned to create a multipurpose facility to host sporting events, theatrical performances and various exhibitions.

-Lost Caves of St. Louis


I find it rather interesting that the best evidence has the Reds ceasing baseball operations in 1889 which is just after McNeary loses his liquor license and his business fortunes take a turn for the worse. It's certainly not much of a stretch to imagine that with his primary business suffering McNeary saw the operation of a minor professional baseball team as an extravagance and decided to shut it down in order to focus on saving his salon business.

The Question Of A Professional Team

The agitation of the question of a professional team for St. Louis culminated in a meeting in parlor No. 2 of the Southern Hotel on the evening of Sept. 22 (1874). The attendance was large, among whom were W. McGreery, Joseph P. Carr, W.C. Stiegers, D. Maxwell, Chris Overbeck, W. Darrell, E.H. Tobias, Thos. McNeary and C. H. Bragg, all ex-players, besides many other admirers of the National game. Mr. Carr being called to the chair announced the object of the meeting and at his suggestion Mr. Stiegers was chosen secretary. After a protracted discussion as to what amount would be required to put a club upon a solid basis, the best methods to adopt in organizing a club and other business questions, the following resolutions, offered by Mr. E.H. Tobias, were adopted:

Resolved, That it is the sense of this meeting that a professional base ball club for this city is highly desirable.

Resolved, That we the undersigned pledge ourselves to take the amount of stock set opposite our names in the accompanying paper.

Resolved, That a committee of six be appointed by the chair, who are to be authorized to solicit subscriptions to the stock of the St. Louis Base Ball Club and to report at a meeting to be held Tuesday evening, Sept. 29.

It was also resolved to make the shares of stock $50 each...The chair appointed on the committee Fred. Williams, secretary of the Red Stocking Club, E.H. Tobias, Chris Overbeck, (W.) McGreery, Chas. Bragg and Chas. Fowle to which was added the chairman and secretary of the meeting. Six thousand dollars was subscribed on the spot. A committee of three, Messrs. Tobias, Rice, and Williams, was appointed to draw up articles of incorporation for presentation to the next meeting. This was the first business-like step taken that eventuated in the organization of the old Brown Stocking Club of professional ball players.

-E.H. Tobias, writing in The Sporting News, February 1, 1896

This is rather interesting. It seems that Thomas McNeary, manager of the Reds and proprietor of the Compton Avenue Grounds, was involved in the early organization of the Brown Stockings. In light of the fact that the Reds would join the NA shortly after the Brown Stockings did, one is left to wonder what happened between McNeary and the Brown Stockings that led McNeary to place the Reds in the NA and in direct competition with the Brown Stockings.

The most obvious (and purely speculative) answer would be that McNeary wanted the Brown Stockings to play at his park. When they chose to play their home games at the Grand Avenue Grounds, McNeary broke with the Brown Stockings. The Reds' entry into the NA can be seen as an attempt by McNeary to protect his economic interests. Under this interpretation, the NA Reds were not put on the field simply to sponge off the other NA teams visiting St. Louis, as some have suggested, but rather were an honest attempt by McNeary to compete economically in the professional baseball market. If the Brown Stockings had arranged to play their home games at the Compton Avenue Grounds, there would have been no need for McNeary to put the Reds in the NA-he would already have had his slice of the professional baseball pie.

This interpretation also helps to explain the rather late decision by McNeary to place the Reds in the NA. The Brown Stockings were setting up their organization, signing players, etc. throughout the fall and winter of 1874 and 1875. By the time the Reds announced, in February 1875, their decision to enter the "professional" ranks, the Brown Stockings' "eastern professionals" had already been training together for a month. If the Brown Stockings didn't make their decision on which grounds to rent until early in 1875 then it would explain the timing of the Reds' decision. If McNeary, who obviously supported the idea of St. Louis competing in the NA, had planned all along to have his team play for the whip pennant in 1875 then the fall of 1874 would have been the time to begin planning. What has always seemed like a spur of the moment decision can, under this interpretation, be explained as a consequence of the Brown Stockings' decision to play their home games at the Grand Avenue Grounds.

An Out-And-Out Professional Club

In February, 1875, the Red Stocking Club organized as an out-and-out professional club with a capital stock of $12,000, the bulk of which was held by Thomas McNeary, who became president and manager with Andy Blong as vice and J. McNeary secretary. The team selected was composed entirely of St. Louis boys full of life and vigor, all ambitious to become shining lights on the green diamond and this they did not fail in doing. It was composed as follows: John McSorley, Andy Blong, Joe Blong, Charles Houtz and C. McCall both of the Empire Club; William Redmond, Packy Dillon, Dan Morgan, Zach Mulhall and Jerry Seward of the Empire Club. Andy Blong was sent as the clubs representative to the National Association convention held in Philadelphia on March 1...

-E. H. Tobias, writing in The Sporting News, February 8, 1896


The most interesting thing about this is the reference to the capital stock. This is the second source that I have (the other being an 1875 article from the Globe-Democrat) that mentions that the Reds had $12,000 in capital stock (and I believe the Globe actually put the figure at $12,500). Now it has been brought to my attention that selling a subscription of stock was not the same as having cash on hand. There was generally no trade of cash for shares but rather this type of transaction was more along the lines of a promise by the subscriber to contribute financially if the club needed an infusion of cash. Basically, it looks like McNeary, who owned the Compton Avenue Grounds and had managed the Reds since their inception, was promising to put up money if the club struggled financially or needed money upfront for something like luring Charlie Sweasy to St. Louis.

This raises the question of whether or not the Reds experienced financial difficulties in 1875. With McNeary owning the ballpark and, most likely, players (with the exception of Sweasy) being paid on the co-op plan, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of capital outlay or payroll. Their NA games didn't draw well due mostly to the severe weather that St. Louis experienced in the late spring of 1875 but there are sources that have the Reds drawing rather well, at home and on the road, in several circumstances. So while I doubt that the Reds were financially successful through the first half of 1875, their season was in no way a complete financial disaster. Add to that, McNeary's financial commitment to the club, in the form of capital stock, and it begs the question of why the Reds ceased their NA endeavor.

Based on currant evidence, I'd have to say that finances did play a part. With the poor weather combining with the team's poor performance in keeping attendance down, there could not have been much cash on hand. Combine that with Joe Blong's defection in late June and the difficulty the team had in scheduling championship matches, McNeary most likely came to the conclusion that the club's foray into the NA had failed and pulled the plug on the experiment.

A New Claimant For Popular Favor

The new club about which so much speculation had been indulged threw down the gauntlet at this time and defied the best clubs in the city, its first game being with the Champion Empires on May 25 (1873). This new claimant for popular favor and the State championship was composed entirely of St. Louis boys with perhaps a solitary exception. Its playing nine was composed of some ambitious and brilliant players whose careers in other clubs...had been successful enough to attract the favorable commendation of competent judges and also that of Mr. Thomas McNeary, the organizer of the Red Stocking Club, and he certainly succeded in launching a very strong aggregation, one that was destined to become an important factor not only in local but in outside baseball, for in the course of time a number of these players were drafted from this club by out and out professional organizations where they distinguished themselves in no unworthy manner.

The playing of the Reds (in their first game) gave plenty of evidence that there was no lack of good material in the nine but as yet it suffered for want of practice and when it had that and the players had become more familiar with each other's play there was great promise of a superior club. Dillon showed the elements of a great catcher. He faced hot ones unflinchingly, was adept at taking fly tips, but was weak on passing balls. "Pidge" Morgan proved a general utility man, besides holding down third base at the opening of the game he then went into short field and also pitched for two innings. Dean at first acquitted himself well up to the fifth inning when he was sorely troubled by the sun shining on his face. The others did good and creditable work.

-E. H. Tobias, writing in The Sporting News, January 4, 1896


Tobias' claim that the Reds first took the field in 1873 is contradicted by Al Spink in The National Game. Spink wrote that "(early) in the sixties Thomas McNeary leased a piece of ground at Compton avenue and the Missouri Pacific Railway tracks. He fitted it up for baseball purposes...Upon this field he placed a team which he called the St. Louis Reds..."

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.

A Newspaper Man's Motion-Picture Of The City

I recently found a great book, written by W.A. Kelsoe, with the unwieldy title of A Newspaper Man's Motion-Picture Of The City When We Got Our First Bridge, And Many Later Happenings Of Note. Kelsoe, who worked as a newspaper man in St. Louis from the mid 1870's until July of 1919, wrote in the introduction that the book was "a record of the local news in St. Louis..." covering "the twelve months ending June 31, 1875." While Kelsoe used contemporary newspaper accounts from the period, including those from the Times, the Globe, the Democrat, the Globe-Democrat and the Republican, he also certainly based much of the book, which was published in 1927, on his own personal recollections and those of his friends.

The best thing about this book, from my point of view, is that during 1874 and 1875, Kelsoe was covering baseball for the St. Louis Times and he has quite a bit to say about baseball during this period. Besides being a sportswriter, Kelsoe also happened to have been a baseball player, having played with the Old Capitols of Vandalia in the late 1860's when they visited St. Louis to play the Empire Club and the Imperial Club.

While it's definitely a gold mine of information, the book presents some difficulty. Kelsoe was writing the book in 1920's and his memory was faulty in many instances of fact. It's difficult to tell sometimes when Kelsoe was using a contemporary source or was writing from memory. There are enough minor errors in the book to make one question the entirety of the work and there are just enough whoppers (such as Kelsoe's claim that the Union defeated the Nationals of Washington) to make one wonder if Kelsoe was senile when he wrote the book.

One example of the difficulty I have with the book is the report of a game on July 29, 1874 between the Reds and the Atlantics. According to Kelsoe, "the St. Louis Red Stockings were defeated on their grounds, the Compton Avenue Ball Park, by the Atlantics of Brooklyn, one of the best baseball clubs in the country. This Compton avenue park could be reached by trains on the Missouri Pacific railroad, but it was seldom the attendance was sufficient to justify the running of such accommodation trains. Manager Thomas McNeary's club, as the Reds were called, was a member of the National Baseball Players Association the next year (1875), the year 'our original Browns' were organized, when St. Louis was represented in the National organization by two clubs."

I find that paragraph significant for several reasons. First, due to my 21st century point of view and my personal experience with trains and railroad tracks in St. Louis, I never considered the fact that the Missouri Pacific yards at Compton Avenue could be used to bring people to the game. Trains are used to haul freight not people. Kelsoe has caused me to adjust my view of what a game at Compton Park would be like. Second, he writes that "seldom the attendance was sufficient to justify the running of such accommodation trains." This also gives me a great deal of information. It tells me that sometimes special trains were run to Compton Park for games and also that the Reds' attendance, in general, wasn't that great (which is supported by most contemporary sources that have their attendance on average at around 500-1000 people). Also, it's interesting that Kelsoe claims that the Reds were referred to by the name of their manager, Thomas McNeary. There are several references in the book to "the McNeary's" or "the McNeary Reds". I had never seen that before.

But the problem is that the Reds most likely never played the Atlantics of Brooklyn on July 29, 1874. I can find no supporting evidence anywhere that the Atlantics were in St. Louis in 1874. On July 15th, they played a game in New York against the Mutuals. On July 22nd, the Brooklyn Eagle reports that the Atlantics are in Canada. During the first week of August, they played the Dayton Club in Ohio. So while the Atlantics were certainly on a road trip in the second half of July of 1874, I can't find any source that supports Kelsoe's claim that they came to St. Louis and played the Reds. It's possible that the Reds played a team called the Atlantics that day and Kelsoe, writing fifty years after the fact, assumed it was the Atlantics of Brooklyn.

Also, Kelsoe writes that the Reds were a member of "the National Baseball Players Association" in 1875 when he meant the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players. That may seem nit picky but the book is full of small errors like that where Kelsoe misidentifies a league or a team. As a reader, you know what he means and adjust mentally but it still makes you scratch your head.

All in all, A Newspaper Man's Motion-Picture of the City is a great book and worth reading if you're interested in the history of 19th century St. Louis. As a baseball researcher, I find the book to be both a treasure trove of information and a source of extraordinary frustration.

A Newspaper Man's Motion-Picture Of The City When We Got Our First Bridge, And Many Later Happenings Of Note can be found online here.

Where The Games Were Played

In the 1860's and 70's, amateur teams played baseball in a variety of locations around St. Louis. Some of the more prominent locations are listed below.

• The first recorded game played in St. Louis was at the Old Fairgrounds in north St. Louis.
• The Empire and the Union clubs played some of their earliest games in a field located near the Rock Church on Grand Ave.
• The Elephant and Saw Log Grounds was an open field near the riverfront just east of Broadway.
• The Rowenas and Vanities played in an open field south of Lafayette Park.
• The Gamble Lawn Grounds, located "near the old Rock Springs", was used by both the Empire and the Union.
• In the early 1860's, Thomas McNeary built what would become known as Red Stockings Base Ball Park on Compton Ave.
• In 1871, the Grand Avenue Park was built by August Solari and would be used between 1875-1877 by the Brown Stockings. Later, Sportsman's Park would be built on the site.
• Stocks Park was built in 1875 by a combination of livestock dealers and baseball enthusiasts near the corner of Easton and Vandeventer Ave.