Great Pictures Of Hall Of Famers

I'll pass this along because I figure you all will like it and it's pretty neat stuff.

Summer Anne Burton, an artist from Austin, has a website called Every Hall of Famer, where she's posting her work. You can see some examples above.

I think these are just great and encourage you to stop by her site and maybe even purchase some of her work. It looks like she does requests.

Hat tip to keystone at Baseball Fever for passing along the information.

Chris Von Der Ahe And The Players League, Part Seven

Frank Brunell, Secretary of the Players' League, arrived here (in St. Louis) this morning from Kansas City. He stated that his errand here was to negotiate with St. Louis players and that his mission had been entirely successful. "We have been," said he, "after Comiskey for a long time and were anxious to secure him. I went to Denver some time ago on the same errand, but failed to come to an understanding. George Munson, then the Secretary of the Browns, and who is a warm friend of Comiskey, stood between me and the latter, and prevented my making terms with him. Now, however, Munson and Von der Ahe have parted company and Comiskey, feeling that the former was unjustly treated has agreed to play in Chicago. That is definitely settled. You can say positively that he will play in chicago next year. I will return to Chicago tonight bearing a letter from him, in which he states without qualification that he will leave St. Louis Thursday night and Friday will affix his signature to a contract to Captain and manage the Chicago brotherhood team for three years. We now have five of the St. Louis players-Comiskey, Latham, King, O'Neill, and Boyle-the four latter having already signed. Robinson I have also seen, and he has agreed to sign either with Cleveland or Brooklyn."

Comiskey was seen this evening, and when asked about his future movements said: "You are free to announce that I shall bid good-by to St. Louis and will go to Chicago Thursday to sign a contract to manage and captain the brotherhood team in that city. I have made an agreement to that effect and mean to carry it out to the letter."

-Chicago Daily Tribune, January 16, 1890

Capt. Comiskey said in an interview: "I take this step for the reason that I am in sympathy with the brotherhood. I believe their aims are for the best welfare and interest of the professional player. I believe that if the players do not this time stand true to their colors and maintain their organization, they will from this forward be at the mercy of the corporations who have been running the game, who drafted the 'reserve' rule and gave birth to the obnoxious classification list.

"I have taken all the chances of success and failure into consideration and I believe that if the players stand true to themselves they will score the grandest success ever achieved in the baseball world. But besides having the welfare of the players at heart. I have other reasons for wanting to play in Chicago. My parents and all my relatives reside here and all the property I own is in this city. I was raised here and have a kindly liking for the place."

-Boston Globe, January 18, 1890


I'm desperately trying to wrap all of this up as I have no doubt that you all are as tired of this topic as I am.

So by January, Von der Ahe has lost most of his players except for Icebox Chamberlain and Tommy McCarthy who had both signed early (and who, based on their statements at the time, would have jumped to the Players League with the rest of the team). There's no doubt that the PL was after the St. Louis players for some time. Certainly there had been talk of the players jumping to the PL since December, with Arlie Latham making the most noise (as usual). It makes perfect sense that the PL would be after the St. Louis players being as they were some of the biggest and most famous stars in the game.

For those who haven't been following the 27 part epic that is this series of posts, it's my contention that Von der Ahe was, in December of 1889, attempting to move the Browns into the PL. There are several reasons to believe this. First, the American Association had splintered in November of 1889 and was down to four teams. With the threat of a new league and the potential loss of star players, the AA was on the brink of falling apart. Second, there was a general belief that VdA was facing financial ruin. With his stars jumping to the new league, the loss to the AA of some good baseball markets, and the potential of a PL team in St. Louis, the Browns were looking at a tough financial situation. Lastly, I believe, with little support from the evidence, that VdA believed that he would be able to keep his players if he joined the PL. If, in December and before the players officially jumped, VdA was able to bring the Browns, in toto, into the PL it would have been a significant coup for the league. Having the Four Time Champions in the new league and a strong hold on the valuable St. Louis baseball market would have been a strong inducement for the league to allow VdA to keep his players.

Of course there are a couple of problems with that last part. As David Ball has been kind enough to point out, if the Browns had jumped into the PL there would have been nothing to stop the National League from raiding the team and stealing the Browns' stars. My argument against that happening is to basically point to the Comiskey quote above and say that the players were supporters of the Brotherhood and the PL and wouldn't have jumped to the NL. Now again, David makes a very good point that the Browns' players were sick and tired of Von der Ahe and I can't argue with that. There are enough quotes to fill a book about how sick and tired some of these guys were of VdA. If you search this blog, I'm sure you'll find a few of them. It's entirely reasonable to believe that regardless of what league the Browns played in, the players, given an opportunity, would have jumped to another one to get away from VdA and make more money.

But I don't think that these two points change my thinking on the bigger issue of what Von der Ahe was trying to do in December of 1889. Facing the loss of his players, the possible collapse of the AA, and an uncertain financial situation, VdA made an attempt to move the Browns to the Players League. If the Pittsburgh club had been willing to step aside or had not been able to secure financial backing, he would have succeeded in doing so. While things may not have worked out as VdA planned, I have no doubt that this is what he was trying to do and I have little doubt about why he was doing it.

So I think I'm pretty much done with this. I have more stuff in the files but I've beaten this dead horse enough and really want to move on with my life.

Tommy McCarthy

"Thomas McCarthy is now the regular scout for the Cincinnati Club and when not at work for that organization spends his time in Boston."

"McCarthy in the days of the old and decidedly famous St. Louis Browns, was one of the star outfielders of that organization. 'Little Mack' was the 'Kid' who took the place in the Browns outfield of dear old Hughie Nichol. McCarthy was as fast as lightning in the outfield, a pretty man standing up at the plate and taking him all in all he might be termed one of the wonderful outfielders of the early eighties."

From The National Game

Tommy McCarthy was described by Jon David Cash, in Before They Were Cardinals, as "the best of the players the 1888 Browns recruited to replace their former stars" and was, along with Hugh Duffy, one of Boston's "Heavenly Twins". Bill James writes in the Historical Baseball Abstract that "(among) all major league outfielders playing 1000 games at the position, the highest rate of baserunner kills (assists) per game is by...Tommy McCarthy, who had 268 kills in 1,189 games, which is 36.5 kills per 162 games..." James also wrote that McCarthy is one of the few pure leadoff men in the Hall of Fame.

Why McCarthy is in the Hall of Fame is unclear to me. It's certainly not because of his stats. Certainly he was a smart, heady player and had one heck of an arm in the outfield but that lifetime OPS+ of 102 doesn't do much for me. In 1890, he lead the AA in stolen bases and a year later led the league in singles. That's about it for black ink. James makes the argument, based on the testimony of John M. Ward, that McCarthy invented the hit and run (or at the very least perfected and popularized the play). That's certainly significant, if true, but is that enough to get somebody in the Hall of Fame? Maybe it has something to do with his playing on the great Boston teams of the 1890's. I must be missing something here.

Okay, I went to the Hall of Fame forum over at Baseball Fever and found a great post from Fuzzy Bear explaining McCarthy's HoF selection. Fuzzy, whose opinion I respect, wrote this:

McCarthy actually gives George Kelly competition as the worst HOFer there is.

McCarthy's selection, from various sources I have read, was a result of the Old-Timers Committee of the 1940s making large numbers of inductions, in part because the writers of that period didn't seem to want to induct ANYBODY. This is how the gray area of the HOF started. McCarthy was elected by guys who were his pals and peers who were still alive. I guarantee you that if the writers were inducting worthy candidates at that time, the Old-Timers Committee would have made fewer inductions, and McCarthy would NOT be a HOFer.

McCarthy is a guy who MIGHT have a case if he (A) played CENTER field, (B) won MULTIPLE GOLD GLOVES, (C) had a longer career, and (D) posted the same numbers in a tighter offensive context. McCarthy was a good player, but nothing more.

I understand that McCarthy had some "fame" in his day. This may have played a role in his selection, but I'm not sure as to the extent of his "fame" while active.