The 1890 Boston Beaneaters?

Perusing Bill Burgess' collection of 19th century photographs over at Baseball Fever, I noticed a team picture of the 1890 Boston Beaneaters and realized that I knew most of the guys on the team. While that may speak to an over-familiarity with 19th century baseball, I thought it was more interesting that several of the Beaneaters had St. Louis connections.

Looking at the team photo, Chippy McGarr, who played with the Browns in 1888, is in the back row at the far left. Patsy Donovan, who lived in St. Louis, played with the St. Louis Nationals from 1900-1903, and was technically the first manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, is in the back row, third from the left. Bill identifies the player third from the right as Scrappy Bill Joyce, a St. Louis native-although Joyce isn't listed on the team roster. Tommy Tucker, back row, far right, played with the Browns in 1898. Kid Nichols, middle row, far left, played with the Cardinals in 1904 and 1905. Steve Brodie, middle row, far right, played for the Browns in 1892 and 1893. Another Beaneater not in the picture but who played for the Browns in 1892 was Charlie Getzien.

I realize that this is apropos of nothing and it's certainly not unique but I was fascinated by the randomness of it.

Tommy Tucker

Tommy Tucker, who played in 72 games for the Browns in 1898, was, according to David Nemec, "instrumental in transforming the (Baltimore) Orioles in the space of one year from the worst-hitting team of all time into one of the best in the Association." While that may be a bit of an overstatement, Tucker did have three fine seasons with the bat after joining the Orioles as a 23 year old rookie in 1887. After posting a respectable OPS+ of 105 in his rookie campaign, Tucker put up two very good seasons back to back with an OPS+ of 135 and 168. His 1898 season was his best year in the big leagues. That season, Tucker led the league in batting, on base percentage, hits and OPS. He was also third in total bases and eighth in RBI.

Nemec went on to write in The Beer & Whiskey League that "Tucker was a real rarity in his day, a switch-hitter. One of the first of note, Tucker confounded Tony Mullane, who was even more of a rarity-a switch-pitcher. Although normally a righthander, Mullane could throw effectively with either arm. Since many players in the mid-1880's still did not use gloves in the field, Mullane would sometimes hide his hands behind his back as he began his delivery, keeping a batter guessing until the last instant as to which arm would launch the ball. But Tucker had the weapon to thwart Mullane. Inasmuch as the rules in 1887 permitted a hitter to jump from one batter's box to another at will, Tucker was free to leap to the opposite side of the plate as soon as he saw which arm Mullane would pitch."

I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the switch-hitting but Tucker finished in the top ten in hit by pitches every year he was in the majors except for 1899, his final season. He finished first in HBP five times and four straight years from 1889-1892. From 1887 to 1895, Tucker never finished worse than fourth in HBP. He is third on the all-time list behind Hughie Jennings and Craig Biggio.

In The National Game, Al Spink wrote:

Tom Tucker of the Baltimore team was one of the finest fielders of the first basemen who flourished in the early nineties.

Tom was also an excellent batsman and base runner.

He was a left-handed hitter and often came to the rescue of his side with a good stroke.

Tucker is now living in retirement at Holyoke, Mass., where also are "Smiling" Mickey Welch of the old New York champions, "Jack" Doyle and Jack Hanifin of the Boston Nationals.