Nothing Is More Uncertain Than A Game Of Base Ball

The second game between the Union Club and the Union Jr. Club, took place Thursday afternoon at the St. Louis Base Ball Park, and was well attended, considering the state of the weather.  Both clubs presented good representatives, and it was generally expected that the Union Club would take all the honors of the match, but nothing is more uncertain than a game of base ball, as was demonstrated by this match.  The result of the game is very creditable to the Union Jr. and places them among the foremost clubs of the city, a position which they have great confidence in maintaining.

The Union Club did not make such an exhibition of strength as was generally looked for, though their batting was very commendable and of the safe order.  Messrs. Carr, Greenleaf, Turner and Lucas are deserving of creditable mention for fielding as well as batting.

Of the Union Jr. Club, Yeatman, Wolff and McCreery take the honors.  Yeatman particularly distinguishing himself by a running fly catch.  Barada, pitcher, did good execution, and is evidently improving.

Owing to the weather but six innings were played, resulting in a score of 8 to 6 in favor of the Union Jr...

-Missouri Republican, May 15, 1869

Even in a shortened game, this was a huge upset.  The Unions were the two-time defending champion of St. Louis and Missouri and they weren't supposed to lose to a junior club.  They weren't supposed to lose to anyone but the Empires or one of the big Eastern clubs that periodically came to town. 

Having said that, the Union Juniors had some good ballplayers on the club.  Wayman McCreery was a young player who would play with the Unions in the future and Wally Wolff was an experienced player who had played with the antebellum Olympic club and also had played with the Unions.  They weren't a bunch of scrubs.   

L'Afrique

L'Afrique, a home-made comic opera, has been the sensation of the week just closed. It was presented at the Olympic by a company of amateurs who, while they did all in their power and acquitted themselves very creditably, failed to make the musical beauties of the work as prominent as professionals could have done, thereby placing the production before the public almost entirely on its own merits. That a great success was achieved is a personal triumph for the originality and genius of the composer, Mr. W.C. McCreery, who may well feel proud of the reception given to L'Afrique and of the almost unanimous endorsement of it by the large and fashionable audiences that listened to it. It is a triumph for home talent that may be accepted as marking an epoch in the aesthetic growth of St. Louis, as it will encourage further efforts in behalf of the musical art and give an impetus to local theatrical and operatic ventures that may result in very much good.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, May 22, 1881

After some preliminary announcement, a certain Mr. McCreery, of St. Louis, produced a work which he is pleased to call a new comic opera, entitled "L'Afrique," at the Bijou Theatre last evening. A really new comic opera would doubtless be welcomed; but in "L'Afrique," which is neither new nor comic nor an opera, the public are not likely to find any enjoyment. It is a pity that ambitious writers seem unable to be original, and prefer to be mere servile imitators, as in the case of Mr. McCreery. It is a thankless task to say of this work that it is worthless. There is, of course, nothing American about it. The scene is supposed to be on the border of the Transvaal. the men are British soldiers, Zulu warriors, and Dutchmen with a German accent; the women are the counterparts of the rapturous maidens of "Patience," dressed in bright, short dresses, with sunflowers and other aesthetic adornments. Whatever they may say, either in their speech or songs, it is almost impossible to discover the plot, if there be any, and the result is a dreary representation. Why they should engage in the various scenes, which are of excessive length, is never apparent, and in the absence of a libretto there is no clue to the meaning of the story. As a musical matter, "L'Afrique" demands criticism only to say of it that while the composer seems to know how to orchestrate and to write bright and clever songs, he has done nothing to entitle him to praise. He is a mere imitator. His opera, as he calls it, will never be considered of any value, and will pass from public notice on a calm judgment of its merits. The cast was very weak, and suggested the presence of inexperienced amateurs and a certain variety of minstrel company style that was vulgar and inartistic.

-The New York Times, January 31, 1882

Wayman Crow McCreery, the creator of the new comic opera that was neither new nor comic nor an opera, was a former first baseman with the Union Club. He was actually an outstanding athlete and a champion billiard player, as well as the musical director of Christ Church Cathedral for over twenty-five years. The Times, however, obviously didn't think much of him or his opera.

Do we know of any other ballplayers who wrote an opera? I would imagine that it must be a short list.

Another 1865 Match Game

A match game of base ball was played on Thursday afternoon, between the first nine of the Olympic Junior and Cyclone (late Atlantic) base ball clubs. Only seven innings were made, on account of the lateness of the hour.

-St. Louis Daily Press, June 11, 1865

The score of the match was Cyclones 29 and Olympic Jr. 11. Playing for the Cyclones was Nelson, c; Thornburg, lf; Hoyt, 3b; Enders, cf; Fine, ss; Carroll, lf; Teasdale, 2b; Anderson, p; and Riley, 1b. Playing for the Olympic Jr. was McCreery, ss; Greely, 2; Chapman, 1b; Lackland, 3b; Peck, p; Filley, c; Lackland, lf; Courrier, rf; and Maxwell, cf.

Obviously, this is not the antebellum Cyclone Club reformed. Tobias mentions that the Atlantic Club was active in 1865 and states that they were one of the clubs who met the Empire Club on their return from Freeport. My initial reaction to the reference to "late Atlantic" was that the Cyclones had previously been known as the Atlantics but had changed their name. However, as you'll see tomorrow, the Cyclones and Atlantics were two different clubs.

Another interesting thing here is a couple of players for the Olympic Jr. Club. McCreery is possibly Wayman McCreery and one of the Lacklands is likely Rufus Lackland. Both were teenagers in 1865 and would go on to play for the Union Club, who do not appear to have been active in the early part of the 1865 baseball season.

Wayman Crow McCreery

(Wayman Crow McCreery), son of Phocian R. McCreery and Mary Jane (Hynes) McCreery, was born in St. Louis in the year 1851. His father was born in Kentucky, but had settled in St. Louis eleven years previous to Wayman's birth, and had gone into the dry goods business in partnership with Mr. Wayman Crow, the firm being known as Crow, McCreery & Company. It did a very large amount of profitable business, and Mr. McCreery invested much of his share of the profits in real estate. His name is connected with some of the best buildings in the city, including the building at the corner of Broadway and Chestnut street, now known as Hurst's Hotel, which was erected in 1861, and which was, at that time, the finest building in the city. His enterprise proved a great stimulus to the erection of costly office and public buildings, and his example was very generally followed. His mother, Mary Jane McCreery, was a daughter of Colonel Andrew Hynes, of Nashville, Tennessee, who was a bosom friend of General Andrew Jackson.

Young Wayman received his educational training at the Washington University, where he remained until he was eighteen years of age. He was an apt and industrious pupil and made rapid progress in his studies. On leaving the Washington University he went to Racine, Wisconsin, where he received a thorough university education, graduating with high honors in the year 1871. Returning to the city of his birth and early days, he became connected with the dry goods firm of Crow & McCreery, remaining with it for three years. He then entered the real estate business in partnership with Mr. James Towers, the firm name being McCreery & Towers, with offices at 705 Pine street. The firm continued as thus constituted for a period of twelve years, when Mr. Towers withdrew from the partnership, and Mr. McCreery continued in business alone, at 715 Chestnut street. There is no real estate agent in the West more highly respected or looked up to than Mr. McCreery. He has been appointed sole agent for the magnificent Security Building on Fourth and Locust streets, in which his offices are now located. His principal work during recent years has been the management and control of large and valuable estates, and he has been uniquely successful in the plotting out and development of valuable tracts of land. He was in practical control of the Concordia tract containing fourteen acres, which he subdivided and sold at a very substantial profit for the owners. He also negotiated the ninety-nine years' lease of the corner of Tenth and Olive streets, now occupied by the Bell Telephone Company, and he is practically the pioneer of the long term system in this city.

Mr. McCreery is now consulted by large capitalists as to the best method of investing in St. Louis realty, and is known as one of the most impartial and conservative men in the city. His advice is invariably accepted, and his clients following it have almost invariably made exceedingly handsome profits. Mr. McCreery is now a very wealthy man, but he is kind and courteous to all, and may be regarded as a type of the business men who have forced St. Louis to the front and made it one of the most important cities in the world, commercially, socially and otherwise. He is a notary public, and, although not in practice as an attorney, is well read in real estate law.

Mr. McCreery is a member of the Legion of Honor, and a very active worker in its behalf. A great deal of his spare time is devoted to music. He is the composer of the opera "L'Afrique," which was produced at the Olympic in 1880 with great success. He was also at the head of the St. Louis Musical Union in connection with Mr. Waldauer, and for upwards of seventeen years he has been the musical director at Christ Church Cathedral, and he is also president of the St. Louis Glee Club. Mr. McCreery has always labored earnestly with a view of elevating the music of the city.

He married in the year 1875 Miss Mary Louisa Carr, daughter of Dabney Carr, and granddaughter of Judge Carr, so well known in East St. Louis. They have four children-Mary Louisa, Christine, Wayman and Andrew.

-From Old and new St. Louis


A first baseman for the Union Club, Wayman Crow McCreery is one of the more fascinating figures in the history of 19th century St. Louis baseball. Besides his musical talents, which are mentioned in the biographical sketch from Old and new St. Louis, McCreery was also a national billiards champion. Augustus Thomas, in A Print of My Remembrance, wrote that McCreery was an outstanding athlete, stating that "(few) men are so physically and intellectually equipped as he was. There was nothing that an athlete could do with his body that in a notable degree Wayman McCreery could not do. He was a boxer, wrestler, fencer, runner, and swimmer, and all-round athlete. In addition to these he was a graceful dancer."

McCreery's background is fairly typical for a member of the Union Club. He was one of several members of the club to have attended Washington University, which was co-founded by his namesake, Wayman Crow. While it's been stated that the Union Club was organized by high school students, that appears to be rather anachronistic and many of the early members of the clubs were actually students at Washington University and St. Louis University.

McCreery, like many other club members, was also related to the prominent Laclede and Chouteau family of St. Louis. He was related to the family through his marriage to Mary Louise Carr. The Union Club had numerous members who where part of the Laclede/Chouteau family as well as the Lucas family. These two families were the largest landowners in St. Louis and were also the two wealthiest families. The fact that McCreery's daughter, Marie, was named the St. Louis Veiled Prophet Queen in 1896 speaks to his family's high social standing in the city.