Tobias Was Holding Out On Us

At a meeting of the "Commercial Base Ball Club," the following gentlemen were elected officers for the ensuing year:

Wm. Bliss Clark, Esq., President.
A.W. Howe, Esq., Vice President.
Jno. W. Donaldson, Esq., Secretary and Treasurer.
Messrs. C.F. Gauss, Edwin Fowler and Hy. L. Clark, Directors; and Messrs. E.H. Tobias and E.C. Simmons, Field Captains.

-Missouri Republican, May 3, 1863

While he mentioned that he was a member of the Commercials, Edmund Tobias never bothered to mention that he was one of the captains of the club during the Civil War.  I also don't believe he ever mentioned the fact that the Commercials played during the war.  In fact, I believe that he specifically mentioned that the club broke up at the beginning of the war.  But I guess I can find it in my heart to forgive the Herodotus of 19th century St. Louis baseball. 

Captain Tobias' club was one of the most important pioneer-era baseball clubs in St. Louis and I regret not writing about them in Base Ball Pioneers.  When the publication of the book got pushed back, I mentioned to Peter Morris that I wanted to add something about the club to my chapter, which was already completed.  In the end, I choose not to do so even though Peter thought it was a good idea.  I liked my chapter as it was and while I had some information on the Commercials, I just didn't think I had enough to put together something interesting.  Of course, it's three years later and I know a lot more about the club.  I know that they were one of the two most active clubs in St. Louis during the Civil War.  I know about their role in developing Lafayette Park as a baseball grounds.  I know more about the members of the club.  I know that they had a junior club.  I know who their officers were in 1863.

The Commercials have been overlooked by baseball historians.  That's something I want to rectify.        

The Champion Club Of America

The members of the Empire Base Ball Club of this city returned last night from Dubuque, Iowa, after winning the silver ball and the championship of the northwest, in one of the best and most ably contested match games ever played in this country. The people of Dubuque, who witnessed the game, magnanimously extend to the St. Louis boys the praise to which their nobly won victory so justly entitles them, and declare the Empire Club of St. Louis to be the Champion Club of America. The game was witnessed by an enthusiastic multitude, numbering over fifteen thousand persons, including hosts of the fair sex, and representatives from all the States of the Northwest. The Empire boys, on arriving in East St. Louis, yesterday morning, were received at the depot by a large delegation of their friends, including members of the Baltic, Liberty, Magenta, Dinga, Columbia and O.K. Base Ball Clubs, and with music, escorted to their headquarters, No. 124 North Third street. The handsome prize ball of solid silver will be on exhibition at Miller's saloon for some days, and every one can see it who wishes to gratify a curiosity. The Empire Base Ball Club is composed of our worthiest citizens-gentlemen who would reflect credit on any community-representing as much intelligence and wealth as any society of a similar nature in the United States. Their object is to cultivate a taste for out-door sports, which has been too much neglected by the American people in their march to opulence and greatness-over-burdening the mental faculties while the physic system remains undeveloped. Our citizens should take a lively interest in fostering and encouraging such associations as the Empire Club, and when such sports become more generally indulged in by our youth, we can dispense with billiard saloons and similar dens of iniquity. We extend to the Empire boys our congratulations, and feel a tinge of pride suffuse our cheeks when we hear the notes of praise that are uttered by all who witnessed the achievements of the Empire Base Ball Club of St. Louis.

-St. Louis Daily Press, October 3, 1865

Tobias has a bit to say about the Empire's victory in Dubuque:

...on September 25, 1865, the Empire club went to Dubuque, Iowa, to play for a silver ball offered by the Agricultural Association of that city at their Fair and here the Empires were again victorious, not only defeating all other clubs but also again defeating their namesakes of Freeport, Ill., who in the meantime, since the former match, had met and beaten Chicago's best club. This game was much talked about and...was declared by witnesses to have been the very best fly game on record at that time. It was umpired by Samuel Cox, Esq., of Dubuque and occupied three and one half hours and the silver ball won there was deposited with the other trophies of the club...

The arrival of the St. Louis Club was marked by an ovation hitherto unknown in the West, being in the form of a torchlight procession participated in by the following clubs: Baltic, Liberty, Atlantic, Magenta, Columbus, O.K., Resolute and Hope, all in uniform and each club accompanied by a number of its friends in citizens clothes. It was the hour of midnight when the train conveying the Empires arrived in East St. Louis and the boys were most completely surprised at there being received with the cheers and congratulations of such an enthusiastic crowd of the base ball fraternity. Upon returning to the St. Louis side of the river (by ferry boat) the procession marched down the levee to Chestnut street, to Fourth, to Pine, to Third, to Locust, to Fourth, to Washington Avenue, then to the Empires' Hall on the West Side of Third street near St. Charles, upon arrival there forming in line in front of the old City Hotel. Facing the hall were the club's rooms, brilliantly lighted and filled with its friends and members, who deputized Mr. E.H. Tobias, Secretary of the club, to voice their words of welcome which he did from the balcony of the hall, "couched in elegant and appropriate terms," as one of the morning papers said the next day.

I believe that the excitement generated by the victories of the Empire Club in 1865 was unmatched in St. Louis until the Brown Stocking's victory over Chicago in May of 1875. These victories, within the context of a general baseball revival following the end of the Civil War and along with the Empire/Union rivalry, helped fuel a dynamic St. Louis baseball scene for the rest of the decade. The Empire Club's victories over Freeport in May and September of 1865 are two of the most significant moments in the history of 19th century St. Louis baseball.

Now as to the championship of the West...I certainly believe that they have a legitimate claim to the hypothetical championship in 1865. In 1866, however, they loss any claim to a Western championship to the Excelsior Club of Chicago at the Bloomington tournament that year. And at no point, despite the acclimation of the people of Dubuque, could the Empires ever dream of claiming the national championship. But for that one year, in 1865, the Empire Club could legitimately claim to be the best club in the West.

Also of note, I believe that a couple of weeks ago I mentioned the reception that the Empire Club received after returning from Dubuque but I think I confused it with their first game against Freeport and said that the reception was upon their return from Illinois in July of 1865. Obviously, that was a mistake. I believe that I've tended, over the last few years, to combine the two events in my mind and, periodically, my writing. Two seperate events: Empire vs. Freeport in Freeport, Illinois in July of 1865 (first fly match in the West); Empire vs. Freeport in Dubuque, Iowa in September of 1865 (Empire Club claims championship of the West).

More On The Freeport Match

The game of base ball played at Freeport, on the 4th of July (1865), by the Empire Club of St. Louis and the Empire, of Freeport, was a closely contested and splendid game, and resulted in the victory of the St. Louis Club, by seven runs. We shall publish the score and particulars to-morrow.

-St. Louis Daily Press, July 6, 1865

The members of the Empire Base Ball Club, arrived from Freeport yesterday morning at four o'clock, greatly pleased with their excursion. The boys speak in unmeasured terms of praise of the generous hospitality extended to them by the citizens of Freeport, and by members of the Freeport Club. They were treated to the best that the town afforded.

The match game, which was witnessed by six thousand people, and in which the St. Louis Club came out champions, was one of the most spirited ever played in the West. There were present representatives from the Julien Club, Dubuque; Garden City Club, Chicago; Eagle Club, Laporte, Ind.; and the Rockford Club. After a splendid dinner, speeches were made by Col. T.J. Turner, of Freeport; J.R. Scroggs, editor of the Freeport Bulletin; R. Little, and by Capt. J. Fruin, of the St. Louis Empire Club.

The St. Louis boys were also invited to partake of the hospitalities at the fine residence of Col. J.W. Shaeffer, late Chief of Gen. Butler's staff, but owing to the lateness of the hour, the invitation was declined. The St. Louis boys desire an opportunity to reciprocate the attentions received from the Freeport people at the earliest opportunity.

-St. Louis Daily Press, July 7, 1865

The score of the match, which according to Tobias was the first fly ball match played west of the Alleghenies, was 27-20. Playing for the Empires was J.R. Barrett, c; A. Worth, 1b; J. Quinn, p; C.C. Norton, 3b; E.H. Tobias, ss; J. Fitzgerald, cf; J.M. Johnston, lf; J. Fruin, 2b; and Robert Duncan, rf. Playing for Freeport was R. Buckman, 1b; E. Cavanagh, ss; W. Lighthart, 3b; G. Butler, rf; J. Deifendorf, cf; H. Farwell, 2b; H.G. Tweed, p; L.F. Brewster, lf; and Wm. B. Thomas, c.

Looking at the box score, Jeremiah Fruin, who scored five runs while only making one out, had to have been the player of the match. Adam Worth seems to have had a touch game, making five outs while only scoring two runs. L.F. Brewster, for Freeport, also had a good game, scoring three runs and making only one out.

Interestingly, the box score of the game that Tobias published in TSN on November 9, 1895 is perfectly in order with the contemporary box score published by the Daily Press. I don't know if Tobias used the Daily Press or the records of the Empire Club as his source but this certainly speaks well of his reliability as a source.

The Old And Well Known Commercial Base Ball Club

The old and well known Commercial Base Ball Club having completed their arrangements for the season, will resume their field exercises on Saturday, the 5th inst., at 4 o'clock P.M., on their beautiful grounds in Lafayette Park. Base ball players and all lovers of out-door sports are invited. Regular field days are Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. Below will be found a list of officers for the year:

President, E.H. Tobias

Vice President, A.W. Senter

Secretary and Treasurer, H.L. Clark

Directors, C.F. Gauss, P.H. Jacobs and Jas. S. Wilgus

Field Captains, Edwin Fowler, David Hutchinson

-Missouri Democrat, April 4, 1862

This puts the final nail in the idea that the Empire Club was the only active baseball club during the war years. The question remains, however, as to how active the baseball scene was in St. Louis during the 1861-1864 period. Certainly it was not as active as in 1860 or 1865 when there were about a dozen clubs in existence. Without looking through my notes for the period, I'd say that there were four or five clubs active each season. When I'm done posting all this new material, I'll go through it, post some general thoughts and put together a list of Civil War-era clubs.

So where did the idea come from that the Empires were the only active club in St. Louis during the Civil War. Obviously it wasn't Tobias, who probably would have remembered being the president of a war-era club. Looking back through the Tobias material, I found this: "It was in the latter years of the '50's that base ball found a permanent lodgement here and in 1860, 1861, and 1862 it became quite 'the craze...'" I'm sure I've read this before and must have ignored it because it didn't fit with my idea that the St. Louis Civil War-era baseball scene was a relatively barren one. So Tobias, while not giving much in the way of details, did give leave some clues about what was going on.

Al Spink? I just skimmed The National Game and don't see any reference to the Civil War. Spink did give a list of the Empire Club's officers and field captains for the era and this was certainly my basis for stating that the club was active during the war years. But I don't find a statement that the Empires were the only club active.

I don't know where I came up with the idea or what the basis for my thinking was. There might be a record of it somewhere on this blog but I'm too lazy to look for it. The main point here, however, is that I was wrong and there were several clubs active in St. Louis during the Civil War. While the outbreak of war impeded the growth and development of the game in St. Louis, it didn't kill it and it didn't diminish the game to the extent that I had previously believed.

I should also point out the use of Lafayette Park by the Commercial Club. The Cyclones had been using the grounds in the antebellum era and, in 1861, the grounds were commandeered by Federal troops for use as an encampment. This is evidence that the park was being used as a baseball grounds during the war years.

Wallace Delafield

Wallace Delafield, a member of the antebellum Commercial Base Ball Club of St. Louis, was born in Cincinnati on May 1, 1840. At some point his family moved to St. Louis and the young Delafield was educated at Edward Wyman's school. In 1854, he went to work as a clerk for F. A. Hunt & Company and then for William N. Newell & Company. By 1857, Delafield was working as a clerk for Pomeroy & Benton, a wholesale dry goods store, and after the Civil War he returned to work for William Benton until 1869. That year he entered the general insurance business with Lewis Snow and the company they formed, Delafield & Snow, was still operating in St. Louis at the time of Delafield's death on August 8, 1915.

The Commercial Club, according to Tobias, "was composed of young businessmen" and was among "the very first of regularly formed clubs in St. Louis..." While the club disbanded at the outbreak of the Civil War, several members went on to join other clubs. Edward Simmons was a member of the Union Club and Tobias was a member of the Empire Club. Edwin Fowler, another club member, had also been a member of the Morning Star Club.

The Empire Club's Anniversary Game of 1876

To-day is the sixteenth anniversary of the Empire Base Ball Club, and, should the weather be fine, the event will be celebrated by playing a match game, this afternoon, at their park, on Grand Avenue. Nine married men will play the same number of single men, and both sides will do their best to win.

-The St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 16, 1876


The Empire's anniversary game, which was normally a match between the married and unmarried members, was an annual event for the club and dated back to 1861. This was an important event on the club's calender and E.H. Tobias, a club member, mentions just about every one of the anniversary games between 1861 and 1875, providing box scores as well, in his series of letters to The Sporting News detailing the early history of the game in St. Louis.

While I have no evidence to support this, I believe that this is one of the last anniversary games the Empire played. The 1875 and 1876 seasons were difficult ones for the club and the advent and growth of professional baseball in the city had a negative effect on the club's baseball fortunes. I think it's very likely that the club quit playing baseball in 1877 or 1878.

An Old Timers' Game

A very memorable game, one that was and is historic in the career of the Empire Club, was played August 19, in the presence of the largest audience that gathered at the ball park during the entire season of 1873. It partook of the nature of a family re-union, inasmuch as the contestants were the first nine of the club against the veterans, those who at one time or another during the existence of the club had played on the first nine. It was not a burlesque game but was played for points and it is not amiss to say that the vets presented the most unique aggregation of dilapidated ball tossers that ever appeared on any occasion. Crooked fingers, broken noses and ankles weak from sprains, all were there represented in the persons of one or more of the veterans. It was thought that the “old ‘uns” would be able to give their youthful adversaries a good tussle but the game showed that base ball players may be classed among the good things that do not improve with age. It was purely in a desire to include all the vets present that eleven players participated on their side and not at all because they thought it necessary to have extra aid in spanking the “young ‘uns...”

It was a game that will long be remembered by those participating at least if for no other reason than that no casuality occurred to any of the Vets, who while showing what they did know about the game could not help proving what they could not do and base running was one of those things. Shockey demonstrated that his hands had not lost their cunning by capturing five fly balls. Tobias caught a neat liner at short that was almost hot enough to knock him out. Frain held down second base with old time grace but base running was quite another thing with his increased (girth). Duffy made a great effort to be a boy again and succeeded in a measure. Yule and Sexton each divided their efforts equally between outs and runs, of which achievement they were not too obstreperously proof. Jack Barrett was out of place in center field and couldn’t see why he was not made catcher No. 2 “and then you would have seen base ball.” John Murphy could not find where the mile stones were located, obesity having claimed him for its own, and Cooney could not see the ball when Schimper so kindly tossed it in his direction. Robinson would have done better if he had left his shoes outside the park, his limbs not being strong enough to make time with such appendages. John O’Connell acted as though he was at a School Board meeting where they do anything but what they should.

The First Nine might have done better but what they did do was quite enough to show how disrespectful they could be to old age, especially so with Barron, Oran, Spaulding and Klein who just to show their smartness insisted upon double dealings of outs on several separate and distinct occasions. Schimper, too, was mean enough to heat his balls red hot and the ambidextrous Seward’s hands held magnets. Adam Wirth’s traps were freshly greased for the occasion and his sardonic smile at each successful capture was enough of itself to annihilate those poor decrepit Vets. There was on exhibition during the day the championship belt and bat that had been confided to the club’s protection years before and which it lost but for one year to the Union Club, also a photograph of the first nine in ’67. Several of the veterans wore the gold badge of the club that was adopted in ’66 on the occasion of their first trip from home to Freeport, Ill., and one, Tobias, was attired in the original uniform of the club having preserved it since his retirement from the nine.

-E.H. Tobias, writing in The Sporting News, January 11, 1896

Several notes of interest:

-The idea that "the 'old ‘uns' would be able to give their youthful adversaries a good tussle" is rather humorous and Tobias can't possibly be serious with this claim. The Empires in 1873 were an outstanding baseball team that had already defeated all of its rivals with no blemishes to their record that I can find. The final score of the game, by the way, was 39-9.

-Tobias mentions a photograph of the 1867 team. Anybody happen to have a copy? I'd certainly like to see it (and that's understatement at its finest).

-While Tobias mentions the championship belt and bat, he makes no mention of the gilded championship ball that was originally used in the Cyclone/Morning Star match game in 1860. One can assume then that the ball had already been "misplaced" by August of 1873. Griswold stated that it was last seen in the possession of the Empire Club and I believe that Tobias also makes mention of it in his series of letters (but I can't remember off the top of my head what he said about it). I'm hoping the thing is in a box in somebody's attic and wasn't thrown out years ago. That ball is the Holy Grail of St. Louis sports memorabilia.

-This game and the events surrounding it speaks to an appreciation that the Empire Club had for its own history and that of the game. How many clubs were in existence in 1873 that had a richer history than the Empire Club? A club formed in the antebellum period, that was active during the Civil War, that dominated the game in a rich baseball market and that had thrived for fourteen seasons-the Empires had a great deal to celebrate.

-Finally, Tobias' reference to his own play (he "caught a neat liner") is by far the nicest thing he says about his own ballplaying abilities in the series. While never a great player or a regular member of the starting nine, Tobias must have been a decent baseball player. He did play with the first nine on several occasions-a few of which were rather big matches. In his letters to TSN, Tobias is rather humble about his own exploits on the field and is usually self-deprecating when referring to them.

Edit: Looking at my notes, it appears that Tobias' last mention of the gilded championship ball was in his November 16, 1895 letter to TSN. He wrote that after the Union Club defeated the Empires for the championship in 1867, Jeremiah Fruin presented the ball and the belt to the Unions. He doesn't mention the Unions returning the ball after the Empires defeated them in 1867. One can assume that they returned the belt and that this is the belt that Tobias is talking about in his letter of January 11, 1896. If the belt was returned then you would think that the ball was returned as well. The Empire Club is still the best suspect for the last known holder of the gilded ball.