Oliver Wendell Tebeau

Patsy Tebeau, described by Al Spink as "the champion first baseman," was a St. Louis native who played in the National League from 1887 to 1900 for Chicago, Cleveland, and St. Louis.

In The National Game, Spink wrote the following:

Tebeau learned to play ball in North St. Louis.

There was a large family of Tebeau's and they all loved the game, loved it so well that two of the boys, Oliver and George became famous in its annals.

They learned to play on the prairie near the old Water Tower on Grand Avenue.

"Pat" Tebeau, the name Oliver was best known by, and his brother George, were the star players of the Peach Pie team of North St. Louis and later were the brightest on the Shamrock nine, which held forth in the same neighborhood.

Pat's first professional work was with the St. Joe team of the Western League in the early eighties and then he came into the limelight as the captain, manager and first baseman of the Cleveland League team.

It was Tom Loftus, then manager of the Clevelands, that saw in "Pat" Tebeau the sort of spirit needed to make a good commander, and when Loftus gave up the reins he put them in the hands of "Pat." That they were well handled goes without saying.

Tebeau was not only a fine first baseman, but a hitter of the first flight.

Tim Hurst, who was an umpire in the League in the 1890's and managed the Browns in 1898, told the following story about Tebeau:

I have been asked to tell of the hardest decision that I ever made...The most important, I think, occurred several years ago during a game between Cleveland and Baltimore at Cleveland.

It was the ninth inning, and the score was tied. Childs was on second base for Cleveland, with but one out, and Pat Tebeau was at the bat. Hoffer was pitching for Baltimore and Robinson was catching. Hoffer was using a dinky outcurve that broke some distance from the plate and Tebeau was having great trouble in meeting squarely. On several occasions he walked out of the box to hit the ball and I had repeatedly warned him about it.

Finally when Childs reached second, Tebeau saw an outcurve coming and ran ten feet out of the box to hit it. He met the ball squarely before it "broke" and drove it to the center-field fence for two bases. Childs easily scored, making the game 3 to 2 in favor of Cleveland. The crowd was whooping and yelling over the victory.

Robinson ran up to me and called my attention to the fact that Tebeau had run out of the batter's box. I knew he was right, and during the tumult I called Tebeau out and sent Childs back to second. The crowd was absolutely stunned.

Tebeau came running in from second with tears in his eyes. "You didn't call me out for that?" inquired Patsy.

"Sure, I did. You know that you stepped out of the box, and you are only getting what is coming to you."

"Well, I might have stepped out a few feet," he wailed. "But you ought not to give a decision like that in the presence of this home crowd."

That tied up the game and it went along until the twelfth inning, when Baltimore won. You can imagine that I was a very popular guy in Cleveland that night.

More On The Organization Of Amateur Clubs In 1886

"The amateur clubs of St. Louis will outdo themselves this year in the number and character of their players, clubs and leagues. The Amateur Park Association of clubs will, of course, be first in point of quality and general excellence. The League formed will be the first and only one ever formed in St. Louis on a solid basis. The players will all be required to sign regular contracts with the clubs they join, and should they break any of the rules they will be forever disbarred from taking part in a championship struggle, and also from playing in any St. Louis park: and, moreover, the members of all clubs belonging to the League will be prohibited from taking part in any game where any player under suspension from the League is engaged. This rule will have a tendency to make the sore-heads come to reasonable terms and will prevent all revolving from one club to the other as has been the case in the past, and always to the detriment of strictly amateur ball playing."

"The Business League profiting by past experience will no doubt make some iron-clad rules to prevent clubs from grabbing up such semi-professional players as may chance to be out of an engagement. In fact, all amateur organizations in St. Louis have made a careful study of the word amateur, and they intend to carry out the meaning to the letter. The right men are now at the helm, and, with proper encouragement, will bring out the latent qualities of who now are compelled to play second fiddle for the benefit of older players of reputation."

"The Amateur League will have the following clubs represented: Amateur Park Club, St. Gotthard's, Drummand's, Enterprise, St. Louis Amateur, West Ends, and Union Blues. This will make eight evenly matched teams, and the winners of the bunting will have many a hard fight before securing the trophy."

"The Business League will open the season with six clubs and will try and keep this number as they are anxious to finish the schedule, which would be impossible with more members. The clubs likely to be selected from the score of applicants are as follows: Crow, Hargadine & Co., Sam'l C. Davis & Co., St. Louis News Co., Wm. Barr Dry Goods Co., Rice, Stix, & Co., and Brown, Daughaday, & Co. This will insure good games, as all of the teams will be equal in playing strength, and the struggle for supremacy will be long and hard."

"In fact, from the present outlook, amateur base ball will be a feature in St. Louis this year, something it never has been before. The managers have the correct idea and have only to carry out the policy laid down at the recent meeting to meet with the success their efforts deserve."

-From The Sporting News, March 17, 1886

It's interesting to see the machinations of the smaller clubs in St. Louis as they organize for the season. Groups and leagues and associations are being formed as clubs compete for players, fans, money, and survival. These clubs are competing against not only each other but also the bigger clubs in St. Louis. In 1886, there was not only the Browns and the Maroons in St. Louis but also the Peach Pies, the Prickly Ash, and the Reds while just across the river were the Madisons of Edwardsville, the Alton Club, the Belliville Club, and the East St. Louis Club.

In the face of such competition, organization had to have been crucial for the clubs to survive. Reading between the lines of the above article and some of the other ones posted this week, it's clear that these clubs were in the habit of raiding each other for players. Revolving was obviously a major problem. Making and keeping a schedule also must have been difficult. Arranging games so that they were economically beneficial to both teams was also an issue.

The Sporting News, as an advocate of the game, was not only reporting on these undertakings but was actively encouraging them. They toted the beneficial nature of such organizations and chided the poor management that often stood in the way of achieving them.

One interesting note about the above article is the quote at the end about the status of amateur baseball in St. Louis. Al Spink, of all people, should have known better then to write something like that, given the tradition of 19th century amateur baseball in St. Louis. The "Golden Age" of St. Louis amateur baseball had certainly passed but it had passed only a scant eleven years previous to this article being written and certainly within the living memory of most of the readers of The Sporting News in 1886.

For The Benefit Of Mr. Sullivan

Al Spink, in The National Game, tells a sad tale about Tom Sullivan, a catcher for the Reds in the late 1870's and early 1880's. Sullivan was a "genial, kindly lad without an enemy in the world" and, according to Spink, one of the best catchers St. Louis ever produced.

One cold winter night after his playing days were over, Sullivan was walking from the Kerry Patch neighborhood to the St. Louis Poor House to visit a friend. During the course of the journey, Sullivan's hands were frostbitten and, a few days later, doctors were forced to amputate them. "Thus," wrote Spink, "the lad who was one of the first to catch the speediest delivery close to the bat and who was rated for his skill as a receiver, thrower, and batsman was left a hopeless cripple and his scores of friends in the 'Patch' always referred to him as 'Poor Tom.'"

While Spink doesn't give a date for Sullivan's accident, it's likely that it happened sometime in the winter of 1885/6. This assumption is based on the fact that on May 8, 1886, a benefit game was held for Sullivan. The game, which according to the Sporting News was played before an "immense crowd", was a contest between the Peach Pies and a team of St. Louis baseball veterans. Playing for the vets were some of Sullivan's old teammates on the Reds, including John Magner, Pidge Morgan, and Packy Dillon. The benefit raised over $900 for Sullivan, including $560 in gate receipts, $89 sent by other teams, and $20 sent by Harry Wright.

Tom Sullivan passed away in 1909.