Louisville Diamonds

Philip Von Borries

Description

(From the Prelude) “Louisville’s baseball heritage is wondrous and immense.
Its first boxscore (under the rules of Hall–of–Famer Alexander Cartwright, the true father of baseball who some 150 years ago promulgated the basic rules the game still uses today) dates to 1858.
It played against the historic Cincinnati Reds of 1869–1870, baseball’s first professional club.
And, since the turn of the century (that timeframe including several brief hiatuses), Louisville has been a sanctuary of minor–league baseball.”

Sujets

• Grandes Ligas de Béisbol
• Biography
• History of Louisville, Kentucky
• Sports in the United States
• History of the United States
• Major League Baseball
• Cincinnati Reds
• Alexander Cartwright
• Autobiography
• Reds de Cincinnati
• Ligue majeure de baseball

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 1994
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781681622057
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

PHILIP VON BORRIES
TURNER PUBLISHING COMPANY
TURNER PUBLISHING COMPANY

Turner Publishing Company Staff: Publishing Consultant: Douglas W. Sikes Designer: Herbert C. Banks II
Copyright 1996. Philip Von Borries. Publishing Rights: Turner Publishing Company. All Rights Reserved.
This book or any part thereof may not be reproduced without the written consent of Philip Von Borries and Turner Publishing Company.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 96-61627
ISBN: 978-1-56311-323-9
Additional copies may be purchased directly from Turner Publishing Company.
Limited Edition.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
D EDICATION
I NTRODUCTION
Chapter One LOUISVILLE DIAMONDS: L OUISVILLE AND THE B IG S HOW , 1876-1899
Chapter Two LOUISVILLE S MAJOR-LEAGUE GALLERY I: T HE F IRST N ATIONAL L EAGUE Y EARS , 1876-1877
Chapter Three PETE BROWNING: T HE O RIGINAL L OUISVILLE S LUGGER
Chapter Four LOUISVILLE S MAJOR-LEAGUE GALLERY II: T HE A MERICAN A SSOCIATION Y EARS , 1882-1891
Chapter Five LOUISVILLE KINGS: L OUISVILLE AND THE 1890 W ORLD S ERIES
Chapter Six LOUISVILLE S MAJOR-LEAGUE GALLERY III: T HE S ECOND N ATIONAL L EAGUE Y EARS , 1892-1899
Chapter Seven THE LOST CITY OF HISTORICAL BASEBALL: L OUISVILLE S M AJOR -L EAGUE F IRSTS , R ECORDS AND N OTABLE A CHIEVEMENTS
Chapter Eight BIG-LEAGUE NAMES OF LOUISVILLE: L OUISVILLE S A LL -T IME M AJOR -L EAGUE S EASONAL R OSTERS , 1876-1899
Chapter Nine LOUISVILLE S BIG SHOW NUMBERS: L OUISVILLE S P RINCIPAL M AJOR -L EAGUE S TATISTICS , 1876-1899
Appendixes
EXTRA INNINGS: LOST STARS: T HE H ALL -O F -F AME C ASE FOR THE A MERICAN A SSOCIATION S P REMIER S TARS
LINGO: The Language Of Baseball
KENTUCKY IN THE MAJORS: R OSTER OF K ENTUCKY -B ORN M AJOR -L EAGUERS
KENTUCKY BASEBALL TRAVEL SITES
LOUISVILLE KENTUCKY MINOR-LEAGUE HIGHLIGHTS
Bibliography
Index

Team card of 1885 Louisville American Associaiton club, Notable figures include Guy Hecker (#5), Pete Browning (#6), and Chicken Wolf (#13), (National Baseball Library and Archive. Cooperstown. NY)

1888-1889 team card. (University of Louisville Photographic Archives)
DEDICATION
To Mickey Mantle, whose star shines as bright in the heavens as it did on earth; to Jamie Milliken and Christina Kearns, both shining hopes for a better tomorrow; to Uncle Milton and Aunt Lib, quite simply the best; to Father Michael Milliken and Kent Brown, who both know why; to Standiford Caldwell (b/d 1881), Mary Caldwell (1889-1890) and Virginia Caldwell (1898-1899), who make sure I find Pete Browning every time I go to Cave Hill Cemetery; to Frank Dixie Davis, a star pitcher for the Louisville Colonels in the minors and the St. Louis Browns in the majors; to Mary Gail, Eugenia, Brenda, Beverly, Cathy, Mary Bo and Pam - solid gold all the way; to Stan Starks, a multiple Eclipse Award-winning director who runs second to no one in my book; to Richard Topp, whose name matches his baseball talents; to Bill Williams, Executive Director of the Louisville Slugger Museum - one of baseball s best; to Walter and Mary Barney - for their indispensable help; to Cotton Nash, an All-American who made a young autograph seeker feel the same way a long time ago; to Kid Nichols, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, Lefty Grove, Roy Sievers, Robin Roberts, Al Kaline, Ernie Banks, Sandy Koufax, Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Sparky Anderson, and Kenny Lofton (Willie Mays incarnate); to Ray Chapman, who left us way too soon; to all the other native sons of Kentucky who made it to the bigs; to the 1975 World Series; to old Crosley Field in Cincinnati, where I first learned why baseball is the greatest game on the face of the earth; to David Nemec, who helped a rookie break into the big show; to Dan Gutman, my other favorite baseball writer; to my late father, Frank, who believed in defense; to Todd Schrupp, Racing Television s brightest star; to Andy Stith, Raymond Cassidy and Christoper Blanco - all future greats; and to the golden remnants of great baseball days gone by - a Trapeze glove, baseball hats with cards stuck in them, and the Mick.
INTRODUCTION
This book is a sequel to Legends Of Louisville: Major League Baseball in Louisville, 1876-1899. Published in October of 1993, Legends broke new ground on two fronts. It was the first book ever done on Louisville s epic major-league stars, days and teams. It also was the first book ever done on any segment of Louisville s colorful baseball history.
Though I might have had the first word to say about Louisville s opulent major-league days in book form, there are obviously many more words to be written about that extraordinary history. Thus, this book.
It is based upon extensive research that I have been doing on Louisville s major-league years since 1983 (when I started out with a simple piece on Pete Browning that grew to 20 pages, and in time, became the genesis for both books).
Some of that research came after Legends was completed. The other part came before Legends , but for various logistical reasons, could not be incorporated into Legends .
One final note. While the two books are similar, that is all there is to it. Legends was a media guide of sorts, an introduction to a vast, previously uncharted area. That area having now been settled, Louisville Diamonds: The Louisville Major-League Reader (1876-1899) enters now to develop that area.
Enjoy.
C HAPTER O NE LOUISVILLE DIAMONDS: L OUISVILLE AND THE B IG S HOW , 1876-1899

William Ambrose Hulbert (National Baseball Library and Archive, Cooperstown, NY)

PRELUDE
L ouisville s baseball heritage is wondrous and immense.
Its first boxscore (under the rules of Hall-of-Famer Alexander Cartwright, the true father of baseball who some 150 years ago promulgated the basic rules the game still uses today) dates to 1858.
It played against the historic Cincinnati Reds of 1869-1870, baseball s first professional club.
And, since the turn of the century (that timeframe including several brief hiatuses), Louisville has been a sanctuary of minor-league baseball.
And, the thread that binds those two eras is Louisville s magical 20-year major-league history, an era that indelibly stamped it as a grand American baseball city.
Louisville s birth as a major-league town, remarkably enough, coincided with the birth of the esteemed National League, this country s oldest, continuously-active major-league loop which inaugurated play in 1876.
The twin births were no accident, but rather the product of design, since Louisville was not only a charter member of the National League, but played an instrumental role in the establishment of the senior loop as well.
This latter fact has been obscured - buried in some quarters - for many years by revisionist historians, but that does not change the facts of the National League-founding matter one scintilla.
In early December of 1875, William Hulbert - of the Chicago club in the National Association - travelled to Louisville.
There, he met with representatives of three other clubs, which along with his club, represented the western portion of his proposed National League. Besides Chicago, the group included Cincinnati, St. Louis and Louisville.
Armed with their proxies, he then met with representatives of the four eastern teams - Boston, Hartford, Philadelphia and New York - the following February in New York City. The result was the birth of the National League, its list of charter members including Louisville.
No one questions those facts. What has become warped over the years is the truth regarding the nativity of the National League.
Though New York City has long heralded itself as the birthplace of the National League, nothing could be further from the truth.
In point of fact, that statement has as much validity as the claim that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown, New York.
(Indeed, about the only thing that these two specious claims prove beyond the shadow of a doubt is that when it comes to historical claimjumping, New York has no peer - absolutely none whatsoever - as the game s greatest historical thief.)
Having dispensed with the falsehood that New York City founded the National League, that leaves two other options standing, both of them interesting and with great merit.
Many contend that Louisville and New York City share the honor. That is, they are co-founders, that based on the solid, logistical precept that the National League founding could not have been done without both of them (absolutely true).
However, there is a third belief about the National League s founding, which is perhaps the most hardline of all. That is the contention that Louisville was the outright founder of the National League.
A notable advocate of that viewpoint is the renowned baseball writer and scholar, Harold Seymour, who averred in his classic work, Baseball: The Early Years .
At Louisville, Hulbert and (St. Louis owner Charles) Fowle were appointed a committee with full power to act for the Western clubs and given the job of going east to negotiate with the Eastern teams they wanted to include. Louisville, therefore, was the real birthplace of the National League, not New York City.
(This is not an isolated quote. Part of a baseball item from the Sunday, March 27, 1892 issue of the Louisville Courier-Journal says: It is not well known that the first meeting of the National League was held in this city, at the Louisville Hotel. )
For the record, Hulbert almost became as big a casualty as Louisville in the matter of the National League, Hulbert s muscular replacement for the decrepit, erratic and crooked National Association (the National League s predecessor).
In a shrewd political move designed to insure acceptance of his plan, Hulbert recommended that an easterner, Morgan Bulkeley, be the first president of the National League. As a logistical consequence, Bulkeley - a mere figurehead in the National League story - was one of the first persons elected to the Hal