The Great Game Of The Season

The Great Game

Of the season, that is, to the people of St. Louis, will come off, weather permitting, next Thursday afternoon, when the nine that Chicago has been boasting of all the winter will play our Brown Stockings on the Grand Avenue park.

We can tell after the game is over as well as any one else which side wins the game, but predictions as to the probable result would be idle.  We can only express our confidence in the nine selected to represent us in the contest.  Their splendid physical condition, steady earnest play and mutual reliance one upon the other are qualities that if persevered in, will prove triumphant over stronger nines than our sister city has got together.

Persons desiring to avoid the rustle at the gates can purchase tickets at the base ball headquarters for any of the championship games the coming week.

-St. Louis Republican, May 2, 1875

Remember that this piece appeared in the Republican prior to the game between the Brown Stockings and the Reds.  I understand the build-up that went on in the off-season and the back and forth that was going on between the St. Louis and Chicago papers, as well as everyone's desire to see a St. Louis club beat the Chicagos.  But, come on.  You had the first league game in St. Louis history coming up in a couple of days and it pitted two St. Louis clubs against each other.  That wasn't the great game of the season (to date)?

Now obviously it wasn't and there really wasn't a comparison between the Reds and Brown Stockings.  But I didn't think that was recognized in St. Louis prior to May 4, 1875.  I might be wrong about that and it what is obvious in retrospect may have been obvious to the baseball fraternity of St. Louis at the beginning of the 1875 season.

In the end, the Republican is absolutely correct in saying that the first Brown Stocking/Chicago game was the game of the season.  Not only that, it's one of the most significant games in St. Louis baseball history.  As far as 19th century St. Louis baseball games are concerned, it might be the important game ever played by a St. Louis club.  If not, it ranks right up there with the $15,000 slide game and a couple of the games that the Empire Club played in 1865.

And now I have a new idea for a series of posts.  The only question is should I limit the list of the most significant 19th century baseball games to ten or go all out and put together a top twenty-five?  I can do ten off the top of my head so I'm thinking I'll have to do a top twenty-five.

But I digress.  The point here is that with the Reds/Brown Stockings tilt just a couple of days away, they're looking past that to the Brown Stocking/Chicago game.  And that's kind of fascinating.   

    

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Posted in: 1875,Brown Stockings,Red Stockings

Just Your Run-Of-The-Mill Baseball Ad

Oh, but wait...

This is an advertisement for the first big league game in St. Louis baseball history.  Of course, the game as advertised didn't come off because of rain and the first big league game wasn't played until a few days later.  But still. 

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Posted in: 1875,Brown Stockings,Red Stockings

Dear Sirs: Stop Making Stuff Up

To the Editor of the Missouri Republican:  At a meeting of the Empire base ball club held last evening the secretary was instructed to answer a card that appeared in your paper last Sunday, and signed by one of the twelve professional players of the St. Louis team.  As no arrangement had been made by the officers of the Empire club for a game with the St. Louis professionals it was therefore impossible for the base ball reporter of the Democrat or any one else to have broken up the game that never was arranged.

Respectfully, Chas. H. Stevens, Secretary Empire Base Ball Club.

-St. Louis Republican, April 8, 1875

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Posted in: 1875,Brown Stockings,Empires

The Afterthoughts

The Empires have not yet filled the vacancies in their nine, and have done no practising during the past week.  They will play a practice game among themselves to-day at Solari's park.  

-St. Louis Republican, April 4, 1875


It's amazing how quickly you can be forgotten.  The Empire Club dominated St. Louis baseball for fifteen years, dating back to before the Civil War.  They were perennial champions and those few times they didn't win the championship, they were still the team to beat.  And here they are, in 1875 - an afterthought.  The previous season, they had won the championship in a brilliant five game series against the Reds and the excitement that season and that series generated helped lay the groundwork for the introduction of National Association clubs in St. Louis.  They would win the championship again in 1875.  But their day was done; their era was over.  

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Posted in: 1875,Empires

At The Missouri Gymnasium

At about 10 o'clock the members of the St. Louis professional base ball club make their appearance and for an hour or two try to work off some of their superfluous fat which has accumulated upon them since last season.  They are a healthy looking set of young men, full of fun but decidedly more fond of ball-tossing than dumb-bell brandishing.  In the afternoon they frequently come around again and indulge in more jostling of iron weights. 

-St. Louis Republican, March 19, 1875


Off-season weight training goes back to at least 1872 and, depending on your definition, you might be able to trace it back to Jim Creighton.  One point that Peter Morris made in A Game of Inches was that this kind of off-season training was expensive and, therefore, rare unless all the players lived in the city in which they were playing.  The Brown Stockings had to have been paying for their players to come to town early and train.  Knowing these guys as I do, I can say that there was no way they were coming in voluntarily.  So the St. Louis Base Ball Club was spending a great deal of money that they didn't have to spend in order to try and put a first-class team on the field. 

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Posted in: 1875,Brown Stockings

Wanted: One Veteran Professional

We learn that our Red Stocking club have secured Dennis McGee, the "Mack" of the Philadelphia club last season, now playing with the Lone Stars of New Orleans as their second baseman.

-St. Louis Republican, February 21, 1875


This is pretty interesting.  Now, obviously McGee didn't sign with the Reds in 1875 but this shows that they were looking for a veteran, Eastern professional for the club.  That sheds a great deal of light on the Charlie Sweasy signing. 

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Posted in: 1875,Charlie Sweasy,Red Stockings

Gossip

The Red Stockings of this city talk of running into the professional business with a co-operative nine, but we can learn nothing official in regard to their progress.

-St. Louis Republican, January 31, 1875


This was in a column titled "Base Ball Gossip."  I'm guessing that the Brown Stockings had made up their minds to play to the Grand Avenue Grounds and Thomas McNeary, the president of the Reds and an early investor in the Brown Stockings, was not pleased with the decision.   

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Posted in: 1875,Brown Stockings,Red Stockings,Thomas McNeary