The New York Times, October 6, 1912 p. S2:
HISTORY OF WORLD'S SERIES SINCE 1884First Championship at Old Polo Grounds
Between Providence and Metropolitans.
Baseball games between rival champion clubs for the championship of the universe began away back in 1884, when Arthur Irwin, now scout of the New York Yankees, was captain of the Providence team, the winners of the National League pennant.
Provdence that year played a series of games with the Metropolitan team of this city, the winners of the pennant of the American Association. Irwin was short stop, captain, and coach of the Providence outfit, and his players included the great pitchers Charley Radbourne and Charley Sweeney, also Jerry Denny and several other oldtime stars.
The Metropolitans proved an easy foe in the first World's Series, for they lost the first three games to Providence. The Metropolitans were managed by James Mutrie, and their best pitchers were Tim Keefe and Lynch, who were no match for the Providence stars.
The three games were played at the old Polo Grounds, 110th Street and Lenox Avenue, and the first exhibition presents a glaring contrast in attendance in comparison with the World's Series games of to-day. At the first game at the old Polo Grounds in 1884 the contest was witnesses by a crowd of 2,000. This was the beginning of the baseball contests for the world's title, and interest in these games grew steadily after that year. A baseball title of the world was a new thing then, and did not attract much attention.
In the following year, 1885, the series was a more carefully prepared set of games. The Chicago White Stockings won the National League pennant that year, and the pennant in the American Association was won the the St. Louis Browns.
These clubs played seven games, each team winning three games, and one was a tie. Each club put up a prize of $500, which was to go to winner, in addition to sixty per cent. of the gate receipts.
This series ended in a fizzle, and in 1886, when the same teams won the pennants in the two organizations, the Chicago White Stockings would play only under the condition that the winner should take all the receipts, and to this the St. Louis club consented.
The crack Chicago club, which had such players as Capt. Anson, Pfeffer, Williamson, Billy Sunday, and Clarkson, lost the series to St. Louis, four games to two. The Browns took all the money that year.
In 1887 Detroit won the National League pennant and St. Louis took the American Association title. The number of games was increased so as to include all the large cities on both circuits. Twenty-one games were played in various cities, and St. Louis won fifteen games to six.
New York's first victory of a world's series was in 1888, when the Giants won the National League championship and St. Louis captured the American Association pennant. In that year New York had Ewing, Ward, Tiernan, and Keefe. New York won six out of the ten games.
There was a memorable series in 1889, when the Giants and Brooklyn played for the championship. Hank O'Day, the former umpire annd now manager of the Reds, was the Giants' star pitcher and did much to capture the series from Brooklyn. New York won six games to three.
|
| |
The New York Times, February 6, 1916, p. S3:
BASEBALL 77 YEARS OLD
Early Days of the Present Great National Pastime.
Baseball before the days of the National League dates seventy-seven years back to 1839, when Abner Doubleday, at an academy at Cooperstown, N.Y., invented a game of ball on which the present game is based. Doubleday afterwards went to West Point and later became a Major General in the United States Army.
The game as played at the school in Cooperstown consisted of hitting the ball and running to one base. First it was called "One Old Cat," then with two bases "Two Old Cat," and finally with three bases "Three Old Cat."
Another boy at the Cooperstown school, Alexander J. Cartwright, one day evolved a rough sketch of a diamond and the boys tried it with great success. From that day to this the general plan of the diamond has changed only in a few details.
It was at Mr. Cartwright's suggestion in 1843 that the first baseball club was formed. The organization was effected right here in New York by a committee consisting of Mr. Cartwright, D.F. Curry, E.R. Dupignac, Jr., W.H. Tucker, and W.R. Wheaton. The club was formed on Sept. 13, 1845, and was called the "Knickerbockers."
In 1851 another baseball club was organized, called the Washingtons. They played in Yorkville and challenged the Knickerbockers.
The game did not make as much headway as was expected, so the rules were changed doing away with the 21-run rule and dividing the game into nine innings, also adopting Mr. Cartwright's original draft of the diamond.
An organization was formed called the National Association of Baseball Players at which 25 clubs were represented. From this time baseball took the popular fancy.
In 1860 a team called the Atlantics was the strongest nine in the game. Baseball, however, was little known except in the vicinity of New York. In New England they played what was called the Massachusetts game, with from 10 to 14 players on a side.
During the period of the civil war very little baseball was played, but after the war the game spread rapidly to all parts of the country. In 1865 there was a convention of baseball players and Arthur P. Gorman, afterward United States Senator, was elected President. More than 100 clubs were represented.
In 1867 the Nationals of Washington, D.C., took a 3,000-mile trip through the West. The scores of many of these games climbed up into the 80s and 90s.
The Cincinatti Reds were the first club to come out openly as a professional team and made Cincinatti the home of professional baseball. The famous Red Stockings in 1869 and 1870 made a remarkable record.
The National Association of Professional Baseball Players, the first "big" league, was organized in New York in 1871, with New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Troy, Chicago, Cleveland, Ft. Wayne, and Rockford in the circuit.
The formation of the present National League in 1876 was mainly a reform movement. It had to battle with deplorable conditions and had a desperate struggle to rid the game of its ojectionable features. The first thing the National League did was to rid the game of the betting evil.
|
|
