Posted By:
ramramSee below.
Rob M.
"Cricket" Ball & Red Stockings 1872 Auction
August 28 2003 at 11:26 AM
Jimmy Leiderman (Login JLeiderman)
Response to Re: Rich......
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According to early newspaper accounts the (Keystone - June 22nd, 45-30) match was played with a "ROSS" type ball.
I don't know if the "Ross" ball was indeed a Cricket ball.
About the 1872 Red Stockings fund raiser auction:
Here are two accounts from the Cincinnati Enquirer.
(4-13-1872 Enquirer) "PERSONAL PROPERTY OF THE CBBC AT AUCTION - At 3:30 at
the Union Grounds...Flags, banners, uniforms, bats, score-books, silverware,
medals and all trophies and balls won by said club. Also, one lawn mower,
lamps, tables, chairs, six stoves and pipe, 33 pairs of skates, picks, brooms,
shovels, scythes, 70 large steamboat reflecting lanterns, and all other
personal
property belonging to the Union Grounds.
(4-14-72 Enquirer) "DEPARTED GLORY - Sale of the Red Stocking Traps and
Trophies - In the glorious April sunlight of yesterday afternoon a little knot
of men gathered at the old Union Grounds to witness the disposal at auction of the 'traps and trophies' of the Cincinnati Base Ball Club, whose sobriquet 'Red Stocking'--the synonym of victory--was once on every tongue. A red flag fluttered drearily from 'The Grand Duchess,' where the never-lowered streamer 'Cincinnati' was wont to proudly flaunt the breeze, and the words at the entrance gate, 'Members must show their tickets,' had grown meaningless. Of all the ten thousand fair women and stalwart men who would have gathered around that 'diamond field,' the handsomest ball grounds in the country, one year ago, had so fair an afternoon favored the playing of 'the first great match-game of the season,' only a few representative spirits were present. Champion and Joyce ..were of course on the ground. Jack, always mercurial, let the blues overcome him, and soon retired. Mr. Champion bravely assisted the auctioneer through his dreary work of knocking down the 'traps' of the Club, mostly for a song.
The lumber had previously been disposed of, and it was only when the sale of the trophies came that the auction assumed any interest. The following is the
melancholy record of the latter, Mr. T.G. Smith, Al Corre, John Sullivan and other being among the purchasers:
Pitcher and goblets won in Tournament of 1867, $40
Gold Medal, Tournament of 1866, $30
Mutual, 2-4 ball, of 1869, $10
Athletic, 25-27 ball, of 1870, $5
Mutual, 12-15 ball, of 1870, $4
Haymaker, 32-38 [sic] ball, of 1869, $3.50
Eckford, 5-26 ball, of 1869, $3
Athletic, 18-27 ball, of 1869, $3
Buckeye, 10-28 ball, of 1868, $2
Forest City of Rockford, 14-15, 1869, $2
Other balls of Harvard, Stars, Marylands, National, Olympics, Forest City of
Cleveland, and other prominent Clubs, from $1 to $3.
Streamer of 1869, $7.
Streamer of 1870, $5.
It was nearly dusk before the sale was concluded, and when the sun went down behind the hills it left, in the half-dismantled 'Union Grounds,' as fitting
an illustration of 'departed glory' as pen could wish, were space at command wherein to draw the contrast between the field days of the first nine and the
last scene to be viewed in the twilight from 'The Grand Duchess.'"
from Lee Allen, "Baseball's Immortal Red Stockings": "The last chapter of
the story of the Red Stockings took place at Cincinnati on October 25, 1916.
when the tokens and relics of the historic team were sold at public auction.
Included were a group picture of the team, a faded uniform, three of the
original baseballs used in 1869, the cap of Asa Brainard, and a rubber
mouthpiece
used by Allison, the catcher.
At the Stacey auction rooms on Gilbert Avenue, these sentimental relics
were sold by the estate of Harry Ellard, who had guarded them until his dying
day. There were two principal bidders: Garry Herrmann, who wanted the
mementos
for the office of the Reds; and William C. Kennett, Jr., son of a man who
served the Reds as president in 1880. Such sentiment as Herrmann felt could
not
compete with the bidding of Kennett, who purchased the souvenirs. They were
later destroyed in a fire at his home.
But one reminder of the glorious story escaped. The old clock that ticked
away the hours in the office of the club is now [at Cooperstown; note from DB:
Tom Shieber corroborates this--they have it]. It was kept by the family of
Aaron B. Champion and donated...in 1960 by Robert Champion Rowe.
In a letter [to Allen] Aaron Burt Champion Rowe, a descendant of the
president of the RS, recently wrote:
'In October of 1919 as my grandmother (Mrs. A.B. Champion) lay dying, she
in some of her lucid moments hoped to hear of the Cin Reds winning a World's
Series. She died just before the final game and she never knew of the scandal
that followed. But downstairs in the kitchen of that house the old clock was
ticking out those fateful moments. When we moved in 1924, the clock was taken
down.'"
*The newspaper accounts were copied from Darryl Brock's messages on the SABR 19c Baseball eGroup forum.*