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john/z28jd It only took 128 years but here are the 1876 Gold Glove winners.
c Doug Allison hartford
1b Herman Dehlman st louis
2b Ross Barnes chicago
ss John Peters/chicago
3b Joe Battin st louis
P Albert Spalding chicago
CF Paul Hines,chi
LF Tom York,hart
RF Joe Blong st louis
While there were some tough decisions,others were fairly obvious for at least the 1876 season.Its amazing to note that the 3 best teams in the league had all of the top fielders at their respective positions.
The obvious choices were Doug Allison,Albert Spalding(the only hall of famer among the group)Paul Hines and Tom York.
The 2b award was too close to call between Barnes and Ed Sommerville of Louisville who was a light hitting 2nd year player who improved greatly in the field over the previous season.Barnes however was a star hitter at the time and was given the nod.
At the hot corner Battin was slightly better than 2 more well-known 19th century players,Cap Anson(chicago) and Bob Ferguson(hartford).Joe also had his best year at the plate,a career .225 hitter,he hit .300 in 1876.
First base couldve went to either Dehlman or Joe Gerhardt of Louisville who was involved in more plays per game than any other 1st sacker,and still put up an above average fielding %.In the end,Dehlman's higher fielding % and the fact he played every inning of every game helped him take home the award.
Shortstop was almost too close to call between John Peters and Davy Force of the poor fielding Philadelphia A's team.If a tie was possible i wouldve done it here but Peters was given the nod due to his much superior hitting prowess.
Then theres rightfield.While going over outfield fielding stats for the whole year,one thing is painfully obvious....If you cant field,go play RF.Joe Blong was the best of a weak field of choices with Dick Higham(Hartford) the only other player given consideration.At least Higham was a good hitter which could not be said for Blong who had just one more year in the majors left for him.
Theres your much anticipated 1876 NL Gold Glove team,now go out and collect cards of every one of them