Rank your top 19th Century Baseball Players

[oldjudge]

Great summary, Keith. Sam is one of the most underrated players in history.

[PhillyFan1883]

1. Big Ed Delahanty
2. Buck Ewing
3. Roger Connor
4. Sam Thompson
5. Billy Hamilton

UN- honorable mention Cap Anson.
Honorable mention George Wright.

BTW if Ed Delahanty is not on your list go look at his stat line and do some research of his dominance at the plate.

https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/july...home-run-game/

[Keith H. Thompson]

The previous poster is correct in his reference to Ed Delahanty. The student of 19th century stars is referred to the book -- "July 2, 1903" by Mike Sowell for a superb account of the game, both anecdotal and factual. And to return to the thread's purpose I would rank both Delahanty and Brouthers ahead of Thompson. The Philadelphia outfield of 1894, Delahanty in left, Hamilton in center and Thompson in right is often mentioned in baseball lore as having the highest consensus batting average in history.
Mike Sowell is quoted with reference to Thompson

1. Sam Thompson, a menacing sight at six-foot-two and two hundred pounds ... gunned down runners from right field with the game's most powerful throwing arm.
2. He (Delahanty) called his his powerful throwing arm his "whip" and guarded it carefully, lobbing the ball back to the infield except when it was necessary to cut down a runner or hold a man on base. At such times, he would fire the ball with amazing accuracy and with a speed unmatched by any other outfielder except his teammate, Big Sam Thompson.

[nat]

He doesn't actually make a top 5-10 list, but I'd like John McGraw to get a some attention. Little Napoleon was actually one hell of a ball player. 334 career batting average, 466 career on base percentage. Not much power, but excellent at setting the table. Sort of the 19th century Wade Boggs.

[darwinbulldog]

Originally Posted by nat

He doesn't actually make a top 5-10 list, but I'd like John McGraw to get a some attention. Little Napoleon was actually one hell of a ball player. 334 career batting average, 466 career on base percentage. Not much power, but excellent at setting the table. Sort of the 19th century Wade Boggs.

Absolutely. McGraw and Spalding were both good enough to merit induction as players.

[molenick]

Adding another 15 alphabetically to make 25 from me. I think between my first 10 and next 15 all positions are covered.

Burkett (who I think is the best player not mentioned so far)
Caruthers
Duffy
Galvin
Glasscock
Kelly
McCormick
McGraw
McPhee
O’Rourke
Rusie
Thompson
Ward
Welch
D. White

Beckley, Griffith, Keeler, and Kelley excluded because of 20th century crossover (and to make it easier for me to pick 15 players).

[Misunderestimated]

I'll take the approach that the time limits are OJ subjects (1887-90 but inclusive of the minor leaguers in the set).. So no Cy Young, Jesse Burkett, A.G. Spalding, George Wright, or Jimmy Creighton..

1-A) Cap Anson (I'm just rating him as a player not based on my opinion about his role in excluding African-Americans from "organized baseball") For better or worse he was probably the definitive 19th Century ballplayer.
1-B) Kid Nichols - My pick for best pitcher. He was an 1890's guy which makes him different from the Keefe/Radbourn/Clarkson/Galvin crew who were pretty much done by 1894 when pitching changed.

3) Ed Delahanty -- also more of a 1890's guy, sad story.
4) Personal favorite: Sliding and Scoring Billy Hamilton -- perhaps the greatest leadoff man and run scorer who played until Rickey Henderson (Or Cool Papa Bell... I guess he hit leadoff. It seems logical -- sadly I can't back this up with much data).

5-8 I'm just dumping Clarkson/Radbourn/Keefe and Galvin here -- they played in another world and their stats are crazy. I want to point out Radbourn's 1884 as the best single season -- maybe ever. I'm not sure what the order for these guys is. The contemporaries would have put Hoss first I guess and Galvin last.

9-11 ) Dan Brouthers - Roger Connor, and Sam Thompson -- likely in that order. Great hitters -- power hitters I guess. At peak they were probably better than Anson but they did not run up the career numbers like Cap -- not even close.

12) Buck Ewing -- Those who saw him play and played with and against him regarded him as simply the best. He was known as the best catcher. His numbers don't impress like some of the others. Of course, being a Catcher in the 19th Century was brutal (there's a book about it I read at some point).
-- --
Some others to round out a "team" positionally etc.
2B - Bid McPhee
3B - Deacon White
SS - Jack Glasscock
Utility - $10,000 Mike (King) Kelly (Basically everything but Pitcher) & Bobby Caruthers (Pitcher Outfield)... Both had short careers and they were big winners.

[familytoad]

Sam is one of my favorites too...it doesn't hurt that I have just a half dozen 19th Century HOFers in my collection and he's one of them.

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Great summary, Keith. Sam is one of the most underrated players in history.