19th Century Baseball (A Little Long and Slightly OT)
 

I recently obtained on ebay the 1890 yearbook of my alma mater, Williams College in Massachusetts. I wanted it solely because its only picture was that of the college baseball team. The captain of that baseball team, Artie Clark, was arguably the most famous baseball player ever to come out of Williams. Oddly, though it is an 1890 yearbook the picture is of the 1888 baseball team. The yearbook belonged to a Doctor Bruce Van Vranken (whose name and caduceus are embossed on the flyleaf). It was apparently handed down from a relative, Gilbert Van Vranken, who was a member of the Williams Class of 1891.

Also contained is a roster (that unfortunately is not keyed to the photo) and the league and non-league records. In 1888 Williams played the Philadelphia Athletics (probably because Dan Casey of the Philadelphia Quakers trained the team that winter), the New York Giants (with whom Artie Clark would later play), and the Brooklyn Bridegrooms from the professional ranks. Apparently, it was a way for the pro teams to test their prospects in actual game situations. In addition, they played the Troy Trojans from the International Association as well as the Cuban Giants.

You can read in more detail about Artie Clarke in his SABR biography: http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/e5ad475e

Finally, the book is full of advertisements, two of which are for tobacco companies of that era - Allen & Ginter and Kimball. Unfortunately, no Old Judge ad! :(

Scans below for your edification...

Pretty neat Kevin. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah, thanks for sharing that. Neat to see.

nicely done, kevin

Wow super cool! Check out those stripes!

Very cool indeed. I noticed they left the "e" off his last name on the publication. Plus, I should see if he is in my family tree!!!

A neat piece of history that has found it's way to the right collector. Congrats!

That incongruity wasn't the only one I noticed. I needed to dig a little bit further on the Williams/Athletics game. If Dan Casey, a Philadelphia Quakers player, helped train them, why did they play the Athletics rather than the Quakers on their trip to Philadelphia? Apparently, however, it is correct.

The Brooklyn Eagle of Wednesday, April 4, 1888 says that the Athletics played three college teams in succession - Yale, Williams, and Amherst - and won all of the contests quite handily.

Cool piece

Great post!

That really is a great find - congrats!

But as long as we are pointing out inconsistencies ....
The write up from baseball-reference says that he was born on May 6, 1865
and he made his debut on April 19, 1890 at the age of 24.348 - but it was just 3 weeks before his 25th birthday so shouldn't his age be more like 24.9 or so?
The other ages for his last game and death are also off.
I don't even know why I notice stuff like that....

Also, he went to 4 different colleges? I wonder what the story there was?

After the comma in the ages are days, not percentages

I think the college admissions process was considerably different then than it is today. They were way less rigorous about having the current credentials for admission - no SAT's, etc. I think many people back then started college and graduated college older.

And I've noticed that other pro players of that era have similar higher- educational histories. Not sure of the reason why they jumped schools so often. For example, look at Ted Lewis, the other Williams College graduate mentioned in the SABR bio on Artie Clarke.