[Joe_G.]

1880s baseball wasn’t as some are portraying here. It was fiercely competitive landscape with owners and managers scouring the country for the best players. By the 1880s, the men playing the game were surrounded by it their whole life, it was America’s game. And it was a brutal sport, not for the weak at heart.

Many pitchers were throwing hard long before 1884, the curve ball was established in the 1870s (try to curve a ball with an underhand lob). The League finally allowed overhand delivery (pitching restrictions lifted 1884) as many pitchers were already pushing the envelope and delivering the ball north of a side arm motion.

A quick note on pitching distance, the transition to 60’-6” (1893 to present) is estimated to be only 4’ -3 ½” longer than the pitching distance of the 1880s (not the 10’ -6” often quoted). Pitchers of the 1880s had to deliver the ball from within a box, releasing the ball behind a line that was 50 feet from the center of home plate. The 1893 to present pitching distance of 60’ -6” is measured from the pitching rubber to the back of home plate. When you consider the average release point off the rubber and the difference in measuring from center of home plate vs back of home plate you get a difference of 4’-3 ½”. (this being a paraphrase of several John Thorn and SABR articles)

The link I provided earlier in the thread discusses Rusie’s amazing speed, estimated at low to mid 90s. This extra 4’-3 ½” gave the batters a little better chance to react to a pitch (or get out of the way of a wild one). I’d hate to be facing Rusie in 1892. So the batters of the 1880s were standing 4’ 3 ½” closer to a pitcher who could, prior to 1887, hit the batsmen without penalty. Tim Keefe had a reputation of keeping batters honest. Sam Thompson described Tim Keefe as a pitcher with speed to burn . . . Keefe may not have intended hitting as many men as he did, but he kept us black and blue just the same.

The pitchers of the 1880s used all the tricks of the trade. Another Sam Thompson story (I recently finished Roy Kerr’s biography on Big Sam) relates to the pitching talents of John Clarkson, both mental and physical. With trash talking a plenty, Clarkson always seemed to throw what you least expected, alternating between an in or out shooting curve and a fast one straight as a string. Sam also mentions how Clarkson would dig a hole in the pitchers box to leverage off of; using every and all advantage he could dream up.

There are countless 19th century stories of a prodigy that could throw faster than the speed of light or a batter that hit over .500 on a college team that just couldn’t cut it in the NL, AA, or even leading minor league. Most every boy played the game, only the best advanced.