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

[BeanTown]

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!!!

[Joe_G.]

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

[kkkkandp]

Originally Posted by BeanTown

I noticed they left the "e" off his last name on the publication.

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.

[joeadcock]

Cool piece

[Jay Wolt]

Great post!

[DaveW]

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?

[z28jd]

Originally Posted by DaveW

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

[kkkkandp]

Originally Posted by DaveW

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

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.