1.
Baseball
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Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of nine players each, who take turns batting and fielding. A run is scored when a player advances around the bases, Players on the batting team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, which tries to prevent runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the team who reaches a base safely can later attempt to advance to subsequent bases during teammates turns batting. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the team records three outs. One turn batting for both teams, beginning with the team, constitutes an inning. A game is composed of nine innings, and the team with the number of runs at the end of the game wins. Baseball has no clock, although almost all games end in the ninth inning. Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century and this game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the sport of the United States. Baseball is now popular in North America and parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, in the United States and Canada, professional Major League Baseball teams are divided into the National League and American League, each with three divisions, East, West, and Central. The major league champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series, the top level of play is similarly split in Japan between the Central and Pacific Leagues and in Cuba between the West League and East League. The evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision, a French manuscript from 1344 contains an illustration of clerics playing a game, possibly la soule, with similarities to baseball. Other old French games such as thèque, la balle au bâton, consensus once held that todays baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular in Great Britain and Ireland. Baseball Before We Knew It, A Search for the Roots of the Game, by David Block, suggests that the game originated in England, recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of other. It has long believed that cricket also descended from such games. The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, David Block discovered that the first recorded game of Bass-Ball took place in 1749 in Surrey, and featured the Prince of Wales as a player. William Bray, an English lawyer, recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford and this early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants
2.
World Series
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The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball in North America, contested since 1903 between the American League champion team and the National League champion team. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a playoff. As the series is played in October, during the season in North America. As of 2016, the World Series has been contested 112 times, with the AL winning 64, the 2016 World Series took place between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs. Seven games were played, with the Cubs victorious after game seven, the final score was 8–7, the game went into extra innings after a tied score of 6–6. This was the third World Series won by the Cubs, as well as their first title since 1908, in the National League, the St. As of 2016, no team has won consecutive World Series championships since the New York Yankees in 1998,1999, all championships were awarded to the team with the best record at the end of the season, without a postseason series being played. From 1884 to 1890, the National League and the American Association faced each other in a series of games at the end of the season to determine an overall champion. These series were disorganized in comparison to the modern World Series, the number of games played ranged from as few as three in 1884, to a high of fifteen in 1887. Both the 1885 and 1890 Series ended in ties, each team having won three games with one tie game, the series was promoted and referred to as The Championship of the United States, Worlds Championship Series, or Worlds Series for short. In his book Krakatoa, The Day the World Exploded, August 27,1883, Simon Winchester mentions in passing that the World Series was named for the New York World newspaper, but this view is disputed. Until about 1960, some sources treated the 19th-century Series on a basis with the post-19th-century series. After about 1930, however, many authorities list the start of the World Series in 1903, following the collapse of the American Association after the 1891 season, the National League was again the only major league. The league championship was awarded in 1892 by a playoff between half-season champions and this scheme was abandoned after one season. Beginning in 1893—and continuing until divisional play was introduced in 1969—the pennant was awarded to the club in the standings at the end of the season. For four seasons, 1894–1897, the league played the runners-up in the post season championship series called the Temple Cup. A second attempt at this format was the Chronicle-Telegraph Cup series, in 1901, the American League was formed as a second major league. No championship series were played in 1901 or 1902 as the National and these series were arranged by the participating clubs, as the 1880s Worlds Series matches had been
3.
Providence Grays
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The Providence Grays were a Major League Baseball team based in Providence, Rhode Island who played in the National League from 1878 until 1885. The Grays played at the Messer Street Grounds in the Olneyville neighborhood, the team won the National League title twice, in 1879 and 1884. Following the 1884 season, they won the first World Series over the New York Metropolitans of the American Association, the team folded after the 1885 season. Rhode Island was a hotbed of baseball in the 1870s with several amateur clubs along with Brown Universitys powerhouse collegiate team. In 1875, the semi-pro Rhode Islands were formed, after successful seasons in 1875,1876, and 1877, the team drew the attention of the recently formed National League. When the League elected to drop the Hartford franchise after the 1877 season, the new team was officially organized on January 16,1878 by Benjamin Douglas, who became the teams general manager. Henry Root was hired as the team president‚ and Tom Carey was initially hired to be the on-field captain, on January 21,1878, Providence applied for membership in the NL, and was officially approved on February 6. On April 10, Root took over ownership of the team, fired Douglas for incompetence and insubordination, on May 30, the Providence Base Ball Association was incorporated by the Rhode Island General Assembly. While the team practiced at the Dexter Training Ground in the spring of 1878, construction on the Messer Street Grounds began on April 1 and took exactly one month to complete, the final nail was hammered a mere five minutes before the opening game got underway on May 1. In a break with tradition, the National Leagues newest addition adopted gray flannel instead of white for their home uniform, one of the leading players from the 1879 pennant winner was Hall of Famer John Montgomery Ward. Evidence is strong but not conclusive, Peter Morris of the Society for American Baseball Research has researched this issue, the 1884 team was led by ace pitcher Charles Old Hoss Radbourn, who won a record 60 games that year and led the Grays to the pennant. The Grays went on a 20-game winning streak and topped the league ahead of their ferocious New England rivals, at the close of the season Providence officials accepted New York Metropolitans” manager Jim Mutries challenge to a three-game postseason match. All of the games took place at the Polo Grounds in New York and were played under American Association rules, which forbade overhand pitching. On October 23,1884, the Providence Grays whitewash the New York Metropolitans, 6–0, behind Radbourn, Radbourn would allow two hits and strikeout nine. The very next day, Radbourn three hits the Metropolitans and wins 3–1 in a game called after seven innings due to darkness, Grays third baseman Jerry Denny hits a three-run homer in the fifth inning. It is the first home run in World Series history, Tim Keefe loses for the second time. On October 25,1884 the Providence Grays defeat the New York Metropolitans, 11–2, Radbourn wins for the third time in three days. Buck Becannon takes the loss as Tim Keefe, New York Metropolitans losing pitcher in games 1 and 2, although post-season games prior to 1903 were considered exhibitions, the 1884 World Series is recognized today as the first inter-league postseason championship
4.
National League
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Both leagues currently have 15 teams. The two league champions of 1903 arranged to compete against each other in the inaugural World Series, after the 1904 champions failed to reach a similar agreement, the two leagues formalized the World Series as an arrangement between the leagues. National League teams have won 48 of the 112 World Series contested from 1903 to 2016, the 2016 National League champions are the Chicago Cubs. By 1875, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players was dangerously weak, additionally, Hulbert had a problem—five of his star players were threatened with expulsion from the NAPBBP because Hulbert had signed them to his club using what were considered questionable means. Hulbert had a vested interest in creating his own league. After recruiting St. Louis privately, four western clubs met in Louisville, Kentucky, Boston Red Stockings, the dominant team in the N. A. Hartford Dark Blues from the N. A. Mutual of New York from the N. A. St. Louis Brown Stockings from the N. A, the only strong club from 1875 excluded in 1876 was a second one in Philadelphia, often called the White Stockings or Phillies. The first game in National League history was played on April 22,1876, at Philadelphias Jefferson Street Grounds, 25th & Jefferson, the new leagues authority was tested after the first season. The National League operated with six clubs during 1877 and 1878, over the next several years, various teams joined and left the struggling league. By 1880, six of the eight members had folded. The two remaining original NL franchises, Boston and Chicago, remain in operation today as the Atlanta Braves, in 1883 the New York Gothams and Philadelphia Phillies began National League play. Both teams remain in the NL today, the Phillies in their original city, the NL encountered its first strong rival organization when the American Association began play in 1882. The A. A. played in cities where the NL did not have teams, offered Sunday games and alcoholic beverages in locales where permitted, the National League and the American Association participated in a version of the World Series seven times during their ten-year coexistence. These contests were less organized than the modern Series, lasting as few as three games and as many as fifteen, with two Series ending in disputed ties, the NL won four times and the A. A. only once, in 1886. Starting with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1887, the National League began to raid the American Association for franchises to replace NL teams that folded and this undercut the stability of the A. A. Other new leagues that rose to compete with the National League were the Union Association, the Union Association was established in 1884 and folded after playing only one season, its league champion St. Louis Maroons joining the NL. The NL suffered many defections of star players to the Players League, the Brooklyn, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and New York franchises of the NL absorbed their Players League counterparts. The labor strife of 1890 hastened the downfall of the American Association, after the 1891 season, the A. A. disbanded and merged with the NL, which became known legally for the next decade as the National League and American Association
5.
New York Metropolitans
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The Metropolitan Club was a 19th-century professional baseball team that played in New York City from 1880 to 1887. The New York Metropolitan Baseball Club was the originally chosen in 1961 for the current day New York Mets franchise. The Metropolitan Club was founded in 1880 as an independent professional team by business entrepreneur John B, Day and baseball manager Jim Mutrie. Initially the team played its games in Brooklyn and in Hoboken, however, by September, Day had arranged the use of a polo field just north of Central Park in Manhattan, bounded by 5th & 6th Avenues and 110th & 112th Streets. The site became known as the Polo Grounds, the first professional baseball park in Manhattan, the club name, Metropolitan, had previously been used by a team that played its home games in the Hamilton Square neighborhood of New York as early as 1858. The upstart American Association therefore saw a significant opportunity when it invited the Metropolitan to join the new league for its 1882 inaugural season, Metropolitan declined, however, since joining would have meant forgoing lucrative home exhibition games against National League opponents. Unbeknownst to the leagues, though, the Mets accepted both invitations, to satisfy these commitments, owners Day and Mutrie acquired the Troy franchise that had been eliminated from the National League to make room for new franchises in New York City and Philadelphia. Day and Mutrie entered the Mets into the American Association and a newly created New York club into the National League, the teams shared use of the Polo Grounds, which was reconfigured with two diamonds and two grandstands. The clubs name Metropolitan was used in published standings of the Association, in the style of the day, the clubs were often called the Metropolitans and the New Yorks. The New Yorks would eventually acquire the separate nicknames of the Gothams, the Metropolitan club was referred to alternately as the Metropolitan, Metropolitans or the Mets. They were also referred to, on occasion, as the Indians, initially, managed by Mutrie, the Metropolitans enjoyed greater success on the field than the Gothams. The Mets finished fourth in 1883, and won the 1884 American Association pennant, the Mets then faced Providence Grays of the National League in the 1884 World Series, but lost 3 games to none. Prominent Metropolitan players included Tim Keefe, Dave Orr, Chief Roseman, Jack Lynch, Candy Nelson, financially, though, the Gothams had more promise due to the National Leagues stability, quality of play, and higher ticket prices. As early as 1884, the Mets were struggling to establish their own identity, the move proved unsatisfactory, and by mid-season they had quietly moved back to their original Polo Grounds home. Prior to the 1885 season, Mutrie shifted over to manage the Gothams and brought along star pitcher Keefe, the rechristened New York Giants finished second in the National League in 1885, while the Mets slumped to seventh place in the AA. Prior to the 1886 season, Day and Mutrie sold the Mets to Erastus Wiman who moved the team to cricket grounds on Staten Island in hopes of promoting ferry trade across New York harbor. This business plan did not succeed, though, and the Mets ceased operation following the 1887 season, the team was bought by the Brooklyn Dodgers to gain territorial protection and the contracts of several of the Mets stars, including Dave Orr and Darby OBrien. The current minor league Staten Island Yankees play in a very near the cricket ground used by the Mets
6.
Polo Grounds
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The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 until 1963. The third Polo Grounds, built in 1890 and renovated after a fire in 1911, is the one generally indicated when the Polo Grounds is referenced. It was located in Coogans Hollow and was noted for its distinctive shape, very short distances to the left and right field walls. As the name suggests, the original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876, in baseball, the original Polo Grounds was home to the New York Metropolitans from 1880 until 1885, and the New York Giants from 1883 until 1888. The Giants played in the second Polo Grounds for part of the 1889 season and all of the 1890 season, and at the third and fourth Polo Grounds from 1891 through 1957. The Polo Grounds was also the field of the New York Yankees from 1913 until 1922. It hosted the 1934 and 1942 Major League Baseball All-Star Games, in football, the third Polo Grounds was home to the New York Brickley Giants for one game in 1921 and the New York Giants from 1925 to 1955. The New York Jets of the American Football League played at the stadium from the inaugural season of 1960 through 1963. Other sporting events held at the Polo Grounds included soccer, boxing, the last sporting event at the Polo Grounds was a football game between the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills on December 14,1963. Shea Stadium opened in 1964 and replaced the Polo Grounds as the home of the Mets and Jets, the Polo Grounds was demolished over a period of four months that year and a public housing complex, known as the Polo Grounds Towers, was built on the site. The original Polo Grounds stood at 110th Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue, directly across 110th Street from the northeast corner of Central Park. The venues original purpose was for the sport of polo, and its name was merely descriptive, not a formal name. For this purpose the ownership built a second diamond and grandstand at the park, dividing it into eastern and western fields for use by the Giants and Metropolitans respectively. Polo Grounds I thus hosted its first Major League Baseball games in 1883 as the stadium of two teams, the American Association Metropolitans and the National League Gothams. George Cricket Grounds on Staten Island in 1886, the original Polo Grounds was used not only for Polo and professional baseball, but often for college baseball and football as well—even by teams outside New York. The earliest known surviving image of the field is an engraving of a game between Yale University and Princeton University on Decoration Day, May 30,1882. Yale and Harvard also played their traditional Thanksgiving Day game there on November 29,1883, New York City was in the process of extending its street grid into uptown Manhattan in 1889. Plans for an extended West 111th Street ran through the Polo Grounds, City workers are said to have shown up suddenly one day and begun cutting through the fence to lay out the new street
7.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
8.
Major League Baseball
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Major League Baseball is a professional baseball organization, the oldest of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. A total of 30 teams now play in the National League and American League, the NL and AL operated as separate legal entities from 1876 and 1901 respectively. After cooperating but remaining legally separate entities since 1903, the merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball in 2000. The organization also oversees Minor League Baseball, which comprises about 240 teams affiliated with the Major League clubs, with the World Baseball Softball Confederation, MLB manages the international World Baseball Classic tournament. Baseballs first professional team was founded in Cincinnati in 1869,30 years after Abner Doubleday supposedly invented the game of baseball, the first few decades of professional baseball were characterized by rivalries between leagues and by players who often jumped from one team or league to another. The period before 1920 in baseball was known as the dead-ball era, Baseball survived a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series, which came to be known as the Black Sox Scandal. The sport rose in popularity in the 1920s, and survived potential downturns during the Great Depression, shortly after the war, baseballs color barrier was broken by Jackie Robinson. The 1950s and 1960s were a time of expansion for the AL and NL, then new stadiums, Home runs dominated the game during the 1990s, and media reports began to discuss the use of anabolic steroids among Major League players in the mid-2000s. In 2006, an investigation produced the Mitchell Report, which implicated many players in the use of performance-enhancing substances, today, MLB is composed of thirty teams, twenty-nine in the United States and one in Canada. Baseball broadcasts are aired on television, radio, and the Internet throughout North America, MLB has the highest season attendance of any sports league in the world with more than 73 million spectators in 2015. MLB is governed by the Major League Baseball Constitution and this document has undergone several incarnations since 1875, with the most recent revisions being made in 2012. Under the direction of the Commissioner of Baseball, MLB hires and maintains the sports umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, MLB maintains a unique, controlling relationship over the sport, including most aspects of Minor League Baseball. This ruling has been weakened only slightly in subsequent years, the weakened ruling granted more stability to the owners of teams and has resulted in values increasing at double-digit rates. There were several challenges to MLBs primacy in the sport between the 1870s and the Federal League in 1916, the last attempt at a new league was the aborted Continental League in 1960. The chief executive of MLB is the commissioner, Rob Manfred, the chief operating officer is Tony Petitti. There are five other executives, president, chief officer, chief legal officer, chief financial officer. The multimedia branch of MLB, which is based in Manhattan, is MLB Advanced Media and this branch oversees MLB. com and each of the 30 teams websites. Its charter states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the league, MLB Productions is a similarly structured wing of the league, focusing on video and traditional broadcast media
9.
1903 World Series
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The 1903 World Series was the first modern World Series to be played in Major League Baseball. Pittsburg pitcher Sam Leever injured his shoulder while trap-shooting, so his teammate Deacon Phillippe pitched five complete games, Phillippe won three of his games, but it was not enough to overcome the club from the new American League. Boston pitchers Bill Dinneen and Cy Young led Boston to victory, in Game 1, Phillippe struck out ten Boston batters. The next day, Dinneen bettered that mark, striking out eleven Pittsburg batters in Game 2, honus Wagner, bothered by injuries, batted only 6 for 27 in the Series and committed six errors. The shortstop was deeply distraught by his performance, the following spring, Wagner refused to send his portrait to a Hall of Fame for batting champions. I was too bum last year, he wrote, I was a joke in that Boston-Pittsburg Series. What does it profit a man to hammer along and make a few hits when they are not needed only to fall down when it comes to a pinch, I would be ashamed to have my picture up now. Due to overflow crowds at the Exposition Park games in Allegheny City, if a ball rolled under a rope in the outfield that held spectators back. Seventeen ground-rule triples were hit in the four games played at the stadium, in the series, Boston came back from a three games to one deficit, winning the final four games to capture the title. Such a large comeback would not happen again until the Pirates came back to defeat the Washington Senators in the 1925 World Series, much was made of the influence of Bostons Royal Rooters, who traveled to Exposition Park and sang their theme song Tessie to distract the opposing players. Boston wound up winning three out of four games in Allegheny City, Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss added his share of the gate receipts to the players share, so the losing teams players actually finished with a larger individual share than the winning teams. The Series brought the new American League prestige and proved its best could beat the best of the National League, thus strengthening the demand for future World Series competitions. In 1901, Ban Johnson, president of the Western League, Johnson and fellow owners raided the National League and signed away many star players, including Cy Young and Jimmy Collins. Johnson had a list of 46 National Leaguers he targeted for the American League, by 1902, all, the constant raiding, however, scotched the idea of a championship between the two leagues. However, Johnson had spoken of putting a team in Pittsburg and even attempted to raid the Pirates roster in August 1902, which soured Dreyfuss. At the end of the season, however, the Pirates played a group of American League All-Stars in an exhibition series. The leagues finally called a truce in the winter of 1902–03, the following season, the Boston Americans and Pittsburg Pirates had secured their respective championship pennants by September. That August, Dreyfuss challenged the American League to a championship series
10.
Jim Mutrie
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James J. Mutrie was an American baseball pioneer who was the co-founder and first manager of both the original New York Metropolitans and the New York Giants. His career winning percentage of.611 was a 19th-century record, Mutrie, nicknamed Smilin Jeems and Truthful Jim, was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and grew up playing cricket, first playing baseball at age 16. He played in the minor leagues from 1877 to 1879, in 1880 he moved from New England to New York, where he obtained financial backing from August Belmont and John B. Day to start the independent New York Metropolitans, Mutrie managed the Metropolitans in 1883 and 1884, leading them to the 1884 World Series the latter year. In 1885, he switched to managing the Gothams, and is credited with giving them their nickname, with star players such as Buck Ewing, Tim Keefe and Roger Connor, the Giants won National League pennants and World Series titles under Mutrie in 1888 and 1889. Ewing, Keefe and many other players defected to the Players Leagues New York Giants in 1890, when the Giants were reorganized after the 1891 season under new ownership, Mutrie was not retained as manager. After leaving baseball, Mutrie operated a hotel in Elmira, New York and he died of cancer on Roosevelt Island in New York City at age 86. Baseball-Reference. com – managerial record Minor League playing stats New York Times obituary, January 25,1938 Jim Mutrie at Find a Grave
11.
Charles Radbourn
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Charles Gardner Radbourn, nicknamed Old Hoss, was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball. He played for the Buffalo Bisons, Providence Grays, Boston Beaneaters, Boston Reds, in 1884, Radbourn became only the second National League pitcher to win a Triple Crown, in the process, he broke the single-season wins record, which still stands today. Radbourn was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939, born in New York and raised in Illinois, Radbourn played semi-professional and minor league baseball before making his major league debut for the Buffalo Bisons in 1880. After a one-year stint with the club, Radbourn joined the Providence Grays, in 1885, when the team folded, the Grays roster was transferred to NL control, where he was claimed by the Boston Beaneaters. Radbourn spent the four seasons with the club, and finished his MLB career with the Cincinnati Reds after a one-year tenure with the Boston Reds. Radbourn was born on December 11,1854, in Rochester, New York, Charles Radbourn had immigrated to the United States from Bristol, England, to find work as a butcher, Caroline followed soon after. In 1855, the Radbourn family moved to Bloomington, Illinois, as a teenager, Radbourn worked as a butcher with his father, and as a brakeman for the Indiana, Bloomington and Western Railway company. In 1878 Radbourn joined the Peoria Reds, a team, as their right fielder. In 1879 he signed with Dubuque in the newly formed Northwest League and he finally made the major leagues in 1880 as second baseman, right fielder and change pitcher for the Buffalo Bisons of the National League. He played in six games, batted.143, never pitched an inning, when he recovered he pitched for a pick-up Bloomington team in an exhibition game against the Providence Grays. He impressed everyone so much that Providence signed him on the spot for a salary variously reported as $1,100 or $1,400, as a starting pitcher for the Providence Grays, Boston Beaneaters, Boston Reds, and Cincinnati Reds, Radbourn compiled a 309–194 career record. In 1884 he won the National Leagues pitching Triple Crown with a 1.38 earned run average,59 wins and 441 strikeouts. His 59 wins in a season is a record which is expected never to be broken because no starter has made even as many as 37 starts in a season since Greg Maddux in 1991. Also, his 678 2⁄3 innings pitched in 1884 stands at second all-time, behind only Will White and it, too, is a record that will most likely never be touched. It was made possible by the expulsion of the Grays other main pitcher. When Providence failed to win the pennant at the end of the 1883 season the franchise was on shaky financial ground, ownership brought in a new manager, Frank Bancroft, and made it plain, win the pennant or the team would be disbanded. But on July 22, Sweeney had been drinking before the start of the game, with only two men to cover the outfield, they lost the game. This left the team in a state of disarray with the view that the team should be disbanded
12.
Tim Keefe
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Timothy John Tim Keefe, nicknamed Smiling Tim and Sir Timothy, was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. He was one of the most dominating pitchers of the 19th century and he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964. Keefes career spanned much of baseballs formative stages and his first season was the last in which pitchers threw from 45 feet, so for most of his career he pitched from 50 feet. His final season was the first season in which pitchers hurled from the distance of 60 feet,6 inches. Keefe was born on January 1,1857 in Cambridge, Massachusetts and his father Patrick was an Irish immigrant. When Tim Keefe was a child, Patrick served in the Union Army during the American Civil War, Patrick was a prisoner of war for several years. All four of Patricks brothers were killed in the war, Tim had been named two of them. Tims brother became a major and fought in the Spanish–American War, after the war, Patrick had high expectations for his son, and the two frequently fought over Tims pursuit of baseball. With the help of former pitcher Tommy Bond, Keefe persisted. Keefes early professional career included minor league stints in Lewiston, Clinton, New Bedford, Utica, Keefe entered the major leagues in 1880 with the Troy Trojans. He immediately established himself as a pitcher, posting an astounding 0.86 ERA in 105 innings pitched. Despite the sterling ERA, he managed but a 6–6 record, pitching in 12 games, on July 4 of that year, Keefe pitched both ends of a doubleheader against Columbus, winning the first game with a one-hitter, the second a two-hit gem. He went 41–27 over 619 innings pitched with a 2.41 ERA and 361 strikeouts and his 1884 campaign was almost as dominant, winning 37 games, losing 17, and striking out 334. Day, who owned the Metropolitans and the New York Giants of the National League, moved Keefe and Mutrie to the Giants. Here, Keefe joined future Hall of Famers Buck Ewing, Monte Ward, Roger Connor, Mickey Welch, Keefe went 32–13 with a 1.58 ERA and 227 strikeouts. In 1887, Keefe sat out several weeks of the season after he struck a batter in the head with a pitch and he had arguably his greatest season in 1888, when he led the league with a 35–12 record,1.74 ERA and 335 strikeouts. He won 19 consecutive games that season, a record that stood for 24 years, the Giants played the St. Louis Browns of the American Association in a postseason series for the Dauvray Cup, and Keefe added four more wins to his tally. Keefe even designed the famous all-black funeral uniforms the Giants wore that season, Keefe was very well-paid for his career, yet he was a leading member of the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players, an early players union that fought for the welfare of players
13.
New York Clipper
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The New York Clipper, also known as The Clipper, was a weekly entertainment newspaper published in New York City from 1853 to 1924. It covered many topics, including circuses, dance, music, the outdoors, sports and it had a circulation of about 25,000. The publishers also produced the yearly New York Clipper Annual, in 1924, The Clipper was absorbed into the entertainment journal Variety. Frank Queen began publishing the New York Clipper in 1853, making it the first American paper devoted entirely to entertainment, the paper was one of the earliest publications in the United States to regularly cover sports, and it played an important role in popularizing baseball in the country. In addition to more popular sporting events, the New York Clipper also wrote about billiards, bowling and it began covering American football in 1880. In 1894, however, The Clipper dropped its sports coverage, in addition to entertainment, The Clipper regularly published short satirical pieces written in exaggerated dialects such as African American English or the speech of the New York Bowery bhoys. Och. sich a monster I niver want to clap me ises on agin. His mouth was so big that he cud take me an Tim at wan swaller widout openin it at all, and when his 2 jaws cum together, the Whole house wud shake as it is had a fit iv the ager. They feed him on broiled pavin stones, an whin he takes dhrink, the divil a wurd iv a lie Im telling ye. The Clipper was the paper of record for the business from its founding until about 1902 when the Billboard overtook it in coverage. For most of its life the paper carried a circus section and it remains the single best news source for the circus in the second half of the 19th century, and is essential to circus historians. It had its competitors for circus news including the Sporting and Theatrical Journal, the New York Mercury, the Clipper is also an important source for minstrel shows and popular theater. Today, the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress possess nearly complete collections of the newspaper, many other research libraries have microfilm copies. It is also online at Old Fulton New York Postcards. A nearly complete, searchable archive is online at the University of Illinois digital newspaper collection, New York Dramatic Mirror Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News Barth, Gunther Paul. City People, The Rise of Modern City Culture in Nineteenth-century America, description of the New York Clipper Newspaper Collection at the University of Southern California. Behind the Burnt Cork Mask, Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture, reading Football, How the Popular Press Created an American Spectacle. Rader, Benjamin G. Baseball, A History of Americas Game, internet archive collection Archive online of the New York Clipper Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections, New York Clipper
14.
Sporting Life (US sports journal)
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The Sporting Life was an American weekly newspaper, published from 1883 to 1917 and from 1922 to 1924, that provided national coverage on sports with a particular focus on baseball and trap shooting. The masthead on the front page of newspaper displayed the motto, Devoted To Base Ball, Trap Shooting and it was founded in Philadelphia in 1883 by Francis Richter, Thomas Sotesbury Dando, and August Rudolph. Richter was the publisher until 1917. He hired correspondents to report from locales across the United States and continued to publish, throughout most of its existence, it was in competition with The Sporting News, which was founded in 1886 and published by the Spink brothers in St. Louis. By 1890, it had the largest circulation of any sporting or baseball newspaper in the United States, by 1886, the publication had a circulation base of 40,000 subscribers. Henry Chadwick, sometimes called the father of baseball, was a contributor to the Sporting Life. The Sporting Life also published several series of baseball cards that were offered to subscribers. The pre-World War I baseball cards published by the Sporting Life are among the most popular, the popular series issued by Sporting Life include the M116 series issued in 1910 and 1911 and the W600 series issued from 1902 to 1911. Back issues of the Sporting Life are accessible in digital format through the LA84 Foundations digital sports library, LA84 Foundation digital archives, includes Sporting Life
15.
1884 Providence Grays season
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The Providence Grays went 84–28 during the 1884 season, easily capturing the National League championship. They then faced the American Association champions, the New York Metropolitans, thanks to excellent pitching by Charles Old Hoss Radbourn, the Grays swept the series and became the World Champions. During the last half of the season, Radbourn was the teams main pitcher after Charlie Sweeney jumped to the Union Association. Radbourn won 59 games for the Grays, which set a Major League Baseball record that has stood for over 120 years, Note, Pos = Position, G = Games played, AB = At bats, H = Hits, Avg. = Batting average, HR = Home runs, RBI = Runs batted in Note, G = Games played, AB = At bats, H = Hits, Avg
