History of the Boston Braves
The Atlanta Braves, a current Major League Baseball franchise, originated in Boston, Massachusetts. This article details the history of the Boston Braves, from 1871 to 1952, after which they moved to Milwaukee to become the Milwaukee Braves, eventually to Atlanta, to become the Atlanta Braves; the Boston Franchise played at South End Grounds from 1871 to 1914 and at Braves Field from 1915 to 1952. Braves Field is now Nickerson Field of Boston University; the franchise, from Boston to Milwaukee to Atlanta, is the oldest continuous professional baseball franchise. The Cincinnati Red Stockings, established in 1869 as the first all-professional baseball team, voted to dissolve after the 1870 season. Player-manager Harry Wright went to Boston, Massachusetts—at the invitation of Boston Red Stockings founder Ivers Whitney Adams—with brother George and two other Cincinnati players, to form the nucleus of the Boston Red Stockings, a charter member of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players.
The original Boston Red Stockings team and its successors can lay claim to being the oldest continuously playing team in American professional sports. Two young players hired away from the Forest City club of Rockford, turned out to be the biggest stars during the NAPBBP years: pitcher Al Spalding and second baseman Ross Barnes. Led by the Wright brothers and Spalding, the Red Stockings dominated the National Association, winning four of that league's five championships; the team became one of the National League's charter franchises in 1876, sometimes called the "Red Caps". Boston came to be called the Beaneaters by sportswriters in 1883, while retaining red as the team color. Although somewhat stripped of talent in the National League's inaugural year, Boston bounced back to win the 1877 and 1878 pennants; the Red Caps/Beaneaters were one of the league's dominant teams during the 19th century, winning a total of eight pennants. For most of that time, their manager was Frank Selee, the first manager not to double as a player as well.
The 1898 team finished 102-47, a club record for wins that would stand for a century. The team was decimated when the upstart American League's new Boston entry set up shop in 1901. Many of the Beaneaters' stars jumped to the new team, which offered contracts that the Beaneaters' owners didn't bother to match, they only managed one winning season from 1900 to 1913, lost 100 or more games six times. In 1907, the Beaneaters eliminated the last bit of red from their stockings because their manager thought the red dye could cause wounds to become infected; the American League club's owner, Charles Taylor, wasted little time in changing his team's name to the Red Sox in place of the generic "Americans". When George and John Dovey acquired the club in 1907, the team earned the sobriquet Doves. However, clever monikers did nothing to change the National League club's luck; the team adopted an official name, the Braves, for the first time in 1912. Their owner, James Gaffney, was a member of New York City's political machine, Tammany Hall, which used an Indian chief as their symbol.
Two years the Braves put together one of the most memorable seasons in baseball history. After a dismal 4-18 start, the Braves seemed to be on pace for a last place finish. On July 4, 1914, the Braves lost both games of a doubleheader to the Brooklyn Dodgers; the consecutive losses put their record at 26-40 and the Braves were in last place, 15 games behind the league-leading New York Giants, who had won the previous three league pennants. After a day off, the Braves started to put together a hot streak, from July 6 through September 5, the Braves won 41 games against only 12 losses. On September 7 and 8, the Braves moved into first place; the Braves tore through September and early October, closing with 25 wins against 6 losses, while the Giants went 16-16. They are the only team to win a pennant after being in last place on the Fourth of July, they were in last place as late as July 18, but were close to the pack, moving into fourth on July 21 and second place on August 12. Despite their amazing comeback, the Braves entered the World Series as a heavy underdog to Connie Mack's Philadelphia A's.
The Braves swept the Athletics—the first unqualified sweep in the young history of the modern World Series --to win the world championship. Meanwhile, former Chicago Cubs infielder Johnny Evers, in his second season with the Braves, won the Chalmers Award; the Braves played the World Series at Fenway Park, since their normal home, the South End Grounds, was too small. However, the Braves' success inspired owner Gaffney to build a modern park, Braves Field, which opened in August 1915, it was the largest park in the majors at the time, with 40,000 seats and a spacious outfield. The park was novel for its time. After contending for most of 1915 and 1916, the Braves only twice posted winning records from 1917 to 1932; the lone highlight of those years came when Giants' attorney Emil Fuchs bought the team in 1923 to bring his longtime friend, pitching great Christy Mathewson, back into the game. Althoug
Tommy Bond (baseball)
Thomas Henry Bond was a Major League Baseball player, a pitcher and a right fielder a total of ten seasons. A native of Granard, Ireland, he is the first man born in Ireland to play Major League Baseball. Bond was the last survivor of the National League's first season. Bond played for six teams during his career: the Brooklyn Atlantics, Hartford Dark Blues, Boston Red Caps, Worcester Ruby Legs, Boston Reds, Indianapolis Hoosiers, he managed the Worcester team for six games. During his 10-season career, he was a three-time 40-game winner, played for two National League pennant-winning clubs, finished in the top ten in many pitching categories. In 1877, he was the first winner of baseball's pitching Triple Crown, leading the NL in wins, earned run average, strikeouts, his career statistics include a record of 234-163, 386 complete games in 408 starts, 42 shutouts, an ERA of 2.31. Bond played 92 games in the outfield, a few more in the infield, batted.238 with 174 RBI and 213 runs scored. Bond holds the third-best strikeouts per walks rate in baseball history, at a 5.0363 ratio, for pitchers who threw a minimum 1000 innings.
Bond held the record for over 130 years, as of 2018 still holds the record for retired pitchers. Bond died the age of 84 in Boston, is interred at Forest Hills Cemetery. In the Irish Baseball League, the annual award for the best pitcher is named "The'Tommy Bond' Best Pitcher Award." List of Major League Baseball career wins leaders Major League Baseball Triple Crown List of Major League Baseball annual ERA leaders List of Major League Baseball annual strikeout leaders List of Major League Baseball annual wins leaders List of players from Ireland in Major League Baseball List of Major League Baseball player-managers Baseball awards#Ireland Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference Tommy Bond at Find a Grave
Lip Pike
Lipman Emanuel "Lip" Pike the "Iron Batter", was one of the stars of 19th-century baseball in the United States. He was one of the first professional players, as well as the first Jewish one, his brother, Israel Pike, played for the Hartford Dark Blues during the 1877 season. Pike was one of the premier players of his day, he was a great slugger and one of the best home run hitters, so much so that stories about balls he hit were told for quite some time after he stopped playing. Pike was born in New York into a Jewish Dutch family, grew up in Brooklyn, his father Emanuel was a haberdasher. His mother was Jane, his brothers were Boaz and Jacob, he had a sister Julia, his family moved to Brooklyn when he was young. Pike began in baseball when he was 13. Pike first rose to prominence playing for the Philadelphia Athletics, whom he joined in 1866, he brought an impressive blend of power and speed to the team, hitting many home runs as well as being one of the fastest players around. On one occasion he hit 6 home runs in one game.
However, it was soon brought to light that he and two other Philadelphia players were being given $20 a week to play. Since all baseball players were ostensibly amateurs, a hearing was set up by the sport's governing body, the National Association of Base Ball Players. In the end, no one showed up to the hearing, the matter was dropped. By 1869, the Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first professional team, Pike's hearing, farcical as it seems to have been, paved the way for Harry Wright's professionalization of baseball; the Athletics were successful, but Pike was dropped from the team in 1867, because he was from New York, thus a'foreigner,' calling his loyalty into question. He moved on to the Irvington, New Jersey club and in 1867 to the New York Mutuals, always a leading team, where he returned for 1868, having caught the eye of Boss Tweed. In 1869 he moved to the Brooklyn Atlantics, another perennial leader, where he hit.610. In 1870, the Atlantics, with Pike manning second base ended Cincinnati's 93-game winning streak.
In 1871, the National Association was formed as the first professional baseball league, Pike joined the Troy Haymakers for its inaugural season. He was their star and for 4 games was the captain and manager, batting.377 and hitting a league-leading 4 home runs. He led the league in extra base hits, was 2nd in slugging percentage and doubles, 4th in RBIs, 5th in triples, 6th in on-base percentage, 9th in hits, 10th in runs; the Haymakers only finished 6th, the team's captaincy switched to Bill Craver. The Haymakers revamped their roster for the 1872 season, Pike headed for Baltimore, where he played for the Baltimore Canaries. Pike had another excellent season, leading the league in home runs again, RBIs, games, coming in 2nd in total bases and extra base hits, 3rd in at bats, 5th in doubles and triples, 9th in slugging percentage and stolen bases, 10th in hits. In 1873, Pike led the league in home runs for the 3rd consecutive season, hitting 4, was 2nd in triples, 4th in total bases, stolen bases, extra base hits, 7th in slugging percentage, 8th in doubles, RBIs, at bats, 9th in hits, 10th in games.
Pike was one of the fastest players in the league. He would race any challenger for a cash prize coming out the winner. On August 16, 1873, he raced a fast trotting horse named "Clarence" in a 100-yard sprint at Baltimore's Newington Park, won by four yards with a time of 10 seconds flat, earning $250. Baltimore went bankrupt after the season, so Pike headed off to captain the Hartford Dark Blues for the 1874 season; the Dark Blues were a poor team, but Pike had another fine season, slugging.574 to lead the league, coming in 2nd with an on-base percentage of.368. Pike abandoned the weak Hartford team after a single season, switching to the St. Louis Brown Stockings. For the first time in his professional career, Pike failed to hit a home run, although he stole 25 bases, he hit 12 triples and 22 doubles in what was his finest offensive season. In all, Lip Pike has extra base hits records. In 1876, when the National League replaced the National Association, Pike stuck with St. Louis; the Brown Stockings turned in a good season, finishing a solid 2nd to the Chicago White Stockings.
Pike continued notching totals of 133 total bases and 34 extra-base hits. Never content to stay with a team long, Pike headed to the Cincinnati Reds for the 1877 season; the Reds finished last. Pike was still a top-quality player, leading the league in home runs for the 4th time in the 1870s. However, age was starting to catch up with the 32-year-old Pike, he began the season as the 8th-oldest player in the league, was the 4th-oldest player of the 1878 season. The 1878 Reds played well, though, they finished 2nd, but Pike was replaced by Buttercup Dickerson halfway through the season and forced to look elsewhere for a team. He ended up playing a few games for the Providence Grays, spent the next two years playing for minor league teams. Sporting Life subsequently named him an outfielder on its 1870–80 All-Star team. Pike got a brief call-up in 1881 to play for the Worcester Ruby Legs, but the 36-year-old Pike could no longer play hitting.111 and not managing a single ext
History of the Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles are a Major League Baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland. They are in the Eastern Division of the American League, they are owned by attorney Peter Angelos. The modern Orioles franchise can trace its roots back to the original Milwaukee Brewers of the minor Western League, beginning in 1894 when the league reorganized; the Brewers were there when the WL renamed itself the American League in 1900. At the end of the 1900 season, the American League removed itself from baseball's National Agreement. Two months the AL declared itself a competing major league; as a result of several franchise shifts, the Brewers were one of only two Western League teams that didn't either fold or move. During the first American League season, they finished dead last with a record of 48-89. During its lone Major League season, the team played at Lloyd Street Grounds, between 16th and 18th Streets in Milwaukee; as the baseball "war" heated up the American League began to challenge the senior circuit more directly.
The American League fielded teams in Boston and Philadelphia, solid National League cities. It had planned to move the Brewers to St. Louis. In 1902, the team did move to St. Louis, where it became the "Browns", in reference to the original name of the legendary 1880s club that by 1902 was known as the Cardinals. In their first St. Louis season, the Browns finished second. Although they fielded terrible or mediocre teams, they were popular at the gate. During this time, the Browns were best known for their role in the race for the 1910 American League batting title. Detroit's Ty Cobb took the last game of the season off, believing that his slight lead over Cleveland's Nap Lajoie would hold up unless Lajoie had a near-perfect day at the plate. However, Cobb was one of the most despised players in baseball, Browns catcher-manager Jack O'Connor ordered rookie third baseman Red Corriden to station himself in shallow left field. In each of his next five at bats, Lajoie bunted down the third-base line and made it to first easily.
In his last at-bat, he reached base on an error – giving him a hitless at-bat. O'Connor and coach Harry Howell tried to bribe the official scorer, a woman, to change the call to a hit offering to buy her a new wardrobe. Cobb won the batting title by just a few thousandths of a point over Lajoie; the resulting outcry triggered an investigation by American League president Ban Johnson. At his insistence, Browns owner Robert Hedges fired Howell. In 1916, after years of prosperity at the gate, Hedges sold the team to cold-storage magnate Phil Ball, who had owned the St. Louis Terriers of the defunct Federal League. Ball's tenure as owner saw the Browns' first period of prosperity, he made a considerable effort to make the Browns competitive, reinvesting all profits back into the team. Ball, committed several errors that dogged the franchise for years to come, his first major blunder was to fire Branch Rickey, the resident genius in the Browns' front office, in 1919 because of a conflict of egos, causing Rickey to jump to the crosstown Cardinals.
In 1920 Sam Breadon, who had just purchased the Cardinals, convinced Ball to allow his team to share the Browns' home, Sportsman's Park. With the money from the sale of the Cardinals' Robison Field, Rickey began building an extensive farm system; this produced a host of star players that brought the Cardinals far more drawing power than the Browns. The 1922 Browns excited their owner by beating the Yankees to a pennant; the club was boasting the best players in franchise history, including George Sisler, an outfield trio – Ken Williams, Baby Doll Jacobson, Jack Tobin – that batted.300 or better in 1919–23 and in 1925. In 1922, Williams became the first player in Major League history to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in a season, something that would not be done again in the Majors until 1956. Ball confidently predicted that there would be a World Series in Sportsman's Park by 1926. In anticipation, he increased the capacity of his ballpark from 18,000 to 30,000. There was indeed a World Series in Sportsman's Park in 1926, but it was the Cardinals, not the Browns, who took part, upsetting the Yankees.
St. Louis had been considered a "Browns' town" until then. Meanwhile, the Browns fell into the cellar, they only had two winning records from 1927 to 1943, including a 43-111 mark in 1939, still the worst in franchise history. Ball died in 1933, his estate ran the team for three years until Rickey helped broker a sale to investment banker Donald Lee Barnes, whose son-in-law, Bill DeWitt, was the team's general manager. To help finance the purchase, Barnes sold 20,000 shares of stock to the public at $5 a share, an unusual practice for a sports franchise. In 1944, during World War II, the Browns won their only St. Louis-based American League pennant, becoming the last of the 16 teams that made up the major leagues from 1901 to 1960 to play in a World Series. By comparison, each of the other seven American League teams had appeared in at least three World Series, won it at least once; some critics called it a fluke, as most major league stars voluntarily joined or were drafted into the military.
No-hitter
In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a single hit. Major League Baseball defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher who prevents the opposing team from achieving a hit is said to have "thrown a no-hitter"; this is a rare accomplishment for a pitcher or pitching staff: only 299 have been thrown in Major League Baseball history since 1876, an average of about two per year. In most cases in MLB, no-hitters are recorded by a single pitcher; the most recent no-hitter by a single pitcher was thrown on May 8, 2018 by James Paxton of the Seattle Mariners against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. The most recent combined no-hitter was thrown on May 4, 2018 by Walker Buehler, Tony Cingrani, Yimi Garcia, Adam Liberatore of the Los Angeles Dodgers against the San Diego Padres at Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey, it is possible to reach base without a hit, most by a walk, error, or being hit by a pitch.
A no-hitter in which no batters reach base at all is a much rarer feat. Because batters can reach base by means other than a hit, a pitcher can throw a no-hitter and still give up runs, lose the game, although this is uncommon and most no-hitters are shutouts. One or more runs were given up in 25 recorded no-hitters in MLB history, most by Ervin Santana of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in a 3–1 win against the Cleveland Indians on July 27, 2011. On two occasions, a team still lost the game. On a further four occasions, a team has thrown a no-hitter for eight innings in a losing effort, but those four games are not recognized as no-hitters by Major League Baseball because the outing lasted fewer than nine innings, it is theoretically possible for opposing pitchers to throw no-hitters in the same game, although this has never happened in the majors. Two pitchers, Fred Toney and Hippo Vaughn, completed nine innings of a game on May 2, 1917 without either giving up a hit or a run. A no-hitter is defined by Major League Baseball as follows: "An official no-hit game occurs when a pitcher allows no hits during the entire course of a game, which consists of at least nine innings."
This definition was specified by MLB's Committee for Statistical Accuracy in 1991, causing recognized no-hitters of fewer than nine innings or where the first hit had been allowed in extra innings to be stricken from the official record books. Games lost by the visiting team in 8½ innings but without allowing any hits do not qualify as no-hitters, as the visiting team has only pitched eight innings. Major League Baseball has recognized 299 no-hitters thrown since 1876. Two no-hitters have been thrown on the same day twice: Ted Breitenstein and Jim Hughes on April 22, 1898. Eight no-hitters were thrown by major league pitchers in the 1884 season. In the modern era, seven no-hitters were thrown in 1990, 1991, 2012, 2015; the longest period between any two no-hitters in the modern era is 3 years, 44 days between Bobby Burke on August 8, 1931, Paul "Daffy" Dean on September 21, 1934. There was a drought of 3 years, 11 months, without a no-hitter after the first National League no-hitter on July 15, 1876, pitched by George Bradley.
The most recent year without any no-hitters is 2005. The greatest span of games without a no-hitter anywhere in the Major Leagues is 6,364, between Randy Johnson's perfect game on May 18, 2004, for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Aníbal Sánchez's no-hitter on September 6, 2006, for the Florida Marlins; the previous record was a 4,015-game streak without a no-hitter from September 30, 1984, to September 19, 1986. The pitcher who holds the record for the most no-hitters is Nolan Ryan, who threw seven in his long career, his first two came two months apart, while he was with the California Angels: the first on May 15, 1973, the second on July 15. He had two more with the Angels on September 28, 1974, June 1, 1975. Ryan's fifth no-hitter with the Houston Astros on September 26, 1981, broke Sandy Koufax's previous record, his sixth and seventh no-hitters came with the Texas Rangers on June 1, 1990, May 1, 1991. When he tossed number seven at age 44, he became the oldest pitcher to throw a no-hitter. Only Ryan, Sandy Koufax, Cy Young, Bob Feller, Larry Corcoran have pitched more than two no-hitters.
Corcoran was the first pitcher to throw a second no-hitter in a career, as well as the first to throw a third. Thirty-six pitchers have thrown more than one combined no-hitters not counting. Randy Johnson has the longest gap between no-hitters: he threw a no-hitter as a member of the Seattle Mariners on June 2, 1990, a perfect game as an Arizona Diamondback on May 18, 2004; the pitcher who holds the record for the shortest time between no-hitters is Johnny Vander Meer, the only pitcher in history to throw no-hitters in consecutive starts, while playing for the Cincinnati Reds in 1938. Besides Vander Meer, Allie Reynolds, Virgil Trucks and Max Scherzer are the only other major leaguers to throw two no-hitters in the same regular season. Jim Maloney had two no-hitters under the previous rules in the 1965 season
The Baltimore Sun
The Baltimore Sun is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the American state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, issues and industries. Founded in 1837, the newspaper is owned by Tribune Publishing; the Sun was founded on May 17, 1837, by printer/editor/publisher/owner Arunah Shepherdson Abell and two associates, William Moseley Swain, Azariah H. Simmons from Philadelphia, where they had started and published the Public Ledger the year before. Abell was born in Rhode Island, where he began journalism with the Providence Patriot and worked with Newspapers in New York City and Boston; the Abell family and descendents owned The Sun (later after 1910 colloquially known in Baltimore as The Sunpapers until that same year of 1910, when the local Black and Garrett families of wealthy financial means invested funds in the paper under the suggestion of former rival owner/publisher of The News, Charles H. Grasty, they, along with Grasty gained a controlling interest.
That same year, an additional daily publication was established called The Evening Sun under the guidance of former reporter, editor/columnist Henry Louis Mencken, From 1947 to 1986, The Sun was the owner of Maryland's first television station, WMAR-TV, founded 1947 and longtime affiliate of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS television network, along with several radio stations. In the postwar years, The Sun expanded its overseas presence; the newspaper opened its first foreign bureau in London in 1924. Between 1955 and 1961, it added four new foreign offices; as Cold War tensions grew, it set up shop in Bonn, West Germany, in February 1955. Eleven months The Sun opened a Moscow bureau, becoming one of the first U. S. newspapers to do so. A Rome office followed in July 1957, in 1961, The Sun expanded to New Delhi. At its height, The Sun' ran eight foreign bureaus, giving rise to its boast in a 1983 advertisement that "The Sun never sets on the world."The paper was sold under recent non-family publisher Reg Murphy in 1986 to the Times-Mirror Company of the Los Angeles Times.
The same week, the 115 year old rivalry with The News American, came to an end, as that ancient old paper with publishing antecedents since 1773, with subsequent mergers, announced that it would fold. The oldest paper in the city, it had been owned by William Randolph Hearst and his Hearst Corporation since the 1920s. A decade in 1997, The Sun acquired the Patuxent Publishing Company, a local suburban newspaper publisher that had a stable of 15 weekly papers and a few magazines in several communities and counties. In the 1990s and 2000s, The Sun began cutting back its foreign coverage. In 1995 and 1996, closed its Tokyo, Mexico City and Berlin bureaus. Two more — Beijing and London — fell victim to cost-cutting in 2005; the final three bureaus — Moscow and Johannesburg, South Africa — fell a couple years later. All were closed by 2008, as the Tribune Co. streamlined and downsized the newspaper chain's foreign reporting. Some material from The Sun's foreign correspondents is archived at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
In the 21st century, The Sun, like most legacy newspapers in the United States, has suffered a number of setbacks in the competition with Internet and other sources, including a decline in readership and ads, a shrinking newsroom staff, competition in 2005 from a new free daily, The Baltimore Examiner that lasted two years to 2007, along with a similar Washington publication of a small chain started by new owners that took over the old Hearst flagship paper, the San Francisco Examiner. In 2000, the Times-Mirror company was purchased by the Tribune Company of Chicago. I, 2014 it transferred its newspapers, including The Sun, to Tribune Publishing. On September 19, 2005, again on August 24, 2008, The Baltimore Sun as the paper now titled itself, introduced new layout designs, its circulation as of 2010 was 343,552 on Sundays. On April 29, 2009, the Tribune Company announced that it would lay off 61 of the 205 staff members in the Sun newsroom. On September 23, 2011, it was reported that the Baltimore Sun would be moving its web edition behind a paywall starting October 10, 2011.
The Baltimore Sun is the flagship of the Baltimore Sun Media Group, which produces the b free daily newspaper and more than 30 other Baltimore metropolitan-area community newspapers and Web sites. BSMG content reaches more than one million Baltimore-area readers each week and is the region's most read source of news. On February 20, 2014, The Baltimore Sun Media Group announced that they would buy the alternative weekly City Paper. In April, the Sun acquired the Maryland publications of Landmark Media Enterprises. Although there is now only a morning edition, for many years there were two distinct newspapers—The Sun in the morning and The Evening Sun in the afternoon— each with its own separate reporting and editorial staff; the Evening Sun was first published in 1910 under the leadership of Charles H. Grasty, former owner of the Evening News, a firm believer in the evening circulation. For most of its existence, The Evening Sun led its morning sibling in circulation. In 1959, the afternoon edition's circulation was 220,174, compared to 196,675 for the morning edition.
However, by the 1980s, cultural and economic shifts in America were eating away at afternoon newspapers' market share, with readers flocking to either morning papers or switching to nightly televisi
Harry Stovey
Harry Duffield Stovey, born Harry Duffield Stowe, was a 19th-century Major League Baseball player and the first player in major league history to hit 100 home runs. Born in Philadelphia, Stovey played for 14 seasons in the majors and was appointed player-manager on two separate occasions during his career. Known today as both a prolific home run hitter and base-stealer, he led the league in both categories multiple times in his career, including a season record of 14 home runs in 1883 and a league-leading 97 stolen bases in 1890. From 1880 to 1891 he appeared in the top 10 in home runs every year except 1887, led the league five times, he was the first to among the first to slide feet first. Harry began his career as an outfielder / first baseman in 1880 for the Worcester Worcesters under the surname of Stovey instead of his birth name of Stowe due to his desire to keep his family from discovering he was making his career at baseball, seen at the time as not a respectable profession, he made an immediate impact that first season, leading the league with 14 triples and six home runs, while finishing in the top ten in many other offensive categories.
On July 17, he hit his first major league home run off Jim McCormick of the Cleveland Blues. For the 1881 season, his offensive numbers did not slow down, again finishing in the top ten in several offensive categories, though he did not lead the league in any this time around. On August 17, 1881, Worcester suspended Captain Mike Dorgan‚ and Stovey took over the position for the remainder of the season. Lee Richmond‚ who had quit because of conflicts with Dorgan‚ rejoined the team after this switch. In 1882, his last season for the Worcesters, his batting average saw an increase, up to.289 from.270 the year before, but his numbers in relation to the rest of the league took a slight dip. He ranked third in the league in runs scored, with 90, fourth in the league in home runs, with five. For the 1883 season, Stovey moved on to play for the Philadelphia Athletics of the American Association, it was during the next seven years when he had his best years, made his greatest impact on the game, his first season in Philadelphia saw him set the single season record for home runs with 14, breaking the old mark of nine set by Charley Jones in 1879.
He kept this record for only one season, as Ned Williamson set a new mark the next season with 27. Not only did he set the home run record, he batted.306, led the league in runs scored with 110, doubles with 31, games played with 112, while finishing in the top five in most offensive categories. The offensive explosiveness continued throughout his stay in Philadelphia, leading the league in runs scored four times, doubles once, triples three times, home runs three times; the accumulation of home runs led to him becoming the career home run leader, overtaking Charley Jones with his 51st career homer on September 28, 1885. He held onto the career lead for a season until he was passed for a short period of time by Dan Brouthers for the 1886 and the 1887 seasons. Stovey regained the lead, held it until Roger Connor passed him in 1895. In 1890, the Players' League, a rival league to the National League and the American Association, it attracted many of the game's star players, including Stovey who "jumped" to the Boston Reds.
He had a good season, batting.299, hit 11 triples, 12 home runs. On September 3, 1890, Stovey became the first player to hit 100 homers for a career, off of Jersey Bakley in a game against Cleveland, a significant milestone in a day when home runs were rare. After the 1890 season, the Players' League folded with many of the players returning to their former ballclubs. Stovey‚ who played with the A's in 1889, was not claimed by that club through a clerical error, so on February 5, 1891, he signed with the Boston Beaneaters of the National League, he led the league that season with 16 home runs and 20 triples, while hitting.279 with 31 doubles as well. It proved to be last great season of his career. Stovey played only 38 games for the Beaneaters in 1892, before he was released on June 20, but he was signed by the Baltimore Orioles, he finished the season with a.272 batting average with the Orioles and hit 11 triples, including three in one game on July 21 in a 10–3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The 1893 season was Stovey's last season in the majors. He was released by the Orioles on May 22 after only eight games, was signed three days on May 15 by the Brooklyn Grooms, he retired after the season was over. After his career, Stovey became a police officer in Massachusetts. Stovey died at the age of 80 in New Bedford, is interred at Oak Grove Cemetery; the Nineteenth Century Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research named Stovey the Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legend for 2011 — a 19th-century player, executive or other baseball personality not yet inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The Editors of Total Baseball, ed.. Baseball:The Biographical Encyclopedia. Sports Illustrated. Pp. 1093–1094. ISBN 1-892129-34-5. Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference Harry Stovey at Find a Grave
