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REDS FOUNDER HARRISON PASSES AWAY

Tuesday 15 March 1910

Story by Clarence Shillington for the Ohio Express

After a series of recent health problems, Cincinnati Reds owner and founder Joseph Harrison passed away in his sleep yesterday. He was 83. The man called "Baseball's Champion" by many had been suffering from a severe bout of bronchitis since late February and was found deceased in his bedroom yesterday morning.

Harrison was a successful and prominent businessman but will always be recognised above anything else for his efforts in expanding baseball beyond the boundaries of its Atlantic coast origins. The story of how Harrison started in this endeavour is near-legendary: during a stay in New York as a 23 year-old, he happened to catch a game between the Yankees and Titans at baseball's birthplace, Elysian Fields in New Jersey. It was a case of love at first sight and when Harrison returned home to Cincinnati, he quickly set about exposing the sport to his home town, home state and eventually the entire north-eastern region.

"He was a pioneer for the sport," his grandson Robert said today. "He had a passion and love for baseball that pushed him to incredible achievements. He passed that passion down to each suqsequent generation of his family. If not for Joseph Harrison, the North-Eastern Baseball League might very well not exist because, being perfectly blunt, those east coasters had no desire to share 'their' sport with the rest of the nation. If my grandfather had not brought it back to Ohio with him, things might be very different now."

Of course, not all of Joseph Harrison's actions have been lauded. He was the driving force behind the short-lived disaster known as the National Baseball League. Founded in 1870, it featured six teams from the Atlantic Coast Baseball Federation and six from the NEBL but folded within two years due to a number of disputes between teams from the two leagues. In the time since, many have criticised Harrison for what they considered to be naivety in his dealings with the power-hungry owners of the ACBF. Still others have praised him, believing that he was only trying to give the sport what it deserved, that being a national competition.

In the forty years since the NBL folded, Harrison has built his Cincinnati Reds ballclub into one of the strongest in the nation. He has also spearheaded baseball's penetration into Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and, most recently, California.

"People tried to talk him out of that one," laughed Robert. "They tried to convince him that baseball would never work out on the west coast: said the climate was too hot or some other such nonsense. Well, grandpa proved them all wrong and it's just a shame that he won't see his vision for baseball on the pacific coast come to fruition."

Indeed, some eight years after Harrison fired the first salvos in his quest for what he called "California Baseball", the region will see the commencement of its own league, known as the Pacific Coast Baseball Association, next year. It will feature six teams with the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, Carson City and Phoenix to field teams.

"That was a dream of his and it will be great to see it come to life next year," said Robert.

I admit, the expansion of the sport into California is something that this particular writer never believed we'd see. But it's about to happen and we have Joseph Harrison's vision and determination to thank for it. It will be a fitting tribute to his memory when the PCBA begins play next April...