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Asa Brainard, star pitcher of the undefeated 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, is a bridge between the pre-Civil War amateur club baseball players and the professional era - more so than any other single player. Although in reality his career was over before the National League began play, in my universe he continues to be a solid pitcher. Today we take a look at his baseball life.

The best source I know of for Brainard's pre-NA career is his SABR bio, which focuses heavily on that time frame. His bio begins by noting the most famous modern fact about Brainard, which is the highly questionable claim that a top pitcher being called an "ace" is in honor of him. (The idea of referring to something excellent as an "ace" in general is certainly not traceable to him, and when it became used for top pitchers in later years I find it highly unlikely people were thinking of Brainard rather than the general term.)

From his SABR bio, here's an account of Brainard's early years:

Upon settling with the Excelsiors of Brooklyn in 1860, he was initially a second baseman and outfielder because the great James Creighton was positioned in the box. After Creighton’s premature death in October 1862, Brainard became the team’s main hurler. Over the years, he was a member of the first three significant barnstorming teams in the sport’s history: an eastern tour by the Excelsiors in 1860; a western trip by the Nationals of Washington, D.C., in 1867; a nationwide excursion with Cincinnati from 1869-1870.

In 1868, he was recruited by Harry Wright for the soon-to-be famed Red Stockings of Cincinnati, the team that altered the course of the sport’s history. The Reds rattled off two great seasons behind Brainard’s right arm. He was indeed the ace of the Red Stockings, a club that went 57-0 in 1869 and extended its overall consecutive winning streak to 89 games. In contemporary accounts the Brooklyn Eagle referred to him as “Acey” as early as August 15, 1864, and shortened it to “Ace” by at least September 3, 1875. The monikers were rhythmically related to his name Asa; it would be decades before the term “ace” became an adjective and noun commonly used to denote a club’s top hurler.

Asel Brainard was born in Albany, New York, around 1839. There is some confusion as to his given name and his birth year. Some sources claim that his first name was Asahel. Asel was chosen here because just as many sources claim that that was his given name; in addition, it was used more often in the U.S. Censuses and in fact sits on his grave marker. Likewise, the reference sites claim his birth year as 1841, but the 1840 Census seems to indicate that he was alive by that time. He could have been born as early as 1837, but 1839 was chosen because it is the date listed on his grave marker, which can be seen at Findagrave.com. There is a contemporary reference to his middle name beginning with the letter “C,” but this cannot be confirmed.

Asa’s parents were Leonard Whitmore Brainard and Sarah Ann (Kenyon) Brainard, who were married in Haddam, Connecticut, on August 29, 1828. Sarah was born in 1811; her family was from Connecticut but it seems that she was born in New York. Leonard was born in Eastbury, New York in 1802. Per a publication by the Daughters of the American Revolution, “He commanded a sloop launch when 18 years of age, which carried passengers at the time of the Erie Canal celebration at Sandy Hook at the meeting of the waters from Lake Erie to the ocean. He commanded a sailing vessel on the Hudson River, and then a steamboat for many years. He was captain of the steamboat South America, the handsomest boat of its day, the first to have staterooms, the first to burn coal, having previously burned pine wood.”

In 1844 the family moved to Brooklyn, where Leonard was employed as a commission and forwarding merchant, a wholesaler in boats and marine merchandise. He became involved in local Republican politics and served for years in various posts including assemblyman. In April 1861 the governor named him Harbor Master for New York City.

The Brainards had six children, all born in Albany: Sarah Allen, 1829; Redelia Kenyon, 1834; Josephine, 1835; Leonard Whitmore Jr., 1836; Asel; Harrison Whitmore, 1842.

The same SABR bio has an incredibly detailed and interesting account of Brainard's career in the 1860s and I recommend all of it. Most notably, he was a teammate of the great Jim Creighton, and when Creighton died famously and suddenly in 1862 Brainard was his replacement at pitcher. His bio's description of him as a pitcher:

Brainard stood five feet, eight and a half inches tall and weighed approximated 150 to 160 pounds during his career. He was a righthander as nearly all pitchers of the day were. He stood erect before delivering with his left foot touching the back of his right foot. He then went into his windup and delivered the ball after one step or stride. At the time, pitchers had to send the pitch to the batter’s specified general location, either high or low. It was delivered strictly underhand. At the onset of his career, the curve wasn’t a part of the game, though it soon would be. Pitchers typically mixed fastballs with a changeup, or slow ball. Asa, like others, started to use a whip-like arm motion to gain additional speed. Creighton was snapping his wrist to get movement and power on the ball. Brainard surely noticed Creighton’s technique and adopted it.

Brainard strove to upset the batters’ timing and keep them off balance and worked fast compared to the other hurlers of the day. Though he was required to deliver to a general location, the batter never seemed to get what he was looking for. Brainard was trying to out-think the man with the bat. He moved the ball in and out and up and down in the never-ending cat-and-mouse game between pitcher and batter.

Brainard was good enough that Harry Wright recruited him to be the pitcher for the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869 - the first openly professional team. They traveled the country and went undefeated that year, and Brainard was one of the club's top players, though he and Wright evidently did not get along well.

Within a few years of the formation of the National Association, Brainard was done as a pitcher. In fact, most pitchers of the late 1860s/early 1870s did not last into the new decade, as the curveball became the big new innovation and pitchers who did not throw it did not last long. Here's what Nemec has to say about Brainard's NA career:

It is difficult to gauge whether Asa Brainard pitched for a string of bad teams in the NA because none of the good teams wanted him or whether he just had the poor judgment to consistently sign with bad teams. A mere five years before he appeared in his final NA game he had been the toast of baseball as the ace of the undefeated 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, so it would seem that the game could hardly have passed him by so quickly. Yet once the NA formed in 1871, very few pitchers from the pre-professional era successfully made the transition. Actually, in just the few short months from 1871 to 1872 the game changed dramatically as the pitching rules were liberalized to make way for the first curveball pitchers to appear in major league livery. Brainard was not among them. His twin fortes were guile and his skill at watching base runners. By the early 1870s "scientific" pitchers dependent largely on changing speeds to retire batters were few, and those, like Harry Wright, who were successful usually pitched only a few innings and against certain types of teams.

In the NA, Brainard pitched for the Washington Olympics - which was where most of the Red Stockings who Wright didn't want in Boston ended up - then for Middletown and Baltimore, after Baltimore was no longer a competitive team. His career ended after the 1874 season. Nemec on his post-baseball life:

[In 1875] he opened an archery range on Staten Island and in 1882 he was seriously injured when a customer accidentally shot an arrow through his hand. Later in the 1880s Brainard moved west to Denver and ran the Markham Hotel billiard room until he died of pneumonia in 1888, the first of the 1869 Red Stockings to pass away.

In my universe Brainard's career has lasted longer, though at age 36 he probably doesn't have too many good years left. He pitched for the Olympics in 1871-72 just as he did in real life, then he went to the New York Mutuals for the rest of the NA years, having his best year in 1874 when he went 19-12. He was released by New York after the 1875 campaign and signed with Chicago after they lost Dan Collins to Louisville. He went 17-16 with Chicago in 1876 and is 6-5 so far in 1877. Overall he has a career record of 81-51, good enough for seventh in career wins at the moment.