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Tib · 07-30-2004, 01:17 PM

SHORT HOP: INTERLUDE #1

A HISTORY OF THE CBA

From the American Baseball Federation to the Continental Baseball Association, 1881-2005

PART I: The Incident at Otinnimook

Chapter One: Deacon Reeves and Green Jim's Jaw
The New England and Frontier Leagues: 1871-1880

Professional baseball in America was around for about three decades before the first professional (that is to say, for profit) leagues came into being. As the game gained popularity with cultured society in the east and pioneer society in the west, established teams began to arise. Usually, these teams were born out of social groups like gentlemen’s clubs and churches, but others were created to advertise businesses or promote towns. The New London Brakemen of New London, Connecticut were one such professional team. Established in 1836, the Brakemen were made up of employees of the New London Rail Co., a maker of railroad cars and tracks. They are thought to be the first truly professional team in America because players were given bonuses for winning games. Other early professional teams included the New York Professional Baseball Club, also known as the Yorkers, and the Boston Intrepids, who were made up of members of the Greater Boston Health and Wellness Society, a club which promoted “rigorous activity in clean air for robust health and happiness”.

By 1870, there were dozens of professional teams touring New England and several teams in the new West (Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Missouri). These teams often met each other in exhibitions and informal tournaments. As teams grew in popularity and fans began to follow the teams to games, rivalries began. One of the oldest, and historically the most important, was the rivalry between the Manhattan Atlantics and the First Boston Savings and Loan Bank, also known as the Bankers. The story of their rivalry is the story of the birth of the ABF.

These two teams traded victories over one another for almost twenty years in perfect peace. Then, in the fall of 1870, they met in a hotly contested exhibition game at the base of Otinnimook Hill in outer Manhattan (modern day Long Island near Belmont Park). The Atlantics had a first baseman named James “Green Jim” McGill who was perhaps the best player of the 1860s. He was also perhaps the hardest drinking, roughest speaking Irishman in New York City. The Bankers had a pitcher by the name of Connie “Deacon” Reeves, a devout Christian who was perhaps the hardest thrower in New England.

Green Jim stepped up to bat in the eighth inning with the tying run on third. Deacon Reeves threw one right by him. Green Jim said nothing. Deacon hurled another. Green Jim took a mighty swing but missed, nearly losing his balance. Then McGill said something. Bankers’ catcher Mike Monroe, who was standing twenty feet behind McGill (as was the custom in those days before fielders’ gloves) said Green Jim made an unflattering comment about Reeves wife. McGill denied it to his last day. McGill’s teammates insist it was Reeves who made a comment about Green Jim’s lack of coordination being the result of too much drink. It is unclear to this day what was actually said, and it probably doesn’t matter. What is important is that Reeves’ next pitch struck Green Jim square in the jaw. In the words of Bankers’ second baseman William “Berry Bill” Stansbury, “Jim went down like a sack of wheat”. Both teams met in the middle of the field. A brawl ensued that, in the words of the great Manhattan Chronicle writer Biggs Bose, “made the Battle of Waterloo seem like an arm-wrestle”. The game was never finished.

The fight caused an uproar. Is this how our civilized men act? Is this what baseball is teaching our young men? The owners of professional teams began to worry when fans showed up at games enticing the players to fight. Some tossed coins on the field, rewards for the first punch thrown. Some players complied. Songs were written. One, called “Green Jim’s Jaw”, was particularly popular. Fans in Reeves home state of North Carolina began calling him the “Demon Deacon”. “Organized baseball contests” were on the verge of being declared an “unlawful gathering” by the New York State Supreme Court. Bankers and Atlantics fans alike demanded the game be replayed, for the sake of honor. “There must be a winner,” they declared in letters to Atlantics team president J. Walker Bowen.

Bowen met with Bankers’ president H. David Wendicott III. Bowen, 44, was a frugal second generation Scotsman, Wendicott a charismatic 35-year old who built the biggest bank in Boston from a $12,000 stake. They both recognized an opportunity when they saw one. Together they decided to replay the game as the “championship of New England”. To grow interest in the contest, they decided to schedule exhibition games with teams all across the East, but never between each other. They would share the cost of building a 10,000 seat wooden stadium at the base of Otinnimook Hill. Come September they would make a fortune.

But the two men did not anticipate the ire of other professional teams in the East. Why should we help you become even richer? they asked. Why should we help you make enough money in one game to lure all our star players away? Bowen and Wendicott had an answer: because you’ll be part of a professional league, the New England League. “By pooling our efforts, we can create a new product, never seen before, one the people want to see and we can do it for years and years to come. By playing each of us in only four exhibition games, you’ll earn enough money to build stadiums of your own. This is a product that appeals to every man and boy in America. It is not subject to the whims of politicians. It is not regulated by the government. Trust laws do not apply to baseball,” said Bowen’s letter to the other owners. The argument worked.

From 1871-1880, the New England League thrived. The “Baseball Championship of New England” was covered in newspapers from Chicago to Cairo. At its peak, the League had fifteen teams and never less than eight. The Bankers and Atlantics each won five championships.

But the West was watching. The success of the New England League did not go unnoticed for very long in the rowdy, do-as-you-can West. Wide open cities like Chicago and Kansas City had teams and leagues of their own. Professional baseball thrived on the frontier, too. When the New England League was founded in 1871, a group of western owners met in Chicago to discuss forming their own league, one modeled after and designed to rival the NEL. The result, in 1872, was the formation of the Frontier League. It was only a matter of time before the Championship of New England became the American Baseball Championship.

In 1880, it was clear that the West could compete with the East. Exhibition tours by the Chicago Comets and St. Louis Explorers proved to haughty New Englanders that there were, indeed, teams who could beat their mighty Bankers (now called the Boston Rovers) and Atlantics. It was the Age of Industry in America. It was the time of the Transcontinental Railroad and of Westward Expansion. Giant corporations, mammoth trusts, and barons of manufacturing were the powers in America. For the owners of the New England and Frontier Leagues it was no different. They, too, were men of their time, eager to expand, to grow their already sizeable fortunes.

To do this they decided that 1881 would see the dawning of a new era of professional baseball. On the heels of the two Leagues came dozens of smaller yet successful leagues. Were these “little leagues”, as Baltimore Steamers owner Bradley Radcliffe described them, not beholden to them, at least in part? Why shouldn’t the two Leagues annex as many successful, money-making teams as possible? Why not have monopolies in professional baseball?

Why not, indeed.

The American Baseball Federation was formed in the winter of 1880 and started April 4, 1881 with eight teams. Over the next four decades the league would grow to twenty-four teams. The anti-trust legislation of the early 1900s wounded the league, but did not kill it. President Theodore Roosevelt loved the game and did not want to see its demise, only its compliance with his new stance on monopolies. The ABF was not about to give up, however. In return for “special status” with the Department of the Interior, the ABF admitted Roosevelt’s favorite team, the Washington Sentinels. Now Roosevelt could watch his team, the one named after his famous “Sentinels of Liberty” speech to Congress in 1902, take on the mightiest giants of the game.

“That’s what it’s about, isn’t it?” Roosevelt said at the time. “Our unique American resolve and ingenuity was made for the challenging of giants.”

Tomorrow: Part One of Chapter 11: The Crack of the Bat

07-30-2004, 01:17 PM	#76
Tib All Star Reserve Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Paso Robles, CA Posts: 995	SHORT HOP: INTERLUDE #1 A HISTORY OF THE CBA From the American Baseball Federation to the Continental Baseball Association, 1881-2005 PART I: The Incident at Otinnimook Chapter One: Deacon Reeves and Green Jim's Jaw The New England and Frontier Leagues: 1871-1880 Professional baseball in America was around for about three decades before the first professional (that is to say, for profit) leagues came into being. As the game gained popularity with cultured society in the east and pioneer society in the west, established teams began to arise. Usually, these teams were born out of social groups like gentlemen’s clubs and churches, but others were created to advertise businesses or promote towns. The New London Brakemen of New London, Connecticut were one such professional team. Established in 1836, the Brakemen were made up of employees of the New London Rail Co., a maker of railroad cars and tracks. They are thought to be the first truly professional team in America because players were given bonuses for winning games. Other early professional teams included the New York Professional Baseball Club, also known as the Yorkers, and the Boston Intrepids, who were made up of members of the Greater Boston Health and Wellness Society, a club which promoted “rigorous activity in clean air for robust health and happiness”. By 1870, there were dozens of professional teams touring New England and several teams in the new West (Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Missouri). These teams often met each other in exhibitions and informal tournaments. As teams grew in popularity and fans began to follow the teams to games, rivalries began. One of the oldest, and historically the most important, was the rivalry between the Manhattan Atlantics and the First Boston Savings and Loan Bank, also known as the Bankers. The story of their rivalry is the story of the birth of the ABF. These two teams traded victories over one another for almost twenty years in perfect peace. Then, in the fall of 1870, they met in a hotly contested exhibition game at the base of Otinnimook Hill in outer Manhattan (modern day Long Island near Belmont Park). The Atlantics had a first baseman named James “Green Jim” McGill who was perhaps the best player of the 1860s. He was also perhaps the hardest drinking, roughest speaking Irishman in New York City. The Bankers had a pitcher by the name of Connie “Deacon” Reeves, a devout Christian who was perhaps the hardest thrower in New England. Green Jim stepped up to bat in the eighth inning with the tying run on third. Deacon Reeves threw one right by him. Green Jim said nothing. Deacon hurled another. Green Jim took a mighty swing but missed, nearly losing his balance. Then McGill said something. Bankers’ catcher Mike Monroe, who was standing twenty feet behind McGill (as was the custom in those days before fielders’ gloves) said Green Jim made an unflattering comment about Reeves wife. McGill denied it to his last day. McGill’s teammates insist it was Reeves who made a comment about Green Jim’s lack of coordination being the result of too much drink. It is unclear to this day what was actually said, and it probably doesn’t matter. What is important is that Reeves’ next pitch struck Green Jim square in the jaw. In the words of Bankers’ second baseman William “Berry Bill” Stansbury, “Jim went down like a sack of wheat”. Both teams met in the middle of the field. A brawl ensued that, in the words of the great Manhattan Chronicle writer Biggs Bose, “made the Battle of Waterloo seem like an arm-wrestle”. The game was never finished. The fight caused an uproar. Is this how our civilized men act? Is this what baseball is teaching our young men? The owners of professional teams began to worry when fans showed up at games enticing the players to fight. Some tossed coins on the field, rewards for the first punch thrown. Some players complied. Songs were written. One, called “Green Jim’s Jaw”, was particularly popular. Fans in Reeves home state of North Carolina began calling him the “Demon Deacon”. “Organized baseball contests” were on the verge of being declared an “unlawful gathering” by the New York State Supreme Court. Bankers and Atlantics fans alike demanded the game be replayed, for the sake of honor. “There must be a winner,” they declared in letters to Atlantics team president J. Walker Bowen. Bowen met with Bankers’ president H. David Wendicott III. Bowen, 44, was a frugal second generation Scotsman, Wendicott a charismatic 35-year old who built the biggest bank in Boston from a $12,000 stake. They both recognized an opportunity when they saw one. Together they decided to replay the game as the “championship of New England”. To grow interest in the contest, they decided to schedule exhibition games with teams all across the East, but never between each other. They would share the cost of building a 10,000 seat wooden stadium at the base of Otinnimook Hill. Come September they would make a fortune. But the two men did not anticipate the ire of other professional teams in the East. Why should we help you become even richer? they asked. Why should we help you make enough money in one game to lure all our star players away? Bowen and Wendicott had an answer: because you’ll be part of a professional league, the New England League. “By pooling our efforts, we can create a new product, never seen before, one the people want to see and we can do it for years and years to come. By playing each of us in only four exhibition games, you’ll earn enough money to build stadiums of your own. This is a product that appeals to every man and boy in America. It is not subject to the whims of politicians. It is not regulated by the government. Trust laws do not apply to baseball,” said Bowen’s letter to the other owners. The argument worked. From 1871-1880, the New England League thrived. The “Baseball Championship of New England” was covered in newspapers from Chicago to Cairo. At its peak, the League had fifteen teams and never less than eight. The Bankers and Atlantics each won five championships. But the West was watching. The success of the New England League did not go unnoticed for very long in the rowdy, do-as-you-can West. Wide open cities like Chicago and Kansas City had teams and leagues of their own. Professional baseball thrived on the frontier, too. When the New England League was founded in 1871, a group of western owners met in Chicago to discuss forming their own league, one modeled after and designed to rival the NEL. The result, in 1872, was the formation of the Frontier League. It was only a matter of time before the Championship of New England became the American Baseball Championship. In 1880, it was clear that the West could compete with the East. Exhibition tours by the Chicago Comets and St. Louis Explorers proved to haughty New Englanders that there were, indeed, teams who could beat their mighty Bankers (now called the Boston Rovers) and Atlantics. It was the Age of Industry in America. It was the time of the Transcontinental Railroad and of Westward Expansion. Giant corporations, mammoth trusts, and barons of manufacturing were the powers in America. For the owners of the New England and Frontier Leagues it was no different. They, too, were men of their time, eager to expand, to grow their already sizeable fortunes. To do this they decided that 1881 would see the dawning of a new era of professional baseball. On the heels of the two Leagues came dozens of smaller yet successful leagues. Were these “little leagues”, as Baltimore Steamers owner Bradley Radcliffe described them, not beholden to them, at least in part? Why shouldn’t the two Leagues annex as many successful, money-making teams as possible? Why not have monopolies in professional baseball? Why not, indeed. The American Baseball Federation was formed in the winter of 1880 and started April 4, 1881 with eight teams. Over the next four decades the league would grow to twenty-four teams. The anti-trust legislation of the early 1900s wounded the league, but did not kill it. President Theodore Roosevelt loved the game and did not want to see its demise, only its compliance with his new stance on monopolies. The ABF was not about to give up, however. In return for “special status” with the Department of the Interior, the ABF admitted Roosevelt’s favorite team, the Washington Sentinels. Now Roosevelt could watch his team, the one named after his famous “Sentinels of Liberty” speech to Congress in 1902, take on the mightiest giants of the game. “That’s what it’s about, isn’t it?” Roosevelt said at the time. “Our unique American resolve and ingenuity was made for the challenging of giants.” Tomorrow: Part One of Chapter 11: The Crack of the Bat Last edited by Tib; 11-01-2020 at 02:29 AM.