On a gray and uninspiring afternoon in Brooklyn, something extraordinary was happening. In a showing that was clearly practiced but barely choreographed, the long, lithe southpaw from the Western League fired pitch-after-pitch towards Whales’ backup catcher Noah Forbes. His delivery, all limbs and violence, was equal parts riveting and unrepeatable. The ultimate location of each…
In the second year of GM Michael Dunleavy’s regime, the Oilers improved their win total from a season ago by five games (42-56 to 47-51). They finished in a tie for last place in the Frontier Division with the Saint Louis Reds, closely following the second place Cleveland Athletics (49-49) and the first place Saint…
The Philadelphia Brewers bounced back from a subpar 1901 season and surprised the league by winning the division easily. Then, in the League Cup, the Brooklyn Whales ended the Brewers’ dream of another title since 1898. Martin Pitsch, Philadelphia Brewers GM, and Kirby Hocking, the organization’s player oracle, met to discuss the upcoming season in…
The snow has melted, the docks are teeming, good Christian boys are home with their mothers. And yet, Boston is mourning. With so few looking past the four walls of their shops, their factories, and their homes, Boston needs its heroes. Someone to look up and out to. Someone larger than life, who embodies the…
Herbert Hamilton – Boston Globe, January 3rd, 1903 As I walk into the Boston Yards around sunset, there are two people in the entire stadium waiting to greet me. Neither look up. The groundskeeper goes about his business, repairing the various frozen destructions of another middling Banshees season. And one of the top pitching prospects…
Jericho Downing, Richmond Daily NewsDECEMBER 15, 1902 After a great deal of activity in the grandstand offices above Libby Hill, General Manager Preston Kirby spoke with the Daily News this afternoon to confirm that longtime Oiler hurler Donald Henwood will join the Rifles arsenal for the 1903 campaign. Donnie is a 9-year veteran of the…
“When rich villains have need of poor ones, poor ones may make what price they will.” –William Shakespeare, “Much Ado About Nothing” (Scene 3, lines 112-114) GUNS OF AUTUMN, PART IIThe Richmond Saga, 2.2 Manhattan, New York September 15th, 1902 The corpse was covered with a tattered blanket. Removed with little decorum from the alleyway…
The Richmond Saga, 2.1 Near Wakefield, VirginiaSeptember 8th, 1861 In the morning light of a dew-laden clearing, barefoot boys with baggy suspenders and sun-stained cheeks emerged from the wood like acolytes to play the game of base ball. They hooted and whistled with the cardinals, darting at the crack of the worn-down ball, yarn bursting…
A note brought me there, slipped to me by a red-faced boy on my daily walk along the banks of the Mississippi. A simple note,eight words and a signature, words that could mean everything, or nothing, maybe both, scrawled in delicate cursive on a stationary note from the First St. Louis Savings and Loan. A.C….
Jericho Downing, Richmond Daily News 14 August, 1902 Insiders at Libby Hill report that Frank Selee, one of the few Managers left from the National League era, was fired by Rifles owner and tobacco magnate Michael Monroe this morning. Selee managed the Boston Beaneaters of the National League from 1890-1894. He led the Richmond Rifles…