September 29, 1894: The National League season ends, and the Baltimore Orioles have won their 1st Pennant, finishing 3 games ahead of the New York Giants, and 8 games over the 3-time defending Champions, the Boston Beaneaters (forerunners of the Atlanta Braves).
True, the Orioles have lost today, 5-4 to the Chicago Colts, the team that will one day be the Cubs, at West Side Park in Chicago. But their greatness was certified.
Every player in their starting lineup batted at least .300. They were masters of strategy, excellent bunters, base stealers and hit-and-run performers. On defense, they were pioneers by instituting the cutoff man and having the pitcher cover 1st base.
But they were also sneaky. Sometimes, if they thought the umpire wasn't looking, they would round 1st base, cut across the infield, and slide into 3rd base without even going near 2nd. It took a while for the umpires to catch on to this. But then, it took a while for them to catch on to the need for better umpiring at all: There wasn't even a 2nd umpire on the field until 1888. (It would take until 1926 for games to have 3 umps, and 1940 to have 4, with stadium organists teasing umpires by playing "Three Blind Mice.")
And they were dirty. They would slide spikes-high, and start fights over nothing, hoping the umpire would only see the retaliation, not the first punch, and throw the opponent out of the game.
These were the Boys of Baltimore, the Old Orioles:
1st Base: Dan Brouthers
2nd Base: Henry "Heinie" Reitz
Shortstop: Hugh Jennings
3rd Base: John McGraw
Left Field: Joe Kelley
Center Field: Steve Brodie
Right Field: Willie Keeler
Catcher: Wilbert Robinson
Their pitchers included John "Sadie" McMahon, Bill Hawke, Bill Hoffer, George Hemming, Arlie Pond and William "Kid" Gleason.
September 29, 1894 was a Saturday. In addition to the Orioles' loss to the Colts, these games were played:
* The New York Giants lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 7-6 at League Park in Cincinnati.
* The Brooklyn Bridegrooms (forerunners of the Dodgers) beat the Louisville Colonels, 11-4 at Eclipse Park in Louisville.
* The Boston Beaneaters beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-5 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh.
* The Cleveland Spiders beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 11-3 at League Park in Cleveland.
* And the St. Louis Browns (forerunners of the Cardinals) beat the Washington Senators (not the future American League team), 6-4 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.
The Boston Beaneaters were not be without laurels, though: Center fielder Hugh Duffy has one of the best seasons in baseball history, batting .440 (128 years later, this is still a single-season major league record), hitting 18 home runs, and 145 RBIs, leading the NL in all 3 categories, thus giving him the Triple Crown.
The Orioles won the Pennant again in 1895, and again in 1896. In 1897, they and the Beaneaters got into one of the best Pennant races the game had yet seen, and the Beaneaters won.
Then, the Orioles were broken up, and did not contend in 1898 or 1899. They were then 1 of the 4 teams contracted out of existence, along with Washington, Cleveland and Louisville. This made the American League possible.
Brouthers, Kelley and Keeler were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as players. Jennings, McGraw and Robinson could have been. Instead, they were elected as managers. Gleason was also a major league manager, and apparently more honest than some of his teammates: He was the manager of the 1919 American League Champion Chicago White Sox, and was not involved in the fix of that season's World Series.
Between them, Gleason, Jennings, McGraw and Robinson managed teams that won 16 Pennants. But of them, only McGraw won a World Series as a manager, 3 of them. He and Connie Mack would be the 1st 2 men elected to the Hall as managers.
There's one more field leader who should be mentioned. William Jones Clarke, known as "Boileryard" Clarke because he had a loud voice that could be heard all over the ballpark, was a reserve player, who later coached at Princeton University, whose baseball complex is now named Bill Clarke Field for him. He died on July 29, 1959, and was the last survivor of "the Old Orioles."
It would take until 1954 for Baltimore to return to the major leagues on more than an interim basis. In 1966, the American League's Orioles won their 1st Pennant, and their 1st World Championship. By then, the Old Orioles were so far back, they were a legend. There was no one left to even make them a memory.
No comments:
Post a Comment