ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 19

Charles Ebbets

May 19, 1889–  Much of Brooklyn’s home field Washington Park burns to the ground in a late-night fire.  Team secretary Charles Ebbets vows to rebuild by Decoration Day.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 18

      May 18, 1889—Brooklyn’s Adonis Terry outduels St. Louis Browns ace “Icebox”  Chamberlain to lead the Bridegrooms to a 5 to 3 win in St. Louis.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 17

May 17,1885: After the Brooklyn baseball team gets off to a start of 6 wins and 9 losses, a Brooklyn Eagle headline asks, “What Is the Matter With the Brooklyn Team?”

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 15

May 15, 1889-  The Brooklyn Bridegrooms, after a slow start this season, defeat Cincinnati 10 to 5  for their 6^th straight win as they move into second place behind the St. Louis Browns in the American Association.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 14

May 14,1888  The visiting Brooklyn Bridegrooms defeat Cleveland 7 to 3 in a game  ended in the 6^th inning because of snow and sleet.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 13

Adonis Terry

May 13, 1888—The Brooklyn Bridegrooms win their 6^th game in the last 8 by beating the Philadelphia Athletics 8 to 3 behind pitcher Adonis Terry, who gives up only 4 hits.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 12

May 12, 1883—The Brooklyn Baseball Club plays its first game in the new Washington Park, defeating Trenton of the Interstate League 15 to 6.  The game draws 6,000 people, surpassing the 5,000 at the National League game of the New York Gothams (later the Giants). The same day Brooklyn owner Charles Byrne hires as an assistant young Charles Ebbets.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 11

May 11,1888: After a St. Louis Browns loss, idle Brooklyn moves ahead of St. Louis  into second place in the American Association behind Cincinnati.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 10

May 10, 1890:  Centerfielder Pop Corkhill becomes the first Brooklyn Bridegrooms player in  Dodgers franchise history to hit a home run in the National League as Brooklyn tops Philadelphia 6 to 4.

BROOKLYN THROWS AWAY GAME

Bob Clark

BALTIMORE – (Oct. 8, 1889) The American Association pennant race tightened yesterday at Brooklyn lost to Baltimore  3 to 2 on costly throwing errors by catcher Bob Clark and outfielder Darby O’Brien.

            In game played before only 249 people, Brooklyn went up 1 to 0 in the second inning. But Baltimore struck back in the sixth inning on  Irv  Ray’s double and John  Kerins’ single off Adonis Terry to move ahead 2 to 1.  After Brooklyn tied the score at 2 to 2, Baltimore came to bat in the ninth inning.  After two men were out,  Ray singled and attempted to steal second. Brooklyn catcher Clark threw wild, and Ray reached third.   Kerins then hit a fly ball to left fielder O’Brien, who threw wild to  home, allowing Ray to score the winning run.

            Terry took the loss, even though he gave up only five hits.  Brooklyn got only five hits off Baltimore hurler Frank   Forman.

            St. Louis was idle yesterday, but picked up a half game in the standings. The Browns now trail Brooklyn by only two games.

American Association Standings

 Team                        W            L            Pct.            GB

Brooklyn            88            43            .672

St. Louis            85            44            .659            2

MCGUNNIGLE BOOK MAKES MORE NEWS IN BROCKTON

BROCKTONPOST.COM

Lee, Noddle Leave ‘Em Laughing Out Loud

By Lisa E. Crowley
BrocktonPost
BROCKTON—After a no-holds barred, free-wheeling stand-up talk by former Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee and Brockton Rox coach Ed Noddle about their days in pro and minor league baseball, organizers have nearly met its financial goals for a plaque in honor of Brockton’s Bill McGunnigle—a pioneer and innovater during the early years of baseball.
“I think it put us over the top,” said West Bridgewater resident John McGunnigle, great-grandson of McGunnigle, who as manager/player led the legendary Dodgers franchise, then known as the Brooklyn Bridgegrooms, to an at-the-time unprecedented back-to-back pennants in 1889 and 1890.
The Lee-Noddle inside-baseball discussion, held at Joe Angelo’s Café Sept. 22 and attended by nearly 100 people, featured the two-longtime ballplayers and friends sharing stories from their days in the baseball world, including Lee’s desire to punch out Bill Buckner when they were rising stars in California and Noddle’s memories of former Red Sox manager John McNamara, who beat out Noddle for skipper of the Pawtucket Sox and, who as Manager of the Year, went on to lead the Red Sox to the ill-fated World Series in 1986.

John McGunnigle said he and other supporters are close to having raised the estimated $4,000 toward installing a plaque in Bill McGunnigle’s honor at Campanelli Stadium—home of the Brockton Rox.
About $2,000 of the plaque’s cost was donated by MetroSouth Chamber of Commerce and Brockton 21st Century Corp.
The plaque is estimated to cost about $4,000 to manufacture and install.
John McGunnigle said he will not know the total cost of the plaque until he contacts Rox management to find out the actual cost to install the plaque, but either way, the Sept. 22 event made a large dent in fundraising efforts.
“It was a really fun and great night,” McGunnigle said.

Along with city officials, residents and baseball lovers from near and far, the crowd included Ronald G. Shafer, a 38-year reporter-editor for the Wall Street Journal, who has written a recently published book, “When the Dodgers were Bridgegrooms: Gunner McGunnigle and Brooklyn’s Back-to-Back Pennants of 1889 and 1890.”
Shafer, a resident of Williamsburg, Virginia, is married to Stoughton High School graduate Mary Lynch Rogers, the great-granddaughter of McGunnigle, whose connection to McGunnigle helped turn him on to the pioneering ideas McGunnigle implemented, and tried to implement, into baseball during the game’s formative years. “He really was ahead of his time,” Shafer said. (Pictured below signing book and with wife Mary at Cooperstown-Correction: Dodger Stadium)
Among Gunner McGunnigle’s (pictured, right) many accolades include being the first manager to win back-to-back pennants in 1889 and 1890. Not only did McGunnigle win the two championships, he did it in two different leagues. The Bridgegrooms were in the American Association in 1889 and then moved to the National League for the 1890 pennant.
It is still a feat that has not been repeated, Shafer said.
Shafer said McGunnigle was also the first manager to use hand, bat and other signals to direct players on base to steal or send messages to players identifying pitches the opposing hurler might throw—an advancement that is as much a part of today’s games as those more than 100 years ago.
Shafer said McGunnigle believed alerting his players to opponents pitches was so important he wanted to run electrical lines from the dugout to the batters box to essentially “wire” his players for signals from the bench.
Shafer said while the idea was ahead of its time, it was nixed by an electrician who said there was a chance players could be electrocuted.
McGunnigle is also a disputed inventor of the catcher’s mitt.
Shafer has unearthed a copy of Reach’s Official Baseball Guide from 1875 (below) that cites McGunnigle as using the first catcher’s mitt as a player for the Fall River team.
The guide states McGunnigle cut off the fingers of a brick layer’s gloves and used the glove to protect his hand in a game against a team from Harvard.
One of the Harvard players followed McGunnigle’s example and the catcher’s mitt caught on everywhere except in baseball’s hallowed Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y. where Joe Gunson is credited with wearing the first catcher’s mitt in 1888—13 years after McGunnigle—while playing for a Kansas City team.
Part of the problem surrounding who invented the catcher’s mitt is a distinction between the so-called “pillow mitt” and McGunnigle’s innovation.
“Gunson claimed to have invented what is the modern big ‘pillow’ mitt, and some at the Hall of Fame agree. Other experts say it was Brooklyn Bridegrooms catcher Albert “Doc” Bushong,” Shafer said in an email.
“My book shows that Bushong was already using such a glove when Gunson claimed to have invented his. Doc had a degree in dentistry and wanted to protect his hands for a future career as a dentist, which he became in Brooklyn after retiring,” Shafer said.
Either way, McGunnigle used a glove in 1875–padded or not–to protect his hand from the steam of a pitcher’s velocity.
Shafer said it is too bad McGunnigle doesn’t get the credit he deserves and should have a place at Cooperstown highlighting his innovations because he did so much for the game.
“It was such a long time ago, and the game was changing so quickly and the Hall of Fame came so much later,” Shafer said. “McGunnigle should really have his own place,” Shafer said.
(Top photo, Lee, Joe and Sheila Angelo; McGunnigle photo courtesy Shafer and Hall of Fame; Reach’s Guide page courtesy Shafer)

http://www.brocktonpost.com/

BROOKLYN WINS AT BALTIMORE

               BALTIMORE –  (Oct. 9, 1889) Brooklyn outslugged the Baltimore Orioles 12 to 9 yesterday  in a game marred by cold weather and 15 errors on both sides.

            After trailing 3 to 0, the Bridegrooms came back to take a 6 to 3 lead after four innings paced by pitcher Bob Caruther’s triple. Then it was the Orioles’s turn to rally, moving up 9 to 7 after six innings, aided by misplays by Brooklyn shortstop Germany Smith. In the seventh inning, three errors by the Baltimore side and a single by catcher Joe Visiner put Brooklyn back in the lead 11 to 9.   Brooklyn added another run in the eighth inning.

            St. Louis kept pace in the American Association pennant race by downing Louisville 9 to 3 with Jack Stivetts pitching the win. The Browns and the Bridegrooms each have only five games left in the season.

 American Association Standings

 Team                        W            L            Pct.            GB

Brooklyn            89            43            .674

St. Louis            86            44            .662

NEW DAD CARUTHERS WINS FOR SECOND STRAIGHT DAY

Bob Caruthers

BALTIMORE –  (Oct. 10, 1889)  Brooklyn ace Bob Caruthers, pitching for the second straight day,  notched his 40^th win of the season, but his first as a brand new dad.

            The Bridegrooms beat Baltimore 17 to 9 as Caruthers decided to stay here and pitch rather than return to Brooklyn to see his first child, a boy, who was born yesterday morning.

            When Caruthers informed club president Charles Byrne of the blessed event, Byrne assumed that his pitcher would want to take time off to go home.  “We cannot spare you but nevertheless I will grant you a leave of absence,”  Byrne said.

            To his surprise, Caruthers declined. ““The telegram says that my wife is doing well, and I know that in case I should go home and the club should then lose games she as well as I would be worried, and that might do more harm than if I remained away. I will therefore stay with the club until the season closes.”

            So Caruthers, who had pitched Brooklyn to a win over Baltimore in the tight American Association race the day before, was again in the box yesterday. Brooklyn went ahead in the first inning when Darby O’Brien doubled and scored on a single by third baseman George Pinkney.  But Caruthers, perhaps still nervous over his new state of fatherhood, gave up five runs to Baltimore in the bottom of the first.

            The Bridegrooms came right back the next inning to tie the game 5 to 5, knocking Baltimore pitcher Matt  Kilroy out of the box.  In the fourth inning, Brooklyn battered Kilroy’s replacement, Frank Foreman, for five more runs, led by a triple by catcher Joe Visner. Brookliyn wound up with 20 hits in the game, while Baltimore roughed up Caruthers for 14 knocks. Still, Parisian Bob’s decision to stick with the team paid off as the righthander improved his record to 40 wins and 10 losses.

             St. Louis kept pace in the pennant race as Icebox Chamberlain picked up this 31^st win aganst 15 losses to lead the Browns to a 8 to 4  win over Louisville. Browns catcher Jocko Milligan led the attack with two homers and five runs batted in. 

           Chris Von der Ahe, the St. Louis owner, isn’t giving up on his team taking the pennant. “ I think we still have a good chance of winning,” he said yesterday in Louisville.  “If the Brooklyns slip up we’ll be on them like a duck on a dung pile.”

American Association Standings

Team                        W            L            Pct            GB

Brooklyn            90            43            .677

St. Louis            87            44            .664            2

CLARK PACES BROOKLYN WIN

Bob Clark

    BALTIMORE—(Oct. 11, 1889) Catcher Bob Clark led Brooklyn to a  7 to 2  win over Baltimore yesterday  behind the pitching of Adonis Terry. But St. Louis refused to fade from the tight American Association pennant race.

            With the score tied 2 to 2, Brooklyn broke open yesterday’s game by plating four runs in the seventh inning. Clark singled, Terry reached on an error and both players scored on Darby O’Brien’s double.  Dave “Needles” Foutz also doubled in two runs in the same inning.

            Clark was the star of the day with four hits, four runs, two steals and seven put outs, plus one assist. Terry gave up only seven hits as he won his 20th game of the season.

            The Bridegrooms were “full of ginger” as they headed to Columbus, Ohio, for the final three games of the season. Three wins there will seal the flag for Brooklyn.  St. Louis remained only two games behind by beating Louisville 9 to 1 as Jack Stivetts raised his record to 12 wins and 6 losses.

American Association Standings

Team                        W            L            GB

Brookliyn            91            43

St. Louis            88            44            2

BROOKLYN PLANS PARADE IF BRIDEGROOMS WIN

            BROOKLYN, N.Y. – (Oct. 12) Although the American Association pennant race hasn’t been decided yet, city officials here yesterday announced plans to celebrate the “coming champions” Brooklyn Bridegrooms when the team returns home next week.

            Following three games at Columbus, the team is scheduled to ride home next Tuesday by train to Jersey City and to then go by boat to Brooklyn.  The plan is to meet the squad at 5 p.m. when it arrives by boat at Fulton Ferry.  The team would be taken in carriages to  Washington Park, escorted by members of local baseball clubs in uniform, carrying torches and led by a military band. Fireworks would be fired off en route. Also planned is a reception and banquet at the Academy of Music’s assembly rooms.

            All that remains is for Brooklyn to win the three games in Brooklyn to stay ahead of St. Louis, which yesterday played an exhibition game against the National League’s Indianapolis team.  Indianapolis won.The Browns are at fourth-place Cincinnati

 American Association Standings

Team                        W            L            GB

 Brooklyn            91            43            .679

St. Louis             88            44            .667            2

Oct. 12

RACE TIGHTENS; POP CORKHILL HAS BAD DAY FOR BROOKLYN

Pop Corkhill

           COLUMBUS, Ohio— (Oct. 13) The sixth-place Columbus Babies threw the American Association pennant race into a tizzy yesterday by upsetting first-place Brooklyn 7 to 5. 

            The crucial game was scoreless for the first four innings as Columbus’s Mark Baldwin and Brooklyn’s 40-game winner Bob Caruthers matched goose eggs. Then Baldwin opened the fifth inning with a homer over the left field fence to give Columbus a 1 to 0 lead.

            In the bottom of the fifth,  three bases on balls and an error by shortstop Lefty Marr gave Brooklyn a run.  Oyster Burns’s safe hit knocked in two more tallies, and a wild pitch by Baldwin put Brooklyn up 4 to 1.

            Brooklyn was up 5 to 2 and on its way to another win when Columbus came to bat in the ninth inning.  Baldwin opened with a single to center. With one out, Marr also singled to center.  Pop Corkhill fielded the ball and threw wildly to third, allowing Baldwin to score.  Ed    Dailey pounded another hit, sending in Marr to narrow the score to 5 to 4.  Caruthers walked the next batter, Jack  Crooks.  Columbus fans cheered wildly as Spud Johnson came to the plate.  The cheers turned to moan when Johnson hit a fly ball towards Corkhill.  The moans turned to cheers again when Corkhill misjudged the ball, which sailed over his head. Dailey and Crooks raced home to put Columbus up 6 to 5. 

            The crowd rose with wild cheering.  Fans threw cushions and hats on the field in an celebration that lasted at least ten minutes. When peace was restored, Dave Orr hit a sacrifice fly to score Johnson to make the final score 7 to 5.

        The Brooklyn loss “was a godsend for St. Louis, as it improves the Browns’ chances decidedly,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch cheered. “They are now within .007 of the Bridegrooms, being tied with them in the matter of games lost and three games behind them in the games won.”  The St. Louis game at Cincinnati yesterday was rained out.

American Association Standings

 Team                        W            L            PCT        GB

Brooklyn            91            44            .674

St. Louis            88            44            .667        1 l/2

TERRY PITCHES BIG WIN FOR BROOKLYN

            COLUMBUS, Ohio –(Oct. 14, 1889) Adonis Terry yesterday pitched Brooklyn one step closer to its first American Association pennant in a 2 to 1 win over Columbus.

            More than 6,000 fans turned out for the game in the Ohio capital despite cold, windy weather. They were treated to a pitching duel between Terry and Hank Gastwright.

            Columbus went up 1 to 0 in the very first inning when Terry walked  Jim McTamany, who proceeded to steal both second and third base.  He raced home on a sacrifice bunt by Ed Dailey.

            Brooklyn came back to tie the score in the bottom of the inning when Darby O’Brien and Oyster Burns each walked.  The two men pulled a double steal as Dave “Needles” Foutz fanned for the second out.  George Pinkney’s single sent O’Brien home but Burns was thrown out at the plate.

            In Brooklyn’s third inning, Hub Collins struck out but raced to first when the catcher missed the ball.  Collins then stole second on the first pitch and scored on a single by Burns, to make the score 2 to 1.

            The score stayed that way as the Bridesgroom bounced back from the previous day’s shocking defeat. Terry gave up only four hits as he won his 21st game of the season. Brooklyn got only three hits off of Gastright.

       Brooklyn has only one game left in the season, and its 40-game winner Bob Caruthers is expected to be in the box today against Columbus.  Meantime,  St. Louis’s game at Cincinnati was again rained out.

American Association Standings

 Team                        W            L            Pct            GB

Brooklyn                92            44            .676

St. Louis                 88            44            .667            2

TERRY DOES IT AGAIN, BUT HOLD THE CHAMPAGNE

Adonis Terry

COLUMBUS, Ohio –(Oct. 15, 1889) William “Adonis” Terry, pitching for the second straight day, led the Brooklyn Bridegrooms to a 6 to 1 win over Columbus to apparently clinch the first major league pennant in team history.

            But the celebration was cut short by the news that St. Louis owner Chris Von der Ahe had won approval by the American Association Board of Directors to extend the season so that his Browns could make up four postponed games. St. Louis defeated Cincinnati yesterday 5 to 1, so if St. Louis can win all four games the Browns can still tie Brooklyn for first place.

            Terry, the only remaining player from Brooklyn’s first team in 1883, was the hero again yesterday. Manager Bill McGunnigle had planned to pitch Bob Caruthers, but decided to send out Terry again after he so easily handled the Columbus team the previous day. This time the handsome righthander gave up only five hits and held his poise amid heckling from the noisy crowd. 

            “Will Terry has, by his gentlemanly conduct on all occasions, by his strictly temperate habits, determined pluck and perserverance in the face of difficulties, and earnest effort to do his best for the welfare of the club, long ago earned a reputation second to that of no one in the professional fraternity,” wrote Henry Chadwick, the legendary sportswriter for the Brooklyn Eagle. “But in the effective work he did in the box in the last two critical contests in Columbus he added laurels to his wreath which make him the star of his company in the closing battles of the campaign.”           

             In addition, Terry tripled in the fifth inning and scored on one of four errors by Columbus shortstop Lefty Marr. The Adonis ended the regular season with a record of 22 wins and 15 losses.

            St. Louis had a King up its sleeve — pitcher Silver King—to keep pace with Brooklyn.  Though King had been suspended for the rest of the season,  owner Von der Ahe allowed him back to pitch the critical game against Cincinnati.  King responded by notching his 35^th win of the season against 16 losses.

            After the games Brooklyn officials received news of the action to allow St. Louis to play games beyond the official end of the season Oct.   14 by making up two games with Cincinnati and two with the Philadelphia Athletics.  The immediate impact of the action was to rain on parade plans by the city of Brooklyn when the team returns home tomorrow night. “It is inadvisable to have our friends make any arrangements for our reception,” said Brooklyn President Charles Byrne, who was furious at the league action.

         This “ simply makes our championship race a farce. If we are deprived of the victory we have justly earned by these methods, we must trust our cause to an honest press and public sentiment,” Byrne said. 

American Association Standings

Team                        W            L            GB

 Brooklyn            93            44

St. Louis              89            44            2

IT’S OFFICIAL: BROOKLYN WINS THE PENNANT!

Champion 1889 Brooklyn Bridegrooms

BROOKLYN,  N.Y. – (Oct. 16, 1889) The Brooklyn Bridegrooms won their first major league pennant in the team’s six-year  history as second-place St. Louis lost the first game of a double header in Cincinnati.

            Cincinnati ended the suspense early by going up 5 to 0 in the first two innings against Jack Stivetts and won the game 8 to 3.  Even though the Browns won the second game 2 to 1,  Brooklyn needed only one St. Louis loss to clinch the American Assocition championship.  The Browns had won 12 straight games before losing yesterday.

            When news reached Brooklyn, the City of Churches went bonkers. Flags went up at city hall, and the city prepared to meet their conquering heroes when the team returned from Columbus.  Team members did not know that St. Louis had lost until they arrived to cheering crowds at the Jersey City train station. Club President Charley Byrne, who had been working toward this day since he helped start the club in 1883, was visibly relieved.

            The players boarded a boat to Brooklyn, and loud cheers could be heard as the vessel approached Fulton Ferry where thousands were waiting for them. Though formal ceremonies had been canceled because of the St. Louis maneuvering, the city erupted in spontaneous celebration.  The players boarded carriages that paraded through the streets of Brooklyn, past city hall and then to Washington Park, where still more cheering fans were waiting. 

            The crowd was so large that star pitcher Bob Caruthers, manager Bill McGunnigle and team secretary Charley Ebbets missed the team carriages and took the elevated train to Washington Park.

            Amid the celebration, president Byrne made plans to meet with officials of the National League champion New York Giants tomorrow to arrange a post-season “World’s Series” between the two teams.  A celebration dinner for the champion Bridegrooms also is planned  Oct. 24  at Brooklyn’s Academy of Music.

Final American Association Standings

Team                        W            L            GB

Brooklyn             93            44

St. Louis              90            45            2

1889 WORLD’S SERIES REPORTS

Follow daily coverage of the 1889 World’s Series between the Brooklyn Bridegrooms and the New York Giants by clicking on “News.”

WARD LEADS GIANTS OVER BROOKLYN

JOHN MONTGOMERY WARD

BROOKLYN, N.Y.  (Oct. 26, 1889) Bill “Adonis” Terry pitched Brooklyn to within one inning  of taking a commanding lead in the World’s Series yesterday, but New York’s John Montgomery Ward rode to a late-inning rescue to deadlock the post-season classic at 3 games to 3.

            Terry, a 22-game winner this season, was magnificent as he held the heavy-hitting Giants scoreless through eight innings at Washington Park.  Meantime, Brooklyn took a 1 to 0 lead in the top of the second inning off Hank O’Day.  George Pinkney singled, and Joe Visner slapped another base hit to left field, but Pinkney was thrown out trying to go to third.  Terry singled to send Visner home, but reserve shortstop Jumbo Davis hit into a double play to end the inning.  Davis was playing in place of George “Germany” Smith, who was out “sick.”  Translation: He had a hangover from the previous night’s team banquet.

            Terry and O’Day then dueled into the ninth inning, with Terry giving up only three hits.  When Terry retired the first two Giants in the top of the ninth, victory was almost in hand for the Bridegrooms.  The Adonis had two strikes on star shortstop John Montgomery Ward, New York’s last hope, when Ward slapped a bounding single to right field.  Then, with Visner behind the plate instead of the injured Bob Clark, Ward stole second base and then third base.  Roger Connor slapped a ground ball to shortstop Davis that Germany Smith normally would have gobbled up to nail down the win.  But Davis muffed the ball. Giants fans roared as Ward raced home to tie the game at 1 to 1.

            The teams remained tied going into the 11^th inning.   Mike  Slattery, filling in for the injured George Gore, slapped a single to right field. After Terry retired the next batter, Buck Ewing sacrificed Slattery to second base.  Again, the batter was Monte Ward.  This time Ward socked a ground ball to shortstop Davis and streaked for first like a deer.  The throw by Davis to first was too late. Meantime, Slattery rounded third and raced home to put New York up 2 to 1.

            O’Day set Brooklyn down scoreless in the bottom of the llth inning to give New York the crucial win. As the teams left the field, the New York fans cheered their hero, “Ward, Ward, Johnny Ward.” 

TEN THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THE WORLD SERIES

By Ronald G. Shafer, author of When the Dodgers Were Bridegrooms

                                                                   THE QUESTIONS:

Did Cy Young Ever win the Cy Young Award?

             1.  Where did the name World Series come from?

           2.  Who won the first “World’s Series.”?

            3.   When was the first subway series in New York?

            4.  What manager got stiffed when players divided their winner shares?

            5.  When were the first post- season games called the World Series?

            6.  Who hit the first home run in World Series history?

            7.  Who pitched the first shutout in World Series history?

            8.  What was the first National League team to win a World Series?

            9.  Who was the first African-American to pitch in a World Series game?

            10.  Who made the final out when the New York Yankees’ Don Larsen pitched the only World Series no-hitter and perfect game in 1956?

            THE ANSWERS

             1.  Back in 1885 when the St. Louis Browns (now the Cardinals) won the major league American Association pennant, owner Chris Von der Ahe challenged Albert Spalding, the owner of the National League champion Chicago White Stockings (now the Cubs), to a “world championship series.”  That name was too long for newspaper headlines, so the papers shortened it to “World’s Series.”

            2.  That would be Nobody.  St. Louis claimed victory 4 games to 3 , but that didn’t count the second game when Browns  captain Charley Comiskey (the same guy who later built Chicago’s Comiskey Park) pulled his team off the field in protest to end the game.  Chicago counted the same game as a forfeit win.  In the end, the two owners agreed to call the series a tie, 4  games to 4.

            3.  In 1889 the New York Giants beat the Brooklyn Bridegrooms (now the Dodgers) 6 games to 3.  It wasn’t really a subway series, though,  because subways hadn’t been invented yet.  It was more of an elevated train series, because that’s how fans traveled then – or by horse and buggy. 

            4.   In that 1889 series,  New York Giants players each got $380.13 from the games   but didn’t vote a share to manager Jim Mutrie. Maybe it was because Mutrie was part of management as a co-founder of the team.  As a consolation, the night after the Giants won the series all of the bars along Broadway served Mutrie free drinks.  Brooklyn players voted a full losers’ share to their manager Bill “Gunner” McGunnigle.

            5.  The first World Series was in 1903 when the Boston Americans in the new American League defeated the National League champs Pittsburgh Pirates 5 games to 3. The Boston Americans soon after became the Boston Red Sox, thus providing early proof that the Red Sox didn’t always choke down the stretch.

            6.  In the very first inning of that 1903 game Pittsburgh right fielder Jimmy Sebring, a .277 hitter that year, hit an inside-the-park homer off Boston pitcher Cy Young.   Pittsburgh won the game 7 to 3 but Boston won the Series 5 games to 3.

            7.  Boston right-hander Bill Dineen, in the second game of the 1903 Series, blanked Pittsburgh 3 to 0, giving up 3 hits. In that same game,  Boston’s left fielder Patsy Dougherty, a .331 hitter during the season, became the first player to hit 2 home runs in one World Series game.

            8.  In 1905, the National League New York Giants defeated the Philadelphia Athletics 4 games to 1.  Giants pitcher Christy Mathewson pitched three shutouts. (There was no World Series in 1904.)

            9.   In 1948, the legendary Satchel Paige pitched two/thirds of an inning for the Cleveland Indians against the Boston Braves, giving up no runs as Boston won 11 to 5.  Paige was approaching Social Security age at the time. Cleveland went on to win the series 4 games to 2.

            10.  Brooklyn Dodgers pinch hitter Dale Mitchell took a third strike called by umpire Babe Pinelli that Mitchell and even many Yankee players thought was high and outside.  But, hey, how often does an ump get to umpire a perfect no-hitter in a World Series? 

GIANTS GO UP A GAME IN WORLD’S SERIES

TIM KEEFE

NEW YORK – (Oct. 27, 1889) The New York Giants took a 4 game to 3 lead over the Brooklyn Bridegrooms in the World’s Series with a convincing 10 to 7  win here yesterday.

            The Giants battered Brooklyn starting pitcher Tom Lovett, a 17-game winner during the season, in his first appearance in the Series.  New York scored eight runs off Lovett in the second-inning before manager Bill McGunnigle ended the pitcher’s misery by bringing in ace Bob Caruthers.

            Wet weather held the crowd to under 3,000 people, the smallest at the Polo Grounds for any Saturday game this season.  Cannonball Crane was again the pitcher for New York, and he blanked the Bridegrooms in the top of the first inning. In New York’s half of the inning, Mike Slattery reached second on a throwing error by third baseman George Pinkney and scored on Buck Ewing’s single to make the score 1 to 0.

            Then in the bottom of the second inning, the roof caved in on Lovett. Jim O’Rourke doubled to left, and Lovett walked the next two batters to load the bases.  Mike Tiernan singled to center, batting in two runs. Buck Ewing knocked in another with a single to right. Roger Connor doubled, and Danny Richardson  homered over the left field fence. Then O’Rourke slugged another homer, this one over the center field fence. New York was up 9 to 0.

            Brooklyn didn’t give up, though. Darby O’Brien opened the third inning with a walk, and Hub Collins slapped a base hit.  Crane walked the next two batters, forcing home Brooklyn’s first run.  With the bases loaded, Pinkney singled in a second run. An error by shortstop John Montgomery Ward gave the Bridegrooms a third tally, and an infield forceout added another, making the score 9 to 4.

            In the bottom of the fourth inning, Brooklyn manager Bill “Gunner” McGunnigle sent Bob  Caruthers in to replace the shell-shocked Lovett.  Parisian Bob held New York at bay as Brooklyn continued its comeback in the fifth inning.  Tom “Oyster” Burns led off with a walk and went to second on a single by Dave “Needles” Foutz.  Pop Corkhill walked to load the bases, which were then emptied by George “Germany” Smith, who socked a triple to left field.  Smith tried to score on the play, but leftfielder O’Rourke retrieved the ball from beneath the seats and threw the Brooklyn player out at home plate.  But the hit narrowed New York’s lead to 9 to 7.

            New York finally got to Caruthers for a run in the sixth inning, making the score 10 to 7. Then in the seventh inning, New York manager Jim Mutrie sent his ace Tim Keefe in to replace Crane in the pitcher’s box.  New York added another run in the bottom of the inning to make the score 11 to 7. Keefe proceeded to shut down the Bridegrooms without a hit  in the final three innings to secure the win for the Giants. Today will be an off day since it is Sunday, and the Series will resume in Brooklyn on Monday.

BROOKLYN, GIANTS WIN AT BOX OFFICE

             BROOKLYN—(Oct 28, 1889) There was no World’s Series game yesterday since it was a Sunday, but both the Brooklyn and New York clubs are counting their blessings at the box office.

            Even though rainy weather and transportation snarls have held down attendance at some of the first seven games of the best-of-11 Series, gate receipts already have exceeded the total for last year’s 10-game series between New York and St. Louis.  The Series so far has drawn 41,815 people. At a minimum ticket price of 50 cents, that totals more than $20,000, not including the extra charge for grand stand tickets. When the latter is calculated, the total so far easily will be double the  $24,000 taken in last year for the entire series.

            So far, crowds  at Brooklyn’s Washington Park are running ahead of the crowds at New York’s Polo Grounds.  This was not unexpected.  During the regular season, Brooklyn’s attendance of more than 353,000 people was the highest in baseball history and fully 50,000 more than the previous record.

            The World’s Series will resume here today.

GIANTS NEAR CHAMPIONSHIP AGAINST BROOKLYN

CANNONBALL CRANE

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – (Oct. 29, 1889) New York moved within one game of winning its second straight World’s Series  championship yesterday with a 16 to 7 drubbing of the Brooklyn Bridegrooms.

            The Giants pummeled Brooklyn’s Adonis Terry, who up until yesterday had been Brooklyn’s most effective pitcher in the Series. Meantime, Cannonball Crane rolled up his third win in the post-season contests.

            New York began the shelling in the first inning when the Giants loaded the bases, and Roger Connor knocked in two runs with a single to right field.  Danny Richardson singled in two more runs, stole third and came home on a sacrifice fly to give New York an early 5 to 0 lead.

            Brooklyn struck back in its half of the inning when Hub Collins walked, and Dave “Needles” Foutz hit a hot liner to right center that got by Mike Slattery for a two-run homer.

            New York silenced hopes of a Brooklyn comeback in the second inning by adding four more runs to make the score 9 to 2.  In the third, Art Whitney batted in another run to make it 10 to 2 Giants. New York piled it on against Terry in the fourth, boosting the score to 12 to 2 led by Connor’s triple.

            That was all for Terry. In the fifth inning, the Adonis switched places with first baseman Foutz, who took over the pitching.  Foutz blanked New York in the fifth, but in the sixth inning the Giants opened their lead to 15 to 2 as many of the Brooklyn faithful began exiting the stands.

            The Bridegrooms attempted a come-back in the eighth inning as Oyster Burns hit a two-run homer to narrow the score to 15 to 4.  But after New York added a run in the top of the ninth, the Bridegrooms trailed 16 to 4 as they came up for their last bats. Darby O’Brien tripled in two runs and scored on a passed ball. But it was too little, too late.  The teams play again tomorrow at New York’s Polo Grounds, with Brooklyn needing a win to stay alive.

GIANTS WIN WORLD’S SERIES!

BUCK EWING

NEW YORK, N.Y. – (Oct. 30,1889) The New York Giants captured their second straight World’s Series championship yesterday with a 3 to 2 win over the Brooklyn Bridegrooms. After trailing in the Series three games to one, New York won five straight games.

            The plucky Brooklyn boys didn’t go out without a fight.  The Bridegrooms jumped off to a first-inning lead against Hank O’Day when Darby O’Brien walked, Hub Collins bunted his way on and Oyster Burns knocked in both men with a long double to the center field fence.

            Adonis Terry, who had been badly battered by New York in the previous game, was in the box again for Brooklyn.  The Giants quickly made the score 2 to 1 as Mike Tiernan doubled and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by John Montgomery Ward.  Brooklyn squandered several scoring chances against O’Day, and in the sixth inning New York finally tied the score 2 to 2 when Ward reached first on an error, stole second and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Danny Richardson.

            In the Giants’ seventh,  Terry walked O’Day, Slattery hit into a force out and then stole second base. Terry buckled down and struck out the great Buck Ewing, which should have ended the inning.  But Brooklyn catcher Doc Bushong muffed the pitch for a passed ball, allowing Slattery to score the go-ahead run.  Terry got New York out without further damage, but now Brooklyn trailed 3 to 2.

            The Bridegrooms were still down by a run when they came to bat in the bottom of the ninth in a do-or-die situation.  Germany Smith bunted and reached first when pitcher O’Day bobbled the ball. Bushong, already the goat of the game because of his passed ball, then bunted into a double play. Darby O’Brien walked to keep Brooklyn’s hopes alive. But when O’Brien tried to steal second base, catcher Ewing gunned him down for the final out, giving New York the world’s championship for the second straight year.

            Brooklyn put up a stronger battle than most experts had expected against the mighty Giants, but in the end the team from across the bridge was just too strong. Buck Ewing and John Montgomery Ward made all the difference.

BRIDEGROOMS HONOR MCGUNNIGLE

Bill McGunnigle

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – (Oct 31, 1889) The players for the world champion New York Giants and the Brooklyn Bridegrooms each met the day after the end of the World’s Series to divvy up their shares of the game receipts.  The Bridegrooms also presented a surprise gift to their manager Bill “Gunner” McGunnigle.

            The Giants gathered yesterday at the Polo Grounds where owner Tom Day announced that New York had taken in $12,056.15 from the Series.  Each Giants player received $380.13  from the games, but a total of about $500 each including  proceeds from the benefit show at the New York Opera House. Oddly, the team did not vote a share to manager Jim Mutrie, perhaps because he is part of management as a co-founder of the team.  The night after the Giants won the Series, however, Mutrie received free drinks at the bars all along Broadway.

            The Bridegrooms met yesterday at Washington Park.  President Charles Byrne reported that each Brooklyn player would get $359. 61.  The players voted a full share to manager Bill “Gunner” McGunnigle. 

            The team then presented their manager with a $200  gold watch.  Dave “Needles” Foutz spoke for his teammates when he said, “Hoping your heart will beat long after the machinery of this watch has rusted into dust, we remain your friends and admirers, the Brooklyn Baseball Club.”

            McGunnigle, obviously blushing during the presentation,  responded, “Boys, you caught me unprepared.  I can assure that you whatever happens the watch will not visit my ‘uncle’; that it will be kept in a chamois case and that it will always be carried  in a pocket over my heart.”

            Just as the 1889 World’s Series ended, the National Brotherhood of Professional Baseball Players confirmed rumors by announcing yesterday that its members – including many of the game’s star players — would form a third major league, the Players’ League, in 1890.  The new league will include a team in New York made up of many players of the champion Giants.  Another team in Brooklyn will be managed by New York’s star shortstop John Montgomery Ward.

            There also are unconfirmed rumors that the 1889 American Association champions Brooklyn Bridegrooms may switch to the National League in 1890.

            .

BOOK SIGNING SET NOV. 20

             I will be signing copies of When the Dodgers Were Bridegrooms at the William & Mary Barnes and Noble bookstore in Williamsburg, Va.,  on Sunday, Nov. 20 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thanks for checking out my website and would love to hear your comments.

TEN THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THE FIRST DODGERS OWNERS

     The Los Angeles Dodgers soon will have a new owner after Frank McCourt finally agreed to give up the storied franchise that began in Brooklyn in 1883. How did it all start? 

1, Who were the first owners of the Dodgers franchise?

A. Charles H. Byrne, a New York real estate developer, and George J. Taylor, a former night editor of the New York Herald Tribune. It was Taylor’s idea to start a team in Brooklyn in 1883. Like most newspapermen, Taylor had little money, but he did have a lease on property in Brooklyn. After costs of building Washington Park rose to over $30,000, Byrne recruited two casino owners — his brother-in-law Joseph Doyle and Ferdinand “Gus” Abell, who became the team’s chief financial backer.

2. When did the team begin playing?

A. In 1883 in the minor league Interstate Association. When the first-place Camden, N.J., team folded in mid-season,Brooklyn bought their top players and won the flag.

3. When did Brooklyn join the major leagues?

A. In 1884 in the American Association,then a major league along with the older National League.

4. Who was the team’s first manager?

A. George Taylor in 1883 and 1884, before he returned to the newspaper business. Co-owner Byrne also was the manager from mid-1885 to 1887.

5. Who was the driving force in the ownership?

A. Charley Byrne clearly was in charge. A small, visionary and intelligent man known as the “Napoleon of Base Ball,” he was widely considered one of baseball’s top owners. He developed baseball as a business aimed at attracting a broad fan base. He was the leading advocate of Ladies Day, which he believed improved behavior at games. He invented non-smoking sections and the rain check. In 1889, Brooklyn set a 19th century season attendance record of 354,000.

6. What other contributions did Byrne make to baseball?

A. Among other things, he was responsible for creating coaching boxes. In the early rowdy days of baseball, base coaches such as St. Louis’s Charles Comiskey would run up next to the catcher and yell obscenities in his ear. In 1886, Byrne pushed through a rule requiring bases coaches to stay 75 feet from home plate.

7. When did the team win its first pennant?

A. The Brooklyn Bridegrooms – its nickname after several players married just before the 1888 season— won the American Association pennant in 1889 after Byrne purchased the entire New York Mets team and three star players from the champion St. Louis team and hired manager William “Gunner” McGunnigle. Brooklyn played the New York Giants in the “World’s Series,” losing 6 games to 3.

8. When did Brooklyn win its second pennant?

A. Brooklyn switched to the National League in 1890 and became the only team in baseball history to win consecutive pennants in two different major leagues. That year top players revolted and formed a third major league, but Brooklyn players remained loyal due to Byrne’s generous treatment. Byrne and Chicago owner Al Spalding were credited with killing the players’ league after one season.

9. How did the owners save the franchise in 1891?

A. After the 1890 baseball war left all teams in dire financial straits, the Bridegrooms took on investors from the players’ league Brooklyn team, who insisted on replacing McGunnigle with player-manager John Montgomery Ward. Brooklyn didn’t win its next pennants until 1899 and 1900 after merging with the Baltimore Orioles.

10. What happened to the original owners?

A. Charley Byrne died in 1898 at age 55. He was succeeded as club president by Charles Ebbets, whom Byrne had hired in 1883 as a ticket taker. In 1892, Joe Doyle sold out to Gus Abell, who became majority owner. In 1902, he sold out to Ebbets, who owned the team until his death in 1925. In 1932, the team was officially named the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Ron Shafer,, When the Dodgers Were Bridegrooms, Gunner McGunnigle and Brooklyn’s Back-to-Back Pennants of 1889 and 1890 (McFarland Publishing) 2544 William Tankard Drive Williamsburg, Va. 23185 757 345-6227 ronshafer1@gmail.com www.brooklyndodgershistory.com

LARRY KING A DODGERS OWNER? WOULD PLAYERS WEAR SUSPENDERS?

                                                                                           Famous TV talk show house Larry King reportedly is part of a group seeking to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers. Larry, who now lives in Los Angeles, has been a Dodgers fan since he grew up in Brooklyn and rooted for the Brooklyn Dodgers. According to ESPN

      Larry King, the legendary talk-show host who has a small stake in one of the investment groups seeking to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers, ripped outgoing Dodgers owner Frank McCourt during an interview with 710 ESPN’s Steve Mason and John Ireland on Wednesday, saying McCourt has “destroyed” the storied franchise.

      “He has destroyed this team, and it is just sad to me to see what has happened to it,” said King, who is part of a group headed by Chicago White Sox executive and Beverly Hills insurance agent Dennis Gilbert.

    King, a longtime Dodgers season-ticket holder and a visible presence in the Dugout Club seats at many home games, said McCourt’s biggest failure was that he became too enamored of the trappings of being the owner of the club at the expense of his responsibility to put a competitive team on the field.

    “I think Frank got caught up in the L.A. aspect of the life,” King said. “The Dodgers became secondary to the … lifestyle of being Frank McCourt, Dodger owner. He liked that image of walking into a room. Basically, he is a nice guy, I don’t think he is an owner. I just don’t think he is cut out to own a baseball team. He is cut out to be a real estate guy who does deals. He is a deal guy … .

    “I am a fan. I’m paying over $300 a seat for every game, I have six seats. I’m putting this money into the team, I hope they do well. I would like to see the owner do well. But instead of bidding for the top free agents, he’s buying another house. … If I run into Frank, I’m kind, I smile and I say hello, and he says hello. He has been to my house for dinner when he first got the team. But … he’s not cut out to be an owner, and I think the league made a mistake, frankly, in giving him the franchise.”

   King, who also was part of a Gilbert-led group that tried to buy the Texas Rangers when that club was in bankruptcy more than a year ago, confirmed that his financial stake in the group is comparatively small. The primary backing for the group comes from Jason Reese and Randy Wooster, two top executives with Imperial Capital, a Los Angeles-based investment bank.

    King, who said he has been a Dodgers fan since his uncle took him to his first Brooklyn Dodgers game at Ebbets Field in 1943, added that improvements to 50-year-old Dodger Stadium should be first on the new owner’s list of priorities.

“   It is still a great stadium, but it needs work,” he said. “I want to see the Dodgers come first. If we own the team today, I think we should go into hock to try to get anybody we can get that is at the top of that [free-agent] list,” including, he added, Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder.

    “If the club costs a billion, you’re going to have to put another hundred, $200 million into this, because this is a franchise that demands a winner. This is L.A. This is not some small little hick town. This is L.A., and L.A. deserves the best. I think that should be our goal.”

Tony Jackson covers the Dodgers for ESPNLosAngeles.com. Follow him on Twitter.

MORE NOTICE FOR WHEN THE DODGERS WERE BRIDEGROOMS

       Just in time for Christmas, the website Steve Goddard’s History Wire’s list of books added my When the Dodgers Were Bridegrooms. Goddard regularly lists   books of interest, so thanks, Steve, for listing mine on the  History Wire.  Baseball books make great gifts for baseball fans.

THIS DAY IN EARLY BROOKLYN, LOS ANGELES DODGERS BASEBALL HISTORY

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Welcome to a new feature, This Day in Early Dodgers History.  Each day this site will feature an event or development in the early history of Brooklyn Dodgers baseball that happened on that date. Here’s today’s entry:

     Jan. 1, 1888:  The New York Clipper comments on free-spending Brooklyn club owners Charles Byrne, Gus Abell and Joe Doyle after a poor 1887 season:  “Their team, lacking energy and earnestness in their work, have finished a bad sixth in the race and this result roused up the club trio to extra exertions in getting together a winning team for 1888.”

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY

Sportswriter Henry Chadwick

Jan. 2, 1883:  Brooklyn sportswriter Henry Chadwick reminisces about “base ball” back in the 1860s, when umpires didn’t call balls and strikes unless a batter simply refused to swing at anything:  “I once saw Al Smith, in a match between the Brooklyn Atlantics and the New York Mutuals, pitch sixty balls to one batsman before the first strike was called.”

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 3

Jan. 3, 1886:  The Brooklyn Bridegrooms try to sign two New York Metropolitan players – first baseman Dave Orr and outfielder Chief Roseman –after the major league American Association goes to court to try to block the sale of the Mets to a Staten Island group headed by Erustus Wiman, who owns the Staten Island ferry

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY

JAN. 4, 1898 –

    Charles H. Byrne, the co-founder and first president of the Brooklyn  baseball franchise, dies in New York of Bright’s Disease at age 55.  Sporting Life says Byrne “was easily the greatest magnate of them all.” Among other things, Byrne was the leading innovator of Ladies Day and invented non-smoking sections, the rain check, coaching boxes and the first triple header in baseball history.

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY

                                                                                JAN. 5, 1885:

Germany Smith

Brooklyn signs several top players of  the National League’s former Cleveland team at 12:10 a.m, –  the precise end of a 10-day waiting period to sign released players — after hiding the players in a Cleveland hotel so rival clubs wouldn’t have a chance to  bid for them.  The new players include shortstop Germany Smith and third basemen George Pinkney.

THIS DAY IN DODGERS HISTORY

George Pinkney

                      JAN. 6,  1889: 

Brooklyn’s George Pinkney, in a Brooklyn Eagle article, describes the desired attributes of a third sacker:  “A good third baseman should be a wideawake and lively man, because he has little time to consider after a ball is hit to him, for they are of the hot and sharp kind.”

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY

JAN. 7, , 1891:  E. F. Linton, a stockholder in the group owning the Brooklyn team  known as Ward’s Wonders in the former Players’ League,  wins a temporary court injunction barring a consolidation of the team with the National League Brooklyn Bridegrooms club

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 8

MICKEY HUGHES

  Jan. 8, 1889: 

Brooklyn pitcher Mickey Hughes is criticized in the Brooklyn Eagle for his pay demands after winning 25 games in his rookie year:  “Pitcher Hughes had immense cheek in asking for an increase of salary after having been paid $66 a game for his small share of the pitching last  season.”

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 9

     JAN. 9, 1887: 

New baseball rules for 1888 will no longer allow batters to order that the ball be pitched either high or low.  “This does away with the arduous work the umpire was subjected to under the old code in deciding waist high balls,” the Brooklyn Eagle comments

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 10

                    JAN. 10, 1891:  Sporting Life declares that Brooklyn Bridegrooms co-owner and president Charley Byrne “ably aided” Chicago White Stockings owner Albert Spalding to kill off the Players’ League after only one season.

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 11

JAN. 11,  1883:  A notice in the New York Clipper by the new Brooklyn baseball club seeking players to form the team states:   “The Brooklyn management will under no circumstance employ any player where integrity of character is not a feature of his recommendations, nor anyone who has not a clean record of temperate habits.”

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 12

JAN. 12, 1906:  Hotel and casino owner Joe Doyle, one of the original owners of the Brooklyn Bridegrooms club,  dies in New York at age 67.

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 13

George J. Taylor

                               Jan. 13, 1884

Two teams featuring players from the Brooklyn baseball club play “Base Ball on Ice,” skating on ice  in a baseball game at the Washington Park field. A   team managed by sportswriter Henry Chadwick defeats a squad led by Brooklyn manager George Taylor by a score of 41 to 12.

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 14

                                    Jan. 14, 1885: 

After Brooklyn’s surprise signing of top players from the former Cleveland team, The Brooklyn Eagle chastises newspapers that questioned whether  Brooklyn President Charles Byrne was doing enough to strengthen the team for the 1885 season: Byrne “is a gentleman who quietly goes about his business without troubling others with what is none of their business.”

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 15

Jan. 15, 1888: The sports editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer predicts that Brooklyn will finish second in the major league American Association in 1888 behind  the Cincinnati Red Stockings.  He writes that  Brooklyn  is “the strongest team in association but unruly and unsteady.”

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 16

Jan. 16, 1888:  The American Association convenes a meeting in Cincinnati to try to find a replacement  franchise for the New York Metropolitans after Brooklyn bought  out the Mets club in late 1887.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN 17

Jan. 17, 1888: The Kansas City Cowboys are accepted into the American Association to replace the New York Metropolitans, after the Mets were bought out by Brooklyn in late 1887. 

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 19

Charles Ebbets

                     Jan. 19, 1888: 

         After a snow storm, Brooklyn baseball secretary Charles Ebbets tends to a toboggan slide at the team’s Washington Park field.  “The snow storm was a great help to Charley Ebbets’  toboggan field, as it provided the snow he wanted, and he piled up heaps of it by the grandstand as a store for future use next week in case cold weather should spoil the field surface,” the Brooklyn Eagle reports.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 20

Jan. 20, 1883:  The grounds for the new Washington Park being built at Fourth Avenue in South Brooklyn  –  the site of the Washington skating pond – are graded and drained in preparation for the baseball team’s first season.

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 21

   Jan. 21, 1889:          Brooklyn Bridegrooms first baseman Dave  signs to play with the new Columbus, Ohio, team in 1889.  During the 1888 season, Orr was suspended after he skipped some games to go to the Coney Island amusement park.

ON THIS DAY IN DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 22

JAN.  22, 1932:  The Brooklyn baseball team officially adopts the name Dodgers after local sportswriters vote for that moniker over the only other nameJ that comes up, the Kings.

            Here is the original story from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of Jan. 23, 1932 under the headline:

“Brooklyn Base ball Club Will Officially Nickname Them ‘Dodgers’     Ebbets Field Leaves It to Writers, Who Choose Old “Handle’

By Thomas Holmes.

             Henceforth, the Brooklyn baseball club will officially be known as the Dodgers. This was decided at a meeting of the Brooklyn Chapter of Baseball Writers at Ebbets Field yesterday.

            The Brooklyn ball club has had no official nickname in its 41 years of existence in the National League although it has rumbled along under half a dozen semi-official aliases. Originally, the Brooklyn players were known as Bridegrooms. In Ned Hanlon’s time, the team Superbas. Along  about that time also, Charley Dryden nicknamed the club the Trolley Dodgers.   In recent years, “Robins” proved fairly popular, but with the end of Wilbert Robinson’s long reign as manager, that nickname lost most of Its significance.

            “Bridegrooms” and “Superbas” were unwieldly names. The weakness of “Robins” as a nickname was the name’s natural link to Wilbert Robinson. Through the  years, “Dodgers” has hung on pretty well. Since the passing of Mr. Robinson, there has been agitation in various quarters to settle upon a nickname that would be universal and un changing. Alive to the discussion, Ebbets Field last week notified the Brooklyn baseball writers, that it would officially adopt any nickname that the writers desired. Yesterday, the scribes voted for “Dodgers,” preferring it to “Kings.” which was the only other nickname that received serious  consideration.

            President Frank B. York and Treasurer Steve McKeever, notified of the decision, immediately announced that the 1932 uniform of the ball team would have “Dodgers” inscribed across the breast in large letters, thus leaving no doubt as to what the nickname of the team shall be.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 23

Jan. 23, 1883: The start-up of Brooklyn’s new baseball team draws praise in the Brooklyn Eagle:  “It is well to state that the club is in the hands of  gentlemen of means ample enough to carry the enterprise through to a successful issue.”

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 24

Jan. 24, 1891:  Edward Linton, a stockholder of the former Brooklyn team in the Players’ League, drops his lawsuit against consolidation with the Brooklyn Bridegrooms.  Linton agrees to accept $9,000 for his stock.

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 25

Jan. 25, 1889: Second baseman “Bid” McPhee of  the Cincinnati Red  Stockings offers a forecast on the 1889 American Association pennant chase:   “The Brooklyns ought to win it . . . They have a good fielding team and are particularly strong in pitchers.”

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 26

TOM LOVETT

                                          Jan. 26,1890:  The Brooklyn Eagle reports that  “[Tom] Lovett, Brooklyn’s erratic pitcher, has opened a liquor store in Providence, R.I. “

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 27

Jan. 27, 1883:  Regarding the Brooklyn baseball park being built on the grounds where Revolutionary War soldiers under General George Washington fought the British, the New York Clipper notes:   “The old house known as Washington’s headquarters is to be reconstructed and made one of the attractions of the place.”  (The Old House initially is used as a ladies restroom.)

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 28

Jan. 28, 1891:  National League champions the Brooklyn Bridegrooms announce the signing of catcher Tom Daly, pitcher Tom Lovett, shortstop Germany Smith, third baseman George Pinkney and outfielder Darby O’Brien for the 1891 season.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 29

Jan. 29 , 1888:  Brooklyn president Charles Byrne draws fire in a letter to the Brooklyn Eagle from a fan protesting Byrne’s role in boosting the American Association’s admission price from 25 cents to 50 cents for the 1888 season: “He promised for the last two years to give patrons of Washington Park better ball and he did not do so.”

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 30

Doc Bushong

Jan. 30, 1887:  Brooklyn signs nearly all of all the rest of its players after previously acquiring three star players from the American Association pennant winner St. Louis Browns: Catcher Doc Bushong, outfielder Dave Foutz and pitcher Bob Caruthers.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: JAN. 31

Jan. 31,1889: Thomas B.  Day, the  owner of the New York Giants, the 1888 National League pennant winner and World’s Series champions, reluctantly agrees to play the Brooklyn Bridegrooms in three exhibition games in April.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 1

Feb. 1, 1885:  Brooklyn owner Charley Byrne announces baseball’s first no-smoking section at Washington Park for the 1885 season. “It will be a relief to numbers of patrons to get rid of the smoking annoyance in the grandstand,” the Brooklyn Eagle comments.

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 2

Feb. 2, 1889: Brooklyn President Charles Byrne travels to Philadelphia to try to arrange spring exhibition games with the National League’s Philadelphia Athletics.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 3

                                                              Feb. 3, 1889:   John Corkhill, the centerfielder purchased by Brooklyn late in the 1888 season, “is bald-headed and the boys kindly allude to     him  as Pop,” the Philadelphia Times reports.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 4

MANAGER BILL MCGUNNIGLE

  Feb. 4, 1888:   Bill “Gunner” McGunnigle, manager of the pennant-winning minor league team in Lowell, Mass.,  signs to manage Brooklyn in the 1888 season.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 5

Feb. 5, 1891: John Montgomery Ward, star shortstop and manager of  Brooklyn’s former Players’ League team “Ward’s Wonders,” signs to manage the Brooklyn Bridegrooms in 1891.  He replaces Bill “Gunner” McGunnigle, who is let go after winning two straight pennants.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB 6

DAVE "NEEDLES" FOUTZ

Feb. 6, 1888:  Brooklyn’s acquisitions from the St. Louis Browns – pitcher Bob Caruthers, outfielder Dave Foutz and catcher Doc Bushong  , are dubbed “The Big Three” by newspaper writers.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB 7

Adonis Terry

Feb. 7, 1888:  Brooklyn pitcher Bill “Adonis” Terry begins playing hand ball at the Brooklyn Hand Ball Club to prepare for the 1888 season.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 8

Doc Bushong

Feb. 8,  1888:   New Brooklyn catcher Doc Bushong, recently acquired from St. Louis along with stars Bob Caruthers and Dave Foutz, predicts that Brooklyn will win the 1888 American Association pennant “as sure as twice two is four.”

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 9

Germany Smith

Feb. 9, 1890: Brooklyn baseball President Charles Byrne receives a letter from Mrs. George J. Smith stating that a hand injury suffered by her husband, Brooklyn shortstop Germany Smith, is “only of  a slight nature, and he would be entirely over it in a week.”

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 10

Feb. 10,1890:  The Brooklyn baseball club makes arrangements to take the team to  St. Augustine, Florida, later in the month for the club’s first spring training at a facility to be shared with the National League Chicago team.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 11

Feb. 11, 1885: Brooklyn baseball president Charles Byrne writes the Brooklyn Eagle to deny a story that the team has acquired grounds at Coney Island for the purpose of playing Sunday baseball there despite a local law banning baseball games on Sundays.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 12

Feb. 12,  1891: George Chauncey, president of the Ridgewood land and improvement company that holds the lease on the Eastern Park baseball stadium used by the former Brooklyn Players’ League team, files legal action to keep that team from consolidating with Brooklyn’s National League team.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 13

Feb. 13,1889:  The owner of the Ridgewood, N.Y. baseball park warns that the Brooklyn Bridegrooms will lose access to the park for its Sunday games unless the club pays $100 that it still owes from last season.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 14

Sportswriter Henry Chadwick

Feb. 14, 1886:  Brooklyn baseball writer Henry Chadwick,  in his “Base Ball Book of Reference,” advises that in selecting a team captain one class of player to avoid is “ the one including those of quick temper, without self control, dictatorial in their manner, imperious in commanding, and too fond of having this and that done simply because it is their desire that it should be so.”

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 15

Feb. 15, 1885:  Nearly all of the players of the 1884 Brooklyn team have been signed to play for the club in 1885.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 16

Bob Caruthers

Feb. 16,1889:  Brooklyn pitcher Bob Caruthers stops in St. Louis, where he previously hurled, on his way with his wife to Hot Springs, Ark., to begin preparations for the 1889 season.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 17

Feb. 17, 1884:  The Brooklyn Eagle predicts the city of Brooklyn “will be most creditably represented in every respect in the American championship arena in 1884,” the team’s first year in the major league American Association.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 18

Feb. 18, 1890: Brooklyn president Charles Byrne rejects a request from John Montgomery Ward, player-manager of the new Brooklyn Players’ League team, to play an April exhibition game against the Brooklyn Bridegrooms.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 19

Feb. 19, 1888: The Brooklyn Eagle backs the increase of American Association admission rates to 50 cents from 25 cents with the backing of the Brooklyn team because “it will be far more to the advantage of the club’s best interests to see the stands occupied by …a better class of admirers of the game”  than to have more  “of the rough element crowding the grounds.”

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 20

Feb. 20, 1890:  The Brooklyn baseball field at Washington Park, the Brooklyn Eagle reports, “has been well manured and reseeded in the bare spots and never before has it been in such good condition at this season of the year as it is in Feburary now.”

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 21

CHARLES H. BYRNE

  Feb. 21, 1891:  Brooklyn President Charles Byrne publicly opposes blacklisting National League players who join American Association teams as proposed by Chicago White Stockings owner Albert Spalding.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 22

Feb. 22, 1885: The Brooklyn baseball team this season “will have six American players, three of Irish parentage, three of German parentage and one of French Canadian birth,” the Brooklyn Eagle reports.

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 23

Feb. 23, 1888:  Brooklyn baseball president Charles Byrne fields questions from the press about the planned increase in ticket prices to 50 cents from 25 cents, which Byrne strongly backed.  One Brooklyn Eagle correspondent warns that the higher fare will deter the so-called “rough element,” which he says is the class that really understands and supports baseball.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 24

Adonis Terry

Feb. 24, 1915: Former Brooklyn pitcher William “Adonis”Terry dies in Milwaukee at age 50.  Terry won 197 games and lost 196  during his career, and he pitched two no-hitters.

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 25

Feb. 25, 1891: Brooklyn baseball president Charles Byrne asserts that the Brooklyn Bridegrooms will remain in the National League and not return to the American Association.

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 26

George Pinkney

         Feb. 26, 1888: Brooklyn third baseman George Pinkney and outfielder Darby O’Brien are training in the gym in their hometown of Peoria, Ill.  “and are in first class trim,” the Brooklyn Eagle reports. “Pinkney has reduced his flesh.”

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 27

MANAGER JIM MUTRIE

Feb. 27, 1889: New York Giants manager Jim Mutrie boasts that scheduling three exhibition games in April  against Brooklyn, with the winner of each game to collect all of the receipts, is a sound “business proposition” because “I firmly believe the New York club will win every game.”

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 28

Feb. 28, 1888:  A letter writer to the Brooklyn Eagle,  says he has  “rejoiced in the steady and unwavering tenacity of the management in their efforts to to elevate the character of ball playing and submit to their patrons the best exhibitions of the sport that their players could give. “ 

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: FEB. 29

    Feb. 29, 1836:  Dickey Pearce, a star shortstop for the original Brooklyn Atlantics and the inventor of the bunt,  is born in Brooklyn. 

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 1

March 1, 1883: The new Brooklyn Base Ball Association is incorporated with a capital of $20,000 and plans to complete construction of the Washington Base Ball Park by May of 1883.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 2

March 2, 1890:  The Brooklyn baseball team leaves snowy Brooklyn by boat for St. Augustine, Fla.,  site of the first southern spring training in team history. 

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 3

Adonis Terry

March 3, 1889:  Brooklyn pitcher Adonis Terry and third baseman George Pinkney become fathers of baby boys

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 4

March 4, 1888:  For the first time the Brooklyn Baseball Club hosts the annual meeting of American Association owners  in Brooklyn.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 5

       March 5, 1897:  Former Brooklyn Bridegrooms player and manager Dave “Needles” Foutz dies of  asthma in Waverly, Maryland at age 40.  Foutz had a career batting average of  .276, and a pitching record of 147 wins and 66 losses. His .690 winning percentage ties him with Whitely Ford as the second highest in baseball history.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 6

March 6, 1887: The Brooklyn baseball club’s plan for ladies day “is the best, free admission to the fair sex, except on holidays and Saturdays, and then they are only charged for admission to the grand stand,” the Brooklyn Eagle says.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 7

March 7, 1886: As soon as the cold weather stops and the frost leaves the ground the improvements at the Brooklyn baseball club grounds will begin, the Brooklyn Eagle reports.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 8

Bob Clark

March 8, 1889:  All Brooklyn Bridegroom players have signed for the 1889 season except catcher Bob Clark, “who wants higher pay, which he will not get.” 

TODAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 9

Bill McGunnigle

March 9, 1899:  Former Brooklyn Bridegrooms manager Bill “Gunner” McGunnigle dies in Brockton, Ma.,  at age 44 from lingering illness after being thrown from a horse-drawn carriage that was struck by an electric trolley car.  McGunnigle’s three-year winning percentage of .658 in Brooklyn, with two pennants,  is the highest for any manager in Dodgers franchise history

TODAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 10

March 10, 1890—A newspaper reports that “base ball has become quite a ‘fad’ with society people at Jacksonville and St. Augustine (where Brooklyn has arrived for spring training] and that carriages gather on the grounds every afternoon and the grand stand is filled with fashionable belles to see the professionals play.”

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 11

March 11,1890: Brooklyn loses its first spring exhibition game in St. Augustine, Florida, to the National League Chicago team managed by Cap Anson

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 12

March 12, 1890:  Brooklyn Bridegrooms players in St. Augustine, Florida, make a favorable impression on other guests at the Cordova Hotel. “Some of the hotel guests thought that when the ball players came they would be a party of  roughs, and were surprised to see the fine lot of men comprising the team.”

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 13

March 13, 1890: The Brooklyn Bridegrooms again lose to Cap Anson’s Chicago Colts in a spring exhibition game in St. Augustine, Fla., by the score of 5 to 4.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 14

March 14, 1886: The American Association’s Board of Directors rules that Brooklyn’s contract signing of E. A. Burch, formerly of the New York Mets, is valid and within the association’s rules.

THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 15

March 15, 1885: The Brooklyn baseball club seeks “Proposals for the privileges of the grounds for the coming base ball season, viz: bars, cigar stands and lunch counters are invited.”

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 16

March 16, 1884: The Brooklyn baseball club advertises that “a limited number (100) of season tickets, admitting purchaser to ground and grand stand to all League, American Association championship and exhibition games in which the Brooklyn Club plays, are now offered for sale, price $20.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 17

March 17, 1890:  Cap Anson’s Chicago Colts again defeat the Brooklyn Bridegrooms 3 to 1 in a spring training game in St. Augustine, Florida, as Brooklyn pitcher Bob Caruthers and first baseman Dave Foutz cope with “sore arms.”

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 18

JOHN MONTGOMERY WARD

March 18, 1891:  Incoming Brooklyn Bridegrooms manger John Montgomery Ward decides to play second base instead of replacing Germany Smith as the team’s shortstop after Brooklyn fails to sign second baseman Lou Bierbauer, who instead is grabbed from the Philadelphia team by the Pittsburgh Alleghenys. Some writers begin calling the Pittsburgh team the Pittsburgh Pirates.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 19

TOM LOVETT

March 19, 1928: Former Brooklyn Bridegrooms pitcher Tom Lovett dies in Providence, R.I. at age 64.  Lovett had a major league career record of 88 wins and 59 losses in six seasons, and in 1891 pitched the first no-hitter in Brooklyn’s National League history

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 20

 March 20, 1890—The Brooklyn Bridegrooms win their first spring training game, defeating the Chicago Colts  3 to 2 at Ponce de Leon Park in St. Augustine, Fla. 

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 21

Doc Bushong

March 21, 1889:  Brooklyn Bridegrooms  players Adonis Terry and Doc Bushong, along with several teammates, ride bicycles in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park preparing for the 1889 season.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 22

Bill McGunnigle

March 22, 1888:  Bill “Gunner” McGunnigle arrives in Brooklyn to take over as manager of the Brooklyn baseball team.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 23

March 23, 1887: Brooklyn baseball president Charles Byrne announces two new uniforms for the 1887 season:  “One uniform is to be of a bluish gray trimmed with red, with red stockings and belt to match. The second uniform will be white, with a small blue stripe.”

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 24

March 24, 1891.  The Brooklyn Bridegrooms, at the urging of new manager John Montgomery Ward, sign catcher Con Daily, who previously played for Ward’s Brooklyn team  “Ward’s Wonders” in the former Players’ League.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MACH 25

March 25, 1889: Brooklyn baseball players begin preparing for the 1889 season by playing hand ball at Casey’s Court in Brooklyn.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 26

March 26, 1889: The Brooklyn base ball club reaches an agreement with the owner of  the Wallace Park in Ridgewood, N.Y., to again play Sunday games on the grounds.  Sunday baseball is banned in King County, home of the team’s Washington Park in Brooklyn

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 27

Charles Byrne

March 27, 1886: Brooklyn baseball president Charles Byrne expresses high hopes for the 1886 season: “Every possible effort to strengthen the team has been made, the main object of the directors being to have an organization that the people of Brooklyn may be proud to recognize as worthy of their city.”

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 28

March 28, 1890—The Brooklyn Bridegrooms arrive in Charleston, S.C., on the boat trip back to Brooklyn from spring training  in St. Augustine, Fla.  “The trip up from Florida was a rough one, and there were several pretty sick ball players in the party.”

MAGIC JOHNSON IS NEW DODGERS OWNER

    A group headed by basketball legend Magic Johnson has been named to purchase the storied Dodgers franchise in Los Angeles.  The group agreed to pay $2 billion to purchase the team from Frank McCourt.  More details from the Los Angeles Times.

FROM CHARLEY BYRNE TO MAGIC JOHNSON

SIX THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOWN ABOUT THE FIRST DODGERS OWNERS:

By Ronald G. Shafer, author “When the Dodgers Were Bridegrooms.”

 1, Who were the first owners of the Dodgers franchise in Brooklyn?

 A. Charles H. Byrne, a New York real estate developer, and George J. Taylor, a former night editor at the New York Herald Tribune. It was Taylor’s idea to start a team in Brooklyn in 1883. Byrne provided financial backing.

 2. Who joined Byrne and Taylor as co-owners?

 A. As costs of building Washington Park rose to over $30,000, Byrne recruited two casino owners: his brother-in-law Joseph Doyle and Ferdinand “Gus” Abell, who became the team’s chief financial backer. Byrne was club president and the driving force behind the team.

 3. When did the team begin playing?

 A. In 1883 in the minor league Interstate Association. That same year Charley Byrne hired as his assistant a young Charles Ebbets.

 4. When did the team join the Major Leagues?

 A. In 1884 in the American Association, then a major league along with the older National League. The team had no nickname and was known simply as the ‘Brooklyns.”

 5.  Who was the team’s first manager?

 A. George Taylor, in 1883 and 1884, before he returned to the newspaper business. Co-owner Charley Byrne also was the manager from mid-1885 to 1887.

 6. When did the team become known as the Bridegrooms?

A. In 1888, after several players married just before the season began under new manager Bill “Gunner” McGunnigle.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 29

March 29, 1891: Brooklyn baseball players begin workouts at the local Prospect Heights gymnasium: “A course of work with the dumb bells, chest weights, iron dumbbells and other exercises was indulged in.”

NEW DODGERS PHOTO HISTORY BOOK IS PUBLISHED

The Los Angeles Dodgers club has published a great new photo book called Dodgers From Coast to Coast, The Official Visual History of the Dodgers.  The coffee-table book, compiled by team historian Mark Langhill, traces the history of the Dodgers franchise back to its beginnings in Brooklyn in pictures and words. I wrote the chapter on the start of the club in Brooklyn in 1883 through the early 1900s when Charles Ebbets took over as owner.  The book’s introduction is by legendary Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully and the preface is by legendary manager Tommy Lasorda. The book will go on sale April 10 online and at opening day at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, the 50th anniversary of the first game at the stadium. It’s a must for Dodgers fans everywhere.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 30

DAVE "NEEDLES" FOUTZ

March 30,1889: Brooklyn Bridegrooms players unanimously elect first baseman Dave Foutz as team captain for the 1889 season.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MARCH 31

March 31, 1883: The new Brooklyn baseball club is voted into the minor league Interstate Base Ball Association for the 1883 season.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 1

April 1, 1890: The Brooklyn Bridegrooms return to Washington Park for the first time as a National League team. The squad includes 11 married men and five bachelors.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 2

April 2, 1887: Brooklyn baseball president Charles Byrne writes a letter rejecting a challenge by New York Giants owner Charles Day that their two teams play a  series of winner-take-all exhibition games.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 3

April 3, 1889: The Brooklyn Bridegrooms adopt a “puny little monkey,” a gift from a Brooklyn policeman, as team mascot.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 4

April 4, 1921:  Former Brooklyn Bridegrooms  outfielder John “Pop” Corkhill dies in Pennsauken, N..J.  at age 62, from complications following an operation.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 5

April 5, 1890—The new National League Brooklyn Bridegrooms defeat the new Brooklyn American Association team 4 to 1 in an exhibition game.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 6

MANAGER BILL MCGUNNIGLE

      April 6, 1889: Brooklyn Bridegrooms manager Bill “Gunner” McGunnigle vows to jump from the top of the Brooklyn Bridge if Brooklyn doesn’t win the 1889 American  Association major league pennant.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 7

Oyster Burns

April 7, 1890: Stocky Brooklyn outfielder Oyster Burns bets $10 that he can beat skinny pitcher Bob Caruthers in a 100-yard run.  Burns loses.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 8

Bob Caruthers

April 8, 1888: At a Brooklyn Bridegrooms exhibition game, club president Charles Byrne points to recently acquired pitcher Bob Caruthers and tells an astonished visiting guest, “That is Mr. Caruthers, and we pay him a salary of $5,000 for seven months service just to play ball as he can play it, and we paid $8,500 for his release from the club which held him to service.”

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 9

April 9, 1891: A.C. McNeill, a Chicago prosecutor seeking to close down illegal gambling dens in the Windy City, tells a court that his nephew, Brooklyn Bridegrooms pitcher Bob Caruthers, lost $9,000 to Chicago gamblers.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 11

April 11, 1888—Sporting Life  suggests that Brooklyn’s baseball club be called the “Bridegrooms,”  after several players marry before the start of the 1888 season. The name sticks.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 12

April 12, 1884—Brooklyn baseball president Charles Byrne announces that every  home game will be ladies day in the 1884 season, with ladies admitted free with a paying customer.  “We have found by experience that when there is an assemblage of ladies at our matches, we get a more orderly gathering.” 

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 13

BUCK EWING

April 13, 1889—In an exhibition game at Brooklyn’s Washington Park, the Brooklyn Bridegrooms  defeat the World Champion New York Giants and star player catcher Buck Ewing for the first time in Brooklyn team  history.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 14

April 14, 1890:  Brooklyn Bridegrooms President Charley Byrne has his gold watch stolen by a pickpocket at New York’s Fifth Avenue Casino during a boxing match between “Gentleman Jim” Corbett and Dominick McCaffrey.  Corbett wins the match with a TKO in the fourth round.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 15

April 15, 1889:  In a pre-season warm up,  the Brooklyn Bridegrooms blank minor league Newark 9 to 0 behind Bob Caruthers.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 16

April 16, 1887—Brooklyn opens the 1887 season with a 14 to 10 win over the New York Metropolitans despite making 11  errors.

DODGERS TRIPLE PLAYS BEGAN IN 1890

The Los Angeles Dodgers turned a rare triple play in Sunday’s 5 to 4 win over San Diego.  The franchise’s first triple play came in its first year in the National League, on May 21, 1890, as the Brooklyn Bridegrooms defeated the Cincinnati Reds.  On the play, second baseman Hub Collins fielded a grounder, flipped it to shortstop Germany Smith for a force at second, Smith fired to first baseman Dave Foutz, who after out no. 2, threw home to catcher Tom Daley to catch a sliding Cincinnati player for the third out .

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 17

April 17, 1883:  The players for Brooklyn’s new baseball team report for field duty at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, where they will practice until the club’s new Washington Park field is ready.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 18

Charles Ebbets

April 18, 1925—Brooklyn baseball owner Charles Ebbets dies in New York at age  65.  Ebbets began working for the team as aide to then co-owner Charles Byrne in April of 1883.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 19

April 19, 1890—The Brooklyn Bridegrooms play their first National League game, losing in Boston to the Boston Beaneaters and pitcher John Clarkson by a score of 15 to 9.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 20

Sportswriter Henry Chadwick

April 20, 1908 – Legendary Brooklyn baseball writer Henry Chadwick, known as the “Father of Baseball,”  dies in Brooklyn at age 83

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 21

MICKEY HUGHES

  April 21, 1890:  The Brooklyn Bridegrooms  get the franchise’s  first win in the National League, defeating the Boston Beaneaters 7 to 6 behind pitcher Mickey Hughes.

Here is the original newspaper report of the franchise’s very first National League win.

From the Brooklyn Eagle, April 22, 1890

BOSTON, Mass.  April 21-

     The Brooklyn team played their second championship game with the Bostons to-day at the South End Grounds in the presence of about fifteen hundred people only, though the weather was comparatively mild and pleasant to that of yesterday, and they had the home team virtually defeated after the fourth inning, the score at that time standing at 6 to 1 only,  with the visitors in the van.  In fact, the home batsmen could do little or nothing with Hughes’ pitching in the first eight innings of the game, a home run hit over the left field fence in the second inning earnlng the  only run they scored up the ninth inning , only five hits being scored off  Hughes’ pitching up to the last inning.

     The game opened in favor of Brooklyn by  2 to 0, the visitors earning both their runs by the triple hit of O’Brien and doubles  by Burns and Foutz.  In the fourth inning the Brooklyns again punished Getzein’s pitching to the tune of four earned runs  off five clean hits.  Then both sides stopped run getting, fungo hitting marking the batting of both sides.  At the close of the eighth inning the score stood at 6 to 1 and an easy victory was almost certain for Brooklyn; but in the ninth inning O’Brien lost his temper and Hughes and Collins their heads., Hughes  pitching wild and without judgment in this inning, and the result was that the  home team — who just gloried in the way they had got the visitors rattled –  scored no less than five runs  off three hits and four battery errors, and the kicking  O’Brien, Collins and Hughes indulged in led to each of them being fined by the umpire.  After the game was over, however, he remitted the fines.  He showed his incompetency by arguing the the players on disputed points, when all he had to do get a watch, note the time for one minute and declare the game forfeited if the kicking was longer indulged in.  The home team also kicked but not to the extent the visitors did.  The umpire was a substitute officially ordered to act by President Young in the place of McDermott, who was taken sick.  The result of the kicking was that the Bostons were enabled to tie the score at the end of the first part of the ninth inning.  Then Brooklyn went in and scored the winning run on Burns’ two-bagger  following Collins’ single.

     The crowd indulged in yelling when local men were on the bases in order to aid Long and Tucker in their bullylike coaching.  It was anything but a pleasant game or a goodly display of batting, as the hits were mostly flies to the outfield.

     Clark caught finely and Collins and Pinkney did good work in the infield.  Eight easy chances for catches  were given the outfielders by the visitors, scarcely a gound bll hit being made.

     The full score is appended:

BOSTON (N.L.)                                                     BROOKLYN (N.L)

                            R    1B  PO   A    E                                                   R    1B   PO  A  E

Long, s.s.            1     0     1     2     0                    O’Brien, l.f.          3     2     1     0     0

Donovan, c.f.     0   0       1     0    1                    Collins, 2b            1      2    5      1     0

Sullivan l.f.        0    0      5    0    0                    Burns, r.f.             1      2     0    0     0

Tucker, 1b         0     1      7     0    0                    Foutz, 1b              0     2     8    0     0

Ganzel, r.f.       0      1     0     0    0                    Pinkney, 3.b.       0     1      2     2    0

Lowe, 3b          1      2      4     0    1                    Corkhill, c.f.         0     1      2     0    0

Smith, 2b         1      1       0    2    0                    Smith, s.s.            1      1      2     3    0

Bennett c          1     0      2     0    0                   Clark, c.                1       1     6      1    0

Getzein, p        1       1      2     3    0                   Hughes               0         0    0     3   0

Brodie, r.f.       1      2      2     0    0

Total                6       8  24      7     2                   Total                  7      12    27    10   0

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 22

April 22, 1890:  After scoring their first National League win, the Brooklyn Bridegrooms are pummeled by the Boston Beaneaters 11 to 1 as John Clarkson pitches his second win of the opening series of 1890. 

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 23

April 23, 1890:  The Brooklyn Bridegrooms lose for the third time in an opening four-game series at Boston against the Beaneaters.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 24

April 24,1885:  Brooklyn loses to Baltimore 6 to 4 in  the opening day major league American Association game at Brooklyn’s Washington Park.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 25

April 25, 1885:  After losing to Baltimore the day before, Brooklyn rebounds to beat the Orioles 9 ot 2 before 4,000 people, the largest April crowd so far at Washington Park.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 26

 April 26, 1890: The Brooklyn Bridegrooms 1890 home opener, the club’s first in the National League, is postponed for the third time because of rainy weather.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 27

April 27, 1886:  Brooklyn defeats the New York Metropolitans 6 to 3 in the first game at the Mets’ new home field in Staten Island.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 28

Bob Caruthers

     April 28, 1890:The Brooklyn Bridegrooms play their first home game as a National League team, defeating the Philadelphia Phillies, 10 to 0 behind Bob Caruthers.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 29

MICKEY HUGHES

       April 29, 1890:  The Brooklyn Bridegrooms in their first season in the National League even their record at 3-3 with a 5 to 2 win over the Boston Beaneaters behind pitcher Mickey Hughes.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: APRIL 30

April 30, 1885: Brooklyn opens its 1885 home season at Washington Park losing 6 to 5 to Baltimore before nearly 4,000 people.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 1

     MAY 1 IS A HISTORIC DAY OF FIRSTS IN DODGERS HISTORY —      

George J. Taylor

     May 1, 1883—The new Brooklyn baseball team plays its first game ever,  in the minor league Interstate Association,  and loses at Wilmington, Del.,  by a score of 9 to 6.

      May 1, 1884—Brooklyn plays its first major league game, in the American Association, under manager  George Taylor,  and is trounced by the Washington Nationals 12 to 0 in Washington.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 2

Adonis Terry

May 2, 1884: Adonis Terry becomes the first pitcher in Dodgers franchise history to win a major league game as Brooklyn wins its first game in the American Association, beating the Washington Nationals 7 to 5 in the nation’s capital.

George Pinkney

May 2, , 1890— Brooklyn Bridegrooms third baseman George Pinkney‘s consecutive game playing streak ends at a record 577 gamess after he is spiked in a game against the Boston Beaneaters.

A NEW BEGINNING IN DODGERS BASEBALL

           The line of Dodgers franchise  ownership begun in Brooklyn in 1883 continues. A new group of Dodgers owners led by basketball great Magic Johnson were officially introduced at a news conference today at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.  You can read a report on the event here from the Los Angeles Times

SIX THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT EARLY DODGERS OWNERS

FROM CHARLEY BYRNE TO MAGIC JOHNSON

SIX THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOWN ABOUT THE FIRST DODGERS OWNERS:

By Ronald G. Shafer, author “When the Dodgers Were Bridegrooms.”

 1, Who were the first owners of the Dodgers franchise in Brooklyn?

 A. Charles H. Byrne, a New York real estate investor, and George J. Taylor, a former night editor at the New York Herald. It was Taylor’s idea to start a team in Brooklyn in 1883. Byrne provided financial backing.

 2. Who joined Byrne and Taylor as co-owners?

 A. As costs of building Washington Park rose to over $30,000, Byrne recruited two casino owners: his brother-in-law Joseph Doyle and Ferdinand “Gus” Abell, who became the team’s chief financial backer. Byrne was club president and the driving force behind the team.

 3. When did the team begin playing?

 A. In 1883 in the minor league Interstate Association. That same year Charley Byrne hired as his assistant a young Charles Ebbets.

 4. When did the team join the Major Leagues?

 A. In 1884 in the American Association, then a major league along with the older National League. The team had no nickname and was known simply as the ‘Brooklyns.”

 5.  Who was the team’s first manager?

 A. George Taylor, in 1883 and 1884, before he returned to the newspaper business. Co-owner Charley Byrne was also the manager from mid-1885 to 1887.

 6. When did the team become known as the Bridegrooms?

A. In 1888, after several players married just before the season began under new manager Bill “Gunner” McGunnigle. The team won the American Association pennant in 1889 and the National League pennant in 1890.

 For further information contact Ron Shafer at 757 345-6227, ronshafer1@gmail.com or www.brooklyndodgershistory.com

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 3

Bob Caruthers

           May 3, 1890—In their first meeting since the 1889 “World’s Series,”  the new National League Brooklyn Bridegrooms defeat the New York Giants 7 to 3 in Brooklyn’s Washington Park behind pitcher Bob Caruthers.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 4

MICKEY HUGHES

  May 4, 1889—The Brooklyn Bridegrooms win their third straight game over the Philadelphia Athletics by a score of 9 to 5 behind little Mickey Hughes.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 5

May 5, 1884—Brooklyn wins its first home game in the Major Leagues, defeating the  American Association Washington Nationals 11 to 3 under manager George J. Taylor.  

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 6

                      May 6, 1886—Brooklyn socks 22 hits to  defeat Baltimore 15 to 13 as  winning pitcher Henry Porter scatters 18 Baltimore hits.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 7

       May 7, 1883— The new Brooklyn baseball club in the minor league Interstate Association defeats the Pottsville (Pa) Anthracites 5 to 2 at a scheduled home game played in Newark because Brooklyn’s new Washington Park isn’t ready yet.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 8

May 8, 1889 – The Brooklyn Bridegrooms clobber Louisville 21 to 2 behind pitcher Bob Caruthers as Brooklyn second baseman Hub Collins, a Louisville native, scores four runs

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 9

May 9, 1883: In its first game in Brooklyn, the new Brooklyn baseball team  defeats Harrisburg of the minor league Interstate Association 7 to 1 in a game played in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.

ON THIS DAY IN EARLY DODGERS HISTORY: MAY 16

                               May 16,1890- The Brooklyn Bridegrooms defeat visiting “Pittsburg” 6 to 3 as Bob Caruthers gives up only 3 hits, including one to Pittsburg’s speedy Billy Sunday, an outfielder by day and a preacher by night.