"The Most Practical Thrower in America"

Amidst overcast, but fortunately not weeping skies, the Neshanock made their annual trip to Greenway Meadows in Princeton for an event hosted by the Historical Society of Princeton.  The opponent this year was the Monmouth Furnace Club from the Jersey shore, a still relatively new team and an important addition to the state's vintage base ball community.  As noted on numerous prior occasions, one of the ways vintage base ball consistently recreates the original is in the importance of who shows up on a given day.  Saturday, unfortunately, the Monmouth club was shorthanded and although some muffins filled in valiantly, the Neshanock won both games by large margins. In the first of two seven inning contests, the Neshanock prevailed 18-0, setting some records and team firsts in the process.  On the defensive side catcher Chris "Side Show" Nunn set a Neshanock record by recording ten put outs, eclipsing the previous record held by Mark "Gaslight" Granieri.  Recording 10 of Monmouth's 21 outs on foul balls was a big assist to Scott "Snuffy" Hengst's in his first appearance in the pitcher's box, a hard to top performance allowing just two hits and no runs.  Offensively, Gregg "Burner" Wiseburn and Joe "Mick" Murray contributed three hits apiece, but the big offensive feat was a clear score by Dan "Lefty"Gallagher, featuring not one, but two home runs along with two singles.

"Mick's" three hit performance was also noteworthy since he twice made his base striking from the left hand side of the plate, falling only one at bat short of a clear score.  Also coming close to a clear score was Ken "Tumbles" Mandel who took a different route, even for  him, reaching base three times on walks also believed to be a Neshanock record.  Several Neshanock had to leave after the first contest, but the remnant managed another victory this time by a 19-3 count although the game was not as one sided as the score indicates.  The Monmouth Furnace defense improved considerably in the second game and it took a seven run second inning for the Neshanock to build a lead and then put the game out of reach with a eight run seventh inning.  Apparently not satisfied with his two home run performance in the first contest, "Lefty" added another in the second game along with a double and a triple, giving him the cycle for the day.  Joining "Lefty" in the home run column was Tom "Thumbs" Hoephner while "Snuffy" added four hits to the Flemington attack.  All of that pales in comparison (or so he claims) to Brad "Brooklyn" Shaw who earned a clear score reaching base five times without making an out.  Defensively what had to be one of the ugliest shut out innings in base ball history was offset by a fine second to short to first double play in another. With the two wins, the Neshanock have an 8-5 record heading into a visit next Sunday to the Talbot Fair Plays, a game that I will unfortunately miss.

Surprising as it may seem the headline for this post doesn't refer to a crafty pitcher who uses guile and trick pitches to outwit dangerous hitters.  In fact, as we shall see, the quote bears no relationship whatsoever to base ball.  In discussing early New Brunswick base ball last week, I mentioned that the game had taken hold even earlier in Trenton, in 1856, only the second year New Jersey teams were in the field.  Base ball's popularity in the state capital proved to be no flash in the pan and Trenton became one of the first New Jersey cities to host a minor league team.  As with most things about base ball history, there is debate about the first true minor league, but one of the earliest circuits was the 1883 Interstate Association which boasted not one, but two New Jersey teams, Trenton and Camden.  Unfortunately neither team had much staying power.  The Camden club, although it had the best record in the league, folded at the end of July and its best players were quickly scooped up by the Brooklyn franchise, the team ultimately known to history as the Brooklyn Dodgers.  Trenton didn't do a whole lot better lasting only until mid way through the 1885 season.

Trenton Evening Times - October 13, 1883

New Jersey's struggles to support 19th century minor league base ball is a story for another day, but the problem was obviously a lack of paying customers.  That doesn't mean, however, that the Trenton team was totally bereft of enthusiastic followers.  Although we usually don't know much about 19th century New Jersey base ball fans, in October of 1883, the Trenton Evening Times gave a vivid description of one "Cap" Brindley who didn't lack for passion both inside and outside the ball park.  Brindley was apparently so well known to the paper's readers it wasn't necessary to give his first name which was little help in trying to identify him and learn more about this base ball aficionado.  It's the same problem posed by a lack of player first names in game accounts which makes identifying players difficult and, at first, it appeared it would be the same story with "Cap."  Fortunately, however, our Mr. Brindley was such a household name in Trenton that newspaper searches with "Cap" as the first name produced enough hits not only to identify him (including a picture), but to fill in a life story more than a little out of the ordinary

John Brindley - Trenton Evening Times - July 15, 1888

Born in Tunstall, Staffordshire, England in 1835, Brindley, who described himself as a "potter by birth," arrived in Trenton in 1876 less than a decade before minor league base ball came to the state capital.  Since some of my ancestors made a similar move from the same part of Staffordshire to Trenton only a few years later, Brindley's choice of desination's was no surprise.  At the time, both cities were major pottery centers, but high protective tariffs in the United States enabled Trenton pottery workers to earn twice as much as their English counterparts explaining why Trenton's population tripled between 1860 and 1890.  Brindley quickly made the transition from cricket to base ball and his "sturdy figure," "bushy head of whitening hair" and "mellifluous comments" became a regular feature in the grandstand right behind the catcher.  While there is no record of him playing base ball,  he was considered "the most practical thrower" in the country.  "Throwing" in this context means shaping the clay while it is on the potter's wheel and Brindley was so skilled he could reportedly "throw anything from a thimble to a ten gallon piece [of pottery]."

Trenton Evening Times - July 5, 1895

Although more skilled than his peers, the English immigrant still identified with his fellow workers becoming an "indomitable champion of worker's rights" especially when pottery owners tried to cut the workers' pay.  In 1885, Brindley and some other men started their own company, but Brindley died very suddenly in July of 1893 and, according to his obituary, left "a wife and four children."  The account had the correct number of children, but was one short on wives since Brindley, unbeknownst to most people (including presumably his American wife), also had a wife in the England, the mother of his eldest son James.   The sordid details might not have leaked out, but there was money involved, specifically Brindley's ownership interest in the pottery which Fannie Lawton previously known as Fannie Brindley claimed had been given to her.  James sued claiming the gift was "null and void" because it was "against public policy and good morals" and an "inducement" for Fannie to live with Brindley in "a state of adultery."  Somewhat surprisingly,  considering this was the Victorian era, the court decided in Fannie's favor, ruling that the gift once given, couldn't be undone.  Brindley's passion for base ball wasn't sufficiently widespread to save minor league base ball in Trenton, but he certainly was a colorful person in his own right.