Beadle's Dime Base-Ball Player - 1867 Edition
It is much too early in the season to draw conclusions, but if the first two games are any indication, the weather that put such a damper on 2018 will be less of a problem this year. After the nicest first weekend in memory, Saturday's game at the Somerset Patriots ballpark also took place under ideal, almost summer-like conditions. Played as part of the Patriots annual fanfest, the game featured the Neshanock against long-time intra-state rival, the Elizabeth Resolutes. The Resolutes are New Jersey's senior vintage club, but while there were some familiar faces in the lineup, team captain Paul Solomone has basically rebuilt the roster. If today's match is any indication, Elizabeth will be a team to be reckoned with all season long. Once again, Flemington started in the field, but this time the other side broke out on top, leading 2-0 going to the bottom of the second. The Neshanock, however, tallied three times to take lead, only to see the Resolutes respond with two runs to regain the advantage at 4-3. That lead didn't last long either, however, as Flemington put up another three runs to go ahead 6-4.
Photo by Mark Granieri
There wasn't a lot of scoring for the next few innings and the Neshanock held a 7-5 advantage heading to the bottom of the sixth. During that turn at the striker's line, however, Flemington pushed four runs across, followed by two in the seventh while holding the Resolutes to only one additional tally for a 13-6 Flemington win. The Neshanock attack featured not one, but two clear scores with both Joe "Mick" Murray and Chris "Low Ball" Lowry both accomplishing the feat, with Mick scoring all three times he was on base. Danny "Lefty" Gallagher, Tom "Thumbs" Hoepfner, Brian "Spoons" LoPinto and Will "Cody" Wagner all had two hits apiece. Although a newcomer, "Cody" showed plenty of power, belting out a double and a triple in three times at the striker's line. Flemington's defense was much improved from last week behind the usual solid pitching of Bobby "Melky" Ritter for seven innings and Dave "Illinois" Harris for the last two.
Photo by Mark Granieri
As noted, both "Mick" and "Low Ball" earned clear scores, the first of the 2019 season. Clear scores are mentioned fairly frequently in this blog, but with the beginning of a new season, it's probably worth explaining once more what they are all about. Before batting averages, home runs and runs batted in became important offensive numbers, the key statistic was runs scored, to the point that once on base, it was considered the batter's responsibility to work his way around and score. Probably for this reason, if a runner was put out on the bases, for example, by a force out, the out was charged to the runner, not to the batter who suffered no penalty which didn't matter since there were no batting averages. The highest goal for an offensive player was a clear score - not being charged with a single out during the game including those on the bases where the runner might have no control of the situation. On the surface, it doesn't seem reasonable which is probably why it was changed, but if you watch closely it's possible to understand the 1860s point of view. An obvious example is when a batter walks, steals second and third before scoring on an out as "Lefty" did once in this game, but there are other instances such as another one on Saturday when "Jersey" Jim Nunn, on second, picked just the right time to advance on an out.
Photo by Mark Granieri
I haven't seen any studies on how frequently batters or strikers achieved clear scores so I decided to take a quick look at "Beadle's Dime Base Ball Player" for the 1865 and 1866 seasons, focusing on the top teams of the period. In 1865, both the champion Atlantics and the Mutuals each recorded three clear scores. Fred Crane, Dickey Pearce and Tom Pratt each performed the feat for Brooklyn while Ed Brown, Charles Hunt, and John Zeller did so for the Mutuals. That same year, the former champion Eckford and the rapidly improving Athletics could manage only one as did New Jersey's top team, the Eureka. A year later saw much higher numbers with the Athletics recording ten while the Union Club of Morrisania, one year away from a championship season, had eight. Both numbers were, however, more than a little inflated by fairly weak schedules. The Athletics, for example, opened the season by pounding the Alert Club of Danville, 92-2, took a break from championship competition in August to massacre the Alert Club of Philadelphia 100-5 and then closed out the season with a 73-7 rout of the Burlington Club from south Jersey.
Mark "Gaslight" Granieri after catching one of multiple foul bound outs
Photo by Mark Granieri
More realistic numbers were produced by the once again champion Atlantics with three and the Eureka who managed four over the course of the season. This renewed interest in clear scores is due to the story of a Eureka player which I found while working on my upcoming book on early New Jersey base ball - A Cradle of the National Pastime to be published by Morven Museum & Garden in June. It occurred on August 14, 1866, during a match with the aforementioned Atlantic Club at the Newark club's grounds at the intersection of Ferry and Adams Streets, near today's Penn Station. The Eureka had experienced nothing but frustration in prior encounters with the Atlantics, not an uncommon experience, but one taken to a new level by New Jersey's best team. During the Atlantics undefeated 1865 championship season, the Eureka had come one heartbreaking run short, not once, but twice, first falling a run short in last-ditch last inning rally and then unable to hold a three run lead in the ninth inning of the return match.
Eureka page from Beadle's Dime Base Ball Player 1867
Both teams had been struggling to some degree in 1866, the Atlantic had suffered some player defections and had been upset by the upstart Irvington Club in June. The Eureka were also having attendance problems, not because of defections, but because the young men who had formed the club in 1860 had less time for baseball due to family and business responsibilities. Clearly, the Eureka needed some new players and one of the new additions was Thomas Osborne, who, if I've identified him correctly, was 29, not exactly a youngster. Prior to the Atlantic match, Osborne had played in four Eureka matches, but only one was against a top club, a game against the Mutuals where he made a pedestrian two runs. Originally it was feared the game would be called off for bad weather, but when a "dispatch" at 2:00 indicated the Atlantics "might be expected on the next train," a large crowd, estimated at 5,000 gathered for the game. The contest began with the Atlantics taking a 1-0 lead after one inning with the Eureka going out without a man reaching first base, not exactly a performance to inspire confidence in their fans who based on past experience had little reason for optimism.
Newark Daily Advertiser - August 15, 1866
Photo by Mark Granieri
Such fears received at least a temporary reprieve in the next inning when the Eureka erupted for 11 runs, keyed to some extent by Osborne, batting sixth, who reached base and scored twice. At first, the Atlantics had a hard time offensively and the Eureka added six more runs for a 17-3 lead going to the sixth, two more of the runs again courtesy of Mr. Osborne. In the sixth, however, the Atlantics scored six times to close within 17-9, by no means enough of a margin to dispel the doubts of the Eureka fans and perhaps, also the players. This, however, was the Eureka's day, the Newark team tallied 10 times in the seventh and seven more in the eighth on the way to a 36-10 rout of the defending champions, their worst loss since 1860. And Osborne had been in the middle of both rallies, scoring twice in the seventh and once in the eighth for a total of seven runs scored, including a home run, in seven at-bats without making a single out. He thereby matched the 1866 clear score totals of three future major leaguers - Lipman Pike, Weston Fisler, and Joe Start. Osborne appears to have been one of the last surviving members of the Eureka Club, living into the 1920s, but it is safe to say he never forgot that memorable day more than 50 years earlier when batting seven times, he achieved the era's highest offensive goal against base ball's best team. It was to borrow from Herman Melville, a clear score with a vengeance.
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