Albert Goodwill Spalding was an American pitcher, manager, and executive in the early years of professional baseball, and the co-founder of A.G. Spalding sporting goods company. He was born and raised in Byron, Illinois, yet graduated from Rockford Central High School in Rockford, Illinois. He played major league baseball between 1871 and 1878. Spalding set a trend when he started wearing a baseball glove.
Henry Chadwick was an English-American sportswriter, baseball statistician and historian, often called the "Father of Baseball" for his early reporting on and contributions to the development of the game. He edited the first baseball guide that was sold to the public. He is credited with creating box scores, as well as creating the abbreviation "K" that designates a strikeout. He is said to have created the statistics of batting average and earned run average (ERA). He was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938.
Adrian Constantine Anson, nicknamed "Cap" and "Pop", was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman. Including his time in the National Association (NA), he played a record 27 consecutive seasons. Anson was regarded as one of the greatest players of his era and one of the first superstars of the game. He spent most of his career with the Chicago Cubs franchise, serving as the club's manager, first baseman and, later in his tenure, minority owner. He led the team to six National League pennants in the 1880s. Anson was one of baseball's first great hitters, and probably the first to tally over 3,000 career hits. In addition to being a star player, he innovated managerial tactics such as signals between players and the rotation of pitchers.
Charles Roscoe Barnes was one of the stars of baseball's National Association (1871–1875) and the early National League (1876–1881), playing second base and shortstop. He played for the dominant Boston Red Stockings teams of the early 1870s, along with Albert Spalding, Cal McVey, George Wright, Harry Wright, Jim O'Rourke, and Deacon White. Despite playing for these star-studded teams, many claim that Ross was the most valuable to his teams.
The history of baseball can be broken down into various aspects: by era, by locale, by organizational-type, game evolution, as well as by political and cultural influence. The game evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century. This game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the national sport of the United States. Baseball is popular in North America and parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, and East Asia, particularly in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.
The question of the origins of baseball has been the subject of debate and controversy for more than a century. Baseball and the other modern bat, ball, and running games – stoolball, cricket and rounders – were developed from folk games in early Britain, Ireland, and Continental Europe. Early forms of baseball had a number of names, including "base ball", "goal ball", "round ball", "fetch-catch", "stool ball", and, simply, "base". In at least one version of the game, teams pitched to themselves, runners went around the bases in the opposite direction of today's game, much like in the Nordic brännboll, and players could be put out by being hit with the ball. Just as now, in some versions a batter was called out after three strikes.
Michael Joseph "King" Kelly, also commonly known as "$10,000 Kelly", was an American outfielder, catcher, and manager in various professional American baseball leagues including the National League, International Association, Players' League, and the American Association. He spent the majority of his 16-season playing career with the Chicago White Stockings and the Boston Beaneaters. Kelly was a player-manager three times in his career – in 1887 for the Beaneaters, in 1890 leading the Boston Reds to the pennant in the only season of the Players' League's existence, and in 1891 for the Cincinnati Kelly's Killers – before his retirement in 1893. He is also often credited with helping to popularize various strategies as a player such as the hit and run, the hook slide, and the catcher's practice of backing up first base.
Town ball, townball, or Philadelphia town ball, is a bat-and-ball, safe haven game played in North America in the 18th and 19th centuries, which was similar to rounders and was a precursor to modern baseball. In some areas, including Philadelphia and along the Ohio River and Mississippi River—the local game was called Town Ball. In other regions the local game was named "base", "round ball", "base ball", or just "ball"; after the development of the "New York game" in the 1840s it was sometimes distinguished as the "New England game" or "Massachusetts baseball". The players might be schoolboys in a pasture with improvised balls and bats, or young men in organized clubs. As baseball became dominant, town ball became a casual term to describe old fashioned or rural games similar to baseball.
Edward Nagle Williamson was a professional baseball infielder in Major League Baseball. He played for three teams: the Indianapolis Blues of the National League (NL) for one season, the Chicago White Stockings (NL) for 11 seasons, and the Chicago Pirates of the Players' League for one season.
In baseball, the dead-ball era was the period from approximately 1900 to 1920. This era was characterized by low-scoring games and a lack of home runs; league batting averages dropped as low as .239 in 1908, producing the lowest league run average in history, with teams averaging only 3.4 runs per game. Teams played in spacious ballparks that limited hitting for power; as a further hindrance to scoring, the ball used then, compared to modern baseballs, was "dead" both by design and from overuse. In addition, ball scuffing and adulteration by pitchers, notably the spitball, was not against the rules during this period.
Alfred James Reach was an Anglo-American sportsman who, after becoming one of the early stars of baseball in the National Association, went on to become an influential executive, publisher, sporting goods manufacturer and spokesman for the sport.
Spalding is an American sports equipment manufacturing company. It was founded by Albert Spalding in Chicago in 1876 as a baseball manufacturer, and is today headquartered in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It sells softballs through its subsidiary Dudley Sports. In the past, Spalding has manufactured balls for other sports, including American football, soccer, volleyball, tennis, and golf.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1886 throughout the world.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1875 throughout the world.
James Abner Hart was an American professional baseball manager in the late 19th century. In the major leagues of the era, he managed the Louisville Colonels and the Boston Beaneaters for parts of three seasons. During the 1890s, he managed baseball teams in the United Kingdom.
Baseball is a growing, minor sport in the United Kingdom, with an estimated 22,500 people playing in 2020.
Edward Nicholas Crane, nicknamed Cannonball, was an American right-handed pitcher and outfielder in Major League Baseball for eight seasons. He played for the Boston Reds (1884), Providence Grays (1885), Buffalo Bisons (1885), Washington Nationals (1886), New York Giants (NL), New York Giants (PL) (1890), Cincinnati Kelly's Killers (1891), Cincinnati Reds (1891), and Brooklyn Grooms (1893). Crane was the first pitcher in the history of major league baseball to record 4 strikeouts in a single inning, and is one of the few players to play in four major leagues: the Union Association, the National League, the Players' League, and the American Association.
The Atlanta Braves, a current Major League Baseball franchise, originated in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Braves played from 1871 to 1952, after which they moved to Milwaukee, and then to Atlanta.
Duncan Fraser Curry was an American baseball pioneer and insurance executive.
The Doubleday myth is the claim that the sport of baseball was invented in 1839 by future American Civil War general Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York. In response to a dispute over whether baseball originated in the United States or was a variation of the British game rounders, the Mills Commission was formed in 1905 to seek out evidence. Mining engineer Abner Graves authored a letter claiming that Doubleday invented baseball. The letter was published in a newspaper and eventually used by the Mills Commission to support its finding that the game was of American origin. In 1908, it named Doubleday the creator of baseball.
