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Amateur Versus Professional

In the 1860s it was common practice to offer signing bonuses to attract "amateur" players from other towns.  This progressed to offering jobs in local industries with the understanding that time off would be allowed for practice and games.  Finally, in 1871 all pretense was put aside and the strictly professional National Association was organized.   Teams representing cities in national competition could now openly pay their players.

A bitter rivalry had persisted for years between the purist amateurs and the professionals.   The roots of the conflict can be traced to 1858 when the first ball park was fenced in, allowing the owner to charge a 50-cent admission.   Naturally, an idea this good spread like wildfire.

Originally, the players were satisfied with the flattery that people would actually pay to see them play.  But that attitude was short-lived.  The players, rightfully, demanded a piece of the action. 

When economics are factored into baseball, the  larger cities gain an important advantage.  New York, with its large population, collected more at the gate than did Hartford or Troy.  New York, therefore, could and did offer more for players, hiring away stars from the smaller cities.

This practice eventually became systematized, with regulations to benefit all parties.  In “organized baseball” with its major and minor leagues, cities compete with towns their own size, and hold to the same payroll limits within their class.  The wealthier clubs in the larger cities still draft players from the lower leagues, but the small-town clubs are compensated for their losses.

Bridgeport teams played full-time professional teams as well as other amateur and semi-pro clubs. An important difference between these opponents is that the semi-pro and professional teams required a guarantee to cover travel expenses and player distributions. Eventually, even amateur teams fenced in their ball fields to collect admission fees to pay these guarantees. (Previously, amateur clubs relied exclusively on member dues and fund raisers, such as dances or outings.)  Baseball continued to drift slowly but steadily from amateur sport to professional business.

Annual Baseball Highlights

1870.

In May of 1870, the Stratford Osceolas reorganized as a semi-pro club and returned to the field, determined to win the Connecticut Baseball Association championship. Taking a lesson from the Seasides, the Osceolas hijacked pitcher Frank Buttery and catcher Tim Murnane from the Norwalk Libertys. (Ball teams had long since given up the pretense of fielding only home-grown players.) Buttery had been the Libertys' pitcher since his debut with the team on Saturday, June 27, 1868, in which he "acquitted himself with much credit" in a contest with Yale. Murnane caught his first game for the Libertys in a match against the Bridgeport Seasides on Saturday, September 18, 1869. Although the Libertys lost to the Seasides 27-23, the Norwalk Gazette said of its dynamic duo: "Buttery, faithful fellow, did his work well, and Murnan [he had not yet added an "e" to his name] proved a capable catch and deserves to remain on the nine."

The Osceolas soon became the premier team in Greater Bridgeport. In referring to a rising star of the team, the Bridgeport Standard reported on August 8 of 1870:

   "[O']Rourke, of the Osceolas, deserves special notice. His catching and throwing was

     splendid and elicited encomiums from every side. In his position he is, without doubt,

     as good as any in the State."

This newspaper account is the first reporting of the skill of James O'Rourke. Jim and his teammate brother, John, lived with their widowed mother on Pembroke Street in Bridgeport. Their father, Hugh, passed away at age 56 on New Year?s Eve, 1868.

A State Baseball Association was formed, and in a tournament the Middletown Mansfields were declared the state champions and the Osceolas runners-up. In two years the Mansfields would join the National Association, the first professional league.

1871.

The private W. W. Cameron Trotting Park (Cameron Park) became the ball grounds of choice for important games. Perhaps because it was easier to charge admission at this site. It is not known if the track was fenced in, but it was bounded on three sides by water. (It would have been impossible to charge admission at the wide open and public Seaside Park.)

Commenting on the rough condition of the playing surface at Cameron Park, the New Haven Palladium of September 11, 1871, said the new grounds "never will be very good." Nevertheless, Cameron remained the prime site throughout the 1870s. Seaside Park served as the home grounds for lower ranking teams.

Amateur vs. Professional.

Box score of 9/23/1875.

Bridgeporter Jim O'Rourke played for the

national champion Boston Red Stockings

against his hometown TBs. The TBs

of 1875 included at least four

future major leaguers, including

pitchers Goldsmith and Roseman.

Bridgeport Standard.

___________________________

THE SPIRIT OF BRIDGEPORT

In the Fall of 1871, the best team in the state was the Middletown Mansfields. The following Spring the Mansfields would be accepted as an expansion team into the professional National Association, forerunner of the National League.  

In their can-do spirit, the upstart Stratford Osceolas challenged the Mansfields to a best-of-three tournament for the State Championship and a sterling silver ball.

The Mansfields, heavily favored, won the first game of the series.

In game two, after six innings, the youthful and "flashy" Osceolas trailed the more-seasoned Mansfields by one run. But the locals rallied in the seventh and eighth innings, scoring seven runs while whitewashing the heavily favored Middletown team.

A third and deciding game was therefore necessary. It was played on neutral territory at Hamilton Park in New Haven on Saturday, September 16, 1871. A large crowd found its way to the park to witness the final game for the state championship. Introducing psychology into the contest, the Mansfield supporters offered huge odds to the Bridgeport fans, impressing upon them the futility of attempting to beat their team.

The game commenced at 2:45 pm. According to an account in the Bridgeport Standard, the contest opened unfavorably for the Osceolas, as their opponents closed the fourth inning with the score standing 8 to 0 in favor of Middletown. But the Osceolas rallied and ended the contest victorious, 12 runs to 10. The Osceolas of Greater Bridgeport became the state champions and proud owners of a sterling silver baseball.

The Mansfields stole the gate receipts, no doubt to purchase train tickets home. The Middletown backers boarded the 5:05 one thousand dollars poorer for having bet against Bridgeport.                                                                                  

 1871 Stratford Osceolas.
Jim O'Rourke is standing far right; pitcher Frank Buttery is seated, second from right.

___________________________

1872.

Locally, the Bridgeports were the dominant baseball club. The TBs, however, were the champion partyers. The TBs held a dance, picnic, and concert and one spontaneous party with entertainment by the Howe Band after they beat New Haven.

1873.

The TBs emerged as the strongest local team. Their clubhouse was at Main and Beaver Streets. The Bridgeport Standard on March 17 observed: "The eloquence with which the young men of this club have furnished their rooms surpasses the comprehension of their lady visitors." On St. Patrick's Day, they played Irish tunes on their square grand piano for their female guests. On May 28, they debuted new uniforms at Seaside Park, and easily asserted their position in the first rank by beating the Bridgeports 25-4 (Bridgeport Standard, 5-29). To pay for their equipment and partying, the TBs organized a parade, picnic, and dance on June 17 at which they raised $600.

The horse trolley operated "buses" every ten minutes from State and Main to Cameron Park, before and after games, marking the realization by Bridgeport transportation companies that baseball is good for business and that easy access to the park is just as important to the fans as a winning team.

1874.

The TBs were a serious assemblage of players. According to the Hartford Courant of May 3:

    The TB base ball club have leased Sherwood?s Trotting Park for the season, and when the work of grading the grounds already

    commenced is finished, they will have one of the finest grounds in the state. The club also expected to purchase a section of the

    seats built for the Hippodrome exhibition and transfer it to the park, so a suitable stand may be provided for spectators. The club

    have issued fifty season tickets, admitting the holders and their families to all games played this year (indicating the TBs were

    charging admission to games).

In September the TBs played National Association teams from the New York area. They trounced the Brooklyn Atlantics 9 to 1 (Bridgeport Standard 9-2-1874), but were humbled by the Mutuals 17 to 4 the next day.

In an amateur tournament in Danbury "the TBs of Bridgeport carried off the banner" (Hartford Courant 9-28-1874, p. 2). At the game "an exhibition was given by Hatfield of the Mutuals, the champion thrower of the country" whose record is 400 feet, 7 1/2 inches. "[John] O'Rourke of the TBs also threw the ball, and fell short of Hatfield's mark but a few Yards" (Bridgeport Standard 8-29 and 9-3-1874).

City Council member and business leader William H. Stevenson and other "prominent citizens" offered a rosewood bat and silver ball to any Connecticut team that could beat the TBs in two out of three games. At season's end, the TBs still retained the rosewood bat and the undisputed title of "state champions." For there to be super teams like the TBs, there needed to be a farm system of lower and  less serious clubs, as the following Bridgeport Morning News announcement of September 21, 1885, attests: "John Reilley's nine of West Stratford will play Michael Larkin's nine of this city, at the Gentleman's driving park, Friday afternoon, for $25 a side and three kegs of beer."

1875.  

The TBs were the unrivaled local champs and ranked second in the state behind the Waterbury Rose Hills. The TBs took on all comers, including five major league teams (Bridgeport Standard 10-28-1875). In 1875 there were roughly 2000 clubs in American. Of these, 13 were full-time salaried clubs, about 100 were semi-pro (including the TBs), with the balance being amateur teams (Brooklyn Eagle, November 23, 1875).

To save on transportation cost, regional championships were often determined through marathon weekend tournaments. The Bridgeport TBs took second place and a $400 cash prize at the New England tournament at Lynn, Massachusetts (Bridgeport Standard 8-25-1875). Coincidentally, the Wheeler and Wilson Band took first place at a music festival in Providence on the same weekend. Heading home, the band boarded the train already carrying the baseball team. "A jolly time ensued." Both winners wired ahead their good news and a "throng of people met the train." The band led a spontaneous parade through downtown Bridgeport (Bridgeport Post 10-1-1939). The Post erroneously gives the year as 1879, and typical of exaggerations that creep into oft-told tales, the TBs had advanced to first place in this latter account.)

A Westport jeweler donated a sterling silver ball as the trophy for a Fairfield County tournament. The Bridgeport team was not allowed to enter. (If it did, no other would.) The TBs, it turned out, had three future major leaguers on its roster.

Bridgeport hosted a post-season invitational tournament, Monday to Wednesday, September 27 to 29, with $1200 in prize money ($500 for first, $400 for second, and $300 for third.) The Live Oaks of Lynn beat out the Resolutes of Elizabeth, New Jersey, and our own TBs to take the top prize. (Hartford Daily Times, 9-24 to 10-1-1875.)

1876.

A number of the large cities seceded from the original professional league, the National Association. The NA was fraught with gambling, Hippodroming (throwing games), and few clubs taking seriously the requirement to play a minimum number of games with each team. In short, it just wasn't very professional. Of the two Connecticut teams in the National Association, Hartford and New Haven, only the former was admitted to the National League. The NA, stripped of its strongest teams, folded.

Bridgeport continued to support its champion amateur team, the TBs. They were so good other amateur teams would no longer play them. Undefeated and desperate for action, the TBs placed an ad in the New York Clipper on July 20 challenging the professional circuit. The New Haven professionals, adrift without a league, played six games against the Bridgeport amateurs. They won only half. In fact, the TBs outscored New Haven, 32 runs to 29.          

The semi-pro Bridgeports emerged this year as well, picking up most of last year's TBs. Although the team was purportedly amateur, and composed entirely of "working men" from Bridgeport, four would join the first minor league within two years, playing for Manchester NH.

A noteworthy player to join the Bridgeports in 1876 was Warren R. Briggs, who had recently played ball for Harvard. In early 1874, then-student Briggs traveled to England with Boston Red Stockings pitcher Albert Goodwill Spalding to arrange for a series of games by the Boston and Philadelphia major league teams. To sell the American pastime to the Brits, Briggs and Spalding gathered together some American students and English cricket players for an exhibition game on February 27. This was the first ever ball game played overseas. The Briggs team won 17-5 (Philadelphia Item, 3-14-1874).

In 1875, Briggs, two other Harvard students and Jim O?Rourke developed the catcher's mask. The following season, O'Rourke batterymate Al Spalding founded the sporting goods empire bearing his name.

In 1876, Briggs graduated from Harvard and moved to Bridgeport where he became a well-known architect. He designed a number of public buildings in the state, including a high school and train station in Bridgeport (both since destroyed by fire) and the Fairfield County Courthouse, also in Bridgeport, that is still in use.  

1877.  

Locally, the TBs reigned supreme, followed by the Bridgeports and Osceolas. There was no formal state championship series in 1877, but Waterbury was the acknowledged champion with a 9 and 2 record for the season.

The first "minor" league was organized in 1877, and included Lynn, Massachusetts. Games were played on weekends. (Bruce Chadwick, Baseball Hometown Teams, 1994.)

To overcome the challenges of a small home market, the Hartfords moved lock, stock, and bat bag to Brooklyn, where the "Brooklyn Hartfords" were equally ignored by fans from both Hartford and Brooklyn. Although they finished in third place, they were not a profitable team to visit. (Opponents receive 40% of the gate receipts; 40% of nothing is ...)   The National League, at their December meeting said the Hartfords could no longer use Brooklyn as their home grounds. So they moved to Providence.

1878.

The National League Providence Grays line-up was formidable and included Bridgeport's own Fred "Tricky" Nichols as pitcher and Tim Murnane (formerly with the Stratford Osceola). The transplanted Hartfords of Brooklyn, as the Providence Grays, again placed third.

The International Association Manchesters, with at least four players from Bridgeport, including Snigg and John O?Rourke, won the IA pennant.

1879.

Nineteen-year-old Tommy Lynch pitched for the Bridgeport Anchors. Although he lived to the ripe old age of 95, an obituary appeared in 1890 somewhat prematurely:

1874 Baseball.                                                               

Early balls were made with a soft rubber center and could not be hit as far as a modern ball, making it more difficult to hit a home run.