America's National Game. Albert G. Spalding
19th, the club from the Nation's capital city arrived at Indianapolis, en route to St. Louis. Here they played the Western Club, of the Hoosier capital, winning by the score of 106 to 21 in a full game. It was in this game that McVey, afterward to win enduring fame on the diamond, played at second base for the Westerns, and made his bow to the public as a future great one. The game was played on the old Camp Burnside Grounds.
On the 22nd of July the Nationals played their first game at St. Louis with the Unions of that city, on one of the hottest days of a very hot season, the mercury registering 104 in the shade on the ball grounds. Notwithstanding the torrid heat, the game lasted four hours and a half, and the poor clerks from the government offices at Washington had to circle the bases for a grand total of 113 runs to 26 for the Unions in a nine innings game. Next day the Nationals had no trouble in defeating the Empire Club of St. Louis by 53 to 26, in six innings.
From St. Louis the Nationals went to Chicago, where occurred the most sensational incident of the entire trip. On July 25th this great team of splendid ball players, that had visited Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville and St. Louis, winning every game played, and by scores ranging from 113 to 26 to 53 to 26, in large cities, met a nine from the pretty little city of Rockford, Illinois, and suffered their first and only defeat; for, utterly crushed and humiliated by the unexpected drubbing by the schoolboys, after a game next day with the Chicago Excelsiors, which they won easily by a score of 49 to 4, the Nationals turned their faces homeward, and the players were soon again at their desks at Washington, D. C.
The late Henry Chadwick, in his Baseball memoranda, which came into my possession at his death as the gift of his estimable wife, describes the National-Forest City game in these words:
" A Baseball tourney had been held in Chicago on July 4, 1867, in which the Excelsiors of that city and the Forest City Club, of Rockford, had been the leading contestants. The former had defeated the Forest City nine in two games, by very close scores of 45-41 in one, and 28-25 in another, when the Forest Citys were invited to meet the Nationals at Chicago on July 25th,, a day which proved the most notable of the tour. The contest took place at Dexter Park, before a vast crowd of spectators, the majority of who looked to see the Nationals have almost a walk-over. In this game A. G. Spalding was pitcher, and Ross Barnes shortstop for the Forest City nine; these two afterwards becoming famous as star players of the Boston professional team of the early seventies. Williams was pitcher for the Nationals and Frank Norton catcher. The Nationals took the lead in the first innings by 3 to 2; but in the next two innings they added but five runs to their score, while the Forest Citys added thirteen to theirs, thereby taking the lead by a score of fifteen to eight, to the great surprise of the crowd and the delight of the Rockfords. The Nationals tried hard to recover the lost ground. The final result, however, was the success of the Forest Citys by a score of 29 to 33 in a nine innings game, twice interrupted by rain."
The Chicago papers taunted the Nationals on their defeat, and anticipated a signal victory for their " Champions of the West," the Chicago Excelsiors, next day. The crowds present on the 26th, when the Excelsiors met the Nationals, was the largest ever seen at a match out West up to that time, though the admission fee was half a dollar. From the very outset of the contest the Nationals played the finest game of their tour, not only in pitching and batting, but especially in fielding, while the Excelsiors, after the first innings, which ended seven to nothing against them, " went up in the air," as the saying is, and came out of the fight the most demoralized set of ball players ever seen in Chicago. To be beaten at all was bad enough, but to be whipped by a score of 49 to 4 by a nine their Rockford rivals had beaten the day before, was galling in the extreme.
Next day the Chicago Tribune charged the Nationals with throwing the game to Rockford " for betting purposes." Mr. A. P. Gorman and President Jones, of the Nationals, visited the Tribune office and compelled a retraction of the charges.
Thus ended the great Western tour of the Washington Nationals, the first tour of an Eastern Baseball club to the West.
I recall an incident in connection with this game which may be of interest. I was the pitcher of the Forest City Club in this victory over the famous Nationals, and, as a lad of seventeen, experienced a severe case of stage fright when I found myself in the pitcher's box, facing such renowned players as George Wright, Norton, Berthrong, Fox, and others of the visiting team. It was the first big game before a large audience in which I had ever participated. The great reputations of the Eastern players and the extraordinary one-sided scores by which they had defeated clubs in Columbus, Cincinnati, Louisville, Indianapolis and St. Louis, caused me to shudder at the contemplation of punishment my pitching was about to receive. A great lump arose in my throat, and my heart beat so like a trip-hammer that I imagined it could be heard by everyone on the grounds.
I knew, also, that every player on the Rockford nine had an idea that their kid pitcher would surely become rattled and go to pieces as soon as the strong batters of the Nationals had opportunity to fall upon his delivery.
They had good grounds for that fear. Every member of the team cautioned me to take my time and keep cool; but I was not so rattled but that I recognized the fact that every one of them was so scared that none could speak above a whisper. The fact is, we were all frightened nearly to death, with possibly the exception of Bob Addy, who kept up his nerve and courage by "joshing" the National players as they came to bat with his witticisms, which made him famous among ball players for many years.
In the first innings, the Rockfords made two runs and the Nationals three, which in those days was called good ball playing. In the second innings, five runs by the Nationals and eight by the Rockfords gave the latter a lead by ten to eight. In the third, the Nationals drew a blank and Rockford made five runs, thus putting Rockford to the good by a score of fifteen to eight for the Nationals. The fourth and fifth yielded three runs to the Nationals and one to the Rockfords. In the sixth innings the Nationals made seven runs and the Rockfords eight, which made the score at the end of the sixth innings. Nationals, 18; Rockford, 24.
While the Forest Citys had by this time gotten pretty well settled and their stage-fright had disappeared, yet none of us even then had the remotest idea that we were destined to win the game over such a famous antagonist. The thought or suggestion of such a thing at that stage would probably have thrown us into another mental spasm.
At this psychological moment, Col. Frank Jones, President of the National Club, rushed up to George Wright, who was about to take his position at the bat, and said, in a louder voice possibly than he intended:
" Do you know, George, that this is the seventh innings and we are six runs behind? You must discard your heavy bat and take a lighter one; for to lose this game would be to make our whole trip a failure." Col. Jones' excited manner plainly indicated his anxiety.
This incident inspired the Rockfords with confidence and determination, and for the first time we began to realize that victory was not only possible, but probable, and the playing of our whole team from that time forward was brilliant. I have always given Col. Jones credit for Rockford's victory.
None but a ball player can understand how much of a factor little incidents of this kind are in a closely contested match.
In the game of the following day, when the Nationals administered their crushing defeat to the Chicago Excelsiors, George Fox, of the Nationals, made the longest hit I ever saw in any game on any grounds. It was one of those terrific, swift drives just over the heads of the outfielders that is so difficult to judge. The ball was hit in such a way and with so much force that it flew on a straight line to such an amazing distance that it became a subject of comment to all who witnessed it for years thereafter.
CHAPTER IX.
FIRST TOUR OF A WESTERN AMATEUR CLUB TO THE EAST – STORY OF THE FOREST CITY CLUB – ITS REMARKABLE CAREER AND SPLENDID RECORD OF VICTORIES.
1865-70
AMONG other agencies which at this time wrought so marvelously in the making of popularity for our