agate type

revenge

I wanted to pull this find by John Thorn out of the comments section for this post on Luis Padrón (he posted it back on May 12).

FROM: Sporting Life, July 22, 1905:

On the 9th, at Newburgh, Padron of the Poughkeepsie team, gave an exhibition of batting seldom seen in any game. He went to bat and the Newburgh rooters began to hurl the epithet of "nigger" at him time and again. Padron is very dark, being a full-blooded Cuban, but has no negro blood. This seemed to make him mad, and with two men on bases, he hit the first ball pitched for a home run. Several innings later he again went to the bat with two men on bases. The crowd called: "The nigger can't do it again." At this Padron hit the first ball pitched for another home run in almost the identical spot, scoring six runs and winning the game for Poughkeepsie.

platooning in the 19th century

One of my favorite things written by Bill James is the “History of Platooning” from his first Historical Baseball Abstract (unfortunately left out of the newer edition, along with other classic pieces like “Minor League Baseball Stars”).  While George Stallings, buoyed by the success of the Miracle Braves, was the man probably most responsible for popularizing the strategy, James was able to find a platoon arrangement as early as 1905 involving Detroit Tiger catchers, apparently devised by the team’s little-known manager, Bill Armour.  But James adds this:

I still get the feeling, somehow, that somebody did platoon, sort of sometime in the nineteenth century.  It would have been awkward as hell, but they could have done it.  I fully expect some other baseball researcher to take an interest in this subject and find an earlier platoon arrangement. (p. 122)

Well, while looking for something completely different (information on Irvin Brooks’s Brooklyn Royal Giants, as it happens), I ran across this, from the Kingston (N.Y.) Daily Freeman, April 22, 1925:

According to this, Buck Ewing invented platooning in order to hide William “Dummy” Hoy’s (and other players’) vulnerability to left-handed pitching.  Buck Ewing actually managed Hoy on the Reds for three seasons, 1895 through 1897.  I thought I’d briefly check out the lineups for those teams to see if anything cries out “platooning.”

In 1896 Hoy played in 120 of 128 games in center field, and in 1897 he played in 128 of 134.  In neither case does that look much like a platoon arrangement. In 1895 the outfield situation is a little complicated, as Ewing, in his first year with the team, seems to have been switching guys around to find the best combination.  Hoy spent time in both left and right, but it’s hard to see the signs of a platoon combination from just numbers of games played at each position.  It might have happened.

However: in 1897 Ewing used the left-handed Eddie Burke 94 times in right field, while right-handed Bug Holliday played in 32 games (and switch-hitter Claude Ritchey 10).  This does resemble a stable platoon arrangement.  Also, switch-hitting Ritchey and right-hander Tommy Corcoran split time nearly equally at shortstop, and at first base the lefty-swinging Jake Beckley played in 97 games, with three right-handed hitters (including Ewing himself for one game) appearing in 39 games. 

Ewing sent Hoy packing after that season, but managed the Reds two more seasons.  In center field in 1898, left-handed hitter Algie McBride appeared in 115 games, and right-handers Bug Holliday and Harry Steinfeldt in 41.  Jake Beckley played in 118 games at first base, while assorted righty hitters, mostly Farmer Vaughn, appeared in 44. 

In 1899, the first base situation was more imbalanced, Beckley out-appearing Vaughn 134 to 21, and the outfield is too hard to make sense of: no center fielder played in more than 45 games, Kip Selbach and Elmer Smith were switched between positions, and Sam Crawford was elbowing his way into the lineup.

Obviously, all  this would be in principle easy to check in the box scores, though it would take some time.  Important context would be the proportion of innings pitched by left-handers.  I haven’t taken the time to figure it out, but checking through 1896, it looks like there wasn’t a single team with two left-handers in the top four in innings pitched, and a few teams without a left-hander at all.  I’d guess the proportion of innings pitched by southpaws to be less than 25 percent, maybe considerably less.

Before anyone points it out, I’m assuming that someone has already looked into all this, and probably written it up somewhere—so feel free to enlighten me in the comments!

UPDATE 7/3/2008 Whoever wrote this article misremembered Hoy’s nickname as “Dumpy.”  I’m not sure which one is worse.  Also, there is an article in the 1995 National Pastime on Cap Anson’s experiments with platooning, but I haven’t been able to locate my copy yet.

twenty K’s for padrón

Bill Mullins found that the Kokomo Tribune credited Juan Padrón with 20 strikeouts in his June 4, 1916, game against George Mullin and the Kokomo Red Sox—and printed a full, play-by-play account of the game:

(Kokomo Tribune, June 5, 1916)

juan padrón’s pitching: “weird in its perfection”

In the article I posted the other day from the 1959 Grand Rapids Press, there’s a reference to Juan Padrón striking out 22 in a 2 to 1 victory over former major leaguer George Mullin in Kokomo, Indiana.  There were also references in the Cuban press (La Lucha January 27 and November 4, 1917) to Padrón setting a “world record” for strikeouts in a game with 21.

The game seems to have occurred on Sunday, June 4, 1916.  This is from the Indianapolis Freeman (June 10, 1916):

By the way, on that day (June 4, 1916) Luis Padrón started for the Long Branch/Jersey City Cubans against the Cincinnati Reds.  The Reds ran up six runs in three innings before Padrón was moved out to right field and Francisco “Paco” Muñoz (photo here)  came in to pitch.  Padrón did get two singles that day, but the Reds romped to an 11-6 win.

a letter from oscar padrón

Here is a letter Oscar Padrón wrote in 1980, recommending his uncle Juan Padrón for the Hall of Fame.  Thanks again to the Padrón family!  (Note: one of the articles about Juan Padrón he refers to is posted here.)

simming the negro leagues

Strat-O-Matic is putting out a 108-card set of Negro League greats, based on their best five seasons.  And it’s our friend Scott Simkus who’s acting as the principal consultant (see his work on the 1909 Cuban Stars here).  Getting Negro League and Latin American baseball into tabletop games and text sims based on actual statistics is a great development, as far as I am concerned.

The leader in this so far has been Replay Games, which put together a yearbook and card set for the 1923 Negro National League based on Patrick Rock’s research (unfortunately, it seems, out of stock at the moment).  I believe Patrick is also working on the 1923 ECL, which I’m looking forward to.

And I don’t remember if I’ve linked to this before, but Mischa Gelman has done the 1906/07 Cuban League (based on my compilation) for the free, open-source Strategic Baseball Simulator.  Check around the discussion board; they have a huge variety of interesting leagues and seasons available.

art pennington’s home flooded

More breaking news, of an unhappier sort: Art “Superman” Pennington lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and his home was just flooded.  Evidently he lost everything, including a treasure trove of memorabilia.  There are more links at Dugout Central; in particular, there is a PayPal fund for donations at Pennington’s MySpace page (yes, he has one!).

rafael de la rúa, 1868 lansingburgh unions

Breaking news!

I just got this note from César González, about an important discovery made by Peter Morris and John Thorn:

When Esteban Bellán left St. John's College in 1868 to pursue a career in baseball (with the Unions of Morrisania) he was not the only Cuban to do so.

Rafael de la Rúa, a native of Matanzas, Cuba, played 12 games for the Unions of Lansingburgh of the National Association in that same year of 1868. He was a pitcher, with a good screwball but some control problems.

De la Rúa joins Bellán as the first Latin player in an organized and highly competitive league. The National Association would not be considered a Major League until it became professional in 1871, and still that is debatable. But what is clear is that they are the first Latin ballplayers to compete at the highest level of baseball in the United States.

This was a discovery made by the great investigators Peter Morris and John Thorn, and I have been helping in the last couple of days trying to figure out some aspects of his biography.

This is what we have at the moment:

Rafael Julián de la Rúa was born on January 28th, 1848 in Matanzas, Cuba.

In 1860, he appears with an age of 12 in an official United States census living in Newton, Massachusetts. He was studying in a small school directed by R.B. Blaisdell in Newton. There is also a Finomen Rua in that census, 18 years old, apparently Rafael’s brother.

In June 1864, he was one of the passengers of the steamship Havana that arrived at New York from La Habana, according to a note published by The New York Times. Rafael was about to start his preparatory education at St. John’s College (Fordham) on September 1864, and he stayed there until July 1867. He studied there at the same time as Bellán. In the official student catalogues of St. John’s College he is listed as Julian R. Rua from Matanzas, Cuba.

In the academic year of 1868-69. he is listed studying at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, under the name of Rafael J. Rua, from Matanzas, Cuba. He stayed there only for one year and did not graduate.

It was in that same town of Troy that the Unions of Lansingburgh, members of the National Association, were based. De la Rua played for them in 12 games, mostly as a pitcher. At that time, the National Association was still officially an amateur competition. There is in existence an image of the 1868 Unions of Lansingburgh.  You can see it in the book Smoke by Peter Bjarkman and Mark Rucker, though one of the players is mistakenly identified as Bellán (he didn’t play for Lansingburgh until 1869). However, we are working to try to identify De la Rua in that same image.

Official documents were found for Rafael de la Rúa in which he applied for U.S. citizenship on September 23, 1874, declaring himself a merchant. When naturalization was granted he applied for his first American passport, filing as Rafael de la Rúa, living on 15th and 32nd streets in New York, born on January 28th, 1848, in Matanzas, Cuba. His height, according to these documents, was 5 ft. 9 in.

According to encyclopedias with early Cuban League listings by Jorge Figueredo and Severo Nieto, Rafael de la Rúa never played in the Cuban League.

Without a doubt, a very important piece of Latin American baseball history.

César González Gómez

Union of Lansingburgh (a village adjacent to Troy) is the same club that would later become known as the Troy Haymakers, members of the professional National Association in 1871 and 1872.  “Rua” with no first name appears on the Lansingburgh roster in Marshall Wright’s book The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857-1870.  Esteban Bellán would join the Lansingburgh club in 1869, though De la Rua was evidently done with high-level baseball by then (Wright only has him on the 1868 club).

juan padrón: photos

Here are some great photos of Juan Padrón, provided by his family:

And here he is in action in 1918:

(La Lucha, October 6, 1918)

juan padrón, 1959-60

Here, courtesy of the Padrón family, is an article from a Grand Rapids newspaper, circa 1959 or 1960, about Juan Padrón, with some very intriguing information about his career.

                                        (click to enlarge)

Thanks to Nancy Padrón and her son Andre for a lot of great materials about their uncle (great uncle and great-great uncle), which I’ll be posting the next couple of days.