Albert Gudville Spalding - American pitcher , manager and director of teams in the early years of professional baseball , co-founder of the sports company Spalding ( English Spalding ).
| Albert Goodwill Spalding | |
|---|---|
| Albert goodwill spalding | |
 Albert Spalding in 1910 | |
| Date of Birth | September 2, 1849 |
| Place of Birth | Byron, Illinois , USA |
| Date of death | September 9, 1915 (66 years old) |
| Place of death | San Diego , USA |
| Citizenship |  USA |
| Occupation | baseball player |
| Awards and prizes | Baseball Hall of Fame Member |
Biography
Albert Spalding was born and raised in Byron, Illinois . He played in the major baseball league in 1871-1878. After retiring, Spalding remained in baseball as president and co-owner of the Chicago White Stockings. In the 1880s, he took leading league players to the first world baseball tour. Together with William Halbert, Spalding organized the National Baseball League . He later created a commission to study the history of baseball, which called Obner Doubleday the creator of the game. He is the author of the first set of official baseball rules.
Baseball career
Player
Playing baseball throughout his youth, Spalding first played in a sports tournament as part of the Rockford Pioneers youth team, which he joined in 1865. After Spalding led the team to a victory (26–2) over the local male amateur team Mercantiles, he was offered to join the Forest Citys team at the age of 15, in which he played for two years [1] .
In the fall of 1867, he agreed to a contract worth $ 40 per week, nominally as a clerk, but in reality a professional player at Chicago Excelsiors. This fraud was used to circumvent the rules of the time, which prohibited the hiring of professional baseball players. Following the creation of the first professional baseball organization, the National Association of Professional Baseball Players, in 1871, Spalding joined the Boston Red Stockings (the forerunner of modern Atlanta Braves ) and was very successful; won 206 games (losing only 53) as a pitcher , gaining an average of 0.323 points as a batter.
William Halbert, the owner of the Chicago White Stockings [2] , did not like the organization of the games in the National Association and the element of gambling, so he decided to create a new organization, which he called the National League of Baseball Clubs. Halbert brought Spalding to help with this endeavor. Using Spalding's desire to return to the Midwest , Halbert persuaded him to sign a contract with White Stockings (now Chicago Cubs ) in 1876. Spalding then persuaded teammates Deacon White, Ross Barnes and Col McVee, along with Philadelphia Athletics players Cap Anson and Bob Eddie to sign a contract with Chicago. All this was done in complete secrecy during the game season, because at that moment the players were free agents, and they did not want their current club and especially the fans to know that they were leaving the team. News of the signing of players from Boston and Philadelphia leaked to the press before the end of the season, and they all faced insults and physical threats from fans.
Spalding was the main pitcher of the 1870s, leading in the number of victories in each of the six full seasons as a professional [3] . For each of these years, he was the only pitcher of his team [4] . In 1876, Spalding won 47 games as the main pitcher for White Stockings and led the team to conquer the first ever National League cup by a wide margin. [3]
In 1877, Spalding began using a glove to protect his hands. Previously, players used gloves, but they were not popular, and Spalding himself was skeptical about wearing gloves. But as soon as he began to put on gloves, it forced other players to do the same.
Spalding ended his playing career in 1878 at the age of 27. He continued to play in the League as president and co-owner of White Stockings and had a great influence on the National League. The 0.796 win-loss ratio in Spalding’s career (from the time the teams played once or twice a week) is the highest ever pitcher in history, far exceeding the second-highest score of 0.690.
Team Manager and Director
Within months of signing in Chicago, Halbert and Spalding formed the National League. The main league attracted 2 main teams in the East and 4 best teams from the region, then considered the West . Chicago was initially joined by leading teams from Cincinnati , Louisville and St. Louis . The owners of these western clubs escorted Halbert and Spalding to New York , where they secretly met with owners from New York, Philadelphia , Hartford and Boston . Each of them signed the league’s constitution, and the National League was officially born.
Although the National Association spent several more seasons, it has already lost its status as the main organization of professional baseball. Gradually, it disappeared and split into many small leagues and associations throughout the country.
In 1886, with Spalding as president of the franchise, the Chicago White Stockings (today's Chicago Cubs ) began spring training in Hot Springs , Arkansas [5] [6] . Subsequently, this marked the beginning of the spring baseball camp of the League (a series of demonstration matches before the regular season). The location and concept of the event was the idea of Spalding and his player (and then manager) Cap Anson. Many other teams followed this concept and started holding training matches in Hot Springs and other cities [6] .
In 1905, after Henry Chadwick wrote an article stating that baseball came from cricket and English bast , Spalding set up a commission to study the history of baseball. The commission called on citizens who knew anything about baseball to send letters. After three years of searching, December 30, 1907, Spalding received a letter stating (erroneously) that baseball was the invention of Ebner Doubleday. The commission, however, was biased, since Spalding did not appoint anyone to the commission if they believed that baseball was somehow connected with the English bast. Shortly before the creation of the commission, in a letter to sports commentator Tim Murnan, Spalding noted: "Our good old American baseball game must have an American dad." The project, later called the Mills Commission, concluded that “Baseball was born in the United States,” and “the first baseball scheme, according to the best evidence available to date, was developed by Obner Dubbleday in Cooperstown, New York , in 1839 year. "
Having received the archives of Henry Chadwick in 1908, Spalding combined these notes with his own memories (and prejudices) to write the book “American National Game” (published in 1911), which, despite its shortcomings, was probably the first scientific work on the history of baseball [4] .
Businessman
In 1874, while he was playing and organizing a league, Spalding and his brother Walter opened a sporting goods store in Chicago . The business grew rapidly (14 stores by 1901) and developed into a manufacturer and distributor of all types of sports equipment. The name of the company has become “synonymous with sporting goods” [1] .
Spalding has published the first official baseball rules. In this manual, he legalized that only balls manufactured by Spalding can be used for the game (previously the quality of the balls used was a sub-rule). Spalding also founded the baseball guide magazine, which at that time was the most widely distributed baseball publication.
Between 1888 and 1889, Spalding organized a baseball tour for leading league players around the world to increase baseball's popularity and promote its sporting goods. It was the first ever baseball tour in history. [3] The games were held on the west coast of the United States with stops in Hawaii (without games), in New Zealand , Australia , Ceylon , Egypt , Italy , France and England . Grandiose games were held in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. Future Baseball Hall of Fame Cap Anson and John Montgomery Ward took part in the first world tour. While the players took part in the round, the National League established new rules regarding the payment to players, which led to an uprising of players led by Ward, who organized the League of Players the following season (1890). The league existed for one year, including due to the anti-competitive tactics of Spalding, which limited its success. The first world tour and the formation of the League of Players were reflected in the 2015 film “Deadball” [7] .
In 1900, Spalding was appointed by President McKinley the US Commissioner at this year's Summer Olympics [4] .
Other activities
Spalding was a prominent member of the Theosophical Society under the auspices of Judge William Kwan. In 1900, Spalding moved to San Diego with his second wife, Elizabeth [1], and became a prominent member and supporter of the Losaland Theosophical Society, formed by Katherine Tingley . He built an estate in the Sunset Cliffs area of Point Loma, where he lived with Elizabeth for the rest of his life. Spalding was a racehorse breeder and collected Chinese furniture and works of art.
The Spaldings had an extensive library that included many volumes about Theosophy, art, and literature. In 1907-1909 he was the driving force behind the construction of the asphalt road, known as Point Loma Boulevard, from downtown San Diego to Point Loma and Ocean Beach. This road also provided good access to Lomaland. Later, it served as the basis for the California federal highway number 209 [8] . He proposed a road project, supervised its construction on behalf of the city, and paid part of the cost from his funds. He joined George Marston and other civilian businessmen to buy out the historic San Diego Residence, which they turned into a historic park and eventually donated to the city of San Diego [9] . He unsuccessfully participated in the US Senate election in 1910 from the Republicans , losing to John Works with a score of 92 to 21 in the California legislature. [9] He helped organize the 1915 Panama-California Exposition as its second vice president. [10]
Death
He died of a stroke on September 9, 1915, in San Diego a week after his 66th birthday.
Memory
He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1939. On his plaque in the Hall of Fame reads: “Albert Goodwill Spalding. The genius and pioneer of baseball. Forest City club star pitcher in the late 1860s, four-time Boston champion 1871–1875 and Chicago White Stockings pitcher, champion of the first season of the National League, president of Chicago White Stockings for 10 years. The organizer of the first world baseball tour in 1888 ” [3] .
His nephew, also Albert Spalding, a famous violinist.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 Starr, 1986 , p. 15-17.
- ↑ Frommer, 2016 , p. 79–80.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Spalding, Al . National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum .
- ↑ 1 2 3 Albert G. Spalding . Who made America? . PBS
- ↑ arlington hotel, oaklawn, gangster museum, hot springs baseball trail, historical landmarks | Hot Springs, Arkansas
- ↑ 1 2 Major League Spring Training in Hot Springs - Encyclopedia of Arkansas
- ↑ Deadball (2015) - IMDb
- ↑ Staff . Street Work Pay is Puzzle (English) , The San Diego Union and Daily Bee (April 23, 1909), p. 8.
- ↑ 1 2 Epstein, Michael J. George White Marston: Baseball Player (Eng.) // Journal of San Diego History: journal. - Vol. 50 , no. 3-4 . - P. 93 .
- ↑ Panama-California Exposition, San Diego, 1915–1916 . San Diego History Center .
- ↑ Al Spalding | Society for American Baseball Research
Literature
- Raymond Starr. Book review: AG Spalding and the Rise of Baseball ( Journal ) // Journal of San Diego History: Journal. - 1986. - Vol. 32 , no. 8 . - P. 15-17 . - ISSN 0017-2278 .
- Harvey Frommer. Old Time Baseball: America's Pastime in the Gilded Age . - Rowman and Littlefield, 2016 .-- ISBN 9781630760076 .