Blackguards and Red Stockings: A History of Baseball's National Association, 1871–1875 by William J. Ryczek (review)

The number of titles about nineteenth-century baseball has increased in recent years. As research reveals more about the early days of the game called "base ball," new information has brought more details to the history of the development of baseball as a professional sport. In Blackguards and Red Stockings, William J. Ryczek examines the National Association (1871–75), the first professional baseball league. The first professional major league baseball game was a game played between the Fort Wayne Kekiongas and the Cleveland Forest Citys on May 4, 1871.

The first edition of this book received the Macmillan-SABR Baseball Research Award in 1993. In the introduction of this revised edition, Ryczek discusses how researching nineteenth-century baseball has changed, as well as the changes he has made to the second edition. The revisions include a substantially rewritten second chapter, updated biographical information on players, which came from the work of the biographical committee of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), and more detailed statistics, which came from Retrosheet. The new factual and statistical information led Ryczek to re-evaluate some of his conclusions and, in some cases, eliminate or update them.

The organization of the book is essentially chronological, with background on how the game of base ball was different in the nineteenth century. As the game developed in New York, New Jersey, and New England, the players held amateur status. Civil War veterans returned home, many of them bringing to their hometowns knowledge of a new game. After the war, some teams professionalized, with official recognition of professional teams coming in 1869. Even with professionalization, rules of the nineteenth-century game were not the same as today. The pitcher, who did not stand on a mound or use a pitching rubber, stood only forty-five feet from the batter. Catchers did not wear masks until 1877. Umpires did not make a call on the first pitch seen by a batter. With different rules for foul balls, courtesy batters, and substitutes, the ninety-foot distance between bases has remained consistent.

Teams came in and out of the league through its six seasons. Teams like the Philadelphia Athletics, Chicago White Stockings, and the Boston Red Stockings would field teams in each season. The Fort Wayne Kekiongas, the Brooklyn Eckfords, and the Elizabeth Resolutes only played in one season. National Association players included future Hall of Famers such as Adrian "Cap" Anson, Al Spalding, and George Wright. The league faced a range of problems, including scheduling issues, club stability, reliability of umpires, low attendance, and the pervasiveness of gambling.

Future Baseball Hall of Famer Adrian "Cap" Anson earned some of his 3,000 hits playing in the National Association. Ryczek touches on an issue frequently discussed related to Anson's career: his role in establishing the color line in the 1880s. Ryczek correctly notes that Adrian Anson's views of African Americans were "strong" even by nineteenth-century standards. He correctly assesses that Adrian Anson did not alone create the color line. Ryczek argues that, if Albert Spalding, the president of the White Stockings, had ordered Anson to play against a team fielding blacks, Anson would have taken the field (55). However, Cap Anson, a popular player, represented the views of others at the time, and his actions helped establish the acceptability of those views, which would eventually became a gentlemen's agreement of segregation. Anson is not wholly responsible, but he bears some responsibility. The problems faced by the league were too much to overcome, and, in 1876, six teams from the National Association joined with two other teams to form the National League, a league that would have more long-term success.

Ryczek's sources include the New York–centric New York Clipperand Henry Chadwick scrapbooks. There is an appendix with "Selected Statistics," including season-by-season rosters with batting averages and pitching...