A Tale of Four Cities: Nineteenth Century Baseball's Most Exciting Season, 1889, in Contemporary Accounts

Jean-Pierre Caillault

2015-09 · McFarland

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The 1889 baseball season is unique in the history of baseball. Both leagues--the veteran National League and the upstart American Association--featured thrilling pennant races that were not decided until the final day of the season. There was excitement off the field as well; the players' union (known then as "the Brotherhood") sowed the seeds of the most ambitious player revolt in baseball history.

This work presents accounts from the major newspapers of each of the four teams' cities--the New York Times, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the Boston Herald, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch--to capture the day-by-day excitement of the 1889 pennant race and the passion that the press and public had for baseball. The National League race pitted the world champion New York Giants against the Boston Beaneaters--teams that accounted for 10 Hall of Famers and three players that spearheaded the player revolt. The American Association race was just as exciting and even more controversial, as team presidents Chris Von der Ahe of the St. Louis Browns and Charles H. Byrne of the Brooklyn Bridegrooms hated each other passionately and Von der Ahe often clashed with his own players.

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SABR member Jean-Pierre Caillault is a professor of astronomy at the University of Georgia, where he also teaches classes on the physics of baseball and the history of the major leagues. His articles have been published in Baseball Digest and Baseball Research Journal. He lives in Winterville, Georgia.