Other Crap

19th century ballplayers uncensored

If I ever write a movie script (unlikely), it will be about 19th century baseball. It was filled with wild, hard-fighting, colorful, hard-drinking, hard-cheating scoundrels who spit at, cussed at, and threatened bodily injury to one another, bystanders, and umpires.

A baseball game in those days could be like a pro wrestling match. The catcher might obstruct the batter's swing; they would trip one another when the ump's back was turned; the batter might throw a blind body block on the pitcher or first baseman who tried to field a dribbler. The first baseman might hold the runner literally - by his belt loop. If they could skip second on their way from first to third, they would. When the fans got mad at the visitors, they might throw beer bottles at them. It was the Wild East.

The lads had names like Mysterious Walker, Eee-yah Jennings (who went to law school at Cornell), Slidin' Billy Hamilton, Old Hoss Radbourn (a pitcher who had a 60-win season), The Duke of Tralee, "What's the Use" Chiles, "Death to Flying Things" Ferguson, Icebox Chamberlain, Little Steam Engine Galvin (aka Pud Galvin), Foghorn Tommy Tucker, Dummy Hoy, Orator O'Rourke ... etc.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that Orator and Foghorn talked more than Dummy.

As a sample of what these guys were like, here's an interesting website about a legendary ne'er-do-well, What's The Use Chiles.