The All-1800s Baseball Team

I had so much fun doing the all-time MLB player draft I just decided I could not stop. There were several groups of players that were neglected from the draft simply because accurate and meaningful statistics just do not exist for them. The first group was negro-league players, but I've already made a team comprised of the best they had to offer in a previous post. The second group was players who starred before 1900. I've decided to to rectify the omission of that second group now. So, here is my all-time 1800s team.

C - Buck Ewing

Most of the information we still have about Ewing talks about his superb defensive abilities, particularly his throwing arm. It's hard see just how much credit we can put into those reports, but Ewing was one of the first 19th century players put in the Hall of Fame, and his hitting stats were superb for anyone, not just a catcher. Ewing is one of the most obvious choices on this team, he really seems to stand head and shoulders above all his contemporaries.

1B - Cap Anson

One of the least likable guys baseball history, but maybe the most important player ever. Anson built one of the first truly great teams in baseball history, the 1870s-80s Chicago Cubs. Anson was by far the best at this time of identifying and acquiring talent. He forced the other teams in the league to improve or get run over. Even without that influence, he would win this roster spot purely on his hitting abilities. He's still among the all-time leaders in hits, runs and RBI even though for most of his career teams didn't play 100 games in a season.

2B - Hardy Richardson

I'm just barely taking Richardson over Bid Mcphee and Cupid Childs. All three have very good defensive reputations and in my opinion, Richardson was the best hitter. Childs' numbers look more impressive but he played in a much friendlier environment. Richardson played most of his career for a pretty terrible Buffalo franchise but found success later on when he moved to Detroit, posting the league's best record in 1887. In the 1800s second base was more of an offensive position, sort of like third base is now, and Richardson was an excellent hitter with power.

3B - John McGraw

McGraw is now mostly known as being one of the most successful managers ever, but he was also a spectacular player. There are very few third baseman who put up impressive offensive numbers from this era, making McGraw's 334/466/410 slash line pop out even more. After turning 20, the lowest OBP he ever posted as .422. He had almost no power (even for his era) but was a fine baserunner, stealing over 400 bags in his career. I also think that because he proved to be such a great manager, having his presence on the bench would go a long way to help this team.

SS - Hughie Jennings

I'm taking Jennings over Jack Glasscock and George Davis because he has the best defensive reputation of the group and a lot Davis' hitting value came after 1900. Jennings was a colorful character who was well liked by his teammates and has the odd distinction of being hit by more pitches than anyone else in history. All of the 1800s shortstops were immediately overshadowed because Honus Wagner came along a few years later and pretty much blew all of them out of the water, but Jennings had a run of about 5 seasons where he was one of the most valuable players in the league.

LF - Ed Delahanty

He played a little bit after 1900, but the next best option here, Jesse Burkett played even more after the turn of the century, and Jim O'Rourke was never the dominant force Big Ed was. Delahanty had four brothers who played in the majors but none of them could hold a candle to Ed. Delahanty was one of the league's first legitimate power threats, leading the league in slugging five times, and breaking 100 RBI seven times.

CF - Billy Hamilton

Not many men were born to be leadoff hitters, but Hamilton was. A lightning fast player who once averaged 147 runs scored per season over a nine year stretch. He had five seasons of over 95 steals and five seasons with 100+ walks. He also had a career batting average of .344. There is very little literature written about Hamilton, which is curious considering how phenomenal his numbers are. My guess is that Hamilton was probably a very quiet person and able to hide in relative anonymity in what was at the time a sea of almost cartoon-character like personalities.

RF - King Kelly

I am not even going to attempt to summarize Kelly as a man or a player because he was so beloved in his time that it would be difficult to believe anything written about him. Assigning him to right field is the best guess anyone can come up with because he played every position on the diamond, often moving around during games to wherever he pleased. Although most of the imagery we have of him now is that of a chain-smoker who despite being the highest paid player in the league was poor when he died at the age of 36 because he spent every dime he had on women, his wardrobe and whiskey. Even with all of the insanity that surrounded Kelly the man, he actually did manage to have a very successful playing career. He led the league in runs scored several times and even though there are no stolen base records for most of his career he was regarded as the best base runner of his era. I think of Kelly the ball player as a super-utility type player who just happened to be one of the best hitters in the league.

DH - Dan Brouthers

I know there was no DH back then but Brouthers has to be on this team somewhere and unfortunately for him he played the same position as Anson. Brouthers was a giant man by the standards of the day, standing well over six feet and weighing over 200 pounds. Brouthers led the league in OPS for six straight seasons during the 1880s and finished his career with a 170 OPS+. If Brouthers was not the best pure hitter of the 1800s he was easily in the top three.

P - Kid Nichols

Although he pitched into the 1900s, Nichols' best years came in the 1890s. From 1890-1899 Nichols' average year was 30-15, 400 IP, 2.97. Basically, you could split those numbers in half and have two great seasons. A very small man with a whip for an arm, Nichols was one of the hardest throwers around and generally only through a fastball. It is perhaps because of this that he was able to lead the league in total batters face seven times.

P - Charley Radbourn

Old Hoss had probably the greatest single season ever by a baseball player in 1884 when he went 59-12 while leading the league with a 1.38 ERA over 678 innings while striking out 441 batters. While it was the only time he led the league in ERA, he did manage to rack up 309 wins in his career.

P - Tim Keefe

Most sources credit Keefe with inventing the changeup. Meaning a pitch where the pitcher uses the same arm speed but the ball comes out slower because of a change in grip. It was believed he came up with the pitch before the 1883 season and doing so turned him into one of the best pitchers in the league. Keefe did not become a regular until he was 24 (late for the time period) but cracked 300 wins before 10 years passed anyway.

P - John Clarkson

Clarkson's career really only spanned 10 seasons but he finished with a 324-178 record. He led the league in wins and strikeouts three times each, and innings four times. Early in his career Clarkson's walk numbers were exceptionally low but at 26 he started to mess around with secondary pitches and ended up among the league leaders in walks every season for the rest of his career.

P - Al Spalding

Spalding career was short by any standard, only six seasons really. But he went 253-65 in that career, the greatest winning percentage ever. While wins don't often mean much he did lead the league in ERA twice. In the 1870s the pitcher's job was not to get the batter out, but merely throw the ball over the plate so that batter could hit it onto the field. As a result, Spalding had a grand total of 142 strikeouts in a near 3000 inning career. Spalding was not one of the five best pitchers of the 1800s because he was playing a different game altogether, but his accomplishments are so unique I feel like he should be mentioned. Clearly he was doing something better than everyone else at the time, maybe he threw harder or more accurately. Whatever it was, it was significant.

With my apologies to Pud Galvin, Amos Rusie, Silver King, Tommy Bond, Bob Caruthers and Tony Mullane. Pitchers from this era really stand out because they threw so many innings. I've chosen the five I personally found the most impressive but a really good case could be made for any of these guys.