| Albert Goodwill Spalding | |
|---|---|
 Spalding in 1910 | |
| Pitcher | |
| Born: September 2, 1850 Byron, Illinois, U.S. | |
| Died: September 9, 1915(1915-09-09) (aged 65) San Diego,California, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| May 5, 1871, for the Boston Red Stockings | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| August 31, 1878, for the Chicago White Stockings | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Win–loss record | 252–65 |
| Earned run average | 2.14 |
| Strikeouts | 248 |
| Batting average | .313 |
| Hits | 613 |
| Runs batted in | 338 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
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| Career highlights and awards | |
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| Member of the National | |
 Baseball Hall of Fame | |
| Induction | 1939 |
| Election method | Old-Timers Committee |
Albert Goodwill Spalding (September 2, 1850 – September 9, 1915) was an Americanpitcher,manager, and executive in the early years of professionalbaseball, and the co-founder of theSpalding sporting goods company. He was born and raised inByron, Illinois, yet graduated fromRockford Central High School inRockford, Illinois. He played major league baseball between 1871 and 1878. Spalding set a trend when he started wearing abaseball glove.
After his retirement as a player, Spalding remained active with theChicago White Stockings as president and part-owner. In the 1880s, he took players on the first world tour of baseball. WithWilliam Hulbert, Spalding organized theNational League. He later called for the commission that investigated the origins of baseball and falsely creditedAbner Doubleday with creating the game.
He was inducted into theBaseball Hall of Fame in 1939.[1]
Having played baseball throughout his youth, Spalding first played competitively with theRockford Pioneers, a youth team, which he joined in 1865. After pitching his team to a 26–2 victory over a local men's amateur team (the Mercantiles), he was approached at the age of 15 by theRockford Forest Citys, for whom he played for five years. Following the formation of baseball's first professional organization, theNational Association of Professional Base Ball Players (which became known as the National Association, the Association, or NA) in 1871, Spalding joined theBoston Red Stockings (precursor club to the modernAtlanta Braves) and was highly successful;winning 206 games (and losing only 53) as a pitcher andbatting .323 as a hitter.
William Hulbert, principal owner of theChicago White Stockings, did not like the loose organization of the National Association and the gambling element that influenced it, so he decided to create a new organization, which he dubbed theNational League of Baseball Clubs. To aid him in this venture, Hulbert enlisted the help of Spalding. Playing to the pitcher's desire to return to his Midwestern roots and challenging Spalding's integrity, Hulbert convinced Spalding to sign a contract to play for the White Stockings (now known as theChicago Cubs) in 1876. Spalding then coaxed teammatesDeacon White,Ross Barnes andCal McVey, as well asPhiladelphia Athletics playersCap Anson andBob Addy, to sign with Chicago. This was all done under complete secrecy during the playing season because players were all free agents in those days and they did not want their current club and especially the fans to know they were leaving to play elsewhere the next year. News of the signings by the Boston and Philadelphia players leaked to the press before the season ended and all of them faced verbal abuse and physical threats from the fans of those cities.
He was "the premier pitcher of the 1870s", leading the league in victories for each of his six full seasons as a professional.[1] During each of those years he was his team's only pitcher.[2] In 1876, Spalding won 47 games as the prime pitcher for the White Stockings and led them to win the first-ever National Leaguepennant by a wide margin.[1]
In 1877, Spalding began to use a glove to protect his catching hand. People had used gloves previously, but they were not popular, and Spalding himself was skeptical of wearing one at first. However, once he began donning gloves, he influenced other players to do so.[3]
Spalding retired from playing baseball in 1878 at the age of 27, although he continued as president and part owner of the White Stockings and a major influence on the National League. Spalding's .796 career winning percentage (from an era when teams played about once or twice a week) is the highest ever by a baseball pitcher, .058 ahead ofNegro league starDave Brown's .738.[4] Spalding was the first pitcher to reach 200 wins.[citation needed]
In the months after signing for Chicago, Hulbert and Spalding organized the National League by enlisting the two major teams in the East and the four other top teams in what was then considered to be the West, also known as the jungle. Joining Chicago initially were the leading teams fromCincinnati,Louisville, andSt. Louis. The owners of these western clubs accompanied Hulbert and Spalding to New York where they secretly met with owners from New York City,Philadelphia,Hartford, andBoston. Each signed the league's constitution, and the National League was officially born. "Spalding was thus involved in the transformation of baseball from a game of gentlemen athletes into a business and a professional sport."[5] Although the National Association held on for a few more seasons, it was no longer recognized as the premier organization for professional baseball. Gradually, it faded out of existence and was replaced by myriad minor leagues and associations around the country.
In 1886, with Spalding as president of the franchise, the Chicago White Stockings (today'sChicago Cubs), began holdingspring training inHot Springs, Arkansas,[6][7] which subsequently has been called the "birthplace" of spring training baseball. The location and the training concept was the brainchild of Spalding and his player/managerCap Anson, who saw that the city and the natural springs created positives for their players. They first played in an area called theHot Springs Baseball Grounds. Many other teams followed the concept and began training in Hot Springs and other locations.[7]
In 1905, afterHenry Chadwick wrote an article saying that baseball grew from the British sports ofcricket androunders, Spalding called for acommission to find out the real source of baseball. The commission called for citizens who knew anything about the founding of baseball to send in letters. After three years of searching, on December 30, 1907, Spalding received a letter that (erroneously) declared baseball to be the invention ofAbner Doubleday. The commission was biased, as Spalding would not appoint anyone to the commission if they believed the sport was somewhat related to rounders or cricket. Just before the commission issued its findings, in a letter to sportswriterTim Murnane, Spalding noted, "Our good old American game of baseball must have an American Dad." The project, later called the Mills Commission, concluded that "Base Ball had its origins in the United States" and "the first scheme for playing baseball, according to the best evidence available to date, was devised by Abner Doubleday atCooperstown, N.Y., in 1839."
Receiving the archives of Henry Chadwick in 1908, Spalding combined these records with his own memories (and biases) to writeAmerica's National Game (published 1911) which, despite its flaws, was probably the first scholarly account of thehistory of baseball.[2]
In 1912, Spalding wrote "Neither our wives, our sisters, our daughters, our sweethearts, may play Base Ball on the field... they may play Basket Ball, and achieve laurels; they may play Golf, and receive trophies, but Base Ball is too strenuous for womankind, except as she may take part in grandstands, with applause for the brilliant play, with waiving kerchief to the hero of the three-bagger."[8]
In 1876 while Spalding was playing and organizing the league, Spalding and his brother Walter began a sporting goods store in Chicago, which grew rapidly (14 stores by 1901) and expanded into a manufacturer and distributor of all kinds of sporting equipment.The company became "synonymous with sporting goods"[5] and is still a going concern.
Spalding, from 1892[9] to 1941,[10] sold books under the nameSpalding Athletic Library on many different sports.
In 1888–1889, Spalding took a group of major league players around the world to promote baseball andSpalding sporting goods. This was the first-everworld baseball tour.[1] Playing across the western U.S., the tour made stops in Hawaii (although no game was played), New Zealand, Australia,Ceylon, Egypt, Italy, France, and England. The tour returned to grand receptions in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. The tour included futureHall of Famers Cap Anson andJohn Montgomery Ward.
The tour was also touted by Spalding as a launching point for baseball to reach the global stage. At a celebratory dinner in Manhattan, he celebrated the tour – perhaps prematurely – for establishing “our national game throughout the world.” Following Spalding's statements,Mark Twain proclaimed that the tour “carried the American name to the outermost parts of the earth, and covered it with glory every time.”
While Spalding and company gushed about their schlep around the world, waxing lyrical about baseball's future as a global sport, in reality, the tour had very little impact on the sport's hold overseas. Sports likesoccer,rugby, andcricket had already been established in many other countries due to the presence of European imperialism so baseball had a difficult time gaining popularity in these regions. While baseball did reach a wider global audience, it was due to a larger scale diffusion of the sport rather than the efforts of one magnate, like Spalding envisioned.[11]
While the players were on the tour, the National League instituted new rules regarding player pay that led to a revolt of players, led by Ward, who started thePlayers' League the following season (1890). The league lasted one year, partially due to the anti-competitive tactics of Spalding to limit its success. The tour and formation of the Player's League is depicted in the 2015 movieDeadball.[12]
In 1900 Spalding was appointed byPresident McKinley as the USA's Commissioner at that year'sSummer Olympic Games.[2]
Spalding had been a prominent member of the Theosophical Society underWilliam Quan Judge. In 1900, Spalding moved toSan Diego having recently married his second wife, Elizabeth[5] and became a prominent member and supporter of theTheosophical communityLomaland, which was being developed onPoint Loma byKatherine Tingley. He built an estate in theSunset Cliffs area of Point Loma where he lived with Elizabeth for the rest of his life. The Spaldings raised race horses and collected Chinese fine furniture and art.
The Spaldings had an extensive library which included many volumes on Theosophy, art, and literature. In 1907–1909 he was the driving force behind the development of a paved road, known as the "Point Loma boulevard," from downtown San Diego to Point Loma andOcean Beach; the road also provided good access to Lomaland. It later provided the basis forCalifornia State Route 209.[13] He proposed the project, supervised it on behalf of the city, and paid a portion of the cost out of his own pocket. He joined withGeorge Marston and other civic-minded businessmen to purchase the site of the originalPresidio of San Diego, which they developed as a historic park and eventually donated to the city of San Diego.[14] He ran unsuccessfully for theUnited States Senate in1911 as a Republican, but lost to eventual winnerJohn D. Works by a vote of 92–21 in the California legislature.[14] He helped to organize the 1915Panama–California Exposition, serving as second vice-president.[15]
He died of a stroke on September 9, 1915, in San Diego, one week after his 66th birthday.[16]His ashes were scattered at his request.[17][18]
He was elected to theBaseball Hall of Fame by theVeterans Committee in1939, as one of the first inductees from the 19th century at that summer's opening ceremonies. His plaque in the Hall of Fame reads "Albert Goodwill Spalding. Organizational genius of baseball's pioneer days. Star pitcher of Forest City Club in late 1860s, 4-year champion Bostons 1871–75 and manager-pitcher of champion Chicagos in National League's first year. Chicago president for 10 years. Organizer of baseball's first round-the-world tour in 1888."[1]
His nephew, also namedAlbert Spalding, was a renownedviolinist.
· ESPN · Baseball Reference · Fangraphs · Retrosheet| Preceded by | Owner of theChicago Cubs 1882 — 1902 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
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