1888 AA

Well, I finally decided to dive into the missing AA stirkeouts.   Most of these seasons have ICI sheets, but I like to work from the primary sources (ICI is not a primary and I am not sure where specifically it sourced its data).

As part of this phase of my batter k research, I agreed to pull (and format) as much of the pertinent retrosheet data as I could - that includes linescores, double plays, umpires, attendance, lob.  

I am working team by team, entering their home games from their home town paper.

So far, I have done
Kansas City Cowboys - Kansas City Times
Philadelphia Athletic(s) - Philadelphia Inquirer, Record
Cincinnati Red Stockings - Cincinnati Commercial Gazette

Having a subscription to GeneologyBank.com has really paid off.

Most of the scans are good, however many of the Commercial Gazette scans are a bit more adventurous and I have been using a secondary source like the Cleveland Plain Dealer to verify some of the blurry stuff.  However, what is nice about the Gazette is is that they have pretty good play-by-play for a number of the games which allows me to get better k info (and verify the box info).  


Interesting to see the home and away splits as far as games played.  Kansas City had only like 55 home games, while Cincinnati had about 81.  In fact, I saw a note in either the Gazette or Cleveland Plain Dealer mentioning the Cincinnati owner offering KC $1000 to transfer a set of games from KC to Cincy.

The real fun for me in doing the AA is going back more the 10 years prior to my previous earliest season that I had researched and pulled lineups for (1897).   It is interesting to see some of "my veterans" as young players - Lave Cross as a 22 year old catcher, Wilbert Robinson, not as a grisly veteran;  Bid McPhee in his prime; Elmer Smith as a young pitcher for the Red Stockings, and others.

Also, I get a chance to read up on some players that I have only known in bios or mentions, both famous and lesser - Toad Ramsey, Elton Chamberlain, Tony Mullane, Bob Caruthers and Dave Foutz - both pitching and playing the field, Pete Browning (who was in and out of the lineup battling his demons).

One other quick observation in regards to home/away game splits - I am finishing up Cincinnati's home schedule - Baltimore played in Cincinnati 3 TIMES on the same road trip - Aug 7-9, Aug 13-15, & Aug 25-26.   I haven't checked, but I wonder if this is another of those transferred games.

Favorite players so far (name-wise): McTamany of KC, Jersey Bakley of Cleveland (he started/completed 61 games for them, 2nd to St. Louis's Silver King (btw, all comtemporary references refer to him as Bakely (e & l flipped), and Long John Reilly.