Mr. Baseball

March is here and the seasons are changing from winter to spring. The Super Bowl is in the history books and despondent football fans have begun the agonizing seven-month wait for fall. But, take heart, baseball season is here! And, if you close your eyes, open your imagination, and take a deep breath, you just might smell the fresh cut grass on the spring training ballfields of Florida and Arizona. 

When you think of “Mr. Baseball”, who comes to mind? Perhaps it’s legends like Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Cy Young, or Mickey Mantle. Then again, you may think of the movie, Mr. Baseball, the 1992 romantic comedy starring Tom Selleck. In Mr. Baseball, Selleck portrays an aging ballplayer traded from the New York Yankees to the Chunichi Dragons in Japan to finish out his contract. 

In this post, I present my choice for “Mr. Baseball”. And that man is Albert Goodwill “A.G” Spalding. Here’s his remarkable story. 

As a Spaulding, I’m oftentimes asked, “Are you related to the founder of Spalding Sporting Goods? Well, unfortunately, I’m not directly related. But, indirectly I am, as many Spauldings/Spaldings in America descend from Edward Spalding (1601-1699), an early settler of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. I descend from Edward’s son Andrew. Albert, the founder of Spalding Sporting Goods, descends from Edward’s son John.

So, when and where did Spalding Sporting Goods, the world’s oldest sporting goods manufacturer¹, originate?

It all started with the birth of the company’s founder, Albert Goodwill “A.G.” Spalding on September 2, 1850, in Bryon, Illinois. Bryon is located 90 miles northeast of my 2nd great-grandfather, William Sidney Spaulding’s home in Rock Island, Illinois.

The Playing Years

Albert Goodwill Spalding enjoyed the relatively new game of baseball as a young boy and became quite good at it. After high school, he was recognized for his baseball talent and offered $2,500 a year to play for teams in Cleveland and New York. Albert’s widowed mother strongly opposed the offers, since it meant too much baseball and not enough business experience. So the 17 year-old Spalding turned down the offers and began work at a grocery store in Chicago in 1867, just two years after the Civil War. 

By 1871, Albert could not keep himself from the game he loved any longer, so he signed with the Boston Red Stockings. He was the only pitcher on the team. Do you catch that? The ONLY pitcher on the team; a stark contrast to today’s MLB teams with pitching staffs of 10-12. Albert Goodwill Spalding rallied the Red Stockings to pennant championships from 1872 to 1875. 

In 1876, Albert was instrumental in establishing the National League. During that season, he was team manager and pitcher for the Chicago club. He pitched all 66 games, leading his team to a championship. 

Albert was regarded as one of the most skillful players in the league. His career statistics include a 252-65 win-loss pitching record, 2.14 earned run average, and a 0.313 batting average.²  

The Baseball Almanac’s list of best pitchers includes only 20th century ballplayers with Spud Chandler, who played from 1937-1947, on top with a 0.717 winning percentage.³ If this list included 19th century pitchers, Albert Goodwill Spalding’s 0.742 career winning percentage would place him solely at the pinnacle of this record of all time greats!

The Company 

After the 1876 season, Albert borrowed $800 from his mother and partnered with his brother, James Walter Spalding, to start their sporting goods business. The company, A.G. Spalding and Bros., began as a baseball goods business headquartered in Chicago doing business across the country. By the turn of the century, the company was conducting business worldwide. 

A.G. Spalding and Bros. company firsts include the following: First major league baseball (1876), first baseball glove (1877), first official rules guide for baseball (1878), first American-made football (1887), first basketball developed for James Naismith (1894), and first volleyball (1895).⁴

Today, Spalding Sports Worldwide, Inc. is a global sporting goods company. They produce a wide range of sporting goods, including basketballs, volleyballs, footballs, and soccer balls under the SPALDING brand name, as well as softballs, under the DUDLEY brand. Other products include the golf brands TOP-FLITE, BEN HOGAN, and STRATA.⁵

The Book

In 1886, Albert’s company published Spalding’s Official Base Ball Guide. This 160 page book, priced at 10 cents, was a complete handbook for the national game of baseball. The book also contains the “Correct Diagram of a Ball Ground” laying out the dimensions of a baseball field and the positioning of the players. And yes, the 90 foot distance from home plate to first base was the same in 1886 as it is today. 

Here’s an interesting quote from the book’s introduction with, perhaps, an early declaration of baseball being labeled “America’s pastime”.

“It is now over a quarter of a century since the game of base ball became popularized as the game of games for American youth; and within that period it has so extended itself in its sphere of operations that it is now the permanently established national field game of America. Unlike many sports taken up by our people, which have ridden into general favor on the wave of a public furore, base ball has come to stay. Not even the great war of the rebellion could check its progress to any great extent; in fact, in one way — through the national army — it led to its being planted in a Southern clime, and now base ball can be said to know no North, no South, no East, no West.”

Albert Goodwill Spalding, 1886

You can read this intriguing baseball book of the past at the Smithsonian Institute’s Library HERE. 

The Later Years

Albert Goodwill Spalding retired from baseball as a player in 1878 at age of 27 but remained involved as president and part owner of the Chicago White Stockings. 

In 1888 and 1889, Albert took a group of professional baseball players on a world baseball tour to promote the game and his company. The tour made stops in Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, Ceylon (today’s Sri Lanka), Egypt, Italy, France, England, Scotland, and Ireland. They returned home to the U.S. to grand receptions in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago.⁶

In 1900, Albert Goodwill Spalding, was honored by U.S. President William McKinley when he was appointed “Commissioner of the Olympic Games” in Paris, France. By 1905, Albert slowly retired from day-to-day operations of his company and moved to Point Loma, California. He died of a stroke in Point Loma on September 9, 1915 at age 65.

In 1939, 24 years after his death, Albert Goodwill Spalding, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of the first inductees from the 19th century. Here’s his tribute plaque from the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

During his lifetime, Albert Goodwill Spalding, was instrumental in the development of the game of baseball and a pioneer in the sporting goods industry and thus (in my admittedly biased opinion) deserving the title of “Mr. Baseball”. 

NOTES

1. Encloyopedia.com. Spalding Sports Worldwide. Accessed from https://www.encyclopedia.com/economics/economics-magazines/spalding-sports-worldwide  on December 31, 2023. 
2. Wikipedia. Albert Spalding. Accessed from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Spalding#Organizer_and_executive on January 3, 2024. 
3. Baseball Almanac. Winning Percentage All-Time Leaders. Accessed from https://www.baseball-almanac.com/pitching/piwper1.shtml on January 3, 2024.
4. Spalding. About Us. Accessed from https://www.spalding.com/about-spalding.html on January 3, 2024. 
5. Bloomberg. Spalding Sports Worldwide, Inc. Accessed from https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/195631Z:US on January 4, 2024. 
6. Find-a-Grave. Albert Goodwill Spalding. Accessed from https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5860637/albert-goodwill-spalding on January 1, 2024. 

IMAGES

1. Featured Image: Scofield, W. 2018. Vintage Brown Leather Mitt with Baseball. Accessed from https://unsplash.com/photos/brown-leather-baseball-mitt-with-baseball-beside-gray-container-and-brown-textile-at-daytime-C1W6hbkxN0s on January 5, 2014 and is free to use under the Unsplash License.
2. Wikimedia Commons. Albert Spalding Baseball Card, 1871. Accessed from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1871_Albert_Spalding_Baseball-card-Boston_Red_Stockings.jpgon January 5, 2024 (Public Domain). 
3. A.G. Spalding & Bros. Spalding’s Official Base Ball Guide, 1886 book cover. Accessed fromhttps://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/spaldingquotsba1886 on January 5, 2024. 
4. Library of Congress. Albert Goodwill Spaulding, Businessman, 1910. Accessed from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AGSpalding.jpg on January 5, 2024 (Public Domain).