Inventing Baseball the Modern Way - George Stallings of the Boston Braves

by Bill Russo

Here's a few bits and pieces I'm going to throw into the stove to see if we can warm up a cold winter with some baseball "Hotstove Talk".   We're reaching back to 1914 for this chat.  Here's a few chunks from my little Kindle book,"Worst to First, the 1914 Miracle Boston Braves."

The year 2014 marked the 100th anniversary of one of the greatest seasons in baseball - it was the summer of the rise of the Boston Braves who went from last place in July to first, and then on to victory in the World Series.

The Braves were 26 and 40 in early July; after starting out with just three wins in their first 19 games. On July 18th, the team was still in eighth place and trailed the league leading New York Giants, by ten games.

Fans were excited though, as the club was beginning to show some form, and had won eight of its last nine games.  Still, even the diehards did not expect the Braves to be able to contend for the pennant, let alone win it.

But the Boston players went on the most amazing run in baseball history. Over their last 89 games, they won 70 and lost just 19 for a .787 victory percentage.

And they did it with only one established star, little Johnny Evers – about five and a half feet tall and weighing 95 pounds when he broke in with the Cubs.

Evers would go on to fame as part of the fabled double play trio of 'Tinkers to Evers to Chance'. The Braves wooed him away from Chicago with a budget busting salary of $10,000 (about 250,000 in 2015 dollars).

They also gave him  an unheard of signing bonus of $25,000 to keep him from jumping to the upstart Federal League.

The chapters of the booklet are written as if the season were happening right now; in hopes of transporting the reader back to that long gone era of 26 hour train rides and 30 day road trips: of bean balls and spit balls, foulballs, and goofballs.

In one chapter, you will actually get to (figuratively) ride with the team on a road trip in the Pullman car and get a real taste of the life of an early 1900s ballplayer. You will learn the story behind 'Tinkers to Evers to Chance'. And you will get some insight into “The Miracle Man” Manager, George Stallings who may be the father of modern baseball. He was the first manager to use the “platoon” system. He treated his ball club like a pack of paste boards - and in 1914 he always threw down the right card.

Here's part of the chapter about the long Road Trip Train Ride 
(Boston, Mass.  1914)

The road swing starts in the Great Room at the brand new South Station in Boston. From the Great Room and its bustling emporiums and food shops, the players lumber out to the tracks and see the big locomotive that will carry them on their thousand mile trip, their car is the Pullman at the very end of the train. 

It has 14 berths for the 25 players. Each berth has an upper and lower bunk, allowing for 28 beds. Since it is a private car, the guys have the use of both the ladies and the men’s room, which gives extra toilet facilities but there is no bathtub so they have to use 6 little wash basins to take care of their grooming needs. There is a men’s and ladies room at each end of the car. 


The first leg of the trip will be to Chicago to take on the Cubs. It is a 1,000 mile trip that takes about 23 hours. The train departs at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, and with about 12 stops, will arrive at Union Station in Chicago at 4 p.m. on Wednesday. The next game for the players is on Thursday. They had two days off for the travel. 


George Stallings Jr. sometimes travels with his Dad (The Manager) and he shared some travel tidbits with the press. 


“The ballplayers are always hungry. They file into the dining car and make sure they get their six bits worth. Some of the boys regularly complain that there is a fly in their meal and demand to have another. When the waiter takes the plate, all that remains on it is the fly - and the ballplayers bring the flies with them!!!” 

After dinner the men walk back to their Pullman car and splay across the seats smoking cheap cigars that compete with the soft-coal smoke that drifts in through the tiny window screens. 
Three or four card games start. One ballplayer is not allowed in any of the games. He already owes two years pay for his previous losses. He begs everybody to let him play. “Look fellas, How about Four Years or Nothing?”, he pleads to no avail. 

I hope you like the sample.  Read the book for just 99 cents in the Kindle Store.