August 1, 1876
The United States celebrated the nation’s centennial on July 4th, 100 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Baseball celebrated with a full slate of games. Boston defeated the Brown Stockings in St. Louis by a score of 6-3. In Louisville, the Grays and Mutuals put on an offensive show with a 14-8 New York victory. The game in Chicago between Hartford and the White Stockings was offensive in another way. The teams combined for 19 errors in the game. Hartford’s Bill Phillips allowed 6 runs on 1 hit and a walk in just 1/3 of an inning pitched, as Chicago won 13-5.
However, the game that really gave fans their money’s worth was between the Athletics and Reds in Cincinnati. The Athletics jumped out to an early 3-0 lead off of Joe Bormann when Charlie Harvard hit a 2-run triple in the top of the first. Cincinnait would battle back, though, scoring runs in the bottom of the 1st, 5th, and 8th. Bormann pitched tremendously the whole time, holding Philadelphia scoreless after that first inning, and when the 9th inning came and went, the score was still 3-3. Philadelphia starter Joe Gotcher was also still in the game, and for the next several innings, both Gotcher and Bormann would shut down the opposing offenses. The two scattered a handful of hits, but neither team was able to string anything together. In the 14th, Bormann took things into his own hands. He managed a single of his own off of Gotcher, and after Joe Bonetti popped out to the catcher, Rudy Stirnemann singled to put runners on 1st and 2nd. John Gano then came to the plate and hit a line drive over the second baseman to score Bormann from 2nd and give the Reds a 4-3 victory in the longest game the NL has seen to date.
In other news, the 38 year old Will Svoboda started to show signs of his age in the middle of July with a series of particularly poor outings, and the Red Caps have turned to Billy Lamacchia to try to right the ship. With the Athletics having gained a few games on Boston, the team felt it had to do something to keep up, and Lamacchia has pitched well since being handed the ball. Still, Philadelphia has stayed out of the loss column a few more times than Boston and has a slight edge. St. Louis and New York each dropped an additional half game off the pace, while the Reds fell 3.5 games further back despite their dramatic victory on Independence Day. The big drops in the standings, however, came from Hartford and Louisville, who both had a very difficult time in July, with the Dark Blues going just 4-10. The only team to gain in the standings over the course of the month was Chicago, who went 9-4, but was already far enough back that they’re still 9 games out and in 6th place.
In Other News
July 2: Boston sends SS Billy Jumper to Hartford for 2B Jack Van Houten.
July 4: 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
July 8: Joe Gotcher of the Philadelphia Athletics shuts out the Cincinnati Reds on 3 hits. Joe Bormann of the Reds also holds Philadelphia to 3 hits, but the Athletics scored in the 7th inning after catcher Charlie Harvard reached on an error and scored via an Oscar Williams triple. The 1-0 final score is the first game in National League history to see only 1 run scored.
July 8: The Boston Herald carries mid season averages showing hits per game and errors per game (not per AB or per chance).
Obviously, OOTP gives us better stats than this, but this is what was reported back then. I am running the league on the lowest stats detail level, and will increase it as MLB stat tracking increased.
July 14: Bill Phillips, who had that awful 6-runs allowed in 1/3 of an inning on July 4th is traded from Hartford to Cincinnati, having fallen out of favor with the team.
July 22: Chicago White Stockings pitcher Art Stokes pitches a 5-hit shutout against the Louisville Grays. The White Stockings win the game by a whopping score of 12-0 as the Grays commit 9 errors in the game.
July 29: Billy Lamacchia, pitches a 6-hit shutout over the New York Mutuals. Boston scores 7 runs on 16 hits.
July 29: Joe Bormann strikes out Bill Shew of the Chicago White Stockings for his 50th strikeout of the season.
Standings
Code:
W L PCT GB
Philadelphia Athletics 25 13 .658 -
Boston Red Caps 25 16 .610 1.5
St. Louis Brown Stockings 23 18 .561 3.5
Cincinnati Reds 21 20 .512 5.5
New York Mutuals 20 20 .500 6.0
Chicago White Stockings 18 24 .429 9.0
Hartford Dark Blues 15 21 .417 9.0
Louisville Grays 15 30 .333 13.5
League Leaders
Average
.371 Joe Holleran (BOS)
.358 Tom Childers (NY)
.356 Henry Rasnick (LOU)
Total Bases
88 Henry Rasnick (LOU)
85 Joe Holleran (BOS)
85 Bob Polansky (STL)
Stolen Bases
13 John Arend (STL)
11 Fred Mannion (BOS)
10 John Nero (NY), Harry Pigg (CHW)
ERA
2.00 Joe Gotcher (PHA)
2.11 Bill McManis (NY)
2.30 Charlie Barta (STL)
Wins
19 Joe Bormann (CIN)
16 Charlie Barta (STL)
15 Joe Gotcher (PHA), Will Svoboda (BOS)
Strikeouts
50 Joe Bormann (CIN)
46 Charlie Barta (STL)
22 Frank Kale (HAR)