[Eckstein 4 Prez]

I'm still not quite done with July 1875, but I thought I'd do a little "baseball biography" of one of my historical players.... in this case second baseman Bob "Magnet" Addy.

Addy was, of course, called "Magnet" because of his superior fielding ability, and it was this fielding ability that caused him to be given the starting second base job with the Rockford Forest Citys in 1871. At 26, Bob was actually one of the more experienced players on the team, and he played a sort of "older brother" role with the team's younger stars, such as shortstop Pony Sager, center fielder George Bird and first baseman Adrian Anson. However, Bob's contributions were not merely off the field, as he drove in a team-leading 26 runs and batted a robust .343. Sadly, the team did not meet expectations, as they ended the 1871 campaign with a poor 8-17 record. Because of their poor play and the high cost of travel to the East Coast, the Rockford team was disbanded after the 1871 season and its players were set free to sign with whatever teams they wished.

Addy left his friends and teammates behind and set out east for the 1872 season, signing a contract with the Washington Olympics, who had gone 13-19 in 1871 but seemed poised for a breakout year. Addy was given the starting second base job, and hoped he could repeat his 1871 success for the Olympics.

However, it was not to be. While the team got out to a 5-4 start and was competitive on the field, the financial backers were losing money on the players' contracts (including Addy's - the highest paid player on his team). With an insufficient revenue source, the team collapsed in late May when they could no longer pay players' salaries. For his part, Bob had a miserable season back east, going only 2 for 31 in the team's nine games. He frequently wrote to his family in upstate New York about his dislike of the nation's capital, still not quite recovered from the ravages of war only seven years earlier.

Freed from his contract, Addy headed back home to Rochester for the fall and wondered whether he would ever return to professional base ball. However, unbeknownst to Bob, his excellent season in 1871 had attracted the attention of two veteran infielders. Both Joe Start and Dickey Pearce of the New York Mutuals had noticed Addy and figured he might make a good infield mate. The Mutuals had always been a bit unsettled at second, with Bob Ferguson and Frank Fleet alternating at the position, and neither of them really being all that successful with the cranks who followed the team's every move. So Start was dispatched up to Rochester in the winter of 1872 to convince Addy to return to professional base ball.

With a mixture of excitement and reluctance, Addy agreed to play for the Mutuals in 1873. However, it went poorly right from the start. Addy started slowly, and by midseason was replaced at second by Frank Fleet. For the rest of the year, he struggled to find any playing time at all and was ultimately waived in October 1873 after hitting only .213 for New York. He was picked up by a team that was still deciding whether to return for the 1874 campaign - the Baltimore Marylands. Addy promptly sent the team president a telegram stating that he would head back home to Rochester rather than play for the Marylands, as he hated "the very smell" of the Chesapeake.

Fortunately for Addy, the Marylands decided to disband after the 1873 season, leaving him again without a base ball home. He again thought about quitting the game, but again decided against it, as a brand new team started up in Hartford, Connecticut in 1874 and needed any experienced players they could find. They were more than happy to give Addy the starting second base job sight unseen. Finally away from the pressure he'd felt in Washington and New York, Addy became something of a minor star in Hartford - he hit a team-leading .303, and was one of the few players who was consistent on both offense and defense for the lowly Dark Blues. Also, the team was on fairly stable financial ground despite its lackluster record so there was no fear of a sudden collapse, as Addy had gone through in 1872. For the first time since his inaugural season, Addy was happy on the ball field.

Addy returned to Hartford for the 1875 season - his first chance to play for the same team two years in a row. Back in his familiar spot at second base, Addy was again solid for a fairly poor Hartford team. Through mid-July, he was hitting .274 and was third on the team in runs scored with 27. In addition, he was one of the National Association's best fielders at second base. Although the 30-year-old Addy was obviously never going to be a star, he had finally found his base ball niche and seemed happy. As he told a Hartford reporter, "If we could just get this ball club to be a winner, I'd have done everything I want to do in this game and could go back to Rochester or maybe move out west."