New York Gothams

From BR Bullpen

New York Gothams I:

New York Gothams II:

Team History[edit]

The New York Gothams refer to two distinct New York, NY baseball teams that used the "Gotham" moniker. The first Gotham team dates back to around 1837, and a second version came about around the early 1850s. This one was originally known for about one season as the "Washington Club". The team changed its name to The Gotham Club in 1852. Early on the club’s biggest rival was the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, but by 1855 both clubs were joined by other New York Base Ball Clubs. When the first convention of Base Ball Clubs was held at Smith’s Hotel in Manhattan on January 22, 1857, the Gotham Club sent the following representatives: William H. Van Cott, Reuben H. Cudlipp and a George F. Franklin. The Gothams were one of sixteen teams that became the founding members of the National Association of Base Ball Players. During the team's years as members of the NABBP, they would play an average of 9 games a year. Fans of the Gothams would find their team at either Red House Grounds in Harlem, the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey or even the St. George Cricket Grounds on Staten Island. The Gothams would field teams until the end of the 1869 season.

The second Gothams team was the city of New York’s second National League entry. After a six-year absence without any clubs from New York in the National League, the Gothams joined on December 6, 1882 replacing the ousted Troy Trojans franchise. The Gothams were made up of mostly players from the Trojans that team owner John Day had acquired, but other than that, the team had no real formal ties to the Trojans. Managed by catcher John Clapp, the team opened its inaugural season at the first incarnation of the Polo Grounds against the mighty Boston Beaneaters. Not only would the Gothams win their first game of the season against the Beaneaters, they would also go on to sweep the three-game series. It was also the last time the Gothams would be in 1st place. The Gothams went on an eight-game losing streak, and lost 12 of their next 13 games. The Gothams finished the season with a 46-50-2 record for a 6th-place finish.

Overall the Gothams were not a terrible team. The team was 28-19-2 at home; their two best months were June and August when they won 12 games. In the first half of the season, the team was only four games below .500 and went .500 in the second half. Against the pennant-winning Beaneaters, the team went 7-7 even though they were outscored 106-82. Their best record was against their fellow expansion team, the Philadelphia Phillies, against whom they went 12-2. The team was also 9-10 in one-run games and 16-18 in blowouts. Team stats: first baseman Roger Connor led the team with a .357 batting average, which catcher Buck Ewing led the team with 10 homers. Pitcher Mickey Welch led all pitchers with a 25-13 record, and had the second-lowest ERA (2.73) behind John Ward who had a 2.70 ERA.

However when the 1884 season opened, Clapp was no longer with the team, but had been replaced by Jim Price, who was making his managerial debut. With the team relatively intact, the Gothams again opened the season at the Polo Grounds, this time sweeping the Chicago White Stockings, in a two-game series. Unlike the previous season in which the Gothams had gone on an eight-game losing streak, the Gothams won 12 straight games before losing to the Buffalo Bisons, 4-1. They managed to stay in fist place until a two-game loss to the Providence Grays dropped them down to third place, where they would remain until early August when they dropped further down to fourth. Following a 6-1 loss to the Cleveland Blues, Price was replaced as manager by pitcher John Ward, who managed the team’s final 16 games. The Gothams finished the season with their first winning record, going 62-50-4 for a fourth place finish.

The Gothams had a second straight winning season at home, but were a .500 club on the road. While the Gothams started the season strong, going 17-8 in the month of May, the team got progressively worse as the season wore on, winning fewer and fewer games each month. While the team was 13 games over .500 in the first half, they were one game below .500 in the second. Against the pennant-winning Providence Grays the team was 3-13-1. They were 8-8-1 against the Beaneaters and 4-12 against the White Stockings. Against their fellow expansion team from the previous year, Philadelphia, they went 11-5. Moving over from first base, second baseman Roger Connor continued to lead the team with a .317 batting average and with 4 home runs. Welch led all pitchers with a 39-21 record and a 2.50 ERA.

According to tradition, the Gothams continue to use that name until June 3, 1885 after 11-inning game in which the Gothams won 8-7 over the Phillies, after which manager Jim Mutrie made the statement: "My big fellows! My Giants! We are the People!" From that point forward, the team was known as the New York Giants. However, according to Brian Cronin in an article from the Los Angeles Times in 2012, the Giants nickname had already been in use before the win over the Phillies. Cronin points out that the Giants nickname had been in use as early as April 14th according to a headline by the New York World. He goes on to write that by June and July other newspapers such as Sporting Life, the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the Washington Post had begun using the Giants nickname and that Mutrie just popularized the term; the name Giants was only used once prior to the 1885 season, and that came in 1883 in a Gothams game in Chicago, in which the newspaper referred to the team as the Giants, but that may have been a sarcastic usage.

Gotham baseball circa 1869

List of known Pre-MLB Gothams players[edit]

Note: This list includes all people who are known to have played for the team so some undiscovered/unconfirmed players may be missing.

1837 New Members[edit]

1845 New Members[edit]

1846 New Members[edit]

1847 New Members[edit]

  • None confirmed

1848 New Members[edit]

  • None confirmed

1849 New Members[edit]

1850 New Members[edit]

  • Cornelius V. Anderson

1851 New Members[edit]

  • None confirmed

1852 New Members[edit]

1853 New Members[edit]

1854 New Members[edit]

1855 New Members[edit]

1856 New Members[edit]

1857 New Members[edit]

1858 New Members[edit]

1859 New Members[edit]

  • Clarence Burtis

1860 New Members[edit]

  • James Shepard
  • William Shepard

1861 New Members[edit]

  • James Mingay

1862 New Members[edit]

  • None confirmed

1863 New Members[edit]

1864 New Members[edit]

1865 New Members[edit]

1866 New Members[edit]

  • None confirmed

People who joined the Gothams in unknown years[edit]

  • Gabriel Van Cott
  • Theodore Van Cott
  • Oscar Teed
  • Joseph Ebling
  • William De Milt
  • Abraham Tucker
  • Charles Davis
  • John Connell
  • Edward Bonnell
  • Milton B. Sweet
  • William H. Tucker
  • Edward Beadle
  • Cornelius Stokem
  • John Drohan
  • Albert Squires
  • Peter Roe
  • Austin D. Thompson
  • James Fisher
  • Charles Riblet
  • Robert Forsyth
  • Andrew Whiteside
  • N.W. Redman
  • J. Hopkins?
  • Hackett?

Sources:[edit]

  • Gotham Base Ball Club
  • LA Times
  • Peter Filichia: Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebrations of All 273 Major League and Negro League Ballparks Past and Present, Addison Wesley Publishing Company (March 1993)
  • John Thorn: Total Baseball, Total Sports Publishing, 1989, 1995
Retrieved from "https://www.baseball-reference.com/bpv/index.php?title=New_York_Gothams&oldid=1351492"