THE 1878 MILWAUKEE GRAYS

May 18, 1878 at Milwaukee
Grays lose to Reds, 10-2
Season record: 3-6-1

Headline: "The Home Nine Knocked Out of Time"

There was mourning, last night, among those who ventured their money, or set their hopes on the Milwaukee nine. The game, yesterday afternoon, resulted in the success of the visitors by a score of ten to two. The Milwaukees made a fatal mistake in allowing anybody else to pitch in the place that was so well filled in the other games. The mistake was seen when the visitors began to roll up their tallies, but the change was too late to repair the fortunes of the day. In spite of the unpleasant prospect of rain at the time for beginning the game, some 1,500 to 2,000 people were inside the grounds.

The friends of the Milwaukees were of course confident that the home nine would carry off the honor. But the backers of the Cincinnati boys did not lose faith in their favorites. There was a piece of excitement in the grand stand as game was called at 3:50 o’clock and the Milwaukees went to bat. The gray-backs went out in one, two, three order. The whites did no better on its score, though making one base hit. At the end of two more innings, the score stood five to one in favor of the foreigners, on Golden’s pitching, the Cincinnatis batting him for four hits. In the fourth inning Weaver was sent to pitch and Golden to right field. The visitors failed to bat “Buck” for a couple of innings, but kept increasing their score making in the ninth inning, four hits and four runs on some grevious errors of Redmond and Dalrymple.

The game throughout was greatly lacking in interest compared with the other games. The playing on both sides, especially the home club, showing at times what approached carelessness. Probably the cold disagreeable weather accounts in some degree for the inferior playing.

Notable
- It is hard to read, but it looks like Milwaukee made 14 errors in this game. Definitely double digits, and of the nine players only 1B Goodman and CF Creamer went unscathed.
- 3B Foley had three hits – including the game’s only extra-base hit, a double – and SS Redmond had two.
- For Cincinnati, LF Charley Jones had three of the Reds’ 12 hits. Jones is regarded as the best-known baseball player of which there are no details of his death – not how he died (we have to assume he is), but when (and, according to SABR, Jones was born Benjamin Wesley Rippay, which certainly adds to the confusion). “With Cincinnati from 1876 to 1878, he became the Reds' most popular player,” according to baseball-reference.com, “but was sometimes criticized in the press for carousing.” Jones would lead the NL in homers in 1879 with nine (setting a record) and hit two homers in an inning in 1880, becoming the first player to accomplish that feat. However, after 1880 he got into a dispute with Boston (his team of 1879-80), saying he wouldn’t play because he hadn’t been paid. He sued, lost and was blacklisted. He’d never play in the NL again, having to settle for the then-major league American Association from 1883-88.