# 1876 in baseball

The following are the baseball events of the year 1876 throughout the world.
After a tumultuous five-year existence, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NA) folded following the 1875 season. The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (NL) was formed in Chicago, Illinois, by businessman and owner of the Chicago Base Ball Club (now known as the Chicago Cubs), William Hulbert, for the purpose of replacing the NA, which he believed to have been corrupt, mismanaged, full of rowdy, drunken ballplayers, and under the influence of the gambling community. One of the new rules put into place by the new league was that all teams had to be located in cities that had a population of 75,000 or more. The initial NL season began with eight teams, and they were asked to play seventy games between April 22 and October 21. The NL is often considered to be the first "major league", although it has been argued that the NA can make that claim.

## Champions

* National League: Chicago Base Ball Club
* Champions of the West: St. Louis Base Ball Association (Unofficial postseason)

## Statistical leaders

National League :
| Stat | Player | Total |
| AVG | Ross Barnes (CHI) | .429 |
| HR | George Hall (PHI) | 5 |
| RBI | Deacon White (CHI) | 60 |
| W | Albert Spalding (CHI) | 47 |
| ERA | George Bradley (STL) | 1.23 |
| K | Jim Devlin (LOU) | 122 |

## Events

| Date | Place | Ballpark | Event |
| February 2 | Chicago | | William Hulbert organized the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, replacing the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, which had folded at the conclusion of the 1875 season. Morgan Bulkeley, the owner of the Hartford franchise, is selected as the league's first President. |
| February 12 | Chicago | | After he joined the Chicago Club as a player, Albert Spalding announced his plan to open a sporting goods retail store in Chicago; known today as Spalding. |
| April 22 | Philadelphia | Athletic Park | The Bostons defeat the Athletics by the score of 6–5, in the first NL game. Joe Borden, pitching under the pseudonym Joe Josephs, is the winning pitcher, and Jim O'Rourke collected the league's first base hit. |
| April 25 | Louisville | Louisville Baseball Park | In Chicago's first National League game, Albert Spalding threw the NL's first shutout as Chicago defeated Louisville by the score of 4–0. Spalding threw another shutout in the Chicagos' second game, on April 25, also against Louisville. |
| May 2 | Cincinnati | Avenue Grounds | Ross Barnes of the Chicagos hit the first NL home run, an inside-the-park home run off pitcher Cherokee Fisher of Cincinnati. |
| May 13 | Hartford | Hartford Ball Club Grounds | The New York Mutuals achieved a triple play in a loss to Hartford. |
| May 25 | Philadelphia | Jefferson Street Grounds | The game between Athletic and Louisville ended in a 2–2 tie, the first game to end in a tie in the NL and in major league history. |
| May 30 | New York | Union Grounds | In a game between Louisville and Mutual, Louisville right fielder George Bechtel committed three of the nine errors that led to his team's defeat. Louisville's ownership suspected that he intentionally "fixed" the game by intentionally committing errors to ensure a winning bet for himself and other gamblers. Management intercepted a wire dated June 10, in which Bechtel conspired to lose the game that day. Bechtel refused to resign when confronted with the evidence, so Louisville banished him from the team. |
| June 14 | Philadelphia | Jefferson Street Grounds | George Hall and Ezra Sutton of Athletic each hit three triples in a 20–5 victory against Cincinnati, the only time teammates have accomplished this feat. |
| June 17 | Philadelphia | Jefferson Street Grounds | In a 23–15 victory over Cincinnati, George Hall of Athletic becomes the first major league player to hit two home runs in a single game. |
| June 27 | Chicago | 23rd Street Grounds | Davy Force of Athletic collects six hits in six at bats in a 14–13 victory against Chicago and Albert Spalding. He is the first major leaguer to collect six hits in a nine-inning game. |
| July 15 | St. Louis | Grand Avenue Park | George Bradley of St. Louis pitches the first no-hitter in MLB history, a 2–0 victory against Hartford. It is the second no-hitter recorded in professional play, after Joe Borden's on July 28, 1875. |
| July 25 | Chicago | 23rd Street Grounds | Cal McVey of the Chicagos collects six hits for the second consecutive nine-inning game. He has totaled 15 hits in the last three games, and 18 hits in the last four, both records. After collecting two more hits on July 27, and four more on July 29, McVey will have tied his own record with 18 hits in a four-game stretch. |
| August 4 | Louisville | Louisville Baseball Park | Trailing Chicago with rain looming, the Louisvilles stall the game by committing error after error until the umpire rules the game a forfeit. The game result would later be removed from the official league standings. |
| August 21 | St. Louis | Grand Avenue Park | In the ninth inning, and the score tied 6–6, of a game between Chicago and St. Louis, a St. Louis batter hit the base-runner coming from third base with batted ball. The umpire ruled that the runner was allowed to score, so Chicago left the field in protest. The umpire then awarded the game to St. Louis. |
| September 5 | New York | Union Grounds | George Bradley of St. Louis records his 16th shutout of the season in a 9–0 win over Mutual. This season total of 16 shutouts has since been tied, by Grover Cleveland Alexander, of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1916. |
| September 11 | Philadelphia | | The Philadelphia Athletic Club informs the league office that it will be unable to make its last western road trip due to financial trouble. The owner of the Athletics suggested that the Chicago and St. Louis Clubs play additional games in Philadelphia, take a larger than normal portion of the gate receipts, so they raise enough money to finish their schedule, which was denied. |
| September 16 | New York | | The Mutual Club of New York announces to the league office that it will not make its final western road trip of the season due to lack of funds. |
| September 26 | Chicago | 23rd Street Grounds | The Chicago Club clinches the first National League pennant with a 7–6 win over Hartford. |
| October 23 | Chicago | | The Chicago Tribune published the year-end player statistics, one of which would be the newly created, batting average; the first known instance of this statistic being published. |
| December 10 | Cleveland | | During the NL's Winter Meetings, it was announced that William Hulbert was elected President of the league, and that the Philadelphia Athletics and the New York Mutuals were expelled for failure to complete their required schedule in the 1876 season. |

## Transactions
### Free agents

* Chicago White Stockings signed Cap Anson as a free agent.
* Hartford Dark Blues signed Candy Cummings as a free agent.
* Boston Red Caps signed George Wright as a free agent.

### Loans

* August 10, 1876 – The New York Mutuals loaned Nealy Phelps to the Philadelphia Athletics. Phelps returned to the Mutuals on the same day.

## Births

Abbreviations :
| Date | Individual's birth date |
| Name | Individual's name |
| † | Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame |
| Date | Name |
| January 1 | Joe Kostal |
| January 1 | Joe Martin |
| January 11 | Elmer Flick$^†$ |
| January 12 | George Browne |
| January 14 | Bill Wolff |
| January 22 | Warren McLaughlin |
| January 25 | Fred Glade |
| January 27 | Otis Clymer |
| February | Ike Van Zandt |
| February 4 | Germany Schaefer |
| February 6 | Andy Sommerville |
| February 7 | Pat Moran |
| February 10 | Doc Sechrist |
| February 13 | Fred Buckingham |
| February 13 | Fritz Buelow |
| February 15 | Carlton Molesworth |
| February 19 | Joe Marshall |
| February 21 | John Titus |
| February 27 | Art Goodwin |
| March 15 | Bill Hallman |
| March 17 | J. A. Gammons |
| March 29 | Harry Lochhead |
| March 29 | Frank Oberlin |
| April | Art Ball |
| April 1 | Bill Friel |
| April 5 | Bill Dinneen |
| April 6 | Charlie Luskey |
| April 6 | Frank Murphy |
| Date | Name |
| April 11 | Win Kellum |
| April 12 | Vic Willis$^†$ |
| April 20 | Charlie Hemphill |
| April 29 | Pat Deisel |
| May 1 | Larry Battam |
| May 2 | Jack Morrissey |
| May 4 | Charlie Hickman |
| May 4 | Dave Murphy |
| May 5 | Frank Morrissey |
| May 7 | Casey Patten |
| May 16 | George Barclay |
| May 24 | Fred Jacklitsch |
| June 2 | Charlie Jones |
| June 5 | Offa Neal |
| June 7 | Barney Wolfe |
| June 10 | George Prentiss |
| June 13 | Gene McCann |
| June 15 | Charlie Dexter |
| June 19 | John Hinton |
| June 21 | Billy Gilbert |
| June 24 | Bill Hanlon |
| June 29 | Patsy Flaherty |
| July 1 | Jim Buchanan |
| July 3 | Ralph Frary |
| July 7 | Happy Iott |
| July 10 | John Puhl |
| July 23 | Ginger Beaumont |
| July 23 | Harry Mathews |
| Date | Name |
| July 26 | Sam Breadon |
| July 27 | Moose Baxter |
| July 29 | Emmet Heidrick |
| August 2 | Kid Nance |
| August 7 | Pat Carney |
| August 7 | Lou Nordyke |
| August 11 | Danny Murphy |
| August 18 | Gus Dorner |
| August 24 | John Brown |
| August 24 | Frank Quinn |
| August 28 | Doc Hazleton |
| August 29 | Elmer Stricklett |
| September 1 | Jimmy Wiggs |
| September 3 | Jerry Donovan |
| September 3 | Dusty Miller |
| September 3 | George Stone |
| September 5 | Pete LePine |
| September 9 | Frank Chance$^†$ |
| September 15 | Nick Altrock |
| September 17 | Otto Krueger |
| September 27 | Steve Cusack |
| September 28 | Frank Bates |
| September 28 | Red Long |
| October 13 | Wild Bill Donovan |
| October 13 | Rube Waddell$^†$ |
| October 15 | Percy Coleman |
| October 19 | Mordecai Brown$^†$ |
| October 27 | Patsy Dougherty |
| Date | Name |
| October 31 | Ed Fisher |
| November 3 | Phil Geier |
| November 3 | Ike Rockenfield |
| November 6 | Dave Altizer |
| November 6 | Danny Green |
| November 8 | Danny Shay |
| November 9 | Walter McCredie |
| November 12 | Ed Killian |
| November 12 | Solly Salisbury |
| November 14 | Harry Howell |
| November 17 | Claude Elliott |
| November 24 | Harvey Bailey |
| November 25 | Lou Castro |
| November 28 | Lee Fohl |
| December 2 | Roscoe Miller |
| December 4 | John Farrell |
| December 4 | Henry Krug |
| December 12 | Joe Rickert |
| December 13 | Rube Kisinger |
| December 16 | Fred Crolius |
| December 16 | Sammy Strang |
| December 17 | Roy Patterson |
| December 20 | Jimmy Williams |
| December 25 | Jim Jones |
| December 27 | Charlie Carr |
| December 27 | Sam Woodruff |

## Deaths

Abbreviations :
| Date | Individual's death date |
| Name | Individual's name |
| Age | Age at death |
| Cause | Cause of death |
| Cemetery | Place individual is interred |
| City/State | City and state of burial |
| Seasons | Seasons in which individual appeared |
| Teams | Teams the individual played for or managed |
| Date | Name | Age | Cause | Cemetery | City/State | Seasons | Teams | Ref |
| May 29 | Tom Miller | 26? | Malaria | Evergreen Memorial Park | Bensalem, Pennsylvania | 1874–1875 | Philadelphia Athletics, St. Louis Brown Stockings | |
| October 18 | Bub McAtee | 31 | Consumption | St. John Cemetery | Troy, New York | 1871–1872 | Chicago White Stockings, Troy Haymakers | |