The sun., 1919-10-05
FIRST Big WORLDS
SERIES WAS IN 1887
DetrOitS and st. Louis Browns
Played Fifteen Games for
Championship.
WOLVERINES WON TEN
Teams Lived on Special Train
and Played in All Major
League Cities in Country.
WOLVERINES WON TEN
BY THE VETERAN.

If the baseball magnates of thirty
years ago had any conception of the
magnitude OF the world championship
contests of the present 1t was a hazy
one. STILL the club owners of the dim
past were not without Imagination and
enterprise, as was proved by the worlds
series of 1887. In which the Detroit slug
gers and the St Louis Browns were the
contestants
Considering the rather negative char
acter of the three contests for the worlds
championship that had preceded the
1887 struggle, 1t was an event consider
ably In advance of the times.
The worlds series of 1884. the first
In the history Of the game. was be-
tween Providence and the Metropolitans.
and was limited to five games As
the Grays won three In a row it was
a short horse soon curried.
The world pennant struggles of 1888
and 1886 were between the Chicago Colts
and the St. Louis Browns, and Comis-
keys sprinters tied the 1885 series and
, won that of 1886. AS the games were
played between the two home cities and
the receipts Of both series were less
than $1,000 1t can be seen that the
worlds championship as a feature of
the baseball season was then In Its
infancy, to use a Brooklyn expression
Enter Big Four.
The Big Four and several more ter
rife hitters hammered out a National
League pennant for Detroit in 1887.
and the men who brought Brouthers,
Richardson, Rowe and White from Buff
falo to the City of the Straits, paying
the munificent sum of $500 for a
quartet of the greatest batsmen In the
Of evolved
the idea of a greater worlds champion
ship.
Frederick K Stearns, president OF
the Detroit club, was the originator of
the idea that was put into effect In
the fall OF 1887. Chris Won der Abe,
then the head of the Browns acceded
to the Detroit scheme, although he was
a bit afraid OF what he thought was
a daring experiment. The Browns
won the pennant OF the American As
ISOLATION, as was their custom in 1887.
and then the plans were laid for a
series to consist of fifteen games, one
contest to be played in every important
baseball city In the country.
The first move was the hiring of a
special train to carry the players about
the country. there being one coach Tor
the Browns. one for the Detrolts, one
for the officials and members Of the
press, and last but not least a dining
car AS Comiskey won the toss for
choice of the place for the first game
he naturally selected the Mound City.
and the Detroits went west for the
opening struggle.
Comiskey's lineup in those days con-
sisted of Scissors Dave Foutz and
/ Partisan Bob CArruthers as his main
stays in the box and Doc Bushong as
his catcher ComlslSey himself guarded
first base, Yank Sullivan was at second.
! Bill Gleason at short. Arlie Latham at
| third.
In tho outfield he had the peerless
Curt Welch. the hard hitting Tip O'Neil
and Hugh Nichol.
The Detrolts had Bennett and Camel
tehind the bat, Pretzel Getzien, Lady
baldwin and Pete Conway I'm the box,
Dan Brouthers at first, Hardy Richard
son at second. Jack Rowe at short, Dea-
con White at third. Thompson In right,
IIanlon centre and Twitchell left
Owing to tho fact that the Browns
Lad given Anson's Colts SO nard . tus-