Looking Back to Champ White Stockings Didn’t Draw Flies in Troy

Almost all of this 1880 Championship team was back for another romp to the crown a year later.  Cap Anson front and center. 

Just minutes apart on Friday both the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox sewed up playoff spots in their respective leagues.  It was only the fourth time both teams made the post season in the same year.  It happened in the 150th Anniversary Year of Major League Baseball, the National League, and it's Chicago franchise.  That franchise is now known as the Cubs.  The White Sox in the upstart American League were named after the heroes of the Gilded Age.  They met in the World Series only once in 1906 when the underdog Hitless Wonder Sox upset the dominant and star-studded Cubs in four out of six cross-town games.  The odds are stacked against the rivals meeting again for the World Championship this year, but anything is possible depending on matchups, injuries, and weather.  Despite their dominance of early professional baseball and National Leage championships, in 1881White Stocking drew probably the smallest crowd to a game MLB history.

Chicago player/manager Cap Anson was not only the biggest star in early Major League Baseball but a major player in shaping the National Pass Time.

On September 27, 1881, the Chicago White Stockings (now known as the Cubs) played a game before the smallest “crowd” in their long history—12.  Probably also the smallest crowd for any Major League regular season game.  Which was strange.  Under legendary player/coach Cap Anson the Chicago Nine had been the top professional team for some time and dominated the early seasons of the National League.  On that Tuesday afternoon in Troy, New York, the team was coasting to another championship with an eight-game lead.

Perhaps it was because the Troy Trojans—you didn’t expect any other nickname did you?—were a lousy team.  They struggled in 5th place and finished the season 39-45, 17 games behind Chicago.  But the White Stockings were so laden with talent that they were a draw everywhere, even when the host teams were certified mopes. The Trojans would be disbanded after the next losing season.  More than half of their players jumped to a brand-new franchise in New York City, the Gothams—later known as the Giants.

The hapless Troy Trojans, soon to go out of business.

Perhaps the low attendance was due to the weather.  My attempts to ascertain conditions that day in Troy have been unsuccessful.  But it can get a mite nippy and/or rainy and raw in Upstate New York.  My guess is that is what kept the crowd below the combined number of players on the field.

The Cubs would go on to have their own attendance problems, even in beautiful Wriggly Field when they seemed mired in particular futility in the early 1950’s.  But they have gone on to become one of the most successful teams in baseball in terms of selling tickets.   Home games have routinely sell out.  Compared to the nearly empty stadiums you see on television for some teams, they are the envy of baseball.

Oh, by the way, back to that game in Troy—the White Stockings won 10-8.