New York Mutuals
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The Mutual Base Ball Club of New York was a leading American baseball club almost throughout its 20-year history. It was established during 1857, the year of the first base ball convention, just too late to be a founding member of the National Association of Base Ball Players. It was a charter member of both the first professional league in 1871 and the National League in 1876. Failing on the field and in the coffer, it declined to make its last western trip of the inaugural season. For the transgression it was expelled in December. And soon defunct.
The Mutual club initially played its home games at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, with the New York Knickerbockers and many other Manhattan clubs, but moved to the enclosed Union Grounds in Brooklyn in 1868. Ballpark proprietor William Cammeyer, today often listed as the Mutual club owner, signed the Hartford club to play at his Union Grounds in 1877, a final season in the major leagues for "Mutual interests" in a sense.
The Mutuals chose open professionalism in 1869-70 after NABBP liberalization. They joined the first professional league, the National Association, for its 1871 to 1875 duration. In 1876, Chicago initiated the National League and recruited its members from West to East, partly in order to wrest control of professional baseball from Eastern interests. The Mutuals were one of eight charter members, six from the NA. Weak (sixth place at 21-35) and cash-poor, the club refused to complete its playing obligations in the West; it was expelled and never heard from again.
[edit] Record
Year Won Lost Tied Games Rank in games (or in wins) 1858 11 1 12 2 (1st in wins) 1859 3 5 8 6 1860 1 8 2 11 5 1861 8 2 10 2 (tie 1st in wins) 1862 8 5 13 2 (2nd in wins) 1863 10 4 14 1 (tie 1st in wins) 1864 21 3 24 1 (1st in wins) 1865 12 4 16 5 (tie 4th in wins) 1866 10 2 12 15 (tie 5th in wins) 1867 23 6 1 30 4 (4th in wins) 1868 31 10 41 5 (5th in wins) 1869 37 16 53 3 (5th in wins) 1870 68 17 3 88 1 (1st in wins) championship matches with professional teams 1869-1870 1869 11 15 26 1 (5th in wins) 1870 29 15 3 47 1 (1st in wins) league record 1871 16 17 33 1 (4th place) 1872 34 20 2 56 2 (3rd place) 1873 29 24 53 4 (4th place) 1874 42 23 65 2 (2nd place) 1875 30 38 3 71 4 (7th place) 1876 21 35 1 57 8 (6th place)
Source for season records: Wright (2000) has published records for dozens of NABBP teams each season, relying on a mix of game and season records in contemporary newspapers and guides. Dozens of leading clubs by number of matches are included, as are many others. The records do not consistently cover either all games played or all championship matches between NABBP members.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Baseball-Reference. "New York Mutuals Team Index" (1871-1875). Retrieved 2006-09-17.
- Baseball-Reference. "New York Mutuals Team Index" (1876). Retrieved 2006-09-12.
- Retrosheet. "New York Mutuals (1871-1876)". Retrieved 2006-09-17.
- Wright, Marshall (2000). The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857-1870. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-7864-0779-4