Frank Bancroft: A Life in Baseball

In 1877, the town of New Bedford, Massachusetts was granted a franchise in the International Association. Among the investors in the new team was local hotel owner Frank C. Bancroft, who would also eventually become the manager of the club. Bancroft would end up managing in New Bedford for two seasons and was highly respected by his players, of which included future major-leaguer Harry Stovey.

About 70 miles northeast of New Bedford is Worcester, where local baseball boosters formed the Worcester Brown Stockings, a club that would begin play in the minor league National Association in 1879. The teams’ investors had its sights set on receiving membership to the National League and felt that Bancroft was the best available manager for the job. They convinced “Banny” to leave New Bedford and join the club in Worcester.

The 1879 season started off slow for Worcester and the boosters told Bancroft to either start winning games or lose his job. To help stay employed, Bancroft recruited some new players, including shortstop Art Irwin and pitcher J. Lee Richmond, the captain of the Brown University baseball team. Richmond made his debut on June 2 ^nd in an exhibition against the National League’s Chicago White Stockings and shocked everyone by no-hitting Chicago in an 11-0 romp.

Bancroft managed the team to a 26-31 record, which included several wins against NL teams in exhibition contests. The National League took notice and granted Worcester membership into the senior circuit for 1880. However, Bancroft had even bigger plans for his team during the winter months; he was going to take them on a tour of Cuba, with the intentions of introducing the game to the island.

The team departed off the shore of New Orleans on December 13 ^th and arrived in Havana a few days later. The team was promoted across the island as being called the ‘Hop Bitters’, usually a name associated with the town of Rochester, New York. While the team was entirely comprised of Worcester players, the trip was financed by a Mr. Soule of Rochester. The nine players who made the trip were: George Wood, Alonzo Knight, Charlie Bennett, Art Whitney, “Chub” Sullivan, “Curry” Foley, “Doc” Bushong, Irwin, and “Tricky” Nichols.

The Hop Bitters played their first game in Havana on the 21 ^st of December, to a capacity crowd of 3,000 at the stadium. They would play two games in Cuba but the trip ran into financial difficulties, as the Cuban government wanted much of the fees from the gates. Also, Bancroft felt that it would be unfair to charge the citizens of Cuba to watch a game they had never seen before. They departed on Christmas Eve for New Orleans and arrived back in America five days later. In the two contests, the Worcester nine defeated the Cubans easily, allowing only one run during the mini-series. One Worcester player remarked about their opponents:

“We had as opponents a team including seven players supposed to be the best in Cuba…and yet we easily defeated them. The Cubans proved themselves to be quite fair fielders but were very weak at the bat.”

Bancroft himself enjoyed the trip and looked forward to doing more tours with an American baseball team. Once he arrived back, his mind began focusing on Worcester’s debut season in the National League. The team enjoyed incredible success earlier in the season but it was short-lived and the club began to crumble. Despite a jump start late, the team finished 40-43, well enough for 5 ^th in the NL. After the season, Bancroft resigned after a dispute with the board of directors and immediately took the manager’s job with the NL’s newest addition, the Detroit Wolverines.

Along with his things, Bancroft took four players with him to Detroit: Bennett, Knight, Wood, and Whitney. Before the season even started, Bancroft prepared his new club by scheduling a series of exhibitions in the month leading up to opening day. This is believed to be one of the earliest forms of Spring Training in baseball history. Even with early preparation, Bancroft couldn’t break .500 again, finishing with a 41-43 record. He was retained for the 1882 season and Detroit improved, concluding the season at 42-41. Still, Detroit was looking to move up the ladder fast and Bancroft wasn’t going quickly enough; he was let go after the 1882 season.

Bancroft made a brief stop in Cleveland in 1883 to manage the Blues, but left at seasons end, after leading the team to a 55-42 record. Bancroft then found a job closer to home, in Providence, Rhode Island; where he managed the Grays in 1884. With the help of Old Hoss Radbourn, who won 59 games in 1884, Providence won the NL pennant by 10.5 games over Boston that season, Bancroft’s first pennant win, and would advance to the World Series against the New York Metropolitans. In the best-of-three World Series, all Bancroft had to do to win was pencil Radbourn into the pitching slot. In all three games of the series, Radbourn pitched every inning, not allowing a single run, and Providence was the World Champion of 1884.

In 1885, Bancroft wasn’t so lucky. Players weren’t playing well and even a few were accused of playing poorly so they’d be released. A year after dominating the National League, the Grays finished below .500, at 53-57. At the end of the year, Providence was bought, had its players sold, and finally, the club folded. Bancroft spent a year out of baseball in 1886 before signing a contract in late-October to manage the Philadelphia Athletics the following season.

Never again would Bancroft manage a full major league season. In Philly, he lasted until June 30 ^th , when the team gave him a vacation to be with his ailing son. A month later, Bancroft requested the vacation be permanent and both sides agreed to terminate his contract. Two years later, in 1889, Bancroft was offered the managing job in Indianapolis to manage the NL’s Hoosiers. The team struggled and in July, Bancroft handed in his resignation, leaving the next-to-last team in the hands of his captain, shortstop Jack Glasscock. At the time, Bancroft said he was done with baseball, but the game lured him back in.

In 1891, the Cincinnati Reds called Bancroft with a job offer in hand. This time, it wasn’t to manage the team on the field, but off it in the role of Business Manager, which was essentially like today’s general managers. Bancroft stayed in this role until his death, even managing the club on the field for a short-time in 1901 in the interim role after former manager Bid McPhee quit. Over time, Bancroft regained the craving to tour the world with a baseball team. His last trip to Cuba may have not been financially successful, but since the trip, the game had grown bigger over on the island.

Finally, with the help of Al Spalding, Bancroft announced plans for a tour, this time of South America in 1910. At the end of the season, Spalding and Bancroft would select an all-star team, which would spend the off-season touring the countries of Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Chile, and Uruguay. However, the trip didn’t get the financial support and the tour was canceled.

In 1914, Bancroft organized one more trip, an all-star game tour between the AL and NL all-star teams. The trip started in Milwaukee on October 18 ^th and ended on December 28 ^th in Honolulu, with the teams touring throughout the southwest and playing several games in Hawaii. The National League club won the series, taking 29 of the 50 games played, but the big excitement was in Hawaii, where one player likened the atmosphere to the “Polo Grounds during a big game.”

Bancroft stayed with the Reds until 1920, and then passed away a month before the 1921 season at the age of 75. Bancroft, known as “Banny” around baseball circles, was a very likable man, respected by everyone involved in the game. His legacy as a baseball man lives on.