The College Baseball League: The Beginning

A look at the formation and the 1887 season, the first, for the newly-formed College Baseball League.

Before 1887, the American Intercollegiate Association was the king of all college baseball leagues. But that was soon to change for the 1887 season when three of the associations’ best clubs met to discuss withdrawing from the league in February. The three teams; Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, decided to discuss a possible withdrawal for the reason of disagreements with opposing teams over the rules of baseball (college baseball rules had not yet been standardized). Also, they felt the competition was too weak in the AIA and they needed to make a stronger league to challenge themselves. The three north-eastern teams had won every AIA championship in the last decade. School representatives agreed to talk it over within their schools and meet again to make a final decision.

Three days after the meeting, Harvard and Princeton representatives met with their schools’ respective board of directors and decided to allow the baseball programs to depart from the AIA. Now the clubs were waiting on word from Yale, but for the Bulldogs, convincing their school heads was not so simple. After hours of arguing, the team and school decided to leave it up to an alumni vote. When the alumni came back with a verdict, it was a no. One of the reasons stated by one alumnus was that the revenue for the school would be less in the ‘triangle league’ than in the AIA.

Yale told the other two schools that they needed a bit more time to talk it over, which had a bit of truth to it. The team’s captains had convinced the university that if better revenue options in the ‘triangle’ opened up, that the Bulldogs could leave the AIA. However, Columbia University officials heard about the ‘no’ decision, and contacted both Harvard and Princeton; they wanted to be the new third team and were willing to withdraw from the AIA immediately. The two confirmed teams discussed it and kept the door open for Columbia, but secretly, both clubs wanted Yale in the league. Without the powerhouse Bulldogs, the new league would not have instant credibility. On the first day of March, Yale announced a final decision would be reached. The three teams would meet the next day in New York and while there was no word out of Yale, a Princeton official was positive that the Bulldogs would join.

The official was right; the Bulldogs would join the new league under one condition:  The proposed three team league expanded to four or five teams. Thus, the revenue would be similar or greater and this was the only way they were going to be allowed to join. They proposed two different setups:

a)     A four team league with Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Williams College
b)     A five team league with the above four and Columbia

The five team format was quickly abolished at the meeting but all the clubs agreed to the fourth team. They also all agreed to meet in Boston on March 12th to establish the playing rules and draw up a constitution.

Lots would happen in the ten days between meetings. The biggest issue was that of who would be the fourth club. Yale, for unknown reasons, insisted the weaker Williams club be the fourth. But both Princeton and Harvard balked at the idea of Williams in the league; the whole point of the league was to make for stronger competition between only the top programs in the country. Williams was not a top program but Columbia was and they were willing to join as soon as they could. Without consulting Yale, the other two teams invited Columbia to join and become the fourth team.

That did not sit well with the Yale club, who decided that they would withdraw again. This time, nobody cared. Both schools were tired of the Bulldogs. Not only had they delayed the formation of the league almost a month trying to decide to join or not, now they had the nerve to walk in and start calling the shots. Both Harvard and Princeton publicly released statements that, along with Columbia, they were prepared to go forward with a league, with or without Yale.

The teams were scheduled to meet at the Parker House in Boston on March 12 ^th , 1887. As members filed in to a small conference room, a man named J.D. Archibald sat down at Yale’s spot on the table; Yale was in. The teams agreed to a four team league, a playing schedule, and a constitution. While a set of rules would not be whole-heartily agreed upon, many of the rules would be similar to those used in the National League and upon a disagreement, the discretion of the umpire would be used and his say would be final. After electing league officers, the teams called it a night.  The next time they would see each other would be on opening day.

April 30 ^th was Commencement Day in Princeton, but it was also opening day in the College Baseball League. A loud Princeton crowd rudely welcomed the Yale Bulldogs when they took the field on a cold, windy day in the northeast. When a pitcher named Mercur deliver a first-pitch strike to the Yale batter, the famous Amos Stagg, the crowd went wild. An intense, all-out battle came down to the bottom of the ninth. With Yale up 2-0 and two outs in the inning, Duffield drew a walk. He proceeded to steal two bases to bring him to third. Then, Wangenhurst crushed a ball into the fenceless outfield. Mercur scored easily and Wangenhurst had an easy triple. But when he reached third, he kept going. The ball reached Stagg at the plate 20 feet before the runner and a rundown ensued and Stagg applied a tag. Game over, and despite a protest by Princeton on the final play, the Bulldogs won 2-1.

A little more than 50 miles from the Princeton campus was the Polo Grounds, which would host the other opener between the Columbia Lions and the Harvard Crimson. Many of the 1,200 fans in attendance were supporting Harvard by wearing a sea of crimson. Columbia could not match the power of Harvard on or off the field, as the Lions were handed an embarrassing 12-0 defeat, thanks in large part to an eight-run, fifth inning by Harvard.

Games were going well and being played on schedule for the most part except for a few games, the ones involving Yale and Columbia at the Bulldogs’ campus. On the record, Columbia officials said their players were busy writing exams at the time and could not be available for baseball games. Off the record, however, one has to think that a grudge developed between the two schools as Yale had tried to hold Columbia out of the league. One way to get back at the Bulldogs was to not show up for the games, thus not allowing them to collect gates. Yale called for Columbia to be expelled from the league, and after carefully looking at Yale’s case, the league recommended that Columbia quietly drop out of the league and not damage their reputation. And on May 28 ^th , that is exactly what the team did.

On the field, the resignation of Columbia University had no impact on the standings. The Lions, including the two forfeits to Yale, were 0-5 and were outscored by Princeton 36-6 during a weekend sweep in May. While Princeton was playing good baseball as well, it was clear that the race for the pennant would come down to Yale and Harvard. The first game of the series was played in New Haven and on May 14 ^th , the Bulldogs humiliated the Crimson in game one, 14-2. However, a month later in their home park in Cambridge, Harvard upset the previously unbeaten Bulldogs, 7-5.

The teams would meet twice in the final four days of the regular season in what would sure decide the championship. At this point, the standings looked like this:

Yale            5   1   —
Harvard     4   2   1.0Princeton   4   4   2.0
Columbia    0   5   5.5

For Harvard to capture the pennant, it would need victories in both of the remaining games against Yale while the Bulldogs needed just one victory. On June 25 ^th , the clubs met in New Haven for what would soon be described as the best CBL game of the year. As dusk settled upon the Yale campus, and the boaters from the day’s freshman boat race (Yale won) exited the waters, all of the excitement on campus was shifted towards the baseball game, which was tied at four in the 13 ^th inning. As the inning started, the umpire warned both coaches that this would be game’s final inning. Yale sat Harvard down in order before coming to bat and ending the game before the umpire could. The Bulldogs captured the game and the pennant on a walk-off hit in the bottom of the 13 ^th , sending the crowd into a frenzy.

Three days later, the season ended with Yale once again defeating Harvard 6-3 on their home field. After the game, the Bulldogs raised a flag with the year ‘1887’ on it and the pennant joined the other two championship flags of ’84 and ’86 high in the Connecticut sky. The party on campus went long past midnight and the new league’s officials were happy as well. Despite losing Columbia halfway through the year, the league enjoyed great success in the media as well as at the ballpark gates. 1888 was shaping up to be an interesting year for the College Baseball League.