New York Mutuals

Picture of an unidentified New York Mutual player

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 baseball 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 found itself 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.

The Mutuals chose open professionalism in 1869–70 after NABBP liberalization. They joined the first professional league, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, for its 1871 to 1875 duration. In 1876, the Chicago White Stockings 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 of whom were from the National Association. 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.

On May 13, 1876, the Mutuals executed the first triple play in major-league history in a game against the Hartford Dark Blues.

Union Grounds proprietor William Cammeyer, often listed today as the Mutual club owner, signed the Hartford Dark Blues to play at his Union Grounds in 1877. The team was effectively a one-year replacement for the defunct Mutuals, and was sometimes called "Hartford of Brooklyn".

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: Rio (2008).

Franchise Leaders

Batting

• Hits – Joe Start (387)
• Runs – Joe Start (264)
• At bats – Joe Start (1314)
• Games – Joe Start (273)
• Doubles- Joe Start and Dave Eggler (40)
• Home runs – Joe Start (8)
• RBIs – Joe Start (187)
• Stolen bases – Dave Eggler (36)

Pitching

• Wins – Bobby Mathews (100)
• ERA – Bobby Mathews (2.41)
• Strikeouts – Bobby Mathews (95)
• Innings – Bobby Mathews (1647 2/3)

Notable alumni

Lip Pike

• Lip Pike, major league baseball 4x home run champion

See also

• New York Mutuals all-time roster
• 1871 New York Mutuals season
• 1872 New York Mutuals season
• 1873 New York Mutuals season
• 1874 New York Mutuals season
• 1875 New York Mutuals season
• 1876 New York Mutuals season

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

External links

• New York Mutuals reenactors
• 1876 Mutuals at Baseball Reference