Long after “Dasher” Troy’s last professional game in 1888, he remained a good source of quotes for sportswriters; at the Polo Grounds, or after 1900, at his Manhattan tavern.
Dasher Troy
When he wrote a series of columns for “Baseball Magazine” in 1915 the magazine said about him:
“There was a day when John (Dasher) Troy was one of the bright lights of the diamond. Advancing age has long since driven him from his favorite haunts. But, though, as he admits, he has “had his day and that day is a long time past,” still he has ‘seen more baseball games than any other player in the country,’ and remained throughout a close student and observer of the game.”
And, humility was not his strong suit.
Four years before he was given credit for fixing Hughie Jennings broken nose, Troy took credit for another player’s success.
After Amos Rusie’s great 1894 season—36-13, 2.78 ERA–Troy told The New York Sun:
“Very few people know just what made the big pitcher so effective last season, but can explain it… (Rusie) had a wrinkle last season that was of my own invention…I had noticed that every League batsman, barring one or two like (Ed) Delehanty, (Dan) Brouthers, and a few more, stepped back from the plate whenever Amos pitched a fast ball. So I went to the big fellow one day and said:
“’Amos, when you see a batter’s left foot—providing he is a right-handed hitter—move back a trifle, just drive that fast straight ball or your outshoot, over the outside corner of the plate, and you’ll find how easy it is to fool these ducks. Just try it and see if I ain’t right.’
Amos Rusie
“Well, Amos did just as I told him the next game he pitched, and he was laughing in his sleeve. The minute he saw a batter’s left foot move back, he grinned all over. Then he let ‘er go. The ball whistled like a small cyclone up to and over the outside corner of the plate, and the batter made such a wild stab at it that the crowd roared. But nobody knew what the wrinkle was.
“By and by, when I saw that Amos had mastered the trick to perfection, I thought it was time to gamble a little on it. So I just took a seat back of the home plate among a lot of know-alls and watched the batter’s feet closely. Whenever I saw a left foot move back I just took out my coin and yelled:
“’Three to one this duck doesn’t make a hit!’
“There were lots of fellows around me who would take up the short end, and as a result I had a good thing on hand right along. But the cinch came when the Bostons came over here on August 31 to play off a tie game with the New Yorks. There were nearly 20,000 people on the Polo Grounds, and Amos was slated to pitch. He was as fit as a fiddle, and just before the battle began I leaned over the grandstand and whispered to him:
“’Amos, old boy, don’t forget the left foot racket.’
“He said, ‘All right,’ and then he began his work. Every one of the Bostons stepped back from the plate—even (Hugh) Duffy, (Tommy) McCarthy and (Tommy) Tucker. Amos just grinned, and sent that ball over the corner until the champions were blinded. Laid three to one against each Boston batter and during the entire game the champs made but five scattered singles.”
The Box Score
Twenty years later, in one of the columns he wrote for “Baseball Magazine,” Troy again took credit for Rusie’s performance in the Boston game, but embellished the details further:
“There were a lot of my friends there that day trying to show me, so they said how much I knew about the game. So I thought I would take a look at my old friend, Amos Rusie, who was pitching for the Giants. He never had more speed, and his inshoot was working fine on the inside corner of the plate… I sent one of my workmen down to Amos on the players’ bench with a note. In this note I told him not to pitch his inshoot, that nearly every one of the Boston Club was pulling his left foot back from the plate, and that the batter could not hit a ball out of the diamond if he would put them low and over the plate.
“Hugh Duffy was the first man up for the next inning, and he hit a slow grounder to the first baseman; the second batter hitting to the second baseman, and the third to the third baseman. When Amos was walking to the bench he looked up toward the bar on the grandstand, which was behind the catcher at the back of the stand, and he had a big broad smile on his face. Any player who pulled his left foot back, or left-hander who pulled his right foot back, never hit Amos very hard after that.”
There’s no record of Rusie having credited Troy as the reason for his greatest season.
Troy remained a popular figure in New York baseball circles, and a popular story teller, until his death in 1938.
Baseball History Daily 
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