Chicago’s American Association Franchise
At the close of the 1891 season, The Chicago Tribune assured their readers that Chicago would be a two-team town:
“The Chicago club of the American Association of 1892 is a certainty. Fred Pfeffer will be its manager and leading spirit, and Sam G. Morton (an executive with A.G. Spalding and Bros. Co.) well known here, its business guardian.”
Fred Pfeffer
According to the paper, the new club’s roster would include:
“(Bill) Dahlen, (Ad) Gumbert, and (Malachi) Kittridge probabilities. Such men as (Bill) Hart, the Sioux City pitcher, (Bid) McPhee of Cincinnati, (Jake) Beckley of Pittsburgh, Danny Richardson of New York, and (Herman) Long of Boston are in sight.”
The Tribune said the new American Association franchise would build a park on Chicago’s west side:
“Convenient to cable and railroad, and their accommodations will be for 20,000 people.”
The stockholders in the team were said to be some of the most prominent industrialists in Chicago.
The planned team never materialized after the American Association folded and four teams were absorbed into the National League.
Pfeffer, the would be manager, was traded to the Louisville Colonels for Jim Canavan and $1000.
Weidman’s Swan Song
George “Stump” “Kid” Weidman spent parts of nine seasons in the major leagues, he appeared in his final game in 1888, and posted a career 101-156 record.
Weidman
Ten years after he left the game, C. H. Steiger, The Detroit Tribune sportswriter, quoted an unnamed former teammate about how Weidman wore out his welcome in Detroit during his second tenure with the Wolverines. Weidman had rejoined Detroit after the Kansas City Cowboys folded:
“He had pitched for us before, and was at that time considered a great pitcher, and he really was. When he was with us before, he was the most popular boy on the team. Everything was Kid, and he got the glad hand from everyone until one day he lost it all at once. It goes to show how easily a man can throw away what it has taken him a long time to acquire”
Weidman won 13 games for the eventual pennant winning Wolverines before being sold to the New York Metropolitans in August, after the former teammate said Weidman was playing right field one day, while Detroit ace Pretzels Getzein was on the mound:
“(The) batter on the opposing club, Philadelphia I think it was, popped up a slow outfield fly to Weidman. He had lots of time to get it, and it was the easiest kind of chance, but he ran up to within about ten feet of where it would strike, stopped, let it strike and bound into his hands, then threw it in.
“Well, it was the only time I ever saw Getzein mad. He looked at Weidman, shrugged his shoulders and said to his catcher, ‘What do you think of that?’
“(Manager Bill) Watkins saw it from the bench, and was mad as a hornet. When Weidman came in, Watkins called him down, and the Kid said he was afraid of over-running it, and thought it was best to do as he did, otherwise the batter might have made two bases on it, But his explanation didn’t go.”
The teammate concluded:
“I don’t think he meant to throw the game. He just wanted to let the other fellows get another hit off Getzein. But the other players in the club rather soured on Weidman after that, and so did the crowd.”
After being sold to the Metropolitans, Weidman appeared in just 15 more games, his major league career was over at age 27.
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