Hugh A. “Hughey” Reid only appeared in one professional game; he went 0-4 and played right field in a game for the American Association’s Baltimore Canaries against the White Stockings in Chicago in August of 1874, as was the practice at the time, Baltimore recruited Reid, a local semi-pro player to fill in for the injured Oscar Bielaski.
Reid wasn’t known in the amateur and semi-pro leagues in Chicago as an outfielder. He was considered one of the best pitchers in town, and played for the Chicago Aetnas, one of the premier teams in the city, and according to The Chicago Tribune “The champion amateur team of 1869.”
Hugh Reid
Among Reid’s teammates with the Aetnas were future big leaguers Jimmy Hallinan and Reid’s brother-in-law and catcher Paddy Quinn.
Reid worked as a stereotyper (made metal printing plates), for The Chicago Evening Post after his career ended.
In 1920, Reid was interviewed by Alfred Henry “Al” Spink, founder of The Sporting News. By 1920, Spink, who had played amateur baseball in Chicago against Reid with a team called the Mutuals (named for the more famous aggregation in New York), had relocated to Chicago and was writing for The Evening Post.
Al Spink
The occasion was “field day exercises of the old timers” at Pyott Park at the corner of Lake Street and Kilpatrick Avenue in Chicago; the days events were followed by a banquet. “Cap” Anson, Charles Comiskey, Hugh Nicol, and Fred Pfeffer were among the dozens of former pro, semi-pro, and amateur players who attended.
Spink described the 70-year-old Reid; “same old smile, same old swagger, same old don’t care a tinker’s, same old Hughey.”
Nine years earlier Spink had credited William Arthur “Candy” Cummings with originating the curveball in his book “The National Game,” but by 1920 others were making the case for different candidates. Spink asked Reid his opinion:
“Without a doubt Cummings was the first pitcher to put the curve on the ball.
“As Cummings was using the outcurve as early as 1867, and Bobby Matthews only broke into the game at Baltimore in 1869, there is very little doubt as to who discovered the art of curving.
“In fact, it was not until years later, when the rules allowed the pitchers to raise their arm above the waist, that Matthews became master of the curve.”
Candy Cummings
Reid also talked about the pitch Mathews did introduce:
“I am quite sure that Mathews was the first to work the delivery mow bearing the insanitary name
“Before delivering the ball he would rub it hard on his trousers, always on the same spot, where the seams are the farthest apart…he would draw his two fingers across his lips, take the ball with two fingers and a thumb and send it in with only fair speed. He had perfect control and usually sent the ball about waist-high for a player calling for a low ball. The break came just in front of the plate and the ball usually went into the ground or very high in the air. Few line drives were made off of Mathews.”
Bobby Mathews
Reid also talked about Alphonse Case “Phonney” Martin. At the same time that Spink was making the case for Cummings in “The National Game,” Martin told William Aulick of The New York Globe that he developed the pitch. Aulick concluded:
“Some people say this was the first cousin of the curve ball, but they don’t say this when old Alphonse Martin is around. He insists it wasn’t anyone’s cousin–it was Mister Curve himself.”
Reid disagreed, he described Martin’s pitch as a “freak ball,” and said:
“I first saw Martin pitch down on the old lake front grounds in Chicago against the original White Stocking team. He simply threw a slow lob ball that came so slow you had to nearly break your back to hit it. But, at that, his delivery was a success, and most of the balls hit from it went high in the air and came down in some fielder’s hands…He threw a slow teaser that reached the plate about shoulder-high and dropped while still spinning.”
Alphonse “Phonney” Martin
Reid insisted Martin’s pitch was not a curve:
“Cummings and Cummins alone was the originator of the curve.”
Baseball History Daily 