The Hartfords (more commonly called the Hartford Dark Blues because of their uniform color) were a 19th-century

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

team. The team was based in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

History

In 1874, baseball in

Hartford, CT Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded County (United States), county government in 19 ...

was being played in a fever pitch. As talk of forming a national professional league was going on,

Morgan Bulkeley Morgan Gardner Bulkeley (December 26, 1837 – November 6, 1922) was an American politician, businessman, and sports executive. A Republican, he served in the American Civil War, and became a Hartford bank president before becoming the third pre ...

, Gershon Hubbell and Middletown native Ben Douglas Jr. leased land from Elizabeth Colt to build a base ball field and stadium with a covered grandstand, and set about forming a team, The Hartfords. Located on the corner of Wyllys and Hendrixsen Streets next to the Church of the Good Shepherd, the

Hartford Ball Club Grounds Hartford Ball Club Grounds was a baseball grounds in Hartford, Connecticut. It was home to the Hartford Dark Blues from 1874 to 1876, two years in the National Association and one in the National League. The Hartford club remained in the Leag ...

was the finest in the country and saw the team come in second to Chicago in the National League's first professional year, 1876. That team that was led by Captain Bob Ferguson and was rounded out by pitchers

Candy Cummings William Arthur "Candy" Cummings (October 18, 1848 – May 17, 1924) was an American professional baseball player. He played as a pitcher in the National Association and National League. Cummings is widely credited with inventing the curveball. H ...

(purported inventor of the curve ball),

Tommy Bond Thomas Ross Bond (September 16, 1926 – September 24, 2005) was an American actor, director, producer and writer. He was best known for his work as a child actor for two nonconsecutive periods on ''Our Gang'' (''Little Rascals'') comedies (fir ...

(the only pitcher in baseball history to have three 40-game winning years in a row), Tom Carey,

Everett Mills Everett Mills (January 20, 1845 – June 22, 1908) was an American Major League Baseball player from Newark, New Jersey. He played in all five seasons of the National Association of Professional Baseball Players, National Association (&ndas ...

, Bill Harbridge, Tom York,

Dick Higham Richard Higham (July 24, 1851 – March 18, 1905) was an English born professional baseball player born in Ipswich, Suffolk, England and currently the only umpire to be banned from baseball. Biography He was born on July 24, 1851, in Ipswich, ...

Jack Burdock John Joseph Burdock (April 1852 – November 27, 1931), nicknamed "Black Jack", was an American second baseman in Major League Baseball who played for several teams over a 20-year playing career. Burdock was known as a skilled fielder, and he ...

Jack Remsen John Jay "Jack" Remsen (April, 1850 – After 1884), was an American Major League Baseball player who played mainly in center field for eight teams in nine seasons, from 1872 to 1884. He played for the Brooklyn Atlantics, New York Mutuals, Ha ...

and

Doug Allison Douglas L. Allison (July 12, 1846 – December 19, 1916) was an American Major League Baseball player. He began his career as a catcher for the original Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first fully professional baseball team. Allison was one of ...

. The Hartford Dark Blues were a member of the

National Association of Professional Base Ball Players The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP), often known simply as the National Association (NA), was the first fully- professional sports league in baseball. The NA was founded in 1871 and continued through the 1875 se ...

in 1874 and 1875 and the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

in 1876 and 1877. In 1877 the team played in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

as the Brooklyn Hartfords. Playing at the

, in 1876 they joined the

as a charter member. The team's owner,

Morgan G. Bulkeley Morgan Gardner Bulkeley (December 26, 1837 – November 6, 1922) was an American politician, businessman, and sports executive. A Republican, he served in the American Civil War, and became a Hartford bank president before becoming the third pre ...

, was also the first president of the National League. Managed by their third baseman, Bob Ferguson, the Dark Blues went on to finish third in 1876 with a record of 47–21. Hartford Dark Blues by Prescott & White, 1875

Hartford Dark Blues by Prescott & White, 1875

The team's strong suit was pitching, with both

and future Hall of Famer

finishing with an

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

under 2.00. The pitching staff recorded the most complete games (69) and allowed the lowest number of home runs throughout the 70-game 1876 campaign (the Philadelphia Athletics also accomplished this feat that season). The team's best hitter was right fielder

, who led the team in most offensive categories. The team left Hartford and moved to

for the 1877 season to become the Brooklyn Hartfords. Managed again by Ferguson, the team finished in third again, with a record of 31–27. With Bond, Cummings and Higham all having left the team, the team's best player this year was undoubtedly right fielder John Cassidy, who batted .378 and also led the team in many other categories. The team disbanded after the 1877 season and was replaced in the league with the

Providence Grays The Providence Grays were a Major League Baseball team based in Providence, Rhode Island who played in the National League from until . The Grays played at the Messer Street Grounds in the Olneyville neighborhood. The team won the National Leagu ...

. Author

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

was a fan of the team's.Burton, Rick
"Australia, Baseball's Diamond in Rough"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', 09 March 2014. Retrieved on 14 March 2014.

Notable alumni

* Lipman Pike, major league baseball; first Jewish baseball player; home run champion * Tom Barlow, pioneer of the bunt, suffered from morphine addiction, mentioned in Ken Burns's Baseball *

Joe Start Joseph Start (October 14, 1842 – March 27, 1927), nicknamed "Old Reliable", was one of the most durable regulars of baseball's earliest era, and one of the top first basemen of his time. He began his playing career in 1859, before the forma ...

, a 27-year veteran who spanned the pre-professional to the professional era, and is credited with developing off-bag positioning of the first baseman

Baseball Hall of Famers

Bibliography

*Arcidiacono, David (2003) ''Grace, Grit and Growling: The Hartford Dark Blues Base Ball Club, 1874–1877''

References

External links