The Louisville Grays were a 19th-century United States

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 and charter member of 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 ...

, based in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. They played two seasons, 1876 and 1877, and compiled a record of 65–61. Their home games were at the

Louisville Baseball Park Louisville Baseball Park (or Grounds) was a baseball park located in Louisville, Kentucky. The park was home to the Louisville Grays of the National League from 1876 to 1877. The field was located within a large block bounded by 4th Street (east); ...

. The Grays were owned by businessman

Walter Newman Haldeman Walter Newman Haldeman (April 27, 1821 – May 14, 1902) was an American newspaper publisher, owner, and businessman from Louisville, Kentucky, in the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was the founder of the ''Louisville Courier'', which would la ...

, owner and publisher of the ''

Louisville Courier-Journal The ''Courier Journal'', also known as the ''Louisville Courier Journal'' (and informally ''The C-J'' or ''The Courier''), and called ''The Courier-Journal'' between November 8, 1868, and October 29, 2017, is the highest circulation newspape ...

'' newspaper.

Overview

The Grays were undone by

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

's first

gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...

scandal. The team was in first place in August 1877, then suddenly lost seven games and tied one against the Boston Red Stockings and

Hartford Dark Blues The Hartfords (more commonly called the Hartford Dark Blues because of their uniform color) were a 19th-century baseball team. The team was based in Hartford, Connecticut. History In 1874, baseball in Hartford, CT was being played in a fever pit ...

. Boston ended up winning the pennant, seven games ahead of the second-place Grays. A ''Courier-Journal'' story questioning the team's conduct was written by

John Haldeman John Avery Haldeman (December 2, 1855–September 17, 1899) was a journalist who played one game for Major League Baseball's Louisville Grays in the 1877 season. Early life Haldeman was born on December 2, 1855 in Pewee Valley, Kentucky.Connel ...

, the owner's son. Team president Charles Chase received two anonymous

telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

s. One noted that gamblers were favoring the less talented Hartford team in an upcoming series. The second telegram predicted Louisville would

throw Throwing is an action which consists in accelerating a projectile and then releasing it so that it follows a ballistic trajectory, usually with the aim of impacting a remote target. This action is best characterized for animals with prehensile l ...

the next game versus Hartford on August 21. The Grays committed a number of suspicious errors and lost that game 7–0. League president

William Hulbert William Ambrose Hulbert (October 23, 1832 – April 10, 1882) was one of the founders of the National League, recognized as baseball's first major league, and was also the president of the Chicago White Stockings franchise. Biography Born in Bu ...

investigated and ordered players to authorize

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company chang ...

to release all telegrams sent or received during the 1877 season. All players complied except

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists who ...

Bill Craver William H. Craver (June 1844 – June 17, 1901) was an American Major League Baseball player from Troy, New York who played mainly as a middle infielder, but did play many games at catcher as well during his seven-year career. He played for seven ...

, the team's captain. The telegrams indicated that

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

Jim Devlin James Alexander Devlin (June 6, 1849 – October 10, 1883) was an American Major League Baseball player who played mainly as a first baseman early in his career, then as a pitcher in the latter part. He played for three teams during his five ...

left fielder In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering system ...

George Hall George Hall may refer to: People The arts * George Hall (actor) (1916–2002), Canadian-American actor * George Hall (musician) (c. 1893 – c. 1989), American bandleader * George Hall (cartoonist) (born 1960), Australian comic book writer and ...

, and utility player

Al Nichols Alfred Henry Nichols (born as Alfred Henry Williams; February 14, 1852 – June 18, 1936) was an English Major League Baseball player for three seasons. Born in Worcester, England, he played for three different teams, and mainly played as a t ...

intentionally lost games in exchange for money. No direct evidence was found implicating Craver. All four were banned from baseball for life, Craver for refusing to comply with the investigation. Devlin pitched every inning for the 1877 Grays, leading the league in games and innings pitched. Hall played every inning in left field; he was a good batter, and was the 1876 home run leader with five. The original

St. Louis Brown Stockings The St. Louis Brown Stockings were a professional baseball club based in St. Louis, Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most ...

had signed Devlin and Hall for 1878 and went out of business with the Grays after the investigation.Cash 38-54

References

* Cash, Jon David. ''Before They Were Cardinals: Major-League Baseball in Nineteenth-Century St. Louis''. 2002, U. of Missouri Press. * Cook, William. ''The Louisville Grays Scandal of 1877''. 2005, paperback, McFarland and Co. * Ginsburg, Daniel. ''The Fix Is In: A History of Baseball Gambling and Game Fixing Scandals''. 2004, paperback, McFarland and Co.

External links

Team index
at Baseball Reference {{MLBHistory, state=collapsed Defunct baseball teams in Kentucky Defunct Major League Baseball teams Baseball teams established in 1876 Sports clubs disestablished in 1877 1876 establishments in Kentucky

Overview

See also

References

External links