- Series: Pioneer Portraits I: 1850-1874
- City: Boston
- Team: Red Stockings (NAPBBP)
- League: National Association (NAPBBP)
- Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame
James Laurie “Deacon” White (1847-1939). Considered the greatest catcher of baseball’s barehanded period (1870s), White eventually moved to 3rd base, played 23 seasons, won 6 championships, and played with a number of the century’s best players on a number of the century’s best teams.
- 1st person to bat in 1st pro league, in 1871, earning a hit – a double
- Reportedly believed the earth is flat
- 2 batting titles; 3 RBI titles
- Elected to Hall of Fame: 2013
- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: Boston
- Team: Beaneaters
- League: National League
John J. “Black Jack” Burdock (1852-1931) began and ended his 18 year career in Brooklyn, first for the Atlantics and retiring from the Bridegrooms (Grooms). Played for the Hartford Dark Blues during their 1st year in the new National League, ‘76, and the next when Hartford became the Brooklyn Hartfords for a year.
- Sandwiched in between his stints in Brooklyn were 10 years with the Boston Beaneaters
- Was player/mgr for the Boston Beaneaters’ 1883 pennant winner, leading the club in average at .330
- One of the best infield defenders of his era, Burdock led the NL in putouts by a 2nd baseman five straight years, 1876-1880
- Led his league in fielding percentage by a 2nd baseman 6 times
- Achieved a career .250 batting average with 1,231 hits, 778 runs and 501 RBI
- Series: Pioneer Portraits I: 1850-1874
- City: Boston
- Team: Red Stockings (NAPBBP)
- League: National Association (NABBP)
Ivers Whitney Adams (1838-1914) was a young and ambitious visionary when he first laid eyes on Harry Wright’s new invention: professional baseball. The Cincinnati Red Stockings came to town to trounce the local Lowell lads in a June exhibition on the Boston Commons June 10, 1869. Adams was intrigued and pursued a notion for transforming Boston into a leading post-war metropolis with baseball as an engine of growth. By January 1871, the plans were laid, the Wright brothers were brought on board and the most enduring franchise in professional sports was established -- then the Boston Baseball Association, now the Atlanta Braves.
Ivers was already well on his way to wealth and fame as a patron of Boston’s industrial and social scene. His love of outdoor sports and camaraderie with his up-and-coming peers fit perfectly with the new game about to sweep America. He procured the incorporation, acquired a playing field, set the ticket prices (at Harry Wright’s urging: double the usual fee), and marketed them through George Wright’s sporting-goods emporium. Thus was baseball born in Beantown.
- Adams had vowed to friends that, if he couldn’t recruit the Wrights, he’d abandon the effort to bring the game to Boston. He only wanted the very best.
- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: Boston
- Team: Beaneaters
- League: National League
Richard Butler Conway (1865-1926) earned quite a reputation for toughness in his native Lowell, MA and the New England League. Although his reliance on his off-speed pitches signaled a short career in the majors (in an era when the heater dominated from fifty feet), Conway's overhand fastball clocked Bill McGunnigle, fracturing his skull and ending a playing career for the future National League manager. The reputation may have stemmed less from the beaning than the fact that it was the third straight high hard one that decked Mac at Brockton that summer of 1885.
Conway was signed to his first major league contract with the American Association's Baltimore Orioles in 1886 but was soon returned to the minors. He got a big break after pitching his Portland team to a win in Boston against the Blues who shared the South End Grounds with the Beaneaters, bringing him to the NL's attention. Boston hired him for the '87 campaign. The Globe faulted his reliance on his curve and “using his arm entirely....He fails to get any speed on the ball and much strength is wasted.” Nevertheless, Dick's debut showed promise and the same paper lauded his effective control and all-around play. After going 5-1, the league caught on to him and he finished 9-15.
- Plagued with a sore arm, Conway ended his two-plus years MLB tenure with a 15-24 record and 4.78 ERA
- Dick was part of a “brother battery” with older sibling Bill with the '86 Orioles, among only sixteen such pairings in the majors
- Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
- City: Boston
- Team: Reds (PL)
- League: Players' League
- Hall: Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame
Doc, Sandy, Cutrate, Foxy (1863-1927). Born in Canada, Irwin was: 1st pos. player to wear a glove; member of the 1st World Series Champion; college coach; ML scout & business manager; minor league owner; major & minor league manager; president of 1st pro U.S. soccer league; owner of cycling tracks; inventor of a football scorecard; and umpire of 50 NL games. After contracting stomach cancer, Irwin committed suicide by jumping over board a ship. It was soon discovered that he had two wives, 1 in Boston, 1 in New York.
- Canadian BB Hall of Fame: 1989
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