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Fred Tenney

First Base
  • Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
  • City: Boston
  • Team: Beaneaters
  • League: National League

Frederick Tenney (1871-1952) built a twenty-year career in pro baseball, most of it in the major leagues and mostly in Boston. As a catcher, Tenney led his Brown University team to a “national championship” according to Harper’s Weekly in 1894. His play caught the attention of the Boston Beaneaters and he was signed to play for future Hall of Fame manager Frank Selee who developed Fred into a premier first-sacker. Through his friendship with Boston owner Arthur Soden, Tenney remained a loyal and evermore valued player-captain-manager and jack of all trades. His career as manager was lackluster in winning percentage but Fred was popular and the club made money, his and the team’s main objective. Sold to the Giants in 1908, Tenney had a great season at bat. Ironically, the sole game he missed that year was on September 23 when Fred Merkle subbed for him. The ensuing “boner” cost this great player his only shot at a World Series.

  • Tenney was called the “Soiled Collegian” signifying his era’s disdain for university grads playing such a tawdry game
  • The durable infielder holds the record for leading the NL in assists eight times, including seven straight years 1901-07

Auction History

Ezra Sutton

Third Base
  • Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
  • City: Boston
  • Team: Beaneaters
  • League: National League

Ezra Ballou Sutton (1849-1907). A 3rd baseman & shortstop, Sutton played for 5 teams over 20 seasons. Ezra was the 1st player to hit a home run in Major League baseball, and became the 1st player to hit 2 HRs in one game when he hit his second that day (in a losing effort). Sutton was also one of the 1st ball players to collect 1,000 career hits.

  • Played in 1st National Association game: 5.4.71
  • Played in 1st National League game: 4.22.76
  • Lifetime .294 batting average
  • Sutton is tied with 17 other players as the first player in major league baseball history

Auction History

Chick Stahl

Outfield
  • Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
  • City: Boston
  • Team: Beaneaters
  • League: National League

Charles Sylvester Stahl (1873-1907) was “the game’s most outstanding frosh hitter” in 1897 with the Boston Beaneaters. He led all rookies that year in 11 categories and still holds the Boston franchise record for 1st-yr players with a .354 BA. By 1904 he had been part of 4 champions in 7 years. His inexplicable suicide left his players in shock and grief.

  • Succeeded as mgr by Cy Young who said “Players may come and go, but there are few Chick Stahls.”

Auction History

Frank Selee

Manager
  • Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
  • City: Boston
  • Team: Beaneaters
  • League: National League
  • Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame

Frank Gibson Selee (1859-1909) was on the way to becoming the greatest baseball manager of all time when tuberculosis drove him out of the game he had mastered. For sixteen years, 1890-1905, Selee molded teams that found ways to win. He placed players on the field like a chess grandmaster, using their talents in ways they didn’t even recognize in themselves. He treated his players fairly and as men, not cogs in a machine. And they responded to him, setting records for games won. Frank’s Beaneaters won five titles. He went out to Chicago and rebuilt a floundering squad, recruiting the likes of Mordecai Brown and carefully putting together the pieces of a legendary infield. Illness forced him to pass the baton to Frank Chance, but it is clear that Chicago’s four pennants were a testament to Selee’s managerial acumen.

  • Frank’s genius was in organizing men to get the best results from them. His players hit for power unlike any until the Babe’s Yankees yet also innovated many of the finesse plays: hit and run, hitting behind the runner, double-plays
  • A dozen of Selee’s charges would precede him into Cooperstown
  • Elected to Hall of Fame: 1999

Auction History

Billy Nash

Third Base
  • Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
  • City: Boston
  • Team: Beaneaters
  • League: National League

William Mitchell Nash (1865-1929) played for 15 years as a third baseman, primarily in Boston. He managed the Phillies in ’96. He achieved a lifetime BA of .275 with a high of .295 for the ’87 Beaneaters. As manager, Nash scouted and recruited Nap Lajoie to Philadelphia.

  • Bill James ranked Nash #49 all-time third basemen
  • Sporting Life touted his $7,500 total compensation in ’91 as money well-spent

Auction History