Atlanta Braves Franchise Top 10 outfielders: Hugh Duffy

My list of the Atlanta Braves Franchise top ten outfielders continues with a player who finished his career with 1500 + hits, a .300+ batting average, and an unbreakable record.

Part II of the series counting down the top ten outfielders in Atlanta Braves Franchise history led off will Billie Hamilton.  Coming in at number six is the player Hamilton eventually replaced at the top of the Beaneater lineup:  Hugh Duffy.

Throughout this post, I’ll reference Duffy’s SABR biography, news articles mentioned in those biographies that may not be available online any longer, and books that may no longer be widely available.

SABR is the definitive source for player information from the beginning of organized baseball, and most content is free to view. I encourage you to spend time reading and enjoying the stories there.

Hugh Duffy spent 1887 jumping from team to team in Massachusetts as each one folded, but his bat drew the attention of several Major League teams. When the season ended, Duffy negotiated a contract with the Chicago White Stockings (Cubs) that paid him more than many veterans.

“Shocked” is a fair description of White Stocking player/manager Cap Anson’s first look at his new, 24-year old outfielder. as described by Bill Lamb in The Glorious Beaneaters and recounted in his SABR Bio,

Duffy told of that first meeting often, and with a smile. Looking down at the short, fresh-faced kid, Anson bellowed, “What are you doing here? We already have a batboy.” Duffy had every reason to remember that day fondly, winning two batting titles and setting an all-time high for batting average in a single season.

Number six – Sir Hugh

Sir Hugh joined the Beaneaters four seasons after that meeting with Anson, having batted .320/.384/.470/.853 while leading the ill-fated Players League in hits and runs in 1890, and leading the American Association in RBI and batting .336/.408/.453/.861 in 1891.

Duffy stood the same 5′-7″, 168 pounds as Atlanta Braves second baseman Ozzie Albies. Coincidentally another future Hall of Fame outfielder, Tommy McCarthy, arrived at the same time as Duffy; he was also 5′-7″, 168 pounds.

Like Albies and his buddy Ronald Acuna Jr. with Atlanta,  Duffy and McCarthy injected fire and excitement into the Beaneaters lineup. Boston press soon dubbed the pair “The Heavenly Twins.”

The pair didn’t look the same, but they played the game the same way as Albies and Acuna – aggressively. Both had a high baseball IQ and recognized the problem they could cause opposing teams. Hitting at the top of the Beaneaters order, Duffy and McCarthy changed the way the game was played in the early 1890s.

Changing the game

The 1891 Beaneaters weren’t chopped liver; they finished second the National League behind Brooklyn. Boston scored more runs a game while allowing fewer than the eventual NL champs, but they couldn’t seem to get it all together at the end.  The Heavenly Twins changed that, by solidifying the defense and energizing the attack.

Duffy’s first season in 1892 was the last of what we’d call pitchers’ years. Batting one-two in the order, the twins began a campaign of speed and aggressive base running to counter the pitchers’ superiority, and it worked.

The pair created a hit-and-run/stolen base-oriented offense that drove pitchers nuts. Duffy stole 51 bases, McCarthy stole 53, Herman Long stole 57, Bobby Lowe had 38 and Billy Nash chipped in with 31.

Flanked by Lowe in left and McCarthy in right, the Beaneaters outfield was among the fastest in the league and played it differently than other teams.

… in the outfield the two developed defensive tactics (like close-in positioning and the trapped-ball double play) that ably supported (Boston’s) exceptional pitching. . .

With Duffy and McCarthy igniting the offense, the pitching began to click too. Kid Nichols and Jack Stivetts won 35 games each, Harry Staley won 22, and the Beaneaters finished the season 102–48. Baseball-Reference credits he Beaneaters with an outright NL Championship because their overall record had then 8½ games ahead of Cleveland.  At the time Cleveland disagreed.

The first NL expansion

Tired of arguing over players, the NL and AA agreed to a merger and four teams from the AA joined the NL; Baltimore, Louisville, St Louis, and Washington.  After the merger, Sporting Life editor Francis Richter coined the term “the big league,” a reference that remained even though the NL dropped to eight teams again in 1900.

The season jumped from 140 to 154 scheduled games in a split-season format much like the one later used in the strike-year of 1981.  The first half officially ended on July 15 and the second in October.  The league also hoped different teams would win each half and tentatively planned a postseason “world championship series.”

On July 15, the Beaneaters won the first half with a 52-22 record, 2½ games in front of Brooklyn, with Cleveland in fifth-place six games back.  The Beaneaters started the second half slowly but led by Duffy and Kid Nichols, bounced back to finish the second half 50-26. The Spiders roared into the second half, grabbing the lead at the end of July and holding on to finish 53-23, one game ahead of Boston.  The web-spinners also did a lot of trash-talking.

Cleveland’s playermanager, Patsy Tebeau, suggested that “the Beaneaters fear the humiliation of possible defeat. Boston manager Frank Selee  . . . responded that “the Boston players are willing to go for broke on their ability to beat the club that has been ‘easy’ for [us] all year.”

Slated for nine games, but after game one went 11 shutout innings, the Beaneaters crushed the Spiders in the next four games to win the the 1892 equivalent of the NLCS.  Duffy led the Boston attack, batting .462/.481/.846/1.328.