Spalding's World Tour

[Brian McKenna]

just bought the new book - only 30 pages in though - thought some might be further along or have some interesting notes about the tour

[SABR Steve]

Wasn't Arthur Soden, one of the Boston Triumvirs, on that tour (1874)?

[Brian McKenna]

actually the world tour took place 1888-89

that earlier tour (1874) was to england - it was the brainchild of harry wright who placed a young al spalding in charge of many of the details

the world tour included spalding's chicago colts against an all-star team - interesting members of the tour:

chicago
anson
fred pfeffer
ned williamson
tom daly
john tener

all-stars
ned hanlon
monte ward
james fogarty
ed crane
silver flint
herman long
george van haltren

other travelers
george wright - coach
james hart - mgmt
wives of williamson, anson, will lynch, ward
anson's father

spalding took his wife, mother, son, servant and maid

[Brian McKenna]

first stop off american soil - hawaii - 70 years before statehood - interesting that the hawaiian king (kalakaua) was the first reigning head of state to circumnavigate the globe meeting heads of state along the way - the ballplayers were particularly fond of the hula girls - american forces wouldn't allow the hula to be performed for the group so the ballplayers snuck off individually to see a private performance - stop was less than a day and no game was played as the amercian forces would not permit ball playing on a sunday - one day excursion

[Brian McKenna]

next stop samoa but they couldn't disembark because of political unrest

onto auckland, new zealand - parts of two days
finally played a game abroad - crowd became hostile after tour's balloon aerialist couldn't perform due to heavy winds

tour personnel spent a lot of time eating, drinking, partying, at ceremonies and feasts thrown in their honor and also playing cricket, also watched an austrailian rules football contest

onto australia - three weeks
sydney, melbourne, adelaide, ballarat and back to melbourne

[Brian McKenna]

after 18 days at sea they arrived at ceylon (sri lanka) - for parts f two days
after stircrazy ride at sea they spent all night rickshaw racing - hotel servants slept outside room doors where a welcome mat would lie - guests were advised not to kick the servants in the morning - the u.s.s. essex (a warship) was stationed at ceylon - spalding's party toured it - a game was played - back on board there own ship ceremonial cannon fire was heard from another ship - one ballplayer amusing himself (since he was the only one on deck to see what was taking place) ran throughout the ship yelling that pirates were attacking - spalding hid in a closet - anson shoved his wife's jewelry in his mouth and grabbed a bat

[Brian McKenna]

next stop aden, yemen for a brief shopping excurion

cairo, egypt - parts of three days
road camels and donkeys out to the pyramids - climbed the pyramids and the sphinx - tried to throw balls over the pyramids and used the sprinx's right eye for target practice - played a game nearby in the sand with the pyramids as a backdrop

[Brian McKenna]

then italy, france, england, scotland, ireland

new york on april 6 and barnstorming back to chicago

[Brian McKenna]

Found the pasenger list today from the ship Adriatic arriving in NY on 4/6/1889. Interesting to see all the names. The ship had hundreds of passengers but I guess the ballplayers were a hot property. They were listed first. First two - Anson and wife.

[rrhersh]

actually the world tour took place 1888-89

that earlier tour (1874) was to england - it was the brainchild of harry wright who placed a young al spalding in charge of many of the details

A nitpick: the 1874 tour was to the UK, but not merely to England. They played in Dublin as well.

I have not looked into this, but that bit about placing the young Al Spalding in charge sounds like something that came from the pen of the old Al Spalding. He had a history of exaggerating his role in the events of the mid-1870s. I wonder if there is any contemporary documentation for Spalding running the tour.

[TonyK]

then italy, france, england, scotland, ireland

new york on april 6 and barnstorming back to chicago


Sounds like a great read. I bet every player had plenty of anecdotes about the tour.