Clipping:A reminiscence of the placement of the second baseman in the 1860s
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| Date | Wednesday, December 12, 1888 |
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| Text | “I saw the first professional game ever played in Philadelphia,” remarked Mercantile Appraiser Bell the other day. “What I mean by professional is the first game ever played in this city where an admission was charged. I also remember distinctly the first appearance of Reach on the Athletic team. At that time there was about as much fuss made over Reach's engagement by the Athletics as there was over the sale of Kelly to Boston two years ago. Reach was cracked up to be a wonder and everybody awaited anxiously the day when he was to make his debut with the home team. … Up to that time I had never seen second base played right, as as Reach played it, and I do not think anybody else on the grounds had. We had been used to seeing the second baseman stand on or quite close to the second base bag. When the Athletics took their positions in the field and Reach was seen to locate himself mid-way between first and second bases and about twenty feet back of the line (Reach always played a very deep field), the spectators began eyeing each other and asking one another question whether the new man was to play short, right or second base. It did not take us long to see that Reach knew his business, and that he was a corking second baseman. I believe that Reach was the first man to play second base properly and that he was the first one to locate the position in which all second basemen have since been playing. That one game made Reach what he is to-day. He made himself popular here and from a poor boy grew up into one of Philadelphia's leading merchants.+ |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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