Batting Positions, some early data

[Paul Wendt]

[This article features some players under discussion at the Hall of Merit where forum software cannot display the table. It may interesting some readers here.]

For each of eight players, 1872 and 1873 seasons, this table provides games played and games played by batting position, covering all positions where he played at least 20% of his starts. For example in upper left, Lip Pike in 1872 played 56 games for Baltimore including 25 batting 3rd, 14 batting 4th, and 15 batting 5, 2, or 6.

* means the player record represents all team games played

[U]Player[/U]	1872	batpos	batpos	batpos 1873	batpos	batpos	batpos 
	[U]games	games	games	games	games	games	games	games[/U]
[B]Pike[/B]	Bal	3	4	5-2-6	Bal	3
	56	25	14	15	56	52

[B]McVey[/B]	Bos	4			Bal	4	2
	46	46			37	21	10

[B]Barnes[/B]	Bos	2			Bos	2
	45	45			60*	60*

For Boston in 1872 (McVey and Barnes, above) Harry Wright used a fixed lineup except for four games with 7th-8th switched. Substitute Dave Birdsall always took the batting position of the man he replaced.
The lineup was brother George 1, Barnes 2, Andy Leonard 3, McVey 4, Al Spalding 5, Charlie Gould 6, Harry Schafer 7, Fraley Rogers 8, Harry 9.

For Boston in 1873 (above and below) five players had entirely fixed (100%) batting positions and the other four were all above 90%. Substitute Jack Manning was usually if not always in the batting position of the man he replaced.
The lineup was brother George 1, Barnes 2, Spalding 3, Leonard 4, White 5, Jim O'Rourke 6, Bob Addy 7, Schafer 8, Harry 9.

[U]Player[/U]	1872	batpos	batpos	batpos 1873	batpos	batpos	batpos 
	[U]games	games	games	games	games	games	games	games[/U]
[B]White[/B]	Cle	4	3		Bos	5
	22*	18	4		60*	60*

[B]Sutton[/B]	Cle	2	6	7	PhiAth	6
	22*	11	6	5	51	51	
only 22 team games played		Anson bats 3 after pitcher McBride 2

[B]Start[/B]	NY	3	2		NY	4	3
	54	43	10		53*	44	9
					Bellan bats 2 in his 7 games played

[B]Pearce[/B]	NY	6	8	3	BroAtl	2	1
	44	22	11	9	55*	45	10
Candy Cummings bats 9 only 40%!		Ferguson bats 4-5-6

[B]Hines[/B]	Was	8	4		Was	2	3	6
	11*	6	3		39*	17	12	9	
only 11 team games played

Notes on teams not represented by players in the table
72 Athletics, Phi
- Levi Meyerle bats 3 behind pitcher Dick McBride 2*
- Al Reach bats 4 and 3
Meyerle and Reach evidently split the season with 27 and 23 games played while eight others played 41-47 games

72 Atlantic, Bro
- Bob Ferguson, captain, bats 3 and 5
abandoned by all other regulars during the 1871 year out of competition

72 Eckford, Bro
- catcher Doug Allison bats 1 only in 18 games
hired five Troy players including Allison between 7/23 and 8/09

72 Mansfield, Middletown CT
- John Clapp bats 1 only, Jim O'Rourke 7 only
- pitcher Asa Brainard bats 2 in his 6 games

72 Olympic, Was
- pitcher Asa Brainard bats 3 in all 9* games

72 Troy
- SS Davy Force bats 1 in all 25* games, no other player-position tops 60%
- catcher Doug Allison bats 3 and 2
- Estaban Bellan, of Cuba and Fordham College, bats 5 and 6
five players hired by Eckford between 7/23 and 8/09

73 Maryland, 6 games played

73 Philadelphia
- Levi Meyerle bats 4 only in 48 games
- catcher Fergy Malone bats 3 in all 53* games

73 Resolute, Elizabeth NJ
- catcher Doug Allison bats 1 in 16 games