Chris Von der Ahe, who made Charlie Finley look detached and George Steinbrenner seem sedate, owned the American Association's St. Louis Browns. Operator of a Greman beer garden, Von der Ahe was a self-caricature: Boastful, boistrous, fun-loving and entirely full of himself and his club.
He dressed in flashy clothes and his most prominent feature was a bulbous nose. He spent liberally, became known as "Der Boss President," and was fond of remarking that "nothing is too goot for my poys." He once bragged to visitors that he had the biggest baseball diamond in the world. Informed by his captain, Charles Comiskey, that all diamonds were the same size, Von der Ahe told the visitors he meant to say he had the biggest infield.
But whether by skill or fortune, Von der Ahe's Browns were the
Association's superior team in the mid 1880s. They won four straight pennants starting in 1885, led by first baseman Comiskey, outfielder and two-time batting champion Tip O'Neill, and third baseman Arlie Latham. (Known as "The Freshest Man on Earth," Latham at times acted like an on-field version of his boss but scored a league-high 152 runs in 1886).
Following his club's 1886 title, Von der Ahe challenged the National League champs, Cap Anson's Chicago White Stockings, to a best of seven post-season series, the winner to take a $15,000 prize and the loser to get nothing. The Sox won two of the first three games, but the Browns won the next three at Sportsmans Park. Chicago took a 3-0 lead into the seventh inning of that final game, but Latham's two run triple knotted the contest andsent it into extra innings. In the 10th, Curt Welch, an outfielder, stole home with the deciding run, a daring bit of thievery that has come to be called "Welch's $15,000 slide." No doubt, Von der Ahe loved the showmanship.
ELSEWHERE IN BASEBALL
The Sporting News is founded March 17 in St. Louis by Albert and Charles C. Spink.
The first black league, the Southern League of Colored Base Ballists, forms June 16.
IN THE WORLD
The U.S. Army captures Geronimo Sept. 4.