Albert G. Spalding had as much to do with popularizing baseball into the national pastime as many man. The sporting goods business he established not only supplied equipment to the major leagues, but to the sandlot teams as well. A world tour organized by Spalding in 1888 gave the first baseball exhibitions in a dozen nations. During the 1901 "syndicate crisis," it was Spalding who lent his good name to the cause of reform, and allowed respected National League owners to reform the ownership situation.

But Spalding should also be remembered as a ballplayer, and a superb one. Born in 1850, he pitched for all five years of the existence of the National Association. When Spalding announced he was jumping to the new National League in 1876, it gave that league the credibility needed to supplant the Association in the minds of ball fans.

Spalding may never have been better than in 1873. He won 41 games for the Boston Association team that season, all but two of the Red Stockings' victories. (He also sustained all but one of their 16 losses, and batted .317.) Boston needed every one of Spalding's wins, because the Association race that season was a taut one, Philadelphia finishing only four games behind Harry Wright's Red Stockings.

It was the second of five straight seasons -- four with Boston and the final one with Chicago -- in which Spalding was the principal pitcher on the team recognized as best in the nation. The fact was no coincidence. Spalding was elected to theHall of Fame in 1939.

ELSEWHERE IN BASEBALL

Substitute umpire Bob Ferguson, who also serves as president of the National Association and plays for the Brooklyn Atlantics, breaks the arm of the Mutuals' Nat Hicks with a baseball bat during an argument July 24.

Fan interference is prohibited; another new rule bans the use of clothing, including the cap, in making catches.

IN THE WORLD

The San Francisco cable car system is opened; the first car climbs Clay Street.