(If Cap Anson was baseball's first star, King Kelly was th...)
If Cap Anson was baseball's first star, King Kelly was the first player whose celebrity extended beyond the diamond. The dashing mustachioed Kelly was a favorite of newspapermen, who lionized him as "King of the Diamond" and "The $10,000 Beauty"; of fans, who celebrated his daring in song ("Slide, Kelly, Slide") and his grace in poetry ("Beautiful Mike"); and certainly of the baseball establishment, which was willing to pay outrageous sums for his services. Off the field, he pursued an interest in acting, and played parts in a number of theatrical productions. And in 1888, reacting to what he described as the bookishness of his new baseball home in Boston, Kelly even tried his hand at writing. Play Ball: Stories from the Diamond Field was the first-ever memoir by a player. One of the most popular baseball titles of all time, Play Ball is a casual, often humorous stroll through Kelly's ball-playing past, with chapters on the teams he played for, the men he played alongside, his relationships with baseball figures such as Anson and Albert Spalding, his early involvement with John Ward's Brotherhood, his legendary contract with the Beaneaters, and his barnstorming adventures in the South and West.
https://www.amazon.com/Play-Ball-Historical-Writings-McFarland/dp/0786423633?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0786423633
Michael J. Kelly was born on December 31, 1857 in Troy, New York, United States. His parents were Michael Kelly, a paper-maker, and his wife, Catherine, both natives of Ireland. Mike and Catherine had left Ireland during the 1840s to escape the potato famine. After landing in New York City they moved 125 miles up the Hudson to Troy, at that time a bustling commercial town at the eastern terminus of the Erie Canal.
Kelly's early professional career was with the Olympics of Paterson, New Jersey, and the Buckeyes of Columbus, Ohio. In 1879 he was with the Cincinnati team of the National League, playing right field and change catcher. During a post-season series in California, 1879-1880, Adrian Anson secured his services for the Chicago White Stockings with which he remained until 1887. He soon became a popular idol. He played right field, caught, and in the season of 1882 filled in at short stop. Chicago won five pennants while Kelly played for the White Stockings. "When we marched on the field, " Kelly once boasted in a newspaper interview, "with our big six-footers out in front it used to be a case of 'eat 'em up Jake. ' We had most of 'em whipped before we threw a ball. They were scared to death. "
His success as a player was not due to exceptional skill or dexterity. He had an unfortunate tendency to fall down at critical moments, without apparent cause, his feet becoming panicky when he was about to catch a ball; neither was he a dependable catcher, thrower, or infielder. His greatness was due to nerve, mental agility, and mastery of the game. He seemed to have an intuitive sense of what an opposing player was going to do, and he generally outwitted him. His ability to divine what was in the pitcher's mind made him a good batter, and in 1886 he led the league. Once on the bases it was almost impossible to get him out; he slid with cleverness and abandon, becoming the hero of the popular song, "Slide, Kelly, Slide!" and if a run were needed to win a game he was almost certain to get it. His good-natured badinage with spectators contributed to his popularity as did his arguments with umpires, for as a "kicker" he outclassed everyone in his profession.
His sale to the Boston team in 1887 for $10, 000 created a furor and gave him the title of "Ten Thousand Dollar Beauty. " The willingness of the Chicago management to let him go was largely due to the fact that "he was of a highly convivial nature, extremely fascinating and witty, and his example was demoralizing to discipline". When the Brotherhood War broke out in 1890, Kelly signed with the Boston Players League Club, and admirers presented him with a farm in Hingham. A. G. Spalding offered him $10, 000 and a three-year contract at his own figure to desert the Brotherhood, and he won the former's respect by refusing "to go back on the boys". After the collapse of the Players League, he took charge of the Cincinnati American Association Club, and in 1892 returned to Boston. He was loaned to New York in 1893, and upon his return at the close of the season was released.
His death, occasioned by an attack of pneumonia, occurred in the Emergency Hospital, Boston, to which city he had come to appear at the Palace Theatre with the London Gaiety Girls, in the role of "Casey at the Bat. " Just before he died he slipped off a stretcher, and remarked, "This is my last slide. " He was the author of a little book entitled, "Play Ball"; Stories of the Diamond Field.
Kelly was considered one of the greatest players of 1870s-1890s. The White Stockings won five championships while he was with them, to which achievement he contributed his full share, for he always played for the victory of the team, and never for personal aggrandizement. He was also credited with creating the strategies as a player such as the hit and run, the hook slide. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945.
(If Cap Anson was baseball's first star, King Kelly was th...)
Kelly himself was about six feet tall, but was awkward and had a shambling gait. He was a big, bulgy, jovial Irishman.
Kelly married, Agnes Hedifen, on October 25, 1881. They often spent the offseason at her brother’s farmhouse in Hyde Park, New York.
