Asa Brainard: Ace of the 1869-70 Cincinnati Red Stockings
What happened in 1869 is unlikely to ever repeat itself in baseball history. In 1869, America’s first all-professional base ball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, went undefeated over the course of their entire season, a 57-0 barnstorming trek that took them from wins at home to victories on the Atlantic Coast and then, to add icing to the cake, they piled on further defeats of all challengers on the Pacific Coast in San Francisco. Guided by the future Hall of Fame-bound managerial wizardry and playing ability of Harry Wright and his kid brother George, and the brilliant, beyond the curve pitching ability of team hurling ace, Asa Brainard, the Red Stockings were able to teach everybody a lesson about the finer points of America’s dazzling new game.
It didn’t matter if the opposition caught on. The “Reds” had become the first all paid professional team by no coincidental accident. They not only learned the game fast under the Wright Brothers, but they also played it better and faster and smarter than all others. Remember. This was the era of bare hands play and no catcher’s protective gear. The pitcher threw underhanded from 45 feet away. Fair-foul bunts could produce some crazy results on the base paths and defense – and one-bounce outs on batted balls compensated partially for the absence of gloves. Batters also got to signify to the pitcher whether they wanted the ball pitched high or low.
What the batters couldn’t do with Cincinnati is adjust to the two major pitching qualities of Asa Brainard. – Brainard could control to extreme degree where he chose to throw the ball – and he rapidly learned each batter’s worst spots – even in the batter’s requested area. And if that were not enough – Asa also learned to vary pitch speeds for the sake of upsetting the timing of a “striker’s” swing. – And, since Brainard hurled 70% of the club’s game-consumed innings, the Red Stockings stayed right on top of things behind Brainard. They also developed the relay throw system on defense, struck hits on offense like summer afternoon thunder, and stole bases like the James Gang descending upon a small town bank.
Harry Wright only counted victories over sanctioned opponents. That’s why some sources will show the 1869 Cincinnati club winning a few more in their maiden professional year. Staying with Harry’s game count, the Red Stockings would win a streaking total of 81 games into 1870 before finally losing to the Brooklyn Atlantics in New York by a score of 8-7 in 11 innings. And that historic game played out before 10,000 wildly biased Brooklyn home fans.
The ten-man roster of the 1869-70 Cincinnati Red Stockings only made a gross total of $11,000 per season, with Harry and George Wright both drawing $2,000 and close to it – and Asa Brainard grabbing about $1,000. And it was a great start while it lasted.
Money issues and the formation of the new National Association in 1871 proved the temporary death of the first professional club. Harry Wright took most of the best players with him to Boston, along with the Red Stockings name, for a swing at league-based professional play.
Asa Brainard signed with the Washington Olympics of the short-lived National Association of Professional Base Ball Players in 1871, but never fared again as he did in his halcyon short run with the iconic Red Stockings. In four season with Washington, Middletown, and Baltimore, Brainard went 24-53 with an unremarkable 4.40 ERA.
The base ball world had caught up with the 34-year-old former ace and he reacted by doing the right thing. He retired from serious play.
Sadly, Asa Brainard died in 1888 at the age of only 48, but deaths in that decade of life were not as surprising back then as they are today. Baseball is not the only human activity that’s changed since the late 19th century. – Science, nutrition, and medicine have also moved further away from their own barnstorming days.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
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