With each passing year, the history baseball becomes richer and lengthier. The one unfortunate aspect to this fact is that great players from the past slowly get forgotten. Baseball fans will likely always be knowledgeable about immortal superstars like Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays. However, there are some stars of the 20’s and 30’s that many fans may have never heard of such as Hippo Vaughn, who won at least 20 games 5 times including a dominate 1918 season, in which he went 22-10 with a 1.74 ERA. He would have easily won the Cy Young Award, but it wouldn’t exist for another 48 years.
In today’s video, we’ll be discussing a player who was considered the best baseball player alive at one point. However, this was so long ago, that even before Babe Ruth came along, he was already largely forgotten. In 1915, an article written in Baseball Magazine said,
“No matter how great you were once upon a time – the years go by, and men forget. Ross Barnes, 40 years ago, was as great as Ty Cobb or Honus Wagner ever dared to be.”
Charles Roscoe Barnes was born on May 8th, 1850, in Mount Morris, New York. He took an interest in a relatively new sport called baseball, and made the roster of a team called the Rockford Forrest Citys in 1868. During the thee years he played for them, he earned a reputation as one of the best all-around ball players in the country. He was only 5’8” and didn’t crush the ball, but was the game’s first scientific hitter, studying where the defensive players were and aiming to hit it where they ain’t.
Ross Barnes
In 1871, the Rockford Forrest Citys joined the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, the first fully pro baseball league to exist. However, before the season began, Barnes signed with the Boston Red Stockings, another team in the National Association. He made his professional debut in 1871 and was a masterful hitter, finding ways to get on base however possible, then using his amazing speed to score runs. He led the league in runs scored during his first season and hit .401 with an OPS over 1.000. It has to be noted that the game was drastically different during this time, with the pitching mound just 50 feet away and gloves not even existing. Still, this was professional baseball and Barnes was proving to be one of the best to play.
He was also praised for his spectacular defense and powerful arm. In 1872, his second season, Barnes led all of baseball with a .430 batting average. He also led the league in hits, doubles, slugging percentage and OPS. He was clearly the premiere player in the league – and is one of if not the first superstars in baseball history. Another early player and manager of the game, Bob Ferguson, is quoted as having said that Barnes was “The best batter and ball player who ever lived.”
Another former player turned famous sportswriter, Tim Murnane, said Barnes was the “king of second baseman, as well as the finest batsman and run-getter of all time. In his third season, 1873, he had his best season and would have easily won the MVP award had it existed at that time. Barnes hit .431 and averaged more than 2 hits per game. He led the league in nearly every offensive category including hits, doubles, triples, and walks, and even stole a league leading 43 bases. During this time, baseball had experienced a big boost in popularity as it was hugely popular with soldiers during the Civil War. They brought the game and interest in it back to their towns after the war. Still, it was the 1870’s, and even though professional baseball was a reality, there were no television sets or even radio broadcasts back then, so player popularity could only be so strong.
In 1874, Barnes had a down-year by hitting .340. Imagine a .340 batting average being a down-year. The next year, he bounced back some by hitting .364 while leading the league in hits and runs scored. During his first 5 years as a pro ball player, Barnes proved himself to be simply be best all around player in the world. However, the league he played in – the National Association- would fold after the 1875 season, leading the way for the National League of Professional Base Ball Players to form and become the dominant professional baseball league in 1876. In 1969, Major League Baseball decided that the National Association would be excluded from “Major League” status due to erratic scheduling and a history of gambling. It is quite rich that Major League Baseball won’t consider the National Association a Major League due to issues with gambling. Also, erratic scheduling makes no difference in the fact that these were the best players in the world. Major League Baseball understood this when they officially promoted several of the Negro Leagues to “Major League” status, a move that made perfect sense as many if not most of the players who played in those Negro Leagues were more than good enough to play in the Major Leagues.
The decision to still not consider the National Association a Major League is extremely controversial, because there is no doubt that from 1871-1875, the best players in the country played in the National Association. If you were a baseball fan at that time, the National Association was your Major Leagues.
Barnes proved this when he signed to play in the National League with the Chicago White Stockings in 1876. Barnes had another monster year, hitting .429 with a league-leading 126 runs and 14 triples. He also led the league in doubles, walks, total bases and every offensive percentage. After the first season of Major League Baseball, the best player in the game was Ross Barnes. When combined with his National Association career, he had an absolutely dominant 6-year stretch. As a defender, he led all second basemen in fielding percentage during his career and rarely made errors, despite the fact that errors were much more commonplace during his era than they are today.
Despite the fact that Barnes was not a big home run hitter, he can say something that no home run hitter can ever say. On May 2nd, 1876, in Cincinnati, he hit the first home run in Major League history. In his next bat, he almost did it again, crushing one off the wall for a triple. Unfortunately, in 1877, Barnes began to suffer from a mysterious illness. His strength and speed were compromised and he could not play like he used to. He attempted comebacks in 1879 and 1881, and although he was serviceable, could not repeat his impressive seasons of the past. Barnes retired having only played in 9 professional seasons.
This fact is important, because the Hall of Fame requires that players have at least 10 years of Major League experience to be eligible for the Hall of Fame. Even if you count his time in the National Association, he only played 9 years. If you only count his National League career, he played for 4. He was not a manager, owner or even technically an organizational pioneer, meaning he cannot be inducted as non-player. But, does the Hall of Fame have to follow this rule to a tee? The answer is no. In 1977, the board of directors passed a special resolution for Addie Joss, a fantastic pitcher who played only 9 years but died of tuberculosis before the start of his 10th MLB season. The resolution allowed the ten-year minimum requirement to be waived and Joss was inducted into the Hall of Fame. This same process needs to happen for Ross Barnes, who absolutely deserves to have a plaque in Coopertown. Barnes passed away 107 years ago, in 1915, when he was already forgotten by most MLB fans. This remains true today, but a simple recognition of his accomplishments with a plaque in Cooperstown would go a long way to bringing more awareness to his contributions to the game. Barnes was not only the first best player in Major League Baseball, but also hit the game’s first homer, and was possibly the game’s first true superstar.