For decades an afternoon at the local Indianapolis ballpark watching the “Boys of Summer” wouldn’t have been complete without a cup of beer, a hot dog in a bun, a bag of peanuts, and a box of Cracker Jack. Those lazy, hazy days of memory almost became nothing more than wispy imagination after professional baseball in the Circle City soared like a Roman candle only to flame out in the late 1870s. However, after a hiatus, a newly organized professional Indianapolis nine took to the field on April 18, 1883 for the season home opening game with the champion Chicago club before a crowd of 1,500 at a new ballpark. While the visitors won by a score of 24 to 5, the home club “played creditably and gave satisfaction” and professional baseball was back in the Hoosier capital.
While the season closed as it had opened with the visiting club, the Cleveland nine, easily crushing the hometown team 12 to 1, the Indianapolis club had an “unusually successful” year winning 95 of the 142 games played. On the business side of the ledger, the local club “cleared about $2,000 above all expenses and is free from debt.” In December, the Indianapolis club was admitted to the American Base Ball Association.
One of the major investments the Indianapolis baseball club made before a team even took to the field was the building of a new ballpark at the northwest corner of Seventh and Tennessee Streets (16th St. and Capitol Ave.). A grandstand was erected at the corner behind home plate, extending a short distance along the first and third base lines. Open seats continued along the first base and right field lines and the third base and left field lines with locker rooms at the far end of the left field. A fence enclosed the grounds and admission was 25ȼ. After a strong opening crowd, home game attendance waned “at the repeated drubbings administered” to the local nine. By mid-May, however, 800 people saw the Indianapolis club defeat the Columbus (Ohio) Buckeyes, 5 to 2, and respectable attendance continued strong with “a large number of ladies” rooting for the home team. The end of the season didn’t bring with it the end of baseball at the ballpark. One more game was played when actors of the Modjeska dramatic company took to the field; the leading man Maurice Barrymore (patriarch of the famed theatrical family) pitched “thirteen distinct curves, and his ground and lofty tumbling in running bases created great enthusiasm.”
Twelve hundred fans watched the Indianapolis professional baseball club, dubbed the Hoosiers, win its 1884 home field season opener at the Seventh Street ballpark against the St. Louis Reserves by a score of 17 to 5. However, a Sunday home game with the Cincinnati nine placed the season in jeopardy when the sheriff served warrants on both clubs for playing on the Sabbath in violation of the law. A trial was held in criminal court and the jury was divided 6 to 6, so games scheduled on Sunday continued to be played. When the season closed, Indianapolis had a record of 28 wins to 79 losses in league play among the clubs of the American Association. The Indianapolis club also ended the year in the red, having lost about $3,000 and it was looking to affiliate with another league, having been dropped by the American Association when that league reduced its membership.
The Indianapolis club became a member of the newly organized Western League for the 1885 season. What started with promise abruptly ended a few short weeks into play. Compared to the Indianapolis nine, the other clubs in the league were weak and the games played “were almost invariably so one-sided as to be uninteresting.” Attendance steeply fell off; expenses exceeded receipts and the directors of the club sought a “new resting place” by buying the Detroit club’s franchise in the National League. Unfortunately, the Indianapolis club’s pockets weren’t deep enough to meet Detroit’s price, and in a counter-offer Detroit proposed buying Indianapolis, which was accepted. For a second time in less than a decade, the Hoosier capital was without a professional baseball club. However, those interested in the “national pastime” would soon lay plans to secure another team.
Within months of the collapse of the Indianapolis club, John T. Brush and other city business leaders organized the Indianapolis Base Ball Association to bring professional baseball back to the city. When the St. Louis Maroons National League franchise became available, a public stock subscription drive secured the requisite amount of money to purchase it and to ensure the future Indianapolis baseball club was on a “sound financial footing.”
The franchise, renamed the Indianapolis Hoosiers, opened its season on Saturday, April 1, 1887 at Athletic Park, Michigan and Arsenal streets, in a contest with the Cincinnati nine. A shivering crowd of 1,500, “was well satisfied with what the home club had done” despite a score of 4 to 10 in favor of the visitors. The Hoosier’s season ended with a disappointing record of 37-89 in league play. The 1888 season held promise and the erection of a new grandstand at Athletic Park added to the optimism, but the year ended with the Indianapolis nine near the bottom of the league, and off the field the club faced mounting deficits. At the start of the new year, the Indianapolis Base Ball Association relinquished its National League franchise, and the league gave it to a syndicate headed by John Brush. With $30,000 in capital, the newly reorganized Indianapolis club began “under very favorable auspices.”
The Hoosiers improved during the 1889 season, but ended seventh in the league with a record of 58 wins and 75 losses. Plans were well advanced for the 1890 season; players were signed, 125 season tickets were sold, and a public poll voted for white uniforms trimmed with blue. However, the Indianapolis club was caught up in machinations pressuring the National League and it was dropped from the association. The league purchased the contracts of the players, but allowed John Brush to keep the franchise.
Well known baseball organizer Harry T. Smith formed an independent Indianapolis club that became associated with the Interstate League, and a season opening double header was held on Decoration Day (Memorial Day) at Athletic Park with the Cincinnati Shamrocks; the visitors taking the first game 5 to 11 and the home nine winning the second game 6 to 4. However, the effort to keep a professional baseball club in Indianapolis was short-lived when it collapsed for lack of money and talent less than six weeks later. Fortunately, Indianapolis baseball enthusiasts kept the spark alive and a hometown professional team would take to the field again at a not-too-distant date.
