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03. 1890s

“The old field to the west of Dawson’s Row…was so hard that it covered the ball with ‘wings’ and planed off all the surplus flesh from the player who had the temerity to slide for a base…. The Northern trip [in 1890] was thoroughly unsatisfactory. We had not then learned how to take care of our players, and the management did not hesitate to work any man until he was practically unfit to play…. The baseball team of ‘91 was one of the best in our athletic history, but I have always considered it an ‘accidental’ team in that we happened to have that year a number of magnificent athletes who played an exceedingly strong game, training or no training…. That season witnessed the advent of ‘Cap’ Smith, probably the best first baseman any college has had during the fifteen years under discussion [1889-1904].... The baseball nine of ‘93 was another team that had a particularly good record…. The trip to Chicago, where we played during the World’s Fair, is the incident in that team’s career which has attracted most attention, but the earnest, unflagging work all through the season, and the fact that the men went into training in February and kept it up until July, are the things that appeal to me as the greatest evidence of the stamina of the players…. R.D. Anderson took charge of [managing] the baseball team in 1891 and 1893…. That trip to Chicago in 1893 was undoubtedly a great advertisement for the University in athletic circles. The trip was due primarily to the enterprise and energy of ‘Dick’ Anderson.” —Murray M. McGuire

In 1890 the student managers of U.Va.‘s baseball team, encouraged by a faculty more tolerant of student athletics, got John Powell, the former Richmond professional, to spend two pre-season weeks in Charlottesville coaching them. At the same time they arranged, through Powell’s former teammate Billy Nash (at that time an infielder on “King” Kelly’s Boston Players League team) to bring his club to Charlottesville as part of their spring training.

Major league teams would hold spring training at the University, playing exhibition games with the collegians, during 15 seasons from 1890 until 1916.

Early in the decade, Dr. William A. Lambeth was appointed by the University to be in charge of Physical Culture. A $100,000 bequest made possible the construction of a new gymnasium, Fayerweather Hall, which opened in 1894. U.Va.‘s baseball team, one of the better collegiate teams of that period, finished second to Yale in a tournament held in Chicago in the summer of 1893, during the course of the World’s Fair. R.D. Anderson managed the 1893 team, and Murray M. McGuire starred on it.

Baseball was popular in town, too. In June 1898 about 30 local enthusiasts formed an Athletic Association in order to organize a baseball club. They planned to play on the athletic field of the University and to face teams in the Valley League.

One Charlottesville player—Dave Wills, son of a local druggist and a U.Va. student—signed to play first base with the Louisville Colonels during the 1899 season, where he was a teammate of the great Honus Wagner. The Daily Progress hoped that Dave Wills would show as much “brains” in playing as he did in drawing up his contract. Wills stipulated that Louisville could not sell, exchange, or release him during the season, and that he was to receive his entire salary whether he played or not.