d around from one position to another
in those days it can be readily surmised that I was looked upon as a
sort of a general-utility man, who could play in one position about as
well as in another, which in my humble judgment was a mistake, for in
base-ball as in all other trades and professions the old adage holds
true that a jack-of-all trades is master of none.

The year 1874 will ever be memorable in the history of the game by
reason of the fact that base-ball was then introduced to the notice of
our English cousins by a trip that was made to the "Tight Little Isle"
by the members of the Boston and Athletic Clubs, a trip of which I shall
have more to say later, and also by reason of the fact that the game
that season enjoyed a veritable boom, clubs of the professional,
semi-professional and amateur variety springing up in every direction.

The clubs going to make up the Professional League were admittedly
stronger than ever before, and to take the pennant from Boston was the
avowed ambition not only of the Athletics but of every team that was to
contest against the "Hub" aggregation. The effort was, however, as
futile as those of the two preceding years had been, and for the third
successive season the teams from the modern Athens carried off the
prize, not because they were the better ball players, but for the reason
that better discipline was preserved among them and they were better
managed in every way than were any of their opponents. For the second
time we were compelled to content ourselves with the third place in the
race, the second going to the Mutuals of New York, that being the first
time since the Professional League was organized that they had climbed
so high up the ladder. The Philadelphias fell from the second to the
fourth place and the Chicago "White Stockings," of whom great things had
been expected, finished on the fifth rung of the ladder.

Of the fifty-two record games that were counted as championship contests
and that were played by the Athletics, we won thirty-one and lost
twenty-one, while of the sixty games in which the Bostons figured they
won forty-three and lost but seventeen, a wonderful showing when the
playing strength of the clubs pitted against them is taken into
consideration.

Among the batsmen that season I stood eighth on the list, the lowest
position that I had occupied since I broke into the ranks of the
professional players.

When the season of 1875 opened I little real