The Chicago White Stockings captured first place in the inaugural National League season in 1876 with a 52-14 mark, six games better than the Hartford Dark Blues at 47-21 and the St. Louis Brown Stockings at 45-19.
The Chicago White Stockings captured first place in the inaugural National League season in 1876 with a 52-14 mark, six games better than the Hartford Dark Blues at 47-21 and the St. Louis Brown Stockings at 45-19.
There were eight teams in the first season of major league baseball ⦠but just six the following year as the Philadelphia Athletics and New York Mutuals ceased operations. The league kept changing in the coming years as new teams joined while others went out of business.
The Dark Blues â who played the 1874 and 1875 seasons in the National Association â ceased operations after the 1877 season when they finished third at 31-27.
The Dark Blues were managed in 1876 by Bob Ferguson and played at the Hartford Ball Club Grounds and that year boasted on their two-man pitching staff one Candy Cummings, a 5-9, 120-pound righthander who is regarded as the inventor of the curveball.
That year, Cummings would become the first known pitcher to start, complete and win both games of a doubleheader when he did it on September 9. Cummings would finish the season at 16-8 with a 1.67 earned run average and would conclude his short six-year pro career with a 145-94 career record and 2.48 earned run average.
He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939 by the Veterans Committee as an executive/ pioneer.
1876 National League
TEAMSÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â W-LÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â GB
Chicago           52-14          â
Hartford          47-21         6.0
St. Louis          45-19         6.0
Boston             39-31       15.0
Louisville         30-36       22.0
New York       21-35       26.0
Philadelphia    14-45       34.5
Cincinnati         9-56       42.5