Robert Edward Addy (February 1842 – April 9, 1910), nicknamed "The Magnet",
was a Canadian
right fielder
A right fielder, abbreviated RF, is the outfielder in baseball or softball who plays defense in right field. Right field is the area of the outfield to the right of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In t ...
and
second baseman in
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...
, whose professional career spanned from in the
National Association to in the
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...
. He is credited as the first player to introduce the
slide
Slide or Slides may refer to:
Places
*Slide, California, former name of Fortuna, California
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums
* ''Slide'' (Lisa Germano album), 1998
* ''Slide'' (George Clanton album), 2018
*''Slide'', by Patrick Glees ...
in an organized game, and later attempted to create a game of baseball that would have been played on ice. He is also credited as the first person born in Canada to appear in a major league game.
Career
Born in
Port Hope, Ontario
Port Hope is a municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, approximately east of Toronto and about west of Kingston. It is located at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the west end of Northumberland County. T ...
, he is credited with employing the first slide in an organized baseball game, while playing for the 1866
Rockford Forest Citys
Rockford Forest Citys (officially the Forest City Club), from Rockford, Illinois was one of the first professional baseball clubs. Rockford played for one season during the National Association inaugural year of . They are not to be confused wi ...
of the
National Association of Base Ball Players
The National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) was the first organization governing American baseball. (The sport was spelled with two words in the 19th century.)
The first convention of sixteen New York City area clubs in 1857 effecti ...
.
He was still playing for the Forrest Citys in 1869,
and was with them two years later when Rockford joined the first all-professional league, the
National Association of Professional Base Ball Players
The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP), often known simply as the National Association (NA), was the first fully- professional sports league in baseball. The NA was founded in 1871 and continued through the 1875 se ...
.

Rockford lasted just the one season in the Association, and Addy did not rejoin the league until when he joined the
Philadelphia White Stockings
The Philadelphia White Stockings were an early professional baseball team. They were a member of the National Association from 1873 to 1875. Their home games were played at the Jefferson Street Grounds. They were managed by Fergy Malone, Jimmy ...
. He played in ten games as
player-manager
A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...
, before moving on and joining the
Boston Red Stockings later in the season.
[ He helped the Red Stockings win the league title that year,] playing in right field, hitting
A strike is a directed physical attack with either a part of the human body or with an inanimate object (such as a weapon) intended to cause blunt trauma or penetrating trauma upon an opponent.
There are many different varieties of strikes. A ...
.355, and finished ninth in the league with a .354 on-base percentage
In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batter reaches base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA), as it is rarely presented as a ...
.[ On January 20, 1874, the National Association's Judiciary Committee met to discuss, among other things, charges that Addy had joined the Boston Red Stockings before 60 days had elapsed since leaving the Philadelphia club. He was acquitted of the charge and was allowed to play.]
He did not play for the Red Stockings in 1874, as he signed to play for the Hartford Dark Blues
The Hartfords (more commonly called the Hartford Dark Blues because of their uniform color) were a 19th-century baseball team. The team was based in Hartford, Connecticut.
History
In 1874, baseball in Hartford, CT was being played in a fever p ...
, but his batting declined to .239, and his on-base percentage dropped to .243. For the season, he re-joined the Philadelphia White Stockings, playing in a career high 69 games. He batted .258, and finished ninth in the league with 16 stolen bases. For one game on October 28, 1875, Addy was used as a National Association umpire
An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection.
The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...
.
At season's end, the Association folded and was replaced by National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...
, and Addy joined the Chicago White Stockings. Chicago won the league title that season, with Addy playing 32 games, and hitting .282. Addy moved to his second Major League team in two years, and sixth team in seven years, when he joined the Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...
, playing every day in right field, and later took over as the team's manager after Lip Pike
Lipman Emanuel "Lip" Pike (May 25, 1845 – October 10, 1893) the "Iron Batter", was an American who was one of the stars of 19th-century baseball in the United States. His brother, Israel Pike, played briefly for the Hartford Dark Blues during ...
quit the position.
Post-career
In a 1900 book, Cap Anson described Addy's playing style, writing, "Bob Addy, who was one of the best of the lot, was a good, hard hustling player, a good base runner and a hard hitter. He was as honest as the day is long... He was an odd sort of a genius and quit the game because he thought he could do better at something else."
Addy later made an unsuccessful attempt to popularize baseball played on ice. He died at the age of 65 in Pocatello, Idaho
Pocatello () is the county seat of and largest city in Bannock County, with a small portion on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in neighboring Power County, in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Idaho. It is the principal city of the ...
, and is interred at Mountain View Cemetery.
See also
* List of countries with their first Major League Baseball player
* List of Major League Baseball player–managers
Notes
References
Further reading
* Utah State History/Utah Historical Quarterly: ''Addy, Bob, baseball player, 52: 154–55''
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Addy, Bob
1845 births
1910 deaths
Major League Baseball right fielders
Major League Baseball second basemen
Major League Baseball player-managers
19th-century baseball players
Rockford Forest Citys (NABBP) players
Rockford Forest Citys players
Boston Red Stockings players
Philadelphia White Stockings players
Philadelphia White Stockings managers
Hartford Dark Blues players
Chicago White Stockings players
Cincinnati Reds (1876–1879) players
Cincinnati Reds (1876–1880) managers
Baseball people from Ontario
19th-century baseball umpires
Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductees