Douglas L. Allison (July 12, 1846 – December 19, 1916) was an American
Major League Baseball player. He began his career as a
catcher for the original
Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first fully
professional baseball team. Allison was one of the first catchers to stand directly behind the batter, as a means to prevent baserunners from stealing bases.
He was considered a specialist, at a time when some of the better batsmen who manned the position normally rested, or substituted at other fielding positions. Allison became the earliest known player to use a type of
baseball glove when he donned
buckskin mittens to protect his hands in 1870.
Prior to his baseball career, Allison served as a
private in Company L of the 192nd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment during the
American Civil War.
His brother
Art Allison also played in the Major Leagues.
Career
Cincinnati Red Stockings
Not quite 22 years old, Allison moved to
Cincinnati for the 1868 season and played for the Cincinnati Red Stockings managed by
Harry Wright. Open professionalism was one year away but the long move from Philadelphia, where he worked as a
bricklayer
A bricklayer, which is related to but different from a mason, is a craftsman and tradesman who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of masonry. ...
,
[Puff, Richard (1996). "Douglas L. Allison." ''Baseball's First Stars''. Edited by Frederick Ivor-Campbell, Robert L. Tiemann and Mark Rucker. Cleveland, OH: SABR. ] suggests that Allison was somehow compensated by club members, if not by the club. Cincinnati fielded a strong team that year, with five of the famous team already in place. Allison was a defensive specialist, whose job was simply to catch pitcher
Asa Brainard.
Most catchers of Allison's era stood twenty to twenty-five feet behind the batter. His technique of moving closer to the batter proved effective in curtailing baserunners from stealing bases. In the 1860s, it was common for teams to score fifty or sixty runs a game, but as the technique of moving closer to the batter became more widespread among other catchers, run production began to plummet, helping usher in what became known as the
dead-ball era.
[
When the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) permitted professionalism, the Red Stockings hired five incumbents including Allison and five new men to complete its roster, the first team that consisted of salaried players. A few of the others had previously played some catcher (all played at the six infield positions in 1868), but Allison filled the role in almost every game. Cincinnati toured the continent undefeated in 1869 and may have been the strongest team in 1870, but the club dropped professional base ball after the second season.
]
Later career
Harry Wright was hired to organize a new team in Boston, where he signed three teammates for . The other five regulars including Allison signed with Nick Young's Washington Olympics, an established club that also joined the new, entirely professional National Association (NA). The five former Red Stockings led the Olympics to a respectable finish in the inaugural NA season.
Later, Doug Allison played in the Major Leagues with the Troy Haymakers in , the Brooklyn Eckfords
Eckford of Brooklyn, or simply Eckford, was an American baseball club from 1855 to 1872. When the Union Grounds opened on May 15, 1862 for baseball in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, it became the first enclosed baseball grounds in America. Three clubs cal ...
in , the Elizabeth Resolutes in , the New York Mutuals from to , the Hartford Dark Blues from to , the Providence Grays from to , and one game with the Baltimore Orioles of the American Association in .
Later life
Allison was reported playing for a post office team in 1882. Thirty-four years later he died in Washington, DC at age 70, en route to his job at the Post Office Department.[Retrosheet]
"Doug Allison"
Retrieved 2006-08-29.
References
*Liberman, Noah (2003). ''Glove Affairs: The Romance, History, and Tradition of the Baseball Glove''. Triumph Books. .
*Wright, Marshall (2000). ''The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857–1870''. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. .
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allison, Doug
1846 births
1916 deaths
Baseball players from Philadelphia
Major League Baseball catchers
Baseball player-managers
19th-century baseball players
Philadelphia Geary players
Cincinnati Red Stockings players
Washington Olympics players
Troy Haymakers players
Brooklyn Eckfords players
Elizabeth Resolutes players
New York Mutuals players
Hartford Dark Blues players
Providence Grays players
Baltimore Orioles (NL) players
Burials at Rock Creek Cemetery
Capital City of Albany players
Rochester Hop Bitters players
Union Army soldiers