Frederick A. Waterman (December 1845 – December 16, 1899) played

third base A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

for the original

Cincinnati Red Stockings The Cincinnati Red Stockings of were baseball's first all-professional team, with ten salaried players. The Cincinnati Base Ball Club formed in 1866 and fielded competitive teams in the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) 1867� ...

, the first fully professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

team. Throughout his career with "major" teams, amateur and pro,

was his regular position in the field. Born 1845 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, Waterman played for the Empire club of his native city in 1865 and for the famous Mutual club (

New York Mutuals The Mutual Base Ball Club of New York was a leading American baseball club almost throughout its 20-year history. It was established during 1857, the year of the first baseball convention, just too late to be a founding member of the National Ass ...

) the next two years. Some Mutuals players were compensated materially during the amateur era of

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 ...

—city employment is one possibility—and Waterman may be considered a candidate.

Cincinnati

At age 22 Waterman moved to Cincinnati for the 1868 season and played for the original

managed by

Harry Wright William Henry "Harry" Wright (January 10, 1835 – October 3, 1895) was an English-born American professional baseball player, manager, and developer. He assembled, managed, and played center field for baseball's first fully professional team, ...

. Open professionalism was one year away but the long move suggests that Waterman 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. Playing statistics suggest that Waterman was the second best batsman behind John Hatfield, another import from the Mutuals, for he was second on the team both in scoring 4.4 runs per game and in being put out only 2.3 times per game. When the NABBP permitted professionalism, the Red Stockings hired five incumbents including Waterman and five new men to complete its famous First Nine of 1869, the first team on salary for a season. A few others had previously played some third base (all played at the six infield positions in 1868), but Wright retained Waterman at the position. 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.

1871

Harry Wright was hired to organize a new team in Boston, where he signed three teammates for 1871. The other five regulars including Fred Waterman signed with Nick Young's

Washington Olympics The Olympic Club of Washington, D.C., or Washington Olympics in modern nomenclature, was an early professional baseball team. When the National Association of Base Ball Players permitted openly professional clubs for the 1869 season, the Olympi ...

, an established club that also joined the new, entirely professional National Association (NA). The Olympics appointed as captain another transplant,

Charlie Sweasy Charles James Sweasy (November 2, 1847 – March 30, 1908), born ''Swasey'', played second base for the original Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first fully professional baseball team. He returned to Cincinnati in 1876, hired by the new club th ...

, but he missed two long stretches of the season with illness. Waterman served one stretch as acting captain and so earned his manager's credit in some accounts. The five former Red Stockings led the Olympics to a respectable finish in the inaugural NA season, but Waterman was left practically alone in the role one year later. He dominated the team at bat, while it failed miserably and dropped out after nine games. He was not picked up by another NA team, perhaps because four others of the eleven entrants went out of business during the season, but playing for a second team was a novelty that year. Probably he remained in Washington, for his major league career resumed when a new team from that city entered for 1873. He was a leading batsman again, now one of two on the team with

Paul Hines Paul Aloysius Hines (March 1, 1855 – July 10, 1935) was an American center fielder in professional baseball who played in the National Association and Major League Baseball from 1872 to 1891. Born in Virginia, he is credited with winning baseb ...

, but he played only 15 of 39 games, more at shortstop than anywhere else, as captain Warren White manned third. There were eight teams in the NA field for 1874 and Fred Waterman was not a member. His known professional career ended with five of 69 games for Chicago in 1875. He was 29 years old and still better than league-average as a batter by his meager statistical record. Waterman died 1899 in Cincinnati at age 54. He is buried in

Wesleyan Cemetery Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charles ...

in that city.

References

*Retrosheet
"Fred Waterman"
Retrieved 2006-08-29. * *Wright, Marshall (2000). ''The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857–1870''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. {{DEFAULTSORT:Waterman, Fred Major League Baseball third basemen New York Mutuals (NABBP) players Cincinnati Red Stockings players Washington Olympics players Washington Blue Legs players Chicago White Stockings players Burials at Wesleyan Cemetery, Cincinnati Baseball players from New York (state) 19th-century baseball players 1845 births 1899 deaths