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THE MANHATTAN ORANGEMEN EXIT PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL, AND ANOTHER NEW YORK CLUB RISES IN THEIR PLACE

The Manhattan Orangemen were the most successful club of pre-professional baseball, following nine consecutive first-place finishes in the New York City Championship at the start of the National Base Ball Organization with five second-place finishes before becoming one of the founding members of the American Professional Baseball League. Going into the inaugural season of the APBL they had nearly everything: first-class coaching, executives, facilities, recruitment, scouting, and a new owner who was happy to let the baseball people do their work.

The only thing possibly not in Manhattan’s favor was the capacity of the Upper Manhattan Base Ball Grounds, which was one of two APBL venues that sat under 10,000 at 7,412. Before the days of mass media and extensive merchandising, this put them at an income disadvantage compared to the other APBL clubs. Nonetheless, it was figured that the Orangemen would be a solid professional outfit because of how well their organization was run. Indeed, this proved to be the case at the start of the APBL.

Over the first four seasons of the nascent life of pro ball, Manhattan’s finishes in the APBL were 2nd, 1st, 2nd, and 2nd, with their second-place finish in 1874 coming via a one-game playoff after being even with Boston at the end of the 90-game season. However, soon after Manhattan would experience the same problem that they ran into during the latter half of their stay in the NBBO: the competition caught up.

Beginning in 1875, Manhattan fell into the bottom half of the standings and failed to recover, never finishing better than a dozen games out of first place over the next six seasons. In the four seasons before the APBL was split into two conferences, they finished 7th out of ten in 1875 (19 GB), 9th in ’76 (15 GB), 6th in ’77 (12 GB), and 8th in ’78 (30 GB). After the split they didn’t fare any better, finishing last out of six in the Metropolitan Conference in 1879 (25 GB) and 5th in 1880 (15 GB).

The issue was the same one that hit Manhattan in amateur baseball: their competence kept them ahead at the start, but once the clubs with more money figured things out and began to flex their financial muscles the Orangemen were caught and passed. The big problem with having that happen in the APBL was that almost every club had more money than Manhattan, and they went from turning a profit of nearly $24,000 in 1871 to barely breaking even by the end of the decade as more and more money was being was being spent on players.

Seeing the proverbial writing on the wall, at the 1880 year-end executives’ meetings Lloyd Richmond, who’d owned the Manhattan club since 1871, along with his front office men, informed the rest of the league’s executives that they felt no choice but to move back to the NBBO in order to save the club from financial ruin. Manhattan’s exit was met with much sadness, as they were the preeminent club of organized baseball over its first twenty years.

At the same time, the APBL now had a one-team hole to fill but filling that was very easy. Another New York club, the baseball team representing the New York Athletic Club, had crushed Manhattan’s old New York City Championship in recent years. Their record over the previous four seasons:

1877: 44-26 (1st by 5 games) – Tucker-Wheaton Cup winners
1878: 44-26 (1st by 2 games) – lost New York League semi-final
1879: 46-24 (1st by 2 games) – lost Tucker-Wheaton Cup
1880: 51-19 (1st by 12 games) – Tucker-Wheaton Cup winners

They were easily the best big-market club in the NBBO now that Excelsior had left, and both the invitation and acceptance to join the pro ranks happened almost immediately. The rechristened New York Athletics were good enough with their mostly-NBBO roster that they finished second in the Metropolitan in their debut season. They then finished 1st, 2nd, and 2nd over the next three seasons.

With the Athletics joining the pro ranks it was the Knickerbocker club that took up the mantle of Manhattan baseball, which was an easy decision given they were based there. Before the Orangemen’s exit they were known as the New York Knickerbockers, and afterward they were the Manhattan Knickerbockers. It is perhaps no coincidence that by the end of the decade they were baseball’s dominant team.

As painful as it was, the return to what was now semi-professional baseball proved to be exactly what the Orangemen needed, as the first season of their return to the NBBO ended with a 49-21 record, a Tucker-Wheaton Cup, and about $11,000 in profits. That path of success would remain steady for Manhattan for many years.