Archie Bush: Amateur Era Superstar
The best baseball player you don’t know
This story is by my friend Bruce Garland, a baseball aficionado of the first rank.
Who are the players depicted in this photograph? The Churchill and Denison (Albany, New York) cdv is well known to baseball historians and collectors. It has appeared in SABR’s National Pastime of Spring 1984; Mark Rucker’s Base Ball Cartes, 1988; and on the cover of SABR’s Empire State of Base Ball, 1989. Commonly identified as a circa 1865 cdv of two Albany players, it has popped up at auction, too.
Most historians identify the player on the right, wearing the “Champion Belt,” as James McClure of the Albany Knickerbockers. However, none identifies the player on the left. Fortunately, the cdv has appeared in two books on the history of Phillips Andover Academy which identify the player on the left as Archibald “Archie” McClure Bush, cousin of James. (See: Frank Quinby, Phillips Academy, Andover, on Diamond, Track and Field, 1920 with an article on the “First Base Ball Team, 1866” by George Huntress; and Fred H. Harrison, Athletics for All, 1983.)
The only historical information provided by SABR is Archie’s birth and death dates — he was born on November 11, 1846 in Albany and died in England on December 18, 1877. At the age of seventeen he enlisted in the NY 95th Infantry (October 20, 1863) as a first lieutenant, was promoted to captain (December 6, 1864) and discharged on March 7, 1865. The unit was involved in numerous battles and Bush served as the aide de camp to Brigadier General James Clay Rice, who had been one of the heroes of Little Round Top. During the Battle of Spotsylvania, near the Po River, Rice was shot while rallying his troops and Lt. Bush stayed with the general until he died, recording his final words, including the famous, “Turn me toward the enemy, I wish to die with my face to the foe.” It is unknown if Bush played baseball during the war but it is certainly possible. As Mark Pestana states, Bush had been “tested on real battlefields” and now had time to pursue his education and baseball.
Although relatively unknown today, Bush was one of baseball’s early stars, as evidenced by his inclusion on a list of the Fifty Greatest Players which appeared in the 1911–12 editions of the New York Evening Journal. In fact, Bush was #7 on the list with a glowing summary of his playing ability and leadership. Although one can question his position on the list, the writer, Sam Crane, was known as the “dean of baseball writers” and, as a former player of the 1870s and ’80s, knew whereof he wrote.
After his discharge from the Army, Bush became the youngest player on the Albany Knickerbockers, who had been early proponents of the fly game, as opposed to the more common first bound game. Not a great deal is known about his time with the Knickerbockers other than that he played with his cousin James and was so well known that Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper devoted an article to him, including a wood engraving of him, which appeared on August 11, 1866, just after his first year at Phillips Andover. “He is graceful withal, an accurate thrower and allows but few balls to pass him on which bases are run. His skill at the bat has been proved by many a prize for the best score.”
Bush entered Phillips Andover in the fall of 1865 with his reputation as a baseball player preceding him. While there, he created the first preparatory school baseball team in the country, introduced the concepts of practice and a training table and was the star as well as captain, teaming with future Harvard teammate James B. Wells and his cousin James a year later. His career at Andover was cut short when he and other team members were expelled for missing classes in order to attend a baseball game in Boston. After intensive academic preparation, he was accepted at Harvard and matriculated in the fall of 1867, playing in his first game almost immediately on September 21, 1867. Bush made the only home run in the game as Harvard defeated the Waban Club of Newton, MA, 34–20 (Vaille, The Harvard Book, Volume II, 1875).
It may be difficult to believe today, but in the 1860s and ’70s, Harvard “was famous as one of the strongest nines in the country” (Morse, Sphere and Ash, 1888). Baseball was introduced at Harvard in 1862 utilizing the “New York Game” as opposed to the rival “Massachusetts Game” despite its location in Cambridge, MA. During this time Harvard dominated college and amateur teams (never losing) while more than holding their own against professionals. For example, Harvard toured the country in 1869 and 1870 and as described by Jacob Morse, the 1869 tour was “successful” but the 1870 tour “deserves to be ranked with those of the Nationals and Cincinnati before them.” Morse noted in a chapter of Athletic Sports (1889), that Bush “was behind the bat when his club made the famous trip through the country in 1870, playing the strongest clubs that could be found anywhere and defeated most of them.”
Harvard played the famous 1869–70 Cincinnati Red Stockings three times, losing twice at Harvard. Their third game was played at Cincinnati’s home field, Union Grounds. On July 18, 1870 Harvard led 17–12, with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth, when disaster struck. The Crimson pitcher (Godwin) was struck by a line drive and had to be removed. The Red Stockings then scored eight runs to remain undefeated at home.
In his 104 games, Bush, the catcher, was clearly the star of the team and captain his last three years. His ability was so widely recognized and feared that on October 7, 1867, Candy Cummings decided he needed to try his newly developed curve ball for the first time against Bush. Although fairly successful against Bush, Cummings lost the game, 18–6. In addition to being indirectly involved in the development of the curve ball, John Thorn and Peter Morris have uncovered references that Bush taught A.G. Spalding of Rockford a “slow raise” ball and was the first to advise using the change of pace without varying his motion (see: Morris, Game of Inches, 2006). Bush’s reputation was such that in 1869, while still at Harvard, he was elected president of the National Association of Base Ball Players.
Bush’s professional baseball experience only consisted of umpiring two early season games in the NA, although he did play in the first game played by the 1871 Boston Red Stockings on April 6, 1871 as a member of the “Picked Nine” (Boston’s First Nine, SABR, 2016) and as an added player for Harvard when they beat Boston 21–19 on November 1, 1873. After graduation Bush joined his father’s business: Gilbert, Bush and Co., manufacturers of railroad cars in Troy, NY.
Archie married in 1877, and while on his honeymoon cruise to Europe, he contracted typhoid pneumonia and died in Liverpool on December 18, 1877. Although his career was brief, he was one of baseball’s first stars and had a positive impact upon the game.
References:
Harry Clay Palmer et al., Athletic Sports in America, England and Australia, etc. 1889
Jacob Morse, Sphere and Ash, 1888
John Adams Blanchard, The H Book of Harvard Athletics, 1852–1922, 1923
Frederick O. Vaille and Henry Alden Clark, The Harvard Book, Volume II, 1875
Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, August 11, 1866
Timothy Orr, Blog, Tales of the Army of the Potomac, February 3, 2015
Thomas Gilbert, How Baseball Happened, 2020
Frank L. Quinby, Phillips Academy Andover on Diamond, Track and Field, 1920
Fred H. Harrison, Athletics for all : physical education and athletics at Phillips Academy, Andover, 1778–1978, 1983
REA Catalogue 2010
REA Catalogue 2014
Mark Rucker, Best of Yesterday, Rucker Collection, 1995
Boston’s First Nine, SABR, 2016
Mark Pestana, “Candy Cummings Debuts the Curve,” SABR and 100 Greatest Games 2013
Richard Puff, Empire State of Baseball, SABR, 1989
Peter Morris, Game of Inches, 2006
Sam Crane, Fifty Greatest Ball Players, New York Evening Journal, 1911
