Cyclones Sweep Away Grooms in 1889

In installment No. 2 of early Dodger World Series play, the Louisville Cyclones blew away the Brooklyn Bridegrooms in 1890. Although the team was playing in its second consecutive series, it proved to be less than great luck for manager Bill McGunnigle before the 1900 season opened.

The club had won the National League pennant, taking a rare triple-header from Pittsburgh on the final game of the season, and boasting a 6 1/2 game lead over the Chicago Cubs.

Brooklyn, now representing the National League in the series after having been the American Association winner the year before, opened play in mid-October and it was apparent immediately that it would be an early winter that year.

The two clubs split their first four games in Louisville, with Tom Lovitt and Adonis Terry each earning a Brooklyn win. The series then moved back to Washington Park on October 25 and Lovitt won his second game of the series 7-2.

However, on a cold and blustery day game No. 6 drew only 300 chilled fans and Louisville prevailed 9-8. However, Cyclone outfielder Ed Daily was assessed $25 for what was described in the Brooklyn Eagle as "ungentlemanly talk" to the umpire. That description would have made Leo Durocher smile.

An even smaller crowd braved the elements the following day and Louisville knotted the series with a 6-2 win.

After the game the two teams met and quickly determined that the weather was too bad and the interest in the series too low and they cut their losses, leaving the series tied.

Outfielder Patsy Donovan, who hit .219 during the season, led the Brooklyn team with a .471 average in limited play. Hub Collins hit .310 and the team duplicated its .231 average of 1889. Lovit won two and lost two, after recording a 30-11 record during the season, and Terry, who had finished 26-16 was 1-1 in the series.

It was a tough year for baseball with two teams in New York and three in Brooklyn battling each other and leaking money at every turn.

Following the season, the Players League folded and the chief stockholder, George Chauncey, allowed the Brooklyn Nationals to absorb his Brooklyn Players League team. He made two conditions: that the club would move to his park in Eastern New York and that his manager, John Montgomery Ward, would be the new manager.

Since Chauncey was the money man in the deal, Brooklyn president Charles Byrne agreed -- then undertook the tough task of informing manager McGunnigle, who had won a pair of pennants in a row, that he was out of a job.

At that point, McGunnigle must have initiated the oft-quoted imprecation, "There is no sentiment in baseball."