AMERICAN GLADIATOR: The Life And Times Of ... - The Book Locker

AMERICAN GLADIATOR
This game is of enormous historical significance since this is thought to be the game alluded to in Browning’s
obituaries in the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Louisville Times as the contest that gained Browning his first
major baseball attention. Certainly, it is a wonder in light of the quality competition he faced and shut down
completely. Factor in his age, and the feat takes on even more brilliance, not a glitzy, shining brilliance, but a
sparkling, elegant brilliance.
Sent back out against the Grays on August 3, Browning and his teammates ran straight into Frank Lafferty,
who no-hit the Eclipse in an overwhelming 14-1 win. Browning received the loss, as his teammates scored their
lone tally in the fifth inning off a missed third strike; a bad throw to second; and a flyball between second-baseman
Joe Gerhardt and right fielder George Shaffer which was allowed to drop.
George Hall, the previous season’s National League home run leader, led the Grays’ offensive rampage with
a four-hit performance that saw him just miss hitting for the cycle: two singles, a triple and a home run. The
victory, as to be expected, was much more to the liking of the Louisville Courier-Journal, who led off its story the
following morning thusly: “Yesterday afternoon, the Grays sat down on the boys from the West End; in fact,
squashed them rather badly.”
Spreading the wealth around, Browning went five-for-nine in several games for the Liberty in early
September.
That pair of games were sandwiched around a splendid September 7 th contest for the Amateurs against the
Mutuals. Playing second base and batting second in the order, Browning posted fine work on both sides of the
diamond in the 6-3 win by the Amateurs. Going two-for-four, one a double, and scoring once, he also played some
fine defense; the game account noted “several fine stops” by Browning and second-baseman Pfeffer. Browning
would have done even better save for Mutuals' third baseman T. Daily, who made "a rattling line catch close to the
ground" of a ball hit by Browning, robbing that one of a sure third hit.
The big boys showed up again on Tuesday, September 11 th , and Browning, stationed again at second base,
went zero-for-four as the Amateurs lost 12-7. The defeat, though, was nothing to be ashamed of, coming at the
hands of the city’s major-league team, whom they played nearly dead-even for six frames. In the seventh,
however, the Louisville National League Grays broke the game wide open with seven runs and coasted home from
there.
Never a man to be held down for long, Browning broke loose the following day.
Posted first and second respectively in the lineup, first-baseman John Haldeman and Browning, at shortstop,
joined forces to destroy a team from nearby Anchorage 21-2. Haldeman and Browning notched five hits each, and
scored five runs apiece in the September 12 th hit parade which was mercifully called on account of rain and
darkness after eight innings.
Browning's work included a pair of triples, while Haldeman, who would in a few months break open majorleague
baseball’s first scandal, contributed a double and a triple.
With the 1877 baseball season nearing a close, Browning prominently displayed his wares in as the Eclipse
pounded the Amateurs 13-4 in a September 25 th matchup. His offensive contributions included four hits in six atbats,
one of them a double, and two runs scored.
Stationed at first base, Browning batted fourth in the lineup. Fifth in the order was the shortstop, an "H.
Browning", believed to be his brother Henry, who went one-for-six with two runs scored.
1878
Despite the devastating loss of its top baseball draw, the major-league Grays, Louisville nonetheless opened
its 1878 baseball season for business in mid-May. Whatever the shock and the disarray attendant to the 1877
pennant-fixing scandal which had seen the Grays expelled by the National League, baseball life in one of
America’s great baseball cities still went on, though in a radically different form.
The local diamond campaign debuted with the Louisvilles taking a 12-4 laugher from the Louisville Mutuals
on Saturday, May 18. Browning did not play in this game. However, this was not the only game in the city.
Across town, Churchill Downs held the fourth renewal of the Kentucky Derby on Tuesday, May 21 st . The
victor was outsider Day Star, a wire-to-wire victor over heavily-favored Himyar. This baseball/horse racing
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