Bid McPhee

John Alexander McPhee played second base for Cincinnati for 18 consecutive seasons, from the American Association's inaugural year in 1882 through the National League's final season of the 19th century in 1899. He set the all time record for putouts at the position with 6,552 (still unbroken), led his league in double plays 11 times, and played the first 14 of those seasons without wearing a fielding glove. He soaked his hands in salt water to toughen them instead. "I never use a glove on either hand in a game," McPhee said in 1890. "I have never seen the necessity of wearing one." When he finally put on a glove at 36, he posted a .978 fielding percentage that stood as the major league record for second basemen for nearly three decades. The Veterans Committee elected him to the Hall of Fame in 2000, 57 years after his death and 101 years after his final game.

Massena

McPhee was born on November 1, 1859, in Massena, New York. His father was a saddle maker. The family moved to Keithsburg, Illinois (population roughly 1,200), when McPhee was seven. He worked as a helper in a dry goods store, played catcher for a local team called the Ictorias at 16, and signed with the Davenport Brown Stockings of the Northwestern League in 1877. He batted .333 at Davenport in 1878 and shifted from catcher to second base the following year. After spending 1880 out of organized baseball working as a bookkeeper in Davenport and later Akron, Ohio, he played second base for an independent team in Akron in 1881. Cincinnati signed him before the 1882 season.

Cincinnati

McPhee debuted on May 2, 1882, and called his own play "rotten" after Cincinnati lost 10-9 to Pittsburgh. He appeared in 78 of the club's 80 games that season as the Red Stockings won the inaugural American Association pennant. From that point forward McPhee was the only starting second baseman Cincinnati fielded for 18 years.

McPhee led American Association second basemen in putouts, double plays, and fielding percentage as a rookie, and he continued leading those categories for most of the next two decades. He led his league in double plays 11 times, putouts eight or nine times (sources differ), fielding percentage seven times, and assists six times. In 1886 he set a single season record with 529 putouts at second base, a mark that still stands. That same year he led the American Association with seven home runs, all of them inside the park.

McPhee batted .272 across his career and scored 100 or more runs in 10 seasons. He hit .289 with 19 triples (leading the league) in 1887, hit for the cycle on August 26, 1887, and racked up 22 triples and a career high .289 average in 1890. On June 28, 1890, he tripled three times in a single game against New York. On June 22, 1889, he hit a grand slam and a two run homer in an 11-3 victory.

Cincinnati joined the National League in 1890, and McPhee transitioned with the franchise without losing a step. He scored 1,684 career runs, collected 2,258 hits, stole 568 bases (incomplete records; stolen bases were not consistently tracked before 1886), and accumulated 189 triples, ranking 11th on the all time list.

The Glove

McPhee was the last major league second baseman to play without a fielding glove. While other infielders adopted gloves in the late 1880s and early 1890s, McPhee considered them unnecessary. Manager Jack Chapman called him "one of the few remaining outstanding gloveless fielders" as late as December 1894. McPhee compensated for the absence of padding by toughening his hands with salt water and relying on soft hands, positioning, and reflexes.

On April 16, 1896, at 36, McPhee finally put on a glove after opening the season with an injured finger. Opponents ribbed him. The results silenced them. McPhee posted a .978 fielding percentage in 1896 and 1897, a major league record for second basemen that stood until Sparky Adams fielded .983 in 1925. The glove confirmed what the bare hands already proved. McPhee could play the position better than anyone else in the game regardless of equipment.

McPhee suffered the only significant injury of his career in 1897 when he twisted his ankle and missed three months. The club held a benefit game that raised $3,500 for him, and on August 14 the franchise presented him with an $1,800 check on Bid McPhee Day, his 16th season. He played two more years as the oldest player in the major leagues before retiring after the 1899 season. He managed Cincinnati in 1901 and 1902, compiling a 79-124 record, and then scouted for the Reds until 1909 before retiring to Ocean Beach, California.

On January 28, 1932, the Sporting News erroneously reported McPhee dead. He responded through a friend, observing that "not often a man had the pleasure of reading his own obituary." McPhee died on January 3, 1943, in San Diego, at 83. His ashes are interred at Cypress View Memorial Gardens.

McPhee was never fined or ejected from a game in 18 seasons. Contemporaries described him as "a sober and sedate man" who "performed without flair, but his excellence thrilled the fans." His career was equaled among 19th century players, one observer wrote, "only by Buck Ewing and Cap Anson." He waited longer for the Hall of Fame than almost any other inductee, spending a century between his final game and his election. The Veterans Committee voted him in alongside Sparky Anderson in 2000. His 6,552 putouts at second base remain the most by any player at the position in major league history.