Buck Ewing

William Ewing played 18 seasons of major league baseball, batted .303, and caught in an era when the position demanded endurance more than any other quality. He was the first great catcher in professional baseball and, by the consensus of his contemporaries, the finest all-around player of the 19th century. Connie Mack called him the best catcher he ever saw. John Montgomery Ward, who managed him on the Giants, said the same. He played every position on the field during his career, hit with power unusual for his era, threw out baserunners with an arm that set the standard for the position, and died at 47, largely forgotten by a game that had already moved past the men who built it.

Hoagland, Ohio

Ewing was born in Hoagland, Ohio, a small settlement near Cincinnati. He grew up playing baseball in the sandlots of the Cincinnati area and was signed by the Troy Trojans of the National League in 1880, at age 20. When the Troy franchise folded after the 1882 season, its players were transferred to the newly created New York Gothams, who became the New York Giants. Ewing spent the next decade as the Giants' catcher and most valuable player.

The Giants

Ewing established himself as the best catcher in the National League during the mid-1880s. He caught without a chest protector for most of his early career, as the equipment had not yet been widely adopted. He crouched directly behind the batter and threw to second base from that position, a technique that was considered daring when most catchers still stood well back from the plate.

He hit .303 over his career and led the league in home runs in 1883 with ten, a notable figure in a dead-ball era when home runs were scarce. He batted .304 in 1885 and .309 in 1886. He stole 53 bases in 1888 and 36 in 1890. He was not just a catcher who could hit. He was a complete offensive player who happened to catch.

He captained the Giants and played on the 1888 and 1889 pennant-winning teams that defeated the American Association champions in a postseason series. The 1888 Giants won the championship against the St. Louis Browns, and the 1889 Giants defeated the Brooklyn Bridegrooms.

The Players' League and After

In 1890, Ewing joined the Players' League, a one-season rebel circuit organized by the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players in response to the reserve clause and salary restrictions. He managed and played for the New York Giants entry in the new league. The Players' League collapsed after one season, and Ewing returned to the National League Giants.

His body broke down through the 1890s, as catching in that era inevitably did to men who played the position. He managed the Cincinnati Reds from 1895 to 1899, serving as a player-manager through 1897 and continuing as manager-only through 1899. He also managed the New York Giants briefly in 1900 before resigning.

Death

Ewing contracted diabetes in his later years and developed a kidney condition that was untreatable by the medicine of his day. He died on October 20, 1906, in Cincinnati, three days after his 47th birthday. He had been out of baseball for nearly a decade.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1939 by the Veterans Committee. By then, the game he had helped shape bore little resemblance to the one he had played. The catcher's equipment, the distance between the pitcher and the plate, the size of the gloves, and the rules governing foul balls had all changed. What had not changed was the position's demand for toughness, intelligence, and the ability to control a game from behind the plate. Ewing set that standard.