Ross Barnes

I just got his card for the first time and I noticed that he batted 100 percent of his ABs against righties. Were there really no southpaws in 1873?
He's also got a pretty good card against lefties, based on zero percent of his ABs.

Yeah, and let's not forget how you got him - in the trade of the century - Jimmy Wynn for Ross Barnes.

I think the other manager felt sorry for me because my draft was so lousy.
That's the way we Strat managers are. Always extending a helping hand to someone down on their luck.

There was no lefty/righty information in 1873

Yikes, this is why pre WW2 stats should come with an asterisks in the record books. This is also why, I much prefer POST WAR ATG.... And while I am at it, why does the POST WAR set come with the NeL. players and a non DH default (while PRE WAR default is DH)? This makes absolutely no sense..

Baseball in 1879 was a joke. My beer league softball team which featured many college players could have probably given Ross Barnes' club a run for it's money... Definitely a top notch high school team would have put his club to shame.

Who knows if Ross Barners could have made Cleveland's A club this season, I would bet against it.

Perhaps Ross's most incredible stat is that he played 60 games and scored 125 runs. That would add up to 337 over a 162 game season.
I'll be OK with half of that.

A pioneer of baseball, the right-handed Ross Barnes was one of the best hitters over a six-year stretch (1871-1876) that the sport has ever seen. He was the undisputed master of the fair-foul hit, a speedy and innovative base stealer, and a daring second baseman with a rifle arm in an era when fielders did not wear gloves.

So he could hit the ball so it landed fair on the infield and then squirted into foul territory, which was legal at the time. I'd like to see a beer leaguer try that.

Check the “master’s” stats beginning in 1877, the year after a rules change took away the “fair-foul hit,” which was in reality more of a bunt.

Check the “master’s” stats beginning in 1877, the year after a rules change took away the “fair-foul hit,” which was in reality more of a bunt.

LMAO!

 "Struck with a debilitating illness at the height of his career in 1877, he played only three more, mostly ineffective seasons and retired in 1881 as a shell of his former self."

You guys always discount the skill these players had and do not stop to think about the limited conditioning and health resourses they had. Also they were playing a game in it's infancy and society did not look on them with too much favor, yet they mastered what tbe game allowed. They were as good then as the players are now.