National Association

Baltimore Canaries History

By Patrick Mondout

The Lord Baltimore Base-Ball Club of Baltimore (or "Baltimore Canaries") were a team in the old National Association (NA). The team wore yellow silk jerseys leading some sportswriters to call them the Canary Birds, or simply Canaries.

At a glance... BALTIMORE CANARIES Franchise Facts Established December 1871 Disbanded  1874 Located Baltimore Executives R.C. Hall C.A. Hadel Year by Year Results W L % 1872  35 19 .648 1873  34 22 .607 1874  9 38 .191 Affiliations National Association (1872-1874) Postseason/Titles NA Titles (0) Nicknames Lord Baltimore of Baltimore (1872-1874)   aka Baltimore Canaries Ballparks Newington Park (1872-1874) Top Performances Single-Season Career

The team performed remarkable well in its first two seasons, finishing tied for second in 1872 and in third in 1873, but it lost almost all of its best players following the season and disbanded before the 1874 season ended.

Asa Brainard, the former ace (he is where the term came from) of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, finally broke down at age 33. He went 5-22  in 1874, and of what no one could not have known was his final game in July the Chicago Tribune wrote:

"Brainard's pitching was exceeding weak, for some reason or other not easy to explain, and the batting of the other side was, of course, correspondingly heavy."

Canary Lip Pike not only led the National Association in homers the first three seasons (and the 1877 NL for good measure), he was faster than a race horse too! The September 4, 1873 Forest and Stream magazine reports:

At Newington Park, Baltimore, a race took place between Lapman Pike, of Baltimore Base Ball Cub, and the trotting horse Clarence; distance one hundred yards, the horse receiving twenty-five yards start. The race was won easily by Pike.

National Association sources/bibliography:
Baseball: The Early Years by Harold Seymour.
Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search For The Roots Of The Game by David Block.
Baseball in Blue and Gray: The National Pastime during the Civil War by George B. Kirsch.
Blackguards and Red Stockings by William J. Ryczek
The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857-1870 by Marshall D. Wright.
Playing for Keeps: A History of Early Baseball by Warren Goldstein.
When Johnny Came Sliding Home: The Post-Civil War Baseball Boom, 1865-1870 by William J. Ryczek

David Nemec, the tireless 19th Century Baseball researcher, has also written a novel called Early Dreams, which takes place during this era and features real-life characters such as Cap Anson, George Wright, and Henry Lucas.

General Baseball History sources/bibliography:
Baseball: A History of America's Game by Benjamin G. Rader.
Baseball: A Film By Ken Burns (PBS DVD)
The Formation, Sometimes Absorption and Mostly Inevitable Demise of 18 Professional Baseball Organizations, 1871 to Present by David Pietrusza.
The Great 19th Century Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball, 2nd Edition by David Nemec.
Early Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1825-1908 by Dean A. Sullivan.
Middle Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1900-1948 by Dean A. Sullivan.
Late Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball 1945-1972 by Dean A. Sullivan
Past Time: Baseball as History by Jules Tygiel
America's National Game: Historic Facts Concerning the Beginning, Evolution, Development and Popularity of Baseball by Albert Spalding
Total Baseball: The Ultimate Baseball Encyclopedia by John Thorn, et al.