1887 – After a week of conditioning in Macon, Georgia, the Detroit Wolverines National League club team begins a six-week spring exhibition tour through the South and Midwest.
1887 – Grover Cleveland Alexander is born in Elba, Nebraska. Suffering from epilepsy, haunted by his experiences in combat during World War I, and shadowed by alcoholism, Alexander will still be able to win 373 games during a 20-year career, the third highest total in major league baseball history. He will lead the National League in ERA on four occasions, wins on six different seasons, complete games six times, and shutouts during seven seasons. He will also win 30 or more games in three consecutive seasons, and be the only pitcher in major league history to win the Triple Crown three years in a row. Alexander will gain election to the Hall of Fame in 1938.
1887 – New York Giants shortstop and team captain John Ward thinks that the open sale of players has gone too far. “I wouldn’t play in Kansas City under any circumstances,” he says, but a club could force him to play there or not play at all.
For a record price of $10,000, the Cubs, then known as the White Stockings, sell current National League batting champ and future Hall of Famer Mike King Kelly to the Beaneaters. The popular box office draw, who will earn his nickname King while playing in Boston, will continue to be productive, hitting .311 for a three-year span during his first tenure with the team.
The National Colored Base Ball League, the first attempt at a professional Negro League, is organized at a meeting in Baltimore, MD. Eight clubs are represented: Lord Baltimores (Baltimore), Resolutes (Boston, MA), Browns (Cincinnati, OH), Falls City (Louisville, KY), Gorhams (New York, NY), Pythians (Philadelphia, PA), Keystones (Pittsburgh, PA) and Capital City Club (Washington, DC). Two weeks after being launched, the league will fail from lack of attendance.
1887 – The Kansas City Cowboys go out of business with the sale of their players to the league for $6,000. The club’s spot in the league has already been taken by Pittsburgh.
King Kelly meets with Chicago White Stockings owner Albert Spalding for contract talks. Kelly, who won the National League batting championship for the pennant-winning White Stockings last season, wants the bonus of $375 that Spalding promised for good behavior last year. Spalding refuses to give him the bonus or to rescind the additional $225 withheld from Kelly’s salary as fines for drinking. Six days from now, Kelly will be sold to the Boston Beaneaters.
The National League franchise in St. Louis, MO is sold to a group from Indianapolis, IN for $12,000, including players. The Maroons will now become the Hoosiers.
1887 – At Hot Springs, Arkansas, Albert Spalding meets with the Chicago White Stockings players and exacts from each man a pledge of total abstinence from drinking during the coming season. With the entire outfield gone from last year’s team and pitcher Jim McCormick holding out at home in New Jersey, the champion White Stockings will have to rely on young players.
1887 – A new Kansas City club is founded to play in the Western League. The team vows to compete with the National League team in town, but that franchise will not return this year.
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