On this date in 1895 the Pittsburgh Pirates traded pitcher Ad Gumbert to the Brooklyn Grooms for catcher Tom Kinslow. Gumbert was 26 years old at the time of the trade. He was a native of Pittsburgh, who already had a 106-79 career record. For the Pirates he had a 15-14, 608 record in 1894. That ERA seems very high, but 1894 was one of the biggest years for offense in baseball history. Kinslow had just turned 29 years old prior to the trade. He was a platoon catcher for Brooklyn during the previous four seasons, playing an average of 67 games a year, while hitting over .300 twice and batting below .250 twice.
After the trade, Kinslow played just 19 games for the Pirates. He hit .226 with five RBIs and his catching skills seemed to get worse overnight, as he allowed 33 steals in 44 attempts. After the Pirates released him he had just 25 major league games left in his career, spread out over three different teams. Gumbert stuck around a little longer with his new team, but he had an 11-16 record in 1895 for a Brooklyn team that went 71-60 overall, so he didn’t exactly make this trade a win for the Grooms. The somewhat amazing thing about his poor record was the fact he was a much better hitter than the average pitcher of the day. Gumbert hit .361 that year with 13 RBIs in 105 plate appearances. He went 0-4 with Brooklyn in 1896, before moving on to the Phillies to finish his career later that season.
