Some mythology in my family says that George Erskine Stackhouse, who gave my late grandfather, my father and me our middle name, once played for the Baltimore Yankees before they moved to New York. The family lore also says that, upon arriving in New York, he stopped playing, became a radio broadcaster and archivist or historian for the team before dying shortly thereafter. I’ve been doing some light research recently, and it turns out that very little of the prevailing conventional wisdom within my family is actually true, but historical records do show that Stackhouse was affiliated with a New York baseball team, and that he was a pretty famous sports journalist.

After finding some historical documents about George Stackhouse, the very bad iPhone photo below, of a very old framed photo that hangs in my parents’ house, may be a photo of the New York Baseball Club (not the Yankees, either the Baltimore or New York edition), a 19th century team in a metropolitan league in the Big Apple whose baseball rules differed from those of the city of Boston, and those differed from other cities, and so on. The “New York Nine,” for example, actually played in the first recorded baseball game in 1846, drubbing the New York Knickerbockers 23-1, despite the Knickerbockers’ desperate attempts to rewrite the game’s rules in their favor. Rule manipulations happened pretty frequently before the complete professionalization of the game was complete. That first recorded game took place 14  years before Stackhouse’s birth, so the photo below is clearly younger or newer than baseball’s origins in the Big Apple. The team in the photo, however, based upon an 1894 New York Times news article reprinted below, may have been the original New York Giants (or “Gothams” as they were sometimes called), whose uniforms are described thus on Wikipedia:

Although the “Giants” nickname was well established by 1900, the prosaic “NEW YORK” or simple block letters “NY” were used on uniform shirts until 1918 when “GIANTS” first appeared.

See the Wikipedia entry for the New York Knickerbockers baseball club for some additional information on the history of the New York municipal league and some of its teams.

Anyway, I ran across a Stackhouse’s New York Times obituary, and an excerpt from a book about sports (hat tip: Baseball Fever forum poster Bill Burgess). You can view scans of the book excerpt and the obit at the top of this post, which I took from Burgess, but I also cleaned up the copy for easier reading.

Here’s the book excerpt:

GEORGE STACKHOUSE—George Stackhouse was for years the baseball editor of the New York Tribune. He was at the top of the profession when he passed away a few years ago.

GEORGE ERSKINE STACKHOUSE, baseball editor of the New York Tribune and Morning Journal, is a Kentuckian, in all that the word implies. He was born at Louisville, August 17th, 1860, and began his education in the public schools, finishing at the Simpsonville Seminary, in his own State. He settled in New York in 1879, and was employed by the Tribune. He was a clerk in the office at first, and his earliest reporting was done in covering the races. Soon after he was given charge of the baseball department, and when the Morning Journal was founded Mr. Stackhouse did the same work for it. He still edits baseball for several papers, and reports it for the Associated Press. During the winter he does football, bowling, and horse racing. Mr. Stackhouse is a free writer and a good news-gatherer. He is best known outside of New York by his letters to the Sporting Life, of which he was New York correspondent for several years. He resigned his position in May, 1889, in order to do editorial work on the New York Sporting Times. Mr. Stackhouse is secretary of the National Scorers’ League, and was largely instrumental in organization that association at Cincinnati in 1887.

The excerpt appears to come from a book exhaustively titled Athletic Sports in America, England, and Australia: Comprising History, Characteristics, Sketches of Famous Leaders, Organization and Great Contests of Baseball, Cricket, Football, La Crosse [sic], Tennis, Rowing, and Cycling. Also Including the Famous “Around the World” Tour of American Baseball Teams, Their Enthusiastic Welcomes, Royal Receptions, Banquets, Great Games Played before Notables of Foreign Nations, Humorous Incidents, Interesting Adventures, Etc., Etc. (1889).

Stackhouse’s obituary, which appeared in the New York Times on January 31, 1903, provides additional details about his life:

GEORGE E. STACKHOUSE DEAD.

Sporting Editor of The New York Tribune Expires Suddenly.

George E. Stackhouse, sporting editor of The Tribune, died yesterday noon at his home, 418 Third Street, Brooklyn, after an illness of less than forty-eight hours, from acute indigestion. He suffered a sever attack of the same nature two years ago, but had been in his usual health since then until Wednesday night, when he complained of feeling ill. Thursday morning he grew worse, but his death was not expected until a short time before it occurred.

Mr. Stackhosue was born in Louisville, Ky., forty-two years ago, and came to this city in 1872. At the age of fifteen he went to The Tribune as an office boy, and by his native cleverness and industry soon showed his usefulness. At the time of his death he had been attached to the staff of The Tribune for twenty-seven years, the greater part of this time as sporting editor, a position which he held at the time he died.

There were few better known writers on sporting topics in this country than Mr. Stackhouse. His versatility in these lines was remarkable, and upon baseball, cycling, track and field athletics, and automobiling he was a recognized authority. In the days when John B. Day and Edward Talcott controlled the New York Baseball Club Mr. Stackhouse was for several years Secretary of this club, and remained in intimate touch with most of the men prominently identified with the management of the National game. He was one of the first to foresee the great future of cycling, was active in the organization of the League of American Wheelmen, and was a member of the National Racing Board of that organization. He was an occasional contributor on sporting subjects to periodical publications and at the time of his death was in charge of sporting departments of Leslie’s Weekly and Vim. To all his work he brought a cheerful enthusiasm that was contagious and an optimism that was inspiring.

Mr. Stackhouse was one of the organizers of the old Quill Club Wheelmen, and was a member of the Press Club, with which that organization was consolidated. He was also a member of St. John’s Lodge, No. 1, Ancient York Masons. He leaves a widow and two daughters.

Upon reading this, my father, a cardiologist, quipped that the “indigestion” that killed Stackhouse may have actually been a coronary (heart attack). Note, too, the peculiar discrepancy between the book text, which claims Stackhouse settled in New York in 1879, and the Times obituary text, which claims he settled in New York in 1872. The Library of Congress has a readable (but eminently unsearchable) collection of indexes of the old New York Tribune. The daily paper appears to have existed from 1875 or 1876 until 1906, just three years after Stackhouse’s death. If he began working for the paper at 15 years old, he would have started his career in its first year of publication. In a sense, the paper lived and died with the man himself.

The reference in the obituary to the “National game” provides a little more conclusive evidence that Stackhouse played for and was Secretary of the original New York Giants. As the previously-linked Wikipedia article on this history of baseball team names noted,

The New York Nationals, after playing an exhibition game with Newark in 1886, were called Giants; and when they appeared in St. Louis later the same year, Joe Pritchard, Mound City expert at that time, alluded to them as the Gotham Giants.

“[T]he National game” could very well refer to the 1886 Newark exhibition game after which the club became known as the Giants.

The Times also contained in its archives a brief news item, dated February 9, 1894, about Stackhouse’s election to the position of Secretary of the New York Baseball Club’s Giants team, a position with the organization that his obituary described almost 9 years later.

MEETING OF GIANTS’ DIRECTORS.

George Stackhouse Elected Secretary in Place of C. D. White.

The annual meeting of the New-York Baseball Club was held at the office of the corporation in the Fuller Building, Jersey City, yesterday afternoon. The session was one of the most harmonious ever held by the club, and the delegates were in excellent humor throughout. The old management was indorsed [sic] in everything it had done, the financial condition of the club was particularly satisfactory, and nearly all the old Directors and officers were re-elected.

Ex-Postmaster Cornelius Van Cott occupide the chair, the others present being E. B. Talcott, J. W. Spalding, John M. Ward, J. E. Sullivan, C. D. White, A. W. Kidder, and F. B. Robinson. The majority of the shares of stock was represented. The report of the Treasurer and the financial statement of the club were read and accepted, and a vote of thanks given Messrs. Talcott, Ward, and White for the work they did during the year. The $30,000 bonds issued last year was reissued for three years.

The Board of Directors elected was as follows: E. B. Talcott, Cornelius Van Cott, J. E. Sullivan, F. B. Robinson, W. B. Wheeler, E. A. McAlpin, and C. T. Dillingham. The Executive Board will consist of E. B. Talcott, W. B. Wheeler, and Cornelius Van Cott. C. D. White resigned as Secretary, and the officers elected were as follows: Cornelius Van Cott, President; E. B. Talcott, Treasurer, and George E. Stackhouse, Secretary.

Certain advertising privileges were awarded to John M. Ward. The matter of a Southern trip was left to Talcott and Ward, and the chances are that the local players may go South about March 10 for a three weeks’ trip.

Stackhouse is also listed in Baseball Legends of Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, a book it seems I am going to need to buy.

These accounts don’t neatly reconcile with the tales floating around my family, not even close — but they’re no less interesting. I think I know now why I have so much fun writing about hockey: sports and sports journalism appear to be in my blood.

If you’re a baseball nut, and know anything about the teams mentioned above, or if you stumbled on to this post by way of search engine, and you know something about my ancestor George Stackhouse, please drop me a line. I would really like to have complete, full, and true accounts of the man for whom I was named.