Welcome to my new blog, a tribute to 19th century baseball and to my great-grandfather, Con Daily. Con played for many years in the Major Leagues, including the Brooklyn Bridegrooms and Boston Beaneaters.  I will share anecdotes about Con’s baseball career and life, along with some of his teammates. I have stumbled across many articles about Con in publications like The Brooklyn Daily Eagle and The New York Times. I will also share information about Ed Daily, Con’s brother, who also played in the big leagues for many years as a pitcher.

One of the stories I love the most is the one about Con being involved in one of the craziest plays in the history of major league baseball.  “The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract” reports the story as this: At Brooklyn on June 27, 1893, Burns (Oyster) was on second and Con Daily, the team’s catcher, was on third, when a ground ball was hit to shortstop. Daily broke for home, and Burns, seeing Daily move, ran to third base. Halfway home, however, Daily began to retreat. Running full speed back to third base, Daily discovered that Burns was already occupying the base, so he bolted past him and ran for second. The catcher, chasing Daily, continued the chase toward second. Daily beat him there, and the umpire, temporarily confused, signaled ‘Safe’. The two men had switched bases—Burns to third, Daily back to second. On reflection, the umpire reversed himself and called Daily out.