Allegheny City didn’t have an easy transition from the American Association to the National League.

In their inaugural year in the NL, the Alleghenys went 55-69-1, which was only good for sixth place in the league. This had followed up an 80-57-3 season in the AA in 1886.

So, in an effort to get the team back into winning ways, the Alleghenys went on a shopping spree around baseball:

• November 5th, 1887: Purchased Fred Dunlap from the Detroit Wolverines for $4,000 or $5,000 (exact price is uncertain)
• January 3rd, 1888: Purchased Al Maul from the Philadelphia Phillies for $1,000
• January 15th, 1888: Purchased Billy Sunday from Chicago (who had dropped the White Stockings in favor of no name) for $2,000

The purchase of Dunlap from Detroit would kick off a pattern that the Alleghenys made, as they would buy off several more players from the Wolverines during the next year.

Detroit was rapidly falling apart behind the scenes; their owner’s ideas to pay for and build a “super team” had only brought the city very limited success, and the amount of money that the Wolverines had spent on players quickly backfired. Gate revenues could not keep up, forcing the team to first sell off stars before eventually folding. The 1888 season would be their last.

Closer to home though, the Alleghenys were hoping these new purchases could help revamp their roster.

Dunlap had batted .265 with 45 RBI in 65 games last season. Maul had very limited big league experience, but he was one of the International League’s best in 1886.

Sunday might have been the best addition at the time, however. He batted .291 with 32 RBI in only 50 games with Chicago.

Horace Phillips returned once again as manager, and his team opened their fifth (or fourth, depending on how you look at it) at Recreation Park with a 5-2 win over Detroit in front of 3,000 fans.

The Alleghenys took three of four against the Wolverines and split a four game stand with Chicago before heading out on the road.

It was during this early home stand that the Alleghenys had already made a transaction, selling Sam Barkley to the Kansas City Cowboys, who were back from the dead and now called the American Association home.

Barkley, who had yet to play a game for Allegheny City this season, had regressed massively as a batter in Kansas City, and was also asked to be a player-manager midway through the year as the Cowboys dragged their way to an 8th place finish in the AA.

Meanwhile back on the road, the Alleghenys were set to play the Wolverines. Detroit, perhaps not happy about their early defeat to the Alleghenys, or Allegheny City buying off their star player, or just about any number of things, swept the Alleghenys before sending them back to western Pennsylvania.

In their first game back in Recreation Park, the Alleghenys thought they had lost a 4-3 game to Philadelphia, but the game was later ruled by the league as no-decision. The reason for this remains unknown, but it would unofficially become the team’s first of five ties this season.

Two of those other ties came in the following few weeks, when the Alleghenys and New York Giants tied twice in a four game series.

Though the Alleghenys tried their best to stay afloat, the team was 12-16 by the time May ended. They were dealt a tough blow in their final game in May, when they had lost by forfeit to the Giants. With games like this that happened so long ago, reasons for this are so hard to nail down. Sadly, I couldn’t come up with anything concrete.

June, however, was much tougher on the Alleghenys. A seven game losing streak was the lowlight of a month that saw the team go 5-15, including sweeps at the hands of Philadelphia and Washington.

In an effort to make the team better, ownership went out and continued to buy; they purchased pitcher Harry Staley and first baseman (and eventual Hall of Famer) Jake Beckley from St. Louis of the Western Association at the cost of $4,500.

The WA had just recently undergone a name change but were struggling in their own right; the league would fold in 1891.

The dates of Staley and Beckley’s purchase in unknown, but on June 16th the team swapped third basemen with the Giants. Allegheny received Elmer Cleveland and New York got Art Whitney.

The changes paid off, slowly at first, but the improvement did come. Allegheny City went 13-9 in the month of July, including ripping off an 8-2 streak in their final weeks of July.

A July 28th game saw 5,000 fans attend Recreation Park to see the team beat Indianapolis 8-0. I point this game out because this is the highest reported crowd at home for the Alleghenys this season.

The good vibes continued for Allegheny City in August, as the team went 16-19 to get to within just three games of .500. Though the team couldn’t find a way to sweep any opponent, they did manage to string together enough wins to put up their best month of the season, with a .640 winning percentage. They also continued to beat up on the Hoosiers, a team that the Alleghenys went 14-6 against.

September opened with a win against Detroit, putting them to within two wins of .500, but a stumble saw Allegheny City fall back to four games under. They continued to battle, essentially alternating between wins and losses for the entire month.

No streak, in either direction, lasted more than two games until September 27th, when the Alleghenys won their third straight en route to a five game winning streak that had put them above .500 on the final game of the month (the 29th).

It was the first time Allegheny City was above the .500 mark since May 1st, but they were quickly pulled back down once October started with two losses. However, the team rebounded and won four of their next five, getting to 66-64, and it looked like this trying season could at least end with a winning record.

Sadly, it was not to be. The Alleghenys lost four of their final give games, dipping to 66-68. Their season finale ended in a tie with Boston. Allegheny City’s offense went entirely missing in that stretch, scoring more than one run only once.

It was a bitter end to a season that saw a resilient baseball club battle almost all the way back for a winning season. It was enough of a fight to have the team’s owners still looking to buy after the season, but that’s something we’ll get to for the 1889 edition.

Allegheny City’s 66-68-5 record placed them sixth in the National League, well ahead of the seventh place Indianapolis Hoosiers and eighth place Washington Nationals.

They finished just 3.5 games back of the Detroit Wolverines, and 4.0 games back of Boston. But in the end, no one was close to New York, who ran away with the NL pennant and also won the World Series.

Back at home, 20-year old mid-season acquisition Jake Beckley had proved to be quite the buy for Allegheny City. He batted .343 in 71 games for the team, taking the lead on a team that really struggled on offense.

The Alleghenys were second last in the league in runs per game (3.87) and third last in team batting average (.227).

Other notable performances at the plate were catcher George Miller, who batted .277, and Fred Dunlap, who batted .262.

Although he didn’t provide as much as was hoped from him in the batting stats, Billy Sunday stole an incredible 71 bases for the Alleghenys. It was a career high for him at the time, and stands as his second best total, but most with one team in a season.

Over on the mound, the Alleghenys had wasted some dominant pitching (sound familiar?). Allegheny City was third best in the league in runs against per game (4.20) and fourth best in team ERA (2.67).

Leading the charge there was Ed Morris, who pitched 480.0 innings to a 2.31 ERA. He was the only pitcher for the Alleghenys to have a winning record attached to his name.

But for the others, it wasn’t for a lack of trying. Pud Galvin went 23-25 with a 2.63 ERA in 437.1 innings pitched. Harry Staley, acquired mid-season, went 12-12 with a 2.67 ERA in 207.1 innings. No one else pitched more than 36 innings for the Alleghenys.

As always, here’s a full roster for the 1888 team:

(Featured photo of the team, from the South End Grounds in Boston, by George Hastings, belonging to the Library of Congress)