Rank your top 19th Century Baseball Players

[tiger8mush]

Charles Ferguson was a 2-way player who accumulated 31.7 WAR in 4 seasons before dying from Typhoid Fever 12 days after turning 25 yrs old.

According to SABR, Wilbert Robinson ranked him top 5 of all time ...
"Perhaps the greatest testament to Ferguson’s abilities as a ballplayer came from one of his contemporaries, Wilbert Robinson. Robinson was a catcher for the crosstown rival Philadelphia Athletics before going on to a Hall of Fame career as a player and manager with the Baltimore Orioles and Brooklyn Robins. When asked in 1931 to name the five greatest ballplayers of all time, Robinson rated Ferguson as the fifth greatest, saying: “Back in the old, old days the Phillies had a man who could pitch like a streak and play the infield, too. His name was Charley Ferguson. You can’t leave him off. … But if I have to name the best five you can put down Cobb, Keeler, Ruth, Wagner, and Ferguson for me."

[tiger8mush]

Amateur attempt at fielding a team with "best" 19th century player at each position ...

P - Kid Nichols
C - Buck Ewing (1*)
1st - Cap Anson
2nd - Bid McPhee
3rd - Deacon White (2*)
SS - Jack Glasscock (3*)
LF - Ed Delahanty
CF - Billy Hamilton
RF - King Kelly (4*)
DH - Roger Connor / Dan Brouthers

(1*) honorable mention to Deacon McGuire, who caught 1103 games in the 19th century alone (more than Ewing's 636 and White's 458 careers combined) and another 509 in the 20th century. Wilbert Robinson also caught 1108 of his 1316 games in the 19th century.
(2*) Jimmy Collins and McGraw spent ~1/2 career in 20th century
(3*) George Davis, Bill Dahlen, and Bobby Wallace ~spent 1/2 their careers in 20th century
(4*) Sam Thompson has almost exact stats, it's so close!

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by tiger8mush

Charles Ferguson was a 2-way player who accumulated 31.7 WAR in 4 seasons before dying from Typhoid Fever 12 days after turning 25 yrs old.

According to SABR, Wilbert Robinson ranked him top 5 of all time ...
"Perhaps the greatest testament to Ferguson’s abilities as a ballplayer came from one of his contemporaries, Wilbert Robinson. Robinson was a catcher for the crosstown rival Philadelphia Athletics before going on to a Hall of Fame career as a player and manager with the Baltimore Orioles and Brooklyn Robins. When asked in 1931 to name the five greatest ballplayers of all time, Robinson rated Ferguson as the fifth greatest, saying: “Back in the old, old days the Phillies had a man who could pitch like a streak and play the infield, too. His name was Charley Ferguson. You can’t leave him off. … But if I have to name the best five you can put down Cobb, Keeler, Ruth, Wagner, and Ferguson for me."

Following your interesting post, I looked up Charles Ferguson. Absolutely amazing story, brought to a tragic and climactic end by Typhoid Fever at age 25. I had never heard of him before. If Uncle Robbie says he is in the all-time top 5, who am I to dispute that? I have a handful of n172 cards. I now wish I had a Charles Ferguson.

[molenick]

I like the idea of doing it by position so I will just expand it to a 15 man roster, which, if not the exact roster size in this time period, I think is close.

I will go with:
P - Nichols
P - Keefe
P - Clarkson
P - Radbourn
C - Ewing
1st - Brouthers
2nd -McPhee
3rd - White
SS - Glasscock
LF - Delahanty
CF - Hamilton
RF - Thompson
UT - Kelly
UT - Ward
DH - Anson
DH - Connor