Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • E6

E6 SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2014 THE HARTFORD COURANT SP RTS Morgan Bulkeley: A Man Of Politics, Baseball i fjHj Continued from Page 7 29, Bulkeley served as the first president of the National League for 10 months the first president of the first major sports league before he moved the team to Brooklyn in 1877. Never mind the Whalers 120 years later, the Dark Blues became the first major league team ever to abandon a city. In 1905, Bulkeley was one of the seven appointees to the Mills Commission that would officially endorse what most historians have come to call the myth that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown in 1839. Doubleday, a Union general who fought at Gettysburg, isn't the one Civil War veteran in the Hall of Fame. Bulkeley is.

Serving with the 13th New York Volunteers under Gen. George McClellan and later under Gen. Joseph Mansfield, Morgan lost his brother Charles in the war. Horse racing, in one form or another, was the one staple of the American sports scene dating to the Revolution. Although Burdett Loomis was responsible for building Charter Oak Park, which opened in West Hartford in 1873, Bulkeley would become president of the track and first vice president of the National Trotting Association.

Make no mistake. Charter Oak, which closed for good in the 1930s, was on the Grand Circuit, the big leagues of trotting for a half century. The races were front page news in The Courant. Bulkeley loved the horses. Bulkeley knew the great and powerful men of America's Gilded Age, finishing third in the vice presidential balloting at the 1896 Republican convention that sent William McKinley to the White House.

And, at least in sporting terms, it is scant exaggeration to call him Howard Baldwin, Peter Karmanos, Ella Grasso, John Rowland and Mitchell Etess of Mohegan Sun all rolled into one. "One of my dad's favorite things when he was young was his grandfather would take him up to his office and he'd sit on his grandfather's lap and watch the parades out of his window," Bulkeley IV said. "He would read the comics to my father." In a fascinating 2011 book, "Crowbar Governor," Kevin Murphy called Bulkeley "shrewd, pragmatic, sometimes wildly vindictive, but he also was courteous, loyal and even kind. He wasn't a 'man for all but he accomplished an enormous amount without receiving even a high school diploma." The guy had more legs than a 19th-century spider. There are stories of unapologetic vote-buying, but just as many of altruistic civic accomplishments and generosity.

He'd bring underprivileged Hartford kids on the train for a day at the family summer home in the Fenwick section of Old Saybrook. "Before reading Murphy's book I never knew a lot of the stuff about his various political shenanigans," Bulkeley IV said. "But it sounded like it wasn't out of the ordinary for the time." Crafty Starter To begin to understand Morgan Bulkeley, you've got to start at his American roots. His father, Eliphalet, descended from Puritan minister Peter Bulkeley, who arrived from England in 1635 and founded Concord, Mass. "He dreamed of a golden city on a hill," Bulkeley IV said.

The family of Morgan's mother, Lydia Smith Morgan, arrived on the Mayflower. Eliphalet, a judge, was one of the founders of the state Republican Party and the first president at Aetna Life Insurance. Yet it would be his son who would oversee Aetna's massive growth, increasing assets from $25 million to $200 million and, over four decades, going from 30 to 1,500 employees. Aetna issued its first accident policy in 189L Morgan Bulkeley bought it. In retrospect, it's no surprise that when he returned from working for his uncle in Brooklyn after his father died in 1872, he jumped straight into the deep end of Hartford life.

He became the first president of the United States Bank of Hartford. He got on the city council. He got into baseball. He made sure the ballpark at the corner of Wyllys and Hendricxsen was state of the 19th-century art for the 1875 season. The largest crowd in team history, nearly 10,000, watched the Boston Red Stockings beat the Dark Blues 10-5 in the May 18 opener.

Judging by an ad he took out in The Courant, Mark Twain's English-made brown silk umbrella was stolen that day by a boy in the crowd: "I will pay $5 for the return of the umbrella in good condition to my house on Farmington Avenue. I do not want the boy in an active state but will pay two hundred dollars for his remains." That last part was a joke. What wasn't a joke for Bulkeley was that the Hartford Baseball Grounds, leased from Elizabeth Colt, was L3 miles from the trains at Union Station and that didn't help attendance for the smallest franchise city in the National League. Although the Dark Blues had so many major league firsts first triple play, first to be no-hit, first to play two games in the same day they were also the first major league team to abandon their home city. Beyond The Courant archives and Murphy's biography, there are some fine books on the old-time baseball, and I've tried to cross-reference them in an attempt MICHAEL MCANDREWS MMCANDREWSCOURANT.COM MORGAN G.

BULKELEY IV, an artist and sculptor of Great Barrington, is the great-grandson of Morgan G. Bulkeley, a former Connecticut governor and the first president of baseball's National League. His father, Morgan G. Bulkeley III, moved to the Berkshires. Bulkeley that he wouldn't pitch anymore if Ferguson was running the show.

Bulkeley took action against Bond. He voided the rest of his 1876 contract and cut Bond lose. Bulkeley, with high political ambitions and taking over at Aetna in 1879, would soon be out of baseball himself, too. Dispute-Settling Ump With the writers overlooking names nearly a century old, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis formed a five-man Centennial Commission in 1937 to induct nonplayers into Cooperstown. Seven men were selected over two years, including managers Connie Mack and John McGraw.

When American League founder and first president Ban Johnson went in, the commission had a tough choice between Bulkeley and William Hurlbert from the National League. Hurlbert, from Chicago, was really the guy who founded the National League and took power away from the players and consolidated it with the owners. He needed support from the Eastern establishment and that half of the new league. He was looking to ban illegal gambling, Sunday games and liquor sales to curtail fan rowdiness, and Bulkeley could help him. In fact, there had been a fiery editorial in the 1873 Courant I swear I didn't write it lamenting the lack of honest baseball rivalries and too many gamblers and pickpockets.

Although one story says the owners drew straws and Bulkeley got the short one, it is believed that Hurlbert convinced Bulkeley to become NL president for a season at the meeting in New York. It was at the Grand Central, the largest hotel in America at the time and scene of the murder of financier Big Jim Fisk in 1872. "I guess my great-grandfather was brought in more for organization," Bulkeley IV said. "It was pretty rough and tumble." Although Bulkeley was needed for Eastern gravitas, Hurlbert made the important league decisions. Yet Hurlbert wasn't inducted into the Hall of Fame until 1995, after the Veterans Committee righted that wrong.

Some have argued that Bulkeley is the least deserving Cooperstown inductee. That argument was never made in The Courant. For the record, The Courant gleefully reported that Al Kamm's local Yesteryear Stars played the New York State Oldtimers in Cooperstown the day that Bulkeley 18 years gone was inducted during ceremonies in July 1939. BULKELEY, E7 MICHAEL MCANDREWS I MMCANDREWSCOURANT.COM THREE GENERATIONS of Morgan Bulkeleys gather in this photo. At left is Morgan G.

Bulkeley, holding his grandson, Morgan G. Bulkeley III; the child's father, Morgan G. Bulkeley looks on. with Ferguson's making five errors at third base. The Courant reported that Bond accused Ferguson of "crooked work." Hippodroming was the word hippodroming! in those days for putting in the fix.

This was a stunning accusation, given that Ferguson was known for his honesty. According to Arcidiacono, Ferguson wrote to The Hartford Times denying all charges, and Bond recanted, admitting they were "unfounded and made in a moment of excitement." This didn't clear the air. Bond soon told for historical accuracy. David Arcidiacono has written three on Connecticut baseball and Dave Fleitz devoted a chapter to Bulkeley in "Ghosts in the Gallery at Cooperstown." Bulkeley brought in Bob Ferguson as player-manager in 1875. His nickname, "Death To Flying Things," referred to his defense, not to our state bird, the American robin.

The good news is Bulkeley's captain didn't drink. The bad news is he was a miserable sort. After a 13-4 loss to Boston in August 1876, pitcher Tommy Bond was livid WHAT MOMENTS ARE ON YOUR "CONNECTICUT SPORTS MOUNT RUSHMORE?" Sports Mount Rushmore" your favorite people, places, things, moments about Connecticut sports. Can be just one, can be four in honor of the Rushmore concept. We will include some of this in the special section.

Participating is easy go to courant.com sportsmoments to submit your favorite local sports memory. You also can mail a note to Courant Sports Mount Rushmore, 285 Broad Hartford, CT 06T15; or fax us at 860-241-6600. As The Courant continues to celebrate its 250th year, we take time out in March to put the spotlight on sports. Throughout the month we will bring you stories, photos and more that look back on some of the most memorable faces, moments and teams that had an impact on Connecticut. Lou Gehrig played in Hartford, so did Babe Ruth.

The Whalers came, the Whalers left. Willie Pep, pound for pound the best fighter ever. Morgan Bulkeley, the first president of the National League. Walter Camp, the father of football who changed a sport forever. Geno Auriemma and Jim Calhoun, who changed our state forever.

The PGA has been here for more than 60 years and Travelers just signed a 10-year extension. On and on the list goes. Speaking of lists, we'll end the month with a special section that looks at 250 things about sports in the state. This is where you come in. Give us your "Connecticut.