The Biography of Albert Spalding
Albert Spalding was born in 1850 in Byron, Illinois (1). He played professional baseball in the early days of the sport’s history. He rose to business success as a manufacturer of sports equipment after his playing career.
As a baseball player, Al Spalding began his professional career with the Boston Red Stockings (2). He won pennants with this franchise during the seasons between 1872 and 1875 (3). In April 1876, Spalding began pitching for the Chicago White Stockings (4). He retired as a regular player from professional baseball in this same year (5).
Al Spalding was also a baseball manager, and he was known for his high moral standard. He stopped players from conspiring to throw games, stopped gambling among players, and was strongly antagonistic towards alcohol consumption (6). He managed the Chicago White Stockings between 1882 and 1891 (7). Spalding’s attitude as a manager was to keep his players away from personal corruption, which would ruin the integrity of the sport.
In his early career, Al Spalding worked for a grocer and then an insurer (8). Later, he did accounting for a newspaper and an insurer; all four of these ventures failed (9). This early misfortune may have provided crucial business experience. These sequential events of hardship were difficult training for Spalding, who was at this point a young adult. Learning from failure put him on course to success later in his life.
Spalding’s sporting goods company, carrying the Spalding name, was founded in March 1876 (10). The first storefront was at 118 Randolph Street in Chicago (11), close to where Millennium Park is today.
Spalding’s company was granted a contract in 1876 to supply baseballs for the National League professional league, and this contract stood for a century, only expiring in 1976 (12). Spalding’s company would later receive a contract for the American League in 1889, which stood until 1973 (13). The National League and American League joined to become Major League Baseball in 1903 (14).
Al Spalding first wore a baseball glove on his hand in 1877 to catch the ball while playing first base (15). Spalding’s company introduced the first professional baseball glove in 1877, which had formerly been stigmatized as the, “sissy”, glove (16). Spalding’s company started manufacturing baseball mitts officially as well. The entire sport would follow this trend, and the baseball glove may now be universally seen on baseball players’ catching hands. The evolution and progress of the sport, which now involves pitches being thrown at speeds between 90 and 108 miles an hour (17)(18), or between 144 and 174 kilometers per hour, would not have happened as it did without hand protection.
In 1877, Spalding’s company began publishing histories and guides to baseball as well as other sports (19). Al Spalding also wrote a book called America’s National Game in 1911, which is considered to be the first formal history of baseball (20).
Today, Spalding’s company continues to maintain its name recognition in the world of sporting goods manufacturing. In addition to baseballs, baseball bats, and baseball mitts, Spalding’s company learned and adapted, moving to create equipment for participants of other sports. Their 1906 catalog includes equipment for archery, boxing, cricket, croquet, fencing, field hockey, equestrian polo, indoor strength training, rowing, and tennis (21). In addition, this catalog also includes clothing items such as bathing suits, shoes, hats, jerseys, joint support, and uniforms (22).
Spalding’s company found early diversification in making footballs, basketballs, and volleyballs. Spalding’s company made the first American football with a quality-of-work guarantee in 1887 (23), making it the first reputable football. The first request for a basketball came directly from the creator of basketball, James Naismith (24). This basketball was produced in 1894, and was the first purpose-built basketball in history (25). Spalding’s company made the first volleyball in 1895 (26). While investing in these new sporting ventures, the company’s baseball presence continued to grow. In 1900, Spalding’s company was making 1 million baseball bats a year (27). In addition to football, basketball, and volleyball, Spalding’s company also ventured into golf. Spalding’s company made major technological breakthroughs in golf ball construction, including the liquid-center golf ball in 1930 and the first two-piece performance golf ball in 1968 (28).
Al Spalding was enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939 (29). Spalding goods, especially balls, may still be seen in recreational settings like gyms and playgrounds. In 1983, Spalding began a term as the official basketball supplier of the NBA, and in 2002 Spalding began providing the official soccer ball of the MLS (30). In 2009, Spalding began supplying backboards for the NBA (31).
Al Spalding died in 1915 in San Diego (32). Al Spalding should be remembered for what he did for sports. As a player, he introduced the trend to baseball of players wearing a glove to protect their catching hands. As a manufacturer, the company with his name created the first basketball, supplied baseballs to the premier American baseball league for a hundred years, and created the first volleyball and the first quality-guaranteed football, all of which contributed substantially to invention, growth, and progress in modern sports.
Al Spalding became one of the constructive figures in modern sports history. His ingenuity – and the ingenuity of the company he left for the world – changed the sports people play today.
Works Cited
15: “Baseball Mitt”. National Museum of American History. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/nmah_665786. Accessed 19 March 2024.
14: Augustyn, Adam. "Major League Baseball". Encyclopedia Britannica, 18 Mar. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Major-League-Baseball. Accessed 19 March 2024.
3, 11, 19, 29: “Al Spalding”. Baseball Hall of Fame. https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/spalding-al. Accessed 19 March 2024.
1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 20, 32: “Albert G. Spalding”. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/spalding_hi.html. Accessed 19 March 2024.
18: McClintock, Brandon. “Aroldis Chapman and the 15 Fastest Pitches Ever Recorded”. Bleacher Report. 20 April 2011. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/671695-aroldis-chapman-and-the-15-fastest-pitches-ever-recorded. Accessed 19 March 2024.
17: Pourciau, Brent. “Average Pitching Velocity by Pitch and Age”. TopVelocity.net. 9 June 2023. https://www.topvelocity.net/2023/06/09/average-pitching-velocity-by-pitch-age/. Accessed 19 March 2024.
10, 21, 22: Spalding, A. G., & Bros. Library of Congress Online Catalog. [New York] Periodical. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/ca19000466/>. Accessed 19 March 2024.
2, 12, 13, 16, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31: “About Us: A Storied History”. Spalding. https://www.spalding.com/about-spalding.html. Accessed 19 March 2024.