Charlie Gould | |||
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First baseman | |||
Born: Cincinnati, Ohio |
August 21, 1847|||
Died: April 9, 1917 Flushing, New York |
(aged 69)|||
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MLB debut | |||
May 5, 1871, for the Boston Red Stockings | |||
Last MLB appearance | |||
July 12, 1877, for the Cincinnati Reds | |||
MLB statistics | |||
Batting average | .258 | ||
Hits | 248 | ||
RBIs | 111 | ||
Teams | |||
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Charles Harvey Gould (August 21, 1847 – April 9, 1917), nicknamed "The Bushel Basket", was an American Major League Baseball player during the 1860s and 1870s. He was the first baseman for the original of 1869 and 1870, the first team consisting entirely of professional players. He was the only native Cincinnatian on the club.
Gould was noted as having an affable personality, and for being six feet tall, the only such player on the Red Stockings that tall. His height and long arms were physical traits that factored in his high fielding proficiency. He was rarely noted for making errors, or "muffing" the ball during his career, but it was his throwing error in the eleventh inning of a game between the Red Stockings and the Brooklyn Atlantics in 1870, that allowed the winning run to score, ending the Stockings' winning streak, which was at 84 games.
He returned home in 1876 to lead the new club that was a charter member of the National League. In all he played about twelve seasons of "bare hand" first base for major teams.
Born 1847 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Gould began his organized baseball career for the local Buckeye club in 1863 as their regular first baseman, and was still in that role when the club joined the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) in 1866. During the off-season, he worked as a bookkeeper for his father's butter and eggs business. His lanky frame and long arms were physical traits that assisted him in becoming a well-regarded fielder, and he was known to rarely make errors.
He stayed with the Buckeyes through the 1866 season, then he joined the cross-town rivals, the , for the 1867 season. The Red Stockings, bolstered by players imported from the east coast, defeated the Buckeyes and other regional rivals that summer and fared well against all but the strongest teams on a tour from Washington to Albany to Cleveland in the fall. In September 1867, at the locally held Great Baseball Tournament, he won the prizes for "farthest throw" 302 ft 3 in (92.13 m) and "best second base".