Ned Williamson - Spalding's World Tour

Spalding's World Tour

At the completion of the 1888 baseball season, Albert Spalding organized an around-the-world tour to promote the game of baseball. The two teams Spalding selected were the White Stockings and a collection of players from other National League teams. The tour departed on October 20, 1888 to play exhibition games throughout the western United States for a month, before departing to Hawaii. The tour visited several foreign countries, such as; Australia, Egypt, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), France, Italy, and England. It was during a game played on at the Parc Aristotique in Paris, France on March 8, 1889, when Williamson suffered a torn knee cap which forced him to be bedridden in England on doctor's orders, missing the tour through Britain. Though players in the 19th century were responsible for their own medical care, Williamson asked Spalding to help him financially with the mounting medical costs. Spalding refused, citing that he was not obligated to assist, and Williamson never forgave him for this. Williamson, among his baseball contemporaries, wrote the most colorful articles to newspapers as the tour was unfolding. Williamson, an 1880s teammate of Anson in Chicago, had a knack for roasting—poking fun at—his teammates, while always coming across as good-natured. A testament to the letters' significance is that they are a dominant source of one recent book's World Tour presentation.