WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.500 Imagine a modern athlete, right? Let's say LeBron 00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:07.719 James or Patrick Mahomes. Yeah, massive stars. 00:00:08.179 --> 00:00:10.679 Exactly. Now imagine they didn't just win championships, 00:00:11.199 --> 00:00:14.000 but they physically invented the crossover or 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:16.480 the forward pass. Right, totally changed the 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:18.699 geometry of the game. And then, you know, they 00:00:18.699 --> 00:00:21.539 forced the league to completely rewrite the rulebook 00:00:21.539 --> 00:00:24.140 to stop them from hacking the game. Oh, and simultaneously 00:00:24.140 --> 00:00:26.320 released the number one pop song on Spotify. 00:00:26.620 --> 00:00:29.500 Yes. I mean, it sounds impossible. But in the 00:00:29.500 --> 00:00:32.719 1880s, one orphaned teenager essentially pulled 00:00:32.719 --> 00:00:36.179 off that exact combination. So welcome to today's 00:00:36.179 --> 00:00:38.340 Deep Dive. Glad to be here. If you're someone 00:00:38.340 --> 00:00:40.640 who loves hunting for those sudden aha moments 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:43.060 where everything just clicks into place, we are 00:00:43.060 --> 00:00:45.560 looking for the ultimate origin story of sports 00:00:45.560 --> 00:00:47.899 and celebrity. And what's fascinating here is 00:00:47.899 --> 00:00:50.280 that we aren't just looking at baseball history 00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:53.159 today. Right. We are looking at the actual blueprint 00:00:53.159 --> 00:00:56.159 for the entire modern sports entertainment complex. 00:00:56.399 --> 00:00:58.539 I mean, we're talking about a man who drafted 00:00:58.539 --> 00:01:01.700 the rules of superstardom in real time, completely 00:01:01.700 --> 00:01:04.920 from scratch. So today's deep dive is drawn entirely 00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:08.159 from a comprehensive Wikipedia biography of Michael 00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:11.180 Joseph King Kelly. And honestly, OK, let's unpack 00:01:11.180 --> 00:01:13.799 this, because I am just bursting with enthusiasm 00:01:13.799 --> 00:01:17.200 to figure out how a kid born before the Civil 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:19.939 War basically invented the concept of the modern 00:01:19.939 --> 00:01:22.120 athlete. Well, his beginnings are about as far 00:01:22.120 --> 00:01:24.500 from superstardom as you can possibly get. Yeah. 00:01:25.569 --> 00:01:28.609 Michael Kelly was born in Troy, New York in 1857 00:01:28.609 --> 00:01:31.489 to Irish immigrants. The American Civil War breaks 00:01:31.489 --> 00:01:34.370 out, his dad joins the Union Army, and the family 00:01:34.370 --> 00:01:36.730 eventually relocates to Paterson, New Jersey. 00:01:36.790 --> 00:01:39.390 Okay. And by the time Kelly is just 18 years 00:01:39.390 --> 00:01:41.370 old, both of his parents have passed away. Oh, 00:01:41.370 --> 00:01:44.689 wow. So he's an orphan. Completely. The 1870 00:01:44.689 --> 00:01:47.230 census records paint a really stark picture. 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:50.439 This teenage orphan is working in a silk mill 00:01:50.439 --> 00:01:53.280 in Patterson just to survive. A silk mill? That 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:55.840 is rough. Right. And the leap from that grim 00:01:55.840 --> 00:01:58.620 industrial survival to international fame is 00:01:58.620 --> 00:02:01.159 built entirely on one hyper -specialized skill. 00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:03.439 He could play baseball better than almost anyone 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:05.620 alive. So how does he get out of the mill? He 00:02:05.620 --> 00:02:08.139 starts playing semi -pro. There's actually a 00:02:08.139 --> 00:02:10.699 record of him rejecting an offer of $70 a month 00:02:10.699 --> 00:02:13.240 from a team in Port Jervis, New York, just to 00:02:13.240 --> 00:02:17.280 play for a club in Columbus, Ohio. Got it. Eventually... 00:02:17.159 --> 00:02:19.539 A friend recommends him, and he makes his big 00:02:19.539 --> 00:02:22.680 league debut in 1878 with the Cincinnati Reds. 00:02:22.819 --> 00:02:25.539 OK, so he's in the big leagues. He is. But early 00:02:25.539 --> 00:02:27.719 professional baseball was a total financial house 00:02:27.719 --> 00:02:32.280 of cards. Cincinnati goes broke in 1879. They 00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:34.680 literally failed to pay the players their last 00:02:34.680 --> 00:02:37.039 paychecks. Wait, so Kelly is just stranded? Yeah, 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:39.819 he's stranded. So he writes a telegram to Albert 00:02:39.819 --> 00:02:41.639 Spalding, who's an executive for the Chicago 00:02:41.639 --> 00:02:45.000 White Stockings, and it simply says, am broke. 00:02:45.310 --> 00:02:48.430 send expenses. I love that. Just straight to 00:02:48.430 --> 00:02:50.969 the point. It worked. Spalding fronts the money, 00:02:51.250 --> 00:02:53.789 and Kelly moved to Chicago in 1880. And that 00:02:53.789 --> 00:02:56.430 geographical shift is like the catalyst for everything 00:02:56.430 --> 00:02:58.530 that follows, right? Absolutely. Right. Chicago 00:02:58.530 --> 00:03:00.289 was the financial engine of the National League. 00:03:00.469 --> 00:03:02.870 It had the population density, the wealth, and 00:03:02.870 --> 00:03:05.449 the media apparatus to turn a great player into 00:03:05.449 --> 00:03:08.110 a bona fide icon. He was the perfect stage. Exactly. 00:03:08.969 --> 00:03:11.849 Chicago gave Kelly the platform. And his personality 00:03:11.849 --> 00:03:13.669 was just perfectly calibrated for it. Because 00:03:13.669 --> 00:03:16.689 he became this wealthy, handsome superstar almost 00:03:16.689 --> 00:03:19.069 overnight. And instead of buying, you know, a 00:03:19.069 --> 00:03:21.210 quiet house in the suburbs, he immediately moves 00:03:21.210 --> 00:03:24.129 into the Palmer House in Chicago. Which was famously 00:03:24.129 --> 00:03:26.930 the loudest, brashest, most garish hotel in the 00:03:26.930 --> 00:03:29.169 country at the time. Oh yeah, we're talking marble 00:03:29.169 --> 00:03:32.370 floors, imported chandeliers, the works. And 00:03:32.370 --> 00:03:34.330 on the field, he's leading the league in runs, 00:03:34.430 --> 00:03:37.370 winning batting titles in 1884 and 1886, hitting 00:03:37.370 --> 00:03:40.689 over .350. Just dominating. Yeah, he's the absolute 00:03:40.689 --> 00:03:43.150 cornerstone of a Chicago team that wins five 00:03:43.150 --> 00:03:46.349 pennants. But, you know, his value extended far 00:03:46.349 --> 00:03:48.669 beyond his batting average. It was a box office 00:03:48.669 --> 00:03:51.009 sensation. People were paying just to see him. 00:03:51.090 --> 00:03:52.949 Literally just to watch him exist on the field. 00:03:52.949 --> 00:03:56.090 Yeah. But that immense drawing power created 00:03:56.090 --> 00:03:59.509 a really unique economic tension. How so? Well, 00:03:59.909 --> 00:04:02.090 a player living a lavish lifestyle of the Palmer 00:04:02.090 --> 00:04:04.810 House requires a salary to match, right? And 00:04:04.810 --> 00:04:07.289 that friction between his celebrity and the team's 00:04:07.289 --> 00:04:10.080 payroll eventually forces Chicago's hand. Which 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:14.740 brings us to the historic 1887 transaction. Chicago's 00:04:14.740 --> 00:04:17.459 Albert Spalding sells Kelly to the Boston Bean 00:04:17.459 --> 00:04:21.019 Eaters for a record shatteringly massive sum 00:04:21.019 --> 00:04:24.160 of $10 ,000. Unheard of money back then. Right. 00:04:24.740 --> 00:04:28.540 And immediately, the press dubs him the $10 ,000 00:04:28.540 --> 00:04:31.079 beauty. Such a great nickname. It really is. 00:04:31.339 --> 00:04:33.500 The sources actually note that the nickname was 00:04:33.500 --> 00:04:36.579 a nod to an actress named Louise Montague. She 00:04:36.579 --> 00:04:39.660 won a $10 ,000 contest in 1881 for being the 00:04:39.660 --> 00:04:42.319 handsomest woman in the world. So they are explicitly 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:44.579 comparing him to a theatrical spectacle. Exactly. 00:04:45.180 --> 00:04:47.639 But I want to push back on the economics here 00:04:47.639 --> 00:04:49.240 for a second, because if you're listening to 00:04:49.240 --> 00:04:51.379 this, you're probably picturing a modern blockbuster 00:04:51.379 --> 00:04:53.720 trade, right, where the athletes a massive new 00:04:53.720 --> 00:04:57.360 contract. Did Kelly actually pocket that 10 grand 00:04:57.360 --> 00:04:59.319 or was he just treated like an expensive piece 00:04:59.319 --> 00:05:01.519 of property being swapped between wealthy owners? 00:05:01.720 --> 00:05:03.660 Yeah, I definitely caution against comparing 00:05:03.660 --> 00:05:06.379 it to a modern free agency deal. The underlying 00:05:06.379 --> 00:05:09.000 labor mechanics were entirely different. Because 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:12.000 of the reserve clause? Exactly. This is the era 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:14.740 of the reserve clause. Once a team signed a player, 00:05:15.139 --> 00:05:17.620 they owned the exclusive rights to that player's 00:05:17.620 --> 00:05:21.709 labor in perpetuity. Kelly could not shop himself 00:05:21.709 --> 00:05:24.410 to the highest bidder. Wow. So that $10 ,000 00:05:24.410 --> 00:05:26.769 wasn't a signing bonus. It was essentially a 00:05:26.769 --> 00:05:29.310 ransom paid directly from the Boston ownership 00:05:29.310 --> 00:05:32.230 to the Chicago ownership just to acquire his 00:05:32.230 --> 00:05:35.670 contract. So he sees literally zero dollars of 00:05:35.670 --> 00:05:38.149 that 10 grand. Not a dime of the transfer fee. 00:05:38.449 --> 00:05:40.629 In fact, Albert Spalding was so frustrated with 00:05:40.629 --> 00:05:43.170 Kelly's contract demands prior to the sale that 00:05:43.170 --> 00:05:45.129 he bragged to the press about it. What did he 00:05:45.129 --> 00:05:48.089 say? He stated that if Kelly didn't sign on Chicago's 00:05:48.089 --> 00:05:50.250 terms, he would make him eat hay with his horses. 00:05:50.550 --> 00:05:53.370 Oh my god. I know. It really highlights the stark 00:05:53.370 --> 00:05:56.290 reality. Athletes, even the biggest superstars, 00:05:56.750 --> 00:05:59.829 were indentured commodities. Boston paid $10 00:05:59.829 --> 00:06:02.250 ,000 for the right to employ him, which placed 00:06:02.250 --> 00:06:05.310 an unprecedented, staggering burden of expectation 00:06:05.310 --> 00:06:07.889 squarely on Kelly's shoulders. Because now he 00:06:07.889 --> 00:06:09.990 has to justify being the most expensive human 00:06:09.990 --> 00:06:12.029 commodity in the history of the sport. Precisely. 00:06:12.250 --> 00:06:14.589 he felt immense pressure to prove his word to 00:06:14.589 --> 00:06:17.610 the Boston fans every single day. Right. And 00:06:17.610 --> 00:06:20.829 that relentless drive to win, to entertain, and 00:06:20.829 --> 00:06:23.850 to justify that price tag led directly to him 00:06:23.850 --> 00:06:26.629 inventing strategies and exploiting loopholes 00:06:26.629 --> 00:06:29.009 that fundamentally altered the geometry of baseball. 00:06:29.449 --> 00:06:30.990 Here's where it gets really interesting to me. 00:06:31.470 --> 00:06:34.110 Kelly wasn't just highly athletic. He completely 00:06:34.110 --> 00:06:36.629 rewired how the game was played. He really did. 00:06:37.110 --> 00:06:39.449 Let's look at his legitimate innovations first. 00:06:39.740 --> 00:06:42.160 The sources credit him with popularizing the 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:44.259 hit and run and being the first catcher to back 00:06:44.259 --> 00:06:46.420 up first base. But let's actually break that 00:06:46.420 --> 00:06:49.139 down. Why was a catcher backing up first base 00:06:49.139 --> 00:06:52.000 such a big deal? Well, think about the rigid 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:54.639 way sports are played in their infancy. Before 00:06:54.639 --> 00:06:57.639 Kelly, players had a strictly geographical view 00:06:57.639 --> 00:07:00.500 of their positions. A catcher stayed behind home 00:07:00.500 --> 00:07:02.920 plate. That was his zone. Like a foosball player 00:07:02.920 --> 00:07:05.560 just stuck on his bar. Exactly. Kelly was the 00:07:05.560 --> 00:07:07.680 first to realize that if a ground ball is hit 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:10.259 to the infield, the catcher is the only player 00:07:10.259 --> 00:07:12.579 on the field with a clear unobstructed line of 00:07:12.579 --> 00:07:15.079 sight to a potentially wild throw to first base. 00:07:15.180 --> 00:07:18.160 Oh, that makes so much sense. Right. By sprinting 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:21.040 down the line behind the first baseman, he created 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:24.860 a physical safety net. He turned a static stationary 00:07:24.860 --> 00:07:28.439 position into a dynamic strategic one. And then 00:07:28.439 --> 00:07:30.759 there's his base running. He invented the hook 00:07:30.759 --> 00:07:33.560 slide. A total game changer. Yeah, instead of 00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:35.519 just running straight into the bag or sliding 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:38.579 head on into the defender, he would slide feet 00:07:38.579 --> 00:07:41.399 first, but throw his body far to the outside, 00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:44.060 reaching back to hook the base with his foot 00:07:44.060 --> 00:07:46.860 just to avoid the tag. And his sliding technique 00:07:46.860 --> 00:07:50.620 was so revolutionary that his peers readily admitted 00:07:50.620 --> 00:07:52.769 they were all just trying to copy him. Really? 00:07:53.009 --> 00:07:54.970 Yeah, Tom Brown, who was a contemporary player, 00:07:55.730 --> 00:07:58.470 explicitly credited Kelly with inventing that 00:07:58.470 --> 00:08:01.009 evasive sideslide. It became standard practice 00:08:01.009 --> 00:08:03.250 immediately because it shifted the advantage 00:08:03.250 --> 00:08:05.490 from the defender to the runner. That's brilliant. 00:08:05.649 --> 00:08:08.170 It was. But his genius wasn't purely physical. 00:08:08.189 --> 00:08:11.230 It was highly analytical. Right, because he interrogated 00:08:11.230 --> 00:08:14.110 the rulebook looking for blind spots, for instance, 00:08:14.269 --> 00:08:16.110 fouling off pitches. If you watch a baseball 00:08:16.110 --> 00:08:18.290 game today, you know a foul ball counts as a 00:08:18.290 --> 00:08:20.480 strike. But in Kelly's era, it didn't. Wait, 00:08:20.620 --> 00:08:22.639 it didn't count at all? Not at all. The rules 00:08:22.639 --> 00:08:24.660 of early baseball were designed for gentlemen 00:08:24.660 --> 00:08:27.939 who relied on an honor system of fair play. The 00:08:27.939 --> 00:08:29.819 assumption was that a batter would genuinely 00:08:29.819 --> 00:08:32.860 try to hit the ball into play. And Kelly weaponized 00:08:32.860 --> 00:08:35.200 that honor system. Absolutely. He would intentionally 00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:38.240 just keep fouling off pitches over and over and 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:40.940 over, deliberately frustrating the pitcher and 00:08:40.940 --> 00:08:43.259 exhausting the defense until he finally drew 00:08:43.259 --> 00:08:45.940 a walk. It was a massive loophole. And it was 00:08:45.940 --> 00:08:48.600 so incredibly effective that the league actually 00:08:48.600 --> 00:08:52.279 had to patch the rule book in 1894, making foul 00:08:52.279 --> 00:08:54.919 bunce count as strikes just to stop him and his 00:08:54.919 --> 00:08:57.419 copycats. He was a master of what Cap Anson called 00:08:57.419 --> 00:09:00.480 trickiness. Trickiness. Yeah, Anson noted that 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:03.110 Kelly was a genius in the coach's box distracting 00:09:03.110 --> 00:09:05.889 fielders and making psychological warfare a part 00:09:05.889 --> 00:09:08.789 of his competitive strategy. But his most audacious 00:09:08.789 --> 00:09:11.590 trickery involved exploiting the umpires. Now 00:09:11.590 --> 00:09:13.570 if you're listening to this you might be thinking 00:09:13.570 --> 00:09:16.389 how do you exploit an umpire? We have to remember 00:09:16.389 --> 00:09:19.570 the physical limitations of the era. Games in 00:09:19.570 --> 00:09:22.769 the 1880s typically only had one single umpire 00:09:22.769 --> 00:09:25.610 trying to watch the entire field at once. Which 00:09:25.610 --> 00:09:28.669 is a geometric impossibility. You cannot watch 00:09:28.669 --> 00:09:31.129 a ball hit to the outfield and simultaneously 00:09:31.129 --> 00:09:33.789 monitor a runner touching second base. And Kelly 00:09:33.789 --> 00:09:36.350 knew that. When the lone umpire's back was turned, 00:09:36.769 --> 00:09:39.450 Kelly was known to just skip bases entirely. 00:09:39.769 --> 00:09:41.929 Just run right across the grass. Literally. He 00:09:41.929 --> 00:09:44.529 would run from first, cut diagonally across the 00:09:44.529 --> 00:09:46.889 infield, and head straight to third. The sources 00:09:46.889 --> 00:09:50.990 cite a 2004 biographical study by Howard W. Rosenberg 00:09:50.990 --> 00:09:54.330 that found Kelly attempted this breezin' base 00:09:54.330 --> 00:09:57.500 cutting about four times in his career. Did it 00:09:57.500 --> 00:10:00.399 ever work? Well, he got called out twice, retreated 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:02.460 once, but he successfully got away with it one 00:10:02.460 --> 00:10:05.139 time. It's pure audacity. But we also have to 00:10:05.139 --> 00:10:07.840 look at the ultimate legend of King Kelly, the 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:10.799 story that completely defined his mythos. Yes. 00:10:11.299 --> 00:10:13.620 OK, supposedly, Kelly is sitting on the bench 00:10:13.620 --> 00:10:16.179 during a game. A foul pop -up is hit, but it's 00:10:16.179 --> 00:10:18.039 clearly out of the reach of his team's catcher, 00:10:18.159 --> 00:10:20.700 Charlie Ganzout. Right. Kelly realizes the ball's 00:10:20.700 --> 00:10:23.179 dropping near the dugout. jumps up off the bench, 00:10:23.480 --> 00:10:25.559 shouts that he is substituting himself into the 00:10:25.559 --> 00:10:27.440 game while the ball is still in the air, catches 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:29.759 it, and demands the umpire call the batter out. 00:10:30.120 --> 00:10:32.360 I do have to apply some historical rigor here. 00:10:32.539 --> 00:10:35.019 Uh oh, ruined the sun. Just a bit. The source 00:10:35.019 --> 00:10:37.480 material points out this specific story might 00:10:37.480 --> 00:10:40.220 be embellished. Baseball historians note there 00:10:40.220 --> 00:10:43.379 is no contemporaneous newspaper account of this 00:10:43.379 --> 00:10:46.019 happening in a regular league game. So where 00:10:46.019 --> 00:10:48.500 did the story come from? It was recounted years 00:10:48.500 --> 00:10:50.600 later by a former teammate, Charlie Bennett. 00:10:51.299 --> 00:10:54.080 So it may have happened in an exhibition, or 00:10:54.080 --> 00:10:56.519 it might just be a call tale. But the legend 00:10:56.519 --> 00:10:59.299 insists he argued he had as much right to sub 00:10:59.299 --> 00:11:01.720 in while the ball was in the air as any other 00:11:01.720 --> 00:11:03.639 time. Even though the umpire ultimately ruled 00:11:03.639 --> 00:11:06.179 against him? Exactly. Embellished or not, it 00:11:06.179 --> 00:11:09.080 perfectly captures his philosophy. People called 00:11:09.080 --> 00:11:12.399 him a cheater for this stuff. But is that fair? 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:15.299 Isn't this just the 1880s equivalent of the Silicon 00:11:15.299 --> 00:11:18.289 Valley move fast and break things mindset? Was 00:11:18.289 --> 00:11:20.789 he really a cheater? Or was he just the ultimate 00:11:20.789 --> 00:11:23.210 beta tester for the baseball rulebook, finding 00:11:23.210 --> 00:11:25.250 the bugs so the developers could patch them? 00:11:25.690 --> 00:11:28.049 I'd actually push back slightly on the beta tester 00:11:28.049 --> 00:11:30.789 analogy. Really? Well, a beta tester wants to 00:11:30.789 --> 00:11:33.509 fix the software for everyone. Kelly wanted to 00:11:33.509 --> 00:11:36.070 keep the game broken so he could continue exploiting 00:11:36.070 --> 00:11:38.870 it. Ah, good point. If we extend your analogy, 00:11:39.350 --> 00:11:42.309 the umpires and the league officials were the 00:11:42.309 --> 00:11:44.549 beleaguered developers trying to patch the code 00:11:44.549 --> 00:11:48.100 in real time. while Kelly kept finding new exploits. 00:11:48.500 --> 00:11:51.019 If a rule didn't explicitly forbid something, 00:11:51.399 --> 00:11:53.679 he considered it mandatory to try it if it gave 00:11:53.679 --> 00:11:57.799 him an edge. And that combination, his undeniable 00:11:57.799 --> 00:12:00.860 athletic genius mixed with this highly theatrical, 00:12:01.340 --> 00:12:03.919 boundary -pushing trickery, made him a massive 00:12:03.919 --> 00:12:06.360 spectacle. He was larger than life. He was too 00:12:06.360 --> 00:12:08.559 large a personality to be contained by a baseball 00:12:08.559 --> 00:12:11.080 diamond, which really sets up the next phase 00:12:11.080 --> 00:12:14.340 of his life perfectly. It does. Because of that 00:12:14.340 --> 00:12:16.860 massive personality, Kelly essentially wrote 00:12:16.860 --> 00:12:19.860 the playbook for modern sports stardom. How so? 00:12:20.019 --> 00:12:22.179 Well, before Kelly, a baseball player was just 00:12:22.179 --> 00:12:24.799 a guy who played a game. Kelly transformed the 00:12:24.799 --> 00:12:27.779 athlete into a pop culture icon. For starters, 00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:30.000 he's considered the first athlete to popularize 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:33.019 autograph signing. No way. Yeah, fans would mob 00:12:33.019 --> 00:12:34.879 him on the streets of Boston on his way to the 00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:37.440 ballpark just to get his signature. That is the 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:40.519 genuine birth of modern fan culture. And it wasn't 00:12:40.519 --> 00:12:42.720 just autographs, it was visual representation. 00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:45.879 I read that prints of a pounding of him sliding 00:12:45.879 --> 00:12:49.159 into second base hung in almost every Irish saloon 00:12:49.159 --> 00:12:52.299 in Boston. He achieved ubiquity in a way no athlete 00:12:52.299 --> 00:12:55.059 had before. And he also recognized the value 00:12:55.059 --> 00:12:58.240 of controlling his own narrative, right? In 1888, 00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:00.519 While playing for Boston, he released a book 00:13:00.519 --> 00:13:02.940 called Play Ball, Stories of the Ball Field. 00:13:03.039 --> 00:13:05.879 Which was a huge deal. Yeah. It was the very 00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:08.519 first autobiography ever published by a baseball 00:13:08.519 --> 00:13:10.960 player. He didn't write it himself. It was ghostwritten 00:13:10.960 --> 00:13:13.379 by a Boston Globe reporter named Jack Drohan. 00:13:13.700 --> 00:13:16.159 But the mere fact that a market existed for an 00:13:16.159 --> 00:13:18.519 athlete's memoir was entirely unprecedented. 00:13:18.659 --> 00:13:21.059 And his influence didn't stop at print media. 00:13:21.399 --> 00:13:24.200 It bled directly into emerging audio technology. 00:13:24.279 --> 00:13:26.480 Oh, this is my favorite part. Consider the song 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:28.909 Slide, Kelly, Slide. I read about this in the 00:13:28.909 --> 00:13:31.090 sources and it completely blew my mind. It's 00:13:31.090 --> 00:13:34.529 wild. It was written in 1889, inspired entirely 00:13:34.529 --> 00:13:37.389 by his aggressive bass running. And when Edison 00:13:37.389 --> 00:13:39.389 Studios released it as a cylinder recording, 00:13:39.889 --> 00:13:42.330 it became America's very first pop hit record. 00:13:42.649 --> 00:13:45.809 That's insane. Prior to Slide Kelly Slide, the 00:13:45.809 --> 00:13:47.590 only things you could purchase on a cylinder 00:13:47.590 --> 00:13:50.149 recording were opera performances, religious 00:13:50.149 --> 00:13:53.509 sermons, or patriotic marches. King Kelly was 00:13:53.509 --> 00:13:56.029 the subject of the nation's first pop song. He 00:13:56.029 --> 00:13:59.809 outsold opera. He did. So naturally, Kelly decides 00:13:59.809 --> 00:14:03.269 he belongs in showbiz himself. He starts a vaudeville 00:14:03.269 --> 00:14:06.169 career. He teams up with actors like Nat Goodwin. 00:14:06.350 --> 00:14:08.330 They were both in the Elks Lodge together, which 00:14:08.330 --> 00:14:10.830 had deep ties to the theater circuit. Right. 00:14:10.950 --> 00:14:13.330 He performs in comedic plays, billing himself 00:14:13.330 --> 00:14:16.129 as King Kelly, the monarch of the baseball field. 00:14:16.750 --> 00:14:19.710 His signature bit on stage was reciting the famous 00:14:19.710 --> 00:14:23.590 poem Casey at the Bat. And sometimes he completely 00:14:23.590 --> 00:14:25.590 butchered the recitation. But the crowds loved 00:14:25.590 --> 00:14:28.590 it anyway. They really did. And, you know, the 00:14:28.590 --> 00:14:31.429 connection between Kelly and that specific poem 00:14:31.429 --> 00:14:34.870 is incredibly deep. How deep? Well, Ernest Lawrence 00:14:34.870 --> 00:14:38.350 Thayer wrote Casey at the Bat in 1888. While 00:14:38.350 --> 00:14:40.470 Thayer later claimed the name Casey came from 00:14:40.470 --> 00:14:43.230 a non -player he knew, Kelly is overwhelmingly 00:14:43.230 --> 00:14:45.870 considered the best candidate for being the actual 00:14:45.870 --> 00:14:48.450 real -life inspiration for the character's swagger 00:14:48.450 --> 00:14:50.889 and the baseball situations described. That makes 00:14:50.889 --> 00:14:53.679 total sense. Yeah, Kelly was the most famous, 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:56.679 colorful player of the era. And Thayer had actually 00:14:56.679 --> 00:14:59.279 watched him play in San Francisco just before 00:14:59.279 --> 00:15:01.500 penning the poem. Let me challenge this vaudeville 00:15:01.500 --> 00:15:04.440 era a bit, though. When we look at athletes today 00:15:04.440 --> 00:15:07.440 building media empires like LeBron James producing 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:10.740 movies or Tom Brady signing massive broadcasting 00:15:10.740 --> 00:15:13.740 deals, they're operating as highly calculated 00:15:13.740 --> 00:15:16.740 businessmen. Very true. Did Kelly actually care 00:15:16.740 --> 00:15:20.019 about being a stage artist or was this just the 00:15:20.019 --> 00:15:23.809 1890s? version of an athlete doing goofy local 00:15:23.809 --> 00:15:26.649 TV commercials to cash in on his fame like you 00:15:26.649 --> 00:15:28.409 know wearing a poorly fitted suit and reading 00:15:28.409 --> 00:15:31.110 off cue cards for a quick buck. Oh it was undoubtedly 00:15:31.110 --> 00:15:34.289 closer to the latter. but it was driven by necessity 00:15:34.289 --> 00:15:36.169 rather than pure ambition. What do you mean? 00:15:36.389 --> 00:15:38.090 Well, a review from the New York Sun of one of 00:15:38.090 --> 00:15:40.970 his vaudeville performances in 1893 described 00:15:40.970 --> 00:15:43.769 his clothes as completely ill -fitting. His trousers 00:15:43.769 --> 00:15:46.289 were too big, his straw hat was a size too small, 00:15:46.529 --> 00:15:48.389 and he buttoned his jacket wrong. Oh, wow. The 00:15:48.389 --> 00:15:50.750 reporter noted it was impossible to look at him 00:15:50.750 --> 00:15:53.490 and not laugh, and Kelly was up on stage laughing 00:15:53.490 --> 00:15:56.230 right along with the crowd. He wasn't a master 00:15:56.230 --> 00:15:59.610 thespian. He was capitalizing on his fame. Uh... 00:15:59.610 --> 00:16:02.230 But, um... This is where the narrative turns 00:16:02.230 --> 00:16:04.629 dark. Right, because the mechanisms of fame were 00:16:04.629 --> 00:16:07.389 entirely different back then. Exactly. While 00:16:07.389 --> 00:16:09.450 Kelly was inventing the concept of off -field 00:16:09.450 --> 00:16:12.309 monetization, he completely lacked the modern 00:16:12.309 --> 00:16:14.450 infrastructure to protect or grow that wealth. 00:16:14.509 --> 00:16:17.350 No safety net. None. There were no sports agents, 00:16:17.830 --> 00:16:20.710 no financial advisors, no union representatives. 00:16:21.210 --> 00:16:24.470 That vacuum, combined with his own habits, led 00:16:24.470 --> 00:16:27.610 to a stark and incredibly rapid downfall. Yeah, 00:16:27.629 --> 00:16:29.970 the back half of Kelly's life is a really tough 00:16:29.970 --> 00:16:32.620 read. Despite being the most famous athlete in 00:16:32.620 --> 00:16:34.460 America and bringing in what should have been 00:16:34.460 --> 00:16:36.419 a fortune through vaudeville and his massive 00:16:36.419 --> 00:16:39.899 salary, he had absolutely zero financial sense. 00:16:40.220 --> 00:16:42.340 He spent money significantly faster than he could 00:16:42.340 --> 00:16:44.960 make it. His generosity and his vices were legendary 00:16:44.960 --> 00:16:47.279 but they systematically dismantled his life. 00:16:47.480 --> 00:16:49.440 Just to give you a sense of the scale of this, 00:16:49.659 --> 00:16:52.379 he was so broke during his playing career that 00:16:52.379 --> 00:16:54.960 his fans and friends, including other players 00:16:54.960 --> 00:16:57.820 and even umpires, had to pool their money to 00:16:57.820 --> 00:17:00.000 buy him a house. Just to keep a roof over his 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:03.740 head. Right. In 1890, they took up a public subscription. 00:17:04.259 --> 00:17:06.980 Teammates, fans, and rival captains like Buck 00:17:06.980 --> 00:17:09.740 Ewing and John Montgomery Ward chipped in. They 00:17:09.740 --> 00:17:13.259 bought him a $10 ,000 house in Hingham, Massachusetts, 00:17:13.859 --> 00:17:15.500 complete with a horse and carriage. Which is 00:17:15.500 --> 00:17:18.390 a beautiful gesture. but it highlights a terrifying 00:17:18.390 --> 00:17:20.990 lack of personal stability. Completely. And the 00:17:20.990 --> 00:17:23.009 worst part is he couldn't even hold on to that 00:17:23.009 --> 00:17:26.309 gifted stability. By 1893, that same house was 00:17:26.309 --> 00:17:28.809 put up for sale by the town because Kelly couldn't 00:17:28.809 --> 00:17:32.230 pay a tax bill of a mere $123. Unbelievable. 00:17:32.509 --> 00:17:35.130 He also had a lingering $2 ,000 mortgage on it. 00:17:35.549 --> 00:17:37.650 He lost the house his fans bought for him over 00:17:37.650 --> 00:17:39.789 a tiny fraction of what he used to earn in a 00:17:39.789 --> 00:17:41.869 single month. And we know exactly where his money 00:17:41.869 --> 00:17:45.079 was going. A Boston executive later recounted 00:17:45.079 --> 00:17:48.920 paying off a $200 bar tab for Kelly, only to 00:17:48.920 --> 00:17:51.660 visit the bar later that exact same night and 00:17:51.660 --> 00:17:55.279 be handed a second Kelly tab for $140. In the 00:17:55.279 --> 00:18:00.380 1890s. Exactly. In the 1890s, those figures are 00:18:00.380 --> 00:18:03.220 astronomical. That is the equivalent of spending 00:18:03.220 --> 00:18:06.579 thousands of dollars on drinks in a single evening, 00:18:06.700 --> 00:18:09.380 repeatedly. It's just self -destruction in plain 00:18:09.380 --> 00:18:11.579 sight. He bounces around the end of his career. 00:18:11.930 --> 00:18:15.230 He manages a team called Kelly's Killers in Cincinnati, 00:18:15.630 --> 00:18:18.109 plays a few games for the Giants, and even ends 00:18:18.109 --> 00:18:20.450 up in a minor league in Allentown, Pennsylvania. 00:18:20.829 --> 00:18:23.170 Which was just sad. Yeah, the owner there was 00:18:23.170 --> 00:18:25.869 purely using his fading star power to drive traffic 00:18:25.869 --> 00:18:28.029 to a streetcar line, and his health gives out 00:18:28.029 --> 00:18:30.269 just as fast as his bank account. tragically 00:18:30.269 --> 00:18:33.690 fast. In November of 1894, Kelly is on a boat 00:18:33.690 --> 00:18:36.170 traveling from New York to Boston to appear at 00:18:36.170 --> 00:18:38.630 the Palace Theatre with a vaudeville group called 00:18:38.630 --> 00:18:41.549 the London Gaty Girls. He catches a cold on the 00:18:41.549 --> 00:18:44.329 boat. It quickly turns into pneumonia. She's 00:18:44.329 --> 00:18:46.609 taken to hospital in Boston and he dies. He was 00:18:46.609 --> 00:18:50.809 only 36 years old. 36. It's a devastatingly sudden 00:18:50.809 --> 00:18:53.049 end for a man who seemed invincible just a few 00:18:53.049 --> 00:18:55.269 years prior. The public reaction was massive, 00:18:55.529 --> 00:18:58.190 though. 7 ,000 people passed by his open casket 00:18:58.190 --> 00:19:00.490 to pay their respects. But behind the scenes, 00:19:00.529 --> 00:19:02.529 it was a total disaster. Right, for his family. 00:19:02.769 --> 00:19:05.829 His widow, Aggie, was left completely destitute. 00:19:06.250 --> 00:19:08.109 The National League owners had to pass the hat 00:19:08.109 --> 00:19:11.049 just to pledge $1 ,400 to her so she could survive. 00:19:11.309 --> 00:19:13.009 And she ended up making a living for the rest 00:19:13.009 --> 00:19:16.700 of her life by sewing. Years later in an interview, 00:19:16.819 --> 00:19:19.359 she referred to him simply as an overgrown kid. 00:19:19.759 --> 00:19:21.779 There is a remarkably damning quote from a man 00:19:21.779 --> 00:19:24.900 named George W. Floyd, who acted as a sort of 00:19:24.900 --> 00:19:27.299 early player agent for Kelly. What did he say? 00:19:27.619 --> 00:19:30.660 Shortly before Kelly died, Floyd said he knew 00:19:30.660 --> 00:19:32.700 enough to make money for others, but never could 00:19:32.700 --> 00:19:35.480 make anything for himself. So what does this 00:19:35.480 --> 00:19:38.079 all mean? When you look at Kelly's life dying 00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:40.740 penniless at 36 while the owners who traded him 00:19:40.740 --> 00:19:43.680 remain wealthy men, is Kelly's story a tragedy 00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:46.140 of his own personal irresponsibility and astronomical 00:19:46.140 --> 00:19:49.240 bar tabs? Or is it a glaring indictment of an 00:19:49.240 --> 00:19:51.779 early sports system that ruthlessly exploited 00:19:51.779 --> 00:19:54.700 its very first superstar before any labor rights 00:19:54.700 --> 00:19:58.059 existed? I'd argue it is inextricably both, but 00:19:58.059 --> 00:20:00.460 the labor dynamics are the silent engine of the 00:20:00.460 --> 00:20:03.299 tragedy. How so? Well. You cannot separate Kelly's 00:20:03.299 --> 00:20:06.000 impulsive, larger -than -life personality from 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:08.700 the man who revolutionized the game. However, 00:20:09.500 --> 00:20:11.859 you also cannot ignore that the system was perfectly 00:20:11.859 --> 00:20:15.259 designed to extract all of his value while providing 00:20:15.259 --> 00:20:17.799 absolutely no safety net. True. He generated 00:20:17.799 --> 00:20:19.779 the modern equivalent of millions of dollars 00:20:19.779 --> 00:20:22.759 in ticket sales, sheet music, and concessions. 00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:25.359 But because of the reserve clause, because he 00:20:25.359 --> 00:20:27.259 didn't own his own labor, he couldn't build equity. 00:20:27.529 --> 00:20:30.289 He was treated as entirely expendable the moment 00:20:30.289 --> 00:20:32.890 his athletic prowess faded. It's really wild 00:20:32.890 --> 00:20:35.430 to think about. So to you listening, the next 00:20:35.430 --> 00:20:38.150 time you see a pro athlete acting in a blockbuster 00:20:38.150 --> 00:20:41.269 movie, selling a signature shoe, or creatively 00:20:41.269 --> 00:20:43.849 interpreting a rule to gain an edge, you aren't 00:20:43.849 --> 00:20:45.869 just looking at modern sports. You are looking 00:20:45.869 --> 00:20:48.750 at the direct lineage of an orphaned 19th century 00:20:48.750 --> 00:20:50.670 kid from New Jersey who figured out how to make 00:20:50.670 --> 00:20:52.430 the whole world watch him, but couldn't figure 00:20:52.430 --> 00:20:55.009 out how to protect himself. And if we connect 00:20:55.009 --> 00:20:57.849 this to the bigger picture, Kelly's life is an 00:20:57.849 --> 00:21:00.390 absolute masterclass in the dual nature of fame. 00:21:01.190 --> 00:21:04.269 He created incredible cultural value. I mean, 00:21:04.529 --> 00:21:06.650 he practically invented the concept of sports 00:21:06.650 --> 00:21:09.150 celebrity while capturing almost none of that 00:21:09.150 --> 00:21:11.450 lasting value personally. It is a foundational 00:21:11.450 --> 00:21:14.049 lesson in the business of entertainment that 00:21:14.049 --> 00:21:16.950 still echoes through every contract negotiation 00:21:16.950 --> 00:21:19.470 today. Absolutely. And it leaves me thinking 00:21:19.470 --> 00:21:22.049 about this. What if the very traits that make 00:21:22.049 --> 00:21:24.329 someone a relentless, boundary -pushing genius 00:21:24.329 --> 00:21:26.809 in their profession, like Kelly's impulsiveness, 00:21:26.990 --> 00:21:29.089 his theatricality, and his total disregard for 00:21:29.089 --> 00:21:31.190 the established rules, are the exact same traits 00:21:31.190 --> 00:21:33.109 that make it impossible for them to navigate 00:21:33.109 --> 00:21:35.430 the realities of everyday life? Is the genius 00:21:35.430 --> 00:21:38.349 also the curse? Something to mull over. Thanks, 00:21:38.450 --> 00:21:40.049 as always, for joining us on this deep dive, 00:21:40.049 --> 00:21:41.349 and we'll catch you on the next one.