As a lifelong Phillies fan, born and raised, the story of Charlie Ferguson arouses the What If? scenario.  And, thanks to SOM, I have finally gotten around to raising this dearly departed pitching and hitting star of the early Quaker days.  Charlie's story can be found here: http://sabr.org/biop...person/727aabbe

1884 marks the beginning of what we now recognize as pitching in that hurlers could disregard any of the former restrictions on delivering the ball.  To find out more about this you might want to locate a copy of Peter Morris's great book, A Game Of Inches.  '84 also marked the reduction in the number of balls needed to take a walk to six.  These changes were made in the NL only, as the new Union Association and the AA stuck to the former delivery restrictions and the seven balls rule.  As a result of the changes pitchers dominated.  Radbourn won 59 (or 60). One Arm Daily struck out 483.  1884 also saw Ned Williamson of the Chicago White Stockings hit an unbelievable, at the time, 27 HRs.  However, one must realize that the RF fence in Chicago's home park was less than 200 feet away and prior to '84 balls hit over the fence were ruled ground rule doubles (David Nemac Great Encyclopedia of 19C MLB).  There were 34 major league teams, and lots of players, including Moses Walker, the first African American major league player.  So, among all of this comes our hero, Mr. Charles Ferguson of the Philadelphia Quakers.  My plan is to manually play all of Charlie's games through his four years in Philly, and then do a What If He Had Not... after that, perhaps for several seasons.  I hope all of this will attract some followers, and some Phillies fans, along the way.