Educated at Brown University, FRED TENNEY was widely regarded as the premier first baseman in the Majors during the late 1890s and on into the Deadball Era. His absence of power, at a position that has become a station for sluggers, has all but rendered his legacy forgotten, for Tenney was a high average hitter with terrific on-base skills, but very limited power. Be that as it may, Tenney was lauded during his time. He pulled heady tricks on the field never before seen, helping to redefine defensive play at the initial base.
After graduating from Brown, Tenney joined the Beaneaters of Boston in 1894, piloted by Hall of Fame skipper Frank Selee. At the outset of his pro career, Fred was groomed as the next Jack Clements, the only left-handed catcher of any repute in MLB history. After playing sparingly as a backstop for a few years, Selee made Tenney his everyday first baseman in 1897, and the agile, sure-handed Brown grad would set the standard for work at the position.
In his first year with any significant playing time at the highest level, Tenney, deployed as Selee’s table-setter, led the NL in at-bats while maintaining a .318 batting average in the process. Fred scored a personal high 125 runs that year–the first of three consecutive 100 runs scored seasons–and added an extra 85 RBI to Boston’s runs total. Tenney’s breakout year enabled Boston to win the NL flag with a 93-39 record, as he was featured in a terrific lineup with future Hall of Famers Jimmy Collins, Hugh Duffy and Billy Hamilton.
Selee had at his command the top defensive infield of the time, with Tenney holding down first, the steady Bobby Lowe at second, the acrobatic Herman Long at shortstop and the marvelous Collins at third. Always an astute player, Tenney pulled off the first ever 3-6-3 double play with Long, which took the fans by surprise, for they had never seen such a display before on a ball diamond. This wonderful infield aggregation enabled Selee to repeat as NL champs in 1898, with a 102-win season, Tenney tying Collins for the second best BA on the team at .328.
At his best in 1899, Fred posted personal highs in hits (209), triples (17), batting average (.347), slugging average (.439), OPS (.851) and total bases (265). His 209 hits were good for fifth best in the loop. But when the new century dawned and the Deadball Era began to take root, runs dipped alarmingly across the loop and Tenney’s stats show the drastic falling off of production. He combined for just 52 RBI in the 1901 and 1902 seasons, even though he fashioned a remarkable .315 BA and .409 OBP (second best in the NL) in the latter campaign.
As batting averages began to dip across the Majors, Tenney retained quality numbers, hitting .313 in 1903, while the league batted for a .269 cumulative mark. With the Boston club of Selee now scattered, thanks to the League Wars, Tenney was the last man standing from that great aggregation as Boston dipped to the doormat of the NL. Fred was handed the player/manager role in 1905, at age 33, but the club finished 51-103 under his leadership. He was the best hitter on a poor team, posting a BA of .288 on a club that maintained a .234 batting average.
With Boston now a laughingstock in the National League, John McGraw, skipper of the strong New York Giants, felt the time was right to acquire Tenney, and sent a large package to nab the classy first baseman. Tenney, by 1908 was in his upper thirties, and had played with one team his entire career, was reinvigorated by a trade to a powerful squad, and promptly led the NL with 101 runs his first year with the Giants, while coming in second in the NL with 72 walks.
But 1908 would prove to be Tenney’s last good year, and his name would take a place in baseball lore when he sat out a game due to an ailment, thus allowing a green rookie named Fred Merkle to fill his vacancy. When Merkle failed to advance from first to second base on a walk-off hit, the Cubs astutely forced the young man out at second, and the Giants ended up losing by a game in the standings to the Cubs, thanks to perhaps the most infamous contest in baseball history.
Since he wasn’t a heavy-hitter, Tenney’s defense often attracted attention, despite his terrific batting averages and on-base percentages. Tenney topped first basemen in assists eight times, seven years in a row, and ranks 17th all-time in that department among his position peers. He also still ranks in the Top 25 in putouts at the position and came within 50 twin-killings of turning over 1,000 double plays in his career. His fielding percentage was better than league average and new stats such as Range Factor regard him as top-tier.
Tenney was a nimble, agile man, whose light figure would be suited in the modern game in center field, not first base. He wasn’t mindful of the hard hitters who came later, like a Gehrig or a Foxx, but was their superior in covering ground around the initial base. Although a good batsman, Fred was no slugger and didn’t tally a great deal of extra base hits, keeping his career slugging average below .360. However, he exceeded 2,200 career hits and stole 285 bases while playing a Gold Glove caliber defense every year.
Devoted to the game, scribe Bozeman Bulger once asked Fred why he stayed in baseball, since, as an educated man, he could pursue fields in his area of academic interest. Tenney replied to Bulger’s inquiry, saying, “To this day I haven’t got over the thrill and the novelty of realizing that somebody was actually willing to pay me a big salary for doing the one thing that I loved to do. The idea was so delightful that I simply couldn’t help being a professional ball player” (Springfield Republican, 24 February 1924).
Tenney has a couple peers in the Hall of Fame in Eagle Eye Jake Beckley and Frank Chance. All three were fine ballplayers and have their advantages over the other. Defensively, Beckley and Chance were both fine performers, but no match for Tenney. Fred topped first basemen in assists eight times, twice as many first place finishes as Beckley and eight more than Chance. The nimble Tenney topped 90 assists in a season eight times, with Beckley reaching that figure three times and Chance once. Beckley can hang with Tenney in a few defensive stats, but Chance was outclassed in every way by Tenney in the field. Fred, who ranks 20th all-time in putouts among first basemen, enjoyed six seasons with at least 1,300 while Chance reached that many putouts in a lone season. And, as for double plays turned, Fred was able to author 70 twin-killings a season on five occasions, while Chance, who has a poem extolling his abilities at turning double plays with his mates Tinker and Evers, turned 70 only once in his career.
On offense, Tenney stands out too. He led the NL in runs scored in 1908, while Beckley never was a runs scored leader. Frank Chance, likewise, was a runs scored leader once, but Fred tallied 100 runs four times to Chance’s one. On four occasions Tenney had a .400 OBP, while Eagle Eye Beckley reached such air in a single season. Tenney hit .300 seven times, opposed to Chance’s four. And, when you look at career numbers between Tenney and Chance, the little Beaneaters star stands out. Fred scored 480 more runs than Chance and slapped out a whopping 959 more hits.
Brett Kiser 