1876 National League Debuts

Willie Mays played his first Major League game on May 25, 1951, and went 0-for-5 at the plate. He started his career 1-for-25 and told his manager, "I can't do it, Mr. Leo. You better bench me."

Casey Stengel played his first Major League game on July 27, 1912, and went 4-for-4 at the plate. He commented later in his life, "I broke in with four hits and the writers promptly decided they had seen the new Ty Cobb. It took me only a few days to correct that impression."

Both Mays and Stengel would continue their Major League careers down separate paths of greatness, but each still had to appear in that memorable first Major League game. Baseball Almanac is pleased to present what Cubs broadcaster Steve Stone once described as, "His first Major League debut."
"Baseball is the sport that cackles back at can't-miss kids. Baseball humbles every player sooner or later. Baseball confers greatness stingily, in its own sweet time. At least that's what the bow-tied essayists and sandlot scouts solemnly tell us." - Johnette Howard in Sports Illustrated
National League Debuts

1876

n/a Paul Hines 1876 Chicago White Stockings 04-20-1876 21
n/a Tricky Nichols 1876 Boston Red Stockings 04-21-1876 25
n/a Sam Wright 1876 Boston Red Stockings 04-21-1876 27
n/a William Coon 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 04-22-1876 21
n/a Candy Cummings 1876 Hartford Dark Blues 04-22-1876 27
n/a Bill Fouser 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 04-22-1876 20
n/a Nat Hicks 1876 New York Mutuals 04-22-1876 31
n/a Andy Leonard 1876 Boston Red Stockings 04-22-1876 29
n/a Tim McGinley 1876 Boston Red Stockings 04-22-1876 22
n/a Jim O'Rourke 1876 Boston Red Stockings 04-22-1876 25
n/a Bill Parks 1876 Boston Red Stockings 04-22-1876 26
n/a Jack Manning 1876 Boston Red Stockings 04-23-1876 22
n/a Oscar Bielaski 1876 Chicago White Stockings 04-24-1876 29
n/a John Cassidy 1876 Hartford Dark Blues 04-24-1876 0
n/a John Morrill 1876 Boston Red Stockings 04-24-1876 21
n/a Al Nichols 1876 New York Mutuals 04-24-1876 24
n/a Amos Booth 1876 Cincinnati Red Stockings 04-25-1876 27
n/a Jack Chapman 1876 Louisville Grays 04-25-1876 32
n/a Bobby Clack 1876 Cincinnati Red Stockings 04-25-1876 25
n/a Jim Devlin 1876 Louisville Grays 04-25-1876 26
n/a Dave Pierson 1876 Cincinnati Red Stockings 04-25-1876 20
n/a Redleg Snyder 1876 Cincinnati Red Stockings 04-25-1876 21
n/a Ed Somerville 1876 Louisville Grays 04-25-1876 23
n/a Eddie Booth 1876 New York Mutuals 04-26-1876 0
n/a John Clapp 1876 St. Louis Brown Stockings 04-26-1876 24
n/a Tim Murnane 1876 Boston Red Stockings 04-26-1876 24
n/a Tommy Bond 1876 Hartford Dark Blues 04-27-1876 20
n/a Fred Warner 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 04-30-1876 0
n/a Jack Burdock 1876 Hartford Dark Blues 05-02-1876 24
n/a Herman Dehlman 1876 St. Louis Brown Stockings 05-02-1876 24
n/a Jack Remsen 1876 Hartford Dark Blues 05-02-1876 0
n/a Whitey Ritterson 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 05-02-1876 21
n/a Jim Shanley 1876 New York Mutuals 05-03-1876 21
n/a Art Allison 1876 Louisville Grays 05-04-1876 27
n/a Joe Blong 1876 St. Louis Brown Stockings 05-04-1876 22
n/a George Bradley 1876 St. Louis Brown Stockings 05-04-1876 23
n/a Tom Carey 1876 Hartford Dark Blues 05-04-1876 30
n/a Bill Hague 1876 Louisville Grays 05-04-1876 24
n/a Charley Jones 1876 Cincinnati Red Stockings 05-04-1876 26
n/a Bobby Mathews 1876 New York Mutuals 05-04-1876 24
n/a Ezra Sutton 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 05-04-1876 26
n/a Deacon White 1876 Chicago White Stockings 05-04-1876 28
n/a Doug Allison 1876 Hartford Dark Blues 05-05-1876 29
n/a Ross Barnes 1876 Chicago White Stockings 05-05-1876 25
n/a Davy Force 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 05-05-1876 26
n/a Charlie Gould 1876 Cincinnati Red Stockings 05-05-1876 28
n/a George Hall 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 05-05-1876 27
n/a John Hatfield 1876 New York Mutuals 05-05-1876 28
n/a Cal McVey 1876 Chicago White Stockings 05-05-1876 26
n/a Everett Mills 1876 Hartford Dark Blues 05-05-1876 31
n/a Harry Schafer 1876 Boston Red Stockings 05-05-1876 29
n/a Al Spalding 1876 Chicago White Stockings 05-05-1876 25
n/a George Wright 1876 Boston Red Stockings 05-05-1876 29
n/a Harry Wright 1876 Boston Red Stockings 05-05-1876 41
n/a Bob Addy 1876 Chicago White Stockings 05-06-1876 38
n/a Cap Anson 1876 Chicago White Stockings 05-06-1876 24
n/a Cherokee Fisher 1876 Cincinnati Red Stockings 05-06-1876 32
n/a Scott Hastings 1876 Louisville Grays 05-06-1876 28
n/a Denny Mack 1876 St. Louis Brown Stockings 05-06-1876 0
n/a John McGuinness 1876 New York Mutuals 05-06-1876 19
n/a John Carbine 1876 Louisville Grays 05-08-1876 20
n/a George Zettlein 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 05-08-1876 31
n/a Bill Craver 1876 New York Mutuals 05-09-1876 31
n/a Mike McGeary 1876 St. Louis Brown Stockings 05-09-1876 24
n/a Lip Pike 1876 St. Louis Brown Stockings 05-09-1876 30
n/a Tom York 1876 Hartford Dark Blues 05-09-1876 25
n/a John Glenn 1876 Chicago White Stockings 05-13-1876 26
n/a Jim Holdsworth 1876 New York Mutuals 05-14-1876 25
n/a Bill Harbridge 1876 Hartford Dark Blues 05-15-1876 21
n/a Fred Treacey 1876 New York Mutuals 05-16-1876 29
n/a Frank Whitney 1876 Boston Red Stockings 05-17-1876 20
n/a Jim Clinton 1876 Louisville Grays 05-18-1876 25
n/a Dave Eggler 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 05-18-1876 27
n/a Bob Ferguson 1876 Hartford Dark Blues 05-18-1876 31
n/a Dickey Pearce 1876 St. Louis Brown Stockings 05-18-1876 40
n/a Joe Start 1876 New York Mutuals 05-18-1876 33
n/a Sam Field 1876 Cincinnati Red Stockings 05-19-1876 27
n/a George Seward 1876 New York Mutuals 05-19-1876 25
n/a Charlie Sweasy 1876 Cincinnati Red Stockings 05-19-1876 28
n/a George Bechtel 1876 Louisville Grays 05-20-1876 27
n/a Ned Cuthbert 1876 St. Louis Brown Stockings 05-20-1876 30
n/a Wes Fisler 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 05-20-1876 31
n/a George Heubel 1876 New York Mutuals 05-20-1876 27
n/a Terry Larkin 1876 New York Mutuals 05-20-1876 0
n/a Dick McBride 1876 Boston Red Stockings 05-20-1876 28
n/a Levi Meyerle 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 05-20-1876 26
n/a Bob Valentine 1876 New York Mutuals 05-20-1876 0
n/a John Peters 1876 Chicago White Stockings 05-23-1876 26
n/a Dick Higham 1876 Hartford Dark Blues 06-01-1876 24
n/a Fergy Malone 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 06-03-1876 31
n/a Dan Collins 1876 Louisville Grays 06-08-1876 22
n/a Pop Snyder 1876 Louisville Grays 06-16-1876 21
n/a Lew Brown 1876 Boston Red Stockings 06-17-1876 18
n/a Dory Dean 1876 Cincinnati Red Stockings 06-22-1876 23
n/a Nealy Phelps 1876 New York Mutuals 07-01-1876 35
n/a Doc Bushong 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 07-19-1876 19
n/a Joe Borden 1876 Boston Red Stockings 07-24-1876 22
n/a Fred Andrus 1876 Chicago White Stockings 07-25-1876 25
n/a Jimmy Hallinan 1876 New York Mutuals 07-26-1876 27
n/a George Fair 1876 New York Mutuals 07-29-1876 20
n/a Jim Ward 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 08-03-1876 21
n/a Henry Kessler 1876 Cincinnati Red Stockings 08-04-1876 29
n/a John Bergh 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 08-05-1876 18
n/a Pete Treacey 1876 New York Mutuals 08-05-1876 24
n/a Joe Battin 1876 St. Louis Brown Stockings 08-11-1876 23
n/a Dale Williams 1876 Cincinnati Red Stockings 08-12-1876 20
n/a Johnny Ryan 1876 Louisville Grays 08-19-1876 22
n/a Foghorn Bradley 1876 Boston Red Stockings 08-23-1876 21
n/a Will Foley 1876 Cincinnati Red Stockings 08-23-1876 20
n/a Chick Fulmer 1876 Louisville Grays 08-23-1876 25
n/a Joe Gerhardt 1876 Louisville Grays 09-01-1876 21
n/a Lon Knight 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 09-04-1876 23
n/a Bill Holbert 1876 Louisville Grays 09-05-1876 21
n/a Lou Paul 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 09-05-1876 0
n/a John Hayes 1876 New York Mutuals 09-09-1876 21
n/a John Mullen 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 09-09-1876 0
n/a Billy West 1876 New York Mutuals 09-09-1876 23
n/a John Curran 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 09-12-1876 24
n/a Flip Lafferty 1876 Philadelphia Athletics 09-15-1876 22
n/a John Maloney 1876 New York Mutuals 09-15-1876 0
n/a Frank Pearce 1876 Louisville Grays 10-04-1876 16
1876 National League Debuts


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Find out which players bid farewell to their field's of dreams in the National League during the 1876 season as this group of players made their Major League debut!

When Christy Mathewson made his Major League debut the newspaper wrote, "The untried semi-professional possessed great speed and plenty of confidence in himself, but could not control his curves."

On April 13, 1954, Hank Aaron made his Major League debut and went 0-for-5. However, in his own autobiography Aaron wrote that he went 0-for-4.
     

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