Somebody has to be first

Baseball’s first major trade – or at least what then is considered a major trade – takes place 138 years ago today in the American Association as the Cincinnati Red Stockings send catcher-first baseman Jack Boyle and a whopping $350 to the St. Louis Brown in return for outfielder Hugh Nicol.

Both are seen here in a pair of Ars Longa Art Cards.

Boyle, who plays in only one game as a rookie with Cincinnati in 1886, spends the next three seasons in St. Louis before eventually moving on to the National League with the New York Giants and Philadelphia Phillies for the final seven seasons of a mostly obscure career in which he hits .253 over 1,087 games.

Nicol is equally unimpressive with Cincinnati, playing out the last four seasons of his 10-year career there and finishing with a .235 batting average.

If nothing else, Nicol checks in as one of the smallest players in pro baseball history, measuring all of 5-foot-4 and weighing 145 pounds.