Horace Phillips never played in the majors, but he was an ambitious business man and amateur catcher who eventually took over managing baseball teams during the 1870s and 1880s.

There were a lot of changes going on with the game in that period; new leagues formed – both major and minor – and players regularly jumped from team to team when opportunities presented themselves. Phillips himself helped organize the Columbus entry into the American Association in 1883 and had been involved with Troy in 1879. However, what makes Phillips stand out was his reputation for encouraging players to jump teams (among other types of occasional thievery).  

At some point in early 1884, George Bradley – who had left the Philadelphia team of the American Association and signed with the Cincinnati Outlaw Reds – was the target of other teams who thought they could steal Bradley’s services. One of them was Horace Phillips.

“Mr. George W. Bradley, the well known pitcher, under contract with the Cincinnati Union Club, has during the past week been made the target for the most infamous influences to induce him to break faith with the Union organization of this city. The persons who engineered this disreputable movement were officials of the Cincinnati (American) Club, Charlie Fulmer, one of the players, and Horace Phillips of the Grand Rapids team… Soon after his arrival here, Horace Phillips, whose reputation among ball players is too well known to need repetition, was engaged for a monetary consideration to induce Bradley to ignore his contract.”

At that point, Phillips and Fulmer got Bradley to leave town and allegedly mixed threats and warnings to try and break Bradley down. When, after a full day of convincing got Bradley to agree, word got out to the management of the Outlaw Reds, and their leadership found Bradley and managed to get Bradley to change his mind and stay with the Reds.

“Dishonorable Performance,” Cincinnati Enquirer, 04 April 1884: 4.

Anyway – Bradley never left his team, apparently never got paid by Cincinnati either requiring him to sue for past wages, and then – for jumping from Philadelphia to the Union Association – Bradley was blacklisted from the majors for some time. Maybe he should have taken Phillips’ offer!!!

(George Bradley’s SABR bio written by Brian Englehardt.)

For what it’s worth, Phillips left his gig in Grand Rapids when the team folded and he was engaged by the Pittsburgh Allegheny club.

“The Directors of the Allegheny Club have secured ‘Hustling Horace’ Phillips to take charge of the team for the balance of the season as manager. He will arrive on Monday and will probably bring three or four of the best men of the late Grand Rapids Club with him…”

“‘Hustling’ Horace Goes to Pittsburg,” Cincinnati Enquirer, 15 August 1884: 2.

As for Phillips, he kind of lost his marbles in 1889 and his managing career ended. He was treated and eventually placed in an asylum.

“Horace Phillips, ex-manager of the Pittsburg Club, is reported as dying in an Eastern insane asylum. A more thoroughly informed base ball man than Mr. Phillips the profession never produced. In later years he branched out as a manager and club organizer, establishing such well-known clubs as the Grand Rapids, The Hornellsville, The Syracuse Stars, the Columbus, and finally the Pittsburgs, to whose erratic performances the malady from which he has been suffering for two years is charged.

“Possibly no man in the business developed as many stars of the first magnitude as did Mr. Phillips. To him the profession is indebted for Dan Brouthers, Fred Dunlap and others who have filled the public eye and drawn largely from the coffers of the magnates. As an advertiser of his club Horace Phillips had no equal in the country. Things which would drop from the lips of other men without creating interest would fall from his laden with the most gorgeous possibilities and freighted with the greatest comfort. He knew a news item, and could give it vent with a polish and earnestness that was certain to find its lodgment in the paper of whatever reporter he gave it to. On making a bargain for a player Horace Phillips was always at home. No better evidence of this can be sought than his getting from the crafty Von der Ahe for almost a song such players as Jake Beckley and Harry Staley. Mr. Phillips was also a successful theatrical manager, and it was during the indulgence of a delusion that he had returned to that calling that the light of his wonderful mind went out never to be rekindled again.”

“Alas Poor Phillips,” The Sporting Life, 11 April 1891: 6.

A long search by Peter Morris, a SABR member, found that Phillips died in the Philadelphia Hospital for the Insane on February 26, 1896. He was not yet 40 years old. He was buried in Mount Vernon Cemetery near his parents.

SABR Biographical Research Committee Report (Jan/Feb, 2011)

“Horace Phillips Stricken,” The Sporting Life, 7 August 1889: 1.

Horace B. Phillips was born May 14, 1856 (Baseball-Reference.com and his FindAGrave.com say May 14, while other references say his birthday is May 20, 1856) in Salem, Ohio to Abel Penrose and Sarah (Holeman) Phillips – the last of nine children born to the farmer and his ridiculously busy wife. By 1860, the family moved to Philadelphia when Horace was still a toddler to open a hotel. Abel passed away in 1864; a few years later Horace was living with an older sister and still going to school. He completed at least a high school education.

A feature in the New York Clipper about Phillips say that about 1870 he started playing amateur baseball with the Girard club before shifting from a regular spot behind the plate to a left field role with the Zephyrs. Still a young teen, he played with a junior team in Syracuse as a catcher. As he approached his twentieth birthday he took on clerking roles until he was signed to a professional gig playing left field for Fergy Malone’s Philadelphia nine.

Until I get around to writing a better bio, I found this clip in the New York Clipper which gives you a pretty interestng history of Phillips’ life prior to his days with Pittsburgh. If it wasn’t written outright by Phillips, he certainly provided some editing to this article, which was written by scribe who was a fan of Phillips’ work.

“HORACE B. PHILLIPS, the well-known manager, was born May 20, 1856, in Salem, O., but since be was three months old his residence has been Philadelphia, Pa.

He began his ball-playing career in 1870 as catcher for the Girard club of Philadelphia, and during the two following seasons was left-fielder and change-catcher for the Zephyrs, another amateur organization for the same city. He played to a few games in 1873 with the Syracuse Stars — then the champion Juniors of Western New York – catching for Dunn and McCormick. He then engaged in business pursuits until 1877, when he filled his first professional engagement as left-fielder for the Philadelphia Club, under the management of the veteran Fergy Malone.

Soon succeeding Malone, Phillips made his debut as a manager, and he held that position with the Phlladelphias until August, 1877, when he was engaged to manage and play in the outfield for the professional team of Hornellsvllle, N. Y. Phillips remained with the Hornells up to August, 1878, and had the best team, considering the small salaries paid, that ever played professionally. During the remainder of the season of 1878 he managed the Syracuse Stars.

In 1879 he undertook the management of the League club in Troy N. Y., but resigned his position in August, having had no opportunity to show his ability. He then went to Baltimore, Md., where, in conjunction with A. H. Henderson, he ran a club during the remainder of the season of 1878, meeting, however, with but poor financial success. The same Winter found him playing in San Francisco, Cal., and returning East in April, 1880, he took the management of the Baltimore Club for a short period, and then went to Rochester, N. Y., where he was sole proprietor of a professional team used for advertising purposes by a patent-medicine firm. This was his only financial failure.

In 1881 he returned to Philadelphia, and, ln conjunction with Charles Mason and Wm. Sharsig, completed the reorganization of the present Athletic Club of that city. Here Phillips achieved his greatest success, the club — with home talent — clearing over $6,000 in a few months. He next joined forces with Al. Reach in organizing the Philadelphia Club, having in the meantime expended considerable cash in working up the American Association, which he was mainly instrumental in forming. Hulbert, however, induced Reach to join the League Alliance, and Phillips was consequently compelled to accept a salary instead of the more profitable partnership that he would have had in case the club had joined the American Association.

Phillips remained with Reach until July, 1882, when he joined the St. Louis Club as confidential agent. In September, 1882, he was sent to Columbus. 0., where he organized a club for the American Association, having raised $.5,000 for that purpose in four days. The Columbus Club in 1883, under his shrewd management, made the greatest six months’ record in the annals of baseball. Out of 183 days Phillips had games booked for 175 days, of which he played the exceedingly large number of 156 games. Of the remaining dates six were postponed on account of grounds unfinished, and thirteen by rain.

During the present season Phillips has managed the representative team of Grand Rapids, Mich., and under his able dlrection that club has made an enviable record, and is considered the coming champions of the Northwestern League. Phillips is considered as one of the best managers in the professional arena. He has always enforced strict but just discipline, and the financial result has been most satisfactory to each club with which he has been connected. He contemplates abandoning baseball after this season, having accepted a flattering oiler to act as advance-agent of the Comedy Four Combination.

“Horace B. Phillips,” New York Clipper, July 26, 1884: 4. (Also Image Source)

Notes:
1860, 1870 US Census