One of Brooklyn’s pioneer amateur baseball players, Alfred Tristram Metcalfe is in your baseball encyclopedia because he played eight games with the New York Mutuals of the National Association in 1875, playing third, short, and right field.  He also played on a very good Chelsea Base Ball Club in Brooklyn that was a championship level amateur team in the 1870s.

Metcalfe was the third child of Tristram and Elizabeth Mary Pearkes – a couple of English immigrants.  Tristram, as Alfred would do later, was a druggist while Elizabeth ran a busy upper-middle class home.  Alfred’s record on Baseball-Reference.com shows a Brooklyn birthplace (his obit says he was born on December 31, 1852 in the old Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn). However, the 1860 US Census suggests the three children of Tristram and Elizabeth Metcalfe were born in Canada, something that is noted in son Ernest’s passport application.

“Of the play of the Chelseas, on the occasion the short fielding of Metcalfe was quite a feature…”

As better organized baseball teams grew in Brooklyn in the years after the Great War for Slavery, both Alfred and his brother Ernest joined the junior Chelsea Base Ball Club – third baseman Ernest in 1867 and shortstop Alfred in 1868. As Ernest pursued a medical degree, only Alfred continued playing baseball after 1869. However, he stayed with the Chelseas for the entirety of his career, save for a three-week period in late May and early June 1875.

The Mutuals of New York needed an able body for three weeks; Metcalfe’s reputation as a capable fielder fit the bill. Metcalf contributed seven hits, two stolen bases, and an RBI in his eight games at three positions.

He returned to the Chelseas – that team would win three amateur championships and boasted three straight seasons without losing a home game from 1874 to 1876.

Alfred married Anne Angevine in 1876; they had four children during the years that Metcalfe built his professional career. From his father he learned to dispense drugs, eventually earning his own druggist license in 1886. Soon after he joined the Brooklyn health department, where he would occupy many roles over the next three decades.  At one point he was appointed acting chief Sanitary Inspector of Brooklyn and in that role “…devoted himself to improving the sweat shop conditions in Brooklyn.” This included organizing sweat shop raids in Brownsville. In 1900 he was made chief of the Medical School Division before becoming the chief clerk of the health department. Alfred and Anne remained active in Brooklyn’s social and political circles for the rest of their days.

The Metcalfes lived in the Eastern District of Brooklyn until his move to Flatbush in 1905. Enthusiastic fisherman and hunter.

“Alfred T. Metcalfe, 62, chief clerk of the Brooklyn Health Department, died on Wednesday at his summer cottage at Richie’s Point, Sheepshead Bay. He was in the drug business and active in Democratic politics prior to his appointment in the health office. He was a member of the Flatbush Democratic Club. His wife, three sons, and a daughter survive him.”

“Alfred T. Metcalfe,” New York Sun, 04 September 1914: 9.

Metcalfe died of apoplexy on September 2, 1914 and was buried in the family plot at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Sources:
1860, 1870, 1900 and 1910 US Census Records
Passport Application of Ernest Metcalfe
England Marriage Records
Virginia Marriage Records

“Sporting Items,” Brooklyn Daily Times, August 17, 1867: 3.
“Base Ball Items,” Brooklyn Daily Times, August 1, 1868: 3.
“Chelsea vs. Union Star,” Brooklyn Daily Times, August 25, 1870: 3.
“Chelsea Base Ball Club,” Brooklyn Daily Times, March 3, 1874: 3.
“Sports and Pastimes,” Brooklyn Eagle, August 28, 1873: 4.
“Sports and Pastimes,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 10, 1873: 3.
“A Brooklyn Nine’s Triumph,” Brooklyn Union, October 2, 1874: 3.
“Seawanhakas,” Brooklyn Daily Times, June 25, 1879: 4.
“Board of Pharmacy,” Buffalo Times, June 26, 1885: 1.
“Health Department Changes,” Brooklyn Union, April 28, 1886: 2.
“The Pleasant Walk,” Brooklyn Citizen, January 28, 1890: 2.
“Alfred T. Metcalfe Dies of Apoplexy,” Brooklyn Eagle, September 3, 1914: 18.

The photo shown here is cropped from one uploaded to Ancestry.com by a member (name not visible to me) and is also an image found on FindAGrave.com.