Shown: START OF SEASON: Boston opens Blowout victory with 26-0 start.

The longest major league winning streak prior to the twenty-six game skein of the 1916 New York Giants is this 26-0 Boston Red start.

The graph does not do the streak justice. Shown at far right is the controversial May 27th tie game versus the Athletic in Philadelphia. This came after Boston had reeled off twenty-two straight wins. In fact, the streak continued for nine more days until broken June 5th in St. Louis by a combination of factors which included catcher Deacon White being unable to play due to a thumb injury in the twenty-fifth win, a wild double-play pivot by second baseman Ross Barnes in the eighth inning which allowed the tie breaking run to score in the person of Dickey Pearce, and an outstanding performance by rookie curve-baller George Washington Bradley making his sixth major league start after being signed from a Reading, PA, semi-pro club. After the streak Boston cooled off and finished out the 80 game season at an .851 clip going 46-8.

Boston opened the year hosting New haven with an April 19th holiday crowd on hand celebrating the centennial of the battle of Lexington and Concord, the start of the Revolutionary War. They went 5-0 on a swing down to Washington and then swept ten quick games hosting Eastern teams. At 16-0 they traveled to Hartford where their opponents (in white) had opened the year 12-0. Boston swept two easily. In all Boston outscored their opponents 308-82, a per game margin of victory of over eight runs.

Far ahead of his time, Boston manager Harry Wright had players back up fielding plays and pitchers cover first base. He discombobulated opposing teams by calling out strategies to his batters. "Facing" meant hit to rightfield, and almost always happened with a runner on third base. He ran delayed double steals with runners on first and third often having the runner on first over-run second base and get caught in a run-down. He ordered catchers to drop third strikes forcing opposition base-runners off their bases and liked sending opposing teams to bat first (in the top of innings). Within a few years, Wright began advancing the causes of platooning and the pitching rotation. In 1879 the National League actually made a rule forbidding managers to stand on the field. Wright, the only manager who did so, began sitting in the stands, and never won another pennant.

1875 was the first in which Harry Wright himself did not play. He removed himself as captain and appointed Al Spalding the job not knowing that Spalding was hatching a plot to steal as many players as he could for the Chicago team of 1876. Spalding had a cock-sure attitude on the mound apparent to fans by a decided aloofness in pressure situations and an unflinching posture when the umpire demanded attention. The first responsibility Wright gave to Spalding was as secretary of the 1874 trip to England, a responsibility Spalding later said awoke a passion to run things. Spalding pitched without great speed or curves. He used a change of pace and excellent location and benefited from having the best defense known behind him. It was said Boston won many games during pre-game practice just in the way they threw the ball around the horn.

The tie against the Athletics was the only drama in the streak. It capped eight days of games in Philadelphia and came when Spalding and Athletic right-hander Dick McBride ended nine innings tied 3-3. In the top of the tenth, new Athletic second-baseman Bill Craver dropped a bases loaded popup with two outs and Boston got three runs for a 6-3 lead. Craver then grounded weakly back to Spalding in the bottom of the inning but Spalding threw high to Barnes at second-base for a double-play, the ball going into centerfield and loading the bases. Wright came out and argued that base-runner Anson had intentionally bumped into Barnes thus "interfering" with play and, after a long argument, umpire Billy McLean agreed. Anson was called out. The Athletics went nuts and ump McLean walked off the field to get a glass of water. Thinking the game forfeited, the crowd stormed the field and the score reverted to 3-3.

Note that after their 5/24 win Boston record was adjusted from 21-0 to 17-0. That's because four wins against a third Philadelphia franchise, the "Centennial", had to be thrown out per that team's disbandment. Hartford and the Athletics (olive green) lost one victory a piece. (The graph does show the first three losses of the Centennial club as little American flags.)

Disbandments plagued the 1875 National Association. In all, four of thirteen teams folded mid-year and 135 games, forty percent of the schedule, were thrown out. The effects of these disappearing franchises are readily seen on Boston's record: June 15th Keokuk disbanded, Boston went from 26-2 to 25-2; July 5th Washington disbanded, Boston went from 33-4 to 27-4; August 27th the St. Louis Reds disbanded, Boston going from 40-6 to 39-6; and September 15th Brooklyn and New Haven games were no longer counted and Boston's record fell from 47-6 to 38-6. Brooklyn and New Haven didn't disband but simply left too many unplayed games for the end of the year and their schedules couldn't be completed. The National Association habit of throwing out all the games from a non-completing team was at that point applied to them.

Encyclopedias today count "all games played" and Boston is seen with a 71-8 record over the second place Athletics, 53-20, and the third place Hartfords, 54-28. However, at the time, Boston officially ended the year 48-7 while the Athletic and Hartford clubs finished 32-19 and 28-27 respectively. Encyclopedias actually count ten games played by New Haven and Brooklyn after they were dumped by the Association mid-September.