The Big Four
From BR Bullpen
The Big Four were Dan Brouthers, Jack Rowe, Hardy Richardson, and Deacon White. They played for Buffalo in 1881-85 and were sold as a group to Detroit in 1885, playing there 1886-88.
In 1889, White and Rowe had purchased financial interests in Buffalo, but the league prevented White from going there as Pittsburgh owned rights to him. The dispute was part of the reason the Players League was formed in 1890. White and Rowe ended up playing for Pittsburgh in 1889, while Brouthers and Richardson played for Boston.
In 1890, Brouthers and Richardson played for Boston in the Players League while White and Rowe played for the Buffalo entry in the same league.
The Big Four were not called that because of their height, as Jack Rowe was 5' 8". Rather, they were strong players. White was already a 33-year-old veteran in 1881, a winner of two previous batting championships, while Brouthers was 23, Rowe 24, and Richardson 26. Of the four, Jack Rowe had the shortest career (12 years), with 298 games at catcher perhaps having an effect in shortening his career.
Rowe's best year was 1881, when he hit .333 and led the league in triples. Richardson's best year was perhaps 1886, when he hit .351 and led the league in home runs. Brouthers, of course, is a Hall of Famer who led the league in OPS+ eight times.
The Big Four won the pennant and post-season play in 1887.
The Big Four played at various times on the same team with a number of other big stars of the time, including Davy Force, Jim O'Rourke, Pud Galvin and Sam Thompson.
They are sometimes remembered as all infielders, but Richardson played outfield early in his career and later on. They comprised an infield (catcher, first base, second base, and third base) from 1882-85, along with Davy Force at shortstop.
There are no similarity scores for groups of players, but a somewhat similar group that comes to mind as a comparison is the Los Angeles Dodgers infield from the 1970's of Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell and Ron Cey which played together for a decade. That infield, however, was never given a nickname that stuck for decades like the Big Four.
