the team's best player this year was undoubtedly right fielder John Cassidy, who batted .378 and also led the team in many other categories. The team disbanded after the 1877 season and was replaced in the league with the Providence Grays. Author Mark Twain was a fan of the team. Notable alumni Lipman Pike, major league baseball; first Jewish base ball player; home run champion Tom Barlow, pioneer of the bunt, suffered from morphine addiction, mentioned in Ken Burns' Baseball Joe Start, a 27-year veteran who spanned the pre-professional to the professional era, and is credited with developing off-bag positioning of the first baseman Baseball Hall of Famers See also 1874 Hartford Dark Blues season 1875 Hartford Dark Blues season 1876 Hartford Dark Blues season 1877 Brooklyn Hartfords season Hartford Dark Blues all-time roster External links Major League Baseball in Gilded Age Connecticut: The Rise and Fall of the Middletown, New Haven and Hartford Clubs (Complete history of Hartford Dark Blues) Team index page at Baseball Reference The Hartford Dark Blues by David Arcidiacono (Hog River Journal 2003) Hartford Dark Blues Vintage Base Ball Club Bibliography Arcidiacono, David (2003) Grace, Grit and Growling: The Hartford Dark Blues Base Ball Club, 1874–1877 References Dark Blues Defunct Major League Baseball teams Defunct National Association baseball teams Hartfords Defunct sports teams in Connecticut Professional baseball teams in Connecticut 1874 establishments in Connecticut 1877 disestablishments in New York (state) Baseball teams established in 1874 Baseball teams disestablished in 1877 Sports in Brooklyn Defunct baseball teams in Connecticut