Gould actually began his baseball career in 1863 with a local club, the “Buckeyes”, for whom he’d play through the 1867 before “jumping” to the Red Stocking to assume their first base position the following year.
He’d be a Red Stocking for three seasons, spanning their winning campaigns against all comers, before moving on to the Boston Red Stockings with his Cincinnati teammates in the newly formed National Association.
By then he was considered one of the better defensive players in the game, a game that was still a bare-handed sport, a reputation that stayed with him through his playing days well in the Major Leagues when formed in 1876.
He’d end up playing the first two seasons of the new professional league, finishing up his playing career in 1877 after only 24 games played for the Reds, by then a second-division team far from their glory days.
All in all, he finished a six-year pro career, and a 15-year organized career well-regarded and part of some big-time history for the burgeoning sport before becoming a police officer in Cincinnati, passing away at the age of 69 in 1917.
