Baseball History

George Edward “Rube” Waddell – Eccentric and Strange Pitcher

Tom Knuppel Baseball History
George Edward “Rube” Waddell – Eccentric and Strange Pitcher

There are many characters of the baseball world and Rube Waddell was certainly one of them. To add to his legacy, he was born on Friday the 13th and died on April Fools day It was all the stuff between there that made Waddell a character. At 6’1″ and almost 2oo lbs., he was a great athletic specimen. It was said he had the mind of a child and the attention span of a four-year-old.

He had a reputation for being a pitcher and was asked to come to a tryout hosted by manager Patsy Donovan. Before the first day, the team had breakfast and Waddell sat near Donovan After listening to the eccentric pitcher during breakfast, Donovan released him before he got to the field. The Louisville Colonels signed him in 1897.

He was a fantastic pitcher with a blazing fastball and struck four times more batters than he walked. Batters had little success against him unless the team could find a way to break his concentration. That wasn’t difficult to do. It was reported that one team had a couple of puppies and kittens (smuggled) brought into the stadium and would have patrons hold them up at various times with Waddell on the mound. He would stop and stare at them and forget about batters and runners.

He had an affinity for fires. He once heard a fire engine roaring by the stadium with all of its bells and sirens blaring and dropped his glove on the mound and followed it. He regularly assisted firefighters, from a bucket brigade in Pewaukee, Wisconsin to large departments in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, or Washington.

During spring training (never during the regular season) he would instruct his infielders to stay in the dugout for the next half inning and he would strike out the side during games. Eventually, by 1902, he was a success and attendance in Philadelphia increased dramatically as fans wanted to see this character. He had cigars, liquor and other items named after him.

In was the 1903 season that was traumatic for Waddell. He got married in June to a girl he met three days earlier. They never actually spent time together and she turned him into authority asking for and receiving support. The marriage, in name only, lasts for six years.  In July, he was suspended and jailed for being up a spectator in the stands after being goaded by a gambler.

During the offseason, Rube could be found trying his hand at traveling theater The production company used his name but never gave him much of a part in any of the shows. He was a frequent no-show and they had to tear up his contract. He would head to Florida in the winter and wrestle alligators for show.

In 1905, he outdueled the great Cy Young in a 20 inning game. He reportedly used the game ball to barter for free drinks at saloons in his path. He would give the barkeep the ball for free drinks that night. He must have had hundreds of “so-called” game balls from that Cy Young game.

Just before the World Series in 1905, Waddell claimed he had a sore shoulder and couldn’t pitch. His story is that he and another player argued over a straw hat and he injured his shoulder. Many believe that gamblers paid him to miss the World Series. Things went downhill for Rube Waddell from there and he eventually moved from team to team with diminishing baseball skills.

His health got poor after helping lay sandbags in Kentucky with an impending flood ready to destroy some towns. He contracted pneumonia and stayed ill for several months. He lost 60-70 pounds and couldn’t hold up as he contracted tuberculosis. He died on April 1, 1914, at the age of 37.

 

Career

WAR  57.9  W 193  L  143  ERA 2.16  G 407  GS  340  IP  2961.1  SO  2316  WHIP  1.102

 

Baseball History- How Cleveland Become the Indians

Tom Knuppel Baseball History , ,
Baseball History- How Cleveland Become the Indians

This story begins on October 24, 1871, with the birth of Louis Sockalexis. He was a member of the Penobscot Indian tribe in Maine. He grew to be six feet tall and had a muscular build in which he would use to become a spectacular athlete in his youth. He was the best athlete among his peers and went on to play semipro baseball and that was when he got noticed.

In 1894, he played baseball at Ricker Classical Institute in Maine and also played on various teams during the summer. One of his teammates, Mike Powers, convinced Louis to enroll at Holy Cross to play baseball. Sockalexis was a Catholic and a decent student and quickly was accepted.

He proceeded to bat .436 in 1895 and .444 in 1896 for the Holy Cross team. Along with that, he was a star athlete on the first football team in 1896 where he excelled as the running back. In the spring, he ran track and many days he won as many as five first-place medals. However, it was baseball that he got the most notice playing. It has been reported a few professors measured one of Sockalexis’ throws and claim he tossed in 413 feet.

The major league teams had a keen interest in him but the Cleveland Spiders had two players that had direct connections to Holy Cross athletics. In 1896, Sockalexis and Powers left school and enrolled at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana. He lasted no more than three months before he was kicked out of school as they both got into a fight at a tavern over a girl and basically destroyed the place.

With no college affiliation and no baseball, he signed with Cleveland in the winter and worked hard on training in the off-season to make the club in the Spring. He showed up in top shape and impressed manager Patsy Tebeau so much that he made the squad. One sportswriter was impressed with the Penobscot Indian player and referred to the team as “Tebeau’s Indians.”  The name didn’t stick but it planted a seed for later in baseball history.

Spring training was a time for Sockalexis to impress the baseball world. The Spiders played their first intrasquad game on April 2. Tebeau divided the team into the “Indians” and the “Papooses,” and Sockalexis, batting cleanup for the Indians, drilled three hits, scored three runs, and threw a runner out at the plate from deep right field. He was a wonder.

Things went well until early July when it was discovered Sockalexis has a huge problem with drinking alcohol in excess. That evening it is said he either jumped or was pushed out of a second floor window at a brothel that he frequented and promptly injured his ankle very badly. When he got back to the club, he was sent to a doctor that put a cast on it for almost a week. While his team was on the road, he was drinking every night a the local tavern.

There are stories galore from here on out about how he lost his baseball skills as they eroded due to inebriation. He dropped fly balls, he couldn’t run the bases properly and now moved from team to team trying to hang on in baseball but to no avail. He left baseball in 1898 and went back to Maine to play on some local teams. He played in 94 major league games.

Back in Maine, he tried to teach other children to play baseball even after taking a job in the logging industry cutting down trees. But at the age of 42, he suffered a heart attack and died. In 1915, team owner Charles Somers was looking for a new name for his team when he decided to revive the name that was given almost 20 years before and called it the Indians.

 

 

Peaches Graham – Born in Aledo Illinois- Major Leaguer

Tom Knuppel Baseball History
Peaches Graham – Born in Aledo Illinois- Major Leaguer

 

Peaches Graham

Position: Catcher

Bats: Right • Throws: Right

Born: March 23, 1877, in Aledo, IL 

Died: July 25, 1939 

Buried: Cremated

Debut: September 14, 1902

Last Game: June 18, 1912 

 

George Frederick “Peaches” Graham (March 23, 1877 – July 25, 1939) was a baseball catcher for the Cleveland Bronchos, Chicago Cubs, Boston Doves/Rustlers, and Philadelphia Phillies.

For seven seasons Graham toiled in the major leagues which spanned eleven years. He made his debut with the Broncos at second base and then moved to the Cubs in 1903 where he pitched in one game and suffered a loss. He was out of baseball for five years and then returned to the Braves in 1908 as a utility player,

He played several positions with them and covered second base, third base, shortstop, outfielder, and catcher. In the middle of the season of 1903, he was traded to the Chicago Cubs but only appeared in three games for them before he was once again traded to Philadelphia for Dick Cotter. He concluded his career in 1912 at the age of 35 years.

In his career, he drove in 85 runs with one home run and a batting average of .265 in 999 at-bats. He died at the age of 62 in Long Beach, CA. His son Jack, who was born in 1916, played professional baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants, and St. Louis Browns between 1946 and 1949.

 

 

Baseball History in 1876- Start of the National League

Tom Knuppel Baseball History , , , , ,

At the conclusion of 1875, the organization was known as the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (also known as NA) disbanded as it was known as a conglomerate of drunken players, rowdy men, corrupt and mismanaged businessmen and under the influence of gambling. But the fact remains that after five seasons, they ran out of money.

A Chicago businessman, William Hulbert, began the process of forming the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (also known as NL) on February 2, 1876. He was the owner of the Chicago White Stockings, which were also known as the Chicag0 Cubs. He put together some new rules that any team that wished to join must have at least 75,000 people or more. He set up the league with eight teams and each team between April 22 and October 21 would play seventy games.

Who Is William Hulbert?

He was born on October 23, 1832, in Burlington Falls, New York and at the age of two years, his family moved to Chicago. That would be his home for his entire life except for the period of time when he attended Beloit College. His in-laws had a very successful grocery business and he expanded the business into the coal trade. It was from this that he became a very rich person. He became involved in 1874 with the Chicago White Stockings when he became an officer on the Board of Directors. 

 

 

There would be eight teams in the National League which included the Chicago White Stockings, Hartford Dark Blues, St. Louis Brown Stockings, Boston Red Caps, Louisville Grays, New York Mutuals, Philadelphia Athletics, and the Cincinnati Reds. Ten days after the formation (February 12), Chicago was the first to announce that they had signed Albert Spalding as a player on their team. Shortly after that, Spalding announced he would start a sporting goods store in Chicago and called it Spaldings.

On April 22, 1876, the first National League game was played and the Philadelphia Athletics were victorious over the Boston Red Caps 6-5. In that game. Joe Borden was the winning pitcher and the first base hit of the league went to Jim o’Rourke. Pitcher Albert Spalding threw the first shoutout on April 25th as Chicago won 4-0 over Louisville. It was a doubleheader and Spalding tossed another shutout in game two.

The first National League home run was an inside-the-park homer on May 2nd from Ross Barnes of the White Stockings. The game was against the Cincinnati team and the pitcher that allowed the first home run was Cherokee Fisher. There was a triple play on May 13 as the Hartford club pulled it off the Hartford Dark Blues. Also in May, the first tied happened on the 25th of the month between the Louisville Grays and the Philadelphia Athletics.

The first cry of cheating came on May 30, 1876, when the right fielder for Louisville, George Bechtel, made three of the teams nine errors. He was asked to resign when officials found a wire dated a few weeks later that he sent which mentions conspiring to lose and solidify his winning bet. The team kicked him off the team after he refused to quit. (Bechtel’s Wikipedia page)

With two months in the books, some events that took place in June include George Hall of the Athletics hitting two home runs in the same game as his team defeated the Reds 23-15. Davy Force has six hits in six at-bats on June 17 to lead his team to a 14-13 win over Chicago and Albert Spalding.

The first no-hitter was in the books on July 15, 1876, when George Bradley of the St. Louis Brown Stockings won 2-0 at St. Louis Grand Avenue Park over the Hartford Dark Blues. Cal McVey of the White Stocking garners six hits in a game which now totals 15 hits in three games, and 18 hits in four games which tie his own record.

On August 22 with the game tied, a St. Louis hitter smacks the ball down the third base line and hits one of his teammates. The umpire rules the runner can score and Chicago makes a protest and leaves the field. Now the umpire rules the Brown Stocking the winner of the game.

On September 11, 1876, the Philadelphia Athletics quits the league due to financial concerns. Five days later, September 16, the New York Mutuals do the same thing and inform the league they will not travel west for the final trip of the year due to financial constraints.

The Chicago White Stockings clinch the pennant on September 26 with a 7-6 win over Hartford. They finish the year with 52 wins and 14 losses. In the second place, the Hartford team is 47-21, followed by St. Louis at 45-19 and Boston with a 39-31 record. The other teams all finish under the .500 mark.

The Chicago Tribune published, on October 23, 1876,  a section in their paper which included stats for the year. This is the first known instance of this happening. At the end of the year meeting on December 10, the New York team and Philadelphia squads are expelled for not finishing the season. Also, at that same meeting in Cleveland, William Hulbert was elected President of the National League.

 

Alta Weiss- Female Baseball Pitcher

Tom Knuppel Baseball History , , ,
Alta Weiss- Female Baseball Pitcher

ALTA WEISS

Born on February 9, 1890, in Berlin, Holmes County, Ohio, she was the daughter of Dr. George and Lucinda Zehnder Weiss.

In the early 1900s, four women – Lizzie Arlington, Alta Weiss, Lizzie Murphy and Josie Caruso – immersed themselves into men’s professional baseball. The news of their playing would often bring in large crowds so they were seen more as promotional gimmicks instead of serious players. In a time when gender roles were deeply ingrained in the fiber of society, these women’s abilities began to chip away at that barrier. Baseball was a man’s game until a seventeen-year-old girl in a long heavy wool shirt and baseball hat stepped up the pitcher’s mound and struck out numerous players. That girl was Alta Weiss.

She was the middle child of three girls, Alta stood out right away. At that age of two, her father once stated that she “hurled a corncob at the family cat with all the follow-through and wrist-snap of a big league pitcher.” Why did she throw it at the cat? Reportedly, she was trying to save a bird the cat had its eye on. Her father, a doctor, saw Alta’s talent and nurtured it. So what does any father do to encourage his young child to continue to enhance their talents? Create a high school. In 1905, Alta’s father established a local high school which allowed her to play on its newly created baseball team. Additionally, he transformed their barn into a gym and created “Weiss Ball Park” so that his daughter would have more opportunity to train and play.

Alta’s particular talent was pitching and she soon perfected the fastball, knuckleball, and spitball. Many were skeptical of a girl who could pitch – especially one would that could play at the same level as male players. She proved her abilities during a vacation in Vermilion, Ohio with her two sisters in the summer of 1907. Alta was playing baseball with some local boys when the town’s mayor happened upon it. Seeing her skills he went to Charles Heidloff who was the manager of the semipro Vermilion Independents. The Independents had just lost their starting pitcher. The mayor told Charles that he should have Alta join the team. Taken aback, Charles refused. The mayor wanted to prove to Charles that Alta did indeed have the skills it took to be on the semipro team and arranged a game. Alta struck out 15 men. Charles immediately signed her as the Independents’ starting pitcher.

At the age of seventeen, Alta became a member of Ohio’s Vermilion Independents. Every weekend, she would travel almost 130 miles to Vermilion to play. On September 2, 1907, she made her pitching debut in front of over 1,200 fans. Alta pitched 5 innings and gave up only 4 hits and 1 run. Hailed as the “Girl Wonder”, Alta was a fan and newspaper favorite. So much so that special trains were commissioned to run from Cleveland to Vermilion so that people could see Alta in action.

Usually, Alta would pitch the first five innings before moving to first base. It was estimated that over 13,000 fans came to watch her during her first season. When she played at Cleveland’s League Park on October 2, 1907, there was a season high audience of 3,182 and Alta led the Independents to victory against the Vacha All-Stars with a score of 7-6.

In 1908, Alta’s father bought a half interest in the team and renamed it “Weiss All-Stars.” She wore a black uniform while the male team players wore white uniforms. Alta also changed her previous uniform of long heavy shirts to bloomers. In an interview that year, she explained her change in attire: “I found out you can’t play ball in skirts. I tried. I wore a skirt over my bloomers and nearly broke my neck.” The Weiss All-Stars were based in Cleveland. She continued to draw large crowds during home games as well as away games throughout Ohio and Kentucky.


The 1908 Weiss All-Stars semipro players. Back (L-R): Roth (c), Grill (1b), Tischer (rf), Miss Irma Weiss (Alta’s sister), Meyer (lf), Murphy (c), Hobart (2b). Front: Hoffman (2b), Lehman (3b), Chas. Heidloff (mgr), Miss Alta Weiss (p), Ebner (ump), Langenhan (cf), Sonnendecker (ss). Absent: Reynolds (p), Zmich (p) and Winchester (c).

Photo Credit: Ohio Historical Society via Vermilion Views

While Alta was playing baseball, she was also following her father’s footsteps and studied medicine. She paid for school using the money she earned from playing ball. Alta graduated from the Starling-Ohio Medical School (a predecessor to the Ohio State University College of Medicine) in 1914. As with her baseball team, she was the only female in her class. Alta continued to play baseball for seventeen years until she hung up her uniform in 1922.

After leaving the pitcher’s mound, Alta practiced medicine – first in Norfolk, Ohio before settling back in Ragersville. The Vermilion, Ohio website stated that, at one point, she “owned 10 cats, drove a 1940 Buick for decades, and read no less than 3 newspapers daily.” Alta also enjoyed watching the town youngsters play ball. She passed away on February 12, 1964 (three days after her 74th birthday).

Alta’s trailblazing role in baseball paved the way for other female players. She played her first game thirty-six years before the famed All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was created due to the mass player shortage during World War II. Alta’s skills with a baseball proved that an unexpected person can have remarkable talents.

 

Baseball History: Baseball Becomes a Business in 1869

Tom Knuppel Baseball History , , , , , ,
Baseball History: Baseball Becomes a Business in 1869

 When Baseball Became a Business

   Harry Wright knew he could make money by putting a baseball team together. He was a ballplayer himself that once hit seven home runs in a game. He convinced a group of Ohio investors, in 1869, to finance the team and he was named manager. Wright was sure that he could get people to pay 25-50 cents to see a game. Afterall, they paid a dollar for the theater.

In Wright’s world, he wanted his players to be professional on the field so he paid them and then he drilled the fundamentals of the game into their head. He also desired that players remain silent on the field and act like businessmen. The team was supplied with knickers for pants as that would help their speed. The majority of the players came from New York but were relocated to Cincinnati. The team was called the Cincinnati Red Stockings.

 

Wright had standards and he told them:

 

In regard to diet, eat hearty. Roast beef rare will aid, live regularly, keep good hours and abstain from intoxicating drinks and tobacco. You must be a sure catch, good thrower, strong and accurate, a reliable batter, and a good runner, all to be brought out by steady and persevering practice.

 

 

Wright paid all the players. His younger brother, George, was the shortstop and he was paid $1400 for the season and he paid himself $1200 to be the manager. George was worth his salary as he batted .519, scored 339 runs, hit 59 home runs and made spectacular plays. The star pitcher was Asa Brainard and he had good control and strong concentration. The team went 65-0 for the 1869 season and the investors made $1.39 in profit for the season. This undefeated season got the attention of the townspeople and they took pride in their team and that secured Cincinnati as the baseball capital in the United States.

However, only one of the players came from Cincinnati as the rest of them were paid to come in from other cities such as New York. They took time off from the “real” jobs which included two hatters, two insurance salesmen, a bookkeeper and a piano maker. The following season they branch out and win their first 27 games before they travel to Brooklyn to face the Atlantics. The Red Stockings were favored 5 to 1 to win the game as 15,000 people came out to watch the contest.

Cincinnati went out to an early three-run lead but the Atlantics countered with two in the fourth and two runs in the sixth. After nine innings, the game was tied 5-5. The Atlantics were ecstatic and began to leave the field with a tie but the Red Stockings manager, Harry Wright, stated that clearly, the rules say that both teams must agree to end in a tie or it goes into extra innings. After a short discussion and possibly an argument, they decided to allow Henry Chadwick, chairman of the Rules Committee of the National Association to make the decision. He told them to continue playing.

Cincinnati didn’t want a tie or to lose and things went well for them in the eleventh inning as they scored two runs. But something happened in the bottom half as the pitcher allowed a single and then the runner reached third on a wild pitch. After a few hits they Atlantics snatched the victory and they had plenty to celebrate.

Cincinnati was devasted. The fans were devasted. So much so that they quit going to the games. Their team was not invincible. Investors withdrew their financial support. Players stopped getting paid. The team had to disband. Harry Wright understood it was a business and he took the best players and set up a new team in Boston.

A new league was formed on March 17, 1871 on the corner of 13th street and Broadway in Manhattan and amateur baseball ended and each player was given $800 to play for the nine-team league which consisted of the Boston Red Stockings, Chicago White Stockings, Philadelphia Athletics, New York Mutuals, Washington Olympics, Troy Haymakers, Fort Wayne Kekiongas, Cleveland Forest Citys, and Rockford Forest Citys. Each team was expected to set up five games against each other and the team with the most wins were the champions.

 

The First Real Baseball Pitcher- Jim Creighton

Tom Knuppel Baseball History

Born on April 15, 1841, Jim Creighton was baseball’s first real star and made his pitching debut with the Brooklyn Niagaras at age eighteen in 1859. He would join the Brooklyn Star Club that year and then join the Excelsior Club, in 1860, for “under the table inducements.” Although it is difficult to prove, he was probably the first paid player.

On June 30, 1860, the Excelsior Club boarded a train and embarked on the first great baseball tour. They started in upper New York State and on July 2 defeated the Champion Club of Albany, 24–6. On July 3 the Victory Club of Troy fell to the Excelsiors 13–7. They enjoyed a 50–19 victory against the Buffalo Niagaras on July 5. Wins in Rochester, NY and Newburgh, NY followed and the Excelsiors returned to Brooklyn on July 12 to prepare for the Atlantic Base Ball Club. On July 19, some 10,000 fans turned out to watch pitching ace Jim Creighton win easily 24–4. Afterwards they turned south in response to many invitations and played the Excelsior Club of Baltimore and won 51–6 on July 22. The trip concluded with games in Philadelphia, Maryland and Delaware, with the Excelsiors winning every game.

At the time Creighton pitched, the ball had to be delivered with a stiff-armed underhand motion. Creighton was said to be one of the first to bend the rule. He inaugurated speed pitching by adding an almost undetectable wrist snap and arm bend to his delivery. From 45 feet away he threw his rising “speedballs” and then threw slow pitches he called “dew drops” to further confuse the batter. During this time the pitcher’s job was to help the batter and not hinder him. Fielding was to decide the game and some detested his aggressive approach. On November 8, 1860, Creighton would record baseball’s first shutout. He was also an excellent hitter, scoring 47 runs in 20 games that same year. During the 1862 season, he was reportedly retired only four times.

On October 18, 1862, playing against the Union Club of Morrisania, NY, Creighton hit a home run. John Chapman, who was on-deck, heard something snap during Creighton’s swing. After Jim crossed home plate he assured Chapman that his belt had broken. Four days later the Excelsior star was dead having ruptured his spleen or bladder in the process. He had bled to death of internal injuries. Jim Creighton was 21.

Here is an article with a reprinted letter from a fan in attendance (at his last game) from the St. Louis Republican in 1887:

 “Creighton’s death occurred from the rupture of his bladder, which occurred while he was pitching for the Excelsiors against the Unions of Morrisania. I was a kid at the time, and was a spectator of the match. Creighton played out the game, although I think he changed positions and went out into the field to play during the last two or three innings. Some of my companions averred that they heard his bladder burst, but if they did they did not say anything about it at the time, and it was not generally known until the next day that the celebrated pitcher was injured.”

 

He has not been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

 

 

 

Creighton’s monument