<— January 11th     January 13th —>

BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1856 John Frank “Chub” Sullivan

“Chub” was more likely a reference to his thin frame – 6′ 0″ and maybe 165 pounds… He was the son of Patrick and Hannah Sullivan, both immigrants from Ireland.

Sullivan played on The Star Club of Boston, organized by Father James Troy – the team went undefeated in 1874 and was the Massachusetts Junior club champions.  Sullivan then played professionally with the Clippers of Webster, Tauntons, Ithicas, Buckeyes of Columbus, Cincinnatis, and the Worcesters. Joe Start was asked about Chub’s skills at first base. “His superior never lived, and I have played against them all for the past twenty years.”

Foley, Charles J. “The Stars of Boston,” Boston Globe, 02 May 1887: 8

Chub played for Cincinnati in 1877 and 1878, moved to Worcester in 1879 when it was a minor league team and stayed with that team when it successfully applied to join the National League in 1880.

“Do you remember poor Chub Sullivan? What a big-hearted fellow he was. Chub was the first baseman of the team. He was a tall, handsome fellow, and one of the best dressed ball players I ever saw. He always wore fashionable clothes, and he was a fellow that could wear them, too.

Kelly, Mike. “Play Ball,” Ottawa Daily Citizen, 04 August 1888: 2.

Arthur Irwin on Chub Sullivan:

“Sullivan actually played one season without a fielding error. Of course, the schedule called for about half as many games as the 154-game schedule of this season, but a first baseman who can play seventy or eighty games without an error ought to play twice that number with a clean record in the error column. Sullivan was simply perfection with his hands. He made clean pick-ups with both right and left hands, plucked the sphere out of the ambient as it sailed toward the right or left of him or was bound over his head… Chub never wore a glove, as the big mitt wasn’t invented in those days. He simply worked with the bare hand…

“Baseball Talk,” Buffalo Courier, 28 November 1898: 3.

Sullivan started having issues with his lungs as early as the summer of 1880.

“‘Chub’ Sullivan, first baseman of the Worcesters, is sick with typhoid fever, and may not be able to play again till September…”

“Sporting Notes,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 24 July 1880: 4.

Chub Sullivan, first baseman of the Worcesters, has been released. He has been given a month’s trial in practice games and being unable to bat or run satisfactorily, the directors did not care to take the risk of putting him in the championship games Saturday against the Troys. His lungs are affected, and it is thought his ball-playing days are over.

“Sporting Matters,” Detroit Free Press, 30 April 1881: 1.

According to the Massachusetts Death Records, Sullivan died of phthisis, or tuberculosis, on 12 September 1881 – just 25 years old.

“…The Worcesters played with crape on their arms in memory of Chub Sullivan, a member of the team, who died in Boston yesterday.”

“Worcester Vs. Buffalo,” Chicago Tribune, 14 September 1881: 6.

Trivia: Chub Sullivan played in 43 games for Worcester in 1880, batting 166 times and getting 43 hits, including six doubles and three triples. He didn’t drive in a single run.

1859 Ed Swartwood
1860 Henry Larkin
1860 John Waltz

Waltz is credited with having managed eight games with the Baltimore Orioles in 1892.  His role is greater than that – he was really a business manager.  George Van Haltren had been fired; Waltz took over the reins briefly, but worked with the owner to acquire Ned Hanlon to manage the team.  Waltz won the last two games of his tenure, turned the team over to Hanlon, and the Orioles soon became the most formidable team of that decade.

1862 John Crowley
1866 Tom Kinslow
1868 Dan Daub
1869 Nat Hudson
1872 Togie Pittinger
1876 George Browne
1877 Charlie Buelow
1877 Ed Murphy
1878 Admiral Schlei
1879 Hank Olmsted
1879 Gary Wilson
1881 Jim Callahan
1889 Harry (Doc) Imlay
1893 Lefty Lorenzen
1893 Charlie Young
1895 Jack Knight
1895 Henry Bostick
1898 Rip Wade
1898 George Knothe
1899 Joe Hauser
1900 Garnett Norman

Trying to find a cause of death here…  Garnett Wesley Norman was born in Chattanooga, TN on January 12, 1900 to John and Salona (Hill) Norman.  As a teen, he was brought into the US Army as a cook, but returned to Chattanooga to work as a laborer there.  He found baseball – maybe baseball found Norman – and he was good enough to get a look with the Memphis Red Sox in 1924.  Norman proved to be an excellent fly chaser and was given the nickname of “Bug House” – I hope to one day learn why.  He died at his home on March 8, 1925 at just 25 – the local papers didn’t carry anything about it; thankfully I found a brief obit in the Pittsburgh Courier a week later.  In it, we learn he had two sisters – one he lived with in Chattanooga for a little while.  He was buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in Chattanooga.

1910 Buster Haywood
1915 Roy Easterwood
1916 Willie Burns
1917 Edgar Chatman
1925 Ed Stevens
1937 Phil Mudrock
1940 George Kernek
1945 Bob Reed
1945 Paul Gilliford
1947 Gene Martin
1947 Leon Everitt
1947 Paul Reuschel
1950 Randy Jones
1951 Bill Madlock

I remember Mad Dog as the third baseman acquired by the Cubs for Fergie Jenkins – and a four-time NL Batting champ.  As soon as he asked for a big raise, the Cubs sent him to the Giants for Bobby Murcer (and others) and paid Murcer even more money than that which Madlock asked.

1953 Terry Whitfield
1955 Chuck Porter
1956 Juan Bonilla
1958 Rod Craig
1960 Mike Marshall
1960 Tim Hulett
1960 Mike Trujillo
1961 Casey Candaele
1967 Mike Simms
1970 Nigel Wilson
1971 Andy Fox
1972 Rich Loiselle
1975 Jorge Velandia
1977 Reggie Taylor
1978 Luis Ayala
1980 Bobby Crosby
1982 Chris Ray
1982 Dontrelle Willis

What a cool dude… Came up with the Marlins when they found more great young starters than most teams will ever see. (Beckett, Willis, Penny, et al) I mean, he was a Rookie of the Year and won a World Series in 2003. Two years later the lefty won 22 games and finished second in Cy Young voting. In his first five seasons he threw 1000 innings and, because he was athletic and graceful, he looked like he’d do that forever. Willis had a huge leg kick, could hit really well, always seemed to be in a great mood. Fans loved him.

When he was ready to get a big paycheck he and Miguel Cabrera wound up in Detroit. Cabrera remained one of the greatest hitters we’ll ever see, but Willis suddenly couldn’t throw strikes. He had kind of a complicated windup and motion and suddenly he got out of whack and never figured it out again. His major league career was over before he turned 30.

Nine seasons (five in Florida) wasn’t enough for me – I want to still see him pitch and hit and get the love from Marlins fans.

1984 Scott Olsen

Teammate of Dontrelle Willis for a few years, but never was as consistent as some of the other kids who came through the Marlins chain at the time. His strikeout rates slipped a little each year after a decent 2006, which isn’t a good sign. Moved to the Nationals in 2009 but it didn’t work out.

1985 Chris Hatcher
1987 Ivan Nova
1988 Justin Marks
1988 Hyun Soo Kim
1991 Alex Wood
1993 Aramis Garcia

Giants catcher as needed, usually when Buster Posey is injured.  Homered in his debut game in 2018.  He’s a south Florida kid (Hialeah) who went to Florida International and was a second round pick of San Francisco in 2014.  Has an odd habit of getting injured in his face – at least during his tour of the minors.  Missed time in 2016 when he was hit by a bat in the facemask (concussion), and in 2017 when he slid late into a base and took a knee in the face.  That time, he actually broke facial bones, requiring surgery…

2002 Anthony Molina

Signed by Tampa out of Venezuela in 2018 when he was just 16… Molina once went 13-2 with Bowling Green in A+ ball for 2022. Colorado drafted him in the Rule 5 draft heading into 2024, giving Molina a taste of the big leagues for the season. He’s going to be 23 this coming season (2025) so there’s room for growth here, but learning to pitch in Colorado is doubly hard and last year his ERA was 6.79 across nearly 60 innings. These days, the successful pitchers are striking out a batter an inning and Molina hasn’t sustained that kind of rate, so he’s got his work cut out for him.

OBITUARIES:

1903 Win Mercer

Winfield Mercer was a pretty good pitcher in the 1890s and early 1900s on some awful teams in Washington (both the NL Senators and, for 1901 anyway, the AL Senators). His best season, with Detroit in 1902, was his last as a major leaguer and he managed a postseason allstar team of sorts that fall and winter before he would be taking over in Detroit as manager for 1903.

Instead, he grew extremely despondent, took a room at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco, wrote letters to his loved ones, and then committed suicide by breathing in gas through a tube until he asphyxiated. Mercer was just 28 years old.

“Suicide of ‘Win’ Mercer,” Cincinnati Enquirer, January 14, 1903: 4.

1910 Harry Staley

Staley had the good fortune to land with Boston just as Boston becamse a great team in the 1890s, so he pitched for some very good teams. Then his arm left him… Staley’s health began failing him and he eventually went to the Kellogg Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan where he would die.

“Old Decatur Ball Recalled by Death,” Decatur Daily Herald, January 15, 1910: 4.

1917 Jim Garry
1926 Michael Campbell
1931 Mose Herring
1937 Joe McCarthy
1938 Dupee Shaw
1940 Ed Keas
1943 Bill Webb
1943 Pedro San
1958 Cleon (Lefty) Webb
1960 Jimmy Lavender
1970 Doc Bass
1970 Andy Bruckmiller
1971 Cy Malis
1974 Jim Middleton
1974 Joe Smith
1975 Frank Kalin
1977 Tex Carleton
1982 Curtis Henderson
1986 Eddie Solomon
1989 Clise Dudley
1993 Joe Orrell
1993 Earl Browne
1996 Garnett Blair
1997 Joe Scott
2010 Hillis Layne
2013 Bubba Harris
2018 Rudy Arias
2023 Lee Tinsley
2023 Ted Savage

YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!!!

2010 The Florida Marlins and the MLB Players Union reach an agreement to force the Marlins to actually spend money on players, since their small payroll is in violation of the revenue sharing provisions of the current collective bargaining agreement.

The reason, for the small salaries, of course, was that the Marlins owners didn’t have money to pay for their share of the new stadium, so they pared down the salary to the bare minimum and pocketed shared revenue to obtain the money needed to get the stadium.

TRANSACTION WIRE:

1880 Harry Stovey jumped from Philadelphia to the Boston Reds.

1924 Boston purchased outfielder Bobby Veach from Detroit.

1972 First round picks from the secondary draft included Tom Hume (Cincinnati) and Duane Kuiper (Cleveland).

1982 First round picks from the secondary draft included Danny Jackson (Kansas City) and Kirby Puckett (Minnesota).

2009 Boston signed free agent pitcher John Smoltz.