<— JANUARY 30     FEBRUARY 1 —>

BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1845 Bob Ferguson

Some of you may have read that Ferguson owns of one of baseball’s great nicknames: “Death to Flying Things.”

Except, of course, that it wasn’t Ferguson’s nickname (it was assigned to Jack Chapman) and it’s not exactly clear if it really was Jack Chapman’s nickname when he played either. It was first assigned to Chapman by Alfred Spink in 1910… (I learned this by reading Richard Hershberger’s article, linked above, which is excellent.)

1845 Freeman Brown

Listed as the first of three managers of your Worcester Ruby Legs of the 1882 National League.

He started as a newspaper man, writing for various Worcester newspapers for most of his life. Brown also served as the city’s clerk. Later, Brown was a clerk for the overseers of the poor in Worcester before dying of apoplexy on December 27, 1916.

“Former Worcester City Clerk,” Springfield Daily Republican, December 28, 1916: 2.
“Former Big Leaguer Dies in Worcester,” Springfield Daily News, December 27, 1916: 2.

1861 Al Buckenberger
1862 Jim Manning
1863 William Smith (Rasty) Wright
1866 Pat Flaherty
1870 Joshua Mercer (Jot) Goar
1880 Walter Morris
1882 Alva Mitchell (Rip) Williams
1885 Eddie Hohnhorst
1885 Drummond Brown
1889 Carl Ray
1889 Ray Brown
1890 Alvah Jackson (Goat) Cochran
1891 Tim Hendryx
1891 Charles C. (Tex) McDonald
1892 Rees Gephardt (Steamboat) Williams
1893 George Burns
1894 John Franklin (Stuffy) Stewart
1895 Jimmy Zinn
1896 William McKinley (Pinky) Hargrave
1896 Charlie Robertson

Threw a perfect game as a kid pitcher for the White Sox…  Did that to the Tigers with Cobb, Heilmann, and those guys.

1898 Webb Schultz
1899 Don Songer
1900 John Francis (Honey) Barnes
1903 Abie Hood
1903 Buck Ewing
1906 Half Pint Allen
1909 Emil Planeta
1912 Jerry McQuaig
1914 Mel Mazzera
1914 Charlie Wiedemeyer
1918 Sid Peterson
1919 Jackie Robinson

The first of three significant Hall of Famers on this list…

1919 Ken Gables
1926 Tom Alston
1929 Duane Frederick (Duke) Maas
1931 Hank Aguirre
1931 Ernie Banks

Mr. Cub – the first African-American Cubbie, and for about a decade one of the ten best players in the game. After that, he was the best ambassador for the team and died just too soon to see his team finally win a World Series.

1941 Ike Futch

Ike Futch was one of the “ghost” players of the major leagues – guys who had contracts but never appeared in a game.  Futch was called to the majors, played one last game in the minors and got injured in that game; he was never to play in the bigs.  Futch was also the hardest guy ever to strike out.

1947 Nolan Ryan
1949 Fred Kendall
1949 Jim Willoughby
1949 Mark Ballinger
1950 Bob Apodaca
1953 Mike Rowland
1955 Ted Power
1958 Rafael Santana
1963 Dave Cochrane
1963 Francisco Oliveras
1968 Steve Phoenix
1970 Joel Bennett
1970 Chris Pritchett
1982 Yuniesky Betancourt
1982 Brad Thompson
1984 Josh Johnson

One of my favorite Marlins. He threw a nasty hard fastball that would just pop in a mitt and make a sound that echoed. Threw strikes, it seemed like he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning all the time. He just had a shoulder that couldn’t take the workload and his career degenerated. At his best, though, he was just unhittable and I miss him.

1987 Caleb Thielbar
1987 Melky Mesa
1989 Tommy La Stella
1991 Guillermo Heredia
1991 Tyler Kinley
1992 Alex Claudio
1993 Locke St. John
1994 Cole Irvin
1994 Jake Thompson
1994 Rob Whalen
1998 Kyle Backhus
1999 Matt Svanson
2001 Zach Neto

OBITUARIES:

1900 Ed Stratton

The Baltimore native pitched on his home nine briefly in 1873 (he lost all three starts).  Bright’s disease sent him to the next league.

“Local Brevities,” Westminster Democratic Advocate, February 3, 1900: 3.

1904 Dan Mahoney

Mahoney was a catcher in the 1890s – he threw with an underhand snap of sorts.  After he made it to the majors with Washington, something snapped in his throwing arm and it pretty much ended his career.  He apparently never got over it – his family grew tired of his brooding.  When they gave him money and suggested he move out, he bought some poison and took his own life instead.

“Was Despondent,” Boston Globe, February 1, 1904: 8.

1913 Joseph Dorsey

I’m staring at this name and then I saw that there was a SABR bio about the guy… Sure enough – I was a contributor to it as a fact checker!!! (Props to Paul Winter, author of this article. On July 9, 1884, Dorsey appeared in a single game as a pitcher for the Baltimore Monumentals of the Union Association. He lost and was moved from the mound to right field after the fourth inning.

At the time of Dorsey’s death, he was going by his middle name: Wilbur. And Wilbur wasn’t in a good place. He had moved to Newark, New Jersey (after working all over the continental US), went to a New York hotel. He organized his things and then shot himself with a .38 revolver.

“Wilbur Dorsey’s Suicide Mystery,” Newark Star and Newark Advertiser, February 1, 1913: 1.

1917 Pete O’Brien
1922 Jose Leblanc (Vargas)

Leblanc was a Cuban star, both figuratively and literally… He played on the Cuban Stars West in 1920 and Cincinnati Cuban Stars in 1921 – Negro National League Teams. And, of course, he was born and raised in Cuba.

Leblanc was playing in a competitive series in Cuba when a disputed call led to a fight breaking out on the field. Antonio Susini grabbed a bat and took a wild and angry swing at Leblanc, catching him full on the front left part of his head. That portion of Leblanc’s skull was fractured into multiple pieces and surgery only postponed the inevitable.

Gary Ashwill wrote a fantastic article (his research here is top notch) about the incident and how it affected Susini’s professional career on his blog Agate Type.

Also, “Cuban Pitcher’s Skull Fractured in Dispute,” Burlington (VT) Daily News, February 1, 1922: 7.

1926 Lou Bierbauer

Bierbauer died of pneumonia at his Erie home.

Bierbauer’s fame lies in his joining Pittsburgh for the 1891 season. He had played in Philadelphia in 1889, jumped to the Players League in 1890 and was not on any reserve list for 1891. Pittsburgh swooped in before Philadelphia could sign him – and the Pittsburgh squad became nicknamed the Pirates.

“Louis Bierbauer, Famous Player of Brotherhood Era, Dies at his Home in Erie,” Buffalo Courier, February 2, 1926: 8.

1930 Joe Cantillon
1933 Beany Jacobson
1938 Charlie Chech
1938 Jim Gray
1940 Red Fisher
1942 Henry Larkin
1942 Ed Phelps
1947 Johnny Kling
1948 Clarence Lehr
1953 Mike (Al) Handiboe
1956 Buck Weaver
1957 Chick Maynard
1958 Harry O’Donnell
1961 Guy Cantrell
1963 Ossie Vitt
1964 John Huber
1966 Pat Donahue
1971 Steve Yerkes
1973 Charles Zomphier
1980 Ed Head
1981 John Dowd
1983 Sam Gibson
1985 Joe Bradshaw
1996 Jesse Williams
1999 Norm Zauchin
2002 Harry Chiti
2004 Ernest Burke
2005 Bill Voiselle
2009 Bob Scherbarth
2011 Lee Carter
2012 Rick Behenna
2013 Tony Pierce
2013 Fred Whitfield
2018 Oscar Gamble
2022 Jerry Snyder
2023 Dave Elder
2024 Al McBean
2024 John Pregenzer

YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!!!

1961 Voters approve financing for a domed stadium to be built in Houston…

TRANSACTION WIRE:

1965 Houston signs amateur outfielder Bob Watson.

1980 Houston signs free agent second sacker Joe Morgan.

1996 Kansas City signs free agent pitcher Tim Belcher. That season, my wife and I got season tickets to Royals games and I swear that Belcher started 75% of the games I saw.