<— JULY 18     JULY 20 —>

BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1861 Bob Pettit
1865 Bill Hart
1865 Jim Donnelly

As you can imagine, Donnelly was the son of Irish imports, one of six kids born to Michael and Sarah (McGrath). Michael was an iron moulder once he got settled in Connecticut and Sarah was busy raising a bunch of children and keeping a happy home.

Donnelly was primarily a third baseman – and likely seen as a glove man given how many years he played despite barely clearing the Mendoza line in some of them. Anyway – after spending the last half of the 1880s with the big league clubs, he gradually eased into another handful in the minors getting paychecks in the early 1890s. With the change in the pitching distance, he figured out how to get more hits. In fact, out of the blue he landed with the 1896 Baltimore Orioles and hit .328. This extended his career into the next century. Along the way, he was a captain of several squads and missed a chance to travel on the All-American team that toured the world after the 1889 season to stay home and care for his sick mother.

After baseball, he took a post as a brakeman on the local railroad. Tuberculosis ended all the fun, leaving this world from New Haven on March 5, 1915 – the same city from which he entered this world. Hopefully he was allowed to see the rest of it on his way to the great league in the sky.

1870, 1880, 1900, 1910 US Census
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/61541385/james-b.-donnelly
Baseball-Reference.com
“Funeral of James Donnelly,” Hartford Courant, March 9, 1915: 17.

The image at top left was uploaded to FindaGrave.com by Gordon Brett Echols. It appears to be the source image for the Old Judge Card to the top right. The one to the near left was uploaded to Ancestry.com

1878 Erve Beck
1880 Cal Vasbinder
1886 Charles John (Butch) Schmidt
1888 Jeff Sweeney
1888 George Dunlop
1889 Clint Rogge
1890 Roy DeVerne (Rube) Marshall
1890 Bob Smith
1891 Earl Hamilton
1894 George Brickley
1895 Frederick Marshall (Snake) Henry
1896 Bob Meusel
1896 Joe Boley
1899 Joe Kiefer
1904 Mark Koenig
1906 Jackie Hayes
1907 Slim Norris
1910 Harry Kinzy
1912 Ben Geraghty
1914 Marius Russo
1916 Phil Cavarretta
1918 Casey Jones
1919 Denio Canton
1922 Ray Yochim
1927 Billy Gardner
1930 Marcelino Solis
1934 Bill Kirk
1935 Nick Koback
1938 Gordie Richardson
1949 Gene Locklear
1954 Dan Graham
1957 Curt Kaufman
1962 Dick Scott
1963 Mark Carreon
1963 Vicente Palacios
1966 David Segui
1971 Keith Johns
1971 Gus Gandarillas
1972 Brian Smith
1973 Alex Pacheco
1974 Preston Wilson
1978 Steve Watkins
1978 Yorvit Torrealba

In 2009, Torrealba had quite the scare when members of his family were kidnapped. Here’s what I wrote when I blogged about it back in the day…

“Yorvit Torrealba can rest more easily knowing that his son, who along with at least one uncle, is safe and home.  Apparently, his not quite teenaged son was walking to school when he and his uncle were kidnapped.  Government intervention and paying a portion of the ransom helped free them.  A couple of days ago, the Rockies announced that Torrealba was on the restricted list, but listed no details – which, as you can imagine, the team could not do.  Amazing story, and thankfully one with a happy ending.”

Yorvit Torrealba told of the fear he and his family faced when dealing with his son’s kidnapping. Worth a read…

1979 Rick Ankiel
1981 Jimmy Gobble
1982 Phil Coke
1983 Tim Dillard
1983 Wilton Lopez
1985 Ernesto Frieri
1985 Evan Scribner
1987 Yan Gomes
1989 Patrick Corbin
1989 Luis Avilan
1990 Jonathan Pettibone
1991 David Holmberg
1992 Jack Reinheimer
1994 Mauricio Dubon
1996 Jermaine Palacios
2000 Jonathan Cannon

OBITUARIES:

1913 Jiggs Donahue
1920 John Hinton
1923 Nate Kellogg
1925 Dick Wallace
1929 Tom O’Rourke
1930 Will Holland
1934 Ed Hutchinson
1940 Chink Heileman
1944 Clarence Lindsay
1948 Charlie See
1951 Sam Agnew
1960 Charlie Whitehouse
1963 Charlie Hanford
1964 Len Swormstedt
1969 Al Williams
1969 Otto Vogel
1983 Joe Beggs
1987 Bob Smith
1989 Joe Greene
1996 Dan Lewandowski
1998 Elmer Valo
2002 Spec Shea
2004 Roger Marquis
2007 Jim Mangan
2014 Bill Renna
2015 Rugger Ardizoia
2016 Lefty Bowe
2019 Don Mossi

YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!!!

1902 The despicable John McGraw manages his first game for the Giants – and loses to the Phillies, 5 – 3, even though he used three players (Roger Bresnahan, Joe McGinnity, and Dan McGann) that he stole from the Baltimore Orioles when he tried to destroy that franchise.

1909 Neal Ball, Cleveland’s shortstop, has a nine-putout day – three of them on baseball’s first unassisted triple play – in a 6 – 1 win over the Red Sox. Ball’s feat came in the second inning, when he snares a liner, steps on second, and then tags Jake Stahl who was coming from first base.

1910 Cy Young wins his 500th game, topping the Senators in 11 innings.

1915 Washington steals a record eight bases in the first inning off of Cleveland catcher Steve O’Neil.

1936 Rookie Bob Feller makes his first appearance, as a reliever, against the Senators. Lots of Cleveland-Washington stuff today. Go figure.

1982 The Cracker Jack Old-Timers All Star Game 75-year-old Luke Appling homers off of Warren Spahn.

2001 Arizona’s Randy Johnson sets a record for most strikeouts by a reliever – he enters a suspended game in the third inning and fans 16 Padres batters.

TRANSACTION WIRE:

1910 Boston purchases Lefty Tyler from Lowell in the New England League.

1950 The Yankees purchase Elston Howard and Frank Barnes from the Kansas City Monarchs.

1958 Milwaukee signs amateur free agent pitcher Phil Niekro.

1965 The Mets sign amateur free agent pitcher Jim Bibby.

1985 Texas sends Buddy Bell to the Reds for Duane Walker and (later) Jeff Russell. Meanwhile, St. Louis makes the signing of the year, picking up free agent outfielder Cesar Cedeno.

2000 Toronto sends Michael Young and Darwin Cubillan to Texas for Esteban Loaiza.

2002 Cleveland sends Chuck Finley to the Cardinals for Luis Garcia and (later) Coco Crisp.