John A. Kull (possibly born as John Andrew Kolonauski on June 24, 1882 in Shenandoah, PA) was a Pennsylvania low level pitching legend (20 – 6 with Pottsville in 1909 and a teammate of Rivington Bisland) “…taken out of the mines…” and turned into an ace pitcher.  Kull was once compared to Rube Waddell (so many people were, to be honest, but none was even close) earning him a contract with Connie Mack in the summer of 1909.  Despite a fairly good fastball, Kull wasn’t ready so he spent most of the late summer with Fayetteville of the Carolina League before being returned to Philadelphia.  On the last day of the 1909 season, Mack let him pitch in relief for game one of that day’s double header.  (The team was out of the pennant chase, losing the division by three games to Detroit.)

Anyway, Washington just pulled out in front 4 – 1 in the top of the sixth and Kull was sent in to pitch the last three innings.  In the seventh, the Athletics managed to scramble four runs together off of Walter Johnson, capped by a two-run single by none other than Kull himself.  While Kull gave up the tying run in the eighth, Philadelphia scored again in the bottom of the eighth and Kull kept Washington off the board in the ninth.  So – that was it.  One MLB game on October 2, 1909, a big hit off the Big Train, and a relief win.

As an aside, Kull did have something in common with Rube Waddell – a chance encounter with Andy Coakley.  One of Kull’s rare losses with Pottsville was a 2 – 1 loss in twelve innings to Reading, a game won by Andy Coakley.

The rest of Kull’s life was less glamorous but still interesting; a low-level minor league or semi-pro gig here or there until his arm was used up.  He was initially dispatched to Youngstown in the Ohio-Pennsylvania League, then he toured a number of New Jersey and Pennsylvania teams in what used to be known as the Atlantic League.  On the more confusing side, Kull appears to have been right-handed (John’s handedness is listed as left on Baseball-Reference.com), and was also given a shot with the Phillies in 1912, only to find out that his arm was injured (or possibly not up to the task of being a major league pitcher, giving Kull an excuse for not making the team and needing time before he returned to his current club).  In 1913, after playing with Newport News in the Virginia League, he was pitching for the Danbury Hatters in the New York/New Jersey League when Danbury signed a catcher named Jack Cameron, who could also pitch.  According to Ernest Landsgraf, in Cameron’s first game behind the plate, he caught a no-hitter thrown by Kull.  Days later, given a chance to pitch, Cameron threw his own no-hitter.  This appears to have taken place during one particularly strong stretch where Kull threw 48 innings and allowed just six hits.  The Highlanders were allegedly interested in Kull but nothing materialized.

His marriage seems to have ended without a divorce; perhaps documentation exists that tells us when they married and, more importantly, who he married. Or if they had kids…  By the 1930s his wife was in Newark, NJ and once wrote to friends in Shenandoah, PA that she thought John was killed in a mining accident, but didn’t know for sure.  An Elizabeth Kull appears in the Newark, NJ City Directory in 1934 claiming to be the widow of John Kull.  Maybe that’s her.  Alcoholism helped destroy his life, literally and figuratively.  In the end, he was wandering around homeless until he landed in a almshouse in Schuykill Haven, PA where he died on March 30, 1936 of tuberculosis.  His body was sent to his wife in New Jersey and he is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Union. Obituaries said he was 50; he was actually 54.

There are some fun things out there if you want to search for them. For starters, his FindaGrave.com page says that his birth name was John A. Kolonauski (if I were to guess, the A stands for Andrew); his death certificate lists his father’s name as Andrew without a last name and no mother’s name was listed.  The FindaGrave page also says that Kull is the only MLB player with a perfect fielding record (no errors, one assist), perfect won-lost percentage (1-0) and perfect batting average (1.000).  In fact, Kull is one of three players who meet that criteria, along with Bobby Korecky and Cody Edge.  It was true, however, until the 2010s.

Notes:

PA Death Certificates
Links provided to FindaGrave.com profile and Baseball-Reference.com profiles.

“Reading Takes Two From Pottsville,” Reading Times, June 21, 1909: 5.
“Pottsville Going at a Phenomenal Pace,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 4, 1909: 18.
“Notes of Sports,” Pittston Gazette, July 26, 1909: 5.
“Steelmen Beaten by Good Playing,” Akron Beacon Journal, July 4, 1910: 6.
“Dooin Signs Johnny Kull,” Shenandoah Evening Herald, May 10, 1912: 2.
“Three New Pitchers,” Greenville News, May 22, 1912: 2
“Pitched Into Big League,” The Longbranch Daily Record, September 10, 1913: 9.
“John Kull, Once Famed Ball Player, Is Dead,” Shenandoah Evening Herald, March 31, 1936: 4.
“Late Jack Kull is Remembered,” Shenandoah Evening Herald, April 7, 1936: 9.
Joe McCarron,”Inside Stuff,” The Morning Call (Allentown, PA), December 13, 1957: 43.