“…Mr. John Perkins Luby is a gentleman and a scholar, with an arm of Roquefort cheese and a delivery like a family grocery that strives to please. He has the sturdy, Romanesque physique of an overgrown pile-driver, and when he glares at the shuddering batter and tears his hand loose from the ball there is a hissing noise through the air like a drunken man in a shower bath. Aside from the fact that Mr. Luby has legs that stutter at the knees and chews tobacco with remorseless speed, he is a thing of beauty round which the scent of violets linger.”

“Chicago 4, Cincinnati 2,” Chicago Inter Ocean, June 26, 1891: 2.

(The Inter Ocean hired a different kind of sportswriter for the 1891 season, Leonard Washburne, who would provide crazy descriptions of players and teams and games – far more entertaining, certainly, than the previous season.)

In truth, John Luby was a sturdy 6 foot (at least) righthander who weighed anywhere from 185 to 205 muscular pounds and threw pretty hard but with bouts of wildness that got in the way of his stuff. And he could hit some. He struggled in 1892 for some reason, but in his four major league seasons, he was very nearly a league average hitter with legitimate major league power.

Details of his birth are a little shaky, but John Perkins Luby was born in South Carolina and likely in Charleston given that his parents, James and Johanna (Powers) Luby were living in Charleston for the 1870 US Census. Baseball-Reference.com shows January, 1869 as a birthdate but the census record says John was 13 months old when the enumerator visited in July. His death certificate says he died at 30, but it could have been that he was in his 30th year…

I digress.

James was a laborer of sorts – a night watchman when John Perkins was born; a mason in the years before James died. Johanna, married for the second time, dealt with raising four children; John Perkins was the third of the lot. The Luby parents were children of Irish immigrants.

Luby’s baseball life began with his playing on various amateur teams in his hometown for “several years.” He was signed to pitch for Charleston in 1889 where he would win the first and second games Charleston won in the Southern League. That franchise moved to Atlanta mid-season. On the year, Luby won 9 of 14 decisions. For 1890, Luby pitched really well for Galveston in the Texas League (11-8, 1.03) – pitching to catcher Jacob (Jake) Stenzel. In June, Cap Anson purchased both players and brought the top Galveston battery to Chicago.

The Colts’ ace was Bill Hutchinson, who won 41 games for Chicago that season. Anson fiddled with finding alternate pitchers to Hutchinson, trying Roscoe Conklin, and Mike Sullivan, who were both found wanting. So, Anson tried Ed Eiteljorg and Robert Gibson before giving Luby his first start on June 16. At first he pitched well but didn’t always win – but eventually he got clocked twice by Brooklyn. The Colts lost ten of Luby’s first 13 starts (Luby was 3-9 in those games), so Anson gave the second pitching spot to Ed Stein, who had recently been signed.

Luby was kept around as an insurance pitcher and occasional utility hitter (he was hitting over. 300 for much of the season, and with power, before falling off at the end of the year). Needing a starter for the second game of an August 6 doubleheader against Cleveland, Luby took the hill and won easily. The Colts had a number of doubleheaders in August, so Anson decided to go to a three-man rotation. One reason Anson kept that rotation was that all three pitchers were regularly winning, especially Luby. In fact, Luby won his last 17 starts of the season. In the middle, he came on in relief of Stein (also against Cleveland). Not only did he pitch three scoreless as the Colts pulled away, Luby cracked a homer in the ninth to finish the scoring, 11 – 6.

On opening day in 1891, the Colts won in extra innings after pulling Luby, who was ineffective. In Luby’s second start, he lost 1 – 0 to Cincinnati, ending his winning streak at 17 games.

Just taking a brief look into this, I have reason to believe that Luby’s streak was the longest legitimate winning streak prior to Rube Marquard’s run. According to a Ron Liebman SABR article, Tim Keefe had a 19-game winning streak in 1888. However, according to Liebman’s article at least one of those wins was dubious – he was awarded the win despite pitching only two innings. (Granted, this means Keefe’s streak was 18 wins – but Luby’s streak didn’t include any no-decisions.)

Luby was never able to repeat that level of success. Part of that, I believe, was that after 1890 all the stars of the Player’s League returned to the National League. Over the next two seasons, Luby won 19 and lost 27 games and his ERA went from 3.19 to 3.83. Meanwhile the Colts went from 30 games over .500 to essentially .500 over those seasons. After three years with the Colts he was dispatched to the minors, becoming a nomad of sorts. He spent 1893 with New Orleans in the Southern Association, then moved amongst three teams in the Western Association in 1894. Louisville gave Luby a shot in 1895, but Luby was lit up – going 1-5 with a 6.81 ERA. (He allowed 90 runs in 71.1 innings. Ouch.)

He was picked up by Scranton for 1895. Things didn’t necessarily go well for Luby in the Pennsylvania State League. By August, he was frustrated – at his pitching (maybe), at the umpires, and certainly with the fans. I’m betting things weren’t so good with the wife and child either (see below). In an August 9 game against Toronto, fans turned on Luby for his less than effective pitching – Luby was willing to put up a fight. Police had to escort him to safety in the clubhouse. He was subsequently fined, backpay was withheld, and he was suspended. It tooks weeks for Luby to get out – the Carbondale club of the PA State League took Luby away for the rest of 1895 and all of 1896. On the other hand, he had to umpire games from time to time in Carbondale and, on at least one occasion, he found out what it was like to hear it from that point of view, too.

By 1897, he was out of league ball and pitching semi-pro games for Hornellsville and Lyons in New York. Luby returned to Lyons to pitch and play first base in 1898.

In 1892, Luby married Jennie Whipple while he was earning his living in Chicago. She was back and living in Chicago when Luby passed away and in the 1900 US Census, she was listed as the single Jennie Whipple and not the widow Jennie Luby. Also, the child mentioned in 1896 isn’t with either Jennie’s family or Luby’s mother in the 1900 US Census. In 1910, Whipple had remarried but the census record says that she never had children.

John Perkins Luby returned to Charleston in the early spring of 1899 when he fell ill, spending the last five weeks of his life at the home of his mother. Tuberculosis took him to the next league on April 24, 1899. Luby is buried near family in St. Lawrence Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina.

Notes:

1870, 1880, 1900, 1910 US Census
Cook County, IL Marriage Records

“Charleston Wins Again,” Atlanta Constitution, April 30, 1889: 5.
“Notes of the Game,” Chicago Tribune, June 17, 1890: 6.
“Chicago at the Head,” Chicago Tribune, April 23, 1891: 5.
“Anse’s Experts Egged,” Chicago Inter Ocean, April 28, 1891: 6.
“Nearly a Riot at Scranton,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 10, 1895: 5.
“Herald’s Gossiper,” Carbondale Evening Herald, August 26, 1895: 3.
“Serious Row Averted,” Carbondale Leader, September 13, 1895: 4.
“Two Baggers Came Back,” Buffalo Courier, June 15, 1897: 11.
“Cortland Tired Running,” Buffalo Courier, August 24, 1897: 11.
“Lyons 5, Rome 4,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, June 28, 1898: 13.
“Famous Pitcher is Dead,” Chicago Inter Ocean, April 26, 1899: 8.