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Vinegar Tom Vickery

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Tom Vickery from AncestryThomas Gilbert Vickery was a pitcher (and, according to articles, a puncher and kicker – earning the nickname “Vinegar Tom”) in the early 1890s.  His first taste of the big leagues was with the Philadelphia NL club in 1890, getting a chance because so many players jumped to the Players League.  (He had a good season at Toronto in 1889, which earned some consideration.)  Knowing that the brotherhood might affect the National League teams’ ability to sign players, the owner of the Phillies, Al Reach, picked up a few players from minor league clubs, including Vickery and Jake Virtue.

To Vickery’s credit, he pitched well, going 24-21 with a better than average ERA (3.44).  However, he was a bit wild – 184 walks, a league leading 29 batters hit by pitches, and 23 wild pitches.  Vickery could throw hard, but he relied on a wide variety of breaking pitches, claiming to throw sixteen different versions of a curveball.  He also once won a long toss contest, throwing a baseball some 386 feet (about 15 feet shy of the record at the time).  And while his long looping delivery was frequently very effective, the wildness of his pitches and his temper contributed to umpires assinging him fines for arguing about ball and strike calls.  As for his inconsistency, he faced Boston four times in 1890 – two complete game wins (one shutout) and twice getting knocked out of the box early because he was getting pounded.  And the Philadelphia Inquirer noted that he pitched his best games “…as he always does against a weak club.”

When some normalcy returned to the major leagues in 1891, Vickery was used far less in 1891 with the Chicago Colts, just 12 starts toward the end of the season, but he earned the opportunity after some fine work with Milwaukee that year (22-15, 2.30).  While with Milwaukee, Vickery threw a no-hitter to beat Denver on April 27. This would be his next two seasons, too – a good run in the minors and a brief, erratic run with a major league team.  In 1892 it was Omaha then Baltimore in the National League.  It changed order some in 1893.  He started in the Southern League, got called to Philadelphia. who gave him a second chance, and then he was released to the minors where he became a nomad of sorts.  He found some continuity (and a good team) in Hartford where he won 30+ games in both 1896 and 1897 but 870 innings over two seasons in a lower level league is tough on an arm.  In 1897, he struck out about 35% fewer batters in a comparable number of innings.  His next two years weren’t very successful and his career soon came to an end.  (He still played some amateur baseball if not professionally.  In the 1905 New Jersey census, he listed his profession as ballplayer.)

Tom Vickery was born in Milford, Massachusetts on May 5, 1867, though his obit suggested he was born in Burlington County, NJ and spent a lot of time with grandparents in Bristol, PA.  He was the second of three children (John, Thomas, and Mary) born to Civil War veteran John Vickery and his wife Emily Shute.  After the war, John worked as a butcher and laborer to support his Burlington based family.

Thomas Vickery married Elizabeth Beaber Worth as his 1890 season ended.  They had two children: Ruth and Parker, both born during Vickery’s more nomadic baseball period.  However, he left his wife in 1898 and by 1904 Elizabeth was granted a divorce and custody of the two children. In later years, Tom worked as a retail merchant at a candy store in Burlington county.

According to his obit in the Bristol Daily Courier, Vickery died on March 21, 1921 in the Burlington County hospital, located in Mount Holly township, after a lengthy illness at 53.  His earthly remains were interred in the Odd Fellows Cemetery and Mausoleum in Burlington County near his father.

Notes:

US Census: 1870, 1880, 1900, 1920
New Jersey Census: 1905
Baseball-Reference.com
FindAGrave.com
Image of Vickery posted to Ancestry.com by user DeniseHudson44.

“Old Ball Player Dies in Hospital, Bristol (PA) Daily Courier, March 21, 1921: 4.
“Pugnacious Pitcher Vickery,” (Camden) Daily Post, December 3, 1905: 1.
“Divorced From Ball Player,” Holyoke Daily Transcript, May 6, 1904: 2.
“Five Independent,” Minneapolis Daily Times, November 1, 1889: 1.
“The Association Players,” Buffalo Courier, March 22, 1889: 3.
“Base Ball Notes,” Philadelphia Times, September 8, 1889: 16.
“Green’s Poor Support,” Hamilton Daily Spectator, May 18, 1889: 3.
“The Phillies’ Easy Task,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 22, 1890: 3.
“Milwaukee Shuts Out Denver,” Kansas City Times, April 28, 1891: 3.
“Sporting in General,” Pittsburgh Press, August 16, 1893: 5.

Charlie Householder’s Tragic Post-Baseball Life

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Charles F. Householder was born August 21, 1855 to William and Margaret (Black) Householder in Harrisburg, PA. Charlie was the middle child of seven – six boys and a much younger daughter. William was a carpenter; Margaret was busy chasing seven kids… Charlie spent ten years attending public schools in Harrisburg and somewhere after the Great War for Slavery, he learned the game of baseball.

Householder started playing ball in his hometown Harrisburg, PA area around 1872 as a pitcher with a deceptive underhand delivery.  He eventually switched to third base, which is what got him to the majors. Before and after his professional career, he was captain of several semi-professional clubs in Harrisburg and Wilkes-Barre.

His only season amongst the big leagues was in 1884 when he landed with the Union Association franchise that started in Chicago and eventually moved to Pittsburgh.  One of many players taken from a minor league team in Springfield, IL, Householder hit .239 with a few walks and a fair number of extra base hits (one homer). He was essentially a league average hitter and a dependable fielder. Charlie split time at third base and left field, played three games at short, and pitched mop up relief duty in two games, allowing three runs (one earned) and striking out three batters in his three innings of work. As a third baseman, Householder was good at avoiding errors and showed some range. As a left fielder, he was a good third baseman.

Householder played in a couple of other good minor leagues, however, including time with Springfield, a minor league team in Baltimore, and Providence, RI teams. “Charles Householder is certainly a cool man on the diamond and one that infuses his men with the same spirit. Every point of the game is at his command and in the direction of the men on the field he shows excellent tact.” After being a captain for a team in Syracuse in 1886, R. Z. Menzies told Wilkes-Barre baseball fans, “He never gets ‘rattled,’ is a brilliant and daring coacher, and is a great hitter.”

However, injuries took their toll and he stopped playing even amateur ball in the 1890s. He returned home to Harrisburg, taking up shop as a woodworker.  Charlie married Jennie Davis; they had five children. His son, Charles, was a semi-professional athlete, playing baseball, football, and basketball.

If injuries were problematic as a baseball player, they were worse in his job as a wordworker and working for a Philadelphia gas company. In 1884, while working on a three story frame house near his own home, he lost balance and fell from the roof, striking a cornice looker, which fortunately turned him sideways where he landed some 35 feet below on a brick pavement. Somehow, he managed not to break any bones, but he was severely banged up.

Five years later, while working for the Philadelphia Gas Company, he entered a building to inspect a natural gas leak – while carrying a light. The light may have been partially responsible for triggering an explosion that tore out more than half the building and starting a massive fire that killed two and burned six others. Charles was burned all over his body and was carried out of the building nearly unconscious, having inhaled smoke. Miraculously, he survived.

Along with his brother Elmer, Charles got involved with local politics which helped him land a position as a letter carrier. Not everything went smoothly, however. In 1892 a politician who lost a local primary election accused the two brothers of taking a ballot box out of a precinct polling place before those votes could be counted. Charles was the judge of the primary election and his brother was a precinct commissioner who would collect the ballots and official totals. The brothers claimed that the count was completed and they were only doing their jobs.  And, in May, 1896, he was convicted of stealing registered letters containing twenty dollars. He spent a single year in Eastern State Penitentiary from May, 1896 to April, 1897. It is there we learn that Householder was not quite 5′ 6″ and a few ounces shy of 140 pounds at the time.  (He was slightly taller and heavier in his official baseball records.)

Householder spent the last two years of his life wrestling with tuberculosis, losing his battle on December 26, 1908 at his home in Harrisburg (he lived at 415 Pear Street). He is buried amongst family in Harrisburg Cemetery.

Notes:

1860, 1870, 1880 US Census
PA Prison Records
PA Death Certificate

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/housech01.shtml
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/171919020/charles-f.-householder

“Sneak Thieves at Lee Park,” Wilkes-Barre Times, June 1, 1877: 4.

“Things Briefly Told,” Harrisburg Daily Independent, July 11, 1883: 4.

“Hereabouts and Thereabouts,” Wayne County Herald, October 16, 1884: 3.

“Charles Householder as a Player,” Wilkes-Barre Leader, April 4, 1887: 1.

“Doings on the Diamond,” Wilkes-Barre Leader: May 15, 1887: 7.

“Wrecked by Gas,” Wayne County Herald, December 5, 1889: 2.

“Charges Denied,” Harrisburg Independent, August 8, 1892: 1.

“A Letter Thief Convicted,” York Gazette, May 21, 1896: 1.

“Death of Old Ball Player,” Harrisburg Daily Independent, December 28, 1908: 8.