Whatever happened to Bill Joyce

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Posted By: Albie O'Hanian

Bill Joyce had very good (even great) career statistics for eight seasons 1890-1898.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/j/joycebi01.shtml

Did he suffer an injury? Why did he never play again? Does anybody know?

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Posted By: Hankron

He posed too long in a fake stance for a cabinet card, and it ruined him.

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Posted By: Jeff S

Some interesting tidbits:

On May 18, 1897, he hit four triples in one game.

He was manager of the Giants from 1896 to 1898--the obit says:

"In the season of 1898 Joyce fell into the bad graces of Andrew Freedman, club owner, by losing six games in a row in June and was succeeded in the management by Captain Adrian C. Anson, who had left the Chicago Cubs some time before. The change did not help the Giants and Joyce finally was induced to return to the leadership. The club finished seventh in 1898 and Joyce refused to report in 1899 and went into the hotel business with Patsy Tebeau, another famous manager."

Not the whole story, I'm sure, but a good start...

Jeff

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Posted By: Albie O'Hanian

Jeff-Thanks. That is about all I needed to know. The guy could have been a Hall of Famer had he played another 4 or 5 years. Of course, in 1898, nobody could have ever guessed that there would be a Hall of Fame someday.

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Posted By: John(z28jd)

Altho he was pretty good there were many better players that arent even being considered for the hall of fame this year.He did bat .258 his last year so maybe he was getting to the end of his career.32 is old for back then,and he wasnt really a good fielder. Im sure alot of guys would have stayed on longer if they knew better.Mike Griffin is a good example too,he walked away(basically,without getting into it) at age 33 with much better stats then Joyce,and maybe 2 good seasons away from serious hall of fame consideration

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Posted By: jeff s

If he had stuck around, this card might now be valued in the DOUBLE DIGITS!