Deadball Era Player Other Talents?
 

Good Day All!
I do Hope that You & Yours are Enjoying This Season's Events...

I was just thinking about how talented Athletes' can be, away from their chosen Profession! For instance, I know that Christy Mathewson was a Phenomenal Checker Player. He would take on the Best of the Best!
In one of the books that I read about him, Matty took on like 5 guys at once(maybe more?) and beat them All... it seems he rarely, if ever lost!

So, I'm Interested in seeing what you Guys & Gals can tell me about any other Prewar Athletes'(Mainly Baseball), that had other Talents, However obscure...?

This Should Be Interesting... imho

Bugs Raymond was a world-class drinker :D

Mike Donlin appeared on Broadway as an actor, and then went on to play in 65 movies from 1917 until his death in 1933.


Steve

"Turkey " Mike Donlin and his wife were in Vaudville when he wasn't playing for the NY Giants. After his BB career, Mike went onto Hollywood and appeared
in many movies.

Had Mike taken his BB career more serious...."he would have been a contender"....for the BB HOF with his lifetime career BB = .333


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TED Z

Steve D

Gee....you beat me to posting about Donlin, while I was typing....great minds think alike :)


TED Z
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Jim Thorpe

Don't forget, Matty was considered one of the best college football players in the country at Bucknell.

Tris Speaker was also a rodeo cowboy. He originally threw right handed, but taught himself to throw lefty after he broke his arm by being thrown from his horse as a kid.

Johnny Kling was a world champion billiards champion, while another T206-era catcher, Boss Schmidt, wrestled bears ...

Awesome Stuff Gentleman!
I believe that we've just scratched the surface of these men who played a game in which has given us all, in some way, Grand Memories...

Steve & Ted,
Do you guys have a favorite Movie that Donlin performed in? Did he ever work along side any of the greats? Maybe Erroll Flynn? I know that I can Google his work, However, Only you guys can answer that question personally!

John,
So Speaker rode bulls... and He was a Real Cowboy!? Very Interesting...

Yeah, Thorpe was somewhat of special human being... when it came to playing anything physical, He Always Excelled!

Honus Wagner was a great basketball player.

Really... Hmmm, Wags had enormous hands... I bet with his leaping ability, he could easily jam! I guess back then during the turn of the century, jamming wasn't really part of how they played the game, so it wasn't a "WoW" factor.

I'm not certain of Basketball rules of the era, but a dunk may have been offensive goaltending. One of the rules movies they had us watch in Jr High during rain made a big deal of a players hands not entering a cylindrical area above the hoop.

Of course, they followed it with 15 minutes of Dr J. :D

Sort of a taunt for a roomful of kids who couldn't reach the rim without a ladder.

Many of the players then also worked at some sort of trade, farming, construction, stuff like that.

Steve B

Al Demaree was quite the cartoonist for the Sporting News. He also had his hand is desiging a few card sets like the '38 Goudeys and Signal Oil cards.

/

From 1917 to 1935, Mike Donlin was featured in 66 movies. Two of the most notable Silent Screen ones that come to mind are The General (1926..with Buster Keaton)
and Slide, Kelly, Slide (1927).


TED Z
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Including a couple post deadball era players:

George J. Burns-pool player
Lew Fonseca-singer
Nick Altrock-clown entertainer
Wes Ferrell-had Hollywood screen test.

In 1908 Wagner heard during Spring Training that Hot Springs High wanted to start basketball. Every afternoon he taught the team how to play and when he returned to Pittsburgh he shipped the team shoes and uniforms.

The next year Walter Johnson was in town for the baths and he joined Wagner on the court. There is a plaque on our Historic Baseball Trail honoring their court deeds!

Doc White
 

Doc White was a singer/songwriter. He also was a dentist who worked on the teeth of many of the dead all era players.

Marty McHale -- Ballplayer, Vaudevillian, Reporter, Stockbroker
 

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Marty McHale was a journeyman pitcher who played from 1910 to 1916 for the Boston Red Sox (in two stints), Jersey City (International League), New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians. Most of all, he seemed to have fun. He formed a singing quartette while with the Sox in 1910, moonlighted in vaudeville while pitching for the Yankees (either in 1913 or 1914, and later), and even jumped into the newly-born film "industry" during the teens when his baseball career drew to a close. He later went on to become a newspaper reporter and a stockbroker.

He was considered such a good prospect for the mediocre Yanks, that he pitched in the 1914 season opener -- a picture of which is above.

Variety dubbed him the "Baseball Caruso" (with other reviewers referring to his Irish Tenor as the "Irish Thrush" and Babe Ruth, himself, canonizing McHale as the "best goddamn singer I ever heard").

Playing for Boston in 1910, McHale was a co-founder of the Red Sox Quartett, showcasing the talents of "Mart" McHale (1st Tenor), Tom "Buck" O'Brien (2nd Tenor and fellow Sox pitcher), Hugh Bradley (Baritone and outfielder), and Sox second baseman Larry Gardner. Bill Lyons replaced Gardner in the act in 1911, becoming Basso, with the Red Sox signing him to a professional baseball contract to keep the Quartette solely comprised of Sox players! When McHale joined the rival Yankees in 1913, the group quietly disbanded.

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McHale remained in show business when he moved to New York and moonlighted in vaudeville. Interestingly, despite his business card mention of Yankees manager and future HOFer, Frank Chance, McHale joined forces not with a fellow Yankee but with a New York Giant. Together with famed Giants outfielder, "Turkey" Mike Donlin, Mchale established a highly successful act entitled "Right Off The Bat."


After ending his undistinguished baseball career with Boston and Cleveland in 1916, McHale leapt into the film business (as did Donlin), as can be seen from this letter shown below. In it, McHale implores Cleveland star Tris Speaker (to whom he refers as "Spoke") to join himself, Donlin and Tigers regular, Germany Schaeffer for appearances to promote an early movie after the close of the 1917 baseball season. This letter was typed on the back of letterhead from the All Star Feature Corporation of New York.

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Also in 1917, McHale joined the army and served as Lieutenant in the 22nd Regiment of Engineers during World War I.

Post-War, McHale became a journalist for the New York Evening Sun, often covering baseball.

By 1920 he moved on to become a stockbroker, eventually launching his own brokerage house, M.J. McHale Company Investments and Securities of New York. After more than 50 years at the helm of his own firm (and seven in retirement), McHale died in 1979 at the age of 90.

Robert S

Germany Schaefer
 

Schaefer was probably the first "Clown Prince of BaseBall". He had a tremendous talent for entertaining the crowds at the ballparks.

Check-out his SABR bio.....you'll find it very interesting...... http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/2594238c



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TED Z

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How 'bout.....
 

little known Fred Anderson...

"Anderson played in Boston in 1909 but did not play major league baseball again for the Red Sox until 1913 due to his practicing dentistry. In 1914 he jumped to the Federal League to play for Buffalo for the 1914 and 1915 seasons. In 1916 he was sold to the New York Giants and Anderson played with them for three seasons."


I've heard of time off to go fight during wartime, but to take a break to be a dentist??? Of course I've always been a rabid anti-dentite.

Moonlight Graham
 

later became a doctor of some note

Some very interesting history is really starting to unfold. McHale's Adventures to include the other ball players in his quest shows that he was a very wise man.

I also remember reading that Rube Marquard was quite the Crowd Clown.

A Dentist? Your Right... I wonder if he got his start by practicing on some of the players? : -)

Any body else have any more info on these fascinating gents?

I only know what I've read on the back of my T202s.. But bio authors seem pretty smitten with George Moriarty describing him as one of the smartest and most interesting men in baseball.. Inventor, accomplished songwriter, etc.

Makes me wanna dig a little deeper.

There is a neat 2 volume set that was put out by SABR a few years titled DEADBALL STARS OF THE AMERICAN LEAGUE and the companion DEADBALL STARS OF THE NATIONAL LEAGUE.

There are very detailed bios on all the major players for each club from 1901-1919 including the vast majority of players of "T" and "E" cards. Both are still available on the SABR website.

"Thank You SABR
 

& Mike" for Pointing these Books out!

These 2 Links will take you right to the NL & Al League Players that are in the Book. Kinda Cool... Just click on the Player & venture into a couple page Bio of each player! Or you can Purchase them from Through Amazon for a few bucks!

I Imagine that the Paperbacks have a Lot more pictures & such... But just to be able to read a compilation from each Leagues Players so quickly is... Priceless!

http://sabr.org/category/completed-b...ts/deadball-nl

http://sabr.org/category/completed-b...ts/deadball-AL

"THANKS SABR!!!"

*STILL LOOKING FOR SOME OF THOSE PLAYER TALENTS THAT I JUST KNOW HAVEN'T BEEN MENTIONED...

Sam Barkley owned a Tavern in Chicago and a Cigar Store in Wheeling West Virginia

Pertaining Schmidt, supposedly he was the only player that Cobb was not willing to go to fists with....

He was accomplished, but I don't think he won any championships playing pool.

About Schmidt, I believe he (Nicholson) was in a hot tub with Kathy Bates. Talk about playing pool!:eek:

I read somewhere that Cobb did go at it with Schmidt. They moved the furniture in a hotel room and locked the door. Cobb got his ass kicked in a major way. Wish I remember where I read about that :(

I would love to read this also, the hunt is on!

Not sure if this is the same fight ( think I might have read it in The Glory Of Their Times although I don't recall it from the audio CD). Either way, IIRC, some of the Tigers were down in Georgia and one of the players didn't like the way Cobb treated a black man. Cobb and the player went at it and Cobb got licked. (Feel free to add or correct this).

Am reading a Kling bio right now. I know nothing of the sport of billiards in terms of how titles are won (let alone how the sport was structured 100 years ago), but there are mentions of him having been a world champion. I don't have the book at my side right now, but next time I do I'll try to find a couple of specific references.

Regards,

Richard.

/

Mordecai Brown had 4 fingers on his right hand. That's cool in of itself.

Another couple of players that Cobb supposedly had a lot of respect for were Honus Wagner and Kid Elberfeld....

On the "Glory" audio set, Davy Jones talks about the Cobb-Schmidt fight in considerable detail. It started when Schmidt objected to the way Cobb was speaking to a black cleaning lady.

Oh yeah, that's what I meant :)

Johnny Kling was indeed the 1909 Continuous Pool Champion defeating Cowboy Charles Weston 800-789 over 4 nights of 200 balls a night. Weston was the defending Champion, Kling the challenger. The Total Purse was $500 plus 75% of the gate. Kling crushed Weston the first night, 202 to 155 and basically limped home from there. He lost the second night 198 to 234, won the third night night 202 to 191 and lost the final night 198 to 209. Johnny had the home crowd advantage as the match took place at the Kling's Academy (Johnny's Billiard Hall) on Walnut Street in Kansas City, MO.:):eek:

He only held the Title for 5 weeks, losing it the very next month to Thomas A. Hueston, 653 to 800. He did not win a single 200 ball night.

T218 connection
 

Mike, great info on Kling, and one more tidbit...unless I am mistaken, the player that Kling beat, Charles Weston, is pictured in the T218 set as a billiards player.

Brian

A Johnny Kling Model Billiards Table

Attachment 126592

Frank Shaughnessy.....
 

Shaughnessy graduated Notre Dame and played BB and FB. His Major League career was very brief with Washington and the A's.
He went on to be GM of the Montreal Royals; and, then Frank became President of the International League (1936-1960).

He was inducted into three Canadian HOF's (Football, Baseball, and McGill University Sports)

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TED Z
__________________________________________________ _________________________________
LOOKING for this T206 guy to complete my EXCLUSIVE 12 red HINDU sub-set (12 subjects)

SHECKARD (glove)

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Weston was indeed a great pool player, so that was definitely something to put on the resume; however, it's tough to know all the circumstances surrounding the event. Even today, average players beat really great players for various reasons that you may be able to guess. It can be tough when you are choosing who to back (with real dollars), even when you know who SHOULD win.

I found that data on a website for the Chicago Billiards Museum. I scrolled 20 years of results. Johnny was in there a few times as a semi-finalist or a loser in the finals, but that win was his only one. I would wager that Baseball got in the way. It doesn't take much off-time to lose just enough off your game to lose a match that you should have won...