Interesting footnotes - short careers, weird names, etc

[sesop]

I'm trying to think of:

1. Players (and corresponding card) with especially short major league careers, who managed to appear on a card as a major leaguer.

2. Players who have weird names - Ten Million, etc.

3. Players with some weird feat- bad example, but an example nevertheless would be like Carl Mays/Ray Chapmab

4. famous for something notable that has nothing, necessarily, to do with Baseball.


One caveat- the players must appear on at least one card as a major league player.

Any and all help is appreciated

[packs]

Jack Graney was the first player to get a hit off of Babe Ruth and also the first player to wear a uniform number in a major league game.

[Writehooks]

Graney was also a Canadian, and after retiring from playing he became a play-by-play broadcaster for the team, thus being the first former major league player to become a broadcaster in the U.S.

He died at age 91 in Louisiana, Missouri. In the 1980s, the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame instituted the Jack Graney Award, presented periodically to journalists deemed to have made notable contributions to promoting baseball in Canada.

[Browncow75]

Appears in T206 and T205 sets:

Kling skipped the 1909 season to pursue a full-time career as a pool hustler, after winning the World Pocket Billiards Championship in the winter of 1908-09 As a huge baseball fan and avid pool player I thought this was a cool bit of info.

Brandon

[FrankWakefield]

Jerry Upp would be such a guy....



http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...e/UppE90-1.jpg

Pitched for the Lancaster Lanks in 1906, with a 19-15 record.
In 1907 he pitched for the Columbus Senators of the American Association, he
was 27-10.
In 1909, back at Columbus, he was 5-9. He then went up to Cleveland for the end of the 1909 season.
With the Cleveland Naps, he threw in his first game Sept 2nd, and last game Sept 27th.
He appeared in 7 games, started 4, finished 3, had a 2-1 record and a 1.69 ERA.
In 1910 he had a record of 11-10 in the TriState Leauge, pitching for Williamsport
and Altoona.
And that was the end for Mr. Upp's professional baseball career.

[frohme]

Though he didn't see any real action, "Mr Lewis" was with the Braves in 1912 ... 4 spring training ABs and 1 exhibition win. SABR has a good read on what little is known about him.

[FrankWakefield]

And I think this card might be this guy's only card showing him as a major leaguer....



I will leave it to a Yankee fan to explain who he is and what the card show's him doing.


I can still see the newsreel image of some old guy kicking dirt after this catch...

[nolemmings]

1947--Gionfriddo robs the Yankee Clipper in Game 6. Boo.

Here's an old video--note a little earlier Yogi Berra wearing #35.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqDcNRp9gwc

[abroome]

Not pre-war, they are from that dang'ed 'ole "new vintage" era, but I think 2 pretty cool examples...



Jack "Lucky" Lohrke, who just passed away last month, was known for being, well...lucky.
Coming home from WWII, Lucky was bumped from a transport plane last minute to make room for a VIP. Plane went down, killing all on board.
Lohrke also escaped a terrible bus crash that killed 9 of his minor league teammates. When the bus stopped to get dinner, there was a phone message that Lucky should leave the bus and head home right away, he had been traded. A few hours later the bus went off the mountain road in the rain.



"White Lighting" Steve Dalkowski was called the fastet pitcher ever. He never had control, both of his pitches or his life.
'Nuke' LaLoosh from the movie "Bull Durham," was based on Steve.
He actually threw a ball through an outfield wall on a dare.
Plywood cutouts were placed on each side of the plate so Steve could try to learn some control. He took the wood heads right off the cutouts.
The tragic ending to the story is Steve was a fan of the grape. It caused him to suffer from alcohol dementia. Supposedly he cannot remember anything past 1964.
Both of these guy's stories can be found through Google. This post is the "nutshell" versions.

Andy

[Potomac Yank]

Originally Posted by FrankWakefield

And I think this card might be this guy's only card showing him as a major leaguer....



I will leave it to a Yankee fan to explain who he is and what the card show's him doing.


I can still see the newsreel image of some old guy kicking dirt after this catch...

*

Frank, is that Gionfriddo? (sp)

[asoriano]

Originally Posted by FrankWakefield

And I think this card might be this guy's only card showing him as a major leaguer....



I will leave it to a Yankee fan to explain who he is and what the card show's him doing.


I can still see the newsreel image of some old guy kicking dirt after this catch...

Al Gionfriddo robbing DiMaggio's home run in the '47 World Series.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

4. famous for something notable that has nothing, necessarily, to do with Baseball.

The other questions all have straightforward answers (some of which have already been discussed in the past). I haven't seen this category come up, though, so here are a few to get us going:

1. Cy Malis became a bit actor in Hollywood. After that, he founded Narcotics Anonymous.

2. Jophery Brown became a Hollywood stuntman

3. Both Ethan Allen and Duster Mails invented baseball-related games

4. Jim Bouton invented Big League Chew

5. Sid Farrar and Ed Wineapple both became Broadway promotors

6. Joe Cascarella raced thoroughbred horses

7. Johnny Logan helped build the Alaska Pipeline

8. Ralph Schwamb killed a man in a botched robbery scheme, going on to become the most successful prison ballplayer of all time

9. Art Shires and Mike Kelly (of the 1926 Phillies) are also rumored to have committed murder

10. Harry Mink O'Neill died at the battle of Iwo Jima

11. Bob Neighbors disappeared in Korea during a failed bombing mission

12. Herman Hill was eaten by a shark (not confirmed)

13. Billy Sunday is pretty obvious, as are Bill Sharman, George Halas, Jim Thorpe, Ace Parker, Greasy Neale, etc.

14. Byron McLaughlin is avoiding extradition in France after making millions in a counterfeit shoe ring

This list never ends. These stories are even more fascinating than the game itself!

[FrankWakefield]

For J.B.'s #13 up there....

I got this years ago... he was a pretty good ballplayer.

And yes, Joe, that is Al Gionfriddo hauling in a 415' fly ball.

[sesop]

great stuff- thanks everyone. Jodi, what source do you have for all that information? Fascinating stuff.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

I have been collecting oddball information on players for many years. Some of it has appeared in print. Other material was relayed to me by fellow researchers, players and player families.

[Potomac Yank]

Originally Posted by FrankWakefield

For J.B.'s #13 up there....

I got this years ago... he was a pretty good ballplayer.

And yes, Joe, that is Al Gionfriddo hauling in a 415' fly ball.

*
*

Kind of got the feeling that it was Al.
I wasn't at the sixth game, but me, and three other school mates played hooky from school, and attended the first game of the 1947 series at Yankees stadium.
We sat in the right field bleachers ... Spec Shea vs Ralph Branca.
Jackie Robinson's first W. S. game. ... Thanks for the memory.

[mikedenero]

There's a 1961 Carroll Hardy card out there somewhere -- he is famous for pinch-hitting for both Ted Williams AND Roger Maris!

[tbob]

Then there's Turkey Mike Donlin who McGraw once said was the greatest hitter he ever saw. He is probably the best hitter not in the Hall of Fame (not counting JJ) and would be in there if he hadn't spent the better part of a year jailed for assault and left baseball a couple of times for the stage (Broadway).

[kkkkandp]

The Old Judge set is peppered with interesting tidbits and anomalies.

John Weyhing is pictured with the Philadelphia American Association team although his only major league action came with Cincinnati and Columbus. Harry Whitacre is also pictured with Philadelphia's AA entry although he apparently never played any major league baseball at all. The same is true for Charles Boyd despite being pictured with the Chicago Maroons of the Western Association.

And George Treadway may have been the first African American to have appeared on his own individual commercially available baseball card.

[deadballera]

Today is the anniversary of Moonlight Graham's appearance.

1905 With Giants leading the Superbas, 11-1, Archibald ‘Moonlight’ Graham makes his major league debut in bottom of the eighth inning as a defensive replacement in right field at Brooklyn’s Washington Park. The career minor leaguer, who will not have a major league at-bat in his only appearance in the big leagues, will become immortalized by W.P. Kinsella’s book "Shoeless Joe" and the movie based on the author’s work, "Field of Dreams."

[carrigansghost]

Jim Mains played one game in 1943 and his father stopped playing in 1886 making them the longest span between father and son to play in the majors. Willard and Jimmy also made some great baseball bats here in Maine(hint hint).

Rawn