Favorite Pre-1960 Obscure Player(s)

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

In the spirit of the "Underrated Team" thread, I'd love to hear who your favorite obscure players are. Feel free to list as many as you wish, but try to single out your favorite first. And, of course, list why these guys hold personal meaning. Also, try to pick player(s) who, while not in the HOF, are also not names that get much airplay on this forum. I call this "The Reulbach Rule".

Here are some of mine. This list would go on forever, so will only ramble off a few:

1. Foster Castleman

The authors of "The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubblegum Book" put it best: this guy's name just does NOT sound like that of a ballplayer! Foster Ephraim Castleman, Jr. sounds more like a pencil-pusher slaving away on last-minute tax returns at 3:00 a.m. at some suburban strip mall H&R Block, sipping all the while from a styrofoam cup of ice-cold coffee. Furthermore, Castleman's eccentric nature has endeared himself to me. A vehement non-signer since the sunset of his playing days, Foster decided to sign through the mail for a month last year if you sent him a few bucks. By all accounts, he then did an abrupt about-face, returning to his old ways!


Others:

Finners Quinlan

Weak-hitting outfielder for two MLB seasons who had an arm blown off in the Great War. I just love the name. The funniest thing about it is that his first name was actually Thomas. Finners was his middle name. I mean, who voluntarily goes by the name of "Finners" when they could just be known as "Tommy"?!


Pembroke Finlayson

Much like Mr. Castleman, it's really difficult to believe that this turn-of-the-century player chose baseball as a vocation. The name conjures up the image of an effeminate bank president who likes to quote stanzas from "The Wreck of the Hesperus" while contemplating your request for a fourth mortgage.