Most Interesting Old Judge Players

[kkkkandp]

Jake Wells' bio was an interesting one...

"...Making the major leagues is every baseball player’s dream, but Jake Wells’ life after his baseball playing days were over was far more interesting. Wells had two brief stops in the big leagues – one with the Detroit Wolverines in 1888 and the other with the Saint Louis Browns in 1890. His lifetime totals were meager – 34 games, 46 hits, .210 batting average. While logging time as the player/manager of the Richmond Bluebirds of the Atlantic League he entered a store to purchase a leather strap to bundle some baseball bats. He inquired about the store's odd architecture. The store was a former opera house. Upon leaving the store Wells commented there was money to be made with a popular-priced vaudeville. He bought and reopened the building as the Bijou Family Theatre. Richmond's first vaudeville house was an immediate success. By the early 1920's Jake Wells was known as The Father of Vaudeville in the Southeast and operated 42 theatres in nine states. In 1921 he was awarded ownership of the Richmond Colts in the Virginia League. All this success, however, apparently came with pressure. On March 16, 1927, Jake Wells shot and killed himself. His doctor reported that Wells seemed to have worked himself to death..."