Most Interesting Old Judge Players

[oldjudge]

I thought I'd start a thread where Old Judge collectors, and those not collecting the set but interested in baseball history, could choose one player from the Old Judge set with an interesting bio and discuss it here. Amongst the now 522 members of the set there is certainly no shortage of interesting characters.
For me, I'd like to start with Art Irwin. The following are some interesting tidbits from his life:

1. Born in Toronto, Canada in 1858
2. Teammate Charlie Ferguson died of typhoid fever in his house in 1888
3. After his playing days coached baseball at the University of Pennsylvania
4. Developed one of the first baseball gloves, the "Irwin glove", for protection after breaking two fingers on his left hand in a game.
5. President of the first American professional soccer league
6. On July 16, 1921, he jumped to his death from the vessel Calvin Austin on a trip between New York and Boston. Irwin was gravely ill at the time. After his death it was found that the player nicknamed Foxy had led a double life. He had two families, neither of which knew of the other. He had a widow in Boston, Elizabeth, with whom he had had three children, and a widow in New York, May, with whom he had one child.
7. Member of the Canadian Baseball HOF