A McCreachery Card Theory

[Joe_G.]

I guess we left too much open to interpretation w.r.t. the McCreachery card. I was responsible for much of the content in the "Old Judge Production" chapter so I'll take the blame for not being more specific. To quote the book directly, as you did above, "The final example is a rare portrait card of Deacon White. A fictitous name, McCreachery, is listed together with the title of manager for the Indianapolis club. Deacon White, the oldest player in the league, was apparently better suited to manage from the bench than play third base for the Detroit Wolverines".

I did not intend to suggest his play was poor, but instead that his age (and appearance) was more appropriate for a manager than playing the hot corner. As for the name McCreachery, there could be an inside joke that has been long lost to time. I have enjoyed reading the posts between you and RcMcKenzie.

Thank You.

[cyseymour]

Joe,

Glad you have enjoyed reading the posts, and the OJ book was a definitely a huge contribution. However, I must say that I do believe the idea that the McCreachery card was a reference to his age was a misinterpretation. It happens - every book (and in fact, history itself) is an interpretation. That's why they say that history is always changing.

As for the idea of whether it was malicious, I have mulled it over and still think it might have been a mix - i.e., while it was a joke about his drinking, the producers of the cards may have realized it was malicious after a very short print run and then pulled the card. Which is why there is only one remaining specimen today.

Clearly, in a time period where Irishmen were seen as wild drinkers, hot-tempered and belonged to a poor, undereducated class subject to job discrimination, i.e., many signs for employment that read "Irish Need Not Apply", the card could be very well considered to be derogatory. White clearly had some very eccentric and uneducated ideas, and that could be the source of calling him Irish.

Whether it was malicious or purely as a spoof is subject to debate (we may never really know their true intentions) but White's strong performance on the field, plus the etymology of the name teasing him, strongly suggests that the joke on the card was not really a reference to his age.

[Joe_G.]

I'm not yet persuaded to see it your way but enjoy the conjecture.

I do have another request however, and that would be to change the title from "The Real Story of McCreachery" to "A McCreachery Card Theory".

[cyseymour]

Originally Posted by Joe_G.

I do have another request however, and that would be to change the title from "The Real Story of McCreachery" to "A McCreachery Card Theory".

Consider it done.

[Matthew H]

There's a lot of evidence pointing toward Joe'e theory. They used his only pose that showed his age and in street clothes, they switched him from player to manager, and Goodwin and Co had already issued other poses with humorous content, nothing malicious (unless you want to count Radbourn's middle finger).

It seems more likely that they got a stack of his photos from Fearnaught and thought that pose looked like the manager cards they were printing and made a joke. One interesting note is that the photographer was located in Indianapolis, I'm not sure what other connection Deacon White would have there, but I bet Joe would know.

The "creature" idea is pretty cool.

[RCMcKenzie]

His Christian, or given name, is James Laurie White. His parents and friends probably called him Jimmy, Jim, Jaime etc. Baseball players have a long-standing tradition of giving everyone a nickname. They called him "Deacon".

A Deacon in the Catholic church is a member of the congregation who is from the community. They are not formally trained like the priests, but they read from the bible and stand on the stage with the priests during the ceremony. Often, Deacons in a Catholic church are Bankers or Lawyers during the week and participate in the Mass on Sunday.

My thought is if they called him, "Deacon", they thought he was overly pious. And if he drank in his later years they may have called him McCreachery to make fun of his pious ways and beliefs (flat-earth) etc. At the same time, he was the manager and one of the winningest players of the era and so they respected him.

I am only speculating here, and preferred the title "story" to "theory" as I have very little fact to support my conjectures.

[Abravefan11]

Originally Posted by RCMcKenzie

My thought is if they called him, "Deacon", they thought he was overly pious.

From an 1878 article.