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.

[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...

[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.

[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