(Thanks to @cadavrascientist for these grave pics of one of my favorite 19th-Century players!)
Here lies Charlie Buffinton, one of the greatest pitchers of 19th Century baseball. Buffinton pitched for the Boston Red Stockings/Beaneaters (1882-86), Philadelphia Quakers (1887-89), Philadelphia Athletics of the Players League (1890), Boston Reds of the American Association (1891) and Baltimore Orioles (1892).
The full recap of his career is lengthy and available on the blog — link in my bio. There are lots of 19th-Century pitchers who put up great numbers for 2-3 seasons and then vanish. Pitchers were sent out to pitch over and over until they were used up, and then they were tossed aside in favor of the next young arm. Buffinton had some absurd years, such as 1884 when he won 48 games(!), struck out 417 batters(!!) and threw 587 innings (!!!). Despite the fact that he ran into inevitable arm problems, he still had 7 years of 20+ wins and 7 of 300+ innings pitched. Though he was done by the age of 31, he showed more durability than most pitchers in his era. He mastered the drop ball, a 12-6 curveball that starts out high and then sinks rapidly (imagine 12 & 6 on a clockface). Batters were kept off balance, and he could rack up good strikeout totals despite not having a big fastball.
In his 11-year career, Buffinton finished with a 233-152 record and a 2.96 ERA. He had an incredible 351 complete games and 30 shutouts. He pitched in 3404 innings and struck out 1700 batters while walking 856. At the plate, he was a career .245 hitter, with 543 hits, 7 homers and 255 RBIs.
After being released by the Orioles in mid-season, Buffinton retired from the diamond in favor of a coal business in his hometown of Fall River. He worked there, from what I could tell, for the rest of his life.
Buffinton had been bothered by pains in his right side for years, and he had made plans in 1907 for an operation. He went to the hospital on Saturday, September 21 for the surgery on the following day. Before that could happen, he collapsed and died on September 23. He was 46 years old. Heart disease was the cause of death. Buffinton is buried at Oak Grove Cemetery in Fall River, Mass.
My grave story research was sadly interrupted by the death of #Dodgers legend Don Newcombe. Newk was 92 and died yesterday from a lengthy illness. He had an incredible career, going from the Negro Leagues to the big leagues and, at his peak, was one of the best pitchers in all of baseball for about 6-7 years. Sadly, he lost two years to military service, and a drinking problem led to a sharp decline after his best season. The happy ending to it was that he turned his life around, worked for the Dodgers for decades and was a regular presence at Dodgers games.
The photo above was taken after Newcombe’s first MLB start and first win. He’s on the right, along with Roy Campanella and Jackie Robinson. You can read my obit for him at my blog — check my bio if interested.
#baseball #baseballhistory #baseballlove #baseballlife #brooklyndodgers #donnewcombe #ripnewk #negroleagues #jackierobinson #roycampanella
Here lies Clayton Lambert, who had 1 good season in the majors and 1 where he led the league in retirements. He pitched for the Cincinnati Reds (1946-47).
Lambert was born in Summit, Ill. on March 26, 1917. He went to Illinois College and starred in football and baseball. He signed with the Reds in 1939 and played with the Waterloo (Iowa) Red Hawks. Lambert struggled with a 2-12 record and 5.08 ERA. The following year, he was sent to Ogden, Utah, to join the Reds of the Pioneer League.
Lambert rebounded with a solid season for Ogden in 1940, going 12-9 and dropping his ERA to 4.10. That set the stage for his 1941 season, when he became the top pitcher in the Pioneer League. Lambert went 21-6 with a tiny 2.21 ERA. He was promoted to Syracuse of the American Association for 1942 and had a 7-3 record and 1.91 ERA in 37 games.
With three excellent seasons in the minor leagues, there was only one logical place for him to go next: the majors. But this was 1942, so what really happened was that he was drafted and spent the next three years in the Army. I couldn’t tell that he was ever deployed overseas, but he played on some good Army baseball teams.
Lambert joined the Reds after he was discharged and started 1946 as a major leaguer. He pitched in 23 games and earned a 2-2 record with a 4.27 ERA. His first MLB win came on August 30, 1945 against the Cubs. He scattered 7 hits and struck out 2 in a complete game 6-3 win.
Lambert’s 1947 was ugly. He made 3 relief appearances in April, and two were horrendous. He was demoted to the minors with a 15.88 ERA. Rather than report to Syracuse, he retired on May 20. He said that if he couldn’t stay in the majors, he would leave baseball. The Reds seemed to have had a change of heart and brought him back, but he didn’t play and retired again June 16.
Lambert pitched briefly for the Ogden Reds in 1948 before retiring for good. In the majors, he appeared in 26 games, with a 2-2 record and 5.40 ERA. He had 2 complete games and 1 save, and he struck out 21 batters.
Lambert was a youth baseball coach in Ogden and advocated for more sports programs for the kids. Clayton Lambert died on April 3, 1983 at the age of 64 from cancer.
Here lies Fred “Dad” Clark, a first baseman who played in 12 games for the 1902 Chicago Colts. You’re going to have to trust me that this is the right grave marker, even though most of it is covered up by grass and weeds. I tried to remove as much as I could, but a horde of ants poured out through a crack in the gravestone and let me know that my clean-up efforts were not appreciated.
Clark was born on July 16, 1873 in San Francisco. He started playing ball out West in the 1890s in places like Portland and Tacoma. He came to Ogden, Utah, and joined the Ogden Lobsters, which was a pro team in 1901. He hit .289 for the Lobsters and parlayed his good play to a pro contract with the Colts in June 1902.
Clark joined the club just in time for a July 3 doubleheader against the Cardinals and served as the leadoff man in both games. He got 3 hits in a total of 9 at-bats and fielded 23 chances flawlessly over the 18 innings, though the Colts were swept in the doubleheader.
Unfortunately, he split a finger on his left hand on the first play of the game on July 6 while taking a throw from pitcher Jack Taylor. It was slow to heal, and Clark was sent to the minors for a spell. He was recalled in August but failed to hit or field well. He also angered his manager Frank Selee for a perceived lack of hustle during a game on August 28 and was sent back to the minors.
Now for a bit of Cubs trivia: the player who took his roster spot was Johnny Evers, a 21-year-old infielder. He was added to an infield that already featured Joe Tinker & Frank Chance, eventually forming the most famous double-play combo in baseball history.
In 12 MLB games, Clark managed 8 hits for a .186 average. He had 1 double, scored a run, stole a base and knocked in 2 runs. He played in the minors, mostly in the West and Midwest, until 1914.
After his baseball career was over, Clark was the station master for Ogden’s Union Station up until his retirement in 1943. He frequently attended Ogden Reds games in his reserved seat behind home plate.
Clark died on July 26, 1956 at the age of 83. He’s buried with his wife Bertha and son Daryal, who was killed in a Japanese prison camp in 1943.
While doing research for my next grave story, I came across this account of an in-game death. People know that Ray Chapman is the only MLB player to die from being hit by a pitched ball. But there have been multiple fatalities in the minor leagues, such as the case of young Charles Harrington.
This is from the Chicago Tribune, July 6, 1902.
“A dispatch from Midlothian, Tex., says that Pitcher Charles Harrington was killed by a batted ball there today. The ball, which was batted straight to the pitcher, hit him in the stomach. Harrington fielded the ball, made the assist putting the runner out, and then dropped dead.”
From the newspaper reports that are available, Harrington was a Dallas native and was 21 years old. He was a pitcher for the Dallas Griffins of the Texas League. He'd pitched in 10 games to that point of his career, with 9 of them as starts. He accumulated a 2-6 record, allowing 92 hits and 16 walks in 76 innings.
The exact nature of his death varied by reports. Some said that the ball hit him in the chest, close to his heart, while the one quoted above says it got him in the stomach. In one more detailed report, Harrington got the ball back, prepared to face the next batter and died in mid-windup. Either way, the last thing he ever did in life was make a 1-3 putout.
