Here lies Jesse Petty, a hard-luck pitcher in the 1920s before becoming a successful minor-leaguer into the mid-‘30s. The lefty played for the Cleveland Indians (1921), Brooklyn Robins (1925-28), Pittsburgh Pirates (1929-30) and Chicago Cubs (1930).
Jesse Petty, nicknamed “The Silver Fox,” was born on November 23, 1894 in Orr, Okla. He joined the San Antonio Bronchos in 1915 in exchange for a season ticket. Seriously, some guy got a season pass from the owner and sent Petty to the team.
Petty pitched until 1917 before losing a year to serve in World War I. He returned to full strength in 1920 and spent most of the next 5 seasons with the Indianapolis Indians. The only MLB action he saw in that time was 9 innings over 4 games in 1921 for Cleveland.
Petty had a spectacular season for Indy in 1924, winning 29 games. Brooklyn signed him and brought him to the majors the next season. After an average 1925, he went 17-17 with the Robins in 1926. Petty was the team’s most valuable player in terms of Wins Above Replacement, and his 5.4 pitching WAR and 2.84 ERA were both 3rd in the NL.
Petty had another strong season in 1927, with a 13-18 record and 2.98 ERA. He then won 15 games in 1928. However, his late-night habits got him on the bad side of manager Wilbert Robinson, and he was fined a total of $1500 throughout the season.
Petty was traded to the Pirates for 1929. For his 1+ seasons there, he was no more than a fair pitcher who lost his job in the starting rotation at one point. After an awful start to 1930 (1-6 record 8.27 ERA in 10 games) he was released to the minors. The Cubs signed him for the stretch run, and he did pretty well. Still, it was his last season in the majors.
In parts of 7 seasons, Petty had a 67-78 record with a 3.68 ERA. He pitched 76 complete games, 6 shutouts and recorded 5 saves.
Petty pitched in the minors until he was 40 and had some great years with the Minneapolis Millers. He won 186 games over 14 minor-league seasons.
Petty managed and coached briefly in the minors but mostly stayed out of baseball. He died on October 23 1971 after suffering a heart attack the previous month. He was 76 years old.
Here lies Russ McKelvy, an outfielder-pitcher for the Indianapolis Blues (1878) and Pittsburgh Alleghenys (1882). And he’s got a connection to #tapophiles that I just learned about and wanted to share.
If you scroll way, WAY back to my first posts, (or use the #russmckelvy tag), you’ll find the first story I wrote about him. I didn’t have the research resources that I have now, so it was a pretty basic bio: he was born, he played kinda poorly, he died and was buried in Omaha. The end.
After doing a little recent searching so I could post an updated bio on my blog, I learned that McKelvy spent 16 years with #woodmenoftheworld, which was based in Omaha. He was an officer in their monument division before he died in 1915. Which I believe means that if you see a Woodmen of the World grave in your cemetery searches that dates to the early 20th Century, there’s a good chance that Mr. McKelvy helped put it there!
So thank you, Russ McKelvy, for joining my two interests of baseball and graveyards into one post.
#graveyard #grave_affair #graveyard_freaks #graveyard_photogroup #graveyard_dead #graveyard_life #woodmenoftheworld_graves #baseball #baseballhistory #indianapolisblues #pittsburghalleghenys #mlb #mlbhistory #mlbmemorybank #tapophiles_only #aj_graveyards #tv_churchandgraves #project_necropolis
I write obituaries on ballplayers who recently passed away on my blog, www.ripbaseball.com (link in bio). Finding out that Scott Sanderson died was a personal blow, because the team that made me fall in love with baseball was the 1984 Cubs. That was Sanderson’s first year with the Cubs, and he was so good with that team but so snakebitten with injury problems. He was with the Cubs for 6 seasons and never could stay completely healthy, but he was a great pitcher when he could put it all together.
Nobody in baseball history looked like he belonged in a baseball uniform more than Scott Sanderson. Just an absurdly good-looking guy with a million-dollar smile, and then he’d go out to the mound and be a tough, inside pitching badass who could buckle the knees of any batter with his curveball. I got an autograph from him years after he retired, and I’ll be damned if he hadn’t aged one day. He was probably about 50 and looked like he could pitch a few innings in relief if his back would let him.
News got out last year that Sanderson had his voice box removed due to cancer and suffered a stroke. It was a cruel act that a perpetually young baseball player spent the last years of his life seriously ill. I’m hoping that in the Field of Dreams, a young and handsome man with a healthy arm and a strong back steps out of the bullpen, looking forward to stopping a few sluggers in their tracks with a killer curve and pinpoint control.
#baseball #baseballhistory #mlb #mlbhistory #mlbmemorybank #scottsanderson #chicagocubs #cubs #ripbaseball #cancersucks
Here lies Carl Pohlad, former owner of the Minnesota Twins. During his tenure from 1984-2009, he went from a hero who saved the Twins to a villain who almost drove the team out of existence.
Carl Pohlad was born on August 23, 1915 in Des Moines, Iowa, as one of eight children in the family. Unlike other American billionaires, Pohlad didn’t come from money. His father was a railroad brakeman and his mother cleaned houses and did laundry to help support the family. Pohlad’s odd jobs tended to be in the banking sector, where he would remain for most of his life.
He was a football player in high school and eventually played at Gonzaga, having been recruited by alumnus Bing Crosby.
Pohlad served overseas in the Army during World War II, in the infantry. He was awarded three purple hearts, two bronze stars and a battlefield commission of lieutenant. He said in a 1982 interview that he “was wounded four or five times, but never seriously.”
After the Army, Pohlad turned to banking and worked at several locations in the Midwest. He settled at Marquette Bank in Minneapolis, moving to Minnesota with his family. He would work his way up to president while acquiring other banks in the Midwest.
Pohlad diversified his interests, from airlines to real estate to becoming a large shareholder of Pepsi Cola. He became one of the wealthiest and most influential people in the country, but he wasn’t well known until he entered the sports world by buying the Minnesota Twins in 1984. Under former owner Cal Griffith, the team’s future in Minnesota was uncertain, so Pohlad was a hero who kept the Twins in the Twin Cities. They won the World Series in 1987 and 1991, too.
Then came the downside. Pohlad cut the payroll, and the Twins soon became perennial cellar dwellers. He feuded with Minnesota for a publicly funded stadium, and in 2001, it was reported that MLB would buy the Twins from him and contract them out of existence. Nothing came of the threat, but it was an act of betrayal for Twins fans.
Pohlad would eventually get his publicly funded stadium, but he never saw a game there. Target Field opened in 2010. Pohlad died on January 5, 2009 at the age of 93 from natural causes.
