(Part 2)
Here lies Ed Delahanty, one of baseball’s most tragic stories. At the start of the 1903 season, he was forced to play for the Senators instead of a more lucrative deal with the Giants. The $4,000 he owed the Giants was to be docked from his salary. He had gambling debts and a drinking problem.
Del hadn’t worked himself into playing shape by the time the season started. He got off to a slow start (for him — he was hitting in the .280s) and suffered a knee injury. He almost quit the team to sign with a club in Denver, but the contract was pulled at the last minute. His bat eventually warmed up to a .333 average, but he was unhappy.
In late June, the Senators went on a road trip. Del checked for correspondence from his wife at each stop, and when he hadn’t heard from her when they reached Cleveland, he went on a long drinking binge. It only got worse as the team traveled to Detroit. He was in no condition to play, talked of suicide and brandished a knife at one of his teammates. His mom and two brothers were sent from Cleveland to talk some sense into him.
On July 2, Delahanty boarded a train to New York, leaving his teammates behind in Detroit. He drank 5 whiskies at the bar, became unruly and threatened the conductor with a razor. He was kicked off the train at Port Erie, Ontario, by the Niagara River.
It was night. Del was drunk and started walking across the International Bridge that spanned the Niagara River, to get to Buffalo on the other side. A night watchman intercepted him, they struggled, and Del turned and ran right off the edge of the bridge, into the river. Whether he drowned or fell down Niagara Falls to his death, Ed Delahanty was dead at 35.
And nobody knew it. No one on the train knew he was THE Ed Delahanty; he was a random drunk. The Senators and his wife thought he was coming back to Washington. It was about a week later that the baggage left on the train was traced to him. His mangled body was found and identified on July 9. Most of his clothes had been ripped away, and his leg had been torn off, likely from a Maid of the Mist boat propeller.
Del was buried in Cleveland on July 11. He was inducted to the @baseballhall in 1945.
(Part 1)
This is Ed Delahanty, one of the best 19th Century baseball players ever, though today he’s more remembered for his death than his life. I’ll get to his death in the next post.
Delahanty was primarily an outfielder and first baseman, and he played for the Philadelphia Quakers/Phillies (1888-89, 1891-1901), Cleveland Infants of the Players League (1890) and Washington Senators (1902-1903).
“Big Ed” Delahanty was born in Cleveland on October 30, 1867. He had 5 brothers, all of whom played pro ball. Five of the six made it to the majors. Del, as he was called, tore up minor league ball in 1887 & ‘88 and was signed by the Phillies in 1888.
His first few years were uneven. He struggled at first, then played well off the bench, then he broke his contract to join the Players League, which lasted for a season before folding. He returned to the Phillies in 1891 and had a bad year. Then 1892 rolled around, and he turned into a 5-tool superstar.
Over the next 11 seasons, Delahanty led his league in: hits once, doubles 5 times, triples once, home runs twice, RBIs 3 times, stolen bases once, batting average twice, on-base percentage twice, slugging percentage 5 times, OPS 5 times and OPS+ 4 times. He hit over .400 three times and hit 4 home runs in a game in 1896. He was only the second player to ever accomplish that feat.
Del was underpaid by the Phillies for most of his career, and when the American League formed in 1901, he saw his chance for a better paycheck. He broke his contract with the Phillies and signed with the Senators for a $1,000 raise in 1902. He was great for Washington, though he was in his early 30s and worried about slowing down. He won the AL batting title with a .376 average and led all of baseball with 43 doubles.
Del tried the same trick in 1903, signing with the New York Giants for more money, including $4,000 paid up front. However, the AL and NL came to a treaty to stop the contract jumping, and Del was sent back to the Senators and ordered to repay the Giants. It was a hard blow, because he had little money. Big Ed had a gambling problem, a drinking problem, and a mental health problem. He also had mere months to live. More in Part 2.
Here lies Ewing Kauffman, who founded the Kansas City Royals and guided the team for more than 20 years. He made his fortune in the pharmaceutical business and gave back to his Kansas City home, not only with a world champion baseball team but also with a philanthropic foundation that continues to operate today.
Ewing Kauffman was born on September 21, 1916, on a farm near Garden City, Mo. The family moved to Kansas City when he was young. He was an academic whiz as a child and got a business management degree in college.
Kauffman became a pharmaceutical salesman in Kansas City and started his own business, Marion Laboratories, in 1950. It started as a one-man show working out of his house, but by 1960 it had expanded and had sales of more than $1 million.
Marion Labs’ success left Kauffman one of the richest people in Missouri. He put in a bid for a baseball team in Kansas City to replace the departed KC Athletics. He got the winning bid, and for $7 million, he became the owner of the team eventually called the Kansas City Royals.
Kauffman knew nothing about baseball management, but he hired good baseball men and bankrolled their efforts. The Royals began play in 1969, and by the mid-1970s they were among the best teams in the AL. The team lost three straight Champion Series to the Yankees from 1976-78 but won the AL Pennant in 1980 and the World Series in 1985.
Kauffman gave the Royals a great new home with Royals Stadium — now Kauffman Stadium — in 1973. It wasn’t a multi-sport abomination like most of the baseball stadiums from the ‘70s. It was a beautiful baseball-only park that is still a great place to watch a ballgame.
Kauffman’s health declined in the ‘90s, and he was very concerned about keeping the Royals in Kansas City after he wasn’t around. He created a complex succession plan that essentially gave the team to a civic organization, which would find a buyer who would keep the team in town. Proceeds from the sale went to area charities.
On May 19, 1993, Kauffman announced that he had been diagnosed with bone cancer. He was too ill to attend a July ceremony to rename Royals Stadium after him. He died Aug. 1, 1993 at the age of 76.
Here lies Billy Hitchcock, whose life in baseball included stints as a player, coach, manager and minor-league executive. As an infielder, Hitchcock played for the Detroit Tigers (1942, 1946, 1953), Washington Senators (1946), St. Louis Browns (1947), Boston Red Sox (1948-1949) and Philadelphia Athletics (1950-1952). He also served as a manager for the Tigers (1960), Baltimore Orioles (1962-63) and Atlanta Braves (1966-67).
Billy Hitchcock was born in Inverness, Ala., on July 31, 1916. He and his older brother Jimmy were star athletes at Auburn University, and the baseball field is named after them both. Billy played on the school’s 1st SEC Champion baseball team and scored a touchdown in its first football bowl game.
Hitchcock started playing in the minors for the Yankees in 1939, but his contract was sold to the Tigers in 1942. He soon became the team’s starting shortstop and hit .211 before departing to enter the Army. He served stateside and in the Pacific before being discharged in early 1946.
He rejoined Detroit, but they had no place for him in the lineup. He was sold to the Senators and hit .212 before being sent to the Browns in 1947.
Hitchcock moved around frequently and was a decent infielder and mediocre hitter at best. He did have a couple good seasons at the bat. The best stretch of Hitchcock’s playing career were the 3 seasons he spent in Philadelphia. He hit .306 in 1951 and briefly challenged for the batting title.
In his 9-year career, Hitchcock slashed .243/.310/.299, with 547 hits in 703 games. He had 67 doubles, 22 triples, 5 home runs and 257 RBIs.
Hitchcock was a Tigers coach after retirement and managed the Orioles and Braves for a few seasons. He didn’t do too badly, but the laid-back, pipe-smoking Southerner was overmatched at controlling his players. He later found his ideal job as President of the Southern League. He ran the minor league from his home in Opelika, AL. During his tenure from 1971-80, attendance skyrocketed as the league worked to become more family-friendly. He is a member of the Auburn and Southern League Halls of Fame.
Billy Hitchcock died on April 9, 2006, in Opelika. He was 89 years old.
Here lies Bobby Reis, who started his career as a third baseman and ended it as a pitcher/jack of all trades. He played every single position on the diamond in his 6-year career with the Brooklyn Dodgers (1931-32, 1935) & Boston Braves (1936-38).
Bobby Reis was born on January 2, 1909 in Woodside, N.Y. He played ball on sandlots in Queens while working as a bank clerk at the Long Island City Savings Bank. Reis was discovered by Dave Driscoll, who was the business manager for the Brooklyn Robins (Dodgers). Driscoll arranged for Reis to take a leave of absence from the bank to play in the minors in the Carolinas. He hit .373 in his first season, so He never went back to that bank.
Reis made it to the majors with Brooklyn in 1931, the same year that teammate and future brother-in-law Phil Gallivan debuted (see a few posts back for more on him). Reis hit .294 in 6 games, but he was mostly stuck in the minors through 1935. He didn’t get much of a chance to show his stuff until Casey Stengel took over the Dodgers in 1935.
Reis never hit that well in the majors, but he was versatile enough that he played pretty much everywhere on the field. He even volunteered to pitch when Stengel needed bullpen help, and he did well. Reis pitched in 14 games in ‘35, with 2 starts, and ended the season with a 3-2 record, 2.83 ERA, 2 saves and a complete game.
Reis was traded to the Braves, and they used him mainly as a pitcher in ‘36 and then a fielder in 1937. Stengel took over the Braves in 1938 and put Reis back into his Jack-of-all-trades role. He even spent a few innings as a catcher for a game. Unfortunately, Reis put together his worst season in 1938, both at the bat and on the mound, and he was demoted to the minor leagues.
For his career, Reis had a 10-13 record, with a 4.27 ERA and 1.673 WHIP. He pitched in 69 games with 2 saves. He also started 9 games and completed 5. He struck out 52 batters and walked 144. At the plate, he slashed .233/.291/.270 in 175 games. His 70 hits included 10 doubles and 2 triples.
Reis worked for the Fleischman distillery after his baseball career, while playing locally in the Twin Cities. He died on May 1, 1973 at the age of 64.
