Willie McCovey’s memory is alive and well in San Francisco. His birthday was a few days ago, and his grave was decorated by fans.
My couple of hours exploring Cypress Lawn Memorial Park resulted in 11 baseball gravesites found. Sadly, three were unmarked, but at least I was able get a pretty close approximation of where the graves are. And I almost got locked in a columbarium overnight, which would have been fun, I’m sure. I’m in Northern California for a couple more days. Though I can’t get back out to San Francisco’s cemeteries, I hope to hit one or two more spots before it’s time to go home.
Here lies Patsy Tebeau, one of the most vicious men to ever play the game of baseball. He was also a brilliant tactician and a renowned manager. He played for the Chicago White Stockings (1887), Cleveland Spiders (1889, 1891-98), Cleveland Infants of the Players League (1890) and St. Louis Perfectos/Cardinals (1899-1900). From 1890 onward, he also served as a player-manager.
Oliver Wendell Tebeau was born on December 5, 1864 in St. Louis, Mo. According to one story about his life, he was a part of the “Goose Hill Gang” in his youth. He ran afoul of the law more than once, and it seems likely that if it wasn’t for baseball, he would have ended up dead or in prison.
Tebeau started playing ball in 1886. Along with piling up base hits, he piled up fines as well. But the quality of his play was good enough that Chicago signed him when they needed a third baseman in 1887. Tebeau hit poorly in his audition. But in 1889, he returned to the majors with the Cleveland Spiders.
In his first full season, Tebeau slashed .282/.332/.390 while playing in an NL-leading 136 games. He hit 8 home runs and drove in 76 runs, and he stole 26 bases as well. For his career, he was frequently a fine hitter, topping .300 three times. His true value, though, lay as a manager.
Tebeau had a win-at-all-costs mentality, rule book or traditions be damned. He took every advantage he could find, frequently got into fights and kept his spikes good and sharp — all the better for gouging opponents. The Spiders adopted his tactics and became one of the best teams in the NL, and one of the most hated.
Cleveland won the Temple Cup, an early championship, in 1895. Tebeau and most of his players moved to St. Louis in 1899. He managed until the middle of 1900. Faced with an aging team that wasn’t winning, he retired.
He had a .279/.332/.364 slash line in 14 seasons with 1,290 hits. As a manager, he had a 726-583 record for a .555 winning percentage.
Tebeau opened a tavern in St. Louis. Though it was successful, his health declined, and he was unhappy and separated from his wife and children. On May 15, 1918, Tebeau sat at a table in his bar and shot himself in the head. He was 53 years old.
Here lies Frank Delahanty, the last surviving brother of the famed baseball-playing Delahantys. He had a brief career in the American League and Federal League and a rough post-baseball career that included a prison stint. Delahanty played for the New York Highlanders (1905-06, 1908), Cleveland Naps (1907), and the Buffalo Buffeds (1914) and Pittsburgh Rebels (1914-15) of the Federal League.
Frank Delahanty was born on December 29, 1882 in Cleveland, Ohio. By the time he signed a contract to play semipro ball in 1900, Ed was a superstar, and his other brothers were established ballplayers. Frank signed his first pro contract in 1902. He had some good seasons in the minors, but mainly he was a middling singles hitter. He was playing for the Syracuse Stars in 1903 when Ed died at Niagara Falls, so he was the closest brother to Buffalo and had to identify Ed’s belongings and his body. It must have been a tough time for the 20-year-old.
Frank reached the major leagues in 1905 with the Highlanders (Yankees) and hit .222 in 9 games. He played in Cleveland as well, and after several years in the minors, he played in the 2 seasons that the Federal League, a third major league, existed.
Frank Delahanty had a total of 6 seasons in the majors. He slashed .226/.280/.308 in that time, with 223 hits that included 22 doubles, 22 triples and 5 home runs. He stole 50 bases and drove in 94 runs.
After baseball, he was elected to the Ohio State Legislature. Almost immediately, he was accused of both demanding and offering bribes and resigned months later in disgrace. After that, he got involved in bootlegging and eventually served a year in prison for that. His wife divorced him in 1930, citing non-support. She didn’t know where he was. At the time, he was living in a Cleveland flophouse.
Frank eventually turned the corner, got a job in City Hall in Cleveland and was able to secure jobs for a couple of his brothers who needed help. That’s ethically questionable, but given his past crimes, it’s almost quaint.
Delahanty broke his hip and wrist in a fall in Feb. 1966. He never left the hospital and died on July 22, 1966, at the age of 83. He was the last surviving Delahanty sibling.
(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.
