Clark Grifith

Clark Griffith – Society for American Baseball Research (sabr.org)

original article written by Mike Grahek
researched by Carrie Birdsong

Few individuals in the history of baseball can boast a career to rival that of Clark Griffith in terms
of duration, as a player, manager, and executive, it was one of the longest ever, spanning nearly 70 years.  Griffith is the only man in Major League history to serve as player, manager, and owner for 20 years each.  From his earliest days as a pitcher for money in Hoopeston, Illinois, to his last breath, the Old Fox, as he became fondly known, dedicated his life to baseball.  A fiery competitor, he was outspoken, innovative, crafty and resourceful.  He played with and against some of the pioneers of the game, was a star during its rowdiest era, manager for two decades, and was the face of baseball in the nation’s capital for over 40 years.  Along the way, he won 237 games as a major league pitcher, helped to establish the American League, brought Washington its only World Series title, and could name eight U.S. presidents among his many friends.

Clark Calvin Griffith was born on November 20, 1869, in Clear Creek Missouri, to Isaiah and Sarah Anne (Wright) Griffith.  The family, including Clark’s four older siblings, moved from Illinois before he was born, intent on farming in Oklahoma.  They ended up settling in Missouri, staking out 40 acres near the settlement of Nevada, close to the Kansas border.  Isaiah Griffith planned to farm the land, but the Clear Creek soil was not conducive to productive farming, and he was forced to rely upon hunting to support his family.  In February 1872, when Clark was just two, his father was killed in a hunting accident, mistakenly shot by a neighbor youth.  His mother, at the time of the accident expecting once more, struggled to raise six children in the rugged frontier.  For several years she persevered, farming the land, while her eldest son Earl hunted for game to feed the family.  Adding to their hardship, as he grew older, Clark became afflicted with a persistent ailment, eventually diagnosed, informally, as malarial fever.  He was forced to bed for long periods, unable to assist with chores.  Ultimately, the hard life, coupled with Clark’s health problems, prompted the Griffiths to move back to Illinois in 1882, where they found a home in the town of Normal, near Bloomington.  Clark was about 12 at the time.

During his early years in Missouri, he was introduced to baseball, made popular there by soldiers returning from the Civil War.  Too small and sickly to play for the local teams, Clark nonetheless developed a love for the game and functioned as a mascot and water boy for his hometown club.  Upon moving to Illinois, he found a more sophisticated version of baseball played there and, although still considered too small to play for his high school club in Normal, he played wherever possible in pickup games, earning a reputation first as a catcher and then a pitcher.

At 17, he was offered ten dollars to pitch for the Hoopeston, Illinois club against hated rival Danville.  Clark took the money and won the game by the end of 1877. He had entered organized ball, pitching for the Bloomington Reds.  He became that club’s star pitcher in 1888 when it joined the Central Inter-State League.  At this time, he was also enrolled at Illinois Wesleyan University, but never completed his studies there.  In July, Bloomington played an exhibition game against Milwaukee, a Western Association team, and Clark so impressed Milwaukee manager, James Hart (later owner of the Chicago Cubs), that he was offered a contract for $225 a month.  Griffith starred for Milwaukee during the next three seasons until he caught the eye of Charlie Comiskey.  Comiskey convinced him to jump to the American Association in 1891, where he pitched well, going 11-8 for the St. Louis Browns but was released in mid-July when he developed a sore arm.  He caught on with the Boston club near season’s end, but when the Association disbanded, Clark was again looking for work.

He toiled successfully the next two years in places like Tacoma, Washington; Missoula, Montana; and Oakland, but the leagues, like many in that era, were unstable, and the paychecks were uncertain.  With Oakland in 18933, Clark won 30 games, while also performing in Wild West skits on stage in San Francisco’s Barbary Coast neighborhood after the league disbanded in August.  By early September, though, he was signed by Cap Anson’s Chicago National League club.  There he found lasting fame as a pitcher, made numerous friends, and learned about showmanship and gamesmanship from the legendary Anson.  Over the next eight seasons, Griffith won 152 games, six consecutive times winning over 20, and becoming a star.

Never a power pitcher, Clark relied on wiles and control to get batters out, using a variety of breaking balls, trick pitches, and deceptive deliveries to befuddle his opponents.  an expert in the quick pitch, he would toss a strike over the plate before the batter was set.  He claimed to have invented the screwball while pitching on the West Coast in the early 1890s and often experimented with the effects of friction on a pitched ball.  One of his favorite tricks was to openly deface a new ball by gouging it on his spikes.  Though the umpires did nothing to discourage this, the Detroit club, after one particularly destructive game, presented Griff with a bill with a bill for eleven new baseballs.  After his playing days were over, he claimed to have never thrown a spitball during his career, but it is difficult to believe he would have ignored any opportunity to gain an advantage over a batter.  “He was the first real master of slow ball pitching, of control, reduced to a science, of using his head to outwit batters,” said long-time New York sportswriter William B. Hanna.  Chicago teammate Jimmy Callahan opined, “I will hand it unreservedly to [Christy] Mathewson as one of the greatest pitchers who ever lived.  But I think that old Clark Griffith, in his prime, was cagier, a craftier, if not a brainier, proposition.”

Besides becoming a star pitcher, Clark also learned a thing or two about the business and politics of baseball and developed into a leader.  He was the main catalyst in the April 1900 formation of the Ball Players Protective Association, an organization that didn’t accomplish much in the area of players’ rights, but one that played an important part in the successful launching of the American League.  Clark met with Ban Johnson and his old friend Comiskey to discuss the possibility of Johnson’s American League challenging the National League as a new major league.  Comiskey and Johnson were clearly supportive of the notion, but feared, due to a lack of players, that it would be unsuccessful.  Griff assured them he could get the players and recommended that they wait until the owners meeting in December to do anything.  When the National League turned down an Association petition for better pay, he had the ammunition he needed to recruit players for the new league.  Immediately going to work, he single-handedly convinced many NL stars to sign AL contracts.  Of 40 players targeted by the American League to form the foundation of its rosters, Clark claimed to have signed all but one: Honus Wagner.  Comiskey, in turn, signed Clark to manage his Chicago White Sox.

As White Sox manager and the franchise’s star pitcher, he won 24 games and led the club to its first major league pennant in 1901.  The following year, he won 15 as the team slipped to fourth place, but the new league was a success.  Following the 1902 season Johnson moved the Baltimore franchise to New York and named the Old Fox as manager of the newly-christened Highlanders. 

Hope was fervent that Griff could bring a pennant to Gotham, but the Highlanders finished a disappointing fourth in their inaugural season.  Clark won 14 games in what would be his last season of full-time pitching and, although he would log around 100 innings pitched in each of the next two seasons, his appearances increasingly were in the role of reliever.  In 1904, mainly through the machinations of Ban Johnson, New York was fortified by the additions of Jack Powell and John Anderson, and the pick-up of Smiling Al Orth in July helped to solidify the team in its run for the pennant.  On the season’s final day, however, a wild pitch by Jack Chesbro denied the Highlanders a championship.  It was the closest Griff would come to a flag in New York.

The club was up and down in the standings over the next several seasons, sagging to sixth place in 1905, finishing second in 1906, and falling back again to fifth in 1907.  Clark announced his resignation in June 1908 as the team was beset with injuries and spiraling downward, losing 12 of 13 games.  He blamed bad luck that followed the club, intimating that perhaps it was he, himself, who was the hoodoo.  A disheartened Griffith said, “It [is] simply useless for me to continue…I have tried everything, but it [is] fighting against fate.”

Over the next few months, Griff was deluged by offers to manage other clubs.  He made no secret of his desire to assume an ownership role, even in the minor leagues, and for several months he carefully considered all of his options.  Finally, in December, in a surprise move, he signed a contract to manage the Cincinnati Reds and was back in the National League.

Under Griffith, Cincinnati finished fourth in 1909, just nosing into the first division, distantly behind perennial leaders Pittsburgh, Chicago, and New York.  After three straight losing seasons, the campaign had to be considered a success, but it would mark the high point of Clark’s brief stay in the Queen City, as the Reds dropped a notch in the standings each of the next two years.  Although managerial success eluded him, Clark managed the NL’s first Cuban ball players, Armando Marsans and Rafael Almeida.  He still longed to be an owner, however, when the opportunity arose in 1911, he was ready to do whatever was necessary to avail himself of it.

In September 1911, Washington manager Jimmy McAleer made a deal to become president of the Boston Red Sox, leaving a vacancy in the capital.  Griffith’s interest in the Senator's job was enormous for several reasons: he wanted to be an owner, he enjoyed managing, and he wanted to return to the American League.  It was a natural fit, even if it meant going to a franchise that had never had a winning season and never finished higher than sixth.  All he had to do was come up with the money.  Turned down for loans by his old American League friends, Ban Johnson and Charlie Comiskey, Clark risked everything by mortgaging the Montana ranch he owned with his brother to raise the necessary funds.  He purchased a one-tenth interest in the Washington club, became its largest stockholder, and signed a contract in October 1911 to manage the Senators in 1912.

One of the things the other Washington owners wanted from their new manager was someone who could develop new talent, thereby ensuring future success, instead of trying to make a winner out of the current roster of veterans.  Clark was equal to the task, at once releasing or trading several older players, and headed into spring training with few certainties.  The Senators were unanimously slated for the second division by preseason prognosticators and did nothing in the early going to dispel those predictions.  But in early June, after the pickup of first baseman Chuck Gandil from Montreal, the club caught fire and reeled of 17 straight wins, all on the road.  Walter Johnson began a personal string of 16 consecutive victories on his way to a new career high of 33, and the Nats vaulted into the first division.  They remained there for the rest of the season, never seriously challenging for the flag, but arousing Washington fandom nonetheless, and their second-place finish was by far the best performance in franchise history.

Hopes were high the following season, but despite a Herculean effort (36-7) from Johnson, the club spent much of the first half in a double-digit deficit behind Connie Mack’s Athletics.  A good second half salvaged another second-place finish, with 90 wins, but that was as high as a Griffith-led team would finish during the remainder of his managerial career.  The Senators slipped to third in 1914 and would finish no higher than that for the next ten years.

With the onset of war against Germany in April 1917, Griffith launched an imaginative plan to involve the nation in supporting troops overseas.  His idea was to raise money to buy enough athletic equipment, mainly baseball gear, to outfit every U.S. military training camp.  The idea caught on quickly and was an enormous success.  Ballparks around the country, major and minor league alike, held Griffith Days and collected money for the effort.  President Wilson contributed two bits and donations poured in from every state.  By July over $7,500 had been raised and the first shipment of equipment sailed for France.  In July, however, the steamship Kansas, carrying outfits for 150 teams with General John J. Pershing’s army, was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sunk in the Atlantic.  Everything was lost.  Undeterred, the Old Fox mounted another campaign almost immediately.  In addition to equipment, Griff also bought mass quantities of The Sporting News and sent them to France to keep the troops updated on the pennant races.

Ironically enough, as a former ball-scuffing pitcher, one of Clark’s other contributions to the game during this period was leading the change to abolish “freak” pitches, including the spitball and the shine ball, which helped eventually to bring an end to the Deadball Era.  Although he penned essays against the spitter, the shine ball, in particular, prompted a personal crusade by Griff, who claimed as early as 1917 that it was unfair and should be outlawed.

Griffith continued to manage the Washington club through 1920.  In December 1919, he partnered with a Philadelphia grain broker, William M. Richardson, to purchase approximately 80 percent of the team’s stock, again mortgaging the family ranch to borrow his half of the required $400,000.  With the move, he became free to make whatever changes he felt necessary to strengthen the club.  There was talk for a while of running the club for a few more years from the bench, as well as from the front office, but he lasted only one season in the dual capacities before ending his managing career.  During his twenty years as a manager, Clark was credited with inventing the squeeze play and with leading the revolution toward more frequent use of relief pitchers.  A vocal leader, it was estimated he was thrown out of more games than anyone in the era outside of John McGraw.

Within four years, despite hiring four different managers, Griffith molded a club that brought the first and only World Series title to the nation’s capital in 1924.  Proving that it was no fluke, the Senators won the A.L. crown again in 1925, finishing 8 ½ games ahead of Connie Mack’s Athletics.  The club lost a tough World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates, who became the first team to rally from a 3-1 deficit to win a seven-game Series.  Washington would win only one other pennant in 1933, over the next thirty years.

During his years as owner of the Senators, and as he grew older, Clark was perceived by turns as a shrewd judge of talent, a frugal and resourceful owner, a sentimentalist, a curmudgeon, a horse trader, a silent and generous benefactor, and a stubborn, outspoken voice against change unless it was on his own terms.  He is often remembered for trading his niece’s husband, Joe Cronin, to the Red Sox in 1934 for Lyn Lary plus a record price, and for selling his nephew, Sherry Robertson, the A’s for $10,000 in 1952.  Both deals, however, had underlying reasons other than the bottom line and were made, ultimately, because Clark knew they would benefit the players involved.  Griffith also became a pioneer in signing Cuban players, whom he valued both for their skills and the fact that they could be acquired cheaply by his confidante in Havana, scout Joe Cambria.  In Griffith’s 44 years at Washington’s helm, 63 Cubans reached the major leagues – 35 of them with the Senators.

As he passed his 80^th birthday, Clark’s age began to catch up with him.  In December 1950, after celebrating his 50^th wedding anniversary, he underwent surgery for a hernia.  Clark had married the former Anne Robertson in December 1900, on the eve of his becoming manager of the White Sox.  Although they had no children together, after Annie’s brother Jimmy died in 1922, the Griffiths soon were taking care of (though never officially adopting) the seven Robertson children.  Over the years all of them were employed in some capacity by the Washington ball club, most notably Calvin, who took over the club’s day-to-day operations in the early 1950s and became team president upon Clark’s death.

On October 19, 1955, Clark was admitted to Georgetown Hospital in Washington D.C. for treatment of neuritis.  He died of lung congestion on October 27, less than a month before his 86^th birthday.  His old friend and contemporary, Connie Mack, convalescing at age 92 after a hip fracture, was not told of Griffith’s passing. Still, President Dwight Eisenhower, speaking for his family and the nation said, “Clark was a good friend of ours and we shall personally miss him greatly.”  Griffith was buried at Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Brentwood, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C.

Note:

This biography originally appeared in David Jones, ed., Deadball Stars of the American League (Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, Inc., 2006).

Sources:

1.     Washington Post. 7/11/1900, 5/25/1902, 12/09/1918, 4/22/1917, 12/19/1919, 10/29/1955,
        10/28/1955.
2.     Baseball Magazine, August 1916, New York Times. 6/25/1908.

Full Name: Clark Calvin Griffith
Born: November 20, 1869, at Clear Creek, MO (USA)
Died: October 27, 1955, at Washington, DC (USA)

Bill Duggleby

  Original article written by Phil Williams
 Bill Duggleby – Society for American Baseball Research (sabr.org)
researched and compiled by Carrie Birdsong

  Few major-league careers have begun as auspiciously as Bill Duggleby’s.  On April 12, 1898, the rookie pitcher debuted with the Philadelphia Phillies against the visiting New York Giants.  At bat in the second inning, with the bases loaded, Duggleby caught a Cy Seymour fastball “right on the pickle, and it sailed out of the lot.”[1]  Not until Jeremy Hermida in 2005 would another player hit a grand slam in his first major-league-at-bat.

William James Duggleby was born on March 16, 1874, in Utica, New York.  His parents, John and Eliza, emigrated from England in the 1850s.  Bill was the youngest of their four children.  His father worked as a laborer.

His baseball career began on the lots of Utica’s Cornhill neighborhood.  By 1895, Duggleby pitched for the Oxford, New York, town team.  A year later, in Sporting Life, he advertised that he “would like to sign with some minor league club.”[2]  His initiative must have borne some fruit, for the Auburn Maroons of the New York State League signed his for the 1897 season.  When not pitching, Duggleby often patrolled center field for Auburn.  He finished third among league hitters with a .365 batting average while leading the circuit in wins and earned-run average[3].  In December 1898, for $200, Phillies manager George Stallings purchased Duggleby from the Maroons[4].

“Duggleby is a strapping big fellow,” an onlooker reported[5].  Although his specific height and weight are elusive, team photos during his Philadelphia career suggest he was one of the squad’s taller players, standing perhaps 6 feet or slightly higher[6].  He always appeared solidly built, but only later in his career did sportswriters disparage his weight.  Duggleby pitched as a right-hander, but no record exists of which side he batted from.

Whether it was from the right or the left side of the plate, Duggleby never proved to be anything more than an average-hitting pitcher at the major league level.  Yet when his bat did catch hold of one, he could give it a ride.  In his debut, his grand slam came at a most opportune moment.  In the first inning, Duggleby surrendered hits to the first three Giants he faced, capped by a Bill Joyce homer, and went into the second inning behind 3-0.  An aging Sam Thompson opened that frame with a single, and a wild Seymour walked Monte Cross and Ed Accaticchio.  Catcher Ed McFarland struck out.  Duggleby then “surprised himself and the crowd by duplicating Joyce’s hit over the right field wall.”[7]  With a lead in hand, he settled down and cruised to a 13-4 complete-game victory.

Philadelphia’s pitching staff was fluid, with Al Orth the closest thing to a returning ace.  But Duggleby, with only a season of Class C ball behind him, did not progress in three more starts.  In the last of these, on May 23 in Pittsburgh, he didn’t survive the second inning[8].  On June 2, the Phillies farmed his out to Wilkes-Barre of the Class A Eastern League. Two weeks later, Philadelphia’s players demanded that the club dismiss the abrasive Stallings, lest they strike[9].  Team secretary Bill Shettsline was promptly installed as the team’s new manager.

With the Coal Barons, Duggleby went 12-11.  Philadelphia recalled him in mid-September.  He pitched well in several relief efforts and earned the start in the season’s finale, versus Brooklyn.  He was hammered in a 12-8 loss.  In an abbreviated rookie season with the Phillies, Duggleby finished with a 3-3 record and a retrospectively calculated ERA+ of 63 over 54 innings.

Duggleby, a correspondent reported that Winter, “is inclined to think that he will be used as one of the regular pitchers by manager Shettsline next season.”[10]  But as the Phillies rebounded over the remaining two-thirds of the 1898 season, other newcomers – especially Wiley Platt and Red Donahue – had solidified the pitching staff.  That offseason, Philadelphia added Bill Bernhard and Chick Fraser to its twirling ranks.  so, the Phillies again farmed Duggleby out, to another Eastern League outfit, the Montreal Royals.  Duggleby went 22-16 with the Royals in 1899.

The Phillies farmed out Duggleby yet again in 1900, first to the Philadelphia Athletics of the nascent Atlantic League.  A couple of months into the season, paychecks bounced.  Duggleby and his mates left the Athletics, and the Atlantic League soon left its earthly existence.  Philadelphia then lent the pitcher to another Eastern League team, the Toronto Canucks.  Duggleby went 17-10 with the sub-.500 Canucks in 1900.  At the end of the season, he married Toronto native Ethel Williams.  Son William and daughter Elva arrived in the coming years.

As Duggleby’s career stalled in the high minors, the Phillies prospered.  Under Shettsline, the team finished  above .500 in 1898, then finished third in both 1899 (94-58) and 1900 (75-63).  But Nap Lajoie and three pitchers – Fraser, Bernhard, and Piatt – jumped to the Philadelphia Athletics of the upstart American League before the 1901 season.  Into the resulting void, Duggleby made the staff and responded with a 20-12 record and an ERA+ of 118.  Orth and Donahue also won 20 games.  The outfield of Roy Thomas, Elmer Flick, and Ed Delahanty led one of baseball’s strongest offenses.  Despite their personnel losses, the Phillies rebounded to finish second in 1901, with an 83-87 mark.

That May, a Philadelphia common pleas court refused to grant an injunction, they looked for by Phillies majority owner John Rogers to stop Lajoie from playing with the Athletics.  With an open market beckoning, and a legacy of stingy salaries from the penny-pinching Rogers, virtually his entire team succumbed to increased AL raids that summer.  In August, Duggleby signed with the Athletics for the coming season, for a reported $2,400[11].

From 1898 to 1900 Duggleby labored on the farm, the Phillies paid him $900 each season.  For farming the pitcher out in 1899, Philadelphia reportedly would in return “have the pick of the [Montreal] team at the end of the season.  It will likely be Catcher Jacklitz.”[12]  Montreal turned over Fred Jacklitz to the Phillies after the season.  (It is not known what player compensation, if any, Philadelphia received from Toronto in 1900.)  Additionally, during both 1899 and 1900, while Duggleby collected $150 a month from Philadelphia; Montreal and Toronto paid Philadelphia $225 a month for his services[13].  One report suggested that once Duggleby stuck with the Phillies in 1901, his salary was $1,200[14].  Small wonder, then, that Duggleby jumped.

Yet he jumped back.  On April 21, 1902, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed the May 1901 ruling from the common pleas court, upheld the National League’s reserve clause, and issued an injunction against Lajoie playing for the Athletics.  A week later the same common pleas court guided by the higher court’s ruling, made this injunction permanent and extended it to Bernhard and Fraser[15].  Duggleby made his first appearance with Connie Mack’s Athletics on April 26, losing at Baltimore.  On May 1, he beat the Nationals in Washington.  The next day, as the team arrived in Philadelphia for its home opener, Duggleby requested a meeting with Shettsline[16].  The manager, whose almost universal respect from ballplayers stood in stark contrast to that of majority owner Rogers, must have been persuasive.  In part, one suspects, as he likely relayed to the pitcher that the Phillies would soon seek an injunction against his pitching for the Athletics as they had against his teammates.  Two days later, on May 4, Duggleby returned to the Phillies, for the same $2,400 salary the Athletics gave him[17]

Fraser jumped back as well, and Thomas remained in the outfield.  Beyond these few holdovers, baseball historian Chuck Kimberly notes, “The Phillies replaced their departed stars with other stars – Eastern League stars, Western League stars, California League stars.”[18]  The team limped to a 56-81 seventh-place finish in 1902, with Duggleby posting an 11-17 record and an ERA+ of 86.  The next season, Chief Zimmer replaced Shettsline at the helm.  The Phillies again landed in seventh place, with a 49-86 mark.  Duggleby led the 1903 staff with 264 1/3 innings pitched and achieved a 13-16 record and an ERA+ of 83.

Hugh Duffy took over as the Phillies’ manager in 1904.  He preferred that his pitchers employ an overhand motion: “I made Duggleby practice it until he got control, and the opposing batsman could nothing with his delivery when he pitched overhand; but as soon as he would go back to his old-style base hits would follow in rapid succession.  I finally convinced ‘Dug’ of his error, and toward the latter part of the season there was not a pitcher in the League who was doing better work.”[19]  Prior to 1904, it would seem, Duggleby employed a side-arm delivery.  Mostly, his curves drew attention.  But he also had a sneaky fastball, often referred to as “high” in the zone[20].  “He used a fastball with such cleverness that it was almost impossible to bunt,” observed Brooklyn manager Ned Hanlon after a 1902 game[21].

More than anything else, Duggleby pitched to contact.  Of the 49 pitchers who threw at least 1,000 innings between 1901 and 1907, none had a lower ratio of strikeouts per nine innings than his 2.35[22].  After he shut out the Reds on August 11, 1902, without walking or striking out any batters, a Philadelphia sportswriter noted: “He made every mother’s son of them hit, and the men behind him did the rest.”[23]  Complementing this style, Duggleby fielded his position confidently, watched that “bases like a hawk,”[24], and commonly picked runners off.

Duggleby shut out Rube Waddell and the Athletics 1-0, in the opener of the Philadelphia spring series on April 4, 1904.  Later in life, he remembered it as his greatest pitching performance[25].  Ten days later, he was Duffy’s Opening Day starter, beating Boston 6-2.  From there, the pitcher and the team suffered.  After taking a loss on August 16, Duggleby was 5-13, and the Phillies 24-74.  Duffy benched him for several weeks, and Duggleby reportedly asked for his release[26].  On September 8, at New York, Duffy gave him another start.  A no-decision resulted.  But then, starting with a September 12 complete-game victory at Brooklyn, Duggleby reeled off seven straight wins to close the season[27].  He finished the campaign with a 12-13 record and an ERA+ of 72.  The Phillies played .500 ball down the stretch, but still landed in the cellar with a 52-100 record.

The overhand delivery Duffy insisted upon must have agreed with Duggleby.  Or might a spitter, tantalizingly referred to in a 1905 account of his pitching, have helped?[28]  Or did “Frosty Bill” prefer an autumn chill?

Later accounts of this nickname sometimes place its genesis upon the pitcher’s frigid relationships with his teammates.  No doubt Duggleby was reserved.  A contemporary considered him “about the quietest player I ever ran up against.”[29]  Yet any mention of him earning his teammates’ ill will is elusive.  On the other hand, after his finish to the 1904 season, references to “his reputation as a cold weather pitcher” were common[30].

Duggleby contributed a respectable season in 1905 as the Phillies returned to the first division with an 83-69 fourth-place finish.  Second behind Charlie Pittinger in innings and wins, he went 18-17 with an ERA+ of 118.  The team fell backward in 1906, sealing Duffy’s fate, with a 71-82 record.  Duggleby achieved a 13-19 mark and an ERA+ of 116.

On April 4, 1907, Duggleby again bested Waddell, 1-0, in the spring series opener.  New Phillies manager Billy Murray considered Duggleby for his Opening Day starter before choosing Frank Corridon just before the April 11 match with the Giants began[31].  Duggleby instead started Philadelphia’s second game, four days later at the Polo Grounds.  He was ineffective in the 6-5 loss.  Murray used Duggleby sparingly over the coming weeks out of the pen.  Only on June 9, at Chicago, did he give the veteran pitcher another start.  A 4-2 loss to the Cubs resulted.

Over the years, Duggleby struggled against the Pirates, yet never lost faith that he could beat them.  At the beginning of the 1906 season, he pleaded with Duffy: “New season, new suit of clothes, new baby, Hugh.  Let me try it.”[32]  Duffy let him try twice against Pittsburgh that year, and the pitcher lost both games[33].  Duggleby traditionally fared better against the Cubs and, as Chicago sprinted to 166-36 pennants in 1906, Duffy gave him seven starting assignments against Frank Chance’s juggernaut.  Duggleby went 1-6 in these games, but he pitched well in all but one of these efforts[34].

When Pittsburgh purchased Duggleby on July 15, 1907, the pitcher’s gameness and success versus Chicago factored into Pirates manager Fred Clarke’s thinking[35].  But halfway through the season, Pittsburgh was in third place, 11 ½ games behind the first-place Cubs, with whom they only had seven remaining games, Clarke’s immediate challenge was to get through a busy stretch peppered with doubleheaders, and by mid-July his staff was only five deep[36].

Duggleby made his Pirates debut in New York on July 18, relieving Sam Leever “in fairly good style.”[37]  But his first start for Pittsburgh, versus second-division Boston on July 29, resulted in his being pulled in the seventh as the Pirates lost, 6-3.  Clarke used him rarely afterward.  When asked by sportswriter Hugh Fullerton how things were going, Duggleby replied: “I’ve pitched fifty-four games this season – fifty-two of them in warm-up pen.”[38]  In 1907, with Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Duggleby finished with a 2-4 record, over 69 1/3 innings, with an ERA+ of 53.

Pittsburgh released him to Rochester in January 1908.  Late in the season, frustrated with another losing effort from the last-place Bronchos, Duggleby "deliberately kicked that ball into left field while two of the opposing players were on bases.”[39]  Fined $25 by the team for his petulant act, Duggleby cared not to pay it, and Rochester shipped him off to Kansas City[40].

In February 1909, Duggleby aided Dan Coogan in training his Cornell baseball squad, then briefly pitched for Kansas City that spring, but was soon let go.  He returned to Toronto in June, pitched poorly, and spent the rest of the season twirling semipro ball in Atlantic City.

Then Duggleby headed south.  In 1910 he pitched for Montgomery.  After briefly playing in Meridian, Mississippi, to begin the next season, he spent 1911 and 1912 pitching in Albany, Georgia.  Later accounts claimed that Ty Cobb, trying to score from third on a squeeze play in an exhibition game, broke Duggleby’s ankle as he tried to tag out the Georgia Peach at the plate, thus ending his professional career.  But like many tales, no historical evidence backs it up[41].

He stayed in Albany for several years, umpiring Georgia State League games and captaining local semipro teams.  In 1917, Ethel sued him for divorce[42].  He returned, alone, to New York[43].  After unsuccessfully trying to make a comeback with Utica, he used a store in Cooperstown but filed for bankruptcy in 1924[44].

Bill Duggleby spent his final years in Utica, employed by the Savage Arms manufacturing plant in nearby IlIon, then working for that village’s streets department.  On August 30, 1944, he died in Redfield, New York.  He was buried in the Redfield Cemetery.

Acknowledgments:  This biography was reviewed by Len Levin and fact-checked by
                                   Thomas Nester.
Sources

In addition to the sources noted in this biography, the author also accessed Duggleby’s file from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, and the following sites:

1. ancestry.com.
2. fultonhistory.com.
3. genealogybank.com.
4. newspapers.com.

Notes

1.        “This Was Easy, Very,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 22, 1898.
2.        "Players to Be Had,” Sporting Life, March 7, 1896, 8.
3.        “Philadelphia Points,” Sporting Life, January 1, 1898, 3.
4.        Jack Ryder, “Sixteen Years of Managing,” Cincinnati Enquirer, January 4, 1908.
5.        “Philadelphia News,” Sporting Life, January 15, 1898, 8.
6.        See Philadelphia Inquirer, April 1, 1905, and Pittsburgh Press, May 20, 1906. Both photos
           show Duggleby standing in the back row.
7.        “Phillies Won Second Game,” Philadelphia Times, April 22, 1898.
8.        “Trimmed by Tanny,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 24, 1898.
9.        For nineteenth-century Phillies history, see John Shiffert, Base Ball in Philadelphia:
           A History of the Early Game, 1831-1900 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2006).
10.      “Philadelphia News,” Sporting Life, March 4, 1899, 6.
11.      “Magnates Plan to Down Rogers,” Philadelphia Times, August 19, 1901.
12.      “Around the Bases,” Pawtucket Times, April 28, 1899.
13.      [Frank Hough], “How the White Slaves of Baseball Are Made Sources of Profit to Their
           Masters Shown in Case of Duggleby,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 28, 1902; “Wm.
           Duggleby, Human Chattel, Jumps Athletics,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 5, 1902. Note:
           Hough had a vested interest in Athletics, which undoubtedly fueled his muckraking
           impulses.
14.      “Magnates and Players,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 7, 1902.
15.     For a discussion of these court rulings, see Norman Macht, Connie Mack and the Early
          Years of Baseball (Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 2007), 264-269.
16.     “Base Ball Tangle at a Standstill,” Philadelphia Times, May 1, 1902.
17.     E.J. Lanigan, “Lost in Chancery,” The Sporting News, May 17, 1902, 6.
18.     Chuck Kimberly, The Days of Wee Willie, Old Cy and Baseball War: Scenes from the
          Dawn of the Deadball Era, 1900–1903 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland &
          Company, 2014), 136.
19.     Francis C. Richter, “Philadelphia Pleased,” Sporting Life, December 24, 1904, 6.
20.     Francis C. Richter, “Philadelphia News,” Sporting Life, August 1, 1903, 5.
21.     “Diamond Chips,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 3, 1902.
22.     Per Baseball-Reference’s Play Index.
23.     “Phillies Win on Joe Kelly’s Muff,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 12, 1906.
24.     Francis C. Richter, “Philadelphia News,” Sporting Life, April 30, 1898, 6.
25.     “Death Takes W.J. Duggleby, Baseball Star,” Utica Daily Press, September 14, 1944.
26.     “Team Troubles,” Sporting Life, September 10, 1904: 9.
27.     In addition to the September 12 victory at Brooklyn, Duggleby won in relief versus
          Boston on September 17, and captured complete-game victories on September 21,
          September 24, September 29, October 3, and October 8.
28.     “Base Ball Babbles,” Harrisburg Courier, May 26, 1905. Note that neither
          the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Chicago Tribune nor the Chicago Inter Ocean refer to
          him throwing a spitter in this game, or at any other time.
29.     “Good Words for Dugglesby,” Wilkes-Barre Record, June 22, 1898.
30.     “Phillies Defeat the Beaneaters,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 8, 1906. See also Jack Ryder,
          “All Alike, Quaker Pitchers Look,” Cincinnati Enquirer, August 10, 1905; “Cardinals
          Unable to Hit Duggleby,” St. Louis Republic, August 18, 1905.
31.     “Baseball Crowd Causes Forfeit,” New York Times, April 12, 1907.
32.     A.R. Cratty, “In Pittsburg,” Sporting Life, August 3, 1907, 4.
33.     Duggleby started and lost versus Pittsburgh on June 13 and July 19.
34.     Against the Cubs in 1906, Duggleby took a 1-0 loss in the 10th on May 16, earned an
          8-0 victory on May 19, lost 4-3 on July 13, lost 3-1 on July 16, lost 2-1 on July 31, lost
          8-0 on August 3, and lost 5-3 on August 23.
35.     “Clarke Glad to Get Duggleby,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 16, 1907; “Side Lights
          on the Game,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 16, 1907.
36.     Ralph S. Davis, “Pitchers Needed,” The Sporting News, July 18, 1907: 3.
37.     “Giants Rally and Win with Wiltse on Slab,” Pittsburgh Daily Post, July 19, 1907.
38.     “Limiting Clubs to 18 Men Ensures Good Baseball, Says Expert Fullerton,” New
           York Evening World, November 25, 1918.
39.     “For Fans,” Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin, August 27, 1908.
40.     “Eastern League Events,” Sporting Life, September 5, 1908: 13; “Rochester Disposes of
          Bill Duggleby,” (Jersey City, New Jersey) Jersey Journal, October 30, 1908.
41.     Per Walter LeConte’s listing of exhibition games, available via Retrosheet, there is no
          evidence of the Tigers playing an exhibition game in Georgia in this span. Nor can
          contemporary accounts be found to back this story up.
42.     “Duggleby Sued for Divorce,” Macon Telegraph, January 4, 1917.
43.     Evidence from Ancestry.com suggests Ethel and the children remained in Georgia.
44.     “Sport Notes of Interest,” Mount Carmel (Pennsylvania) Item, May 3, 1917; “Duggleby
          Bankrupt on Cooperstown Store,” Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin, April 4, 1924.

Full Name: William James Duggleby
Born: March 16, 1874, at Utica, NY (USA)
Died: August 30, 1944, at Redfield, NY (USA)

Bill Bernhard

Bill Bernhard – Society for American Baseball Research (sabr.org)

 written by Stephen V. Rice

researched by Carrie Birdsong

 In 1902 the Cleveland manager raved about his pitcher Bill Bernhard: “Critics may choose [Rube] Waddell or Cy Young and be welcome, but neither of these two men has anything on ‘Berny’”[1]  From 1899 to 1907, Bernhard compiled an impressive 116-81 major league record.  The fury of his fastball contrasted with his calm demeanor.  Berny was a knowledgeable baseball man, well-liked and respected.  After his major league career ended, he became a successful minor league manager.

William Henry Bernhard was born on March 16, 1871, in Clarence, New York, near Buffalo.  He was the eldest child of German immigrants, Peter Bernhard (1848-1926) and Mary Seyfang Bernhard (1849-1916)[2].  Peter was the proprietor of a hotel in Clarence[3].

Bill Bernhard pitched for amateur teams in the Buffalo area, including a team in East Buffalo known as the Crandalls, and a team representing Akron, New York[4].  At the rather late age of 26, he joined the professional ranks as a pitcher and first baseman on the Palmyra team in the Class C New York State League[5].  In 34 games pitched for Palmyra in 1897, Bernhard allowed 1.67 earned runs per game and led the league with 148 strikeouts[6].  On June 7, 1897, he threw a no-hitter against Batavia[7].

”Big Bill” was a hard-throwing right-hander who stood 6 feet in and weighed 205 pounds.  He looked like the next Amos Rusie and was nicknamed Rusie by the players of the New York State League[8]/  the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League tried to sign Bernhard to a contract after the 1897 season but did not offer enough to entice him,[9] so he played in 1898 for a team in Canajoharie, New York[10].  Sporting Life said Bernhard “has great speed, fine control and is one of the most graceful men in the box,” and “is far superior” to some of the Phillies’ pitchers[11].  The Phillies signed him for the 1899 season.

On April 24, 1899, Bernhard made his major league debut at the age of 28.  He pitched six innings in relief and allowed five runs in Philadelphia’s 10-8 loss to the Brooklyn Superbas[12].  On July 6, he was defeated by Brooklyn, 7-1, in his first major league start[13].  Bernhard delivered a three-hitter against the New York Giants on August 22, and a shutout of the Cleveland Spiders on September 14[14].  His 1899 record was 6-6 with a 2.65 ERA.  Bernhard began the 1900 season with a sparkling 12-1 record but lost seven of his next eight games,[15] as he struggled with his control.  He finished the year with a 15-10 record and a 4.77 ERA.  He married Lillian Secrist of Buffalo in 1900[16].

Connie Mack, manager of the Philadelphia Athletics in the upstart American League, signed Bernhard and two other Phillies, Nap Lajoie and Chick Fraser, to contracts for the 1901 season.  This prompted a fierce legal battle in which Colonel John I. Rogers, owner of the Phillies, sought to restrain the trio from playing for any team other than the Phillies.  The centerpiece of Rogers’s case was the reserve clause in the standard National League contract, which bound players to their teams.  In May 1901, Rogers lost the lawsuit he filed in Pennsylvania, but he won his appeal to the state’s supreme court in April 1902[17].

After the Supreme Court ruling, if the trio played for any team other than the Phillies, they would be in contempt of court and could be arrested if they set foot in Pennsylvania.  Fraser decided to return to the Phillies.  Bernhard and Lajoie, who were the best of friends, refused to go back to the Phillies.  A clever solution was found to keep Bernhard and Lajoie in the American League: Mack released them in April 1902, and they joined the AL’s Cleveland Bronchos.  The pair played for the Ohio team in defiance of the ruling, staying out of Pennsylvania until the contempt charges were dropped in June 1903[18].  Lajoie was so popular in Cleveland that the Bronchos became known as the Naps in 1903.

During this legal wrangling, Bernhard developed into one of the best pitchers in the American League.  His 17-10 record and 4.52 ERA in 1901 improved to an 18-5 mark and a 2.15 ERA in 1902.  From August 27 to September 1, 1902, Bernhard hurled a three-hitter to defeat the Philadelphia Athletics (in Cleveland); a two-hit shutout of Washington; and a six-hit shutout of Boston[19].

Bill and Lillian Bernhard celebrated the birth of their first child, daughter Marion, in May 1902[20].  In the offseason after the 192 season, Bill and his family traveled to California, where he pitched for a touring team of major league all-stars[21].  He fell in love with the Golden State.  He praised its climate and “how nice it was to go out and pick oranges from the trees.”[22]  It sure beat winter in Buffalo.

Bernhard continued to shine for Cleveland in 1903 and 1904; his combined record over those two seasons was 37-18 with a 2.13 ERA, including 23 wins in 1904.  On August 11, 1904, he lost 2-1 in 13 innings to Rube Waddell and the Athletics[23].  On September 29, 1904, he defeated Cy Young and the Boston Americans, 3-1[24].  Lillian and Marion attended the home games in which Bill pitched; his “beautiful little daughter sits in the grandstand directly in front of him, and watches his work with the keenest delight.”[25]

Lajoie was named the manager of the 1905 Cleveland Naps.  Cleveland baseman Charlie Carr felt Bernhard was a better choice to manage the team.  Carr said:

“When the Cleveland club management appointed Lajoie as manager in 1905, it made a serious mistake to my way of thinking.  Not that Lajoie was not a competent man for the position, but because it did not result in the harmony necessary on a team to make it a pennant winner. …The man who could have perfect harmony on the team was Bill Bernhard, for every man liked him and would have worked his head off for him.”[26]

Bernhard struggled in 1905 (7-13 record and 3.36 ERA) but rebounded in 1906 )16-15, 2.54).  He was in top form from September 16 to 27, 1906, when he defeated St. Louis, Washington, Boston, and New York in succession, allowing a total of two runs and 19 hits in four complete games[27].  Tragedy struck Bill and Lillian in February 1907 when Marion, their only child, died of pneumonia[28].

The 36-year-old Bernhard pitched only 42 innings in 1907, his final major league season.  He said: “There has been nothing wrong with me at any time this year, but the other pitchers were doing so well that I was not used this year.  Because of this idleness, I am unable to do myself justice.  I am as green as can be when I get on the rubber.”[29]  Cleveland released him in January 1908, and he became the manager of the Nashville Volunteers[30].

The 1907 Volunteers had finished in last place in the eight-team Southern Association.  Bernhard used his major league connections to acquire talent for the 1908 Vols; his acquisition included his former Cleveland teammate, Harry Bay, and a promising Cleveland prospect, Jake Daubert[31].  In addition to managing the team, Bernhard pitched and compiled a 7-6 record, including shutouts of New Orleans, Atlanta, and Montgomery[32].  His club trailed the first-place New Orleans Pelicans by a half-game in September when the Pelicans arrived in Nashville for a season-ending three-game series.  Bernhard pitched the first game of the series and lost, 5-1, but his team won the next two games to win the pennant by a slim half-game margin[33].  Bernhard’s turnaround of the Volunteers, from last place in 1907 to first place in 1908, brought him national acclaim.

Bernhard displayed the same calm manner whether his team had won five games in a row or had lost five games in a row.  He was always encouraging his team, and he never called out a player in front of others[34].  After Daubert committed his third error in one game, he came to the bench expecting to be chewed out.  Instead, Bernhard said, “Never mind about that, Jake.  You’ll boot a lot more like that before the season is over.  Take a fall out of another one if you feel like it, and you’ll get a bit more used to it.”  Daubert broke into a foolish grin and later said, “I wouldn’t loaf on that fellow if it cost me a leg.”[35]

The Cleveland Plain Dealer described Bernhard’s managerial style:

“He is on the Connie Mack order than on the [Hughie] Jennings plan.  There is nothing boisterous about Bernhard.  He acts quietly, telling his men of their mistakes in the same tones that he praises them for some piece of brilliant work.  Instead of whistling and tearing up the grass, he wigs wags his scorecard as the leader of the Athletics does.  He served under Connie Mack at Philadelphia before coming to Cleveland and was always an admirer of the methods of the tall and lanky leader.”[36]

Bernhard’s success in Nashville made him a local celebrity.  In May 1909, fans gave him a diamond-studded pin.  “Some of the fans wanted to give him a ninety-horsepower automobile, but Bill was intimidated that this would not be acceptable until he won his second pennant, so the pin was decided upon.”[37]

According to Sporting Life, the 1909 Volunteers “are all chucked full of enthusiasm and confidence, and every game is fought out as if it  was the deciding game of the season.”[38]  The team was in first place after winning its 13^th consecutive game on July 25,[39] but finished in second, 5 ½ games behind the Atlanta Crackers.

It was rumored that Bernhard would be managing Washington, Cleveland, or New York in the American League in 1910,[40] but he returned to lead the Volunteers.  The Southern Association adopted a $3,000 salary limit for the 1910 season.[41]  Bernhard took an unprecedented step that made him even more popular with his players.  He said:

“The boys have played faithfully for me.  I have not the heart to ask them to play for less than they are capable of getting elsewhere.  Therefore, I told them that they could choose their futures if they could show me where they were able to earn more money than our reduced rates would permit.  All will be sold or placed to suit themselves.”[42]

Bernhard sold several of his stars to teams in other leagues so that these players could earn more than $3,000.[43]  with a weakened lineup, the Volunteers played poorly to start the 1910 season.  Bernhard said the team would settle down that “the dangers attending the comet” have passed[44] – many people were unnerved by Halley’s comet in April 1910.  By July the team was “transformed” from “a bunch of dubs to the best fellows on earth, and if Bill Bernhard would consent to accept the nomination, he could easily be elected mayor” of Nashville[45].  At age 39, Bernhard pitched in 29 games during the 1910 season, including a one-hit shutout of Mobile on August 31[46].  The Volunteers finished in fifth place, 23 games behind the first-place New Orleans Pelicans.

The Nashville team owners chose not to renew Bernhard’s contract for the 1911 season[47].  It seems they were spoiled by the team’s recent success[48].  Sportswriter Grantland Rice said, “The directorate made a large, juicy mistake in turning loose a corking good manager.”[49]  Bernhard was instantly hired to manage the Memphis Turtles, a team that had finished in seventh place in the Southern Association in 1910.  He led the Turtles to sixth-place, fourth-place, and sixth-place finishes in 1911, 1912, and 1913, respectively.

The following quotes are from Bernhard.

·       On close games: “The man in the game does not get nervous in a close game.  It is the man on the bench that does the worrying.  When you are in there fighting for every point, you do not have to worry, but you are warming the bench you think you see ways of winning out and wonder why the fellows in there do not see and take advantage of them.”[50]

·       On arm strength: “Many, many pitchers tell you that the old arm is as strong as ever.  My arm feels good too, this spring, but it is not as strong as ever.  If it was, I wouldn’t be in the Southern League, and if the arms of those other pitchers were as strong as ever, they also would not be in the minor leagues.”[51]

·       On where his team will finish: “If I am talking for private information, I think we’ll finish 1-2.  If I am talking about publication, make it seventh place.  it's better to start in seventh place before the season starts and work up to fifth than it is to start in first place and drop to fourth,”[52]

·       On luck: “If you have a horseshow with you out on the mound, you are going to win the game.  If the other fellow has the horseshoe, he is going to win.  If you both have horseshoes, it’s going to be one ripper of a fight.”[53]

·       On how much a ballplayer should be paid: “Anything he can get.”[54]

 In 1914, at the age of 43, Bernhard pitched 92 innings for the Salt Lake City Skyscrapers of the Class D Union Association.  He returned to the Southern Association and served as the pitching coach of the Chattanooga Lookouts in the spring of 1915 and as a league umpire from June 1915 to July 1916[55].  In October 1916, Bernhard became the manager of the Salt Lake City Bees of the Pacific Coast League[56].  In February 1917, he endured another family tragedy: His beloved wife Lillian died after an extended illness[57].

Sportswriter Ed R. Hughes of the San Francisco Chronicle saw Bees manager Bernhard in a game against the San Francisco Seals in May 1917:

“Bill Bernhard, the Easy Boss, sits on the bench, entirely surrounded by left-handers, munching peanuts, and occasionally tossing a kernel to one of the southpaws. …Bill is not a fast eater, but he is a steady one, and there was a young mountain of peanut shells in front of the Salt Lake Bench. …Bill Bernhard is showing that a ball club can be piloted into first place without the manager fretting and stewing, though the visible supply of peanuts is rapidly diminishing.”[58]

The 46-year-old Bernhard was in good enough shape to pitch batting practice to the Bees[59].  To his team’s great delight, he took the mound in an August game; pitching in relief, he held the Los Angeles Angels down while Salt Lake City rallied to earn an 11-9 come-from-behind victory[60].  The 1917 Bees finished in third place.  Bernhard’s contract was not renewed for the 1918 season; the Salt Lake City owners felt he was not aggressive enough[61].  His career in professional baseball was over.

Bernhard moved to southern California, and in 1930 he married Lydamae Dills, a registered nurse[62].  Bernhard was the information chief for the Santa Anita race track, and later, a shipping clerk for Stationer’s Corporation[63].  On March 30. In 1949, he died of leukemia at the age of 78, in San Diego. 

Notes

1          Sporting Life, November 1, 1902.
2                   Ancestry.com.
3                  1880 US Census and 1892 New York State Census.
4          Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 26, 1905.
5          Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 8, 1906.
6                   Sporting Life, December 11, 1897.
7          Batavia (New York) Daily News, June 8, 1897.
8          Scranton (Pennsylvania) Tribune, August 21, 1897.
9          David L. Fleitz, Napoleon Lajoie: King of Ballplayers (Jefferson, North Carolina:
                     McFarland, 2013).
10         Sporting Life, August 27, 1898. Teams representing the New York towns of
                     Canajoharie, Richfield Springs, and Cooperstown formed a league in 1898.
11         Sporting Life, June 18 and November 5, 1898.
12         Sporting Life, April 29, 1899.
13         Sporting Life, July 15, 1899.
14         Sporting Life, September 2, 1899; Philadelphia Times, September 15, 1899.
15         Sporting Life, June 23 and August 25, 1900.
16         Ancestry.com and 1910 US Census.
17         Fleitz, Napoleon Lajoie.
18         Ibid.
19         Sporting Life, September 6 and 13, 1902.
20         Sporting Life, June 14, 1902.
21         Sporting Life, November 29 and December 6, 1902.
22         Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 15, 1903.
23         Sporting Life, August 20, 1904.
24         Sporting Life, October 8, 1904.
25         Sporting Life, November 26, 1904.
26         Chicago Eagle, August 23, 1913.
27         Sporting Life, September 29 and October 6, 1906.
28         Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 13, 1907.
29         Washington Post, September 29, 1907.
30         Sporting Life, January 18, 1908.
31         Atlanta Constitution, August 17, 1908.
32         Sporting Life, August 8 and 22, 1908; Atlanta Constitution, August 7, 1908.
33         John A. Simpson, The Greatest Game Ever Played in Dixie: The Nashville Vols,
                     Their 1908 Season, and the Championship Game (Jefferson, North Carolina:
                     McFarland, 2007).
34         Atlanta Constitution, April 30, 1911.
35         Charlotte (North Carolina) Evening Chronicle, October 2, 1909.
36         Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 20, 1909.
37         Sporting Life, May 22, 1909.
38         Ibid.
39         Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 26, 1909.
40         Atlanta Constitution, August 15, 1909; Boston Daily Globe, August 19, 1909; San
                     Francisco Call, January 1, 1910.
41         Winnipeg (Manitoba, Canada) Tribune, February 5, 1910.
42         Indianapolis Star, January 27, 1910.
43         Ibid.
44         Sporting Life, May 28, 1910.
45         Sporting Life, August 6, 1910.
46         Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer, September 1, 1910.
47         Charlotte (North Carolina) News, September 24, 1910.
48         John A. Simpson, Hub Perdue: Clown Prince of the Mound (Jefferson, North
                     Carolina: McFarland, 2014).
49         The Nashville Tennessean, September 24, 1910.
50         Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 7, 1907.
51         Bemidji (Minnesota) Pioneer, June 3, 1911.
52         Washington Times, April 5, 1913.
53         Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 17, 1909.
54         The Sporting News, January 30, 1941.
55         Sporting Life, January 30, 1915, and July 15, 1916; New Orleans Times-Picayune,
                     June 13, 1915.
56         Oakland Tribune, October 10, 1916.
57         Sporting Life, March 3, 1917.
58         San Francisco Chronicle, May 10, 1917.
59         San Francisco Chronicle, July 17, 1917.
60         San Francisco Chronicle, August 2, 1917.
61         Scranton (Pennsylvania) Republican, January 2, 1918.
62         1930 US Census; San Bernardino County (California) Sun, July 25, 1930.
63         Simpson, The Greatest Game.

Full Named: William Henry Bernhard
Born: March 16, 1871, at Clarence, NY (USA)
Died: March 30, 1949, at San Diego, CA (USA)