Allegheny River History

Photo credit: https://pixels.com/featured/allegheny-river-frozen-over-pittsburgh-pennsylvania-amy-cicconi.html)
Researched and compiled by Carrie Birdsong

State: Pennsylvania, New York

Source Location: Allegany Township, Pennsylvania, near Coudersport, PA at the corner of Ben Green
                              and Cobb Hill Roads.
Elevation: 2,450 ft. (750 m)

Mouth:
     Location: Ohio River at Pittsburgh, PA
     Elevation: 712 ft. (217 m).
     Length: 325 mi (523 km).
     Basin Size: 11,580 sq mi. (30,000 km2).
     Discharge 
               Average:  19,750 cu ft/s (559 m3/s) at the
                                village of Natrona, PA (river
                                mile 24.3).
               Progression:  Allegheny River à Ohio
                                    River à Mississippi River à
                                    Gulf of Mexico.
     Tributaries:
               Left: Tionesta Creek, Clarion River, Redbank
                        Creek, Mahoning Creek, Crooked Creek
                        Kiskiminetas River, Buffalo Creek,
                        Chartiers Run.
               Right:  Conewango Creek, Brokenstraw
                          Creek, Oil Creek, French Creek,
                          Bull Creek, Deer Creek, Squaw
                          Run, Pine Creek, Girtys Run,
                          Puckett Creek.

The Allegheny River is a 325-mile-long (523 km) headwater stream of the Ohio River that is located in western Pennsylvania and New York. It runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania’s northern border northwesterly into New York, then in a zigzag southwesterly across and through Western Pennsylvania to join the Monongahela River at the Forks of the Ohio at Point State Park, in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The Allegheny is, by volume, the main headstream of both the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Historically, the Allegheny was considered to be the upper Ohio River by both Native Americans and European settlers.

A 24-mile-long portion of the upper river in Warren and McKean counties of Pennsylvania and Cattaraugus County in New York forms the Allegheny Reservoir which was created by the Kinzua Dam in 1965 for flood control.

The name of the river is derived from one of many Delaware/Unami phrases that are homophones of the English name, with varying translations.

Beaver River Facts

Photo Credit:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_Falls,_Pennsylvania

searched and written by Carrie Birdsong

1.     State: Pennsylvania.
2.     Counties: Lawrence, Beaver
3.     Cities: Beaver Falls, New Brighton, Rochester,
        Bridgewater
4.     Source: Confluence of Mahoning River and
        Shenango River
5.     Location: Mahoningtown, New Castle
6.     Elevation: 682 ft (208 m) 
7.     Length: 21 mi (34 km)
8.     Basin Size: 3,163.92 square miles (8,194.5 km2)

9.     Discharge: Average: 4,090.1 cu ft/s
        (115.82 m3/s) at the mouth of the Ohio River
10.   Progression: South
11.   River System: Ohio River

Tributaries:

Left:      McKee Run, Snake Run, Connoquenessing
              Creek, Thompson Run, Bennett Run,
              Blockhouse Run, McKinley Run.
Right:     Edwards Run. Jenkins Run, Eckles Run,
              Wampum Run, Stockman Run, Clarks Run,
              Wallace Run, Walnut Bottom Run, Brady
              Run, Hamilton Run

Beaver River is a tributary of the Ohio River in western Pennsylvania. Approximately 21 mi (34 km) long, it flows through a historically important coal-producing region north of Pittsburgh. The river is formed in Lawrence County by the confluence of the Mahoning and Shenango Rivers in the Mahoningtown neighborhood of New Castle. It flows generally to the south, past West Pittsburg and Homewood, then receives Connoquenessing Creek west of Ellwood City and flows past Beaver Falls and New Brighton. It joins the Ohio at Bridgewater and Rochester (flowing between those towns) at the downstream end of a sharp bend in the Ohio approximately 20 miles (32 km) northwest of (and downstream from) Pittsburgh. In the lower reaches near the Ohio River, the Beaver cuts through a gorge of underlying sandstone. The river is roughly parallel to the border with the state of Ohio, with both Interstate 376 and Pennsylvania Route 18 running parallel to the river itself.

Jimmie Foxx

Original article by John Bennet
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Jimmie-Foxx/
researched and compiled by Carrie Birdsong

As he had done many times in recent years, Jimmie Foxx chose to spend the afternoon of July 21, 1967, with his younger brother, Sam.  The two men lived close by one another in Miami, and often got together to reminisce about the elder Foxx’s legendary career, in which he slugged 534 home runs, won three MVP awards, and was elected into the Hall of Fame.  Foxx’s second wife, Dorothy, had passed away in 1966 and his family saw him becoming lonelier and more depressed.  More and more, the time with his brother seemed to be the only thing to bring a smile to a man renowned for his generosity and good nature.

During dinner, Jimmie Foxx collapsed with an apparent heart attack (he had suffered two others in recent years) and was rushed to Miami Baptist Hospital, where attempts to revive him failed.  An autopsy later revealed that Foxx had choked to death, in a fashion similar to that of his wife several months earlier.  Broken-hearted, Sam Foxx died just a few weeks later.  The sad end to Foxx’s life does not diminish what is in many ways a classic American Story.  He rose from a Maryland farm boy who came from little to reach the heights of fame and fell back to earth again.  However, throughout it all he was able to keep the personality and appeal that still drew praise from his former teammates long after they played with him.

James Emory Foxx was born in Sudlersville, Maryland, on October 22, 1907.  His parents Dell and Mattie were moderately successful tenant farmers.  Dell Foxx had played baseball for a town team in his youth and instilled a love for the game in his eldest child (brother Sam would arrive in 1918).  According to family legend, Jimmie tried to run away and join the Army at the age of 10, after hearing his grandfather’s military exploits in the Civil War.  Young Jimmie did reasonably well in school, but truly excelled in athletic pursuits, including soccer and track as well as baseball.  His many hours of work on the family farm would build up a fabled physique that belied his average-sized 5 foot 11’ frame.  He set several local records in track events as a schoolboy, and always kept deceptive foot speed; teammate Billy Werber, and ace base stealer himself, maintained that Foxx was always one of the faster runners in the league.

In 1924, the expansion of the Eastern Shore League brought a team to nearby Easton.  The franchise attracted added attention due to its player-manager, Frank “Home Run” Baker, a future Hall of Famer and local hero from Trappe, Maryland.  Foxx’s baseball exploits for Sudlerville High quickly came to Baker’s attention, and he invited Foxx for a tryout.  Showing up in a pair of overalls, the high school junior told Baker he could catch for him if needed to do so and was signed for a salary estimated at between $125 and $250 a month.  Foxx played for Easton throughout the summer, hitting .296 with 10 home runs.  At the end of July, the Philadelphia Athletics bought his contract, and he even went up to the big club to watch the end of the regular season from the bench.  After the season, he returned to Suldersville and his senior year of high school – after all, the young slugger was only 16!

The schoolboy athlete did not finish that senior year, leaving in the winter to attend spring training with the Athletics.  Foxx stuck with the team as a pinch hitter and reserve catcher, singling in his major-league debut against Washington’s Vean Gregg on May 1, 1925.  To get him some more playing time, manager Connie Mack sent Foxx to Providence of the Eastern League, where he hit .327 despite missing time with a shoulder injury.  He returned to the team in September, although injuries continued to keep him on the bench.  Still, he had a nifty .667 batting average in his first 10 major-league games, certainly an auspicious debut.  He stuck with the Athletics for the 1926 season, but again saw little playing time.  The team already had a gifted young catcher in Mickey Cochrane, which relegated Foxx to pinch-hitting and spot duty in the outfield.

By 1927 Connie Mack was beginning to build a powerhouse.  The Ruth/Gehrig Yankees still reigned supreme, and the Athletics were only able to finish a distant second that season.  Mack had carefully bought younger players such as Foxx, Cochrane, pitcher Lefty Grove, and outfielder Al Simmons, and brought in veterans Ty Cobb (in 1927) and Tris Speaker (in 1928) to supply experience and guidance to his youthful stars.  Foxx again spent most of the season on the bench, hitting .323 in a limited role.  However, this season was significant in that he began playing first base most of the time.  Foxx settled in at first base for the bulk of his career and was an underrated fielder with better-than-average range.  He also occasionally caught and sometimes manned third base, a position he played in several All-Star games because of the presence of Lou Gehrig at first.  In 1928 the A’s, a mixture of young stars and old, gave the Yankees everything they could manage before falling just short of the pennant.  Foxx became a regular at last, playing first and third and getting off to a torrid .407 start by June.  He cooled off in the second half of the season, settling for .328, but was now clearly a rising star.  In the offseason, he celebrated the turn in his fortunes in two ways.  He brought his parents a new farm outside Suldersville, and he eloped with his girlfriend Helen Heite, with whom he would have two sons and a tempestuous 14-year marriage.

In 1929 the Athletics blossomed into a legendary juggernaut, romping to an easy pennant, finishing 18 games ahead of the Yankees.  Foxx, playing mostly at first base now, had his first wonderful season.  Throughout August, he was leading the league in hitting at .390 and running neck-and-neck with Ruth and Gehrig for the lead in home runs.  A September slump cost him the batting title to Lou Fonseca (Foxx ultimately finished 4^th), but he still pounded the ball to a .354 tune with 33 round-trippers.  His on-base percentage of .463 led the league.  The A's advanced to the World Series to face the Chicago Cubs.

Foxx’s first child, Jimmie Jr., was born just before the Series and he told the press that he would hit a home run for him.  He kept that promise by homering for the A’s first run of the Series in Game One and also went deep in Game Two.  Foxx delivered a key single in the famous 10-run rally that won the fourth game, and the A’s went on to win the Series in five games.  The championship season brought plenty of attention to the 21-year-old slugger, and he was feted royally in Sudlersville in celebration.

The 1930 season brought more of the same to Foxx and the Athletics.  The team took a bit longer to put away its competition, this year coming from Washington, but it repeated as American League champions.  A torrid early season was again the fashion for Foxx, as he hit 22 home runs, and was one of four A’s players to have an on-base percentage over .420.

The 1930 World Series pitted the A’s against the St. Louis Cardinals, and they battled to a 2-2 tie going into Game Five at Sportsman’s Park.  The game was scoreless into the top of the ninth inning.  With one on, Foxx announced to his teammates that he would “bust up the game right now.”  He then went ahead to hit a Burleigh Grimes pitch in the left-center-bleachers, giving the A’s the win and supplying the impetus for them to wrap up the Series in Game Six.  The game-winning home run gave Foxx one of his proudest moments and he later cited the blow as one of the greatest moments of his career.

Off the field, Foxx continued to enjoy his favored childhood pastimes of hunting and fishing.  He often took extended hunting forays with his teammates in the offseason, between barnstorming trips.  Some newspapers reported Foxx to be a moderate eater who watched his diet during the season, but he also was known to tip the clubhouse boy famously for bringing him huge meals before and after the games.  When he returned home to Maryland, he often indulged in backwoods country feasts, including lifelong passions for Virginia ham and homemade peach ice cream.  He enjoyed movies and collected autographed photos from his favorite stars, with Katharine Hepburn tops on the list.  (In 1996, a Philadelphia newspaper ran an article linking Foxx romantically to actress Judy Holliday, but this was later revealed to be a hoax.)

The press took a liking to Foxx, dubbing him with various nicknames-“Double X,” – “The Maryland Strong Boy,” or simply “The Beast.”  He was often depicted as a simple country boy, unaffected by the bright lights of the big city.  Nonetheless, he did develop some expensive big-city habits.  Foxx spent large sums on the best clothes money could buy, a tendency shared by his wife, Helen.  He also had a fondness for personal grooming, often visiting his manicurist during the season.  As his salary grew, so too did his generosity and profligate spending.  The star slugger gave handsome tips to everyone from the bellhop to the batboy, and he insisted on picking up the entire tab at every dinner and outing. He was known to literally give the shirt off his back if someone asked him for it.  Many years later, Foxx’s former teammates and opponents still spoke with reverence of his personal kindness and goodwill.

After winning consecutive World Series, the Athletics had an even better regular season in 1931.  The team won 107 games and cruised to the pennant easily despite competition from a Yankees team that scored nearly seven runs per game.  Foxx continued to play a key role but was hampered by serious knee and foot injuries, as well as the beginnings of sinus trouble that would haunt him in later years.  Still, he hit 30 home runs and had 120 runs batted in, the third of 12 consecutive seasons of over 30 home runs.  In the World Series, the A’s again faced the Cardinals, but this time Philadelphia was upset mainly because of the storied exploits of Cards outfielder Pepper Martin.  Foxx hit .348 in the Series and smashed a ball completely out of Shibe Park in Game Four.  In his three postseason appearances, Foxx hit .344 with four home runs.  However, the 1931 World Series was the last one for Foxx and the Philadelphia Athletics.

the 1932 campaign did not bring another pennant to Philadelphia, but Foxx thrilled fans home and away by making an epic run at Babe Ruth’s single-season record of 60 home runs.  By the first week in May, he had belted 19 round-trippers, and he reached 41 by the end of July, a month ahead of Ruth’s pace.  In August, Foxx injured his thumb and wrist in a household accident, and although he played through the injury it hampered his power output.  Going into the last weekend of the season, Foxx had hit 56 homers, and he tried his best, hitting two more in the final two games.  His total of 58 fell just short of Babe’s mark – but it is important to note that conditions for Ruth were a little easier in 1927. In the intervening five years, screens had been erected in St. Louis, Cleveland, and Detroit that reduced the number of home runs in those ballparks.  In an interview with Fred Lieb after the season, Foxx said that he had lost 6 home runs to the screens in St. Louis alone.  In any event, 1932 stands as the peak year of Foxx’s career.  Aside from his 58 round-trippers, he led the league with 169 runs batted in and narrowly missed the batting title with a .364 mark.  After the season, he was named the American League’s Most Valuable Player.

After the season, Mack began the dismantling of his championship team.  Declining attendance and personal financial woes due to the Depression left Mack desperate for money, and he was forced to sell off the only valuable asset he owned: the stars of his ball club.  Al Simmons was the first to go, followed by Grove, Cochrane, and other starters from the three pennant-winning teams.  Only Foxx remained through the first three seasons of Mack’s fire sale, and he put up three more great seasons throughout it all.  In 1933, the Athletics still had enough left to finish third, helped in large part by Foxx’s second straight MVP campaign.  Playing through a series of leg ailments, Foxx hit 48 home runs with a .356 average and 163 runs batted in, giving him the Triple Crown that had narrowly evaded him in 1932.  He was selected to play in the first All-Star game, and he hit for the cycle against Cleveland on August 14.  After the season, Foxx battled with Mack over a pay raise (he eventually received a slight increase, to $18,000) and published a book, How I Bat.  The ghostwritten volume attributed his batting success to developing his wrist muscles and getting plenty of practice.

The Athletics further eroded in 1934, but again Foxx provided them with most of their season’s highlights.  For the third straight year, he hit over 40 home runs and even stole a career-high 11 bases.  The most significant events of 1934 for Foxx came after the season.  In an exhibition game in Winnipeg, a pitch thrown by minor-leaguer Barney Brown struck Foxx on the forehead and knocked him unconscious.  He spent four days in the hospital and was considered “recovered” when released.  However, he suffered from sinus problems for the rest of his life, which in turn led to extreme difficulties on and off the field.  Despite this setback, Foxx was allowed to go with Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and other all-stars on a historic tour of Japan in November.

To help cover the loss of Cochrane, Foxx returned to his original position behind the plate to start the 1935 season.  He had a strong arm and by all accounts managed pitchers well, but eventually moved back to first and third because of injuries to other players.  The Athletics fell all the way to the cellar, but not without another strong year from its last remaining star.  Foxx tied Hank Greenberg for the league lead with 36 homers and finished only three points behind in the batting title race.  After the season, the long-rumored trade of Foxx finally came to fruition.  Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey, who had already bought Grove from Philadelphia and player-manager Joe Cronin from Washington in recent years, paid Mack $150,000 for Foxx and pitcher Johnny Marcum (two minor players, Gordon Rhodes and George Salvino were also included in the deal).  Foxx reacted positively to the deal; no doubt helped by a $7,000 increase in salary.

The highlight of Foxx’s first season in Boston came on June 16, when he hit a ball completely out of Comiskey Park.  (In later years, pitchers Lefty Gomez and Ted Lyons enjoyed spinning yarns about the tape measure shots Foxx hit off them.)  this was one of 41 home runs that season, and although he did not lead the league in any of the power categories, Foxx’s performance was one of the bright spots of a disappointing season for the Red Sox.  In 1937, sinus problems brought his performance down dramatically.  Foxx went through homerless streaks of 16 and 24 games and hit a mere .285, the lowest average of his career up to that date.  Although he topped his Comiskey Park blast by hitting a ball out of Fenway Park to the right of the center field flagpole against the Yankees on August 12, speculation began that his career was on the downslide.

In 1938, Foxx silenced his critics with one of his greatest seasons.  He proved that his power had not diminished by hitting five home runs in the last week of the exhibition season.  In May, he hit 10 home runs and drove in a whopping 325 runs.  Other highlights followed, including a game on June 16 in which he was walked six times, tying a major league record.  The Yankees eclipsed the Red Sox in the standings, and Foxx’s home run totals came in second to Hank Greenberg’s run at Ruth’s record.  Still, when the dust had settled over the 1938 season, Foxx had won two-thirds of another Triple Crown, batting .349 and driving in 175 runs, the fourth-highest total of all time.  Thirty-five of Foxx’s 50 home runs were hit at friendly Fenway Park, setting up what was then a record for homers hit at home.  His RBI totals still stand as a Boston Red Sox team record, and his home run total was not surpassed by a Red Sox player until David Ortiz in the 2006 season.  After the season, Foxx beat out Greenberg in the voting to take home his third American League MVP award.

The 1939 season brought a new star to the Red Sox, a raw rookie named Theodore Samuel Williams.  Williams had boasted to his new teammates, “Wait until Foxx sees me hit!” – but he also looked to the veteran slugger as a mentor and even a father figure.  In later years, Williams told his younger teammates stories about Foxx’s slugging and pointed out places in the ballparks where Foxx had hit tape-measure home runs.  The friendship between the two men lasted until the end of Foxx’s life, and Ted remained close to his teammates’ family until his death in 2002.  Together the two sluggers formed a powerful left/right combo that brought the Red Sox into pennant contention for most of the 1939 season.  Foxx enjoyed another superb season, batting .360, second in the league, and leading the AL with 35 home runs.  His great year concluded a remarkable decade in which he was arguably the game’s dominant hitter. From 1930 through 1939, Foxx slugged 415 home runs and drove in 1,403 runs.

During his years with the Red Sox, Foxx moved into a hotel and was separated from his family for long periods.   It was during this period that the first signs of his drinking problems appeared.  Although known to imbibe occasionally, he was never reported to be a heavy drinker during the early years of his career.  After his beaning, his sinus problems brought him acute pain – a pain that subsided with alcohol.  Roommate Elden Auker recalled several nights when Foxx would be plagued by severe nosebleeds.  His ample free time in Boston led to increased after-hours activities, and he bragged to Ted Williams about the amount of scotch whiskey he could consume without being affected.  A teammate of the Chicago Cubs remembered that a walk back from the ballpark to the team hotel with Foxx was fraught with dangerous opportunities, as the veteran enjoyed visiting each of his favorite taverns along the way.

Although his drinking problem is a matter of record, it is important to point out that Foxx was never noted for violent or aggressive behavior.  To the contrary, he was known as a gentle peacemaker, often mediating disputes in card games and making sure rookie roommate Dom DiMaggio got to bed on time.  Tom Yawkey enjoyed Foxx’s company and shared many of his favorite activities.  According to one story, the player avoided a fine from Joe Cronin for missing a curfew when he returned to the hotel lobby in the early morning with the owner in tow.  Some have surmised that the length of Foxx’s career was curtailed by his drinking, and it certainly did not help.  It seems much more likely that it was diminished batting eye caused by the beaning and related sinus problems that led to his decline.  Foxx also often played through injuries that would have sidelined other players, and eventually, this took a toll as well.

Foxx stayed an all-star slugger in 1940 and 1941, driving in over 100 runs both years and hitting a total of 55 home runs.  His triple allowed longtime teammate Lefty Grove to win his 300^th game in 1941.  Foxx had been eclipsed by Williams as the team’s star and was showing signs of slowing at the plate and in the field.  His sinus problem became more acute, and he began to wear eyeglasses off the field to combat a decline in his vision.  In addition, he grew more critical of player-manager Joe Cronin.  Although Foxx got along well with everybody, he never had the respect for Cronin that he had for Mack, and some tension developed (to his credit, Cronin interceded in Foxx’s life in later years with offers of employment and financial aid).  When the 1941 season ended, it was no secret that Foxx’s days with the Red Sox were coming to an end.

Off the field, Foxx’s marriage to Helen had unraveled.  According to Elden Auker, she constantly harassed Foxx via phone over financial issues, while all the time carrying on an extramarital affair.  Their divorce became final in early 1943, with Helen accusing Foxx of selfishness and other forms of mental cruelty.  The acrimonious divorce resulted in a long estrangement between Foxx and his two young sons, James Emory Jr. and W. Kenneth.  Both were sent to military schools and seldom if ever spoke to their father.  Kenneth did not reunite with his father until his stepmother’s funeral in 1966, and Jimmie Jr. essentially disappeared in the 1950s after serving in the Korean War.  For many years his family believed that he was deceased; however, he resurfaced in the Philadelphia area and renewed contact with his siblings just a few years before he died in 2006.

As the 1942 season began, Cronin told Foxx that he would have to win the first base job from young Tony Lupien.  Despite breaking a toe in spring training, Foxx outhit Lupien and started the season as a regular.  Just as he was beginning to hit again, a freak batting practice injury resulted in a broken rib.  On June 1, the Red Sox placed Foxx on waivers, and he was sold to the Chicago Cubs for a mere $10,000.  The move caused great regret and sadness for both Boston players and fans, but Foxx’s days as a productive player were over.  He hit only .205 for the Cubs the rest of the year and announced his retirement at the end of the season.

He stayed out of baseball during 1943, a year highlighted by his second marriage, to Dorothy Yard.  Foxx and Dorothy enjoyed a warm and committed relationship through thick and thin until her untimely death in 1966, and he became a true father to her two children, John and Nanci, as well.  In 1944, Foxx volunteered for the military but was rejected due to his sinus condition.  He returned to play a handful of games as a player-coach for the Cubs and also became interim manager of Portsmouth in the Class B Piedmont League.

The final go-round for Jimmie Foxx’s major league career came in the city where he had starred for so long – Philadelphia.  This time it was the Phillies, who were looking to fill out their roster in the tight wartime era.  Foxx was invited to spring training and after hitting several home runs made the team as a pinch-hitter.  By this time, he was having increasing difficulty with his eyes and also suffered from shin splints and bursitis.  Tony Lupien, who had followed Foxx at first base for the Red Sox, also played for the Phillies in 1945 and remembers Jimmie as being particularly down on himself in this period.  However, another teammate, Andy Sminick, remembers Foxx as his usual fun-loving, generous self all year, often inviting Andy to his home for big fried chicken dinners.

Foxx hit the last seven home runs of his career for the Phillies, but what made his final season unique was his turn on the pitching mound.  Volunteering to help the team out in any way he could, Foxx pitched 23 innings, with a 1-0 record and a 1.59 ERA.  His high point on the mound came in the second game of a doubleheader on August 19, when Foxx pitched five no-hit innings in an emergency start.  (He had pitched once very briefly while with the 1939 Red Sox.)  his last major league at-bat came against the Dodgers on September 23.  At the close of the season, Foxx retired for good, with a .325 lifetime batting average, 2,646 hits, and 534 home runs – a total that was second to only Ruth until 1966.  His total of 1,922 runs batted in still ranked at 8^th all-time in 2008.

The end of his playing career stood for a dramatic transition in Foxx’s life.  He was now happily remarried with a new son, also named Jimmie Jr., but his divorce from Helen had been damaging to his finances, and he had lost thousands in an investment in a Florida golf course that closed because of World War II restrictions.  For the rest of his life, he struggled mightily at times to find a steady career outside of baseball, yet his teenage rise to the majors had left him with little preparation to do so.  He took a turn in the Red Sox radio booth in 1946, but his Maryland accent did not win over many listeners.  He also spent brief periods as a minor-league manager and coach in St. Petersburg in 1947 and Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1949, and worked for a trucking company and beer distributor.

Foxx had received Hall of Fame votes as far back as 1936 when active players were eligible (he came in fourth then among active players behind Rogers Hornsby, Mickey Cochrane, and Lou Gehrig.)  However, he fell short of the needed vote totals in six other regular and run-off elections until 1951.  Foxx was named on 79.2% of the ballots and earned election along with the leading vote-getter Mel Ott.  in a brief speech, he merely noted that he was proud to be a member and proud to have his old manager, Connie Mack on hand.  After the ceremony, he spent most of his time under a tree signing autographs.  Foxx generally enjoyed giving autographs throughout his life, although toward its end he sometimes had to use a rubber stamp to keep up with all of the many requests forwarded to his home.  His family members remember frequent occasions when he would leave the table at restaurants to accommodate his fans.

Foxx got back into baseball in 1952 in an unusual manner when he was invited to manage the Fort Wayne Daisies – a team in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.  He succeeded fellow Hall of Famer Max Carey, who had become the league president and was offered a $3,600 salary with bonuses.  By all accounts, Foxx's time with the Daisies was an enjoyable one.  With daughter Nanci helping out as a batgirl, the team improved attendance and made the playoffs.  In 1992, the film A League of Their Own based the team’s manager (played by Tom Hanks_ loosely on Foxx, although the women who played for him remember him only as a true gentleman in every way.  Foxx did not return to the Daisies for the 1953 season, with his only complaint being the many long bus rides.

After his turn with the Daisies, the retired slugger continued to drift from job to job.  At various times, he worked as a car salesman, for an oil company, and even as a coal truck driver.  An ambitious venture in which Foxx was to do public-service work with inner-city youths did not get off the ground.  In 1956, he returned to Florida and spent two seasons as a head baseball coach at the University of Miami and as a hitting instructor for the minor league Miami Marlins.  After the 1957 season, he was let go from both positions and found himself bankrupt and unemployed.  Invited to speak at the Boston Writers Dinner in January 1958, Foxx admitted that he was broke and unable to pay his way there.  All his baseball earnings, he announced, were long gone.  After his financial problems were shown, Foxx received many offers of employment and even cash donations (which he then donated to the Jimmy Fund).  Soon, a good fit was found.  After a meeting with Cronin in Boston, Foxx accepted a job as the hitting instructor for the Red Sox’s Triple-A farm team, the Minneapolis Millers.

Although he seldom took batting practice, saying that he “couldn’t do it” anymore, Foxx was well-liked and admired by the Millers players.  One player he befriended was Bill Monbouquette, a young pitcher on the brink of a solid major-league career that included a no-hitter for the Red Sox in 1962.  Monbouquette remembers Foxx as a generous and giving man, “one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.”  Both pitchers and hitters picked his brain constantly for tips and advice, and Foxx was always glad to advise.  During the season, Foxx surprised Monbouquette’s while on the way to Fenway Park old-timers game.  “I just wanted to let them know you were doing okay,” Foxx told the young pitcher on his return.

However, Foxx’s tenure with the Millers lasted only a single season.  Art Schult, the Millers catcher, recalled that the players “idolized” Foxx, but that he did not get involved in the politics of the game with management.  During the season, he was twice hospitalized with high blood pressure and other ailments.  Expecting to return to the Millers for 1959, Foxx was instead given his release by the Red Sox at the end of the 1958 season.  The official reason given was that the team, for financial reasons, wanted to hire someone to do double duty as a player and coach.

The real reason, however, had more to do with Foxx’s off-the-field habits.  Gene Mauch, the Millers’ manager in 1958, recalled jumping at the chance to hire Foxx, a boyhood favorite and felt he could help out the team’s hitters.  Sadly, things did not go as planned.  According to Mauch, “By then, Jim had a bad drinking problem and was seldom at the park on time to be of help.  I idolized the man and kept him away from scrutiny.  At the end of the season, Cronin gave him his money and sent him home – it was so sad.”  Foxx’s drinking habits were also rumored to have led to the end of his coaching in Miami and may have affected his employment elsewhere.  His alcohol use may have stemmed from his sinus injury and worsened by his good-time lifestyle in Boston.  However, at this point, Foxx’s drinking was related as much as anything to the loss of his baseball career.  Daughter Nanci believes his drinking problems had a lot to do with the emptiness he felt in adjusting to normalcy once his playing days had ended.

The ill-fated season in Minneapolis was Foxx’s last job in baseball.  He did occasionally appear at old-timers’ games and was interviewed when Willie Mays passed him on the all-time home run list (Foxx applauded Mays, saying it was great to see it done by a fellow right-handed hitter).  A restaurant bearing his name in Illinois quickly went under, and he continued to move around, bouncing from work with a sporting goods store in Lakewood, Ohio, to several part-time jobs in Florida when he returned there in 1964.  His son, Jimmie Jr. II, stayed in Ohio to pursue an athletic career at Kent State University.  Health problems continued to plague the elder Foxx; he suffered two minor heart attacks, and his mobility was lessened by a back injury suffered in a fall.

In May 1966, he suffered a terrible personal blow when his wife, Dorothy, died of asphyxia.  Throughout the good years and bad, the two had a strong and devoted marriage, and after her passing, depression seemed to get the better of Foxx.  He returned to Maryland one last time in August 1966 to surprise a fan, Gil Dunn, who had written him concerning a memorabilia display in his drugstore near Sudlersville.  The slugger again gave Dunn a variety of uniforms, equipment, and trophies, and with brother Sam in tow made the rounds of his old hometown one final time.  The locals had turned a cold shoulder to Foxx in his retirement years; a strong sign of this came when several local establishments refused to cash a $100 check, later proven good in a neighboring town.  Less than a year later he was dead at 59 and was buried next to Dorothy in Miami’s Flagler Memorial Park Cemetery.

In the years since Foxx’s death, a gradual re-appreciation of his achievements has elevated his status.  As a member of baseball’s 500 Home Run Club, Foxx memorabilia fetches top dollar on the collector circuit.  The Babe Ruth Hall of Fame and Museum has devoted exhibit space to Foxx, thanks in part to donations from Gil Dunn.  In the past few years, Foxx has been honored by the Oakland Athletics and was inducted into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame, each time with daughter Nanci proudly on hand to accept for him.  He was one of the first players chosen by old teammate Ted Williams to be enshrined in his own Hitters Hall of Fame.  Foxx even made it onto a U.S. postage stamp in the summer of 2000.  In September 2006, Foxx returned to the Fenway limelight once again.  David Ortiz, another perpetually smiling Red Sox slugger, broke his 68-year team home run record with Nanci in attendance.

Perhaps the greatest tribute though, came from his hometown of Sudlersville, Maryland.  A monument to Foxx was erected in celebration of his 80^th birthday in 1987, and after 10 years of fundraising, a bronze life statue was unveiled on October 25, 1997, in the center of his hometown.  The Maryland Strong Boy had come home for good.

Sources:

"My research on Jimmie Foxx’s life began about the same time I joined SABR in 1993. Writing
 this biography entailed the use of primary, secondary, and interview sources. In
addition, I am grateful to the aid of Mark Armour, Harrison Daniel, Peter Golenbock, Bob
Gorman, Mark Hodermarsky, Bill Nowlin, Fred Schuld, and Dick Thompson (among others)
in the preparation of this narrative."

1.     Auker, Elden. Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms.
        Triumph Books, 2000.
2.     Canaday, Nanci (as told to John Bennett). “My
        Dad- Jimmie Foxx”, The National Pastime,
        Number 19, 1999.
3.     Daniel, W. Harrison, Jimmie Foxx: The Life and
        Times of a Baseball Hall of Famer McFarland,
        1996.
4.     DiMaggio, Dominic, and Bill Gilbert. Real
        Grass, Real Heroes: Baseball’s Historic 1941
        Season. Kensington, 1991.
5.     Golenbock, Peter. Fenway: An Unexpurgated
        History of the Boston Red Sox. Douglas
        Charles, 1991.
6.     Hall of Fame Files, Jimmie Foxx (volumes
        1, 2, 3), National Baseball Hall of Fame and
        Library, Cooperstown, New York.
7.     Gorman, Bob. Double X: The Story of
        Jimmie Foxx, Baseball’s Forgotten Slugger
        B. Goff, 1990.
8.     Linn, Ed. The Great Rivalry. Ticknor and
        Field, 1991.
9.     Millikin, Mark. Jimmie Foxx: The Pride of
        Sudlersville. Scarecrow Press, 1998.
10.   Williams, Ted, with John Underwood. My
        Turn At Bat: The Story of My Life. Fireside,
        1988.
11.   Werber, Bill. Memories of a Ballplayer.
        SABR Press, 2001.
12.   In particular, I wish to cite the three
        biographies of Jimmie Foxx, all of which
        have their own special strengths. They were
        extremely useful resources and should be the
        first place for a Foxx enthusiast to go.
13.   I was able to interview the following former
        players by phone mail, and/or in person
        between 1993-200, several of whom are directly
        quoted within:
        A.     Elden Auker.
        B.     Dom DiMaggio.
        C.     Bob Doerr
        D.     Bob Feller
        E.     David “Boo” Ferriss
        F.      Tom Henrich
        G.     Tony Lupien
        H.     Gene Mauch
        I.       Lenny Merullo
        J.      Bill Monbouquette
        K.     Johnny Pesky
        L.      Art Schult
        M.     Andy Seminick
        N.     Charlie Wagner
        O.     Bill Werber
        P.      Alma Ziegler

"Last and certainly not least, I wish to personally note and thank the aid of Jimmie’s daughter, Nanci Foxx Canaday, who has been instrumental in my research on Foxx for 10 years now. Along with her husband, Jim, she welcomed me into her Florida home for an interview on June 30, 2000, and continues an annual correspondence. Nanci supplies living proof of Jimmie’s best qualities, and none of my work would have happened without her help."

Full Name: James Emory Foxx.
Born: October 22, 1907, at Sudlersville, MD (USA).
Died: July 21, 1967, at Miami, FL (USA).

New River: Where It Begins

Photo Credit   https://www.nps.gov/places/new-river-gorge-bridge.htm
Researched and compiled by Carrie Birdsong

1.     States: North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia.
2.     Counties:  Ashe NC, Alleghany NC, Watauga NC,
                         Grayson VA, Carroll VA, Wythe VA,
                         Pulaski VA, Montgomery VA, Giles,
                         VA, Mercer County, West Virginia,
                         Summers County,  WV, Raleigh County
                         WV, Fayette County WV.
3.     Source: South Fork New River.
4.     Location: Boone, NC.
5.     Elevation: 3,104 ft (946 m).
6.     2nd Source: North Fork New River.
        A.  Location: Elk Knob, Watauga County, NC.
        B.  Elevation: 4,446 ft (1,335 m).
7.     Source Confluence:
        A.  Location: Ashe County, NC.
        B.  Elevation: 2,546 ft (776 m).
8.     Mouth: Kanawha River
        A.  Location: Gauley Bridge, WV.
        B.  Elevation: 653 ft (199 m).
9.     Length: 320 mi (520 km).
10.   Discharge:
        A.  Location: Thurmond, WV, max and min at Glen
                               Lyn, VA.
        B.  Average: 8,730 cu ft/s (247 m3/s).
        C.  Minimum: 538 cu ft/s (15.2 m3/s).
        D.  Maximum: 226,000 cu ft/s (6,400 m3/s).
11.   Progression: New River – Kanawha River – Ohio
                             River – Mississippi River – Gulf of
                             Mexico.
12.   Tributaries:
        A.  Left: Bluestone River, East River.
        B.  Right:  Little River, Indian Creek, Greenbriar
                          River.
13.   Type: Scenic.
14.   Designated: April 13, 1976.

Rafting Terminology

https://raftinginfo.com/rafting-terminology/
Researched and compiled by Carrie Birdsong

· Eddy: An eddy is a part of the river that forms downstream of an obstruction. The water in the eddy is flowing in the opposite direction of the river and can be utilized to slow or stop the raft. In some cases, they can become powerful and may have a negative effect on rafts.

· Flow: The flow is the current volume of the river – which is measured in cubic feet per second. The United States Geologic Survey has created gauging stations where they record and publish flows from rivers around the country.

· Rapid: Rapids are formed in tight areas of the river where the surface of the river bed changes dramatically. They usually occur in short spurts and range in the difficulty of negotiation. They are often what people think of when they think of white-water rafting.

· River Left and River Right: These words are used to specify a side of the side of the river to distinguish points of interest. River right or left always refers to the side of the river headed downstream. In other words, when you go downstream, “river right” is on the right, and “river left” is on the left. This is then reversed when facing upstream.

· High Side!: This infrequently (but still important) term is used by guides to help keep the boat upright. It is generally used immediately before large waves and mandates the crew to lift the upstream side of the raft in time to allow the current to pass under the raft. It often prevents the raft from becoming stuck on a rock or also from flipping over.

· Biner: Shorthand for Carabiner – or the little clip that is used to secure things to a raft.

· D-Ring: Metal, D-shaped ring attached to a raft to help secure lines, rope, frames, and other essentials.

· Perimeter Line: The line that travels through all the D-rings along the perimeter of the raft. This serves as a secure line for anyone who falls out to pull themselves back in.

Whitewater rafting is a fun and exciting sport for people of all ages and walks of life. Knowing some of the terms before your first trip can help to prepare you, but it is still important to pay attention to the instructions that your guide is giving you.

Classifications of Rapids

Classification of Rapids Explained
https://mhoadventures.com/white-water-rapids-classification/#:~:text=This%20rating%20is%20based%20on,from%20easy%20to%20most%20difficult.

This rating is based on the width of the water channel, size, and strength of the waves, degree of obstructions present, ease of swimming, and self-rescue. These correlate to the level of skill and experience needed for navigation. The scale features Roman Numerals I-VI; from easy to most difficult. Additional symbols are also used, with a ( - ) meaning that the class is at the lower end of difficulty for that level while a ( + ) signifies the higher end of difficulty for that class.

Weather conditions, water temperatures and season, guide and client skill levels, remoteness and accessibility, number of and type of watercraft in the group (canoes, kayaks, whitewater rafts), water levels, and more are all contributory factors. Because of the variety of factors, the same rapid may be classified differently from week to week or month to month, based on the water level. Additionally, the classification process of rapids is very subjective.

Here is a picture of what the different classes of rapids can look like. Click this link for more information: https://paddling.com/learn/river-classifications



How the rapids are generally determined:

Class I Rapids:

A river with class I rapids is basically flat water, which is usually calm and only has small waves or rifles. There are hardly any rocks or significant obstacles. It is denoted easy because a beginner, who has mastered basic paddling strokes can canoe or kayak with little or no supervision.

Class II Rapids:

This next grade of rapids features small to medium waves, short bends, and a few obstructions that a novice can safely negotiate. A Class II rapid is close to the difficulty of III and is denoted II+. Generally, these rivers are straightforward and self-rescue is possible.

Class III Rapids:

Rapids classed III are considered intermediate-level difficulty. When this difficulty is at the lower end of the class, it is denoted III-, and when at the upper end, it is III+. The characteristics are medium but irregular waves with obstructions like small falls or drops, counter currents, or eddies. These can succeed in flipping a canoe if care is not taken. Fortunately, self-rescue is possible in grade III rivers, even though it may require some help.

Class IV Rapids:

Class IV rapids are advanced level and should only be navigated by those with the required skills. The waves are large, irregularly sized, and turbulent, but they are relatively predictable and are a delight for the experienced canoeist or whitewater rafter. Other features of grade IV rivers include eddies, holes, falls, and other obstacles that can be dangerous. Like the previous two classes, they can be further graded as IV- or IV+. However, self-rescues are difficult to perform in these rapids. It is therefore highly recommended to scout such rapids ahead of time and travel in a group, even for skilled paddlers.

Class V Rapids:

This class is denoted Expert Level. Class V rivers are characterized by a combination of the following: rapids that are turbulent or continuous and span a long distance, steep gradients with abrupt drops, large unpredictable waves, and the presence of holes. Due to the nature of these waters, it is often dangerous to swim in them. Apart from the fact that self-rescue is really difficult, rescuing another injured party is also challenging. Scouting the rapids is therefore very important as going in a group.

Class VI Rapids:

Only daredevils brave these rapids as they pose an extraordinary danger, and a minor paddling mistake can be fatal. The mighty waves are turbulent and erratic. In addition, the rivers have obstructions that require a lot of skill and preparation to negotiate. These rivers have hardly been negotiated and the rapids are considered nearly impossible.

Herman Long

Original article written by Dixie Tourangeau
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/herman-long/
researched and compiled by Carrie Birdsong

If there had been a draft in the baseball world in 1890, a Chicago-born shortstop likely would have been the number one selection by any of the 24 teams of the three major leagues operating that season.  In his prime of the 1890s, and even before, as he made his way toward national stardom, the every-other-day mention of his exploits usually included some noteworthy feat that had amazed ballgame spectators.  During his career he was charged with almost 1,100 errors, the most by any player ever, but that didn’t bother most onlookers, especially his own team’s fans.  As for his bat, it wasn’t mentioned as frequently, but it was potent.  In his first National League game, the phenom clouted two home runs, and when the decade was complete, he had slugged his way to the highest mark.

Herman C. Long was born in the Windy City on April 3, 1866, almost exactly a year after the Lincoln assassination.[1]  He was the first child born into the German immigrant family of railroad laborer John (aka Johan Lange) and Fredericka Long.  The father was from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, a northern state on the Baltic Sea, and the mother was from Prussia, according to the 1880 census.  Both had come to America in 1863 and married in 1864.  Through the years, census takers badly scribbled the simple last name a few times, it was transcribed as “Song” in 1900.  There were at least six sons, Herman, followed by John, Henry, Fritz, George, and Charlie.  Trying to track them is frustrating because of the common name and because Herman left home before age 20 to play ball so he is never listed in any Chicago city directory to help match addresses with any of the two dozen John Longs.  His family’s suspected address for more than 30 years was 497 West 16^th Street, now near the corner of Canal Street.  In the 1900 census the mother is listed as having 10 children, but only five were then alive.  At least four other children apparently died before the 1900 census as did son Henry in July 1896.  He was a pitcher for Hagerstown (Maryland) and was fatally injured when he slipped while boarding a train.

Chicago newspapers carried almost no detailed information about the city’s neighborhood leagues in the mid-1880s, so whatever reputation Long made for himself is unsubstantiated.  City semipro teams were starting in 1880 when Thomas Edward Barrett organized a league (president for 14 years and Cook County Sheriff by 1902).  Barrett’s team was the Whiting and Long was on it before 1886.  Other papers reported that he was also on the Diamonds roster.  Whatever Long’s accomplishments were, they got him invited 600 miles southwest to Arkansas City, Kansas, for the 1887 season.  Arkansas City is directly south of Wichita, and four miles from the Oklahoma border at the junction of the Arkansas and Walnut Rivers.  “Canal City” grew quickly in the 1880s because of its rail line and residents dreamt of it becoming a thriving metropolis and having a good ball team could enhance that fantasy.  Club owners imported several players, including Long, to play in the four-team Kansas State League.

The Arkansas City Daily Republican-Traveler reported on May 14 that games would begin the following week and that its Chicago players would arrive the next night.  The first two contests were against nearby Wellington, with Herman playing shortstop and then pitching in 7-6 and 4-1 wins.  Long was proclaimed “a dandy” at short by the newspaper and “the best man in the box in Kansas” after his four-hitter in which he had three hits and scored.[2]  He enjoyed notoriety right away with his fielding abilities as he played several positions.  Small leagues often broke apart when one or more members folded or joined better circuits.  Arkansas City was good, but its financial foundation was shaky.  In early August (after 40 games), Long was sold to Emporia (100 miles northeast), which had been in the same circuit but was moving up a notch to the eight-team Western League because St. Joseph, Missouri, dropped out.  In his final game for AC, pitcher Long lost to Emporia, 6-5.  His Emporia stint started on August 14, when he played center field, batted leadoff, and went 3- for -5 and scored as Emporia lost to Hastings, Nebraska, 8-6.  Emporia (6-12) was a bit outclassed in its new environs and disbanded on September 9, after beating Kansas City 11-5 and 14-7.  Long was 1- for -5, scoring three runs as the center fielder and pitching the final Emporia win, going 3- for -6, (single, double, triple_ and scored thrice again while batting leadoff at the Kelso Park finale.  During his entire Emporia employment, the Evening News printed glowing descriptions of Long’s fielding and claimed that he was destined for a higher league.

On Monday, October 17, the name “Long” was in the Chicago Tribune box score for the last-place Diamonds in Chicago’s eight-team City League, which played Sunday games.  That Long pitched and caught in a 25-6 rout of the Stars, smacking two doubles and whiffing five.

When the 1888 baseball season opened, Herman was home in Chicago with the Maroons of the eight-club Western Association.  Sam Morton was league president and owned the Chicago entry.  In an April 16 exhibition, the Maroons beat Adrian “Cap” Anson’s White Stockings, 6-5 in 12 innings.  Long dazzled the crowd with his plays at shortstop and scored but was hitless batting cleanup.  Morton claimed Herman was “the best ballplayer Chicago ever produced.”[3]

Ong’s multitude of talents were soon enjoyed by a wider group of fans.  He played all outfield positions, pitched a bit, and saw an occasional game at shortstop.  Long’s foot speed and basepath daring almost demanded that he be the leadoff batter.  His best game as a Maroon was against St. Paul on Decoration Day (game two); he was 4- for -6, stole four bases, and scored thrice while batting second and playing left field in a 12-3 victory.  The St. Paul Globe wrote after the game, “Sam Morton holds Long’s release at a high figure but the chances are that he will soon pose in a league nine as a several-thousand-dollar beauty.”[4]  By then fans in each Association city expected to see Long perform some astounding feat, and only a few times were they disappointed.

With both teams hovering around the .500 mark, the Maroons dealt Long and third baseman Fred Lange to Kansas City Blues (Western Association) on July 10.  The Tribune explained, “Now that Long, believed by many to be the star fielder of the country, has been sold, (White Stockings) President Albert Spalding and Captain Anson give it out that they wanted him.  Owner Morton replied, ‘The man who pays the money gets the plum.’”[5]  In his final appearance for the Maroons, left fielder Long recorded no stat, a 0- for-all in a 9-6 win at Omaha (managed by Frank G. Selee).  In his first game for the Blues on July 12 as a leadoff batter and right fielder, long singled, doubled, and scored as Charlie Nichols pitched his first game for Kansas City, a 4-1 win over first-place St. Paul.  Nichols was obtained by Blues player-manager Jim Manning after his Southern Association Memphis club folded on June 30/  Long would later play behind Kid Nichols for a dozen NL campaigns.

For another two weeks the Blues lingered around .500.  On July 31 Manning switched Long to shortstop for the duration of the season.  In a 12-inning gem at Exposition Park, Long had four hits, scored twice, batted home the winner, swiped four bases, and dazzled fans by preventing Milwaukee from scoring in the 10^th with a great play.  Hurler Park Swartzel won the 3-1 nailbiter.  Then Long went 4- for -35 with 11 errors over the next eight games.  In late August the Blues finally surged behind Nichols’ pitching.  From September 1 they were 31-3 but missed the Association pennant by .002 to Des Moines (which played five fewer games and beat them twice in the final week) because the rules said the best percentage took the flag.  It was a wild finish as the Kansas City owner paid Morton’s Maroons $500 to play four October games in Kansas City instead of Chicago as scheduled.  The Blues swept.

In 1889 Long (.275. 137 runs) went with the American Association Kansas City Cowboys under Bill Watkins and finished seventh.  Billy Hamilton (.301, 144 runs) was his most talented teammate.  Long opened the season in Louisville’s Eclipse Park and in his first Association game had two hits, scored three runs, stole two bases, had six assists, whiffed twice, and made an error in a 7-4 win.  In the four-game sweep for KC, Long was 4- for -13, scored seven runs, made 21 assists, had six steals, had four walks, made three errors, and homered off Thomas “Toad” Ramsey in a 14-9 win.  The Louisville Courier-Journal needed no more evidence and claimed at the end of the series, “Long is the finest shortstop in the American Association.”[6]  in another week Long managed a five-hit, four-run game and then a four-hit, two-score performance.  In a stretch of 15 games, he made 25 hits and scored 28 runs.  Near the end of the campaign, he scored in 12 straight contests.  Rookie Long was charged with 128 errors that season but his play was still considered on a higher plateau.  He was error-free in 57 games and in another 52 had only one miscue of the 136 games he played.  The Baltimore Sun said after a twin-bill split of August 1, “In the second game…the general excellence of the fieldwork of shortstop Long was noticeable.  Even Long’s two errors were brilliant.  He stopped three or four safe hits, which robbed Baltimore of bases.”[7]  He topped AA shortstops with 355 putouts.

Before the 1890 season began, the baseball world was thrown into chaos by the establishment of the Players’ (Brotherhood) League, a defiant move by several players to get better pay and not be tied to one team for however long any owner saw fit.  Three eight-team leagues now needed talent and the searches began when the 1889 season closed as teams felt they could not be left out of the hunt.  Several Boston players jumped to the PL and club President Arthur Soden hired Selee (of Western Association champ Omaha) to manage whatever revamped version of the Beaneaters he could assemble.  Selee’s pickups included Kid Nichols (Omaha), Bobby Lowe (WA Milwaukee), AA batting champ Tom Tucker (Baltimore), and Long.  Kansas City stars Long and Hamilton were “wanted” players, and both needed to first get officially released, but the price was high.  To avoid a nasty contract rights squabble within the NL, the league’s Committee on Players chose to have Boston and Philadelphia reps (both teams claimed Long and Hamilton) draw slips from a hat.  Philly got Hamilton and Boston to buy the rights to Long and veteran first baseman Daniel Stearns.  Quickly on January 4, Selee went to Chicago and happily got Herman’s signature, while Stearns was never signed and stayed with Kansas City.  A few days later Cowboys President John W. Speas told the press that Long’s release was bought for $6,500 by Boston.[8]  (Because of a prolonged illness, Speas, the Kansas City Distilling Co.-Monarch Vinegar magnate, took his own life with pistol and poison on June 3, 1909, only three months before Long passed.)

Nationally known for his uncanny fielding prowess, Herman debuted on Patriots Day (April 19) at the South End Grounds by launching two home runs in a 15-9 victory over Brooklyn, the eventual NL champion.  Parisian Bob Caruthers and William “Adonis” Terry were the victims in the comeback win for John Clarkson.  Not to disappoint defensively, Long had seven assists.  Even more, fans got to know Long on May 31, 1890, when that day’s New York Clipper issue profiled his career previous to Boston.[9]  When Boston first visited Chicago for a July Fourth doubleheader, Long’s neighborhood admirers presented him with a solid ice pitcher and gold-lined mug during the morning game.  Herman’s triple/RBI/run ignited the rally to a 12-2 win but in the afternoon his two errors cost the 6-5 loss.  The Beaneaters finished 76-57, fifth behind Brooklyn, and the leadoff man long hit .251/8HR in only 101 games (injuries).  He scored in 12 of his first 14 games and had two 10-game hit streaks before a lame back shelved him in late August when Boston was only three games out of first.  Though still hurting, he was 4-for-30 in the season’s final games, which dropped his average to .251.  His 95 runs were the second-most on the squad.  An average-sized player at 5 feet 8, 160 pounds, Long was the only true lefty swinger on the Bostons during his first few seasons.

Economics closed down the PL and when the contract dust cleared for 1891, the Bostons fielded a solid contender.  Ex-Beaneater, now also an ex-PL Boston Red, Billy Nash, was back at third base and imported slugging vet Harry Stovey, led the NL in HRs and triples.  But it was Long, who missed only one game and topped his team average, runs, walks, and steals (.282; 129, second in NL; 80; 60) and only Stovey had more extra-base hits.  The Beaneaters took their first 1890s flag by 3½ games over Chicago’s White Stockings despite losing the season series to them 7-13.  The Sporting News used the same 1890 Clipper text and image of Long in explaining his career path in its July 18, 1891, issue.[10]

Continued success followed the Beaneaters and Long in 1892-93 as they won both pennants.  He hit .280 and .288 while scoring 115 and 149 (tops) runs.  It was in June-July 1892 that Long made 12 of 19 career appearances in the pasture, as the unique split-season ended part one and began part two.  A contract problem arose in March 1893, according to the New York Sun.  On March 10, Long declared he would not play for Boston that season because his salary was cut (fewer games than 1892), saying, “The terms are out of all proportions to the work expected of me.”[11]  But a deal was apparently ironed out as Long opened the South End Grounds season by homering on the first pitch by Cannonball Ed Crane of the Giants.  He also scored the final run in the 8-6 win, adding a third run, seven assists, and a steal.  Most players’ averages spiked in 1894 (the second season of pitching distance at 60 feet 6 inches) and Long was in that group.  For the next four campaigns, he averaged .326/8HRs/110 runs/30 steals but the Baltimore Orioles won three straight flags before Boston regained the title in 1897.  The original “Flying Dutchman” enjoyed a memorable doubleheader on May 30, 1894.  While cheering on his keystone buddy, Bobby Lowe, who lofted four homers into the left-field bleachers in that day’s second game at the Congress Street Grounds, Long (5-for-8) got into the record book as well by scoring nine runs of the combined 30 Boston tallied.  He could not use Lowe’s cattails as Bobby was leadoff man and Long batted second.  In 125 years since, only Mel Almada (Washington, July 25, 1937, 6-for-9) scored nine times in a twin bill.

In July 1895, smack in the middle of the Beaneaters’ 1890s swoon, two events involved Long.  On July 17 he married Annie L. Hillock of Chicago (died March 1930) in their hometown.  On that day comments by manager Selee were made known in the national press exposing trouble in the Hub family.  “If I had anything to say about it (why didn’t he?), I would put three players on the bench tomorrow.  They are Hugh Duffy, Charlie Ganzel, and Long.  Whenever Ganzel is catching, Duffy criticizes his work and tries to hurt his standing with the club.  Ganzel does the same thing to Duffy.  Long has not spoken to Nash in some time. …All of the men play good ball individually, but they don’t work together.”[12]  Boston left in first place for a 26-game road trip (10-15, with one tie).  The trip included four games in Cincinnati, where they lost three to the Reds, including a doubleheader on July 17, 12-1 and 6-1.  Herman and his bride Annie then waited for his club to arrive in Chicago for the next series.  With Long back leading off, Boston scored one run again in a third consecutive game, the lowest output all season.  This was a 2-1 loss to Clark Griffith.

Long displayed his amazing fielding abilities on September 24, 1897, in Baltimore.  The difference in the season proved to be the last dozen games, Boston 8-4, Orioles 5-7.  But Baltimore still had a chance on that afternoon, down 6-2 with the bases loaded in the eighth inning.  Long leaped into the sky to grab a line drive by Jake Stenzel (.353), choking off that rally.  To the chagrin of Orioles fans, his performance was not complete.  In the ninth, the plucky Orioles scored twice, and with two more men on base Long once again made a fantastic grab of a certain base hit by NL top batter Willie Keeler (.424),[13] a liner that Long caught, then flipped to Lowe at second, doubling off the runner to end the game, 6-4.

Even Long’s tremendous reputation paled in the face of clutch efforts.  The teams split the next two games (Long was 9-for-14 in the three games) and Boston won the flag by two games after the Giants took two from the depressed Birds to end the season.  In 1897’s final Temple Cup matchup, Long hit .318 but his rival Baltimore shortstop Hughie Jennings hit .391 and the victorious Orioles averaged 10 runs in the final four games of the best-of-seven set (4-1).  Boston finished out the 1890s decade and the nineteenth century by repeating as champs in 1898 but lost out to Brooklyn in 1899 and 1900.  Long’s bat plunged to .264/8 HR/ 88 RBIs/ 90 runs, over the three years, but his 12 circuit clouts in 1900 topped the NL.

Of all Selee’s 1890s selections, Herman lasted the longest, even longer than Selee himself and Lowe, who both left Boston after 1901.  By then Long had a lame arm and a battered body from 12 NL seasons, hitting just .231 and .213 in 1902-03.  Despite three injury-ridden years, he played 91 percent of Boston’s 1890s games.  Long’s final series as a Beaneater and in the NL was a five-game set with the Giant in October 1902.  Boston won the first four but Long was 0-for-16 with 24 assists and two errors.  In the season finale, Giant Ironman Joe McGinnity won, 5-1, but loser Long had a single and five more assists.  Completely out of character, Long and new manager Albert Buckenberger “showed up” second baseman Gene DeMontreville by yanking him from the game after his two errors in the meaningless game allowed New York to score three times.  In a sour ending, the South End Grounds crowd heckled their longtime hero in his last appearance in Boston garb.

Long hit his final two career home runs that season, on May 23 and June 3. Both were off Cardinal Ed Murphy, who led the NL by tossing seven gopher balls.  But Murphy won both games, home and away, 10-6 and 11-9.  Long’s favorite long-ball targets over the decade were Jack Powell and Cy Young (four each).  Cy split the four games while Powell lost three.  Rookie Bert Abbey gave up Long’s last three homers in 1892.  Abbey (5-18, seven gopher balls) won two of those games.  Long blasted three in a month off New York Giant Bill Carrick in 1900, two on consecutive September days, one being in the year’s wildest game, a 14-14, 11-inning draw.  On May 9, 1896, at Louisville, Long hit for the cycle off 264-win hometown legend Gus Weyhing, in a 17-5 victory (four runs, three RBIs).

Defensively, Long’s best stat game was May 6, 1892, in Porkopolis.  In the 14-inning, 0-0 epic duel between John Clarkson (8-6) and Cincinnati’s Elton “Icebox” Chamberlain (19-23), Herman had five putouts, 14 assists, and only one miscue.  Those numbers were not equaled in the nineteenth century and only Tommy Corcoran managed 14 assists (two errors) in a nine-inning game in August 1930.  In April 1982 Angels shortstop Rick Burleson made 15, but in 20 innings, three coming after frame 14.  Neither had as many total chances.  Showing some special longevity, by percentage Long was the best fielding shortstop in the NL in both 1901 and 1902, .946 each campaign.  From 1889 through 1903, Long had 14 four-error games and one awful fiver, September 14, 1899, vs. St. Louis at the South End Grounds, in an 11-1 loss.

Only three weeks after the 1902 season ended, AL boss Ban Johnson raided the NL rosters and announced on October 26 the signing of 19 players including Long.  Boston was shocked that Herman had decided to pack his bags and go to New York to the Highlanders team (basically moved/stolen from Baltimore).  He lasted until June, hitting .188 in 22 games.  His was lame and he could not perform his shortstop duties in his accustomed manner.  The Detroit Tigers picked him up, and manager Ed Barrow placed him at second base and made him captain.  Long’s fielding was inconsistent and hit his only .229 in 69 games.  Detroit finished the season in pennant-winning Boston and New York.  In the final Boston appearance (at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, across the multi-railroad tracks from the South End Grounds), the second baseman was 4-for-6 off 20-7 Tom Hughes, a fellow Chicagoan, in a 6-6, 11-inning tie.  He thrilled the crowd with five assists.  Herman must have glanced over the track barrier once or twice, remembering when he was king for a decade only 500 feet away.  Ending his only AL year at New York’s Hilltop Park, where he started that April, Long was 0-for-6 in a win and then got three straight hits in two other games, the last being a pinch-hit single (run) is him (almost) final major-league at-bat in the ninth inning off rookie reliever Merle “Doc” Adkins, who was also playing his final major-league game.  New York won 10-4, ending the season.

In 1904 Long was hired to play for and manage the American Association Toledo Mud Hens, and he did until June 24, when he (.242) resigned with the club in last place.  The NL Phillies, managed by old teammate Hugh Duffy, offered him a contract that proved to be for one day, July 13.  He went 1-for-4 off Patsy Flaherty (19-9) in the 11-0 trouncing at Exposition Park along the Allegheny River, in Pittsburgh.  He played second base and had four assists and an error in the worst shutout loss of the season for Duffy’s last-place men.  The Pittsburgh Press observed, “Long’s whip is in poor shape.”[14} That was his major-league finale.

Long’s baseball salvation came on November 18 when he signed to manage and play for the 1905 Des Moines Underwriters in the six-team Western League.  Midwest minor-league magnates “Pongo” Joe and Mike Cantillon were responsible for the perfect match as Long joyfully schooled his players each morning on the game’s finer points and stayed healthy for most of the season (.307).  In a lengthy piece on April 30, the Des Moines Register printed “Grosspapa” Long’s philosophy: “In baseball, there is 65 percent luck and 35 percent noodle work.  Almost anyone can catch a ball and field it.  Hitting is largely a developed gift, but the good ballplayer is the man who combines head work with all these and unless a man uses his head, he will never make a first-class ballplayer.”-15]  Des Moines edged the Denver Grizzlies by four games for the title.  Denver was managed by Herman’s longtime NL friend Big Bill Everitt.  Long’s best pupils were Claude Rossman Leifield (26-9, best), and Pete Manske (357 innings, most). On September 28 the game was stopped by umpire Bob Caruthers (first home-run victim) and Long was presented with a diamond set ring on behalf of the players who acknowledged the credit he deserved for their capturing the pennant.  The ring was engraved, “To Herman Long from His Friends in Des Moines, 1905.”[16]  Herman thought he had a chance at the Boston managerial job for 1906 and even visited the Hub at the 1905 season concluded.  But it was not to be; old teammate Fred Tenney continued as manager.

There were levels of closure to Long’s career in 1906, which started with the shocking April duo disasters of the San Francisco Earthquake shaking the headlines with Italy’s deadly Mount Vesuvius eruption.  He captained Ed Barrow’s (last-place) Eastern League Toronto Maple Leafs for about 30 games (.247).  By June 2 he was off to join Bill “Pa” Rourke’s Omaha club in the Western League, where he played second base and hit .213 in 69 games.  In his first game, on June 4, he (age 40 and captain) had a hit and four assists in a 2-1, 11-inning loss to Lincoln, Nebraska, at Omaha’s Vinton Street Park.  His final games occurred as summer faded to autumn on September 21-22.  In another 2-1 loss to Lincoln, Long played shortstop and made four putouts, eight assists, and double-play (one error, 0-for-3) in the 65-minute game.  The next day in a split doubleheader, he was 3+for-8, scored, and had six assists and an error in each game at Lincoln.  He didn’t play in the final games (4-) and Omaha sank to third place from second, finishing a game below .500.  Long’s baseball career ended in Lincoln.  On October 2 Arthur Soden sold his (last-place) Boston NL team to Tenney, Roy Thomas, and a Philadelphia businessman.  Everything familiar to Herman Long in 1890s baseball was then gone.

Long didn’t have much good fortune after his Boston playing days ended.  He and partner Frank A. Sanderson bought the Hawthorne Hotel saloon on Avery Street just off the Boston Common in December 1902 and within two years it was in bankruptcy.  His wife, Annie (and daughter Harriett), loved her Chicago roots and refused to move to Denver with him for final care.  That estranged the couple.  Long was never a muscular specimen and nearly 20 years of ultra-aggressive ballplaying took its toll.  His health began to fade badly in 1907-08 but that didn’t prevent him from playing shortstop in an exhibition game in Chicago in April 1907 and a benefit in July 1908 for ChiTown billiard Jake Schaefer (died 1910 in Denver).  By 1909 Long was diagnosed with “consumption,” the unstoppable white plague killer of the era.  At the time Denver’s clean, thin air was looked upon as a healthy option for those for those afflicted.   His illustrious Boston manager Frank Selee went to the (Fredrick W.) Oakes Home for Consumptives in spring 1909 and on July 5 he died there.  Long was present to his friend and mentor a peaceful eternal rest and the newspapers reported that Long tearfully told Selee, “I’ll soon be with you, Frank.”  Long entered the marvelous Oakes facility, a sprawling million-dollar complex on West 32^nd Avenue between Eliot and Clay Streets, which is run mainly by an endowment and generous donations, got the same room Selee had and died there on September 16.[17]  He is buried in Forest Park’s Concordia Cemetery (Chicago) with most of his family.

Various obituaries said that Long had a “love of drink and misdirected generosity” and that he met death “friendless and penniless.”[18]  One thought was exaggerated and the other just false though he did lack any personal finances, his Oakes Home treatment was free.  The next morning the Denver Republican remarked, “Since coming to Denver, Long has been cared for by the players of the baseball leagues of the country.   When it was known he was not “flush” with money, the players sent funds to Bill Everitt and city clerk Burton F. Davis (treasurer/tobacconist), making the last days of Long full of rest and peace.”  Long’s most important and best friend was the Mile High City’s Everitt, the old Chicago infielder, who amassed a nice fortune from the Colorado Wrecking and Building Co. he owned.  Everitt visited Long all through the fatal illness, making sure he was comfortable; they took walks when Herman was strong enough.  Sporting Life made note of Big Bill’s charitable efforts in its September 5, 1914, issue: “Everitt went to the front and stood good for all the expenses of shipping the short fielder to his native soil (Chicago).”  He goes with the casket personally via train.

Confusingly, a few newspaper datelines and wording have Long passing on September 16, while others say the 17^th.  The major Denver press agree on the 16^th and that date appears to be correct.  Ironically his biggest 1890s shortstop rival, Jennings, is shown dancing away in many of those same papers because he is cajoling his Detroit Tigers to their third straight pennant as the season winds down.  Rossman is with the Tigers while Leifield and Long’s old Boston mate Vic Willis are with eventual World Series winner Pittsburgh.

Long’s fielding abilities were a sensation from his first game in Arkansas City.  Because he died young, most fans forgot about his spectacular diamond entertainment for a decade-plus.  But Long has had some very important supporters, and they pop up time and time again during the early twentieth century.  His name is always linked with Jennings of the 1890s Baltimore.  They were the spitfire rivals, Jennings having a better batting average and smoother fielding technique, but Long is always seen as the more exciting player, covering more ground than any human should be able to and making plays that constantly astounded patrons.  Both were game-day experts in encouraging teammates and ragging the opposition. At shortstop, Long was obsessed with getting to the moving white sphere no matter the consequences.  To him, errors were our chances gone awry and seemingly most fans were oblivious as well to any negative impact.  Few scolded him for his near-1,100 miscues.  Jennings is in the Hall of Fame, while Long is not nearly mentioned as often as he should be for that honor.  Some heralded shortstops like Jack Glasscock and Tommy Corcoran simply could not ever do what Long did weekly and Herman certainly was no slouch behind the plate.

Hidden in the stats of the 1890s is the fact that Long hit the most home runs in the NL from 1890 to 1900.  Slugger Ed Delahanty and willow wizard Hugh Duffy played in other leagues for a year or two while Long’s NL career spanned those 11 seasons perfectly.  Even if future Hall members Delahanty’s (81 HRs, .351) and Duffy’s (85, .330) complete totals were counted, Long is second (83).  For the decade (1890-1899), he hit .293 and averaged 40 extra-base hits each season.  In addition, Long posted hitting streaks of 23 games in 1895 and 26 games in June-July 1897.  He had hit in 13 games previously and Emerson “Pink” Hawley of Pittsburgh prevented him from having a 40-game streak (1897).  In 1893 he scored 10 consecutive contests.  In the field, Long’s only real rival was Jennings, but Hughie played only seven near-full seasons of the 11.  Each shortstop averaged a shade under seven chances per game and Jennings’s career shortstop fielding mark was .922, Long’s .906.

After Long’s death, several sportswriters’ remembrances shed light on how he played.  The Omaha Daily Bee noted, “In his day Long was regarded as the king of shortstops.  Long’s greatest virtue was resourcefulness.  As a heady, tricky player, he had few equals in his day.  He was always ready with some surprise to spring in an emergency.  Long was never rugged physically. …He was one of those who elevated and magnified the greatness of baseball.”[19]  The Buffalo Evening News wrote, “Long was a peerless shortstop and ranked among the very best at that position, past or present.  All points considered; he never had a superior.  He not only was dependable but made more than his share of brilliant stops and throws.”[20]  In January 1926, Jennings in his national column, Rounding Third, noted, “Long was a crack shortstop and one the most sensational fielders of all time.  He executed impossible plays.”[21]  In spring training 1924, Connie Mack was asked about shortstops and chose Jennings and Long (who broke Connie’s ankle on a slide home in June 1894) as the best he saw.”  (Long) was a phenom.  He was a tremendously hard hitter and he played deeper short field better than anyone.  Herman had a great arm and could play deep, cut off many a hit, and beat the batter to first base because he had a whip of steel.”[22]

Part of the Kansas City Times remembrance of Herman was, “Long was the father of a play which for years has been standard in every baseball league.  With a man on first, it was customary for the second baseman to cover second if the batter was righthanded.”[23]  It went on to describe that Herman changed that because he started to cover second base instead of Lowe.  It faked out base stealers several times and onlookers were also astonished when he first did it.’

John Henry Gruber, dean of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sportswriters, who started his career in the 1880s and was the official Pirates scorer for decades, penned a syndicated column in February 1914, “Players of Other Days, Herman C. Long.”  He wrote, “One of the most brilliant infielders the game ever produced was Herman C. Long, intelligent, quick-witted and speedy.  His home position was short, and his work at that station will bear comparison with that of the best in history.”[24]  An admiring biography followed.

Eleven years later, up popped William Blythe Hanna’s accolades for Long appeared on December 11, 1925, in the New York Herald Tribune.  For seemingly no particular reason, Hanna, the longtime baseball and football expert of the New York sports pages, decided Long deserved a remembrance column.  “Gleaned in the Field of Sport” was the venue.  Hanna was blunt, “Herman Long was the best shortstop I ever say.  Glenn Wright of the Pirates, nor anyone else covered the ground Long did. …Long the ‘Dutchman’ as he was called, was the best shortstop and the fieriest.  He was as sensational in his day as Babe Ruth or Ty Cobb.  He was a player with a tremendous personal following, with the magnetism of King Kelly, and commonplace in nothing.  His vicious throwing and his fondness for first-ball hitting were of his chief characteristics.  As a leadoff man, he was one of the best because he was a good hitter or good waiter as occurrences justified.  He wasn’t graceful, but he was the last word in energy.”[25]  James H. “Jimmy” Manning, the veteran player-manager of the Kansas City Blues in 1888, told of putting Long at short when his own arm went lame.  Only exaggerating a bit, Manning recalled that after a short time, he could not take his job back and he found that he didn’t have a third baseman or second baseman because of what Long was doing.[26]

Most biased of all, and properly so, was Hall of Fame 300-game winner Charles Augustus “Kid” Nichols, an adversary in the minors and a Beaneaters teammate icon for a decade.  It was believed that no one in baseball knew the original Flying Dutchman as well as Kid.  As rookies in 1890, Nichols’ first two career shutouts were each 1-0 nailbiters.  Long scored both runs as well as tallying in four of Kid’s five other shutouts that year.  Nichols recalled, “No man fought harder to win games than Long, but with all of his aggressiveness he never quarreled with the players or umpires.  A great many writers have compared him with Jennings as the stars at the midfield position, but I have always given the honors to Long.  Jennings was more graceful and probably had more finish, but even with his noise he lacked Herman’s ginger.  Herman didn’t worry about errors; he tore in after everything.  He had a wonderful arm, and it took a mighty speedy runner to beat out an infield hit when he handled the ball.  Then, he was one of the timeliest hitters in the business.”[27]

Perhaps the most poignant comments came from a very unlikely source, Montana’s Butte Miner.  On September 21, four days after Long’s passing, a lengthy non-bylined story appeared that was not copied from another news outlet.  In part, it said, “The death of Long removes one of the most notable figures that the national game ever produced.  Long was one of the brainiest ball players, a pioneer of the class regarded as the greatest exponents of inside baseball – the men who think quickly.  Frank Selee, perhaps the finest judge of players who ever lived, always regarded him as among the greatest ball players of all time.  In the game, he was the essence of ginger, and off the field, he was a gentleman. ‘There might have been shortstops who fielded higher averages, but it is doubtful whether the game has ever known a short-fielder of greater all-around value to his team,’ long-time Michigan sportswriter Emerson W. Dickerson is quoted, ‘and in this, I do not except Hans Wagner.  There was a reckless disregard of possible errors in Long’s play which is sadly lacking in present-day players.  In a season the Dutchman reached perhaps 50 balls which ordinary shortstops do not try for .’  A testimonial benefit was given (for Long) about two years ago when he broke down under the long strain of many years of play, a sufficient amount to make his remaining days comfortable.  Yes, Herman Long of German descent and who spoke it fluently, was called the Dutchman way before John Honus Wagner arrived in 0897.”[28]

In January 1911 Fred Tenney, a manager in Boston and New York and Long’s old target at first base, wrote several articles for the New York Times on various baseball topics.  One was about “Famous Shortstops” he knew.  In part and with a possible bias, he wrote, “Long was far and away the best man from 1890 to 1894.  He was the most marvelous ground coverer ever developed at that time.  He seemed to know where a batter would hit the ball and always moved to that point.  He made more spectacular plays than any man before or since.  He was remarkably strong in handling thrown balls and touching base runners and (on offense) was a wonderful base runner and run-getter.”[29]

Finally, an iconic adversary and keen analyst of decades worth of baseball players had this to say, from the grave.  About a week after he died in 1934 the Pittsburgh Press ran an interview that had been done about three weeks before with this baseball legend.  The byline read “Daniel” and his question was simply who was the best double-play combo – Tinker and Evers?  “Hell no,” came the gruff reply.  “The greatest pair for making two out were Dutch Long and Bobby Lowe of the Boston Nationals.  They were remarkable infielders and they played alongside each other for so many years that they knew by instinct and habit what each would do in a given situation,” observed John Joseph McGraw.[30]

In his 1994 classic The Beer and Whiskey League, author David Nemec’s peerless in-depth research illuminated a huge injustice to Long: “His play brought him more votes than all but seven other nineteenth-century players when the Hall of Fame conducted an initial poll in 1936.  Long is the only finisher among the top 12 (now 14) in the first Old Timers’ ballot who is not enshrined.”[31]

At their SunTrust Park in Cobb County, Georgia, the Atlanta Braves pay tribute to players from their entire history dating to 1871 in Boston.  Along the Monument Garden walkway, there’s only one nineteenth-century player whose name/picture banner hands from a 30-foot pillar among the many more modern Braves.  It is Herman Long, who lives in the top 10 of many franchise categories; first in stolen bases (434), third in triples, fourth in runs and sacrifices, fifth in hits, sixth in RBIs, and eighth in games played.  He was inducted into the Braves Hall of Fame in 2005.

Sources:

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted Ancestry.com, Harold Kaese’s The Boston Braves, an Informal History, Dave Nemec’s Major League Baseball Profiles
1871-1900 Vol. 1, David L. Porter’s Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: Baseball, Baseball Reference.com, Long’s player file from the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Baseball America’s Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, Retrosheet.org, Sun Trust Park Memorial Garden (Atlanta Braves), and the following newspapers: Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Evening Transcript, Buffalo Evening News, Butte (Montana) Miner, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Inter Ocean, Cincinnati Enquirer, Denver Post, Denver Republican, Des Moines Register, Detroit News, Emporia (Kansas) Evening News, Kansas City Star, Kansas City Times, Louisville Courier-Journal, New York Clipper, New York Herald Tribune, Omaha Daily Bee, Pittsburgh Press, Rocky Mountain News, and The Sporting News.

Notes:

1.     Throughout Long’s career and 50 years beyond
        his death, almost all references to his birth say
        April 3. Then in June 1964, his nephew Dr. Clyde
        Hillock Jacobs corresponded with Baseball Hall
        of Fame librarian Lee Allen. Jacobs filled out a
        questionnaire about Long and wrote that his birth
        was April 13, 1866. Whether a simple error in
        family memory, a typo, or something else, since
        that paper was placed on file, researchers have
        used the April 13 date as gospel. Dr. Jacobs was
        born in 1912 and admitted not knowing very
        much about Herman or his life, which was his
        reason for contacting the Hall Library. His
        posted September 17 death date was also
        incorrect.
2.     “7 to 6” and “How Our Boys Play Well,”
        Arkansas City (Kansas) Daily Republican
        Traveler, May 18 and 19, 1887: 5.
3.     Twelve Innings Played,” Chicago Tribune,
        April 17, 1888: 6.
4.     “On the Diamond – Turn About Fair Play,”
        St. Paul Globe, May 31, 1888: 4.
5.     “Western Association – Changes in Maroon
        Club,” Chicago Tribune, July 12, 1888: 3.
6.     “Another Game Lost – Notes,” Louisville
        Courier-Journal, April 21, 1889: 5.
7.     “Each Club Won a Game (Some Notable Points),
       ” Baltimore Sun, August 2, 1889: 6.
8.     “Says Long Cost Boston Club $6,500,” Boston
        Globe, January 10, 1890: 5.
9.     New York Clipper, May 31, 1890: Vol. 38,
        No. 12: 185.
10.   The Sporting News, July 18, 1891: Vol. 12,
        No. 9: 1.
11.   “Long Refuses to Play for Boston,” New
        York Sun, March 11, 189: 4.
12.   “Trouble in the Boston Team,” Chicago
         Tribune, July 18, 1895: 4.
13.   Per Retrosheet. The Reach Guide and the
        Minor League Encyclopedia each have
        his average at .432.
14.   “Shutout for the Phillies – Baseball Notes,
       ” Pittsburgh Press, July 14, 1904: 12.
15.    Tracy Garrett, “In the West with the
         Underwriters,” Des Moines Register,
         April 30, 1905: 23.
16.   “Des Moines Takes Second of Series,
       ” Des Moines Register, September 29,
        1905: 7.
17.   “Herman Long Is Out, Tuberculosis Tags
        Him,” Rocky Mountain News, September
        17, 1909: 8.
18.   “Herman Long Dead,” Sporting Life,
        September 25, 1909: 2.
19.   “Judgments,” Omaha Sunday Bee,
         September 19, 1909: 30.
20.   “Famous Shortstop Passes Away,” Buffalo
         Evening News, September 17, 1909: 60.
21.   Hugh A. Jennings, “Rounding Third – Fielding
        with the Feet,” Des Moines Register,
        January 2, 1926: 9.
22.   S.O. Grauley, “Connie Mack Picks Jennings
        and Long,” Philadelphia Inquirer,
        March 9, 1924: 18.
23.   “The End to Herman Long,” Kansas City
        Times, September 17, 1909: 4.
24.   John H. Gruber, “Old Time Players – Herman
        Long,” The Sporting News, March 5, 1914: 4.
25.   William Blythe Hanna, “Gleaned in Fields of
        Sport,” New York Herald Tribune,
        December 11, 1925: 27.
26.   “Was a Great Ballplayer,” Kansas City Star,
        September 17, 1909: 13.
27.   Tannehill A. Mark, “Get the Brush – Baseball
        Notes,” Boston Globe, June 3, 1903: 5.
28.   “Herman Long Dead,” Butte Miner,
        September 21, 1909: 3.
29.   Fred Tenney, “Famous Shortstops Tenney Has
        Known,” New York Times, January 22,
        1911: 29.
30.   Daniel [sic], “Double Play Kings? Long,
        Lowe Choice of McGraw,” Pittsburgh
        Press, March 4, 1934: 19. “Daniel” was the
        byline influenced by Dan Daniel, a 
        longtime New York sportswriter.
31.   David Nemec, The Beer and Whisky League
        (New York: Lyons and Burford, 1994), 169.

Full Name:  Herman C. Long.
Born:  April 13, 1866, at Chicago, IL (USA)
Died: September 17, 1909, at Denver, CO (USA)