The Local Boys. Joe HeffronЧитать онлайн книгу.
Life. He still lives in Chicago and remains as irreverent as ever.
MIKE BURKE
NOVEMBER 30, 1853–JUNE 9, 1889
Major League Career
MAY 1, 1879 – JULY 19, 1879
Time as a Red
1879
Position
SHORTSTOP
FANS HEAR ALL TOO OFTEN that baseball is a mental game, but some clichés stick around because they’re true. And for infielder Mike Burke, that truth was painfully apparent during his very short major league career in 1879. Though a gifted athlete, he played poorly, and the culprit might have been his trying too hard to succeed. In his book Major League Baseball Profiles, David Nemec notes that Burke and his wife had a daughter that summer, quoting Enquirer columnist Opie Caylor’s theory that perhaps the pressure to succeed to support his young family simply overwhelmed Burke.
He was born in New York but grew up somewhere in Cincinnati, maybe in the Cumminsville area. He played shortstop for the amateur Cumminsville Blue Stockings from 1873 to 1875, before beginning his pro career in 1877 with the Columbus Buckeyes. After a strong season with the London (Ontario) Tecumsehs, Burke signed with the Red Stockings, who were building a powerful team in hopes of winning the pennant. Many publications made them preseason favorites, though the New York Herald sounded a sour note: “Cincinnati expects great things of its fancy-priced, high-salaried team for 1879 … [but] there is a strong incompatibility of temper among some of the members of the nine, which may break out as it did in 1878.” The year before, the team stood atop the league until fading to second place, apparently due to dissension among the players.
A slick fielder who could hit, Burke debuted with the Reds on May 1, 1879, playing shortstop, and his poor performance was a sign of things to come. He went hitless in five at-bats, while also committing an error. Unfortunately, this would prove to be one of his better games. During his two-month major league career, he committed 32 errors in 28 games, often making wild throws to first baseman Cal McVey. Of course, in those bare-handed days, errors were very common, but they were even more common with the Red Stockings, who made 450 of them in 82 games.
The Enquirer forgave Burke’s rough start, reporting in early May that he is “a little nervous … but he will settle down soon and astonish people.” The paper did criticize his penchant for not running hard when he grounded into obvious outs, stating that as a fast runner he might force a hurried throw if he tried and that his lack of hustle “takes badly with an audience.” Still, Burke’s fielding gaffs may have caused him to put further pressure on himself, which caused the Enquirer to report, “Instead of doing better, [he] seems to be doing worse. He is nervous to a degree and seems entirely lacking in judgment.” According to Nemec, the Enquirer’s Caylor later wrote that Burke’s teammate, Will Foley, exacerbated the situation by constantly jabbing the rookie with sarcastic comments, probably to keep the new guy off his game and thereby away from Foley’s job. Perhaps the Herald’s prediction of conflict among the players was right after all.
Burke spent time at third base and in the outfield, as well as at shortstop, but struggled at every position. He also hit just .222 in 119 plate appearances. By midsummer, with the highly touted Red Stockings struggling, management had seen enough. When Burke showed up to the ballpark on July 21 for an exhibition game, team secretary Con Howe handed him his release. Burke finally snapped. He lunged at Howe but was restrained by a policeman. He then ran onto the field where some of the players already were practicing and challenged player-manager Cal McVey to a fight, shouting, “I can lick you” before attacking him. Players rushed to the scene and pulled Burke away, escorting him to the locker room, where he suddenly burst into tears. Before leaving, he apologized, the Enquirer adding that “nobody speaks of him in other terms than of kindness.”
Burke appears to have played shortstop briefly in the non-affiliated National Association in 1880, most likely for the team in Rochester, but then he left baseball behind. According to a later article by Caylor, cited by Nemec, Burke found success as a businessman in Albany until his early death at 35.
JACK BUSHELMAN
AUGUST 29, 1885–OCTOBER 26, 1955
Major League Career
1909; 1911–1912
Time as a Red
1909
Position
PITCHER
FACING A PENNANT-WINNING LINEUP IS NOT ANY PITCHER’S IDEA OF A GOOD TIME, but the Enquirer characterized Jack Bushelman’s one start for his hometown Reds on October, 5, 1909, as “just for fun.” It was the last game of the season, the fourth-place Reds getting ready to call it a day, the Pittsburgh Pirates getting ready to face the Detroit Tigers in the World Series. With Hall of Famer Honus Wagner, Fred Clarke, and Dots Miller stacking the Pirates lineup, 24-year-old Bushelman was due for anything but “fun.”
The Reds wanted to see him against major league hitters, though he wasn’t under contract. He’d spent a few years in the minors and in amateur and semipro ball, building a reputation for an electric arm but inconsistent control—one day a world-beater, the next day infuriatingly wild.
Bushelman grew up in Avondale and starred in baseball and track at the University of Cincinnati. A 6′2″ right-hander, he turned pro at 20, pitching for Class C Winnipeg, though continuing to play for local teams. Joe Gerhardt, his manager for the amateur Cincinnatus Club, recalled a few years later, “Jack in those days was certainly the best youngster I ever saw, only needed experience to be in the place he belongs today. His one weakness was wildness.”
He turned down a few minor league offers in 1909 to pitch for the Shamrocks, the top semipro team in the area, and on July 1, 2,000 people came to the Palace of the Fans to watch him pitch for the Shamrocks in the second night game ever played in a Major League ballpark. A few months later, he made his start for the Reds against the Pirates.
It was the second game of a doubleheader, scheduled for seven innings. The Reds staked him to a run in the first, and he went through the Pirate lineup for three innings without giving up a hit. Due to a walk, a passed ball, and an error by shortstop Roy Ellam, the Pirates scored a run in the second, added two more in the fourth and three in the final inning, though poor fielding by the Reds undermined a decent performance. Of the seven runs he gave up, only two were earned. He surrendered seven hits, walked four, and struck out three.
If his time as a Red didn’t turn heads, he turned quite a few just days later while pitching for the semipro Hamilton Krebs against the Louisville Colonels, champions of the American Association, in an exhibition game in Hamilton. He took a no-hitter into the eighth and gave up only one hit, striking out seven and walking four. Former Red Heinie Peitz, who managed Louisville, signed Bushelman for the 1910 season. Peitz had a reputation for working with pitchers, and hopes were high that under him Bushelman would realize his great potential.
It didn’t happen. After a poor beginning, he ended up with New Bedford in the Class B New England League. After posting a 16–14 record in 1911, he returned to the majors late in the season with the Boston Red Sox, getting one start, on September 11, against Washington and the immortal Walter Johnson. Following a terrible first inning—four walks, a balk, and poor defense led to five runs without a hit—he pitched six scoreless frames, losing 7–1. He made the 1912 team that opened new Fenway Park but was released after three relief appearances, though he notched a Major League victory, on May 13, when he took over for starter Charley Hall, who gave up five runs in the first to the St. Louis Browns. The Red Sox scored nine in the second, and Bushelman cruised into the seventh, when he gave up five runs. The Red Sox won but released him later in the season without another appearance.