- Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
- City: Cleveland
- Team: Spiders
- League: National League
- Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame
Denton True Young (1867-1955) embodied excellence among ML pitchers. Baseball waited one year after his death to establish the award for annual greatness in his honor. Young’s 511 wins are still the hallmark. In 19 of his 21 seasons, he was in the top 10 in innings pitched. With Nap Lajoie, Young gave the upstart AL credibility when he jumped to the new circuit in 1901.
- In his 30s & 40s, led Boston’s Red Sox to 192 victories
- Pitched the 1st perfect game from 60’6”, beating Rube Waddell on 5/5/04
- Elected to Hall of Fame: 1937
- Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
- City: Cleveland
- Team: Spiders
- League: National League
- Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame
Rhoderick John Wallace (1873-1960) had a Hall of Fame career as a premier shortstop for 24 years before going on to one of the longest tenures in MLB as coach, manager, scout & even a short stint as an umpire. Playing primarily in St. Louis for the Cardinals & Browns, Wallace set records, including a mournful one: longest career by a player to never make the World Series.
- Too good a fielder to stay on the mound, became the premier defensive SS of his era
- In 1911, Pirates’ owner declared Wallace the one player in the AL he desired above all others
- Elected to Hall of Fame: 1953
- Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
- City: Cleveland
- Team: Spiders
- League: National League
Oliver Wendell Tebeau (1864-1918) played first and third-base for five ML teams from 1887-1900. He was player-manager for three of those clubs 11 of his 13 seasons, squaring off with his arch-rival John McGraw and his Orioles. Tebeau led Cleveland during the rough-and-tumble era closing the 19th century. His obituary said he belonged to “the blood and iron brigade of baseball.” It was said that when the Spiders and Orioles met, “wild war raged up and down the field.” The august founding father of the game, Henry Chadwick, wrote in 1896 that Tebeau “degraded the game more than any player of the previous quarter century.” But the Cleveland fans loved Patsy and the League’s attempts to silence him soon faded.
- After retiring from the diamond, Tebeau ran a successful saloon in St. Louis
- Patsy couldn’t endure his wife’s decision to leave him and take the kids back to Cleveland. After his death at his own hand the local paper headlined: “Patsy Tebeau Acts as His Own Umpire”
- Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
- City: Cleveland
- Team: Spiders
- League: National League
“The Deerfoot of the Diamond” (1871-1913). A Maine native & son of a Penobscot chief, Sockalexis was one of the most gifted athletes ever to play the game. A pioneering Native American, Sockalexis endured intimidation and abuse throughout his all-too-brief career. He starred for the Fighting Irish before joining the Cleveland Spiders in 1897. His legacy lives today whenever the Cleveland Indians take the field—many believe that mascot to be a post-mortem tribute to this early star.
- Harvard professors measured his throw at 414′
- While at Notre Dame, he homered in the Polo Grounds off future Hall of Famer Amos Rusie
- John McGraw called him the “greatest natural talent” he had ever encountered in the game
- Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
- City: Cleveland
- Team: Spiders
- League: National League
James Robert McAleer (1864-1931) was the premier defensive OF of the ‘90s, but a weak hitter. McAleer’s true talent was executive leadership and he became one of the prominent founders of the AL, with a gift for recruiting some of the top players away from the NL.
- Opened Fenway Park in 1912 as president of the pennant-winning Sox
- Credited with beginning the custom of inviting the President of the US to throw out the 1st ball
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