• Card series: 1880s: Loving Paupers
• City: Cleveland
• Team: Blues (AA)
• League: American Association

Mortimer Edward Hogan (1862-1923) broke into pro ball in 1883 with the Peoria Reds. The young outfielder got the first of two shots at the big time the following season with the Milwaukee Brewers of the soon-to-be-defunct Union Association. Even had the league survived that turbulent year, it is virtually certain that Hogan’s .081 batting average would have doomed him to return to the minors. He spent most of ’84 with the Milwaukee Northwestern League club after the UA went belly up. Hogan at least hit his weight here, bumping his average up to .217. The light-hitting Hogan remained in the minors, bouncing from the Southern League to the Western League and to Elmira of the New York State League before returning south to two Georgia squads for most of the ’86 season. He moved back to the WL’s Leavenworth Soldiers to finish the campaign before getting another opportunity in the majors with the American Association’s New York Metropolitans where his .200 average might have been overlooked as the team struggled to a 45-88 record and a dismal seventh place finish. Well, apparently Mort’s weak hitting wasn’t ignored as the woeful Mets shipped him to Nashville to finish out the ’87 season. But all was not dark for Hogan as he was given one last chance at big league glory with the 1888 Cleveland Blues of the AA, where he managed a .227 average. The Cleveland management, having witnessed the futility of Hogan and the Mets the prior year, still held out hope, signaling the eternal optimism that defines America’s pastime.

• Perhaps Mortimer had the last laugh as the Blues managed a sixth place finish in ’88, an improvement that launched Hogan into retirement at the age of 26