• Card series: Beginnings: 1880's
• City: Denver
• Team: Grizzlies
• League: Western Association

James McQuaid (1861-1928) played baseball under the name Mortimer Martin “Mart” McQuaid. He was a right-handed, grizzled veteran of the minor league circuits from age 27 in 1888 until 1906 with Alameda in the California League. According to the Baseball Encyclopedia, Mart played for 31 teams including brief stints in the majors with St Louis and Washington. He also managed the Dubuque squad in 1896-7. Over 14 seasons, McQuaid had a .310 BA but was miserable afield, botching over one in ten chances. According to SABR’s Vern Luse, McQuaid was the brother of famed ML umpire Jack McQuaid. His cups of coffee in the AA with the Browns (4 games) and the NL’s Senators (one game in which he took the collar) were accidental interruptions for a lifelong laborer in America’s summer meadows, the diamonds-in-the-rough of Main Street USA.

• McQuaid’s Old Judge pose was for the Denver Grizzlies during his second year, but typical of his career: he hit .303 but “was the worst right fielder in the league, by a large margin” per the Goodwin editors