• Card series: Pioneer Portraits I: 1850-1874
• City: Brooklyn
• Team: Star of Brooklyn
• League: National Association (NABBP)

Fraley W. Rogers (1850-1881) played at the cusp of the professional era, mostly with the Star of Brooklyn in the old Nat’l Assoc of Base Ball Players. Played the ’72 (championship) season for the Boston Red Stockings, compiling a decent .276 average in RF. Sadly, Rogers is the earliest known professional ball player to take his own life, by gunshot at age 30.

• The Star of Brooklyn was a breeding ground for talent in the 1860s
• ’72 marked the end of the “Knickerbocker Era” and the start of professional ball
• Fraley’s brother Mort Rogers was a National Association umpire who innovated the Mort Rogers’ Scorecards that inspired this series of Pioneer Portraits