- Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
- City: Chicago
- Team: White Stockings
- League: National League
Lawrence J. Corcoran (1859-1891) was a shining star who left a short trail through the baseball heavens before flaming out in ill-health and an exhausted right arm. He could even use the left one and did pitch ambidextrously on at least one occasion. Few players of any era could have better fulfilled media prophecy: on Sept 13, 1879 the NY Clipper predicted that with good catching support “it would be difficult to get a base hit from his pitching.” Only two others would exceed Larry’s rookie 43 win total. By 1884 Corcoran would hurl his third no-hitter. He was the first to accomplish the feat and it wasn’t matched until Koufax many decades later. For five glorious years with Anson’s White Stockings, Corcoran was phenomenal: 170 wins, 246 CG and the no-nos.
- Unsurprisingly, the arm wearied. His body, afflicted by Bright’s disease, failed too, at age 32
- Per his SABR biographer: “Corcoran possessed all the attributes of greatness except durability”
- Series: Pioneer Portraits II: 1875-1899
- City: Chicago
- Team: White Stockings
- League: National League
- Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame
Adrian Constantine Anson (1852-1922) was Mr. Longevity, a big, brawling cyclone of controversy & batsmanship unrivaled in the early days of pro ball. He set hitting standards that only the greatest future players would approach or break. He also, by dint of his ferocious personality, may have been the single greatest force for segregation in baseball until Branch Rickey began to reverse that sad estate.
- Played a record 27 consecutive years in the NL
- First batter to 3000 hits, using his powerful arms to create line drives with a short swing
- Elected to Hall of Fame: 1939
- Series: Pilgrims
- City: Chicago
- Team: Cubs
- League: National League
Leonard Leslie Cole (1886-1916) went 20-4 with the 1910 Cubs in his second season, still the best winning % in 20th C. franchise history and led them to a pennant. After another great year in ’11 was traded to Pirates. Ill health plagued him and he missed the ’13 season, and died of TB after a very short 1915 season.
- Pitching for the Yankees in 1914, surrendered Babe Ruth’s first ML hit, a double
- Said to have been Ring Lardner’s model for “Alibi Ike,” beloved in short story and film
- Maintained a fine 3.12 ERA over his brief six-year career
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T201 Mecca Canvas: King Cole
- Series: Pilgrims
- City: Chicago
- Team: Cubs
- League: National League
- Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame
Frank Leroy Chance (1876-1924) was a tenacious and fiercely competitive MLB player-manager for the Cubs and Yankees and manager of the Red Sox. John L. Sullivan called him the “greatest amateur brawler of all time.” Chance brought that pugilistic spirit to the diamond, giving unruly fans and players as good as he got.
- Joined the fraternity of the immortals in Cooperstown with the teammates with whom he is forever linked: Johnny Evers and Joe Tinker
- Cubs’ owner gave Chance a 10% stake in the club as reward for stealing home from 2nd in a tied game
- Elected to Hall of Fame: 1946
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T201 Mecca Canvas: Frank Chance
- Series: Pilgrims
- City: Chicago
- Team: Cubs
- League: National League
- Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame
Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown (1876-1948) gained the Hall of Fame on the strength of a wicked curve, enhanced by childhood accidents that cost him parts of two fingers on his “twirling” hand. He won 20+ for the Cubs six times from 1904-12 with two world championships.
- Career record of 239-130 and the 3rd best ERA of all time: 2.06
- Had legendary duels with Giants’ Christy Mathewson, and went 13-11 against him
- His 2.06 ERA is best ever by a pitcher with more than 200 wins
- Elected to Hall of Fame: 1949
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T201 Mecca Canvas: Mordecai Brown
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