- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: New York
- Team: Giants
- League: National League
William M. Brown (1866-1897) was a catcher & infielder for 7 seasons with 5 clubs, including stints with NY’s Giants in both their National League and Players’ League incarnations. He began in New York in 1887, left for the Phillies in ’91, was out a year before catching on with the Orioles. His final year in the majors was with two teams: the Louisville Colonels & St. Louis Browns in 1894. This native San Franciscan was exotic enough to be nicknamed for his State in an era dominated by eastern teams and players. Chronic lung problems limited his play. He sought milder climes in the west & Hawaii to no avail, succumbing to the disease at age 32. He is buried in the necropolis “City of Souls” in Colma, CA, near his hometown.
- Brown’s finest year was 1893 with the Colonels, batting .304 with 140 hits and 85 RBI
- His 50 walks that year gave him an OBP of .373
- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: New York
- Team: Giants
- League: National League
Master William Breslin was one in a line of NY Giants’ mascots in the 1880s, primarily due to HOF catcher Buck Ewing’s love of “hoodoos.” Superstition is still alive and well in baseball and goes back to its roots. In the old days it wasn’t rally monkeys, tomahawks or Phanatics–it was young boys recruited from the mean streets by ball players desperate for an edge. Lads such as “masters” Bretsie and Preston prowled the NY dugout in 1886, preceded by an unknown “colored boy” that year. Any charm could do, though. Ewing seized variously on a yellow mutt, a ring-tailed monkey named “Mose,” and a toy barking dog. But no mascot seems to have gained the popularity and fame of Willie Breslin.
One of Buck’s proteges was Fred Boldt, a Chicago waif the team picked up on the road. Back in NY, young Fred ran up an account at a diner near the Polo Grounds and absconded with Cannonball Titcomb’s shoes.
- The Breslin Old Judge cards have become highly prized
- Sadly, biographical data for Willie and his cohorts is lacking. We trust he turned out better than young Boldt
- Series: Diamond Heads '15
- City: New York
- Team: Giants
- League: National League
James Francis Thorpe (1888-1953) grew up in the Sac and Fox nation in Oklahoma, a hardscrabble existence that saw him in and out of boarding schools. Orphaned and troubled, the teenager found himself in faraway Pennsylvania and came under the tutelage of the renowned Pop Warner. Thorpe’s athletic skill would carry him to heights few have attained, a Renaissance man of sport, bestride the 20th Century. Acclaimed as the world’s greatest athlete in the 1912 Olympics where Thorpe played in two exhibition baseball games, presaging a professional career. A rare “free agent” in the era of the reserve clause, he was able to choose the Giants over the last-place Browns during the 1913 season. He played sporadically but went to the World Series and was the star of the global tour of Giants/White Sox players that off-season.
- Team owners caromed Thorpe from team to team with limited playing time, ending his MLB tenure with the Boston Braves in 1919
- Hit the ball that Hippo Vaughn misplayed, ending the remarkable “double-no-hitter” in 1917
- Series: Diamond Heads '15
- City: New York
- Team: Giants
- League: National League
Frederick Carlisle Snodgrass (1887-1974) broke into MLB with the Giants in ’08 and became a mainstay in the outfield by virtue of his speed & hitting. As proficient as he was at bat & on base, Snodgrass spent his career mired in controversy, especially on the big stage of the World Series: intentionally spiking Frank Baker, dropping a fly ball & later bringing down the house in Fenway after defiantly challenging the home folks. That incident prompted Boston’s mayor (“Vote often and early for James Michael Curley”) to stride on field and demand Snodgrass’ ouster. Fittingly, Fred was traded to the Bosox the next season.
- Haunted throughout his life by the 1912 Series gaff, Snodgrass was spared the indignity of reading the headline on his NY Times obituary: “Fred Snodgrass, 86, Dead; Ball Player Muffed 1912 Fly.”
- Harry Hooper, Boston’s fleet slugger, was robbed by Snodgrass on the next play. Hooper always defended Snodgrass, citing numerous other miscues that led to the Giants’ loss that day
- Series: Diamond Heads '15
- City: New York
- Team: Lincoln Giants
- League: Independent
- Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame
Louis Santop (Loftin) (1890-1942) was a prodigious HR slugger & indomitable catcher in the Negro Leagues. He averaged .406 lifetime, caught two of the hardest throwing pitchers of all-time (Smokey Joe Williams & Dick Redding) and endured behind the plate for an astonishing 15 seasons despite the privations and rigor of black baseball in America in his day. A jovial giant, Top was a fan favorite & sure-fire draw with his ability to throw a ball over outfield fences before games & hit it even further during games.
- It is told the Newark park had an ad promising a suit to players who hit the 440’ centerfield fence. The sign was removed after Santop hit it three times in one game
- Played for great Negro League teams including the NY Lincoln Giants and the Hilldale Club
- Elected to Hall of Fame: 2006
Ars Longa Store
Newsletter
