- Series: Diamond Heads '15
- City: New York
- Team: Lincoln Giants
- League: Independent
- Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame
Joseph Williams (1886-1951) may have been the best pitcher never to appear in the major leagues. He starred in the Negro Leagues and in Cuba and Mexico over a 27-year career. His best year was 1914 (an amazing 41-3). Playing against MLB players in barnstorming games, Williams compiled a 20-7 record over the “best” in the game.
- At age 44 in 1930, closed his career with a 1-0, 12-inning win striking out 27 KC Monarchs
- That same year, in his only confrontation with the rising star, beat Satchel Paige 1-0.
- Elected to Hall of Fame: 1999
- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: Detroit
- Team: Wolverines
- League: National League
Peter J. Conway (1866-1903) was a tough right-hander who played in tough luck with his early major-league clubs. Both the Buffalo Bisons and Kansas City Cowboys struggled to seventh-place finishes and failed to support their youngster during the 1885-86 seasons. He came into his own with a much better Detroit Wolverine squad for three years, helping the club win the pennant and post-season tourney in ‘87. Pete’s best year was in ‘88, going 30-14. The Wolverine franchise and Conway’s arm gave out. Pete went to the Alleghenys but got into only three games. Pressures were building that would culminate in the Players’ League “revolt” and the cavalier treatment Conway received in Pittsburgh was widely seen as all-too-typical. Pete tried unsuccessfully to play for Ward’s Wonders in 1890 but the arm was gone.
- In 1891 Conway was hired as the first head coach of the other Wolverines: those of the University of Michigan
- Series: Diamond Heads '15
- Team: All Nations
- League: Independent
John Wesley Donaldson (1891-1970) “was the most amazing pitcher I ever saw” said J. L. Wilkinson, who had seen them all: Cubans, Blacks, Whites and the best female players of the early 20th century. Wilkinson's All Nations team was a famed forbear of the Negro Leagues of which he was a founder. He told Satchel Paige that, had Donaldson been available to play for their Kansas City Monarchs, Paige would have been behind John in the rotation. Research has documented as many as 399 wins in Donaldson's long career in black baseball; a career that would have been quite different had he heeded John McGraw's plea to adopt a Cuban persona, renounce his family ties and come play in the major leagues. McGraw later said he'd have paid $50,000 for the left-hander but for the color barrier. But Donaldson was a man of integrity and dignity. He wouldn't stoop to denying his heritage and thus remained in the “bushes” as modern baseball unfolded without him on the mounds that he deserved. Amateur historian Peter Gorton has made Donaldson his occupation, gathering records from libraries and news files around the country. Published box scores reveal games of phenomenal strikeout performances with the highest being 31 in an 18-inning game. John was just too good for the caliber of players he was able to face.
- Donaldson first pitched for clubs in Missouri before touring with the barnstorming Tennessee Rats and then the All Nations. His 30-year career ended in 1949, two years after Jackie Robinson debuted in Brooklyn
- 4,915 strikeouts have been documented for Donaldson. Remarkably, this total does not include the strikeouts from more than 150 games in which Donaldson pitched, but for which statistical data is lacking
- Research shows that Donaldson compiled a 1.37 ERA over his 30 year career, during which he also threw 13 no hitters and one perfect game.
- Donaldson had two, 30-k games; eleven, 25+ K games; thirty, 20+ K games
- Despite never playing in MLB, Donaldson did become the first full-time black scout in major league history. He scouted for the Chicago White Sox from 1949 into the 1950s
- Of Donaldson, John McGraw said, “I think he is the greatest I have ever seen.”
- J.L. Wilkinson credits Donaldson with suggesting the name “Monarchs” for Wilkinson’s pioneering Negro League team from Kansas City
- In 2006 the special HOF committee charged with evaluating pre-Negro League talent declined to include Donaldson
- Series: Beginnings: 1880's
- City: Philadelphia
- Team: Athletics (AA)
- League: American Association
Harry Whitacre (aka Whiteacre, Whitaker) is known primarily from photographs: he is depicted on (at least) three 1888 Old Judge cards in an Athletics’ uniform. Harry was photographed batting and throwing right-handed. He is also found in a team photo of the Kennett Square Mohicans of 1886 along with the brothers of future major leaguer Mike Grady and the father of future Hall-of-Famer Herb Pennock. Kennett Square was becoming the “mushroom capital of the world” about the same time the Mohicans were transforming from an amateur club to one of the foremost teams in Pennsylvania in the late 1880s. The Sporting News, in January ‘88, touted “Whiteacre, the Athletics new pitcher” as being “highly thought of by Manager Sharsig.” As with many up-and-coming minor leaguers of the day, Harry’s promise went unfulfilled. He didn’t make the Philadelphia squad.
- The pose used on this card is one of two recently discovered Old Judge proofs of Whitacre, neither of which are known to have been issued in the original Old Judge series
- Baseball Encyclopedia records an H. Whitaker pitching one game for Williamsport of the Pennsylvania State Association in 1886, a complete-game win
- Although the Old Judge series features three known poses of Harry Whitacre, I could not find one of suitable quality for this project. This image is taken from an Old Judge proof taken at the same time as Whitacre's other OJ images and may represent an as-of-yet undiscovered pose.
- Series: 1880s: Spotted Ties
- City: New York
- Team: Metropolitans
- League: American Association
John H. Lynch (1857-1923) was a right-hander for three New York state teams, the Buffalo Bisons, NY Metropolitans and Brooklyn Gladiators, in a career that spanned the period 1879-1890. He had several minor league assignments scattered among his total of seven major league campaigns.
While with the Metropolitans, Jack caught the attention of the New York Clipper, the weekly paper that did much to popularize baseball in its earliest days. One scribe wrote of Lynch: “Studying the in-and-out curves, rises, and drop deliveries, he rapidly acquired a reputation as an effective and puzzling pitcher . . . He has complete control of the ball, with all the curves and varying paces in delivery, and is cool and self-possessed.”
The highlight of Jack's career had to have been the championship season with the Mets in 1884. He shared the mound duties with Tim Keefe and actually nosed out the future Hall of Fame hurler in winning percentage: Lynch was 37-15 to Keefe's 37-17. Keefe had a slightly lower ERA and completed a couple more games than Lynch, but Jack had more shut-outs. All in all, they were a remarkably balanced duo who led their club to the first post-season tourney against the Providence Grays. Unfortunately, the New Yorkers were swept 3-0. Lynch would win 20+ in his two additional years with the Mets, but would never again achieve the heights of that '84 season (nor the 496 innings he threw that year).
- Jack Lynch more than held his own alternating mound assignments next to a pitching genius, widely acclaimed as one of the most dominant of the 19th century. Keefe endured but, for that one shining season in 1884, Lynch earned applause and lasting respect
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