Hoosiers (NL)

  • A
  • B
  • C
  • D
  • E
  • F
  • G
  • H
  • I
  • J
  • K
  • L
  • M
  • N
  • O
  • P
  • Q
  • R
  • S
  • T
  • U
  • V
  • W
  • X
  • Y
  • Z

Lev Shreve

Pitcher
  • Series: 1880s: Loving Paupers
  • City: Indianapolis
  • Team: Hoosiers (NL)
  • League: National League

Leven Lawrence Shreve (1869-1942) had a spotty experience in the major leagues beginning with the Baltimore Orioles in 1887, moving to the Indianapolis Hoosiers that year and staying there until 1889. His total pitching record was 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA. Shreve was a slight 150 lb right-hander. He had played for two minor-league clubs in ‘86: Savannah and Chattanooga in the Southern Association where he was a combined 12-9. He was said to have played for some midwestern teams that year but no data survives, so he may not have made the squads. Following the Hoosiers, Lev did get to play briefly in the Twin Cities and ended his stint in pro ball with the Rochester Hop Bitters of the Eastern Association in 1891.

  • Shreve mustered only four hits with the Orioles, but got three of them during his debut. Despite being shelled, his bat helped him win 15-9

 

 

 

Auction History

Cartophilia

Old Judge Pose: 418-5

Jesse Burkett

Pitcher
  • Series: Beginnings: 1880's
  • City: Indianapolis
  • Team: Hoosiers (NL)
  • League: National League
  • Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame

Jesse “the Crab” Burkett (1868-1953) was a Hall of Fame outfielder from 1890 to 1905. Following Ed Delahanty, Burkett became the second major leaguer to hit .400 twice (‘95 &’96 for the Cleveland Spiders.) Led the NL with .376 in 1901 while with the St Louis Cardinals.

  • Still holds MLB record for inside-the-park HRs with 55
  • First West Virginian elected to Hall of Fame
  • Elected to Hall of Fame: 1946
  • Jesse Burkett did not appear in the Old Judge series. This image is taken from a photo that appeared in The Sporting Times in February, 1890. Signed by Indianapolis as a young pitching phenom after the close of the 1889 season, Burkett would never pitch for the Hoosiers as the franchise folded before the 1890 season. Burkett then made his major league debut with the New York Giants in 1890 on a pitching staff that included Amos Rusie and Mickey Welch.

Auction History

Watch Burnham

Manager
  • Series: Beginnings: 1880's
  • City: Indianapolis
  • Team: Hoosiers (NL)
  • League: National League

George Walter Burnham (1860-1902) was lured from the ranks of National League umpires to become the first manager of the new Indianapolis Hoosiers franchise when John Brush brought the beleaguered St Louis Maroons to a joyous community. “Watch” thus became a key figure in the sad saga of major league baseball in Indiana. The club lost every one of its arduous 22-game road trip and floundered all of the 1887 inaugural year. Burnham thought fining all the players might improve morale but captain Jack Glasscock mutinied. The Chicago Tribune reported the fear that “someday the men will decline to go on the field.” Days later Brush replaced Watch with another manager with no playing or managing experience and would try yet another neophyte, a sportswriter, before that dismal season mercifully ended with a 37-89 record. Burnham’s reputation preceded him to the Hoosiers and gave pause. The nickname was said to have derived from George’s failed attempt at self-promotion by presenting himself with an engraved watch during a Cleveland game in ‘83 that he was umpiring.

  • Watch’s total experience officiating was 107 games scattered over five seasons between ‘83 and ‘95. He called Old Hoss Radbourn’s no-hitter on July 25, 1883
  • The Hoosiers’ prospect finally seemed ready to improve in 1889 with the arrival of Amos Rusie. Sadly for the city, Brush parlayed his investment into a lucrative career with the Reds and Giants by dumping the woebegone Hoosiers after their third losing season

Auction History

McGreachery

Manager
  • Series: Beginnings: 1880's
  • City: Indianapolis
  • Team: Hoosiers (NL)
  • League: National League
  • Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame

An error or a practical joke? The Old Judge series is littered with errors, primarily in the form of misspelled names. There are also a number of cards that are intentionally humorous. The McGreachery card is likely a display of the sense of humor within Goodwin’s art department rather than a mistake.

During this card’s production run from 1887 to 1890, James Laurie White was the oldest player in the major leagues all four years, spanning his age 39 to age 42 campaigns. By that point, White was a baseball veteran of 20 seasons whose tenure predated the National league by five years and ended with the birth of the Player’s League in 1890. By all accounts, White was a serious, religious and principled man who earned the nickname Deacon. White didn’t drink, smoke or gamble and was as knowledgeable and articulate about farming as he was about baseball. Henry Chadwick wrote that White’s character was beyond reproach. Combine White’s character, values, baseball moxie, and his old world perspective - which purportedly included a belief that the Earth is flat - and you can see why the folks at Old Judge might poke fun.

  • Excluding the Ars Longa 1880s Diamond Duos & Spotted Ties subsets, Deacon White will be the only player represented in the 1880s base set twice, although his name will still only appear on one card. I just couldn’t resist paying a little tribute to the humor in the Old Judge series by creating a card for the dear old crank McGreachery.
  • Why the Old Judge folks assigned the fictitious McGreachery as a manager may be obvious. Why they assigned him to Indianapolis is a mystery and perhaps an inside joke that has long since lost its insiders.
  • Watch Burnham is a man who appears in the Old Judge series who actually did manage the Indianapolis Hoosiers - for all of 28 games (losing 22 of them). Perhaps the absence of an enduring Indianapolis manager in the Old Judge series prompted McGreachery's assignment there.
  • Only two examples of the original Old Judge card are known to exist

Auction History

Emmett Seery

Outfield
  • Series: Beginnings: 1880's
  • City: Indianapolis
  • Team: Hoosiers (NL)
  • League: National League

John Emmett Seery (1861-1930) played the outfield for and with some of the game’s most colorful characters in the early era of baseball. He debuted with the Baltimore Monumentals in 1884 Seery led his Union League team in batting with a .311 BA. Played under John Montgomery Ward (Ward’s Wonders of Brooklyn) and Mike “King” Kelly (Kelly’s Killers of Cincinnati) during a tumultuous age as teams and leagues were starting and folding abruptly.

  • In ’86 with the St Louis Maroons, led the league in games played with 126
  • Followed the team’s owner, Henry Lucas, to Indianapolis with the Hoosiers for 3 years
  • Demonstrating a good eye, consistently ranked in the top 10 in walks

Auction History