By Edwin Cooney
Probabilities
and improbabilities are hardly terms used in sports or baseball. Nevertheless,
with increasing team parity over the past two decades, pennant and championship
probabilities have become increasingly unlikely or, if you will, improbable. No
longer is it “probable” that New York City will be represented in the World Series
as it has been 55 times since the modern World Series was inaugurated 113 years
ago. Happily, even with their mutual passion for baseball, their athletic
talent, and their dreams of victory and even glory, the stories of individual
players, coaches, managers, umpires and owners fascinate the fan and the reader
with drama and the surprise of improbabilities.
Get a load of
this baseball improbability: his name was Morgan Bulkeley. He was elected to
the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937. He never played a game and, although he
owned the National Association’s Hartford, Connecticut club, there is no record
of any baseball achievement on his part. The son of the co-founder and
president of the Aetna Life Insurance Company, Morgan Bulkeley was the
president of the Hartford team in the National Association of Baseball Players in
February 1876. During a meeting at the Grand Central Hotel in New York City on
Wednesday, February 2, 1876, where the National Association was abandoned and
the National League was formed, it was decided that the league’s first
president should be someone from the east rather than the man who had called
the meeting, William A. Hulbert, the president of the Chicago White Stockings.
Thus the names of the owners present were tossed into a hat and Morgan
Bulkeley’s name was drawn. Thus, the name Morgan Bulkeley would be on the
letterhead of all official National League communications and correspondence
throughout 1876, the new league’s first season. After that fateful meeting, he
went back to Hartford and resumed his banking and insurance careers. When he
failed to appear at the National League’s 1877 winter meeting, National League
owners elected William A. Hulbert as the league’s second president. Bulkeley
would go on to become Mayor of Hartford in 1880. In 1888, he’d be elected Governor
of Connecticut. During his term, he angered the Democratic majority in the
legislature so much that they locked him out of his office in the capital.
Governor Bulkeley promptly pried the door open and resumed his duties. He was
hence known as “the crowbar governor.”
A progressive
Republican, Morgan Bulkeley was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1905. In 1937, as
baseball officials planned the Baseball Hall of Fame, Ban Johnson, the first
president of the American League, was rightfully enshrined in Cooperstown.
Therefore it was only fitting that the first president of the older National
League should also be admitted to the Hall of Fame. As for William A. Hulbert,
the man who conducted the meeting that created the National League, he would
not be enshrined in Cooperstown until 1995. Hence, the Baseball Hall of Fame
has had many improbable entrances.
It’s unlikely
that you have ever heard of Ed Killian. He pitched for the Cleveland Indians
and the Detroit Tigers between 1903 and 1910. Known as “Twilight Ed” because he
pitched so many extra inning games, Edwin Henry Killian was born in Racine,
Wisconsin. Killian, a 5 feet 11 inch left-hander, won 103 and lost 78 games in
his eight year career. His ERA was 2.38. What was improbable about his career
is that he pitched 1,001 consecutive innings without giving up a home run. That
was the dead-ball era, but it was still a remarkable achievement. Other great
pitchers of that time such as Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, and Tim Keefe, all
who would one day end up in Cooperstown, never achieved that accomplishment.
Throughout Killian’s career he gave up only nine home runs, an average of just
one homer every 178 innings. In 1907, his greatest season, Killian won 25 and
lost 13, and even more incredible, he batted .320.
Two other
improbable baseball successes were Peter J. Gray, the one-armed outfielder of
the 1945 St. Louis Browns, and Jim Abbott, whose mighty left arm pitched for
the California Angels and the New York Yankees during the 1980s and 90s. Pete
Gray played only one season for the St. Louis Browns, batting .218 and driving
in 13 runs in 77 games. An accident had cost Pete his right arm at age six. Determined
to make it to the majors, Gray fulfilled his dream although in later years he
would too often wonder how significant it really was.
James Anthony
Abbott was a six foot three left-hander who was born without a right hand. Like
Pete Gray before him, he made his dream come true. Jim Abbott led the United
States Olympic Baseball Team to a gold medal in 1988 and, in 1989, Jim was
pitching for the California Angels without spending a day in the minors. Traded
to the New York Yankees after the 1992 season, Abbott pitched a no hitter
against the Cleveland Indians on Saturday, September 4th, 1993. His ten-year
career record was a mediocre 87 wins and 108 losses, but his improbable success
is a part of baseball lore.
This season, some
775 plus men will play on major league rosters, each one a unique individual.
Their hopes, like those of their fans, beckon the improbable glory of ultimate
victory in this October’s World Series. This year’s championship team will have
stars, men whose reputation predicts their World Series stardom. Beware,
however! One of 2016’s heroes will be someone you never expected to celebrate -
indeed an improbable star!
How about this?
“Improbable World Series Stars” sounds like a perfect topic for this fall’s
World Series column! What say you?
RESPECTFULLY
SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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