Next
in my 1976 celebration of 100 years of the Major Leagues is Deacon
White, a man full of early baseball history as an early star of the
National Association as well as the Majors.
Check it out:
Credited as the first player in league history on the Baseball-Reference
web site, White was a member of the Chicago team in 1876, and hit a
robust .343, which was book-ended by two league batting titles, one in
the N.A. and one in the N.L. hen he hit .367 and .387 respectively.
He played 20 years as a pro ballplayer and one one of the first to
collect over 2000 hits with 2067 before he retired after the 1890
campaign.
He’d go on to finish with a .312 average with those 2000+ hits, along with 1140 runs scored and 988 runs batted in.
It took a while, but In 2013 he was finally elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veteran’s Committee.
His brother Will was a pitcher during the same era, and in 1879 started
75 games, of which he completed ALL of them! Insane. He pitched a total
of 680 innings that year, posting a 43 and 31 record.
Ahh those crazy early years of the league. Gotta love ‘em!