Sunday, February 14, 2016

MAJOR LEAGUE FOUNDERS: DEACON WHITE 1876-1976

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!