Elected into the Hall of Fame in 1945, O’Rourke was an important figure in early baseball, playing in the National Association from 1972 to 1875 before playing for the Boston club in the inaugural Major League season in 1876.
He would go on to play straight through the 1893 season, then ten years later when he was a coach for the New York Giants he would catch a game and go 1-for-4 at the age of 53!
All told O’Rourke collected 2639 career hits, batting .310 with a batting title in 1884 when he hit .347, while scoring 1729 runs while driving in 1208 over 1999 games and 8503 at-bats.
