“Hardie Henderson: Champion Base Ball Pitcher” — pitched from 1883-1887 for the Philadelphia Quakers, Baltimore Orioles, Brooklyn Grays (19th-century precursor to the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers), and Pittsburgh Alleghenys.
In a horrible bit of irony, Henderson was killed in February 1903 when he was run over by a train trolley.[1]
Read more at:
[1] See this history of native Philadelphian ballplayers at Google Books.
Found browsing though my pictures directory recently — a great Ebbets Field shot with trolley in foreground. And there are even some Brooklynites dodging it! ;)
Over at the Dodgers Blue Blog today, Chuck tells the one of the great stories in Dodgers history, “When Zack Wheat held out”
In 1917 Zack Wheat returned his unsigned contract to owner Charlie Ebbets saying he wanted more money. Ebbets decided he would go to Polo, MO to talk to his star player to talk him into the contract. When Ebbets arrived he found that Wheat wanted more than he was willing to offer and would not budge. Ebbets didn’t like giving raises unless he felt forced too so he offered a small increase and Zack Wheat smiled and refused. Ebbets tried smooth talking and then anger to get Wheat to sign, but he refused saying he wouldn’t mind sitting home in the summer and with his farm he wouldn’t starve.
I’ll bet that trip from NYC to Missouri wasn’t trivial back in 1917. Zack Wheat was worth it.
Friday in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle was this article by Phoebe Neidl, “The Trolleys We Didn’t Dodge”, covering some of the dangerous history of those famous trolleys.
The first electric trolley ride in Brooklyn was on April 19, 1890. The new method of transport allowed people to travel to all corners of the city on the cheap. By 1919, there were 40 different trolley lines in Brooklyn, an abundance that inspired the nickname “trolley dodgers” for Brooklynites (a certain famous baseball team took this as their name and then shortened it to simply The Dodgers).
But the electric lines quickly proved more dangerous and accident-prone than their horse-drawn predecessors. In 1893, subway commissioners called for safety measures to be applied to the new lines, such as speed limits. There was public debate over the trolley system and its dangers versus its advantages. Who was responsible when people were struck and killed by the trolleys? The operators? The owners of the companies?
Via Dodger Thoughts, who also has the story on Peter O’Malley’s visit to Brooklyn over the weekend.
I caught Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) last night on Turner Classic Movies. Hilarious film, starring Cary Grant and Priscilla Lane. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it (the late 80s or early 90s I believe), so I had forgotten the amusing baseball beginning. Start watching the video below around 1:10, with the title,
This is a Halloween tale of Brooklyn, where anything can happen…and it usually does.
(Unfortunately the sound is a bit out of sync, but you’ll get the idea.)
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