Jeff Sweeney
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Jeff Sweeney
Edward Francis Sweeney (July 19, 1888 – July 4, 1947), often referred to as "Big Ed Sweeney", was an American professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball for the New York Highlanders / Yankees of the American League from 1908 to 1915 and the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League in 1919. Baseball career Early career Sweeney attended St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, Illinois, and played for their baseball team as a catcher. He also played baseball as a semi-professional. Sweeney made his professional baseball debut with the Columbia Gamecocks of the Class C South Atlantic League in 1905. He also played for Columbia during the 1906 season. The Atlanta Crackers of the Class A Southern Association drafted him from Columbia after the 1906 season. Playing for Atlanta in the 1907 season, Sweeney split time at catcher with Syd Smith. One day in 1907, while warming up pitcher Russ Ford, a ball hit a concrete pillar, scuffing it. When Fo ...
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Catcher
Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catcher is also called upon to master many other skills in order to field the position well. The role of the catcher is similar to that of the wicket-keeper in cricket. Positioned behind home plate and facing toward the outfield, the catcher can see the whole field, and is therefore in the best position to direct and lead the other players in a defensive play. The catcher typically calls for pitches using hand signals. The calls are based on the pitcher's mechanics and strengths, as well as the Batting (baseball), batter's tendencies and weaknesses. Essentially, the catcher controls what happens during the game when the ball is not "in play". Foul tips, bouncing balls in ...
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Southern Association
The Southern Association was a higher-level minor league in American organized baseball from 1901 through 1961. For most of its existence, the Southern Association was two steps below the Major Leagues; it was graded Class A (1902–1935), Class A1 (1936–1945) and Class AA (1946–1961). Although the SA was known as the Southern League through 1919, the later Double-A Southern League was not descended from the Southern Association; the modern SL came into existence in 1964 as the successor to the original ''South Atlantic'' ("Sally") League. A stable, eight-team loop, the Southern Association's member teams typically included the Atlanta Crackers, Birmingham Barons, Chattanooga Lookouts, Little Rock Travelers, Memphis Chicks, Nashville Vols and New Orleans Pelicans. The eighth club was usually either the Knoxville Smokies, Mobile Bears or Shreveport Sports. The Association was formed from the remnants of the 1885–1899 Southern League by Abner Powell, Newt Fisher, an ...
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Caught Stealing
In baseball, a runner is charged, and the fielders involved are credited, with a time caught stealing when the runner attempts to advance or lead off from one base to another without the ball being batted and then is tagged out by a fielder while making the attempt. The runner is said to be caught stealing or thrown out. A time caught stealing cannot be charged to a batter-runner, a runner who is still advancing as the direct result of reaching base. In baseball statistics, caught stealing is denoted by CS. It may result in a rundown. Major League Baseball (MLB) began tracking caught stealing in 1951. The official MLB rules specify that a time caught stealing is charged when: * a runner, attempting a stolen base, is put out; * a runner is caught in a rundown play while stealing, and is tagged out; or * a runner, attempting a stolen base, is safe because a fielder is charged with an error on catching the ball, and in the judgment of the official scorer, the runner would have be ...
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Battery (baseball)
In baseball, the battery is the pitcher and the catcher, who may also be called batterymen, or batterymates in relation to one another. History Origins of the term The use of the word 'battery' in baseball was first coined by Henry Chadwick in the 1860s in reference to the firepower of a team's pitching staff and inspired by the artillery batteries then in use in the American Civil War. Later, the term evolved to indicate the combined effectiveness of pitcher and catcher. Pitching to a preferred batterymate Throughout the history of baseball, although teams have typically carried multiple catchers, star pitchers have often preferred the familiarity of working consistently with a single batterymate. In the early 20th century, some prominent pitchers were known to have picked their favorite catchers. Sportswriter Fred Lieb recalls the batteries of Christy Mathewson / Frank Bowerman beginning in 1899 with the New York Giants, Jack Coombs / Jack Lapp beginning in 1908 with the ...
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Emery Ball
An emery ball is an illegal pitch in baseball, in which the ball has been altered by scuffing it with a rough surface, such as an emery board or sandpaper. This technique alters the spin of the ball, causing it to move in an atypical manner, as more spin makes the ball rise, while less spin makes the ball drop. The general term for altering the ball in any way is ''doctoring''. The emery ball differs from the spitball, in which the ball is doctored by applying saliva or vaseline. Vaseline or saliva smooths the baseball, while the emery paper roughens it. Russ Ford discovered the emery ball in the minor leagues in 1907 when he saw what a scuff on a baseball did to its movement. He began keeping emery paper in his baseball glove. Though he initially kept the pitch a secret, he had to inform his catcher, Ed Sweeney, about it. Sweeney taught it to other pitchers, and the pitch was discovered when an umpire found emery paper in Ray Keating's glove in 1914. The pitch was outlawed, an ...
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Error (baseball)
In baseball statistics, an error is an act, in the judgment of the official scorer, of a fielder misplaying a ball in a manner that allows a batter or baserunner to advance one or more bases or allows a plate appearance to continue after the batter should have been put out. The term ''error'' is sometimes used to refer to the play during which an error was committed. Relationship to other statistical categories An error does not count as a hit but still counts as an at bat for the batter unless, in the scorer's judgment, the batter would have reached first base safely but one or more of the additional bases reached was the result of the fielder's mistake. In that case, the play will be scored both as a hit (for the number of bases the fielders should have limited the batter to) ''and'' an error. However, if a batter is judged to have reached base solely because of a fielder's mistake, it is scored as a "reach on error (ROE)," and treated the same as if the batter had been put o ...
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Games Played
Games played (GP) is a statistic used in team sports to indicate the total number of games in which a player has participated (in any capacity); the statistic is generally applied irrespective of whatever portion of the game is contested. Baseball In baseball, the statistic applies to players, who prior to a game, are included on a starting lineup card or are announced as an ''ex ante'' substitute, whether or not they play. For pitchers only, the statistic games pitched is used. A notable example of the application of the above rule is pitcher Larry Yount, who suffered an injury while throwing warmup pitches after being summoned as a reliever in a Major League Baseball (MLB) game on September 15, 1971. He did not face a batter, but was credited with an appearance because he had been announced as a substitute. Yount never appeared in (or actually played in) any other MLB game. Association football In association football, a game played is counted if a player is in the Starting ...
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Batting Average (baseball)
In baseball, batting average (BA) is determined by dividing a player's hits by their total at-bats. It is usually rounded to three decimal places and read without the decimal: A player with a batting average of .300 is "batting three-hundred". If necessary to break ties, batting averages could be taken beyond the .001 measurement. In this context, .001 is considered a "point", such that a .235 batter is 5 points higher than a .230 batter. History Henry Chadwick, an English statistician raised on cricket, was an influential figure in the early history of baseball. In the late 19th century he adapted the concept behind the cricket batting average to devise a similar statistic for baseball. Rather than simply copy cricket's formulation of runs scored divided by outs, he realized that hits divided by at bats would provide a better measure of individual batting ability. This is because while in cricket, scoring runs is almost entirely dependent on one's batting skill, in baseball ...
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Kid Elberfeld
Norman Arthur "Kid" Elberfeld (April 13, 1875 – January 13, 1944) was an American professional baseball shortstop. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies (1898), Cincinnati Reds (1899), Detroit Tigers (1901–1903), New York Highlanders (1903–1909), Washington Senators (1910–1911), and Brooklyn Robins (1914). Elberfled also managed the New York Highlanders for the last half of the 1908 season. Elberfeld was given the nickname "The Tabasco Kid" because of his fiery temper. He was known for his ferocious verbal, and sometimes physical, assaults on umpires. On one occasion, while in the minors, Elberfeld threw a lump of mud into the umpire's open mouth. Later in his career, Elberfeld assaulted umpire Silk O'Loughlin and had to be forcibly removed by police; Elberfeld was suspended for just 8 games.
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New York Highlanders
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of two major league clubs based in New York City, the other is the National League (NL)'s New York Mets. The team was founded in when Frank Farrell and Bill Devery purchased the franchise rights to the defunct Baltimore Orioles (no relation to the current team of the same name) after it ceased operations and used them to establish the New York Highlanders. The Highlanders were officially renamed the New York Yankees in . The team is owned by Yankee Global Enterprises, a limited liability company that is controlled by the family of the late George Steinbrenner, who purchased the team in 1973. Brian Cashman is the team's general manager, and Aaron Boone is the team's field manager. The team's home games were played at the original Yankee ...
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Russ Ford
Russell William Ford (April 25, 1883 – January 24, 1960) was a Canadian-American professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball for the New York Highlanders / Yankees of the American League from 1909 to 1913 and for the Buffalo Buffeds / Blues of the Federal League in 1914 and 1915. Ford is credited with developing the emery ball. Born in Manitoba, Ford grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he began his baseball career. After he noticed how the ball moved after it was scuffed, he mastered how to doctor the baseball with a piece of emery paper hidden in his baseball glove. Using the pitch, Ford won 26 games in his rookie year with the Highlanders in 1910. After the pitch was outlawed in 1914, Ford's results declined, and his career ended in 1917. He is a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. Early life Ford was born in Brandon, Manitoba, on April 25, 1883. He was the third of five ch ...
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