William J. Sweeney (1858 – August 2, 1903) was a professional baseball

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

. He played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

for the

Providence Grays The Providence Grays were a Major League Baseball team based in Providence, Rhode Island who played in the National League from until . The Grays played at the Messer Street Grounds in the Olneyville neighborhood. The team won the National Leag ...

(

1881 Events January–March * January 1– 24 – Siege of Geok Tepe: Russian troops under General Mikhail Skobelev defeat the Turkomans. * January 13 – War of the Pacific – Battle of San Juan and Chorrillos: The ...

), Philadelphia Athletics (

1882 Events January–March * January 2 ** The Standard Oil Trust is secretly created in the United States to control multiple corporations set up by John D. Rockefeller and his associates. ** Irish-born author Oscar Wilde arrives in t ...

), and

Baltimore Monumentals The Baltimore Monumentals were an American baseball team in the short-lived Union Association. In their lone season of 1884, they finished fourth in the UA with a 58–47 record. History The team was managed by Bill Henderson. Their top-hitting ...

(

1884 Events January–March * January 4 – The Fabian Society is founded in London. * January 5 – Gilbert and Sullivan's '' Princess Ida'' premières at the Savoy Theatre, London. * January 18 – Dr. William Price at ...

). In 1884, he won 40 games for Baltimore, leading the Union Association in wins (40), complete games (58), and innings pitched (538).

Early years

Sweeney was born in 1858 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. He grew up in the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Professional baseball

Sweeney began his professional baseball career with the Athletic Club in 1878. He next played for the San Francisco baseball club in 1879 and 1880. He joined Providence of the National League for the 1881 season. In 1882, he played for the Philadelphia Athletics of the

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

. He started 20 games for the Athletics, compiling a 9-10 record with a 2.91 ERA. In 1883, Sweeney pitched 38 games for Peoria of the Northwestern League. In 1884, Sweeney played for the

of the Union Association (UA), appearing in 62 games and compiling a 40-21 record with a 2.59 ERA. His 40 wins led the UA, as no other player even reached 30 wins that year. Only 24 players in major-league history have won 40 games in a season. He also led the UA in 1884 with 58 complete games and 538 innings pitched and ranked second in the UA with 374 strikeouts and third with a 7.3

Wins Above Replacement Wins Above Replacement or Wins Above Replacement Player, commonly abbreviated to WAR or WARP, is a non-standardized sabermetric baseball statistic developed to sum up "a player's total contributions to his team". A player's WAR value is claimed to ...

. In 1885, Sweeney played for the Cleveland Forest Cities in the Western League. In 1885 and 1886, he played for Oswego of the New York State League League.

Later years

As of 1887, Sweeney was with the Beford Club when frequent hemorrhages put his life in danger. He continued to suffer from poor health after his playing career ended. As of 1890, he was working at a machine shop in Philadelphia. He later worked for the Water Department. He died in Philadelphia in 1903 at age 45. The cause of death was reported as "consumption", a term then used for

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sweeney, Bill 1858 births 1903 deaths 19th-century baseball players Major League Baseball pitchers Baseball players from Philadelphia Baltimore Monumentals players Philadelphia Athletics (AA) players San Francisco Californias players San Francisco Athletics players Peoria Reds players Cleveland Forest Cities players Elmira Colonels players Oswego Sweegs players Oswego Starchboxes players Reading (minor league baseball) players