William Park Kennedy (October 7, 1867 – September 23, 1915), nicknamed "Brickyard" and "Roaring Bill", was an American

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 ...

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), ...

from 1892 to 1903. He played for the Brooklyn Grooms/Bridegrooms/Superbas (1892–1901), New York Giants (1902), and Pittsburgh Pirates (1903).

Baseball career

Kennedy was born in

Bellaire, Ohio Bellaire is a village in Belmont County, Ohio, United States. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area, and Wheeling is across the Ohio to the east. The population was 4,278 at the 2010 census, having had its peak i ...

, in 1867. From 1889 to 1891, he played minor league baseball."Brickyard Kennedy Minor Leagues Statistics & History"
baseball-reference.com. Retrieved May 14, 2021. Kennedy then joined Brooklyn of the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

. He won over 10 games for Brooklyn every year from 1892 to 1900. He had four 20-win seasons, including a career-high 25 in 1893."Brickyard Kennedy Stats"
baseball-reference.com. Retrieved May 14, 2021. In 1901, Kennedy won three games. He was then released by Brooklyn and signed with New York, winning one game with them. Kennedy signed with Pittsburgh for the 1903 season and won nine games for the team, which won the National League championship. He started one game in the

1903 World Series The 1903 World Series was the first modern World Series to be played in Major League Baseball. It matched the American League (AL) champion Boston Americans against the National League (NL) champion Pittsburgh Pirates in a best-of-nine series, wi ...

and lost. It was his last major league game.Nemec, David
"Brickyard Kennedy"
sabr.org. Retrieved May 14, 2021. From 1904 to 1908, Kennedy played in the

Central League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consi ...

Legacy

During his 12-year major league career, Kennedy had a 187–159

win–loss record In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of matc ...

with a 3.96

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

and 799 strikeouts in 3,030 innings pitched. He had the fourth-most wins of the 1890s, behind

Kid Nichols Charles Augustus "Kid" Nichols (September 14, 1869 – April 11, 1953) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher who played for the Boston Beaneaters, St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies from 1890 to 1906. A switch hitter ...

Cy Young Denton True "Cy" Young (March 29, 1867 – November 4, 1955) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher. Born in Gilmore, Ohio, he worked on his family's farm as a youth before starting his professional baseball career. Young entered th ...

, and Amos Rusie. Kennedy was a better than average hitting pitcher in his major league career. He posted a .261

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

(334-for-1279) with 1

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

and 148 RBI along with 54 doubles and 21 triples. Kennedy was nicknamed "Brickyard". He was also commonly known as "Roaring Bill" because he had a loud voice and talked a lot. Kennedy died in Bellaire, Ohio, in 1915, at the age of 47.

References

External links

Brickyard Kennedy
- Baseballbiography.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Brickyard 1867 births 1915 deaths 19th-century baseball players Major League Baseball pitchers Brooklyn Grooms players Brooklyn Bridegrooms players Brooklyn Superbas players New York Giants (NL) players Pittsburgh Pirates players Wheeling National Citys players Wheeling Nailers (baseball) players Denver Grizzlies (baseball) players Denver Mountaineers players Wheeling Stogies players Dayton Veterans players Baseball players from Ohio People from Bellaire, Ohio 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Ohio