Thomas Francis "Bunny" Madden (September 14, 1882 – January 20, 1954) was a backup

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 recei ...

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), ...

who played from through for the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

(1909–1911) and

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

(1911). Listed at , 190 lb., Madden batted and threw

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

. A native of Boston, Massachusetts, he studied at

Villanova University Villanova University is a Private university, private Catholic church, Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinians in 1842 and named after Thomas of Villanova, Sa ...

. Early in the 1911 season, Boston and Bunny parted ways, and though he had a chance to play for Toledo he refused to go. On June 24, he was selected off waivers by the Philadelphia Phillies. In what remained of the 1911 season, he appeared in 28 games, and he hit .276 and drove in four runs. When the Phillies came to Beantown to play the National League’s Boston Rustlers (soon to be the Braves), a sizable welcoming party greeted him with a basket of flowers. Unfortunately, leaving the Red Sox in 1911 meant that Madden wasn’t on the 1912 World Champion Red Sox team. Instead, he was in Louisville, then Montreal, and never appeared in another major-league game – though he played 10 more years in the minors. His final major-league stat line showed him with a .287 average in 150 plate appearances, with 11 RBIs to his credit. In a three-season career, Madden was a .287 hitter (41-for-143) with 11 RBI in 56 games, including 10 runs four doubles, one

triple Triple is used in several contexts to mean "threefold" or a " treble": Sports * Triple (baseball), a three-base hit * A basketball three-point field goal * A figure skating jump with three rotations * In bowling terms, three strikes in a row * ...

, and a .329

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batter reaches base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA), as it is rarely presented as a ...

. He did not hit any

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 ...

s. In 45 catching appearances, he committed 18 errors in 277 chances for a .935

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putouts and assists, div ...

. The rest of his time was all spent playing Double-A baseball (at the time the highest minor league classification)–from 1912 through 1917 with the Montreal Royals, then 1918 and 1919 with the Newark Bears, and 1920 and 1921 with the Syracuse Stars. Over the course of those 10 seasons, he hit for a .251 average in 1,985 at-bats, his best season being the one in which he got into the most games: 1918 with Newark when he batted .297. In 1920, he was the last of four managers who skippered Syracuse in 1920. Busy as manager, he only appeared in 11 games in that final year, 1921, replaced during the season by Frank Shaughnessy. What he did in 1922 is unclear but a brief report on April 3, 1923, New York Times reported that he had signed with the Springfield, Massachusetts ballclub – then managed by Patsy Donovan, Madden’s manager with the Red Sox in 1910 and 1911. He never played for Springfield. His World War II draft registration form indicated that he was living in Cambridge at 2 Inman Street with Mrs. Helen (Fahey) Madden. He worked for the New England Telephone Company on Harrison Avenue in Boston. By this time he had grey hair, blue eyes, and retained his ruddy complexion. Tom Madden died in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, at the age of 71, from mesenteric thrombosis.

External links

Retrosheet
Major League Baseball catchers Boston Red Sox players Philadelphia Phillies players Minor league baseball managers Lynn Shoemakers players Portland Beavers players Louisville Colonels (minor league) players Montreal Royals players Newark Bears (IL) players Syracuse Stars (minor league baseball) players Villanova Wildcats baseball players Baseball players from Boston 1882 births 1954 deaths {{US-baseball-catcher-1880s-stub