William Robert Parks (June 4, 1849 – October 10, 1911) was an American

left fielder In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering system ...

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 ...

, and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

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

Easton, Pennsylvania Easton is a city in, and the county seat of, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River, a river that joins the Delaware R ...

. A native of

, Parks played for the

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C.. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. From 2005 to 2007, the team played in RFK Stadiu ...

and Philadelphia White Stockings, both of the National Association, in 1875. Then, in 1876, he played one game for 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 ...

Boston Red Caps The Atlanta Braves, a current Major League Baseball franchise, originated in Boston, Massachusetts. This article details the history of the Boston Braves, from 1871 to 1952, after which they moved to Milwaukee, and then to Atlanta. During it ...

. He was also manager of the Nationals for the last eight games of the 1875 season, guiding them to a record of 1–7 after they had gone 4–16 under teammate

Holly Hollingshead John Samuel "Holly" Hollingshead (January 17, 1853 – October 6, 1926) was a Major League Baseball center fielder, second baseman, and manager in the 19th century. Hollingshead played for the Washington Nationals of the National Associati ...

. In 16 games as a pitcher he was 4–8 with 9 complete games in 11 starts and an

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 ...

of 3.54. In 30 total games played he batted .174 with 6

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the ba ...

and 13 runs scored. Parks died in his home town of

, at the age of 62, and is interred at Easton Cemetery.

References

External links

Retrosheet
Major League Baseball left fielders Major League Baseball pitchers 19th-century baseball players Washington Nationals (NA) players Philadelphia White Stockings players Boston Red Caps players Baseball player-managers Baseball players from Pennsylvania 1849 births 1911 deaths {{US-baseball-pitcher-1840s-stub