Charles Henry Pabor (September 24, 1846 – April 23, 1913), also spelled Charley, nicknamed "The Old Woman in the Red Cap", was an American

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), ...

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 ...

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 ...

throughout the existence of the National Association, –.

Early life and career

Born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, Pabor played baseball in and around

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

until he joined the

Cleveland Forest Citys The Forest Citys were a short lived professional baseball team based in Cleveland in the early 1870s. The actual name of the team, as shown in standings, was Forest City, not "Cleveland". The name "Forest Citys" was used in the same generic styl ...

of the National Association as a left fielder and

. On May 4, 1871, Pabor managed and played while batting 0-4 in the first game of the season, which is considered the first all professional game ever played, a game between his Forest Citys and the

Fort Wayne Kekiongas The Fort Wayne Kekiongas were a professional baseball team, notable for winning the first professional league game on May 4, 1871. Though based in Fort Wayne, they were usually listed in game reports as simply "Kekionga" or "the Kekiongas", per the ...

. Cleveland finished 8th that season, and Pabor was replaced as manager in . He had hit well in 1871, with a .296

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 ...

, but it dropped to .207 in 1872. The Cleveland team folded after the season, and Pabor got a fresh start with the

Brooklyn Atlantics The Atlantic Base Ball Club of Brooklyn ("Atlantic" or the "Brooklyn Atlantics") was baseball's first champion and its first dynasty. The team was also the first baseball club to visit the White House in 1865 at the invitation of President An ...

. He had his best season that year, hitting .360 with 41

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 ...

. After a short season in with the

Philadelphia White Stockings The Philadelphia White Stockings were an early professional baseball team. They were a member of the National Association from 1873 to 1875. Their home games were played at the Jefferson Street Grounds. They were managed by Fergy Malone, Jimmy ...

in which he only played in 17 games, he returned to the Atlantics for the season as the

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the s ...

. The

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

was a disaster, as the Atlantics only won two of their 44 games. Pabor did not finish the year in Brooklyn, as he signed with the New Haven Elm Citys toward the end of the 1875 season, playing and managing six games and winning only one. Although his record of 13-64 as manager is not prolific, he is credited as starting the careers of both

King Kelly Michael Joseph "King" Kelly (December 31, 1857 – November 8, 1894), also commonly known as "$10,000 Kelly", was an American outfielder, catcher, and manager in various professional American baseball leagues including the National League, Inter ...

and Fred Goldsmith. Pabor also umpired three games in 1875, all involving Connecticut-based teams.

Post-career

After the end of the 1875 season and the demise of the National Association, Pabor quit baseball altogether, staying in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...

. He joined the New Haven Police Department, where he enjoyed a long career. Pabor died in New Haven of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

at the age of 66, and he is interred at Mapledale Cemetery.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pabor, Charlie Major League Baseball left fielders Baseball player-managers Morrisania Unions players Cleveland Forest Citys players Cleveland Forest Citys managers Brooklyn Atlantics players Brooklyn Atlantics managers Philadelphia White Stockings players New Haven Elm Citys players New Haven Elm Citys managers Baseball players from New York (state) 19th-century baseball players 1846 births 1913 deaths Baseball coaches from New York (state) Columbus Buckeyes (minor league) players