Charles C. Waitt (October 14, 1853 – October 21, 1912), born in
Hallowell, Maine
Hallowell is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,570 at the 2020 census. Popular with tourists, Hallowell is noted for its culture and old architecture. Hallowell is included in the Augusta, Maine, micropolita ...
, was a
professional baseball
Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world.
Mod ...
player who played a total of four professional
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
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 pol ...
s. Waitt played in an era when baseball had many differences from modern baseball. He was in height, and in weight. He 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 ...
, but it is unknown whether he batted right or left-handed.
Career
Charlie Waitt made his
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), ...
debut on May 25, 1875 at age 22 with professional baseball club
St. Louis Brown Stockings
The St. Louis Brown Stockings were a professional baseball club based in St. Louis, Missouri
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most ...
. While playing for the St. Louis Brown Stockings, Waitt had 113
at-bats
In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...
, 23 runs, 2
base on balls
A base on balls (BB), also known as a walk, occurs in baseball when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls '' balls'', and is in turn awarded first base without the possibility of being called out. The base on balls is defined in Se ...
, and 7
strikeout
In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...
s.
Waitt is probably best known for being one of the first baseball players to wear a glove. He began wearing it around the 1875 baseball season, and was teased, taunted,
laughed at by fans and his teammates, and called a "
sissy
''Sissy'' (derived from ''sister''), also ''sissy baby'', ''sissy boy'', ''sissy man'', ''sissy pants'', etc., is a pejorative term for a boy or man who does not demonstrate masculine, and shows possible signs of fragility. Generally, ''sissy'' i ...
"
[ for doing so.] The glove, which he wore to protect his hand, was very different from the gloves used today.[ He attempted to disguise them by using flesh-coloured gloves to make them as inconspicuous as possible.][
After not playing the baseball season, Waitt was purchased from the St. Louis Brown Stockings by the Chicago White Stockings (today named the Chicago Cubs). With the Chicago White Stockings, he had only 41 at-bats, 4 ]hit
Hit means to strike someone or something.
Hit or HIT may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities
* Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super''
* Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...
s, and 2 RBI. Five years later, the Chicago White Stockings gave away Waitt and he was purchased by the Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...
in . He had the most at-bats playing for them, some 250. He was traded to the Philadelphia Quakers in . Waitt played his final baseball game on September 18, 1883.
Death
Waitt died on October 21, 1912, at age 59. He accidentally fell while washing a window. He was buried in the Sunset Cemetery in San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
.
References
External links
Baseball Reference
Baseball Almanac
Baseball Library
Baseball Prospectus
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waitt, Charlie
Major League Baseball first basemen
St. Louis Brown Stockings (NA) players
Chicago White Stockings players
Baltimore Orioles players
Philadelphia Quakers players
Baseball players from Maine
Accidental deaths from falls
Accidental deaths in California
People from Hallowell, Maine
1853 births
1912 deaths
Rochester (minor league baseball) players
Philadelphia Athletic players
New Bedford (minor league baseball) players
New Haven (minor league baseball) players
Hartford (minor league baseball) players
Wilmington Quicksteps (minor league) players
Lancaster (minor league baseball) players
19th-century baseball players