John Phillips Jenkins "Count" Sensenderfer (December 28, 1847 – May 3, 1903) was a 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 t ...

player who played for the Philadelphia Athletics from 1866 to 1874.

Early life

John Phillip Jenkins Sensenderfer was born on December 28, 1847, in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, Pennsylvania, to James, a carpenter, and his wife Mary. Initially, he grew up in the Spring Garden neighborhood of Philadelphia, but later moved to different parts of the city. He had at least three brothers (George, William, James), and two sisters (Mary and Hannah).

Career

Sensenderfer joined the Athletic club at the age of eighteen in 1866, and "The Count" (he got the nickname from his

moustache A moustache (; en-US, mustache, ) is a strip of facial hair grown above the upper lip. Moustaches have been worn in various styles throughout history. Etymology The word "moustache" is French, and is derived from the Italian ''mustaccio'' ...

and aristocratic air) quickly became of the top players in the country. Originally playing second base before moving to center field, Count was one of the first players to score two hundred runs in a season, for the championship Philadelphia team of 1868. The following year, Athletic turned professional; in 1871 the club helped form the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, baseball's first all-professional league. It was in 1871 that Sensenderfer (still a solid hitter with a .323 average) began to be plagued by a series of injuries; he was unable to play in the championship contest played October 30 in

Brooklyn 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 ...

. (Right fielder George Bechtel took Count's place in center, while Nate Berkenstock, a 40-year-old amateur retired from Athletic for five years, played right; it was his only big-league appearance.) Athletic defeated Chicago, 4-1, clinching the title. Sensenderfer's injuries kept him out of all but one game in 1872; he returned as the club's regular center fielder in 1873 but his average slipped to .279. He played five more games for Athletic in 1874 before retiring.

After baseball

On October 20, 1881, Sensenderfer married Mary Eudora Wagner in Philadelphia, and listed his religion as protestant episcopal. After his baseball career, Sensenderfer was involved in politics, serving two terms as

Philadelphia County Philadelphia County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the most populous county in Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, Philadelphia County had a population of 1,603,797. The county is the second smallest county in Pennsyl ...

Commissioner. He was also an active member of the Democratic Committee of Philadelphia as well as the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee. Sensendefer died on May 3, 1903, at the age of 55 in Philadelphia, and is interred at Lawnview Cemetery in

Rockledge, Pennsylvania Rockledge is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,638 as of the 2020 census. Rockledge is surrounded by Abington Township, and Philadelphia, and shares a ZIP Code with Jenkintown. Geography Accordi ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sensenderfer, Count 1847 births 1903 deaths Major League Baseball center fielders Philadelphia Athletics (NABBP) players Philadelphia Athletics (NA) players 19th-century baseball players Baseball players from Philadelphia Minor league baseball managers Philadelphia Athletic players Pennsylvania Democrats