Albert John Bushong (September 15, 1856 – August 19, 1908), known as Doc Bushong, was an American
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 ...
in
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), ...
. Bushong also made appearances as an umpire and after his retirement from baseball, he practiced as a dentist. Some sources credit him with the invention of the catcher's mitt.
Early life
Descended from the Colonial immigrant
Bushong
Bushong is a surname found mostly in the United States, derived from the surname Boschung found mainly in Switzerland, but also in the Palatinate and other regions in Western Europe.
Surname history
The American surname, ''Bushong'' and variant ' ...
family, Albert John Bushong was born September 15, 1856, in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, the son of Charles A. Bushong and Margaret Moore Bushong.
Bushong attended public schools in Philadelphia and graduated from
Central High School in 1876.
After playing baseball in various minor league teams for a couple of years, he enrolled in 1878 in dental school at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
. Bushong was one of the first to matriculate in the brand-new Department of Dentistry and he received his
D.D.S. in 1882.
[University of Pennsylvania Alumni Profiles]
/ref> While attending dental school, he played professional baseball every year, catching in more than 230 games as well as "barnstorming
Barnstorming was a form of entertainment in which stunt pilots performed tricks individually or in groups that were called flying circuses. Devised to "impress people with the skill of pilots and the sturdiness of planes," it became popular in t ...
" in the off-season with a different team, the Hop Bitters. Bushong was the first University of Pennsylvania graduate to play in Major League baseball. He did not play ball for the university, as he was already playing pro-ball. Shortly after graduation Albert J. Bushong and Theresa M. Gottery were married and together they had seven children.
Baseball career
His baseball career, spanned from 1875 to 1891, and Bushong played on various professional minor league and major league teams, including 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 And ...
(1875), Philadelphia Athletics
The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oaklan ...
(1876), Worcester Ruby Legs
The Worcester Worcesters were a 19th-century Major League Baseball team from 1880 to 1882 in the National League. The team is referred to, at times, as the Brown Stockings or the Ruby Legs; however, no contemporary sources from the time exist tha ...
(1880–82), Cleveland Blues (1883–84), St. Louis Browns
The St. Louis Browns were a Major League Baseball team that originated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Milwaukee Brewers. A charter member of the American League (AL), the Brewers moved to St. Louis, Missouri, after the 1901 season, where they ...
(1885–87), Brooklyn Bridegrooms
The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the club moved to Los Angeles, Califor ...
(1888–90).
Some believe his greatest success came in the latter part of his career, when Bushong played on five pennant winning teams and was in post-season play five times. His most notable performance is most likely in the 1886 St. Louis Browns of the American Association American Association may refer to:
Baseball
* American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891
* American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997
* American Association of Profe ...
when they beat the Chicago White Stockings of 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 s ...
, for the Championship (later called World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...
). For his part in the championship, in 1886, the Missouri Pacific Railroad
The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad ...
, honored Bushong and several other players by renaming some of their whistle-stop
In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a bus stop, stop or train station, station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or drop ...
towns. The town of ''Weeks'' in Kansas, became, ''Bushong, Kansas
Bushong is a city in Lyon County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 27.
History
The city, originally a whistle-stop of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, was first named Weeks. The city took its prese ...
''.
In 1887 Bushong became one of the first baseball players to do paid product endorsements, in an advertisement for ''Merrell's Penetrating Oil'', which was a cold medicine.[ Leading up to the 1888 season, Bushong made news again, when Chris von der Ahe owner of the St. Louis Browns sold the contracts for Bushong, along with pitcher "Parisian Bob" Caruthers, and first baseman/outfielder/pitcher ]Dave Foutz
David Luther Foutz (September 7, 1856 – March 5, 1897) was a Major League Baseball player for 13 seasons. He played multiple positions, including pitcher, from to , compiling a 147–66 career record, as well as first base and outfield. From ...
. The sale was to the Brooklyn Bride Grooms and their owner, Charlie Byrne who paid, what was then, the enormous sum of $19,000, for the trio.[Noted Ball Player Dead]
, The New York Times, August 21, 1908.
On July 4, 1889, in the second game of a doubleheader in St. Louis, Bushong injured his arm and played in only two more games during the regular season. He never fully recovered from the injury, which marked the beginning of the end of his baseball career. The 1890 season, was Bushong's last on the Bridegrooms and in major league baseball and he was officially released on March 26, 1891. Within a couple of weeks still wanting to play for the 1891 season, Bushong signed on with a minor league team and eventually played on two different teams through mid-July before he was released.
Catcher's mitt
In a game that was traditionally played bare-handed, it is difficult to say who was first to make and use the padded catcher's mitt similar to today's glove. The first player to wear a glove was catcher Doug Allison
Douglas L. Allison (July 12, 1846 – December 19, 1916) was an American Major League Baseball player. He began his career as a catcher for the original Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first fully professional baseball team. Allison was one of ...
, in 1870. In 1888, Joe Gunson described his catcher's mitt, and is sometimes associated with its invention, along with Doc Bushong and others. But his claim as first is brought into question by a ''Brooklyn Eagle'' article that describes Bushong with his special glove at least a season before Gunson's claim. But on July 1, 1887, while at bat in the sixth inning of a game against Louisville, Bushong's fingers were mashed by a wild pitch from Louisville switch pitcher Ice Box Chamberlain
Elton P. "Ice Box" Chamberlain (November 5, 1867September 22, 1929) was an American professional baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game ...
The injury resulted in a broken finger and prevented him from playing for almost ten and a half weeks. But it is easy to believe that on September 18, 1887 when he returned, Bushong had seriously padded a mitt to protect his hand as well his dentistry profession. Further, an article in October 13, 1887, by the Brooklyn Eagle, tells of Bushong losing his ''old glove.''...
The photographs taken of Bushong, used for the 1888 season, on the Old Judge baseball cards, show him with thick gloves on ''both'' hands, but in 1889 Sporting Life magazine described his mitt as a ''spring mattress on his left hand.''.[ In the end, most agree that Bushong certainly deserves credit in the evolution of the catcher's mitt and with his known motivation to protect his hands, many believe that ''he'' was its primary inventor.
]
Scandal in the 1889 World Series
A minor scandal involving Bushong and the 1889 World Series
The 1889 World Series was an end-of-the-year baseball playoff series between the National League champion New York Giants and the American Association champion Brooklyn Bridegrooms (later known as the Dodgers).
This Series was part of the pre-m ...
came to light in November 1889. Following the Bridegrooms' series loss to the New York Giants, six games to three, a telegram from Bushong to Giants catcher Jocko Milligan
John "Jocko" Milligan (August 8, 1861 – August 29, 1923) was an American professional baseball player who played catcher in Major League Baseball from 1884 to 1893. He played for the Philadelphia Athletics, St. Louis Browns, Philadelphia Athl ...
was revealed.
The scheme involved a $400 prize to the individual winners of the series. The prize had been offered by a chewing gum firm, likely the Green and Blackwell Company of New York, known as ''G and B Chewing Gum Co.'', who in 1888, were first to issue gum with their baseball cards. Bushong's idea was ''prize sharing'', where, before the actual games, they were to agree, whoever was the winner would split the prize with the loser. In the newspapers, it was briefly mentioned as cheating, even though the practice was common in numerous sports and had been around in baseball for over a decade. Though embarrassed over the affair, nothing more came of it and Bushong continued playing.
Later life
Following his baseball retirement in 1891, Bushong, then 33 years old, began practicing dentistry
Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions o ...
full-time along with two brothers, who were also dentists, at a large dental house in Hoboken, New Jersey
Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...
. Eventually he became manager of the establishment. Also while working in Hoboken, he began and, according to baseball historian William Rankin, "built up a large and flourishing practice", at his home in south Brooklyn
South Brooklyn is a historic term for a section of the former City of Brooklyn – now the New York City borough of Brooklyn – encompassing what are now the Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Gowanus, Park Slope, Windsor Ter ...
, 442 Ninth Street. On November 9, 1898 Bushong's 4-year-old son died after being severely burned in an election night bonfire, which were common ritual at the time.[ Eventually three of his sons, as well as a nephew, also became Brooklyn dentists and several worked at the Bushong family business, which was in operation as late as 1942.] On August 19, 1908 Albert John Bushong died of cancer at his home, 442 Ninth Street, Brooklyn, at the age of 51 and was buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery, Brooklyn
Holy Cross Cemetery, located at 3620 Tilden Avenue in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York City, is an American Roman Catholic cemetery operated by the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Notable burials
* Jean H. Norris - Lawyer and first female magistrate of Ne ...
, New York.Doc Bushong's grave site on Find a Grave
/ref>
Notes
References
Further reading
*
External links
Baseball Almanac
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bushong, Doc
1856 births
1908 deaths
19th-century baseball players
Central High School (Philadelphia) alumni
Major League Baseball catchers
Brooklyn Atlantics players
Philadelphia Athletics (NL) players
Worcester Ruby Legs players
Cleveland Blues (NL) players
St. Louis Browns (AA) players
Brooklyn Bridegrooms players
Janesville Mutual players
Buffalo (minor league baseball) players
Utica (minor league baseball) players
Worcester Grays players
Lebanon Cedars players
Syracuse Stars (minor league baseball) players
Baseball players from Philadelphia
American dentists
University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine alumni
19th-century dentists
Deaths from cancer in New York (state)
Deaths from colorectal cancer
Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Brooklyn