Alfred George "Fred" Doe (April 18, 1864 – October 4, 1938) 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 tea ...

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 ...

who played in the

minor leagues Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

from 1886 to 1902, and in the

Players' League The Players' National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, popularly known as the Players' League (PL), was a short-lived but star-studded professional American baseball league of the 19th century. The PL was formed by the Brotherhood of Prof ...

(PL) in 1890. Doe played in one game for both the

Buffalo Bisons The Buffalo Bisons (known colloquially as the Herd) are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Located in Buffalo, New York, the team plays their home games at Sahlen Fiel ...

and the

Pittsburgh Burghers The Pittsburgh Burghers were a baseball team in the Players' League, a short-lived Major League that existed only for the 1890 season. The team included a number of players who had jumped from the National League's Pittsburgh Alleghenys (now the ...

in 1890.

Early life

Doe was born on April 18, 1864, in

Gloucester, Massachusetts Gloucester () is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It sits on Cape Ann and is a part of Massachusetts's North Shore. The population was 29,729 at the 2020 U.S. Census. An important center of the fishing industry and a ...

, to George and Elizabeth (Flynn) Doe. He grew up in

Rockport, Massachusetts Rockport is a seaside New England town, town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,992 in 2020. Rockport is located approximately northeast of Boston at the tip of the Cape Ann peninsula. Rockport borders Gloucester ...

Baseball career

Early baseball career

Doe began his long minor league career in 1886, with the Newburyport Clamdiggers of the

New England League The New England League was a mid-level league in American minor league baseball that played intermittently in five of the six New England states (Vermont excepted) between 1886 and 1949. After 1901, it existed in the shadow of two Major League B ...

. He also played with Haverhill in 1886 and 1887. Doe was also the occasional

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 sq ...

of both Newburyport and Haverhill.

Major League Baseball

On August 23, 1890, Doe started a game for the

of the

. He allowed 10

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, eight

earned runs In baseball, an earned run is any run that was fully enabled by the offensive team's production in the face of competent play from the defensive team. Conversely, an unearned run is a run that would not have been scored without the aid of an err ...

, seven

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

struck out 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 denot ...

two Boston Reds hitters over 6.0 innings. Boston won the game 10–0. One week later, on August 30, Doe pitched for the

in a game against the Boston Reds. He relieved

John Tener John Kinley Tener (July 25, 1863May 19, 1946) was a Northern Irish born American politician and Major League Baseball player and executive. He served as the 25th Governor of Pennsylvania from 1911 until 1915. A Republican, he had previously s ...

in the sixth innings, after Tenner allowed 14 runs. Doe pitched 4.0 innings for Pittsburgh, and allowed four hits and two earned runs, while collecting two strikeouts. The Burghers lost the game 16–4. The Players' League would fold after the season, and Doe would not play in the major leagues again.

Return to the New England League

After his brief major league stint, Doe would play and manage several New England Leagues teams from 1892 to 1902. He played for the

Brockton Shoemakers Brockton may refer to: Canada * Brockton (electoral district), Canada * Brockton, Ontario, Canada * Brockton Point, a point and attached peninsula in Vancouver * Brockton Point Lighthouse, in Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia * Brockto ...

in 1892 and 1893, and the Haverill club in 1894. In 1895, he started the

New Bedford Whalers New Bedford Whalers was the name of three American soccer teams based in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The first Whalers played in the Southern New England Soccer League between 1914 and 1918. The second Whalers played in the American Soccer League ...

, acting as a manager, pitcher, and

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

. After New Bedford folded after 1896, he formed the

Fall River Indians Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southe ...

club. Doe would soon return to New Bedford in 1898, forming a new Whalers club. The New England League would fold temporarily in mid-1898. In 1900, Doe managed and played in the outfield the

Norwich Witches Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

of the

Connecticut League The Connecticut League, also known as the Connecticut State League, was a professional baseball association of teams in the state of Connecticut. The league began as offshoot of the original Connecticut State League, which dates back as far as 1884 ...

. Norwich won the league pennant, Doe's only championship as a manager. Doe returned to the New England League in 1900, managing

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

. He returned to Brockton in 1903, but the club moved to New Bedford mid-way through the season. Doe stayed in New Bedford as club manager until 1905. In 1906, he purchased the

Worcester Busters The Worcester Busters was an American baseball team which played at Boulevard Park (Worcester, Massachusetts), Boulevard Park, Worcester, Massachusetts. They played in Class B of the New England League from 1906 and the Eastern League (1916), Eas ...

, New England League team managed by future

Baseball Hall of Famer The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-re ...

Jesse Burkett Jesse Cail Burkett (December 4, 1868 – May 27, 1953), nicknamed "Crab", was an American professional baseball left fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1890 to 1905 for the New York Giants, Cleveland Spiders, St. Louis Perfe ...

.Jesse Burkett minor league stats
/ref> He would later control the

Providence Grays The Providence Grays were a Major League Baseball team based in Providence, Rhode Island who played in the National League from until . The Grays played at the Messer Street Grounds in the Olneyville neighborhood. The team won the National Leagu ...

of the Eastern League. Providence was the only

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

team to allow baseball to be played on Sunday. Doe would become a driving force in the movement to allow baseball to be played state-wide in the late 1928. Doe died on October 4, 1938, in

Quincy, Massachusetts Quincy ( ) is a coastal U.S. city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county and a part of Greater Boston, Metropolitan Boston as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in 2020 was 1 ...

, and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Gloucester.

Personal life

While living in

New Bedford, Massachusetts New Bedford (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast region. Up throug ...

, he met his wife, Mary Bryant. They had one child, a daughter.

References

External links

Retrosheet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doe, Fred 1864 births 1938 deaths Major League Baseball pitchers Baseball players from Massachusetts Buffalo Bisons (PL) players Pittsburgh Burghers players 19th-century baseball players Minor league baseball managers Lynn (minor league baseball) players Newburyport Clamdiggers players Haverhill (minor league baseball) players Boston Blues players Brockton Shoemakers players New Bedford Whalers (baseball) players New Bedford Browns players Fall River Indians players Worcester (minor league baseball) players Norwich Witches players Lewiston (minor league baseball) players Dover (minor league baseball) players