Frederick Maurice Donovan (July 4, 1864 – March 7, 1916) 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 ...

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 ...

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 o ...

. He played 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), ...

for the

Cleveland Spiders The Cleveland Spiders were an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The team competed at the major league level from 1887 to 1899, first for two seasons as a member of the now-defunct American Association (AA), followed ...

in 1895."Fred Donovan Statistics and History"
baseball-reference.com. Retrieved October 6, 2011.

Career

Donovan was born in

Epping, New Hampshire Epping is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 7,125 at the 2020 census, up from 6,411 at the 2010 census.United States Census BureauU.S. Census website 2010 Census figures. Retrieved March 23, 2011. The ...

, in 1864. He started his professional baseball career in 1894 with the New England League's Bangor Millionaires."Fred Donovan Minor League Statistics & History"
baseball-reference.com. Retrieved October 6, 2011. The following year, he played for 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 ...

's Cleveland Spiders. In three games, he went 1 for 12 at the plate with 1

run 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 bat ...

and 1

walk Walking (also known as ambulation) is one of the main gaits of terrestrial locomotion among legged animals. Walking is typically slower than running and other gaits. Walking is defined by an 'inverted pendulum' gait in which the body vaults ov ...

. That was the only time Donovan would appear in the major leagues. He returned to the New England League in 1896, played in the Interstate League from 1897 to 1899, and then went to the New York State League until 1902. He was married to Sarah Criswell Fulkerson in 1897. In 1903, Donovan became the regular catcher for the Bloomington Bloomers of the Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League. He appeared in over 100 games each year from 1903 to 1905 and posted batting averages of .156, .228, and .236. In 1904, he set his career-high for

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014 - a British compilation album se ...

in a season, with 97. He then played for the Springfield Senators from 1907 to 1909. In 1911, he became a

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 ...

for the

Illinois–Missouri League The Illinois–Missouri League was an American minor league baseball league. The Class D (baseball), Class D league began operations in 1908, and continued through 1914 with teams located in Illinois and Missouri. The Lincoln Abes won consecutive ...

's Taylorville Christians. At the ages of 46 and 47, he played 63 games, batted .181, and managed Taylorville to a last-place finish. He also served as the first professional baseball manager of Hall of Famer

Ray Schalk Raymond William Schalk (August 12, 1892 – May 19, 1970) was an American professional baseball player, coach, manager and scout. He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball for the Chicago White Sox for the majority of his career. Known f ...

.Cooper, Brian E. (2009).
Ray Schalk
'. McFarland. p. 13. Donovan's baseball career ended in 1912. He died in

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest o ...

, in 1916 and was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donovan, Fred 1864 births 1916 deaths Major League Baseball catchers Cleveland Spiders players 19th-century baseball players Baseball players from New Hampshire Minor league baseball managers Bangor Millionaires players Oil City Oilers players Fitchburg (minor league baseball) players New Castle Salamanders players Portland (minor league baseball) players New Castle Quakers players Grand Rapids Bob-o-links players Youngstown Puddlers players Youngstown Little Giants players Schenectady Electricians players Ilion Typewriters players Bloomington Bloomers players Springfield Senators players Clinton Champs players Taylorville Christians players