Hugh Duffy (November 26, 1866 – October 19, 1954) was an American

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 ...

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 ...

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), ...

. He was a player or player-manager for the Chicago White Stockings,

Chicago Pirates The Chicago Pirates was a baseball team in the Players' League for a single season in 1890. The team played its home games at South Side Park (II). Its powerful National League rivals were the Chicago White Stockings which later became the Cubs. ...

, Boston Reds, Boston Beaneaters,

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

and

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

between 1888 and 1906. He had his best years with the Beaneaters, including the 1894 season, when he set the MLB single-season record for

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

(.440), a batting record that has stood for years. He also managed the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

and

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

and spent several seasons coaching in collegiate baseball and in the minor leagues. Later in life, he spent many years as a scout for the Red Sox. He was elected to the

Baseball Hall of Fame 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-r ...

in 1945. He worked for Boston until 1953. He died of heart problems the next year.

Early life

Duffy was born in

Cranston, Rhode Island Cranston, once known as Pawtuxet, is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island. The official population of the city in the 2020 United States Census was 82,934, making it the second largest in the state. The center of population of Rhode Island ...

to Irish immigrant Michael Duffy and wife Margaret Duffy. A right-handed batter and thrower, Duffy was listed as tall and . He was a textile mill worker who had taken up baseball as a semipro for weekend diversion. He played a couple years of minor league ball in 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 ...

before jumping to the majors, starting up in the league's initial season of 1886, and playing on clubs in Hartford, Springfield and Salem, as well as the Lowell, Massachusetts team in 1887.

Playing career

Duffy entered 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 ...

with

Cap Anson Adrian Constantine Anson (April 17, 1852 – April 14, 1922), nicknamed "Cap" (for "Captain") and "Pop", was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman. Including his time in the National Association (NA), he played a record 27 c ...

's Chicago White Stockings in after receiving an offer of $2,000 from the club. Anson initially was unimpressed with the , 150 pound Duffy, telling him, "We already have a batboy." He shortly thereafter earned the reputation of an outstanding outfielder and powerful hitter. Duffy ended up replacing

Billy Sunday William Ashley "Billy" Sunday (November 19, 1862 – November 6, 1935) was an American outfielder in baseball's National League and widely considered the most influential American evangelist during the first two decades of the 20th century. Bo ...

as the team's regular right fielder. He switched leagues, joining the American Association's Boston Reds in ; he then returned to the NL with the Boston Beaneaters in , where he enjoyed his best seasons. From 1891 through , Duffy knocked in 100 runs or more eight times. In Duffy had one of the greatest seasons in baseball history, leading the league with 18

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s, with 145 RBI and a .440

(see

Major League Baseball Triple Crown In baseball, a player earns a Triple Crown when he leads a league in three specific statistical categories in the same season. The term "Triple Crown" generally refers to the batting achievement of leading a league in batting average, home runs, ...

). Duffy's .440 average is the MLB single-season batting average record. At one point during the season, Duffy had a 26-game hitting streak. During his time with Boston, Hughie and Tommy McCarthy forged a reputation as the celebrated “Heavenly Twins” outfield of the early 1890s. Both Heavenly Twins were named to the Hall of Fame. He was player-manager for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1901. During the 1902 and 1903 seasons, Duffy was player-manager for the Western League's Milwaukee Creams franchise. Duffy was a player-manager for the Phillies from 1904 to 1906. He finished his career in with 106 home runs which was, at the time, one of the highest career totals.

Post-playing career

Duffy spent three years (1907–1909) as manager of 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 Leag ...

. He made $2,000 in his last season as the Providence manager and ''The Evening News'' in Providence wrote that Duffy was paid hundreds of dollars less than any other manager in the Eastern League. During Duffy's three seasons, Providence finished in third place, second place and third place, respectively. Duffy agreed to manage the

in 1910. He stayed with the team in 1911. He moved to the

of the American Association in 1912, but he was fired after a season in which the team struggled. He turned down an offer to manage the 1913 St. Paul Saints, saying that he was hoping to work in the east. He coached the Harvard varsity and freshman baseball squads from 1917 through 1919. He also managed the 1920

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...

of the

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball ...

to a .701 winning percentage—the best in the team's 83-year history, but only good enough for second place in the league. In 1921, Duffy was hired as full-time manager of the Red Sox, guiding them for two seasons. Duffy then became a scout for the Red Sox in . From 1928 to 1930, Duffy was the head baseball coach at

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

Managerial record

Later life

Duffy remained on the Red Sox' scouting staff nearly to the end of his life, retiring in . He died in Boston on October 19, 1954. He had been suffering from heart problems. Duffy's wife Nora died the previous year; they did not have children.

Posthumously

In 2019, Duffy was inducted into the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. The Braves ...

Hall of Fame, along with

Terry Pendleton Terry Lee Pendleton (born July 16, 1960) is a former third baseman in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played primarily for the St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves, but he also spent time with the Florida Marlins, Cincinnati Reds, and Kansas C ...

References

External links

* : {{DEFAULTSORT:Duffy, Hugh 1866 births 1954 deaths 19th-century baseball players American people of Irish descent Baseball players from Rhode Island Boston Beaneaters players Boston Braves scouts Boston College Eagles baseball coaches Boston Reds (AA) players Boston Red Sox coaches Boston Red Sox managers Boston Red Sox scouts Chicago Pirates players Chicago White Sox managers Chicago White Stockings players Hartford Dark Blues (minor league) players Harvard Crimson baseball coaches Lowell Magicians players Major League Baseball outfielders Major League Baseball player-managers Milwaukee Brewers (1901) managers Milwaukee Brewers (1901) players Milwaukee Brewers (minor league) managers Milwaukee Creams players National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees National League batting champions National League home run champions National League RBI champions National League Triple Crown winners Philadelphia Phillies managers Philadelphia Phillies players Providence Grays (minor league) players Salem Fairies players Sportspeople from Cranston, Rhode Island Springfield Horsemen players Toronto Maple Leafs (International League) managers Baseball players from Boston