Charles William "Jack" Harper (April 2, 1878 – September 30, 1950) was a

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 ...

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 pitched eight seasons in the majors, from 1899 to 1906. Harper started his professional baseball career in 1898. After a short stint with 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 ...

, he had a good season with the Fort Wayne Indians of the

Interstate League The Interstate League was the name of five different American minor baseball leagues that played intermittently from 1896 through 1952. Early leagues Earlier versions of the Interstate League, with years active: *1896–1901: an unclassified ...

in 1900 (going 20-15). This got him into the majors for good. Over the next few seasons, Harper jumped from league to league, finally settling in with the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

. He had his best season in 1904, when he went 23–9 with a 2.30

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

. On May 30, 1904, Harper hit

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

Frank Chance Frank Leroy Chance (September 9, 1877 – September 15, 1924) was an American professional baseball player. A first baseman, Chance played in Major League Baseball for the Chicago Cubs (initially named the "Orphans") and New York Yankees from 18 ...

three times in one game, the last of which knocked Chance out cold. By 1906, Chance had become the manager of the Cubs, and Harper was struggling on the mound. Chance traded for Harper, cut his salary by two-thirds, and sat him on the bench for the entire season. Golenbock, Peter. ''Wrigleyville: A Magical History Tour of the Chicago Cubs'' (1996), p. 104. At that time, organized baseball had the reserve clause; Harper had to pitch for the Cubs or no team at all. He never played professional baseball again.

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1878 births 1950 deaths Major League Baseball pitchers 19th-century baseball players Baseball players from Pennsylvania Cleveland Spiders players St. Louis Cardinals players St. Louis Browns players Cincinnati Reds players Chicago Cubs players Montgomery Senators players Fort Wayne Indians players {{US-baseball-pitcher-1870s-stub

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