John Charles Ness (November 11, 1885 – December 3, 1957) was a

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 ...

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 Detroit Tigers and

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 ...

."Jack Ness Statistics and History"
''baseball-reference.com''. Retrieved 2010-11-27. While playing in the Pacific Coast League in 1915, Ness had a 49-game

hitting streak In baseball, a hitting streak is the number of consecutive official games in which a player appears and gets at least one base hit. According to the Official Baseball Rules, such a streak is not necessarily ended when a player has at least 1 pla ...

Career

Ness was born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. He started his professional baseball career in 1908, with the Northern League's Duluth White Sox. The next season, he moved over to the

Wisconsin-Illinois League The Wisconsin State League was a class D baseball league that began in 1905, changing its name to the Wisconsin–Illinois League in 1908 and operating through 1914. The league re–organized under that name in 1926. Another Wisconsin State League ...

and batted .301."Jack Ness Minor League Statistics & History"
''baseball-reference.com''. Retrieved 2010-11-27. In 1910, Ness moved up to the Class B

Tri-State League The Tri-State League was the name of six different circuits in American minor league baseball. History The first league of that name played for four years (1887–1890) and consisted of teams in Ohio, Michigan and West Virginia. The second leagu ...

with the Williamsport Millionaires. He batted .315 that season and led the league in hits, with 129. This performance earned him a roster spot on the Detroit Tigers, and he made his major league debut on May 9, 1911. In 12 games for the Tigers, he batted just .154. On June 15, he was traded to 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 ...

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 ...

. He spent two seasons in New Bedford before joining the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League. In 1913, Ness batted .264, and in 1914, he raised his average to .292. One newspaper wrote that he was "the most popular player in the Coast league, both with players and fans alike." In the summer of 1915, Ness made baseball history. Starting on Memorial Day and going through until July 22, he hit safely in 49 consecutive games.Zingg, Paul J. and Medeiros, Mark D.
Runs, Hits, and an Era: The Pacific Coast League, 1903-58
' (University of Illinois Press, 1994), p. 35. His streak shattered the previous Pacific Coast League record of 29 games and also broke

Willie Keeler William Henry Keeler (March 3, 1872 – January 1, 1923), nicknamed "Wee Willie" because of his small stature, was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball who played from 1892 to 1910, primarily for the Baltimore Orioles and Brooklyn ...

's all-time professional baseball record of 44, which was set in 1897. During the 49 games, Ness had 79 hits and batted .457. The streak stood as the PCL record until

Joe DiMaggio Joseph Paul DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "The Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball for the New York Yank ...

hit in 61 straight games in 1933. Ness ended the 1915 season with a .339

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 ...

and 16

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 in 186 games. He was then acquired by the Chicago White Sox and had his second stint in the major leagues in 1916. Replacing the poor-fielding

Jack Fournier John Frank Fournier (September 28, 1889 – September 5, 1973) was an American professional baseball first baseman and outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, Brookly ...

at first base,Huhn, Rick.
Eddie Collins: A Baseball Biography
' (McFarland, 2008), pp. 126-128. Ness played 75 games for Chicago. He batted .267 with 1 home run and 34

runs 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 ba ...

. Over the winter, Ness received a $500 cut in salary from White Sox owner

Charles Comiskey Charles Albert Comiskey (August 15, 1859 – October 26, 1931), nicknamed "Commy" or "The Old Roman", was an American Major League Baseball player, manager and team owner. He was a key person in the formation of the American League, and was also ...

. Ness promptly quit the game, saying, "I can pull down $100 a month playing semi-pro baseball in Chicago. That, added to my salary s a mechanic will give me about the same as that offered me to play for the Sox in 1917."Hogg, Clyde H.
Spitting on Diamonds: A Spitball Pitcher's Journey to the Major Leagues, 1911-1919
' (University of Missouri Press, 2005), p. 181. The Chicago White Sox would win the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

pennant and

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 ...

in 1917. Ness' replacement at first base, Chick Gandil, would later become the ringleader of the

Black Sox Scandal The Black Sox Scandal was a Major League Baseball game-fixing scandal in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for money from a gambling syndicate l ...

. Ness never played in organized baseball after 1916. He died in 1957, in

DeLand, Florida DeLand is a city in central Florida. It is the county seat of Volusia County. The city sits approximately north of the central business district of Orlando, and approximately west of the central business district of Daytona Beach. As of the 2020 ...

References

External links

, o
Retrosheet
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SABR Biography Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ness, Jack 1885 births 1957 deaths Baseball players from Chicago Chicago White Sox players Detroit Tigers players Duluth White Sox players Madison Senators players Major League Baseball first basemen New Bedford Whalers (baseball) players Oakland Oaks (baseball) players People from DeLand, Florida Baseball players from Volusia County, Florida Williamsport Millionaires players