John Albert Rothfuss (April 18, 1872 – April 20, 1947) was a professional baseball
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 ...
. He played 35 games 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
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...
. Rothfuss was 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighed 195 pounds."Jack Rothfuss Statistics and History" baseball-reference.com. Accessed October 24, 2011.
Baseball career
Rothfuss started his professional baseball career in 1896 with the Atlantic League's
Newark Colts
The Newark Colts were a minor league baseball team based in Newark, New Jersey. From 1896 to 1900, the Colts played exclusively as members of the Atlantic League, winning the 1896 league championship. The Colts hosted home games at the Hamburg P ...
."Jack Rothfuss Minor League Statistics & History" baseball-reference.com. Accessed October 24, 2011. That season, he was one of the best hitters in the league, leading the circuit with 26
triples
TripleS (stylized as tripleS; Help:IPA/English, /ˈtɹɪpəl:ɛs/; ) is a South Korean girl group formed by MODHAUS. They aim to be the world's first decentralized K-pop idol group. The members will rotate between the group, sub-unit, and solo ac ...
, 13
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, and 87
stolen base
In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which they are not entitled and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or ...
s. His batting average of .351 would end up being his career-high.
Rothfuss continued his good play in 1897. He had batted .323 through 89 games when his release was bought by the Pittsburgh Pirates for $2,000 in July."Newark Nuggets" ''Sporting Life''. August 7, 1897. p. 13. According to one
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.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 ...
scores will be eagerly scanned daily to note his work. With a little experienced coaching at the bat he should be a fixture, as he is fast in every other department of the game.
Rothfuss made his major league debut on August 2, 1897. He batted .313 during the season's final two months and earned a job as the Pirates' starting first baseman. On August 22, the ''Newark Sunday Call'' wrote, "National League papers are unanimous in the opinion that 'Jack' Rothfuss is one of the 'comers' of the big league. Some of them say Newark should feel proud of him. Well, she does."
However, Rothfuss never played in the majors after 1897. He had contracted
dysentery
Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...
late in the season."Newark News" ''Sporting Life''. March 26, 1898. p. 14. The following March, '' Sporting Life'' reported that "'Jack' has not been himself all winter. He says the water in Pittsburgh is atrocious." In April 1898, Rothfuss' contract was sold to the Western League's Kansas City Blues."Kansas City News" ''Sporting Life''. June 11, 1898. p. 8. He was still suffering from dysentery in May, and in early June, a sportswriter in Kansas City wrote:
Johnny Rothfuss ... has shown himself to be the worst type of ingrate. He was sick when he came in the spring, and he was placed in the care of physicians at an expense of $175 per month. As soon as the Blues left for the East and Rothfuss was pronounced cured by his physicians he took French leave and nothing has been heard from him since. The United States Government is warned against accepting this man Rothfuss as a volunteer, for he has certainly shown himself to be the rankest kind of a deserter in the face of duty.
Rothfuss had returned to Newark in late May, and he played for
semi-professional
Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a consid ...
teams in New Jersey later that summer.
Rothfuss did join the Kansas City team in 1899. He then played one season in the Eastern League, batting .218 there, and one season in the Western Association, batting .305. He went back to Kansas City for 1902 to play for the
Blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
of the
American Association American Association may refer to:
Baseball
* American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891
* American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997
* American Association of Profe ...
. In three seasons with the Blues, he batted .309, .285, and .214.
In 1905, Rothfuss played for the Eastern League's Rochester Bronchos. He batted .240 in 27 games, and when Rochester tried to send him to a club in
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...
, Rothfuss jumped the team."The Eastern League" ''Sporting Life''. February 16, 1907. p. 6. He played 19 games in the independent Tri-State League in 1906 before applying to the National Board for reinstatement in early 1907. Rothfuss finished his professional baseball career that year with the
Connecticut State 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 ...
's
Hartford Senators
The Hartford Senators were a minor league baseball team based in Hartford, Connecticut. They operated in the Connecticut League from 1902–1912, the Eastern Association from 1913–1914, the Eastern League (baseball, 1916-32), Eastern League from ...
.
Personal life
Rothfuss was born in
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area. His brother, Adam Rothfuss, was also a baseball player, and the two were teammates on the Newark Colts in 1896 and 1897. While playing for the Pirates in 1897, Jack Rothfuss became the father of a baby boy."News and Comment" ''Sporting Life''. September 25, 1897. p. 5.
Rothfuss died in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, in 1947.