Joseph "Joe" James Quinn (25 December 1864 – 12 November 1940) was an Australian second baseman who played 17 seasons 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), ...

. Born in

Ipswich, Queensland Ipswich () is a city in South East Queensland, Australia. Situated on the Bremer River, it is approximately west of the Brisbane central business district. The city is renowned for its architectural, natural and cultural heritage. Ipswich pre ...

, to Patrick Quinn and Catherine, née McAfee, both from Ireland, he was the only Australian-born player to reach the major leagues until

Craig Shipley Craig Barry Shipley (born 7 January 1963) is an Australian-born executive and former player in Major League Baseball. On 16 November 2012, he was appointed special assistant to Arizona Diamondbacks general manager Kevin Towers. Shipley was ...

in 1986.

Career

Quinn started his career in 1884 with the

Union Association The Union Association was a league in Major League Baseball which lasted for just the 1884 season. St. Louis won the pennant and joined the National League the following season. Seven of the twelve teams who were in the Association at some poi ...

's St. Louis Maroons, which won the pennant. He was one of few players from that league to later find success in 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 ...

. Throughout his career, Quinn was known for his defensive skills, and he led NL second basemen in

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putouts and assists, div ...

twice. Quinn also had two stints as a big league manager, with the

St. Louis Browns The St. Louis Browns were a Major League Baseball team that originated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Milwaukee Brewers. A charter member of the American League (AL), the Brewers moved to St. Louis, Missouri, after the 1901 season, where they p ...

in 1895 and 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 1899. His Browns club went 11–28 under his guidance, and the Spiders were even worse, going 12–104. His career .148

winning percentage In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of match ...

is one of the lowest in baseball history. He was, as a player, arguably the best hitter on the Spiders team that he managed, which is considered to have been the worst team in major league history. He umpired two games; one each in 1894 and 1896. In the offseason, Quinn was a mortician, and he owned a funeral home after his playing days ended. He died at age 77 in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, Missouri. Quinn was inducted into the

Baseball Australia Hall of Fame The Baseball Australia Hall of Fame or Australian Baseball Federation Hall of Fame is a group of baseball players, managers and coaches who have been recognised by the Australian Baseball Federation (ABF) as having influenced baseball in Austral ...

on 4 May 2013. In 2014, the Australian sports writer Rochelle Llewelyn Nicholls published a biography of Joe "Undertaker" Quinn as ''Joe Quinn – Among the Rowdies''.

References

Notes Sources *

External links

, o
Retrosheet
*

Campbelltown Library, 17 July 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Quinn, Joe 1864 births 1940 deaths Australian expatriate baseball players in the United States Australian people of Irish descent Sportspeople from Ipswich, Queensland 19th-century baseball players Major League Baseball players from Australia Major League Baseball second basemen Minor league baseball managers Baltimore Orioles (NL) players Boston Beaneaters players Boston Reds (PL) players Cincinnati Reds players Cleveland Spiders players St. Louis Browns players St. Louis Cardinals players St. Louis Maroons players Washington Senators (1901–1960) players Cleveland Spiders managers Duluth Freezers players Des Moines Prohibitionists players Des Moines Midgets players Des Moines Undertakers players Major League Baseball player-managers Burials at Calvary Cemetery (St. Louis) American funeral directors

Career

See also

References

External links