Nicholas Altrock (September 15, 1876 – January 20, 1965) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

player and

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

. He played in the major leagues as a left-handed

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 ...

between 1898 and 1919. After the 1919 season he continued to make periodic appearances as a pinch hitter for many years, until his final game at the age of 57. As a player, Altrock was a member of two World Series winning teams and then won a third World Series as a coach. He was a coach for the Washington Senators for many years.

Biography

Altrock was born in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, to German immigrant parents. He was one of the better pitchers in baseball for a brief period from to with 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 ...

. He was instrumental in the White Sox

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 ...

championship in

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

, going 20–13 with a 2.06

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 ...

in the regular season and 1–1 with a Series-best 1.00 earned run average against the

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 ...

Police protect Nick Altrock from adoring crowd, 1906 World Series

An arm injury after 1906 ruined his career, but he hung on with the White Sox and Washington Senators until , though he pitched very little after and made sporadic pinch-hitting appearances after that, including one in (facing Rube Walberg of the Philadelphia Athletics) at 57 years of age. He appeared in major league games in five different decades, one of only two players to do this (

Minnie Miñoso Orestes "Minnie" Miñoso (, ; born Saturnino Orestes Armas Miñoso Arrieta; November 29, 1923 – March 1, 2015), nicknamed "The Cuban Comet" and "Mr. White Sox", was a Cuban professional baseball player. He began his baseball career in the Neg ...

is the other); he is one of only 29 players in baseball history to have appeared in major league games in four decades. Altrock became a

for the Senators in and remained on the Washington staff through , a 42-year skein that represents the longest consecutive-year tenure of a coach with the same franchise in baseball history. Some Senator scorecards continued to list Altrock as a "coach emeritus" even after his formal retirement. During that time, he was noted for his antics in the coaching box and teamed with

Al Schacht Alexander Schacht (November 11, 1892 – July 14, 1984) was an American professional baseball player, coach, and, later, restaurateur. Schacht was a pitcher in the major leagues from 1919 to 1921 for the Washington Senators. Early life Schacht w ...

, the "Clown Prince of Baseball", for a dozen years to perform comedy routines on baseball fields in the days before official mascots. Schacht and Altrock also took their antics to the

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

stage where they appeared in a comedy routine. At the height of their collaboration, Schacht and Altrock developed a deep personal animosity and stopped speaking with each other off the field. During their famous comic re-enactments of the

Dempsey Dempsey is a surname of Irish origin. Background Dempsey is an anglicised form of Ó Díomasaigh, 'descendant of Díomasach'; this personal name is the Irish adjective ''díomasach'' 'proud'. The family originated in the Kingdom of Uí Failghe ...

– Tunney championship boxing match, many speculated that they pulled no punches as they rained blows on each other. An anecdote, probably apocryphal, has been printed in some baseball books about a quip by Altrock during his coaching days with the Senators. A batter had hit a ball into the stands and it was not known whether it was fair or foul. The umpire, who had been the target of Altrock's gibes, made the call and shortly afterward a woman was carried from the stands on a

litter Litter consists of waste products that have been discarded incorrectly, without consent, at an unsuitable location. Litter can also be used as a verb; to litter means to drop and leave objects, often man-made, such as aluminum cans, paper cups, ...

. The umpire asked Altrock if the ball had hit the woman. In his clear voice, Nick answered, "No. You called that one right and she passed out from shock." He was the second oldest position player to play in a major league game when he played in 1933 at the age of 57. Altrock lived for many years in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C., with his wife Eleanor, and died at age 88 in 1965. He is interred at Vine Street Hill Cemetery in Cincinnati.''The Baseball Necrology''
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References

External links

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Baseball Almanac
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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Altrock, Nick 1876 births 1965 deaths 19th-century baseball players American people of German descent Baseball coaches from Ohio Baseball players from Cincinnati Boston Americans players Burials at Vine Street Hill Cemetery Chicago White Sox players Columbus Senators players Grand Rapids Cabinet Makers players Grand Rapids Furniture Makers players Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Los Angeles Angels (minor league) players Louisville Colonels players Major League Baseball pitchers Major League Baseball pitching coaches Milwaukee Brewers (minor league) players Minneapolis Millers (baseball) players Navy Midshipmen baseball coaches Oswego Grays players Springfield Wanderers players Syracuse Stars (minor league baseball) players Toronto Royals players Vaudeville performers Washington Senators (1901–1960) coaches Washington Senators (1901–1960) players

Biography

See also

References

Further reading

External links