![Olney, IL, Baseball Team, 1893](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Olney%2C_IL%2C_Baseball_Team%2C_1893._Ollie_Pickering%2C_top_row%2C_far_right.jpg)
Oliver Daniel Pickering (April 9, 1870 – January 20, 1952) 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 ...
outfielder
An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...
and manager in a 30-year career that spanned from the 1892
Houston Mudcats to the 1922
Paducah Indians. He played for a number of
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), ...
teams from 1896 to 1908: the
Louisville Colonels
The Louisville Colonels were a Major League Baseball team that also played in the American Association (AA) throughout that league's ten-year existence from 1882 until 1891. They were known as the Louisville Eclipse from 1882 to 1884, and as ...
,
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 ...
,
Cleveland Blues,
Philadelphia Athletics
The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oaklan ...
,
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 ...
, and
Washington Senators.
Career
Pickering is credited with giving baseball the term "Texas leaguer", a pejorative slang for a weak
pop fly
In the sports of baseball and softball, a batted ball is a pitch that has been contacted by the batter's bat. Batted balls are either fair or foul, and can be characterized as a fly ball, pop-up, line drive, or ground ball. In baseball, a fo ...
that lands unimpressively between an
infielder
An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field.
Standard arrangement of positions
In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...
and an outfielder for a base hit. According to the April 21, 1906, edition of ''
The Sporting Life'',
John McCloskey
John McCloskey (March 10, 1810 – October 10, 1885) was a senior-ranking American prelate of the Catholic Church. He was the first American born Archbishop of New York from 1864 until his death in 1885, having previously served as Bishop of ...
, founder of the
Texas League
The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...
and then-manager of the Houston Mudcats – who would later go onto manage the
St. Louis Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...
– signed 22-year-old Pickering to play center field on the morning of May 21, 1892. That afternoon, Pickering turned in one of the most remarkable performances in the history of the Texas League, stringing together seven consecutive singles in one game, each a soft, looping fly ball that fell in no-man's land between either the
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 ...
and
right fielder
A right fielder, abbreviated RF, is the outfielder in baseball or softball who plays defense in right field. Right field is the area of the outfield to the right of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the ...
or the
third baseman
A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...
and
left fielder
In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering system ...
. News of Pickering's feat spread quickly throughout the nation, and the term "Texas leaguer" became ingrained in the baseball lexicon. Pickering's seven consecutive singles in a game still stands as a Texas League record.
On April 24, 1901, Pickering was the leadoff batter for the Cleveland Blues (precursor to the Indians), which was the visiting team facing 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 ...
in the first game ever played in 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 ...
. The three other games scheduled that day were rained out. Thus, Pickering was the first person to bat in the American League. According to ''The Cleveland Indians Encyclopedia'', based on an account from the ''Cleveland Plains-Dealer'', this transpired: "The date was April 24, in Chicago's White Sox park (a.k.a. South Side Park), when Ollie Pickering stepped to the plate for the Cleveland Blues. Pickering, an outfielder, hit the second pitch from Chicago White Sox right-hander
Roy Patterson
Roy Lewis Patterson (December 17, 1876 – April 14, 1953) was a pitcher in Major League Baseball. Nicknamed "The Boy Wonder," he played for the Chicago White Sox from 1901 to 1907.
Patterson started his professional baseball career for the Wes ...
to center field.
William Hoy, a deaf-mute who was cruelly nicknamed Dummy, caught the routine fly, and with that the American League was officially underway." Chicago went on to win, 8-2.
On May 5, 1904, Pickering, playing for the Philadelphia Athletics, twice came close to spoiling
Cy Young's perfect game
Cy Young, pitcher for the Boston Americans, pitched a perfect game against the Philadelphia Athletics by retiring all 27 batters he faced on Thursday, May 5, 1904. This event took place in the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston, Massachusetts, ...
for the
Boston Americans
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...
, the first ever thrown in the American League. Of Pickering's performance, author Michael Coffey wrote: "In the fourth ... Ollie Pickering looped one into the no-man's land beyond the second-base bag – in a bid for the kind of hit he made famous – only to have center fielder
Chick Stahl
Charles Sylvester "Chick" Stahl (January 10, 1873 – March 28, 1907) was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball who was among the most feared and consistent hitters in his time. Stahl was an active major-league player when he committed ...
make a fine running catch. Pickering was almost the spoiler again, with one down in the top of the sixth, when he tapped a slow roller to short, but
Freddy Parent
Alfred Joseph Parent (November 11, 1875 – November 2, 1972 was an professional baseball player. He played all or part of eleven seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), between 1899 and 1911, for the St. Louis Perfectos, Boston Americans and C ...
charged the ball and nipped Pickering by half a step."
Pickering played and managed in the minor leagues into his 50s. His playing days ended in 1920 at the age of 50 with the
Redfield Reds. He last managed with the Paducah Indians in 1922. Upon his retirement from the game, Pickering became an
umpire
An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection.
The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...
and later retired in
Vincennes, Indiana
Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the lower Wabash River in the Southwestern Indiana, southwestern part of the state, nearly halfway between Evansville, Indi ...
.
Pickering's great-great-grandson is
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
side judge Jimmy Russell.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pickering, Ollie
1870 births
1952 deaths
19th-century baseball players
Major League Baseball outfielders
Louisville Colonels players
Cleveland Spiders players
Cleveland Blues (1901) players
Cleveland Bronchos players
Philadelphia Athletics players
St. Louis Browns players
Washington Senators (1901–1960) players
Minor league baseball managers
Columbus Senators players
Minneapolis Millers (baseball) players
Louisville Colonels (minor league) players
Vincennes Hoosiers players
Paducah Polecats players
Omaha Rourkes players
Terre Haute Terre-iers players
Vincennes Alices players
Henderson Hens players
Owensboro Distillers players
St. Boniface Saints (baseball) players
Redfield Reds players
Baseball players from Illinois
People from Olney, Illinois
People from Vincennes, Indiana
Houston Magnolias players