May 22, 1892, Texas League Box Score, Houston Mudcats vs

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