Alphonse Case "Phonney" Martin (August 4, 1845 – May 24, 1933) was an American

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), ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

who played two seasons in the National Association from to .

Career

Martin, born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, was an

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

veteran who played in organized baseball as far back as 1869, when he pitched for the Brooklyn Eckfords. That year, a reporter for the

New York Clipper The ''New York Clipper'', also known as ''The Clipper'', was a weekly entertainment newspaper published in New York City from 1853 to 1924. It covered many topics, including circuses, dance, music, the outdoors, sports, and theatre. It had a ...

described him as an "extremely hard pitcher to hit for the ball never comes in a straight line‚ but in a tantalizing curve." If the observation is true, this would pre-date

Candy Cummings William Arthur "Candy" Cummings (October 18, 1848 – May 17, 1924) was an American professional baseball player. He played as a pitcher in the National Association and National League. Cummings is widely credited with inventing the curveball. ...

, the pitcher given credit as the inventor of the curveball. His pitching style led to his nickname of "Old Slow Ball". Martin officially began his professional baseball career when he joined the

Troy Haymakers The Troy Haymakers were an American professional baseball team. History Established in 1860 as the Union Base Ball Club Lansingburgh, located in neighboring Lansingburgh, New York, the Haymakers participated in the first professional pennant ra ...

of the National Association as a pitcher and right fielder, playing in 25 games, pitching in eight of those games. Later in the season, he returned to the Eckfords, now also in the Association, and played in the same pitcher/outfielder role for 18 games. That year, he is given credit for

managing Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

the Eckfords for nine games, with a record of 1 win and 8 losses. There is some dispute about this, as

SABR The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball primarily through the use of statistics. Established in Cooperstown, New ...

and retrosheet.org list

Andy Allison Andrew Kent Allison (1848 – March 21, 1897) was an American professional baseball player who played first base in Major League Baseball for the 1872 Brooklyn Eckfords Eckford of Brooklyn, or simply Eckford, was an American baseball club from 1 ...

Jimmy Wood James ("Jimmy") Leon Wood (December 1, 1842 – November 30, 1927) was an American second baseman and manager in early professional Major League Baseball (MLB) who hailed from Brooklyn, New York. He was the player-manager for four teams in the ...

, and Martin as managing the team that year, while baseball-reference.com lists Jim Clinton and Wood as the managers. For the season, he joined the

New York Mutuals The Mutual Base Ball Club of New York was a leading American baseball club almost throughout its 20-year history. It was established during 1857, the year of the first baseball convention, just too late to be a founding member of the National Ass ...

, which turned out to be his last season at this level. He played 30 games in right field, and pitched six games.

Death

Martin died in

Hollis, New York Hollis is a residential middle-class neighborhood within the southeastern section of the New York City borough of Queens. While a predominantly African-American community, there are small minorities of Hispanics and South Asians residing in the a ...

at the age of 87, and is interred at

Cypress Hills National Cemetery Cypress Hills National Cemetery is a cemetery located in the Cypress Hills neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It is the only United States National Cemetery in New York City and has more than 21,100 interments of veterans and civilians. ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Phonney Major League Baseball pitchers Major League Baseball right fielders New York Mutuals (NABBP) players Brooklyn Eckfords (NABBP) players Troy Haymakers players Brooklyn Eckfords players Brooklyn Eckfords managers New York Mutuals players Baseball player-managers Baseball players from New York City Burials at Cypress Hills Cemetery 1845 births 1933 deaths 19th-century baseball players