John Francis "Red" Waller (June 16, 1883 – February 9, 1915) was a
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), ...
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 for one season. He pitched for the
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...
for one game on April 27 during the
1909 New York Giants season
The 1909 New York Giants season was the franchise's 27th season. The team finished in third place in the National League with a 92–61 record, 18½ games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Regular season
Season standings
Record vs. opponen ...
. He pitched one inning, allowing two runs, neither of them earned.
An obituary of Waller in the ''
Hartford Courant
The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is considered to be the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven ...
'' described him as "one of the greatest minor league pitchers that ever hurled a ball" but added that "failure to take care of himself cost him his chance for major league fame." He died at just 31 years old and left behind a wife and 8-year-old son in