Roger Connor (July 1, 1857 – January 4, 1931) was a 19th-century

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), ...

(MLB) player. He played for several teams, but his longest tenure was in New York, where he was responsible for the

New York Gothams The New York Giants were a Major League Baseball team in the National League that began play in the season as the New York Gothams and were renamed in . They continued as the New York Giants until the team relocated to San Francisco, Californ ...

becoming known as the Giants. He was the player whom

Babe Ruth George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...

succeeded as the all-time career

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

champion. Connor hit 138 home runs during his 18-year career, and his career home run record stood for 23 years after his retirement in 1897. Connor owned and managed minor league baseball teams after his playing days. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by its

Veterans Committee The Veterans Committee is the popular name of various committees of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum that elect participants other than recently retired players. Originally, it referenced the National Baseball Hall of Fame Committee ...

in 1976. Largely forgotten after his retirement, Connor was buried in an unmarked grave until a group of citizens raised money for a grave marker in 2001.

Early life

Connor was born in

Waterbury, Connecticut Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut on the Naugatuck River, southwest of Hartford and northeast of New York City. Waterbury is the second-largest city in New Haven County, Connecticut. According to the 2020 US Census, in 20 ...

. He was the son of Irish immigrants Mortimer Connor and Catherine Sullivan Connor. His father had arrived in the United States only five years before Roger's birth. The family lived in the Irish section of Waterbury, known as the Abrigador district, which was separated from the rest of the city by a large granite hill. Connor was the third of eleven children born to the family, though two did not survive childhood. Connor left school around age 12 to work with his father at the local brass works. Connor entered professional baseball with the Waterbury Monitors of the Eastern League in 1876. Though he was left-handed, Connor was initially a

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 ...

; in early baseball, left-handed third basemen were more common than they are in modern baseball. In 1878 he would transfer to the minor league Holyoke Shamrocks, where he became known for hitting home runs across the field into the Connecticut River. This so-impressed Springfield baseball boss Bob Ferguson that he signed Connor onto the

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(NL)

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when he bought them out in 1880.

MLB playing career

Early years (1880–1889)

In Connor's first year with the Troy Trojans, he teamed with future Hall of Fame players

Dan Brouthers Dennis Joseph "Dan" Brouthers (; May 8, 1858 – August 2, 1932) was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball whose career spanned the period from to , with a brief return in . Nicknamed "Big Dan" for his size, he was and weighed , wh ...

Buck Ewing William "Buck" Ewing (October 17, 1859 – October 20, 1906) was an American Major League Baseball player and manager. Renowned for his offensive and defensive skills, he was the first 19th-century catcher elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. C ...

Tim Keefe Timothy John Keefe (January 1, 1857 – April 23, 1933), nicknamed "Smiling Tim" and "Sir Timothy", was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. He stood tall and weighed . He was one of the most dominating pitchers of the 19th century and po ...

and

Mickey Welch Michael Francis Welch (July 4, 1859 – July 30, 1941), nicknamed "Smiling Mickey", was a Major League Baseball pitcher. He stood tall and weighed . He was the third pitcher to accumulate 300 career victories. Welch was born in Brooklyn, New Y ...

, all of whom were just starting their careers. Also on that 1880 Trojans team, though much older, was player-manager Bob "Death to Flying Things" Ferguson. Though Connor, Ferguson and Welch were regularly in the lineup, the other future stars each played in only a handful of the team's 83 games that season. The team finished in fourth place with a 41–42

win–loss record In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of matc ...

. Connor committed 60 errors in 83 games and sustained a shoulder injury, prompting a position change to

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 ...

for 1881. He later played for the

, and, due to his great stature, gave that team the enduring nickname "Giants". Connor hit baseball's first

grand slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

on September 10, 1881, at Riverfront Park in Rensselaer, New York. His grand slam came with two outs and his team down three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, a situation known today as a

walk-off home run In baseball, a walk-off home run is a home run that ends the game. For a home run to end the game, it must be hit in the bottom of the final inning of the game and generate enough runs to exceed the opponent's score. Because the opponent will no ...

George Vecsey George Spencer Vecsey (born July 4, 1939) is an American non-fiction author and sports columnist for ''The New York Times.'' Vecsey is best known for his work in sports, but has co-written several autobiographies with non-sports figures. He is also ...

, in ''The New York Times'' wrote: "Roger Connor was a complete player — a deft

and an agile base runner who hit 233 triples and stole 244 bases despite his size (6 feet 3 inches and 200 pounds)." He led the NL with a .371 average in 1885. On September 11, 1886, Connor hit a ball completely out of the Polo Grounds, a very difficult park in which to hit home runs. He hit the pitch from Boston's

Old Hoss Radbourn Charles Gardner Radbourn (December 11, 1854 – February 5, 1897), nicknamed "Old Hoss", was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for Buffalo (1880), Providence (1881–1885), ...

over the right field fence and onto 112th Street. The New York Times reported of the feat, "He met it squarely and it soared up with the speed of a carrier pigeon. All eyes were turned on the tiny sphere as it soared over the head of Charlie Buffinton in right field." A group of fans with the

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took up a collection for Connor and bought him a $500 gold watch in honor of the home run.

Players' League (1890)

Another New York baseball team, also known as the Giants, emerged with the founding of the Players' League (PL) in 1890. Several players from the NL team left for the new league's Giants team, including future Hall of Famers Connor, Keefe, Jim O'Rourke and

Hank O'Day Henry M. O'Day (July 8, 1859 – July 2, 1935), nicknamed "The Reverend", was an American right-handed pitcher and later an umpire and manager in Major League Baseball. After a seven-year major league playing career, he worked as a National ...

. In 123 games, Connor registered 169 hits, a .349 batting average, 14 home runs, 103

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the ba ...

(RBI) and 22 stolen bases. His home run total led the league and it represented the only major league single-season home run title that he won. Connor experimented with some changes to his batting style that year. He hit more balls to the opposite field and he sometimes batted right-handed, though he did not have much success from the right side. Though Connor had success in his season with the PL, the league struggled. Some of the teams ran into financial difficulties. National League teams rescheduled many of their games to conflict with PL games in the same cities, and a high number of PL games were cancelled late in the season due to rainouts. Connor was optimistic that the league would be successful in 1891, but it officially broke up that January.

Later career (1891–1897)

Returning to the NL Giants for a season in 1891, Connor hit .294. In the offseason before 1892, Connor signed with the Philadelphia Athletics. The team broke up shortly after Connor signed, and his contract was awarded to the Philadelphia Phillies for that year. He returned to the Giants in 1893, raising his average to .322 and hitting 11 home runs. During the 1894 season, the Giants looked toward the team's youth and Connor lost his starting position to Jack Doyle. He was released that year and picked up by the

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 ...

. The next year, his brother Joe Connor made his major league debut with the same team. Joe played two games with St. Louis before being sent back down to the minor leagues. That year's St. Louis team finished with a 39–92 record, games out of first place. Connor was released by the Browns in May 1897 after starting the season with a .227 batting average. His major league playing career was over. While a major league player, Connor was regularly among the league leaders in

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

and home runs. Connor's career mark of 138 was a benchmark not surpassed until 1921 by

. He finished his career with a .317 batting average. Connor finished in the top ten in batting average ten times, all between 1880 and 1891. Over an 18-year career, Connor finished in the top ten for doubles ten times, finished in the top three for triples seven times and remains fifth all-time in triples with 233. He also established his power credentials by finishing in the top ten in RBI ten times and top ten in homers twelve times.Roger Connor Statistics

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Personal

In 1886, Connor and his wife Angeline had a daughter named Lulu. She died as an infant. Connor interpreted the baby's death as God's punishment for marrying Angeline, who was not Catholic. Angeline had secretly begun receiving Catholic education and was planning to surprise Connor by getting baptized on the day that Lulu would have turned a year old. The couple later adopted a girl named Cecelia from a Catholic orphanage in New York City.Kerr, p. 113. Roger and Angeline Connor lived in Waterbury, Connecticut, for many years, even while Roger played in New York. Every winter, a banquet was held in Waterbury in Connor's honor. Near the end of the 19th century, Angeline gave Roger a weather vane which had been constructed from two of his baseball bats. The weather vane served as a well-known landmark in Waterbury even after the couple moved away.

Later life

Minor league baseball

Connor signed with the Fall River Indians of the

New England League The New England League was a mid-level league in American minor league baseball that played intermittently in five of the six New England states (Vermont excepted) between 1886 and 1949. After 1901, it existed in the shadow of two Major League B ...

in June 1897. Connor attracted some attention by wearing eyeglasses on the field. He hit cleanup, played first base and was popular among fans. In 1898, Connor moved back to his hometown of Waterbury and purchased the local minor league team. He served as president, manager and played first base on the side. Connor's wife, Angeline, kept the team's books and his daughter helped by collecting tickets. Joe Connor was the team's catcher; he later returned to the major leagues for several seasons. After the 1899 season, Connor expressed satisfaction with his Waterbury team, saying that the team played well and did not lose money despite not getting strong attendance numbers at their games. In 1901, Connor became interested in purchasing the minor league franchise in Hartford, Connecticut. The team had been dropped from the Eastern League and had suffered financial losses related to traveling as far away as Canada for games. Connor proposed that he might purchase the team and attempt to have it admitted to the

Connecticut State League The Connecticut League, also known as the Connecticut State League, was a professional baseball association of teams in the state of Connecticut. The league began as offshoot of the original Connecticut State League, which dates back as far as 1884 ...

, decreasing its travel requirements. However, upon selling the Waterbury club at the end of that season, he bought the Springfield Ponies franchise in the same league.

Retirement from baseball

In September 1903, Connor announced his retirement from baseball and placed his team up for sale. He had made a similar statement the year before and apparently on a frequent basis before that. In June 1902, the local newspaper said, "Roger bobs up every summer and makes his farewell to the baseball public." His 1903 retirement was earnest though; he attended a 1904 Springfield-Norwich game as a retired spectator. Connor worked as a school inspector in Waterbury until 1920. He lived to see his career home run record bested by

, although if it was celebrated, it might have been on the wrong day. At one time, Connor's record was thought to be 131, per the ''Sporting News'' book ''Daguerreotypes''. As late as the 1980s, in the MacMillan ''Baseball Encyclopedia'', it was thought to be 136. However, John Tattersall's 1975 ''Home Run Handbook'', a publication of the

Society for American Baseball Research 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 ...

(SABR), credited Connor with 138. Both

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and the independent

now consider Connor's total to be 138.

Death

Connor died on January 4, 1931, following a lengthy stomach illness. He was 73. A news article after his death said that his "likeable personality and his colorful action made him an idol." He was buried in an unmarked grave at St. Joseph's Cemetery in Waterbury. Connor was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1976. Hall of Fame umpire Bill Klem had long campaigned on behalf of Connor's inclusion in the Hall of Fame. Decades after his death, Waterbury citizens and baseball fans raised enough money to purchase a headstone at his grave, which was dedicated in a 2001 ceremony.

Notes

References

*Kerr, Roy. ''Roger Connor: Home Run King of 19th Century Baseball''. McFarland, 2011. .

External links

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Retrosheet
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Connor, Roger 1857 births 1931 deaths 19th-century baseball players American people of Irish descent Baseball players from Connecticut Burials in Connecticut Catholics from Connecticut Connecticut League managers Fall River Indians players Hartford (minor league baseball) players Holyoke (minor league baseball) players Major League Baseball first basemen Major League Baseball player-managers Minor league baseball managers National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees National League batting champions National League RBI champions New Bedford (minor league baseball) players New Haven Blues players New Haven (minor league baseball) players New York Giants (NL) players New York Giants (PL) players Philadelphia Phillies players Sportspeople from Waterbury, Connecticut Springfield Ponies players St. Louis Browns (NL) players Troy Trojans players Waterbury Indians players Waterbury Pirates players Waterbury Rough Riders players