Thomas Jefferson Sullivan (1859 – October 13, 1909) was an Irish born

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

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), ...

. Nicknamed "Sleeper" and "Old Iron Hands","Sleeper Sullivan Statistics and History"
baseball-reference.com. Retrieved August 27, 2011. Sullivan played for the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

Buffalo Bisons The Buffalo Bisons (known colloquially as the Herd) are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Located in Buffalo, New York, the team plays their home games at Sahlen Fiel ...

, the

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

St. Louis Brown Stockings The St. Louis Brown Stockings were a professional baseball club based in St. Louis, Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most ...

and

Louisville Eclipse 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 th ...

, and the

Union Association The Union Association was a league in Major League Baseball which lasted for just the 1884 season. St. Louis won the pennant and joined the National League the following season. Seven of the twelve teams who were in the Association at some poi ...

's St. Louis Maroons during the 1880s. Sullivan stood at 5' 7" and weighed 175 lb.

Career

Sullivan was born in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in 1859 and was raised in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

.Morris, Peter (2010).
Catcher: How the Man Behind the Plate Became an American Folk Hero
'. Government Institutes. p. 94. He started his professional baseball career in 1877, when he played for two teams: the New England League's Lowell Ladies Men and the

League Alliance The League Alliance was the first semi-affiliated minor league baseball league. Proposed by Al Spalding on January 15, 1877. Independent baseball teams were to affiliate with National League teams, which would honor their respective contracts. The ...

's Evansville Red. Sullivan then moved to the International Association in 1878 and the Northwestern League in 1879."Sleeper Sullivan Minor League Statistics & History"
baseball-reference.com. Retrieved August 27, 2011. In 1881, Sullivan joined the National League's Buffalo Bisons and made his major league debut on May 3. Sullivan was the Bison's second-string catcher. In 35 games, he batted .190 with 15

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 bat ...

. After the season, Sullivan jumped to the American Association's St. Louis Brown Stockings, where he played in 1882 and part of 1883. He was the team's starting catcher in 1882, playing in 51 games, but he had the lowest

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 ...

(.190) and

OPS+ OPS may refer to: Organizations *Obscene Publications Squad, a former unit of the Metropolitan Police in London, England *Oceanic Preservation Society *Office of Public Safety, a former US government agency *Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg * ...

(39) of the team's regulars. He also ranked second in the league in

passed ball In baseball, a catcher is charged with a passed ball when he fails to hold or control a legally pitched ball that, with ordinary effort, should have been maintained under his control, and, as a result of this loss of control, the batter or a ru ...

s, with 97. The following season, Sullivan played eight games for St. Louis and one game for the Louisville Eclipse, with a batting average of .207. In 1884, he played one games for the Union Association's St. Louis Maroons. Sullivan last appeared in a major league game on May 10 of that year. By 1886, Sullivan had moved back to the eastern part of the country. He spent that year playing in the Eastern League for the

Meriden Silvermen Meriden may refer to: Places United Kingdom *Meriden, Hertfordshire, England, a suburb of Watford; see List of United Kingdom locations: Me-Mic, List of United Kingdom locations *Meriden, West Midlands, England *Meriden (UK Parliament constituency ...

and Hartford Dark Blues, and in 1887, he played for the Eastern League's Danbury Hatters and the Pennsylvania State Association's Reading franchise. His primary position for Danbury and Reading was

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists who ...

. Sullivan played in the Atlantic Association in 1889 and 1890 and in 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 1891. His last stop was the Eastern League in 1892 before ending his professional baseball career. Sullivan earned the nickname "Sleeper" because of his unfamiliarity with Pullman sleeper cars in an era when baseball teams traveled by train. He died in St. Louis in 1909 and was buried in Calvary Cemetery.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sullivan, Sleeper 1859 births 1909 deaths Major League Baseball catchers Major League Baseball players from Ireland Irish baseball players Irish emigrants to the United States St. Louis Brown Stockings (AA) players St. Louis Browns (AA) players Louisville Eclipse players St. Louis Maroons players Buffalo Bisons (NL) players Lowell Ladies Men players Evansville Red players Lynn Live Oaks players Worcester (minor league baseball) players Dubuque Red Stockings players New York Metropolitans (minor league) players Meriden Silvermen players Hartford Dark Blues (minor league) players Danbury Hatters players Reading (minor league baseball) players New Haven (minor league baseball) players Wilmington Blue Hens players Newark Little Giants players Lynn (minor league baseball) players Rochester Flour Cities players 19th-century baseball players Baseball players from St. Louis