Thomas F. Drohan (August 26, 1887 – September 17, 1926) was a

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

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 ...

from 1908 to 1917. He played one season in

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), ...

for the Washington Senators. Drohan was 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighed 175 pounds."Tom Drohan Statistics and History"
baseball-reference.com. Retrieved October 9, 2011.

Career

Drohan was born in

Fall River, Massachusetts Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state. Located along the eastern shore of Mount H ...

, in 1887. He started his professional baseball career in 1908. That season, he had a

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 match ...

of 11–12 in the

Central League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consist ...

."Tom Drohan Minors League Statistics & History"
baseball-reference.com. Retrieved October 9, 2011. In 1911, Drohan joined the

Central Association The Central Association was an American minor league baseball league. It began operations in 1908, as it was essentially renamed from the 1907 Iowa State League. The Central Association ran continuously through 1917. It was reorganized thirty yea ...

's Kewanee Boilermakers and was the team's top pitcher, with a record of 19–10. The following season, he improved to 24–6. He won 17 of 19 games at one point and was pitching so well that Kewanee received a number of offers from other clubs to buy him. He pitched a

no-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher wh ...

against Hannibal on August 29, winning 4–0. The following year, '' Sporting Life'' wrote that he was a "natural pitcher" and "considered an unusually good prospect." Drohan was drafted by 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 ...

's Washington Senators in the 1912 rule 5 draft. He appeared in two games for them in May 1913, allowing two

earned run In baseball, an earned run is any run that was fully enabled by the offensive team's production in the face of competent play from the defensive team. Conversely, an unearned run is a run that would not have been scored without the aid of an err ...

s in two

innings pitched In baseball, innings pitched (IP) are the number of innings a pitcher has completed, measured by the number of batters and baserunners that are put out while the pitcher is on the pitching mound in a game. Three outs made is equal to one innin ...

. Soon afterwards, Washington released him. The

Cleveland Naps The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive ...

claimed Drohan off waivers, but he never pitched for Cleveland, and his major league career was over."The Sensation"
''Sporting Life''. June 7, 1913. p. 1. He then returned to the Central Association in 1914. He spent most of the season with the Waterloo Jays and went 15-7 for Waterloo. The following year, his record dropped to 14–17. Drohan then joined the Clinton Pilots in 1916 and went 9–6 with a 2.34

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

. He stayed in the Central Association for one more campaign in 1917 before his professional baseball career ended. Overall, Drohan pitched in 220 minor league baseball games and had a career win-loss record of 101–76. He died in

Kewanee, Illinois Kewanee () is a city in Henry County, Illinois, United States. "Kewanee" is the Winnebago word for greater prairie chicken, which lived there. The population was 12,509 at the 2020 census, down from 12,944 in 2000. Geography According to the ...

– the site of his former glory – in 1926 and was buried in Pleasant View Cemetery.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drohan, Tom 1887 births 1926 deaths Major League Baseball pitchers Washington Senators (1901–1960) players Terre Haute Hottentots players Kewanee Boilermakers players Waterloo Jays players Terre Haute Terre-iers players Clinton Pilots players Baseball players from Massachusetts Sportspeople from Fall River, Massachusetts Attleboro Angels players