Thomas McLaughlin (March 28, 1860 – July 21, 1921) 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), ...

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...

. He played all or part of five seasons in the majors, between and . He played primarily at

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 ...

, but also played over 100 games as a second baseman McLaughlin debuted with the

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 ...

partway through the 1883 season. He played several positions over the remainder of the season, and in he was installed as the Eclipse's starting shortstop. He played well on defense, with a fielding range and percentage well above league average, but batted just .200. In , McLaughlin was moved to second base, replaced at shortstop by Joe Miller, who was signed from the

Toledo Blue Stockings The Toledo Blue Stockings formed as a minor league baseball team in Toledo, Ohio, in 1883. They won the Northwestern League championship in 1883. Their home ballpark was League Park. The following year, they joined the major league American Assoc ...

, which had folded. He played well again on defense, and nudged his batting average up to .212. In , McLaughlin jumped from Louisville to the

New York Metropolitans The Metropolitan Club (New York Metropolitans or the Mets) was a 19th-century professional baseball team that played in New York City from 1880 to 1887. (The ''New York Metropolitan Baseball Club'' was the name chosen in 1961 for the New York ...

, where he was back at shortstop, backing up 37-year-old

Candy Nelson John W. "Candy" Nelson (March 14, 1849 – September 4, 1910) was a shortstop in Major League Baseball. He played 13 seasons between and for nine teams in three leagues. Biography A native of Maine, Nelson entered professional baseball in B ...

. Although his defense was still good, his batting average dropped to an abysmal .136 in 74 games. After that, he spent four years out of the majors, playing with the

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

Toronto Canucks The Toronto Maple Leafs were a high-level minor league baseball club located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which played from 1896 to 1967. While the Maple Leafs had working agreements with numerous Major League Baseball clubs after the introdu ...

and

St. Paul Apostles ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy an ...

. After returning for a brief stint with the newly formed

Washington Statesmen Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

in 1891, McLaughlin retired.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:McLaughlin, Tom Major League Baseball shortstops Louisville Eclipse players Louisville Colonels players New York Metropolitans players Washington Statesmen players Newark Little Giants players Toronto Canucks players St. Paul Apostles players Syracuse Stars (minor league baseball) players Baseball players from Louisville, Kentucky 1860 births 1921 deaths 19th-century baseball players