Thomas Joseph Carey (March 1846 – August 16, 1906), born J. J. Norton, was an American

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 ...

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), ...

. Born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York, Carey joined the 17th New York Volunteer Infantry in September 1863. He claimed to have fought at Bentonville, Jonesboro and

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

before being discharged in July 1865. Carey played a total of nine seasons of baseball, five of which were in the National Association ( 1871–

1875 Events January–March * January 1 – The Midland Railway of England abolishes the Second Class passenger category, leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British railway companies follow Midland's lead during the rest of the ...

), and the other four in 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 ...

. During two of the seasons in the National Association, he also spent some time as

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the s ...

, with a career record of 27 wins and 21 losses. Carey played as a second baseman in his first three seasons in the National Association, and went hitless in three

at bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

s for the

Fort Wayne Kekiongas The Fort Wayne Kekiongas were a professional baseball team, notable for winning the first professional league game on May 4, 1871. Though based in Fort Wayne, they were usually listed in game reports as simply "Kekionga" or "the Kekiongas", per the ...

in the first professional game ever played on May 4, 1871, against the

Cleveland Forest Citys The Forest Citys were a short lived professional baseball team based in Cleveland in the early 1870s. The actual name of the team, as shown in standings, was Forest City, not "Cleveland". The name "Forest Citys" was used in the same generic styl ...

. After his playing days were over, he spent the 1882 season as an

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

. In May 1906, ''

The San Francisco Call ''The San Francisco Call'' was a newspaper that served San Francisco, California. Because of a succession of mergers with other newspapers, the paper variously came to be called ''The San Francisco Call & Post'', the ''San Francisco Call-Bulletin ...

'' reported that Carey was struggling financially and that he was standing in the city's bread lines. He died later that year and is buried at the

San Francisco National Cemetery San Francisco National Cemetery is a United States national cemetery, located in the Presidio of San Francisco, California. Because of the name and location, it is frequently confused with Golden Gate National Cemetery, a few miles south of the ci ...

.Retrosheet
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References

External links

* Major League Baseball shortstops Major League Baseball second basemen Baltimore Marylands (NABBP) players Fort Wayne Kekiongas players Baltimore Canaries players New York Mutuals players Hartford Dark Blues players Providence Grays players Cleveland Blues (NL) players Baltimore Canaries managers New York Mutuals managers Baseball player-managers Sportspeople from Brooklyn Baseball players from New York (state) 19th-century baseball players Syracuse Stars (minor league baseball) players San Francisco Eagles players San Francisco Athletics players 1846 births 1906 deaths Union Army soldiers {{US-baseball-second-baseman-stub