Walter Miller Thornton (February 18, 1875 – July 14, 1960) was an American

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), ...

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 ...

who played from 1895 through 1898 for the Chicago Colts / Orphans. A skilled athlete who excelled in baseball, Thornton pitched

Snohomish, Washington Snohomish is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. The population was 9,098 at the 2010 census. It is located on the Snohomish River, southeast of Everett and northwest of Monroe. Snohomish lies at the intersection of U.S. Rou ...

, to the state's amateur championship in 1893. In the spring of 1895, two

Cornell College Cornell College is a private college in Mount Vernon, Iowa. Originally the Iowa Conference Seminary, the school was founded in 1853 by George Bryant Bowman. Four years later, in 1857, the name was changed to Cornell College, in honor of iron ty ...

graduates who owned the ''Snohomish Tribune'' arranged a

scholarship A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need. Scholars ...

for Thornton to attend Cornell. He dominated the college competition and was invited to a tryout with the Chicago Colts (later the Chicago Cubs)

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 ...

baseball team. He made his major league debut on July 1, 1895, while still enrolled at Cornell. He pitched a no-hitter on August 21, 1898 against the

Brooklyn Bridegrooms The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the club moved to Los Angeles, Califor ...

, a 2-0 victory. In 1896, Thornton married a Cornell teacher, Sarah Andrews, director of the School of Oratory and Physical Culture. She was 26, he was 21. After a salary dispute ended his major league baseball career, the Thorntons returned to the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Tho ...

, where Walter played semi-pro ball and worked in

Everett, Washington Everett is the county seat and largest city of Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is north of Seattle and is one of the main cities in the metropolitan area and the Puget Sound region. Everett is the seventh-largest city in the ...

. In 1901, Thornton compiled what is arguably the county's best baseball team. The Everett semi-pro team won its first 27 games and shut out professional teams from

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

and Tacoma. In 1910, an evangelist named

Billy Sunday William Ashley "Billy" Sunday (November 19, 1862 – November 6, 1935) was an American outfielder in baseball's National League and widely considered the most influential American evangelist during the first two decades of the 20th century. Bo ...

, a former professional baseball player for the Chicago White Stockings and the

Pittsburgh Alleghenys The following is a history of the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball. Franchise beginnings (1870s-1899) Early baseball in Pittsburgh and the American Association The earliest mention of "base ball" in the region was found in the journal ...

, brought a six-week religious campaign to Everett. Thornton became a lifelong follower of Sunday and his religious teachings. He later moved to Los Angeles in the 1920s, after Sarah's death, to become a

street preacher A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, ...

and help the poor. In July 1960, Thornton died in a Los Angeles hotel, and was

cremated Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre i ...

References

External links

Baseball AlmanacBaseball ReferenceCornell College
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorton, Walter 1875 births 1960 deaths Baseball players from Peoria, Illinois 19th-century baseball players Major League Baseball pitchers Major League Baseball outfielders Kalamazoo Celery Eaters players Kalamazoo Kazoos players Kalamazoo Zooloos players Rockford Forest City players Rockford Reds players Grand Rapids Rippers players Grand Rapids Gold Bugs players Chicago Colts players Chicago Orphans players Cornell Rams baseball players American evangelicals

See also

References

External links