William Darwin Smalley (June 27, 1871 – October 11, 1891), nicknamed "Deacon", 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), ...

player for the

Cleveland Spiders The Cleveland Spiders were an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The team competed at the major league level from 1887 to 1899, first for two seasons as a member of the now-defunct American Association (AA), followed ...

of 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 ...

in and the

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 ...

of 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 ...

in .

Baseball career

Born in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

on June 27, 1871, Smalley was just 17 when he joined his hometown team, the

California League The California League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in California. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 until its demotion to Single-A following Major Leag ...

's Oakland Greenhood and Morans in 1888. Smalley switched to the San Francisco Haverleys later that season and then to the Oakland Colonels in 1889 when a scout for the Cleveland Spiders spotted him, inviting Smalley and several of his teammates to make the trek east to Cleveland. Still only eighteen when he made his big-league debut, Smalley proved to be a slick-fielding but weak-hitting third baseman, batting just .213 on the season. Still, Smalley played all 136 of the team's games, as did outfielder (and future Hall-of-Famer) George Davis. (Smalley's 502 at-bats in 1890 is still ninth-highest all-time for a teenaged MLB player.) Cleveland let Smalley go after the season. In 1891, Smalley hooked on with Washington of the American Association. Playing nine games at third base and two at second, Smalley was still overmatched by big league pitching (6-for-38, .158) and was released in early May; he finished the season by playing eleven games for the minor-league Syracuse Stars.

Death

Will Smalley would never get another chance to prove himself on the ballfield. In late September, while living in Syracuse, Smalley took ill with stomach cancer; his uncle William brought Will to the older man's home in

Bay City, Michigan Bay City is a city and county seat of Bay County in the U.S. state of Michigan, located near the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 34,932, and it is the principal city of the Bay City Metropol ...

. The young ballplayer declined rapidly and died on October 11, 1891, at the age of 20; his remains were buried in Oakland. Before the death of

Jay Dahl Jay Steven Dahl (December 6, 1945 – June 21, 1965) was an American baseball pitcher who made his debut (and lone appearance) in Major League Baseball at age 17 in 1963, then died less than two years later in a car crash. Career Signed by th ...

three-quarters of a century later, Smalley was the youngest at death of any player in Major League history.

References

1871 births 1891 deaths 19th-century baseball players Baseball players from Oakland, California Major League Baseball third basemen Cleveland Spiders players Washington Statesmen players Oakland Greenhood & Morans players San Francisco Haverlys players Oakland Colonels players Syracuse Stars (minor league baseball) players Deaths from cancer in Michigan Deaths from stomach cancer in the United States {{US-baseball-third-baseman-stub