Theodore A. Kennedy (February 7, 1865 in

Henry, Illinois Henry is a city in Marshall County, Illinois, United States. The population was 2,464 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Peoria, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Henry is named after General James D. Henry, and was initiall ...

– October 28, 1907 in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

), Ted was a professional baseball player who played

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 ...

in the Major Leagues from -. He would play for the

Louisville Colonels 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 ...

, Philadelphia Athletics, and Chicago White Stockings
Inventor of the baseball catcher's mitt
he sold his patents to the A.G. Spalding Company and opened a baseball school, specializing in teaching the curveball, and also manufactured sporting goods - specifically baseball gloves and catcher's mitts. He also invented a pitching machine and was developing the first electric scoreboard at the time of his death. Married to Regina. They had four children: Fannie (1887), Mabel (1889), Herbert (1891) and Viola (1896). In 1976, Kennedy's grandson (Viola's son), Dick Metzger, donated his grandfather's collection of memorable to the Baseball Hall of Fame library
The Ted Kennedy Collection
includes: Two scrapbooks of lessons, which are hand drawn, handwritten and typed; his glove patterns, with each piece cut out, ready to be assembled; flyers, brochures and articles with playing instructions to pitchers and players; and how to order a glove through the mail. Another donation of memorabilia was donated to the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame. Buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, Mo.

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1865 births 1907 deaths Major League Baseball pitchers Louisville Colonels players Chicago White Stockings players Philadelphia Athletics (AA) players 19th-century baseball players Omaha Omahogs players Keokuk Hawkeyes players Des Moines Hawkeyes players LaCrosse Freezers players Des Moines Prohibitionists players Omaha Lambs players Dubuque (minor league baseball) players Baseball players from Illinois People from Henry, Illinois {{US-baseball-pitcher-1860s-stub