Arthur Algernon Allison (January 29, 1849 – February 25, 1916) 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), ...

player from 1871 to 1876, who played his career primarily as an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

. Allison is known for playing in the first professional baseball game on May 4, 1871 between the Cleveland Forest Citys and the Fort Wayne Kekiongas, as Cleveland's Center Fielder. Allison is also known as being the first ever strikeout recorded in major league history. Allison had a peak year during the 1873 season whilst playing for the

Elizabeth Resolutes The Elizabeth Resolutes were a 19th-century professional baseball team based in Elizabeth, New Jersey. They were a member of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players for the 1873 season, and played their home games at Waverly Fa ...

, where he had a career-high

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of .320. Despite Allison having the second highest batting average of the 1873 season, the Resolutes as a team would place second to last in the National Association. After his baseball career, Arthur worked as a printer and resided in Washington D.C. for over 20 years until he died on February 25, 1916, after a fatal accident caused by colliding with a truck due to snowy weather while heading to work.

References

Major League Baseball right fielders Major League Baseball center fielders Philadelphia Geary players Cleveland Forest Citys (NABBP) players Cleveland Forest Citys players Elizabeth Resolutes players Washington Nationals (NA) players Hartford Dark Blues players Louisville Grays players 19th-century baseball players 1849 births 1916 deaths Binghamton Crickets (1870s) players St. Paul Red Caps players Baseball players from Pennsylvania {{US-baseball-outfielder-1840s-stub