Peaches Graham – Born in Aledo Illinois- Major Leaguer

 

Peaches Graham

Position: Catcher

Bats: Right • Throws: Right

Born: March 23, 1877, in Aledo, IL 

Died: July 25, 1939 

Buried: Cremated

Debut: September 14, 1902

Last Game: June 18, 1912 

 

George Frederick “Peaches” Graham (March 23, 1877 – July 25, 1939) was a baseball catcher for the Cleveland Bronchos, Chicago Cubs, Boston Doves/Rustlers, and Philadelphia Phillies.

For seven seasons Graham toiled in the major leagues which spanned eleven years. He made his debut with the Broncos at second base and then moved to the Cubs in 1903 where he pitched in one game and suffered a loss. He was out of baseball for five years and then returned to the Braves in 1908 as a utility player,

He played several positions with them and covered second base, third base, shortstop, outfielder, and catcher. In the middle of the season of 1903, he was traded to the Chicago Cubs but only appeared in three games for them before he was once again traded to Philadelphia for Dick Cotter. He concluded his career in 1912 at the age of 35 years.

In his career, he drove in 85 runs with one home run and a batting average of .265 in 999 at-bats. He died at the age of 62 in Long Beach, CA. His son Jack, who was born in 1916, played professional baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants, and St. Louis Browns between 1946 and 1949.

 

 

The Worst Team in Major League History

It started with the Cleveland Spiders in the 1890’s. They had been a decent team until their owners purchased a second team which was the St. Louis Perfectos in 1899.

The owners decided they wanted to excite the fan base in the new city so they dumped their roster from Cleveland to St. Louis. The Spides were really bad as they lost 11 games in a row 6 times during the season and their best pitcher was rookie Harry Colliflower. He won one game and lost eleven times.

Once while in Cincinnati while staying at their hotel, they talked a local tobaccoist named Eddie Kolb to be their starting pitcher for the next game. He lost 19-3.

Fans began staying home and not attending the games and the locals quit calling them the Spiders and smacked the nickname “Exiles” or “Wanderers” as the team name.

The team had a final recordd of 20 wins and 134 losses. Baseball executives and league brass began a move to outlaw owning more than one team.