George H. "Foghorn" Bradley (July 1 1855 - March 31 1900) was an American pitcher and umpire in Major League Baseball who was born in Milford, Massachusetts. He played his only season in the majors in 1876 for the Boston Red Caps. His totals for the season included 9 wins and 10 losses in his 22 games. He started 21 games, completing 16 of them including one shutout.[1] The following season he did not continue to play, but instead served as a replacement umpire as he had in 1875 in the National Association. He did not get promoted to full-time umpire until 1879, when he officiated games in the National League until 1883. He would again umpire in the majors in the American Association in 1886.[2] During that era umpires generally worked games single-handedly, and Bradley called balls and strikes for every game in his career. Although his career as an umpire was short, he was involved a couple of historic games. On June 12, 1880 he was the umpire when John Lee Richmond pitched the first perfect game, which was also the second no-hitter, in major league history. Later in that same season, on August 20, he was the umpire for another no-hitter, this time by future Hall of Famer Pud Galvin, throwing the fifth no-hitter in major league history.[3] In total, he officially umpired in 344 games, during an era in which more than one umpire was rarely used in games. Foghorn died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of 44, and was buried in the Philadelphia Cemetery; he was later re-buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania.[4]
References
- ^ Baseball-reference player page
- ^ Baseball-reference Bullpen
- ^ Retrosheet: List of No-Hitters
- ^ Retrosheet
