| Marty Hogan | |
|---|---|
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| Born | October 25 1869 Wednesbury, England |
| Died | August 15 1923 (aged 53) Youngstown, Ohio |
Martin Francis "The Indianapolis Ringer" Hogan (October 25 1869 – August 15 1923) was an Anglo-American right fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Cincinnati Reds (1894) and St. Louis Browns (1894–1895).[1] When his playing career ended, he worked as a minor league baseball manager in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. As a manager, Hogan groomed several players who excelled in the major leagues. A keen judge of pitching talent, he signed future stars Stan Coveleski and Sam Jones to their first professional contracts.[2] He also cultivated the talent of pitcher Roy Castleton, who became the first native of Utah to play in the major leagues.[2] Hogan was among scores of experienced managers invited to participate in the United States Baseball League, often referred to as the "Outlaw League".[3] When plans for the league unraveled, Hogan resumed his career as a minor league manager, with mixed results. After failing to match his earlier achievements, he resettled in his adopted hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, where he died in 1923.[4]
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Early years
Hogan was born to Patrick J. Hogan, Sr., and his wife, the former Margaret Gillen, in the West Midlands industrial town of Wednesbury, Staffordshire, England.[4] When he was a child, his parents, both natives of Ireland, relocated the family from England to Youngstown, Ohio, a steel-production center near the Pennsylvania border.[4] There, his father secured employment as a steelworker,[5] while his older brother, Patrick J. Hogan, Jr., worked his way up to the position of "roller" at the Union Steel Company (later consolidated with U.S. Steel).[6] Martin Hogan, on the other hand, moved in the direction of an athletic career and gained early recognition as a "foot racer".[4] His interest in sports was evidently encouraged by his father, who followed his son's sports career even in later life.[5] Patrick J. Hogan, Sr.'s obituary described him as "a great baseball fan", who "was as quick to appreciate a clever 'steal' or a 'heady' play as any one of the younger generation".[5] Martin Hogan went on to establish a reputation not only as an athlete, but also as a handler and trainer of major league players.[4] Little is known about Hogan's early years in Youngstown, but he was seemingly popular among residents. Described in one news article as "a hard loser", he was also recalled as pleasant and outgoing.[7] His obituary referred to him as an individual "of pleasing personality" who "made many friends during his long residence in Youngstown".[4] Another newspaper article termed him as "a good fellow",[8] and a third indicated he was well liked among players with whom he worked.[7] At the same time, Hogan was quick to protest when he believed he had been treated unfairly.[9]
Playing career
He began his career as a major league player with the Cincinnati Reds, on August 4, 1894, but played only six games before switching to the St. Louis Browns. By this time, St. Louis had been frozen out of the league championship, after being tied with Cleveland and Boston for first place in April.[10] Hogan participated in 29 games with St. Louis in the 1894 season. According to the 1895 edition of Spalding's Official Baseball Guide, he ranked tenth among league outfielders with a percentage of .941 for put-outs, assists, and errors.[11] Among his teammates, Hogan held the second highest percentage of stolen bases for games played.[12] Despite Hogan's tremendous speed, his overall performance with the Browns was uneven, and he left the team at the close of the 1895 season, concluding a major league career that comprised 40 games over two seasons.[1]
He went on to play for the Indianapolis Hoosiers, a team connected to the Western League.[13] His obituary indicates that at some point, he set a record for baserunning.[4] This record was evidently set in 1895, when Hogan reportedly rounded the bases in 13.2 seconds.[14] Some observers questioned the veracity of this record, and a Washington Post reporter, while conceding that "Hogan was a great sprinter", described the unofficial record as "out of reason".[14] Nevertheless, Hogan became popularly known as the "Indianapolis Ringer".[15] In January of 1897, The Youngstown Daily Vindicator reported that Hogan was sold by the Hoosiers to a club in Grand Rapids, Michigan.[16] The article described Hogan as "one of the fastest outfielders and baserunners in the Western League" and predicted that he would "greatly strenghthen the Grand Rapids outfield".[16] The following month, however, the paper termed the previous report as a "mistake" and indicated that Hogan had signed a lucrative contract with baseball executive John T. Brush to play with the Hoosiers another year.[17] The paper reported that the contract would provide Hogan with "the largest salary he has ever drawn" and described him as "the fastest outfielder of them all" and "a great favorite in Indianapolis among the fans".[17] Hogan's obituary indicates that he also spent several years as a major league trainer before moving into his later career as a minor league manager.[4]
Management career
Youngstown Ohio Works
In 1902, Hogan was hired as manager of the Youngstown Ohio Works, a ball club sponsored by Joseph A. McDonald, superintendent of the Ohio Works of the Carnegie Steel Company.[8] In May 1905, the club was one of eleven teams to join the Protective Association of Independent Clubs, which formed the basis of the Class C Division Ohio-Pennsylvania League. That September, the Youngstown Ohio Works won the league championship, though sources disagree on the team's final record. As baseball researcher John Zajc writes: "The Reach Guide (1906) credits Youngstown with an 84-32 won-lost record where the Spalding Guide of the same year lists a 90-35 record. The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (1993) tells a third story, giving Youngstown an 88-35 mark".[18]
In 1906, the Ohio Works team took the league championship once again, with an 84-53 record,[19] while new player Roy Castleton gained national recognition by pitching a perfect game against a rival club in Akron.[2] A sports writer for The Youngstown Daily Vindicator predicted, in the autumn of 1906, that the "popular" Hogan would serve a fourth season as manager of the club.[7] Hogan, however, seemed unwilling to negotiate the terms of a new contract without leverage and publicly mulled an offer presented by a team in Nashville, whose representatives reportedly followed him to the train station.[20] According to the same newspaper article, Hogan later reached a verbal agreement with Ohio Works co-owners Joseph and Thomas McDonald, announcing soon after that he would remain with the local ball club.[20] By January 1907, however, the Newark Advocate reported that Hogan, evidently a shareholder in the club, wanted to sell the Youngstown franchise.[21] The paper observed that "a move in offering the Youngstown franchise for sale had created a furor in the league".[21] On January 8, 1907, Hogan and McDonald attended the annual meeting of the National Association of Professional Baseball Clubs in New York City, and the fate of the club remained uncertain.[22]
Zanesville
In February, the Zanesville Signal reported that Hogan had received permission from the McDonald brothers to negotiate a $3,000 deal for the sale of the Youngstown club, including its players, to a group of investors in Zanesville, Ohio.[23] The investors reportedly raised an additional $15,000 to enter the team into the Ohio-Pennsylvania League, though they were forced to settle for the less prestigious Pennsylvania-Ohio-Maryland League.[24] In October 1907, Hogan was offered management of another league franchise in South Bend, Indiana, but he refrained.[25] He managed the Zanesville ball club for two seasons. During its first season, the team failed to excel, placing third in the eight-team league.[26] In 1908, his final season, the team was christened as the Zanesville Infants and joined the Central League.[27] Further research is needed to determine the Zanesville Infants' league ranking at the close of the 1908 season, but available information shows that the team neither won the championship nor placed as a runner-up.[27]
Lancaster Red Roses
The following year, Hogan relocated to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he replaced local ball club manager Clarence "Pop" Foster, who had managed the Red Roses since 1907.[28] In 1909, the Lancaster Red Roses worked up a 75-39 record,[28] seizing the championship of the Tri-State League.[29] As Spalding's Baseball Guide (1910) reported: "Lancaster, under manager Marty Hogan, won its first pennant in the league, and the top rung of the ladder was only gained by the hardest kind of fighting".[29] A key player in this struggle was a young pitcher named Stan Coveleski, who made his professional debut with the Philadelphia Athletics three seasons later.[30]
The following year, however, the Red Roses' performance fell short of the previous season when it placed second, with 63 wins and 47 losses.[31] According to Spalding's Baseball Guide (1911), the Red Roses were one of several teams in the league caught off guard by a surprisingly strong new club from Altoona, Pennsylvania, which was "sent along at a clip that practically clinched the season".[32] While the Red Roses pulled out of a mid-season slump, the "Altoonas" prevailed with a 72-38 record.[32] Then, in 1911, Hogan's last year as manager of the Lancaster team, the club placed a disappointing fourth in the eight-team league,[31]with 54 wins and losses, respectively.[28] The 1911 league championship went to a franchise from Reading, Pennsylvania, which "took the lead at the beginning of the season and never was headed until the finish", closing with a record of 74-35.[33]
Zanesville Flood Sufferers
The record of Hogan's last years as a minor league manager is incomplete. In March of 1912, organizers of a proposed United States Baseball League, often referred to as the "Outlaw League", met in New York City's Hotel Imperial.[3] Hogan, who attended the meeting, was named as manager of a Cincinnati-based franchise scheduled to compete in the league.[3] It appears that the league never materialized, forcing Hogan to pursue other opportunities. In November of 1912, The Youngstown Daily Vindicator reported that Hogan was likely to again manage a local minor league ball club.[34] The article added, however, that the former Ohio Works manager was also mulling an offer in Zanesville.[34] Hogan evidently went to Zanesville, where he managed the Zanesville Flood Sufferers.[35] It was there, in 1913, that he signed future Cleveland Indians pitcher Samuel Pond ("Sad Sam") Jones to his first professional contract.[2] The Zanesville club disbanded in early July, ranking last in the beleaguered Inter-State League.[35] The league itself was dissolved about a week later.[35]
Fond Du Lac Molls
On July 20, 1913, The New York Times reported that Hogan left Zanesville to manage a Fond Du Lac franchise in the Illinois-Wisconsin League.[36] The article added that he planned to take along five players from the defunct Zanesville club.[36] In Wisconsin, Hogan replaced manager Ernest Landgraf, who led the Fond Du Lac Molls after the franchise moved from Milwaukee on June 28, 1913.[37] The team closed the season with a record of 63-60, placing fifth in the eight-team Illinois-Wisconsin League.[37]
Final years
By the mid-1910s, Hogan had permanently resettled in Youngstown, where he helped to organize the Youngstown Gun Club and became athletic director of Thomas Field, a ballpark owned by the local Brier Hill Industrial Works.[4] (The Brier Hill park featured both baseball and trap shooting.) His 1897 marriage to Agnes Daugherty had proven childless.[4] So, Hogan gave his younger relatives the benefit of his celebrated training skills. One nephew, Edward J. Hogan, became a standout in track and field at the University of Notre Dame.[38] Martin Francis Hogan was just 54 years old when he died at his North Side home from injuries sustained in an auto accident months earlier. Several blood transfusions failed to revive him, and a bout with pneumonia proved fatal. Funeral services for Hogan were held at St. Columba's Church, and he was buried at Youngstown's Calvary Cemetery. His wife, Agnes, survived him along with brother P.J. Hogan. A sister, Mrs. John Dillon, had died several years earlier. Hogan's obituary in The Youngstown Daily Vindicator highlighted his contributions to the community and observed that many young athletes he trained and managed went on to careers in major league baseball.[4]
References
- ^ a b Thorn, John; et al. (1989). Total Baseball. New York: Warner Books, p. 1187.
- ^ a b c d Lammers, Craig. Roy Castleton. Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved on 2007-03-04.
- ^ a b c "New York Not Yet Named In Outlaw League", The New York Times, March 16, 1912.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Death Takes Marty Hogan: Baseball Star Succumbs After Long Illness--Hurt in Auto Crash", The Youngstown Daily Vindicator, August 17, 1923.
- ^ a b c "Patrick Hogan, Father of Baseball Manager, Dies", The Youngstown Telegram, July 16, 1909, p. 20.
- ^ "Patrick Hogan Succumbs at 80", The Youngstown Daily Vindicator, January 14, 1938.
- ^ a b c "Hogan Is Popular Here; Fans Glad He Returned", The Youngstown Vindicator, October 14, 1906.
- ^ a b "Baseball Bits: Regard Them as Champions", The Youngstown Daily Vindicator, May 3, 1905.
- ^ "Why Hogan Withdrew", The Youngstown Vindicator, February 24, 1907.
- ^ Spalding's Official Athletic Library Baseball Guide (New York: American Sports Publishing Co., 1895), p. 14.
- ^ Spalding's Official Athletic Library Baseball Guide (New York: American Sports Publishing Co., 1895), p. 99.
- ^ Spalding's Official Athletic Library Baseball Guide (New York: American Sports Publishing Co., 1895), p. 114.
- ^ "Hogan Will Go South", The Youngstown Daily Vindicator, October 19, 1896.
- ^ a b The Washington Post, September 14, 1907.
- ^ Lightner, E. Allan. "Recalls When Billy Evans Played Sandlot Ball Here", The Youngstown Vindicator, February 26 1956.
- ^ a b "Hogan Sold: The Fleet Footed Youngstown Player Will Wear a Grand Rapids Uniform", The Youngstown Daily Vindicator, January 5, 1897.
- ^ a b "Hogan Signed: Will Play With Indianapolis at a Good Salary the Coming Season", The Youngstown Daily Vindicator, February 8, 1897.
- ^ Holl, Jim. Ohio-Pennsylvania League of 1905. Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved on 2007-03-04.
- ^ Ohio-Pennsylvania League. Baseball Reference. Retrieved on 2007-10-10.
- ^ a b "Hogan Remains in Youngstown", The Youngstown Vindicator, October 10, 1906.
- ^ a b The Newark Advocate, January 5, 1907.
- ^ "Tri-State League Admitted: Representatives of 5,000 Players Attend Baseball Meeting Here", The New York Times, January 9, 1907.
- ^ "Franchise, Team and Marty Hogan are Coming Here", The Zanesville Signal, February 18, 1907, p. 1.
- ^ Schneider, Norris F. (1950). Y Bridge City: The Story of Zanesville and Muskingham County, Ohio. Cleveland: The World Publishing Company, p. 307.
- ^ "Sporting News", Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, October 24, 1907.
- ^ Pennsylvania-Ohio-Maryland League. Baseball Reference. Retrieved on 2007-12-08.
- ^ a b Central League. BallParkWatch. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
- ^ a b c 1906-1914: A Rose by Any Other Name. Lancaster County Historical Society. Retrieved on 2007-03-04.
- ^ a b Spalding's Official Athletic Library Baseball Guide (New York: American Sports Publishing Co., 1910), p. 181.
- ^ Stan Coveleskie. National Baseball Hall of Fame. Retrieved on 2007-03-11.
- ^ a b BR-Bullpen Page on Lancaster Red Roses. Baseball.Reference.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
- ^ a b Spalding's Official Athletic Library Baseball Guide (New York: American Sports Publishing Co., 1911), p. 218.
- ^ Spalding's Official Athletic Library Baseball Guide (New York: American Sports Publishing Co., 1912), pp. 184-185.
- ^ a b "Say Hogan Will Succeed Phillips; Reported That Local Baseball Man Has Chance to Again Lead Locals", The Youngstown Daily Vindicator, November 6, 1912.
- ^ a b c Interstate League of 1905. Baseball Reference. Retrieved on 2007-03-04.
- ^ a b The Associated Press. "Hogan to Manage Fond Du Lac Nine", The New York Times, July 20, 1913.
- ^ a b Wisconsin-Illinois League. Baseball Reference. Retrieved on 2007-03-04.
- ^ The Dome, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, 1924.
External links
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference
- BR Bullpen Player Page
- 1895 St. Louis Roster - Baseball Almanac
- CNN/SI.com Player Page
- The Baseball Page Player Profile
- Baseball Toaster
