Owen Clark was a 19th century utility player who
may have been known as “Spider.”
Owen F. Clark was born September 16, 1867 (though his
obituary suggests 1866), in Brooklyn. He was the second child, and only boy, of
four children of Patrick and Margaret Clark. The 1875 New York State Census
shows the family living at 149 N 8th Street; Patrick is an alderman,
and he and Margaret are shown as having been born in Ireland. In the 1880
federal census they are living at the same house but seem to have gone down in
the world a bit—Patrick is a laborer rather than an alderman and they no longer
have the servant girl they had in 1875. The next mention of Owen I found is an
article from the Brooklyn Eagle of
April 16, 1885:
OWEN CLARK IN COURT,
Charged With Assaulting Mary Rostran.
Owen Clark, son of ex-Alderman Patrick Clark, of the Fourteenth Ward, was arraigned before Justice Rhinehart this morning for assaulting Mrs. Mary Rostran, of 371 Fourth Street. The complainant owns the building at the number indicated, and rents the first floor to the ex-Alderman, who keeps a store there. A baseball was thrown over the fence into the yard of the building a few days ago, and young Clark, at the request of the boys who owned it, asked Mrs. Rostran to restore it. She had picked it up, and when she refused to give it to him he took it forcibly out of her hand. Mrs. Rostran tried to pick up the garden rake, according to Clark’s statement, to strike him but he put his foot on it. The lady then caught him by the vest and he pushed her away and escaped with the ball. Mrs. Rostran stated that he struck her. The case will be tried next week.
I didn't find anything more about the case, so I'm guessing he was found not guilty. At some point in his youth Owen began playing baseball, and
he played for various amateur and semi-pro teams in Brooklyn, including one
called the Acmes. In June of 1887 he had a tryout with the Philadelphia
Phillies; the Philadelphia Inquirer
said “Owen Clark is the name of a new catcher and infielder whom Harry Wright
will give a trial” and the Cleveland
Plain Dealer reported it as “Owen Clark, a Brooklyn Amateur, who is said to
be a good catcher and infielder and strong with the bat, is to be given a trial
by the Phillies.” It didn’t work out, though, and on June 21 he left for
Brooklyn; the Plain Dealer said “Owen
Clark, the Brooklyn amateur, recommended to Al Reach by Tommy Dwyer, was paid
off and sent home today,” while the Washington
Evening Star quoted the Philadelphia
Times as saying “Owen Clark, the young Brooklyn amateur, has been sent
home, simply because the club had no use for him.”
I’m sure this isn’t our Owen, but I found this article in my
research and wanted to share it. From the August 7, 1887, Trenton Evening Times:
A Tough Worsted.
Owen Clark, a character of the Seventh, without provocation attacked an apparently aged and decrepit organ grinder on Pennington avenue Friday morning. The son of Italy picked himself up, threw Clark down, belabored him over the head with a club for several minutes, and then sent him off to sober up.
Our Owen, meanwhile, is credited with playing in three games
for Nashville of the Southern League in 1887, playing second base and going
0-for-8. In 1888 he is supposed to have played for the Hazleton (Pennsylvania)
Pugilists of the Central League, though no statistics have been found, and he
also played for the Manchester (New Hampshire) Maroons of the New England
League. He played 63 games for Manchester, hitting .327 and slugging .449 in
254 at-bats. He played 40 games at catcher, 17 in the outfield, and from one to
three games at each of the infield positions. On September 29 the New York Sun reported that “Owen Clark,
late of the Manchesters, will catch for the Acmes against the Senators at
Recreation Park tomorrow.” And from the
Sun of December 26: “Owen Clark’s friends will be pleased to learn that he
has signed with the Washington league team. He became a player of note while
catching with the Acmes of this city.”
Owen made his major league debut with the Washington
Nationals on May 2, 1889. He got his first mention in Sporting Life in their May 8 issue:
A peculiar accident happened to catcher Owen Clark, of the Washingtons, at Staten Island Thursday. He didn’t know his hand had been split till his glove filled with blood. He wondered where the blood came from, and taking off the glove discovered a gash between the third and little fingers.
Owen played in just 38 games for Washington, but there is no
evidence that he spent any time with any other teams that season. He hit
.255/.285/.393 in 145 at-bats (the league averages were .266/.335/.361, so he
was below average at getting on base but had decent power for the time),
playing 14 games at catcher, 13 at shortstop, nine in right field, and two each
at second and third.
Following the 1889 season, the National League players’
union, the Brotherhood of Professional Base-Ball Players, quit the NL and
started their own league, the Players’ League. They held a meeting in New York
on November 4, as reported by the next day’s Philadelphia Inquirer:
THE BASE BALL REVOLT.
The Players Vote to Cut Loose from the National League.
THEY WILL GO IT ALONE HEREAFTER
They Form an Organization of Their Own and Issue a Declaration of Independence—Another Important Meeting to Be Held To-day.
NEW YORK, Nov. 4.—The first bomb of the base ball rebellion was fired to-day by the League Brotherhood of Players when the formally adopted resolutions which free them from the reserve rule and the obnoxious classification scheme, and forever take them out of the control of the National League. There are 120 members in the Brotherhood. Only a handful of players belonging to National League clubs have failed to join the new organization…
There were 30 delegates at the meeting, and Owen was one of
them. On December 20 Buffalo Bisons manager Jack Rowe announced Owen as one of
his signees for 1890. In mid-March Owen’s father Patrick died, and Owen was
late leaving for Buffalo, not taking off until the 31st.
The April 7 Boston
Herald printed Players’ League rosters, and showed Owen as 5-10, 150
pounds. The Bisons won their first four games, outscoring the Cleveland Spiders
75-32, but lost 11 of their next 12 and finished the season in a distant last
place. In the May 10 Sporting Life
their Pittsburgh correspondent’s report included the cryptic passage: "Owen
Clark, of Buffalo, accused the writer of being Miss Ella Black. How could he be
so cruel? Deacon White guessed rightly.”
Owen got a few more Sporting
Life mentions that season. The August 9 issue mentioned “Owen Clark’s first
base playing has caught the crowds. He is deservedly a favorite.” In the August
23 issue it was reported “Owen Clark has a split finger, received in the
Cleveland game of Wednesday last, and White has been off some days, but is now
on duty.” And the October 4 issue included this item:
BUFFALO BUDGET.
The first triple play ever seen here occurred on Monday. With Brouthers and Richardson on second and first, Nash drove a liner to Clark at second, who caught it, threw to Irwin at first, who threw to Rowe, retiring Brouthers.
Meanwhile, he also got a mention in the September 19 Boston Daily Globe:
The Manchester friends of Owen Clark of the Buffaloes take pride in the splendid work of this rising young player. He has been batting and catching in great shape lately.
Owen played in 69 of Buffalo’s 134 games, hitting
.265/.325/.338 in 260 at-bats. He played 34 games in the outfield, 14 at
catcher, 13 at second base, six at first base, and three or fewer at each of
the other positions, including one at pitcher.
The Players’ League folded after the season; even though
they had most of the star players and drew more fans than the National League,
they didn’t have the financial strength to continue the war. Owen’s rights
reverted to Washington, and he was said to have signed a new contract with them in February
1891. However, the April 4 Sporting Life’s
Washington report included the following:
All of the men are now here but Owen Clarke [sic], the catcher, who is ill at his home in Brooklyn. He has not yet played with the team, and is the only man who has not turned up to sign the final papers. He will do so, however, just as soon as his illness, which is not very serious, will let him. His position is not a very definite one, as he is so good an all-around man that he will probably be utilized as a utility player. It is said of him that last year he played in every position on the Buffalo team with credit. He is one of the most earnest, willing players in the business, and his good spirit and even temper will do much toward making the Nationals win games with the odds against them.
This was updated on April 18:
Catcher Owen Clark has not yet joined the Washington team, being sick at his Brooklyn home. His valuable services are not likely to be available for several weeks yet.
The Baltimore Sun
reported on April 23 that “Owen Clark, the Washington catcher, is still sick at
his home in Brooklyn, and it is feared he will not be able to play this
season.” The April 25 Sporting Life
included a large advertisement for Waldo M. Claflin of Philadelphia, a maker of
baseball shoes, and Owen was one of the long list of players who were said to
wear Mr. Claflin’s shoes. This ad appeared in the paper most weeks through
mid-August, but other than that Owen disappeared from public notice, presumably
still ill at home in Brooklyn.
On February 6, 1892, the Claflin ad with Owen’s name
reappeared in Sporting Life. It
appeared again the next week; however, by then Owen was dead. From the New York Herald’s Mortuary Notes,
February 9:
CLARK—At his late residence, 93 Wythe av., Brooklyn, Monday, February 8, OWEN F., son of the late ex-Alderman Patrick and Margaret Clark, aged 25 years and 5 months.
Notice of funeral hereafter.
In the next day’s Mortuary Notes the notice was slightly
expanded:
CLARK—Monday, February 8, OWEN F., son of the late ex-Alderman Patrick and Margaret Clark, late a member of Buffalo Baseball Club, aged 25 years, 5 months.
Relatives and friends of the family are respectfully invited to attend the funeral, from his late residence, 93 Wythe av., Brooklyn, on Thursday, February 11, 1892, at two o’clock.
Buffalo papers please copy.
On February 13 an article appeared in the New York Sun:
Owen Clark, the well-known catcher, who has played with many local amateur and semi-professional clubs, and who did such clever work behind the bat for the Washington and Buffalo clubs, died of consumption [tuberculosis] at the home of his father in Brooklyn on Tuesday. For the past eight years Clark has been in demand by the prominent clubs in this vicinity. It was while he was catching for the Acmes that the Washington Club signed him. He remained with that club until the Brotherhood revolt, when he was engaged by the Buffaloes. He did not play at all last season, owing to sickness.
(These days, Baseball Reference, Retrosheet, Wikipedia,
everybody lists Owen as “Spider Clark,” meaning that that was how he was
primarily known as a player. I don’t know where this comes from; I did not find
a single contemporary reference to him as “Spider.” The only newspaper story I
found involving a Spider Clark playing baseball was in the Portland Oregonian on August 28, 1887: “’Spider’
Clark, Arlington’s midget twirler, will occupy the ‘six by four,’ and will be
supported by Bacon, formerly of the Rush college nine, of Chicago.”)
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