Henry Lampe pitched in nine National League games in
1894-95.
Henry Joseph Lampe was born September 19, 1872, in Boston,
to James, a carpenter born in New Hampshire, and Anna, born in Boston. James
had apparently died by the time of the 1880 census, which showed 39-year-old
Anna and 7-year-old Henry living at 37 Preble Street in Boston with two
boarders, David and Thomas Murphy, a brass-finisher and a porter respectively,
who may have been Anna’s brothers.
By 1892, the year he turned twenty, Henry was playing
amateur and semi-pro baseball around Boston. He was a left-handed pitcher who
batted right-handed. In 1893 he pitched well enough that in February of 1894 he
was signed by the National League’s Boston Beaneaters. From the Boston Herald of February 21:
ANOTHER BOSTON PITCHER.
Lampe of South Boston Added to the Champion Team.
The Bostons have signed another pitcher.
The young man’s name is Henry J. Lampe of South Boston. He is just 21 years of age, almost six feet high and weighs 180 pounds.
He pitched for the first time with the Murray and Irwins of South Boston two years ago. His first game was against the Whittentons and he won it. Since that time he has pitched against such strong clubs as the Brattleboros, and in one game the latter failed to make a hit off him in the five innings he pitched. He is a left hander, has plenty of speed and curve, and has a good head. He is a good fielder in his position.
Manager John Irwin [of the Murray and Irwins] says that he is a hard hitter and a fast runner. In speaking of his curves Mr. Irwin says that in one game at Haverhill Lampe pitched a ball that struck Miah Murray, his catcher, on the arm.
Mr. Selee [Boston manager] is greatly pleased with the appearance of the newcomer.
He pitched a ball that hit his catcher on the arm? That’s
amazing!
Henry didn’t get into a regular season game with Boston
until May 14, when he relieved Kid Nichols in a 16-5 home loss to Baltimore.
His second appearance, and first start, came on June 6, when he and reliever
Tom Smith combined to allow 27 runs and a record-tying seven homers to
Pittsburgh. That evening Boston owner Arthur Soden wrote Henry a letter giving
him ten days’ notice of his release from his contract. In his two games he
pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowed 19 runs (7 earned) on 17 hits including five home
runs, struck out one and walked 7, and had an ERA of 11.81. He caught on with
the Class B New England League, where he pitched for both Brockton and
Haverhill, and had a 5-7 record in 12 games.
In the spring of 1895 Henry signed with the Lawrence Indians
of the independent New England Association. On June 28 the Washington Evening Star reported:
Manager Arthur Irwin of Philadelphia has secured, as the result of a short visit to the New England clubs, Henry J. Lampe, the crack pitcher of the New England Association. Lampe is a big fellow, five feet eleven and a half inches in height, and weighs 175 pounds. He is about twenty-one years of age. Lampe has been the standby of his club, and won twenty-five out of twenty-seven games in which he has pitched.
Henry made three starts for the Phillies, an 11-10 loss on
July 3, a 6-1 loss on July 12, and a 10-8 loss on August 1. He also made four relief appearances, the
final one coming on August 2, and sometime after that he was let go again. This
time he had a 7.57 ERA in 44 innings; his major league career was now over, and
his career ERA was 8.03. He found a job with the Buffalo Bisons of the Class A
Eastern League, where he found the level of competition more to his liking and
had a 6-3 record and 3.68 ERA in 93 innings.
For 1896 Henry signed with the New York Metropolitans of the
Class A Atlantic League. In May he moved, somehow, to the Portsmouth Browns of
the Class B Virginia League, then in June back to the Metropolitans, who folded
in early July. He spent some time with Portsmouth again, then the Fall River
Indians of the Class B New England League and the Syracuse Stars of the Eastern
League. For Fall River he went 3-3 with a 3.44 ERA in 55 innings in seven
games; no statistics have turned up for the rest of his season.
In March 1897 Henry attended the New England League schedule
meeting as part of the Syracuse contingent, then was mentioned in the March 19
Boston Journal as part of the crowd at Lewis Wharf seeing the Beaneaters off on
their steamship trip to spring training. He had a much more stable season,
remaining with Syracuse all year. The Boston
Herald reported on June 20:
Henry Lampe of South Boston keeps on winning games for the Syracuse team, and has played no small part in moving that club to the top. Lampe has the laugh this season on those who styled him as “no good.” “Jack” Ryan catches when Lampe is in the box, and the twain make a very stiff battery.
On December 26 the Herald
looked back on Henry’s season:
Pitcher Henry Lampe, the fine young left-hander of this city, did some great work last season. May 11, at Springfield, he held the home club down to four runs in 12 innings; May 24, he shut out the Torontos; May 31, he held down the Rochesters to one run and four hits; Aug. 27, he shut out the Springfields, and Aug. 31 the Scrantons made but five hits. His work next season will be regarded with no little interest.
For the year Henry had a 23-12 record, pitching 292 innings
in 37 games; he allowed 166 runs, of which supposedly only 45 were earned—that
seems unlikely, even in 1897, but if true then he had an ERA of 1.39. In
December it was reported that he had been traded to Brooklyn, but that was not
the case.
On February 27, 1898, the Herald ran a feature article on Henry, from which some of the facts
in this post were taken. It concludes:
Lampe, unlike most ball players, has not led a life of idleness since the base ball season closed, but has been in the employ of the firm of C.H. McKenney & Co. of this city, where he is highly esteemed. He is a faithful and hard working young man, his habits are of the best and there is no reason why, whether in base ball or in business, he should not some day rank with the best.
Henry started 1898 back with Syracuse, but apparently was
let go in mid-May, just a couple of weeks into the season. On May 22 his mother
died, and on May 27 the Boston Herald
ran what seems to be a plea for short-term employment: “Pitcher Henry J. Lampe,
late of Syracuse, can be secured for Saturday and Decoration day, and can be addressed
20 Locust street, Dorchester.” (Dorchester is a neighborhood in south Boston.)
I don’t know if he found a place to pitch on Saturday and Decoration Day (now
Memorial Day), but he spent the second half of June with Toronto of the Eastern
League; between Syracuse and Toronto he had a 1-5 Eastern League record in 56
innings—he allowed 7.88 runs per nine innings, but it is not known how many of
the runs were earned. I found no trace of him the rest of the season.
Before the 1899 season, on April 5, Henry got married, in
Boston, to Hannah F. Murray, a 24-year-old clerk residing at 1026 Dorchester
Avenue. Henry, 26, was listed as a ballplayer, living at 20 Locust Street. He
moved in with her at her aunt’s house.
The season found Henry back in the Eastern League, now with
the Worcester Farmers. For the first time I found him referred to as “Jack,” in
two items in the Boston Globe. From June 21: “Jack Lampe was royally
entertained at Hartford during the visit of Worcester to that city by Jimmie
Connors, an old South Boston schoolmate, and a party of friends.” And on August
20:
The games the team have lost have been due wholly to the poorest kind of ball playing. Tuesday’s game was lost after two were out in the ninth inning, to the Torontos. Jack Lampe was batted all around the field, and Horton, who went in to help out, got all that was coming to him.
Henry finished the season with a 12-12 record in 239 innings
in 30 games; he allowed 6.44 runs per nine innings, but again it is unknown how
many of the runs were earned. Possibly because he was now married and would
soon be starting a family, he retired from baseball.
On April 27, 1900, Henry was appointed a reserve officer
with the Boston Police Department and assigned to Division 6, in south Boston.
On June 11 the US Census found him and Hannah (inexplicably listed as “Josephine”
this one time) living at 1026 Dorchester Avenue with Hannah’s aunt Mary Hayden,
a widowed tailoress. Interestingly, Henry had brought along David and Thomas
Murphy, his mother’s boarders/brothers, along with him to Mary’s house; David
was now a 50-year-old machinist and Thomas a 48-year-old stevedore.
The very next day, Henry was “seriously injured while trying
to stop a runaway horse in South Boston.” On July 20 he was given a
commendation for the incident and awarded two days’ additional vacation time.
On October 31 his probationary period ended and he was sworn in as a patrolman,
still with Division 6. At some point during 1900 Henry and Hannah’s first child
was born, daughter Marion (or Marian). Henry Jr. came along in 1902, and
Frances in 1903.
On August 1, 1903, Henry, referred to as Jack in the
stories, played in a baseball game between former and current players at the
Locust Street Grounds. On August 9 the Boston
Globe ran a feature article that mentioned him:
“COPS” WHO PLAY BALL.
A Number of Boston’s Finest Traveled in Big Company Before Discarding the Bat for the “Club With the Acorn Attachment.”
The Boston police department boasts of its many clever ball players, who in past years have made excellent reputations on the diamond. The men in their day could play the game with the best, but finally they forsook the uniform of the diamond for that with the brass buttons of the guardians of the peace.
There were a few, however, who did not play all the time for pleasure and for love, and who could be forced to accept some of the long green for their efforts…
Henry J., better known as “Jack” Lampe, who is attached to station 6, South Boston, is another bluecoat who had business relations with the Boston triumvirate. During 1893 he did such splendid work with semiprofessional teams that Selee secured him for Boston for 1894.
In the few games that he pitched he was wild, but staid [sic] on the club’s payroll until July 15. In 1895 he pitched for the New York Nationals [actually New York of the Atlantic League] and at Philadelphia, where his career as a major league ball player terminated. He pitched for several eastern and New England teams in later years, and created a favorable impression. It was the fad for ball players to go “sleuthing,” and the examinations for the force looked so easy that he could not resist eating ‘em up. He has been a member of the police department about four years [actually three], and the only time he plays ball is when he is called upon to break up a kid game.
On October 22, 1905, David Murphy died; “Funeral from the
residence of his nephew, Henry J. Lampe, 1026 Dorchester av. Wednesday, Oct 25,
at 8:15.” In 1906 a fourth child, Ruth, was born, and in 1908 came Muriel. Also
in 1908, on September 13, the Boston
Herald ran an article headlined “ATHLETES AMONG CITY’S POLICEMEN” that
mentioned Henry. The “Boston Briefs” column in the January 22, 1910, issue of Sporting Life included the item:
Jack Lampe, once famed as a left-handed pitcher, has taken to police basket ball. Strenuous? Ask Teddy.
Teddy Roosevelt? No idea.
In January 1912 Henry/Jack was an assistant to the chief
marshal of the annual concert and ball of the Boston Police Relief Association,
which drew over 20,000 people. At some point that year, he and Hannah had their
sixth and final child, Richard.
The 1920 census showed two households at 1026 Dorchester,
both of them renting. One was 59-year-old tailoress Mary Hayden and her single,
unemployed sister, Catherine Wagner, also 59. The other was Henry and Hannah
and their children: Marion, 19, a bookkeeper in the electrical field; Henry
Jr., 17, a stockkeeper in the safety razor field; and schoolchildren Frances,
Ruth, Muriel, and Richard.
On January 27, 1921, the Boston
Globe, in its Dorchester District news column, ran the following item:
A whist party will be held tomorrow evening at the Columbia Club, under the auspices of St. William’s Catholic Club. Many valuable prizes have been donated for the party. The committee of the club in charge consists of Coleman J. Duran, president; Frank Bransfield, chairman; Henry Lampe, secretary; Joseph Casey, treasurer, and Leo Welch.
The same newspaper reported on April 7:
The Dorrox girls, composed of well-known young ladies from the Mt. Pleasant district and Savin Hill section of Dorchester will hold their annual dancing party at the Columbus Club, Pearl and Pleasant sts, Dorchester, Monday night, April 11. The club is composed of the Misses Mae Donovan, Catherine Leonard, Marion Lampe, Anna Leonard and Helen Donovan. They will be assisted by the Misses Margaret Monahan, Helen Diggins, Anna Lonovan and Frances Lampe and Messrs. Henry Lampe [Jr. I assume], Sidney Burnham, Thomas Leonard, Carl Olson and Parker Duffy. Mrs. Henry J. Lampe and Mrs. John Leonard will act as matrons. Warren H. Johnston of Somerville, famous exhibition dancer, will give an exhibition dance on the latest New York steps.
The 1930 census showed Henry, 57, owning the home at 1026
Dorchester, with all six of the kids, now getting up there in age, still at
home. Marion, 29, is a stenographer for auto sales; Henry Jr., 28, is a railway
express clerk; Frances, 27, is a clerk at the State House; Ruth, 24, is a
hairdresser with her own shop; Muriel, 21, is a stenographer for a boarding
house, which seems like a very slow job, and Richard, 17, is in school. Aunt
Mary Hayden has apparently passed away, and her sister Catherine Wagner, who
has aged 21 years since 1920 and is now 80, is listed as a lodger.
Three months after the census data was taken, on July 8,
Hannah passed away. On September 16, 1936, Henry died. From the next day’s Boston Herald:
HENRY J. LAMPE
Henry J. Lampe, 64 [actually three days short of turning 64], for 36 years attached to Station 6, South Boston, and a former pitcher for the Boston club in the National League in 1894, died yesterday at his home, 1026 Dorchester avenue, Dorchester, after a month’s illness.
He was born in Boston Sept. 19, 1872. As a youth he starred in amateur and semi-professional baseball ranks and finally went up to the majors when he was signed by the Boston National League club.
He was appointed to the police force, April 27, 1900, and was assigned to the South Boston station where he had been ever since. For the past 15 years he had been a clerk at the station.
The Sporting News
also ran an obituary.
No comments:
Post a Comment