Pat Sheridan

 

Pat Sheridan was an outfielder for four teams, but mostly for the Royals and Tigers, from 1981 to 1991.

Patrick Arthur Sheridan was born December 4, 1957, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His father, Art, had been a minor league pitcher in the 1950s. In 1976 Pat graduated from Wayne Memorial High School in Wayne, between Ann Arbor and Detroit, where he starred in baseball, basketball and football. He was drafted that June in the 36^th round by the Cincinnati Reds, but opted to go to college. He had scholarship offers in all three sports, but mostly in football, where he was a speedy wide receiver; he thought baseball was his best chance for success, though, and opted for Eastern Michigan University. He played outfield for three years at EMU, making the All Mid-America Conference first team his junior year, then signed with the Kansas City Royals in June 1979 after being drafted in the third round.

The Royals sent Pat to Fort Myers in the Class A Florida State League, where he hit .281/.354/.323 with 14 stolen bases in 235 at-bats. After the season he filled out a questionnaire, giving his hobbies as hunting and coins and his greatest thrill as “hitting two consecutive homers in a college league game.” He returned to Fort Myers for 1980, but after hitting .405/.466/.456 in 20 games he was promoted to the Jacksonville Suns of the Class AA Southern League. For the Suns he hit .305/.358/.431 in 367 at-bats, showing more extra-base power with 17 doubles, seven triples and five homers, and stealing 14 bases.

During spring training 1981 Pat was called up to play in an exhibition game with Kansas City, in which he got four hits. He opened the regular season playing center field and batting eighth for AAA Omaha, and on April 19 he got a feature article in the Omaha World-Herald:

Omaha Rookie Pat Sheridan Gives Royals Speedy Threat

By Howard Brantz

World-Herald Associate Sports Editor

When baseball people start talking about speed in the field or on the base paths, the name of Kansas City’s Willie Wilson usually surfaces quickly.

When Omaha Royals players talk quickness, Pat Sheridan, the rookie from Michigan, has center stage.

“He’s by far the fastest in the organization, except for Wilson,” said Omaha veteran Bobby Detherage, no slouch on the bases either.

Sheridan, a 6-3, 175-pounder, has been clocked in 6.45 seconds for 60 yards—in baseball gear.

As a high schooler at Wayne, Mich., he ran the 100 in 9.9 seconds—in tennis shoes—and was the fastest boy in school. So he can fly.

The 23-year-old center fielder wants to develop his base-stealing ability.

“I want to steal,” said Sheridan…

Before long Pat was moved into the leadoff spot. In early May, at which point he was hitting .342, he missed some time with the flu, then on May 18 he “fell on the steps at home taking laundry to the basement and injured his elbow.” At first it was thought to be just a bruise and that he would only miss a few games, but eventually it was found to be a cracked bone and he was out until June 24. 

From Howard Brantz of the World-Herald on August 12:

Hitless Nights Don’t Bug Royal Rookie

Pat Sheridan is glad he isn’t a pitcher.

“If you have a bad game when you’re pitching, you have to wait four or five days to get rid of the feeling,” Sheridan, the rookie speedster of the Omaha Royals, said.

His roomie at home is Bill Laskey, the elongated pitcher. Looking at the twosome, you get the idea quickly that neither is a gourmet cook. The 6-foot-3, 180-pound Sheridan said:

“I fry bacon and eggs and can cook hamburgers,” he said. “And that’s about all.”

Laskey, 6-5 and 190, isn’t much better around the kitchen, Sheridan said.

“My mother sent me some easy recipes, but so far we haven’t had much time to try them,” Sheridan said.

“We aren’t really as hungry as we look. We’re not starving, I’ll tell you that.”

Most of the time they eat out for their main meal, Sheridan said.

He did say that he was looking forward to a visit from his parents and a real home-cooked meal.

Unlike his roomie, Sheridan said he can rid himself of the distress caused by an “0-fer”—a hitless night.

“I try to forget the bad night when I leave the park,” the Michigan native said. He rejected scholarship offers to become a wide receiver at several major schools, including Michigan.

“You can’t let a bad night bother you. If you do, it’s really wearing on the mind and hurts you even more. I just think of the next night when I can come back and redeem myself.

“Pitchers. Wouldn’t that be awful to have to wait so long for your next start?”…

“Pat has shown a lot of improvement,” Omaha Manager Joe Sparks said. “He was a bit too cautious early, but he is becoming more aggressive. He has a lot of potential. Nobody can tell how much.”

A native of Wayne, Mich., he has a .309 average, with 10 doubles, a team-high eight triples and five homers this season…

Sheridan hasn’t fully utilized his speed as a base stealer. But he really flies when he hits the ball, frequently stretching hits an extra base with head-long dives…

Pat ended up hitting .298/.365/.444 with 12 stolen bases in 315 at-bats; Omaha finished with the best record in the league and while winning their first-round playoff series (they lost in the championship) Pat’s contract was purchased by Kansas City, effective at the end of the playoffs. On September 16 he made his major league debut, replacing Clint Hurdle in right field in the ninth inning of a victory at California. On the 21^st, at home against Minnesota, Pat pinch-ran for Willie Wilson, which has to have been a rare event, in the bottom of the sixth with the Royals down 7-2. He stayed in the game in left field, and got his first at-bat in the eighth, striking out against Albert Williams. He made his last appearance of the season on the 27^th at home against Seattle, replacing Cesar Geronimo in right in the ninth inning of a 15-3 Royals win. After the season the Royals played 17 games on a tour of Japan, and Pat was part of the squad.

In 1982 Pat was invited to major league spring training as a non-roster player and almost made the team—he was the last player cut and was sent back to Omaha. But he had injured his hamstring in an exhibition game and he reinjured it in Omaha’s opening game, then he reinjured it two more times trying to come back. It was mid-July before he was back for good, and he finished with just 135 at-bats in 41 games, hitting .252/.327/.326 with no home runs and no stolen bases.

Pat was on the Royals’ protected roster over the 1982-83 off-season, but the team picked up outfielders Joe Simpson and Leon Roberts and Pat was sent back to Omaha in April again. 

From the April 6 Omaha World-Herald:

“I knew when they got Simpson and Roberts that my future was with Omaha,” Sheridan said. “They never had any plans for me this spring. They didn’t give me a chance to make the team because if they did I would have made it.

“Last year I probably had the club made but they sent me to Omaha because they wanted me to play everyday. They didn’t want me to sit up there and just be a utility outfielder.”

…Sheridan hasn’t given up, and the Royals haven’t given up on him. Dick Balderson, the Royals’ director of scouting and player development, said Sheridan is still considered one of the organization’s top outfield prospects.

On May 14 Pat was called up to Kansas City after hitting .307/.388/.653 with four doubles, five triples and four homers in 20 games. On the 15^th he made his first appearance in a major league starting lineup, playing right and batting 7^th in a home game against the Tigers, as reported in the May 30 Sporting News:

Sheridan Living Ultimate Dream

KANSAS CITY—Pat Sheridan was in a dream world in mid-May, and he didn’t want anyone to pinch him.

He figured he would be playing all season at Omaha (American Association), but the Kansas City Royals called him up May 14 when right fielder Jerry Martin’s problems with his right wrist persisted.

On May 15, Sheridan was in the lineup, and in the ninth inning against the Detroit Tigers he got his first major-league hit—a solo home run that sent the game into extra innings. “That’s the ultimate dream—a homer on your first hit,” he said.

Two nights later, in Boston, Sheridan made a spectacular diving catch in right-center and another outstanding catch after a long run to the foul line, helping preserve a 2-1 victory. The press swarmed him. Who was this thin, fleet, spectacled youngster?...

“I’m usually a guy who scores a lot of runs, not knocks in a lot,” he said. “And I can run pretty good, so I’ve gotten to some balls in the outfield that others couldn’t

“I’m not off to a great start with the stick (2-for-10), but I think I can help. I’ve never ben pegged as a Judy.”

…Manager Dick Howser said when Sheridan was recalled, “He’ll be a regular player with us against most righthanded pitching. We didn’t bring him up to have him sit around.”

Pat missed some time in June with a shoulder injury, and continued to hit around .200 until getting hot in July and August. Meanwhile, he was moved from right to left as Amos Otis moved from center to right and Willie Wilson from left to center; he also spent some time in center during an injury to Wilson. The Sporting News said on September 12:

Pat Sheridan has earned his spurs, easing gradually from platooning against righthanded pitching to full-time status because of injuries, and batting close to .300. He has turned plays in center field that border on the spectacular.

Pat played in 109 games for Kansas City, hitting .270/.312/.381 with 12 stolen bases in 15 attempts.

After the season Wilson was sent to prison for attempting to purchase cocaine, and in January 1984 he was suspended by major league baseball, so with his future up in the air Pat went into spring training as the presumed center fielder. He kept the job until Wilson’s return in mid-May, at which point he became the right fielder against right-handed pitchers. From the July 30 Sporting News:

Sheridan Has Done a Lot for Royals

KANSAS CITY—Locating a Kansas City Royals player among the American League leaders this year has been nearly impossible. Sure, Dan Quisenberry is the saves’ master. But offensive leaders?

The most noticeable absentees are center fielder Willie Wilson and third baseman George Brett. Each missed the first six weeks of the season, so each has fewer than 300 at-bats this year. And another who regularly has been among the A.L. leaders, designated hitter Hal McRae, is far off his normal pace.

So the situation left open the door for someone else to take the lead. That has been outfielder Pat Sheridan, a new name on the offensive charts. Sheridan began the second half of the season fourth in the league with a .323 batting average.

The reason? Sheridan acknowledges that it has helped hitting second in the order, between Wilson and Brett. Coming up between two former batting champions would figure to be something of a hitter’s paradise.

“I think any time when you’re sandwiched between two of the better hitters in the league, you’re going to get better pitches to hit,” Sheridan said. “I know if a pitcher gets behind on me (in the count) he’s going to come in with something because he’d rather face me than George. I think that helps. You get a better selection of pitches hitting between them. I don’t think they’re ever going to pitch around me to get to George. Nobody is going to do that.

“Then, if Willie gets on in front of me, I know they’re going to throw fastballs. If the pitcher throws a curveball, there’s almost no chance to throw Willie out. So I get a lot of high fastballs when he’s on first base.”

Pat’s hitting fell off later in the season, and he ended up hitting .281/.338/.399 in 481 at-bats, with 24 doubles, four triples, eight home runs and 19 stolen bases. The Royals won their division but got swept by the Tigers in the playoffs, as Pat went 0-for-6 in the three games.

1985 found Pat platooning in right again. He missed several games in May with a stiff neck, and went on the disabled list for the second half of June after pulling a hamstring. Meanwhile he was not hitting well, and he lost his spot in the right field platoon to Dane Iorg in July, though he got it back the last week of the season. He hit just .228/.307/.335 in 206 at-bats, with 11 stolen bases. The Royals won the Western Division again and this time they beat Toronto in seven games; Pat had just three hits in 20 at-bats, but two of them were home runs. Then the Royals beat the Cardinals in seven games in the World Series, while Pat was 4-for-18 with two doubles.

During the off-season Pat took the Royals to salary arbitration and lost, then late in spring training 1986 he was released. A week later the Tigers signed him to a minor-league contract; they sent him to AAA Nashville, where he had ten hits in 35 at-bats before being called up to Detroit on April 23 when Kirk Gibson was placed on the disabled list. Gibson returned in early June, but Pat stayed with the Tigers for the rest of the season, starting in one of the outfield spots in the majority of the games against right-handers, and hit .237/.300/.360 in 236 at-bats in 98 games. After the season the team sent Pat to free-lance hitting instructor Harry Walker.

Pat filed for arbitration again, but he and the Tigers came to a settlement before the hearing. From the Sporting News, March 30, 1987:

[Manager Sparky] Anderson called left fielder Pat Sheridan the most improved player in camp. Sheridan is switching from right field to left and will platoon with Larry Herndon. “Pat is making the most of the chance,” said Anderson, “because he has a new lease on life. Pat knows what it’s like not to be wanted by a club (Sheridan was released by Kansas City after the 1985 season) and he is going to make sure it doesn’t happen again. He’s got the best arm in the outfield, plus he’s the second best runner on the team. I think he’s a tremendous talent.”

With Kirk Gibson starting the season on the disabled list, Pat actually was playing right field, and when Gibson returned Anderson moved him to left and kept Pat, and various platoon partners, in right. From the June 1 Sporting News:

Spraying Beats Pulling

DETROIT—The transition would be complete, if it was a transition at all. But Pat Sheridan said it isn’t, that he’s only going back to the style of hitting he once knew.

Whether it’s something new, something old or something in between, the style was working for the Detroit Tigers outfielder. In mid-May, Sheridan had hiked his batting average to .331, fourth best in the American League.

Most of the hits were singles, but once in awhile he reminded pitchers of the power lurking behind those line drives up the middle, such as when he slammed a 431-foot home run to dead center field in Arlington Stadium on May 18.

It was Sheridan’s first home run of the season, after 115 at-bats, and along with it came a test. Would he revert to bad habits, such as pulling the ball for extra power?

“Maybe last year I would have. Or two years ago. But not anymore,” said Sheridan. “That’s not me. I have the strength to hit home runs, but that’s not what I’m up there trying to do.”

The left-handed hitting Sheridan never considered himself a home run hitter. But he did have a tendency in the last two years to pull the ball instead of spray it. Last winter, the Tigers sent him to hitting instructor Harry Walker to correct the habit.

“It’s funny,” Sheridan said. “This isn’t a new style for me, just an old one rediscovered. It’s what I was in the minors and early in the majors. I hit the ball up the middle, and also to left. I didn’t try to pull the ball back then.”

Sheridan hit .270 for Kansas City in 1983 and followed that up with a .283 average the next season as he became the Royals’ starting right fielder.

“After that year, I had a lot of people wanting me to change my style,” he said. “I did, but the people who make you change never get the blame. Only the player does.

“Now I’m just getting back to what I was, putting the ball in play. I can hit home runs, but I don’t try to. That’s not my role. Getting on base and scoring runs is.”…

Pat was hitting .300 as late as June 21 and .290 as late as August 25, but then slumped and didn’t get many starts the last few weeks of the season. He wound up hitting .259/.327/.361 in 421 at-bats in 141 games, with 18 stolen bases. The Tigers won the East Division but lost in five games to the Twins in the playoffs; Pat, who got his job back for the series, was the star of the Tigers’ lone win in game 3, hitting a two-run homer off Twins relief ace Jeff Reardon in the bottom of the 8^th for a 7-6 victory.

Pat filed for salary arbitration again for 1988, and again agreed to a settlement before the hearing. He had an excellent April, back in left field against righthanders, then missed some time with an injury. From the May 23 Sporting News:

Leftfielder Pat Sheridan hit the second grand slam of his career May 6 against Seattle, in a game he wasn’t scheduled to play. Bothered by a pulled groin muscle, Sheridan wasn’t in the starting lineup, but when the Mariners made four pitching changes in the eighth inning, Tigers Manager Sparky Anderson inserted an equal number of pinch-hitters. Sheridan was the fourth pinch-hitter of the inning and belted the grand slam on the first pitch from Mike Jackson. “That’s one way to keep from running hard,” he said.

On June 8 Pat went 4-for-5 with two homers and six RBI; at that point in the season he was hitting .298/380/.553. On July 6 it was announced that he had been named the AL Player of the Week for the previous week, during which he was 11-for-22 with three doubles, two triples, two homers, 10 RBI and a 1.091 slugging percentage. He faded some after that, but still ended up with career highs in home runs, on-base and slugging, going .254/.339/.403 with 11 homers in 347 at-bats in 127 games.

For 1989 Pat once again filed for salary arbitration and once again settled before the hearing. On February 22 Joe Falls, in his Detroit News column, asked “Why is there always talk about trading Pat Sheridan?” Four days later Falls, in a column on his early impressions of the Tigers, said:

Pat Sheridan: A personal favorite because he is so quiet and so friendly. He will give them a .250 average with some power and won’t be a problem if he sits.

Pat lost his outfield spot to Fred Lynn and opened the season as the DH against righthanders. He bounced around between DH and the three outfield spots as needed until on June 16 he was traded to San Francisco for outfielder Tracy Jones. From the next day’s Detroit News:

Sheridan traded to Giants for Jones

By Tom Gage

Pat Sheridan didn’t want to go. But he always knew there was a chance…

This was the first trade, however, for Sheridan, who was picked up by the Tigers after he was released by Kansas City in April, 1986.

“It was a dream come true to play here, not only for me, but for my family,” said the former Eastern Michigan star. Sheridan and his wife are building a house in Farmington Hills, and they’re also expecting their first child next month.

“This is going to be tough on my wife,” he said. “Maybe it’ll turn out to be the best thing for my career, but I can’t say that now. I’m shocked, disappointed, sad, just about everything.”

Sheridan was in the midst of batting practice, “when Sparky called me into his office and told me I’d been traded. It’s the last thing I expected.”

And the last thing he wanted.

The Giants put Pat into a right field platoon with Candy Maldonado. Meanwhile, he was getting into horse racing, as shown in this item from Al Coffman’s racing column in the June 26 Detroit News: “’Yankee,’ claimed recently for $12,500 by ex-Tigers outfielder Pat Sheridan, won with a sparkling 1:55 2/5 mile, only 1 3/5 seconds off the track record.” He missed a couple games in July when his daughter was born. In August manager Roger Craig, unhappy with the right field platoon’s production, started mixing in some other starters, but Pat still got the bulk of the time against righties. His season totals, combining both teams, were .221/.295/.335 in 281 at-bats in 120 games, with eight stolen bases in nine attempts.

Meanwhile, the Giants were winning their division. They beat the Cubs in five games in the playoffs, as Pat went 2-for-13 with a triple, then moved on to the World Series against Oakland. Craig played a hunch and started Maldonado in the first two games even though the Athletics started righthanders, so Pat only got two at-bats as Oakland swept the series. Game three was delayed for ten days following the Loma Prieta earthquake, and Pat got a little media attention when the AP surveyed the players on both teams and he was the only one who said he thought the series should be called off.

After the series Pat filed for free agency, while the Giants signed Kevin Bass to play right field. In February 1990 Pat signed with Kansas City. From the February 16 Detroit News:

Sheridan signs with Royals

By Tom Gage

Not all free agents find a pot of gold. Pat Sheridan, for instance, found a ticket back to the minors.

The former Tiger signed a Double-A contract Thursday with the Memphis affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. However, he will be invited to spring training with the Royals with a chance to make the team if and when there is a spring training.

“There were a couple of other teams interested,” Sheridan said, “but with no guarantees at all. Cleveland and Seattle showed some interest. Seattle showed a lot of early interest, in fact, but it cooled down.

“I’m not going to the minors. If I don’t make the major-league team, I’ll probably come home, but maybe I should keep an open mind on that.”

At the end of spring training the Royals released Pat after he refused to go to Memphis. On April 26 he signed a minor league contract with the Cubs and reported to Iowa of the AAA American Association. He hit .329/.420/.543 in 23 games; an article in the April 6, 1991, Jersey Journal described what happened next:

…Sheridan had a verbal understand [sic] with the Cubs that if he was playing well in Iowa, and the team was ready to call him up [sic], he would be free to leave.

Early in June, Sheridan was hitting .329, but the Cubs had no plans to bring him up. Sheridan, citing the verbal agreement, told them he was leaving. But the Cubs told him he couldn’t go anywhere. After a week of acrimonious negotiations, Sheridan left the team on June 18. The Cubs immediately put him on the suspended list, making it impossible for him to talk to other teams. Chicago kept him on the list until the season ended.

In January 1991 Pat signed a minor league contract with the Yankees and was invited to major league spring training to compete for a backup outfielder job. He seemed to have won a spot until, a few days before the season opener, the Yankees picked up Scott Lusader on waivers. From the same April 6 Jersey Journal article:

To make room for Lusader, Yanks [sic] asked Sheridan to accept an assignment to Triple A Columbus. The 33-year-old Sheridan, who was an unsigned non-roster player, hit .263 in 38 at bats this spring. He said he would talk to his wife and agent before deciding whether to accept the demotion. If he chooses not to go to Columbus, Sheridan will become a free agent.

“It’s tough for Sheridan. I feel bad for him,” said manager Stump Merrill. “I told him the chances of getting back are better when you’re playing than when you’re sitting.”

But Sheridan is probably still reluctant to take a step down after suffering through a bad experience last year…

When he arrived in the Yankee camp this spring, Sheridan thought he was with an organization that would give him a fair chance to win a job. But yesterday, Sheridan was again dealing with the hurt of being let go.

“I’m really surprised,” he said. “It’s the last day (of spring training) and everybody told you you made the team. Everybody but the right people.

“It’s disheartening when do [sic] the job they want you to do and you still come up short. It’s not a very happy feeling. It’s hard when you feel you made the team and at the last hour you didn’t make the team.”

Pat did accept the Columbus assignment. He was hitting .271/.363/.457 in 70 at-bats when on May 13 he was brought up to New York when Lusader was put on the DL. He stayed with the Yankees for the rest of the season, getting some starts in right field for a while but then being used almost exclusively as a pinch-hitter over the final several weeks. 

He hit .204/.286/.336 in 113 at-bats in 62 games; after the season the Yankees exercised the buyout clause in his contract, paying him $20,000 and releasing him.

Since 1992 Pat has had an insurance business, PAS Insurance Services, in Canton, Michigan. In January 1995 he was on the list of players receiving damages as part of the collusion settlement between the players’ union and the owners; he got $13,600.62. In October 1998 he was inducted into the Eastern Michigan University Athletic Hall of Fame.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/S/Psherp001.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sheripa01.shtml

Wish Egan

 

Wish Egan pitched for the Tigers in 1902 and the Cardinals in 1905-06, then had a long career as a scout and in the front office for Detroit.

Aloysius Jerome Egan was born June 16, 1881, in Evart, a small town in central Michigan. I didn’t find out much about his background and early life. His father, James J., was born in Ireland, and his mother, born Ellen Lamey, was born in New York, which is apparently where they met and married. Wish’s brother Edward J. was born in New York sometime between 1865 and 1869, and sister Nellie was born in 1874 in New Jersey; another sister, Theresa, was younger than Nellie and was born in New York. Edward was playing minor league baseball in Michigan by 1888. A 1950 article on Wish says that James worked for the government and that the family moved to Detroit when Wish was six months old.

In the 1898 Detroit city directory, 17-year-old Wish is listed as a clerk for the Michigan Central Railroad and brother Edward is listed as a ballplayer, with both of them shown as boarders at their father’s house, 799 14^th Avenue. The 1899 directory has the same information except that now the house belongs to widowed mother Ellen. In 1900 Wish, but not Edward, is boarding with Ellen at 176 Elizabeth; in 1901 he disappears from the Detroit directory for a while.

As Wish told the story years later, he pitched a game for a pickup team against the Michigan Alkali Company’s semipro team and beat them, which got him a job with Michigan Alkali and a spot on their team. He pitched well enough for Michigan Alkali to attract the notice of the Detroit Tigers, and at the end of August 1902 they offered him a job. He reported on September 3 and was told he was pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics that day; he lost 5-3 to Eddie Plank, who pitched eight innings of relief. Wish allowed ten hits and just two earned runs in his nine innings, and had two singles and a walk at the plate, and a putout and five assists in the field.

Wish got another start four days later; this game was one of ten Tigers home games that season played at Burns Park instead of their regular home, Bennett Park. He was relieved after five innings with a 6-4 lead over Baltimore, but the Orioles tied the game in the sixth before the Tigers won, 11-6, so Wish didn’t get credit for the victory.

His next start was not until September 20, in the first game of a doubleheader in Chicago. Wish allowed three runs in the first, and that was all the scoring in the game as the White Sox’ Nixey Callahan pitched a no-hitter. That was Wish’s last appearance for the Tigers; he had a 0-2 record and 2.86 ERA in 22 innings, while not striking out a single batter. In December it was announced that he was being loaned to the Class A Louisville Colonels of the American Association for the 1903 season.

Stats are sketchy for the American Association in those days, but Wish had a 24-16 record in 43 games, allowing 360 hits and 84 walks while striking out 125, in an unknown number of innings. In the field he had 116 assists, which was mentioned as a record. The following offseason was discussed in an article on Wish in the Sporting News of April 22, 1943:

Detroit had loaned Egan to Louisville under a gentleman’s agreement, but that fall [Louisville owner George] Tebeau sold Wish to Cincinnati. During the winter, Egan was turned back to the Colonels—apparently as a “cover-up,” as the Cubs and Pirates had made offers for him.

Wish had received $300 a month for the 1903 season, but the next spring Tebeau sent him a contract calling for $200 a month “because [Reds owner] Garry Herrmann had turned you back.” Egan wired Tebeau he planned to retire from the game and go into business, and Tebeau wired back: “I wish you a lot of success in your business venture.”

“So I reported to Louisville at $200 a month,” grinned Egan. “Tebeau promised me that if I had a good season, he would make things right with me.”

Wish did spend 1904 with the Colonels, and this time he had a 20-20 record in 353 innings in 44 games, walking 71. The 1904 Louisville city directory showed him as a ball player, residing at Nic Bosler’s Hotel. After the season he was sold to the St. Louis Cardinals.

On April 6, 1905, Wish got his first significant newspaper attention that I was able to find, in an article in the St. Louis Republic on the previous day’s exhibition game against the Browns:

CARDINALS AGAIN WIN FROM BROWNS

“Big” Wish Egan, the Wyandotte Chicken, Proves Tough Picking for the Batsmen of McAleer’s Forces.

…Mr. Charles Nichols introduced a new pitcher in the form of “Wish” Egan, to the several hundred fanatics that consented to take chances with pneumonia, or any other old thing, for the sake of the sport. Egan made a hit with everyone but the Browns, and the only reason that “Wish” did not make a hit with the Browns is because he would not let them make many hits with him.

The Cardinals’ victory was largely due to Mr. Egan’s effective and artistic work on the slab, although he received valorous assistance from the other eight members of the team…

Egan made good. The game boy from Wyandotte, Mich., made the Browns’ batsmen resemble a band of Ashantees trying to play whist.

“Wish” is only a boy yet, and he surely has a promising future in store for him if yesterday’s game is a criterion of his general work.

He let the Browns down with seven hits, allowed only two to walk, fanned four, smashed out a hit and showed class A form all the way.

Egan is a fixture after his showing of yesterday, and it would not be a bit surprising if Nichols shows him against the Browns another time before the spring series ends.

Wish got the start in the Cardinals’ second game of the NL season, beating the Cubs at home, 2-1. He was the team’s number five starter that year, with a 6-15 record and 3.57 ERA (the league average was 2.99) in 171 1/3 innings in 23 games, 19 of them starts. Along the way he took some grief for his hitting, including this from the Boston Globe of August 1, reporting on the previous day’s game with the Beaneaters:

[Boston pitcher Kaiser] Wilhelm was running neck and neck with Aloysius Egan, that broad-shouldered youth who stands high in the air and boasts of the smallest batting average in the big leagues. Aloysius never showed better. New York beat the lad, 2-1, through no fault of his, and he would have had a shutout today had McBride grabbed Dolan’s hard-smashed ball.

For four innings it was a draw. Then came the finish in the sixth. Egan opened with a pass, which was pretty good for “Wish,” as he usually strikes out or hits to the short stop. Then the lad stole second…

Wish won that game 7-1, and finished the season with a .102 batting average (and a .102 slugging percentage). After the season he got sick, as mentioned in the December 2 Sporting Life:

Wish Egan, the St. Louis pitcher, is still in town [Detroit] recovering from a severe illness. It was malaria, he says, and settled into an obstinate case of throat trouble. He is now taking on weight again, after losing about 25 pounds.

Wish returned to the Cardinals in 1906. He didn’t make an appearance until the team’s 13^th game of the season, relieving on April 29, then lost complete games on May 2 and 6. He got his first win on May 11, but before that, on the 8^th, he was married to Della Baumler in Detroit, by a Roman Catholic priest. Both were listed as residents of Wyandotte, just outside Detroit. On May 14 the Detroit Times said:

They are going to hang to Wish Egan, the Wyandotte boy, in the reorganization of the St. Louis Nationals. Wish is a good pitcher, but the most unlucky one on earth.

On June 6 the Times reprinted a story from the St. Louis Star-Chronicle:

SWINGING THE HAMMER ON OUR WISH EGAN

“Wish” Egan, John J. McCloskey’s doubtful right-hander, registered another failure, in Philadelphia Wednesday [June 20].

It is his seventh time to the well this season, and in all of his trips but one he has fallen by the wayside.

His lone set of brackets were registered against the Chicago Cubs. In extenuation of the Chicago team, however, it may be said that it was in badly crippled condition at the time.

Egan may be all wool and several yards wide, but he has a way of concealing his ability which isn’t at all pleasing to fandom.

On July 25 Wish was traded to the Kansas City Blues of the American Association. With the Cardinals he had pitched 86 1/3 innings in 16 games, 12 of them starts, with a 2-9 record and a 4.59 ERA. He also pitched 16 games for Kansas City the rest of the way, but the AA pitching stats only show people who pitched 20 or more games.

Once the baseball season ended, Wish organized a football team. From the Detroit Times of September 28:

OPEN DATES AT WYANDOTTE

“WISH” EGAN SCHEDULES DAY GAMES AT HOME FOR EACH WEEK.

[Wish]…has organized a strong, independent football team in Wyandotte, has succeeded in getting out many of the old stars of past teams down the river and promises, with such men as Schriffers, Knapp, Green, Pinson, Moutie, Zelmere, Abbott and others, to develop a strong team. Ed. Milspaugh will coach, and Egan is now in correspondence with Detroit and state teams, filling out his schedule.

Wyandotte will play at home every Sunday during the season, and desires to play a number of Saturday games on the road. Managers desiring an excellent attraction and a return game as well can address him in Wyandotte, where he is one of the town’s best known residents.

On March 15, 1907, the Topeka State Journal ran the following:

Two Players Not For the Blues.

Kansas City. March 15. Kansas City will be without the services of Pitcher “Wish” Egan and First Baseman Chris Lindsay if a letter from the former is to be credited. Dr. Stanley Newhouse, the club physician of the Blues, has a letter from Egan in which the twirler says that he probably will not be with Kansas City, as his wife has been ill for several months and he cannot leave her.

I don’t know what Chris Lindsay had to do with Wish’s wife’s illness, but at any rate two weeks later Wish was pitching an exhibition game for the Blues. Wish spent the season in Kansas City and had a 14-15 record in 279 innings in 37 games, walking 75. He then played with a barnstorming team made up mostly of Blues players. Toward the end of 1907 he was drafted by the last-place Washington Senators and their manager Joe Cantillon and wasn’t too happy about it, as seen in this December 22 article from the Washington Times:

WHAT CANTILLON WANTS IS A BASEBALL TEAM, AND NOT SLAB ARTISTS—“Wish” Egan

Kansas City Player Makes Some Real Cutting Comment On His Future Team Mates, Prefers His Old Berth.

Ally Egan hiked in from Darkest Wyandotte yesterday afternoon to see the gas lights burning. He is much worried over his baseball prospects. Along with about a regiment of ball players he has a Washington bill of lading attached to him, and that’s enough to make anybody worried.

“I was drafted from Kansas City by Cantillon,” sighed Egan, “and of course I have to go there. I could go with Indianapolis and I tell you that I would much prefer playing with a high class team in the American Association than a tail-ender in the American League. In the American Association I would have a season nearly two months shorter and it’s a big satisfaction to a pitcher to have a club behind him that can win for him once in a while, no matter what league it is in.

“If I should be kept in Washington, there’s about one chance in a thousand that I would ever get an increase of pay. At the close of the season I might go around to Cantillon and say, ‘Joey, I would like to have a raise next season.’ He would say to me, ‘What’s that? A raise? When you only won five games all season and lost sixteen! Well, I should think not.’ A fellow could pitch for any other club in the league and work no harder and yet make a good enough showing in the won and lost column to entitle him to a raise.

“Furthermore, pitchers are not what Cantillon needs. Look them over. There are Case Patten, Fred Falkenberg, Charlie Smith, Long Tom Hughes, Walter Johnson, and Gehring, a high class lot, and about forty others coming up from the minors. What Cantillon needs is a ball club. One big mistake I figure that he made was letting Charlie Jones go to the Browns. Talk about Birmingham as a thrower, I think Charlie has him beaten to a standstill. He batted .260 last season and played most of the time with injuries. I have heard that George Tebeau owns Milan and that he will not be with Washington very long.

“But, if I have to go to Washington as the cards now read I will have to do, I will work and hope for the best. I think it would please all followers of baseball to see Washington up in the race, as it has proven the best tail-end town a league ever had…”

“Wish” looks in better trim than he has for years. He has always been regarded as a high-class pitcher, and with a little better luck doubtless he would long ago have been planted in a major league and now be a fixture.

When he first attracted attention some managers thought him too slight to stand the grind of regular work, but that fault can no longer be found. He has broadened out wonderfully in the past few years.

On December 24 a similar article ran in the Indianapolis Sun:

WOULD BE HOOSIER

“Wish” Egan, Former Blue Slabman, Asks Manager to Engineer Trade for Him; Pitcher Does Not Care for Washington.

CANTILLON HAS WEAK CLUB

No Matter How Good Work a Pitcher Does, He Is Failure as Far as Winning Games in Concerned; Wants High-Class Team

By Joe Kelly.

“Wish” Egan, former St. Louis Cardinal pitcher, drafted last year from Kansas City, is wishing that he might be a member of next year’s Indianapolis team and has asked Manager Carr to negotiate a deal by which he may be enter [sic] the Hoosier gates.

Egan, who was the classiest member of the Blues’ staff last season, has been drafted by Joe Cantillon, manager of Washington, but he does not care to open his pay envelope so near the Senate. He says the Washington team is so weak that a pitcher, no matter how good, stands a poor chance of winning any games.

Carr likes Egan and has advised Watkins to get him, if possible, but the indications are that Egan will not get his wish to come to Indianapolis granted…

Wish did not get that wish granted, but he did get out of going to Washington; this ad appeared in the Kansas City Star of May 4, 1908:

WANTED—FURNISHED FLAT, APARTment of cottage; four or five rooms; summer months. Wish Egan, Victoria hotel.

Wish seems to have spent the entire season back with the Blues, but he only pitched in 23 games and had a 7-9 record. There’s a typo in the official stats crediting him with just 76 innings pitched; since he allowed 178 hits in 638 at-bats he had to have pitched many more innings. Along the way, a June 3 article in the Racine Daily Journal quoted him at length about the upcoming Ketchel-Papke middleweight bout and an August 15 article in the Wilmington Evening Journal on spitball pitchers mentioned that Wish “has it in stock for emergencies.”

 From the Detroit Times of April 24, 1909:

WYANDOTTE PITCHER GETS HIS RELEASE

Worked Sore Arm Gag on Tebeau and Got Away After Five Long Years.

KANSAS CITY, April 24.—“Wish” Egan, for five years a pitcher for George Tebeau [who owned various minor league teams], yesterday drew his unconditional release from the Kansas City Blues and is now a free agent. It is very probable that Egan will be with some other American association club or with the Eastern league within the next ten days.

Egan reported here at the beginning of the training season and saw on the jump that he would have little chance with the team. He complained immediately about a sore arm and did not do much work. He waited around the grounds every day for the release he was sure would come and when it was handed to him last night he donned a smile that will not come off in three weeks. He is the happiest man in the league. The sore arm gag worked nicely.

Egan has been with the Blues three years [actually two] and previous to coming here was with Louisville two years [true, but there were two years with the Cardinals in between]. He will make good with a class AA club especially in the Eastern league, if he is in condition to pitch.

Same paper, four days later:

EGAN TURNS OUTLAW

Wyandotte Pitcher Accepts Job With Brigands Out in California.

KANSAS CITY, Mo., April 27.—“Wish” Egan, who obtained an unconditional release from George Tebeau, has accepted an offer from Danny Shay and will leave for Stockton, Cal., to mingle with the outlaws. Egan has a $2,400 contract with Shay and that’s better than he could do in the American association. He was wanted by Jimmy Casey of the Montreal (Eastern league) team, but Shay came through with the best offer.

Years later Wish said that his release by Tebeau and signing with the outlaw California League was all part of a plan, as related in the April 22, 1943, Sporting News:

In those days there was no hard-and-fast rule against a man owning two clubs in the same league and Tebeau owned both the Louisville and Kansas City franchises. Tebeau told Egan that he’d give him his outright release if he would go to California, join the outlaw league, scout for players and find him a capable manager to replace Monte Cross at Kansas City.

Egan joined Stockton in the outlaw league. The team was managed by Danny Shay, who had played with Wish at St. Louis. Stockton won the pennant in the first half of the season, but after that began to look shaky and Egan wrote Tebeau, explaining conditions and recommending Shay for the Kansas City job. Tebeau went to San Francisco and signed Shay. That was Egan’s first scouting experience.

Wish had an 18-13 record in 33 games for Stockton; the California League stats credit him with 394 innings, which is certainly a misprint. 294 is much more likely, given his 242 hits and 96 runs allowed. Another misprint is Wish’s identification in the batting stats as having been with San Jose; he is listed with Stockton in the pitching stats and that is definitely where he was playing.

Wish had been having chronic soreness in his pitching arm since his days with the Cardinals. In early 1910 there were reports that he was a free agent and was getting offers from many minor league teams, but on April 4 the Lawrence Journal World reported:

EGAN WILL COACH BAKER.

Veteran Major League Pitcher Secured by Baldwin School.

Baldwin, Kan., April 4.—Baseball is in a very promising condition at Baker this year. The baseball management has secured Wish Egan for coach. He is known all over the country from coast to coast as being one of the classiest inside ball players in the business, one who has made the game a study as well as a profession and has that gift of being able to impart his knowledge and tactics to others. He has been a pitcher in the National and American leagues and the American association and the students at Baker are delighted in having him as their team’s leader and teacher in the national sport…

After Baker College’s season ended, Wish hooked on with the Newark Indians in the Eastern League, managed by Joe McGinnity. He had a 1-4 record in 53 innings in 14 games, then retired for good.

In July 1911 Wish got a job as an umpire in the Central League, as a fill-in at first but then he was retained. The Fort Wayne Sentinel reported on July 27:

Umpire “Wish” Egan made his [Fort Wayne] debut along with Wacker. Mr. Wish has a good voice and keeps right on top of the plays. His judgment on balls and strikes was questioned two or three times, but the best of them miss ‘em now and then.

His voice is his best asset. He calls balls and strikes distinctly and keeps the audience informed as to the status of the batter by occasionally calling the number of balls and strikes registered on his indicator.

The 1943 TSN article said that Ban Johnson was interested in grooming Wish to be an American League umpire but that Mrs. Egan became seriously ill in 1912 and Wish had to stay home in Detroit, thereby missing his chance. I didn’t find any contemporary reports on any of that; on the other hand I did find this in the Fort Wayne Sentinel of January 25, 1912:

Wish Egan, Central league umpire, is one of the first indicator handlers to branch out a la Hank O’Day and become an applicant for a managerial position. Wish doesn’t aspire to lead a big league or even a class AA or class A team. Class B is high enough for him at the start.

And the next day, in the Canton Repository:

“Wish” Egan has been an umpire in the Central and is now a deputy sheriff. He wants to become a magnate. It takes nerve to run the gamut like that. But then he’s Irish.

Wish did not become a manager or a magnate, and I don’t know whether Della was seriously ill, but he did become a deputy sheriff; the 1912 Detroit city directory shows him as one, living at 252 Baldwin Avenue. In 1914 and 1915 there were reports of him umpiring amateur baseball games in the Detroit area. In 1916 he was identified as “coach, boss canvass man and strategian in chief” for Otsego, the Michigan state semi-pro champs, and was listed in the Detroit city directory as a city inspector. In 1917 there was another reference to his umpiring in amateur baseball, plus the following from the Detroit Times of Wednesday, November 14:

MAN’S DASH FOR LIBERTY FAILS

Edwin Keister, held on the charge of killing William Baker, last August, made an unsuccessful attempt to escape from the county jail shortly after noon, Wednesday. He was found 10 minutes after disappearing from the main room in the jail, and fought until rendered unconscious by a blow from “Wish” Egan, formerly a deputy sheriff.

Keister had been brought back to the jail from the municipal courts building. He was placed in a little enclosure for visitors while he was being registered in. The handcuffs had been taken from his wrists. While the deputy in charge was looking over the books, Keister slipped into the basement.

Thirty seconds after he left deputies and policemen were searching the jail in vain. An alarm was sent to police headquarters. Sheriff Stein, former Sheriff Gaston, Egan and others started a new hunt of the jail. Finally, in roaming thru the cellar, they espied a coat collar sticking from a potato bin. They lifted the lid and found their man crouching on the floor. When ordered out he sprang up and attacked the men.

Keister killed Baker in his home, No. 45 Jones st. A party was being held at the house and a fight followed Baker’s attempt to embrace Mrs. Keister.

In 1918 Wish filled out his draft registration card on September 12. He and Della were still at 252 Baldwin Avenue, his occupation was given as “Inspector D.P.W., City of Detroit,” and his appearance was tall, medium build, blue eyes and sandy hair. Two weeks later he got mentioned in the Detroit report in the Sporting News: “Wish Egan was a pitcher here part of one season and is still pitching part of the time, managing semi-pro teams and doing service as an umpire.” In the 1920 city directory his address is given as 1104 (252) Baldwin Avenue, which I’m guessing means that the city changed the address—it continued as 1104 Baldwin after that. On December 13, 1925, Della passed away at Harper Hospital in Detroit; I can’t decipher the cause of death, which looks like “splenic anaconda,” but she had suffered from it for three years.

In March 1926 came the first reference I found to Wish being a scout for the Tigers, though later articles suggested he had been working for them since 1913 or even earlier. In March 1927 he was mentioned in an AP article about the Tigers arriving in San Antonio for spring training, though he was mistakenly identified as a player. In the 1927 Detroit city directory he is still identified as an inspector for the DPW, but now his residential address is the Wolverine Hotel. In 1928 he was helping coach the Tigers’ pitchers in spring training; in the city directory he is still an inspector for the DPW but is now at the Leland hotel. In the 1930 census Wish is living alone at the Leland Hotel, though listed as married, and his occupation is given as ball scout.

During the 1930s there were many articles about Wish and his work for the Tigers. He was at spring training each year, instructing the young pitchers, and he was part of the Tiger contingent at the major league meetings each off-season. In 1932 he was referred to as their “chief scout” for the first time that I found. In 1933 he was sent to Florida to find the team a permanent spring training site. From the November 30 Sporting News:

…That they will have every comfort and convenience at Lakeland is assured by Aloysius (Wish) Egan, the Tiger scout, who selected the site. Back home after a trip to Lakeland to close contracts for the park and hotel facilities, Egan talks like a Florida land boomer in praise of the new camp. He insists that park, clubhouse and living conditions will be the best the Tigers have ever had and sometimes reaches the point in his enthusiasm where he is willing to guarantee that they will not have a rainy day.

Egan made many contacts in Lakeland and found the city happy over the prospect of once more being host to a big league club. It has not had such an opportunity since the Cleveland Indians decided to move from there several years ago and is looking forward eagerly to renewing the experience.

From Bud Shaver’s “Shavings” column in the Detroit Times of April 19, 1937:

Wish Egan’s stay in Lakeland was spoiled by a liver complaint…and he returned just in time to get caught in the hotel strike…was marooned on one of the top floors, with no chance to show off a spiffy new top coat.

There were many references to Wish’s love of talking and to his storytelling abilities, and he would often speak at meetings of various organizations. Meanwhile, he apparently continued working as an inspector for the city of Detroit; the newspaper articles about him never mentioned that, but he continued to be listed that way in the directories. He also continued to live in hotels, and continued to have health issues from time to time. As a scout his area was Detroit itself and the surrounding area, and in 1938 he made his biggest find, 17-year-old Hal Newhouser, whom he followed “around like Mary’s little lamb” until he got him signed.

In January 1940 Commissioner Landis handed down a ruling against the Tigers and their operation of their farm system, making 92 players free agents and requiring the team to pay 14 other players a total of $47,250. From the Beckley Raleigh Register of January 15:

…A.J. (Wish) Egan, scout, signed many of the players. He said it would take the Tigers many years to rebuild their farm system…

The investigation of Detroit’s farm operations began nine months ago. The commissioner warned the Tigers and baseball clubs in general that a similar violation of the code covering player transactions in the future would result in a heavy fine as well as suspension of the guilty executive from baseball…

Leslie O’Connor, secretary to the Commissioner, explained that Detroit used its farm clubs to “cover up” dozens of players in what he termed a “wholesale violation” of the rules…

The Sporting News of January 18 was a little more descriptive of the violations:

A bewildering maze of interlocking connections between clubs is revealed by the commissioner in his findings, involving Detroit at the top and penetrating through various classifications down to Class D leagues, bringing to light secret agreements, under-cover shifting of players, control of as many as three clubs within one circuit and deliberate violations of known rules…

General Manager Jack Zeller took responsibility for the violations, though he also claimed he was just continuing a system that had been put in place by the late former Tiger owner Frank Navin before he (Zeller) was hired in 1938. There was speculation that Zeller would be fired and that Wish would take his place, but Zeller kept his job.

In the 1940 census taken on April 8, Wish is living at the Book Cadillac Hotel, is widowed, and his occupation is given as baseball scout; he worked 40 hours the previous week, 50 weeks in the previous year, and made $5000+ with income from other sources. 

The Tigers went to the World Series that year, and along the way this UP story appeared in various papers, here taken from the South Haven Daily Tribune of September 4:

Ruth Okays Plan For Series—If Tigers Win

Detroit, Sept. 4. (UP)—Ever hopeful Detroit fans today had two reasons for wanting the Tigers to take part in the 1940 world series: Civic pride and an opportunity to watch Al Schacht strike out Babe Ruth.

Wish Egan, Tiger scout, said he had received a telegram from Ruth, stating that “I agree to allow Al Schacht, the baseball comedian, to strike me out at Briggs Stadium during the world series at Detroit—if the Tigers win the pennant.”

Dugout dopesters said the famed Bambino of the bat was being facetious, and that they inferred Ruth didn’t believe the Tigers had a chance to win the pennant, much less the world Series.

Mr. Schacht? No one thought of communicating with him.

Hugh Fullerton Jr.’s syndicated column of January 26, 1942, included this item:

Charley Gehringer and Scout Wish Egan of the Detroit Tigers are making a survey for the Michigan army and navy recreation league to learn how much athletic and recreation equipment is needed for the army and navy posts in that state.

And from the February 4 Benton Harbor News Palladium:

Scout A.J. (Wish) Egan will be absent from the Tiger training base for the first time in many years because of an assignment this spring to comb the Pacific coast for talent. The Tigers have dismissed Marty Krug, their ivory hunter in the far west for many years…

On April 23 Wish filled out another draft registration card. It gave his address as the Book Cadillac Hotel, the “person who will always know your address” as Elizabeth Kenney at Briggs Stadium, his employer as Detroit Baseball Company, and his appearance as 6-1 ½, 210, blue eyes, gray hair, ruddy complexion, and a tattoo mark on left forearm. I wonder what the tattoo was—it seems unusual for someone who had not been in the Navy to have had a tattoo back then.

In February 1943 there were reports of another hospitalization due to a serious illness, and then on the 25^th this ran in the Sporting News:

QUINTET OF BENGALS TO BE RIGHT AT HOME

NEWHOUSER TOPS GROUP GRABBED OFF DETROIT SANDLOTS

Tigers Have Long Had a Strong Flavor of Local-Grown Talent, Because of Scout Egan’s Vigilance

DETROIT, Mich.—A conspicuous feature of the Tigers’ roster for 1943 is the presence of five players whose early development took place on the Detroit sandlots. This is an unusually large number of homegrown products even for a club that has been particularly fortunate in its search for talent within the city limits. Credit belongs almost entirely to the veteran scout, Aloysius Jerome (Wish) Egan.

From time to time in the last decade, the Tigers have had Frank Reiber, Mike Tresh, Roy Cullenbine, Barney McCosky, Harold Newhouser and Johnny Lipon, all caught in the dragnet spread by Egan over municipally-controlled diamonds. No amateur league was too obscure to draw the attention of this old-time pitcher, who has been in the scouting service of Detroit under six managers. No tip on the prospective prowess of a high school student, factory hand or bus driver was rejected by the Tiger scout, without a personal investigation.

Week after week Egan stood on the sidelines of fenceless fields with an eye alert to potential skill of beardless boys bent on an afternoon of diversion. His vigilance was rewarded in acquisition by the Tigers of Reiber, Tresh, Cullenbine, McCosky, Newhouser and Lipon. In addition, it brought players who gained a measure of success on Detroit farms, though they were never able to qualify for big league company.

Egan also was responsible for Benny McCoy, Pat Mullin, Dick Wakefield, Stubby Overmire and others, but he had to go beyond the boundaries of Detroit to land them. He found McCoy in Grand Rapids; Mullin, in Flint; Overmire in Kalamazoo and Wakefield on the University of Michigan campus at Ann Arbor…

In April 1943 the Sporting News ran the lengthy feature article that I have quoted from previously. In May he had a kidney removed. On May 26 brother Edward died; he got a two-sentence obituary in the Detroit Times under the headline “Wish Egan’s Brother Dies.” 

Wish spent New Year’s 1944 in the hospital, and in July he was named to the board of directors of LaSalle Wines and Champagne Inc. 

On December 28, 1944, the Sporting News named Wish their first Scout of the Year and had this to say about him:

Egan Earned Stripes by Keeping Tigers Stocked With Eager Kids

By H.G. Salsinger

DETROIT, Mich.

The surprise team of the major league season of 1944 was the Detroit Tigers, and the man mainly responsible for the club’s success was Aloysius Jerome (Wish) Egan.

Few visioned a first-division berth for the Tigers when the race began. They were generally picked to finish down in the second division, and when they were in seventh-place in mid-July, the pre-season predictions seemed justified. Not alone were the Tigers in seventh place, but at the time it seemed no certainty that they wouldn’t drop to eighth place…

Gauging the work of a scout is unusually difficult. Only those in charge of running the club with which an ivory hunter is connected know intimately what he does, and for which players he is directly responsible. However, the ability of the Tigers to get into the American League pennant race during the last two months of the season and make a fight for it down to the last day is attributable to talent discovered by A.J. (Wish) Egan. While the Browns, Cardinals and Yankees, for example, represent the discoveries of many scouts, to Egan is given the credit for much of the talent brought up by Detroit…

In 1945 the Tigers won the pennant and the World Series. From the Sporting News of January 24, 1946:

Egan Feted in Detroit

Civic Leaders Toss Luncheon for Scout

By Watson Spoelstra

DETROIT, Mich.

Public recognition and appreciation arrived too late for most noted personages, but Detroit has expressed its civic pride in the life and works of Aloysius (Wish) Egan, silver-thatched, red-faced scout of the Tigers for 30 years.

Egan is the efficient type whose deeds usually are taken for granted, but his case is an exception.

On January 14, a party of 70 sat down to luncheon with Egan at the Hotel Statler’s English ballroom.

“We purposely wanted this to be a small party to tell Wish that we appreciate what he has done for baseball in Detroit,” said Industrialist Fred Matthaei, who several years ago created a mythical Linsdale University and has made a hobby of referring to it. “If we had opened it to the public, we could have sold a thousand tickets.”

At the eight tables were business leaders and public figures. Councilman Bill Rogell, former Tiger shortstop, represented the City Hall. There were sports writers, Manager Jack Adams of the Detroit Red Wings hockey club, Harry Heilmann, and dozens of others. George M. Trautmann, Egan’s new boss, was there too.

Five of the many players Egan has started on the road to the majors were there to express their appreciation. They included Hal Newhouser, the American League’s most valuable player; Dick Wakefield, the slugging outfielder; Barney McCosky, Roy Cullenbine and Mike Tresh.

“He’s not a scout,” said Newhouser in his testimonial, “he’s a real friend.”

As a remembrance, Egan was presented with an album of photographs taken at the civic victory dinner for the Tigers after their World’s Series triumph. In it was penned a message from Owner Walter O. Briggs of the Tigers, as follows:

“We wouldn’t have won the pennant had it not been for the players Wish Egan brought into the game.”

The smiling face of the big Irishman was flushed now, and Chairman Matthaei picked this moment for the honored guest to speak. He uttered a sincere thanks and then added:

“It’s easy working for a ball club like Detroit and for an owner like Walter O. Briggs. This club wants the best players regardless of cost. That’s made it very easy and, besides, I’ve been lucky—real lucky.”

At around this same time it was announced that Wish was moving to a front-office job as director of the Tigers’ scouting system, but by March he was complaining that he didn’t like it. In May he spent time in the hospital with gall bladder trouble. 

From the October 2 Sporting News:

…the Detroit club made known that A.J. (Wish) Egan, silver-haired discoverer of Hal Newhouser and a host of others, had asked to return to his old role of free lance scout.

In expanding its scouting staff from four to ten men last winter, the Tiger front office named Egan as director of scouts and scouting. The organization job completed, Egan asked to be relieved of his added responsibilities. Owner Walter O. Briggs reluctantly agreed.

“You are on our payroll for life,” the Tiger owner told Egan. “Your title is scout emeritus, and you can go where you like to find talent.”

In August 1947 it was reported that Wish had decided to retire because of his health, but had been talked out of it by the Tigers. 

From TSN, March 8, 1950:

Wish Egan Misses Tiger Camp

DETROIT, Mich.—Aloysius Jerome Egan, the man who picked out the Detroit Tiger training base at Lakeland, Fla., is around his old haunts this spring.

“My doctor doesn’t want me to take such a long trip,” declared the gray-thatched dean of the scouting and farm system. Wish is holding down the fort at Briggs Stadium,

In 1933 the late Frank Navin dispatched Egan to Florida to find a training camp. After looking over several sites, Egan chose Lakeland…

Egan has been a spring camp visitor every year since 1926, when Ty Cobb trained the Tigers at Augusta, Ga. He followed the squad to Texas and California before the move to Florida in the early ‘30s. He likewise was at Evansville, Ind., in the war years.

He missed only one previous year. That was in 1942 when he spent the spring on a scouting assignment in California.

Wish’s health deteriorated. Joe Williams, in his syndicated column, wrote on December 11: “Wish Egan, Detroit’s famed one-man scouting staff, is critically ill in Detroit, with no visitors permitted at Ford Hospital.” The Sporting News reported on January 10, 1951, that “Wish Egan, chief scout emeritus, remains seriously ill in Henry Ford Hospital,” and on February 7 that “A.J. (Wish) Egan, ill at Henry Ford Hospital and limited to only a few visitors, has been well-briefed on spring training plans, but probably will not go to Florida this year.”

On April 13, 1951, Wish passed away, and the news was in the wire services that same day, as well as on the front page in Detroit. Here’s the AP version:

Egan, Tiger Scout, Dies

DETROIT (AP)—Wish Egan of the Detroit Tigers, one of big league baseball’s best known scouts, died in Henry Ford hospital early today.

Egan was 69 years old. He had been ill for many months.

Since 1946 Egan had been the Tigers’ “scout emeritus,” a lifetime job created for him by owner Waler O. Briggs, Sr., in deference to his long service.

Aloysius Jerome Egan started as a pitcher in the early 1900’s and became a scout for Detroit in 1913.

In 1944 the Sporting News named him baseball’s “scout of the year.”

Before becoming a Tiger scout, Egan was on the playing rosters of the Tigers and of Louisville, Kansas City, the St. Louis Cardinals, and Newark. In 1908 he played in the outlaw California State League.

The International News Service obituary called him “one of the best known men in baseball.” The Sporting News devoted two full pages to him, including:

Pitcher, Talent Hunter and Friend of Players for 50 Years

Wish Egan Dies at 68; Scouted Many Tiger Stars

Newhouser, Evers, Groth, Houtteman Among Finds

Always Proud of ‘Boys,’ Backed Them to the Limit; Story Teller and Mimic, Boss Navin Favorite Subject

By H.G. Salsinger

Of the Detroit News

DETROIT, Mich.

Aloysius Jerome Egan, 68-year-old [69] scout for the Detroit Tigers, died in Henry Ford Hospital, April 13, of a heart ailment. He had devoted almost half a century to professional baseball.

Players, young and old and scattered from coast to coast, knew him as Wish Egan. So did club officials, umpires and sports writers. By the same name he was known to thousands of fans either personally or by reputation.

For several years Mr. Egan had been in declining health. He missed the Florida training season in 1950 and again this year. On an extremely limited scale, he carried on his duties as a scout through last summer. In mid-September he discontinued his daily visits to his office in Briggs Stadium.

Baseball never knew a keener scout, a better judge of talent, nor a more accomplished story teller than Egan. It was his remarkable ability to gauge the possibilities of a high school or sandlot player that kept the Detroit lineup supplied with pitchers, catchers, infielders and outfielders. He scouted for Detroit for more than 40 years and discovered some of baseball’s leading headliners…

An INS item from April 14:

Ball Players Will Carry Egan To Grave

DETROIT, April 14—(INS)—“His Boys” will be pallbearers when funeral services for Aloysius J. “Wish” Egan are held in Detroit Monday [16^th].

The boys are members or former members of the Detroit Tigers discovered by the veteran Tiger Scout who died yesterday at Ford Hospital at the age of 68.

The pallbearers will be Johnny McHale, Dick Wakefield, Hoot Evers, Ted Gray, Paul [Dizzy] Trout, Joe Ginsberg, Neil Berry, Johnny Lipon, Saul Rogovin, Pat Mullin, Hal Newhouser, Johnny Groth, and Ray Herbert.

April 17 was opening day at Detroit, and a moment of silence was observed for Wish before the game. From the AP, April 24:

Egan Leaves $10,000 To Tiger Employee

DETROIT—(AP)—The will of Aloysius J. (Wish) Egan, the Detroit Tigers’ scout emeritus, was filed for probate today.

Egan left virtually his entire estate, estimated at $10,000, to Miss Elizabeth B. Kenney, an employee of the Detroit Baseball Co.

He set up a $10,000 trust fund for his sister, Mrs. Theresa Hillen of Detroit, and bequeathed $2,500 to her son, Edward.

The Sporting News, June 25, 1952:

Egan Field, named in honor of Wish Egan, late Detoit scout, was dedicated in the Motor City, June 19. Located at the intersection of Schoenherr and Bringard streets, the 13-acre plot contains a baseball diamond, shuffleboard and horseshoe courts, swings and sliding boards. Attending the ceremonies were Spike Briggs and Charley Gehringer, the Tigers’ president and general manager, respectively.

In 1960 Wish was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.

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