Harry Baumgartner

Harry Baumgartner was a relief pitcher who appeared in nine games for the 1920 Detroit Tigers.

Harry Edward Baumgartner was born October 8, 1892, in South Pittsburg, Tennessee, on the Alabama border, west of Chattanooga. (Baseball Reference gives him a birthdate of October 6, but his draft card, his death certificate, and his headstone all say October 8.) His father, Niklaus, emigrated from Switzerland as a child, while his mother, Nannie, was a Tennessee native. In the 1900 census the family is living on Laurel Avenue in South Pittsburg; Niklaus is a grocery merchant. Seven-year-old Harry is the second of four children.

In the 1910 census the family is at a non-specified location in South Pittsburg, in a home that they own. Niklaus owns and operates an ice plant, assisted by Nannie and oldest child 20-year-old George; 17-year-old Harry and his now six younger siblings are not employed. Nannie, however, passed away in 1912.

At some point after this Harry spent two years in the Navy as a seaman; all I can say for sure is that the two years were over before the 1915 baseball season, which he spent with the Winston-Salem Twins of the Class D North Carolina State League. He had a 16-16 record in 303 innings in 39 games, with 155 strikeouts and 105 walks.

Harry signed a contract with Winston-Salem for 1916, and went to spring training with them, but apparently didn’t play during the regular season. He disappears until June 5, 1917, when he filled out his draft card. This is where the fact that he had been in the Navy for two years comes from; it also shows his home as Bridgeport, Alabama, his occupation as farmer, employed by his father, and his appearance as medium height, medium build, dark brown eyes and brown hair.

At some time after this Harry went back into the military and fought in the war. He reemerges in January 1920, when the census finds him living alone in an apartment at 207 Cedar Avenue in South Pittsburg, working as a machinist in a garage. Once baseball season began he was pitching for a team in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in the independent Delta League. I didn’t find any stats for him there, but he must have been doing awfully well, since on August 4 he was signed by the Detroit Tigers. At the time it was reported that he would join the Tigers at the end of the month, but on August 11 the Detroit Times said:

Harry Baumgartner, a right-handed pitcher purchased from the Clarksburg [sic], Miss., club may report to the Tigers this week. The club needs him and Clarksburg [sic] has been asked to send him along now. He is likely to be put to work on the eastern trip.

I don’t know exactly when Harry reported, but he didn’t get into a game for Detroit until September 6. He relieved Howard Ehmke and pitched the bottom of the eighth in a 6-2 loss to the White Sox in Chicago—about three weeks before news of the Black Sox scandal broke; the first batter he faced was Swede Risberg, who flied out. That was the first game of a doubleheader, and Harry pitched in the second game as well, coming in to start the bottom of the eighth again, but this time he had a 4-2 lead, gave up the tying runs, and lost the game in the tenth.

Harry made five more relief appearances in September and two in October; his best outing was a scoreless 4 1/3 inning stint in a loss to the Browns at home on September 23, in which he faced one more than the minimum number of hitters. In his nine games for the Tigers he had a 4.00 ERA in 18 innings, striking out seven and walking six.

In January 1921 it was announced that the Tigers were sending Harry to Omaha of the Class A Western League. He did more starting than relieving there. On May 2 the Council Bluffs Evening Nonpareil included the interesting aside: “Baumgartner has no love for pitching on Sundays, but consented to go into the box because of the lack of other mound material.” In June he missed some time after a dispute with his manager, as the Evening Nonpareil reported on June 29:

BAUMGARTNER PUTS ON A “COME-BACK”

OMAHA HURLER SHUTS OUT ST. JOE AFTER BEING FINED—SCORE, 2 to 0.

OMAHA, Neb., June 28.—Pitcher Harry Baumgartner “came back” today to show the fans that he was not a sorehead but a real winner—for did not Umpire Daley on announcing the batteries call him “Mister Baumgartner” and did he not shut out the Josies by a score of 2 to 0.

He came back stronger than the fans participated [sic].

Last week Harry and Manager Burch had a few words on the field regarding a pinch hitter. The hurler was fined $25. He got sore, took off his uniform and announced to the wide world that he was through with the Burch Rods.

But the call of the diamond was too strong for Harry to stay away any length of time—especially when Omaha lost to St. Joseph by the score of 10 to 4. He would rather see Omaha beaten by the “Thoity-toid Street Sluggers” than the Josies. So last night the pipe of peace was smoked and Harry “came back.”

An August 21 article in the Omaha World-Herald on the off-season lives of the members of the team included:

Pitcher Harry Baumgartner 28, was born in South Pittsburg, Tenn., and has played professional ball three years. He was with Detroit last year, for six weeks. In the winter he says he does “odds and ends.” He spent two years in the navy and pitched for a team there. His father is in the cold storage business. He came to Omaha from Detroit.

On August 27 Harry, AWOL from Omaha again, pitched a shutout for the town of Corning in the championship game of the southwestern Iowa semipro tournament in Council Bluffs. On September 11 he pitched another game for Omaha before the season ended; he wound up with a 10-9 record in 143 innings in 28 games.

Harry returned to Omaha for 1922. From the Victoria (Texas) Advocate, April 13:

OMAHA WON THE OPENING CONTEST

Jim Hunt, local amateur wireless operator, last night succeeded in carrying on a conversation with Pitcher Harry Baumgartner, of the Omaha, Nebraska, Western League Baseball Team, which did its spring training in this city this year. Among other things, Mr. Baumgartner informed young Hunt that the Omaha team had succeeded in winning the opening game of the season by defeating the Oklahoma City Club 10 to 3, at Oklahoma City.

Static conditions were ideal for wireless telephone messages last night, according to the local operator. The voice of the Omaha pitcher was very distinct and the local operator had no difficulty in carrying on the conversation with him.

Pitcher Baumgartner stated that he would seek out a wireless telephone this (Thursday) evening for the purpose of informing Victorians of the outcome of today’s game and Jim Hunt will be on the job to catch the message, providing there are no disturbances in the atmosphere and the elements behave themselves.

Harry only pitched in six games for Omaha in 1922, allowing 23 hits, 14 walks and 14 runs in 11 innings, and was let go.

He caught on as player-manager for a semipro team in Missouri Valley, Iowa, not far from Omaha, and with his new team he returned to the southwestern Iowa tournament that he had won for Cornish the year before. On September 3, during a semifinal game against Hamburg, Harry inserted four ringers into the game, as described in the Omaha World-Herald in 1928:

Hamburg and Missouri Valley were engaged in a desperate 2-to-2 struggle, the game was in its fifth inning and the spectators were eagerly following every move. Then onto the playing field dashed Heinie Manush (now with the St. Louis Browns); Babe Herman (now with Brooklyn); Dick O’Connor and an infielder name [sic] Bates. All boldly wore their Western league uniforms.

A roar went up from the stands as the four reported to Manager Harry Baumgartner and were at once assigned to various positions on the Missouri Valley team. The Hamburg outfit protested in vain, and the game went on, with the fans, more or less neutral up to this point, backing Hamburg with lusty vocal encouragement…

The next day Missouri Valley lost the championship game to Corning, 8-4. From the September 5 Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil:

Harry Baumgartner, pitcher and manager of the Missouri Valley aggregation, was a badly depressed ball player shortly before the game began, for he realized that only by the rarest streak of luck could his team triumph over the champions of 1921. Because of the presence of Shortstop “Gyp” Haley, captain of the Corning team, in the champions’ lineup, Harry was barred, and so were all other players in organized baseball. Haley has been suspended from the ranks of organized baseball for five years, and Manager Burch of the Omaha Western league club, who still “owns” Baumgartner, declared he would blacklist the Missouri Valley manager if he played in a game against Haley. Outfielder “Watson,” who was really Dick O’Connor of the Omaha club, also was barred, and Baumgartner’s prospects for borrowing a pitcher from the Burch Rods went glimmering. Baumgartner wanted Dan Tipple and might have secured him, but for Haley’s presence. Cy Williams, and Joe Robinson, star players with Corning, jumped the Sioux City club, have not yet been blacklisted.

Tournament officials are considering the adaptation of a rule to cover situations like this, and also the bringing in of Western league players while a game is in progress, such as Missouri Valley did on Sunday. Next year’s tournament may provide that a team must play the same lineup it has been using for a month previous to the tourney, with the possible exception of one or two players.

From the Daily Nonpareil, May 27, 1923:

BAUMGARTNER WILL RUN A TEAM AGAIN

EX-MANAGER OF MISSOURI VALLEY BACK AND IS EAGER TO MEET CORNING.

Harry Baumgartner, former Burchrod and manager of Missouri Valley’s semipro club last year, paid a call to the officers of the Council Bluffs Athletic association Saturday. Baumgartner has just secured his unconditional release from organized baseball and is contemplating managing a semipro club in this vicinity again this year. He started the season in the Cotton States league in Mississippi.

Baumgartner requested the officials of the Athletic association to reserve him a place in the Southwestern Iowa tournament which will be held the latter part of August. While he did not know what town he would be representing, Harry is determined to have an entry and requested that his team be matched with Corning for the opening game.

With his release from organized baseball Baumgartner is free to pitch against any outlaws and he declares that he will strike “Jip” Haley and Robinson out every time they come to bat against him this year. “No more sitting on the bench and watching my team go down to defeat like last year,” says Harry.

An article a few days later in the Omaha World-Herald said that the Cotton States League team that Harry had been with was Laurel, and that he was released because “his arm ‘wouldn’t come around into shape.’” At any rate, the day after the Daily Nonpareil article ran Harry was already making his 1923 debut as manager and starting pitcher back with the Missouri Valley team. Missouri Valley did play in the big SW Iowa tournament, but Corning won for the third straight year. However, Harry would have bigger problems, as the Nonpareil reported on February 6, 1924:

HARRY BAUMGARTNER HAS THE ERYSIPELAS

Special to The Nonpareil.

MISSOURI VALLEY, Feb. 6.—Harry Baumgartner, manager of the Missouri Valley baseball team and former pitcher for the Omaha league team, is in a very serious condition with erysipelas and meningitis. His father came from Tennessee to be with him. Two nurses attend him and legion boys are also assisting in his care. His host of friends hope he may win the hard battle he is fighting.

Harry did win his hard battle, and he returned to Missouri Valley as manager and pitcher. However, in July he left to join the Mason City team in the Minnesota-Iowa League, which was either a semi-pro league or an independent professional league not part of organized baseball. An August 10 article in the Nonpareil about the upcoming SW Iowa tournament mentioned that Corning and Missouri Valley would not be there, and that “Reports have it that Baumgartner plans to secure leave of absence [from Mason City] in order to take part in the tournament with a team not yet decided.” He did pitch for Modale in the tournament, but he lost the opening game and they were eliminated. (Sioux City Stockyards won the tournament.) I don’t know whether Harry went back to Mason City; there was a mention of him pitching for Modale on September 7, after the tournament, against Corn State Serum. From the Nonpareil of October 12:

POPULAR COUPLE MARRIED

Miss Myrna Miller and Harry Baumgartner of Missouri Valley.

MISSOURI VALLEY, Ia., Oct. 11.—Miss Myrna Miller and Harry Baumgartner were united in marriage Thursday evening [the 9^th] at 9:30 by the Rev. Victor Johnson, pastor of the Christian church at the home of the bride’s parents.

The bride is the handsome and talented daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E.M. Miller and is decidedly popular. She has taken an active part in the social life of the younger set. Mr. Baumgartner is perhaps the best known young man in the county and has a splendid reputation as a good citizen.

They will make their home here, where Mr. Baumgartner will continue as manager of the Sinclair oil station.

For 1925 Harry was back in organized baseball, with the Jackson Senators of the Cotton States League, Class D. He had a 5-3 record in ten games, with a freakishly low total of 18 strikeouts in 79 innings, before being released on May 23 to make room for the team’s player-manager returning to the active roster. A Sporting News item said that he had been sold to Atlanta of the Southern Association, but if he did pitch at all for Atlanta it was for less than the 45 innings required to show up in the league statistics. He did finish the season with the Jonesboro (Arkansas) Buffaloes of the Class D Tri-State League, where he had a 10-1 record in 12 games, allowing just 22 walks, and 21 strikeouts, in 94 innings.

In February 1926 it was announced that Jonesboro had traded Harry back to Jackson, for two players. He was their opening day starter, though he lost 5-0. From the July 19 Hattiesburg American:

Harry Baumgartner had another bad day yesterday, and it was very bad. The popular hurler not only lost his game, but he lost his temper also, which is the greater casualty.

If anybody else had been in a pugnacious mood yesterday, Harry might have had company in a fight or two, but the fellows he snapped at seemed willing to “laugh it off,” so peace prevailed.

Of course, Harry was sore when an Alexandria coach fooled him into pitching the ball to the coach, who let it roll to the negro grandstand, thus allowing Bill Pierre to score from first base. But although the folks sympathized with Baumgartner, that’s all they could do about it.

Two days later, though, it seemed like a bigger deal:

BAUMGARTNER IS SUSPENDED

Scott Relieves Jackson Pitcher During Investigation.

Special to the American.

JACKSON, Miss., July 21.—The Jackson baseball club yesterday was officially notified by President Frank A. Scott, of the Vicksburg club, that he had suspended Pitcher Harry Baumgartner, of the Jackson club, for creating a disturbance during a game between the Jackson and Alexandria clubs here last Saturday.

The suspension, it is understood, will continue until a hearing in the matter is held, or through ten days if there is no hearing. The local club is making efforts to have the suspension lifted, so Baumgartner can pitch the opening game at Monroe Thursday.

According to information received here, Umpire Steve Basil made a written report to President Scott about the affair, in which he declared Baumgartner struck Pitcher Ramsey, of the Alexandria club, while Ramsay [the two spellings are used interchangeably in the article] was coaching on third base. It will be recalled that Ramsay fooled Baumgartner into throwing the ball to the negro stand, thus allowing Pierre to score from first base.

Walking toward the club dugout Baumgartner was seen by the fans to step in the coaching box and exchange some remarks to Ramsey. Ramsey was facing the grandstand, and was grinning continuously, even when Baumgartner kiddingly rubbed Ramsey’s face with his gloved hand. Then Baumgartner continued to the dugout.

Had a blow been struck, had even harsh words been exchanged, other players naturally would have rushed forward—but every player remained in his position, and the umpire stayed near the pitcher’s slab, where he remained until Manager Barbare came from the dugout to ask him how come Pierre was allowed to score when ground rules allowed only one base on a ball thrown to the stands.

As a matter of fact hardly one per cent of the fans present knew what it was all about—and Basil himself was looking in a different direction when Baumgartner threw the ball, not knowing what was “on” until somebody later told him.

The suspension was lifted, but a fine stood. That wasn’t the end of Harry’s July troubles, though; from the July 27 American:

BURGLARS ROB JACKSON TEAM

They Enter Rooms of Players While on the Road and Get Away With Valuables

Special to the American.

JACKSON, Miss., July 27.—Burglars entered the rooms of three Jackson ball players during the absence of the team in Louisiana last weekend and stole a watch, four suits of clothes, and a Masonic ring. The theft victims were Harry Baumgartner, Cotton Tatum, Eddie Strelicki, and Rufus Meadows.

Harry finished the season with a 17-13 record in 40 games; Baseball Reference credits him with just 180 innings pitched, which seems unlikely given his other stats, which include 277 hits, 124 runs and 122 walks. And the Cotton States League season ended in time for him to once again pitch in the SW Iowa tournament; this year he won the Class B championship game (previously he had pitched for Class A teams) for Pacific Junction over Macedonia. The next day, before the Class A championship, Harry pitched a game for the Rock Islands of St. Louis, and three days after that he pitched for the Harrison County All-Stars against the Council Bluffs Athletics at the Harrison County Fair at Missouri Valley. And, two days after that, his eventful 1926 continued, as reported in the September 18 Omaha World-Herald:

RIOT AT BALL PARK IN MISSOURI VALLEY WHEN COLORED TEAM PLAYS

200 SPECTATORS IN MIXUP WHEN KLAN FEUD IS FANNED

COLORED BOYS MEANWHILE WATCHING THE “GO” FROM DUGOUT ON SIDELINES.

COUPLE CURTAIN RAISERS

Preceding the Big Show There Are Clashes at Home Plate and First Base—Nervy Citizens Stop Battle.

Special to The Nonpareil.

MISSOURI VALLEY, Ia., Sept. 18.—The old klan and anti-klan feeling, prevalent in Missouri Valley for the last several years, is blamed for the near-riot at the baseball game here yesterday between a Negro team from Sioux City and a group of county players. During the height of the disturbance more than 200 persons were on the field, milling about and striking each other with fists, but little attempt was made, after the first encounter, to molest the colored players. Last night four men, two of them ball players, were fined for participating in the affray. None of the colored men were arrested.

The first ill feeling manifested itself in the third inning, when Harry Baumgartner, formerly of this place, but who has been playing baseball in Mississippi this year, struck a Negro player who had run into him at the home plate. The player hit back and there was a lively fight. At length they were separated. Baumgartner was taken from the game and play was resumed. But in the next inning, a white player struck the Negro first baseman after being put out, and then the crowd got into the affray.

During the time the crowd was on the field, according to onlookers, the Negroes stood near their dugout, bats in hand, and were not bothered to any extent. But the crowd seemed to be divided, and there were a good many exchanges of fist blows. It appeared that many grasped opportunition to settle old grudges by walking up to the object of displeasure and striking him. For a time there seemed to be danger of more serious trouble, when J.N. “Sport” Fitzgibbon, gathered a number of fair officials around him and charged into the mob, forcing it from the field.

The game then broke up.

Last night the mayor held court and a dozen or more persons were arrested and given hearings. Four of them pleaded guilty and paid fines. They were Harry Baumgartner, $25 and costs; Jacake, his catcher, $10 and costs; Ira Henry, a farmer, $13.50, and M.J. Haines, $12.50 and costs.

“Milling about and striking each other with fists”—it’s like this was a new concept.

Harry returned to Jackson in 1927, but after losing 10-1 on May 11 he was released; he had had a 2-3 record in six games. Not yet 35 years old, he disappeared from the newspapers after that. He, with Myrna, appeared in the 1927 Jackson city directory, as a “base ball player” living at 430 N Jefferson. In 1929 he pops up in the Tampa, Florida, city directory, as an inspector for the US Immigration Bureau’s Border Patrol Service, living at 2810 Morgan, with Myrna’s name rendered as “Maryland.”

In the 1930 census, taken April 2, Harry and Myrna are in Punta Gorda, Florida, with three children: four-year-old Harriet, two-year-old Mary, and five-month-old Nicholas. Harry is listed as “emigration officer, federal service.” But eight months later, Harry was dead. His death certificate gives the place of death, and his residence, as the US Veterans Hospital in Augusta, Georgia. The doctor had been attending him since August 9. The cause of death was “infection from trophic ulcers,” which he had been suffering from for two months, one day; contributory were “compression spinal cord” (three months) and “psychosis manic depressive” (three months, 25 days). He had been operated on on September 11, which must have been for the spinal cord issue. The Augusta Chronicle ran an obituary on December 4:

EX-BASEBALL STAR DIES IN AUGUSTA

Harry E. Baumgartner, Former Detroit Pitcher Passes Away Here

Harry E. Baumgartner, 38, World war veteran and a former pitcher on the Detroit baseball club about six years ago [ten], died yesterday afternoon at the local infirmary. Funeral services will be held at South Pittsburg, Tennessee.

Mr. Baumgartner, after leaving baseball, became an immigration inspector in the coast guard service. He was brought to the hospital here six months ago.

He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Myrna Baumgartner, and one son, both of Tennessee.

I don’t know why the daughters don’t get mentioned in the obituary. Harry’s father Niklaus lived until 1950, Myrna 1988, Harriet 1996, Mary 2013, and Nicholas 2018.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B/Pbaumh101.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/baumgha01.shtml

Mike Schwabe

Mike Schwabe pitched for the Detroit Tigers in 1989 and 1990.

Michael Scott Schwabe was born July 12, 1964, in Fort Dodge, Iowa. His family moved to Tustin, California, in Orange County; at Tustin High School one of Mike’s baseball and basketball teammates was Mark Grace. In his senior year, 1983, he was named one of the pitchers on the Century League All-League team. In 1984 he pitched for Santa Ana College, which in 1985 changed its name to Rancho Santiago College. He was named to the South Coast Conference first team and the All-Southern California second team, somehow still being called a freshman, with a 12-5 record. In 1986 he went 13-2 and was said to have broken the school record for career wins with 25—still it’s as if 1984 had never happened. He made all-South Coast Conference again, and got a scholarship to Arizona State.

Mike went 12-7 for ASU in 1987 and in June got drafted in the 21^st round by the Tigers (he had been drafted by the Twins in 1986 but had elected not to sign). The Tigers started him at Bristol in the Rookie class Appalachian League, then moved him to Lakeland in the Florida State League and Fayetteville in the Sally League. Between the three teams he had a 5-3 record with four saves and a 3.08 ERA in 52 2/3 innings in 20 games, three of them starts, walking just 13.

Mike returned to Lakeland in 1988, where he went 9-0 with eight saves, with a 1.61 ERA in 111 2/3 innings in 40 games, five of them starts, and walked only 20. He then finished the year with Glen Falls of the Class AA Eastern League, where he had a 3.50 ERA in 18 innings in eight relief appearances.

In 1989 Mike pitched in some major league spring training games before starting the regular season with London, Ontario, which replaced Glen Falls as the Tigers’ AA team. He had a 1.07 ERA in eight games, two of them starts, when on May 23 he was called up to Detroit—the Tigers were short on pitching due to injuries. He made his major league debut on the 27^th in Kansas City, coming in with one out in the sixth, down 5-1, with runners on first and third, and got Bo Jackson to ground into a double play; then he pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth with two strikeouts, allowing a Jim Eisenreich double for his only baserunner. After the game Dick Tracewski, filling in as Tiger manager during an absence by Sparky Anderson, said “He’s ready to be a major-leaguer right now. There’s one kid who’ll make a lot of money pitching.”

Mike came back the next evening and got the last two KC outs in a 9-5 Detroit loss; he walked Kevin Seitzer to force in a run, struck out Bo Jackson and got Pat Tabler, famous for his success with the bases loaded, to ground out. From the next day’s Detroit News:

Control pitcher: Mike Schwabe walked in a run Sunday.

He what?

He walked in a run because he made a rookie mistake and tried to be too fine with his pitches when he entered Sunday’s game in the eighth with the bases loaded.

“I can’t remember the last time I did that,” he said, “but it must have happened sometime.”

After a six-inning relief stint at home against the Orioles on June 1, Mike got his first start on the sixth, at home against the Red Sox. He pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowing one run, five hits, and no walks, and got a 5-1 victory. The next day’s Detroit News reported:

…He impressed Sparky, but not all the Red Sox.

“He throws strikes and keeps the ball down,” said Anderson. “He’ll be a starter until he proves otherwise.”

Boston’s Mike Greenwell, hitless in two trips against Schwabe, wasn’t impressed at all, though.

“He didn’t have anything,” said Greenwell. “I bet he didn’t throw one pitch over 80 mph. He made some good pitches, but I guarantee you that if we face him in Fenway, we’ll light him up.”

…Nothing spoiled the afterglow of his debut as a starter, however—not even the memory of his first day in the majors.

Schwabe arrived on May 23, two hours before the Tigers made room for him on the roster. They eventually optioned infielder Mike Brumley to Toledo after batting practice.

“The players must have been saying, ‘Who’s this dumb kid?’” Schwabe said. “Then they realized someone must be leaving and I felt like a heel. At least now I’ve begun to earn my keep.”…

“I’m sure my relatives in California who rented a big room with a satellite feed to watch this game are pleased,” said the rookie. “So are my relatives in Iowa who bribed the bartender to turn on the right channel.”

Mike got three more starts as part of the Tiger rotation but lost them all, lasting 6 1/3, 4 2/3, and 1 2/3 innings. From the July 10 Sporting News:

Detroit Tigers rookie Mike Schwabe was assigned to bullpen duty after lasting only 1 2/3 innings in his fourth start. “I think he’s more suited for long relief anyway,” said Manager Sparky Anderson. Schwabe agreed. “I don’t think starting is where I’ll be in the future,” the righthander said. “I don’t want to make that decision for them, but I want to feel like I belong in the majors, and I don’t feel that way now.”

Mike made six relief appearances from late June to mid-July, earning a win and a loss while his ERA rose from 4.61 to 6.04. On July 17 he was optioned to AAA Toledo. From the August 9 Detroit News:

Schwabe assigned outright to Mud Hens

By Tom Gage

News Staff Writer

Mike Schwabe has followed in the footsteps of Torey Lovullo as a hot prospect whose star rapidly fell this season.

The Tigers announced Tuesday that Schwabe, who already was at Triple-A Toledo on option, has been assigned outright to the Mud Hens. To return him to the majors, his contract would have to be repurchased. That’s a common occurrence, certainly—it’s not difficult to purchase a contract—but the Tigers wouldn’t have made the move if they planned to summon Schwabe anytime soon.

“We have to create openings on our roster,” said General Manager Bill Lajoie.

Schwabe was 2-4 with a 6.04 ERA for the Tigers. He’s 3-1 with a 3.38 ERA at Toledo.

The move doesn’t end Schwabe’s future as a Tigers prospect, but if the Tigers don’t put him back on the roster, he’ll be eligible for the winter draft.

Mike was named International League pitcher of the week for August 6-12, a week in which he went 2-0 while allowing ten hits in 15 1/3 innings and lowered his Toledo ERA to 2.58. He finished the International League season at 2.60, throwing 62 1/3 innings in 13 games, four of them starts, walking just ten batters. In October Tim Kurkjian of the Baltimore Sun wrote:

The Toronto Blue Jays’ Mike Flanagan has a new nickname for Tiger reliever Mike Schwabe: Chemo. Get it? Chemo Schwabe.

In November the Tigers added Mike to their 40-man roster, keeping him from being exposed in the winter draft. He went to spring training with Detroit, and signed a major league contract in March, but was assigned to Toledo at the beginning of April. He was used almost exclusively as a reliever by the Mud Hens, until on July 19 he was called up by Detroit when Lance McCullers was placed on the disabled list. The next night he finished up a 5-3 loss at Texas; Tom Gage of the Detroit News described Mike’s week on the 22^nd:

Life of leisure not for Schwabe

Pitcher crowds Toledo recall, baby watch and Tigers appearance into a week

ARLINGTON, Texas—Mike Schwabe has had a busy week—and it looks as if it’s not going to calm down.

Not only did he get called up from Toledo, but his pregnant wife is a week overdue, and he made the first appearance of his second stretch with the Tigers Friday night on two hours sleep.

“Considering everything going on in my life,” he said, “I didn’t think it was a bad outing at all.”

It wasn’t.

Schwabe gave up a run on five hits in 3 1/3 innings of relief, but he’s the kind of finesse pitcher who’s going to give up hits.

“As long as they’re all singles, I don’t get in trouble,” he said. “This time, they were all singles.”

Schwabe wasn’t sure he was going to get called up, especially after reading that the Tigers were planning to go with only nine pitchers.

“An announcer in Toledo hadn’t seen me in the bullpen Wednesday night, so I guess he assumed I’d been called up. My wife heard it, and it got back to me, so after the game I waited for a tap on the shoulder that didn’t come. Not right away, at least.”

At 220, Schwabe weighs 20 pounds more than when he pitched for the Tigers a year ago, but he says the added weight in his legs helps.

“The big thing,” he said, “is that I found a flaw on videotape in my delivery and I’m coming off four of my best outings ever.”

His last outing with the Mud Hens was 5 1/3 innings of one-hit relief Tuesday night.

“Hopefully, I’ll pitch that well with the Tigers,” he said.

And hopefully for him, his life will soon settle down.

That was actually Mike’s only major league appearance of 1990, as on July 28 he was optioned back to Toledo when the Tigers re-signed Walt Terrell following his release by the Pirates. Mike finished the season with the Mud Hens with a 3.83 ERA in 108 innings in 51 games; on December 5 the Tigers gave him his unconditional release, which I assume was a surprise to him. It seems surprising in retrospect.

Mike found a job for 1991 with Jalisco of the Mexican League; he had a 9-5 record and a 4.20 ERA. The Mexican League season ended August 1, after which he found an AA job with the Twins organization, as reported in the Orange County Register of August 19:

“His agent had made a couple of calls to us,” [Twins farm director Jim] Rantz said. “We needed a pitcher at (Double-A) Orlando. Orlando had a doubleheader scheduled for a Sunday. I called Mike on a Friday—two days before the doubleheader. I told him ‘I’ve got a job available, but it might not be the one you’re looking for.’

“He had just got back to Southern California and was trying to get things settled. He listened and said, ‘I’ll be there tomorrow.’ All he said was he hoped to get a shot in spring training next year. I said I had no problem with that.”

On August 23 Mike pitched a two-hit shutout, striking out 13, relying heavily on his new pitch, a forkball, and on the strength of that he was named Southern League pitcher of the week. He had a 1.77 ERA in six starts for the Sun Rays, with 34 strikeouts and seven walks in 35 2/3 innings. The team beat Birmingham in the league’s championship series, three games to one; Mike pitched the opening game and won 3-2, and would have pitched the fifth game had it been necessary.

For 1992 the Twins moved Mike up to the AAA Portland Beavers, but early on things weren’t right. After three starts he was 0-2 with a 10.93 ERA in 14 innings; after three more starts his ERA was still 8.02. He made no appearances after May. From the August 3 Orange County Register:

Schwabe picks retirement over surgery

‘Tommy John’ operation prescribed for elbow

Rather than have major elbow surgery, which would require at least a year of rehabilitation, former Tustin High and Rancho Santiago College pitcher Mike Schwabe has decided to retire from baseball.

Schwabe was released by the Minnesota Twins’ Portland farm team in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League earlier this summer.

“I was having arm problems early in the year and I kept trying to pitch,” Schwabe said. “We thought they were just bone spurs and the Twins finally released me and said I should see Dr. (Frank) Jobe.

“He said I would need the Tommy John surgery. I’m 28, and the recovery period from that surgery is at least a year, so I retired.”

In 2004 Mike was inducted into the Santa Ana College (the name was changed back from Rancho Santiago) Hall of Fame. A 2015 article in the Laguna News Post reported that he was a pitching coach for GWE Baseball in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; his Facebook page says that he lives in Tustin, California.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/S/Pschwm001.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/schwami01.shtml

Paul McSweeney

Paul McSweeney was a long-time prominent St. Louis semi-pro baseball player and all-around amateur athlete who played three games for the American Association’s Browns in 1891.

Paul Alphonsus McSweeney was born in St Louis on April 3, 1867, the first child of Paul and Louisa McSweeney. Paul Sr., a stonecutter, had emigrated from Ireland as a child, while Louisa was born in Illinois, as Louisa Blong. In the 1870 census the family lives at a non-specific location in St. Louis; Paul Sr. is 32, Louisa, listed this one time as “Agnes,” is 24, Paul is three, sister Mary is one, plus there is an eight-year-old domestic servant, Mary Monahan.

Somehow the family was counted twice in the 1880 census, by two different census-takers. According to one Paul Sr. is 40 and Louisa 35, while according to the other they are 42 and 34. 13-year-old Paul is working as a clerk in a drugstore, while two more little sisters have been added—one census-taker has Agnes, 5, and Anna, 3, while the other has Annie, 5, and Agnes, 3.

The 1885 St. Louis city directory shows their address as 4235 Cook Ave, with Paul working as a junior clerk at Samuel C. Davis & Co. By 1887 he was a clerk in the assessor’s office. Teenage Paul got heavily into sports, especially baseball. From the Fair Play of Sainte Genevieve, Missouri, of August 18, 1888:

 A Splendid Game of Baseball.

A trimmer, more export and more gentlemanly company of baseball players never visited Ste. Genevieve than the members of the Missouri Amateur Athletic Club, who made their appearance in our city on Saturday night last, to encounter our local nine, the Riversides. It was soon noticeable that they were all picked athletes, well able to maintain their reputation as the crack amateur baseball club of Missouri. The courteous treatment which visiting clubs from St. Louis have received at the hands of the Riversides, and the good reputation which the latter have acquired as a strong team, made the M.A.A.C. look forward with pleasant anticipation to an opportunity for playing a game with them.

On Sunday the visiting nine were scrutinized closely as they practiced a little in front of the Southern Hotel, and with the result that their offer of ten to five that they would shut out the Riversides could find no takers. A procession of both the clubs marching double file, side by side, was arrayed at one o’clock p.m. The cornet band led the way…

Joe Murphy, the regular pitcher of the M.A.A. Club was not present but his place was well filled by Paul McSweeney, who throws a beautiful ball, swift and puzzling…

The November 7 Sporting Life ran an article on the M.A.A.C. team, saying:

Early in the season the M.A.A.C. offered three prizes to its clubs—one for batting, one for stolen bases, and one for fielding. McSweeney captured two of the prizes—one for batting and one for stolen bases, and Heck captured the one offered for fielding.

The next newspaper reference I found to Paul was in the St. Joseph Daily Gazette of March 4, 1889, in an article about the upcoming spring training for the American Association’s St. Louis Browns:

The first two games of the Browns’ preliminary schedule will be with the M.A.A.C., the local champions on Saturday and Sunday, March 23 and 24. In the opening game Joe Murphy, the king of the local amateur pitchers, will face the Browns, who will have the bright young all-around player, Paul McSweeney, to pitch.

Why Paul would be pitching for the major league team against his own amateur teammates, I can’t imagine. The only further mentions I found of him in 1889 were in the April 19 Alton (Ill.) Daily Telegraph (“Mr. Paul McSweeney, of St. Louis, was in the city last night.”) and the July 10 St. Louis Republic (he attended the anniversary party of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Felton). But apparently by this point he was already a local amateur star of boxing, wrestling, and association football (not yet being called soccer) in addition to baseball.

In 1890 Paul was still with the M.A.A.C. team, and was still paying visits to Alton, Illinois. In 1891 I don’t know where he was before September 20, but that was the day he made his major league debut. He played in three straight games for the Browns, at home against the Washington Statesmen. He had three hits, one a double, in 12 at-bats, and stole a base; in the field, he played second base in all three games and third base in part of one of them, making five errors in 14 chances at second and three errors in seven chances at third. There were six more games in the Browns’ season, but Paul did not play in any of them. I found no contemporary accounts, but a 1938 article said that his mother did not approve of his playing professionally; at any rate that was the end of his major league, and possibly his pro, career.

The only thing I found about Paul in 1892 was that in October he participated in a boxing match as part of the grand opening of the Young Men’s Athletic Club in Alton. In 1893 the St. Louis city directory shows him as a deputy assessor at the court house, still living with his parents at 4235 Cook Avenue. The May 29 Alton Daily Telegraph reported:

Mr. Paul McSweeney won two boxing matches in St. Louis Saturday night. He is considered one of the best amateur boxers in St. Louis.

From the St. Joseph Herald, September 2:

OUR CHAMPIONS.

THEY WILL HAVE TO PLAY BALL THIS AFTERNOON

The Belleville Clerks Have Been Accustomed to Winning and Have a Reputation to Sustain.

There doubtless never was as much interest manifested in baseball in this city as now. The attention of the “cranks,” “fans” and enthusiasts all over the city is challenged by the pending contests between the two best baseball teams that ever met on a St. Joseph diamond to wrestle for championship honors. Today at 3:30 the umpire will summon into action the great Belleville Clerks, whose record is one of which no independent baseball team in the country ever boasted before, and the St. Joseph club, whose already generally conceded strength is augmented by a cognizance of the fact that they will have to play ball and play hard.

The winning of the series means a great deal to each team, and from 2:30 today until the last man goes down on Monday afternoon both teams will bitterly contest every inch of ground with a vengeance…

Paul was to play right field for the Clerks. The same newspaper edition, under the heading “Something About the Players,” said that “Paul McSweeney, captain of the Bellevilles, is one of the best all-round players in the country.”

In 1894 Paul was still the captain of the Clerks. In the 1895 city directory he is listed as a “dep. coll.” with the Internal Revenue; sister Mary now has her own listing as a stenographer, living at 4235 Cook along with Paul and stonecutter Paul Sr. In late 1896 there was speculation that the National League’s Cleveland Spiders might be interested in Paul, but nothing came of it. From the Evansville Courier and Press, August 14, 1897:

The Belleville Clerks of Belleville, Ill., will play the local team next Sunday. The Clerks ball team has been in existence since 1892 and have won four fifths of the games ever played. The Belleville people have chartered a special train of twenty coaches and will be here in abundance.

Paul McSweeney, the captain of the Belleville Clerks, is perhaps the best amateur athlete [illegible]. He will pitch for his team in Sunday’s game.

From the September 24 Daily Illinois State Journal of Springfield:

Signed With Springfield.

Paul McSweeney, late captain, and big Bill Fairback, late first baseman of the Belleville Clerks, are now members of the Springfield team, having signed Wednesday with the club for the balance of the season.

If this were true, and if it were referring to Springfield’s team in the Class B Interstate League rather than an amateur team, then Paul’s professional career was not limited to his games with the Browns. In any case it seems to imply that the Clerks had disbanded.

In either 1898 or 1899 Paul joined the semipro Alton Blues. From the Alton Evening Telegraph, March 7, 1900:

McSweeney Will Remain.

Manager Charles Wilson, of the Alton Blues, says Paul McSweeney will not leave the Alton team this year, as reported. He stated the rumor gained circulation in base ball circles, but it proved to be unfounded. McSweeney will remain as captain of the Blues.

But four weeks later, April 5:

McSweeney Will Go.

As the TELEGRAPH announced one month ago Paul McSweeney will not play with the Alton Blues this season. The announcement was flatly contradicted by Manager Wilson at the time who said McSweeney would not play with the Hargadine and McKittrick new team, but the first information was correct. It was given out yesterday that the Blues’ catcher had decided to leave the team because of pressure of his employers to join the team organized among their employees in the store…

At some point between the 1899 and 1901 city directories, Paul’s occupation changed to bookkeeper with “Hargadine-Mittrick D.G. Co.” The 1900 census shows him as a bookkeeper in the dry goods business, living on Cook Avenue with his parents, Mary, and Agnes.

I didn’t find any more 1900 references to Paul until October 17, when he was mentioned as one of the players scheduled to participate in a benefit game at Sportsman’s Park that would feature Joe McGinnity. In December 28’s St. Louis Republic, in an article about Canadian football (still not being called soccer) champions the Berlin Rangers and their visit to town, Paul was named as one of the top players on the Christian Brothers College team that would be facing the Rangers—though I’m fairly certain 33-year-old Paul was not a student.

In February 1901 Paul was a delegate for the St. Louis Democratic mayoral race. In April he was appointed a clerk in the assessor’s office, and in May there was a mention of his playing in a baseball game for the Christian Brothers College team, against the Alton Blues. In 1902 he was back with the Blues; from the August 30 issue of Sporting Life:

DIELS DEFEAT ALTON

Pitcher Terry Allows Illinois Team but Three Hits.

In a game that was as hotly contested as any semiprofessional engagement in St. Louis and the surrounding country, and yesterday’s game was the first of a series of three for the local honors and carried a side stake of $100. The Diels, accompanied by a band of St. Louis rooters, went to Alton, carrying the regular team. Delegations from other suburban towns swelled the attendance and it is estimated that more than 1,500 persons witnessed the game…

Herr pitched a masterly game and Paul McSweeney caught his usual brilliant game, but without hits the Blues could not overcome the early lead of the Diels…

During the off-season Paul started officiating association football games rather than playing in them. The January 4, 1903, St. Louis Republic reported:

Paul McSweeney, who for a number of years was one of the stars of the game, is even a better referee than he was a player. From the time the whistle blows to start the game until its close, “Mac” keeps the teams playing football. In former years the players were in the habit of disputing the referee’s decision, and getting away with it, but McSweeney will not stand for any playing to the spectators.

Same newspaper, February 1:

CLOSE PENNANT RACE IN “SOCKER” GAME

Paul McSweeney’s handling of the pibroch is the best seen in this vicinity since the palmy days of Lawrence Riley. The former socker star sees all that happens. His knowledge of the game has been derived from a vast experience, and the saplings listen to his decisions with bated breath.

“Pibroch” apparently means bagpipes, and my best guess is that here it is being used to refer to the referee’s whistle. On February 24, busy Paul found time to get married. From the next day’s Republic:

BALL PLAYER’S LIFE CONTRACT.

Paul McSweeney Is Married to Miss Annie Kelly.

Miss Annie Kelly of No. 1306 North Sarah street was married yesterday morning to Paul McSweeney, a clerk in the City Hall, at St. Ann’s Church by the Reverent Father McDonald. The marriage ceremony was performed at nuptial high mass at 8:30 o’clock.

Judge John Egan and Miss Mary McSweeney, the bridegroom’s sister, served as attendants.

McSweeney is not only well known and popular in athletic circles here, but for several years played semiprofessional baseball in Belleville, Murphysboro and Alton.

As a ball player he had few equals outside of the players in the big leagues, and more than once managers of the National League tried to get his signature to a contract. McSweeney, however, declined to accept any engagements as a professional baseball player.

As an association football player McSweeney also shines, and for several years he was considered one of the best forwards in St. Louis. This year he has been one of the official referees at the association football games, and is popular with the players.

This made it sound like Paul was no longer playing baseball, but that was not the case. In 1903 he caught for a team called the Kerns in the Trolley League, the St. Louis-area semipro league. In August he was a ringer in a game between two Illinois towns, as described in the Jacksonville Daily Illinois Courier:

MURRAYVILLE LOSES PRIZE BALL GAME.

Hundreds of People Witness Contest With Carrollton.

The game at Murrayville Tuesday afternoon between Carrollton and Murrayville for $300 a side and the gate receipts was won by Carrollton by a score of 6 to 2. Both teams loaded up with foreign players until the personnel of the two teams resembled the towns they represented about as much as an ordinary hobo resembles J. Pierpont Morgan.

Carrollton had old Bob Talbot, a has been, on the rubber, and Paul McSweeney behind the bat…All Talbot had was a slow out curve up high, but McSweeney worked the two rubes who were umpiring so that they would call a strike if the ball was a mile high. To top the whole thing off, Talbot had a horseshoe in each hip pocket, which was a great aid in helping him win the game…

After baseball season Paul went back to refereeing football/soccer. And from the December 28 St. Louis Republic:

PERENNIAL PAUL McSWEENEY.

E.E. Barnes and Paul McSweeney would like to play some good pair handball for something worth while. Mr. McSweeney is the perennial wonder of local athletics. He has been in the front rank of baseball, football, wrestling and boxing for twenty years, and is to-day as fast as he was when he began playing in 1880 [when he was 13]. Close to 40 [36], he is apparently no older than when he was 20…

From the Moberly (Missouri) Democrat, January 17, 1904:

ST. CHARLES’ NEW CAPTAIN

Paul McSweeney, probably the best-known semi-professional baseball player in St. Louis, has been appointed manager and captain of the St. Charles Browns for next season, and he will have entire charge of the team in so far as its make-up and the playing of games is concerned. The St. Charles team is a member of the Missouri-Illinois league, better known as the “Trolley league,” and it owns its own park at St. Charles. McSweeney has been playing with the Alton teams, and he has made such a high-class reputation as a player that he is in demand by minor league teams. He has refused to leave the city, however. He has been catching for the Alton team, and will probably continue in that position at St. Charles. McSweeney has not as yet made up his team, but will line up his players at once. McSweeney has many friends among the ball players, and he should be able to line up a first-class team for St. Charles.

A month later the same newspaper reported that Paul would in fact be catching for his new team, but I didn’t find anything more about him playing baseball in 1904. That year the city directory showed him at 1306 N Sarah, no longer living with his family now that he was married, and an April 23 story in the Republic said that he would be acting as a judge at a night of amateur boxing and wrestling. In the fall he again was a football/soccer referee.

In 1905 Paul was with a semipro team sponsored by a woman’s magazine called The Woman’s Magazine. A 1957 Sporting News feature on the Kerry Patch neighborhood of St. Louis and its baseball history included reminiscences from old-timers Lefty Leifield, Bobby Byrne, and Frank Huelsman, such as:

“Remember the Woman’s Magazine team that came into existence around that time?” queried Leifield.

“Yep,” replied Huelsman. “A rich-man’s outfit. Those kids didn’t have to buy their own uniforms, balls or bats. They had a wealthy sponsor, the magazine company. Phil Kavanaugh and Paul McSweeney were members of that club.”

Paul was a 38-year-old “kid.” From Sporting Life, July 8:

MAGAZINES DEFEAT THE DIELS.

Moselle’s Braves Play Snappy Ball and Clout Boultis Hard in Fourth.

The Woman’s Magazines again played to their form yesterday when they defeated Tommy Cahill’s Diels at Magazine Park by a score of 5 to 2…

McSweeney’s braves cracked out eight hits off Boultis and made only one error, while Connett allowed the Diels only six hits and fanned four batsmen…

Same publication, one week later:

RECORD GAME WINS FOR THE MAGAZINES.

McSweeney’s Braves Require Fourteen Innings in Which to Defeat the Ben Millers.

The Woman’s Magazines and Ben Millers set the record mark of the Trolley League yesterday when they battled for fourteen innings…

The best crowd of the season turned out to see the game, and increased interest was manifested as the zeros kept piling up on the bulletin board…

Paul McSweeney set a mark for first basemen in the Trolley League by accepting twenty-eight chances.

The White Seals of St. Louis were the 1905 Trolley League champions; in 1906 Paul was put in charge of that team, and they won again. In 1907 he moved to another Trolley League team, the Ziegenheins, which apparently represented a funeral home; in the one box score I found he played first base and batted sixth. In the 1908 city directory he is living at 3846 St. Louis Avenue, still listed as a clerk in the assessor’s office, while in 1909 he is called an abstract clerk. Other than that the only news I found of him in those two years was a 1909 Sporting Life mention that he had been appointed a Trolley League umpire, which may suggest that he was done as a player.

In the 1910 census 43-year-old Paul and 37-year-old Fannie (rather than Annie) are on St. Louis Avenue, with no children. Paul is listed as a clerk for a railroad; the city directory of that year just lists him as a clerk, not specifying where. A story in the Moberly (MO) Weekly Monitor speaks of the Trolley League and the Missouri-Illinois League, previously the same thing, as two different leagues, and mentions Paul as an umpire in the Missouri-Illinois League.

In 1913 the city directory changed Paul’s address to 4251 Maffitt Avenue, and began listing him as a bookkeeper. The 1938 article mentioned earlier reported that he was the auditor of the St. Louis Country Club and that he had had that job for 26 years, which would put the start at 1912. In 1914 he was still being mentioned as a soccer referee, though apparently he was no longer umpiring. In the 1916 city directory his address is 4248 Maffitt.

In the 1920 census 52-year-old Paul, listed as an auditor for a city club, and 44-year-old Fannie, who has only aged seven years since 1910, live at 3912 Maffitt Avenue, along with one other couple, so presumably it was a duplex. In 1920 and 1922 Paul refereed the national soccer championship games.

Then there’s a gap until the 1930 census, which finds Paul and Fannie renting a house at 7529 Forsyth Boulevard in Clayton, a suburb adjacent to St. Louis, for $50 a month. On September 30, 1931, the Alton Evening Telegraph ran a story about a baseball:

Ed Yager Has Ball Used Back in 90’s

Ed Yager has a baseball that harks back to the old days here. It was used in the last game played by the old Alton Blues under Yager’s management. The game was played in the early nineties, and the Blues defeated the Belleville Clerks.

Some of the players in that game were Paul McSweeney, one of the greatest catchers who ever showed here,…

If the timing is right then Paul was presumably playing for the Clerks in that game. On July 7, 1938, the Alton Evening Telegraph ran a feature article that I have cited twice here previously, the timeline of which is not always consistent with the facts I have found:

Paul McSweeney, Catcher, Charley Wilson, Manager of Old Blues, Here for Visit

Recall Thrilling Games of Days When City Was Baseball-Mad

Two men who brought baseball fame to Alton at the turn of the century were here for a brief visit, this morning, and stopped at the Telegraph to renew old friendships with reporters of that day, now owners of the Telegraph.

The visitors were Paul McSweeney, called one of the greatest catchers of his day, and Charley Wilson, who managed the famous Alton Blues of 1900-01-02.

McSweeney is 72 [71] and in excellent health. Wilson, in the seventies, is the same smiling Wilson who led the Blues to notable victories. Both are ruddy-cheeked, vigorous, and active—McSweeney as auditor of St. Louis Country Club, a position he has held for 26 years; and Wilson as trader on the St. Louis Merchants Exchange as representative of the Terminal Grain Co.

Some of the great games of other days were played over this morning. It was recalled that McSweeney, then celebrated for his grace as a catcher, on more than one occasion took off the mask and chest protector to go into the pitchers’ box where his talent as a hurler was little short of his ability as a receiver. McSweeney had many offers to go into professional baseball. He played a few games for Charles Comiskey’s famous old St. Louis Browns, but Paul’s mother did not want him to take up baseball as a profession so the player left the Browns and sought a business career, with baseball as a recreation.

Fifty-one years ago, McSweeney came to Alton for the first time to play on the Alton club managed by George Mold. James J. Mullen of Alton was a member of that team.

In 1900, the Belleville Clerks team was brought to Alton and played the Alton Blues. That was a great ball club, Wilson said today. McSweeney was the catcher and field captain…

That famous Alton club was notable for many things. A number of its players came from excellent families and they held good positions. Baseball to them was an avocation. They were a clean-living lot, too, which wasn’t exactly the custom in the baseball of the early 1900’s.

A reporter looked at McSweeney’s hands, expecting to find fingers and thumbs gnarled. Only one finger was bent, the result of a fracture.

“Paul’s hands don’t look like those of most men who’ve done a lot of catching,” the reporter remarked.

“Paul was so good he didn’t get his hands hurt,” said Wilson, proudly.

McSweeney was asked about today’s baseball stars. He thinks Johnny Vander Meer, sensational Cincinnati pitcher who hurled two consecutive no-hit games, among the greats. He has seen him pitch only a few innings, but watched him in batting practice.

“Vander Meer was in the outfield, chasing flies. He was keeping in shape—and that’s what makes a pitcher great. He had all the actions of a star.”

McSweeney thought Joe DiMaggio, the Yankees siege gun, a great player, but didn’t think “DiMagg” a greater hitter than Joe Medwick of the Cardinals.

“Medwick may not be as spectacular, in the field,” opined McSweeney, “but he’ll hit oftener.”

By the time of the 1940 census Paul was retired. He and Fannie were living at 7518 Forsyth Boulevard in Clayton, almost across the street from their previous residence, for $30 a month. They would live there for the rest of Paul’s life, which came to an end on August 12, 1951, in Missouri Baptist Hospital in St. Louis, after a stay of six weeks. The cause of death was colon cancer, which he had suffered from for two years. He was 84 years old.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/M/Pmcswp101.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mcswepa01.shtml