Creed Bates

 

Creed Bates pitched for the National League’s Cleveland Spiders and St. Louis Perfectos in 1898-99.

Creed Napoleon Bates was born September 28, 1876, in Cleveland, northeast of Chattanooga in southeastern Tennessee. His parents, Levi Bates and Louisa Catherine Gaddis Bates, were both born in Georgia; Levi volunteered for the Confederate Army at the age of 17, early in the Civil War.

The 1880 census found them living in Cleveland. Levi, 35, is a laborer in an iron mine; Louisa is 33; and there are six children: William, 10; Adolphus, 9; Charles, 8; Ida, 6; Creed, 4; and Hattie, 1. William was born in Georgia, the others in Tennessee. In 1883 Levi joined the Chattanooga police force.

I know nothing more about Creed until the July 1, 1895, Chattanooga Daily Times: “Will Hill and Creed Bates, two Chattanooga boys, are pitching for the Columbus, Miss., team in the Mississippi state league.” As best I can tell, the Mississippi State League was an independent professional league. Then on August 7, the Knoxville Journal reported:

The [Knoxville] Reds leave this morning for Asheville for a series of four games. The Moonshiners have been strengthened at numerous weak points since they were here, President Nicklin having been wired for players. Among the new men is Creed Bates, Jr. [sic], of Chattanooga, who pitched a game against the Nashville team Monday giving up only three hits.

These were amateur town teams. From the Knoxville Tribune, February 2, 1896:

The amateur ball fever is spreading rapidly, and all the towns of any consequence in this territory will form amateur teams for the coming season. Locally, Manager Moffett has twenty men on the string, and says he can get a crack team together in twenty-four hours. At present he is laying low, as it would not pay him to sign men and have them leave him later for positions with minor league teams. He has on his string certainly, however, Davis, Creed Bates, the swift twirler from Chattanooga,…

Chattanooga Daily Times, February 27:

Bates Will Play Ball at Knoxville.

Creed Bates, son of Policeman Bates, who is making such a good reputation as a base ball pitcher, has signed with the Knoxville team for this year and will report to Manager Moffett, of the club, in a few days. Young Bates is a Chattanooga boy and is fast winning laurels in the base ball field.

Then followed a period of uncertainly as to whether Creed would pitch for Knoxville or go to college (or, just pitch for college). From the March 12 Knoxville Tribune:

Creed Bates, the well known pitcher, who played with the Asheville, North Carolina team last season has been signed for the first part of the season of ’96 by the Athletic association of the University of Tennessee. Bates will arrive probably next week and will get down to work at once. He is a good twirler and will materially strengthen the University aggregation.

Tribune, March 15:

Creed Bates, the old [19-year-old] star pitcher for the Asheville team, has come up from Chattanooga to attend school this term. He will be a valuable addition to the base ball club.

Knoxville Sentinel, March 21:

Creed Bates, of Chattanooga, is expected to enter school some time next week. It is not yet known whether he can be persuaded to pitch for the team or not. He says he is coming to school to study, but that if he has any spare time he will willingly help old Tennessee out on the diamond.

On March 21 Creed pitched in Chattanooga for the Fergers against the Highland Parks. On March 31 the Knoxville Journal reported:

Creed Bates arrived in the city yesterday and will enter the university to-day. Bates will pitch for the Knoxville team this season and also for the University of Tennessee team. It is however a mistaken idea that the university team secured him. He signed with Manager Moffett before he decided to attend school and will be one of the regular pitchers of the Indians. Regular practice is being held every afternoon at the park and the boys are showing up in great shape.

Knoxville Tribune, April 2:

A game of base ball has been arranged for next Saturday afternoon at Baldwin Park. The game will be between the University of Tennessee team and a picked nine from the city. The crack pitcher, Creed Bates, who is to be associated with Moffett’s Indians this year, will twirl the sphere for the university boys, but aside from this the entire team will be composed of university men…

Chattanooga Daily Times, April 5:

Creed Bates, of Chattanooga, has recently become a student at the University of Tennessee, and will pitch for that team this season. He is considered a decided acquisition to the team.

On April 12 the Knoxville Tribune reported that “Creed Bates is at the University of Tennessee and has daily practice unsolving [?] speed and curves.” On the 20^th he pitched for the University team in Nashville. On the 26^th the Tribune reported:

The action of the Athletic association of the University of Tennessee in sending from the state institution a baseball aggregation, five-ninths of which were real students of the University, has been severely criticized by many.

Last Sunday the team left the city on a tour, having as members the following named players under the direction of Mark Brown, manager for the association: Al Crowley, Ben Morefield, Smith (Moffett’s new man), Creed Bates,… The first five named players are not regular students of the University. Bates matriculated at the institution four weeks ago, but for the sole purpose of playing baseball. Hence he is a ball student and not a student of the University…

This was the last mention of Creed pitching for and/or attending the University. On May 4 the Tribune ran a preview of the Knoxville amateur team, including:

Creed Bates, pitcher, was with Columbus, Miss., and Asheville, last season. Age 19 years, height 5 feet 10 ½ inches; weight 156 pounds.

Bates was one of Columbus’ stand-by pitchers last year and no doubt this year will surpass the creditable record he made there. Bates has good speed, curves, and a cool head. As compared with Davis and Hill of last season, Bates will not be as good but he will no doubt do excellent work.

Chattanooga Daily Times, May 17:

Young Creed Bates is pitching “great ball.” In one of Friday’s games he struck out nine men. Young Bates is also good at the bat. He has the credit of making the longest hit yet made at Baldwin Park, putting the ball over deep center and bringing in two men.

Two weeks later Creed pitched a three-hit shutout, and two weeks after that he was released by Knoxville so that he could sign with Columbus (Georgia this time, not Mississippi) of the Class B Southern League. The Daily Times reported on June 16:

GOES TO COLUMBUS, GA.

Young Creed Bates passed through the city Sunday en route to New Orleans, where he goes to join the Columbus, Ga., team of the Southern league. Young Bates had several other offers, but decided to accept the one with Columbus, as it brings him a salary of $100 per month. He will go in against the leaders today or tomorrow, and if his past record counts for anything the Pelicans will have no flowery-beds-of-ease walkover.

On July 14 Creed was released, then immediately signed by Mobile of the same league. The New Orleans Times-Democrat reported on July 26:

Bates, who started in was wild and could not control the ball and at the close of the fourth inning Fisher decided to take him out…President Muller, who was one of the audience advised Fisher to make this move in order to be able to put Bates in to pitch the game to-day in Mobile against Columbus. The Mobile rooters have never seen Bates in the box for their own club and the president was anxious to give them the opportunity but this move was not at all satisfactory to the erratic pitcher who intimated that he was not being treated right by Fisher when he was pulled out to make place for Schmidt.

The Knoxville Tribune reported on August 7:

Creed Bates, son of Policeman Bates, has returned home from Mobile, where he has been playing ball for several months. Young Bates was taken sick several weeks ago with malaria and was confined in bed for about six days. He has not fully recovered yet. He says that it is not likely that he will return to Mobile again this season. Bates is now considering an offer from the Cleveland team of the national league for next season. It is probable that he and the Cleveland people will come to some agreeable terms. Bates has played fine ball this season, and the Mobile club regretted to lose him.

After a month Creed returned to the Knoxville amateur team; from the September 7 Tribune:

Creed Bates arrived yesterday morning and he is in fine condition. When he left here about the middle of the summer he was so wild that his games were very uncertain. He now has good control and speed enough which will make him reliable as he has good curves and a good head.

Courtesy of Henry Chadwick, Sporting Life published the Southern League pitching leaders on September 19; Creed ranked first in the league with an 11-3 record, yet somehow Baseball Reference credits him with a 1-5 record.

On January 25, 1897, the Chattanooga Daily Times reported that Creed had been signed by the Cleveland Spiders of the National League and would be given a tryout, but I found no more mention of that. On March 9 the Daily Times ran a story on an independent professional team, not part of any league, being formed in Chattanooga, mentioning Creed as one of the players, but as it turned out the team joined the newly -formed independent Southeastern League. Creed had a 3-8 record in 11 starts before the league folded in late May; playing other positions as well, he got into 30 games total, and hit .202.

Creed then caught on with the Terre Haute Hottentots of the Class C Central League; from there he moved on to the Class B Inter-State League, where he spent time with both the Dayton Old Soldiers and the Wheeling Nailers, and had a 1.91 ERA in 11 games. The September 30 Chattanooga Daily Times reported:

Creed Bates Returns.

Creed Bates, son of ex-Policeman Bates, one of Chattanooga’s crack ball players, returned yesterday from Dayton, O., the Ohio Central League [sic] season being now at an end. Young Bates has earned an enviable record on the diamond this season. As a pitcher he had but few equals in the league, and his general average at the close of the season has placed him near the top of the list. He will probably enter the National League next year.

Creed returned to Dayton in 1898 and, a first for him, he stuck with them for their entire season. He won 23 games, two off the league lead, and lost 18. After the season ended he was purchased by the Cleveland Spiders and became a major leaguer.

Creed started four games, all complete games, for the Spiders in the last nine days of the season: two wins, one loss, and one tie. Two of the games failed to go nine innings, so he pitched just 29, with a 3.10 ERA. After the season he appeared on the Cleveland reserve list, as Frank C. Bates; this was a very rare reference to him as “Frank,” but that is how he is currently listed in retrospect.

Creed signed a new Cleveland contract in February 1899, the Houston Post reporting that he was “getting in shape in Dayton, Ohio,” and the Knoxville Sentinel giving his salary as $200 a month. But the Spiders’ owners, Frank and Stanley Robison, bought another National League team, the St. Louis Browns, renamed them the Perfectos, and scrambled the two rosters in an attempt to get all the best players on the Perfectos. Creed was among those sent to St. Louis. From the March 30 St. Louis Republic:

GOSSIP OF THE PLAYERS

What the St. Louis Boys Are Doing at Hot Springs.

BY A STAFF CORRESPONDENT.

Hot Springs Ark., March 29.—“I prithee cast thine penetrant and prehensile optics on that pulchritudinous pair of young battery partners, Bates and Criger,” spake Oliver Tebeau to your correspondent; “and give me the benefit of such scrutiny, for I highly value and set great store on your ripe judgment on questions pertaining to beauty, come it in a woman, a man, a horse, a dog, a bat, a bicycle or a golf club. That pair will make my ladies’ day battery during the coming season, and mote I thrive they will attract to the unaccustomed hinges of the park gates many airy, fairy dames of quality who, like their dear sex, see more in a baseball player than the game he plays.

“Look you well upon the willowy Criger,” continued the entertaining Oliver, whose pseudonym is Pat…

“But he is only one of a pair. Bates may not make the marvelous ‘coup d’oeil’ that his starry partner does, but when you score his points, one by one, he scores high. In truth he has a sad and doleful eye that makes him quite as solid with the ladies as my old friend Larry Hanley, doing his Hamlet stunt. His mild eye of blue, with its injured expression, will make the St. Louis Club a popular place aux dames this coming summer. Then he is a most truly and justly proportioned fellow disinclined to embonpoint [a real word, look it up] and much addicted to unconscious grace of motion. His ebony locks and dusk complexion would recommend him as a foil to the flaxen exuberance of Criger. The one is the very best young catcher in the League, as good now as Ewing, Bennett or Zimmer were at their best. But one thing can prevent the other being a marvelous pitching success, and that is a broken arm. Methinks my season’s work is well begun when I have captured this brace of baseball kids.”

 It took a while for Creed to get into a game. On May 19 he finished up a 10-9 loss in New York; on the 23^rd the Chattanooga Daily Times quoted the St. Louis Republic’s game story:

BOUQUETS FOR CREED BATES.

Sunday’s St. Louis Republic says: Tebeau had better get Bates ready, for there will be a constant demand for the kid pitcher. He made a tremendous hit in the two innings he pitched. Bates is a slim, clean-carved, modest looking fellow, with a free delivery and speed that impresses. Tebeau never has had any doubt of his ability. That he has not pitched him before is due to the fact that he has not shown proper control of his fast ball in practice. He displayed great speed yesterday and a good straight ball. His delivery should produce a “wave” ball, something like that which Nichols and Cy Young have when at their best. Bates bats left-handed. He made a nice hit and got a base on balls in that fateful sixth inning yesterday. His hit came first, and it was a neat performance. He pitched for the Dayton club of the Interstate League last year and was counted the best twirler in that speedy minor organization.

Three days later Creed relieved again. Between the two games he gave up one earned run in 8 2/3 innings, but that wasn’t good enough to keep the Robison brothers from moving him back to Cleveland. The Spiders put him in the starting rotation; on June 7 he lost 7-1, and on the 11^th he lost 10-1. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on the 12^th:

BATES’ WORK WAS WRETCHED.

He Pitched as if Trying to Secure His Release.

Sore at Having Been Transferred From St. Louis.

A Big Crowd and a Poor Game.

CINCINNATI, June 11.—Young Mr. Bates was either in miserable form this afternoon or he had an attack of the sulks. His work on the rubber for the Exiles was the worst seen here this season. It may be doing the youngster an injustice, but from the stands it seemed as if he was not trying. He just floated the ball towards the plate all during the game and did not even seem to be making an effort to get it over. Nine bases on balls and two hit batsmen was the result of this carelessness.

In the face of such pitching of course the Exiles had little chance to even make a creditable showing against the locals, and they suffered an overwhelming defeat. Bates acted much as if he were sore because Tebeau had shifted him to Cleveland and as if he were willing to do most anything for his release.

That Cleveland bunch is enough to bring tears to a man’s eyes at any time, but they were unusually demoralized today, after Bates showed no signs of wanting to make a fight at least…

The 1899 Spiders are famous as the worst team in major league history, winding up with a 20-134 record, and Creed was one of their worst pitchers. In one game he walked 14 batters, which was thought to be a record though it actually wasn’t. On June 26 he walked nine and lost 10-7; the next day’s Cleveland Leader reported:

A certain Mr. Bates, whose wildness exceeds everything that has ever “happened” in Cleveland, is chargeable for the defeat of yesterday. The game would have been an easy one but for the balls that weren’t put over the plate. Bates couldn’t find the plate any more than a drunken man can find the keyhole at 3 a.m. He shot ‘em this way and that—any way except over the plate. He hit the batters, and failed to count for strikes. It was a frightful exhibition of how the game should not be pitched.

Mr. Bates fielded like a man in the grave…

On July 14 Creed pitched a 14-1 complete game loss, yet the Leader spoke well of him:

…and Bates stood the onslaught very well for a young pitcher, especially as he was laid out for five minutes by a blow over the heart from a pitched ball in the second inning that would have sent most pitchers to the stable for repairs. It was a terrible blow, but Bates puckily finished the game.

Creed did finish 17 of his 19 starts, including August 12 when he walked seven and lost 13-1, the Plain Dealer saying:

Bates doesn’t seem to be even a second rater. He has only average speed, very poor command of the ball, and relies almost entirely on an outcurve.

On August 16 he walked nine and lost 13-2, another complete game, and the Plain Dealer said:

Of course the Clevelands did not win the game, and it is hard to see when they will win a game so long as they persist in playing Bates. The young man demonstrated long ago that he is not fast enough even for the tail enders of the big organization. He had little speed today, was quite as wild as usual and the Brooklyns had little or no trouble in making runs and plenty of them…

On August 24 he walked seven but lost only 6-2, the Plain Dealer observing that: “Bates, who is retained on Quinn’s team because he can always be depended upon to lose handily, pitched in his normal form.” The August 31 Plain Dealer, on the previous day’s game:

Once again it was simply a case of battle between a fox terrier and a rat at League park yesterday, and Cleveland again appeared in the role of the rodent. Bates, who has never showed cause why he should remain in anything besides minor league company, pitched for Quinn, which is quite enough to explain the result. He was not as wild as usual, for the reason that Boston seldom let him pitch long enough to give a base on balls…

From the September 6 Knoxville Sentinel:

BATES RELEASED

FORMER KNOXVILLE PITCHER DROPPED BY CLEVELAND.

RECORD IN BOX ASSIGNED AS PROBABLE CAUSE.

Tuesday afternoon, Creed Bates, of the Cleveland baseball team, the old Knoxville pitcher, was given notice of release.

Many Knoxville baseball rooters will be sorry to hear of this. The manager of the team perhaps based his dismissal upon his record this season. Bates has pitched in twenty games, and in only two of these did his team win. These were not won on account of his superior pitching.

Tuesday afternoon Bates pitched the first game of a double header for Cleveland, against Cincinnati. He allowed Cincinnati twenty-two hits, which resulted in nineteen scores…

His release may have been based upon his crappy pitching…

Creed actually was given one more start before his release took effect, and he lost 11-0 on September 9, giving him a 1-18 record. The Spiders lost 23 of their 24 games the rest of the way, so his release doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference one way or the other. His ERA while with Cleveland was 7.24; adding in his two relief appearances with St. Louis gives a 6.90 mark overall. In his 161 2/3 innings he allowed 246 hits and 110 walks, while striking out only 13 batters; he owns the major league record for the lowest number of strikeouts per nine innings (since the mound was moved back in 1893) at 0.72.

The Pittsburgh Press reported on December 4:

Wheeling May Get Bates.

Cincinnati, Dec. 4—Creed Bates, the Cleveland league pitcher who is wintering in this city, may play with the Wheeling team next season. Bates has a number of offers, but he thinks better of his Wheeling offer than any of the others. The chances are that he will sign to play in the West Virginia metropolis next season.

Creed did sign with Wheeling, but then decided he wanted to play with a semi-pro team in Cincinnati instead, which was reported in the February 19, 1900, Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, under the headline “Come Bates, This Won’t Do.” The same paper had an update on March 7:

Pitcher Bates, of the Wheelings, who proved refractory and recently sent back $25 advance money that had been proffered him, and at the same time announced his intention to play with the semi-professional Fleischmanns, of Cincinnati, has come to terms with the local management, as will be seen by the following letter just received by Manager Lytle:

CINCINNATI, March 5, 1900.

FRIEND POP: Your letter received and in reply will say, I have already seen my mistake, and if you knew how I was drawn into it I don’t think you would blame me. They promised me a good job at $12 per week, and then gave me the “hooks.” When I started to work it was a dirty job that a negro would not do, so I would not work at it, and I had to draw $25 more advance, and he has not given me a job yet, and I don’t want it now. So if you will send him the $50 I will be ready at any time to come. Enclosed find measurement for uniform. Yours truly,

C.F. BATES.

That Bates will form one of the Wheelings’ pitching quartette is the best of news, for the fans remember his former good work in this league, and his really meritorious work [???] with the tail-ender Clevelands in the big league, and are united in the belief that he will come pretty near leading the Inter-state slab artists…

Same paper, March 15:

The Wheeling management has received a letter from Pitcher Bates, asking for transportation which will be sent at once. The big fellow [5-10, 156] says he prefers spending the remainder of the winter in Wheeling, in order to commence training at once.

But things were not yet settled. The Daily Intelligencer again, April 13:

Reports that Pitcher Bates will not come to Wheeling, going instead with Mayor Fleischmann’s crack team which the Cincinnati man proposes to have as an attraction at his Catskill summer home this summer, are not true. Bates will be here next week.

On April 25 Creed was in Newport, Kentucky, marrying Selma Bowe of Dayton. Daily Intelligencer, May 3:

If Stricklett is not conditioned soon it would be well for the Wheeling management to make another effort to bring Pitcher Bates to his senses.

May 8:

Manager Lytle leaves for Cincinnati tomorrow to make an effort to have Bates join the club.

May 10:

Pitcher Bates joined the Wheeling club here to-night and reported in fine condition. He will work in Friday’s game at Mansfield.

May 11:

To-day’s game with the Haymakers will be of especial interest, owing to the debut of Charley [?] Bates as an Inter-state pitcher after a season’s stay in the National League. He ought to make a win of it, as he is said to be in the best of condition, and recently let down a team of Cincinnati semi-professionals without a hit or a run.

He actually lost that game, 6-1. On May 14 the Daily Intelligencer quoted a Cincinnati Enquirer story, apparently from a few days previous:

The Cincinnati Enquirer says that Creed Bates, of the Superbas, over whom the Wheeling team, of the Interstate league, and Mayor-elect Fleischmann’s Mountain club have had something of a wrangle, left yesterday afternoon for Wheeling. The Fleischmanns decided, in view of the fact that Bates had signed a West Virginia contract before they agreed to add him to their team, it would be unsportsmanlike to hold him, and accordingly relinquished all claims to the player.

On May 15 Creed won 8-4, and on the 20^th he pitched a two-hitter but lost 5-1 because he made three errors. On June 11 the Intelligencer reported that the Stogies had released a pitcher, adding “Bates is in fine shape, and, together with Poole, will be worked every third day.” Same paper, June 28:

Bates pitched the best game yesterday that he has figured in for Wheeling this season and it put to rest the clamor that his release was almost a certainty. He is one of the highest salaried men on the team and he earned his money yesterday. The fans forced him to doff his cap several times. He was there with the stick, too…

Backstop Boyd said after the game that Bates hadn’t tossed a dozen curves in the game, depending on straight ones that had speed to burn.

Still, by July 16 Creed was pitching for Wheeling’s rivals the Youngstown Little Giants, who moved to Marion and became the Glass Blowers in early August. On September 5 he lost 13-2 to Wheeling, and on the 7^th the Dayton Herald reported that: “Pitcher Creed Bates has been released from the Marion, Ind., club, and returned to his home in this city this morning.” For the season he had a 5-12 record.

In 1901 Creed somehow made his way to the Columbus (Ohio) Senators of the Class A Western Association. The Columbus Dispatch reported on May 4:

Pitcher Bates arrived yesterday morning and announced that he was in shape to pitch Western association ball at once. He was accordingly sent to the slab against the Colonels.

For five innings hit looked that Bates knew what he was talking about for he held the visitors down to four hits and the best they could do in the scoring line was one run in the fourth…

However, he lost 8-5. On May 11 he struck out the first batter of the game, walked the second, and was removed with “a very lame arm.” After the game he was released, and he returned to Dayton. On December 5 of that year, the following appeared in the Dayton Herald’s Police Court column:

Creed Bates, base ball pitcher, hit his father-in-law in the head with a rock. $5 and 60 days in the Work House.

Same newspaper, two days later, under Courts:

BATES VS. BATES

Selma Bates charges Creed N. Bates with cruelty, neglect and drunkenness in her suit for divorce. She was married to him April 25, 1900, at Newport, Ky. She alleges that Bates is a professional ball player, and in 1898 was pitcher for the Dayton team. She claims that he is now confined in the Work House by reason of assaults made upon her. O.F. Davidson, attorney.

Dayton Daily News, July 31, 1902:

WILL TRY AGAIN

Selma Bates has instituted another action in divorce against Creed Bates, to whom she was wedded April 23 [sic], 1900, in Newport, Ky. She charges neglect and continued abuse and avers that she cannot live with him because of his ill treatment and that he persists in harassing her, no matter where she lives. She says she is now living with her parents on Jones street, in this city, in constant danger of injury from the defendant.

She prays for a temporary restraining order which shall enjoin the defendant from annoying her. A former divorce petition filed by this plaintiff was dismissed for want of prosecution. W.A. Hallaman.

Back to the Dayton Herald, December 15, under “EQUITY CASES—JUDGE DUSTIN”: “Selma Bates vs. Creed Bates. Dismissed.”

Creed then disappears until March 12, 1907, when the Vicksburg Evening Post ran an article on the Class D Cotton States League teams reporting for spring training, which included:

Four of the locals are already here, and by the first of next week we will start regular practice. Creed Bates, who was some years ago in the American Association [sic], has been signed for first base…

That’s the only suggestion I found of Creed playing for Vicksburg, but the Cotton States League final stats show a Bates going 2-for-10 in four games for Mobile. About a year later, on March 19, 1908, the New Orleans Times-Democrat ran an article on the Meridian (Mississippi) Ribboners, also of the Cotton States League, reporting for spring training; it included the statement that: “Creed Napoleon Bates, with the Cleveland team last season [nine seasons ago], has also reported and will be given a tryout.” From the New Castle (Pennsylvania) Herald, April 14:

BERNE M’CAY A GOOD STORY TELLER

Manager Bernie McCay received a letter from Creed Bates, a friend who is playing the outfield for the Meridian team of the Cotton States league this season. After wishing Bernie luck Bates tells of a peculiar stunt pulled off by his manager, who is known as “Crazy” Schmit. Bates says Schmit is the limit. He was rooming with the manager and being unable to sleep one night arose to take a smoke. He heard Schmit get out of bed, but for five minutes he knew no more. Schmit clouted him over the head with a water pitcher, putting him down and out. When he came to his senses Bates saw Schmit looking at him and asked him why he had struck him.

“I was asleep,” said Schmit.

Bates says the same day Schmit entered the dining room of a hotel and after eating a hearty meal informed the waiter that he wanted his dinner.

“I just served you, boss,” said the negro.

Schmit declared that he had had nothing to eat and the argument ended in a fight.

For his little by-play with Bates Schmit was fined $7.50 by a magistrate, Bates says.

Creed played right field for Meridian until being released on April 25; he hit .254 in 71 at-bats in 20 games. The July 5 New Orleans Times-Picayune showed a Bates playing right field for semi-pro team Bogalusa; the July 17, July 22, and August 26 editions showed a Bates pitching for a town team in Gloster, Mississippi. I don’t know whether either of these people was Creed.

On April 15, 1910, the US census was taken in Jackson Township, Kansas. Over 100 men lived in what was apparently company housing at a rock-crushing plant; most of them were listed as laborers. One of them was named Creed Bates. He was 33, which matches; his father was born in Georgia and his mother in North Carolina, which doesn’t quite match the 1880 census, which showed both parents born in Georgia with their parents born in North Carolina. He was listed as single, so if this was our Creed then apparently Selma eventually got her divorce.

The next piece of information is Creed’s draft registration card, which he filled out September 12, 1918. He gives his address as 326 Smith in Cincinnati, and his occupation as a laborer for H.E. Culberson on Mingo Street. His nearest relative is oldest brother William, at 500 South State in Chicago. He gives his description as medium height, medium build, blue eyes, and dark hair.

And that’s the last we know of Creed. There has been speculation that he died in the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-19 since he is not counted in the 1920 census, but we really don't know.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B/Pbatef101.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/batesfr01.shtml