Ed Kinsella

Ed Kinsella pitched for the 1905 Pirates and the 1910 Browns.

Edward William Kinsella was born in Lexington, Illinois, on January 15, 1880, to Edward and Mary Kinsella, who had a farm near Blue Mound. Edward Sr. was born in Ireland, as were Mary’s parents. The 1880 census was taken a few months after our Edward’s birth; his older siblings were Charles, 10; John, 7; Elizabeth, 5; and Thomas, 2.

The next information about the family is from the 1900 census, which found them on a farm in Gridley Township, which they owned on a mortgage. Edward, 54, and Mary, 50, have been married for 31 years; Charles, 30, John, 27, and Thomas, 22, all work on the farm. Elizabeth had passed away at age 12; Edward, 20, Albert, 15, Grace, 13, and Clara, 11, are all in school.

Ed spent some time at Illinois State University, which was then a teachers’ college. He was a star pitcher there until he signed a pro contract with the Bloomington Bloomers of the Class B Three-I League, in 1904. The June 9 Daily Illinois State Journal reported that “Edward Kinsella, a pitcher from Gridley, has been signed by Manager Connors. He comes high recommended.” He got his first national mention in the August 27 Sporting Life:

Bloomington will close the season in respectable position, possibly second or third. The work of Paul Moore, the former Rabbitt, has been excellent, while Kinsella, the farmer boy wonder, seems to be invincible.

He proved not to be invincible, but he did finish the season with a 14-9 record, with 109 strikeouts and 54 walks in an unknown number of innings.

In 1905 Ed returned to Bloomington, where he pitched well enough that he was purchased by the Pittsburgh Pirates for $1000 in early August, to report when the Three-I season ended. On August 9 the Rock Island Argus reported:

Accident to Pitcher.

In a game of base ball at Mattoon last Saturday, Kinsella, of the Paxton club, brother of Ed Kinsella of Bloomington met with a singular and curious accident. In pitching a curved ball, he twisted his body and tore the ligaments of his right shoulder and side loose. He is now under the care of a doctor and out of the game for the season. He had been spotted as a comer for the Three Eye.

I assume that was Albert. In the August 19 Sporting Life, their Pittsburgh correspondent wrote:

Notice of the Pittsburg Club’s acquisition of pitcher Kinsella, giant [6-1, 175] from the middle West, prompted a chat with Colonel Dreyfuss on the talent-picking this fall. Said he: “Kinsella is a good pitcher. So my scout says, and I have the greatest of confidence in his judgment. Who is my scout? Well, that’s one thing I do not intend to tell. I am not going to have my plans read by others. I stand ready to pay out the cash for the men he picks, and I would be foolish to send out a bulletin about the arrival of my agent. Anyway, I don’t think that he is a man who would want his name bandied around in the papers as being out in search of base ball talent. You can rest assured that he knows the good ones when he sees them. He told me of Kinsella and I have arranged for the man to report in the fall. The big youth is a right-hander…”

Rock Island Argus, September 12:

Gift for Kinsella.—Ed Kinsella, Bloomington’s pitcher, who is to join Pittsburg at St. Louis Thursday was surprised by the receipt of a handsome gift from the Bloomington association, a diamond studded locket and watch chain being presented to him by President Charles Miller. The charm is suitably engraved and expresses the esteem in which he is held by the management and also gratitude for loyal and faithful service.

Ed, who finished with a 17-14 record with Bloomington, made his major league debut on September 16 in Cincinnati, pitching the seventh and eighth innings of a 6-0 Pirate loss after starter Mike Lynch was pinch-hit for by Ginger Beaumont. He allowed one hit and no runs, and struck out one. Two days later he got the start in an exhibition game against the Newark, Ohio, Idlewilds of the Class C Ohio-Pennsylvania League; The Pirates won 6-5, though Ed allowed 12 hits, four of them doubles.

Ed got his first official major league start on September 30, in the second game of a home doubleheader against Brooklyn. The game was called after eight innings with the score 2-2; Ed allowed nine hits but no walks, and struck out eight. He then pitched the final game of the season, the second of a doubleheader at Cincinnati, which was called after the Pirates batted in the top of the eighth, the Reds winning 4-1. Ed allowed nine hits, walked three, hit a batter, and struck out two. He finished the season, and his National League career, with an 0-1 record, a 2.65 ERA, and 11 strikeouts and three walks in 17 innings.

The October 14 Sporting Life included the item:

Rube Kinsella has a face which reminds one of Roscoe Miller. The tall lad often shows a fine break on his curve ball.

Two weeks later, the Sporting Life Pittsburgh correspondent devoted the first part of his report to Ed:

PITTSBURG POINTS.

SO-CALLED RUBE WHO HAS MORE THAN USUAL ABILITY.

Kinsella, the Giant From Illinois, is No “Come-On”—Worry For Seymour in the Final Contest of the Year—Were Hits Freely Given?

BY A.R. CRATTY.

Pittsburg, Oct. 23.—Editor “Sporting Life.”—It has been an old custom in base ball to dub a tall, gaunt youth just in from the uncut timber the gag name of Rube. The fellow is held up as being shy on many points in the makeup of man. The butt of rooters, the poor human is often harassed by the shouts from the stands. Near the close of the past season Pittsburg had one of the alleged hay tossers in Edward Kinsella, just from some where near Lexington, Illinois, whose “dad” owns one of those ride around all day farms. Kinsella was picked up in a Three I League town where he had been making batsmen turn back with alarming frequency. Six feet three tall, with about as much meat on his bones as a hoe handle, Edward looked the Rube part, especially in uniform. Rube was heralded as a big dub who had broken into the game and was trying to make good as a pitcher when he should be with dad husking pumpkins and threshing tomatoes.

Four weeks of Rube in this city, however, has caused one of those “revulsions of feeling,” so often spoken of in political articles. Here is Col. Barney’s idea of things: “Don’t any one pick up that big boy as a shoe horn. I want to tell you that there is more than the usual goods about that man both in a base ball way and common sense. Kid him if you want, but he is right there. Yes, I notice that some one said he recalled Roscoe Miller. Well, he can outtrot Roscoe in more ways than one. Sunday’s game at Cincinnati, the final of the year, afforded me a treat of the first water. Kinsella was on the slab against the Reds, and the players and patrons howled with glee when they noted him take the ball. Seymour was out to win the hitting honors, and I imagine he could see four or five safeties that game. Well, after Rube had fanned him twice, he was a sight. Bidding us good bye Edward remarked to the boys that in case they lost out in time killing ventures during the winter, “just come to my home. We have 600 acres and can always find work for somebody.” The giant made a hit with the players. Don’t ever pick up Rube Kinsella for a stiff.”

(Cy Seymour did not actually strike out at all in that game, going 2-for-3 with a double and a walk, and he won the batting title by 14 points over Ed’s teammate Honus Wagner.)

In December Ed was sold to the Toledo Mud Hens of the Class A American Association. The Sporting Life Pittsburg report of December 30 included the following:

“Rube” Kinsella goes to Toledo. This means next year that the farmer boy from Illinois will have the pleasure of again meeting the man who tested him for fast company. Last fall the Pittsburg club arranged to play a Sunday game at Columbus. Kinsella was sent to the slab for a try-out. Billy Clymer caught sight of the bean pole going to the hill and let out a shout of joy. Running up to the coaching box Clymer brushed the occupant out of the way yelling, “G’wan, here is my meat.” And then he started. All kinds of shouts, quips, antics, even to the famous standing on the head stunt, came from the noisy William. Kinsella

WAS SORELY TRIED.

Never before had he run into anything like that. He was never in many circuses. Here was a free one. He could not keep his eye on the Columbus clown and the plate at the same time. Walks came thick and fast. The more promenades the more stunts from Clymer. Finally Rube began to get red in the face. The Premiers watched him. Was the tall sycamore game enough to stand that gauntlet of fire? After the fourth hand had been handed a comp to first the Pittsburg men were amazed to notice the sky scraper hand the ball to an infielder, run over to the coaching box, point his finger at Clymer and hiss into his ears words to this effect: “Darn you, if you don’t stop that I will kick you all over this field. I am in here to make a livin’ out of base ball just like you are. Play fair to a man who is trying to get there or take chances of getting a rib or two busted. And mebbe I can’t do it.”

KINSELLA GLARED

at Clymer in such a manner that William quailed. Perhaps this big farmer could go some in an off-the-chain affair. At any rate Clymer smiled and walked to the bench. Edward Kinsella returned to the slab and showed the boys that he could whip the ball over the plate, had everything but that necessary essential of base ball, experience. Col. Dreyfuss witnessed Clymer’s downfall. He vowed that any old time some fresh base ball players wanted a licking just let them start something when Kinsella was around.

On March 30, 1906, the Illinois State Register, under the heading of “Three-I League Gossip,” reported:

The exhibition season will be opened next Sunday between Cincinnati and Toledo, and Edward Kinsella of Bloomington, has been honored by being selected to pitch the opening game for Toledo. Here is what the Toledo Blade sporting editor says of Kinsella: “Just stick a pin in this prediction. Kinsella, former Pirate, will be one of the best twirlers in the American association this year. He won’t stay long in the minor league. Grillo picked up a good one when he landed this boy. Sunday he shot them in with mid-season speed and had Land on the jump. Grillo stood behind him and was agreeably surprised with his tremendous speed.”

Ed started the season with Toledo, but for some reason didn’t pitch much. On May 28 the Rock Island Argus reported that “The Bloomington management is making overtures to Toledo for the return of Ed Kinsella.” However, twelve days later they added:

Ed Kinsella has enough of Bloomington. He will never go back to that burg to play ball, he says, because the agreement that he was to receive one-fourth of the purchase price in case he was sold was not lived up to by the club.

Same paper, June 16:

Ed Kinsella, the farmer boy, who helped bolster up the Bloomington team a couple of seasons by his good work in the box, has been released by President Grillo of the Toledo team to Manager Donnelly [of Springfield of the Three-I League]. Kinsella was tried by Pittsburg and after losing one game was sent to Toledo. There he did little better, suffering from lack of confidence, it is said.

And two days after that:

Ed Kinsella has balked on the deal to turn him over to Springfield from Toledo, holding a grudge against the Three-Eye league, apparently, because of the alleged failure of Bloomington to pay him part of the money secured through his sale to Pittsburg.

And then three days later:

Ed Kinsella has joined Springfield after all. He gets $250 a month if he makes good, but is himself rather dubious about his ability to do so. He says his arm is not in the condition it was last year, but he is willing to do his best.

His arm apparently improved quickly. From the Illinois State Journal, July 5:

SENATORS EQUAL WORLDS’ RECORD

PLAY WINNING GAME IN HOUR AND SEVEN MINUTES

Pitcher Edward Kinsella Twirls Phenomenal Ball, Allowing Only Twenty-Eight Batters to Face Him and Only One Hit in the Nine Innings—Morning Game Lost to Peoria, by Score 4-3—Bridges Knocked Out of the Box.

One hundred and thirty years ago yesterday the sexton put a crack in the old Liberty bell at Philadelphia, and on the anniversary Edward Kinsella put a dent in the Peoria baseball team and equaled the world’s record for time.

The game was played in an hour and seven minutes and during that time only twenty-eight batters faced the lanky twirler who recently wended his way from Toledo to Springfield to become a Senator…

“I pitched in good form today,” said Kinsella, “and I have been told that I have equaled records. I am in better condition now than at any time in my life and only worked in the interest of the team.

“The drive that Buelow made was a great one and I doubt very much if it could have been fielded by any man. Those who know Buelow’s style of batting know that he is a slugger and the one he sent out into center field certainly had wings on it. The game was not a hard one at any stage. There was plenty of hitting and always some one there to cut off the runner. When I was with Toledo I was not given a chance to work. I was allowed to wear a glove and uniform, but that was all. I am confident that a few games will put me in fine condition and I will be able to hold my own in Springfield.”

(The one hit Ed allowed was an eighth inning home run that bounced over the fence.) The following week Ed pitched a shutout against Bloomington, and a few weeks later he pitched a three-hitter against Rock Island. On August 25 Sporting Life reported that he had been bought by Detroit, but on September 3 the Rock Island Argus said that:

Ed Kinsella will not go to Detroit, after all. After looking the record of Donnelly’s pitcher over a little more thoroughly the management of the Tigers was taken with an attack of cold feet.

However, on the 5^th the National Commission announced that the purchase agreement between Springfield and Detroit had been rejected, due to “agreement not in proper form.” At any rate, Ed did not go to Detroit. He pitched in 22 games for Springfield; the stats are sketchy, but he had a .750 winning percentage, so I’m guessing he went 15-5.

In November Ed was drafted by the Portland Beavers of the Class A Pacific Coast League. On January 6, 1907, the Portland Oregonian printed a description of him:

Among the new men he [Manager McCredie] has signed is Edward Kinsella. He is widely known in minor league circles as “Rube,” and will no doubt make good with Portland, which has drafted him from Springfield, of the Three-Eye League. Kinsella is a product of this city and has many admirers through that section of Illinois. He first attracted attention four years ago by his effective work with a rural team near Springfield. Manager Connors, of Bloomington, decided to give him a trial, and he made good from the outset…

Kinsella is awkward appearing, being very tall and stout [?]; but there is no waste fat upon him. He is a mass of muscle, and as active as a cat. He is deceiving in every line, and those who first size him up to be slow and groggy will soon have their opinion changed. He never smokes, chews or indulges in tobacco in any form, and drinks no intoxicants. He is a strong believer in hygiene, and is always in condition, training mildly in winter and more actively in the spring and fall. His major league experience has given him complete control of his nerves, and he is never rattled by trying situations. There is no doubt but that Portland will have enough reason to be elated over its good fortune in securing the big fellow. His admirers in the East will watch his work closely. All are confident he will prove to be one of the winners on the coast.

On March 1 the Rock Island Argus, which always kept close tabs on Ed, reported that:

Ed Kinsella is not anxious to report to Portland, by which team he has been drafted from Springfield. It seems the Pacific management cut the big boy’s salary about one-third from that paid by Springfield, and which Springfield is still willing to pay. There does not seem to be much justice to a player in the baseball laws that permit a player to be drafted and his pay cut without his having anything to say about it.

The Argus again, six days later:

Ed Kinsella has been offered a $50 raise by Portland and will report. Donnelly paid him $25 more monthly than he will get on the coast.

Ed spent the season with Portland, and had a 21-20 record (for a last-place team) and 2.29 ERA in 370 innings in 46 games, 39 of them starts. On October 12 the Pittsburgh correspondent for Sporting Life wrote:

Dope from the Pacific Coast is that “Rube” Kinsella, a Pittsburg try-out a year ago, is one of the best overlooked. The granger boy had the courage when in the Nationals at that.

On February 8, 1908, the Argus reported that Ed “refuses to go back to Portland this spring at the wages offered him.” On March 3 Ed married Mabel Merna of Bloomington, and on the 16^th the Argus reported that he had gotten the raise he wanted and had signed with Portland. In 45 games he went 21-19 while Portland improved to 95-90. The Argus reported on November 27:

Pitcher Ed Kinsella is anxious to leave the Pacific coast and will come back to the Three-Eye league if necessary in order to get away. It is not stated whether his dissatisfaction is due to the fact that big Ed has to wear an undershirt now.

The Argus again, February 26, 1909:

Ed Kinsella, the former Bloomington pitcher, will have to go back to the Pacific coast after all, much as he detests the weather and the fleas out there. He has signed with Portland after efforts to trade him to Denver and Indianapolis fell through.

Portland had moved from the Class A Pacific Coast League to the Class B Northwestern League. During spring training there was a report that the Fresno team of the outlaw California State League had made overtures to Ed, but he stuck with Portland. On May 27 he pitched a no-hitter against Spokane, on June 8 a one-hitter against Tacoma, on June 26 a one-hitter against Vancouver, on July 29 a two-hitter against Vancouver, and on August 27 a 14-inning two-hitter against Tacoma. Meanwhile, on August 7 the Oregonian had reported that Ed had been sold to the St. Louis Browns, to report the following spring; that same day the Seattle Times reported:

Kinsella thought he was crippled for life yesterday when a bat slipped out of the hands of Capron and the bat hit the long pitcher a cruel blow. The shins of Mr. Kinsella are the longest in the league, so there is a lot of them to hurt and the bat covered their entire surface. Ed could not be convinced that both legs were not broken until he had taken down his stockings and poked around quite a while among his shin bones.

Ed wound up with a 23-10 record in 35 games. An article in the September 16 Oregon Journal on the winter plans of the Portland players said that he would be farming in Bloomington.

Ed went to spring training 1910 with the Browns, and he made the team. He made his first American League appearance on May 1 at home against Cleveland, relieving starter Barney Pelty after he was removed for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the sixth, down 4-2. He pitched three scoreless innings before being pinch-hit for in the bottom of the ninth, when the Browns tied the game; he was then replaced by Rube Waddell, who lost the game in the eleventh.

Ed got his first AL start on the 6^th in Cleveland; he gave up four runs in the fifth and lost 4-3, getting pinch-hit for in the top of the eighth. He got another start on the 14^th in New York and was removed with two out in the third, down 3-0, and the Browns lost 14-0. He then made two relief appearances in late May; on June 18 the Illinois State Journal reported:

ED KINSELLA MISSING.

Former Three-I League Pitcher Disappears from Browns’ Camp.

(Special to The State Journal.)

St. Louis, June 17.—Pitcher Ed Kinsella of the Browns, formerly of the Three-I league, has been missing from Camp O’Connor since June 1. President Hedges states that he doesn’t know the whereabouts of the big fellow. He also says that he is not suspended, but it is probable that some such action will be taken when Kinsella does show up.

According to Hedges, Kinsella took leave of absence without the club’s consent. He says he believes he has gone to his home near Bloomington, where his wife is said to be ill.

George Edward Waddell, too, is missing from camp. The eccentric southpaw is said to be on one of his usual fishing trips.

Mabel had given birth to daughter Mildred on June 4. From the Decatur Daily Herald, July 9:

Pitcher Ed Kinsella, of the St. Louis Browns, who has been at home for the past month on account of the illness of his wife has gone to Chicago to rejoin the team, his wife’s condition being such that he was able to get away. Mrs. Kinsella is now considered out of danger.

Ed made two relief appearances in late July, then got another start on August 2, at home against the Senators. He pitched a complete game and won 5-3, the only win of his major league career. He allowed 11 hits and three walks, and struck out two; he also went 3-for-4 at the plate and had six assists without an error. Four days later he pitched another complete game, this one an 11-inning, 6-3 loss in which he allowed 15 hits. Four days after that, the 10^th, he got another start, against New York, but was relieved after four innings, down 6-1. On the 13^th Ed’s friends at the Rock Island Argus reported that “Pitcher Ed Kinsella is a failure with the St. Louis Browns and will be released.” And, as the story appeared in the August 17 Seattle Times:

The big league career of Ed Kinsella has come to a close. St. Louis transferred him yesterday to the Denver club. Kinsella has been with the St. Louis American League club all year but has pitched in less than a half dozen games. He is not a big leaguer; nor will he ever be. He is a serviceable minor league pitcher, when he is working with a good club and for a manager who can keep him thinking he has it on the other fellows. He cannot field his position like a finished box artist, and he does not seem to be doing anything to overcome his weaknesses. Seattle had no trouble beating Kinsella when he was with the Portland club last year.

Ed missed some time due to illness after going to Denver (of the Class A Western League), and didn’t pitch enough to appear in the official stats, but a 1911 article said that he won five out of six games. The October 15, 1910 issue of Sporting Life reported that:

The St. Louis American League Club was involved in two decisions handed down last week. In one case that club was ordered to pay money to player Kinsella which he claimed was due him, which claim was found to be justified by the facts…

 On January 7, 1911, it was reported that Spokane had made an offer to Denver for Ed, and that Denver was undecided, but on the 17^th it was reported that he had signed a Denver contract. On April 1 the Topeka State Journal, reporting on spring training, said that:

Ed Kinsella is in better shape than he has ever been. In his play yesterday he showed science and power and yet he had only been in uniform since Thursday.

Denver News, April 4:

The train had scarcely left the Union depot tonight when the players were settled and the first argument of trip [sic] begun. It was between Davy Lloyd and Ed Kinsella and it was over the respective merits of their children. Finally, President McGill was called in to settle the matter and when he insisted that his own were the best of the lot, trouble began. Before long, every married man on the car was involved. As no settlement could be arrived at, none of the bachelors caring to referee, the case was adjourned over until tomorrow.

Same paper, April 5:

Harry Cassidy and Ed Kinsella created a big sensation in Newton, Kan., where the team stopped for two hours. Some rubes, meeting McGill and Hendricks on the street, asked them who they were. They were told the members of the party were secret service agents after a man wearing a sweater with a big “D,” Cassidy, and a lanky individual of Irish aspect called Kinsella. Taking the remarks seriously the rubes started to help in the search, but the players escaped to the car in time to avoid complications.

And April 11:

ED KINSELLA A PHILOSOPHER; HIS HEART IS ON THE FARM

By Pyke Johnson.

We come now to a gentleman of stature and brooding inclinations; one who delights in nothing so much as lying on the grass with a wee bit o’ straw in his mouth, and thus situated to ruminate upon what we have no means of knowing, save that we understand the thoughts are pleasurable ones by the smile which hovers about his countenance.

Given his own way and will, the gentleman would forego the plaudits of the vapid throngs; give up the zest and excitement of the pennant race, and hie him to a quiet and peaceful life where the croak of bullfrogs and the whirr of crickets might be the most disturbing elements.

The inference reached from this might be that the one in question is either an idler or a philosopher or perhaps both. In handling such delicate matters as this, we need must steer the safer course, and so we find that in Edward Kinsella we have the philosopher of the Grizzly Bears.

He is one of the silent ones upon the Bears squad, and this time we are not in jest. To come upon Edward when he is sitting up and making a remark, is to stumble upon the rarest of the rare happenings of the trip. Words are to him pearls of great price and he does not cast them freely before Bears.

If you would get Edward interested, talk not so much about baseball as about hunting or farming. He loves them both and he longs for both. Some day, perhaps after the coming season, he will realize his ambitions. His parents have a farm in Illinois to which he expects to turn some day and thereafter those who are hunting for former Grizzly stars will need to turn from the beaten path to the sequestered nook which he has built him for his own.

The gentleman from Illinois is not a newcomer to baseball. To be exact, this will be his seventh [eighth] year, and in the periods when umpires are as Caesars and sporting pages gospel of the day, Edward has had many a triumph and exciting experience, which have passed and left him serene and unmoved as before…

His arrival in this league the latter part of last season was expected to wrest the championship from Sioux City’s maw. Instead, by one of the peculiar twists of baseball fortune, Kinsella spent his time in bed, sick.

When he could work, he won five of six contests, which augurs at least fairly well, to be conservative, for this season. Kinsella has a large assortment, but inclines chiefly to the curve and fast balls, when he is in form.

His nickname is the “Moose.” What the reason for it is, nobody on the squad knows—probably that is why he has it. At other times he has been variously called Mike and Ed and the Rube. The assortment is various enough to permit the fan to take his pick.

However, some haunting memory seems to connect his visage with that of the Yellow Kid and it may be that there will be those who can see the resemblance closely enough to rebaptize the gentleman.

But it will not affect him. Nothing can affect the philosopher in this material world. All things human are so temporal, so fleeting, so passing to him, that he only smiles benignly upon them and lets them go their way.

Even Davy’s assaults do not affect his peace. And when that is said, nothing more is left to show the phlegmatic pose of the pitcher from the farm.

On the morning of May 29, the Denver and Omaha teams were on a train that was involved in a head-on collision with another train near Indianola, Nebraska. At least 14 people were killed, though none of the baseball players; the next day’s Denver Post reported:

…Edward W. Kinsella, a member of the Denver pitching staff, and Davy Lloyd, the diminutive second baseman of the Denver team, alone of the members of the two baseball teams, showed evidence of having been in the wreck. Kinsella’s head was bandaged. He received several scalp wounds, but none of sufficient severity to keep him out of the game. Lloyd has a deep cut across the bridge of his nose…

Edward Kinsella does not know just how he received the injury to his head, but believes it resulted from his head being driven against the berth partition when the collision occurred.

The Post reported on June 10:

Ed Kinsella has come back. After going bad so far this season the former St. Louis twirler showed all his old time speed and curves and backed up by good support and consistent hitting defeated Sioux City in the first game of the series yesterday afternoon by a score of 10 to 2.

Kinsella looked as good as he did when he joined the Grizzlies last season. He allowed but four hits and fanned nine men.

But then the Denver News, July 2:

Manager Hendricks Suspends Kinsella

As a result of the poor showing made yesterday in the game with the Topeka Kaws, Manager Hendricks last night placed Ed Kinsella under indefinite suspension for failure to get into condition.

The Big Moose has shown flashes of speed which show that he has it in him this year, but his average work has been poor, a fact which the manager cannot find explanation for.

On July 9 Ed returned from his suspension and won 13-4; on the 25^th the Denver News reported:

Ed Kinsella started in the box but when the score grew to 10 to 1 in favor of the Cubs, Manager Tom O’Brien [apparently filling in for Hendricks] evidently became fearful that the Springs nine would win and so he pulled the Moose out, putting in the Wampus. The Moose refused to go, however, until he had his turn at bat, despite the threats of the manager, who levied numerous fines to all of which Kinsella paid no attention.

Ed finished the season with a 12-10 record in 28 games. On October 14 he appeared on the Denver reserve list, and the next day he was the losing pitcher in an intrasquad game between the married players and the bachelors. The Rockford Morning Star reported on December 3:

Ed Kinsella, the “Big Moose” pitcher, who made himself famous for the number of games lost by him for Denver this year [his ten losses did lead the team, which went 111-54], made the hit of the evening at the banquet given the Denver pennant winners by fans of that city. He had listened to the speeches of others in which Buck O’Brien, Casey Hageman and other members of the twirling staff were lauded for their good work and he was determined that his work should not go unnoticed.

“I think,” he said, when called upon to talk, “that I deserve some credit along with O’Brien and the other pitchers. I helped to make the race more interesting. If it was not for my work Denver would have cinched the pennant early in the season.”

A roar of laughter greeted his remarks.

Ed signed another contract with Denver for 1912. On March 27 the Denver News reported:

…Hendricks has another sick athlete, to-wit: Pitcher Ed Kinsella. Just like Harris, the big right-hander has malaria, though fortunately his attack is not as serious as the luckless Harris. Hendricks announced tonight that he would ship the two pitchers to Kansas City in the morning.

On April 6 Sporting Life reported that Brockton of the New England League had purchased Ed, but it didn’t happen. He spent the season with Denver, and went 22-11, pitching 280 innings in 35 games. In November the Denver newspapers reported that Ed wanted to be a manager, and that he had his eye on Bloomington. However, there was no indication that Bloomington had any interest.

In January 1913 it was reported that Ed was holding out for more money from Denver, and on March 12 he announced that he was retiring and leasing a farm. But on April 14 he was sold to the Sacramento Sacts of the Class AA Pacific Coast League and he immediately reported. He was used mostly in relief, pitching 110 2/3 innings in 32 games, and had a 7-8 record.

From the February 3, 1914, Denver News:

The Big Moose, Ed Kinsella, is to be with us again. Not with Denver this time, but as a member of the pitching staff of the Des Moines club. Ed signed a contract with Isbell’s outfit yesterday after making the customary announcement that he had refused “a flattering offer from the Federal league,” a statement, by the way, which is due for the bromidic down and out club before many a moon.

Sounds like Sacramento had released him. On April 13, just before the opening of the Western League season, Mabel gave birth to child number two, son Robert. Ed had an 8-9 record with a 4.10 ERA in 149 1/3 innings in 23 games; on July 15 he was sold to the Rock Island Islanders of the Class C Central Association. Ed pitched in six games for the Islanders with a 3-3 record, and during that span the team moved to Galesburg. In August he somehow moved to the Waterloo Jays of the same league, where he pitched in ten games and had an 8-1 record.

On November 5 the Rock Island Argus reported that Ed was a candidate for the Bloomington manager’s job, but again it didn’t happen, and in fact his professional career was over. On March 16, 1915, the Moline Dispatch quoted the Bloomington Bulletin:

Friends of Ed Kinsella, the former Bloomer last year with Waterloo in the Central association are pleading with the big fellow to lay aside the cares of his cafeteria for two afternoons each week and pitch at least two games each week. Although the officials of the Bloomington association have not taken up the matter with Kinsella, there is little question but that both the club owners and fans would welcome the return of the big fellow who would be a corking good man for any Three-I.

Ed had opened a cafeteria at 214 W Jefferson in Bloomington, and was doing some pitching for a town team in Merna, a farm village just outside of Bloomington that happened to have the same name as Mabel’s family. From the Bloomington Pantagraph of April 26, 1916:

The second day of registration for the Baby Contest given during Better Babies’ week, May 4, 5 and 6, took place yesterday in the headquarters in the Commercial Club rooms, with even larger results than the previous day, there being over 200 entries made…As has been stated before this is not a beauty contest, but a physical contest…

The list of entries for “North of City” included:

Robert Edward, son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Kinsella, 612 East Grove street, aged 24 months.

Unfortunately Robert did not win the prize for being the physically best baby.

Ed did some pitching for the Knights of Columbus in 1916. The 1917 city directory still shows the East Grove residence address, but the cafeteria address has changed to 211 N Main (basement). On September 12, 1918, Ed filled out his draft registration card, giving the East Grove and North Main addresses, his occupation as cafeteria, his nearest relative as Mabel, and his appearance as tall, slender, brown eyes, and brown hair, and his birth year as 1880. A month later the Pantagraph reported:

Edward Kinsella To Move To a Farm

Edward Kinsella, who has been proprietor of the Cafeteria for this past five years, made a trade with A.D. Cowan yesterday, whereby Mr. Cowan becomes owner of the Cafeteria and Mr. Kinsella takes city property. Mr. and Mrs. Kinsella and family will move at once to the farm owned by the former’s father, four miles south of Gridley. The Kinsella family have a large circle of friends who will be interested in the above plans.

On July 12, 1919, a want ad appeared in the Pantagraph:

HOUSEWORK—Girl to work in country; good wages; phone or write. Ed. Kinsella, Lexington, Ill.

Gridley and Lexington are pretty close together, so I assume we’re talking about the same farm. The 1920 census was taken on January 14; the Kinsellas are listed under Gridley Township and are said to be renting the farm, presumably from Ed’s parents. The household is Edward, 39; Mabel, 34; Mildred, 9; Robert, 5; and Ed’s oldest brother Charles, 50.

On August 21, 1920, the Pantagraph reported that Ed would be pitching for the Lexington town team against Cooksville. In 1923 the Kinsellas got mentioned as attending the funeral of Miss Nellie Tobin in Farmer City and a Haas family reunion at brother Thomas’s house in Lexington—I don’t know how the Haas family connected to the Kinsellas. On March 26, 1925, an item in the Pantagraph said that “Money Creek Home Bureau will hold its annual family night banquet Saturday evening of this week at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ed. Kinsella, southwest of Lexington.” On August 30 Ed pitched for an old-timers team against Bloomington before the Springfield-Bloomington Three-I League game.

In the census of April 24, 1930, the Kinsellas are still on the Gridley Township farm, still renting, and consist of the same five people, now about ten years older. On September 6, 1931, 51-year-old Ed pitched in another old timers vs. Bloomington game. The 1940 census shows the family now owning a farm in Money Creek Township, valued at $2000; Mildred has moved away and brother Charles has died, so it’s Ed (who worked 72 hours the previous week), Mabel, and Robert.

In April 1942 Ed filled out another draft registration, giving his address as RFD No. 2 in Towanda, the town closest to Money Creek. Brother Thomas in Lexington is the “person who will always know your address,” and Ed describes himself as 6-1 ½, 180, brown eyes, brown hair, light complexion. He had shaved two years off his age, now claiming to have been born in 1882.

On November 29, 1945, Robert got married, after which there was a long gap in news of Ed, other than the 1950 census; this showed Ed and Mabel alone at the Money Creek farm, where Ed had worked 40 hours the previous week. After that I found nothing until Howard Millard’s “Bait For Bugs” column in the August 31, 1968, Decatur Review, which mentioned Ed (now 88) as one of the baseball old-timers Millard had talked to at a dinner for US Senate candidate Scott Lucas, a former Three-I League player.

Robert died on August 10, 1972—I didn’t find how—and Mildred died November 18, 1973, in a fire in her apartment in Albuquerque. Ed passed away on January 17, 1976, two days after his 96^th birthday, at Hawthorne Lodge in Bloomington. His obituary in the next day’s Pantagraph included:

Mr. Kinsella, of whom Pantagraph Sports Editor Emeritus Fred Young once wrote, he was “as congenial a fellow as you ever met, has been mad once or twice,” began his baseball career “in the brush” at Lexington and Gridley and made his debut with Bloomington in 1904…

[Mabel] survives at Hawthorne Lodge. Also surviving are two sisters, Clara, also at Hawthorne Lodge, and Mrs. Grace Rubidoux, Las Vegas, Nev.; a brother, Bert, in the long-term care unit of Mennonite Hospital; four grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. A son, a daughter and three brothers preceded him in death.

Mr. Kinsella was a member of Epiphany Church and the Knights of Columbus.

Mabel died December 2, 1977.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/K/Pkinse101.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/kinseed01.shtml