Grover Powell

Grover Powell pitched for the New York Mets in 1963.

Grover David Powell was born October 10, 1940, in Sayre, Pennsylvania, on the border with New York. His father, 30-year-old Thomas Leigh Powell, was listed as a truck driver in that year’s census; his mother, Eva Mae Lenox Powell, 26, kept house. He had two older sisters, Anna Mae and Marie.

In the 1950 census the family lives in a farm near Wyalusing, to the southeast of Sayre, toward Scranton. In addition to the farming Leigh worked 15 hours the previous week as a sawmill operator. Anna Mae is 11, Marie 10, Grover 9, and little brother Leon is 7.

Grover, inevitably, became a star baseball player; he also played football and basketball and ran track at Wyalusing Valley High School. In the summer of 1957 he was voted to the Junior League All-East game as an outfielder by major league scouts. He graduated in 1958 and enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, where he played baseball and football. From the Harrisburg Evening News, May 22, 1959:

Penn Freshman baseball Coach Tim Temerario has three good pitchers on his roster in Grover Powell, Ralph Heyman and Martin Padersky. So he pitched each one three innings each game. The result—seven straight wins.

In September Grover was listed as a 6-1, 170 -pound, sophomore back on the football roster. In May 1960 he struck out 17 batters in a game vs. Columbia; he finished the season with a 4-0 Ivy League record. He pitched for Penn as a junior in 1961, until getting kicked off the team after missing a bus. That summer he played in the Essex County [New Jersey] semi-pro league.

In the spring of 1962 Grover signed a contract with the New York Mets, just starting their inaugural season. He was sent to the Syracuse Chiefs of the AAA International League, a team shared by the Mets and the Washington Senators. On April 2 he filled out a questionnaire, in which he gave his nickname as “Cuddly Grovie,” his nationality or descent as American, his off-season occupation as student, and his hobby as drawing cartoons. A June 17 Newark Star-Ledger article on Mets scout Pete Gebrian said:

Of those he has helped sign Gebrian is most proud of Bobby Richardson and Johnny Kucks. He’s also high on the first man he signed for the Mets, Grover Powell, a Pennsylvania left-hander who is with Syracuse in his first pro season.

However Grover was not doing very well with Syracuse; he had a 5.79 ERA in 56 innings, mostly in relief, striking out 43 and walking 41, when in late July he was demoted to the Auburn Mets of the Class D New York-Pennsylvania League. The Sporting News reported in their August 11 issue:

POWELL DEBUTS WITH VICTORY

Grover Powell, sent to Auburn (NYP) by Syracuse (International), made his debut with his new club, July 27, by gaining a 4 to 3 victory. The southpaw, who had been used only [mostly] as a relief hurler by the Chiefs, allowed six hits and struck out 15. Helping Powell was Rick Bazinet, who belted his twenty-first homer and his third in as many nights. Auburn baserunners ran wild with six stolen bases, three of them by Bernie Smith, the Mets’ center fielder.

With Auburn Grover had a 5.12 ERA in 58 innings, striking out 78 and walking 29, but allowing ten home runs. The strikeouts impressed the Mets enough that they moved him to the major league roster for the off-season to protect him from the minor league draft. He then pitched for their team in the Florida Instructional League.

Grover was invited to the Mets’ 1963 major league spring training camp. On February 24, Wirt Gammon wrote, in his “Just Between Us Fans” column in the Chattanooga Times:

Maybe they won’t all make sweet music on the ball field, but seven National League rookies certainly could swing up a storm off it.

Musically inclined are the Dodgers’ Steve Anderson, who plays the organ; the Pirates’ Ron Brand and Tim Butters, ukulele; Houston’s Alan Goldfield, clarinet; the Giants’ Matt Gayeski, guitar; the Mets’ Grover Powell, piano; and the Cardinals’ Harry Watts, trumpet.

All but one, incidentally, are pitchers. Watts is an outfielder. [Brand was not a pitcher.]

On March 9 the Jersey Journal printed Met rookie scouting reports, taken from Baseball Digest, including:

Grover Powell—“Below average curve and fielder. Fair-plus fastball. Control poor. Poise fair. Class A tops.”

In early April Grover was demoted to AAA Buffalo, but he actually began the season with the Raleigh Mets of the Carolina League—yes, Class A. From the May 31 Norfolk Virginian-Pilot:

Powell: Big Leaguer in the Minors

By Abe Goldblatt

PORTSMOUTH—Grover Powell is in a unique position. He’s in the major leagues and he isn’t.

Grover pitches for the Raleigh club in the Carolina League. But he’s still on the roster of the New York Mets in the National League.

The 22-year-old southpaw is the parent Mets’ designated player, an indication that Casey Stengel holds the former University of Pennsylvania star in high regard as a major league prospect.

Under the rules, a major league club is permitted to send out one bonus player and still protect him. But he must remain on the big league roster.

Such is Powell’s case.

However, Raleigh Manager Clyde McCullough doesn’t think it’ll be long before Powell is pitching for Casey’s team.

“In my opinion, Powell has the best arm in the Mets’ organization,” Clyde commented. “I definitely think he has a chance to make the big show. At times he has been inclined to be a little wild, but he is cutting down on his walks.”

“My best pitch is a fast ball,” Powell says. “And I hope it gets me a chance with the New York club.”

Going into Thursday’s opener of a doubleheader against the Tides, Powell held a 2-2 record with the last place R-Mets…

On July 7 the Mets sent 18-year-old Ed Kranepool down to the minors, and since he was also a bonus player, that meant they had to call up Grover. From the next day’s Jersey Journal:

Lost in the excitement over Kranepool’s demotion was the announcement that his place on the parent roster would be filled by Grover Powell, a 22-year-old southpaw. Powell is 5 and 5 [actually 5-6] with the Mets’ Raleigh (A) club, but has earned a reputation as a strikeout artist. He’s whiffed 87 in 85 innings [99 in 91—their stats seem to have been a little outdated].

“Powell’s pretty good with the strikeout,” Stengel said. “And as you know we need some pitchin’ here. He’s got a good fastball and curve and all I can say about his curve is it’s big.”

Grover had a 3.07 ERA in his 91 innings for Raleigh, in 16 games; he played in 27 games total, the difference being some combination of pinch-hitting (he hit .316/.395/.421 in 38 at-bats) and pinch-running appearances.

Grover made his major league debut at home on July 13, in a Saturday afternoon home game against the Dodgers. He pitched the ninth inning of an 11-2 loss; he retired his first batter, Willie Davis, then walked the opposing pitcher, Bob Miller, retired Dick Tracewski, walked Nate Oliver, and retired Lee Walls.

Grover’s next four appearances were similar, in that he was finishing up a loss each time. Along the way, on July 19, he appeared in Maury Allen’s “Working Press” column in the New York Post:

A Look At the Mets

Grover Demetrius Powell, 22 years old, a handsome, dark-haired lefthanded pitcher, sat in a corner of the Mets clubhouse and poured over the latest adventures of Archie, Betty and Veronica in his latest comic book.

Powell is a young Met. He has two innings of major league pitching to his credit. He thinks baseball is fun. He answers to the nickname of Cuddly.

“I got that name in high school,” says the young Pennsylvanian. “I ran Cuddly Grover’s question and answer bureau. I answered letters to the lovelorn for a fee. I never made much money but I had a lot of fun.”

Edwin Snider, 36 years old, handsome, grey-haired outfielder, sat across the Mets’ clubhouse reading the sports pages with a special attention to the doings of the Dodgers.

Snider is an old Met. He has 15 years of stardom behind him. He thinks baseball isn’t as much fun with a loser. Nobody on this side of the Atlantic thinks of Windsor when they hear the name Duke…

“Sometimes,” said Snider, “it’s a real pleasure coming to the park.”

It is always a pleasure for Cuddly Powell to come to the park. He is in the major leagues. Last year he was signed off the campus of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

He is the Mets designated player. They do not wish to lose him. They’ll wait until he learns to pitch.

“It’s fun being up here,” said Powell. “I started the season in Raleigh, N.C. There isn’t much to do there.”

Powell went to spring training with the Mets and was sent down to learn control.

“Sometimes it’s easier to pitch up here. You have to concentrate on every hitter. In Raleigh you can make a mistake and nobody hits it.”

Powell isn’t ashamed of his fondness for comic books. He also reads novels and mythology.

“I read the comic books to rest my mind. The players kidded me in spring training about the comic books. Then they came to my room and borrowed them.”

Grover Demetrius Powell, the young Met with all future and no post, went back to his comic books and dreamed at exciting days yet to come.

Edwin (Duke) Snider, the old Met with a great past and a vital present, went back to the sports pages and dreamed of today’s game and today’s base hit.

Sporting News, August 3:

Wine Wins Speed Contest, Uncorks Toss at 87.6 MPH

PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Bobby Wine, Phillies’ shortstop, walked off with the distinction of possessing the strongest arm at Connie Mack Stadium, July 21.

Competing with four others between games of the Mets-Phils double-header, Wine rifled a toss that was clocked at 87.6 miles per hour by the Philadelphia Blue Cross pitchometer.

Runner-up honors went to Frank Thomas, Mets’ first baseman, who fired an 82.1 toss into the speed-measuring device after failing to hit the target with three straight pitches.

Grover Powell, Mets’ pitcher, was third with 82.0, followed by Earl Averill, Jr., Phil catcher, with 78.9 and Frank Torre, Phil first baseman, with 76.0.

The August 24 Sporting News had a story about the Mets’ August 11 game:

Ol’ Case Mum on Reliever, Gets First Thumb as Met

NEW YORK, N.Y.—For the first time since becoming manager of the Mets, Casey Stengel was heaved out of a game by an umpire on Sunday, August 11—and for the oddest of reasons. Casey refused to give the name of the new pitcher he was bringing in from the bull pen.

“Wait till he comes on the mound and then I’ll tell you,” Stengel insisted.

Plate Umpire Stan Landes wouldn’t wait and up went his thumb, motioning that the 73-year-old manager was gone.

It happened in the sixth inning of the opener of a double-header with the Cubs. The Mets were getting massacred and Stengel wasn’t in too happy a frame of mind. He had come out of the dugout to remove Pitcher Jay Hook.

“When the umpire asks me the name of the new pitcher, I remember an incident when I was with the Yankees,” Casey related. “We wanted Kucks, but the umpire thought we said Trucks and he made Trucks pitch to one batter even though he wasn’t warmed up.

“I didn’t want that to happen again. What if you’re a Southern fella and the umpire is not a Southern fella? He might misunderstand you.”

The Mets’ reliever involved was Grover Powell, the southpaw bonus rookie. Casey never did get to introduce him to Umpire Landes. By the time Powell arrived, the manager was already in the clubhouse.

Through mid-August Grover had pitched 14 1/3 innings in nine relief appearances, with 16 strikeouts, nine walks, and a 1.88 ERA. This earned him his first start, on August 20. From that day’s New York Post:

Powell’s Serious—No Comic Books

By a Staff Correspondent

Philadelphia, August 20.—Grover Demetrius Powell, a young man with a live left arm and an alert mind, will pitch one of the games in the twilight doubleheader tonight. Roger Craig pitches in the other.

Powell, a 22-year-old senior at the University of Pennsylvania, will be getting his first major league start.

Is he nervous?

“I’m always nervous before my first major league start,” he said.

The Met pitching staff has the shorts and Powell was tapped Sunday for the assignment.

“Ernie (White, the pitching coach) asked me if I wanted to start. There was only one thing to tell him, so I did. I said absolutely not.”

Powell laughed and truly admitted he had no choice in the matter.

How does a 22-year-old devotee of comic books get ready for such a chore?

“It’s a serious thing,” said Powell, “so no comic books. I’ll stay up all night and finish my book. It’s called ‘Greek Heroes’ by Kerenyi.”

Grover pitched a four-hitter as the Mets won 4-0. He struck out six and walked four; he loaded the bases with one out in the first and again with two out in the sixth, but sailed through otherwise. From the next day’s Post, by Maury Allen:

Ecstasy leaped from the young body of Grover Demetrius Powell, a 22-year-old raconteur with a strong left arm, in the glee of his shutout win, 4-0, in his first major league start. The win, 40^th for Mets, equaled last year’s total. 

“Was you born in Poland?” asked one of the questioners, an interloper named C. Stengel.

“I’m going to take the game ball,” said Powell, “and have all the guys sign it. Then I’ll put it in my window and shout ‘Grover Powell lives here.’”

It was early evening, and the Phillies had dreamed of double wins and miracles and pennant chases. Enter young Mr. Powell.

“He’s good for a 14-year-old,” said Stengel. “Wait till he’s 16.”

Powell had given the Phillies four hits and sat immersed in middle aged reporters, the sweat of his effort, and the reward of the night, a long, cool beer.

“I started drinking when I was three,” said the prodigy with the sweet talk of an erudite Belinsky.

The first inning was the hardest with the bases loaded and two tough hitters coming up.

“I was unconscious,” said Powell. “I tried to keep the ball down. It went up and Demeter popped it up. I always have trouble getting started.”

Powell then mowed over the Phils with poised skill. It was as if the former Penn pitcher was giving Princeton its comeuppance.

“I’m from Wyalusing, Pa.,” he was saying. “That’s the place Marie Antoinette was supped to come to before she had that accident in the kitchen.”

From Wyalusing to Penn was an easy jump. The scholarship said academic and Powell reads Greek philosophy, mythology, and books like “Voodoo in New Orleans.” But it was baseball they really wanted him for at the school by the Schuylkill…

The shutout and his sense of humor earned Grover a fair amount of media attention. The September 7 Sporting News included an article on him and his shutout, which covered much the same ground as the Post article, with some differences:

Powell Gives Mets New Power—on Laff Meter, Not at Plate

By Barney Kremenko

NEW YORK, N.Y.

Grover Powell proved a refreshing newcomer after shutting out the Phillies on four hits in a sensational debut as a starter on the night of August 20 at Connie Mack Stadium.

The 22-year-old southpaw, only one year out of the University of Pennsylvania, made almost as much of a hit with his ready wit as with his pitching…

Later a discussion came up about an incident in the game. In the sixth inning, after the Phillies had loaded the bases with two out, the Mets’ bat boy came running out of the dugout toward the mound waving a handkerchief.

“At first I thought they wanted me to surrender,” Powell offered. “Then I thought maybe it was a relief pitcher.”

It turned out that Stengel had sent the hanky in so that Powell could wipe his brow, which appeared to be perspiring.

When one reporter inquired what, after this brilliant mound performance, the ex-collegian expected for an encore, Powell, grinning, said:

“I’ll probably get bombed.”

…The Mets’ lefty has some unfinished business at college, needing a little more than a semester’s credits for his degree in Penn’s Wharton School of Finance.

On this, he explained:

“As a student, I would have made a good pair of book ends.”

However, he plans to return to classes during off seasons to complete his course.

Powell also had an incomplete varsity baseball career. Towards the close of his junior year, Grover was booted off the team by Penn Coach Jack McCloskey.

“This wasn’t fair,” the newest of the Polo Grounds prodigies insisted. “I had been up all night studying for an exam. About an hour and a half before we were to board a bus for a game at West Point, I tried to get some sleep. When I awoke, it was too late to make the bus, so I never showed up. For that, I was kicked off the team.”

Then he added:

“That really wasn’t the whole story. The next day another pitcher, Marty Pedersky, and I were throwing chunks of dirt at each other during a workout when the coach walked in. That, coming on top of my missing the bus, I guess, was too much for him.”

…As a sophomore, Powell was offered $8,000 by the Mets, but decided to continue in college. However, after he had been sacked by his coach, interest in him evaporated on all fronts and there were no offers from anyone, not even from the Mets.

“I decided to contact Gil McDougald,” Grover related. “He had made the original offer as a Met scout. But by this time he no longer was connected with them. Nevertheless he got in touch with someone in the Met office and I was given $2,500 to sign.”

Actually, it was $1,000 as a down payment and $1,500 more if Powell lasted in the organization at least 90 days.

With the quick $1,000, the Pennsylvanian said he bought a glove and three ink pens.

Ink pens? Are there any other kind?

“You don’t expect me to make sense and talk, too,” Powell laughed…

Powell admits to one superstition—the number five.

“It’s lucky for me,” he explained. “That’s why I wear 41 on my uniform.”

When he noted that his listener was puzzled, Grover quickly informed:

“Four and one make five. Get it?”

Powell maintains that on the mound he is deadly serious.

“Otherwise, comedy is my life,” he said. “I like to laugh. I’ll try anything that will bring that goal.”

The rookie flinger is a devotee of folk music “because there’s humor in it.”..

Grover then got six days of rest, before starting again on the 27^th, in Pittsburgh. From that day’s Post:

Powell Makes His Pitch

By Maury Allen

Pittsburgh, Aug. 27—There is a twinkle in the eyes of Grover Powell and a wispy smile on his lips when he talks. He laughs easily, especially when he tells you his middle name is Demetrius.

“It says David on my birth certificate,” he confesses, “but my mother always liked the name so they really made it my middle name.”

Powell, a 22-year-old lefthander who gets his second major-league start tonight against Bob Friend, is cut from an old cloth. Something like a dainty Dizzy Dean. And was his name Jay Hanna or Jerome Herman.

“I’ve never been at a loss for words,” says Powell, “but only if I win. If I lose I boil.”

Losses do not shut Powell up completely. “I mouth doggerel,” he says, “and my curse words go up 90 per cent.”

Powell, who never quite made it through the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, uses words with alacrity.

“I pitch with aplomb,” he says, “and sometimes with gum.” Before he turned to words and challenged Larry Bearnarth for the club crossword leadership, Powell considered himself a budding cartoonist.

“I specialized in nebbishes for characters,” he says, “and I was doing pretty well. Then I sent in some of my work to be judged and asked if there was any channel for this talent. They told me yes, the English Channel. I didn’t care because I had run out of ideas anyway.”

Since he couldn’t be a cartoonist, Powell accepted Penn’s offer of a scholarship and entered the school of business.

“I took management training,” he says, “that’s the course for prospective executives. You go right from there into your father’s business and he starts you at $7,500. It lifts up the class average for starting income of Penn graduates.”

Grover was pitching another shutout when Donn Clendenon led off the bottom of the fifth by hitting a line drive off his cheek. He finished the inning before being removed; he was taken to the hospital, then released. The Mets lost the game, 2-1, when reliever Galen Cisco allowed two unearned runs in the bottom of the ninth.

Grover got another start on September 1, giving up three runs, one earned, in 4 1/3 innings, then pitched 2/3 of an inning in relief on the 3^rd. He started again on the 5^th, again giving up three runs, one earned, this time in 2 2/3 innings. He was then returned to the bullpen full time; the September 28 Sporting News reporting that he

…was recently taken off the starting rotation and returned to the bull pen for, as Stengel explained, “the boy’s own good.”

“If he works on relief, he’ll face more teams and more of the league’s top hitters,” the Mets’ manager added. “That experience will be far more helpful to him than working only every fourth day.”

Grover relieved in five games the rest of the way, and not real well; his ERA with the team ended up at 2.72, but it had been 0.95 after the game in which he got hit in the face. He pitched 49 2/3 innings for the Mets, allowing 37 hits and 32 walks while striking out 39.

In November Grover was sent to Caracas to pitch in the Venezuelan Winter League. He had a 2.67 ERA there in 64 innings, but went home early after developing a sore shoulder. He reported to spring training with the Mets and was said to look good early on, but then his shoulder troubles returned. From the March 11 Post:

Grover Powell, figured as a sure pitcher on the staff, is being bothered by tendonitis in the upper left arm.

“The doctor told me to keep pitching until it gets better or worse,” said Powell. “I first hurt it pitching in Venezuela but they wouldn’t let me go home until they got another pitcher.”

Post, March 22:

“When I was going bad,” he [Larry Bearnarth] said, “I didn’t feel like doing anything. I didn’t want to talk. I didn’t want to read the papers. I just wanted to stay in my room and play Spill ‘n Spell.”

Spill ‘n Spell is the Mets answer for young, intellectual pitchers when they’re having trouble.

Sore-armed Grover Powell and inexperienced Bruce Wilson are the other players. It’s a word game played with dice. You roll the dice and make a word with letters printed on them.

“Grover thinks he’s the best,” said Bearnarth, “and I think I’m the best. Grover is hard to beat. He makes up words. Did you ever see ‘becapped’ in the dictionary? Grover used it on me.”

Jersey Journal, March 26:

Grover Powell, who closed the season with the Mets, was hurt…until yesterday.

Powell, suffering from a bad shoulder, hadn’t pitched in a game for a full month. Yesterday he worked the final inning of a 10-0 loss to the Phillies. He gave up one hit and one unearned run and pitching coach Mel Harder wore a great big smile.

“He looked good, real good. John Stephenson, his catcher, said Grover’s fast ball was really moving,” Harder beamed.

At the start of training camp, Powell had been virtually assured of a spot with the Mets. However, [Ron] Locke came on strong while Grover was injured and suddenly nothing seemed quite so certain. Yesterday’s effort may have come just in time for Powell, as manager Casey Stengel and Harder are faced with getting their top dozen pitchers in shape for the opener.

On March 31 Grover was sent to the Mets’ minor league camp to get his shoulder back in shape, while remaining on the major league roster. On April 2 he pitched three innings in a Buffalo Bisons (AAA) exhibition game, allowing just one hit and striking out five, but on the 8^th Bison manager Whitey Kurowski said that “Powell can’t pitch more than once in ten days because of arm trouble.” On the 21^st (by which point he had been optioned to Buffalo), just before the International League season began, he was put on the disabled list.

On May 1 Grover was activated. He pitched two effective three-inning stints, then on the 17^th pitched 5 2/3 innings of scoreless relief, allowing one hit and no walks. The newspapers speculated that he could be rejoining the Mets soon, but on the 24^th he lasted just 1 2/3 innings in a start, allowing five earned runs. On the 28^th the Buffalo Evening News reported that he was being replaced on the Buffalo roster and that he was “in New York for medical examinations of his ailing left arm.”

Jersey Journal, June 2:

Leave it to the Mets to have a fellow like Grover Powell in town for several days and keep it a secret…The lefthander who shut out the Phils in his first major league start last year, has been working out early with the Mets a couple of days and then dressing and leaving before reporters get a chance to see him…The front office explains that Grover’s arm is being tested and if he is sound, he will be recalled from Buffalo.

The next day the Post reported that Grover “is working out with the Mets but is still suffering from a sore arm and is not likely to be recalled.” At the end of June he was sent down one level to the Williamsport Mets of the AA Eastern League. The Sporting News reported on July 18:

Grover Powell, sent from Buffalo (International) to Williamsport to work his way out of arm trouble, made a successful debut with the Mets, July 1, receiving credit for a 5-2 victory over York in the opener of a double-header. The lefthander departed for a pinch-hitter in the home half of the fifth inning when the Mets broke a 2-2 tie.

Five days later Grover got another start, but allowed a three-run inside-the-park homer in the first and was removed without getting an out. He was then returned to the disabled list, where he remained for the rest of the season. He had had a 3.86 ERA in 24 innings for Buffalo, and 10.80 in five innings for Williamsport. He appeared on Buffalo’s roster during the off-season.

In the spring of 1965 there were reports that Grover had quit, or that he may quit, baseball. On August 12 the Trenton Evening Times reported that he had pitched for Jules Tire against Ewing in the semipro Mercer County Major League. On December 18, in Dallas, he married Delta Airlines stewardess Mary Ann Cramer, of Dallas. The couple’s address was given as 607 S 42^nd Street in Philadelphia.

In their February 19, 1966, issue, the Sporting News reported:

Southpaw Grover Powell, who was forced out of baseball two years ago with a bad arm, has returned to his studies at the University of Pennsylvania and is working out with the Penn team. If his form warrants it, Powell, now 25, will attempt a comeback in the Mets’ farm system this summer.

From the Mets report in the Newark Star-Ledger, May 12:

Grover Powell, who threw a shutout in his first Met start in 1963, has recovered from a sore arm and is throwing batting practice. He’ll join Williamsport later this month.

Sporting News, June 11:

Grover Powell, attempting a comeback after sitting out the 1965 season because of arm trouble, pitched three scoreless innings in relief to mark his first appearance with Williamsport, May 25. A recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, the left-hander worked out with the Penn team and also pitched batting practice at Shea Stadium to prepare for his return.

Sporting News, July 9:

SOUR LUCK FOR LEFTY

Southpaw Grover Powell, who is trying to nurse an ailing arm back into working condition, was tagged with two defeats, one as a starter and the other as a reliever, when Williamsport lost to Elmira in a double-header, 5-1 and 4-3, June 22. Powell did not allow a hit in two innings on the mound to start the first game, but gave up five walks and three runs. The lefthander was the tough-luck loser of the nightcap on a “third-out” passed ball on a strikeout and a “fourth-out” error on a grounder.

On July 4 Grover was demoted to the Auburn Mets of the Class A New York-Pennsylvania League, after walking 20 batters in 20 innings in 11 games with Williamsport, with a 6.00 ERA. He made just two appearances for Auburn, pitching two innings; he allowed one run on one hit, striking out two, walking five, and throwing a wild pitch. Then he vanished, until an article in the March 25, 1967, Knoxville News-Sentinel:

Lame-Armed Powell Trying Bounce-Back As a Smoky

By Del Ossino

News-Sentinel Correspondent

TAMPA. Fla., March 25—Grover Powell shut out the Phillies in his first major league start. Now he’s trying to shut out arm trouble which has plagued him over the last three years…

He had developed tendonitis in his arm and that blocked his way from staying in the major leagues. “I would know how much it was bothering me by keeping my arms over my head for a certain length of time. When I couldn’t lower my arms with ease, I knew it was still hurting,” said Powell at Knoxville’s camp yesterday.

“But so far I feel good,” said Powell who moments before showed no ill effects by taking some lusty cuts at baseballs being served up by the pitching machine…

“I’m in camp because I want to play baseball and because I feel good,” Powell said. “I’ll work just as hard in Knoxville as I did in New York.”

No one can question his ability when he is sound. If the arm comes around, Knoxville may be sitting pretty when it’s Powell’s turn to pitch.

Knoxville was a Cincinnati affiliate in the Class AA Southern League.

Grover got off to a slow start. On May 27, the News-Sentinel reported: “Lefthand pitcher Grover Powell has three bone chips in his pitching elbow and probably will miss his next turn after having fluid drained from it yesterday.” Through June 6 he was 1-4 with a 4.54 ERA in 35 innings; he finished the season with a 2-9 record, but got his ERA down to 3.65 in 101 innings, both walking and striking out 65.

In 1968 the Asheville Tourists became the Reds’ Southern League affiliate, and that’s where Grover went. He had the best season of his professional career. He pitched a one-hitter on May 9. As of July 6 he led the league in innings pitched with 111. And from the August 31 Sporting News:

Asheville southpaw Grover Powell is going to make a run at the league record for victories, which is the 20 established by Manly (Shot) Johnson of Lynchburg in 1964. Powell notched No. 15 in 21 decisions August 17 when he defeated Savannah, 2-1. With 19 games remaining on the Tourists’ slate, Powell has an outside chance for 20 if Manager Sparky Anderson works him with only three days of rest and also uses him in spot relief. At any rate, Powell matched the 1967 high for a Southern pitcher, Montgomery’s Dick Drago and a 15-10 standard last year.

Grover ended up with 16 wins, leading the league, and six losses; he also led in ERA with 2.54 and innings with 188. He had become more of a control pitcher, with just 66 walks and 115 strikeouts. He also continued to be used as a pinch-runner. After the Southern League season ended he was promoted to AAA Indianapolis, where he got one start, losing while allowing five runs on eight hits and four walks in seven innings, while striking out eight.

On December 3 Grover’s father was found dead. From the next day’s Sayre Evening Times:

Wyalusing Area Man Killed by Accidental Shot

A Merryall (Wyalusing RD 1) man was found dead late yesterday afternoon near a farm pond at his home, the victim of an accidental gunshot wound which was thought to be self-inflicted.

Thomas Leigh Powell, 58, was found near the pond by his wife, Eve, when she returned from work about 5 o’clock. An investigation by Corp. Albin Puza and Trooper Francis Douglas of Bradford County State Police, and Gordon Farr of Ulster, deputy Bradford County Coroner, resulted in the coroner issuing a certificate of accidental death.

It was reported that Mr. Powell had complained of muskrats doing considerable damage to his pond. Investigating authorities believe that he went to the area yesterday to shoot some of them. While climbing a bank, it is thought that in some manner his rifle discharged, the bullet striking him in the head.

The body was removed to the Tiffany Funeral Home in Wyalusing where funeral arrangements are incomplete.

In 1969 Grover returned to Indianapolis. On March 9 he filled out a questionnaire, in which he gave his nationality as Welsh, his interesting experience in school or college sports as striking out five in one inning, and his address as 218 ½ Park Avenue in Raleigh.

He began the season in the rotation, but got just two starts before being moved to the bullpen. On May 23 he was traded to Richmond, the Braves’ AAA team, for infielder Mike de la Hoz. With Indianapolis he had had a 5.50 ERA in 18 innings; with Richmond things took a turn for the worse. He allowed four earned runs in his first 2 1/3 innings of relief, then pulled a leg muscle running wind sprints before his first starting assignment and had to come out in the second inning. On July 19 the Sporting News reported that he had refused to accept a demotion to AA Shreveport. Continuing with Richmond, he wound up with a 9.33 ERA in 27 innings in 16 games, losing his newfound control and walking 31.

Despite those numbers, Grover got invited to spring training with Richmond in 1970. But he got sent to Shreveport, and this time he accepted it. He made 11 relief appearances and had a 5.00 ERA in 18 innings, with 13 walks, as of late May; at that point he was demoted further, to the Greenwood Braves of the Class A Western Carolinas League. There he started twice and relieved twice, and had a 7.62 ERA in 13 innings, with 12 walks, when he was released on June 14. This concluded his professional career.

On September 4, 1975, the North Orwell news section of the Sayre Evening Times reported on Grover getting together with his mother, one sister, and one brother:

Grover Powell and son Grey of Raleigh, N.C. visited last week at the home of Leon Powell. Mrs. Anna Mae Bateman from Mexico, N.Y. spent several days with the Powells. Mrs. Eva Powell of Wyalusing was also a visitor with her son and family.

In 1976 Grover, still just 35, was pitching semi-pro ball. From the Wilmington Star News, June 20, 1976:

Barons split with Durham

Former New York Met Grover Powell outpitched ex-Wilmington Hoggard star Ron Musselman Saturday night to give the Durham Bees a 2-1 victory over the SENCland Barons Saturday night and a split of an exhibition baseball doubleheader.

From the Winston-Salem Journal, May 22, 1985:

Ex-Mets Pitcher Dies in Raleigh

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)—Grover Powell, a former New York Mets pitcher who pitched a shutout in his first major-league game [start] against the Philadelphia Phillies, died Tuesday of acute leukemia. He was 44.

A native of Pennsylvania, Powell pitched for the Raleigh Caps of the Carolina League before being called up by the Mets in 1963.

Powell’s big league career was cut short after he suffered an arm injury while playing winter ball in Venezuela.

The funeral will be at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Brown Funeral Home. Burial will be Friday in Camptown Cemetery in Wyalusing, Pa.

Sporting News, June 10:

Grover D. Powell, whose only major-league victory was a shutout he threw at the Philadelphia Phillies in his first starting assignment for the New York Mets late in the 1963 season, died of leukemia May 21 in Raleigh, N.C. He was 44.

Powell pitched 50 innings mostly in relief, for the second-year Mets in 1963. He had a 1-1 record and a 2.72 earned-run average. He suffered a serious arm injury the following winter while pitching in the Venezuelan League and never returned to the majors.

A lefthander, Powell toiled for Mets farm clubs at Buffalo and Jacksonville [he never played for Jacksonville] in the mid-1960s, and he also made stops at Knoxville and Richmond.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/P/Ppoweg101.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/powelgr01.shtml

Jake Virtue

Jake Virtue was a first baseman for the Cleveland Spiders in the first half of the 1890s.

Jacob Kitchline Virtue was born March 2, 1865, in Philadelphia, the sixth of nine children of Samuel and Anna, who were both also born in Philadelphia, in 1824 and 1834 respectively. The 1870 census shows the family living in Philadelphia; Samuel is an engineer; 18-year-old George is an apprentice in a moulding store; Clara is 16; Edwin, 14, works in a shade factory; Samuel Jr., 13, and Elizabeth, 11, are in school; Jacob is five and William is one. Only Samuel, Samuel Jr., and Elizabeth are able to read and write.

In the 1880 census the family lives at 1749 Norwood Street in Philadelphia. Clara, Edwin, and Elizabeth are out on their own, while youngest children Edward and Annie have been added. Samuel is an engineer in the stationery industry; Samuel Jr. is a hatter; Jacob, listed as 16 but actually 15, works in a hat factory and was unemployed for six months during 1879; William and Edward are in school. None of them is listed as unable to read and write this time around.

Jake began playing amateur baseball in 1883 and went professional in 1886, for the Lancaster Ironsides and the Altoona Mountain Cities of the Pennsylvania State Association. He played 73 games, mostly at first and second; he also pitched twice, though not well.

Jake first appeared in Sporting Life in the February 2, 1887, issue. He was mentioned in the report on the Oswego Starchboxes of the International Association as the team’s new firstbaseman, and he was also on the list of people that Sporting Life was holding mail for (he would appear on that list many times in the coming years). The Oswego report in the May 18 issue mentioned that, due to injuries, Jake was now one of the team’s regular pitchers; he lost 11-5 on May 5, 24-4 on May 7, and 6-5 on May 10.

The June 1 Sporting Life reported that Jake had been sold back to Altoona. He debuted for them on May 23, playing first and batting third. He hit .384 in 40 games there (and pitched in three games, allowing 24 runs on 30 hits in 14 innings), but in late July the club disbanded and the players were sold to Canton, which team then joined the Ohio State League mid-season. Jake played 30 games for Canton, all at first, and hit .333 with seven homers in 132 at-bats. The Cleveland correspondent in the October 12 Sporting Life reported:

Virtue, of Canton, was to have finished the season with us on first base, but weakened at the last moment. He thought the company too fast.

Cleveland’s team, the Blues, was in the American Association, at that time a major league.

Jake signed with Canton again for 1888. He played first, and generally batted third in the order. On June 6 the Canton Repository quoted the Toledo News as saying: “Virtue is the best first baseman in the league,” and agreed with that assessment. In the July 11 Sporting Life their Canton correspondent reported: “Jake Virtue is playing the finest first base of any man in the League and his hitting is as fine as silk.” The August 22 issue included the report that: “Billy Zecher and Jake Virtue, of the Canton team, will go into the cigar and tobacco business in Canton this fall.”

I couldn’t find any Canton stats for 1888. From the November 29 Boston Herald:

VIRTUE JOINS THE DETROITS.

[Special Dispatch to the Boston Herald.]

CANTON, O., Nov. 28, 1888. First baseman Jake Virtue, of Canton’s nine for the past two seasons, has signed with the Detroit International League team. He is known as one of the best men in that position in the country, and during his engagement with Canton received offers from nearly every club in the league and association, but always preferred a minor league. He is also a good batter and base runner.

From the Canton report in Sporting Life, February 13, 1889: "A great surprise came to the town last week in the news that our old first baseman, Jake Virtue, signed a contract for “life” with a young Philadelphia lady a week ago."

This was Susan Bell, born in Philadelphia in 1867. Jake went to spring training with the Detroit Wolverines; on April 17 Sporting Life reported:

Manager Leadley, of the Detroits, says there isn’t a better first baseman in any league than Jake Virtue. He considers Virtue a second [Jake] Beckley.

Same publication, one week later: "All Detroit is enthused over Jake Virtue’s first base play, and the opinion is given by experts that he is fit for the fastest company."

The International League season opened on April 30, with Jake playing first and batting fifth for Detroit. Despite having a strong year, he eventually started batting seventh and eighth. On September 18 the Lancaster Intelligencer quoted the Detroit Free Press:

Jake Virtue was at one time a member of the Ironsides ball club, of this city. This year with Billy Higgins he went to Detroit. The Free Press says of him: “Detroit has had the champions of the world, and has seen all the most famous ball players of the day, but up to last spring there still remained something in base ball of which it was ignorant. First basemen, and most excellent ones, had been here, but it remained for Jake Virtue to show Detroiters the true possibilities of the position, and it goes without saying that no such splendid first base playing as furnished by him was ever before seen here. He will jump higher for a high ball, reach further for a wide ball, and cleanly pick up more ground thrown balls than any man who ever stood at first base in Recreation Park. Being a swift runner, which is not characteristic of first basemen, he will cover more ground in quest of foul flies than any other first baseman, some of his feats in this respect being truly remarkable. Virtue’s height is 5 feet, 9 ½ inches, he weighs 165 pounds, is splendidly proportioned, and cat-like in movements.”

Jake played in 107 of the Wolverines’ 112 games, all at first base, hitting .314 and slugging .461, with 16 doubles, 11 triples and six homers in 382 at-bats. From the December 22 Detroit News:

There is no longer any doubt about the Detroit club, the champions of the international League, holding together for another year. Manager Leadley returned from the east yesterday with contracts signed by most of the players in his pocket. He had hard work getting some of them. First baseman Jake Virtue had his head swelled to about double its normal size by the brotherhood, and it was only after Leadley had reduced it several inches that he was able to get Jake’s signature to a contract.

“The brotherhood” refers to the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players, which was forming its own league, the Players League, which would exist as a major league in competition with the National League and the American Association, for one season, 1890.

From the January 8, 1890, Sporting Life:

There is a well-defined rumor abroad that Virtue is wanted to play first for Indianapolis [NL], and that an effort will be made to obtain his release from Detroit. He’s liable to do better work than the majority of the stars who are being signed by League managers wholesale.

In late January there were rumors that the Columbus Solons of the American Association were after Jake. On February 12 Sporting Life’s Indianapolis correspondent reported: "Manager Glasscock and President Brush did have a line out for Virtue, of Detroit, but the price was higher than the local club cared to pay, and the deal did not go through."

On February 21 the Columbus Dispatch reported that “Indianapolis has a standing offer of $500 more for Jake Virtue, the fine Detroit first baseman, than any other club will give for him.” On April 25 the Canton Repository said that “New York has offered $2,000 for Jake Virtue’s release,” though they did not specify which New York team.

Jake was still with Detroit when the season opened, though, playing first and batting sixth and seventh. The rumors didn’t stop--in June there was talk of him going to Rochester (AA) and Pittsburgh (NL)—but nothing happened until after the International League disbanded on July 7 and Jake became a free agent. With the Wolverines he played in 49 games, all at first base, and hit .296 and slugged .381. From the July 14 Cleveland Plain Dealer:

THE SPORTING WORLD.

A New First Baseman Signed by the League Club.

With the return of the Cleveland National league club to the city after its eastern trip Peek a Boo Veach will cease to wear a Cleveland uniform. His position in the team will be filled by a man who is his superior in every way and who is one of the best first basemen in the country today. The man is Jake Virtue of the now dead Detroit International league team. The Cleveland club has been after the man some time and yesterday terms were agreed upon. Virtue will arrive in town Tuesday morning and will probably stay here until the return of the club, when Joe Ardner will also be superseded by a newcomer in Paddy Lyons of the Dayton team. Veach will be released outright and for only one reason. That is the old one of too much drink. Could he let liquor alone Veach would be a first baseman of a high grade. For some time this season he did well, but finally fell and since then has not been behaving himself. Of Jake Virtue it is only necessary to say that he was as good a first baseman as was in the International of 1889…

With Cleveland Jake mostly batted cleanup. On August 23 Sporting Life reported: “Jake Virtue, of Cleveland, is a wonderful distance thrower, a particular in which few first basemen excel.” In the September 6 issue Henry Chadwick, in his “Chadwick’s Chat” column, wrote:

…It was in this game, by the way, that Foutz and Virtue did splendid work as first basemen, both having the hardest kind of widely thrown balls to attend to. The Clevelands have an acquisition in Virtue. I have seen no work superior to that he did in the three Cleveland games in Brooklyn all this season.

Jake played in 62 games for the Spiders, all at first base, hitting .305/.432/.404, and signed an 1891 contract before the season ended. He got a couple of mentions in the October 18 Sporting Life: “Clevelanders insist that in Jake Virtue they have the finest first baseman on earth.”

and

…Several of the St. Louis Club were talking about what kind of ball players they would be if they had their choice. Some wanted to be a Kelly, others a Ward, etc., finally pitcher Hart spoke up and said, “I would like to hit like Brouthers, run like Stovey, have Comiskey’s head, and play first like Jake Virtue.” McCarty said, “don’t you want Virtue’s head.” “No, sir,” answered Hart, “I don’t want [?] head full of [?].

(Unfortunately the available scan of Sporting Life has a tear in the page right through Hart’s quote.) On December 27 Susan gave birth to son William Edward.

In 1891 Jake was the Spiders’ everyday first baseman, usually batting fifth or sixth. The Cleveland report in the July 11 Sporting Life said that “Virtue has been playing a marvelously good game at first base since recovering from the malaria.” So apparently he had had malaria, even though he only missed two games all season. In the September 19 issue the Cleveland correspondent stated:

“Some think a harder fighting first baseman than Jake Virtue could be engaged. This is possible, but no cleaner fielder could be found for the place.”

The Pittsburgh Dispatch of July 20 reported:

There is another thing that is notable in the work of the Cleveland team since the return of Captain Tebeau. Pat makes the men go at everything, no matter if it does seem impossible. One of the worst faults that Jake Virtue ever had is being cured by this method. Virtue would seldom go after a foul fly which he thought he couldn’t get, and for that reason missed many points. Tebeau makes him go after everything now, and Virtue catches more foul flies than he ever did before.—Cleveland Plain Dealer. That is the way to play good ball, and more, interest is created.

Jake hit .261/.363/.364, down from his half-season in 1890,  finishing fifth in the league in triples with 14 and tying for seventh in walks (with Cap Anson) with 75. He led all first basemen in putouts (and errors) and was third in range factor. From the October 17 Sporting Life:

Anson has always been considered a good first baseman, but it is his generalship and batting that are of the first order. In the last few years first base play has greatly changed, and in comparison with the work of such experts as Virtue, Beckley, and Tucker, Anson is not in it.

Around that time Jake signed a new contract with the Spiders; on November 28 Sporting Life reported that “Jake Virtue writes that he will not disregard his Cleveland contract,” which seems to suggest that there had been speculation that he would. From the Cleveland report in the March 19, 1892, issue, discussing the arrival of the players at spring training:

…Vinn and Virtue were not looking very well, Lee’s grip still hanging hold of him, while Jake’s malaria refused to let go…

Jake Virtue doesn’t seem to have been able to free himself altogether from the malaria. He still felt traces of his old complaint when I saw him Saturday.

Jake opened the season at first base, though, hitting seventh. From the Cleveland correspondent in the April 30 Sporting Life:

JAKE VIRTUE ALL RIGHT.

You should see Jake Virtue play this year. He has in the last three days done some fielding at first that has opened the eyes of the captious few who have been quibbling about a new man for that position. Jake has worked hard and earnestly for the club’s success and ought to be kept here unless it can be shown that the club can be greatly benefitted by a change.

Same writer, one week later:

Many things of interest have occurred since my last week’s letter was written. Some way news in this city has a mean way of happening just too late in the week to reach you by telegraph, and yet of enough importance to speak of after it is several days old.

For instance, on Friday morning the accident to Ed McKean occurred. It was just after morning practice, and Ed had picked up Jake Virtue’s self-cocking revolver. Of course, it was a case of “didn’t know it was loaded” and Ed received a bad bullet wound in his left forefinger. This brought George Davis out of his enforced retirement and Captain Tebeau sent him to short field, where he played a wonderfully good game.

I saw McKean a few minutes ago. His hand is badly inflamed and he will certainly play no ball for the next ten days or two weeks.

And the next week:

The run of 436 miles from Toledo to St. Louis was made in less than 500 minutes. Jake Virtue rode on the engine and helped the fireman shovel in coal…

Virtue received a bad hit in the shoulder at St. Louis, but is throwing all right again.

And the week after that, reusing a heading from April 30:

JAKE VIRTUE ALL RIGHT.

Much of the superficial opposition to Jake Virtue has faded away during the past two weeks. Jake has been hitting well and is running the bases better than ever. Everybody knows how he can field when in condition. At the beginning of every season some player is picked out for attention, and this year it happened to be our first baseman. But the management like Virtue, and so do the unprejudiced patrons of the game.

Elsewhere in the same report, the correspondent mentioned that “to add to the misery Jake Virtue was attacked with malaria after playing in the rain in the second Boston game.”

Still, Jake was hitting .303 at the end of May and was moved up to second in the order; he promptly went into a slump and was moved down to sixth. In the June 25 Sporting Life the Cleveland correspondent wrote:

I violate no confidence when I say that no other club in the League has such mean bleachers as Cleveland. They are ostensibly partisan, but when a home player makes an error they are the first to hiss and hoot at him.

Not all of them, mind you, but about a hundred are at every game. Last year they aimed their hisses at [Cupid] Childs. This year they began on Jake Virtue, but Jake played such grand ball that the hooters were silenced. Then they turned their attention to McKean, but they might as well hiss a statue. McKean is as much a fixture as the schedule itself. Some day the local directors will establish a rule that will make this noisy, disgruntled and abusive element behave itself.

Same writer, one week later:

Jake Virtue is keeping up his good work. No first baseman in the country can handle such ugly ground hits as Jake suppresses day after day.

In July Jake moved into the fifth spot in the order, where he would remain. On September 3 Sporting Life opined that “Virtue and Comiskey are having a tussle for the honor of being the best fielding first baseman in the League.” Then the Cleveland correspondent got back into the habit of writing about him:

September 24: “Jake Virtue is hitting the ball savagely and is fielding his position as cleanly as any man in the business.”

October 1: “Jake Virtue has done some great fielding and hitting since the club came home.”

October 8: “Jake Virtue has been doing some remarkably good work at the bat during the past two weeks.”

October 15: “Jake Virtue is still quite sick and may be unable to play in the world’s series. Tebeau is caring for the base all right.”

The National League introduced a split season for 1892, and the second-half champion Spiders played the first-half champs Boston in the “world’s series.” The first game was called due to darkness, and then Boston won five straight. Jake did play, but hit just .125 with three singles, two walks, and five strikeouts in 26 plate appearances.

He had done well in the regular season, though, hitting .282/.380/.391; he was ninth in the league in on-base percentage, tenth in RBI, and tied for eighth in walks, and he hit 20 triples, which tied him for second and is tied for the fifth-most all-time for a switch-hitter. He was the second-best hitter on the team, behind Cupid Childs. Among first basemen he was second in putouts, fifth in range, and, cutting down his errors quite a bit, third in fielding percentage. The Toledo Bee reported on October 15:

The Cleveland team of 1893 will be exactly the Cleveland team of 1892. There will be no change whatever in the makeup of the Spiders. The management is entirely satisfied with the work of the team and will let well enough alone. Early this season there was considerable dissatisfaction with the work of Jake Virtue at first, but now Jake is considered to be one of the most valuable men on the team. Now, he is probably as timely a hitter as there is in the nine. He is a great deal stronger on low-thrown balls than he was, and his weakness in this particular is where the greatest fault lay. The Cleveland infielders, with the exception of Davis, are [should there be a ‘not’ here?] strong throwers, and it was thought impossible to get along with a man that was not strong on short-thrown balls. Virtue himself saw his weakness, and by constant study and practice, did away with most, or at least a great deal of the cause of complaint. His hitting is so valuable that he will be retained at any cost.

From the November 12 Sporting Life: “Jake Virtue writes from Philadelphia that he is in good health and spirits, and will report next season in better condition than ever before.”

In early 1893 there were reports that the Spiders had offered Jake a contract with a $900 salary cut, that they were looking to get rid of him, and that Philadelphia and New York were eager to get him, amidst continued conflicting assessments of his fielding skills. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on March 14:

VIRTUE HELD OUT.

Capt. Tebeau Returned From the East Without the First Baseman’s Contract—Cleveland Club News

Tebeau returned yesterday from his trip to the south and east with the contracts of Burkett and Childs in his grip, but with that of Jake Virtue still lacking. Virtue wants to play with Cleveland, and his very wish to play here led to his refusal to sign, at least for the present. He and the Cleveland management are together on the salary question, but Virtue does not want to sign before he knows where he is to play the coming season. He has heard the talk that Ewing is to cover first base for Cleveland this year and says that he will not sign a contract until he is told just what is to be done with him.

Jake did sign not long after that, and was playing in exhibition games by the end of March. The Cleveland report in the April 29 Sporting Life said that “Jake Virtue is again batting strongly;” the next week the Cleveland correspondent reported “Jake Virtue’s work thus far has been remarkably good” while the Pittsburgh correspondent contributed “Jake Virtue is a fiend on secret societies.”

Jake started the season hitting fifth, then sixth, then in July he was moved down to seventh. On July 2 the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported:

The only Cleveland player who is a disappointment to his friends this season is Jake Virtue in his inability to hit the ball with any degree of regularity. Since the club has returned from its eastern trip Virtue’s batting has been one almost minus quality, although when one of his long drives does fall safely it is worth two or more bases.

Also in July he started spending some time at other positions, playing third base and center field while the regulars were injured. On July 22 Sporting Life’s Cleveland correspondent wrote that “Jake Virtue takes his various shifts good-naturedly and plays each position assigned him equally well.” He also began sitting on the bench some of the time, as Manager Tebeau made himself the primary first baseman.

The writeup on the July 29 Cleveland at St. Louis doubleheader in the August 5 Sporting Life included:

Lynch’s umpiring helped the Clevelands in the first game. Cleveland’s two runs in the third inning were a gift, as Burkett was called safe at the plate when he should have been the third man out. Again, in the last inning Virtue wrapped his arms about Shugart’s legs to stop a double play, and Lynch let the play go by unnoticed.

From the Cleveland report in the same issue:

WILL VIRTUE BE EXCHANGED?

The talk of exchanging Virtue for outfielder Brodie has occasioned some local comment. Some favor it; many do not. Virtue is a model fielding first baseman. He has generally hit well. He has been charged sometimes with a lack of decision in tight places. Of course, we need an outfielder and, of course, Ewing could play first base all right enough, but, all the same, I’d hate to have Virtue leave the Cleveland team.

In early August Jake played some shortstop while Ed McKean was sick, and on August 31 at Baltimore he pitched the last five innings of an 11-6 loss, his first mound appearance since his minor league days, as reported in the next day’s Plain Dealer:

Hastings lasted four innings and then Virtue essayed to do the work of a twirler. He was fairly successful under the circumstances, and evidently has the making of a good pitcher. He pitches quickly and keeps a sharp watch on the base runners. Three bases on balls he gave in succession in the seventh inning, McGraw, Kelley and Shindle being the Orioles he deigned to honor in that way. Only three singles were made off him, and two of these came in the fifth inning, when they did no harm.

Sporting Life, September 23:

Virtue will doubtless be kept on the pay roll of the Cleveland Club, for he is a valuable utility man. His work shows that he can play either in the infield or outfield, and should Manager Tebeau take the notion to manage from the bench exclusively a better man to guard first base is not to be found.

In the same issue the Cleveland correspondent wrote: “Jake Virtue will practice pitching all winter and will likely be one of Cleveland’s regular pitchers next season.” From the next day’s Plain Dealer:

The Cleveland team for 1894 appears to be made up. Three young pitchers and Joe Gunson, the catcher, received their notice of release a few days ago and now the club has one general utility man, four pitchers and two catchers in addition to her regular players. Jake Virtue is the utility man, and there need not be any surprise if he is seen in any of the eight positions except the catcher’s. Jake practices pitching about every afternoon and he seems to have just as many curves and almost as much speed as the regular pitchers. He is, however, handicapped by age and it goes without saying that his muscles will not be as tractable as they were ten years ago. He may teach them to throw a ball as the modern pitcher does but he will have much harder work in doing so than the youngster who is practicing on the sand lots every day. Even if he does not convert himself into a pitcher “der Yacob” is a good man to keep around for use in emergencies. It is hardly possible that next year Jake will hit the ball as hard as Tebeau has done this season and they can alternate on first base, leaving the manager free to take excursions into the country and keep his eye open for promising young players. At present there does not appear to be a very great call for young men, but there is no telling how soon some of the men whose faces have become familiar to the public may quit or be compelled to quit the diamond.

Meanwhile the 1893 season ended, with the Spiders in third place in the 12-team league. Jake played in just 97 games, 73 of them at first; he hit .265/.358/.368, which was only down a bit from 1892 but a major drop-off considering the big surge in offense in the league as a whole. At first base he led the league in range. The October 7 Sporting Life reported that “Jake Virtue’s sister-in-law died last week, so Jake came home to Philadelphia instead of accompanying the Clevelands on their exhibition trip.” The St. Louis report in the December 16 issue included an account of a conversation with Spider manager Patsy Tebeau:

“You say for me,” said Tebeau, “that the Cleveland Club is ready to hear from Mr. [St. Louis owner Chris] Von der Ahe regarding an exchange of one of his players for Virtue. You know Virtue is not going to play first base for Cleveland next season. Who is? Why I am. Of course the Cleveland Club doesn’t propose to give up Virtue free of charge to another club. He may be retained as a utility man. But, of course, our club would do better by him in exchanging him for another good man. Chris, I think, can buy Virtue for a reasonable figure or secure him in exchange for one of his best players. Perhaps he can work a deal by which he can give us Gleason for Virtue.”

If Mr. Von der Ahe doesn’t wish to figure for Virtue this bit of information from Tebeau may put other League people in the way of securing the Cleveland first-baseman.

Tebeau believes that Virtue would make a good captain for the Browns.

Jake signed a new Cleveland contract in mid-February, and played second base and batted leadoff in the first two games of the season, with Cupid Childs sidelined. From the May 5 Sporting Life:

Why Tempt Avenging Furies?

Childs, of Cleveland, sprained his ankle while playing hand ball, hence Virtue has been playing second base. In speaking of Jake Virtue, Tebeau said, “Virtue is a valuable player and is hitting the ball hard. I only with he thought as well of himself as I do of him. Timid players handicap themselves. I sometimes wish I had a little gall and nerve myself.” As he made this remarkable declaration Patsy Bolivar eyed a chandelier suspiciously as if he half expected it to tumble upon him.

The same issue included this item: “Jake Virtue doesn’t think a left-handed pitcher has even a slight excuse for living.” Also in that issue the Cleveland correspondent wrote: “Just what Cleveland would do without Jake Virtue in these days when players are being disabled right and left is a problem not easy to solve.”

Two weeks later, Sporting Life asserted:

Jake Virtue is now classed as the best utility man in the business. This year he has played first base, second base and in the outfield for Cleveland and fielded to perfection, besides hitting the ball hard and timely. Manager Tebeau showed his wisdom when he refused to sell this valuable player.

In the same issue the Cleveland correspondent reported: “Jake Virtue has been resting at his hotel for a few days because of a severely wrenched ankle,” and the St. Louis correspondent wrote:

Manager [owner] Von der Ahe has been making an effort to secure Virtue from Cleveland, but the terms asked—an exchange of Gleason for Virtue—are simply outrageous. Mr. Von der Ahe would pay a fair price for Virtue, who is ambitious to sign as a pitcher.

As the season went on Jake’s appearances became more sporadic, and on July 20 he played his final game for the Spiders. He was then released, though the club kept that fact a secret. On July 28 he played shortstop for the Oil CItys of Oil City, Pennsylvania, one of twelve games he played there for the team, which ended up as the state amateur champs. For the Spiders he hit .258/.359/.326 in 89 at-bats in 29 games, most of those in the outfield.

On September 21 the Cincinnati Post reported:

…As long as Tebeau is able to play, Jake Virtue will continue to warm the bench for Cleveland.

Patsy is jealous and afraid of Virtue’s work at first base, and would gladly let him go if he had any excuse to do so. Mr. Robinson, who owns the Cleveland Club, is [Cincinnati owner] Mr. Brush’s warm friend in baseball, and it is reasonable to suppose that he would let Brush have Jake, since he has no use for him…

On September 29 Sporting Life let the cat out of the bag:

Jake Virtue, the old-time favorite and all around player, who has been with the Cleveland Club since 1890, will wear a Cleveland uniform no more. Virtue was released several weeks ago, but for some reason the release was kept a secret until last week, when it was announced.

And the Cleveland correspondent added:

Virtue’s release was not known here until three weeks after it was given him. He is a better man than half the men in the same position in all the minor leagues combined.

On October 13 Jake appeared on the reserve list of Kansas City of the Western League, but in the December 15 issue Sporting Life reported that he had signed with the National League’s Louisville Colonels. Two weeks later their Louisville correspondent wrote:

The signing of Jake Virtue was hailed with delight and more space given for that event by newspaper boys than any for a long time. There is believed to be several years of good ball playing in him yet, and if his batting is up to his Cleveland standard he will be a big improvement over anything we have had on the initial bag since the days of Harry Taylor.

Meanwhile, on December 9 the Omaha World-Herald had reported: “Jake Virtue is reported as being laid up with smallpox in Philadelphia.” From the “Secret Societies” column in the January 13, 1895, Philadelphia Inquirer:

Knights of the Mystic Chain.

On Monday evening last Oxford Castle, No. 104, held its regular weekly meeting with the usual large attendance, and the Sir Knights were agreeably surprised on entering the Castle to see their beautiful American flag exposed to view in a handsome hard-wood case, which elicited many exclamations of praise from those present, and congratulations were extended to Sir Knight Trustee Harry Wright and Representative John Tinsman for the manner in which they completed their task. The Relief Committee reported Sir Knights Jacob Virtue and John L. Schmidt as very much improved…

As reported in 1893, “Jake Virtue is a fiend on secret societies.”

From the February 20 Cleveland Plain Dealer:

First baseman Jake Virtue, who reported for duty at Louisville the other day, is laid up with rheumatism and has returned to his home, at Philadelphia. It is probable that he will not be able to play this season.

Actually he had had a stroke. From the Boston Herald, February 26:

It is now reported that paralysis and not rheumatism is the trouble with Jake Virtue. If this is so it will be a long time before Jake is able to play ball.

Sporting Life, March 16:

Jake Virtue writes that he is improving and may be able to join the Louisvilles by the opening of the championship season. If he is not in perfect condition, however, [Fred] Pfeffer will cover the initial bag, and may alternate with Virtue at first and O’Brien at second the season through.

Evansville Journal, March 20:

Louisville, March 19.—The Louisville Club has decided to release Jake Virtue. “Tub” Welch, the St. Louis catcher, will play first in Jake’s place. Virtue is troubled with rheumatism.

Sporting Life Louisville report, April 6:

Manager McCloskey has telegraphed Jake Virtue to report at New Orleans. Virtue is said to be in better physical condition at present than a month ago, and he is wanted on the team. Welsh [sic] is also needed behind the bat.

Sporting Life Louisville report, April 20:

Virtue did not report at New Orleans. He was only ordered to do so upon a physician’s certificate that he was physically in ball playing condition.

At that point the reports on Jake stopped until August. Sporting Life, August 3: "Jack O’Connor makes more assists than any first baseman Cleveland ever had; not even excepting Jake Virtue, who seems to have dropped completely out of the game."

Sporting Life Philadelphia report, August 17: "Jake Virtue, formerly Cleveland’s first baseman, is lying quite ill at his home in this city."

Kentucky Post, August 21: "The story comes from Quakerdom that Jake Virtue, who was a victim of paralysis early in the year, is dangerously ill at his home there."

Sporting Life, January 11, 1896:

Jake Virtue, it is said, will never get in the game again, although he looks as well as ever. The paralytic stroke has yielded to treatment, and Jake can walk and get around, but his days as an athlete are over.

Sporting Life, August 8, 1896:

VIRTUE IN WANT.

A Well Known Ball Player in Need of Assistance.

From Cleveland “World.”

Here’s a chance for the ball players to help a good man who has been overtaken by misfortune, says a writer in the Detroit “Free Press.” Jake Virtue, once a Detroit first baseman, and later with the Cleveland team, was taken with a stroke of paralysis at his home in Philadelphia the other day [?]. Ever since he left Cleveland Virtue has had hard luck and is actually in want. His wife wrote Chief Zimmer about the bad circumstances of the Cleveland player the other day and the Chief told the story to the other players of the team. Wednesday out of his pay each Spider subscribed liberally to a purse that was made up and sent to Mrs. Virtue. Jake had a large number of friends in the profession, and if any of them want to help him out they are asked to send their contributions to Catcher Zimmer, of the Cleveland Club, who will see that it reaches Mrs. Virtue.

Sporting Life Philadelphia report, July 10, 1897:

Jake Virtue, the crack first baseman, has almost recovered from the paralytic shock that forced him to quit the diamond. Nearly all the Louisville players recently contributed to a benefit for the unfortunate player who was prostrated at the height [not really] of his career.

Philadelphia Inquirer, July 11, from the account of the previous day’s Philadelphia at Cincinnati game:

…The day was intensely hot, and less than 4000 people saw the game. Before play was called Ed Delahanty circulated among the Reds and received several liberal contributions to help out Jake Virtue, who is in distress at Philadelphia.

Sporting Life Philadelphia report, July 24:

Jake Virtue, the veteran ex-first baseman of the Clevelands, has quite recovered from the paralytic stroke which compelled his retirement from the game, but he is afflicted now by chronic rheumatism. The benefit for him on the 14^th was a failure, and he is in sore straits, his affliction making him unable to work. His friends can reach or address him at 2226 North Twenty-eighth street, this city.

Sporting Life, December 25, 1897: "Jake Virtue, the old Cleveland first baseman, will move from Philadelphia to Canton, if his illness will allow him."

Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 14, 1899:

An Old Tradition.

Baseball players, as a general rule, are a bit superstitious, says a St. Louis Republic writer. Perhaps it is because they are largely Celtic. While at Hot Springs the writer saw one of the St. Louis players become highly incensed over the loss of a ball which, he alleged, hat been stolen from him. “I hope,” he said, “that the arm of the man who stole that ball may fall paralyzed by his side.” “Don’t say that, pal,” prayed Jack O’Connor, in most earnest words. “Such talk is liable to bring ill fortune to you. I once heard Jake Virtue, who played first base for us, make the same prayer, and within six months he was stricken with paralysis, from which he never recovered. Virtue could not find his sweater one day, and he became very angry. ‘May the man be paralyzed who got my sweater!’ said Virtue. After a while he found his sweater where he had put it away. We paid no more attention to it, until one day we read in the newspapers that Jake had been stricken with paralysis. His request was granted.”

Lancaster New Era, May 15, from an article about a train wreck near Reading:

“Jake” Virtue, who will be remembered by lovers of the national game in this city as the man who, about eight [13] years ago, held down the initial bag for the old Lancaster base ball club, was among the killed. “Jake” at one time was the best fielding first baseman in the business.

But no. Sporting Life, May 20:

A VETERAN INJURED.

Jake Virtue, the well-known ex-first baseman of the Cleveland Club, who retired some years ago owing to rheumatic and paralytic troubles, was one of the victims in the Reading Railroad collision at Exeter last Friday night. He was on his way home from the Hartranft Statue unveiling. When the crash came he was sitting in the first section of the fourth car with a friend. Jake escaped with his life, but sustained many bruises and lacerations. His face was cut almost beyond recognition, and his scalp was torn, a large piece being entirely sliced off the back of his head. He is now at the Charity Hospital in Norristown. His residence here is at 2226 North Twenty-eighth street.

Kansas City American Citizen, February 18, 1900:

Poor Jake Virtue.

“I have witnessed many a pathetic case of broken down gladiators, halt, spavined and charley-horsed, making a blind and painful stagger for their salary when they were really fit candidates for a hospital or a sanitarium, but the sad case of Virtue, the first baseman, will never vanish from my memory,” remarked Secretary [Harry] Pulliam recently. “When Virtue was released by Tebeau from the Cleveland team, Manager Jack McCoskey, of the Colonels, began negotiations for him to cover first base for us. We were in need of a first baseman at the time, and while Virtue was 20 or 30 points short of the .300 mark as a batsman, he was one of the best fielding first basemen in the league, and the most available man to us, as we thought. He accepted our terms, and we sent him $400 advance money in the fall. When he reported for spring practice I noticed a change for the worse in the physical appearance of the man. He was thin, pale, wrinkled, and halting in his gait. I asked him if he was sick, and he acknowledged that he wasn’t feeling quite chipper, but would be as fresh as a daisy in a few days. He showed up for practice on the following day, and then we discovered we had a cripple on our hands. His right arm hung limp by his side, and he tossed the ball around the infield with a snap of the wrist, failing to raise his arm. Dr. Stuckey, who was then the president of the club, was in the grandstand watching the boys at morning practice. ‘Who in heaven’s name is that man at first base? He has all the action—or rather the lack of action—of a paralytic,’ said the doctor, who ordered Virtue off the field and examined him, and, found that the poor fellow was indeed a victim of paralysis. We shipped Virtue back to Philadelphia, and the last I heard of him was last summer when I read of his being mixed up in a railroad accident.”

It's interesting to try to fit this account in with what was being reported at the time in 1895: he was released because of rheumatism, a few weeks later he was told to report because of a physician’s certificate that he was well enough to play, and then he didn’t report.

On June 7, 1900, Jake and family were counted in the census. They are living in a rented house at 2226 Susquehanna Avenue in Philadelphia (the move to Canton didn’t happen); Jake either works in or owns a cigar store, he and Susan are both listed as being able to read and write, and William is nine years old.

Albany Times-Union, April 24, 1901: “Jake Virtue, the once famous first baseman of the Cleveland club, is a wreck at his home in Philadelphia from the effect of the general breaking up of his system.”

A February 18, 1903, “where are they now?” article on old baseball players in the Washington Evening Star said that “Jake Virtue has charge of the press box at the Athletic [Philadelphia Athletics] grounds.”

Ottawa Journal, January 23, 1904:

On one of his player-signing trips through the east in the ‘90’s, writes Elmer Bates, Patsy Tebeau took me along with him. At Worcester, Mass., Jess Burkett was landed with little effort and at New Haven John Clarkson’s signature was easily secured. An all-night session at Baltimore was necessary to get Kid Childs in line. Arriving at Philadelphia, Jake Virtue was found.

“I want more money,” said the old first baseman, shaking his head, when the contract was offered him.

“What for?” asked Tebeau.

“For my throwing. Did you ever see a man who could hum the ball over from first to third like me when we’re warming up?”

“No,” said Patsy. “I never did. You just sign this contract at last year’s figure and the very first time you ever catch a man at third in a game I’ll raise your salary.”

Boston Herald, August 14, 1904: “Jake Virtue, one of the best first basemen in the country when with the Cleveland club, is now a gate tender in the ball park in that city.” Maybe in Philadelphia, definitely not in Cleveland.

Houston Post, August 29, 1905, another “where are they now” article: “Jake Virtue, once a great first baseman, is paralyzed in a hospital in Philadelphia.”

The Worcester Gazette, on September 4, 1908, ran another account of Jack O’Connor’s “May the man be paralyzed who got my sweater!” story we saw in 1899.

The Virtues were counted in the 1910 census on April 20. They are living in a rented house at 2730 N 28^th St in Philadelphia. Jacob is a 45-year-old laborer in a public park who can’t read or write; Susan is 42; William is 19 and a twister in a silk mill. Also living with them are 17-year-old niece Susan Elfrey, an “operator” in the “shoes” industry, and 11-year-old nephew Charles Elfrey, a twister in a silk mill who is also attending school.

On January 6, 1920, it was time for another census. The family is living in a rented house at 2808 Susquehanna Avenue in Philadelphia; Jacob is a laborer for a steel supply company who once again can read and write. He is 54, Susan is 52, and William, 29, is widowed and a chauffeur for the post office. His one-year-old son William J. also lives with them.

In the September 9, 1921, Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch, Al Spink, in his “Past and Present” column reports that “Jake Virtue has charge of the press box at the Athletic grounds in Philadelphia,” which sounds like it was taken directly from the 1903 story. In October 1924 Spink used the same sentence again.

Sporting News, September 22, 1927:

John J. McGraw, while chinning with some old cronies recently, sprung several yarns of the old days at Baltimore, when that team won pennants and the Orioles were considered the greatest team on earth.

“Once the old Orioles were in a tight place,” said John, “with Jake Virtue at bat. Jake had been hitting well against us, and with runners on, it looked as though we might be in for it.

“Robby [Wilbert Robinson] was catching and, as Jake walked to the plate, he said to him: ‘Say, Jake, I hear you can hit a ball harder than any man on the club. I’ve got a bet that you will make the longest hit this afternoon.’

Virtue bit. Robinson sent the outfielders back and called for a slow ball. Virtue did not like slow ones and it was a 3-to-1 bet he’d raise it into the air if he connected.

The first ball came up big as a house, and Virtue let go viciously and missed it. “Hey!” said Robinson. “You ain’t going to throw me down, are you?”

“You watch me,” said Jake. “I’ll lay out the next one all right.”

The next one was a slow one and Virtue missed it. “There goes my five bones,” wailed Robby. “Not if I know it,” said Jake as he hit the next one a mile in the air and the first baseman finally caught it.

“Well, I won for you,” said Virtue, returning to the plate, where Robinson was grinning.

“How’s that?” asked the big catcher.

“If you count long hits, wasn’t that good?” demanded Virtue. “There ain’t a man who can knock a ball as far as I knocked that one in the air.”

On April 2, 1930, there was another census taken in Philadelphia. Jacob, unemployed, and Susan are living at 2924 N 27^th Street with Susan’s nephew Charles Riffert, a 41-year-old widowed retail merchant (industry: “huckster”) and his three children.

A January 7, 1931, article in the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader with the headline “FIRST SACKERS ARE SCARCE IN BIG LEAGUES” called Jake the best all-around first baseman Cleveland ever had.

On April 15, 1933, Susan was killed by a Philadelphia trolley. Jake was listed on the death certificate as the informant, with his address still the Riffert house, but after this he moved in with son William in Camden, New Jersey.

Spartanburg Herald, January 18, 1935:

Quinn Recalls Stars of the Past

Bob Quinn, Brooklyn’s general manager, popped into the Bulletin office to find the editor up to his ears in the gay ‘90s, trying to separate the different Murphys, Grays and Dalys and counting up to see whether Louie Bierbauer played enough years to be eligible for a lifetime pass to National League games.

The jumbled array of names scrawled all over a dozen sheets of paper sprang to life as Bob surveyed them. In the ‘90s Bob himself was a spry young catcher. He not only remembered all their first names, but he was quick to point out the hitting weaknesses of mythical figures like Dave Foutz and Jake Virtue.

“Jake couldn’t read a word of print,” Bob recalled. “But he could always tell how many hits he made. He knew which was the hit column in the box score, you see, and he knew the different numbers.”

Detroit News, June 11, 1935:

‘Forgotten Man’ Remembers Detroit’s 1889 Flag

14 MEN ENOUGH TO WIN PENNANT

CAMDEN, N.J., June 11.—Detroit won the championship of the International Base Ball League in 1889, and the biggest factor in that triumph was Jacob Kitchline Virtue.

A forgotten man today—“Jake” Virtue played first base and was the ranking slugger of the Detroits of nearly a half-century ago.

Today, a hopeless cripple, Virtue lives in virtual retirement here with a son, William.

Forty-one years ago in the winter of 1894, at the height of his big league career with the Cleveland Spiders in the National League, Virtue suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire left side. He never played another game of base ball…

Virtue, who celebrated his seventieth birthday March 2 last, was obtained by Detroit from Canton, O., in the Tri-State League, after the close of the 1888 campaign. His first Detroit contract called for a monthly salary of $325.

“Detroit carried 14 players when I joined the team,” Virtue said. “There were four pitchers, two catchers, four infielders and three outfielders [that makes 13]. It was just too bad if you happened to get sick or injured. As long as you could stand on your feet you went out there and played.

“I remember one day in Detroit we were having practice before a league game and I broke a finger on my right hand catching a ball thrown by Billy Wheelock, our shortstop.

“It was toward the latter part of the 1889 season and we needed one of three remaining games to win the championship. I was the only first baseman the club had and was hitting at a .300 clip so they could not afford to bench me to have the fractured finger put in a splint.

“Instead, I was told to go out to first base and stick it out. I did and I want to tell you that every ball I caught in those three games was like grabbing red-hot rivets with a bare hand. Every time the ball hit my glove my eyes broke out in tears. That broken finger mended itself right there on the diamond. It never was set and today is still crooked. But we won the pennant.”

…Virtue played first base for the Spiders during the seasons of 1891, 1892, 1893 and 1894, before he suffered the stroke, the origin of which he never discovered, and at 29 years of age was shunted into base ball oblivion.

In the April 30, 1936, Sporting News, Jake appeared on a list of former players who had been presented with lifetime passes to major league games—even though the passes were for those who had spent ten or more years in the majors and Jake only lasted five.

In the 1940 census, taken on April 5 in Camden, New Jersey, Jake is living at 637 Vine Street with son William, a 49-year-old mail carrier, his second wife Grace, his son William, a 21-year-old laborer, and their son Herbert, a 15-year-old student, as well as Grace’s widowed mother Emma Chiovano, at 76 a year older than Jake.

Exactly two months later, Detroit Times sports columnist Leo Macdonell wrote:

Jake Virtue, 77 [75], of Camden, N.J., who played with the Cleveland Spiders before the turn of the century, says “ball players of today are just as good as the old-timers—all but the pitchers.”

On February 3, 1943, Jake passed away, four weeks shy of his 78^th birthday. His Sporting News obituary appeared in the February 11 issue, borrowing liberally from the 1935 Detroit News article:

Jacob (Jake) Kitchline Virtue, major league first baseman whose career was cut short after the 1894 season by a stroke from which he never recovered, died at Camden, N.J., February 3. A helpless cripple, he had lived with his son, William, in that city.

Born in Philadelphia, March 2, 1865, Virtue played with the Somersets of Philadelphia in 1883 and 1884, the Ironsides, Lancaster and Altoona in 1885, Oswego, Altoona and Canton in 1886 and Canton in 1887 and 1888 before he was brought up by the Detroit International League Club in 1889. The Michigan city had just dropped its franchise in the National League. In his first year with the team he hit .314 in 107 games and received a monthly salary of $325, which was exceptionally good pay in those days. There were only 13 players on the team—four pitchers, two catchers, four infielders and three outfielders—but it won the pennant.

Near the latter part of the 1889 season, with Detroit needing one of the three remaining games to win the championship, Virtue broke a finger in practice, but as he was the only first baseman and was hitting over .300, he had to stick it out and as a result, the broken digit mended itself right on the diamond. The finger was never set and remained crooked throughout his life.

Virtue returned to Detroit in 1890, but the International League failed to continue and he accepted terms with the Cleveland National League club. He played first base for the Spiders through the 1894 season. That winter he suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire left side and at the age of 29, Jake was through, never to play another game.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/V/Pvirtj101.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/v/virtuja01.shtml