Wish Egan pitched for the Tigers in 1902 and the Cardinals
in 1905-06, then had a long career as a scout and in the front office for
Detroit.
Aloysius Jerome Egan was born June 16, 1881, in Evart, a
small town in central Michigan. I didn’t find out much about his background and
early life. His father, James J., was born in Ireland, and his mother, born
Ellen Lamey, was born in New York, which is apparently where they met and
married. Wish’s brother Edward J. was born in New York sometime between 1865
and 1869, and sister Nellie was born in 1874 in New Jersey; another sister,
Theresa, was younger than Nellie and was born in New York. Edward was playing
minor league baseball in Michigan by 1888. A 1950 article on Wish says that
James worked for the government and that the family moved to Detroit when Wish
was six months old.
In the 1898 Detroit city directory, 17-year-old Wish is
listed as a clerk for the Michigan Central Railroad and brother Edward is
listed as a ballplayer, with both of them shown as boarders at their father’s
house, 799 14th Avenue. The 1899 directory has the same information
except that now the house belongs to widowed mother Ellen. In 1900 Wish, but
not Edward, is boarding with Ellen at 176 Elizabeth; in 1901 he disappears from
the Detroit directory for a while.
As Wish told the story years later, he pitched a game for a
pickup team against the Michigan Alkali Company’s semipro team and beat them,
which got him a job with Michigan Alkali and a spot on their team. He pitched
well enough for Michigan Alkali to attract the notice of the Detroit Tigers,
and at the end of August 1902 they offered him a job. He reported on September
3 and was told he was pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics that day; he
lost 5-3 to Eddie Plank, who pitched eight innings of relief. Wish allowed ten
hits and just two earned runs in his nine innings, and had two singles and a
walk at the plate, and a putout and five assists in the field.
Wish got another start four days later; this game was one of
ten Tigers home games that season played at Burns Park instead of their regular
home, Bennett Park. He was relieved after five innings with a 6-4 lead over
Baltimore, but the Orioles tied the game in the sixth before the Tigers won,
11-6, so Wish didn’t get credit for the victory.
His next start was not until September 20, in the first game
of a doubleheader in Chicago. Wish allowed three runs in the first, and that
was all the scoring in the game as the White Sox’ Nixey Callahan pitched a
no-hitter. That was Wish’s last appearance for the Tigers; he had a 0-2 record
and 2.86 ERA in 22 innings, while not striking out a single batter. In December
it was announced that he was being loaned to the Class A Louisville Colonels of
the American Association for the 1903 season.
Stats are sketchy for the American Association in those
days, but Wish had a 24-16 record in 43 games, allowing 360 hits and 84 walks
while striking out 125, in an unknown number of innings. In the field he had
116 assists, which was mentioned as a record. The following offseason was
discussed in an article on Wish in the Sporting News of April 22, 1943:
Detroit had loaned Egan to Louisville under a gentleman’s agreement, but that fall [Louisville owner George] Tebeau sold Wish to Cincinnati. During the winter, Egan was turned back to the Colonels—apparently as a “cover-up,” as the Cubs and Pirates had made offers for him.
Wish had received $300 a month for the 1903 season, but the next spring Tebeau sent him a contract calling for $200 a month “because [Reds owner] Garry Herrmann had turned you back.” Egan wired Tebeau he planned to retire from the game and go into business, and Tebeau wired back: “I wish you a lot of success in your business venture.”
“So I reported to Louisville at $200 a month,” grinned Egan. “Tebeau promised me that if I had a good season, he would make things right with me.”
Wish did spend 1904 with the Colonels, and this time he had
a 20-20 record in 353 innings in 44 games, walking 71. The 1904 Louisville city
directory showed him as a ball player, residing at Nic Bosler’s Hotel. After
the season he was sold to the St. Louis Cardinals.
On April 6, 1905, Wish got his first significant newspaper
attention that I was able to find, in an article in the St. Louis Republic on
the previous day’s exhibition game against the Browns:
CARDINALS AGAIN WIN FROM BROWNS
“Big” Wish Egan, the Wyandotte Chicken, Proves Tough Picking for the Batsmen of McAleer’s Forces.
…Mr. Charles Nichols introduced a new pitcher in the form of “Wish” Egan, to the several hundred fanatics that consented to take chances with pneumonia, or any other old thing, for the sake of the sport. Egan made a hit with everyone but the Browns, and the only reason that “Wish” did not make a hit with the Browns is because he would not let them make many hits with him.
The Cardinals’ victory was largely due to Mr. Egan’s effective and artistic work on the slab, although he received valorous assistance from the other eight members of the team…
Egan made good. The game boy from Wyandotte, Mich., made the Browns’ batsmen resemble a band of Ashantees trying to play whist.
“Wish” is only a boy yet, and he surely has a promising future in store for him if yesterday’s game is a criterion of his general work.
He let the Browns down with seven hits, allowed only two to walk, fanned four, smashed out a hit and showed class A form all the way.
Egan is a fixture after his showing of yesterday, and it would not be a bit surprising if Nichols shows him against the Browns another time before the spring series ends.
Wish got the start in the Cardinals’ second game of the NL
season, beating the Cubs at home, 2-1. He was the team’s number five starter
that year, with a 6-15 record and 3.57 ERA (the league average was 2.99) in 171
1/3 innings in 23 games, 19 of them starts. Along the way he took some grief
for his hitting, including this from the Boston Globe of August 1,
reporting on the previous day’s game with the Beaneaters:
[Boston pitcher Kaiser] Wilhelm was running neck and neck with Aloysius Egan, that broad-shouldered youth who stands high in the air and boasts of the smallest batting average in the big leagues. Aloysius never showed better. New York beat the lad, 2-1, through no fault of his, and he would have had a shutout today had McBride grabbed Dolan’s hard-smashed ball.
For four innings it was a draw. Then came the finish in the sixth. Egan opened with a pass, which was pretty good for “Wish,” as he usually strikes out or hits to the short stop. Then the lad stole second…
Wish won that game 7-1, and finished the season with a .102
batting average (and a .102 slugging percentage). After the season he got sick,
as mentioned in the December 2 Sporting Life:
Wish Egan, the St. Louis pitcher, is still in town [Detroit] recovering from a severe illness. It was malaria, he says, and settled into an obstinate case of throat trouble. He is now taking on weight again, after losing about 25 pounds.
Wish returned to the Cardinals in 1906. He didn’t make an
appearance until the team’s 13th game of the season, relieving on
April 29, then lost complete games on May 2 and 6. He got his first win on May
11, but before that, on the 8th, he was married to Della Baumler in
Detroit, by a Roman Catholic priest. Both were listed as residents of
Wyandotte, just outside Detroit. On May 14 the Detroit Times said:
They are going to hang to Wish Egan, the Wyandotte boy, in the reorganization of the St. Louis Nationals. Wish is a good pitcher, but the most unlucky one on earth.
On June 6 the Times reprinted a story from the St. Louis
Star-Chronicle:
SWINGING THE HAMMER ON OUR WISH EGAN
“Wish” Egan, John J. McCloskey’s doubtful right-hander, registered another failure, in Philadelphia Wednesday [June 20].
It is his seventh time to the well this season, and in all of his trips but one he has fallen by the wayside.
His lone set of brackets were registered against the Chicago Cubs. In extenuation of the Chicago team, however, it may be said that it was in badly crippled condition at the time.
Egan may be all wool and several yards wide, but he has a way of concealing his ability which isn’t at all pleasing to fandom.
On July 25 Wish was traded to the Kansas City Blues of the
American Association. With the Cardinals he had pitched 86 1/3 innings in 16
games, 12 of them starts, with a 2-9 record and a 4.59 ERA. He also pitched 16
games for Kansas City the rest of the way, but the AA pitching stats only show
people who pitched 20 or more games.
Once the baseball season ended, Wish organized a football
team. From the Detroit Times of September 28:
OPEN DATES AT WYANDOTTE
“WISH” EGAN SCHEDULES DAY GAMES AT HOME FOR EACH WEEK.
[Wish]…has organized a strong, independent football team in Wyandotte, has succeeded in getting out many of the old stars of past teams down the river and promises, with such men as Schriffers, Knapp, Green, Pinson, Moutie, Zelmere, Abbott and others, to develop a strong team. Ed. Milspaugh will coach, and Egan is now in correspondence with Detroit and state teams, filling out his schedule.
Wyandotte will play at home every Sunday during the season, and desires to play a number of Saturday games on the road. Managers desiring an excellent attraction and a return game as well can address him in Wyandotte, where he is one of the town’s best known residents.
On March 15, 1907, the Topeka State Journal ran the
following:
Two Players Not For the Blues.
Kansas City. March 15. Kansas City will be without the services of Pitcher “Wish” Egan and First Baseman Chris Lindsay if a letter from the former is to be credited. Dr. Stanley Newhouse, the club physician of the Blues, has a letter from Egan in which the twirler says that he probably will not be with Kansas City, as his wife has been ill for several months and he cannot leave her.
I don’t know what Chris Lindsay had to do with Wish’s wife’s
illness, but at any rate two weeks later Wish was pitching an exhibition game
for the Blues. Wish spent the season in Kansas City and had a 14-15 record in
279 innings in 37 games, walking 75. He then played with a barnstorming team
made up mostly of Blues players. Toward the end of 1907 he was drafted by the
last-place Washington Senators and their manager Joe Cantillon and wasn’t too
happy about it, as seen in this December 22 article from the Washington
Times:
WHAT CANTILLON WANTS IS A BASEBALL TEAM, AND NOT SLAB ARTISTS—“Wish” Egan
Kansas City Player Makes Some Real Cutting Comment On His Future Team Mates, Prefers His Old Berth.
Ally Egan hiked in from Darkest Wyandotte yesterday afternoon to see the gas lights burning. He is much worried over his baseball prospects. Along with about a regiment of ball players he has a Washington bill of lading attached to him, and that’s enough to make anybody worried.
“I was drafted from Kansas City by Cantillon,” sighed Egan, “and of course I have to go there. I could go with Indianapolis and I tell you that I would much prefer playing with a high class team in the American Association than a tail-ender in the American League. In the American Association I would have a season nearly two months shorter and it’s a big satisfaction to a pitcher to have a club behind him that can win for him once in a while, no matter what league it is in.
“If I should be kept in Washington, there’s about one chance in a thousand that I would ever get an increase of pay. At the close of the season I might go around to Cantillon and say, ‘Joey, I would like to have a raise next season.’ He would say to me, ‘What’s that? A raise? When you only won five games all season and lost sixteen! Well, I should think not.’ A fellow could pitch for any other club in the league and work no harder and yet make a good enough showing in the won and lost column to entitle him to a raise.
“Furthermore, pitchers are not what Cantillon needs. Look them over. There are Case Patten, Fred Falkenberg, Charlie Smith, Long Tom Hughes, Walter Johnson, and Gehring, a high class lot, and about forty others coming up from the minors. What Cantillon needs is a ball club. One big mistake I figure that he made was letting Charlie Jones go to the Browns. Talk about Birmingham as a thrower, I think Charlie has him beaten to a standstill. He batted .260 last season and played most of the time with injuries. I have heard that George Tebeau owns Milan and that he will not be with Washington very long.
“But, if I have to go to Washington as the cards now read I will have to do, I will work and hope for the best. I think it would please all followers of baseball to see Washington up in the race, as it has proven the best tail-end town a league ever had…”
“Wish” looks in better trim than he has for years. He has always been regarded as a high-class pitcher, and with a little better luck doubtless he would long ago have been planted in a major league and now be a fixture.
When he first attracted attention some managers thought him too slight to stand the grind of regular work, but that fault can no longer be found. He has broadened out wonderfully in the past few years.
On December 24 a similar article ran in the Indianapolis
Sun:
WOULD BE HOOSIER
“Wish” Egan, Former Blue Slabman, Asks Manager to Engineer Trade for Him; Pitcher Does Not Care for Washington.
CANTILLON HAS WEAK CLUB
No Matter How Good Work a Pitcher Does, He Is Failure as Far as Winning Games in Concerned; Wants High-Class Team
By Joe Kelly.
“Wish” Egan, former St. Louis Cardinal pitcher, drafted last year from Kansas City, is wishing that he might be a member of next year’s Indianapolis team and has asked Manager Carr to negotiate a deal by which he may be enter [sic] the Hoosier gates.
Egan, who was the classiest member of the Blues’ staff last season, has been drafted by Joe Cantillon, manager of Washington, but he does not care to open his pay envelope so near the Senate. He says the Washington team is so weak that a pitcher, no matter how good, stands a poor chance of winning any games.
Carr likes Egan and has advised Watkins to get him, if possible, but the indications are that Egan will not get his wish to come to Indianapolis granted…
Wish did not get that wish granted, but he did get out of
going to Washington; this ad appeared in the Kansas City Star of May 4,
1908:
WANTED—FURNISHED FLAT, APARTment of cottage; four or five rooms; summer months. Wish Egan, Victoria hotel.
Wish seems to have spent the entire season back with the
Blues, but he only pitched in 23 games and had a 7-9 record. There’s a typo in
the official stats crediting him with just 76 innings pitched; since he allowed
178 hits in 638 at-bats he had to have pitched many more innings. Along the
way, a June 3 article in the Racine Daily Journal quoted him at length
about the upcoming Ketchel-Papke middleweight bout and an August 15 article in
the Wilmington Evening Journal on spitball pitchers mentioned that Wish
“has it in stock for emergencies.”
From the Detroit
Times of April 24, 1909:
WYANDOTTE PITCHER GETS HIS RELEASE
Worked Sore Arm Gag on Tebeau and Got Away After Five Long Years.
KANSAS CITY, April 24.—“Wish” Egan, for five years a pitcher for George Tebeau [who owned various minor league teams], yesterday drew his unconditional release from the Kansas City Blues and is now a free agent. It is very probable that Egan will be with some other American association club or with the Eastern league within the next ten days.
Egan reported here at the beginning of the training season and saw on the jump that he would have little chance with the team. He complained immediately about a sore arm and did not do much work. He waited around the grounds every day for the release he was sure would come and when it was handed to him last night he donned a smile that will not come off in three weeks. He is the happiest man in the league. The sore arm gag worked nicely.
Egan has been with the Blues three years [actually two] and previous to coming here was with Louisville two years [true, but there were two years with the Cardinals in between]. He will make good with a class AA club especially in the Eastern league, if he is in condition to pitch.
Same paper, four days later:
EGAN TURNS OUTLAW
Wyandotte Pitcher Accepts Job With Brigands Out in California.
KANSAS CITY, Mo., April 27.—“Wish” Egan, who obtained an unconditional release from George Tebeau, has accepted an offer from Danny Shay and will leave for Stockton, Cal., to mingle with the outlaws. Egan has a $2,400 contract with Shay and that’s better than he could do in the American association. He was wanted by Jimmy Casey of the Montreal (Eastern league) team, but Shay came through with the best offer.
Years later Wish said that his release by Tebeau and signing
with the outlaw California League was all part of a plan, as related in the
April 22, 1943, Sporting News:
In those days there was no hard-and-fast rule against a man owning two clubs in the same league and Tebeau owned both the Louisville and Kansas City franchises. Tebeau told Egan that he’d give him his outright release if he would go to California, join the outlaw league, scout for players and find him a capable manager to replace Monte Cross at Kansas City.
Egan joined Stockton in the outlaw league. The team was managed by Danny Shay, who had played with Wish at St. Louis. Stockton won the pennant in the first half of the season, but after that began to look shaky and Egan wrote Tebeau, explaining conditions and recommending Shay for the Kansas City job. Tebeau went to San Francisco and signed Shay. That was Egan’s first scouting experience.
Wish had an 18-13 record in 33 games for Stockton; the
California League stats credit him with 394 innings, which is certainly a
misprint. 294 is much more likely, given his 242 hits and 96 runs allowed.
Another misprint is Wish’s identification in the batting stats as having been
with San Jose; he is listed with Stockton in the pitching stats and that is
definitely where he was playing.
Wish had been having chronic soreness in his pitching arm
since his days with the Cardinals. In early 1910 there were reports that he was
a free agent and was getting offers from many minor league teams, but on April
4 the Lawrence Journal World reported:
EGAN WILL COACH BAKER.
Veteran Major League Pitcher Secured by Baldwin School.
Baldwin, Kan., April 4.—Baseball is in a very promising condition at Baker this year. The baseball management has secured Wish Egan for coach. He is known all over the country from coast to coast as being one of the classiest inside ball players in the business, one who has made the game a study as well as a profession and has that gift of being able to impart his knowledge and tactics to others. He has been a pitcher in the National and American leagues and the American association and the students at Baker are delighted in having him as their team’s leader and teacher in the national sport…
After Baker College’s season ended, Wish hooked on with the
Newark Indians in the Eastern League, managed by Joe McGinnity. He had a 1-4
record in 53 innings in 14 games, then retired for good.
In July 1911 Wish got a job as an umpire in the Central
League, as a fill-in at first but then he was retained. The Fort Wayne
Sentinel reported on July 27:
Umpire “Wish” Egan made his [Fort Wayne] debut along with Wacker. Mr. Wish has a good voice and keeps right on top of the plays. His judgment on balls and strikes was questioned two or three times, but the best of them miss ‘em now and then.
His voice is his best asset. He calls balls and strikes distinctly and keeps the audience informed as to the status of the batter by occasionally calling the number of balls and strikes registered on his indicator.
The 1943 TSN article said that Ban Johnson was
interested in grooming Wish to be an American League umpire but that Mrs. Egan
became seriously ill in 1912 and Wish had to stay home in Detroit, thereby
missing his chance. I didn’t find any contemporary reports on any of that; on
the other hand I did find this in the Fort Wayne Sentinel of January 25,
1912:
Wish Egan, Central league umpire, is one of the first indicator handlers to branch out a la Hank O’Day and become an applicant for a managerial position. Wish doesn’t aspire to lead a big league or even a class AA or class A team. Class B is high enough for him at the start.
And the next day, in the Canton Repository:
“Wish” Egan has been an umpire in the Central and is now a deputy sheriff. He wants to become a magnate. It takes nerve to run the gamut like that. But then he’s Irish.
Wish did not become a manager or a magnate, and I don’t know
whether Della was seriously ill, but he did become a deputy sheriff; the 1912
Detroit city directory shows him as one, living at 252 Baldwin Avenue. In 1914
and 1915 there were reports of him umpiring amateur baseball games in the
Detroit area. In 1916 he was identified as “coach, boss canvass man and
strategian in chief” for Otsego, the Michigan state semi-pro champs, and was
listed in the Detroit city directory as a city inspector. In 1917 there was
another reference to his umpiring in amateur baseball, plus the following from
the Detroit Times of Wednesday, November 14:
MAN’S DASH FOR LIBERTY FAILS
Edwin Keister, held on the charge of killing William Baker, last August, made an unsuccessful attempt to escape from the county jail shortly after noon, Wednesday. He was found 10 minutes after disappearing from the main room in the jail, and fought until rendered unconscious by a blow from “Wish” Egan, formerly a deputy sheriff.
Keister had been brought back to the jail from the municipal courts building. He was placed in a little enclosure for visitors while he was being registered in. The handcuffs had been taken from his wrists. While the deputy in charge was looking over the books, Keister slipped into the basement.
Thirty seconds after he left deputies and policemen were searching the jail in vain. An alarm was sent to police headquarters. Sheriff Stein, former Sheriff Gaston, Egan and others started a new hunt of the jail. Finally, in roaming thru the cellar, they espied a coat collar sticking from a potato bin. They lifted the lid and found their man crouching on the floor. When ordered out he sprang up and attacked the men.
Keister killed Baker in his home, No. 45 Jones st. A party was being held at the house and a fight followed Baker’s attempt to embrace Mrs. Keister.
In 1918 Wish filled out his draft registration card on
September 12. He and Della were still at 252 Baldwin Avenue, his occupation was
given as “Inspector D.P.W., City of Detroit,” and his appearance was tall,
medium build, blue eyes and sandy hair. Two weeks later he got mentioned in the
Detroit report in the Sporting News: “Wish Egan was a pitcher here part
of one season and is still pitching part of the time, managing semi-pro teams
and doing service as an umpire.” In the 1920 city directory his address is
given as 1104 (252) Baldwin Avenue, which I’m guessing means that the city
changed the address—it continued as 1104 Baldwin after that. On December 13,
1925, Della passed away at Harper Hospital in Detroit; I can’t decipher the
cause of death, which looks like “splenic anaconda,” but she had suffered from
it for three years.
In March 1926 came the first reference I found to Wish being
a scout for the Tigers, though later articles suggested he had been working for
them since 1913 or even earlier. In March 1927 he was mentioned in an AP
article about the Tigers arriving in San Antonio for spring training, though he
was mistakenly identified as a player. In the 1927 Detroit city directory he is
still identified as an inspector for the DPW, but now his residential address
is the Wolverine Hotel. In 1928 he was helping coach the Tigers’ pitchers in
spring training; in the city directory he is still an inspector for the DPW but
is now at the Leland hotel. In the 1930 census Wish is living alone at the
Leland Hotel, though listed as married, and his occupation is given as ball
scout.
During the 1930s there were many articles about Wish and his
work for the Tigers. He was at spring training each year, instructing the young
pitchers, and he was part of the Tiger contingent at the major league meetings
each off-season. In 1932 he was referred to as their “chief scout” for the
first time that I found. In 1933 he was sent to Florida to find the team a
permanent spring training site. From the November 30 Sporting News:
…That they will have every comfort and convenience at Lakeland is assured by Aloysius (Wish) Egan, the Tiger scout, who selected the site. Back home after a trip to Lakeland to close contracts for the park and hotel facilities, Egan talks like a Florida land boomer in praise of the new camp. He insists that park, clubhouse and living conditions will be the best the Tigers have ever had and sometimes reaches the point in his enthusiasm where he is willing to guarantee that they will not have a rainy day.
Egan made many contacts in Lakeland and found the city happy over the prospect of once more being host to a big league club. It has not had such an opportunity since the Cleveland Indians decided to move from there several years ago and is looking forward eagerly to renewing the experience.
From Bud Shaver’s “Shavings” column in the Detroit Times
of April 19, 1937:
Wish Egan’s stay in Lakeland was spoiled by a liver complaint…and he returned just in time to get caught in the hotel strike…was marooned on one of the top floors, with no chance to show off a spiffy new top coat.
There were many references to Wish’s love of talking and to
his storytelling abilities, and he would often speak at meetings of various
organizations. Meanwhile, he apparently continued working as an inspector for
the city of Detroit; the newspaper articles about him never mentioned that, but
he continued to be listed that way in the directories. He also continued to
live in hotels, and continued to have health issues from time to time. As a
scout his area was Detroit itself and the surrounding area, and in 1938 he made
his biggest find, 17-year-old Hal Newhouser, whom he followed “around like
Mary’s little lamb” until he got him signed.
In January 1940 Commissioner Landis handed down a ruling
against the Tigers and their operation of their farm system, making 92 players
free agents and requiring the team to pay 14 other players a total of $47,250.
From the Beckley Raleigh Register of January 15:
…A.J. (Wish) Egan, scout, signed many of the players. He said it would take the Tigers many years to rebuild their farm system…
The investigation of Detroit’s farm operations began nine months ago. The commissioner warned the Tigers and baseball clubs in general that a similar violation of the code covering player transactions in the future would result in a heavy fine as well as suspension of the guilty executive from baseball…
Leslie O’Connor, secretary to the Commissioner, explained that Detroit used its farm clubs to “cover up” dozens of players in what he termed a “wholesale violation” of the rules…
The Sporting News of January 18 was a little more
descriptive of the violations:
A bewildering maze of interlocking connections between clubs is revealed by the commissioner in his findings, involving Detroit at the top and penetrating through various classifications down to Class D leagues, bringing to light secret agreements, under-cover shifting of players, control of as many as three clubs within one circuit and deliberate violations of known rules…
General Manager Jack Zeller took responsibility for the
violations, though he also claimed he was just continuing a system that had
been put in place by the late former Tiger owner Frank Navin before he (Zeller)
was hired in 1938. There was speculation that Zeller would be fired and that
Wish would take his place, but Zeller kept his job.
In the 1940 census taken on April 8, Wish is living at the Book Cadillac Hotel, is widowed, and his occupation is given as baseball scout; he worked 40 hours the previous week, 50 weeks in the previous year, and made $5000+ with income from other sources.
The Tigers went to the World Series that
year, and along the way this UP story appeared in various papers, here taken
from the South Haven Daily Tribune of September 4:
Ruth Okays Plan For Series—If Tigers Win
Detroit, Sept. 4. (UP)—Ever hopeful Detroit fans today had two reasons for wanting the Tigers to take part in the 1940 world series: Civic pride and an opportunity to watch Al Schacht strike out Babe Ruth.
Wish Egan, Tiger scout, said he had received a telegram from Ruth, stating that “I agree to allow Al Schacht, the baseball comedian, to strike me out at Briggs Stadium during the world series at Detroit—if the Tigers win the pennant.”
Dugout dopesters said the famed Bambino of the bat was being facetious, and that they inferred Ruth didn’t believe the Tigers had a chance to win the pennant, much less the world Series.
Mr. Schacht? No one thought of communicating with him.
Hugh Fullerton Jr.’s syndicated column of January 26, 1942,
included this item:
Charley Gehringer and Scout Wish Egan of the Detroit Tigers are making a survey for the Michigan army and navy recreation league to learn how much athletic and recreation equipment is needed for the army and navy posts in that state.
And from the February 4 Benton Harbor News Palladium:
Scout A.J. (Wish) Egan will be absent from the Tiger training base for the first time in many years because of an assignment this spring to comb the Pacific coast for talent. The Tigers have dismissed Marty Krug, their ivory hunter in the far west for many years…
On April 23 Wish filled out another draft registration card. It gave his address as the Book Cadillac Hotel, the “person who will always know your address” as Elizabeth Kenney at Briggs Stadium, his employer as Detroit Baseball Company, and his appearance as 6-1 ½, 210, blue eyes, gray hair, ruddy complexion, and a tattoo mark on left forearm. I wonder what the tattoo was—it seems unusual for someone who had not been in the Navy to have had a tattoo back then.
In February 1943 there were reports of another hospitalization
due to a serious illness, and then on the 25th this ran in the Sporting
News:
QUINTET OF BENGALS TO BE RIGHT AT HOME
NEWHOUSER TOPS GROUP GRABBED OFF DETROIT SANDLOTS
Tigers Have Long Had a Strong Flavor of Local-Grown Talent, Because of Scout Egan’s Vigilance
DETROIT, Mich.—A conspicuous feature of the Tigers’ roster for 1943 is the presence of five players whose early development took place on the Detroit sandlots. This is an unusually large number of homegrown products even for a club that has been particularly fortunate in its search for talent within the city limits. Credit belongs almost entirely to the veteran scout, Aloysius Jerome (Wish) Egan.
From time to time in the last decade, the Tigers have had Frank Reiber, Mike Tresh, Roy Cullenbine, Barney McCosky, Harold Newhouser and Johnny Lipon, all caught in the dragnet spread by Egan over municipally-controlled diamonds. No amateur league was too obscure to draw the attention of this old-time pitcher, who has been in the scouting service of Detroit under six managers. No tip on the prospective prowess of a high school student, factory hand or bus driver was rejected by the Tiger scout, without a personal investigation.
Week after week Egan stood on the sidelines of fenceless fields with an eye alert to potential skill of beardless boys bent on an afternoon of diversion. His vigilance was rewarded in acquisition by the Tigers of Reiber, Tresh, Cullenbine, McCosky, Newhouser and Lipon. In addition, it brought players who gained a measure of success on Detroit farms, though they were never able to qualify for big league company.
Egan also was responsible for Benny McCoy, Pat Mullin, Dick Wakefield, Stubby Overmire and others, but he had to go beyond the boundaries of Detroit to land them. He found McCoy in Grand Rapids; Mullin, in Flint; Overmire in Kalamazoo and Wakefield on the University of Michigan campus at Ann Arbor…
In April 1943 the Sporting News ran the lengthy feature article that I have quoted from previously. In May he had a kidney removed. On May 26 brother Edward died; he got a two-sentence obituary in the Detroit Times under the headline “Wish Egan’s Brother Dies.”
Wish spent New Year’s 1944 in the hospital, and in July he was named to the board of directors of LaSalle Wines and Champagne Inc.
On December 28, 1944, the Sporting News
named Wish their first Scout of the Year and had this to say about him:
Egan Earned Stripes by Keeping Tigers Stocked With Eager Kids
By H.G. Salsinger
DETROIT, Mich.
The surprise team of the major league season of 1944 was the Detroit Tigers, and the man mainly responsible for the club’s success was Aloysius Jerome (Wish) Egan.
Few visioned a first-division berth for the Tigers when the race began. They were generally picked to finish down in the second division, and when they were in seventh-place in mid-July, the pre-season predictions seemed justified. Not alone were the Tigers in seventh place, but at the time it seemed no certainty that they wouldn’t drop to eighth place…
Gauging the work of a scout is unusually difficult. Only those in charge of running the club with which an ivory hunter is connected know intimately what he does, and for which players he is directly responsible. However, the ability of the Tigers to get into the American League pennant race during the last two months of the season and make a fight for it down to the last day is attributable to talent discovered by A.J. (Wish) Egan. While the Browns, Cardinals and Yankees, for example, represent the discoveries of many scouts, to Egan is given the credit for much of the talent brought up by Detroit…
In 1945 the Tigers won the pennant and the World Series.
From the Sporting News of January 24, 1946:
Egan Feted in Detroit
Civic Leaders Toss Luncheon for Scout
By Watson Spoelstra
DETROIT, Mich.
Public recognition and appreciation arrived too late for most noted personages, but Detroit has expressed its civic pride in the life and works of Aloysius (Wish) Egan, silver-thatched, red-faced scout of the Tigers for 30 years.
Egan is the efficient type whose deeds usually are taken for granted, but his case is an exception.
On January 14, a party of 70 sat down to luncheon with Egan at the Hotel Statler’s English ballroom.
“We purposely wanted this to be a small party to tell Wish that we appreciate what he has done for baseball in Detroit,” said Industrialist Fred Matthaei, who several years ago created a mythical Linsdale University and has made a hobby of referring to it. “If we had opened it to the public, we could have sold a thousand tickets.”
At the eight tables were business leaders and public figures. Councilman Bill Rogell, former Tiger shortstop, represented the City Hall. There were sports writers, Manager Jack Adams of the Detroit Red Wings hockey club, Harry Heilmann, and dozens of others. George M. Trautmann, Egan’s new boss, was there too.
Five of the many players Egan has started on the road to the majors were there to express their appreciation. They included Hal Newhouser, the American League’s most valuable player; Dick Wakefield, the slugging outfielder; Barney McCosky, Roy Cullenbine and Mike Tresh.
“He’s not a scout,” said Newhouser in his testimonial, “he’s a real friend.”
As a remembrance, Egan was presented with an album of photographs taken at the civic victory dinner for the Tigers after their World’s Series triumph. In it was penned a message from Owner Walter O. Briggs of the Tigers, as follows:
“We wouldn’t have won the pennant had it not been for the players Wish Egan brought into the game.”
The smiling face of the big Irishman was flushed now, and Chairman Matthaei picked this moment for the honored guest to speak. He uttered a sincere thanks and then added:
“It’s easy working for a ball club like Detroit and for an owner like Walter O. Briggs. This club wants the best players regardless of cost. That’s made it very easy and, besides, I’ve been lucky—real lucky.”
At around this same time it was announced that Wish was moving to a front-office job as director of the Tigers’ scouting system, but by March he was complaining that he didn’t like it. In May he spent time in the hospital with gall bladder trouble.
From the October 2 Sporting News:
…the Detroit club made known that A.J. (Wish) Egan, silver-haired discoverer of Hal Newhouser and a host of others, had asked to return to his old role of free lance scout.
In expanding its scouting staff from four to ten men last winter, the Tiger front office named Egan as director of scouts and scouting. The organization job completed, Egan asked to be relieved of his added responsibilities. Owner Walter O. Briggs reluctantly agreed.
“You are on our payroll for life,” the Tiger owner told Egan. “Your title is scout emeritus, and you can go where you like to find talent.”
In August 1947 it was reported that Wish had decided to retire because of his health, but had been talked out of it by the Tigers.
From
TSN, March 8, 1950:
Wish Egan Misses Tiger Camp
DETROIT, Mich.—Aloysius Jerome Egan, the man who picked out the Detroit Tiger training base at Lakeland, Fla., is around his old haunts this spring.
“My doctor doesn’t want me to take such a long trip,” declared the gray-thatched dean of the scouting and farm system. Wish is holding down the fort at Briggs Stadium,
In 1933 the late Frank Navin dispatched Egan to Florida to find a training camp. After looking over several sites, Egan chose Lakeland…
Egan has been a spring camp visitor every year since 1926, when Ty Cobb trained the Tigers at Augusta, Ga. He followed the squad to Texas and California before the move to Florida in the early ‘30s. He likewise was at Evansville, Ind., in the war years.
He missed only one previous year. That was in 1942 when he spent the spring on a scouting assignment in California.
Wish’s health deteriorated. Joe Williams, in his syndicated
column, wrote on December 11: “Wish Egan, Detroit’s famed one-man scouting
staff, is critically ill in Detroit, with no visitors permitted at Ford
Hospital.” The Sporting News reported on January 10, 1951, that “Wish
Egan, chief scout emeritus, remains seriously ill in Henry Ford Hospital,” and
on February 7 that “A.J. (Wish) Egan, ill at Henry Ford Hospital and limited to
only a few visitors, has been well-briefed on spring training plans, but
probably will not go to Florida this year.”
On April 13, 1951, Wish passed away, and the news was in the
wire services that same day, as well as on the front page in Detroit. Here’s
the AP version:
Egan, Tiger Scout, Dies
DETROIT (AP)—Wish Egan of the Detroit Tigers, one of big league baseball’s best known scouts, died in Henry Ford hospital early today.
Egan was 69 years old. He had been ill for many months.
Since 1946 Egan had been the Tigers’ “scout emeritus,” a lifetime job created for him by owner Waler O. Briggs, Sr., in deference to his long service.
Aloysius Jerome Egan started as a pitcher in the early 1900’s and became a scout for Detroit in 1913.
In 1944 the Sporting News named him baseball’s “scout of the year.”
Before becoming a Tiger scout, Egan was on the playing rosters of the Tigers and of Louisville, Kansas City, the St. Louis Cardinals, and Newark. In 1908 he played in the outlaw California State League.
The International News Service obituary called him “one of
the best known men in baseball.” The Sporting News devoted two full
pages to him, including:
Pitcher, Talent Hunter and Friend of Players for 50 Years
Wish Egan Dies at 68; Scouted Many Tiger Stars
Newhouser, Evers, Groth, Houtteman Among Finds
Always Proud of ‘Boys,’ Backed Them to the Limit; Story Teller and Mimic, Boss Navin Favorite Subject
By H.G. Salsinger
Of the Detroit News
DETROIT, Mich.
Aloysius Jerome Egan, 68-year-old [69] scout for the Detroit Tigers, died in Henry Ford Hospital, April 13, of a heart ailment. He had devoted almost half a century to professional baseball.
Players, young and old and scattered from coast to coast, knew him as Wish Egan. So did club officials, umpires and sports writers. By the same name he was known to thousands of fans either personally or by reputation.
For several years Mr. Egan had been in declining health. He missed the Florida training season in 1950 and again this year. On an extremely limited scale, he carried on his duties as a scout through last summer. In mid-September he discontinued his daily visits to his office in Briggs Stadium.
Baseball never knew a keener scout, a better judge of talent, nor a more accomplished story teller than Egan. It was his remarkable ability to gauge the possibilities of a high school or sandlot player that kept the Detroit lineup supplied with pitchers, catchers, infielders and outfielders. He scouted for Detroit for more than 40 years and discovered some of baseball’s leading headliners…
Ball Players Will Carry Egan To Grave
DETROIT, April 14—(INS)—“His Boys” will be pallbearers when funeral services for Aloysius J. “Wish” Egan are held in Detroit Monday [16th].
The boys are members or former members of the Detroit Tigers discovered by the veteran Tiger Scout who died yesterday at Ford Hospital at the age of 68.
The pallbearers will be Johnny McHale, Dick Wakefield, Hoot Evers, Ted Gray, Paul [Dizzy] Trout, Joe Ginsberg, Neil Berry, Johnny Lipon, Saul Rogovin, Pat Mullin, Hal Newhouser, Johnny Groth, and Ray Herbert.
April 17 was opening day at Detroit, and a moment of silence
was observed for Wish before the game. From the AP, April 24:
Egan Leaves $10,000 To Tiger Employee
DETROIT—(AP)—The will of Aloysius J. (Wish) Egan, the Detroit Tigers’ scout emeritus, was filed for probate today.
Egan left virtually his entire estate, estimated at $10,000, to Miss Elizabeth B. Kenney, an employee of the Detroit Baseball Co.
He set up a $10,000 trust fund for his sister, Mrs. Theresa Hillen of Detroit, and bequeathed $2,500 to her son, Edward.
The Sporting News, June 25, 1952:
Egan Field, named in honor of Wish Egan, late Detoit scout, was dedicated in the Motor City, June 19. Located at the intersection of Schoenherr and Bringard streets, the 13-acre plot contains a baseball diamond, shuffleboard and horseshoe courts, swings and sliding boards. Attending the ceremonies were Spike Briggs and Charley Gehringer, the Tigers’ president and general manager, respectively.
In 1960 Wish was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of
Fame.
