John Sullivan of the 1908 Pirates

Another Obscure Player

John Sullivan of the 1908 Pirates

I love obscure players. And here comes a pretty obscure one.

John Sullivan played a grand total of 13 games at catcher for the 1905 Tigers, doing pretty much nothing in the process. He was 32 at the time, and seems to have been a career minor leaguer going into that appearance.

He then appeared in a single game for the 1908 Pirates, giving him this amazing career stat line:

Now, Baseball Reference doesn’t have his 1908 Pirates stats entirely correct. The truth is that Sullivan walked in the one game he appeared in. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Sullivan played for the Kansas City Blues for the 1908 season. Word got out that Pittsburgh bought him in early September as a third string catcher:

From The Kansas City Journal, September 2, 1908, page 7

If you’re curious, Chick Brandom pitched briefly for the Pirates in 1908 and 1909, and eventually surfaced again in the Federal League in 1915.

Note also that Sullivan is referred to as “Jack,” which is the case for all the original newspapers I found. Perhaps we’ll find more minor league records for him if we search under that name.

Sullivan’s arrival was pretty hotly anticipated in Pittsburgh:

From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 3, 1908, page 9

And then came Sullivan’s single appearance in 1908.

Baseball Reference doesn’t have play by play for the September 5, 1908 game between the Cubs and Pirates. Chicago demolished Pittsburgh, 11-0. And here’s a description of the parts relevant to Sullivan’s brief career:

From The Pittsburgh Post, September 6, 1908, page 11

Sullivan threw out a runner on the basepaths, received a putout through a single strike out, walked once, and reached base on an error.

And that’s pretty much the only description I could find. This little blurb was all that The Pittsburgh Press had to say about him:

From The Pittsburgh Press, September 6, 1908, page 21

And then it becomes complicated.

I don’t know much about how contracts worked in Major League Baseball in 1908. I don’t think anybody knows, actually.

It seems that the Pirates tried to get away without paying Sullivan. And, well, it didn’t work:

From The Kansas City Times, September 12, 1908, page 11

I’m not sure if this story is true. I haven’t read anything to counter it.

We do know that Sullivan left the team around that time. There are a few mentions of his name connected with barnstorming teams in the Kansas City area. And then comes this:

From The Kansas City Post, November 1, 1908, page 6

And so John (or Jack) Sullivan returned to gambol around Kansas City, and thus ended his major league career.

What was the nature of his contract? Why did Dreyfuss need to secure waivers on a player that he wasn’t actually paying? I’m not sure — and I’d be fascinated with anything more you might know about the subject.