Pembroke Finlayson
The story that time forgot
Pembroke Finlayson
I love reading about players like Pembroke Finlayson.
Finlayson was only 19 years old in 1908, when he first came up with the Brooklyn Superbas. And, as you can imagine, he was one of those players — the sort that had only one or two chances in the major leagues before going back to the minors for good.
You can read all about Finlayson in his official SABR biography. This blog post also provides good information and context.
As usual, though, there is quite a bit more that we can add.
An Anticipated Star
Do you remember Harry Pattee? If not, you need to meet him. Read this:
Interesting, isn’t it? In particular, note that Pattee actually didn’t want to join Brooklyn at first. Brooklyn was, umm, not the best place in the world to play.
Well, it turns out that Ebbets had a bit of a problem with recruiting players in the 1906-1909 era. See this article, for example:
Interestingly, it turns out that Finlayson and Pattee probably knew each other. In fact, it seems that they were recruited in New England around the same time:
Now, there’s no mention in these biographies of the fact that Ebbets actually signed Pattee in 1907 — and Pattee’s name is spelled wrong, for that matter. But we’ll look into that some other time.
What the biographies don’t mention is that Finlayson actually pitched numerous times for the Superbas in spring training in 1908. In fact, his absence appears to have shocked people who followed baseball closely in those days:
Interesting, isn’t it? And do you really believe that Finlayson was so upset to play for Lynn?
The article continues:
Okay — there are a few things I need to point out here:
Ebbets’ habit of “covering up” was almost certainly an early version of the farm system that Branch Rickey made so famous. There were a ton of “special relationships” like this in baseball, particularly in the pre-World War I era.
“The Wilhelm case” refers to Irvin Wilhelm, commonly referred to by his nickname “Kaiser.” Wilhelm had most recently pitched for Boston in 1905, and wound up pitching for the Superbas in 1908; some “innocent party!” There is more information in Wilhelm’s SABR biography about a controversy that I really should go back and dig into.
I’ve not seen any other mention of a fine that was levied on Brooklyn in connection with Finlayson. The article above mentions a $100 fine due to a deal with a club in Nashville; I’m not sure if that’s related or not.
Note that the author was concerned that Brooklyn only had 6 pitchers on its roster. So much for the idea that pitchers in the deadball era had arms made of iron!
The Hype
Pembroke wound up in Rochester. I haven’t dug in to see how he got from Lynn to Rochester; perhaps we’ll get to that another day.
We know he was in Rochester, because that’s the club Ebbets had to trade with to bring him back to Brooklyn in mid-May:
That’s right — this was front page news. So much for an obscure player nobody ever heard of!
The Brooklyn press was excited for his return:
Do you think Finlayson wasn’t a big deal? Well, did you know that the Yankees almost stole him away at the last second?
Here’s an interesting sequence of articles:
I’m not certain I quite understand how, but, in the end, the Superbas wound up with Finlayson, as well as $1,500 of waiver money for catcher Johnny Butler. I don’t know what Rochester received in the end.
Anyway, I’ve shown you this in part to show how complicated these old transactions were, and in part to show that Finlayson was really seen as the real deal. He was a 19 year old undersized kid who hadn’t thrown a single pitch of major league ball.
Finlayson’s Debut
The big day finally came on June 6.
Finlayson didn’t start for Brooklyn. Nap Rucker started, and was behind 2-1 to Cincinnati after 3 complete innings.
Then, for whatever reason, Brooklyn decided to give the kid a shot.
And, well, it didn’t wind up going all that well.
Finlayson wound up with 1/3 innings pitched, 4 walks allowed, and 5 runs allowed.
Now, you’re probably wondering why Brooklyn didn’t give the 19 year old another chance. Well, it turns out that his transaction woes weren’t through yet:
It seems that Brooklyn really was acting fast and loose with those youngsters. Now, Brooklyn was exonerated in the end:
Again, I’m not entirely certain that I understand what happened in this case. I don’t know why Finlayson was eligible for any draft if he was supposedly the property of the Lynn club. I’m also not sure why Lynn waited until June to make a claim on him. Strange times.
Finlayson was still with Brooklyn in early July, though he didn’t travel with the team on a long road swing:
Those biographies I linked to above note that Finlayson went back to the minors in 1908. He did — but it wasn’t until August. He was assigned to Brockton:
“Thursday” would have been August 6, for those who are trying to keep exact transaction records. That means Finlayson was with the Superbas from May 19 through August 6, though he only pitched a third of an inning.
There’s more to the story, of course — but we’ll leave that for another day.