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"return to team" players
in Total Baseball

Contact Pete Palmer if you know other returns to team.
Jump to the list of Returns to Team
.

By policy, Total Baseball (1989-2001) displayed the season record of each multi-team player for each stint with each team in chronological order. For example, see the 1877 record for Charley Jones in the Batter Register.

Charley Jones 
1877 Cin-N
     Chi-N
     Cin-N
     Yr    [National League total]
Jones 1877 makes a good illustration because it is a "return to team"; some references combine the two Cincinnati stints in one line. Some give the record alphabetically by club name, Chicago first.

Total Baseball's more informative chronological convention governed stints with teams in different leagues, too. See the 1934 record for Burleigh Grimes in the Pitcher Register.

Burleigh Grimes [incorrect]
1934 StL-N
     Pit-N
     Yr    [National League total]
     NY -A
That published record was incorrect in TB because Grimes played first for St Louis, then New York, then Pittsburgh, where he finished his 1934 season and his career. (In some references, StL-Pit-NY or Pit-StL-NY is correct by the local convention.) His season record should have been laid out as follows.
Burleigh Grimes [correct]
1934 StL-N
     NY -A
     Pit-N
     Yr    [National League total]
Grimes 1934 is a "return to league". If Burleigh had finished with St Louis, rather than or following Pittsburgh, his 1934 season would also be a "return to team" like Jones 1877. Indeed, it would be an interleague return to team.

Departures from chronological listing of stints occurred in Total Baseball by mistake, because some returns to team or to league were unknown; they will continue to occur because some returns will remain unknown. Unknown returns to team are more serious, because the playing record for two different stints is combined in one line.

Total Baseball co-editor Pete Palmer told me, "Since [contemporary Guides] did not list return to team players, showing just one set of stats for each team played, I determined most of them from my research." That is, he both discovered the return to team and split the player-team-season stats between the two stints!

 

"Returns to Team" within Major League seasons (47)

> Here is a list of return to team players in Total Baseball. 
> If you know of any others, please pass them on.
>
> Pete (Pete Palmer)

LastName      FirstName  Year  MLB stints in chronological order
                              *interleague returns to team marked by hand and eye -Ed.

JONES         CHARLEY    1877  CINN CHIN CINN  
MOUNTAIN      FRANK      1882 *WORN PHIA WORN
ORR           DAVE       1883 *NY A NY N NY A (two jointly owned clubs -Ed.)
GARDNER       GID        1888  WASN PHIN WASN
CRANE         SAM        1890  NY N PITN NY N
EASTON        JACK       1891  COLA STLA COLA
KUEHNE        BILL       1892  LOUN STLN CINN STLN
ANDERSON      JOHN       1898  BRON WASN BRON
JENNINGS      HUGHIE     1899  BRON BALN BRON
SCHRECKENGOST OSSEE      1899  STLN CLEN STLN
DRILL         LEW        1902  WASA BALA WASA
McALLISTER    SPORT      1902  DETA BALA DETA
O'HAGEN       HAL        1902  CHIN NY N CLEA NY N
HUELSMAN      FRANK      1904  CHIA DETA CHIA STLA WASA
MARSHALL      DOC        1904  PHIN NY N BOSN NY N
MULLIN        JIM        1904  PHIA WASA PHIA
CLARKE        NIG        1905  CLEA DETA CLEA
POWERS        DOC        1905  PHIA NY A PHIA
STREET        GABBY      1905  CINN BOSN CINN
DONAHUE       PAT        1910  BOSA PHIA CLEA PHIA
KRUGER        ART        1910 *CLEA BOSN CLEA
CRANDALL      DOC        1913  NY N STLN NY N
ROBERTS       SKIPPER    1914  PITF CHIF PITF
WISTERZIL     TEX        1915  BROF CHIF STLF CHIF
HAMILTON      EARL       1916  STLA DETA STLA
WATSON        MULE       1920  BOSN PITN BOSN
MYERS         HY         1925  STLN CINN STLN
SALVO         MANNY      1943  BOSN PHIN BOSN
BEHRMAN       HANK       1947  BRON PITN BRON
HOPP          JOHNNY     1949  PITN BRON PITN
RACKLEY       MARV       1949  BRON PITN BRON
OSTROWSKI     JOHNNY     1950  CHIA WASA CHIA
MARSH         FRED       1952  STLA WASA STLA
MIRANDA       WILLY      1952  CHIA STLA CHIA
PORTERFIELD   BOB        1959  PITN CHIN PITN
WALL          MURRAY     1959  BOSA WASA BOSA
FERNANDEZ     FRANK      1971  OAKA WASA OAKA CHIN
NORDHAGEN     WAYNE      1982 *TORA PITN TORA
MANTO         JEFF       1996  BOSA SEAA BOSA
PUGH          TIM        1996 *CINN KC A CINN
JOHNSTONE     JOHN       1997 *SF N OAKA SF N
LUKE          MATT       1998 *LA N CLEA LA N
MANTO         JEFF       1998  CLEA DETA CLEA
McMICHAEL     GREG       1998  NY N LA N NY N
DUCEY         ROB        2000 *PHIN TORA PHIN
HOLMES        DARREN     2000 *ARIN STLN BALA ARIN
SPRAGUE       ED         2000 *SD N BOSA SD N  
CLARK         JERMAINE   2003  TEXA SD N TEXA
HUCKABY       KEN        2004  TEXA BALA TEXA
2005-2006: none?

* interleague return to team

Acknowledgments. Not to mention daily newspapers, the Retrosheet Game Log for Pittsburgh 1934 VPIT01934, based on research by Rich Pray, shows Burleigh Grimes' four starts and one win for Pittsburgh in August and September. Pete Palmer (PETEPALMR@aol.com) explained the Total Baseball layout and sketched the history of season records for multi-team players. You can help.


2003-02-01
Last modified: 2006-11-21 (2005-2006)
Paul Wendt
© Society for American Baseball Research, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006