Who's in Center?
Long Careers beginning before 1920

Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2001 16:21:17 -0400
From: Paul Wendt 
To:   Deadball Era egroup  
Subject: who's in center? (14) long careers beginning 1871-1919

who's in center? (14)
long careers beginning 1871-1919
--------------------------------

In 1925, Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker each played his 17th season as a regular
centerfielder in the Major Leagues, which surpassed Paul Hines 16 seasons,
1874-1891.  (This counts service in the National Association, 1871-75, which
is not recognized by Major League Baseball but is recognized by most
historians.  I include the NA thruout.)

1925 was Cobb's last season in the role; Speaker finished with 19 seasons.
After Speaker, Max Carey and Edd Roush completed service as regular CFs in
1927, 1928 and 1929, the all-time leaders by years of service were

    Number of Seasons, regular CF, MLB to 1929

    19 Speaker
    17 Cobb
    16 Hines
    13 Roush, Dummy Hoy 
    12 Carey, Clyde Milan, Mike Griffin

Dave Eggler also played 13 seasons at the highest level, beginning in 1868,
three years before the organization of the National Association.

Here is a list of all "long careers" in the regular CF role: 9 or more
seasons in the NA and official Major Leagues, beginning before 1920. 
24 "nine-year men" are listed, ordered by their final seasons in the role.
Six of them filled the role in the mid-1890s, when there were only 12
MLB teams; expansion of the Majors in 1901 did not increase the number
of long-time regulars at the CF position.  I wonder whether the relative
stability in the 1890s was general or was a statistical accident at one
position, centerfield.


    Long Major League Careers in the Regular Centerfield Role
    (9+ seasons, all Major Leagues, beginning 1871-1919)

    Name                Seasons as Regular CF, all Major Leagues

                        number first last    number by league
                                             NA NL AA PL AL FL
    Edd Roush           13      1915 1929       12          1
    Max Carey           12      1911 1928       12
    Tris Speaker        19 c    1909 1927                19
    Ty Cobb             17  1   1906 1925                17
    Cy Williams         10 c    1915 1924       10
    Dode Paskert        10      1910 1920       10
    Clyde Milan         12 c1   1908 1919                12
    Ginger Beaumont     11 c    1899 1909       11
    Roy Thomas          10 c    1899 1908       10
    Fielder Jones        9      1899 1908       2        7
    Jimmy Ryan           9      1887 1903       6     1  2
    Steve Brodie        10      1891 1902       9        1 (also AL1900)
    Dummy Hoy           13      1888 1902       10 1  1  1 (also AL1900)
    George Van Haltren   9 c    1893 1901       9
    Billy Hamilton       9 c    1893 1901       9
    Mike Griffin        12 c    1887 1898       8  3  1
    Tom Brown            9      1887 1897       7  1  1
    Curtis Welch         9 c    1884 1892       1  8
    Ned Hanlon          11 c    1881 1891       10    1
    George Gore         11      1879 1891       11
    Paul Hines          16      1874 1891    2  13 1
    Pete Hotaling        9      1879 1888       6  3
    Jack Remsen          9      1872 1884    4  4  1
    Dave Eggler         10 [13] 1871 1884    5  4  1

    24 centerfielders listed

Key
 c  all seasons in the regular CF role *consecutive*
 1  all seasons in regular CF role with *one ballclub*
[]  Eggler was also regular centerfielder for a major team, 1868-70, 
    according to William J. Ryczek, When Johnny Came Sliding Home:
    The Post-Civil War Baseball Boom, 1865-1870, 1998, Appendix A.

Acknowledgments. For the identification of regular centerfielders,
I follow "The Annual Record", TB6 (Total Baseball, 6th ed., 1999.)
TB6 identifies precisely one player on each team, each season, as the
regular at each position.  Some TB6 regulars played less than 50% of a
full schedule and many played less than 70%.  The major encyclopedias 
identify differerent regulars in some cases.

Paul Wendt
Watertown MA