|
Joe Gannon
On August 28,
1898, the St. Louis Browns plucked a pitcher named Joe Gannon from a local
amateur club called the Empires and gave him the chance to start against the
mighty Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles' lineup that day included five
future Hall of Famers - John McGraw, Wee Willie Keeler, Hughie Jennings, Joe
Kelley and Wilbert Robinson. Gannon pitched a complete game, but was undermined
by five errors by his teammates, and lost 13-2. Notably, the first four
Baltimore batters in this game -- McGraw, Keeler, Jennings and Kelley -- are all
Hall-of-Famers, as was their number eight hitter, Robinson. So the first four
batters Gannon faced in the major leagues, and over half of the total batters he
faced, were Hall of Famers. Interestingly, he allowed only seven hits to the
immortals and six to the mere mortals, including two of the three extra-base
hits.
The St.
Louis Globe-Democrat wrote of him, "[Gannon] is a promising youngster, and a
few seasons in the minor league will do him great service. He was nervous at the
start, and a couple of bases on balls by him proved costly. Toward the close he
settled down and, while being hit freely, did not receive the best support in
the world. But five of the Birdies' runs were earned, a fact which speaks well
for young Gannon." That would, however, prove to be Joe Gannon's one and only
major league game and he vanished into obscurity.
We had little to go on except his name and hometown, so the
only thing to do was to pick the best candidate, work on him, and hope at some
point to be able to prove him to be the ballplayer. Fortunately,
there was
only one Joseph Gannon of appropriate age in the St. Louis city directory. Here
is his listing on the 1900 census:
2322 Rutger,
St. Louis, Missouri
Catherine Gannon, born August 1854 Ireland, widow, 3 children all living
son Joseph S, born February 1876 Missouri
nephew Patrick E, born August 1869 Ireland, immigrated 1882
nephew Eugene, born August 1870 Ireland, immigrated 1900
daughter Kate M, born April 1881 Missouri
daughter Mary L, born August 1886 Missouri
Also living
with them were her married son Frank A. Gannon (born March 1873 Missouri), his
wife Minnie A. (born March 1879 Missouri) and their newborn daughter Hortense
(born March 1900).
Researcher
Richard Malatzky
then was able to reconstruct the family. He determines that Catherine had
actually had five children. Catherine's husband and Joseph's father Michael
Gannon, a police sergeant, died in 1894. His death notice appeared in the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch on August 3, 1894, and states that he was a sergeant
in the Fifth District, lived at 328 South Garrison Avenue, was the brother of
Mr. Patrick Gannon and was buried in Calvary Cemetery. We also found an
obituary in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on April 27, 1896 for their youngest
son: "James Edward Gannon, 17 years, 2 months, 328 S. Garrison, youngest son of
Catherine Gannon (nee Dwyer) and the late Sergeant Michael Gannon, and brother
of Frank and Joe Gannon."
Catherine
Gannon died on March 9, 1913 and the family began to break up. Joseph left the
St. Louis city directory in 1913 and does not reappear until 1929 as Joseph
Gannon, employee Barrett Co, 3325 9th Street with Joseph M clerk; 1931 Joseph
Gannon pipefitter, 228 W Courtois. Another researcher, Jay Sanford, determined
that Joe Gannon died on March 19, 1931 and the death certificate shows him as
single, born February 22, 1877, the son of Michael Gannon and Catherine (nee
Dwyer).
Clearly this was
the man we had been tracing and it seemed likely that it was
the major
league baseball player, but we were still a long way from being certain of that.
Richard Malatzky then went back to the 1880 census and found this very confusing
listing:
2911 Cooper
St, St. Louis
Michael Gannon, 40, born Ireland
Catherine, 30, born Ireland
Thomas T, 7, born Missouri
Michael J, 4, born Missouri
James E, 1, born Missouri
This was most
perplexing, because the first two children's name appear to be incorrect. When
Richard traced the family through the city directories, he found that this was
definitely the right family and that the oldest son was listed as both Frank and
Thomas. So he apparently was known by both names, while our man may have
begun life known as Michael Joseph and later became known as Joseph S.
The
city directories yielded the following:
1880 Michael
police 2911 Cooper
1881 Michael police same
1882 Michael police 2911 Gratiot (street name change)
1883/4 Michael police 2322 Rutger
1884/5 Michael police 2727 Bernard
1885/6 Michael police 2820 Bernard
1886/7 Michael police 328 Argyle Ave
1887/8, 188/9, 1889/90 same listing
1890/91 Michael police same with Frank A steno, Patrick lab
1891/2 Michael police same plus Patrick E repairer, Thomas F ck
1893/4 Michael police 328 S Garrison (street name change) with Patrick lab
Thomas T ck
1895/6 Catherine widow Michael same Patrick E car inspector Joseph S ck (first
listing) Frank A ck James E driver
Still lacking
a convincing connection of this Joseph Gannon, I started looking through the
Post-Dispatch for references to amateur teams with Gannons playing for
them. The results were encouraging:
SPD 4/29/84
Ewings organized: J. Gannon, p; M. Gannon, 3b; B[?] Gannon, sub, 10 and under;
contact James Gannon, 825 Ewing. (The captain of this team is Joseph's cousin
James, son of Patrick, who lived at 825 Ewing. M. Gannon is probably young
Joseph.)
SPD 5/5/88
Gannon, rf for Randolph Stars, 14 and under; captain J. McAdam, 2724 Bernard.
Other players: Gorman c; Grady p; Downey 1b; Kelly 2b; Vasquees 3b; Corney lf;
Robertson cf; Madigan pig tail. (The family was now living at 2727 Bernard,
right across the street).
SPD 4/27/90
The Bulks, 15 and under, J. Gannon, pitcher; address Capt. W. Crane, 532 Argyle
Avenue. Other players: W Crane 1b, W Donahu ss, W Noonan c, W Sally c, E Feehan
p, J Fowler lf, J Sandman c, D Dwyer rf. (The Gannon family was now living at
328 Argyle).
SPD 4/4/92
Willows have reorganized, 16 and under: pitcher and shortstop J. Gannon, 16 and
under, Compton and Clark.
SPD 3/23/93
Willows will play their first game on Easter Sunday; they will play at Compton
and Manchester. Address W. F. Crane, 532 South Garrison Avenue. (The Gannons
were living at 328 South Garrison).
SPD 4/9/94
Willows, 19 year old class, Frank Lally, 4114 Cook Avenue
Sporting News
4/27/95 Joe Gannon pitcher for the Willows; address Harry French, 3418 Chestnut.
SPD 8/14/98
the undefeated Emperors play today, with Gannon pitching.
SPD 8/28/98
Joe Gannon will pitch for St. Louis today.
Obviously,
this was circumstantial, but it made a strong case that the man we had traced
was the ballplayer. But I still wasn't satisfied and decided to try to find a
descendant. Joe's sister Catherine married a man named Grover Bell and they had
three sons, including one named Ira who became a Catholic priest. I wrote to
Father Bell in search of more information and received a wonderful letter in
reply.
While he only
met his uncle once, Father Bell writes that his mother frequently talked of Joe
as "a person who had talent, gifted at mathematics and no matter how good a job
he had, when the Spring came he quit it so that he could go and play baseball."
While he didn't know much about his uncle's baseball career, Father Bell did
confirm all the details we had reconstructed about the family.
Joseph S.
Gannon
born February 22, 1877 St. Louis, Missouri
died March 19, 1931 St. Louis, Mo.
Postscript: My interest inspired
Father Ira Bell to contact another relative and work with her to put together a
lot of information about the family's history. I did my best to help them out. A
couple of years later the other relative let me know that Father Bell had passed
away, and that she was grateful that they had been able to gather threads of the
family history that might otherwise have been lost. I was really touched.
|
