George Hall
From BR Bullpen
George William Hall
- Bats Left, Throws Unknown
- Height 5' 7", Weight 142 lb.
Contents |
[edit] Biographical Information
George Hall was an outfielder for 12 years (1866-1877).
He began playing baseball in 1866 at age 17 and played for the Brooklyn Enterprise (1866); the Brooklyn Excelsiors (1867); the Brooklyn Star (1868-1869); and the Brooklyn Atlantics (1870).
He was 22 years old when he broke into the big leagues on 5 May 1871, with the Washington Olympics. He played for five years in the National Association (1871-1875) and two in the National League (1876-1877). He also served as a substitute umpire in the National Association from 1873 to 1875.
He was a power-hitting outfielder, usually among league leaders in various categories of Long Hits, Total Bases and Slugging Average. In his best year (1876), he had 98 hits, 51 runs, 7 doubles, 13 triples, 5 home runs, 45 RBI and (.366/.384/.545) in 60 games; his OPS+ that year was an extraordinary 207. Overall, he had 538 hits, 377 runs, 68 doubles, 53 triples, 13 home runs, 249 RBI and (.322/.337/.449) in 365 games in the NA and NL.
[edit] 1877 Game Throwing
On September 5, 1877, Hall and Jim Devlin agreed to throw the next day's game in Cincinnati for $25 apiece. Louisville lost the game 1-0. This was part of a disastrous late-season road trip in which the seemingly pennant-bound Louisville club lost seven straight games. The losing streak was characterized by "bonehead" plays and poor pitching. The Grays relinquished their lead and eventually finished second, trailing Boston by three games. Meanwhile, certain Grays were seen around town donning fancy new jewelry and ostentatiously dining at exclusively top restaurants.
This suspicion increased as the players performed very well in post-season exhibition matches. The team vice president Charles Chase, who had earlier received but disregarded telegrams informing him that gamblers were betting against the Grays in certain games, began an investigation. At the end of the season, suspicion arose that players were being paid to intentionally lose games. Chase demanded that his players allow him to inspect their papers. On 26 October, Chase confronted Hall and Devlin with charges that they threw road games in August and September. Both admitted to throwing non-league games and implicated teammates Al Nichols and Bill Craver. Admitting his involvement, Hall was expelled from the club.
On December 2 at the League Board of Directors meeting, William Hulbert, the president of the National League, decided to make a stand against gambling. He immediately banned Devlin, Hall, Nichols and Craver for life. Hall never suited up again.
He died at age 73 on 11 June 1923 at Ridgewood, NJ and is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY.
[edit] Notable Achievements
- Led the National League in At Bats per Home Run (53.6), 1876
[edit] Further reading
"The Louisville Grays Scandal of 1877: The Taint of Gambling at the Dawn of the National League" by William A. Cook
[edit] Sources
Principal sources for George Hall include newspaper obituaries (OB), government records (VA,CM,CW), Sporting Life (SL), Baseball Digest, The Sporting News (TSN), The Sports Encyclopedia:Baseball 2006 by David Neft & Richard Cohen (N&C), old Who's Who in Baseballs (none) (WW), old Baseball Registers (none) (BR), TSN's Daguerreotypes (none) (DAG), The Historical Register, The Baseball Necrology by Bill Lee (BN), Pat Doyle's Professional Ballplayer DataBase(PD), The Baseball Library (BL); various Encyclopediae including The Official Encyclopedia of Baseball by Turkin & Thompson (T&T), MacMillan Baseball Encyclopedia (Mac), Total Baseball (TB), The Bill James Historical Abstract (BJ) and The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (LJ); Retrosheet (RS), The Baseball Chronology (BC), Baseball Page (BP), The Baseball Almanac (BA), Baseball Cube (B3), The National Association of Baseball Players (1857-1870) by Marshall D. Wright and obituaries at deadballera.com (DBE) as well as research by Reed Howard (RH), Pat Doyle (PD) and Frank Hamilton (FH).
