Joe Start
From BR Bullpen
Joseph Start (Old Reliable or Rocks)
- Bats Left, Throws Left
- Height 5' 9", Weight 165 lb.
- Debut May 18, 1871
- Final Game July 9, 1886
- Born October 14, 1842 in New York, NY USA
- Died March 27, 1927 in Providence, RI USA
[edit] Biographical Information
Joe Start was an early baseball star whose contribution to the game is even greater than the five years he played in the National Association and the eleven years he played in the nascent National League.
Born in 1842 in New York City, he was four years old when Alexander Cartwright invented the game of baseball there. By 1861 or 1862, he was playing with the amateur Brooklyn Atlantics.
His career as a player therefore spanned 25 years or more. For eight years, he was the oldest player in the National League, and even in 1876 when the league first started up, he was one of the oldest players. Prior to that, in 1874 and 1875, he was one of the ten oldest players in the National Association.
In 1886, in his last year in the majors, he played for the 1886 Washington Nationals. It was that same year when Connie Mack came up with the team as a 23-year-old rookie catcher.
Although he was born before baseball existed, he lived till March of 1927, long enough to see the lively ball era of Babe Ruth.
