Paul Radford
From BR Bullpen
Paul Revere Radford (Shorty)
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 5' 6", Weight 148 lb.
- Debut May 1, 1883
- Final Game September 29, 1894
- Born October 14, 1861 in Roxbury, MA USA
- Died February 21, 1945 in Boston, MA USA
[edit] Biographical Information
Paul Radford played 12 seasons in the majors, appearing in three leagues. Primarily a right fielder, he also played over 350 games at shortstop.
Radford was born in Roxbury, MA and made his major league debut at age 21 with the 1883 Boston Beaneaters, who won the pennant. Radford was the weakest-hitting regular on the team and also one of the team's youngest players.
The next two years (1884-85) he spent with Providence, hitting poorly in 1884 but improving quite a bit in 1885. The team won the 1884 National League pennant but slipped to fourth in 1885. Paul, however, hit .243 on a team which hit .220.
He moved again, this time to the 1886 Kansas City Cowboys, a terrible team which went 30-91. Paul hit .229 while the team hit .228.
He then spent two seasons in the American Association, first with New York and then with Brooklyn. In his year with the 1887 New York Metropolitans, he drew walks in a big way, leading the league with 106, and thus finishing ninth in the league in OBP.
In 1889-90 he played in Cleveland, first with the 1889 Cleveland Spiders of the National League and then with the 1890 Cleveland Infants of the Players League. He continued to draw walks well, and in 1890 had his peak batting average of .292 (the team hit .285). His teammates in 1890 included Ed Delahanty and Pete Browning.
Paul came back to the 1891 American Association for one last time (it was the final year of the league) before closing out his major league career playing three seasons for the Washington Senators. To the end, he kept drawing walks, and ended up with a career batting average of .242 with an OBP of .351.
In 1907, he was reported as being "... at the head of a mechanical industry in Hyde Park, a Boston suburb, and occasionally gets on the field just to see how it feels to be playing ball again." per the San Francisco Call newspaper dated August 11, 1907. See [1] for details.
Nicknamed "Shorty", he stood 5 ' 6 ". While he was shorter than average, he was not necessarily the shortest player on his teams. For example, on the 1890 Cleveland Infants, Delahanty was 6 ' 1 ", Browning was 6 ' 0 ", but Cub Stricker, the second baseman, was 5 ' 3 ".
[edit] Notable Achievements
- AA Bases on Balls Leader (1887)
- 100 Runs Scored Seasons: 2 (1887 & 1891)
- 50 Stolen Bases Seasons: 2 (1887 & 1891)
