Charles Maddox

Charles R. Maddox

• Born December 24, 1853 in England
• Died December 27, 1917 in Cleveland, OH USA

Biographical Information

Charles Maddox umpired one game in the National League in 1882. It took place on June 19th in Detroit, MI and was a make-up game between the Detroit Wolverines and Cleveland Blues.

It is not clear that the person whose vital statistics are listed here was actually the umpire. No connection with baseball has been found in that person's obituaries, or any other mentions in contemporary newspapers. Another candidate, as suggested by SABR researcher Paul Winter, would be Charles Maddock, who was a professional player at the time. While most reports about the game list the umpire as "Maddox", the one in the Detroit Free Press gives his name as Maddock, and that is the name given in the National League's pre-season list of officials, published the previous March. Maddock was from Guelph, ON and had a long professional career, including playing for a club in Guelph later that season, and with the Fort Wayne Hoosiers in 1883. Interestingly, he would go on to be named head groundskeeper for the Cleveland Naps in 1904, which gives him another connection to that city and may help explain why he would have been the person pressed to umpire a game on short notice. There is evidence that he had moved to Cleveland in 1880 to play for a local semi-professional club and there are reports of his playing in that city in 1881.

Related Sites

• Charles Maddox on Retrosheet.org