Pete Eagan
Peter Eagan
Biographical Information[edit]
Pete Eagan was a minor league outfielder in the 1890s and 1900s. A native of Watervliet, NY, Eagan played in the city league of neighboring Troy, NY in 1889, where he drew attention to earn a spot with the Troy club in the 1890 New York State League for his first sason of professional baseball. The son of Irish immigrants, Eagan was said to be 20 years old in 1890, though census records indicate he may have been born as early as 1865.
Eagan showed he could hit from the beginning, leading the pennant-winning Troy club in batting in 1890 with a .328 batting average[1]. He began the 1891 season with Troy, then moved to play for his former Troy manager Jack Remsen in Ottawa in the Two-I League. In 1892 he played a single game with Rochester before spending most of the year in Danville, PA, where he hit .282.
He would spend much of his time in Pennsylvania in the following years, beginning with a three-year stretch with batting averages of .335, .334, and .375 with Harrisburg in the Pennsylvania State League from 1893 to 1895. After that team disbanded in June 1895, he moved up to the Eastern League, hitting .305 in 74 games over the remainder of the year with Scranton, PA. He remained with the team in 1896, batting .329[2], and 1897, batting .302.
From 1898 to 1908, Eagan would play primarily in New York, only leaving the state for another half-year stint in Scranton in 1899 and 10 games with Montreal in 1901. In 1898, he hit .250 in 24 games with Rochester and Buffalo in the Eastern League[3], before returning to the New York State League with Utica, where he led the league with a .365 average in 64 games[4]. Following that season he drew interest from the New York Giants[5], but opened the season back in Scranton, before finishing it with another stint in Utica after Scranton disbanded in July.
After his 1901 stint in Montreal, Eagan played exclusively in the New York State League, finishing his professional career with a two-year run back in Troy. He was frequently said to be among the quietest men in the game[6], and though he could be seen as slothful or lazy[7], he also had a strong defensive reputation, being able to cover a lot of ground and having a strong arm. He continued to play semi-pro ball after his professional days were done and twice drew notices for saving a boy from drowning in a river, once in 1903[8] and once in 1910[9]. He lived his final years in Watervliet, before dying at his boarding house in Troy in 1937[10].
References[edit]
- ↑ "Local Baseball Players", Troy Daily Times, November 15, 1890
- ↑ "How They Played", Wilkes-Barre Sunday News-Dealer, November 29, 1896
- ↑ "Eastern League Official Averages", Wilkes-Barre Record, January 7, 1899
- ↑ "Base Hits", Wilkes-Barre Record, December 27, 1898
- ↑ "Base Ball for Next Year", Utica Daily Press, October 26, 1898
- ↑ "Brief Sketches of the Players", Scranton Tribune, April 15, 1896
- ↑ "Among the Sportsmen", Troy Daily Times, March 21, 1910
- ↑ "Sporting Notes", Albany Evening Journal, June 29, 1903
- ↑ "Watervliet Ice Dealers Stop Work", Albany Argus, December 30, 1910
- ↑ "Peter Eagan, Once Baseball Player, Found Dead in Bed", Troy Times Record, October 27, 1937
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