James Henry O'Rourke (September 1, 1850 – January 8, 1919), nicknamed "Orator Jim", was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

player in the National Association and

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

who played primarily as a

left fielder In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering system ...

. For the period 1876–1892, he ranks behind only

Cap Anson Adrian Constantine Anson (April 17, 1852 – April 14, 1922), nicknamed "Cap" (for "Captain") and "Pop", was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman. Including his time in the National Association (NA), he played a record 27 ...

in career major league games played (1,644), hits (2,146), at-bats (6,884), doubles (392) and

total bases In baseball statistics, total bases is the number of bases a player gains with hits. It is a weighted sum with values of 1 for a single, 2 for a double, 3 for a triple and 4 for a home run. For example, three singles is three total bases, whil ...

(2,936), and behind only

Harry Stovey Harry Duffield Stovey ('' né'' Stowe; December 20, 1856 – September 20, 1937) was a 19th-century Major League Baseball player and the first player in major league history to hit 100 home runs. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Stovey played f ...

in runs scored (1,370) (Stovey was a younger player; Anson played five seasons and O'Rourke four prior to 1876.).

Biography

O'Rourke was born in East Bridgeport,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

, and worked on his family's farm while playing youth league and semi-pro baseball. He began his professional career as a member of the Middletown Mansfields in 1872, joining the one-year-old National Association team as a catcher. The Mansfields were not a top-tier team, and folded in August, but O'Rourke had impressed other teams sufficiently enough to be offered a contract with the Boston Red Stockings, with whom he played until 1878. On April 22, 1876, O'Rourke had the first base hit in National League history. He graduated from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...

in 1887 with an

LL.B. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

, practicing law in Bridgeport between early playing stints, and earning the nickname "Orator Jim" because of his verbosity on the field, his intellect, and his law degree—uncommon in a game regarded as a rough immigrant sport at the time. After leaving the major leagues following the 1893 season he continued to play in the minor leagues until he was over 50 years old. As an executive of the Bridgeport team in the

Connecticut League The Connecticut League, also known as the Connecticut State League, was a professional baseball association of teams in the state of Connecticut. The league began as offshoot of the original Connecticut State League, which dates back as far as 1884 ...

, in 1895 O'Rourke hired the first African American minor league baseball player in history. In 1904, he made a final appearance with the New York Giants under manager and friend

John McGraw John Joseph McGraw (April 7, 1873 – February 25, 1934) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) player and manager who was for almost thirty years manager of the New York Giants. He was also the third baseman of the pennant-winning 1890 ...

, becoming at age 54 the oldest player ever to appear in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

, and the oldest player to hit safely in a major league game. O'Rourke is one of only 29 players in baseball history to appear in Major League games in four decades. In 1912, he returned to the field to catch a complete minor league game at the age of 60. O'Rourke died of pneumonia at age 68 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which Nuclear weapon, nuclear weapons Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have been used in combat. Events Below, ...

as one of the earliest inductees from the 19th century. His older brother John O'Rourke and his son Jimmy O'Rourke also played in the majors. One legend concerning O'Rourke is that he was asked to drop the "O'" from his last name when he signed a contract with Boston and its Protestant backers. The son of Irish immigrants and the husband of a woman born in Ireland, O'Rourke refused, saying "I would rather die than give up my father's name. A million dollars would not tempt me."Lawrence Baldassaro and Richard A. Johnson, eds., The American Game: Baseball and Ethnicity (S. Ill. Univ. Press 2002), pp.61–62 Another legend about O'Rourke is that his signing by the Mansfields in 1872 was conditioned on the team finding someone to take over O'Rourke's chores on his parents' farm.

Career statistics

In 1,999 games over 23 seasons, O'Rourke posted a .310

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

(2,639-for-8,503) with 1,729 runs, 468 doubles, 149 triples, 62 home runs, 1,208 RBI, 229 stolen bases, 513 bases on balls, .352 on-base percentage and .422 slugging percentage.

References

External links

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Retrosheet
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Orourke, Jim 1850 births 1919 deaths 19th-century baseball players Baseball players from Connecticut Boston Red Caps players Boston Red Stockings players Bridgeport Orators players Bridgeport Soubrettes players Bridgeport Victors players Buffalo Bisons (NL) managers Buffalo Bisons (NL) players Connecticut lawyers Major League Baseball left fielders Major League Baseball player-managers Middletown Mansfields players Minor league baseball managers National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees National League home run champions New Haven Murlins players New York Giants (NL) players New York Giants (PL) players Providence Grays players Sportspeople from Bridgeport, Connecticut Springfield Ponies players Washington Senators (1891–1899) managers Washington Senators (1891–1899) players Washington Senators (NL) managers Yale Law School alumni 19th-century American lawyers

Biography

Career statistics

See also

References

External links