William Brown Ford (October 14, 1915 – April 6, 1994) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

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who appeared in one

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(MLB) game with the Boston Bees in 1936. His major-league appearance was not listed in official baseball records until 2003, due to a record-keeping error that credited his lone appearance to a similarly named Bees pitcher, Gene Ford.

Biography

Ford was born October 14, 1915, in Buena Vista, Pennsylvania. He attended Pennsylvania State College, and played on the Penn State baseball team. Listed at and , he threw and batted right-handed. On the last day of the season, September 27, Ford made his major-league debut, appearing as the starting pitcher for the Boston Bees against the

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at Baker Bowl in

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. Still only 20 years old, he was the fifth-youngest MLB player that season. After the Braves batted and took a 1–0 lead in the top of the first inning, Ford failed to retire a single batter, walking all three batters he faced in the bottom of the inning. He was relieved by Guy Bush, who allowed two of the inherited runners to score—those two runs were charged to Ford. Bush wound up pitching nine innings of relief, and won the game for the Braves, 7–3. Ford never played in another major-league game, leaving him with an

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(ERA) of

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for his lone appearance. From 1937 through 1941, Ford played for 10 different teams in

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, mostly at the Class C and Class B levels. After compiling a 3–6 record and 7.30 ERA as a pitcher in 1937, Ford played as an outfielder and first baseman for the remainder of his career. Records, which are incomplete for the era, show that he had a .300

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in 110 games during 1939 while playing for the McKeesport Little Pirates, a

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of the

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. Ford's draft registration card of October 1940 indicates he was again attending Penn State, and he was listed as a senior majoring in

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in the college's 1941 yearbook. Ford later resided in Glassport, Pennsylvania; he owned a coal company in West Elizabeth and a golf course in Forward Township. He died on April 6, 1994, aged 78, and was survived by his wife and three children. He was buried in Mount Vernon Cemetery in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania. His obituary did not mention his brief MLB career.

Statistical re-discovery

Ford's appearance with the Bees did not appear in any official MLB records during his lifetime. In 2003, research by Rick Benner of the

Society for American Baseball Research The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and statistical record of baseball. The organization was founded in Cooperstown, New York, on Au ...

(SABR) discovered that Bill Ford's September 27, 1936, appearance had been incorrectly attributed to fellow-pitcher Gene Ford, who had appeared in one game for Boston earlier that year. The official records were corrected to show that Gene Ford pitched in one game for the 1936 Bees (on June 17), and Bill Ford also pitched in one game for the 1936 Bees (on September 27). Ford's re-discovery as an MLB player is particularly unusual. Although researchers will very occasionally find a previously undocumented major-league player to add to the official records, such players are usually from the 19th century. Finding one who played as late as 1936 is extremely rare.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Bill 1915 births 1994 deaths People from Elizabeth Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Baseball players from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Penn State Nittany Lions baseball players Major League Baseball pitchers Boston Bees players Zanesville Greys players Fort Smith Giants players Muskogee Reds players Columbia Reds players El Dorado Lions players Allentown Wings players Hazleton Mountaineers players Lancaster Red Roses players Hutchinson Pirates players 20th-century American sportsmen