William Crawford "Uncle Bill" Alvord (August 10, 1863 in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

– April 7, 1927 in St. Petersburg, Florida) was a 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 ...

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the Baseball scorekeep ...

. He played all or part of five seasons in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

between 1885 and 1893. Alvord made his major league debut in 1885, his first professional season, appearing in two games for the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

St. Louis Maroons, which had played the previous year in the short-lived

Union Association The Union Association was an American professional baseball league which competed with Major League Baseball, lasting for just the 1884 season. St. Louis won the pennant and joined the National League the following season. Seven of the twelv ...

. He was one of several players the Maroons tried in place of their regular third baseman, Ed Caskin, who was in the midst of a poor season in which he batted just .179. However, Alvord was unable to get a hit in his two games, and he returned to the

minor leagues Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nort ...

for the next several seasons. Alvord's next chance in the majors came in 1889 with the Kansas City Cowboys, a team in the American Association, who acquired him from the minor league Toledo Black Pirates for

second baseman In baseball and softball, second baseman, abbreviated 2B, is a fielding position in the Infielder, infield, between Baseball field#Second base, second and Baseball field#First base, first base. The second baseman often possesses quick hands and f ...

Sam Barkley in July. He soon took over as the team's starting third baseman for Jumbo Davis, who was released a few weeks later. The Cowboys folded after the season, and Alvord was picked up by the AA's

Toledo Maumees The Toledo Maumees were a baseball team originally formed in 1888. The team was based in Toledo, Ohio, and formed part of the Tri-State League for one season. Their home games were played at Speranza Park in Toledo. In 1889, the Maumees moved to ...

, a new team to the league -- but not a new team to Alvord, as they were actually the Black Pirates under a new name in a more prestigious league. 1890 would prove to be Alvord's best season statistically, setting career highs in most categories, including finishing third in the league in triples with 16. The season would not be as good for the Maumees, who folded after a single season, and Alvord's contract was sold to the NL's

Cleveland Spiders The Cleveland Spiders were an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The team competed at the major league level from 1887 to 1899, first for two seasons as a member of the now-defunct American Association (AA), followe ...

. However, after just thirteen games, Alvord was headed back to the AA, as he joined yet another newly-organized team, the Washington Statesmen, who had purchased his contract from Cleveland. He spent the rest of the season as the team's primary third baseman, but his statistics took a nosedive from the previous season. The entire American Association folded after the season, and while the Statesmen made the move to the NL and became the Senators, Alvord would not go with them, as he returned to the minors in 1892. He was given one more chance by the Spiders in 1893, but he lasted just three games in what would wind up as his last season in professional baseball.

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1863 births 1927 deaths 19th-century baseball players 19th-century American sportsmen Baseball players from St. Louis Major League Baseball third basemen St. Louis Maroons players Kansas City Cowboys (AA) players Toledo Maumees players Cleveland Spiders players Washington Statesmen players Minor league baseball managers Waterbury (minor league baseball) players Milwaukee Brewers (minor league) players Long Island A's players Bridgeport Giants players Des Moines Hawkeyes players Des Moines Prohibitionists players Toledo Black Pirates players St. Paul Saints (Western League) players Fort Wayne (minor league baseball) players Rochester Flour Cities players Providence Clamdiggers (baseball) players {{US-baseball-third-baseman-stub