Charles Victor "Victory" Faust (October 9, 1880 – June 18, 1915) was an American

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), ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

. Regarded as a good-luck charm, Faust helped the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

win the 1911

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 s ...

championship.

Major League Baseball career

Faust was born in

Marion, Kansas Marion is a city in, and the county seat of, Marion County, Kansas, United States. It was named in honor of Francis Marion, a brigadier general of the American Revolutionary War, known as the "Swamp Fox". As of the 2020 census, the population ...

, in 1880. In July 1911, he went to St. Louis and visited

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 ...

, the manager of the New York Giants. Faust told McGraw that a fortuneteller said he would help the Giants win the championship. As a joke, McGraw gave Faust a tryout, and he was eventually allowed to stay due to the team's sudden winning streak that commenced after his arrival. The Giants had a record of 36–2 that season when Faust was in uniform; when he was not there, they struggled. Faust wanted to pitch in a real game, but having little athletic ability, he was relegated to warming up with the team on the field. After the Giants clinched the pennant, Faust pitched in the ninth inning of two games, allowing one run and stealing two bases.Schecter, Gabriel
"Charlie Faust"
sabr.org. Retrieved December 3, 2015. The following season, the Giants started 54–11 with Faust. He still wanted to pitch, however, and McGraw grew tired of him. Faust was permanently dismissed from the team. Without him, the Giants saw their hot streak end, but they did win the pennant again.

Later life

Faust moved to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and then to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. In 1914, still intent on rejoining the Giants, he walked to

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

and was sent to a mental hospital, where he was diagnosed with

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

. Later that year, he was sent to the Western State Hospital. He died there of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

in 1915. Six years after his death, the Giants won the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

. Faust's story was revived in the 1960s, when one of his Giants teammates,

Fred Snodgrass Frederick Carlisle Snodgrass (October 19, 1887 – April 5, 1974) was an American center fielder in Major League Baseball from to . He is best known for dropping a key fly ball in the 1912 World Series. New York Giants Early years Snodgrass wa ...

, talked about him in an interview for ''

The Glory of Their Times ''The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It'' is a 1966 book, edited by Lawrence Ritter, telling the stories of early 20th century baseball. It is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest books ...

''. Faust is also mentioned in E. L. Doctorow's novel ''

Ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott ...

''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Faust, Charlie 1880 births 1915 deaths Major League Baseball pitchers New York Giants (NL) players Baseball players from Kansas People from Marion, Kansas Tuberculosis deaths in Washington (state) 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis