Ezra Ballou Sutton (September 17, 1849 – June 20, 1907) was an American

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 scoring system u ...

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) ...

from 1871 to 1888. Sutton collected 1,574 hits during this time period; he had a lifetime

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 i ...

of .294. Like many players in an era when walks were more rare, Sutton did not walk a lot, only drawing 169 walks in more than 5,500 plate appearances. By almost all measures, Sutton had his two best seasons in and – he collected 203 runs and 296 hits during those seasons. On May 8, 1871, Sutton hit the first

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run is ...

in professional baseball history for the Cleveland Forest Citys against the Chicago White Stockings. He would go on to hit another home run later in the game but Cleveland still lost the game 14–12. The Seneca Falls, New York born Sutton came to the Cleveland Forest Citys in 1870 from the Alert club of

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(who had played the Forest Citys twice in 1869), and then joined the

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oakl ...

in 1873 after the Cleveland club failed. As third baseman for each he had the unique distinction of playing in both the first National Association game on May 4, 1871 and the first

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 ...

game on April 22, 1876. But his main team was the Boston Red Caps (later redubbed the "Beaneaters") where he won pennants in 1877, 1878, and 1883. After the National League's formation in 1876, he was one of the first several players to collect 1,000 hits in the major leagues. Sutton died at a private hospital in Braintree, Massachusetts.Sutton, Old-Time Ball Player, Dead
''The New York Times'', June 21, 1907.

External links

Baseball Almanac

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sutton, Ezra Major League Baseball third basemen Cleveland Forest Citys (NABBP) players Cleveland Forest Citys players Philadelphia Athletics (NA) players Philadelphia Athletics (NL) players Boston Red Caps players Boston Beaneaters players Baseball players from New York (state) People from Seneca Falls, New York 19th-century baseball players Rochester Jingoes players Milwaukee Brewers (minor league) players Milwaukee Creams players Hartford (minor league baseball) players 1849 births 1907 deaths