Franklin Washington "Gid" Gardner (May 6, 1859 – August 1, 1914) was a

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 ...

player during the 19th century. Between 1879 and 1888, Gardner played all or part of seven seasons for eight different teams in three different major leagues. He appeared in 199 games, mostly as an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

, but also spent some time as a

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 ...

and

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

. He had a career

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 ...

of .233 and a pitching record of 2–12."Gid Gardner Statistics and History"
baseball-reference.com. Retrieved September 2, 2011.

Career

Gardner was born in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, in 1859. He played on several amateur baseball teams in Cambridge until 1878."'Gid' Gardner Dead"
''Sporting Life''. August 22, 1914. p. 3. In 1879, he started his professional baseball career with the National Association's Worcester Grays, batting .188 in nine games. He then joined 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 ...

Troy Trojans The Troy Trojans are the sports teams of Troy University. They began playing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's Division I (NCAA), Division I-A in 2001 in sports, 2001, became a American football, football only member of the ...

and made his major league debut on August 23. He pitched in two games for Troy that year and lost both. The following season, Gardner played for the Cleveland Blues; he made nine starts, going 1–8 with a 2.57

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 ...

. Gardner spent 1881 in the Eastern Championship Association and 1882 in the

League Alliance The League Alliance was the first semi-affiliated minor league baseball league. Proposed by Al Spalding Albert Goodwill Spalding (September 2, 1849 – September 9, 1915) was an American pitcher, manager, and executive in the early years of p ...

."Gid Gardner Minor League Statistics & History"
baseball-reference.com. Retrieved September 2, 2011. He started 1883 with the Camden Merritts of the Interstate Association, but the team disbanded in July, and he was acquired by the American Association's

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles (also known as the O's) are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. As one of the America ...

. Gardner was mostly an outfielder for Baltimore. Over the rest of the season, he played in 42 games and batted .273. Gardner started 1884 with the Orioles. He played 41 games for them, batting .214, and then finished the season in the

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 ...

, batting .255 there. He returned to Baltimore in 1885 and hit .218 while playing mostly at second base. Gardner then went back down to the minors in 1886. He played 56 games for the Southern Association's Charleston Seagulls and batted .262. In 1887, he became captain of the

New England League The New England League was a mid-level league in American minor league baseball that played intermittently in five of the six New England states (Vermont excepted) between 1886 and 1949. After 1901, it existed in the shadow of two Major League B ...

's Boston Blues, where he "reached the height of his fame," and also appeared in 18 games for the National League's Indianapolis Hoosiers. While at Indianapolis, Gardner became part of the first known platoon arrangement in baseball, as he split time with left-handed hitting Tom Brown. Gardner had a .175 batting average in his 18 games. In October 1887, Gardner was traded to the

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C. The Nationals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. They play their home games at Na ...

. He played one game for Washington before being traded in May 1888, to the Philadelphia Quakers, for

Cupid Childs Clarence Lemuel "Cupid" Childs (August 8, 1867 – November 8, 1912) was an American second baseman in Major League Baseball with a 13-season career from 1888, 1890–1901, playing for the Philadelphia Quakers, Cleveland Spiders, St. Louis Pe ...

and cash. Gardner appeared in one game for Philadelphia, but Childs refused to report to the Nationals, and the trade was nullified. Gardner returned to Washington and played his final major league game on May 29. In 1889, Gardner played for the

Central Interstate League The Central Interstate League was an independent minor league baseball league that operated from 1888 to 1890. William H. Allen (1888), Henderson Ridgely (1889), E.T. McNeally (1890) and Fitzpatrick (1890) served as the league presidents. The 1 ...

's Evansville Hoosiers. In early 1890, he signed with the John P. Lovell

semi-professional Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a cons ...

team, and by August was with a team based in

Norwich, Connecticut Norwich ( ) is a city in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The Yantic River, Yantic, Shetucket River, Shetucket, and Quinebaug Rivers flow into the city and form its harbor, from which the Thames River (Connecticut), Thames River f ...

. Gardner then ended his professional baseball career the following season with Worcester of the New England League. After his baseball days were over, Gardner lived in Cambridge and "had no steady employment." He was working as a traveling salesman when, in 1914, he was confined to the

Cambridge Hospital Cambridge hospital may refer to the following: United Kingdom *Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, an NHS foundation trust which manages the following hospitals in Cambridge, England, United Kingdom **Addenbrooke's Hospital **Ro ...

for several weeks before dying of an aneurysm of the aorta."Gid Gardner Death Certificate"
. thedeadballera.com. Retrieved September 2, 2011. According to Gardner's obituary in '' Sporting Life'', from 1878 until about 1890 he "was one of the best ball players in the country." Gardner was buried in Cambridge City Cemetery.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gardner, Gid 1859 births 1914 deaths Major League Baseball outfielders Major League Baseball second basemen Major League Baseball pitchers Troy Trojans (NL) players Cleveland Blues (NL) players Baltimore Orioles (AA) players Chicago Browns/Pittsburgh Stogies players Baltimore Monumentals players Indianapolis Hoosiers (NL) players Washington Nationals (1886–1889) players Philadelphia Quakers players Worcester Grays players Philadelphia Athletics (minor league) players Washington Nationals (minor league) players Albany (minor league baseball) players Camden Merritts players Brockton (minor league baseball) players Rochester Maroons players Charleston Seagulls players Boston Blues players Haverhill (minor league baseball) players Evansville Hoosiers players Worcester (minor league baseball) players 19th-century baseball players 19th-century American sportsmen Baseball players from Boston