James Patrick Archer (May 13, 1883 – March 29, 1958) was an Irish-born

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catcher ...

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) ...

(MLB) who spent nearly his entire career with four

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 ...

teams, primarily the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is locate ...

, for whom he played from 1909 to 1917. Born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

, he also played for the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. Founded as part o ...

in 1904, the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

in 1907, and the Pirates,

Brooklyn Robins The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the club moved to Los Angeles, Californ ...

and

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

in 1918. As a catcher, he could remain squatting and still throw out runners attempting to steal second base due to his unique arm strength, which became his trademark, acquired from the healing of burns that shortened his muscles after an industrial accident in which Archer fell into a vat of boiling sap at the age of 19. His family immigrated to

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

when he was an infant, later moving to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

when he was three; he attended Toronto's De La Salle College and St. Michael's College School. He was working at a barrelmaker in Toronto in 1902 when he suffered the burns which led to a three-month hospitalization. In 1903 he began playing baseball in

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Win ...

, and in 1904 he joined the

Boone, Iowa Boone ( ) is a city in Des Moines Township, and county seat of Boone County, Iowa, United States. It is the principal city of the Boone, Iowa Micropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Boone County. This micropolitan statistical ...

based Boone Coal Miners team of the Iowa State League; he married Boone resident Lillian Stark in 1905. In August 1904 he was purchased by the Pittsburgh Pirates, and he went on to play seven games for the team that season. Jimmy Archer newspaper

He later played for Detroit for 18 games during the 1907 season, and started the fifth and final game of the

1907 World Series The 1907 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball for the 1907 season. The fourth edition of the World Series, it featured the defending National League champion Chicago Cubs and the American League champion Detroit Tig ...

against the Cubs, but was hitless in three

at bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

s as the Tigers lost 2–0; both Cub runs followed successful stolen bases against Archer and pitcher George Mullin. In 1909 he began playing for the Cubs, the team he remained with until 1917; he took over catching duties for

Johnny Kling Johnny is an English language personal name. It is usually an affectionate diminutive of the masculine given name John, but from the 16th century it has sometimes been a given name in its own right for males and, less commonly, females. Varian ...

, one of the top players on the Cubs pennant winners of 1906 to 1908, who was taking a year off from baseball to pursue other interests. Archer split time with

Pat Moran Patrick Joseph Moran (February 7, 1876 – March 7, 1924) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He was a catcher in Major League Baseball from 1901 to 1914. The year after his retirement, he became a manager, and he led two ...

during the 1909 season, and with Kling upon his return for the 1910 season. He played three games en route to the Cubs'

1910 World Series The 1910 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball for the 1910 season. The seventh edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Philadelphia Athletics against ...

loss to 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 ...

, and after

doubling Doubling may refer to: Mathematics * Arithmetical doubling of a count or a measure, expressed as: ** Multiplication by 2 ** Increase by 100%, i.e. one-hundred percent ** Doubling the cube (i. e., hypothetical geometric construction of a cube wi ...

with one out, scored the winning run on Jimmy Sheckard's hit with two out in the bottom of the 10th inning of Game 4 – the 4–3 victory giving the Cubs their only win in the Series. However, he had only one other hit in the Series, that coming with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 5 when the Cubs were trailing 7–2. In 1911 Archer won the starting job, and Kling was later that season traded to the

Boston Rustlers The Atlanta Braves, a current Major League Baseball franchise, originated in Boston, Massachusetts. This article details the history of the Boston Braves, from 1871 to 1952, after which they moved to Milwaukee, and then to Atlanta. During it ...

. Archer ended up finishing 16th in voting for the first Chalmers Award, the first formal Most Valuable Player Award presented in the major leagues. During the

1912 Events January * January 1 – The Republic of China is established. * January 5 – The Prague Conference (6th All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) opens. * January 6 ** German geophysicist Alfred ...

and 1913 seasons, Archer again earned some votes for the Chalmers Award, finishing 22nd in 1912 and 13th in 1913. He led the NL in assists in 1912 with 149, but also paced the league with 23 errors. However, he began to split time at catcher with

Roger Bresnahan Roger Philip Bresnahan (June 11, 1879 – December 4, 1944), nicknamed "The Duke of Tralee", was an American player and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). As a player, Bresnahan competed in MLB for the Washington Senators (1897), Chicago O ...

in 1914 and 1915. After playing 77 games in 1916 and only two in 1917, Archer was released by the Cubs. Over the course of the 1918 season, he played for three separate teams. He signed as a free agent with the Pirates on March 10, and played 24 games with them. However, he had a

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 only .155 during that time and was released. He later played for the Brooklyn Robins and Cincinnati Reds for nine games each until his retirement at the end of the season. In 847 games over 12 seasons, Archer posted a .249

(660 hits in 2646 at bats) with 247 runs, 16

home runs 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 ...

, 299

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the ba ...

and 36 stolen bases. He recorded an overall .972

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putouts and assists, div ...

. In four World Series games, he hit .143 (2-for-14). After his retirement from baseball, Archer worked as a hog purchaser for the

Armour Armour (British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specificall ...

meat packing company in Chicago. He received a medal from the

National Safety Council The National Safety Council (NSC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, public service organization promoting health and safety in the United States. Headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, NSC is a member organization, founded in 1913 and granted a congress ...

in 1931 after using prone pressure resuscitation to revive two truck drivers who had been overcome by carbon monoxide in the

Union Stock Yards The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co., or The Yards, was the meatpacking district in Chicago for more than a century, starting in 1865. The district was operated by a group of railroad companies that acquired marshland and turned it into a centra ...

. Archer died at St. Mary's Hospital in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee i ...

at the age of 74, due to a blocked coronary artery following treatment for

spinal tuberculosis Pott disease is tuberculosis of the spine, usually due to haematogenous spread from other sites, often the lungs. The lower thoracic and upper lumbar vertebrae areas of the spine are most often affected. It causes a kind of tuberculous arthriti ...

. He was interred at Sacred Heart Cemetery in Boone, Iowa, his wife's hometown. He was elected to the

Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (french: Temple de la renommée du baseball canadien) is a museum located in St. Marys, Ontario, Canada. The museum commemorates great players, teams, and accomplishments of baseball in Canada. His ...

in 1990.

References

External links

SABR: Baseball Biography Project
– Archer's grave marker {{DEFAULTSORT:Archer, Jimmy 1883 births 1958 deaths Major League Baseball catchers Chicago Cubs players Pittsburgh Pirates players Detroit Tigers players Brooklyn Robins players Cincinnati Reds players Major League Baseball players from Ireland Irish baseball players Sportspeople from Dublin (city) Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Fargo (minor league baseball) players Boone Coal Miners players Atlanta Crackers players Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Tuberculosis deaths in Wisconsin 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Canadian baseball players Baseball players from Toronto Major League Baseball players from Canada Irish emigrants to Canada

See also

References

External links