James Ralph "Spud" Johnson (December 1856 – February 1928) was a 19th-century

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 for three seasons, two for the Columbus Solons of the American Association and one season for the Cleveland Spiders of 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 ...

. Johnson played mainly in the

outfield The outfield, in cricket, baseball and softball is the area of the field of play further from the batsman or batter than the infield. In association football, the outfield players are positioned outside the goal area. In bat and ball games ...

during his career, but played the

third base 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 us ...

position in his

rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience, a rookie is typically considered needing more tra ...

season of .

Career

Johnson was signed by the Solons on January 15, 1889, when after the season the Kansas City team of the Western Association folded and was sold to the

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

team of the American Association. A dispute quickly surfaced between the two teams about Johnson and his rights. On March 19, Columbus settled the dispute by paying Kansas City $500. His best season came in when he led the Association in

runs batted in A run batted in or runs batted in (RBI) 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 th ...

with 113, while finishing in the top five in most offensive categories including his .346

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 ...

, 18 triples, and 186 hits. In 381 games over three seasons, Johnson posted a .302

(400-for-1,324) with 246 runs, 4

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

s, 238 RBI and 93

stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base unaided by other actions and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or out ...

s. Nothing much is known of his whereabouts after he left organized baseball.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Spud 1856 births 19th-century baseball players 19th-century American sportsmen Canadian expatriate baseball players in the United States Columbus Solons players Cleveland Spiders players Year of death missing Major League Baseball players from Canada Major League Baseball outfielders Topeka (minor league baseball) players Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Rochester Flour Cities players

Career

See also

References

External links