Timothy Hayes Murnane (June 4, 1851 – February 7, 1917) was an American sportswriter specializing in baseball, regarded as the leading baseball writer at '' The Boston Globe'' for about 30 years until his death. At the same time, he organized and led professional sports leagues and helped govern the baseball industry. He had been a professional baseball player, and played several seasons in the major leagues as a first baseman and

center fielder A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball and softball fielding position between left field and right field. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the c ...

Biography

Early life

Born in Naugatuck, Connecticut, Murnane acquired his Irish brogue from his father, an Irish immigrant. Little is known about his childhood; he mentioned in one of his newspaper columns that he attended school in a one-room rural schoolhouse. While some sources say Murnane attended Holy Cross prep school in Worcester, Massachusetts, this is doubtful; searches in the school's archives show there was another man with the same name who attended, but he was from Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and Murnane was playing baseball in Connecticut during the years he was said to be at Holy Cross.

Playing career

During Murnane's early years in baseball, he played as a catcher for the

Stratford, Connecticut Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is situated on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. Stratford is in the Bridgeport–Stamford–Norwalk Metropolitan Statistical Area. It was settled ...

, club in ; some old-timers of that era said this club was called the Savannah Seniors. Murnane remained at catcher for two seasons with the Savannah Seniors, but moved to center field while with the Middletown Mansfields club of

Middletown, Connecticut Middletown is a city located in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States, Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, it is south of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. In 1650, it was incorporated by English settler ...

, halfway through the season. The Mansfields entered the professional National Association for , which begins Murnane's major league career in records that count the National Association as a major league. He was the Mansfields' regular first basemen; that would be his most common fielding position but he played only a few full seasons "every day". Following the 1872 Mansfields, Murnane played in the majors for 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 Oaklan ...

(1873–74),

Philadelphia White Stockings The Philadelphia White Stockings were an early professional baseball team. They were a member of the National Association from 1873 to 1875. Their home games were played at the Jefferson Street Grounds. They were managed by Fergy Malone, Jimmy ...

(1875), Boston Red Caps (1876–77), Providence Grays (1878)—as the first player signed by a new club—and finally the Boston Reds (1884), whom he also managed. During eight seasons in the major leagues Murnane batted .261 with five home runs and 127 runs batted in. Highlights of his playing days would include finishing fifth in the National Association batting race with an average of .359 in 1872, and leading the NA with 30

stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which they are not entitled 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 ...

s in 1875. While Providence won the championship in its second season, the 27-year-old Murnane was no longer on the team or in the league. In 1879 and 1880, he played part-time for Capital City (in Albany, New York), Rochester, and Albany, before retiring "to open a saloon and billard hall in Boston". Murnane returned to baseball and the major leagues for one year when the

Union Association The Union Association was a league in Major League Baseball which lasted for just the 1884 season. St. Louis won the pennant and joined the National League the following season. Seven of the twelve teams who were in the Association at some poi ...

challenged the newly organized baseball industry, placing one of its eight clubs in Boston, backed by George Wright with Murnane one minor investor. Only 32, he served as recruiter, captain, and first baseman of the Boston Reds and guided them to a fifth-place finish with a record of 58–51. They did not threaten the National League in Boston, home to the NL's champion team and one of its anchor franchises. Rather, the Reds or "Unions" were a welcome but decidedly lesser attraction when the Beaneaters were out of town.

Later career

After his career in uniform, Murnane served as president of the minor league New England League and Eastern League, and went on to a 30-year career as a sportswriter and baseball editor with '' The Boston Globe''.

Death

Murnane died in 1917 at age 65 of a heart attack while attending the opera at the Schubert Theatre in Boston. News reports said his death came only about 30 minutes after he had written his daily sports column for the Globe. He was originally buried in the Old Dorchester Burial Ground in Dorchester. Hundreds attended Murnane’s funeral. The pallbearers included Boston mayor James Michael Curley and Congressman James A. Gallivan; former Red Sox owner

John I. Taylor John Irving Taylor (January 14, 1875 – January 26, 1938) was an American baseball executive. He was principal owner of the Boston Red Sox from 1904 until 1911, and remained a part owner until 1914. Biography Taylor was the son of Charles H. Tay ...

was an usher. Many ballplayers attended, including Babe Ruth, then a pitcher for the Red Sox. Murnane's place of burial was later moved to the Old Calvary Cemetery in Roslindale. Murnane had left little to care for his widow and four children from his second marriage, so the American League and the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) established a memorial fund for his family and held a benefit game on September 27, 1917, at Fenway Park. The Red Sox, with Babe Ruth pitching, defeated an all-star team that include Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, and Shoeless Joe Jackson in the outfield. More than 17,000 people attended, generating $13,000 for the Murnane family. The memorial fund purchased a gravestone for Murnane. In 1946, the

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

established the Honor Rolls of Baseball and named Murnane one of 12 writers to be honored. He was selected by the BBWAA as a recipient of the J. G. Taylor Spink Award for excellence in baseball journalism in 1978.

Sources

*Eldred, Rich (1996). "Timothy Hayes Murnane". ''Baseball's First Stars''. Edited by Frederick Ivor-Campbell, et al. Cleveland, Ohio: SABR. *Retrosheet
"Tim Murnane".
Retrieved 2022-03-16.

References

External links

Baseball Hall of Fame – Spink Award recipient
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Murnane, Tim 1851 births 1917 deaths Baseball writers Sportswriters from Massachusetts Major League Baseball first basemen Major League Baseball outfielders 19th-century baseball players Middletown Mansfields players Philadelphia Athletics (NA) players Philadelphia White Stockings players Boston Red Caps players Providence Grays players Boston Reds (UA) players Boston Reds (UA) managers Baseball players from Connecticut College of the Holy Cross alumni Capital City of Albany players Rochester Hop Bitters players Jersey City Skeeters players Major League Baseball player-managers BBWAA Career Excellence Award recipients People from Naugatuck, Connecticut Sportspeople from New Haven County, Connecticut The Boston Globe people