Thomas Rivers Lovelace (October 19, 1897 – July 12, 1979) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player. Lovelace played in the

minor leagues Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nort ...

for 11 years, from 1920 to 1932, and played in one

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 ...

game with 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 (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...

in 1922. Lovelace was born in

Wolfe City, Texas Wolfe City is a city in Hunt County, Texas, United States, located at the intersection of State Highways 34 and 11. It is north of Greenville in north-central Hunt County, and was settled in the 1860s or 1870s, when J. Pinckney Wolfe built a m ...

, on October 19, 1897. He made his Minor League debut in 1920 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 ...

for the Ranger Nitros of the West Texas League. He had a .267

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 ...

in 102 games for the Nitros. In 1922, Lovelace split time with the Greenville Togs and the

Dallas Steers The Dallas Rangers were a high-level minor league baseball team located in Dallas, Texas, from 1958 to 1964. The team was known by the Dallas Rangers name in 1958, 1959, and 1964 and as the Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers from 1960 to 1963. It played i ...

. He hit .332 for both teams in 146 games. On September 5, 1922, while playing for Dallas, Lovelace was sold to the

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 ...

. On September 23, 1922, the Pirates were playing the

Brooklyn Robins The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1883 as the Brooklyn Grays. In 1884, it became a member of the American Association as the Brooklyn Atlantics before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brookl ...

in the first game of a doubleheader at

Ebbets Field Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball stadium in the Flatbush, Brooklyn, Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York City, New York. It is mainly known for having been the home of the History of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Brooklyn Dodgers baseball tea ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

and Lovelace made his major league debut. In the top of the 9th inning, with the Pirates down 9–5, Lovelace pinch hit for

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, ...

Hal Carlson. With a runner,

Charlie Grimm Charles John Grimm (August 28, 1898 – November 15, 1983), nicknamed "Jolly Cholly", was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman, most notably for the Chicago Cubs; he was also ...

, on first, Lovelace lined out to the Robins' second baseman

Ivy Olson Ivan Massie "Ivy" Olson (October 14, 1885 – September 1, 1965) was an American professional baseball shortstop. He played fourteen seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1911 to 1924 for the Cleveland Naps, Cincinnati Reds, and Brooklyn Ro ...

. Lovelace broke his leg sliding in to first base, making the Brooklyn game the first, and only major league game of his career.Brooklyn Robins 9, Pittsburgh Pirates 5 on September 5, 1922 on Retrosheet.org
/ref> Lovelace continued to play with various minor league teams until 1932. He finished with a career .309 batting average in the minors in 914 games. He died on July 12, 1979, in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, and was

cremated Cremation is a method of Disposal of human corpses, final disposition of a corpse through Combustion, burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India, Nepal, and ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lovelace, Tom Pittsburgh Pirates players Ranger Nitros players Dallas Steers players Greenville Togs players Corsicana Oilers players San Antonio Bears players Oakland Oaks (baseball) players Canton Terriers players Shreveport Sports players Binghamton Triplets players Baseball players from Hunt County, Texas Baseball players from Dallas People from Wolfe City, Texas 1897 births 1979 deaths 20th-century American sportsmen