Thomas Joseph Needham (April 17, 1879 – December 14, 1926) was an Irish-born

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 from 1904 to 1914. He was a

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with the

Boston Beaneaters Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and financial center of New England, a region of the Northeastern United States. It has an area of and a ...

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

and

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...

. Needham hit poorly, hitting below .200 in 8 of his 11 seasons, Needham's career average was .209, due to his first season average of .260. Needham died in his home in

Steubenville, Ohio Steubenville ( ) is a city in Jefferson County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Located along the Ohio River west of Pittsburgh, it had a population of 18,161 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Weirton–Steubenville m ...

at the age of 47.

Career

Born in Ireland, Needham lived in

, by his teens. He played baseball there before spending a few seasons in the minor leagues. Needham was signed in late 1903 by the Boston Beaneaters, and he made his major-league debut with them in 1904. Needham achieved career highs in several offensive categories during the 84 games he played in that first season: he tallied 70

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, including 12 doubles, and he had a .260

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 ...

. He stayed with Boston for three more years, playing between 83 and 86 games each season."Tom Needham Statistics and History"
''baseball-reference.com''. Retrieved 2010-12-19. After a brief appearance with the

in 1908, Needham was traded to the Chicago Cubs for a player named Fred Leise before the 1909 season. This seemed to be a good opportunity for Needham, as Cubs catcher Johnny Kling was sitting out the 1909 season to pursue pool playing. However, the team selected Jimmy Archer in that season's rule 5 draft, and Archer became the Cubs starting catcher. Needham hit over .200 only once and never appeared in more than 33 games in any of his six seasons with the Cubs. Needham, who had served as a player-coach in his last couple of seasons with the Cubs, managed the

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of the

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major ...

in 1917. He later served as a pitching coach for the

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and was involved in starting up two minor leagues in Ohio.

Death

In early December 1926, Needham suffered a stroke. He was taken to Ohio Valley Hospital, where staff members felt that his stroke was too severe to respond to any treatment, so he was taken back home to die. He died on December 14, 1926. He was survived by his wife and two children.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Needham, Tom 1879 births 1926 deaths Major League Baseball catchers Boston Beaneaters players Boston Doves players New York Giants (baseball) players Chicago Cubs players Minor league baseball managers Fort Wayne Railroaders players Wheeling Stogies players Major League Baseball players from Ireland Irish baseball players Irish emigrants to the United States Baseball players from Ohio