William Darwin Smalley (June 27, 1871 – October 11, 1891), nicknamed "Deacon", was a

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 the

Cleveland Spiders The Cleveland Spiders were an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The team competed at the major league level from 1887 to 1899, first for two seasons as a member of the now-defunct American Association (AA), followe ...

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 ...

in and the Washington Statesmen of the American Association in .

Baseball career

Born in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

on June 27, 1871, Smalley was just 17 when he joined his hometown team, the

California League The California League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in California. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 until its demotion to Single-A following Major Leagu ...

's Oakland Greenhood and Morans in 1888. Smalley switched to the San Francisco Haverleys later that season and then to the Oakland Colonels in 1889 when a scout for the Cleveland Spiders spotted him, inviting Smalley and several of his teammates to make the trek east to Cleveland. Still only eighteen when he made his big-league debut, Smalley proved to be a slick-fielding but weak-hitting third baseman, batting just .213 on the season. Still, Smalley played all 136 of the team's games, as did outfielder (and future Hall-of-Famer) George Davis. (Smalley's 502 at-bats in 1890 is still ninth-highest all-time for a teenaged MLB player.) Cleveland let Smalley go after the season. In 1891, Smalley hooked on with Washington of the American Association. Playing nine games at third base and two at second, Smalley was still overmatched by big league pitching (6-for-38, .158) and was released in early May; he finished the season by playing eleven games for the minor-league Syracuse Stars.

Death

Will Smalley would never get another chance to prove himself on the ballfield. In late September, while living in Syracuse, Smalley took ill with stomach cancer; his uncle William brought Will to the older man's home in

Bay City, Michigan Bay City is a city in Bay County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The population was 32,661 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city is located just upriver from the Saginaw Bay on the Saginaw River. It is the princip ...

. The young ballplayer declined rapidly and died on October 11, 1891, at the age of 20; his remains were buried in Oakland. Before the death of Jay Dahl three-quarters of a century later, Smalley was the youngest at death of any player in Major League history.

References

1871 births 1891 deaths 19th-century baseball players 19th-century American sportsmen Baseball players from Oakland, California Major League Baseball third basemen Cleveland Spiders players Washington Statesmen players Oakland Greenhood & Morans players San Francisco Haverlys players Oakland Colonels players Syracuse Stars (minor league baseball) players Deaths from cancer in Michigan Deaths from stomach cancer in the United States {{US-baseball-third-baseman-stub