Notes for Anthony J. “Count” MULLANE
1900 census
1920 census
1930 census
1900 census: Lived in “West Town” in Chicago with mother Elizabeth (in house she owned), sibs Nora, Sam, and John. 103 S Troy Street. Gives birthdate as Feb 1862 and his current age 38. However, all 3 sons’ birth months are listed as February. Single -- suggests he married Barbara and lost her between 1900 and 1920, when the census lists him as widowed. Year of immigration for Elizabeth, Nora, and Tony: 1862. Number of years in this country for all 3: 38. “Naturalization” for all 3 has question mark in column. Occupation: “BaseBall [sic] Player.” All can read, write, and speak English. Chicago Ward 10, District 255.
4911920 Census: Lived at 6427 Ellis Ave, owned by his sister Nora (head of household!), along with his brother Sam. Nora and Sam single; Tony widowed. Nora 60, Sam 47, Tony 55? (written over by enumerator). All 3 immigrated 1853 and all 3 naturalized. “X” for year of naturalization for all 3. All able to read & write. Parents born in Ireland; parents and kids all listed with “English” as mother tongue. Nora’s occupation “none,” Tony’s policeman on wage in “City” (i.e. Chicago), and Sam brakeman on Steam[?] Railroad. Several neighbors work for same railroad (conductor, engineer, etc).
4901930 Census: Immigrated 1870. Owned own home valued at $6000. Widowed by that point. Boarded Julia and Daniel Behan, and lived with his sister and brother Nora and John. Naturalized. No occupation. Address 6484 Ellis Avenue.
489Address at time of death was 6212 Woodlawn Ave. Had been in hospital 7 days before death.
488“My Dad (Leo) talked often about Tony Mullane. He reminded us that he was the greatest ambidextrous pitcher ever.”
499Count Mullane “was called Count because of his distinguished appearance and supreme athletic abilities. He never used any intoxicating drink, never smoked, played all positions, pitched ambidextrously wearing no glove, had devastating pickoff motion and was a hard hitter. Mullane was also an accomplished skater, roller and ice, a clever boxer and fine musician.” B 20 Feb 1859 at Cork, Ireland. D . Height 5’10 1/2”, Weight 169. Threw both left and righthanded and batted righthanded....Umpired in National League 1893 and 1897....DID YOU KNOW -- That Count Mullane and King Kelly both were fan idols, but the Count’s suave, graceful class won the girls’ hearts in the ‘80s?”
500“Tony Mullane won 285 games in the big leagues in just 13 years. Five years in a row, he won over 30 games. One year, he went 35-15 with a 2.19 ERA. He isn’t, by the way, in the Hall of Fame. But that isn’t the most impressive thing about Tony Mullane. The incredible thing is in the small print up near where it lists his size (5-10, 160). It is where it tells whether he was a righthander or a lefthander. Tony Mullane, the Apollo of the Box, threw with *both* hands. He also played the outfield or second or third or first when he wasn’t pitching. He might also have been a sort of a rounder, seeing as how he was kicked out of the game one year and held out another. Still that might perhaps be expected of an Irishman (he was born in Ireland in 1859). He became, too, the captain of our all-obscure team, made up of guys who would be superstars today, but whom no one has ever heard of.”
501 Mullane was mentioned in an article in the “New York Clipper” -- the reporter spent time with ten of the Orioles’ players, saying every night the players would gather on the front porch and sing songs, “with Mullane's profundo basso in the lead.” (Mentioned in the book “Baseball in Baltimore” by James Bready; see
http://www.press.jhu.edu/press/books/titles/sampler/bready.htm). Listed in American National Biography (1999) and Biographical Dictionary of American Sports (1987).
Listed in American National Biography. 24 volumes. Edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. (AmNatBi); Biographical Dictionary of American Sports. Baseball. Edited by David L. Porter. New York: Greenwood Press, 1987. (BiDAmSp BB); and Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 3: September, 1952-August, 1955. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1956. (BioIn 3) [All according to Ancestry.com]
“In ‘93, [Edward H. ‘Ned’] Hanlon brought in an old-timer [to the Baltimore Orioles], Anthony J. Mullane, who could not just bat but throw either-handed; Tony was as much of a celebrity as Dan Brouthers. Sports writers spoke of the new manager as Foxy Ned.”
502“Baltimore was developing that unplannable asset, team spirit. The players got on with one another. A ‘New York Clipper’ story found by writer Burt Solomon followed the Orioles to their billet, the Oxford House, on Greenmount Avenue a block or so north of the ballpark. Ten Orioles put up there, readers learned, in separate rooms. On its ‘spacious lawn...every morning the players exercise and breathe the pure air of Waverly....On the porch at night, the players may be heard singing favorite songs, with Mullane’s profundo basso in the lead, while [Bert] Inks plays a piano accompaniment in the sitting room.’ On the back porch was a hammock; who grabbed it, morning after morning, to read the baseball news in comfort? That small, 21-year-old human firecracker, McGraw.”
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From the Chicago Daily News, 26 Apr 1944 [several facts wrong]:
“Mullane, Old Time Mound Sensation, Dies Here at 85
The man who could pitch with either hand, Toney Mullane, died today at his home [death cert says at hospital], 6427 S. Ellis av. [death cert says 6212 Woodlawn Ave] in his 85th year. For 25 years, from 1878 to 1903 [only have stats for 1880-1900], he had played with some of the nation’s greatest teams and with the distinction, along with Lefty Groves, of having won over 300 games.
John McGraw, late manager of the New York Giants, called Mullane the only ambidextrous pitcher in baseball history. And Mullane, who served with the Chicago police force until his retirement in 1924, enjoyed telling how he’d trap men off bases by throwing with either hand. For most of his baseball career he did not wear a glove.
Mullane achieved his greatest pitching fame while with the great Cincinnati National League team of 1883 and 1893. But it was when he joined Detroit that he began using both hands in pitching. A sore right arm that threatened to end his baseball career caused Mullane to experiment with his left hand. He became proficient as a southpaw hurler but when his right arm was sound again he resumed his natural delivery.
His interest in baseball never flagged nor did his memory fade of his baseball contacts with such early stars as Hugh Jennings, McGraw, Wilbert Robinson, Cy Young, Willie Keeler and Charles Comiskey, founder of the Chicago White Sox. Mullane pitched for Comiskey when the “Old Roman” managed the St. Louis Browns.
Toney Mullane was born in County Cork, Ireland, Feb. 7, 1859 [death cert says 20 Jan]. He came to America when he was five years old. In 1878 he started his baseball career, that was to take him to Akron, Detroit, Louisville, St. Louis, Toledo, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Cleveland, St. Paul and Spokane, at Geneva, Ohio. Besides pitching he doubled in the outfield and at third base.
Surviving are his brother and a daughter.
494”
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Immigrated ca 1864
494. Note Jane Mullane immigrated ca 1863 (see her records).
Not a veteran, no social security number.
488“I read (probably about 10 years ago [ca 1991]) in a book about baseball players that he refused to pitch to players of color. So I never mentioned that and I don’t remember the name of the book.”
61In same section of Holy Sepulchre where Tony is buried, there are two Mullane graves: “Father: Daniel,” d 17 Mar 1954, and “Mother: Delia” d 16 Dec 1954. No idea if these are related.
1There is no adjoining grave (i.e., Barbara is not buried next to him). Checked with cemetery staff 28 June 2010.
1“Funeral Friday, 9 a.m., from parlors, 67th-st. and Dorchester-av., to Holy Cross church.”
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From the Biographical History of Baseball:
Known as The Count for his good looks and suavity, Mullane played pawn in one of the more sordid demonstrations of nineteenth-century owner chicanery. In 1884, after two 30-win seasons, the right-handeer, ignoring the reserve clause in his contract with the American Association St Louis Browns, jumped to the Union Association St Louis Maroons, but backpedaled when threatened with blacklisting. However, when Browns owner Chris Von der Ahe realized that he would have to come close to matching the Maroons’ offer, he shuffled Mullane off to the Toledo Blue Stockings, in a threefold strike of shrewdness: First, it kept Mullane out the Unions’ hands; second, it preserved the Browns’ salary structure; and third, it gave the small-market, expansion Blue Stockings a bona fide star. At the conclusion of the season, which witnessed the demise of both the UA and the Toldeo club, Von der Ahe reclaimed the pitcher, paid him an advance on his 1885 salary, and whisked him off to a secret hotel room to wait out the mandated ten days before a contract could be signed. Mullane escaped, signed with the AA Cincinnati Reds, and was slapped with a fine and a one-year suspension for flaunting the rules.
One of the very few pitchers known to have thrown with either arm, Mullane also holds a major league record for surrendering 16 runs to Boston in the 1st inning on June 18, 1894; at the end of the carnage, Baltimore catcher Wilbert Robinson left the game, while Mullane stayed around until the 7th inning. Despite such outings, he posted five 30-win seasons and won 20 on three occasions.
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from Strikeout:
In the American Association [in 1884], the Browns’ colorful Tony Mullane, always eager to improve his lot, bolted to the outlaw league but soon let himself be lured back—by more money, of course. Contracts had little force among star players—”artists” in the idiom of the day—and pitchers especially were likely to exact bonuses beyond contract specifications. Mullane, for example, eventually maneuvered his way to $5,000 a year, a princely sum when compared with the estimated $800-$1200 that the average position player was commanding.
505The dashing, Irish-born Tony “the Count” Mullane, who whipped his fastball and drop past bewildered batsmen with the insouciance with which he lavished blarney into the ears of trembling maidens, was the ace for a succession of clubs in both the League and the Association. Although late in his career Tony teamed successfully with Elmer Smith for a couple of seasons at Cincinnati, The Count was customarily a one-man show.
The flamboyent Mullane may have scrambled from club to club in pursuit of higher pay, but clearly he was worth it....Mullane should easily have reached 300 career wins had the American Association not suspended him for the entire 1885 season at the height of his career for jumping his contract with the Browns. All the same, The Count’s frequent moves fetched him salaries many times what a good position player commanded in that era. It is suspected that in his best years Tony received under-the-table bonuses as well. Mullane’s career illustrates that, even as early as the 1880s, a proven winner could almost write his own contract although few other hurlers seemed bold enough to press their advantage.
Like Spalding, Ward, Heckler, Foutz, and several more, Mullane was the complete athlete who could hit and field with the best. The love of good women—lots of them—kept this slightly built but indefatigable Corkman alive until he was eighty-five. He never experienced arm trouble either. Perhaps there is a lesson in this.
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In 1893 the Rules Committee moved the pitcher back five feet. This was hard for some of the older pitchers to adjust to, including the “aging Tony Mullane.”
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From The Hot Stove League:
A. H. Tarvin, the Louisville historian, has traced the custom of ladies’ day back to the eighties, saying that the originator of the practice was Aaron S. Stern, a clothing manufacturer who owned the Reds. Pitching for Stern’s team was Tony Mullane, a handsome fellow...known as “the Apollo of the box.” Stern noticed that although a few ladies were always on hand, they were out in abundance whenever Mullane was scheduled to pitch. Seeing an opportunity to increase attendance, the owner then decided that Mullane would always pitch on Monday and that all ladies with escorts would be admitted free.
506Not since players adopted gloves has any major leaguer thrown both righthanded and lefthanded, and for a long time there was doubt that such a stunt had been accomplished, even in the barehanded days. However, evidence has recently been unearthed that would seem to indicate that Tony Mullane occasionally performed the trick. Mullane’s supposed ambidexterity has long been a legend, but pinning down the exact date and place of such activity has been difficult.
Tom Brown, an outfielder with Columbus...in the eighties, once said that Mullane, while pitching for Cincinnati, on one occasion threw him two strikes righthanded, then turned southpaw and made him hit a pop fly to the third baseman, Hick Carpenter. Brown, of course, did not remember the exact date of the event.
Mullane was asked about his ambidexterity in October, 1899, when he visited Washington to seek a job as a National League umpire. In an interview with the Washington Post he said:
I was ambidextrous, but as a rule I never called on my left hand unless we were playing an exhibition game, or in practice for the amusement of a few friends. But my two-handed trick got me into trouble when I was pitching for the Baltimore team early in the eighties. We were up against it in the last inning, and the old Eclipse team of Lousivile had us on the run. One hand was out, second and third were occupied, and the next man up was Pete Browning. I slung three hot incurves closeto Pete’s shirt and he fanned. Chicken Wolf came to the bat, and he was about due for a hit. In a reckless moment I shifted the ball to the left hand, pitched him a slow curve, and I guess the ball is still on the run. He pasted it over the field fence, and I went the dressing room and clubbed myself in the shins with a baseball bat and was fined twenty-five dollars for being fresh. It was the first slow curve Wolf ever hit off me; as the slow teaser was his weakness.
That would seem to prove once and for all that Mullane actually threw both ways in the same game. The trouble is Tony did not pitch for Baltimore until 1893, when Wolf had retired. The only pitching that he did against the old Eclipse team was during the time he spent in St Louis in 1883, Toledo in 1884, and Cincinnati from 1886 through 1889.
506In 1886 a newspaper accused Tony Mullane...of throwing a game, but Mullane asked for an investigation and easily cleared himself.
506---------------
Name: Tony Mullane
Birth name: Anthony John Mullane
Nickname: Apollo of the Box, The Count
Birth place: Ireland
Birth year: 1859
Death place: Illinois, United States
Death date: 25 Apr 1944
Height: 5' 10 1⁄2"
Weight: 165 lbs.
First game date: 27 Aug 1881
Final game date: 26 Jul 1894
Bats: Both
Throws: Both
Draft: Not Applicable
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Attended the “Days of ‘76” celebration of the Cincinatti Reds against the Boston Bees in 1936. The celebration was in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Reds and the 60th of the league itself. The governor and the mayors of over 200 Ohio towns attended, helping make up over 20,000 fans. The day began with a parade and a ball game played under 1876 rules. Two Class A teams played, dressed in the uniforms of the 1870s. “The game was tied 2 to 2 in the fourth inning when the players, sufferig blistered palms from the bare-handed style of fielding, good naturedly “mobbed” umpire Gordon Bachman. The game was called. In the stands were such old-timers as Tony Mulane, ambidextrous Red pitcher of 1890, George Yeager, Lester Bachman, Frank Behle, Billy Campbell, Johnny Dell, Josh Devore, and many another.”
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“…..A gifted skater, boxer, musician and singer, Tony Mullane’s legion of fans in baseball knew him as either “The Apollo of the Box” or “The Count”. The Sporting News preferred to describe him as an intolerant racist and “a man of the most sordid nature”. A canny promoter in Louisville witnessed the effect his good looks had on women and used him to introduce the notion of a Ladies’ Day at the stadium. In a Cincinnati divorce court, one of his wives [NOTE: “ONE OF his wives -- only mention so far of more than one wife]
1 admitted to hitting him with a potato roller only after he had already cut her with a knife and smashed a water jug over her head. For a sober individual who never smoke or drank [or gambled], Mullane cut quite a dash.
At the age of five [ca 1854], his parents Dennis and Elizabeth (nee Behan) brought him away from their native Cork to live in the new world. They settled near Erie, Pennsylvania, and eight decades later, their son’s death after illness would be marked by obituaries in the New York Times and the Chicago Daily News. Between 1881 and 1894, he was arguably the best pitcher in American baseball’s major leagues, winning a total of 285 games, a statistic that still ranks him among the top 25 players in that position of all time. He was also the first player ever to throw the ball both right and left-handed in the same game, a feat so remarkable that only three others in the history of the game could replicate it…..”
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“Tony Mullane, the ambidextrous veteran, was despised by his teammates. ("Yes, those are the bruises he got when I hit him with a potato roller," his wife testified in the divorce trial in a crowded Cincinnati courtroom on the seventh of July, "after he had cut me with a knife and smashed a water pitcher over my head.")”
509“Mullane was known for being cheap and often wore clothes till they became very raggedy. Mullane is also known for his racism. His catcher in 1884 was sometimes Fleet Walker. Mullane admitted to purposefully mixing up Walker by throwing pitches the catcher hadn't called for. When he did admit this, Mullane also called Walker the best catcher he ever worked with.”
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Has his own biography on Wikipedia, plus is mentioned in:
• List of Major League Baseball leaders in career wins • List of Major League Baseball strikeout champions • List of Major League Baseball saves champions • Top 100 strikeout pitchers of all time • List of players from Ireland in Major League Baseball • List of Major League Baseball no-hitters511--------------------------
NY Time obit (several facts wrong):
Special to the New York Times.
Chicago, April 26—Anthony (Tony) Mullane, baseball star of the Nineties and later a member of the Chicago police force, died today in his home. He was 79 years old [date and age at death inccorect]. Mr Mullane achieved fame as a pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds and later with the St. Louis Browns with Charles Comiskey as manager. He injured his right arm in the Eighteen Nineties, which put him out of the game for some years, but he joined a Louisville team and learned to pitch left handed [sic]. He was one of the few men in the history of the game to win more than 300 games. He is survived by a brother and a daughter, Mrs. Ina Schworm. His wife died twenty years ago.
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“...He was a notorious tightwad who wore clothes until they virtually fell apart.”
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“Mullane...would stroll down the avenue, sporting top hat, a cape and a cane and was dubbed ‘The Count.’”
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According to the various sources I checked, four major-league pitchers have pitched both left- and right-handed in a single game. The first and most famous was
Tony Mullane. Mullane, a natural righty born in Cork, Ireland, played without a glove and would face the batter with both hands on the ball, then throw it with either one. Though he gained some renown for doing this, accounts differ as to how often it actually occurred. In the New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, James wrote this about Mullane (who he ranked 82nd in his Top 100 Pitchers):
"Thirty years ago, when historical research about baseball was in a sorry state, there were widely differing accounts about how much Mullane pitched left-handed, with some sources sayhing that he did so regularly, and others questioning whether he ever did so at all. There is now a consensus that Mullane did pitch to a few batters left-handed on July 18, 1882, and did so in some exhibition games, and may have done so on other occasions, but never more than a few times."
The
Baseball Online Library lists two dates in which Mullane did pitch ambidextrously, the aforementioned 1882 date (for the Louisville Eclipse of the American Association) and again in 1893 (for the Baltimore Orioles of the National League). Here are the two accounts:
• July 18, 1882: "Louisville hurler Tony Mullane pitches both right- and lefthanded in an AA game against Baltimore, the first time the feat is performed in the major leagues. Starting in the 4th inning he pitches lefthanded whenever Baltimore's lefty hitters are at bat. In addition to continuing to pitch righthanded to righthanded hitters. It works until the 9th when, with 2 outs, Charlie Householder hits his only HR of the year to beat Mullane 9-8."
• July 14, 1893: "Right-handed P Tony Mullane, losing to Chicago, pitches the 9th inning lefthanded. Chicago adds 3 more runs to their total and whips Baltimore 10-2."
Novelty aside, Mullane was a pretty good pitcher who won 30 games or more in five consecutive seasons. Of course, pitching in those days wasn't pitching in the way that we think of it. The pitching box was located only 45 or 50 feet away from home plate; it wasn't moved to 60-foot-6 until 1893. A pitcher could take a short run before throwing. And a batter could call for a high pitch or a low pitch up until 1887. The number of strikes for a strikeout or balls for a walk varied from year to year; it was seven balls to a walk in 1882. Pitchers didn't throw nearly so hard and they racked up a lot more innings; Mullane pitched as many as 567 innings but never led the league, though he did finish in the top 10 eight times. His lifetime total of 284 wins is the
fourth-highest of any non-Hall of Fame pitcher. He was also a decent enough hitter and fielder to play every position except catcher, and he appeared in over 200 games in the field, mostly as an outfielder. And yes, he was a switch-hitter.
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Tony Mullane was one of the very few
ambidextrous pitchers in the history of the game. In a game in July 1882, he pitched with both hands, though not at the same time. He might have done this on other occasions; the July incident is the most widely documented one. A handsome man, Mullane was nicknamed "The Apollo of the Box." Teams would often schedule Mullane on "Ladies' Day" promotions to drum up business on otherwise quiet dates on the schedule.
Mullane was known for being cheap and often wore clothes till they became very raggedy.
Mullane is 3rd all-time in
wins among pitchers not enshrined in the
Hall of Fame who are eligible. Only
Bobby Mathews and
Bert Blyleven are ahead of him. He might have won 300 if not for a suspension he served that kept him out all of
1885. Mullane is the all-time leader in wins by an Irish pitcher; only Blyleven won more among non-Americans. Canadian
Ferguson Jenkins won as many.
A fine hitter as well as a great pitcher, Mullane played over 250 games at other positions to keep his bat in the lineup. His 661 career hits are tops among pitchers.
In
1884, Mullane won 36 games for the
Toledo Blue Stockings. The
Cincinnati Reds signed him but due his being on 4 teams in the prior 4 years, the
American Association punished him for jumping from team to team. He was prohibited from playing in 1885. Despite missing the season, Mullane won more games than any pitcher in AA history and also pitched the most
shutouts in the AA.
Mullane is also known for his racism. His catcher in 1884 was sometimes
Fleet Walker. Mullane admitted to purposefully mixing up Walker by throwing pitches the catcher hadn't called for. When he did admit this, Mullane also called Walker the best catcher he ever worked with.
Following his baseball career, Mullane was a longtime member of the
Chicago Police Department, serving as a detective for many years.
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Finally, today marks the 125th anniversary of the Reds signing Tony Mullane. On November 4, 1884 the Reds acquired Mullane off the Toledo club for $5,000. In a sign of how times have changed, the American Association suspended Mullane for the 1885 season because he switched teams. Despite the "infraction," the league allowed him to stay with the Cincinnati club where he would resume his playing career in 1886 when his suspension expired. Tony would go on to compile a 163-124 record with a 3.15 ERA in an 8-year career with the Reds. In 2010 his achievements will finally be properly recognized when he's enshrined into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.515