Jack Lynch

“Jack Lynch … has probably made and been responsible for more baseball history on Manhattan Island than any other man or player.” — Sam Crane, New York Evening Journal, 19111

On September 29, 1880, Jack Lynch threw the first pitch in the first professional baseball game ever played in Manhattan. That was the inaugural game at the newly opened first incarnation of the Polo Grounds.2 Lynch, at the time playing for the independent Nationals of Washington, DC, had helped convince the polo club that held the site’s lease to share it.

Four years later, Lynch and Tim Keefe formed the American Association’s winningest tandem, leading the New York Metropolitans to an 1884 pennant and the first World Series. Lynch’s contributions to New York City baseball so impressed renowned sportswriter and former teammate Sam Crane that in 1911 Crane named him one of the “fifty greatest ball players in history.”3

Lynch was a master of the drop curve and slow in-curve, yet he stood out more for his wit than his repertoire. He was engaging and colorful – arguably no 19th-century ballplayer was better copy.4 About Metropolitan Park, the Mets’ 1884 home that was built atop a former garbage dump, Lynch once said, “a player may come out of the dressing-room as frisky as a two-year-old colt, go down for a grounder and come up with six months of malaria.”5

Off the field, Lynch was an entrepreneur. During his playing days, he owned a sports recreation lounge, a billiard parlor, and several saloons. He also taught pitching to English cricketers, devised a novel indoor practice cage, and for years served as a college coach.

***

John H. Lynch (his middle name is unknown) was born on February 5, 1856, in New York City. At that time, “Gotham” consisted of Manhattan plus a portion of what is now The Bronx. Current baseball archives, as well as David Nemec’s Major League Baseball Profiles: 1871-1900, Volume 1, list 1857 as Lynch’s year of birth. However, Lynch’s death certificate says 1856, consistent with a New York American obituary that put his age in April 1923 at 67.6 No birth certificate has yet been uncovered to resolve this discrepancy.

Lynch’s parents were Irish-born. John Lynch –a butcher and meat curer, later a liquor dealer – and his wife, Ann Linn, came to America at an unknown date. It’s probable, though, that they were among the 1.5 million immigrants who came to America during the Great Famine.7 Lynch had at least four siblings. He was preceded by brother Thomas and sister Margaret; two younger brothers, William Henry and Charles, followed.8 

Lynch’s name first appeared in print in May 1875, as a catcher for the amateur Chatham club.9 The following summer, he manned right field for Chatham, shortstop for the Keystones of New York, and second base for the Delawares of Port Jervis, New York.10 Lynch returned to the Delawares in 1877 as a second baseman, but by late June was playing third base behind a battery of Blondie Purcell and 19-year-old catcher Mike “King” Kelly.11 He was first mentioned as a pitcher for an August scrimmage against the remnants of the Philadelphia Athletics team that had been dismissed from the National League after the 1876 season.12

How Lynch’s outing went is a mystery, but his pitching skills attracted the attention of Billy Barnie, business manager for the International Association’s New Haven (later Hartford) Elm Citys. Barnie signed Lynch as a change pitcher behind curveballer Candy Cummings.13 Installed first at shortstop, by the end of May 1878, Lynch had taken Cummings’ job as the team’s primary hurler. Over the next two months, he started 20 games, losing 13.14 Three of those defeats came in a three-city, Independence Day tripleheader with New Bedford. Lynch lost the first game to New Bedford’s change pitcher – future executive Jim Mutrie – and the last one to former NL star George Washington Bradley.15

On July 17, the Association expelled Hartford for failing to pay a guarantee to a visiting team.16 Lynch spent a week puzzling batters for a club in nearby Litchfield,17 then departed for the nation’s capital to join the Nationals. Usually paired with one of the club’s two lefty-throwing backstops (Sam Trott or Phil Baker), he went 12-12 in 24 starts. Lynch ended the season strongly, winning seven straight, including four shutouts.18 After he whitewashed the Manchesters of New Hampshire in late October, Washington’s National Republican wrote that Lynch “pitched with uncommon speed and steadiness and proved too much for the New Englanders, who admitted that he bothered them more than any pitcher they have met with this season.”19 

By then (probably) 23 years old, the 5-foot-9, 165-pound Lynch stayed on with the Nationals in 1879 as the club joined the reborn, eight-team National Association.20 He started 59 games, including nearly all of the team’s NA championship (regular season) matches. He went 36-19, also posting a team-high .955 fielding percentage that included some work at other positions.21 He registered double-digit strikeouts four times, with a high of 14 against Albany, the Association pennant-winner.22 Against NL competition, Lynch went 3-3, including an October 10 win over the champion Providence Grays.23 He also hit three home runs during the season, clubbing one each against a pair of future Hall of Famers: Keefe of the Utica Pent-Ups and Holyoke’s Mickey Welch.24

In 1879, two NL pitchers won more than 40 games while compiling sub-2.00 ERAs: Tommy Bond and Will White. Yet the New York Clipper declared Lynch second only to southpaw sensation Lee Richmond among all pitchers. In a lengthy profile, the Clipper called Lynch “an effective and puzzling pitcher … [in] complete control of the ball, with all the curves and varying paces in delivery, … cool and self-possessed in the most critical situations.”25

Lynch came into the next season with a new backstop, veteran Pop Snyder, and a new bride, Catherine (Kate) O’Keefe, a New York native with Irish-born parents.26 The couple had their first child, a boy, born before the season came to a close – the first of seven known offspring.27

Reduced to four teams in 1880, the National Association was dominated by the Nationals behind the pitching of Lynch (20-6 versus NA foes) and George Derby (10-7). On May 24, Lynch had his signature performance, no-hitting the Baltimore NA team. Among those he baffled was 22-year-old future Hall of Famer Dan Brouthers.28 An arm injury kept Lynch out of action for a few weeks that summer.29 However, he recovered in time to face the recently formed Metropolitans on September 29 at the new Polo Grounds.30 Lynch surrendered a triple to the game’s first batter, Steve Brady, in a darkness-shortened, five-inning affair won by the Mets.31

Mets founders John B. Day and Jim Mutrie are widely credited with bringing professional baseball to New York City, but in 1911, sportswriter and former Lynch teammate32 Sam Crane claimed that Lynch pointed them to the polo field at 110th Street and Sixth Avenue. Tipped off to the site’s suitability for baseball, Lynch and Nationals manager Ormond Butler had reached an agreement with the polo club to allow baseball to be played there – but were unable to persuade Nationals ownership to take advantage. So, the duo passed the opportunity along to Mutrie, Lynch’s former International Association foe. Crane also asserted that Lynch connected Mutrie with investors Charles Dillingham and Walter Appleton, who, together with Day, provided the funding to purchase the NA Rochester franchise from which the Metropolitans sprang.33

After securing the 1880 NA crown, the Nationals defeated the NL pennant-winning Chicago White Stockings in a seven-game postseason series. Rheumatism limited Lynch to two losing outings in that World Series precursor, but that didn’t tarnish his sterling season: 20 wins, a 0.90 ERA, and a league-low 5.81 hits allowed per NA contest.34

The NL’s Buffalo Bisons signed Lynch for the 1881 season to back up their ace, Pud Galvin, following a season in which Buffalo change pitchers went 4-23. The Buffalo Express heartily approved. “He is an artist in his line, and if there are any curves or spherical mysteries that he is not acquainted with, they are among the things of the future.”35 The Express also labeled Lynch a comedian, though it offered no examples of his humor.

Supported by a lineup that included future Hall of Famers Deacon White and Jim O’Rourke, Lynch won his major league debut, defeating the Detroit Wolverines and former Nationals rotation-mate Derby, 6-5, on Opening Day.36 He won five of his first six decisions, then lost five of his next six.37 Stricken with another bout of rheumatism in mid-August, he left for the mineral baths of Mt. Clemmons, Michigan. Two weeks later he claimed to have “left the ‘rumeticks’ in Michigan,” and was ready to pitch.38 Unconvinced, Buffalo released him.39 Lynch finished his lone NL season 10-9, with a 3.59 ERA across 20 appearances.

Lynch returned to New York City and went into business for himself. He opened “a base ball headquarters,” equipped with a gym and baseball-publication reading room, that the New York Clipper predicted would be a “resort of the fraternity during the winter vacation.”40 Now that Lynch had a business in his hometown, he cast his lot with New York’s Metropolitans, half of the two-team League Alliance alongside a Philadelphia team formed by sporting goods magnate Al Reach.41

To complement the addition of Lynch, Mets manager Mutrie brought on NL suspendee John Clapp to catch.42 Clapp carried a reputation as a teacher of quick-pitching – and Lynch proved an apt learner. In a preseason game, he quick-pitched a third strike to a batter who was retrieving a bat that he’d momentarily discarded after thinking that he’d drawn a walk on the previous pitch.43

Lynch went 41-35 in 84 appearances, winning seven of his 12 starts against Philadelphia to give New York the Alliance pennant.44 He also registered all six of New York’s victories in the “silver prize series,” a 12-game tournament with Philadelphia held between early August and late October that ended in a draw.45

Only 16-25 against NL competition, Lynch did manage to “Chicago” the White Stockings on Decoration Day, 2-0, in the first game played on the Polo Grounds’ new southeast diamond. Pitching in front of over 8,000 spectators, many of whom were seated in a newly built grandstand, Lynch limited the two-time reigning NL champions to a few harmless singles. That performance earned him a ride on the shoulders of admirers after the final out.46 The Mets played on both the southeast diamond and the original southwest diamond over the next year and a half. When both were in use, they were separated by a canvas fence strung across the outfield.47

Convinced that the time was ripe to join the major-league ranks, Mets owner John Day accepted invitations from both the NL and the American Association to establish franchises in New York City for the 1883 season. He populated his NL entrant, the Gothams, with ballplayers from the defunct Troy Haymakers, and anointed Clapp their manager. Lynch remained assigned to the Mets, paired by Mutrie with Keefe, a former Haymaker, in a two-man rotation.

Sometime during or after the 1882 season, Lynch sold his “baseball headquarters” and partnered with Clapp to open a saloon/betting parlor, a few blocks east of the Polo Grounds. Known as “The Club,” it became a favorite of Mets ballplayers after its March 1883 opening.48

Keefe earned the Mets’ 1883 Opening Day start, but it was Lynch who notched the club’s first major-league win, defeating the Baltimore Orioles a day later at Oriole Park.49 Playing second fiddle to Keefe, who won 41 and topped the league in games pitched and strikeouts, Lynch compiled a 13-15 record for the fourth-place Mets. He two-hit Cincinnati on August 18 and fanned 11 Columbus Buckeyes a week later, but his most impressive performance was a postseason three-hit shutout of the Boston Red Stockings.50 The loss was the only one that the NL champions suffered in the 10 games that they played in 1883 against Association teams.51

Lynch held out until the start of the following season, unhappy with both his workload and his salary.52 After finally signing a contract, he came out blazing. In his first outing, against Baltimore, he fanned 14, a major-league career high. His “swift throwing” caused gloveless catcher Charlie Reipschlager to “shiver with pain … throughout the whole game.”53  In his second outing, Lynch one-hit the Alleghenys.54 From then on, Mutrie largely alternated starts for Lynch and Keefe. New York was in second place on July 10, 1½ games behind the Louisville Colonels, then won 24 of their next 29 to take over first place for good. Lynch won 14 straight during that span to run his record to 28-10, including a gaudy 17-3 at home.

For the first five weeks of the 1884 season, that home was Metropolitan Park, a 5,000-seat ballpark built by Day’s Metropolitan Exposition Company so that the Gothams, who pulled in significantly larger gate receipts, could have the Polo Grounds all to themselves. Set on top of a former garbage dump, the Metropolitan Park playing surface was atrocious, “composed of landfill refuse.”55 In mid-July, the Mets abandoned “Mutrie’s ‘dumping’ ground” and went back to the Polo Grounds.56 Reports made no mention of Lynch’s cutting malaria quip (quoted above).

Lynch finished the season 37-15, with five shutouts, 292 strikeouts, and a league-high 6.95 K/BB ratio, nearly identical to Keefe’s 37-17, four shutouts, 334 strikeouts, and 4.7 K/BB. On July 4, Lynch served as a replacement umpire in the first game of a doubleheader in St. Louis; he then pitched the Mets to victory in the nightcap.57

Injury kept Lynch out of the Mets’ postseason series with the NL champion Providence Grays. The Grays swept New York in three games, winning what is recognized as the first World Series.58 Soon after, Lynch set sail for Europe, where amid vacationing he taught English cricketers how to throw a curveball.59

By this time, Lynch “enjoy[ed] an enviable reputation as an after-dinner speaker” – i.e., entertaining friends in the back of his saloon.60 Sporting Life describes one such session, in which Lynch told a rapt audience that he wanted to take his last breath retiring Charles Comiskey of the St. Louis Browns on a comebacker for the last out in a 1-0 victory to decide the AA championship, then say, “I have won the championship and little Jim is happy.”61 Sensitive to the vagaries of dispensing social lubricants, Lynch told Sporting Life, “it takes some ball players all winter to run up a good ‘saloon tab’ and the saloon-keepers all summer to collect the little balance.”62

The saloon business proved prosperous enough that Lynch and Clapp sold their establishment; the following May, they opened a larger one nearby. Occupying three stories, it included a bar, restaurant, billiard room, and bowling alley in the basement.63 It soon became clear that the duo had overextended themselves. They were nearly $6,000 in debt by July, and creditors seized control of the premises.64

Prior to the 1885 season, Day did some taking of his own, pillaging the Mets roster to fortify his favored Gothams. He moved Mutrie over to manage the team that would soon be dubbed the Giants, then conspired with Mutrie in a sleight-of-hand that stripped the Mets of Keefe and third baseman Dude Esterbrook.65 As the Mets’ remaining pitcher, Lynch sensed that he had leverage and held out for a raise of several hundred dollars. Ten days into the season, Lynch signed on the dotted line, but “an attack of billiousness (sic)” kept him out of action until mid-May.66

The Mets were already in seventh place, eight games back of first-place St. Louis, when Lynch made his season’s debut in Cincinnati. He lost, 7-2, allowing two home runs, including the last one of former batterymate Pop Snyder’s career.67 Lynch’s record was mediocre at the end of August (13-18), but he turned his season around by winning 10 of his last 13 decisions.68 Overall, he issued a league-low 1.0 walks per nine innings but surrendered a league-high 17 home runs. At the plate Lynch registered career-highs in batting average (.196) and slugging percentage (.242). During his career, Lynch got on base so infrequently (his career OBP was only .225), that after reaching first one time he reportedly told the next batter “Go ahead, hit the ball. Don’t mind me.”69

After the 1885 season, Day sold the Metropolitans to Canadian-born businessman Erastus Wiman, who relocated the franchise to a new state-of-the-art ballpark on Staten Island. Most of the fans attending games at St. George Grounds, located on the New York harbor shoreline, arrived on ferry boats owned by Wiman. Not so coincidentally, the boats docked next to the site he chose for the ballpark.70

Elected team captain, Lynch lost the 1886 opener to Bobby Mathews and the Athletics in Philadelphia.71 A few weeks later, he turned the tables on Mathews to earn the Mets’ first win in their new home.72 On June 12, Lynch two-hit the Athletics in the only shutout ever thrown by a Mets pitcher at St. George Grounds.73 However, the team’s offense was near the bottom of the Association in every meaningful statistical category. With this lack of support, Lynch finished the season 20-30 with a 3.95 ERA for the seventh-place Mets.

The press largely looked past Lynch’s losing record, preferring to focus on his comedic talents. The fledgling Sporting News was particularly complimentary in its July 12, 1886, issue:

Jack Lynch … is a comical genius and a great favorite. [He] has more wit and humor crammed into his closely cropped head than ten ordinary stump speakers. Lynch’s funny stories have made him famous, and to mention his name in a crowd of base ball players will send a smile with electric rapidity around the circle.74

After the 1886 season, Lynch had a home built for his family in Manhattan. Considering how he might commute to work, he came up with a comical idea, according to the New York Sun. “Jack Lynch has secured a huge pair of cork shoes with which he intends … to walk from this city to Staten Island next summer.”75 Behind Lynch’s humor was dissatisfaction with his club. He persuaded Mets management to release him so that he could join the Cleveland Blues, but when the Blues declined to match his Mets salary, he returned to the fold for another year.76

Unfazed by his aborted departure, Lynch rolled through the Mets 1887 preseason with a comedic vengeance. He stuck a thermometer down the back of catcher Bill Holbert, then offered a diagnosis: “been drinking bad beer all winter.”77 A few days later, Lynch attracted the attention of gymnasium visitors who saw him toying over his head with an immense dumbbell that turned out to be made of wood.

However, the joke was on Lynch during an April exhibition game, when base coach Holbert egged him into running the bases hard after hitting a long fly. Learning that the ball went foul after he reached third base, Lynch was apoplectic. The Polo Grounds crowd “almost broke their hearts laughing.”78

Jack Lynch speeding around the bases after hitting a foul ball.

Jack Lynch speeding around the bases after hitting a foul ball. (National Police Gazette, April 30, 1887)

Lynch was sparingly used by umpire-turned-manager Bob Ferguson, but got regular work once journalist-turned-manager O.P. Caylor took the reins in June.79  One of a league-high nine starting pitchers employed by New York, Lynch suffered a leg injury – from which he didn’t fully recover – during an August 10 outing.80 He finished the season 7-14, with 21 complete games. A win over 46-game winner Matt Kilroy and the Baltimore Orioles two days before his injury proved to be the last of Lynch’s major-league career.81 The day before his final start, on October 8, the Mets were sold to Charles Byrne, owner of the rival Brooklyn AA club.82

A benchwarmer starting the 1887 season, Lynch finished the year as the club’s trainer, responsible for running team practices every morning. Even more surprising, his word was considered “law.” In announcing Lynch’s new role, the New York Sun conjectured that Lynch would “direct the men” during games in place of Caylor.83 Whether he did or not is unclear.

Lynch’s up-and-down-year failed to diminish his sense of humor. Tagged for 11 runs in a game at often-swampy St. George Grounds, he revealed a novel consequence of accommodating a new, inexperienced catcher. “You see that I had to pitch so slow a ball that when it passed through the air, so many mosquitos caught on to it that when it reached the batter it was twice its usual size and they could hit it without half trying.”84

During the offseason, Byrne combined the best of the seventh-place Mets and sixth-place Brooklyn nines to form a stronger team, based in Brooklyn. Lynch was included on the squad’s reserve list, then released in April.85 He caught on with the independent Lowell (Massachusetts) Chippies but was let go after three losing starts.86 Open to new opportunities, Lynch was invited by the Giants to lead a theatrical sendup of the previous day’s Polo Grounds entrance by the visiting Chicago White Stockings and their flamboyant mascot, Clarence Duval.87

By mid-June, Lynch landed with the Central League Scranton (Pennsylvania) Miners, a team loaded with former and future major-leaguers. In his first appearance, Lynch no-hit a group of Philadelphia Athletics reserves.88 On July 8, he earned a win in relief of recently signed 19-year-old southpaw Jesse Burkett. Destined for the Hall of Fame as an outfielder, Burkett had injured his arm throwing a pitch.89  Lynch went 13-9 with a 1.99 ERA, playing for manager and former Mets teammate Sam Crane.90

A few months later, Lynch proposed a radical change to the sport. “Jack … has an idea of doing away with the base ball pitcher,” reported the New York Sun. “He proposed to substitute the catapult. He intends to make such improvements on the machine that it will throw a fast or slow ball, and, in fact, do everything but curve the ball.”91 Lynch didn’t get any takers for his primitive Iron Mike.92 However, he was the first user of another novel piece of equipment that he conceived: a practice cage. This was a portable frame – 12 feet high, 65 feet long, and 12 feet wide – covered in heavy fish netting. It allowed batting and throwing practice indoors. Lynch used it that winter at Fordham College, where he served during offseasons as a coach for the school’s baseball team between 1887 and 1891.93

In early 1889, Lynch suggested that the old Metropolitans get together to form a team.94 Over the next few months, they did. The new Metropolitans club was an independent cooperative venture, with the players sharing gate receipts rather than drawing salaries.95 Lynch was chosen team president, secretary, and treasurer; he also handled all the team’s pitching duties until the June arrival of 18-year-old Kid Carsey.96 By one account, Lynch won 50 of 57 games, “fooling” a bevy of local semipro teams with “his slow curves.”97 He may have been most proud of a win over Port Jervis on August 1 in which he clubbed a grand slam.98

Four teams, including Brooklyn, abandoned the AA for the 1890 season, leaving the circuit with four members and no presence in the greater New York area. Promoter Jim Kennedy secured a new AA Brooklyn franchise and hired Lynch as both pitcher and pitching coach.99 In his first month on the job, Lynch dubbed the team “Gladiators,” a name by which they were thereafter known.100 He suffered an 18-12 drubbing from the Syracuse Stars in Brooklyn’s third game of the season – but stroked three hits of his own off former rotation-mate Keefe, including a pair of doubles.101 Benched by Kennedy, Lynch was released four weeks later.102 With that, Lynch’s major-league career was over. He finished 110-105, with a 3.69 ERA in 1,924⅓ innings pitched.

Lynch returned to the co-op Mets, pitching a handful of games in what proved to be the final campaign for them both. He won his last outing, against the semipro Allertons, on September 29 in Weehawken, New Jersey.103 By this time, the press had taken to calling Lynch “Old Jack” for his graying hair and “Fat Jack” for his expanding waistline.104 Not long after hanging up his spikes, Lynch became Policeman Jack by joining the New York City Police Department. By May 1892 he was walking a “dead easy” beat in affluent Lenox Hill.105

Lynch was gone from the field of play, but tales of his antics circulated in newspapers for years. Widely reported was an assertion that in order “to quiet unruly persons,” Lynch would tell a baseball story, after which the accused invariably “throws up his hands.”106 The Cleveland Leader and Herald described a Lynch gag in which he claimed to have used a galvanic battery and a glass arm to shock unsuspecting targets when shaking hands.107

In the summer of 1892, the New York Sun had fun reporting on Lynch’s return to the diamond as a rotund infielder on a policemen’s team.108 A few months later, Lynch faced a different kind of challenge: he was charged with assaulting a college student.109 The disposition of the matter is unknown – but whatever the outcome, it did not forestall Lynch’s subsequent promotion to the Department of Inspection of Steam Boilers.110 Subsequently appointed stationary examining engineer for the City of New York, Lynch retired from the police force in 1914.111 As of 1920, he was living with his wife and eldest daughter Loretta in a Bronx home they owned mortgage-free.

Jack Lynch died on April 21, 1923, in the home of his son, Dr. James R. Lynch. That abode was two miles to the south of Yankee Stadium, which had opened three days earlier. Aged 67, Lynch was survived by his wife, son, and four daughters: Loretta, Florence, Virginia, and Claire, all of whom were newspaper reporters for the Hearst Corporation.112 After a funeral service at the Church of St. Simon Stock in the Bronx, Lynch was buried at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Bill Lamb and Rory Costello fact-checked by Paul Proia, who provided the author with several valuable details on Lynch’s career.

Photo credit: Jack Lynch, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources listed in the Notes, the author consulted his SABR biography of John Clapp as well as the following websites: familysearch.com, Baseball-Reference.com, retrosheet.org, statscrew.com, and stathead.com.

Notes

1 Sam Crane, “Sam Crane Writes Series of Stories on Fifty Greatest Ball Players in History: Jack Lynch, No. 5,” New York Evening Journal, December 4, 1911: 17.

2 Professional baseball had been played for several years at the Union and Capitoline Grounds in Brooklyn, which was a separate city until January 1898, when it was incorporated into New York City.

3 Crane, “Sam Crane Writes Series of Stories on Fifty Greatest Ball Players in History: Jack Lynch, No. 5.” A New York American article that described Lynch’s funeral proceedings erroneously stated that Crane listed Lynch among the top 30 pitchers. “Baseball Players to Honor John H. Lynch,” New York American, April 23, 1923: 6. In fact, Crane identified 30 of what he considered the top 50 ballplayers, regardless of position. Lynch was the fifth player identified by Crane in his series of player profiles. Crane did not explicitly rank his selections.

4 Keenly aware of his popularity with the press, Lynch once urged onlookers to watch a group of reporters “shiver” with glee as he approached them in a hotel lobby. “New Rules,” Cincinnati Enquirer, November 21, 1888: 2.

5 “Notes,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 22, 1884: 10.

6 See, for example Baseball-Reference.com, retrosheet.org and mlb.com; David Nemec, Major League Baseball Profiles: 1871-1900, Volume 1 (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2011), 117; New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2WLJ-P9B?lang=en. “John H. Lynch, Famous Baseball Pitcher, at 67,” New York American, April 22, 1923: 106.The 1900 US Census lists 1859 as Lynch’s year of birth, with subsequent US and New York State Census entries putting his birth in a range between 1853 and 1858. 1900 US Census, Bronx, NY, 23rd Ward, June 11, 1900, Enumeration District 1017, Sheet 12. Given the inaccuracies common in census age data, the author has elected to rely on Lynch’s death notification and obituary.

7 1855 NY Census, 18th Election District of the 8th Ward, dated June 1855; 1860 US Census, 4th District, 8th Ward, dated June 5, 1860; 1870 US Census, 2nd District, 8th Ward, page 9, dated January 10, 1870; 1910 US Census, Perry Avenue, Bronx, NY, April 15, 1910, Supervisor’s District No. 1, Enumeration District 1628, Sheet 1A; 1920 US Census, 3055 Perry Avenue, Bronx, NY, January 23, 1920, Supervisor’s District No. 2, Enumerations District No. 447, Sheet 30B. The 1900 US Census identified Lynch’s parents as born in Germany and Hungary, respectively, which the author has assumed was in error. 1900 US Census, Bronx, NY

8 1855 NY Census, 18th Election District of the 8th Ward, dated June 1855; 1860 US Census, 4th District, 8th Ward, dated June 5, 1860; 1870 US Census, 2nd District, 8th Ward, page 9, dated January 10, 1870.

9 New York Clipper, May 15, 1875: 50. Lynch’s name does not appear in the few Chatham box scores that the author has found.

10 “Chatham vs. Harlem,” New York Clipper, July 29, 1876: 139; D.R.A., “Honesdale, PA,” New-York Mercury, August 19, 1876: 3; “The Ball and Bat,” Port Jervis (New York) Evening Gazette, August 5, 1876: 1.

11 “Base Ball,” Scranton (Pennsylvania) Republican, June 20, 1877: 4.

12 “A Game Saturday,” Port Jervis (New York) Tri-States Union, August 3, 1877: 1.

13 “Notes,” New York Clipper, May 18, 1878: 59. The New York Clipper reported that Cummings had been released in the same mid-May notice in which Lynch’s addition was reported, but that was either short-lived or a false alarm. A week later, Cummings pitched for New Haven in a loss to the Nationals.

14 Based on a game log compiled by the author from contemporary box scores and game summaries published in the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant, New Bedford (Massachusetts) Evening Standard, New-York Mercury, New York Sun, Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, and Washington (DC) National Republican.

15 Game one was played in New Bedford, game two in Taunton, Massachusetts, and game three in Providence. Lynch started all three games in the pitcher’s box but was able to complete only the second game. He moved to second base after getting knocked about in the opener, and behind the plate after suffering the same fate in the finale. “Jack Lynch Attends National League Meeting,” Fall River (Massachusetts) Herald, December 12, 1918: 14; “Games Elsewhere,” Cleveland Leader, July 5, 1878: 8; “On the Base Ball Park,” New Bedford Evening Standard, July 5, 1878: 1; “New Bedfords, 18; Hartfords, 3,” Boston Herald, July 5, 1878: 6; “New Bedford vs. Hartford,” New York Clipper, July 13, 1878: 123.

16 “The Hartford Team Expelled,” New-York Mercury, July 20, 1878: 7.

17 See, for example, “Litchfield,” Litchfield (Connecticut) Enquirer, July 18, 1878: 3, and “Base Ball,” Litchfield Enquirer, July 25, 1878: 3.

18 Based on a game log compiled by the author from contemporary box scores and game summaries published in the Washington (DC) Post and Washington National Republican.

19 “The Nationals Administer a Second Whitewashing to the Manchesters,” Washington National Republican, October 26, 1878: 4.

20 “Notes and Gossip,” New-York Mercury, April 12, 1879: 8. Created in 1871 as baseball’s first professional league, the original National Association collapsed after its strongest members left to form the National League in 1876.

21 “National Club of Washington, D.C.,” New York Clipper, January 3, 1880: 322. Lynch’s statistics are based on a game log compiled by the author from contemporary box scores and game summaries published in the Washington Post, Washington National Republican, and Boston Globe. Lynch played parts of five games in the field: at first base (twice), shortstop (once) and right field (twice).

22 “Albany, 9; Nationals, 4,” Boston Globe, October 15, 1879: 4; “Albany vs. National,” New York Clipper, October 25, 1879: 244. Box scores published in the Boston Globe and New York Clipper did not list who Lynch struck out, but notables in the Albany lineup included Lip Pike, Fred Dunlap, Ned Hanlon, and Tim Keefe.

23 “The Champions Beaten,” Washington National Republican, October 11, 1879: 4.

24 “The Nationals Gain Another Victory Over the ‘Whalers,’” Washington National Republican, May 12, 1879: 4. “National vs. New Bedford,” New-York Mercury, August 23, 1879: 7; “Holyokes, 13; Nationals, 8,” Boston Globe, June 13, 1879: 2. The other pitcher that Lynch homered off was New Bedford’s Ed Kent.

25 “John Lynch, Pitcher,” New York Clipper, November 15, 1879: 269. Richmond electrified the baseball world in 1879 by first leading Brown University to the national college championship, then no-hitting the Chicago White Stockings in his professional debut with Worcester, and then finally by notching a National League-record five consecutive strikeouts in his major league debut with the Boston Red Stockings. John R. Husman, “Lee Richmond,” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Lee-Richmond/

26 “City Notes,” Washington National Republican, January 3, 1880: 4.

27 “Baseball Notes,” New York Clipper, October 9, 1880: 229. The Lynch’s first child, whose name is unknown, appears to have died before 1900. The oldest child listed in the family’s 1900 US census entry was a daughter Loretta, born in 1886.

28 “Two to Nothing,” Washington National Republican, May 25, 1880: 4.

29 “National vs. Field,” New York Clipper, August 14, 1880: 163. During the first inning of a scrimmage with a picked nine, “one of the sinews of [Lynch’s] pitching arm broke, and a smaller bone … slipped out of place.”

30 Professional baseball had been played for several years at the Union and Capitoline Grounds in Brooklyn, which was a separate city until January 1898, when it was incorporated into New York City.

31 “Base Ball in New York,” New York Sun, September 30, 1880: 4; “Metropolitan vs. National,” New York Clipper, October 9, 1880: 228.

32 A middle infielder, Crane appeared in 373 games between 1880 and 1890, playing for eight different teams in the NL, AA and Union Association. He played alongside Lynch on the 1883 New York Metropolitans and at the minor league level in 1888.

33 “Sam Crane Writes Series of Stories on Fifty Greatest Ball Players in History: Jack Lynch, No. 5.”

34 “Beaten by the Chicagos,” Washington National Republican, October 11, 1880: 4; “National vs. Chicago,” New York Clipper, October 23, 1880: 242; “The National Association,” New York Clipper, January 1, 1881: 325. Lynch pitched the first and third games of the series.

35 “First of the Season,” Buffalo Express, April 20, 1881: 4.

36 “Hurrah For Buffalo!” Buffalo News, May 3, 1881: 1. A third future Hall of Famer was added to the Bisons lineup in late June: Dan Brouthers.

37 Based on a game log compiled by the author from contemporary box scores and game summaries published in the Buffalo News and Buffalo Post.

38 Buffalo Evening News, August 12, 1881: 4; “Notes,” Buffalo Post, September 2, 1881: 3.

39 “The National Pastime,” Buffalo Courier, September 7, 1881: 2.

40 “Sporting Notes,” Buffalo Express, October 7, 1881: 4; “Baseball,” New York Clipper, October 8, 1881: 463.

41 Bill Lamb, “New York Metropolitans team ownership history,” SABR Team Ownership History Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/topic/new-york-metropolitans-team-ownership-history/#_edn21, accessed June 19, 2026; Robert D. Warrington, “Philadelphia in the 1882 League Alliance,” Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2019, https://sabr.org/journal/article/philadelphia-in-the-1882-league-alliance/

42 Clapp was suspended by the NL after the 1881 season, but no reason was ever publicly given. The Cleveland Leader concluded it was punishment for Clapp encouraging a walkout of Cleveland Blues ballplayers during a September 1881 exhibition game against the Mets.

43 “Stray Sparks From the Diamond,” New York Clipper, February 24, 1883: 791.

44 Lynch’s record includes games pitched against League Alliance, National League, collegiate and amateur club opponents and excludes intra-squad scrimmages, benefits and competitions against picked nines. Based on a game log compiled by the author from contemporary box scores and game summaries published in the Boston Globe, Brooklyn Eagle, Buffalo Express, Cincinnati Enquirer, Cleveland Leader, Detroit Free Press, New York Clipper, New York Sun, New York Times, New York Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Philadelphia Times.

45 “Base Ball Yesterday,” New York Sun, September 15, 1882: 3; “A Tie for the Trophy,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 26, 1882: 3; “The Washington and Philadelphia Nines Defeated,” New York Times, September 13, 1882: 2.

46 Crowd estimates ranged from 6,000 to “over 8,000.” The New York Times claimed the game was played before “the largest number of spectators that has ever assembled on the Polo Grounds.” The Times box score credited Chicago with three singles, while the New York Sun tabulation showed Lynch allowing only two singles. “A Fine Game in Which the Metropolitans Beat the Chicagos,” New York Times, May 30, 1882: 3; “Base Ball Yesterday,” New York Sun, May 30, 1882: 3; “Baseball Games,” New York Tribune, May 30, 1882: 3.

47 See, for example, “Five Games of Baseball at the Polo Grounds,” New York Times, May 31, 1883: 2; Stew Thornley, “The First and Last Games at the Polo Groundses,” The National Pastime, 2017, https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-first-and-last-games-at-the-polo-groundses/

48 “The Metropolitan Club,” New York Clipper, January 13, 1883: 695; “Baseball,” New York Clipper, March 31, 1883: 19; “The Diamond Field,” Nashville Tennessean, July 16, 1883: 5; “Notes and Comments,” Sporting Life, October 8, 1884: 5. The Club was decorated with “[a] picture gallery of prominent professionals” and after the Mets took the Association pennant a year later, with “all the balls won by the Mets this season.”

49 “Another Splendid Game,” Baltimore Sun, May 3, 1883: 1. Lynch earned the win on a game-ending hit by John O’Rourke, older brother of former Nationals’ teammate Jim O’Rourke.

50 “Cincinnati’s Seventh Defeat,” New York Times, August 19, 1883: 2; “Columbus vs. Metropolitan,” New York Clipper, September 1, 1883: 383.

51 “The National Game,” New York Sun, October 10, 1883: 2; “The National Game,” New York Sun, October 15, 1883: 3.

52 “Notes,” Cincinnati Enquirer, December 9, 1883: 11; “Sports and Pastimes,” Brooklyn Eagle, March 2, 1884: 3.

53 “At Oriole Park,” Baltimore Sun, May 3, 1884: 4. Two years later, Reipschlager was still catching Lynch bare-handed. See, for example, “Our Visitors,” Sporting Life, August 18, 1886: 5.

54 “The Mets Win,” Cleveland Leader, May 8, 1884: 6.

55 Bill Lamb, “Metropolitan Park (New York),” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/park/metropolitan-park-new-york/

56 “Diamond Chips,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 18, 1884: 5; “Notes of the Day,” Brooklyn Eagle, August 23, 1884: 2.

57 “Sporting,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, July 5, 1884: 8. Lynch was filling in for regular umpire Charles Daniels, who “was taken sick.” This was the only major league game that Lynch ever umpired. Fill-in arbiter John Magner, who conversely only played in one major league game, umpired the nightcap.

58 “The Baseball Field,” New York Times, October 24, 1884: 2. The New York Times called the series “the championship of the United States.”

59 “Baseball,” New York Clipper, November 8, 1884: 540; “Lynch Going Abroad to Teach the Englishmen How to Curve,” New York Times, November 10, 1884: 8.

60 “Lynch’s Dying Request,” Sporting Life, November 5, 1884: 5.

61 “Lynch’s Dying Request.”

62 “Notes and Comments,” Sporting Life, December 3, 1884: 5.

63 “On the Fly,” New York Clipper, February 7, 1885: 748; “Baseball,” New York Clipper, May 16, 1885: 131.

64 “Clapp & Lynch Embarrassed,” New York Times, July 2, 1885: 8. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch pointed to Lynch’s “inability to attend to business” (the Mets were on the road all of May) as one reason for the venture’s struggles. “Diamond Dust,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 8, 1885: 7. Lynch remained the saloon proprietor through at least August 13, as evidenced by reports of a row he had there with Mets teammate Jimmy Roseman. “Centre Fielder Roseman Cuts Up,” New York Sun, August 14, 1885: 1.  

65 Charlie Bevis, “Tim Keefe,” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Tim-Keefe/. At Day’s urging, Mutrie took Keefe and Esterbrook on an extended trip to Bermuda during which the pair were released from their Mets contracts and signed to NL contracts after expiration of the 10-day window during which uncommitted players could be signed by another Association club.

66 “Chat About the Diamond Field,” New York Tribune, April 26, 1885: 10; New York Clipper, May 9, 1885: 115; New York Clipper, May 2, 1885: 99.

67 “Four Home Runs,” Indianapolis Journal, May 17, 1885: 2. The other home run was hit by Frank Fennelly, whose 10 home runs in 1885 were second-most in the Association.

68 “The National Game,” New York Sun, September 10, 1885: 3.

69 “Diamond Dust,” Grand Rapids (Michigan) Telegram-Herald, April 24, 1887: 2. Of the 16 major-leaguers who had 600 or more plate appearances between 1881 and 1887 while pitching in at least 75% of the games that they played, nobody had fewer hits (134), home runs (0), total bases (162), or RBIs (28) than Lynch did.

70 Throughout the 1886 season, spectators at St. George Grounds could monitor progress as the France’s centennial gift to America, the Statue of Liberty, was assembled on nearby Bedloe (now Liberty) Island.

71 “The Mets Succumb to the Athletics,” Cincinnati Enquirer, April 18, 1886: 4; “Notes and Comments,” Sporting Life, May 26, 1886: 5. Lynch resigned the captaincy in May, with outfielder Jimmy Roseman succeeding him. “Baseball and Cricket,” New York Clipper, May 22, 1886: 158.

72 “Base Ball,” Brooklyn Eagle, May 7, 1886: 1.

73 “In the Baseball Field,” New York Sun, June 13, 1886: 7.

74 “Funny Cracks,” The Sporting News, July 12, 1886: 5. The front end of The Sporting News ode was lifted from “Hits Outside the Diamond,” Atlantic City (New Jersey) Review, July 7, 1886: 1.

75 “Base Ball Gossip,” New York Sun, December 26, 1886: 7; “Base Ball Gossip,” New York Sun, January 9, 1887: 7.

76 “New York News,” Sporting Life, January 26, 1887: 4.

77 “On The Fly,” Sporting Life, March 23, 1887: 3.

78 “From New York,” Sporting Life, March 30, 1887: 4; “Base Hits,” (New York) National Police Gazette, April 30, 1887: 14; “Base-Ball Gossip,” Cincinnati Enquirer, October 19, 1891: 2. The National Police Gazette described Lynch reaching third base with his hat in hand and “panting like an engine blowing off steam.”

79 Ferguson called on Lynch to pitch only twice over the 30 games in which he was in charge.  First baseman-turned-manager Dave Orr handed Lynch the ball in only the first of the eight games that he had the reins in-between Ferguson’s departure and Caylor’s arrival. Lynch played one game at first base during Ferguson’s tenure; on May 5, recording 16 putouts. “Metropolitan vs. Brooklyn,” New York Clipper, May 14, 1887: 137.

80 “Baseball Gossip,” Brooklyn Citizen, August 12, 1887: 2. No other AA team used more than eight starting pitchers in 1887. The Baltimore Sun claimed that Lynch turned an ankle while striking out on August 10 game in a game he pitched against the Orioles. Two weeks later, Sporting Life reported that Lynch had injured his knee, then followed up with a statement that he was at home nursing a charley-horse.  “Not a Candidate,” Sporting Life, August 24, 1887: 4; “Base-Ball Notes,” Baltimore Sun, August 11, 1887: 3; “New York Mention,” Sporting Life, August 31, 1887: 3.

81 “The Staten Islanders Win a Game by Heavy Hitting,” Baltimore Sun, August 9, 1887: 3.

82 “Good-By Metropolitans,” New York Sun, October 8, 1887: 5.

83 “A Change in the Metropolitan Club,” New York Sun, September 16, 1887: 3. A flabbergasted New York Sun sportswriter described the announcement of Lynch’s new training responsibilities as an “earthquake.” Suspicious of Lynch’s new assignment, the Baltimore Sun conjectured that it was “a new way of pushing the old man out of the business.” “Base-Ball Notes,” Baltimore Sun, September 19, 1887: 6.

84 “Metropolitan, 1; Cincinnati 11,” New York Herald, August 2, 1887: 3. The catcher was Irish-born Bill Collins, who was making his major league debut. He never caught another game for the Mets.

85 “Backstops,” New York World, April 3, 1888: 2.

86 “Base Ball Briefs,” Pittsburg Press, May 10, 1888: 5.

87 “Jonah Dusters!” New York Evening World, June 9, 1888: 1.  On June 9, the Chicago White Stockings paraded onto the Polo Grounds field in full-length, black swallowtailed coats behind the white-helmeted, baton-wielding Duval. The Giants pounded Chicago, 19-2, then chose to do them one better the next afternoon. They had Lynch, twirling a bat, lead the team onto the field, with each Giant wearing full-length linen dusters and white top hats. After reaching home plate, the Giants doffed their hats on Lynch’s signal and bowed to the crowd. “Hush a By, Baby,” New York Evening World, June 8, 1888: 1.

88 “Poor Ball Playing,” Philadelphia Record, June 18, 1888: 4.

89 “How the Day Was Lost,” Wilkes-Barre (Pennsylvania) Sunday Morning Leader, July 8, 1888: 6: “Base Ball Briefs,” Wheeling (West Virginia) Register, July 10, 1888: 4. Lynch collected two wins that day, earning a complete game triumph in the nightcap over the Wilkes-Barre Barons. Burkett was initially diagnosed with a broken arm and dislocated shoulder, but subsequent inspection revealed that he had “a strain of the ligaments and tendons about the elbow.” “Base Ball Notes,” Wilkes-Barre Leader, July 22, 1888: 5.

90 Based on a game log compiled by the author from contemporary box scores and game summaries published in the New York Times, Philadelphia Record, Scranton Republican, Wilkes-Barre Record, Morning Leader, Evening Leader, and Union-Leader.

91 “Gossip of the Ball Field,” New York Sun, January 13, 1889: 10.

92 In March 1890, the New York Clipper reported that Fred Carroll and Bill Kuehne of the AA Allegheny City club had built a baseball catapult, which they probably learned about from Lynch. An unnamed Clipper sportswriter claimed that the concept of a pitch catapult originated in England, where cricketers had been using them for decades, and that several years earlier Lynch had been shown a picture of such a device by a member of the Clipper staff. ”Stray Sparks from the Diamond,” New York Clipper, March 8, 1890: 859.

93 “In and Out-Door Sports,” New York Sun, February 2, 1889: 3; “In and Outdoor Sport,” New York Sun, February 3, 1890: 6; “Notes and Comments,” Sporting Life, February 9, 1887: 3; “Fordham’s Ball Players Alert,” New York Tribune, March 30, 1891: 4. Lynch first took on coaching college nines after the 1884 season at Princeton College (later Princeton University), and in 1888 trained ballplayers at both Fordham and Connecticut’s Wesleyan University. “Work and Play at Princeton,” New York Times, February 9, 1885: 3; “Sporting Matters,” Meriden (Connecticut) Republican, April 20, 1888: 4. “Sporting Matters,” Meriden Republican, April 20, 1888: 4.

94 “Gossip of the Ball Field.”

95 Brooklyn Eagle, March 8, 1889: 1.

96 “Jersey Athletics Beaten Again,” Jersey City (New Jersey) News, June 20, 1889: 3.

97 Stephen V. Rice, “Kid Carsey,” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/kid-carsey/#_edn1; “Base Ball Notes,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 29, 1889: 10; “Base Ball Notes,” Newark (New Jersey ) Sunday Call, August 25, 1889: 12. For his appearances against lesser foes, see, for example, New York Tribune, June 17, 1889: 2; “Metropolitan, 9; Five A’s, 3,” New York Times, August 17, 1889: 3, or “Stray Sparks from the Diamond,” New York Clipper, October 12, 1889: 521, which mentions a one-hitter that he authored.

98 “Stray Sparks from the Diamond,” New York Clipper, August 10, 1889: 361. Lynch never homered in 845 major-league plate appearances.

99 “Base-Ball Gossip,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, March 5, 1890: 8.

100 “Base Ball Notes,” New York Sun, March 29, 1890: 5.

101 “Brooklyn Again Defeated by the Syracuse Stars,” Brooklyn Eagle, April 20, 1890: 2.

102 “Base Ball Notes,” New York Sun, May 15, 1890: 4.

103 “Metropolitans, 19; Allertons, 7,” New York Sun, September 29, 1890: 4.

104 “The ‘Mets’ the Local Champions,” New York Times, October 4, 1885: 7; “Notes and Comments,” Sporting Life, May 27, 1885: 7; “A Good Wind-Up,” Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, July 16, 1886: 8.

105 “Pitcher ‘Jack’ Lynch Is Now One of Gotham’s ‘Finest,’” Port Jervis (New York) Union, October 10, 1891: 3; “News, Gossip, Editorial Comment,” Sporting Life, December 26, 1891: 2; “Editorial Views, News, Comment,” Sporting Life, May 14, 1892: 2.

106 “New York Base-Ball Gossip,” Cincinnati Enquirer, March 13, 1892: 2.

107 “About the Players,” Cleveland Leader and Herald, August 30, 1891: 16. A “never-failing source of merriment” for Lynch is his playing days was “a galvanic battery, which he carried for use in a glass arm.” Eliciting a teammate’s help, Lynch would strike up a conversation with strangers, “form a circuit while shaking hands …, turn on the current and keep the victims dancing while clasping hands in a very friendly manner.”

108 “Defeated by the Doctors,” New York Sun, August 6, 1892: 4.

109 “Policeman vs. Student,” New York Evening World, February 23, 1893: 11.

110 “Automobile Notes,” New York Tribune, November 17, 1900: 5. Boiler inspection in New York City was a responsibility of the police department in the early 1900s when the Department of Buildings was created.

111 “John H. Lynch, Famous Baseball Pitcher, at 67.”

112 “John H. Lynch, Famous Baseball Pitcher, at 67.” Lynch’s obituary in the New York American mistakenly gave his age as 67 and erroneously identified two of Lynch’s mourners, Billy Sunday and Sid Farrar, as his teammates on the 1884 Metropolitans. The pair played that year for the Chicago White Stockings and Philadelphia Phillies, respectively, and were never major-league teammates of Lynch’s.