Cy Ferry

Coming off consecutive 20-win seasons in the Class A Eastern League, big things were expected of 1904 Detroit Tigers pitching prospect Cy Ferry. But wildness and arm problems derailed the club’s hopes for Ferry and he was farmed out after making only three regular season appearances for the Tigers. A one-game audition for the 1905 Cleveland Naps closed the books on Ferry’s major league tenure. A year later, a season toiling in several minor leagues brought his playing days in Organized Baseball to an end.

Cy Ferry, however, was far from through with the game. For the next 30-plus years, he busied himself in a multitude of baseball-related endeavors – pitching and playing first base for semipro and unaffiliated pro teams; minor league managing and umpiring; coaching high school baseball; talent scouting; and organizing semipro and amateur baseball clubs throughout New England, particularly in his western Massachusetts hometown of Pittsfield and nearby North Adams. In recognition of such efforts, the local press dubbed him “the father of baseball in the Berkshires.”1 Ferry was still going at it when felled by a stroke in September 1938. His life story follows.

Alfred Joseph Ferry was born on September 1, 1877, in Hudson, New York, a small industrial hub located about 35 miles south of Albany. He was the second of seven children2 born to Hudson native Michael Ferry (1852-1898), a railroad switchman, and his Irish immigrant wife Delia (née Riley, 1852-1919). In 1881, the family relocated to Pittsfield, the place that our subject called home for the remainder of his life. Young Alfred attended local schools through 1895 graduation from Pittsfield High School, where he attracted attention as a standout on the baseball team.3 Thereafter, he continued playing ball, pitching and manning first base for area amateur clubs while working in a Pittsfield shoe factory. About this time, Ferry also acquired the lifelong nickname Cy.4

Cy Ferry entered professional baseball in spring 1899, signing with the Springfield (Massachusetts) Ponies of the Eastern League. A right-handed thrower, his assets included youth, formidable size – officially listed at 6-feet-1 and 170 pounds but likely larger5– a serviceable fastball, and “a large repertoire of wide and deceptive curves.”6 His primary deficiency was a lack of strike-zone command, a career-long problem. The righty-batting newcomer was also a good hitter and a decent-fielding outfielder-first baseman.

In early May, Ferry made a winning complete-game debut, spacing 11 hits and holding the Toronto Maple Leafs to three earned runs in an 18-9 Springfield victory. The effort drew plaudits from the local press. “‘Cy’ Ferry … did fine work in spite of Toronto’s dangerous spurts in the sixth and seventh innings,” reported the Springfield Republican.7 Days later, however, he suffered a different fate after surrendering 14 hits and seven walks to the Montreal Royals. The result: a 13-7 defeat. Used but once in relief thereafter, Ferry was released at month’s end, the Republican observing, “There is good stuff in Ferry and in another year he will doubtless be a reliable man. But Springfield needs a strong and experienced pitcher now.”8

Several weeks later, Ferry got another pro shot, joining the Albany Senators of the Class C New York State League, but was cut again after dropping two of three starts. He finished the year back home in Pittsfield pitching for assorted local semipro and amateur nines. In the fall, Cy matriculated to Manhattan College and pitched for the Jaspers during the spring 1900 semester. He returned home again that summer and resumed playing amateur ball until late July, when it was widely reported that Ferry was about to be reengaged by the Springfield Ponies.9 But he saw no game action with Springfield that season.

Ferry returned to the Eastern League fold in early 1901, inked by the Worcester Quakers. But at the close of the preseason, he was demoted to the Meriden Silver Citys of the Class F Connecticut State League.10 Cy got off to a fast start with his new club, capturing nine of his first 12 decisions. But in time, control problems and arm fatigue took their toll on his record. He finished with a substandard 14-18 (.438) log11 for a fourth-place Meriden club that otherwise went 41-32 (.521). Ferry enhanced his value, however, with part-time work in right field and batted a respectable (60-for-236) .254 in 72 games, overall.

Cy made yet another foray into the Eastern League in 1902, his release from Meriden having been purchased by the Buffalo Bisons.12 And benefiting from judicious handling by Bisons skipper George Stallings, Ferry blossomed into a consistent winner. After a mid-June triumph in Toronto, the opposition press declared that “Buffalo certainly has a find in the ungainly and raw-boned youth, Ferry. He has everything but control. … His speed is excellent and his curveball is as good as anything seen here.”13 Restricted to 34 game appearances (including time in the outfield), Ferry posted a superb 20-5 (.800) season record for the second-place (88-45, .662) Bisons. He also contributed a .318 batting average (34-for-107) with 10 extra-base hits to the Buffalo cause.

To no great surprise, Ferry’s performance attracted major league interest, with Washington Senators club boss Tom Loftus being the leading suitor.14 The Louisville and Toledo clubs of the then-outlaw American Association also pursued Ferry.15 But too late, as Stallings already had Ferry locked up for Buffalo in the 1903 season. While Loftus pursued ultimately fruitless negotiations for Ferry’s release, the pitcher resumed his college studies, enrolling in Niagara University for the winter term.16

That spring Ferry returned to Buffalo, where the 1903 season proved an encore of the previous year. Despite his imposing size, Ferry did not possess the rubber arm of a typical early Deadball Era hurler and could not be used profligately, a limitation fortunately recognized by manager Stallings. Deployed conservatively once again, Cy responded with another 20-win season (20-8, .714), while the Bisons (79-43, .648) repeated their second-place finish of the year before.

Major league interest in Ferry was again running high; the staff ace was likely to be lost in the postseason minor league player draft. Stallings moved preemptively, selling the contracts of Ferry and Buffalo outfielder Matty McIntyre to the Detroit Tigers in mid-September.17 Announcement of the transfers elicited a howl of protest from Pittsburgh Pirates club owner Barney Dreyfuss, who alleged that the transaction was a sham intended to shield Ferry from the draft. According to Dreyfuss, Detroit and Buffalo management had privately agreed to the return of the highly-prized pitcher to the Bisons once 1904 spring training was over.18 Ferry himself was also aggrieved, submitting an affidavit in support of the Dreyfuss charge of collusion between Detroit and Buffalo.19 He also signed a $400/month contract with Pittsburgh for the coming season.20

With the controversy the subject of a grievance submitted to the National Commission, Buffalo and Detroit hastily reformulated the transaction into a player trade, with Buffalo sending Ferry and McIntyre to the Tigers in exchange for Detroit shortstop Sport McAllister, third baseman Joe Yeager, and pitcher Rube Kisinger. That was good enough for Commission chairman Garry Herrmann. who thereafter dismissed the Dreyfuss grievance and ratified the transfer of Ferry (and McIntyre) to Detroit.21

By that time, another significant change had occurred in the life of Cy Ferry. He was a married man, having taken Buffalo resident Margaret Kinney as his bride on August 4, 1903. In time, the birth of sons Paul (in 1907) and Justin (1911) completed the family.22

However reluctantly, Ferry reported to spring training with Detroit in March 1904.23 Once in camp, Cy perplexed Tigers manager Ed Barrow by alternating flashes of pitching brilliance with bouts of wildness. More consequentially, it appears that Ferry suffered an arm injury during spring training – a career-altering event that went unmentioned in contemporary reportage but which subsequently became a staple of his biography.24

Whatever the condition of his salary wing, Ferry made the Opening Day roster but went unused in Detroit’s first 23 games. He finally made a belated major league debut on May 12, 1904, pitching two innings of scoreless, one-hit relief of starter Bill Donovan in an 8-1 away game loss to the Boston Americans. Ferry was less successful two days later in his first, and only, start for the Tigers. Once again facing Boston, Ferry “was strong in the box at times, and at others was as wild as a hawk.”25 Behind 4-2 entering the ninth, Ferry’s two-RBI single sparked a four-run rally that staked him to a two-run lead. He could not hold it, walking the first two Boston batters in the bottom of the ninth and eventually surrendering a game-tying single to Freddy Parent. In the top of the 11th, Ferry once more ignited a Detroit rally, leading off with a double down the left field line and then scoring the run that gave the Tigers another lead, 7-6. Perhaps drained by his baserunning exertions, Ferry failed to retire a batter when he returned to the slab, losing 8-7 on Buck Freeman’s bases-loaded single.26 Over 10-plus innings, Ferry spaced eight enemy base hits but was undone largely by the eight free passes that he issued to the Americans. He also hit a Boston batter while striking out three. The final judgment of the Boston Globe was that “Cy Ferry hit better than he pitched.”27

With Detroit trailing the Washington Senators 2-0 after two frames on May 20, manager Barrow summoned Ferry to relieve starter Jesse Stovall – but he “was very wild and irregular in his delivery” and lifted after pitching only one inning.28 Ferry never appeared for the Tigers again, being optioned to the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association (by then recognized and designated Class A) in early June.29

Ferry’s time in Minneapolis was beset by problems. First, he was reluctant to report, demanding to be placed with Montreal or another Eastern club, instead.30 After his arrival in Minneapolis, a throwing-hand finger injury hampered Ferry’s performance.31 Thereafter tendered a Millers contract, Cy refused to sign, maintaining that he remained under contract to the Tigers and would not sign anything that reserved him for Minneapolis in 1905. This prompted Millers club boss Bill Watkins to place the pitcher on suspension.32 An unhappy Ferry then threatened to quit professional baseball. “I think that I am right in the stand I have taken,” he declared. “There is a fast independent team at my home in Pittsfield, Mass., and I can connect with them for a bit of money and when I am not playing … I can work at my trade in the shoe factories there.”33 For the time being, Cy filed a grievance with the National Commission.

In time, the pitcher and the club privately settled their differences, and Ferry was back in a Minneapolis uniform by the time that the Commission formally dismissed his grievance.34 By season’s end, however, Ferry no longer fit in Minneapolis plans. Dissatisfied with his production (6-7 in 19 games), the Millers dispatched him to his old Eastern League club, the Buffalo Bisons, via what amounted to a three-way trade involving the AA Indianapolis Indians the following spring.35

Unhappy with Buffalo salary terms, Ferry refused to report and embarked upon a multi-club odyssey. He started the 1905 season with the Johnstown (Pennsylvania) Johnnies of the unrecognized Tri-State League.36 By early June, however, he deemed the outlaw circuit “a joke” and decided to report to the Eastern League Montreal Royals, a recent recipient of his contract rights. He lasted 11 games, spent mostly in the Royals outfield, before drawing his release in early July.37 A month later, Ferry was back home in Pittsfield when the unexpected happened: he received a summons from a major league club.38 Regrettably, Ferry’s audition by the American League Cleveland Naps proved a dud. Given a start against Boston at Huntington Avenue Grounds, the site of his major league debut the season before, Ferry lasted two innings, with hit batsmen and a two-run homer by Kip Selbach being his downfall. Cy received a no-decision in the 7-5 Cleveland defeat, and was released by the Naps days later.39

The Boston outing brought the brief tenure of Cy Ferry in the big leagues to a close. In four games, he posted a 0-1 record, with an unsightly 7.20 ERA in 15 innings pitched. A lack of control, as evinced by 11 walks and three hit batsmen, had been his primary shortcoming, as Ferry held the opposition to a respectable .259 batting average and registered six strikeouts. He had also helped himself with the bat, going 2-for-7 (.286) with two RBIs and two runs scored during his brief major league stay.

Following his release, Ferry did not remain idle for long, landing a berth with the Rutland (Vermont) entry in the four-club independent Northern League.40 He finished the year on the other side of the country, going 3-7 in 13 games for the Portland (Oregon) Giants of the extended-season Class A Pacific Coast League.

Ferry completed his playing time in professional baseball the following season with another coast-to-coast experience. He started that February, playing winter ball for Pomona and other California independent nines.41 In April, he rejoined another of his former minor league clubs, the Albany Senators of the now-Class B New York State League, signing primarily as a first base candidate.42 When that engagement proved brief,43 Ferry returned home where he initiated efforts to organize a Pittsfield club to be placed in the Northern League.44 The proposition died from insufficient financial backing,45 but the years to come would often see Ferry endeavoring to bring professional baseball to the Berkshires. In the short run, however, he returned to established clubs, putting in short pitching stints for the Binghamton Bingos of the NYS League, the Hartford Senators of the Connecticut State League (by then Class B), and Plattsburgh (New York) in the Northern League. That October Ferry finished the busy year playing first base for the Travelers, the semipro champions of western New York.46

As noted in the introduction, Cy Ferry spent the next 30-plus years immersed in baseball, mostly at the local amateur and semipro level. A comprehensive catalog of his endeavors, however, would double the size of this profile. Here, rather, is a selective account of the highlights. Ferry’s last stab at a professional career took the form of a quick 1907 tryout as a first baseman with the Trenton (New Jersey) Tigers of the now-recognized Class B Tri-State League. He was cut well before the season started.47 Upon his return home, Ferry became the baseball coach at Pittsfield High School and set about organizing a semipro ball club for his hometown,48 the first of the nines that he would put together over the next three decades. That Pittsfield club enjoyed success on the field (31-21-2), and the operation generated a small profit.49 This persuaded Ferry that professional baseball was viable in the area and fueled his near-tireless future efforts to place a minor league club there.

The 1908 edition of the Pittsfield club had three Ferrys on the pitching staff: ex-major leaguer Cy Ferry; younger brother Sylvester Ferry, a talented semipro twirler whose chances for a pro career were ruined by drink; and youngest brother Jack Ferry, a college star (Seton Hall) bound for a four-season stint with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1910-1913). In the years that followed, Cy also began taking an interest in local Democratic Party politics, becoming a delegate to various district conventions but failing in his attempts to attain elected office.

In 1912, the Detroit Tigers engaged Ferry as a scout but rejected his recommendation to sign an undersized catcher playing Class D ball in Illinois: future Hall of Famer Ray Schalk.50 Cy also continued playing semipro ball for various Western Massachusetts clubs. In 1917, he decamped Pittsfield for a season umpiring in the Class D North Carolina State League.51 He was soon back home, though – the circuit folded in late May, whereupon he took a job in Pittsfield’s General Electric plant.52

Curiously, Cy Ferry was excluded from the realization of a long-held ambition – the placement of a minor league club in his hometown. He had no connection to the Pittsfield Hillies, an Eastern League franchise that operated from 1919 through 1930.53 Rather, Ferry had to content himself with managing the Pittsfield Knights of Columbus team and fruitless efforts to bring minor baseball to nearby North Adams, Massachusetts.

In spring 1925, Ferry (by then 47 years old) returned to Organized Baseball, signing to manage the Fairmont (West Virginia) Maroons of the fledgling Class C Middle Atlantic League.54 But the Maroons got off to a 1-8 start and barely a month into the season, Cy was fired, reportedly to satisfy fan demand for a playing manager.55 Back home, he returned to his post at the GE plant and umpired industrial league and high school games during his leisure hours.

Notwithstanding the perils of the period, Ferry entered the construction business during the Great Depression, erecting Alfred Arms, a modern appliance-equipped apartment building in Pittsfield in late 1930.56 In April 1932, Ray Schalk, by then manager of the Buffalo Bisons, appointed erstwhile benefactor Ferry a Bison scout.57 The following year, Cy chaired a committee tasked with assaying the viability of the Eastern League’s return to Pittsfield.58 He also became an inventor, devising a portable back rest for bleacher seat patrons.59 In 1935, the financial risks of Depression-era construction projects finally struck Ferry – the family almost lost their longtime residence through foreclosure.60 Shortly thereafter, Pittsfield (likely in recognition of Ferry’s reduced circumstances) installed him in the federally funded position of playground counselor and overseer of city baseball leagues.61

Until the end of his life, Ferry remained actively engaged in promoting Pittsfield as a possible site for a minor league team.62 He died at St. Luke’s Hospital in Pittsfield on September 27, 1938, two days after suffering a stroke. Alfred Joseph “Cy” Ferry was 61. A Solemn Requiem Mass said at St. Mary, the Morning Star Church was followed by interment in the Ferry family plot in St. Joseph Cemetery, Pittsfield. Survivors included the deceased’s wife, two sons, brother Jack, and sister Alice Prendergast.

Sources

Sources for the biographical info supplied above include the Cy Ferry player questionnaire on file at the Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, New York; US Census data and other government records accessed via Ancestry.com; and the reportage of certain of the newspapers cited in the endnotes, particularly the Berkshire Evening Eagle and North Adams Evening Transcript. Unless otherwise specified, stats have been taken from Baseball-Reference.

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Gregory H. Wolf and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Kevin Larkin.

Notes

1 See e.g., “The ‘Official Prospectus’ Is Out,” (Pittsfield, Massachusetts) Berkshire Evening Eagle, January 24, 1910: 10. Professional baseball, however, had been played in the area since 1877 (See “Pittsfield’s First Professional Team,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, January 25, 1911: 10) and evidence that some form of the game was played locally dates to 1791. See John Thorn, Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 23, 55-57.

2 The other Ferry children were James (born 1876), William (1879), Mary Helen (1882), Sylvester (1883), John (1887), and Alice (1890).

3 Ferry also excelled in the new sport of basketball. His six-foot-plus height made him a natural center and he played offseason hoops throughout his early years in professional baseball. See e.g., “Sporting: Three Basketball Games,” Pittsfield (Massachusetts) Sun, December 26, 1902: 7.

4 Although the suspicion is that the moniker derived from star major league hurler Cy Young, the origin of Ferry’s nickname was not revealed in the reportage reviewed by the writer.

5 Throughout his career, adjectives like tall, long, lanky, and elongated were applied by the press to Ferry, and one published report listed him as “six-foot-two in height and weighs about 190 pounds.” See “Cy Ferry Signed by Larry Lajoie,” Washington (DC) Times, August 1, 1905: 9.

6 “Local Intelligence,” North Adams (Massachusetts) Evening Transcript, April 21, 1899: 5.

7 Per “Ponies Take a Rugged One,” Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, May 6, 1899: 3. See also, “Nubbins of the News,” Sporting Life, May 13, 1899: 8: “Ferry, one of the Springfields new young pitchers, made a favorable impression.”

8 “Worcester Drops Behind Us,” Springfield Republican, May 27, 1899: 3.

9 According to “Items of Interest,” Sporting Life, August 4, 1900: 7; “Town and Country,” Pittsfield Sun, July 26, 1900: 5; and reports published elsewhere.

10 As subsequently reported in “Sporting Notes,” Worcester Daily Spy, June 10, 1901: 3.

11 As calculated by the writer from box/line scores published in the Connecticut press. Baseball-Reference provides no Meriden pitching stats for Ferry.

12 As reported in “Gets Release from Meriden,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, March 24, 1902; “Sport Boiled Down,” Buffalo Evening News, March 21, 1902: 10; “Magnate Stallings Signed ‘Cy’ Ferry for Buffalo,” Buffalo Evening Times, March 15, 1902: 8.

13 “Ferry’s Future,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, June 23, 1902: 3, quoting the Toronto Telegram.

14 Per “Asked for Ferry’s Terms,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, October 29, 1902: 8.

15 Per “Sporting Notes,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, November 6, 1902: 4, and “Toledo Wants Ferry,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, October 24, 1902: 6.

16 As reported in “Where Bisons Will Spend the Winter and What They Will Do,” Buffalo Evening Times, September 23, 1902: 3.

17 See “Buffalo Trade Is Announced,” Detroit Free Press, September 14, 1903: 19; “Buffalo to Lose Ferry, McIntyre, and Milligan,” Buffalo Evening Times, September 10, 1903: 10.

18 See “Dreyfuss Doings,” Sporting Life, October 31, 1903: 2; “Baseball Notes,” Pittsburg Press, October 21, 1903: 14; “Row Over Buffalo Players Sold by Stallings,” Buffalo Evening Times, October 17, 1903: 8.

19 “Cy Ferry Is Talking Some,” Illustrated Buffalo Express, October 25, 1903: 19. In his affidavit, Ferry complained that “if the Detroit game holds good, it will knock me out of a chance to play in major league company.”

20 Per “Ferry for Pittsburg,” Elmira (New York) Daily Gazette, October 19, 1903: 2; “Pirates Claim to Have Signed Ferry,” Buffalo Enquirer, October 15, 1909: 3.

21 Per “Latest Decisions,” Sporting Life, November 7, 1903: 1; “Late News: Decisions by Herrmann,” The Sporting News, October 31, 1903: 1. Because the Dreyfuss grievance involved a dispute between National and American League clubs, National Commission protocol mandated the recusal of NL President Harry Pulliam and AL President Ban Johnson and resolution of the matter solely by Commission chairman Herrmann.

22 Infant daughter Alice died the day after her birth in April 1909.

23 Among other things, Ferry was displeased that his Detroit contract allotted him only $325 a month, not the $400 of his voided pact with Pittsburgh. See “Cy Ferry Says His Contract Won’t Do,” Detroit Free Press, February 23, 1904: 3; “Cy Ferry Kicks,” Buffalo Express, February 22, 1904: 11; “Wants $400 a Month,” Boston Globe, February 20, 1904: 11.

24 See e.g., “Cy Ferry, Old Time Star of Diamond, Passes Away,” North Adams Evening Transcript, September 28, 1938: 11; “Alfred J. Ferry Passes: Pitched in Major League,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, September 27, 1938: 1; “The ‘Official Prospectus’ Is Out,” above.

25 “It Took Two Extra Innings,” Boston Globe, May 15, 1904: 1.

26 Same as above, 1-2. See also, “11 Rounds but a Defeat,” Detroit Free Press, May 15, 1904: 11, which stated that “Ferry pitched a plucky game but lost control.”

27 “Echoes of the Game,” Boston Globe, May 15, 1904: 2.

28 “Sports of All Sorts,” Washington (DC) Evening Star, May 21, 1904: 10. Thereafter, five innings of scoreless relief by Ed Killian held the final score to Washington 3, Detroit 0.

29 As reported in “Ferry Farmed,” Dayton Daily News, June 7, 1904: 11; “Pitcher Ferry Is Loaned to Millers,” Minneapolis Journal, June 7, 1904: 12; and elsewhere.

30 Per “Baseball Briefs,” Providence Evening Bulletin, June 13, 1904: 13.

31 As subsequently disclosed in “Ferry Tired of Doing Nothing,” Minneapolis Journal, July 20, 1904: 14.

32 See “Watkins Suspends Ferry,” Minneapolis Times, July 12, 1904: 10; “Dodging Farming,” Pittsburg Press, July 12, 1904: 12.

33 Per “Ferry Tired of Doing Nothing,” above.

34 See “The Ferry Case Settled,” Sporting Life, August 20, 1904: 9, the Commission announcing that “we cannot see where this player has any grievance whatever and our finding is that he properly belongs to the Minneapolis club.”

35 As reported in the Providence Evening Bulletin, March 11, 1905: 3. See also, “Ferry Again Goes to Buffalo,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, March 10, 1905: 2

36 As reported in “Buffalo Loses Four Men,” Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Patriot, April 17, 1905: 6; “Baseball Notes,” Waterbury (Connecticut) Evening Democrat, April 12, 1905: 10; and elsewhere.

37 “Cy Ferry, the Last Royal Player to Be Released,” Montreal Daily Star, July 7, 1905: 2.

38 As reported in “Ferry to Go Higher,” Waterbury Evening Democrat, August 2, 1905: 10; “Cy Ferry Signed by Larry Lajoie,” above; and elsewhere. The illness of staff ace Addie Joss left Cleveland temporarily short of pitchers.

39 As reported in “Ferry Is Released,” Buffalo Courier, August 9, 1905: 9; “‘Cy’ Ferry Released by Cleveland,” North Adams Evening Transcript, August 9, 1905: 2; and elsewhere.

40 Per “Cy Ferry Goes to Rutland,” North Adams Evening Transcript, August 11, 1905: 2. Ferry’s new circuit, also known as the Vermont League, is not to be confused with the 1905 Class D Northern League of the Upper Midwest and Canada.

41 See “Locals,” Pomona (California) Daily Review, February 3, 1906: 1. See also, “Field of Sports,” Stockton (California) Evening Record, March 19, 1906: 4.

42 See “Albany Signs Ferry,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, April 10, 1906: 3; “Cy Ferry’s Plans,” Meriden (Connecticut) Daily Journal, April 9, 1906: 8.

43 Ferry was released by Albany after a one-game tryout. See “Small Talk of the Sporting World,” Detroit Times, May 10, 1906: 7. See also, “From California to Pine Tree State,” North Adams Evening Transcript, October 15, 1908: 2.

44 See “Cy Ferry’s Plans for Pittsfield Team,” Meriden Daily Journal, May 12, 1906: 8; “Mackey Repudiates Suggestion,” North Adams Evening Transcript, May 12, 1906: 2.

45 “Ferry Gives It Up,” Pittsfield Sun, May 17, 1906: 1.

46 As reported in various Buffalo newspapers during early October 1906.

47 As reported in “Local Baseball Chat,” Trenton (New Jersey) Sunday Advertiser, March 31, 1907: 7; “Sporting Notes,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, March 30, 1907: 10; and elsewhere.

48 See “Pittsfield Will Have a Team,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, May 24, 1907: 13.

49 See “Baseball Season a Success Financially and Otherwise,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, September 24, 1907: 3.

50 Ferry subsequently passed a tip about Schalk to Charles Havenor, the owner of the American Association Milwaukee Brewers who quickly scooped up the prospect. Two months later, Havenor sold Schalk to the Chicago White Sox for a reported $10,000. See “Milwaukee Sells Ferry’s Find to Chicago Team for $10,000,” North Adams Evening Transcript, July 30, 1912: 8. A fuller account of the Ferry-Schalk connection was published years later when Schalk appointed Ferry a scout for the minor league club that Schalk was managing. See “Cy Ferry to Scout for Buffalo Ball Club of International League,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, April 15, 1932: 22.

51 Per “City Notes,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, April 17, 1917: 4.

52 Per “Sporting Comment,” North Adams Evening Transcript, June 14, 1917: 10.

53 The events attending the organization and operation of the Pittsfield Hillies is related in “With Approach of Baseball Season Fans Hark Back to Other Days – Famous Games and Players,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, March 1, 1926: 11.

54 As reported in “Cy Ferry Named Fairmont Manager in New League,” Pittsburgh Gazette Times, March 27, 1925: 11. See also, “To Manage Fairmont Club in South,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, April 11, 1925: 2.

55 According to “Ira Rodgers Is Named Manager at Fairmont,” Pittsburgh Gazette Times, June 26, 1925: 12.

56 A full-page advertisement for Alfred Arms, complete with photograph of the two-story edifice, was published in the Berkshire Evening Eagle, February 21, 1931: 3.

57 As reported in “Schalk Picks Ferry as Scout for Buffalo,” Boston Globe, April 16, 1932: 9; “‘Cy’ Ferry Named to Scouting Job by Buffalo Club,” Springfield Republican, April 16, 1932: 5.

58 See “Money Is Sought for League Club,” North Adams Evening Transcript, March 25, 1933: 9.

59 See “Former Local Ball Player Takes Pity on Bleacherites,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, May 17, 1934: 2; “Fourth Strikes,” Springfield Republican, April 16, 1934: 6.

60 See “Threatened with Loss of Home, Owners Keep It and Get $2000 Also,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, April 24, 1935: 2. Ferry had posted the family home as collateral for a loan on a building project. In the end, the matter was resolved via an amicable, if complicated, out-of-court settlement with the lender bank.

61 Per “Job for Cy Perry,” North Adams Evening Transcript, May 7, 1935: 13; “Ferry Is ERA Baseball Man,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, May 6, 1935: 14.

62 Per “‘Cy’ Ferry Tells Council City Will Have Baseball If Deming Park Improved,” Berkshire Evening Eagle, January 26, 1937: 3.