Infielder Trent Durrington’s approach to baseball was best summed up when his national team took on the sport’s traditional powers in the 2006 World Baseball Classic. “Durro”, who got into 140 major-league games from 1999 through 2005, was never a heavy hitter, but he ran and fielded well. He was also very versatile, playing all nine positions during his 14 years as a pro in the US (1994 to 2007). Similar players who broke through to more extended careers in the majors were Bob Bailor, Lance Blankenship, and Joe McEwing. Perhaps if Durrington had ever played for Tony La Russa – a leading backer of supersubs such as Blankenship and McEwing – the Aussie might at least have enjoyed one full season in “The Show.” Yet along with his energy and versatility, he earned his chances when he got on base.

Just before Durrington made his big-league debut in August 1999, Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times described him neatly. “The Angels’ new second baseman has the body of a miniature pulling guard, the voice of Crocodile Dundee and a sunny disposition that shines every time he greets a new face with his native, ‘G’day, mate.’ ” He was “a stout 5 feet 9 and 175 pounds with thick thighs and a low center of gravity.”i ii

Trent John Durrington was born on August 27, 1975, in Australia’s biggest city, Sydney. He was the second of Douglas and Sheila Durrington’s two children, following his sister, Vanessa. As a youth Durrington played two of Australia’s more traditional sports, rugby and cricket. He started playing baseball at the age of 14, when his family moved from Sydney to the Gold Coast (to the north, in the state of Queensland). Durrington told the story several times during his playing career, but the way he started was always the same: “I loved baseball from Day One.”

That day came as young Trent attended the Southport School, a prestigious Anglican day and boarding school for boys located on the Gold Coast. In 2012 Australian baseball author Nicholas R.W. Henning said, “It is one of the most elite schools in all of Queensland, and its alumni include many notable high-profile Australians. In sports many international rugby players attended TSS. It’s similar to the school from the film Dead Poets Society.” Dana Oppedisano of the Naples News, writing during spring training 2006, added, “Durrington embraced the game through his father – a traveling businessman who brought an affection for baseball home with the suitcase of souvenirs – and some American classmates who showed up at his school when he was a teenager.”iii

Durrington told Oppedisano, “I think it was just the feeling of hitting the baseball, clean and crisp. With a cricket ball, unless you’re bowling, you can get out in the field and not see a ball for three or four outs. It was just a lot more excitement.” A few weeks later that spring, he told another journalist, Anthony Sharwood of the Australian men’s magazine Alpha, “I liked playing backyard cricket like every Australian kid, but I just wasn’t into spending the whole day playing, you know?”iv

Durrington joined a club team for teenagers in Queensland called Surfers Paradise (named for the Brisbane suburb). He was selected for the Australian junior national baseball team in 1992 and ’93 and was promoted to the national team in ’93.v In between, he also made his pro debut, going 0-for-2 in seven games with the Gold Coast Dolphins of the Australian Baseball League. The ABL had begun operations in the summer – in Southern Hemisphere terms – of 1989-90. It replaced the Claxton Shield, an interstate amateur tournament, as Australia’s leading baseball platform.

Durrington was part of the team that represented Australia in the 1993 Intercontinental Cup, held that summer in Italy. At some point during the year, he came to the attention of the California Angels. A September 1993 feature in the Los Angeles Times about superscout Ray Poitevint, then international scouting director for the Angels, detailed the team’s efforts overseas. It said that 17-year-old Trent was one of the Pacific Rim prospects signed that year.vi

Durrington returned to the ABL for the 1993-94 season; his team had been renamed the East Coast Cougars. He went 15-for-81 (.185) with one double and 4 RBIs in 36 games – yet he still impressed his manager, Adrian Meagher. Meagher, one of the earlier Aussies in the US minors, pitched in the States from 1983 through 1988, climbing as high as Triple-A. He remained active at home as a player, coach, and manager for years to come, becoming one of Australia’s most respected baseball figures. As an Angels scout, Meagher also received credit for signing Durrington.vii

“It was a big decision to come over here and a big decision for my parents to let me go,” Trent told Anthony Sharwood. “When I arrived, I soon learned I didn’t know anything about the game. The pay’s shocking at the lower levels, too, but I stuck with it.”viii

After getting his feet wet in 16 games in the Arizona Rookie League in 1994, Durrington played again at home for the Cougars. He still didn’t hit much: 19-for-100 (.190) with six doubles in 42 games. For the summer of 1995, he went to Boise in the Northwest League (short-season Class A). There he hit just .171-3-19 in 50 games.

Durrington made a breakthrough in the ABL in 1995-96. He hit .283-1-9 in 35 games for the Cougars (the team was once again known under the Gold Coast name) and stole 11 bases without getting caught. Even so, the Angels organization kept him at Boise to start 1996, and he hit for better average (.279-0-14) – while also drawing notice for the stuffed, mounted kangaroo head above his locker.ix He earned promotion to Cedar Rapids in the Midwest League (regular Class A). Overall, he stole 39 bases.

Durro slid back with the Cougars in 1996-97, hitting just .204-0-16 in 44 games, though he did steal 24 bases. Nonetheless, he advanced to the California League (high A) for 1997. With Lake Elsinore, his hitting remained modest (.247-3-36 in 123 games), but he stole 52 bases. He followed up with his last – and best – season in the ABL. In 47 games for the Cougars, he hit .305-3-22 with 28 steals. He also cut his errors down to just two.

Thus he climbed another rung in the US in 1998, joining Midland in the Double-A Texas League. He split time at second base with Hawaiian Keith Luuloa and appeared in the outfield, plus a little bit at third base and shortstop. It was not an auspicious year in offensive terms (.225-1-30 with just 24 steals in 112 games).

Durrington started the 1999 season with Erie in the Eastern League, and he performed much better. He lifted his average to .288 in 107 games, and he drew 52 walks, boosting his on-base percentage to .379. He also stole 59 bases while hitting 3 homers and driving in 34. Then, in August, a series of events brought him to the majors for the first time, before he’d ever played Triple-A ball. Mike DiGiovanna wrote, “With Randy Velarde traded to the Oakland Athletics, Andy Sheets struggling to hit .200 and Justin Baughman recovering from a broken leg, the Angels want an extended look at the fleet-footed Durrington, who could be the team’s leadoff batter in 2000 if he impresses Angel coaches and front-office executives in Anaheim.”x

Trent recalled in 2006, “I was playing in Erie and we’d had a day off, so I traveled to Niagara Falls with my parents and sister, who happened to be visiting. Then I got the call. It was a game against Boston and I got a hit at my first at-bat.”xi In fact, he hit the very first pitch he saw in the majors, from Bret Saberhagen, into right field for a single.xii

When Durrington took the field that Friday night, August 6, at Edison International Field of Anaheim, he became the seventh player trained Down Under to appear in the majors. He was also the first with the given name Trent. Through the 2011 season, there had been one more – another Australian, Trent Oeltjen.xiii

The rookie got into 43 games for the Angels in 1999, starting 36 of them. He hit in seven of his first eight games and made a strong first impression. Mike DiGiovanna wrote, “Angel coaches like Durrington’s enthusiasm, energy, and work ethic, and he seems to have a good head for the game.” The sportswriter also quoted Angels general manager Bill Bavasi (“He is not scared, and that will pay off”) and coach Larry Bowa (“I like everything about him so far”). Trent himself said, “The first couple of days were mind-boggling, but now I come to the yard ready to perform.”xiv

However, he ended the season with an 0-for-21 slump. That left him at just .180, with no homers and 2 RBIs, and he had just two doubles among his 22 base hits. Yet Angels manager Terry Collins lived up to what he had told DiGiovanna when Durrington arrived. “He’s not here to audition, he’s here to play. He can’t worry about what’s going to happen next year. I don’t want him to be thinking after an 0-for-4 [game] that it might affect his chances for next year.”xv

DiGiovanna, who also served as Angels beat writer for The Sporting News, offered further observations that September. “Trent Durrington has a good arm, above-average range, a good glove, and can turn double plays fairly well, but he has not shown he can handle major-league pitching. He flies out too much, which renders his speed useless. How he does in the Arizona Fall League could determine whether the team tries to sign or trade for an established second baseman this winter.”xvi

Durrington did well enough to compete with Scott Spiezio and Pat Kelly for the second-base job in spring training 2000. The competition was narrowed down to him and Spiezio in March, but as Mike DiGiovanna wrote, “Durrington is a better fielder than hitter, and Spiezio is a better hitter than fielder.”xvii Therefore, the Angels landed Adam Kennedy in a trade that sent Jim Edmonds to St. Louis, and Durro started the 2000 season at Triple-A Edmonton.

An amusing moment that March came when Reggie Jackson paid a visit to the Angels’ Arizona camp to see some old friends. Durrington wanted an autograph from the Hall of Famer, but despite what he said in 2006 about Aussies not being intimidated, he sent teammate Mo Vaughn to make the request. “Trent was too scared to ask you himself,” Vaughn said.xviii “Good,” Jackson said, when told of Durrington’s apprehension. “That means I still have some Reggie left in me.”xix

California recalled Durrington in May because starting shortstop Gary DiSarcina had a sore shoulder. He got into four games from May 9 through May 13, with three of those appearances coming as a pinch-runner. He was then sent back to Edmonton as the Angels called up Keith Luuloa for what turned out to be his only cup of coffee in the majors. The rest of the year did not go well for Trent; he got hurt and appeared in just 28 games for the Trappers.

The 2000 Summer Olympics were held in Sydney, but injury kept Durrington from being part of the Australian squad, to which he had been selected. According to A History of Australian Baseball by Joe Clark, various major-league franchises made moves to keep Aussie ballplayers out of the tournament. The Los Angeles Dodgers promoted pitchers Jeff Williams and Luke Prokopec to the majors and put Double-A farmhand Adrian Burnside on the disabled list. Meanwhile, “Anaheim and Baltimore protected their interests in injured players Trent Durrington and John Stephens by having them undergo major arm surgeries.”xx This account is at odds with other sources, though, which indicate that the Anaheim organization released Durrington on August 9.

That November, Durro received the Australian Sports Medal, an honor introduced at year-end 1998 to recognize the nation’s sporting achievements. In December the other Southern California franchise – the Los Angeles Dodgers – signed him as a free agent. He played 22 games for Las Vegas, their top affiliate, and was released in May after hitting .218-1-2 in 22 games. The very next day, though, the Angels picked him back up and assigned him to Double-A Arkansas in the Texas League. With the Travelers, Trent showed some more power for the first time, hitting 10 homers in 217 at-bats. His .291 average also got him back to Triple-A Salt-Lake City for 39 games.

Durrington started the 2002 season at Arkansas again, taking the step back to learn how to play catcher. In April, there was a bit of a flap with Rich Pharris, the organist at Little Rock’s Ray Winder Field. The Australian had grown tired of hearing “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” as he came to the plate. “It’s a little annoying,” he said, and asked that it be replaced with “anything else.” Pharris switched to “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad,” but distracted Durrington by playing while he was at the plate. The umpire refused to grant time, but Tim Ireland, managing the visiting Tulsa Drillers, was even more annoyed. His pitcher had fallen behind in the count, 3-0, and Ireland – who had a longstanding complaint with Pharris’s act – was ejected after an argument. Durrington walked on the next pitch, stole two bases, and scored on an error to tie the game.xxi That kind of play suggests why he also got into 19 games for Salt Lake City, though his hitting totals were just fair for the Travelers (.246-9-47 in 107 games).

Durrington returned to Salt Lake in 2003 and had his best year overall as a pro, hitting .304 in 117 games with 7 homers and 54 RBIs. In mid-August, after the Angels put David Eckstein on the disabled list, Trent made it back to the majors for the first time in more than three years. He got into 12 games for the Angels over the rest of the season – pinch-hitting, pinch-running, and playing in the DH role as well as second, third, and left field.

After becoming a free agent again that October, Durrington signed the following month with the Milwaukee Brewers organization. “I told [general manager Doug Melvin] I wasn’t chasing money, I was chasing opportunity.” Brewers manager Ned Yost said, “I like everything about him. He’s versatile, he can steal a base, he can hit. And I wouldn’t be afraid to play him at any position on the field.”xxii

Despite the arrival of Craig Counsell and Junior Spivey in a trade with Arizona, Durrington made the Opening Day roster in 2004 for the first time in his big-league career. He served almost exclusively as a pinch-hitter while filling in at third and second. On April 17 at Houston, he also made his only big-league pitching appearance. The Astros were leading 14-5, and he moved over from third base to get the last out of the eighth inning. “I threw one pitch, to Jose Vizcaino, and he popped it up,” Trent remembered in 2006.xxiii

A special highlight came on May 26 as Durrington hit his first major-league homer, off Odalis Pérez of the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 26 at Miller Park. The pinch-hit solo shot tied the game at 1-1, and the Brewers eventually won 2-1 in 12 innings. Milwaukee optioned Durro to Triple-A Indianapolis in June, but he returned about six weeks later. On August 4 he hit his other big-league homer. It also came as a pinch-hitter, off Mike Stanton of the New York Mets at Miller Park with nobody on base. Milwaukee got a little closer, 6-4, but eventually lost, 6-5.

Although he took part in qualifying and pre-Olympic tourneys that spring, Durrington once again did not play for Australia in the 2004 Summer Games. This time, though, it was his choice. “Australian organizers contacted Brewers general manager Doug Melvin to see if Durrington would be available to play. Melvin gave his approval but Durrington, who was at Triple-A at the time, declined. ‘It was pretty apparent I had a shot to get called up,’ he said. ‘The reason you go to the Olympics is to help the Australian team, but the reason I’m here is to be in the major leagues. It was a chance to be in the Olympics against a chance to be in the major leagues, and it was a no-brainer.'” He correctly predicted that his homeland would win a medal, along with Cuba.xxiv However, he did not foresee Australia’s exciting 1-0 win over his other medal pick, Japan. That sent the green and gold squad into the Gold Medal game against Cuba, but the Aussies had to settle for silver.

Durrington opened the 2005 season at Triple-A again. He performed well for Milwaukee’s new top farm team, Nashville, hitting .300-5-31 in 92 games and stealing 30 bases. The Brewers called him up in late June, and he got into the final 28 games of his big-league career. His duties consisted almost solely of pinch-hitting and pinch-running; he played just two innings in the field, at third base. He was 3-for-14, bringing his lifetime average in the majors to .196 (46-for-235).

During the offseason, Durrington represented the Queensland Rams in the Claxton Shield competition, which returned after another incarnation of the Australian pro league folded in 2001. He was the star of the tournament, “singling home the winning run for Queensland to complete a comeback from a 7-0 deficit.”xxv Trent said, “I go into spring training in the States every year fighting for a job. Playing in the Claxton Shield gives me a chance to face live pitching and get your timing and feel back at bat. That’s why the tournament is great preparation for spring training. It’s the reason I have hit very well over there for the last four years.”xxvi

Then Craig Shipley, the first Australian-trained player in the majors, reached out. Shipley was serving as vice president of professional and international scouting for the Boston Red Sox, and Durro signed a minor-league contract with Boston in February 2006. He “became one of [manager] Terry Francona‘s favorite players during spring training due to his boundless energy and ability to play eight positions, which came in handy on long bus trips when the Red Sox were dealing with a limited roster.”xxvii

The Australian national team was also training at the Red Sox facilities in Fort Myers, Florida. The World Baseball Classic took place in Orlando that March, and Australia lost its opener to Italy, 10-0. The Italian team was “made up entirely of American-born players with Italian heritage – including the likes of 11-time major-league All Star Mike Piazza. . . Trent Durrington struck Australia’s only hit of the game.”xxviii Yet even when the mercy rule was about to be invoked, the Aussies still hustled. Said Durrington, “As Australians, we’re going to compete until the end. We’re going to dive for balls and play all-out. On the flip side of that, you’ve got to execute.” Australia went on to play competitively in losses to Venezuela (2-0) and the Dominican Republic (6-4).xxix

Durrington knew that he was a long shot to make the Boston roster, but he got to the final round of cuts in April before he was assigned to Triple-A Pawtucket. Anthony Sharwood’s feature was written while Durro was with the PawSox. “Yeah, I’ve bounced back and forth a little bit,” he told Sharwood. “I’ve seen every bit of America, and I don’t really have any loyalty to any particular club. My goals right now are to get back to the majors, establish myself and play for the rest of the season. I’m 30 and there’s no reason I can’t keep playing at the top level until I’m 38 or 39.”xxx

Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson added, “He’s the most versatile player I’ve ever coached, and I’ve managed for 14 years. You can put him in left field, you can put him in right, you can put him in center, and he plays all the infield positions, too. I’ve had guys that can play different positions, but I’ve had very few guys who do ’em all well. He even pitched one inning for me this year and it was pretty darn good.”xxxi Johnson’s memory was a little faulty; Durro went three innings and took the loss in the 16th inning as he gave up two earned runs. But he was helping the team, “with the PawSox’ staff handcuffed by a Sunday doubleheader and strictly monitored pitch counts for top prospects.”xxxii

Durrington hit .233-3-30 with 32 steals in 112 games for Pawtucket. In August the Boston Globe wrote, “Take away Trent Durrington’s slow start, and the Aussie would be making a strong case for a September call-up.”xxxiii Boston did not summon him, though, and he signed a minor-league deal with the Cleveland Indians in February 2007. He joined Cleveland’s Triple-A team, the Buffalo Bisons. He played six positions, including two more outings on the mound. He got a win on May 5 at Buffalo’s Dunn Tire Park, despite walking in two runs, when the Bisons scored nine runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat Pawtucket, 15-14.xxxiv

But Durro spent at least three stretches on the disabled list with assorted injuries and hit just .226-1-20 in 73 games that season. He thereupon retired. Although he liked many things about the United States, his deep Australian identity brought him back home to Broadbeach Waters on the Gold Coast. A few years before he quit, he had become involved with real estate. In his leisure time, he enjoyed surfing, water skiing, golf, and fishing. Trent’s wife, Alison (“Aly”), is a professional water skier, a trick performer at Sea World Australia.xxxv The Durringtons welcomed their first child, a son named Max, in February 2007.xxxvi Daughter Isabella followed in February 2010.

The Australian Baseball League, which went defunct after the 2001-02 season, was re-formed in 2010. As of 2012 Durrington had not been involved with the latest incarnation of the ABL, although he did operate the Trent Durrington School of Baseball for a time after retiring, while also offering training programs in collaboration with the Surfers Paradise club. After living and working in Sydney for a few years, he and his family were back in Queensland as of 2012.

Although Durrington was on a different career path and life as a father and husband, he still helped coach the state U16 and U18 teams. In April 2012 he offered the following insight on what baseball has meant to him.

“I am what I am today because of the game of baseball. The game has taught me determination, tenacity, and bravery. Although living a very busy life raising a family and working, I still miss the daily battles the game provided. I do reflect on the team comradeship and having the common goal to win daily and over the course of a season. These are some of the attributes I bring to my career now as a project manager for a development and construction company here on the Gold Coast.”

Grateful acknowledgment to Trent and Doug Durrington for their memories (e-mails, April 5 and 10, 2012) and to Steve Horrigan (secretary, Surfers Paradise Baseball Club) for the introduction. Continued thanks to Nicholas R.W. Henning in Australia for his input.

Sources

www.baseball-reference.com

www.retrosheet.org

Peter Flintoff & Adrian Dunn, Australian Major League Baseball: The First Ten Years (Self-published and printed independently: 2000). Used as a source for Australian Baseball League statistics only.

www.baseball.com.au

www.surfersbaseball.com

Notes

Lloyd, the third Australian-trained major-leaguer, was also the first pitcher from Down Under to reach the majors (1993). By the end of 2011, 18 more hurlers had followed him.3 None, however, had appeared in more games than Lloyd’s 568. He pitched 533 innings, showing that he was used as a specialist for much of his career, but he did post 17 saves to go with his 30-36 won-lost record and 4.04 ERA. For middle relievers, perhaps the most telling statistic is the percentage of inherited runners allowed to score; over his career, Lloyd’s mark was a respectable 141 out of 447 (32%). He also had a spotless 0.00 ERA in 13 postseason appearances, including a win in Game Four of the 1996 World Series.

Except for an unusual visa issue, Lloyd could have stayed in the majors beyond 2003 – but he was then free to join the Australian national team as they won a silver medal in the 2004 Olympics. In late 2008, he became a coach in his native land.

Graeme John Lloyd was born on April 9, 1967 in Geelong. This small city (pronounced Juh-LONG) is about 60 kilometers southeast of Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria. His father, Noel, was a sheep rancher.4 The ranch was in Gnarwarre, a little to the west of Geelong. Noel and his wife Pauline also had three daughters named Deborah, Sherryn, and Jennine.

At the age of 10, Lloyd picked up a baseball for the first time after one sister’s boyfriend convinced him to try the game, which is not in the mainstream of Australian sports.5 As the Associated Press reported in 1994, he was hooked. “It was sort of a fluke,” Lloyd recalled. “The first day, I just grabbed the ball and started throwing it, never dreaming what it would lead to. And 17 years later, here I am. What if I hadn’t gone that day? It’s all pretty amazing.”6

“I had a go at cricket in school and I played Australian Rules Football for a couple of years, but I always came back to baseball. It was what I was best at,” he added.7 That is significant because Victoria is the stronghold of Aussie rules football, and height is an asset in that game. Yet as a contributor to the Ultimate Mets website wrote in 2003, “I played baseball with Graeme Lloyd for about seven years. When he was ten years old everyone who saw him play knew that he was going to be something special. But apart from his obvious physical talent, ‘Lloydy’ had the one quality that I and none of his Australian contemporaries had: the mental toughness to make it to the top.”

“My first team was the All Stars – they were a team in the Geelong baseball league,” Lloyd recalled in 1989. “I spent two years playing with Essendon in the city [Melbourne], and then back to Geelong again before finally ending up at Sunshine.” At age 19 in 1987, he made his debut in the Claxton Shield tournament, then Australia’s top baseball competition. Amateur teams represented their states, and Lloyd was a utility player for Victoria. When his team faced Queensland in Brisbane, the crowd was rough. Lloyd said, “You watch the British soccer and you think, wow, you never see this in Australia, but I thought they were that close to coming over the fence.”8

The Toronto Blue Jays signed Lloyd as an amateur free agent in January 1988. As he told the story the next year, “A few talent scouts came out from the American leagues to have a look around and see what talent was here. I think what happened with me was that someone said to one of these guys ‘go and have a look at this guy.’ So they came and had a bit of a look, and they decided to invite me to spring training.”9 In 2012, he said, “It’s a whole different world now. . .The scouts now have the media in the palm of their hands. They see a kid on their iPhone and say ‘wow, he has a great action’ and think about coming to Australia to sign him. And we have a lot of scouts here now.”10

The man who signed Lloyd was the Jays’ director of international scouting, Wayne Morgan. He made an assessment that held true for Lloyd’s pro career. “He doesn’t throw real hard, but he might get a little faster. He’s got good movement, a good delivery and can throw strikes. His curve is not bad and he’s got the start of a pretty nice change-up.”11 A decade later, a Sports Illustrated scouting report ahead of the 1998 World Series described him at his big-league peak. “With his long arms LH Graeme Lloyd is tough on lefties: ‘Wraparound’ breaking ball gets them to flinch.”12

Shortly after he signed, Lloyd appeared for Victoria in the Claxton Shield again in 1988. In addition to pitching, he played first base. In one game, he hit a three-run homer off Bob Nilsson (older brother of future big-league teammate Dave Nilsson) “with seemingly minimal effort. . .and casually strode around the bases.”13 The designated hitter was in effect for the bulk of Lloyd’s pro career; in the majors, he came to the plate just seven times, going 0-for-6 with a walk. He did still occasionally appear at first base in Australian league play, though.

Lloyd pitched just over four seasons in the minors from 1988 through 1992. He did reasonably well in Class A his first year, but appeared in just three games in 1989 because of an elbow injury, which he attributed to bad mechanics. “I’ve pulled tendons off the bone,” he said that December, “and that was caused by the seemingly simple thing of lowering my elbow and in effect slinging the pitch.”14

However, he had a backup plan behind baseball. “You need something else playing the minors. See, I’m an electrician by trade.” (He had gone to high school at Geelong Technical College.15) He added, “I’ve noticed as a sales rep for Pony [the athletic shoe company], so I know I won’t be at a loss if I don’t make it. I’ve been diverse in my interests so I know I’m going to be okay either way.”16

Lloyd was speaking as the brand-new professional Australian Baseball League began operations in the winter (summer, in the Southern Hemisphere) of 1989-90. He was a member of the Melbourne Monarchs – but played mainly first base in 18 games. He was 14 for 51 (.275) with a homer and five RBIs, even stealing three bases. He appeared just once on the mound, retiring one batter and picking up a save.

Returning to Myrtle Beach of the South Atlantic League (Class A) in 1990, Lloyd still wasn’t ready for a heavy pitching load. He appeared in just 19 games. Yet he began to show promise, going 5-2 with a 2.72 ERA. Another point of interest was that he started six games – from then on, he appeared exclusively out of the bullpen in the U.S., though not in Australia. In fact, during the 1990-91 season, he was the starter in all nine of his outings for his new team, the Perth Heat. He completed four (but pitched just 55 innings total), posting a 6-1 record with a 2.62 ERA. Perth won the ABL championship.

In 1991, Lloyd moved up to Dunedin in the Florida State League (high Class A). He had a fine season as the closer, saving 24 games in 52 appearances (2-5, 2.18). That broke the club record set the previous year by Mike Timlin. Graeme then followed up with another strong season for Perth: 6-2, 2.70 in 60 innings pitched across 11 games.

Climbing to Double A in 1992, Lloyd notched 14 more saves for Knoxville in the Southern League (4-8, 1.96). Perhaps his most salient stat as a minor-leaguer was that he allowed just 10 home runs in 271 innings pitched.

On December 7, 1992, the Philadelphia Phillies selected Lloyd in the Rule 5 draft – but the very next day, they traded him to the Milwaukee Brewers for a minor-league pitcher named John Trisler who never got beyond Double A. Meanwhile, Graeme went on to have his strongest season yet at home: 8-1, 1.48 for Perth in 10 games. In 61 innings pitched, he struck out 57 and walked just four.

Lloyd never pitched a day in Triple A. He jumped right to the majors based on his performance in spring training 1993. On April 11 in the Oakland Coliseum, announcer Roy Steele made public note that the first Australian pitcher was making his debut. The Brewers were trailing 6-0 when the rookie entered in the seventh inning with two outs. He retired the first man he faced, Eric Fox, but gave up a two-run homer in the eighth to Rickey Henderson. Manager Phil Garner thought it was a good low pitch, but “(Bleep) happens,” said Lloyd. “It didn’t exactly put icing on the cake. I was disappointed in that. Apart from that, it was good to get out there.”17

Three days later, on April 14, he became half of the first Australian battery in the majors as Dave Nilsson returned from an injury rehab assignment – but a 7-2 California Angels lead turned into a 12-2 blowout. As Nilsson said, “It wasn’t a real great moment, was it? I’m just ashamed that it happened in a game like that. I just wished it would have happened in a better game.”18 Over time, the pair would hear more than their share of kangaroo and koala jokes.

After Lloyd and the whole Milwaukee bullpen got off to a shaky start, pitching coach Don Rowe issued a vote of confidence, saying, “They’re trying as hard as they can. As long as they don’t give up, I’m not going to give up on them. We’re going to give these guys every chance to succeed.”19

Lloyd went on to have a solid rookie year: 3-4, 2.83 ERA, WHIP of 1.2 in 55 games. He did not appear in a game after September 19, though. Phil Garner said, “I just think he needs a long rest,” and the club indicated that Graeme would not pitch in Australia that winter.20 As it turned out, he did see limited duty with Perth (0-1, 4.66 with four saves in nine relief outings).

The following two big-league seasons were no great shakes, with an aggregate record of 2-8 and a 4.90 ERA in 76 games (79 innings pitched), though he did pick up seven saves. Milwaukee’s closer in those years was Mike Fetters. Of course, 1994 was cut short by the major-league strike. Once the ABL season opened, Lloyd returned to form. He was 5-2 with a 2.27 ERA in 10 games (47 2/3 innings pitched).

In 1995, Lloyd strained a tendon on the middle finger of his pitching hand and did not appear after late July. He pitched his last 10 games at home in 1995-96 with a new team, the Brisbane Bandits. Pitching only out of the bullpen, he was 2-2, 2.20 with three saves in 16 1/3 innings. That brought his lifetime ERA in Australia to 2.34, the best in the league’s history, to go with his winning percentage of .701 (36-15).

Graeme was pitching well for the Brewers in 1996, but the club had a mediocre 61-68 record as of August 23. He then got an exciting change of scenery. The New York Yankees, leading the American League East, traded reliever Bob Wickman and outfielder Gerald Williams to Milwaukee. In return, they received Pat Listach, a player to be named later, and Lloyd. “Yankees General Manager Bob Watson had been trying all season to land a proven left-hander for his bullpen,” wrote the New York Times.21

However, Lloyd had a bad time of it over the remainder of the season. He allowed 12 hits and 5 walks in just 5 2/3 innings, and as a result he was 0-2 with a frightening 17.47 ERA. It emerged that he not only had a bone spur in his elbow (which prevented him from throwing his bread-and-butter pitch, the curveball) but also that his shoulder had required a cortisone shot not long before the trade. The Yankees filed a formal complaint with the American League office.22

Nonetheless, New York kept him on the postseason roster. Said manager Joe Torre, “When you make a deal, you make a commitment. . .To make up your mind about a guy after just one, two or three games when he’s hurt is a mistake. Wanting Lloyd to succeed is more than just a Joe Torre-Bob Watson thing. The whole organization was involved in wanting him over here and I felt that once he was okay physically we owed it to him to give him the opportunity to help us.”23

Their faith was rewarded. Lloyd pitched twice in both the division series against Texas and the league championship against Baltimore, facing eight batters and allowing just one hit. Then in the World Series, he kept his ERA at 0.00. In Game Three, he got two important outs in the eighth inning. After replacing Mariano Rivera, who was then still a setup man, he retired lefties Ryan Klesko and Fred McGriff. In Game Four, with the game tied and runners on first and second in the ninth inning, he got McGriff to hit into a double play. The Yankees then scored two in the tenth, and Graeme got the win.

After the bone spur was removed in November 1996, Lloyd remained a useful member of the Yankees’ pen for the next two seasons. In 1998, after returning from double hernia surgery the previous December,24 he was especially effective – it was likely his best season in the majors. Although he pitched just 37 2/3 innings in 50 games, he was 3-0 with a 1.67 ERA, and his WHIP was just 0.85. His 1998 performance was intriguing because it defied his reputation as a Lefty One-Out Guy. Even though he held lefties to a .200 average (16 for 80, three home runs allowed), he was even tougher on righties that year: .182 (10 for 55, and no homers).

One colorful episode in 1998 – albeit somewhat out of character for the easygoing Australian – came in a game against Baltimore on May 19. After Orioles reliever Armando Benítez served up a three-run homer to Bernie Williams, he drilled Tino Martinez in the back with a pitch, and a brawl erupted. “Lloyd, who was the first to attack Benítez after sprinting from the bullpen, and  Darryl  Strawberry received three-game suspensions for what [AL President Gene] Budig described as ‘overly aggressive behavior, fighting and prolonging the violent incident.’”25

Cleveland knocked the Yankees out in the AL Division Series in 1997, but it wasn’t Lloyd’s fault, as he retired all five men who faced him in two outings. During the 1998 postseason, as New York won 11 games and lost just two, the specialist saw very little action. He appeared just once in each series against Texas, Cleveland, and San Diego, facing just four batters and giving up one hit.

Lloyd also got married in 1998.26 He had met Cindy Lee Barak in Tampa – the spring training home of the Yankees – and their wedding took place in Australia.27

Not long after the newlywed returned for spring training in 1999, on February 18, New York acquired Roger Clemens from the Toronto Blue Jays. They sent David Wells, Homer Bush, and Lloyd in return. Lloyd had hoped to get a shot as the closer, a role for which Toronto had penciled in Robert Person.28 He got some save opportunities in the early going, but rookie Billy Koch emerged as the closer. Returning to setup duties, Graeme had an active and generally good year for the Jays in 1999, appearing in 74 games and going 5-3, 3.63 with three saves.

After the season, Lloyd rejected an arbitration offer from Toronto, became a free agent, and signed in December with the Montreal Expos. He signed a three-year deal worth $9 million (including a $3 million signing bonus) to become setup man for Ugueth Urbina. A new owner, Jeffrey Loria, had just taken control of the Montreal club a couple of weeks earlier. The signings of Lloyd and Hideki Irabu were a sign that Loria was willing to spend after the Expos had tightened their purse strings in previous years.

The year 2000 brought professional and personal crises to Graeme Lloyd. It was a series of events right out of the Book of Job. First, in spring training, he went on the disabled list with tendinitis in his pitching shoulder. While he was sidelined, on April 3, his wife Cindy died. The young woman was just 26. She had been battling Crohn’s Disease, the inflammatory bowel disorder, for 14 years.

Lloyd felt continued shoulder pain in late April, and after an MRI, he underwent arthroscopic surgery in May for a partially torn rotator cuff. The initial estimates called for him to be out three to four months, and though he was able to test his arm on the sidelines in early August, he was not able to return.29 On top of that, in August, a tornado destroyed his home in Palm Harbor, Florida.30

Lloyd worked hard to rehabilitate his shoulder. As his friend Keith Zlomsowitch said, “He did it for her. Cindy was so proud of him. He made it his mission after surgery to get back for her.”31 Graeme has apparently also done charitable work on behalf of Crohn’s Disease, although press citations are not visible, suggesting a low-key effort.

Reminiscing about that period in 2004, Lloyd said, “I suppose you can either go one way or the other. The other way wasn’t an option for me. I just went through deciding what I wanted to go on with in life and how I wanted to do it. I came back the next year after the surgery and after I lost Cindy, and I had probably one of the best years I had in my career. We all go through tough times, and I thought, ‘This is what they talk about, you either move on or get stuck.’ I decided to see what I could do. I think my focus was a little different after that.”32

Indeed, the comeback effort was successful: Lloyd appeared in a career-high 84 games for Montreal in 2001. He also won nine games, a personal best, while losing five and posting a 4.35 ERA with one save. He won the Tony Conigliaro Award for battling back from his adversities. “The Conigliaro Award. . .yeah, it is special to me,” he said in 2012.33

An amusing moment with Lloyd came in a Nike commercial presented during the 2001 World Series. The spot celebrated the international character of Major League Baseball, with 10 players from various nations singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” in different languages. Lloyd delivered the line “And it’s root, root, root for the home team.” The creative people at the ad agency, Wieden & Kennedy, must have had a subversive streak – “root” in Australian slang means “have sex.” Judging by Graeme’s mischievous smile, he was a willing co-conspirator in the inside joke.

Lloyd picked up a career-high five saves in 41 games for Montreal before the All-Star break in 2002. On July 11, the Expos – in salary-cutting mode again – included him in an eight-player deal with the Florida Marlins. The book Clubhouse Lawyer: Law in the World of Sports told how it came about, entirely against Lloyd’s wishes.

“Lloyd’s contract with Montreal allowed him to name twelve teams to which he could not be traded. Florida was one of the no-trade teams that Lloyd had identified. . .To his dismay, Lloyd later learned that, under the terms of his contract, he was required to submit his list. . .by November 1, 2001. Lloyd and his agent did not submit the list until after that date, negating the benefit of the no-trade provision.”34

One reason the pitcher was unhappy was because Florida had come to be owned by Jeffrey Loria. “Lloyd reacted to the trade by saying that Loria had lied to him when Loria owned the Expos. Appalled by the prospect of playing for Loria again, Lloyd filed a grievance in an attempt to reverse the deal.”35 But after arbitrator Shyam Das upheld the trade, Lloyd took it like a pro. “Now I’m here. I’m going to be a Florida Marlin. I do resolve things with people I had problems with, and I don’t hold grudges. . .I’m the type of person that likes to get along with everybody.”36

Lloyd finished out the season with the Marlins, became a free agent once more, and signed a minor-league deal in January 2003 with the New York Mets. “I know that I’ll be battling for a job,” he said. “I have to show what I have, and hopefully that’s good enough to go north with the team. . . I have a lot left in baseball and I want to redeem myself.”37

He did a creditable job in 36 outings for the Mets (1-2, 3.31, 1.3 WHIP). New York was having a dreadful season, and as part of what the New York Times called a “purge,” the Mets traded the veteran on July 28 to the Kansas City Royals – who at the time were leading the AL Central.38 The last 16 appearances of his big-league career came in 2003, and he allowed runs in 10 of them. That left Lloyd with a 10.95 ERA for Kansas City, which faded and finished third.

Yet again, he became a free agent that October. The Boston Red Sox – where fellow Australian Craig Shipley was in the front office – were interested in bringing the lefty on board for the 2004 season. But as the Sydney Morning Herald wrote, “That’s when the U.S. Government stepped in. Just two weeks before Lloyd was to apply for his new working visa – a hurdle all Australian sportspeople must clear before playing professionally in the U.S. – the immigration department announced its annual quota had been reached. All of which left Lloyd without a U.S. club for the season, although, in a timely turn of fortune, it paved the way for his entry into the Australian Olympic squad for Athens.”39

Lloyd was excited about going to the Olympics at age 37, saying, “It might be karma.”40 Australia upset Japan 1-0 to reach the finals against Cuba, but lost a tough game and wound up taking silver. Graeme pitched one inning in that game, after having appeared in three others during the initial round-robin phase of the tournament.

At least one story indicated that Lloyd hoped to resume his big-league career after the Games ended.41 However, he did not resurface in baseball until 2008, when he rejoined the Perth Heat for Claxton Shield competition, which had resumed several years previously after the Australian pro circuit had become defunct. There was some talk that at age 41, the new pitching coach might also toe the rubber again, but he put those thoughts aside after a couple of setbacks during training. Yet there was tangible excitement about his presence, among the media as well as the team. Geoff Hooker, managing director of baseball for Western Australia, said, “He has a certain aura about him and not just his physical size either. To have Graeme, who current and former players have had to look up to for years, is a major coup.”42

The Australian Baseball League was revived for the 2010-11 season, and Perth won the first championship in the league’s new incarnation. The Heat repeated as champions in the 2011-12 season, and Lloyd remained the team’s pitching coach, “instilling [his] work ethic into many of the young players on their roster.”43 The notion arose that he might become manager at some point.44 Geoff Hooker, also Chief Executive Officer of the Heat, said, “I am so pleased for getting him. I think he brought a confidence and calmness to the clubhouse that gave us a real edge in the tight games.”45

In February 2012, Graeme Lloyd looked back on what baseball has meant to him and favorite memories from his career. “Baseball has given me the most amazing experiences of my life, from the depths of despair to the absolute euphoria of reaching the pinnacle of sport. It has opened my life up to the different cultures of the USA, Mexico, the Czech Republic and pretty much everywhere else in between. The dynamics of the game do not change, it’s still you against a hitter and the competitiveness that goes with it.

“I’ve been lucky enough to play for a few big league teams, and with each team, I met an amazing cross-section of people from throughout the USA and Canada – from the incredibly harsh environment in New York to the relative kindness in Kansas City. I’ve been booed by 50,000 and cheered by 50,000. Baseball gave me more experiences in three weeks than you’d expect in an entire career.”46

Lloyd has remained active in baseball. Most recently, he served as manager of Geelong-Korea, an ABL club based in his hometown, during the 2019-20 season. He replaced Dae-Sung Koo. Since then, however, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused the franchise to miss two straight seasons.

In memory of Cindy Lloyd (1974-2000). The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America website (www.ccfa.org) provides information and notes how you can help if you wish.

Grateful acknowledgment to Graeme Lloyd for his memories and to Geoff Hooker for obtaining Graeme’s input over lunch on February 20, 2012. Continued thanks to Nicholas R.W. Henning in Australia for his input. Graeme Lloyd is frequently mentioned in the second novel by Nicholas, “Boomerang Baseball”.

This biography was most recently updated on November 7, 2021.

Photo Credits

1994 Donruss baseball card

Perth Heat

Sources

www.baseball-reference.com

www.retrosheet.org

http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ll/graeme-lloyd-1.html (Olympics information)

www.ultimatemets.com

Peter Flintoff, & Adrian Dunn, Australian Major League Baseball: The First Ten Years (Self-published and printed independently, 2000). (Used as a source for Australian Baseball League statistics only.)

Notes

The sample of Aussie batsmen is quite small: eight out of 27 major-leaguers. So far only two have come to the plate 1,000 times or more in the majors: Nilsson and the man who preceded him, Craig Shipley.1 Shipley was a useful reserve, but Nilsson emerged as a strong starter in his eight seasons, all with the Brewers. Battling through an array of injuries, he played in 837 games – primarily at catcher, but also frequently in the outfield, at first base, and as designated hitter. He hit .284 with 105 home runs, 470 RBIs, and an OPS of .817.

What’s more, “Dingo” has been a staunch supporter of Australian baseball in many ways. He could have continued his big-league career after the 1999 season but chose instead to represent his homeland in the 2000 Olympics at Sydney. He played in the Australian Baseball League during eight seasons – America’s winter is Australia’s summer – from 1989 through 1997. Digging deep into his own bank account, he sought to keep the circuit afloat as majority owner in 1999-2002. In more recent years he has been a coach and manager.

David Wayne Nilsson was born on December 14, 1969, in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland state. Ten years before, his father, Tim Nilsson, had started Bros Nilsson Printco. The Nilsson family – with Dave at the reins – continues to own and operate this printing firm in the Brisbane suburb of Geebung.2 Dave was the fourth of Tim and Pat Nilsson’s four sons.

Various other members of the Nilsson family have also played pro baseball. Dave’s brother Bob signed with the Cincinnati Reds organization in 1978, becoming one of the earlier Australian pros, though he was released before he ever got into a game. Another brother, Gary, pitched for a Detroit Tigers farm club in Class A in 1984. He appeared in nine games but quit because of an injured shoulder.3 Bob and Gary played extensively in the Australian Baseball League, and the other brother, Ron, pitched there briefly too. In the 2000s, two of Dave’s nephews – Mitch (son of Gary) and Jay (son of Bob) – went on to play in the U.S. too.

Tim Nilsson sparked the clan’s interest. When he died in 2010, the Brisbane North Baseball website described him as “a great stalwart in the development of baseball in this state.” He was a member of the Redcliffe Padres club and served as a junior coach and groundskeeper too.4

It would be interesting to know how Tim originally came to the sport. The closest available clue comes from a 2000 feature by Lisa Olson in the New York Daily News, which said, “Tim Nilsson was a pitcher for Australia in the 1960s, when baseball was that crazy game American sailors played during bouts of shore leave Down Under. Tim gave Dave his first glove and bat when he was four, taught him how to swing at balls that hadn’t bounced first like they do in cricket, and how to run around a diamond rather than the straight line of a cricket pitch.”5

Young Dave’s Under 12 state representative coach, Reg Baxter, remembered “that there was something special about Nilsson: ‘He was a porky little bloke with bow legs and three foot two high, but chocker block full of confidence. You could see he was going to make it because he had the determination.’”6

Nilsson grew to 6’3” and 185 pounds as a teenager; over time he added 30-40 more pounds of mass to his big frame. In 2011, Australian baseball author Nicholas R.W. Henning wrote, “Dave had the physique of a high performance athlete. When you combine Dave’s family influence and his physical attributes, this set the foundations for a talented player. But it is important to remember that Australian athletes with similar physical attributes to Dave often choose other sports ahead of baseball. Rugby league, rugby union, and Australian Rules Football are the sporting pathways that many athletes take in Australia. So with baseball behind these sports in terms of participation, baseball was lucky to secure an athlete of Dave’s prowess. . . it is rare in Australia to have a family that has such a strong disposition towards baseball.”7 It’s not surprising that the same was true of Craig Shipley, whose father and brothers were all players as well. But Dave’s mother Pat was even scorekeeper for the state team, the Queensland Rams!8

Nilsson moved up through the youth ranks in Queensland. During the summer of 1986, the teenager – who then played mainly first base – came with the Rams to tour the United States. He stayed on to play for three weeks with the Park Ridge (Illinois) Orioles, a semi-pro team. The young Aussie caught the eye of Milwaukee scouts Kevin Greatrex and Bill Castro, who recommended him.9 Greatrex bears mention as one of the first two Australian pros to play in the U.S. He and Dick Shirt were both in the Cincinnati Reds chain in 1967.10

On January 28, 1987, the Brewers signed Dave as an amateur free agent. Reports of the bonus he received ranged from US$10,000 to US$65,000.11 Dan Duquette, the future general manager of the Montreal Expos and Boston Red Sox, was at that time Milwaukee’s scouting director. Duquette said, “He was just 16 then [the previous summer] and was playing against guys 24-25. He has a good arm and is a natural left-handed hitter with some power. David’s amateur background is limited, but we think we have a chance to make him into a player. And, he can go back to Australia in the winter and play.”12

Shortly after he signed with the Brewers, Nilsson and the Queensland Rams won the finals of Australia’s national baseball championship, the Claxton Shield.13 After going to extended spring training, Nilsson went to Helena of the Pioneer Rookie League, where he hit .394 in 55 games. He had not yet developed his power, hitting only one home run. At that point in his career, he was still a switch-hitter. In fact, as late as 1993, his baseball cards still described him as batting from both sides, though baseball references say that he swung only lefty as a big-leaguer. From the beginning, the Milwaukee organization put him at catcher.

After undergoing the first of many knee operations, Nilsson – winner of Australia’s national batting award – was not available for the 1988 Claxton Shield finals.14 The Brewers moved him up to Beloit in the Class A Midwest League that spring, and he went through an adjustment, batting just .223 with 4 homers and 41 RBIs.

Nilsson spent the summers of 1988 and 1989 with Stockton of the California League (high Class A). His batting lines improved to .244-5-56 and .290-7-47, and he also won praise for his defense. Milwaukee Sentinel baseball columnist Tom Haudricourt wrote that after seeing Nilsson at Beloit and in Stockton the first year, “the Brewers weren’t sure if they had a big-league prospect or a mere novelty.” But in 1991, Tom Trebelhorn, manager of the big club, said, “He has matured nicely physically, and also as a player. He has shown tremendous improvement.” Coach Andy Etchebarren, the former big-league catcher, added, “No question about it, he’s a legitimate prospect. Not just a chance prospect, but a legitimate one. He listens and works hard – that’s how he has made improvement.”15

During the winter of 1989-90, Nilsson played for the Gold Coast Clippers in the newly formed Australian Baseball League (.277-2-11 in 34 games). In the 1990-91 ABL season, the Clippers became the Daikyo Dolphins after a Japanese real estate firm invested in the franchise as part of its extensive Gold Coast leisure portfolio. Nilsson took a big step forward, batting .400-12-37 in 40 games. He was named to the league All-Star team at catcher and won the MVP Award; Daikyo finished 31-9, best in the league.

The Aussie climbed to Double A in 1991, and he hit a blistering .418-5-57 in 65 games for El Paso of the Texas League. He earned promotion to Triple-A Denver, where he cooled off (.232-1-14 in 28 games). Even so, he was in line for his first call-up to the majors, but in August he underwent season-ending surgery on his left (non-throwing) shoulder.16 He made it back for 20 games with Daikyo, batting .403-2-13 and helping the Dolphins win the ABL title (they had lost in the playoffs the year before).

Nilsson made it to the big club after backup catcher Andy Allanson injured his thigh in May 1992. His debut came at old Tiger Stadium in Detroit on May 18. The Brewers trounced the Tigers, 9-1, and Nilsson’s bases-clearing double in the eighth inning off Kevin Ritz closed out the scoring. Even after Allanson returned, Milwaukee was reluctant to send Dave back to Denver. They finally did so in July, though, but only on a rehab assignment after he went on the disabled list with an injured wrist. He returned in mid-August and finished out the season with the Brewers. Overall, he hit .232-4-25 in 51 games.

In 1993, the Brewers moved their starting catcher for the previous several years, B.J. Surhoff, to third base. Nilsson, who needed wrist surgery in February, had played in just 10 ABL games. Making a rapid recovery, he spent most of the season as Milwaukee’s catcher. On April 14 that year, he caught Graeme Lloyd for the first time in a major-league game as Lloyd came on in the ninth inning of a blowout loss to the California Angels. “It wasn’t a real great moment, was it?” Nilsson said. “I’m just ashamed that it happened in a game like that. I just wished it would have happened in a better game.”17

Nilsson hurt his shoulder sliding in May, and after he got off the DL, he went down to Triple-A New Orleans until mid-June on another injury rehab assignment. In 100 games for the Brewers, he hit .257-7-40. He appeared in 27 more minor-league games during 1995, 1996, and 1998, but those were also rehab stints.

For the 1993-94 ABL season, Nilsson joined the Brisbane Bandits. He had a very strong season (.362-12-47 in 57 games) and helped his hometown team knock off the Sydney Blues for the league championship.18 That action took place after spring training had started, showing that the Brewers were willing to give him some slack.

During the strike-shortened 1994 season, Nilsson hit .275-12-69 in 109 games. From June 8, when he partially tore a ligament in his thumb, until July 19, Dave could serve only as DH. He convinced the team doctors that he could swing the bat and stayed out of a cast, although he had to wear a protective splint whenever he got on base. He said, “I must say I’m concentrating on the ball a lot more. It’s hard to explain. I can’t really wrap my thumb around the bat. I just wrap my fingers around it and keep my thumb away from the bat.” After Nilsson’s grand slam on June 17 highlighted an 8-1 win over the Yankees, teammate Greg Vaughn said, “I’m going to go slam my thumb in the door.”19

After the strike halted play, Dave returned to Australia, signing what the Milwaukee Sentinel described as a “lifetime contract” with the Waverly Reds of Melbourne, in which he received a 25 percent equity stake in the club. His mission also included development of junior players and promotion of the sport in general.20 Nilsson played 54 games in the ABL 1994-95 season, and it was probably his most impressive overall there (.388-16-56).

At home, however, he contracted Ross River Fever, a rare mosquito-borne viral illness endemic to Australia and other nearby islands in the Pacific. The hallmark of the draining disease is joint pain, and it typically takes weeks to recover. Nilsson did not appear for the Brewers in 1995 until June 24. He batted .278 in 81 games, and his half-season homer and RBI totals (12 and 53) might have projected as his best if he’d been able to play all year. To conserve his energy, however, he only played two games behind the plate that season.

Owing to a dispute with his ABL team (which had changed its name to the Melbourne Reds), Nilsson played in just 11 games before coming to spring training in 1996. There, veteran Chicago baseball writer Jerome Holtzman wrote a feature on the emerging young slugger, describing his hitting style. “Nilsson hits out of a straight-up stance, parallel to the plate, with a solid setup. He has a short stroke, has power to all fields and appears to have good discipline. But, like most young players, when he goes into a slump he starts to overswing. Once he conquers this fault, he should put 20 to 25 points on his batting average.”21

He did that and more: Nilsson hit .331 for the Brewers in 123 games in 1996, finishing sixth in the American League. He hit 17 homers and drove in 84. Again he missed a portion of the season; this time a stress fracture in his left foot, sustained in spring training, meant that he made only one early-season appearance before going on the DL. He did not return until May 9. On May 17, he hit two homers in a game for the first time in the majors – in fact, he did it twice in the same inning at Minnesota’s Metrodome. He followed up with two more the very next night. The feat was one he accomplished nine more times in the majors.

Nilsson returned to the Brisbane Bandits for the ABL’s 1996-97 season, becoming player-manager. He hit .420 in 16 games before arthroscopic knee surgery cut his on-field action short, but he led his team to the finals.

In 1997, Nilsson signed a three-year contract for $10.8 million. He played a lot of first base, especially after John Jaha (who had been a teammate in the ABL too) hurt his shoulder and was lost for the year. He also saw plenty of action at DH and hit .278-20-81 in 156 games. That was a career high, as was his 629 plate appearances – it was the first time he’d stayed off the DL since 1994. During August he decided not to return to the ABL; instead, his goal was to spend most of his time in Milwaukee working on conditioning.22

That off-season, Dave wound up having knee surgery, and his recovery was slow. He spent most of spring training rehabbing the knee, and only about a week after he returned to action in March, he had to have it scoped. He was out until May and had a disappointing year by his standards: .269-12-56 in 102 games.

Probably the most interesting development of 1998 for Nilsson came on Christmas Eve. He decided to put up US$3.5 million of his own money to buy majority ownership of the struggling Australian Baseball League. Although American players were to be allowed, he wanted to focus on his young countrymen. Dave said, “The players there are good enough that unless there are very good pro players coming over, we don’t want to take away a spot. Pros won’t take the place of local kids.”23 As of March 1999, Nilsson was planning to add teams from Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.24 Indeed, the circuit was renamed the International Baseball League of Australia.

Despite his knee issues, Nilsson moved back to catcher in 1999, after having played just 15 games there from 1995 through 1998. He set his career high in home runs, hitting 21 in just 115 games to go with a .309 average and 62 RBIs. That year he was named to the All-Star team for the first time; he struck out against John Wetteland in his only at-bat. As of the 2011 season, he remained the only Australian All-Star ever. Near the end of August, Dave suffered a broken thumb when struck by a foul tip.25 He returned for three games at the tail end of the season, but those were his last in the majors.

A big subplot to the 1999 season and beyond concerned the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Back in 1993, the International Olympic Committee had awarded the XXVII Olympiad to the “Harbour City.” At some point, though even his family thought it was quixotic, Nilsson began to think about what it would be like to represent his nation. As Lisa Olson wrote, “Nilsson’s patriotic buzz kicked in. If he stayed with the Brewers, he would have been ineligible for the Olympics, since MLB insisted on making this strictly a minor-league affair.”26 The Olympic baseball steering committee co-chairman was former big-leaguer and Yankees executive Bob Watson. In August 2000, Watson said, “I don’t see anybody here giving up players [during the season].”27

In November 1999, shortly after Nilsson became a free agent, the IBAF Intercontinental Cup took place in Sydney. The host nation knocked off heavily favored Cuba in the final of the eight-team tournament; with 12 RBIs, Nilsson was named MVP and all-star catcher.28

Then in January 2000, after talking with a number of big-league teams, he signed a one-year deal for $2 million with a Japanese club, the Chunichi Dragons of the Central League. His agent, Alan Nero, said, “Chunichi was very aggressive in its approach, and made the opportunity available for him to play in the Olympics.” Another sweetener was a three-year working agreement that the Dragons signed with the Australian Baseball League, which Nilsson had previously bought. “Building a bridge from Japan to Australia was an important part of this,” Nilsson said.29

While in Japan, Nilsson chose to wear the nickname “Dingo” on his jersey. 30 In fact, Nilsson was the first Australian to play there – but his experience didn’t go well; he hit just .180-1-8 in 18 games for Chunichi in 2000. “We have very high expectations of him,” Chunichi president Tsuyoshi Sato had said when Nilsson signed – that’s something gaijin (foreign) players often experience in Japan. That June and in 2008, Wayne Graczyk of the Japan Times described various other things that made the season go “completely haywire.”

Nilsson “was told he would play left field exclusively, as the Central League has no DH system.” Then out of the blue, in the middle of an exhibition game, manager Senichi Hoshino called him in out of left and put him behind the plate. “I had no clue what was going on,” he said. “I had no preparation, didn’t know how to communicate with the (Japanese) pitcher, what pitches he threw or what signals to call for.”31

The tough adjustment spilled over to Dingo’s mindset at the plate. After 15 games, the Dragons sent him to their farm club in the Western League, where his batting picked up – but then a painful lower-back condition sent him home to Australia for treatment. He was able to return for just three more games; the roster limit of two non-Japanese position players was another factor.32 The Dragons sent him to the minors for a second time in August, then granted him his release so he could head home to Australia.33

The Olympic baseball tournament was held from September 17-27, 2000. A few days before it started, Nilsson said, “Let me clarify that I haven’t made one sacrifice to come.”34 He then proceeded to give an outstanding performance. Australia went just 2-5, finishing seventh, ahead of only South Africa – but Nilsson led all batters with his .565 average (the runner-up was Cuba’s Antonio Pacheco at .450). He was 13 for 23 with six doubles and a homer, so his slugging percentage of .957 was also tops. He finished in the top ten in every offensive category and even stole three bases, equaling his single-season high in the majors.35

Following the Olympics, at least four teams, including the New York Yankees, expressed interest in signing Nilsson.36 The Red Sox – where Dan Duquette was then general manager – were keenest. Reportedly they were willing to offer $10 million over two years.37 Boston withdrew the offer, though, after Nilsson failed a physical because of chronic problems with his left knee.38

Meanwhile, the International Baseball League of Australia never achieved success, let alone the scope that Nilsson originally envisaged. Six teams, all Australian, played a limited 17-game schedule in 1999-2000. The 2000-01 season featured only a four-team development league, including an international squad, one from Taiwan, and an “MLB All-Star” squad (most likely minor-leaguers). The interstate Australian format of the Claxton Shield returned for 2001-02, and after that the IBLA collapsed.

As author George Gmelch wrote in his book Baseball without Borders, problems had arisen early in 1999, almost as soon as Nilsson had bought in. “Several weeks after the agreement and media releases, the ABL owners pulled out of the deal. This turn of events not only ended all the euphoria over the new national league but killed any chance of another national league for Australian baseball. According to Nilsson the ABL wanted to go along with the new deal, but the owners were unhappy when they realized that Nilsson $5,000,000 purchasing fee [Australian dollars] would not be used to assume their substantial debts.

“With small crowds and hefty expenses the teams soon floundered. Cost-cutting, lack of funds, and decreased services were apparent in all venues. Home runs were rare with the use of wooden bats. Media coverage was limited.”39

After a two-year break from playing, Nilsson agreed to a minor-league deal for $400,000 with the Red Sox in January 2003. It came “at the urging of another fellow Australian, Jon Deeble, the Pacific Rim scouting director for the Sox.” Another good friend from back home, Craig Shipley, was also instrumental in the decision.40 Shipley had joined the Boston organization the previous November as special assistant to GM Theo Epstein. In mid-February, however, Nilsson phoned Shipley to say that he had decided against playing.41

Nilsson managed his old club, the Queensland Rams, in the 2003 Claxton Shield, and they won the championship. He returned to the field that year for Telemarket Rimini in Italy’s Serie A1.

Aged 34, Nilsson was back with Team Australia for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. That January, he told the Sydney Morning Herald, “It’s good to get out there again playing with all the young guys. I made a decision this year to play in the Olympics and I’m just trying to get the body back in shape. The 2000 Olympics were a big disappointment. A lot of things went wrong with the program but when you look back now and see all the areas where we went wrong, you know that this time we’ll do things differently and the right way.”

“Can we win a medal in Athens? Yeah. If we don’t win a medal, it will be more disappointing than Sydney. It doesn’t matter if we get our players back from the majors . . . We have enough depth in this country.”42

As part of getting back in shape, Nilsson played in the Australian season for the first time in several years, taking part in the 2004 Claxton Shield. He was still mourning the loss of the ABL, saying, “From a player’s point of view, it was a platform where you could play your 50 games every year, improve your game and give the young kids coming through something to aspire to. That’s where we really miss it. For the young kids, the focus right now is totally in America, so that’s unfortunate.” Yet he was philosophical too, adding, “Having the Claxton Shield gives players a place where we can play against each other at a top level, and that’s all we have right now, and we have to make the most of it and not worry about the . . . past. The Claxton Shield is also a great opportunity for the players to prepare and push for selection in the Olympic squad.”43

Following the Shield competition, Nilsson gave U.S. ball another shot, signing as a free agent with the Atlanta Braves. He got into 16 games with Atlanta’s top farm club, Richmond, hitting .236 in 55 at-bats with a homer and 4 RBIs. He strained an oblique muscle in May, however, and after missing three weeks with the injury, he abandoned his pro comeback.44

In August, however, captain Nilsson helped his squad achieve their goal of a medal. Managed by Jon Deeble, the Aussies took silver behind Cuba after upsetting Japan’s “Dream Team” 1-0 in the semi-final. Nilsson’s walk was part of the run that Australia scratched out against Daisuke Matsuzaka, who struck out 13 in seven innings. The Sydney Morning Herald called it “the most monumental moment in Australian baseball history.”45 Dave batted .296 in the tournament’s eight games.

Nilsson was minor-league catching coordinator for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2005 .46 His last playing appearances came for Australia in the 2006 World Baseball Classic (he went 0 for 5 with a strikeout).

In 2006, Nilsson became chief hitting instructor for the Major League Baseball Australian Academy Program. He moved up to head coach in 2007.47 But when a new Australian Baseball League formed in 2010, Nilsson jumped at the opportunity to manage the revived Brisbane Bandits. That August, the Queensland Courier-Mail carried a jolly photo of the Nilsson family – Dave, wife Amanda, and children Tyla, Ashlee, Grace, Elijah, and Jacob – as he talked about the new six-team circuit.

“It was a no-brainer,” Nilsson said. “I love being involved in baseball and with the new league and the opportunity to come back to Brisbane and be a part of the Bandits organisation didn’t require much thought. I’m excited for the baseball community of Brisbane and Queensland. There’s something now for the young kids coming through to follow and learn from.”48

He also talked about the need for the latest incarnation of the ABL to find financial sustainability and learn from the mistakes of the past. “It’s about making wise decisions. Ensuring the financial structures are solid. Every sport in Australia has undergone dramatic changes since the 1990s and our sport is the last one. It is a different world now and we understand that,” he said.49

There was even some talk that Nilsson might return to active play, but he told the Sydney Morning Herald, “I think it’s just good banter. If they [the ABL] were serious about it they would have approached me 12 months ago. . .I’ve got a big family, I’m old, I’m out of shape, I don’t do this for free any more.”50

In October 2011, Nilsson stepped back as manager of the Bandits “to focus on business and family commitments. . .[he] will stay on as a consultant.” Replacing him as skipper was former major-leaguer Kevin Jordan.51

In 2008, Dave Nilsson was named to the Sports Australia Hall of Fame. Nicholas Henning has summed up this athlete’s position in Australian baseball well. “Through years of hard work Nilsson established himself as a genuine power hitter. . . he reached a higher hitting echelon than any other Aussie player has to date. With the new Australian Baseball League entering its second season and a continuous flow of Aussies in professional baseball leagues overseas, there is certainly potential for another player of Dave Nilsson’s calibre. Yet I predict that such a talent can only come once every 20 or so years, as baseball in Australia is in the shadow of so many other sports, but its capacity to grow is certainly encouraging.”52

Last revised: December 19, 2013

Continued thanks to Nicholas R.W. Henning in Australia for his input. Dave Nilsson is frequently mentioned in the second novel by Nicholas, “Boomerang Baseball.”

Sources

www.baseball-reference.com

www.retrosheet.org

Flintoff, Peter & Adrian Dunn. Australian Major League Baseball: The First Ten Years. Self-published and printed independently: 2000. (Used as a source for Australian Baseball League statistics only.)

http://www.pflintoff.com (more Australian Baseball League historical facts)

www.la84foundation.org (Olympics information)

www.rotoworld.com

http://web.theabl.com.au

http://www.worldbaseballclassic.com/2006/stats/stats.jsp?t=t_ibp&cid=760

Chris Andrew Oxspring was born on May 13, 1977, in Ipswich, in the state of Queensland. That’s also where the first Australian major-leaguer, Joe Quinn, was born over a century before. Sports played no part in Quinn’s life, however, until he moved to the U.S. in 1872.

Young Chris Oxspring played rugby, a major sport in Australia. Family and friends also played softball. However, his brother Scott (nine years older) enjoyed baseball in particular. Chris followed in Scott’s footsteps — he recalled photos of himself in diapers swinging at a ball on a tee.2 The boys also had a sister named Marly; their parents were John and Lyn Oxspring.3

Oxspring attended Ipswich State High School, graduating in 1994. Even today, very few comprehensive high schools in Australia have a baseball program. In the 1990s, young ballplayers had to join a strong local club to get the best regular training and mentoring. The teenaged Oxspring gained junior baseball experience with North Ipswich, the Ipswich Musketeers (part of the Greater Brisbane League), and the Norfolk Rockies. He also played on junior state representative teams, which played in national age-based tournaments. The governing bodies are state or territory associations — Baseball Queensland, Baseball New South Wales, and others.

In Oxspring’s view, Major League Baseball’s strike in 1994 may have prevented him from coming to the U.S. earlier than he did. In the long run, though, he thought it was for the best, because he might not have been ready at age 17 or 18, either physically or mentally. He joined the Southside Indians, a club based in the Brisbane suburb of Runcorn, playing there through 1999.4

The Australian Baseball League was formed in 1989, giving both local and international players a chance to develop. Scott Oxspring, a lefty pitcher, was good enough to appear in one game for the Gold Coast Clippers during the 1989-90 season.5 Chris Oxspring played for the Gold Coast team, known by then as the Cougars, during the 1997-98 season. He got no decisions in six appearances out of the bullpen, allowing just one earned run in five innings. Although he walked a batter an inning, he made a positive impression and “had good enough stuff to get out of the potential jam.”6

In December 1998, Australian big-league star Dave Nilsson put up US$3.5 million of his own money to buy majority ownership of the struggling ABL. The 1998-99 season was the last for the original circuit. The Cougars became champions, but Oxspring wasn’t part of the team.

The ABL was renamed the International Baseball League of Australia (IBLA) in 1999. The schedule in 1999-2000 was limited to just 17 games. It’s not certain whether Oxspring took part, but if so, it was limited because he then earned his living as a bartender and retail salesman.7

Oxspring made baseball a full-time career in 2000, when he played in America with the Cook County Cheetahs of the independent Frontier League. That team had five other Aussies, under a swap arrangement then in its third year. The program was conceived by Chicago native Mike Young, who’d become coach of the Australian national baseball team and was friends with one of the Cheetahs’ coaches.8

Oxspring stepped right into action because the Cheetahs had injured pitchers.9 He showed a live arm, striking out 29 men in 29 innings across 14 games. Yet playing in the U.S. meant forgoing the 2000 Summer Olympics, held in Sydney.

The San Diego Padres signed Oxspring in October 2000, as he beat the odds during a day-long open tryout at Alexian Field in Schaumburg, Illinois (the home park of another indie team, the Schaumburg Flyers of the Northern League). Five years later, Oxspring remembered how he felt. “I really didn’t know what was going on. They [scouts Bill Bryk and Bill Clark] just told me to go sit over there and wait for them. The adrenaline was pumping and I remember I was fairly fidgety. I was nervous, excited and anxious all in one.” Official word from the organization came the next day, Halloween.10

Oxspring remained active at home that winter with the IBLA. In its second and final season, there were just four teams, but various other future big-leaguers were visible, including Justin Huber and Trent Oeltjen. Trent Durrington and Luke Prokopec had already appeared in The Show.11

During his first years in the U.S., Oxspring tried to blend in. He got tired of repeating himself in conversation because of his Australian accent and phrases, so he used more American locutions. Oddly enough, he found the similarities between U.S. culture and his upbringing made him homesick at times. Food, for example, had much in common but tasted different. Yet he also found that coming from a distant land was a good motivator. He felt that if he didn’t do well, he’d be an earlier candidate for release because the organization would cut its losses in view of the greater flight and visa expenses to send him home.12

Oxspring took part in his first international competition in November 2001. He joined the Australian team in the Baseball World Cup, held that year in Taiwan. He allowed no runs in 2 1/3 innings pitched. Australia’s original national baseball championship series, the Claxton Shield, returned for the 2001-02 season; Oxspring played in it for several years.

Despite missing much of the 2002 season on the disabled list, Oxspring rose gradually through the Padres system. Off-season shoulder surgery then enabled him to throw pain-free again.13 He pitched largely in relief until 2003, when he became a starter at the Class AA level and thrived. He relied on a sharp slider, and his fastball reached the low to mid-90s. He also used a curve and changeup.

Oxspring got married in 2003. His wife, Mandy Lamond, came from Sydney. They went on to have a son (Kalan) and two daughters (Trinity and Amity).

Oxspring made San Diego’s 40-man roster after his success in 2003. In Claxton Shield action with the New South Wales Patriots that winter, he got the win in the 2004 Grand Final in relief of Ryan Rowland-Smith. He won the tournament’s Golden Arm award.14

On top of that came his first big-league spring training. Even ahead of that camp, the team honestly told him he wasn’t quite ready for the majors yet, but he climbed to Class Triple-A. With Portland of the Pacific Coast League, he made just 17 starts and pitched merely 85 2/3 innings in 2004. There was a good reason: He took time off to pitch in the Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. He called it an amazing experience on many levels: being around the world’s top athletes, getting to wear his nation’s colors, the electricity in the stadium, and standing on the dais to receive a medal.15

Oxspring was a key member of the Australian squad that surprised the baseball world by taking silver behind Cuba. In fact, the New York Times called him “the breakout star” of the tournament.16 He won both his starts and didn’t allow a run. First, with Australia facing elimination after losing its first two games, he went eight innings in a 6-0 victory over Italy, giving up just one hit. Then, after the Aussies advanced to the medal round, he hurled 6 2/3 shutout innings against Japan, allowing five hits while striking out five. Former Los Angeles Dodger Jeff Williams went the rest of the way to save the 1-0 win. For his efforts, Oxspring was named the International Baseball Federation’s Male Player of the Year for 2004.17

The New South Wales Patriots made it back-to-back Claxton Shield titles in 2005. Oxspring then returned to Portland. He made 26 starts, posting an ERA of 4.03 in 160 2/3 innings to go with 12 wins (tops in the PCL that year) against six losses. That performance earned his trial in the majors.18 Beavers manager Craig Colbert, who knew Oxspring well from lower levels, gave the news so deadpan that it didn’t sink in until a couple of minutes later. Oxspring went back from his locker to Colbert’s office, and the skipper confirmed that he should pack his bags and join the Padres.19

Oxspring’s big-league debut came on September 2 at Milwaukee’s Miller Park. Bruce Bochy, then managing the Padres, pulled starter Brian Lawrence after just 1 2/3 innings. Lawrence had given up three runs and left Brewers on first and second when Oxspring entered. He loaded the bases with a walk to Carlos Lee, and then Geoff Jenkins hit a grand slam homer. Oxspring stayed in through the seventh inning. He gave up six runs (five earned), including another homer, by Lee. Yet he also struck out seven. The next day, veteran closer Trevor Hoffman encouraged the rookie by pointing out how his long relief stint had given the bullpen needed rest.20

“It is still very, very vivid in my mind,” Oxspring told the Sydney Morning Herald five years later. “I can replay it in my head like I was there yesterday. The result wasn’t ideal, but the emotion and the hype and the excitement that came along with it that day, it was something you always dream about, and it was every bit of what I wanted it to be, and I learnt a lot from that experience and got better throughout my time at the big league level.”21

In his next outing, Oxspring allowed two unearned runs, the only other runs scored against him in the majors. Bochy considered giving him a spot start on September 10 when Jake Peavy was out with a sore shoulder, but used him in relief of Clay Hensley instead.22 In 12 innings pitched, Oxspring finished with a 3.75 ERA while allowing just nine hits and striking out 11.

That November, Padres general manager Kevin Towers notified Oxspring of an offer for 2006 from the Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Central League. If he stayed with the San Diego organization, he’d most likely have shuttled back and forth from Triple-A to the majors filling temporary needs.23 The money also was better — a one-year contract with a signing bonus and salary each paying him $500,000.24 He was also reunited with countryman Jeff Williams, who’d become a Tiger in 2003.

The Australian Baseball Federation established the Baseball Australia Diamond Awards in 2006. Oxspring was the first recipient in the Open Male category. Shortly thereafter, the inaugural World Baseball Classic took place, but Oxspring wasn’t part of the Australian squad, most likely because of spring training with Hanshin.

In Japan, Oxspring started well but wound up 4-3, 5.12 in 77 1/3 innings across 16 games. He found the thought process in Japanese ball quite different and admitted that he didn’t perform as well as both he and Hanshin had expected. Thus, the Tigers sent him down to their minor-league team, and though he was recalled a couple of times, Hanshin didn’t invite him back for 2007. He understood and noted that he learned a lot about himself and baseball, making him a better player.25

In December 2006, Oxspring signed with the Milwaukee Brewers, who remembered his big-league debut at Miller Park.26 Oxspring started the 2007 season with Nashville in the PCL, and did pretty well (7-5, 3.56 in 18 starts). He was even named the starter in the Triple-A All-Star game, but before that game took place, his contract was sold to the LG Twins of the KBO.27 The Brewers didn’t have room for him at the top level but thought he was doing too well to be kept at Triple-A.28

Oxspring spent the rest of 2007 (4-5, 3.24) and 2008 (10-10, 3.93) with the LG club. He was very happy with how he fit in on the team. He displayed an effective knuckleball, though he used it mostly as a surprise pitch. Although fellow knuckleballer R.A. Dickey had been a teammate in Nashville, they didn’t work together on their craft. Oxspring’s knuckler was self-taught.29

It does not appear that Oxspring was on Team Australia’s roster for the 2007 Baseball World Cup, held in Taipei that November. (Australia did not take part in the 2003 tournament, and Oxspring was with the Padres while the 2005 edition was taking place.)

The second World Baseball Classic took place in March 2009. Oxspring was on the Australian roster but didn’t make it to the tournament. During spring training, elbow problems, which bothered him during his time with the LG Twins, worsened. He underwent two operations, the first to remove bone chips and a bone spur. A month later, Tommy John surgery kept him out of action for the rest of that year and most of 2010.30 Being in his early 30s, he worried that his career might be over, but he did everything he could to recover. The Australian Baseball League restarted in the fall of 2010, at the perfect time.31

Joining the Sydney Blue Sox, Oxspring posted a record of 4-2, 2.23 in 11 starts. In addition, he was the team’s pitching coach, working with manager Glenn Williams, who’d also reached the majors as a player in 2005. Noticing Oxspring’s performance, the Detroit Tigers gave him a minor-league contract in December 2010. Detroit’s Pacific Rim Coordinator was an Australian, former minor-league infielder Kevin Hooker.32 Oxspring had been extremely happy playing in Korea but was delighted to have another shot in the United States, where the competition was the best.33

Oxspring was the last man on the staff for Triple-A Toledo in 2011. He got into just eight games with the Mud Hens, going 0-1, 6.53 in 20 2/3 innings. It wasn’t a good fit, and he didn’t enjoy himself.34 The Tigers organization released him in May, whereupon he joined the Somerset Patriots of the independent Atlantic League. With the Patriots, he was in a rotation with former Mets blue chipper Bill Pulsipher, still hanging on at age 37. Oxspring (5-9, 4.17) got patchy run support but was philosophical about it: “There are going to be some bad games you win and some good games you lose. All you can do is uphold your end of the bargain.”35 There was little money in indie ball, but he had a lot of fun playing for manager Sparky Lyle, and having Justin Huber as a teammate was a bonus because they became better friends. His family was with him too.36

Oxspring started three games in the final Baseball World Cup in October 2011. He lost to Italy but beat Venezuela (throwing five shutout innings in a game halted by the mercy rule). Finally, he pitched six effective innings against host nation Panama in a game that Australia eventually won.37

He also remained active with the Blue Sox in the 2011-12 season (4-4, 3.08 in 11 games). But in the spring of 2012, he found himself without an offer to play ball. He took an office job with National Australia Bank in Sydney, calling it “a huge dose of reality.”38 He did well again for the Blue Sox in 2012-13 (4-2, 2.71 in 12 games) and was a member of the Australian squad in the 2013 World Baseball Classic. He lost a start to Chinese Taipei against Chien-Ming Wang and threw five shutout innings of relief in a loss to the Netherlands.39

As a result, Oxspring returned to the KBO in 2013. He spent two seasons with the Lotte Giants and then joined an expansion team, the KT Wiz, in 2015. Still mixing in the occasional knuckleball, his overall record was 35-25 in 93 starts, with a 3.99 ERA in 552 2/3 innings. The Wiz also drafted catcher Jang Sung-Woo from Lotte to make sure they had a receiver with experience in handling the knuckler.40

“It’s so much fun being in South Korea,” Oxspring said. “The people are great, I enjoy the food and the lifestyle there. It takes a little adjusting to get used to, but once you get it, you discover a whole new side of Korea that you didn’t know you would enjoy.” By that time, two of his children were in school, so he got to see them only during holidays.41

In January 2016, Lotte named Oxspring minor-league pitching coach, working with the team’s prospects in Korea’s Futures League. The Giants said they valued his serious, disciplined approach to the game and hoped that his professionalism would rub off on young players.42 That August he was promoted to the big-league staff along with hitting coach Julio Franco.43

At age 39, however, Oxspring wasn’t quite finished as a pitcher. During the ABL’s 2016-17 season, he made four last starts for the Blue Sox, going 0-2, 8.05 in 19 innings. That brought his overall record with Sydney to 12-10, 3.11.

During the World Baseball Classic in 2017, again Oxspring was on the Australian roster. He was part of the “designated pitchers pool” (a group of up to 10 hurlers, of which only two could be on the active roster).44 Australia was eliminated from Pool B, precluding Oxspring’s activation had the team advanced.

In December 2018, Oxspring gave notice to the Lotte Giants organization that he would not return for the 2019 season because he wished to spend more time with his family.45 Previously, that October, he had talked about the rapid development of the game in his homeland since 2010. As evidence of the trend, the ABL had brought in two new expansion teams. One of them, Geelong-Korea, had named Oxspring’s former Blue Sox teammate Dae-Sung Koo as manager. Koo, a Korean native, had become a resident of Australia years before. After commenting on Koo’s baseball knowledge and intelligence, Oxspring talked about how experience was filtering down more broadly from the professional ranks, including Aussies who’d played overseas. He concluded, “Baseball is making huge strides in Australia, which is fantastic to see for someone like me who has put a lifetime’s work into the sport.”46

Last revised: July 22, 2019

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Warren Corbett and Jan Finkel and fact-checked by Chris Rainey. Continued thanks to Nicholas Henning in Australia for his input.

Sources

Online

Facebook.com

YouTube.com

Chris Oxspring interview — part of a series with the Australian Baseball Players Alumni Association (ABPAA).

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHx–oB5S3U

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvzAvpvC8_E

ComingtoAmericaBaseball.com

Chris Oxspring interview with Philip Riccobono — podcast, May 10, 2013 (http://comingtoamericabaseball.com/?powerpress_pinw=354-podcast)

web.theabl.com.au (Australian Baseball League statistics from 2010 onward)

www.baseball.com.au: Baseball Australia.

pflintoff.com: Flintoff & Dunn’s Australian Major League Baseball.

Notes

1 Michael Cowley, “Aces of bases: Australia one win from gold,” Sydney Morning Herald, August 25, 2004.

2 ABPAA interview, Part 1, Riccobono interview.

3 Scott Oxspring obituary, Gold Coast Bulletin (Southpoort, Queensland, Australia), October 17, 2009.

4 ABPAA interview, Part 1, Riccobono interview.

5 Summer in Australia but winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

6 Peter Flintoff and Adrian Dunn, Flintoff & Dunn’s ABL Almanac, 3rd Edition, Wantirna, Victoria, Australia: Flintoff & Dunn (2000): 8-77.

7 Ryan Dunleavy, “Australians take the path less traveled to majors,” MyCentralJersey.com, August 27, 2011 (http://blogs.mycentraljersey.com/patriots/2011/08/27/australians-take-the-path-less-traveled-to-majors/)

8 Mike Shannon, Everything Happens in Chillicothe, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2004: 179.

9 ABPAA interview, Part 1.

10 Kevin Gemmell, “Improbable dreams,” San Diego Union-Tribune, July 25, 2005.

11 “Baseball,” Sydney Morning Herald, January 18, 2001, 45.

12 Dunleavy, “Australians take the path less traveled to majors.”

13 ABPAA interview, Part 1.

14 Peter Flintoff and Adrian Dunn note that Oxspring was a member of the Queensland Rams at some point, but references available online do not specify when.

15 ABPAA interview, Part 1.

16 Tyler Kepner, “Cuba, with Help, Wins Gold, but Australia Shows It Belongs,” New York Times, August 26, 2004.

17 “Chris Oxspring,” Australian Olympic Committee web page (http://corporate.olympics.com.au/athlete/chris-oxspring)

18 “Padres recall Oxspring, [Craig] Breslow, and [Paul] McAnulty,” MLB.com, September 1, 2005 (http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/content/printer_friendly/sd/y2005/m09/d01/c1192814.jsp)

19 ABPAA interview, Part 1.

20 Ibid.

21 Michael Cowley, “Minor deal gives Oxspring another bigs chance,” Sydney Morning Herald, December 17, 2010.

22 “Today’s matchup,” San Diego Union-Tribune, Sptember 10, 2005.

23 ABPAA interview, Part 1. Riccobono interview.

24 “Tigers land Aussie Oxspring,” Japan Times, December 10, 2005.

25 ABPAA interview, Part 1. Riccobono interview. Cowley, “Minor deal gives Oxspring another bigs chance.”

26 Ibid.

27 James Barron, “Sounds’ Oxspring to start for PCL,” Santa Fe New Mexican, June 30, 2007, B3. “Power: Stratton still holds ‘Topes team record for HRs in a season,” Santa Fe New Mexican, July 10, 2007, B3.

28 ABPAA interview, Part 1.

29 Riccobono interview.

30 Yoo Jee-ho, “Small changes lead to big success for Lotte’s Chris Oxspring in KBO,” Yonhap News, May 9, 2013.

31 Cowley, “Minor deal gives Oxspring another bigs chance.”

32 Riccobono interview.

33 Nathan Smith, “Chris Oxspring talks about success with the Blue Sox, his coaching role, and his contract with the Detroit Tigers,” Oz MLB Players blog, December 14, 2010 (http://ozmlbplayers.blogspot.com/2010/12/chris-oxspring-talks-about-success-with_7134.html)

34 Riccobono interview.

35 Ryan Dunleavy, “Patriots struggle with run support,” Bridgewater (New Jersey) Courier-News, September 8, 2011, C1.

36 ABPAA interview, Part 2. Dunleavy, “Australians take the path less traveled to majors,”

37 “Dismal Cup continues for Aussie baseballers,” ABC New Australia, October 4, 2011 (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-04/dismal-cup-continues-for-aussie-baseballers/3208890). “First round ends with plenty of open spots available for 2nd round,” IBAF press release, October 11, 2011. Gilbert Gardiner, “Australia upset host nation Panama in IBAF Baseball World Cup,” Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia), October 14, 2011.

38 ABPAA interview, Part 2.

39 Debby Wu, “Wang leads Chinese Taipei to victory in Classic opener,” MLB.com, March 2, 2013 (http://mlb.mlb.com/wbc/2013/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2013_03_02_ausint_tpeint_1&mode=recap). Josh Timmers, “Korea Loses By Winning: Chinese Taipei and the Netherlands Advance in WBC,” BleedCubbieBlue.com, March 5, 2013 (https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2013/3/5/4067372/korea-loses-by-winning-chinese-taipei-and-the-netherlands-advance-in)

40 Brett Ward, “Oxspring joins new KBO franchise,” Australian Baseball Alumni website (https://www.abpaa.com/oxspring-joins-new-kbo-franchise). Sung Min Kim, “An American Knuckleballer in Korea,” Frangraphs.com, March 2, 2018 (https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/an-american-knuckleballer-in-korea/). Subject: Ryan Feierabend.

41 Ward, “Oxspring joins new KBO franchise.”

42 “Ex-Lotte pitcher Oxspring named team’s minor league coach,” Yonhap News, January 5, 2016.

43 Naver Sports, August 17, 2016 (Twitter link to Korean-language release).

44 Cash Kruth, “Australia boasts strong arms on WBC ’17 roster,” MLB.com, February 8, 2017 (https://www.mlb.com/news/australias-wbc-17-squad-has-veteran-pitchers/c-215471548)

45 “Australian pitching coach leaves S. Korean club to be with family,” Yonhap News, December 3, 2018.

46 Sam Finn, “Oxspring’s Korean journey continues,” TheABL.com.au, October 17, 2018 (http://web.theabl.com.au/news/article.jsp?ymd=20181017&content_id=298084700&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_abl)

Joseph James Quinn was born on December 24, 1862, in the village of Ipswich, Queensland, in northern Australia.1 His parents, Patrick Quinn and Catherine McAfie, were both refugees from the Irish Potato Famine. The son of an impoverished farmer in County Laois, Ireland, 17-year-old Patrick came to Australia on a one-way ticket in 1855, his passage subsidized under the British Assisted Immigration scheme.2 Born in about 1830, Catherine was raised as a servant on a farm near Enniskillen in what is now Northern Ireland, and orphaned by the famine while still a teen.3 Her ability to read and write allowed her to escape the county workhouse and find another servant’s position in 1847; it took a further six years for her to save her fare to Australia.4 Catherine and Patrick met in the small Irish enclave of Broulee on the New South Wales south coast in 1856; though she was eight years his senior, within weeks, they were married.5

In 1857, Patrick took his new bride to the Araluen goldfields near the modern-day Australian capital of Canberra, where their first son, Patrick Jr., was born.6 The diggings were destroyed by a monster flood in 1860, and the Quinns, who had failed to make their fortune at Araluen, now journeyed 600 miles north to Ipswich, chasing rumors of work on a new inland rail line.7 When Joe was born on Christmas Eve in 1862, the family was sweltering in a tent in a squatters’ camp outside town, with only potatoes and feral goat for their Christmas dinner.8

Patrick Quinn made a paltry living laboring on Queensland’s first rail line, which opened in July 1865.9 By that time, the state was gripped by drought, failing crops, and riots over unemployment. The Quinns escaped by walking all the way south back to the Irish settlement at Campbelltown, just west of Sydney. This was the harshest period of Joe Quinn’s life. Founded as a British penal colony in 1788, Australia’s convict era was now over, and prison labor was replaced in many cases by underpaid child workers. Joe Quinn was one of 37,000 Australian children who worked as factory hands, farm workers, and domestic servants in the year 1871 alone.10 He bent his small body for a few pennies a week, only attending school intermittently. There was no time or money for games and sports. But by 1872, when Quinn was 10 years old, his family was down to their last pennies. Hailstorms and wheat rust had decimated local agriculture and many families were bankrupt and unemployed.11 Having not found their promised land in Australia, the Quinns took ship for the United States.

They settled in Dubuque, Iowa, after a journey of 11,000 miles by ship, stagecoach, and countless miles of painful walking.12 A large Irish diaspora had settled in the village beside the Mississippi River after the post-Famine exodus, so much so the town became known as Little Dublin. Perhaps finally feeling at home after almost two decades of wandering, Patrick Quinn settled his family in a small house on Grandview Avenue, where he remained until his death in 1902.13

But in Dubuque, little changed for 11-year-old Joe Quinn. His family, still immigrants, still uneducated, faced the same grinding poverty, with the Australian farms now exchanged for Iowa’s zinc mines.14 His father took a job in the Avenue Top mine and exaggerated Joe’s age to get him a job underground too, shifting rubble and shoring up walls on just 50 cents a day.15

Thus far, sports had played no part in Joe Quinn’s underprivileged life. In Australia, the game of baseball had existed only among American expats on the goldfields.16 But in Dubuque, “all the boys played,” as Quinn said in a later interview.17 At 16 years old, Joe Quinn had struggled to integrate with these local children: he spoke differently, he was a dirty half-educated miner’s boy who was beneath their contempt. In baseball, he at last found some common ground.18

Despite his late start in the game, Quinn clearly showed some natural ability. Within three years, in 1881, he was invited to join the local semi-pro team, the Dubuque Rabbits, playing alongside future Hall of Famers Charles “Hoss” Radbourn and Charlie Comiskey.19 Quinn played first base as understudy to Comiskey. He stood just 5-feet-7, and at 150 pounds, was hardly an intimidating presence for the oncoming baserunner — but Joe Quinn had become battle-hardened in the mines, and in this era of gloveless play, his tough hands were perfect for taking throws on bare palms.

On the national stage, unrest was high in professional baseball. The National League and American Association squabbled relentlessly over players, admission prices, and salaries. Players jumped back and forth between leagues searching for the best pay and conditions. In response, both leagues adopted the reserve clause, allowing clubs to indefinitely hoard their best five players. In 1883, reserve quotas were hiked from five to 11.20 In response, St. Louis millionaire Henry Lucas established the Union Association, boldly snatching talent from the established leagues and the semi-pro ranks with lofty salaries and no reserve clause.21 Joe Quinn was engaged for Lucas’s St. Louis team, the Maroons, for $2,000 — a sum that would have bought passage from Australia to the USA 50 times over.22

Just before his departure from Dubuque in late 1883, Quinn took a night-time walk which nearly ended his baseball career. A section of rotten sidewalk gave way, sending him crashing down an embankment. Quinn was forced to sail down the Mississippi River for St. Louis with his broken arm in a splint, for which he later sued the City of Dubuque for $2,500 damages.23 It was hardly the perfect preparation for the rough and rowdy world of professional baseball, where brawling, cheating, and hard drinking were a way of life and two good fists were often needed to earn a player a break, as Quinn himself later recalled.24 The violence often included brutal victimization of rookies. Quinn gave up 70 pounds to some of his hulking teammates, who pitched balls at his head, tore his uniforms, and complained he was too small to play first base.25

But Quinn’s hard upbringing had instilled in him a fierce self-respect: he refused to retaliate, instead letting his play do the talking. In his major-league debut on April 26, 1884, against Altoona, he banged his first hit in pro ball over the shortstop’s head and scored from third in the 9-3 victory. He then cemented his place in the team with an errorless four-game series at first base, St. Louis averaging 14 runs per game while the Pennsylvania outfit scored just 12 for the entire series.26 One hundred and two years passed between Joe Quinn’s debut and another Australian appearing in major-league baseball, when Craig Shipley lined up at shortstop for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1986.

In 1884, St. Louis decimated the breakaway Union Association. Their 94-19 win-loss record remains unsurpassed in professional baseball. Quinn hit a respectable .270 and handled over 1,000 putouts at first base. He also appeared briefly in the outfield and at shortstop, as he would on occasion in years to come. However, the Union Association was so top-heavy it collapsed after only one season. While some baseball observers have questioned its classification as a major league,27 as baseball’s first attempt to protect the rights of professional players, it awoke in Joe Quinn a desire for justice which would shape many of his future choices.

What followed was two years of humiliation for the Maroons franchise as it joined the National League and was immediately blown away by the higher caliber of pitching and defense. The Maroons finished the 1885 season dead last, and 1886 was little better. Quinn was shunted around the infield and then, because he had been timed sprinting 100 yards in under 11 seconds,28 dispatched to right field, from where he was expected to throw runners out at first base. His batting average hovered around .220. By November 1886, the Maroons were bankrupt and out of the league.

With a scarcely-impressive three seasons behind him, baseball oblivion beckoned for Joe Quinn. But an opportunity came in Duluth, Minnesota, on the icy shores of Lake Superior. That Northwestern League club had lost its second baseman, John Ake, in a boating tragedy on the Mississippi, and were scrambling mid-season for a replacement.29 The entire Maroons franchise had been sold to Indianapolis but, with a top-heavy list of infielders, Quinn had not played a single game, and owner John T. Brush agreed to sell his “extra fielder” to Duluth, despite Quinn having played just 15 games at second base in his entire professional career. Quinn could do nothing but “have a go,” in the great Australian tradition.30

Joe Quinn had hit only one home run in his pro career. Now, in 1887, he slammed 11 and posted a .372 batting average. He was made captain, then manager, of the Freezers.31 But squabbling board members and financiers were crippling the club. Quinn stood by his struggling team — even when management proposed selling him to raise capital, Quinn refused to desert his sinking ship and consent to the sale.32 His loyalty, however, came to naught: the club finished seventh in the eight-team league and was disbanded.

Quinn returned to St. Louis for the winter of 1887-88, where he boarded in the Irish enclave known as the Kerry Patch.33 Nineteenth-century players were paid only during the season, and many worked during the winters to keep their heads above water until next spring. There were showmen and preachers, trappers and teachers.34 In 1886, under the wing of Kerry Patch mortician Thomas McGrath, Joe Quinn had become an apprentice undertaker.

The funeral business was dangerous as it was somber. Undertakers inhaled arsenic and mercury from embalming fluids, and were exposed to diseased corpses without the protection of face masks, gloves, or antiseptic.35 Quinn’s decision to enter the industry arose from a great fear of returning to his childhood destitution:

“I realized I only had a limited period as a player, and seeing all about me great stars doomed after their playing days to poverty and often starvation, I determined that when my time came, there would be no such story told about me.” 36

Quinn drove himself fiercely through the winters, working for McGrath and earning extra cash shoeing horses37 and tending bar.38 But while it was gloomy and hazardous, the association with Thomas McGrath had a special advantage for Joe Quinn. McGrath had four daughters, and one in particular caught Quinn’s eye — Mary Ellen, a spirited girl with auburn hair and blue eyes, was six years his junior, and saw much in Quinn beyond the vile reputation many ball players had for drinking, fighting, and gambling. They were married on November 17, 1886, at St. Bridget’s Catholic Church in St. Louis.

In 1888, Quinn signed with Des Moines in the Western Association to play second base for the Prohibitionists.39 In this temperance heartland, teetotaler Quinn was their poster boy. On a diet of pork and corn, he filled out to over 170 pounds and helped himself to a .309 average in 77 games.40

Back in the National League, baseball’s richest club, Boston, had a problem. In 1888, they had already tried and sacked three second-basemen, two of whom couldn’t hit and one who fractured his skull falling off a tram.41 The solution — tempt the Prohibitionists with $3,000 for the in-form Joe Quinn.42 But once again, Quinn would not break his contract. The offer increased to $4,000; Quinn again refused. However, the Prohibitionists were in financial trouble, and in August, they handed over his contract.43 Quinn was furious. It was a terrible realization that he was merely a commodity to be traded, and to have the public potentially perceive him as a greedy jumper was abhorrent.

Boston wanted Quinn before facing league-leaders New York at the Polo Grounds on August 27. In New York, Quinn faced such a riotous crowd of Giants fans that the overflow of their carriages had to be parked in center field. The game was titanic.  The Beans took the lead in the third inning as speedy Dick Johnston hit safely, stole second, and came home on a Tom Brown hit which Giants outfielder Mike Slattery allowed to bounce.  But the Giants equalized at the top of the ninth; two Boston hitters fell trying for the winning run — and with the crowd raising a din audible for miles, out of the dugout walked little Joe Quinn. 

Giants pitcher Tim Keefe was on a 19-game winning streak; he had already struck out 10 that day. But Quinn looked Keefe straight in the eye and swung hard at the first pitch. The hit soared over center fielder Slattery’s head to land among the carriages. Scrambling Giants fielders couldn’t disentangle the ball before Quinn slid in for the winning run, the strangest inside-the-park home run of the year.44

In 1884, Quinn had been a part of baseball’s first rebel league. As the 1880s drew to a close, insurrection again threatened professional baseball. Front and center was Boston crowd favorite Joe Quinn.

Since his dramatic debut for the Beaneaters, the Boston public had clamored to know the serious young man from “Down Under.” Quinn had been taken under the wing of the team’s greatest celebrity, Hall of Fame catcher Mike “King” Kelly, who guided him through the minefield of life in the spotlight. Kelly and Quinn were baseball’s most improbable pairing. Unlike the sober Quinn, Mike Kelly loved nothing more than strong drink, fine food, and betting on horses. But he won two batting crowns in the 1880s, and his inventiveness required constant changes to baseball’s rules.45 Kelly’s parents had died soon after he was born, and it was perhaps his lifelong quest for love and attention that drew the King to Quinn, whose modesty was the perfect foil for his own exuberance.46 In the reflected glow of Kelly’s brilliance, Quinn had thrived in his return to the big time. He hit .301 in 38 games in 1888 and recorded over 200 putouts at second base. Boston fans presented him with a gold-inlaid bat in September 1889, with which Quinn promised he would hit a home run. The best he could do was a hard-hit single, but the crowd still raised the roof.47

But 1889 was a rollercoaster season for Boston, who lost the pennant to New York amid bitter infighting, much of which fans blamed on Kelly. The King’s staunchest defender was Joe Quinn, even when he too was vilified:

“Some of my friends are sore on me for upholding Kelly. Well, Kelly acted like a gentleman when I first went to Boston. He could not do any more for his brother than he did for me.”48

There was also ongoing unrest in the National League. Conflict over the reserve clause was inflamed by introduction of the Classification Rule to cap player payments. To the Brotherhood of Base Ball Players, the players union formed to fight the reserve clause, this attack on player rights could not go unpunished.49 Quinn was privy to the union’s secret plans to form a breakaway league in 1890.50 On September 21, 1889, The Sporting News published a letter from a “leading Boston player” trumpeting the plan:

“We have concluded to start an association of our own and ask no more favor from the directors of the league…No matter what happens, do not mention my name in connection with this letter.”51

Quinn admitted he had authored the letter, with the support of the Brotherhood.52 Over 100 of the era’s greatest players, including King Kelly, Hoss Radbourn, Charlie Comiskey, and Tim Keefe, now openly rejected the strictures of the reserve clause and prepared to join the rebel league.53

However, Quinn hesitated at the 11th hour. After his poverty-stricken childhood, he was suddenly nervous about litigation — he had saved hard throughout his career but now could lose everything if the National League’s lawsuits against the Players’ League succeeded.54 But the ever-loyal Quinn did sign with the Boston Reds. And in the company of many of the game’s greats, he enjoyed his best year on the diamond so far. He had 153 hits — including seven homers, his best single-season total in the majors — for an average of .301, well above the league average .274. He stole 29 bases (also a career high) and led the league in fielding percentage at second base (.942), the first time he did so.

“Joe Quinn is the most valuable second baseman in the Players’ League. His sacrificing won many a game, he is among the leaders in batting, has the highest fielding average of the League and tries for everything. He has been a gold find.”55

The Reds were the champions of the Players’ League, which collapsed after its only season in 1890. Quinn returned to the Beaneaters and won a further two National League championships with Boston in 1891 and 1892. However, the 30-year-old was supplanted by younger infielder Bobby Lowe at the end of 1892. Not only did Boston let Quinn go — they sold him to one of the league’s weakest teams, the St. Louis Browns.

The Browns had won four American Association pennants in the 1880s and had finished either second or third from 1889 through 1891. After joining the National League in 1892, however, the club spiraled downward into 11th place out of 12. The Browns needed a captain who would both lead the struggling team and liaise with the capricious owner, Chris Von der Ahe — a task requiring a hide as thick as the proverbial rhinoceros.56 In February 1893, Joe Quinn arrived to captain and play second base for the Browns. The Sporting News observed:

“The selection is a wise one…Unlike many other professionals, he has never broken a contract or been charged with double-dealing of any kind. He is honest and upright and commands the respect of the fraternity at large.”57

Quinn now took the greatest gamble of his baseball career. After years of being apprenticed to Thomas McGrath, Quinn bought his own business, a livery stable in the Kerry Patch. In the 19th century, livery and undertaking services worked symbiotically, with transport to and from the burial complementing the funeral services. Working during the playing season was unheard of for professional ball players, yet Quinn was now stabling horses, renting buggies, transporting the bereaved, and somehow fitting it all around his numerous duties on the ballfield.58

He managed, initially: in fact, in mid-May of 1893, Quinn and his Browns were actually leading the league.59 The captain had laid down firm guidelines for the discontented squad:

“People will not patronize the sport if they are compelled to listen to the language of swell-headed toughs…If these offenses are repeated under me, you will quit ball-playing for all time.”60

But it couldn’t last. As the Browns began to slip back toward the cellar, Von der Ahe berated, fined, and suspended his players for every minor error. Morale crashed. Quinn himself was exhausted by practice, travel, and hours of extra labor in the stables. His batting average was under .240, and only fumbling third baseman Jack Crooks made more errors.

The one bright spot came on September 30, 1893, when the Browns, having lost their previous 10 games, crushed league-leaders Boston in both games of a doubleheader during which Quinn hammered eight hits.61 This performance coincided with his decision to sell the Kerry Patch stables.62 Quinn’s pride was wounded at having to return to working for McGrath, but an unexpected reward came his way. In one of the worst seasons of his career with both bat (.230 average) and glove (.942 from 135 games), Quinn was voted “America’s Most Popular Player” by The Sporting News, with its readership of 80,000. The award was proof that Quinn didn’t need to play for a winning team or produced Hall of Fame numbers to be respected and admired. He wore the gold watch presented to him for the rest of his life, albeit tucked deep in a pocket lest it mar his sober image.63

Freed from the demands of his business, Quinn’s 1894 form had been much improved. In partnership with new shortstop William “Bones” Ely, the pair were hailed the best infield duo in the league.64 But it all came undone on the Fourth of July when Quinn, who had made three hits and turned three double plays against Washington, had his hand smashed by an errant pitch.65 His absence saw the Browns began their familiar backslide, and Von der Ahe slashed all salaries as punishment. With his hand only half healed, Quinn hastily reinstated himself — but by August, the players had not been paid in months and finished the year in ninth place.66 Despite his shattered hand, Quinn finished the year second in the league in fielding at second base (.952), making just 34 errors in 106 games. The Browns finished the year ninth.

Between 1894 and 1898, the Browns had 13 managers, and the team’s performances degenerated from the uncertain to the preposterous. The 1895 season was just eight weeks old when the yoke landed on the shoulders of Joe Quinn.

By late June 1895, Von der Ahe had already dispensed with two managers for the season. The Browns’ performances had been so awful that fans were booing and whistling Handel’s Dead March every time they took the field.67 It seemed only Quinn could resist the slide toward the National League cellar, hitting .362 for the year. It was no romantic transition, however: the Browns lost their first seven games under Quinn’s stewardship.68 But on July 25, Quinn slammed four singles and a double against Brooklyn to drag the Browns out of another six-game losing streak,69 and Sporting Life reported:

“The Browns are doing better, much better, under the direction of Manager Quinn. There is more harmony in the club, less chance for jealous differences, and when a few broken fingers and wrecked joints have got into normal condition, still better results may be looked for.”70

It was the last good thing said about the Browns during Quinn’s reign — they won only one of his remaining 11 games in charge. Quinn was still batting .347 but he cabled his notice as manager to Von der Ahe on August 4, insisting that the best way he could serve the club was to focus on playing.71 Despite earning the respect of his men through his honesty and integrity, Quinn was never comfortable in the role of manager. Off the field, he was a loner, and he admitted he lacked the genuine connection with the players which distinguishes the captain from the general.72

Over the next 12 months, the Browns had a further seven managers and many players were sacked or traded for minor offenses. In July 1896, Von der Ahe issued the ultimate warning to the demoralized team: he traded their most consistent player, Joe Quinn, to Baltimore.73 It was the crowning insult in the entire debacle — the man with the cleanest reputation in baseball was sold to its dirtiest team.

Despite winning National League championships in 1894 and ’95, the Baltimore Orioles were just as well known for hustling, fighting, and outright cheating. Their star-studded roster included Hall of Famers John McGraw, Hugh Jennings, Joe Kelley, and Wee Willie Keeler, and Quinn now faced a major test of his integrity — how to earn the respect of his fractious new teammates without compromising his own pristine reputation. But Joe Quinn was no pushover. After years of maltreatment in St. Louis, he bloomed in the Baltimore hothouse. His batting average revived to .329 in 24 games as the bad Birds clinched the 1896 pennant. They had the best winning percentage in Baltimore major-league history with their 90-39 record.74 Quinn recounted:

“If a man didn’t get out and do battle, he didn’t last long. The players were a rip-snorting lot and it took a good two-fisted fellow to make his own breaks.”75

In 1888, Australians had been formally introduced to baseball when the Chicago White Stockings and American All-Stars played 12 games there as part of the Spalding World Tour. An ambitious return tour of the United States by Australian players was organized in 1897. But for all the players’ enthusiasm, the self-financed Australian team was routinely humiliated by its American counterparts. By the time they reached Chicago, the Australian manager had fled with the meager takings and the players were broke and abandoned.76 They scraped together cash for a final treat, watching Chicago entertain the visiting Orioles. They were warmly greeted by both teams after the game, including by Orioles infielder Joe Quinn, who they were astonished to learn was a native of Queensland and who the Australian Argus reported was “anxious for news from home.”77 Quinn’s exploits had never reached the Australian media or his playing counterparts “Down Under,” and this encounter was the only mention of Quinn in any Australian broadsheet of the era.

In early 1898, Joe Quinn was traded back to St. Louis to rejoin the hapless Browns, around the time the bankrupt club was bought by Cleveland street-car magnates Frank and Matthew Robison, who also owned the Cleveland franchise. Syndicate baseball — two clubs with one owner — is now illegal in professional baseball. But in the nineteenth century, it was common, and nowhere was it more disastrous than Cleveland in 1899. The Robisons dispatched Cleveland stars including pitcher Cy Young and .400 hitter Jesse Burkett to St. Louis to create a southern super-team, and made only an indifferent attempt to restock the Spiders with washed-up veterans and unblooded youngsters from the Browns.

The tone for the Cleveland Spiders’ season was set from the first game, which, cruelly, was scheduled against St. Louis in the Robisons’ new southern stronghold. 15,000 fans cheered the Browns as they stamped out their northern brothers, 10-1.78 Cy Young was on the mound — he would win 26 games in 1899, more than his former team managed for the season. The Spiders then proceeded to set new records for futility in almost every aspect of the game, and their fans deserted them in droves. Lave Cross, perhaps the only good-quality player the Robisons had left in Cleveland, managed the team for the first 38 games of the 1899 season, winning just eight; his performances at third base, however, were good enough to earn him a ticket to St. Louis. Who better qualified to take over the rag-tag bunch than Joe Quinn?

One facetious report suggested Cleveland had the proper manager in Quinn: “a corpse in charge of an undertaker.”79 But the 36-year-old second baseman hauled himself up to his best season in five years, batting .281 and fielding at the top of the National League at second base.80 The Washington Times wrote:

“He is batting and fielding as well as he ever did. If not better. He is a credit to the profession, and the game would be better with more of his kind.” 81

The Spiders did manage one hurrah for their long-suffering fans, whose average attendance was just 100 per game. On July 1, Cleveland defeated Boston 10-9, coming from 7-0 down at the start of the ninth inning. With the score tied in the 11th inning, Quinn stole second and crossed the plate with the game winning run.82 It was sweet but short-lived: the Spiders then lost 14 games in a row.83

The Spiders split their July 18 doubleheader with Washington, Quinn putting in what the Spalding Base Ball Guide of 1899 described as “the fielding performance of the season,” making eight putouts and 14 assists without an error.84 But his miserable troops could not follow suit: between August 25 and season’s end, Cleveland won just one game and lost 40. They closed out the season the way they had started — dismally, thrashed by Cincinnati, who had already beaten them 14 times that season.

Joe Quinn was the last manager of the Cleveland Spiders, whose 20-134 record remains the worst in major league baseball history. The valiant Quinn led the team in batting at .286, and led the league in fielding at second base (.962), committing just 31 errors in 147 games. And teams continued to vie for his services. In 1900, Quinn had another stint in St. Louis of just 24 games; he then played 74 games in Cincinnati, where he made his final appearance in the National League in October 1900.85

Quinn appeared in the inaugural season of the American League with Washington in 1901. But the mediocre play of the Senators was too much, and Quinn sought his release in July.86 It was the only time in his 17-year career that he purposely turned his back on a club.

But in 1902, an invitation to play back in minor-league Des Moines was more than he could resist. After the 1902 season, the team actually changed its moniker from the Midgets to the Undertakers to honor their 40-year-old captain, who had been the Western League’s leading second baseman for the year.87 Quinn closed the book on his professional baseball career with the Undertakers in September 1903, with five championships on his résumé.

By 1920, 58-year-old Joe Quinn, father of eight, had settled into the simple pleasures of life. In 1895, he had been made a full partner in Thomas McGrath’s undertaking business, and though McGrath had died in 1907, McGrath & Quinn had continued to flourish in their gloomy trade. By 1920, the firm had moved into larger premises on Union Boulevard; three of Quinn’s five sons had also followed him into the business.88 Two of the boys, Joseph Jr. (b. 1893) and Clarence (b. 1894), had been enthusiastic sandlot ball players in St. Louis but had given the game up to work with their father.89 But in 1920, Joe’s fourth son, John Richard — known as “Scotty” — was invited to try out with John McGraw’s New York Giants. Quinn adored the boy, both for his resemblance to his own father and for his passionate love of baseball. Scotty was born in 1897, the year the Orioles won the Temple Cup with McGraw and Joe Quinn sharing duties at third base. And now Scotty had a shot at becoming manager McGraw’s new third baseman.

But in that terrible year, St. Louis was under siege from deadly Spanish influenza. On February 2, 1920, just days before Scotty’s departure for New York, Joe’s daughter Estelle came dashing, hysterical, into the funeral parlor and fetched him home. Scotty was already unconscious. Joe watched his son struggle for life for three days. On February 5, Scotty Quinn died.90 Four of Joe and Mary Ellen Quinn’s babies had been stillborn,91 but this was different: a tragedy of such dreadful proportions that Joe never spoke of his son again.92

The impoverished boy who had once earned a living grubbing in the Iowa zinc mines had become one of St. Louis’ most successful businessmen. But in 1937, life dealt Joe Quinn another blow — the loss of his wife of 51 years when Mary Ellen Quinn died from heart disease.93 Quinn’s own health began to decline. Suffering from myocarditis and the beginnings of dementia, he was hospitalized in February 1940, and never returned to his home at 1389 Union Boulevard. Quinn died on November 12, 1940, aged 77.94 His funeral was arranged by his faithful sons. He was buried in the family plot at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis beside his wife and his beloved Scotty.95

On May 4, 2013, Quinn was inducted into Baseball Australia’s (virtual) Hall of Fame as an “Australian baseball pioneer…for many more to come.”96 However, accolades were not Joe Quinn’s way. The only monument to his life, still standing in Calvary Cemetery, is appropriately unpretentious: it is marked only “Quinn.”

This biography has been adapted from the full-length book by Rochelle Llewelyn Nicholls, Joe Quinn among the Rowdies: The Life of Baseball’s Honest Australian (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2014).

Notes

1 Queensland Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages. (2015).  “Birth Registration: Quinn, Joseph James (Per Quinn, Patrick – Catherine Mcafie)”, Department of Police & Justice, Queensland. [cited July 15, 2001]. Available.

2 From records of the ship Matoaka: “Matoaka [Passenger List]: Online Microfilm of Shipping Lists.” (2012). New South Wales Government State Records. [cited July 7, 2012]. Available from: http://www.records.nsw.gov.au.

3 Vynette Sage (2009). “Enniskillen Workhouse Register: Dec 1845 — July 1847.” Ireland Genealogy Projects. Available from: http://www.igp-web.com/fermanagh/Donated.htm. [cited December 12, 2012].

4 “Telegraph [Passenger List]: Online Microfilm of Shipping Lists.” (2012). New South Wales Government State Records. [cited December 28, 2012]. Available from: http://www.records.nsw.gov.au.

5 Queensland Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages. (2015). “Birth Registration: Quinn, Joseph James (Per Quinn, Patrick – Catherine Mcafie) “ Department of Police & Justice, Queensland. [cited July 15, 2001]. Available.

6 “Australia Birth Index, 1788-1922: Patrick F. Quin.” (2010). Ancestry.com. [cited July 1, 2012]. Available from: www.ancestry.com.

7 “Supreme Court, Brisbane. In the Insolvent Estate of the Moreton Bay Tramway Company,” Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald & General Advertiser (Brisbane, , Queensland). February 17, 1863, 3.

8 “Municipal Council,” Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald & General Advertiser (Brisbane). July 12, 1864, 3.

9 “Opening of the First Railway in Queensland (from Our Special Reporter),” The Brisbane Courier, August 1, 1865, 2-3.

10 Maree Murray,  “Children’s Work in Rural New South Wales in the 1870s,” Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society. 79 (3-4), 1993: 226-244.

11 “Distress in the Agricultural Districts,” The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, New South Wales), March 9, 1864, 5.

12 The logs of 1872 passenger ships between the USA and Australia did not record the names of steerage passengers, but the year of the Quinns’ arrival in the United States, 1872, is recorded in the 1900 United States census: Joseph J. Quinn (image no. 00620): “United States Census: City of St. Louis, Missouri – Division of St. Louis City.” (1900). United States Census Office. [cited November 11, 2012]. Available from: www.familysearch.org.

13 “Patrick Quinn Is Dead,” Dubuque Telegraph-Herald (Dubuque, Iowa), April 12, 1902: 3.

14 Marble’s Dubuque City Directory (Dubuque, Iowa: Chas. A. Marble, 1881).

15 William Mott Steuart, Special Report: Mines and Quarries (Washington: Department of Commerce and Labor — Bureau of the Census, 1905), 450.

16 Joe Clark, A History of Australian Baseball: Time and Game ( Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2003), 12.

17 Dick Farrington, “Half a Century through Joe Quinn’s Eyes: Union Star Recalls Birth of ‘the Sporting News’”, The Sporting News (St. Louis, Missouri). May 21, 1936: 9B.

18 Ibid.

19 Harold Seymour and Dorothy Seymour Mills, Baseball: The Early Years (New York: Oxford University Press. 1960), 102.

20 David Nemec, The Great Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Major League Baseball (Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 2006), 178.

21 Bill Borst, Baseball through a Knothole: A St. Louis History (St. Louis: Krank Press, 1980), 34.

22 Farrington, “Half a Century through Joe Quinn’s Eyes”

23 “Notes and Comments,” The Sporting Life (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), April 22, 1885: 7.

24 Farrington, “Half a Century through Joe Quinn’s Eyes”

25 “Washington Whispers,” The Sporting Life, September 6, 1890: 13.

26 “Sporting: The Altoonas Again Defeated by Our Union Club,” The Republican (St. Louis, Missouri), April 27, 1884: 3.

27 Bill James, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), 24-31.

28 “From the Mound City,” The Sporting Life, March 24, 1886: 8.

29 “Joe Quinn,” Indianapolis Herald, June 15, 1887: 3.

30 Rochelle Llewelyn Nicholls, Joe Quinn among the Rowdies: The Life of Baseball’s Honest Australian (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2014), 61-75.

31 “Duluth’s New Manager,” The Sporting Life, August 31, 1887: 7.

32 “Sports, Limited,” Saint Paul Daily Globe (St. Paul, Minnesota), February 8, 1888: 5.

33 Joseph M. O’Toole, “My God, What a Life!” (St. Louis: O’Toole, 1981), 13.

34 Seymour and Mills, Baseball: The Early Years, 332-333.

35 Robert G. Mayer, Embalming: History, Theory, and Practice, Fifth Edition (New York: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2011), 492.

36 Farrington, “Half a Century through Joe Quinn’s Eyes.”

37 “St. Louis Screed,” The Sporting Life, October 27, 1886: 2.

38 “From St. Louis,” The Sporting Life, October 6, 1886: 4.

39 “A Talk with Joe Quinn,” The Sporting Life,  November 23, 1887: 3.

40 “Sporting Notes,” Boston Globe, January 6, 1888: 6.

41 He had made his professional debut in 1872, the year Quinn arrived in America, with the Brooklyn Atlantics. Kathy Torres, “Jack Burdock,” SABR Baseball Biography Project. Society for American Baseball Research. [cited May 5, 2013]. Available from: http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/834f6239.

42 “Hunting for Talent,” Saint Paul Daily Globe, August 12, 1888: 6.

43 “The price of his release has not been made public, but it is well known that it was not less than $4,000. The Boston management is to be praised for its liberality and perseverance in bringing to a close this negotiation, which ranks with those that secured Clarkson and Kelly.” From: “Boston’s Latest: Joe Quinn, Their New Second Baseman, and His Record,” The Wichita Daily Eagle (Wichita, Kansas), October 16, 1888, 7.

44 “Won by a Home-Run Hit,” New York Times, August 30, 1888: 7.

45 “Baseball Stories by Joe Quinn; Outlook for the Cardinals in 1906,” St. Louis Republic (St. Louis, Missouri), December 10, 1905: 6.

46 Peter M. Gordon, “King Kelly,” SABR Baseball Biography Project. Society for American Baseball Research. [cited June 20, 2013]. Available from: http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/ffc40dac.

47 “Joe Quinn Gets a Bat,” Boston Globe, September 13, 1889: 8.

48 “Joe Quinn in the Outfield,” The Sporting News, April 12, 1888: 5.

49 Daniel M. Pearson, Baseball in 1889: Players vs. Owners (Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1993).

50 Dean A. Sullivan, Early Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1825-1908. (Ann Arbor, Michigan.: The University of Michigan Press, 1995), 197.

51 “The Great Scheme: The Plans of the Brotherhood Given in Detail,” The Sporting News, September 28, 1889: 3.

52 David Stevens, Baseball’s Radical for All Seasons: A Biography of John Montgomery Ward (Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1998), 91.

53 Alfred H. Spink, The National Game, (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000 — reprint), 28-29.

54 “News, Notes and Comment,” The Sporting Life, December 11, 1890: 5.

55 “Joe Quinn, the Champion Second Baseman,” Boston Globe, October 11, 1890: 7.

56 J. Thomas Hetrick, Chris Von Der Ahe and the St. Louis Browns (Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow, 1999).

57 “J. Quinn,” The Sporting News, February 11, 1893: 1.

58 St. Louis City Directory 1893-1894: “United States City Directories, 1882-1901. Saint Louis, Mo. [Microform].” (1990). Research Publications: Woodbridge, Connecticut.

59 “St. Louis Siftings — the Dedication of a New Park a Social Event,” The Sporting Life, May 6, 1893: 3.

60 “The Browns in a Rather Crippled Condition,” The Sporting Life. July 13, 1995: 10.

61 “Obituary: Joe Quinn,” The Sporting News, November 21, 1940: 8.

62 The Sporting Life reported, “Capt. Joe Quinn has sold his livery stable business. Joe has a nice competence, and is of that steady, thrifty character that gives him the reputation of being one of the really substantial members of the profession”: “St. Louis Siftings – Rumors as to the Make-up of the ’94 Team,” The Sporting Life, October 21, 1894: 5.

63 Farrington, “Half a Century through Joe Quinn’s Eyes.”

64 “St. Louis Siftings — Ready for the Great Fight of 1894,”  The Sporting Life, April 21, 1894: 6.

65 “Games Played July 4,” The Sporting Life, July 14, 1894: 3.

66 “St. Louis Siftings,” The Sporting Life, August 4, 1894: 4.

67 The Dead March is part of a three-act oratorio, “Saul,” composed by George Frederic Handel in 1738.  See also:  “Baseball: Personal,” The Sporting Life, June 8, 1895: 4.

68 “League-Association,” The Sporting Life, July 6, 1895: 3.

69 “Obituary: Joe Quinn.”

70 “St. Louis Sayings,” The Sporting Life,  July 27, 1895: 10.

71 “The Browns in a State of Demoralization,” The Sporting Life,  August 10, 1895, 11.

72 J. Thomas Hetrick, Misfits! The Cleveland Spiders in 1899: A Day-by-Day Narrative of Baseball Futility. (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 1991).

73 “Joe Quinn Released: Der Cherman Pand Must Be Playing Madhouse Airs!,” New York World, July 1, 1896: 3.

74 The .698 win-loss percentage of the 1896 Orioles bettered their 1894 effort by 0.003; the team won the National League pennant in both years, in addition to their 1895 triumph. The franchise was born in 1882 and spent its first nine seasons in the American Association before transferring to the National League. In 1899, the team franchise and that of the Brooklyn Superbas were co-owned by Baltimore owner Harry Van der Horst and Ned Hanlon — most of the star Baltimore players were shipped to Brooklyn and the denuded Orioles finished only fourth. They were one of four teams dropped by the National League as it downsized to eight teams for the 1900 season. Mark L. Armour and Daniel R. Levitt, Paths to Glory: How Great Baseball Teams Got That Way. (Washington, DC: Brassey’s, 2004), 12-17.

75 W.J. Monaghan, “One of Baseball’s Great,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 26, 1933: 6,14.

76 Clark, A History of Australian Baseball, 35.

77 Twister, “The Australian Base-Ballers,” The Argus (Melbourne, Victoria), July 23, 1897: 5.

78 “The Farce Has Begun,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 16, 1899: 1.

79 “Gossip of the Diamond,” Evening Times (Washington, DC), August 12, 1899: 6.

80 “Cleveland Chatter — Cross’ Men Broke Even with the Eastern Clubs,” The Sporting Life, June 3, 1899: 4.

81 “Gossip of the Diamond,” The Times (Washington, DC), July 19, 1899: 6.

82 “A Revival of Interest in the Forest City,” The Sporting Life, July 8, 1899: 5.

83 “Games Played July 17,” The Sporting Life, July 22, 1899: 3.

84 Henry Chadwick, Spalding Official Base Ball Guide for 1899 (New York: American Sports Publishing Company, 1900), 145.

85 “St. Louis Sad over the Persistent Bad Luck of the Cardinals,” The Sporting Life, June 16, 1900: 5; “The Passing of Quinn,” The Sporting Life, September 29, 1900: 7.

86 “Notes About the Big and Little Ball Tossers,” St. Paul Globe, April 7, 1902: 5.

87 Dennis Pajot, Baseball’s Heartland War, 1902-1903: The Western League and American Association Vie for Turf, Players and Profits (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2011), 199.

88 “United States Census: City of St. Louis, Missouri – Division of St. Louis City.” (1920). United States Census Office. [cited November 12, 2012]. Available from: www.familysearch.org.

89 Farrington, “Half a Century through Joe Quinn’s Eyes.”

90 John R. Quinn: “Missouri Death Certificates, 1910-1962.” (2013). Missouri Digital Heritage. [cited April 28, 2013]. Available from: http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/advanced.asp.

91 “Section and Lot Report for Calvary Cemetery,” Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, 1988. [cited May 17, 2000]. Available from: http://archstl.org/cemeteries/content/view/91/233/.

92 Tom Hesemann, “Re: Joe Quinn – Australian Born Major League Ball Player,” E-mail to Rochelle Nicholls. April 20, 2000.

93 Mary Ellen Quinn: “Missouri Death Certificates, 1910-1962.” (2013). Missour Digital Heritage. [cited April 28, 2013]. Available from: http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/advanced.asp. and “Death Notice – Mary E. Quinn (Nee Mcgrath).”. St. Louis Globe-Democrat. December 14, 1937: 5C.

94 “Missouri Death Certificates, 1910-1962.” (2013). Missouri Digital Heritage. [cited April 28, 2013]. Available from: http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/advanced.asp.

95 “Obituary: Joe Quinn.”

96 2012/13 Baseball Australia Annual Report (Gold Coast, Australia: Baseball Australia, 2013), 59.

Craig Barry Shipley was born on January 7, 1963 in Parramatta, New South Wales. “Parra,” as the town is known for short, is a suburb of Sydney. Craig’s father, Barry Shipley, was a salesman of plastic goods, as well as an inventor.[1] Barry and his wife, Marlene, had two other children besides Craig, who was their first born. His younger brothers were Mark and Grant.

Although baseball enjoys relatively modest popularity Down Under, it does have a long history there, allegedly dating back to 1857. (The most detailed work on the subject to date is A History of Australian Baseball, by Joe Clark, published in 2003.) There was one big-leaguer born in Australia before Shipley: Joe Quinn, who played from 1884 to 1901. However, Quinn moved from Australia to Dubuque, Iowa at the age of 11.[2]

Barry Shipley (1936-2009) was also a baseball player. Starting at age 16, he played with the Auburn Orioles – the nation’s foremost club team – for over 20 years. Barry later established stores called “The Baseball Dugout” in Sydney and elsewhere in Australia. They became the retail headquarters for the game there.[3]

Barry also passed on his knowledge to Craig. In 1983, he said, “Compared to the United States, baseball is more of a social sport in Australia. I played baseball and cricket and I took Craig with me at every opportunity when he was young. He just naturally took to baseball and he had a very pronounced ability at a young age. I tried to give him the proper foundation for the game and provided him with all the information and instruction I’d gained from friends who play the game in the States.”[4] All three brothers benefited. Mark made it to spring training with the Atlanta Braves in 1988, although he never played in the U.S. minors. He was a standout for many years in Australia, though, and Grant also played in the New South Wales Major League.

In 1986, Craig Shipley recalled, “When I started playing baseball in kindergarten, I used to catch a lot of flak because I was the only kid in school to play. I was a batboy [for his father].”[5] When Craig was age seven, he had to join a league for 12-year-olds. “They now have a league for 7-8-9 year-olds,” he said in 1983. He added, “I played in an open league in Sydney that had 12 teams in it. Most of the players were 16-17 year olds. We would play every Sunday and sometimes on Friday night.”[6]

Shipley, who went to Epping High School, followed his father to Auburn. As early as 1981, the Sydney Morning Herald wrote a feature about “the brilliant 18-year-old shortstop” as he was named to the national team that faced a visiting Japanese squad. “I’ve got my heart set on playing top-line baseball in the United States,” he said. Auburn coach Dick Shirt said, “The kid is a genius on the baseball diamond,” and New South Wales assistant coach Barry Holland added, “Craig Shipley is the most gifted young player NSW has produced in the past decade . . . there isn’t a more talented player of his age in Australia today.”[7]

Craig had first come to the U.S. at the age of 16; he was with a group of Australian players attending a summer baseball camp.[8] In 1982, he came to America again with the Australian under-19 team to take part at the World’s Fair tournament in Knoxville, Tennessee. While there, Roger Smith, an assistant coach at the University of Alabama, noticed and recruited him. Smith, who had conducted clinics in Sydney in 1980, had also been an assistant at Auburn for several weeks. In 1981, Smith had said, “Craig has the right kind of temperament, dedication and drive . . . but he will need to work very hard . . . particularly [on] his batting.”[9]

In Alabama, Shipley lost much of his Australian accent – the Los Angeles Daily News later described it as “an odd mix of Australian and southern.”[10] Among his university teammates was Dave Magadan, the deft spray hitter who enjoyed a 16-year big-league career from 1986 to 2001 and several more years as a respected hitting coach.

The Crimson Tide went to the College World Series in 1983, and Barry Shipley made the 30-hour trip from Sydney to see his son play. Craig delivered a game-winning hit in the 11^th inning against Arizona State, beating out a grounder with his speed.[11] Alabama made the final game, but lost to the University of Texas, who featured Roger Clemens and Calvin Schiraldi. After the Series, Shipley played baseball in Alaska for the summer. His team was the Peninsula Oilers.[12]

As Shipley was not a U.S. citizen, he was not subject to the amateur draft and was free to sign with the team that made him the best offer. After his junior year at Alabama, in late May 1984, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed him for $90,000. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Dodgers organization stated that he had “the arm, hands, and quickness” necessary to make it in the big leagues.[13]

After playing 85 games with Single-A Vero Beach in 1984, Shipley jumped to Triple-A Albuquerque in 1985. He batted .242 in 124 games; one of the biggest obstacles the young player encountered was adjusting to the grind of a heavy game and travel schedule.[14] That year, Craig also got engaged to Denee Fitzmorris, whom he met at Alabama (she was the Tide’s number-one women’s tennis player). They eventually married and had two children: daughters Amanda and Kylie.

The Dodgers suffered a rash of injuries in June 1986, so they called Shipley up from Albuquerque. He made his major-league debut on June 22. “I realize that it was an emergency that I’m here,” Craig told a Texas paper, the Victoria Advocate, in July. “When the regulars come back I might be sent down. But I can accept that. I’m just going to try and make the most of it while I’m here. If you play well enough, they will give you a chance or some other team will want you. And I’m having fun so far.”[15]

That first cup of coffee lasted a little less than three weeks (3 for 27 in 12 games), and then he returned to Albuquerque. After the season, Shipley told the Sydney Morning Herald, “I must admit I got into the major league a lot quicker than I thought, and I was very proud of the fact when I played my first game for the Dodgers. I received quite a lot of publicity when that happened. But now I want to be recognized as a good player and not just as the one Australian who made it there.”[16]

According to the Los Angeles Daily News, Shipley was “the best-looking shortstop in Vero Beach” in the spring of 1987. Mariano Duncan and Dave Anderson were ahead of him at short, though, so he had to start the season at Triple-A again. He suffered a mysterious ailment at Albuquerque and hit only .223 there; as a result, he went to Double-A for the first time. But when injuries struck the big club again in August, Shipley was recalled from San Antonio to Los Angeles. Shortly thereafter, the Dodgers acquired Glenn Hoffman from Boston and sent Craig back down. He had to fly right back, though, since waiver-related technicalities delayed Hoffman. The reprieve lasted the rest of the season, and Shipley batted .257 in 26 games.

In 1988, Shipley was 11-for-18 in spring training and won the Jim and Dearie Mulvey Award as the team’s top rookie in camp. Nonetheless, the Dodgers shipped him back to Albuquerque near the end of March, and Shipley was not pleased. “Bitter is more like it. I want to be traded,” he said.[17] A few days later, the front office obliged, sending him to the New York Mets for catcher John Gibbons, who also needed a change of scenery.

“I love the guy,” manager Tommy Lasorda said [of Shipley]. “He’s a helluva player and a great guy. There was no attitude problem. When he threw the bat after I took him out for a pinch hitter (in the ninth inning of an exhibition game against the Montreal Expos), I told him I didn’t like it, but that had nothing to do with the move.”[18]

The Mets asked Shipley to take a step backwards, to Double-A Jackson. “Craig Shipley is an outstanding talent who already has made it to the big leagues,” Mets vice president Joe McIlvaine said. “The reason we are asking him to go to Jackson is that we already have Gregg Jefferies and Keith Miller at Tidewater and we want him to get as much playing time as he can.”[19] That August, McIlvaine indicated that either Jefferies, Miller, or Shipley – “versatile young stars” – might be called up to fortify the Mets, who won the National League East that year.[20] The call went to Jefferies; Shipley did not play at all in the majors in 1988, spending 89 games with Jackson and 40 with the Mets’ top farm club, Tidewater.

During the offseason, Shipley coached the New South Wales Patriots, winners of Australia’s Claxton Shield championship tournament. He competed for a job with the Mets in spring training, but a bad shoulder disabled him for a month early in the 1989 season. He was limited to just 44 games at Tidewater, though he did make it up to New York during September, getting into four games. However, the 1990 season was a near-total washout, as a sore throwing arm turned out to be a slight tear in his rotator cuff that required arthroscopic surgery. The recovery took longer than anticipated, and he made it back for just four games with Tidewater near the end of the season.[21] During the off-season, Shipley was also divorced. That December, though, the San Diego Padres picked him up in the minor-league draft.

Shipley started the 1991 season with San Diego’s top affiliate, Las Vegas in the Pacific Coast League. He hit .300 in 65 games there and so the big club called him up in late July. He got into 37 games over the remainder of the season, hitting .275 in 91 at-bats. A highlight was his first big-league home run, off Cincinnati’s Tom Browning on September 28 at Riverfront Stadium. Craig said, “It’s just a good feeling. I guess if you play long enough, you’re going to get one. . .Sometimes I doubted I’d ever play again.”[22]

Except for a handful of games on injury rehab assignments in 1996 and 1997, Shipley was in the big leagues to stay. In 1992, he saw limited duty, hitting .248 in 105 at-bats across 52 games. His playing time roughly doubled in 1993, as he hit .235 in 230 at-bats over 105 games. He also played the outfield for the first time as a big-leaguer that year (he appeared in 12 games there during his career). He was also the emergency catcher if needed, but he was never called upon in that role.

Shipley blossomed with the bat during the strike year of 1994. His average jumped to .333 in a career-high 240 at-bats. That spring, Buster Olney, then of the San Diego Union-Tribune, wrote about how Shipley was harnessing his intensity and making it work for him.[23]A factor in his success was hitting coach Merv Rettenmund, whom Craig has called his most influential coach. Rettenmund added praise for Shipley in the field. “If he played every day, Ship could be one of the best shortstops, one of the best third basemen and probably one of the best second basemen. He comes in on balls better than most people I’ve seen.”[24]

On December 28, 1994, the Padres made a 12-player deal with the Houston Astros – the majors’ biggest in terms of men involved in 37 years. The most prominent names involved were Derek Bell, Ken Caminiti, and Steve Finley, but Shipley was also included. Although the Astros’ prime motive was perceived as dumping payroll, club president Tal Smith claimed, “Leaving the salary cap and budget considerations out of it, I would still have made this deal.”[25]

Shipley spent the 1995 season in Houston, playing mainly third base – spelling his old Alabama and Mets teammate, Dave Magadan – and hitting .263. That December, he rejoined the Padres as a free agent, signing a one-year deal. Although a hamstring injury limited him to just 33 games in 1996, and kept him off the playoff roster, he re-enlisted with the Padres after the season. He hurt the hammy again in spring training 1997, which kept him out of action until mid-May. Thereafter he appeared in 63 games, “displaying the short but stout stroke that has kept him on the team.”[26] In just 148 plate appearances, he hit a career-high five homers.

Following the 1997 season, however, Shipley and the Padres parted ways. In January 1998, the St. Louis Cardinals signed him to a minor-league deal and invited him to spring training. He never played a game in St. Louis, as the Cards traded him near the end of spring training for Chip Hale. Shipley’s new team, the Anaheim Angels, wanted him to shore up their bench. The Angels used him as part of a committee at second base early on, but as the season developed, he played mainly at third.

It was the usual story after the 1998 season: Shipley became a free agent again. He re-signed with the Angels on a minor-league contract that December, but in early March 1999, he surprised his teammates by deciding to retire at age 36. Although injuries had been bothering him, he pointed to personal motivation rather than physical problems. He said, “I had been going over this for a long time — it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing. I just don’t have the desire to play anymore, that’s the No. 1 reason. When you keep trying to go every day and fake the desire, that’s telling you something.”[27]

Shipley returned to baseball as an infield and baserunning coordinator for the Montreal Expos in 2000. During spring training in Palm Beach that March, he was standing on a practice field with fellow Aussies Graeme Lloyd and Shayne Bennett, and “the rarity of the moment dawned on Shipley. ‘We were shagging balls during (batting practice) and it was Shayne, Graeme and me and I said, ‘What are the odds that you have three Australians – there’s only been nine [to that point] ever to play in the big leagues – and three of them are standing here.’”[28]

In October 2000, Shipley returned to the Padres as a scout. There he became reacquainted with Theo Epstein, who had risen to become San Diego’s baseball operations director in 2000. When the Boston Red Sox promoted Epstein from assistant general manager to GM in November 2002, Shipley joined the organization the following month as Epstein’s special assistant. His particular niche was player development.

When Epstein resigned from the Red Sox for several months (from October 2005 to January 2006), Shipley was part of a committee of team executives that handled high-level affairs. In February 2006, he was named vice president of professional and international scouting. In 2009, he became senior vice president of international operations. In February 2011, he received yet another promotion, to senior vice president of player personnel and international scouting.

Shipley also remained connected to his native land. In 2000, he helped Jon Deeble, who was then head coach of the Australian national team, to prepare the squad for the Olympics in tournaments leading up to the Games. He was also a coach in the 2006 World Baseball Classic. 

Just one example of how widely Shipley cast his net for the Red Sox was Nicaraguan pitcher Devern Hansack. The Astros had cut Hansack in March 2004, but “Shipley – tipped off by the third-base coach for the Nicaraguan national team, who scouts for the Red Sox – saw Hansack pitch in an international tournament in the Netherlands in 2005.” Playing it cagey, Shipley didn’t contact Hansack in Holland, but waited until the pitcher was home fishing for lobsters in the Caribbean town of Pearl Lagoon. He then dispatched Latin American cross-checker Jon Dipuglia.[29]

Among other things, Shipley was instrumental in the December 2006 signing of Daisuke Matsuzaka, whom he had first seen while scouting Japan in 2003. As the Boston Herald wrote, “Craig Shipley’s neck is hanging out there for roughly $103.1 million. … He convinced Epstein he would be bringing a stud into the rotation.”[30] Dice-K delivered one outstanding season (2008) under his six-year contract, as injuries diminished his effectiveness.

Along with his fellow Australian, Jon Deeble, Shipley also signed Hideki Okajima out of Japan. He also handpicked Mike Lord as an international scout for the Red Sox; Lord found Xander Bogaerts in Aruba and got Shipley down to sign the talented young shortstop. In November 2009, the website Soxprospects.com posted an illuminating Q&A session with Shipley, in which he discussed his broad international responsibilities, the organization’s tactics, how to assess a player’s makeup, and player development trends in various parts of the world.

By the time the Bogaerts find helped Boston, Shipley and the organization had parted ways. It happened In November 2011, about a month after Theo Epstein went to the Chicago Cubs. The new Red Sox GM, Ben Cherington, said, “I wanted to try to develop a little bit more of a Boston-based infrastructure for international,” whereas Shipley had worked out of the Pacific Rim. Cherington also said, “[Shipley is] someone that I have great respect for. He’s a really good evaluator, passionate baseball guy. Through the course of conversations with him, it just became clear to me that it might be time for a fresh start.”[31]

Alex Speier, a columnist for the website of Boston sports radio station WEEI, had broken the story four days before the announcement became official. His assessment was critical yet balanced: “Shipley’s scouting eye and the information-gathering processes he established prior to signing players were and are widely respected, both inside the Sox organization and by other members of the industry. However, the tangible big league results of the Sox’ international operations under him have been mixed.”[32] If for no other reason than Bogaerts, that assessment must be viewed differently.

In November 2012, Shipley was appointed special assistant to Kevin Towers, then general manager of Arizona Diamondbacks. Towers left the Arizona organization in October 2014, but Shipley remained with the Diamondbacks as of 2016, advising the GM (Dave Stewart succeeded Towers), assisting the Baseball Operations Department in international and special assignment scouting, and evaluating the farm system. He also played an instrumental role in the team’s decision to travel to Australia and open the 2014 season in Sydney.

On the website of the Australian Baseball Federation, Shipley’s page says that the best advice he was ever given was “Focus on the things you can control.” In turn, the best advice he has given to players is “Dedication will result in success, although it may not be on the baseball field.”

Thanks to Nicholas Henning for his input.

Sources

www.baseball-reference.com

www.retrosheet.org

www.soxprospects.com (http://news.soxprospects.com/2009/11/q-with-craig-shipley.html)

http://www.baseball.org.au/?Page=23084

Notes