Big Mike Sullivan

Youth, imposing size, and a blazing fastball garnered right-handed pitcher Big Mike Sullivan1 engagements with no fewer than nine different major league clubs in the late 19th century. Yet his time with these teams rarely lasted more than a single season, undone by inconsistency and poor command of the strike zone. And in certain venues, critics found Big Mike wanting in fortitude or the grit needed to work himself out of tight pitching situations. Nevertheless, he supplied several big league clubs useful, if brief, service and was still a prospect when he abandoned the professional game at age 27 to pursue a more bareknuckle line of work: holding political office in hometown Boston.

A law school graduate immersed in local Democratic Party affairs since his teenage years, Sullivan proved a potent vote-getter, repeatedly winning election to the Massachusetts legislature and the Governor’s Council. In 1906, he announced his candidacy for a US Congressional seat, only to have a heart attack and ensuing complications bring both his campaign and his life to an abrupt conclusion at age 35. The paragraphs below take a baseball-centric look back at this intriguing old-time pitcher-politician.

Michael Joseph Sullivan was born in Boston on October 23, 1870. He was the elder of two children born to laborer Patrick Sullivan (1839-1916) and his first wife Winifred (née Joyce, 1846-1873), both Irish Catholic immigrants. Following the death of his mother and his father’s remarriage, young Mike and sister Mary Ann benefitted from a stable upbringing under the roof of grandfather Lawrence Sullivan, a Galway emigrant who lived to the remarkable age of 105. Grandson Mike was educated in South Boston public school through graduation from English High School.2

While a schoolboy, Big Mike – officially listed in modern reference authority as 6-feet-1/210 pounds but probably larger3 – excelled in sports, particularly baseball, playing on both school and local amateur nines.4 He entered the professional ranks in spring 1889, signing as an 18-year-old pitcher with the Worcester Grays of the newly formed minor league Atlantic Association. Six weeks into the season, his contract was acquired by the Washington Nationals, a pitching-poor National League club headed for a last-place (41-83-3, .331) finish in final standings. Sullivan made his major league debut in Washington on June 17, 1889, coming on in relief of starter Alex Ferson with the Nats trailing 8-1 after seven innings. The debutant twirler was touched for three runs in his two-inning stint but favorably impressed veteran Boston sportswriter Tim Murnane. “Young Sullivan of South Boston may pan out as a pitcher after the ‘stage fright’ of the league wears off,” wrote Murnane. “He has plenty of speed and imparts some very crooked curves to the ball.”5

Sullivan soon demonstrated, however, that he was not yet ready to face major league batters. Given three starts, he was wild and hit hard during each outing. In nine appearances overall, he went 0-3, with a bloated 7.24 ERA in 41 innings pitched for Washington. And in a preview of future performance, his 35 walks/hit batsmen total far exceeded the 15 whom he struck out. Over a 10-season major league career, Sullivan’s combined base on balls/HBP numbers more than doubled his strikeouts figure.

During the winter, the financially weak Washington franchise was liquidated by the National League in preparation for the oncoming battle with the newly arrived Players League.6 With three major league circuits (including the American Association) taking the field for the 1890 season and with the crème of the playing talent defecting to the PL, job opportunities opened in the National League for marginal or fledgling prospects. Big Mike Sullivan was one beneficiary of this situation, engaged by another pitching-thin NL club, the Chicago Colts.7

Sullivan began the season in the Chicago rotation and captured his first major league victory when the Colts rallied in the bottom of the ninth for a 5-4 win in Cleveland on April 28.8 He then split his next six decisions. But after Big Mike surrendered more walks (seven) than base hits (six) in a 4-2 loss to New York in late May, he saw no further action for almost a month. Then, a route-going 7-3 triumph over the Giants restored Sullivan to the good graces of Colts first baseman-field leader Cap Anson – but only temporarily. Consecutive poor starts in early July earned Sullivan his walking papers.9 In 12 starts, he had gone 5-6 (.455) with a 4.59 ERA in 96 innings for the Colts, with walks/HBP (62) far exceeding strikeouts (33) once again. Upon his return to Boston, Big Mike finished the summer pitching for area semipro clubs.10

The following spring, Sullivan was auditioned by his hometown club, the National League’s Boston Beaneaters, but released to the Providence Clamdiggers of the minor league Eastern Association prior to the regular season’s start.11 There, he blossomed, posting a misleading 11-17 (.393) record that belied an excellent 1.55 ERA in 250 innings pitched. When Providence disbanded in mid-August, Sullivan was promptly signed by another EA club, the Troy Trojans,12 for whom he halved two decisions.

When pitching staff injuries left the American Association’s Philadelphia Athletics short of arms, Big Mike Sullivan was thrust into the breech. Although he lost both his starts, Sullivan did not pitch badly, holding the Boston Red Stockings to seven hits and allowing only two earned runs in a 5-3 defeat on August 24. Once again, however, he was undone by the control problems that prompted a Boston Globe correspondent to observe, “The Athletics again put in the box the young Boston boy who pitched for them Saturday. Sullivan is a big strapping fellow who occasionally has a dim idea as to the location of the plate, but more often shuts his eyes and fires away at the grand stand.”13

A month thereafter, Sullivan’s late-season tryout with the New York Giants became a cause for controversy. As the campaign entered its final week, the Beaneaters and Colts were locked in a tight struggle for the National League crown. Much would depend on the outcome of a five-game series between Boston and the third-place Giants. With staff ace Amos Rusie (33-20) nursing a bruised arm and number two starter John Ewing (21-8) under the weather, the Giants placed washed-up Mickey Welch, little tested Roscoe Coughlin, and recently signed Big Mike Sullivan in the box. New York lost all five games, with Sullivan dropping 11-3 and 5-3 decisions. The sweep assured Boston the pennant.

Howls of indignation emanated from Chicago; club president Jim Hart and field boss Anson insinuated that the Giants had thrown the Boston series.14 But elsewhere, the Colts’ complaints were dismissed as sour grapes over the pennant race outcome,15 and the controversy quickly abated. In the meantime, Big Mike completed his New York tryout with a route-going 7-3 victory over Brooklyn in the season finale. The New York Sun observed that “Sullivan, the new pitcher, … acquitted himself very creditably. He is a big, powerful man, and, in addition to great speed and good curves, he shows excellent command of the ball.”16 Sometime thereafter, New York signed Sullivan for the 1892 season.17

The following spring, Sullivan reported to the Giants’ training camp but was an early cut.18 He then found work in the Eastern League, where the previous year’s minor league experience repeated itself. Big Mike bounced around the circuit, pitching well for three different clubs but posting a poor won-loss record. In time spent with the Troy Trojans, Albany Senators, and Syracuse-Utica Stars, he went a combined 10-17 (.370) despite a standout 1.44 ERA in 237 innings pitched. That was good enough for the Cincinnati Reds of the National League (by then 12 clubs), which signed Sullivan after Syracuse-Utica disbanded in late July.19

Over the final months of the 1892 season, Sullivan pitched the best ball of his professional career. Given a start against Pittsburgh on August 4, he held the Pirates hitless over the first five innings, showing “great speed” before control problems “forced him to slacken up considerably in order to put the ball over the [plate].”20 Even so, Big Mike cruised to a 12-5 triumph. Eight consecutive Sullivan victories followed. Thereafter, his performance tailed off, but by season’s end his record stood at a handsome 12-4, with a .750 winning percentage that was tied for best among National League hurlers.21

During the ensuing offseason, Organized Baseball adopted rule changes that eliminated the pitcher’s box and elongated the pitching distance to the modern-day 60 feet, six inches. Some prominent pitchers (like Bill Hutchison) appear to have been adversely affected by these changes, while others (Cy Young, Amos Rusie) were not. The effects upon our subject are unknown. Suffice it to say that he was unable to repeat his sterling performance of 1892. Another indeterminable factor in the coming decline of Sullivan’s diamond fortunes was the diversion of his attention to a new endeavor: the study of law. The previous fall, Sullivan had begun taking classes at Boston University Law School. When he rejected the contract offer proffered by Reds manager Charles Comiskey in February 1893, Sullivan stated, “I will stick to my law studies rather than play ball for the money Comiskey is offering.”22 In time, the parties reached agreement, but from there on Sullivan’s legal studies took precedence over baseball, often delaying his getting into uniform until after the close of the spring semester at BU Law.

Precedent was established that spring, with Sullivan remaining unsigned and staying in Boston to pursue his studies. After he and Comiskey finally reached agreement on contract terms, Sullivan made a belated season debut on June 10, 1893, holding Brooklyn to six hits and one earned run but dropping a 4-2 verdict. The Cincinnati Post commended Sullivan on putting “up a splendid game,”23 but the local press soon changed its tune on the pitcher. A month later, the Post criticized him for a lack of mental toughness after a 12-3 drubbing by Louisville, stating, “Big Mike Sullivan can pitch good ball as long as the club is winning. He goes all to pieces when the first streak of hard luck comes.”24

Sullivan pitched inconsistently for the remainder of the season, finishing with an 8-11 (.421) record and a 5.05 ERA in 183 2/3 innings pitched. And as before, his differential of strikeouts (40) to walks (103) and hit batsmen (17) was lousy. In its season-end assessment of the Reds’ situation, the Cincinnati Enquirer included Sullivan among players that the club should get rid of, finding no “evidence the past season that there was anything of the champion caliber in their make-up.”25 During the ensuing winter meeting of National League club owners, the newspaper got its wish when Reds field leader Comiskey traded Sullivan to the reconstituted Washington Nationals in exchange for outfielder Dummy Hoy,26 a transaction that soon proved entirely one-sided in Cincinnati’s favor.

April 1894 found Hoy in Cincinnati training camp, refining the offensive punch (118 runs scored, .304 batting average) and capable center field defense that he subsequently supplied the Reds that season. Washington, meanwhile, was bereft of its half of the Hoy-Sullivan trade. As he had the season before, Big Mike disregarded the entreaties of his ballclub and spent the spring months in Boston attending law school.27 The only pitching that he did was for a BU Law School nine that he organized and captained.28 Those efforts included an outing against the Brown University varsity in which Sullivan’s offerings were “hit all over the lot” in a 17-0 rout.29 He also expressed a desire to remain in Boston and pitch for the defending National League pennant winners, the Beaneaters. “There is nothing I would like better than to be a member of the champion [Boston] club,” said Sullivan. “I know that I could do better work here than anywhere else.”30

For the time being, that ambition remained unfulfilled, and Sullivan finally joined the Washington club in early June, arriving in good physical condition.31 But his pitching was far from effective. In his initial start for his new team, Sullivan was driven from the game in two innings by the Chicago Colts, although run-scoring outbursts by the Nationals ultimately spared him the defeat.32 Few such reprieves, however, were in Sullivan’s immediate future: he lost eight of his next nine starts, prompting the Washington Evening Star to remark, “‘Big Mike’ does not go about his work in the box like a winner, and the team behind him lacks confidence in his ability to do his share of the labor.”33 Two weeks later, the Evening Star sharpened its criticism: “Mike Sullivan might be more effective in the box if he displayed a little backbone. Among visiting clubs he has a reputation as a quitter as soon as he is hit for a few bases consecutively. … Mike is large enough to have plenty of ‘sand,’ and a little more aggressiveness on his part would inspire confidence in the team behind him.”34

By mid-August, Sullivan’s record stood at a dismal 2-10 (.167), and the Nationals had seen enough, releasing him unconditionally. Within days, however, he was signed by the Cleveland Spiders, a hard-hitting club in search of pitching help.35 There Big Mike redeemed himself to some extent, winning six of 11 starts for the Spiders despite allowing a multitude of baserunners (128 base hits, 47 walks, and three hit batsmen in only 90 2/3 innings pitched) and posting a high 6.35 ERA. That was sufficient for Cleveland to reserve his services for the next season.

Sullivan enhanced his chances of sticking with Cleveland by foregoing the spring semester at BU Law and joining the Spiders’ preseason camp in Little Rock.36 With Cleveland stalwarts Cy Young and George Cuppy temporarily sidelined by illness, Sullivan was Cleveland’s Opening Day starter against Cincinnati but came away with a 10-8 defeat. Three days later, Big Mike was hammered by the Reds, 12-3. After that, he saw only sparing work in relief until given a start in late May against New York. With late-inning relief help, he staggered to a 14-11 victory over the Giants, but his days in Cleveland were numbered. Early the following month, he was released by the Spiders.37 Subsequently signed by the Portland (Maine) club of the minor New England League,38 Sullivan went 12-11 (.522) in 23 appearances for a weak seventh-place (47-60, .439) finisher.39

Sullivan returned to his legal studies in spring 189640 but also did some pitching for the Boston University varsity.41 Once his course work was completed, Big Mike returned to the New England League, signing with the Bangor (Maine) Millionaires. After he had split two decisions for Bangor, his contract was purchased by an erstwhile employer, the New York Giants. The acquisition garnered little enthusiasm in the Gotham press, the New York World commenting that Sullivan “wasn’t good enough for the other league clubs, but apparently any old thing will do for this city. It is becoming farcical.”42

Sullivan was hardly the answer to the club’s pitching problems, but his performance was not terrible either. Inserted into the rotation, Big Mike provided passable service, going 10-13 (.435) for the seventh-place (64-67-2, .489) Giants. His 4.66 ERA in 185 1/3 innings was close to the club norm (4.54) but, as before, Sullivan undermined his efforts with a poor ratio of strikeouts (42) to walks/HBP (84, combined).

Long active in Democratic Party affairs at the ward level in hometown Boston, it was reported that Sullivan had been approached to run for public office that winter, but had declined.43 Instead, he focused his energies on baseball, even foregoing the spring semester at BU Law to attend the Giants’ spring training camp.44 There, he impressed playing manager Bill Joyce with both good work in the box and a prodigious appetite at the training table.45 Used as a spot starter-reliever, Sullivan again provided the Giants with useful service, going 8-7 (.533) and throwing the lone shutout of his major league career – a two-hit, 6-0 whitewash of Chicago on August 27.46 But he finished the season poorly, being hit hard in his last three starts, including a 17-0 thrashing by Boston that cost Sullivan a $50 postgame fine levied by irascible New York club owner Andrew Freedman.47

New York reserved Sullivan for the coming season but his employment status with the club was tenuous. In addition to having incurred the displeasure of club boss Freedman, friction had also developed between Big Mike and Giants skipper Joyce.48 Also complicating the situation was that Sullivan was about to complete his degree work at BU Law. And during that winter, future political ambitions were augured by Mike’s election to the post of Deputy Grand Knight of his Knights of Columbus chapter in Boston, often a stepping stone to public office.49

In spring 1898, Sullivan reported for the Giants’ training camp in Lakewood, New Jersey, and pitched well.50 But he no longer fit into the team’s plans. Just prior to the start of the regular season, Sullivan’s contract was sold to the Kansas City Blues of the high minor Western League.51 For the time being, Sullivan accepted his demotion and duly reported to his new club. But prior to his arrival, he sat for the Massachusetts bar exam.52

Sullivan went 4-3 (.571) in seven appearances for Kansas City, but that was not satisfactory to Blues club president-manager Jimmy Manning. In mid-June, Manning attempted to trade Sullivan to another Western League club, the cellar-dwelling Omaha Omahogs, but Sullivan refused to accept the reassignment. He was thereupon given his was unconditional release.53 Big Mike then returned to Boston, where shortly thereafter he was admitted to the practice of law in Massachusetts.54 Sullivan hung out a shingle in South Boston but concentrated on advancement in politics. That October, he secured the Democratic Party nomination for a Boston seat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.55 His initial bid for elective office, however, was unsuccessful.

Undiscouraged and still only 27, Sullivan laid the groundwork for a second run for office the succeeding fall. In the meantime, he developed his legal practice and satisfied his athletic urges by pitching on weekends for local semipro clubs. And that summer, Big Mike also realized a long-unfulfilled ambition: pitching for the Boston Beaneaters. With Ted Lewis ailing and Boston short a hurler for an August 18 doubleheader against Louisville, “lawyer Mike Sullivan donned the ball togs for the second game.”56 He was “hit rather freely at times and seemed a little nervous, but generally did good work” in the estimation of one area newspaper.57 A bottom-of-the-ninth run made Sullivan a 7-6 winner and concluded his major league pitching career.

Two years earlier, a Worcester newspaper unkindly but rather accurately summed up Big Mike Sullivan’s 10-season turn as a big league pitcher: “Sullivan has a career that is unique in one particular – he has played on more teams than any other pitcher in the business. Never a winner, he comes up at the end of the season with a skinny record of games to his credit, and yet he is seldom out of work.”58 Double counting the New York Giants, Big Mike worked for nine different major league clubs and posted a full-season winning record only twice. His overall 54-65 (.454) record with a 5.04 ERA over 1,111 1/3 innings pitched earmarked him as a journeyman hurler, at best. Blessed with size and a lively fastball, control problems were Sullivan’s primary shortcoming; combined, his walks (568) and hit batsmen (77) dwarfed his career strikeouts (285).59 Yet as noted above, Sullivan rarely lacked employment and provided useful service for at least a few of his ball clubs.

The remainder of Sullivan’s sadly abbreviated life achieved a consistency and success that his ballplaying years did not enjoy. On the personal front, his April 1899 marriage to Margaret Hickey and the subsequent birth of daughter Louise (in 1903) brought domestic happiness. In fall 1899, he was elected to the state legislature and returned to office again in 1900. The following year, a bid for a state senate nomination was unsuccessful but, undaunted, Sullivan tried again in 1902 and won both the party nomination and the ensuing election. Senator Michael J. Sullivan succeeded himself in the senate election of 1903 and then set his sights on obtaining a seat on a more prestigious political institution: the Governor’s Council.60

At the time, the Governor’s Council was a popularly elected, five-member body that provided advice and consent to the Massachusetts governor on a wide range of issues including judicial appointments, pardons and commutations, and oversight of prisons and mental institutions. In the 1904 elections, Big Mike Sullivan was the lone Democrat to win a place on the council. Although resolutely partisan, Councilor Sullivan was a friendly, engaging man, well liked on both sides of the political aisle. Reelected in 1905 and 1906, he was often at odds with Republican governors, particularly regarding oversight and inspection of state mental institutions.61 But Sullivan fought his battles cordially, bearing in mind that an adversary on one issue could later become an ally on another.

In spring 1906, Sullivan declared himself a candidate for a seat in the US Congress.62 But in early June, he began to encounter health problems, prompting a visit to a local hospital, from which he was released with instruction to return the following week. On the morning of June 11, Mike paid a call to the office of Boston Mayor John F. “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald, where he suffered a seizure, first thought to be an epileptic fit but later determined to be a heart attack.63 Removed to Relief Hospital, Sullivan was transferred to the more preeminent City Hospital when his condition failed to improve. There, he suffered “several attacks of cerebral hemorrhage.”64 Early on the morning of June 15, Michael Joseph “Big Mike” Sullivan died.65 He was only 35.

Grief was expressed throughout the state. Republican Governor Curtis Guild, Jr. stated that the deceased “served his district with untiring diligence and the commonwealth with earnest sincerity of purpose. His loss will be felt not alone by those associated with him in official life, but by all who remember a willing hand and a kind heart.”66 A joint Massachusetts Senate/House resolution recalled the Honorable Michael J. Sullivan’s “genial spirit and kind heart [which] eliminated the spirit of partisanship in his official duties. Faithful to his constituency and to his convictions, he was a courteous antagonist and broad in his views as an advisor to three successive Governors of this Commonwealth.”67

Governor Guild and Mayor Fitzgerald headed funeral service dignitaries, but the cathedral-sized Gate of Heaven Church in South Boston was unable to accommodate the throngs wishing to attend the Requiem Mass. Crowds lined the streets outside.68 Thereafter, Sullivan’s remains were interred at Old Calvary Cemetery in nearby Roslindale, Massachusetts. Survivors included the deceased’s widow Margaret, young daughter Louise, and father Patrick.

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Darren Gibson and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Terry Bohn.

Sources

Sources for the biographical info imparted above include the Big Mike Sullivan file maintained at the Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, New York; the Sullivan profile in Major League Baseball Profiles, 1871-1900, Vol. 1, David Nemec, ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011); US Census and other government records accessed via Ancestry.com; and certain of the newspaper articles cited in the endnotes. Unless otherwise specified, stats have been taken from Baseball-Reference.com.

Notes

1 To distinguish him from another Massachusetts-born Michael Joseph Sullivan, our subject is identified throughout this bio by his nickname Big Mike. The other Mike Sullivan (1860-1929) was an infielder-outfielder who played 28 games for the 1888 Philadelphia A’s.

2 English High served the offspring of Boston’s working class. Children of the more privileged attended Boston Latin.

3 The adjective giant was routinely applied to Sullivan, and a late-career commentary described him as weighing 230 pounds with a “splendid build [of] solid bone and muscle.” See “Given a Rest by Rain,” Kansas City Journal, May 14, 1898: 5.

4 As subsequently noted in our subject’s obituaries.

5 T.H. Murnane, “Echoes of the Game,” Boston Globe, June 18, 1889: 7.

6 The National League also liquidated its Indianapolis franchise.

7 Three members of the Colts’ 1889 starting rotation (John Tener, Frank Dwyer, and Ad Gumbert) joined Players League clubs, leaving only staff ace Bill Hutchison in Chicago livery.

8 See “Won in the Ninth Inning,” Chicago Tribune, April 29, 1890: 6.

9 As reported in “To Strengthen the League Club,” Chicago Tribune, July 8: 1890: 6: “Sullivan showed great promise this spring … [but] he was not good enough, however, and his late work was poor.”

10 See e.g., “Fought for Eleven Innings,” Worcester (Massachusetts) Telegram, September 21, 1890: 5, regarding Sullivan’s work for the Norcross Brothers Construction Company team. Prior to that, Big Mike pitched for a semipro nine captained by former Boston Beaneaters first baseman John Morrill.

11 Per “Condensed Dispatches,” Sporting Life, April 25, 1891: 1. See also, “Providence Grays,” Providence Sunday Journal, May 3, 1891: 16.

12 As reported in “News, Gossip and Comment,” Sporting Life, August 15, 1891: 2.

13 “Haddock Was Very Cool,” Boston Globe, August 25, 1891: 5.

14 See “Anson Downed by Fraud,” Chicago Inter Ocean, October 1, 1891: 2; “Plot Against Chicago,” Chicago Tribune, October 1, 1891: 6; “Suspicious Ball Games,” New Haven (Connecticut) Register, October 1, 1891: 3.

15 See e.g., “No Dishonesty,” Sporting Life, October 10, 1891: 2.

16 “New York 7; Brooklyn 3,” New York Sun, October 4, 1891: 5. Uncharacteristically, Sullivan issued only three walks during his nine innings of work.

17 As reported in “News, Gossip and Comment,” Sporting Life, December 19, 1891: 2.

18 Per “Condensed Dispatches,” Sporting Life, April 9, 1892: 1.

19 The Sullivan signing was subsequently noted in “Base Ball Briefs,” Omaha World Herald, August 14, 1892: 9.

20 “Minor Mention,” Sporting Life, August 13, 1892: 1.

21 Sullivan shared the league lead with Cleveland’s Cy Young, 36-12 (.750).

22 See “Sporting Notes,” Philadelphia Inquirer, February 15, 1893: 3; “Sporting News,” Worcester (Massachusetts) Evening Gazette, February 10, 1893: 8.

23 “Bug and Lath,” Cincinnati Post, June 12, 1893: 3.

24 “Sporting Notes,” Cincinnati Post, July 19, 1893: 2.

25 “All Sorts,” Cincinnati Enquirer, October 15, 1893: 10.

26 As reported in “Magnates Agree,” Boston Globe, November 18, 1893: 6; “National Ball League,” Indianapolis Journal, November 18, 1893: 3; “The League Men Have Gone Home,” New York Herald, November 18, 1893: 11; and elsewhere.

27 As reported in “Nuts of Sporting News,” Philadelphia Inquirer, February 22, 1894: 3; “Base Ball Notes,” Washington (DC) Evening Star, February 19, 1894: 7; and elsewhere.

28 See “Diamond Gossip,” Providence Journal, March 18, 1894: 3; “Boston Baseball Notes,” St. Louis Republic, March 11, 1894: 9.

29 “Easy Time for Brown,” Providence Evening Bulletin, April 24, 1894: 7.

30 “Champions Finish First,” Boston Herald, April 15, 1894: 23.

31 As reported in “Bases on Balls,” Washington (DC) Times, June 8, 1894: 5.

32 Washington reliever Win Mercer was charged with the 12-inning, 12-11 defeat.

33 “Manager Wagner,” Washington Evening Star, July 28, 1894: 8.

34 “Their Spotty Work,” Washington Evening Star, August 11, 1894: 8.

35 As reported in “Sporting New and Comment,” Washington (DC) Post, August 18, 1894: 6; “Petty in Trouble,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 17, 1894: 3; and elsewhere.

36 See “Baseball Gossip,” Cincinnati Enquirer, April 17, 1895: 2, which includes Sullivan yarns about the squad’s encounters with former Chicago Colts mascot Clarence Duval.

37 As reported in “Sporting,” Reading (Pennsylvania) Eagle, June 17, 1895: 2; “Sporting,” (Brattleboro) Vermont Phoenix, June 14, 1895: 8; and elsewhere.

38 Per “Condensed Dispatches,” Sporting Life, June 22, 1895: 2; “Baseball Notes,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 16, 1895: 4.

39 Per New England League pitching stats published in the 1896 Reach Official Baseball Guide, 151 (which mistakenly places Sullivan with the Pawtucket Maroons). Baseball-Reference provides no data for Sullivan’s stay with Portland.

40 “Base Ball Notes,” Daily Kennebec (Maine) Journal, May 21, 1896: 3.

41 “News of the Ball Players,” Portland (Maine) Daily Press, April 11, 1896: 3. See also, (Brattleboro, Vermont) Windham County Reformer, April 24, 1896: 10.

42 “One Inning Was Enough,” New York World, June 17, 1896: 10.

43 Per “Diamond Dust,” Milwaukee Journal, January 2, 1897: 8.

44 See “Baseball Notes,” Boston Globe, March 21, 1897: 16.

45 According to “New York News,” Sporting Life, April 3, 1897: 2

46 Per “The League Race,” Sporting Life, September 4, 1897: 2. Other game accounts credited Sullivan with a three-hitter. See e.g., “Colts Are Easy Victims,” Chicago Chronicle, August 28, 1897: 8.

47 “Echoes of the Game,” Boston Globe, September 19, 1897: 4. See also, “Gossip of the Sports,” Washington Times, September 23, 1897: 7.

48 As noted in “News and Comment,” Sporting Life, December 4, 1897: 2; “New York’s in 1897,” Trenton Evening Times, November 30, 1897: 7.

49 As reported by Boston sportswriter Jacob C. Morse in “Hub Happenings,” Sporting Life, December 25, 1897: 6.

50 “Yannigans Encouraged Yesterday,” New York Evening Journal, March 29, 1898: 9, which praised Sullivan’s “superb hurling” for the Giants scrubs.

51 As reported in “Manning’s New Pitcher,” Kansas City Star, April 22, 1898: 3; “Another Pitcher for the Blues,” Kansas City Times, April 22, 1898: 6; and elsewhere.

52 Per “Parke Wilson Signs,” Kansas City Journal, April 30, 1898: 5.

53 “News and Comment,” Sporting Life, July 9, 1898: 5; “Base Ball Gossip,” Kansas City Star, July 1, 1898: 3.

54 As specified in the Sullivan obituary published in the Boston Globe, June 15, 1906: 1. See also, “Base Ball Notes,” Kansas City Journal, July 10, 1898: 5.

55 “To Represent Boston,” Boston Globe, October 13, 1898: 5; “For the Court,” Boston Herald, October 13, 1898: 1.

56 “Boston Wins Both,” Boston Globe, August 19, 1899: 4.

57 “Double Header,” Lynn (Massachusetts) Daily Evening Item, August 19, 1899: 8.

58 “Sports of It All,” Worcester (Massachusetts) Daily Spy, August 13, 1897: 9.

59 In Sullivan’s defense, it should be noted that his strikeout total was somewhat depressed because foul balls were not counted as strikes during his time in the majors.

60 Sullivan’s political life was recounted in his obituaries. The instant chronology was mostly taken from “Michaal J. Sullivan Died This Morning,” Boston Herald, June 15, 1906: 1.

61 As reported in “Will Turn on the Light,” Boston Evening Transcript, January 25, 1906: 3; “Sullivan Wins,” Boston Globe, January 25, 1906: 3.

62 “Michael J. Sullivan Died This Morning,” above.

63 Per “Big Mike Sullivan Stricken with Heart Failure,” Boston Journal, June 12, 1906: 11. Today, Mayor Fitzgerald lingers in public memory as the grandfather of President John F. Kennedy.

64 “Michael J. Sullivan Died This Morning,” above.

65 Certain modern reference works erroneously posit Sullivan’s death on June 14. In fact, he died at 12:40 a.m. on June 15, 1906. See “Sullivan Delay Due to Hour of Death,” Boston Herald, June 16, 1906: 1; “Hon. Michael J. Sullivan,” Boston Evening Transcript, June 15, 1906: 13; “Michael J. Sullivan of Governor’s Council Dead,” Boston Globe, June 15, 1906: 1; “Michael J. Sullivan Died This Morning,” above.

66 “Tributes by Associates,” Boston Herald, June 16, 1906: 2.

67 “Tributes by Associates.”

68 “Immense Throng at Funeral of Sullivan,” Boston Journal, June 19, 1906: 6; “2500 Crowd Church,” Boston Globe, June 18, 1906: 2.