George Haddock

Like the real estate business that he would later enter, success and failure during the career of late-19th century pitcher George Haddock was often a matter of location. When on the roster of bad clubs, Haddock regularly tasted defeat, losing a staggering 72 games over his first three full professional seasons. Yet once assigned to first-rate outfits, Haddock’s fortunes underwent an astonishing transformation. The season after he posted a 9-26 record for the hapless Buffalo Bisons of the 1890 Players League, our subject paced a talent-laden Boston Reds team to the American Association crown, going a scintillating 34-11. The following year, Haddock demonstrated that this performance was no fluke, winning 29 games for another competitive squad, the National League Brooklyn Bridegrooms, despite sitting out the first month of the season in a salary dispute.

Beginning in 1893, injuries, bad luck, and changes in the game’s pitching rules and distance brought Haddock’s playing days to a premature end. From there, he went on to business prosperity, first as a Boston feed and grain wholesaler, thereafter in local real estate and construction. Haddock spent the final 15 years of his life in pursuit of a much humbler calling: Christian Science practitioner (or healer). In April 1926, a heart attack brought the interesting, somewhat enigmatic, life of George Haddock to an abrupt close. Like most of his contemporaries, Haddock is long forgotten today. The paragraphs below endeavor to restore him to public memory.

George Silas Haddock was born on Christmas Day 1866 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the small harbor city situated on the Granite State’s 13-mile Atlantic Ocean shoreline. He was the youngest of three children1 born to staircase maker/carpenter Jacob H. Haddock (1821-1885), an immigrant from the Canadian Maritime Province of New Brunswick, and his second wife Mary (née Orr, 1838-1917), another New Brunswick native. Also living in the Haddock household during George’s youth were various of Jacob’s sons from his first marriage.2 But it was an older sister who served as catalyst for his baseball career.

In late 1883, 21-year-old Lillian Haddock married Grasshopper Jim Whitney, the staff ace of the National League champion Boston club. Coming off a sterling 37-21 campaign, Whitney settled his bride in the Dorchester section of Boston. Some months thereafter, Lillian’s teenage brother George came to live nearby. A natural athlete, young Haddock took readily to the baseball tutelage of his new brother-in-law,3 and soon gained a place as a pitcher-outfielder on several amateur ball clubs in the Boston area.4

Likely through Whitney’s intervention, Haddock entered the professional ranks in 1886, signing with the Topeka (Kansas) Capitals of the Western League. According to an improbable report published in the hometown newspaper of a rival club, Haddock was “a success as a kicker.”5 That talent, however, was not enough to hold Haddock’s spot on the Topeka roster. Supplanted as the Capitals center fielder by the versatile Bud Fowler, one of the handful of African Americans to play in professional baseball leagues during the mid-1880s,6 Haddock was released by Topeka in early July. He then joined a local semipro cub called the Athletics.7

The following spring, Whitney got his kid brother-in-law another Western League audition. Haddock, who according to Whitney was “a good twirler,” was signed by the Lincoln (Nebraska) Tree Planters.8 But he was released in late April after an exhibition game battering by the rival Kansas City Cowboys. From there, Haddock hooked on with the Emporia club in the unrecognized Kansas State League. Against lesser competition, the young hurler began to show some form, doing “excellent work” against a rival club based in Wellington.9 When not in the box, the right-handed batting and throwing Haddock also played outfield for Emporia.

That August, Emporia stepped up in class, entering the Western League as a midseason replacement team. The new entry lasted less than one month, going 6-12 before disbanding on September 9. But during its brief Western League run, at least two of Emporia’s six wins were complete-game victories thrown by Haddock.10 He was then snapped up by Kansas City, and completed the season with a 6-6 record, compiling a 3.99 ERA in 106 innings pitched, combined.11 He also batted a respectable .262.12

Haddock’s early-career travails began with a nightmarish season pitching for the Troy (New York) Trojans of the International Association, a newly formed minor league. But the 1888 campaign began on a bright note for Haddock when he accompanied the National League Washington Senators to pre-season camp.13 Temporarily in Washington uniform, Haddock hurled a pair of exhibition game gems against Southern League clubs, first shutting out New Orleans on only three hits, then blanking Birmingham on four.14 Among the admirers of the youngster’s performances was a Washington sportswriter who informed readers that “Haddock, Jim Whitney’s brother-in-law … is a most promising youngster. He has many of Grasshopper Jim’s movements and curves and will doubtless develop into a crack pitcher.”15 With some reluctance, Washington returned Haddock to Troy at spring training’s end, but the youngster had made a deep impression on Senators brass. Meanwhile, Trojan fans “expected great things of Haddock” and were confident that “when the season closes this city will be near the top in the championship race.”16

Rarely have lofty expectations been so thoroughly dashed. The Troy Trojans posted a dismal 29-79 (.268) record to finish in seventh place well behind the pennant-winning Syracuse Stars in final International Association standings. Bad as Troy was, Haddock managed the not inconsiderable feat of being worse – indeed, far worse. He went a God-awful 3-25 (.107), allowing an unwieldy 380 baserunners (301 base hits, 66 walks, and 13 hit batsmen) in 31 pitching appearances.17 George did, however, make himself useful in the outfield, batting .226 in 107 games played, overall.

Back in Washington, meanwhile, the Senators brain trust disregarded Haddock’s appalling won-lost record at Troy. All that seems to have stuck in their minds was the young hurler’s two dominant spring training performances. So, with the club cruising to a last-place (48-86) finish in the National League pennant chase, Haddock was among the prospects tried out in the waning days of the 1888 season.

Once back with Washington, Haddock’s performance improved markedly. His record, alas, did not. In his major league debut on September 27, 1888, Haddock pitched well, holding the formidable New York Giants to five hits in seven innings of a rain-shortened contest. But he never stood a chance. Not only did the Senators fail to plate a run, they could not manage a base hit against hard-throwing Ed (Cannonball) Crane in a 3-0 defeat. Haddock was even better his next time out, holding the Pittsburgh Alleghenies to a mere four hits. But sloppy Washington fielding cost him five unearned runs in a 5-1 setback. Yet despite losing both his major league starts, Sporting Life declared that “pitcher Haddock, late of the Troy club, has made a very favorable impression on the league.”18 It therefore came as little surprise when the name George S. Haddock appeared on the reserved player list for the coming season submitted that December by the talent-starved Senators.19

Unhappily for George, he took more lumps in 1889. Once again pitching for a bad (41-83, .331) ball club, Haddock was almost as bad (11-19, .367) in his first full major league campaign. The season, however, got off to a promising start for the rookie pitcher. With Washington’s record standing at 0-8, he posted the Senators’ first 1889 season triumph “with work as fine as could be desired” in a 9-6 win over Philadelphia on May 8.20 It was Haddock’s first major league win. But he had to wait until July 12 to gain his second, losing eight straight decisions in the interim. For the remainder of the season, George essentially alternated wins with losses. His 11 victories at season’s end ranked second on the club to Alex Ferson’s 17. His ERA (4.20), innings pitched (276 1/3), and hits allowed (299) also placed second to Ferson among Washington staff members. Haddock led the club in strikeouts (106) but walked even more (123), an indication of the control problems that would plague his career. Haddock also made three appearances in right field, and batted a passable .223 (25-for-112) with two home runs and 14 RBIs in 34 games, overall. Although far from breathtaking, the soon-to-be 23-year-old had made a decent start on a major league career while playing for a lousy club. And he had every right to expect that his fortunes would soon improve. Here, Haddock was to be painfully disappointed.

During the off-season, Haddock took actions that were diverting: organizing an amateur ice hockey club back home in Dorchester;21 farsighted: entering into the feed and grain wholesale business in Boston with older brother Edgar Haddock and brother-in-law Jim Whitney;22 and cause for regret: jumping to the Buffalo entry in the newly-formed Players League.23 Regarding the last, Haddock had been with the rebels from the start, attending an early Players League organizational meeting conducted at a Manhattan hotel in early November 1889.24 But his affiliation with the PL’s Buffalo club proved a disaster. Once again stuck on a terrible last-place team (36-96, .273), Haddock was even worse (9-26, .257). And before the season was over, the pitcher and player-manager Jay Faatz (installed in midseason) were openly at odds. Complaining of a severe ankle injury, Haddock would not take the ball after a 5-2 loss to Chicago on August 18. Convinced that his workhorse hurler was malingering, Faatz thereupon suspended Haddock without pay until he got back into uniform. Sympathies in the sporting press were about equally divided,25 but whoever was at fault, Haddock did not pitch again that season. Even skipping his club’s final 41 games, Haddock still posted the most losses (26) of any Players League pitcher. His other numbers: 5.76 ERA; 529 baserunners allowed in 290 2/3 innings pitched; 149 walks, etc., were also wretched.

When the Players League folded after the 1890 season, the rights to Haddock’s services – to the extent that they were desired – would ordinarily have reverted to the franchise that he had jumped, the National League Washington Senators. But by then, the NL Washington club was defunct. However, Washington was also home to a new member in the major league American Association, and AA Washington Senators club boss Mike Scanlon very much wanted Haddock for his team.26 Despite his lackluster performance during the 1889 season, Haddock had been something of a drawing card at the ballpark, and a particular favorite of the Washington club’s female fans. A gentlemanly player and a fastidious dresser both on and off the diamond, George “became quite a social star and made hosts of friends with the ladies of higher walks of society, and they always attend the game when he is with the club,” reported the Boston Herald.27 But with his home, family, and business interests residing in Boston, Haddock opted to sign with the Boston Reds, another new entry in the American Association.28 And it was here that George Haddock began one of the most remarkable transformations in the game’s history.

Coming off three grim professional seasons (72 losses, combined), Haddock became an unexpected pitching sensation. Contemporary sports page reportage yields no indication that his hurling repertoire – a funky two-step delivery from the pitcher’s box, a live fastball, and a variety of breaking pitches, all of which he struggled to control – had changed much from previous seasons. Nonetheless, Haddock suddenly transformed into a dominating pitcher. He began the season with a pair of shutout victories over Washington and by May 20 his record stood at 9-2. A family tragedy then intruded upon Haddock’s season: the death of his brother-in-law/friend, baseball mentor, and business partner Jim Whitney, who succumbed to tuberculosis at age 33.29

Thereafter, Haddock continued his winning ways, combining with veteran Charlie Buffinton (29-9) to form the American Association’s premier pitching duo. With ample offense supplied by future Hall of Famers Dan Brouthers (.350 BA/109 RBIs) and Hugh Duffy (.336/110 RBIs), plus Duke Farrell (.302/12 home runs/110 RBIs) and Tom Brown (.321/177 runs scored), the Reds posted a 93-42 (.623) record and breezed to the American Association crown. Having previously underperformed when playing for bad teams, George Haddock’s personal record outshone that of the outstanding Boston club that he pitched for in 1891. He went a stunning 34-11 (.756), with a 2.49 ERA in 379 2/3 innings pitched, and led AA pitchers with five shutouts. Haddock was second-best in wins and ERA, and among league leaders in virtually all other pitching categories. And for the first (and only) time in his major league career, George’s strikeouts (169) exceeded his walks issued (137). He even played eight games in the Boston outfield, and chipped in a .243 batting average with three home runs and 23 RBIs in 58 total games played.

Inter-league hostility between the National League and American Association prevented the playing of an all-Boston post-season championship series.30 And soon thereafter, the Association – drowning in red ink and unable to continue the competition for playing talent with the financially stronger National League – took to its deathbed. Over the winter, the situation was resolved with the NL absorbing four AA franchises. But with a National League championship club already located in Boston, the Boston Reds were not among them. Instead, the Reds were disbanded, with their playing roster to be distributed via the joint decision of NL President Nick Young and outgoing AA President Zach Phelps.

In due course, the rights to Haddock were assigned to Brooklyn.31 Contract negotiations with Brooklyn player-manager John Montgomery Ward appeared to go smoothly at first, with Haddock reportedly signing a $3,800 pact for the upcoming season.32 But almost immediately thereafter, Haddock, who still harbored hopes of somehow remaining in Boston, evidently had second thoughts. The upshot was an unseemly incident in which Haddock allegedly induced Ward to let him re-examine the contract that he had recently signed, and then ran off with it. Particularly incensed by the incident was Brooklyn sportswriter J.P. Donnelly, whose blast of the pitcher’s conduct in the matter33 provides us a suitable juncture for a two-paragraph segue into the enigmatic character of George Haddock.

There are two intriguing aspects to the Haddock persona – one expressly (and quite often) mentioned on the sports pages, the other only hinted at. Tall (almost 6 feet) but slender (155 pounds), with wavy black hair, neatly trimmed mustache, and “deep, dark, unfathomable eyes like Edgar Allan Poe” (in the words of an overwrought Chicago sportswriter),34 George Haddock was a young man of striking good looks. He was often considered among the handsomest men in baseball,35 and friends reputedly called him “the Adonis.”36 But the frequent press mention of “Handsome George”37 Haddock’s appearance was not always couched in the fulsome, admiring language used for other ballplayers with matinée idol looks, such as Tony Mullane, Bill Lange, or Adonis Terry. Rather, sportswriters were often cutting, even antagonistic, when it came to describing Haddock, with demeaning, effeminate adjectives like pretty, immaculate, and beautiful suggesting something unmanly about the pitcher. Brooklyn sportswriter Donnelly, his disdain for Haddock ill-disguised, once maintained that “all want to know what ailed our pretty pitcher with the Hyperion ringlets” after a substandard Haddock outing against the Giants.38 At one point, Sporting Life called for a truce on “the newspaper joshing [of Haddock] because of his good looks and posing.” With unintended but regrettable irony, the baseball weekly then added that “it isn’t Haddock’s fault that he is handsome, nor is beauty of face or form any bar to first-class ballplaying.”39

Donnelly’s hostile attitude toward Haddock traced directly to the contract incident with Brooklyn manager Ward. And once Donnelly took a dislike to Haddock because of it, he took shots at the pitcher whenever he could. Haddock’s refined appearance and manner gave Donnelly and a good number of like-minded sportswriters the ammunition that they needed to scorn Haddock. But given societal conventions (and stringent 1890s libel laws), sportswriters could not give explicit voice to the matter most likely underlying their disdain of resolute bachelor Haddock: suspicions about his sexual orientation. All they could do was express their sentiments in code. Whether such suspicions had any basis, of course, is now shrouded by the passage of more than a century and can only be speculated upon. So, back to the narrative.

The contract impasse between Brooklyn and Haddock extended into the first month of the 1892 season. In the contest of wills, Haddock was the one to yield, accepting a salary offer reduced to $3,250.40 But having spent the holdout working out daily at Boston’s Congress Street grounds,41 Haddock was ready to go the moment that he reported. Pitching for another first-rate club, he got off to a fast start, winning seven of his first eight decisions. The victory pace slackened from there, but Haddock remained among the game’s pitching elite. Demonstrating that he was not a one-year wonder, Handsome George again outperformed the good club (95-59, .617) for which he toiled. Despite his belated season start, he turned in another superb season, going 29-13 (.690), with a 3.14 ERA in 381 1/3 innings pitched. Still, the pitcher’s work proved insufficient to acquire the good opinion of hometown sportswriter Donnelly, who continued to sneer at “the gentleman of frills and bangs, the beauteous Haddock.”42

As the 1893 season beckoned, there was speculation that Haddock might be among the hurlers hampered by the elimination of the pitcher’s box and the elongation of the pitching distance to the modern 60 feet, six inches.43 But it was just as likely that a dislocated right thumb and aching pitching elbow precipitated the dramatic falloff in Haddock’s production. Appearing in only 23 games for a mediocre (65-63, .508) Brooklyn club, Haddock went 8-9, with a hefty 5.60 ERA in 151 innings pitched. And before the season was out, he was given his unconditional release.44

That winter, Haddock did not lack for suitors. He chose to sign for the 1894 season with the Philadelphia Phillies, a competitive National League club that had just engaged as manager Arthur Irwin, Haddock’s erstwhile skipper with the Boston Reds.45 But the pitcher, by then 27 years old, was damaged goods. As the season progressed, arm miseries kept him on the sidelines for extended periods of time.46 And Haddock was mostly ineffective when he could pitch. With his record standing at 4-3, but with a bloated 5.79 ERA in 56 innings pitched, Haddock was let go by Philadelphia in early August.47

After sitting home for a month, Haddock decided to give his arm another try with the reincarnated Washington Senators of the National League.48 But he had nothing left. Four lopsided losses brought the major league career of George Haddock to its end. When healthy, success versus failure had been largely a matter of location for the handsome hurler. With bad clubs in Washington and Buffalo, Haddock had been dismal (20-47, .298). But he outperformed the record of excellent clubs in Boston and Brooklyn, posting an outstanding 63-24, .723 log – until injured. Overall, in seven major league seasons, Haddock went 95-87 (.522), with a 4.07 ERA in 1,580 innings pitched. A lack of command was a career-long problem that resulted in 714 walks compared to 599 strikeouts. He had also been a decent batsman for a pitcher (.227 with six home runs and 83 RBIs in 736 at-bats), and useful as an occasional outfielder (27 games).

Released by Washington, Haddock fully expected to receive contract offers from other major league clubs for the 1895 season.49 Those never came, and George would not sign with Providence in the Eastern League or other minor league clubs interested in him.50 Instead, he turned his back on the game and focused on expanding his business interests into the wood and coal markets.51 Soon thereafter, Haddock branched out into real estate and home construction.52 During winters, Haddock-friendly Boston sportswriter Jacob Morse periodically reported on sightings of him.53 “George Haddock, the once-noted pitcher, has a nice business in Dorchester, a good-sized bank account, wears fine clothes and drives a swift nag. Life is worth living to him,” Morse observed.54A lifelong bachelor, George lived in a sumptuous apartment in Dorchester with his widowed mother, who died in 1917. As he withdrew further into private life, newsprint mention of Haddock receded. He served as an usher at Boston Globe sports editor Tim Murnane’s second wedding in February 1898,55 and thereafter dabbled briefly in local Republican Party politics.56 George stayed in regular contact with his siblings,57 several of whom also lived in or around Dorchester. Gradually over time, only his real estate transactions garnered newspaper space.58

Sometime around 1911, Haddock left the world of commerce to pursue a spiritual calling, spending the last 15 years of his life as a Christian Science practitioner.59 On the morning of April 18, 1926, he died suddenly at his residence, the victim of an apparent heart attack.60 George Silas Haddock was 59. Following a viewing at his Dorchester apartment, the deceased was interred at Forest Hill Cemetery in nearby Jamaica Plain. His survivors included long-remarried sister Lillian Whitney Hill, brother Edgar, and half-brothers William, James, and Frederick Haddock.

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Norman Macht and fact-checked by Alan Cohen and Chris Rainey.

Sources

Sources for the information provided above include profiles of George Haddock published in the New York Clipper, January 16, 1892, Baseball’s First Stars (Cleveland: SABR, 1996), and Major League Baseball Profiles, Vol. 1 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011); US Census and other government records accessed via Ancestry.com; and various of the newspaper articles cited in the endnotes. Unless otherwise noted, stats have been taken from Baseball-Reference and Retrosheet.

Notes

1 George’s older siblings were a brother Edgar (born 1859) and sister Lillian (1862).

2 Marriage to his late first wife, New Hampshire native Lavinia Foss, is what apparently prompted Jacob to relocate from New Brunswick in the first place. Prior to her death in 1858, Lavinia Haddock bore four sons: William (born 1848), George A. (1851, died during childhood), James (1853), and Frederick (1856). Boston city directories and other contemporary sources suggest that George lived in proximity to his surviving half-brothers for most of his adult life and kept in regular contact with them.

3 “Baseball Gossip,” Kalamazoo (Michigan) News, February 10, 1892: 2; and “Pitcher Haddock of the Old Boston Club Was a Portsmouth Boy,” Portsmouth (New Hampshire) Ledger, September 23, 1930: 9. See also, the George Haddock profile in Major League Baseball Profiles, Vol. 1, David Nemec, ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011), 78-79.

4 “George Haddock,” New York Clipper, January 16, 1892.

5 “Foul Tips,” Emporia (Kansas) News, July 1, 1886: 5. If true, such behavior was entirely out of character for Haddock, who garnered a reputation as a clean player and a gentleman in ensuing years.

6 Fowler led the Western League in triples that season and “has no equal” as a centerfielder, per “Topeka Pick Up,” Sporting Life, July 7, 1886: 2. But by 1888, the color barrier had descended upon major and high minor league baseball, and Fowler, George Stovey, Fleet Walker, Frank Grant, and the few other black players who had been allowed to make their mark in the game were consigned to segregated leagues.

7 “Topeka Pick Up,” Sporting Life, July 7, 1886: 2.

8 “Caught On Again,” Sporting Life, April 6, 1887: 1.

9 “Another Victory,” Emporia News, June 2, 1887: 5.

10 The two verifiable wins came three days apart against Wichita, another short-lived Western League replacement club. During those outings, Haddock struck out nine and walked nine. He also went a cumulative 4-for-9 at the plate, per WL box scores published in Sporting Life, August 24, 1887: 6.

11 As specified by 19th century baseball scholar Frederick Ivor-Campbell for the George Haddock profile in Baseball’s First Stars, Ivor-Campbell, Robert L. Tiemann, and Mark Rucker, eds. (Cleveland: SABR, 1996), 73. Baseball-Reference provides no minor league stats for Haddock.

12 Ibid.

13 “Off for the South,” Sporting Life, March 7, 1888: 3.

14 “The Troy Terrors,” Sporting Life, April 4, 1888: 4.

15 Robert M. Larner, “Washington Whispers,” Sporting Life, March 21, 1888: 4.

16 Cozier, “The Troy Terrors,” Sporting Life, April 4, 1888: 4.

17 Ivor-Campbell, Baseball’s First Stars, 73.

18 “Notes and Comments,” Sporting Life, October 17, 1888: 6.

19 “The Official List,” published in Sporting Life, December 19, 1888: 2.

20 “A Victory at Last!” Washington Evening Star, May 9, 1889: 9.

21 “Notes and Comments,” Sporting Life, February 2, 1890: 2.

22 “Notes and Gossip,” Sporting Life, November 27, 1889: 7, and “Base Ball Budgets,” New Haven (Connecticut) Morning Journal & Courier, February 1, 1890: 3, which stated that “all will wish Haddock and Whitney good luck in their new business venture.”

23 Haddock’s jump to the Players League was reported in “Around the Bases,” Boston Herald, December 17, 1889: 2; “Notes of the Diamond,” New York Herald, December 19, 1889: 8; “Managers Filling the Bases,” New York Tribune, December 21, 1889: 4, and elsewhere.

24 “In Hostile Array,” Sporting Life, November 13, 1889: 1.

25 Compare “Sporting Notes,” Pittsburg Dispatch, September 13, 1890: 7, and “Sporting Gossip,” Cleveland Leader, September 14, 1890: 10 – pro-Haddock, with “Base Ball Notes,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 8, 1890: 5, and “World of Sports,” Waterbury (Connecticut) Evening Democrat, September 20, 1890: 5 – pro Faatz.

26 “News, Notes, and Comments,” Sporting Life, January 17, 1891: 2.

27 “The Association Conference,” Boston Herald, June 14, 1891: 20.

28 Also rebuffing overtures from the National League’s Cleveland and Pittsburgh clubs, Haddock signed with the AA Boston Reds for a reported $3,000. See “Condensed Dispatches,” Sporting Life, February 14, 1891: 1.

29 The onset of the disease had brought Whitney’s own major league pitching career to a halt early in the 1890 season. His 10-year career final numbers: 191-204, with a 2.97 ERA in a shade under 3,500 innings-pitched.

30 The Boston Nationals (or Beaneaters) captured the NL flag with an 87-51 (.630) record.

31 “Byrne’s Big Boys,” Sporting Life, January 2, 1892: 4, and “Midwinter Ball Gossip,” Washington Evening Star, January 9, 1892: 7.

32 J.P. Donnelly, “Brooklyn Budget,” Sporting Life, April 9, 1892: 4.

33 “Brooklyn Budget,” Sporting Life, April 9, 1892: 4.

34 “Brotherhood,” Chicago Inter-Ocean, August 13, 1890: 3.

35 See e.g., “George S. Haddock,” Lima (Ohio) Times, March 3, 1891: 2, and “Editorial Views, News, and Comments,” Sporting Life, April 15, 1893: 2.

36 “Brooklyn Signs Another Player,” New York Tribune, March 1, 1893: 8.

37 Although Haddock was sometimes described as a gentleman, the Gentleman George nickname ascribed to him by modern baseball reference authority like Baseball-Reference and Retrosheet could not be found in late-19th century newsprint. The nickname Handsome George, however, was familiar to Haddock’s contemporaries.

38 J. P. Donnelly, “Brooklyn Budget,” Sporting Life, May 6, 1893: 3.

39 “Editorial Views, News, and Comments,” Sporting Life, September 3, 1892: 3.

40 “Editorial Views, News, and Comments,” Sporting Life, May 21, 1892: 2. See also, “Notes from the Diamond,” Chicago Daily News, May 20, 1892: 8.

41 “Base Ball Notes,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 11, 1892: 4.

42 J.P. Donnelly, “Brooklyn Budget,” Sporting Life, November 5, 1892: 2. Donnelly, however, was hardly alone in his disdain of Haddock. Other sportswriters scorned the pitcher, as well. See e.g., “The Bridegrooms Rejoice,” New York Herald, May 6, 1893: 11; “Base Ball Notes,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 7, 1893: 5; “The Phillies Win from the Students,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 27, 1894: 3. A sympathetic Henry Chadwick observed that the gentlemanly Haddock “incurred the dislike of most occupants of the bleachery boards,” too. See 1893 Spalding Official Base Ball Guide, 49-50.

43 See e.g., “What Needs To Change?” Sporting Life, March 18, 1893: 4.

44 “Games To-Day,” New York Tribune, August 31, 1893: 3; “Base Ball Notes,” Boston Journal, September 1, 1893: 3; “Won in the Ninth,” Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Patriot, September 1, 1893: 5; and elsewhere.

45 “Haddock Snubs Cleveland Offer,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 7, 1894: 5; “Base Ball Gossip,” Washington Evening Star, January 13, 1894: 14; “Philadelphia Gets Haddock,” Boston Herald, January 16, 1894: 7.

46 Haddock reportedly suffered from “a cold in the shoulder.” Sporting Life, June 16, 1894: 2. But neither extended rest nor a visit to doctors back in Boston produced a remedy.

47 “Philadelphia Pointers,” Sporting Life, August 4, 1894: 2; “Base Ball Notes,” Boston Journal, August 7, 1894: 3.

48 Haddock’s signing with the Senators was noted in “Base Ball Notes,” Washington Evening Star, September 1, 1894: 8; “Will Join the Washingtons,” Evansville (Indiana) Journal, September 2, 1894: 4; and elsewhere.

49 Boston sportswriter Jacob Morse in “Hub Happenings,” Sporting Life, March 16, 1895: 8.

50 “Eastern League Bulletin,” Sporting Life, March 30, 1895: 10; “Personnel,” Sporting Life, May 5, 1894: 9.

51 “News and Comment,” Sporting Life, November 2, 1895: 5, and “All Sorts of Sports,” St. Paul Globe, December 1, 1895: 7.

52 “Baseball Notes,” Washington Evening Star, June 5, 1896: 4; “News and Comment,” Sporting Life, June 6, 1896: 5; and “In the Field of Sport,” Omaha World-Herald, June 7, 1896: 10.

53 See e.g., “In the Field of Baseball,” Boston Herald, January 20, 1896: 2. And “All Sorts of Sports,” St. Paul Globe, December 1, 1895: 7.

54 J.C. Morse, “Hub Happenings,” Sporting Life, January 11, 1896: 3.

55 “Base Ball Editor Weds,” Boston Herald, February 23, 1898: 10, and “Murnane-Dowling,” Boston Journal, February 23, 1898: 3.

56 Haddock’s service on Boston Republican ward committees was noted in the Boston Herald, April 4, 1900: 9, and November 2, 1900: 11.

57 A nostalgic return to their Portsmouth birthplace by Bill and George Haddock was noted in the Portsmouth (New Hampshire) Herald, July 30, 1901: 2.

58 Various Haddock real estate transactions were listed in the Boston Herald between 1902 and 1908.

59 As reflected by the George Haddock listings in Boston business directories.

60 Death notice published in the Boston Herald, April 20, 1926: 29.