Tommy Sheehan

Many players emerged out of California and the Pacific Northwest in the early 1900s who didn’t particularly leave an impression in the major leagues – yet decades later their names still evoked memories of the early days of the Pacific Coast League. After appearing in a single game in the National League in 1900, Tommy Sheehan returned and played in the NL from 1906 to 1908. But his professional baseball career lasted nearly 20 years, and he had a knack for playing for winning teams on the West Coast.

Sheehan is also part of a much more exclusive group. Many players from Latin countries came to the United States and stayed in the country after playing in the majors. Only a handful of players did the opposite, moving from the U.S. and remaining in Central America. Sheehan was among the first when he came to Panama in 1919 and stayed for good.

Thomas Patrick Sheehan was born in Sacramento on November 5, 1877. His father, Patrick William Sheehan, known better as P.W., left Ireland around 1849 during the country’s great potato famine. He originally arrived in Maine but by 1877 he had relocated to Sacramento. In February 1877 he wed the former Margaret Long, also a child of Irish immigrants; Tommy arrived nearly nine months later. Five more brothers followed Tommy before sister Naomi was the eighth and final Sheehan child (one died in infancy, but additional information is unknown). P.W. was listed on census records as a teamster and drayman in the city, but his name could most commonly be found in local newspapers as a breeder of racing dogs. Tommy was raised Catholic and attended Christian Brothers College in Sacramento, a preparatory school still in existence today.1

Researching a player from the early 1900s with a common surname can be challenging: players’ first names are often left out of game accounts. It doesn’t help matters that at least two of Tommy’s brothers, Harry and Howard, played in the city, and a cousin, John Sheehan, was a popular player in the San Francisco area.2 Tommy Sheehan had been playing around the sandlots of Sacramento since “he got through playing with a bottle and its rubber attachment,”3 but his name began appearing in newspapers in 1897 as a player for multiple teams in the city’s amateur and semipro leagues. According to a 1916 article that looked back on his career, Sheehan’s earliest connection to professional baseball was as a teenage batboy for Sacramento teams in the 1890s.4 In May 1897 he made a pitching appearance in an exhibition game with the top team in the city, the Gilt Edges.5 The club was named for a beer produced by a local brewery that sponsored the team; besides being the top team in Sacramento, it also won the pennant in the four-team California State League that year.

He is listed in references as standing 5-feet-8, but Sheehan was likely closer to 5-feet-6. He was often referred to as “Midget” or “Little” Sheehan in articles, and he would later be called a Siamese twin to 5’6” teammate Tommy Leach.6  Despite his unimposing height, he interested the Gilt Edges enough that they employed him as a substitute player early in 1898. He joined a team in nearby Grass Valley for most of the year before rejoining the Gilt Edges in November. He played mainly in the outfield as the team was on the way to again winning the California State League pennant.

In 1899 Sheehan joined the Gilt Edges as a full-fledged member of the team. He primarily played third base, where he could make better use of his strong throwing arm. By the beginning of the 1899 season, he was already well known in Sacramento, but to others in the league he was considered the find of the season while playing “the fastest ball imaginable.”7

In the warmer climate of California, teams played into December, and many major-leaguers came out and joined teams along the West Coast after their seasons ended. Some also served as scouts and reported back to big-league teams on some of the top players there. Bill Lange was one of the many major-leaguers who would play in California after the close of the top level’s season, and he would offer his services as a bird dog to scout potential players. Sheehan’s 1899 statistics were by no means glowing (.243 batting average, with 40 errors in 63 games), but Lange looked positively on Sheehan’s play, and he sent word back East about the second coming of Jimmy Collins.8 Multiple teams courted Sheehan based on Lange’s recommendation, but St. Louis won the race to sign him. He signed with the Cardinals in February 1900 and reported to the team in March for spring training in Hot Springs, Arkansas.9

St. Louis soon concluded that Lange may have oversold Sheehan. For one thing, the Cardinals thought they were signing an 18-year-old, but Sheehan was 22.10 He also arrived at training camp heftier than they would have liked. Sheehan already had his work cut out as one of the shortest players on the spring roster, but at 171 pounds he was also heavier than half of the other players in camp.11 Sheehan was tried at second base in exhibition games but with Bobby Wallace already in place at shortstop and John McGraw and Bill Keister added during the offseason, there was little room for him in the infield plans, and he was cut before the season began. He was prepared to return to California, but St. Louis convinced him to accept a farm assignment to Worcester in the Class A Eastern League.

His jovial and chatty personality quickly made Sheehan a popular teammate and fan favorite at Worcester, but the Farmers’ management felt baseball in the Eastern League was a bit too fast for him. He was officially cut from the roster in June, but stayed close to the team in various capacities with an understanding that he might rejoin them as the need arose. That came about later in the month when Worcester captain Malachi Kittridge pulled Sheehan from duty as a ticket taker to go suit up in the middle of the second game of a doubleheader.12 Though he was not on the roster, Sheehan continued playing intermittently through July 19, when New York Giants owner Andrew Freedman contacted him about signing.13 The Giants were playing Charlie Hickman, who had been a part-time pitcher in previous seasons, at third base, and though Hickman had a strong bat, his fielding was subpar. Sheehan was batting only .206 in Eastern League play, but the Giants knew of Sheehan from Bill Lange’s winter recommendations, and since Sheehan was not under contract, it was a risk-free chance to potentially try Hickman on the mound.14

Sheehan sat on the Giants bench until August 2, when New York captain George Davis was ejected from a game in the fifth inning for arguing with umpire Adonis Terry, and Sheehan came in to replace him at shortstop. He failed to get on base in either of his two at-bats against Chicago and didn’t receive any fielding chances. Newspapers the next day showed Sheehan’s name in a major-league box score for the first time, but by the time the papers hit the newsstands he had already been farmed to Syracuse.15 Sheehan was sent back to New York without having played a game for Syracuse.16 According to the Worcester Spy, the Giants tried to loan Sheehan to Rochester, but after a delayed response from Andrew Freedman, Sheehan arrived to find that another player had been obtained. He went back to New York but did not play in any more games for the Giants.17 He returned to Sacramento in September to play out the California League season and helped Sacramento win the 1900 pennant, their fourth in a row.

After returning to California following his stint in the East, Sheehan became a fixture on Sacramento rosters for the next three seasons. In April 1901 he married the former Pearl Rogers, and a daughter, Madaliene, was born in 1903. He also dedicated more attention to his playing shape. He and Brooklyn pitcher Jay Hughes, a former Sacramento teammate, took up running during the 1902 offseason18 and he lost 20 pounds. Power would never be part of Sheehan’s game, but his offseason conditioning improved other facets. He was a proficient bunter and could normally be found among PCL leaders in sacrifice hits. He was also listed among that league’s leaders in fielding percentage at the hot corner each year.

The Sacramento Senators finished second in the new Pacific Coast League in 1903. But after the season Sacramento’s owner, Mike Fisher, determined that the city wasn’t large enough to support a team in the PCL.19 He pulled up stakes and relocated his team to Tacoma, Washington. The new Tacoma Tigers won the first half of the 1904 season, then after tying Los Angeles for the best record in the second half, they defeated the Angels in a 10-game playoff series to claim the league title.20 Sheehan had his finest season as a professional for that 1904 Tacoma team. He batted .292, placing him eighth among players with 500 or more at-bats; had 59 extra-base hits (including a single home run); and posted a .931 fielding percentage, second among regular third basemen in the league.

Despite his strong 1904 season, Sheehan was passed over in that year’s Rule 5 draft of minor-league players. Major-league teams had seemingly forgotten him. Pittsburgh Pirates player-manager Fred Clarke rediscovered him in 1905 during a trip to California to scout San Francisco star Joe Nealon. Clarke also saw Sheehan play during the trip and came away impressed. The Pirates signed Nealon in November, and then later that month they selected Sheehan in a draft of Pacific Coast League players.

At spring training with Pittsburgh, Sheehan showed up at camp “with muscles like steel.”21  Fortune seemed to be on Sheehan’s side when the season started. Third baseman Tommy Leach  was sick and missed the first week of the season, and soon after he returned he was moved to the outfield to replace injured Ginger Beaumont. Sheehan started at third for the Pirates in their season opener against St. Louis on April 12. He managed a single off Jack Taylor for his first major-league hit. Then his squeeze bunt won the game for the Pirates in the 13th inning when St. Louis first baseman Jake Beckley fielded the ball and threw it wildly past the catcher for a two-run error.

But Sheehan’s fortunes changed on April 18, 1906, when the Great San Francisco Earthquake struck. Sheehan’s wife and daughter were still in California, and he missed a week after the disaster as he awaited word from them (he may have traveled back to California during the week). After confirming his family’s safety, Sheehan returned to the lineup on April 27, but he couldn’t capitalize on his opportunity to play. Sheehan was hitting .241 with five extra-base hits when Beaumont returned at the beginning of June, and Sheehan was relegated to the bench for most of the month. He covered third base sporadically as Leach was moved around the field but was left behind on Pittsburgh’s last road swing of the season. He finished the season with a .241 average over 95 games. Sheehan’s one and only career home run in the majors came on July 1 that year, when during the first game of a doubleheader he again victimized Jack Taylor, this time with an inside-the-park round-tripper.

Following the season Sheehan returned to California and waited to learn of his fate with the Pirates. Meanwhile, he played on various exhibition teams that featured other major-leaguers returning home to the state, such as Frank Chance and Hal Chase. Pittsburgh President Barney Dreyfuss hoped to pass Sheehan through waivers and had a deal in place to send him to Columbus of the American Association.22 Several teams put in claims for Sheehan, but Dreyfuss convinced them to drop their claims – except the Brooklyn club, which was interested in having Sheehan man third base for them. Pittsburgh wasn’t completely sold on Sheehan as a regular, but they liked him enough not to let him go to the Superbas and removed him from the waiver wire.

As in Worcester, Sheehan’s friendly demeanor and his yakking with the public made him popular with cranks in Pittsburgh, but he didn’t seem as popular with the Pirates management. He started the 1907 season on the bench as a utility player, then stayed behind in Pittsburgh while the Pirates were on the road for most of May.23 He took over third base again when Leach moved to the outfield in June, but it didn’t help his cause when he missed most of July after being spiked in the hand.24 He was batting a respectable .290 by the end of August but showed no power, and the Pirates opted to try rookie Alan Storke, who had played in Sheehan’s place after his injury, as their regular third baseman for the last month of the season. Sheehan finished the year with a .274 average in 75 games, fourth-best among Pirates with 200 or more at-bats. Pittsburgh may have preferred Sheehan in a utility role, but he did not possess the range to cover shortstop or the outfield. Storke was not the answer either; the Pirates would move Leach back to third base for the next year, and Sheehan was deemed expendable.

After the season, the Pirates struck a deal to release Sheehan to Brooklyn, which again pursued him to become the team’s starting third baseman. Sheehan began his first season as a regular by making one plate appearance on opening day and then missing the next eight games nursing a sore arm. He still played in 146 games but hit only .214 for the season. He did have 20 extra-base hits, which was a career-high, but he also committed 34 errors, tying him for third among NL third basemen. After finishing seventh in the NL in 1908, Brooklyn sold Sheehan to Rochester in the Eastern League, but he ignored the deal and instead returned to California. His final major league statistics included a .235 batting average, with one home run in 1,011 at-bats. He is one of 35 position players who started their careers in 1900 or later to have amassed over 1,000 at-bats and hit only one home run.25

Sheehan was still under contract with Brooklyn, which declined to release him; thus, he played the 1909 season with Oakland in the outlaw California State League.26 Oakland was awarded the 1909 California State League pennant in November, then days later the league was admitted into Organized Baseball as a Class B circuit for the 1910 season. As part of the agreement, Sheehan and players who abandoned their contracts and went to the outlaw league before then were required to stay there for four years.27 Sheehan, no longer an outlaw, crossed the bay and signed to play with and manage the circuit’s San Francisco club. When the “Baby Seals” dropped out of the league at the beginning of June, Sheehan was picked up by the Stockton team. He helped Stockton wrap up the league’s first-half title, but the entire league disbanded by the end of June and Sheehan was left without a team.

He wasn’t stranded for long though. As the league collapsed, word came that he would again be allowed to play in Organized Baseball (though he wasn’t officially reinstated) and in July he returned to the PCL with Portland. Sheehan finished the season with the top fielding percentage among league third basemen and solidified the position for the Beavers as they won the 1910 pennant. He remained in Portland for another season and was named the team captain for 1911. In that role, he guided the Beavers to a second consecutive PCL pennant. Among the notable games of that year for Portland was a 24-inning marathon against Sacramento on September 10 that finished in a 1-1 tie. Sheehan played the entire game and had two hits in eight at-bats.

By 1912 Sheehan had moved to San Francisco with his wife and daughter, but he returned to play for Sacramento one last time (the city was again represented in the PCL as of 1909). He hoped to someday manage the club28; instead, he was released after the season. In 1913 he was hired to play and manage the Hanford team in California’s San Joaquin Valley League. When that circuit shut down in July, he moved to the Trolley League in Sacramento Valley.

After 1913 Sheehan’s days of playing regularly ended. He did get a chance to retire in good standing with Organized Baseball, though, as he was reinstated in March of that year.29 He worked as a clerk at a smoke shop in San Francisco but tried to find any way he could to stay in baseball. He occasionally played in local exhibition games, and he even operated the new mechanical scoreboard that kept San Francisco crowds informed of the action during the 1913 World Series.30 He also tried his hand at umpiring in PCL games, but league authorities frowned on using former league players to umpire full-time.31

In 1915 Sheehan went into business with former minor-league veteran Charlie “Cy” Swain. The two had crossed paths during their years in the minors and were teammates in Sacramento in 1912. Together they ran a smoke shop and bowling alley in San Francisco that was a popular hangout for players. They also formed an offseason traveling exhibition team, with Sheehan occasionally appearing in games (Swain lost a leg in a work accident in 1914 and could no longer play). The “Swain and Sheehans” featured a rotating cast of California natives, including Chase, Dutch Ruether, George Kelly, and Ping Bodie. The club played at locations spanning from Hawaii to San Quentin Prison. Swede Risberg also appeared with the Swain and Sheehan squad, and Sheehan later received at least some credit for getting Risberg into the majors.32

All of Sheehan’s efforts to stay in the game and run his businesses eventually took a toll on his marriage. His wife Pearl divorced him in March 1918 on grounds of cruelty from baseball coming first (she remarried in 1919). By June 1918, the PCL had apparently changed its tune on letting former players umpire games and offered Sheehan a position, but he had moved on from baseball and preferred to concentrate on his smoke shop business.33

Charlie Swain died in November 1918 during the Spanish flu outbreak. Without a wife or business partner, Sheehan looked to the next chapter in his life. He sold his smoke shop and joined a group of San Francisco businessmen on a venture to run a mining operation in Colombia.34 He set sail for South America in January 1919. Either his business quickly failed, or he possibly never even made it that far, because by June he was working for the government in the United States Canal Zone in Panama. After construction of the Panama Canal was completed in 1914, tens of thousands of American citizens lived in the Canal Zone, maintaining and running the canal operations.

Like any city in the States at the time, baseball was immensely popular there. The zone had leagues that took their baseball seriously with the pride of different communities on the line. One of the most notable loops, the Canal Zone Baseball League, featured teams from towns and military bases in the area. Sheehan played for and helped coach a Canal Zone League team in the city of Colón. The Canal Zone teams also played against teams of native Panamanians from other parts of the country. A 1920 article on baseball in Panama noted that Sheehan and other former American players there found that they were “not particularly marvelous” in competition.35 In fairness to Sheehan, he had turned 42 the previous November. He later managed the Colón team and led them to the 1930-31 league pennant.36

During World War II, the Canal Zone League was infused with minor-league players and a smattering of major-leaguers stationed there. The circuit did not have high-profile names like the service leagues in the Pacific or European theaters, but it still had its share of talent. The most notable player in the league was Terry Moore, a four-time All-Star for the St. Louis Cardinals. By the time the war started, Sheehan was in his 60s and was ready to sit back and enjoy baseball from the bleachers, but he was persuaded to return and manage the Cristóbal Bilgrays team.37

To this day former citizens of the Panama Canal Zone hold an annual reunion. They swap fond memories and experiences of their years spent living there. Sheehan very likely shared those sentiments. Over the years there were occasional reports of friends who visited Panama and returned with greetings from Sheehan, but he never returned to the United States. It was in a hospital in Ancón, Panama, where Tommy Sheehan passed away on May 22, 1959. He was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Colón, Panama, which was the resting spot for many Americans who had lived in the Canal Zone. During the transfer of the Canal Zone to Panamanian control in 1979, however, one of the conditions of the agreement was to relocate buried American citizens to another cemetery outside of the zone. Sheehan and other Americans were reinterred at Corozal American Cemetery, located near Panama City. As of 2024, Tommy Sheehan remains the one American-born ballplayer buried in Panama.

Acknowledgments

Jacob Pomrenke assisted with the Stathead query for players having one home run in over 1,000 career at-bats.

This biography was reviewed by Bill Lamb and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Paul Proia.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted sabr.org, baseball-reference.com, newspapers.com, newspaperarchive.com, genealogybank.com, and familysearch.org. Digital archives for Panama Canal Zone newspapers were accessed via the University of Florida Digital Collection.

Corbett, Warren. “Terry Moore,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/terry-moore/, accessed May 26, 2024.

Husman, John. R. “Charlie Hickman,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/charlie-hickman/, accessed May 26, 2024.

Johnson, Lloyd, and Miles Wolff, eds. Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, Inc., 2d. ed., 1993).

O’Neal, Bill, The Pacific Coast League: 1903-1988 (Austin, TX: Eakin Press, 1990).

American Battle Monuments Commission burial information, https://www.abmc.gov/decedent-search/sheehan=thomas-1, accessed May 26, 2024.

Sacramento Baseball History, https://www.northerncaliforniabaseball.com/sacramento-baseball.html, accessed May 26, 2024.

The Reach Baseball Guides on the Internet Archive were used for Sheehan’s minor-league statistics.

Notes

1 “School Awards,” Sacramento Bee, June 6, 1894: 2.

2 There was also a Dan Sheehan who played in the minors at the same time, not to mention another Tom Sheehan, whose major-league pitching career started a couple of years after Tommy Sheehan’s professional playing days ended, and a cousin, Les Sheehan, whose PCL career was also around the same time.

3 “Baseball Such as Only Uncle Can Give Us,” San Francisco Call, April 2, 1899: 10.

4 Danny Long, “On the Bench with Danny Long,” San Francisco Bulletin, January 14, 1916: 13.

5 “Gossip of The Ballfield,” Sacramento Daily Record-Union, June 1, 1897: 5.  Under “Victors Returning.”

6 “Sheehan Doing Well,” San Francisco Bulletin, August 14, 1906: 9.

7 “Sacramento Is Installed in First Position,” San Francisco Call, April 13, 1899: 11.

8 “News and Comment,” Sporting Life, January 27, 1900: 27.

9 “Tommy Sheehan Going East,” The Union (Grass Valley, California), February 28, 1900: 3.

10 “Sports and Pastimes,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, March 11, 1900: Section 4, Page 4.

11 “Will Win the Flag,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 25, 1900: 22.

12 “Split Even on Double!” Worcester Telegram, June 20, 1900: 5.

13 “Called to New York,” Worcester Spy, July 20, 1900: 3.

14 “Sheehan Now a Giant,” Sunday Telegram (Worcester, Massachusetts), July 22, 1900: 4. According to his SABR bio by John R. Husman, Charlie Hickman’s arm failed midway through the 1899 season and his pitching days had essentially ended.

15 “Yesterday’s Baseball Games,” New York Times, August 3, 1900: 5.

16 “Sporting Notes,” Worcester Spy, August 26, 1900: 4.

17 “Sheehan Wasn’t Expected,” Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), August 5, 1900: 19.

18 “Sporting News,” Daily Californian (Bakersfield, CA), March 24, 1902: 3.

19 “Mike Fisher Pulls Up Home Stakes,” Sacramento Bee, December 12, 1903: 8.

20 Tacoma cannot claim the greatest won-loss percentage of all Pacific Coast League champions, but decades later the team was celebrated as one of the best-constructed teams of the early PCL. Besides Sheehan, the team included popular PCL players like Truck Eagan and Lou Nordyke and featured soon-to-be major-league pitcher Orval Overall.

21 “First Drill for Pirates,” Pittsburgh Post, March 16, 1906: 10.

22 Ed F. Balinger, “Sport Review for Past Week,” Pittsburgh Post, January 13, 1907: 17.

23 “Pirates and Cubs Go East Together,” Pittsburgh Post, May 8, 1907: 8.

24 “National League Notes,” The Tribune (Scranton, Pennsylvania), July 21, 1907: 6.

25 Based on Stathead query as of 2024.

26 Sheehan originally signed to play in San Francisco, but the team was transferred to Oakland before the season began. Sheehan rejoined former Pirate teammate Nealon, who was captaining the team.

27 “State League Is in At Last,” Stockton (California) Evening Mail, November 11, 1909: 4.

28 “Why the Solons Are Down in The Cellar,” Sacramento Star, October 1, 1912: 2.

29 “Tommy Sheehan Reinstated,” Pittsburgh Post, March 11, 1913: 15.

30 “S.F. Fans Rave and Roar as Foes Clash,” San Francisco Examiner, October 8, 1913: 3.

31 Matt Gallagher, “Latest Sports Gossip and Comment,” Los Angeles Evening Express, November 14, 1913: 20.

32 Joseph S. McInerney, “Stovall Slated for Release by Vernon,” San Francisco Bulletin, August 6, 1917: 11.[32

33 Joseph McInerney, “Elks to Handle Clarke Griffith’s ‘Bat and Ball Fund’ Game Next Saturday,” San Francisco Bulletin, June 18, 1918: 15.

34 Matt Gallagher, “Latest Sports Gossip and Comment,” Los Angeles Evening Express, November 14, 1913: 20.

35 “Looking ‘Em Over,” Washington Times, February 16, 1920: 14.

36 The Ballplayers: Baseball’s Ultimate Biographical Reference, Mike Shatzkin, ed. (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1990), 994.

37 “Tommy Sheehan’s Cristobal Nine Ready for Isthmian Loop Opening,” The Panama American, December 15, 1943: 2.