Ben Tincup

When the Philadelphia Phillies signed a pitcher from the Class-D Texas-Oklahoma League in August of 1913, it caused a sensation in Philadelphia newspapers.

While it was rare for a major-league team to sign a player from Class D, what created the stir was the player’s background.

One Philadelphia newspaper raised two points in its story that made the Phillies’ signing of Ben Tincup newsworthy – “Ben Tincup, Phils’ original Indian, is one of the game’s wealthiest players.” A subheadline said Tincup “Belongs to Rich Cherokee Tribe and Will Come into Small Fortune Next April When He Reaches Voting Age.”1

The article explained that Tincup owned land in Oklahoma where oil had been discovered and added, “[T]here are probably few wealthier ball players in the big leagues today than this Indian lad.”2

As for his baseball abilities, “[U]nless all signs fail this Cherokee Indian lad is another natural born ball player like Sockalexis, the Penobscot.”3

After he joined the Phillies in 1914, references to Tincup’s wealth were often repeated. Tincup said the reports were partially true.

“Yep, I’m 100 percent Cherokee and I own 500 acres of Oklahoma land,” said Tincup, “but I’m the Indian, who owns the land where they didn’t find oil.”4

Tincup said his father, who raised cotton, corn, wheat, oats, and livestock on his farm, wasn’t rich either. He said, “Why shoot, if I’d hit oil, do you think I’d be here?”5

Tincup went on to spend nearly 50 years in professional baseball – as a player, manager, umpire, scout, and coach.

Tincup was born Austin Ben Tincup to James and Lucinda Tincup on April 14, 1893, in Adair, Indian Territory. The territory was set aside by the US government in what would become the state of Oklahoma in 1907.6

James Tincup was a farmer. Ben was the youngest of nine children; he had four brothers and four sisters. James Tincup was a Civil War veteran, having served three years as a member of Company H, Indian Home Guards, in Kansas. After the Civil War, he was a sheriff in Delaware County in Indian Territory.

Ben Tincup started his professional baseball career in 1912, about 50 miles from his hometown. Tincup, who had pitched for semipro teams in nearby Pryor, Adair, and Vinita, signed to play for Muskogee in the Class-D Oklahoma State League. It was the first year that Muskogee had fielded a minor-league team.

Tincup’s season got off to a good start. On May 9 he allowed just one hit and struck out 13 to pitch Muskogee past Anadarko, 3-1, in Muskogee. He faced just 29 hitters.

The eight-team league disbanded on June 29, 1912. Muskogee was in sixth place with a 19-24 record, 16½ games behind first-place Okmulgee (38-10). Tincup had been a tough-luck pitcher for Muskogee. Despite posting a 2.61 ERA with a league-leading 163 strikeouts in 162 innings, he had a 7-13 record.

After the league disbanded, Tincup joined Sherman (Texas) in the Class-D Texas-Oklahoma League. In five starts with Sherman, he went 2-3 with a 1.29 ERA.

A 6-foot-1, 180-pound right-hander who batted left-handed, he returned to Sherman for the 1913 season. In 41 appearances, he went 17-11 with a 2.26 ERA and a league-leading 233 strikeouts (in 247 innings). When not pitching, he was used in the outfield. In 59 games, he batted .279.

Tincup had caught the eye of at least one scout. John Callahan, scouting for the Philadelphia Phillies, urged Phillies manager Charley “Red” Dooin to sign Tincup: “Grab this Indian, Tincup, with the Sherman team,” Callahan wrote to Dooin. “He isn’t a great pitcher, but take it from me, he’s going to be a great ballplayer some day.”7

After he pitched Sherman to a 9-1 victory over Bonham on August 15, it was reported that Tincup had been sold to the Phillies for $1,500. He reported to the Phillies in Philadelphia on August 20 and “was immediately sent to pitch to the batters in batting practice. Then he went to the plate in batting practice and that right-field fence got the walloping of its life.”8

Tincup did not appear in any games for the Phillies, who finished the 1913 season in second place, 12½ games behind the first-place New York Giants.

In the offseason, the Phillies assigned Tincup to Lowell (Massachusetts) of the Class-B New England League. Tincup joined the Phillies for 1914 spring training in Wilmington, North Carolina, and made the Opening Day roster.

Tincup didn’t make his first appearance of the season until the Phillies’ 36th game – in the second game of a doubleheader against the New York Giants in Philadelphia on June 2.

With the Phillies trailing 4-0, Tincup replaced Phillies starter Elmer Jacobs to start the fifth inning. Phillies left fielder Josh Devore tried to make a shoestring catch of a ball off the bat of Giants second baseman Larry Doyle but it got past him and Doyle wound up on third. Doyle scored on a groundout. That was the only run allowed by Tincup in three innings in the Phillies’ 7-0 loss to the Giants.

Tincup’s next outing came on June 10, when he pitched six innings of relief, allowing six hits and four unearned runs in the Phillies’ 8-2 loss to Cincinnati.

In his third outing, on June 25, he entered the game in the eighth inning with the Phillies trailing Brooklyn 6-4. He allowed an unearned run and then pitched a scoreless ninth as the Phillies rallied for an 8-7 victory, Tincup’s first major-league win.

The next day Tincup struck out the only two hitters he faced in the Phillies’ 7-4 loss to Brooklyn.

In the first game of a doubleheader in New York on July 4, he relieved Eppa Rixey in the bottom of the first. He finished the game, allowing two runs in 7⅓ innings in the Giants’ 5-4 victory.

Five days later in Pittsburgh, Tincup made his first major-league start. He threw a five-hit, 1-0 shutout against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

For the rest of the season, Tincup was in the Phillies’ rotation. He threw two more shutouts – 1-0 over the Cardinals in St. Louis on August 20 and 2-0 over the Pirates in Philadelphia on September 17. He finished the season with an 8-10 record and a 2.61 ERA in 28 appearances (17 starts). In addition to the three shutouts, Tincup completed six other starts and had two saves. In 155 innings, he struck out 108.

In 1915 the Phillies’ strength was their starting pitching. They added Al Demaree to their rotation of Grover Cleveland Alexander, Rixey, and Erskine Mayer. Along with George Chalmers, the five started 143 of the Phillies’ 153 games and pitched 92 complete games. Alexander was 31-10 with a 1.22 ERA and 12 shutouts among his 36 complete games.

That left Tincup, who was with the Phillies all season, with few pitching opportunities. He appeared in just 10 games – all in relief – and pitched just 31 innings. He had no decisions and a 2.03 ERA.

Behind their starting pitching, the Phillies, who had won 74 games in 1914, went 90-62 to win the NL pennant, seven games ahead of the Boston Braves.

In a World Series preview story, Tincup said, “I don’t expect to get in the series myself, but I am confident that the boys who do play will beat the Red Sox all right.”9

The Red Sox won the World Series in five games. The Phillies used just one reliever in the Series, Rixey in the final game.

Tincup summed up his 1915 season: “The Phillies didn’t really need me in 1915. Gosh, they had pitchers like Alec (Grover Cleveland Alexander), Al Demaree, Eppa Rixey, George Chalmers, George McQuillan, and my old roommate, Lefty Baumgartner. I could have spent the year in the grandstand.”10

Tincup was with the Phillies in 1916 spring training, then was assigned to Providence of the International League. Phillies manager Pat Moran “told Tincup and (Stan) Baumgartner several days before the Phillies finished their spring training that he would have no use for them this season and would save expenses by farming them out.”11

After going 16-11 with a 2.50 ERA for Providence, Tincup joined the Phillies in late September. He appeared in one game – as a pinch-hitter in the season finale. He was hitless in the Phillies’ 4-1 loss to the visiting Boston Braves.

In 1917 Tincup pitched for Little Rock of the Southern Association, was 11-10 with a 2.50 ERA, and provided one of the highlights of the Travelers’ 64-86 season when he threw a perfect game against the Birmingham Barons. Little Rock won, 3-0.

A newspaper account of the game said Tincup’s outing, “with Tom Rogers’ defeat of the (Chattanooga) Lookouts, 2-0, on July 11 last year, probably comprises the only two such games in the history of the Southern League.”12

Tincup’s outing stood out for another reason: “His achievement is the more unusual because of the fact that he had no rest prior to the game,” the Arkansas Democrat reported. Tincup and the Travelers had played a doubleheader in Mobile, the previous day. Tincup played right field in both games. The Travelers then traveled all night (257 miles) to reach Birmingham.13

“Ben has shown it all along despite that he has worked steadily as an outfielder and has been pitched without rest. It was his third shut-out,” the Democrat commented.14

After the season the Travelers sold Tincup to the St. Louis Cardinals, but the Phillies claimed Tincup was still their property. The National Association agreed and Tincup remained with the Phillies.

Tincup made the Phillies’ Opening Day roster in 1918. In his first nine innings – over five appearances – he allowed 14 runs. In his next three appearances he threw 7⅔ shutout innings. After he pitched four scoreless innings in the Phillies’ 6-3 loss to the New York Giants in Philadelphia on May 30, his season was interrupted when he was called up for US Army duty. At Camp Merritt in Hoboken, New Jersey, he was assigned to Motor Transport Company 801. He was discharged as a corporal on February 20, 1919.

After being discharged from the Army in February of 1919, Tincup resumed his baseball career, although the details are somewhat vague. He signed with the Phillies soon after his discharge, but at the end of February, it was reported that the Phillies had asked waivers on him.  

After being waived by the Phillies, he accepted offers from both Louisville of the American Association and Little Rock of the Southern Association. In late April, he reported to Louisville and Little Rock appealed to minor leagues governing body.  

While waiting for a ruling on which contract was valid, he did not play for Louisville. No announcement on a decision could be found and he made his first appearance for Louisville around May 12. Except for two appearances with the Chicago Cubs in September 1928, he spent the next 12 seasons in the American Association.

In 1919 Tincup was 11-8 with a 2.85 ERA in 24 appearances for the Colonels, managed by Joe McCarthy. The next season he was 15-12 with a 2.84 ERA in 34 appearances and 238 innings. When not pitching, he was regularly used in the outfield. For the season, he batted .331 and had a slugging percentage of .531 in 124 games. His batting average was 4 points shy of batting champion Goldie Rapp, who hit .335 for the St. Paul Saints.

In 1921 Tincup went 9-0 in 26 appearances and batted .284 in 102 games as the Colonels won the American Association pennant – their first of four between 1921 and 1930 – with a 98-70 record.

In the 1921 Junior World Series, the Colonels faced the International League champion Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles had gone 119-47 in the regular season to claim their third (of an eventual seven) consecutive International League titles. (Only one other minor-league team – the 1934 Los Angeles Angels, who went 137-50 – has won more games in a season).

Tincup played a big role in the Colonels winning the best-of-nine series against the Orioles in eight games.

The series opened with four games in Louisville. The Colonels won the opener on October 5, 16-1, but the Orioles evened the series the next day, when Jack Ogden, who was 31-8 during the regular season, outdueled Tincup, 2-1. The Orioles scored a run in the eighth to break a 1-1 tie.

On October 8 the Colonels outslugged the Orioles, 14-8, as Tincup pitched 2⅔ innings of relief.

The next day, the Orioles evened the series, 2 games to 2. With the Orioles leading 12-4 with two outs in the top of the ninth, fans rushed the field after a call went against the Colonels. The game was not completed and ruled a forfeit. One newspaper account said, “[T]he demonstration by local fans at yesterday’s ball game at Eclipse Park between the Colonels and Orioles was one of the most disgraceful in the history of Louisville baseball.”15

Tincup pitched 2⅓ innings of relief in the game.

The series shifted to Baltimore and resumed on October 13 as the Orioles won 10-5 to take a 3-2 lead. The Colonels evened the series on October 15 with a 3-0 victory as Tincup outdueled Lefty Grove. Tincup allowed just five hits and struck out nine.

The next day Tincup pitched 1⅓ shutout innings of relief to save the victory as the Colonels outlasted the Orioles, 7-6.

The Colonels defeated the Orioles, 11-5, on in Game Eight on October 17 to close out the series.

Manager Joe McCarthy summed up the series victory by the Colonels: “I was badly informed as to the strength of Baltimore against left-handers and when I saw Ben Tincup could throw them past the batters, I knew I had the righthander who could puzzle them.”16

In 1922 Tincup won 20 games for the first time, going 20-14 for the Colonels, who slumped to 77-91 and a sixth-place finish in the eight-team American Association. He made 46 pitching appearances and threw 279 innings (both career highs). He batted .309 in 149 at-bats.

After the season, Tincup pitched in the Cuban Winter League. Pitching for Marianao, a franchise representing a suburb of Havana, Tincup was 2-3 in 11 appearances as Marianao went 35-19 and finished in first place.17

The 1923 season – his fifth in Louisville – saw him go 17-16 in 43 appearances and 252 innings.

In 1924 Tincup set new career highs for victories, appearances, and innings pitched as he went 24-17 in 49 appearances and 293 innings.

During the winter of 1924-25, Tincup returned to Cuba, going 6-3 with four complete games in 10 appearances for Marianao.

After back-to-back third-place finishes in 1923 and 1924, the Colonels won back-to-back pennants in 1925 and 1926.

Tincup was 14-16 in 1925. After the Colonels lost to the Baltimore Orioles in the Junior World Series, McCarthy was named the manager of the Chicago Cubs.

In 1926 Tincup went 18-7 for the Colonels, who were swept by Toronto in the Junior World Series. The next season, he tossed 265 innings and went 16-15. In 1928 he was 14-10 with Louisville before joining McCarthy and the Cubs in September.

On September 3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Tincup made his first major-league appearance in 10 years. With the Pirates leading 4-0 in the bottom of the second inning and two men on base, Tincup replaced Cubs starter Charlie Root. He gave up a two-run double to Pie Traynor before getting the final out of the inning.

After pitching a scoreless third inning, Tincup gave up six runs in the fourth before being replaced with two outs by Guy Bush. The Pirates went on to win 16-1.

Tincup made one more appearance for the Cubs, on September 15 in Boston. After the Braves scored four runs in the first inning off Root, Tincup entered the game in the second. He finished the game, allowing just one run in seven innings in the Braves 5-2 victory. It was his final major-league appearance.

Tincup returned to Louisville in 1929, going 7-16 in 33 appearances at the age of 36.

In 1930, he returned to the bullpen and went 14-3 in 43 appearances as the Colonels won their fourth pennant since Tincup first joined the team. The Colonels, 93-60 in the regular season, lost to Rochester, 5-3, in the Junior World Series.

The 1931 season was Tincup’s last in Louisville. After going 1-4 in 11 appearances, he was released by the Colonels on July 23. He was 38 years old.

“Tincup’s departure from the Colonels will tug many a heartstring,” the Louisville Courier-Journal commented. “He had the respect and admiration of every opposing player in the league and every fan in the league. For years, he had been considered the smartest pitcher in the circuit and luck rarely entered in any of his mound triumphs.”18

Over his tenure with the Colonels, Tincup had “toiled for the cause of the Louisville Colonels a greater number of years than any other player in the circuit has labored for any other club, and he has pitched more games in which he either won or lost by a margin of a single run than probably any moundsman in the history of baseball over the same number of years, 12.”19

Two days after being released by the Colonels, Tincup signed with the rival Minneapolis Millers. He made three ineffective relief appearances for the Millers before being released by the Millers on August 11. For the season, he was a combined 1-4 in 14 appearances.

Tincup spent the 1932 season – his final season as an active player (at age 39) – with Sacramento of the Pacific Coast League. He went 9-12 in 28 appearances for the Solons.

In 1933 Tincup was hired by the American Association as an umpire. The season began on April 15, and on April 19 in Louisville with American Association President Thomas Hickey in attendance, Tincup worked behind the plate for the first time as the Colonels defeated the St. Paul Saints, 5-4.

After the first week of the season, a Minneapolis sportswriter wrote, “[T]hey say Ben Tincup is doing a good job of umpiring.”20

Just two weeks later, the American Association released Tincup.

“Wily as he was as a pitcher, he could not be converted into a competent umpire in one season. … Ben took his assignment seriously and he had the well wishes of the players, but it is patent that umpires must progress by easy stages, just as do players,” the Kansas City Star commented.21

Tincup returned to his farm in Oklahoma and was out of baseball until 1936, when he was named manager of the Cincinnati Reds’ Paducah (Kentucky) farm team in the Class-D Kitty League.

Paducah – which won the league’s first-half title – and Union City (Tennessee), which won the second half – met in the league’s championship series. After Union City won the first game of the series, Paducah refused to play the remaining games because of a decision by the league president, Dr. Frank H. Bassett, that two Union City players, who Paducah claimed were ineligible, could play.

Union City was awarded the championship and Tincup and seven Paducah players were put on the ineligible list by National Association President W.B. Bramham. Tincup and the players were reinstated in early 1937.

Tincup began the 1937 season as manager of Cincinnati’s Peoria (Illinois) farm team in the Class-B Three-I League. In mid-August, Cincinnati reassigned him to oversee a tryout camp in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Peoria was 42-54 under Tincup.

Tincup remained in Muskogee in 1938 and managed the Muskogee Reds to a 71-68 record in the Class-C Western Association. He returned to Paducah in 1939, managing the Indians to a 57-69 record.

In 1940 Tincup joined the coaching staff of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Dodgers, managed by Leo Durocher, finished second in the National League with an 88-65 record.

Tincup began the 1941 season as a coach with the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association, but in late July he returned to Paducah to manage for the remainder of the season.

In 1942, with World War II raging, Tincup took a job as a pipefitter at the Jeffersonville (Indiana) Boat & Machine Works. In early August he took over as manager of Fargo-Moorhead in the Class-C Northern League and managed the Twins for the final month of the season. Tincup, who was 49, made one pitching appearance (of three innings) for the Twins.

For the duration of World War II, Tincup was out of baseball.  In 1946 he became a scout for the Boston Braves. After three seasons scouting for the Braves, Tincup switched to the Pittsburgh Pirates. After five seasons with the Pirates, he spent the 1954 and 1955 seasons as a minor-league pitching instructor for the New York Yankees.

From 1956 to 1958, Tincup scouted for the Philadelphia Phillies and in 1959 he was a minor-league pitching instructor for the Phillies.

In November 1960 Tincup returned to the Yankees as a minor-league pitching coach. He retired from baseball after the 1961 season and returned to Oklahoma.

For his playing career, Tincup appeared in 627 minor-league games as a pitcher. He won 250 games and had a 3.49 ERA in 3,738 innings. In 1,122 minor-league games overall, he batted .271.22

In parts of five major-league seasons, Tincup appeared in 48 games. He was 8-11 with a 3.10 ERA.

Tincup died on July 5, 1980, in Claremore, Oklahoma. One report said he “was survived by two granddaughters.”23

Tincup married Hesper Lelia Rice in Louisville in 1930. They had two daughters – Virginia Colleen and Cecelia Annette – before divorcing. In April of 1952, Cecelia died from injuries suffered in an automobile accident near Frankfort, Kentucky. Cecelia, who was 16, lived in Louisville with her mother and stepfather, Asa McGinniss.

Tincup’s brother, James Yeargin Tincup, briefly played professional baseball, and his nephew, Frank, who had nine seasons in professional baseball, spent his rookie season in 1939 playing for his uncle Ben in Paducah.24 For three seasons, Frank Tincup played for teams in the American Association and the Pacific Coast League. His overall record was 91-72. Frank was the son of Ben Tincup’s brother John Henry.25

Ben Tincup is a member of the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame and the National Hall of Fame for Famous American Indians. When the Will Rogers Museum opened in Claremore, Oklahoma, in 1941, Tincup donated a baseball from his 1917 perfect game to be displayed.

Sources 

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted familysearch.com, findagrave.com, Baseball-Reference.com, Newspapers.com, Retrosheet.org, the American Association Record Book, 1977, and the following:

Selko, James. Minor League All-Star Teams, 1922-62 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2007)

Wright, Marshall D. The International League, Year-by-Year Statistics, 1884-1953 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 1998).

Notes

1 Jim Nasium, “Ben Tincup, Phils’ Original Indian, Is One of Game’s Wealthiest Players,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 24, 1913: 46. Jim Nasium was the nom de plume of Edgar Forrest Wolfe, a sports cartoonist and writer for various newspapers, including the Inquirer.

2 Jim Nasium.

3 Jim Nasium.

4 Burr Van Atta, “Ben Tincup, 89, a Former Phillie,” obituary, Philadelphia Inquirer, July 8, 1980: 16.

5 Van Atta.

6 Birth dates ranging from 1890 to 1894 can be found for Tincup. In the 1910 US Census he was listed as 17. In the 1920 Census he was listed as 26. His World War I registration card lists his birth year as 1893, while his World War II registration card, dated April 27, 1942, lists his age as 50. His entry in the Veterans Administration Master Index (1917-1940) and his Social Security Index list his birth year as 1892. His entry on www.findagrave.com lists 1894. Tincup’s page on www.retrosheet.org has 1893, while baseball-reference.com has 1893 on his statistics page, and 1890 on his info page on baseball-reference.com/bullpen.

7 Jim Nasium.

8 Jim Nasium.

9 “World’s Series Opens Here on Friday, Oct. 8,” Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger, October 2, 1915: 13.

10 Van Atta.

11 “Moran Will Farm Pair of Hurlers,” Reading (Pennsylvania) Times, April 12, 1916: 10.

12 “Tincup Pitches Perfect Game and Travelers Win It, 3 to 0, with Ponder Giving Up Five Hits,” Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock), June 19, 1917: 9.

13  “Tincup Pitches Perfect Game.”

14  W.H. Harley, “From the Coop,” Arkansas Democrat, June 19, 1917: 9.

15 Charles A. Reinhart, “Crowd Stops Fourth Game,” Louisville Courier-Journal, October 10, 1921: 6.

16 Charles A, Reinhart, “‘I Thought All Time I Had Better Team,’ Says Joe McCarthy,” Louisville Courier-Journal, October 18, 1921: 10.

17 Stats are according to Jorge S. Figueredo’s Cuban Baseball, A Statistical History, 1878-1961 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2003). Tincup’s page on baseball-reference.com says he was 2-4 in seven appearances.

18 Bruce Dudley, “Tincup Released Unconditionally After 12 Years,” Louisville Courier-Journal, July 24, 1931: 17.

19 “Ben Tincup Has Hurled 106 One-Run Margin Tilts,” Minneapolis Sunday Tribune, February 1, 1931: 27.

20 Charles Johnson, “Andy Hitting Leader, Fields Without Error,” Minneapolis Star, April 22, 1933: 13.

21 “Between Innings,” Kansas City Star, May 11, 1933: 15.

22 Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff, eds., The Minor League Register, 1st edition (Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1994).

23 Van Atta.

24 “3 Honest Indians May Start Season in Tribal Attire,” Paducah (Kentucky) Sun-Democrat, April 14, 1939: 8.

25 There may have been another ballplayer in the family, too. The 1920 US census lists Ben living at home with a brother Edmund. That brother’s occupation is listed as “baseball.”

This biography was published in SABR’s Native American Major Leaguers (2025), edited by Rob Daugherty and Bill Nowlin. Click here to download the e-book edition or save 50% off the purchase of the paperback.