Bill Daley

Although obscured by the passage of time, the professional career of 19th-century pitcher Bill Daley was not without modest distinction. In the late 1880s he was a member of a Jersey City Skeeters ball club that played in a different minor league circuit for three consecutive seasons. Daley followed up that oddity with another. During the ensuing three years he was a hurler for Boston clubs that played in three different major leagues – the National League, Players League, and American Association.

Venue curiosities, however, are not the only matters of interest on Daley’s resume. He was also a genuine talent, an undersized (5-feet-7, 140 pounds) left-hander with electric stuff. In his relatively brief stay in professional ranks, he was several times a league leader in an important statistical category. But Daley was unable to combine his repertoire of blazing fastball and wicked breaking pitches with much command of the strike zone. The same season (1892) that he led the high-minor Eastern League in strikeouts, Daley also walked over 200 batters. With the notable exception of minor league mentor Pat Powers, Daley’s wildness – as well as a fondness for alcohol – invariably exhausted the patience of his managers, teammates, the sporting press, and local fans wherever he pitched. As a result, he found his play-for-pay days behind him by age 26. Daley spent the remainder of his life knocking about his hometown in upstate New York until discovered dead in his bed in May 1922. His story follows.

William Henry Daley was born on June 27, 1868, in Poughkeepsie, New York, a small city situated on the Hudson River about 75 miles north of midtown Manhattan. He was the oldest of three children1 born to furniture maker-varnisher and Union Army veteran Alonzo Daley (1836-1912) and his wife Sarah (née Brundrade, 1844-1905), both Poughkeepsie-area natives and non-denominational Protestants. Little was discovered about Billy (as he was always known in his hometown) as a youth except for the fact that he emulated his father, a crack local amateur ballplayer during the 1860s, by taking to Poughkeepsie diamonds as a teenager.2

Daley first attracted notice playing for the Poughkeepsie town team.3 During the 1887 season, the nine hosted an exhibition game against the Jersey City Skeeters of the minor league International Association. Although accounts of the contest decades later were embroidered – Daley’s obituary maintained that he struck out 18 Jersey City batters4 – the hard-throwing youngster unmistakably impressed Skeeters manager Pat Powers. Shortly thereafter, Powers inked Daley to a Jersey City pact. Records for our subject’s rookie pro season are sketchy, but one contemporary source credits him with a 2.64 ERA in 11 outings for the Skeeters.5 But 49 walks, 25 wild pitches, and six hit batsmen presaged the control problems that plagued Daley throughout his career. Inconsistent command, however, did not dissuade Jersey City from reserving the newcomer for the next season.6

During the offseason, the International Association ceased operations, leaving the Jersey City Skeeters to affiliate for 1888 with a newly formed minor league loop, the Central League. Just turned 20, Daley dominated opposing batsmen. Early in the campaign, he threw a four-hit, 13-strikeout shutout at the Binghamton (New York) Bingos.7 Five months later, he ended his season with an eight-strikeout no-hitter against the pennant-winning (83-23, .783) Newark Little Giants.8 In between, Daley registered the remainder of his league-leading 42 victories for Powers’ second-place (84-25, .771) Jersey City club.9

Surprisingly, Daley’s outstanding performance did not garner him a promotion to the majors. Instead, he returned to Jersey City for a third season, the club having joined yet another fledgling minor league for the 1889 campaign, the Atlantic Association. New league, same results – at least for Daley. By mid-July, he had 18 victories and was on his way to leading Association pitchers in winning percentage (.750).10 But the Skeeters were struggling at the gate, and with financial failure looming, Powers sold his staff ace to the Boston Beaneaters of the National League.11

Daley was joining a veteran club locked in a tight pennant struggle with the New York Giants and not likely to afford a novice much work, particularly given the presence of future Hall of Famers John Clarkson and Hoss Radbourn on the staff. Rather, any Daley outings would come at the expense of Kid Madden, the Beaneaters’ incumbent left-hander. The first of these came within days of Daley’s arrival in Boston.

Our subject made his major league debut on July 17, 1889, taking the ball for the second game of a doubleheader against the Indianapolis Hoosiers.  His opposite number in the box was another rookie, one who matched Daley’s scary speed and erratic control but dwarfed him in physique: Amos Rusie. Understandably on edge, Daley experienced his customary difficulty finding the strike zone, walking 10 Hoosier batters while hitting two others. But he struck out eight and allowed only three earned runs in gritting his way to a 7-5 complete-game victory. “When the game was over, the crowd gathered around young Daley and treated him to some hearty cheers. Every one was pleased with his work,” reported the Boston Globe.12 Reviews in the press the next day were also favorable. The Boston Post extolled Daley’s “beautiful curves, great speed, … and good judgment in the field,”13 while the Boston Daily Advertiser observed that “except for wildness attributable to nervousness, [Daley] pitched well and fielded his position finely.”14

Five days later, Daley turned in an even better effort, holding the Washington Nationals to six hits and striking out 11, but dropped a 3-2 decision. Another strong performance earned Daley a 4-2 victory over Indianapolis in early August. But he failed to make it out of the first inning in a follow-up start, being yanked by Boston manager Jim Hart after walking the first three Chicago batters who came to the plate. Decent relief work by Kid Madden and a three-run bottom-of-the-ninth Beaneaters rally, however, got Daley off the hook.15 No such luck attended his outing against Pittsburgh three days later. Seven walks in four innings plus complaints of a lame knee led to an early departure by Daley in a 9-0 beating.16 In between the above two appearances, disturbing reports about off-field hijinks by Daley and Madden were aired by Boston Globe sportswriter Tim Murnane, himself a former major leaguer.

At 5-feet-7 and 124 pounds, the 21-year-old Madden was even younger and smaller than Daley but already had an established reputation as an incorrigible late-night partier.  According to Murnane, the pair had returned to the hotel from an evening of bar-hopping to serenade teammates trying to get some sleep. Their revelry lasted until nearly 3:00 a.m.

“Madden and Daley … are not doing the right thing by the club or themselves,” Murnane chided. “These young men have the idea that everything goes, and stories of their carousing is [sic] the common talk of the older players.”17 Elsewhere, the Globe noted that “Daley’s complexion was suggestive of peach bloom and old russet apple until his initiation into the ‘ancient order of midnight boozers.’ Now his face looks like the cold gray of a December dawn.”18 Although his drinking was never as thoroughly chronicled as that of Madden, Daley evidently indulged his thirst on a regular basis. Decades later, his obituary lamented Daley’s failure “to keep in condition” during his pitching heyday.19

By mid-August, manager Hart had joined the chorus of Daley critics. “I am inclined to think that Daley is a quitter,” Hart informed the press, “as he finds excuses for everything. The trouble is he cannot put them over the plate and is weak-hearted.”20 Thereafter, the rookie was called upon only twice more by his skipper.

Daley’s performance was uneven in his final two starts. Three consecutive bases-loaded walks spelled the difference in an 8-7 loss to Washington in late August, but relief help from staff ace John Clarkson saved a 5-3 victory for Daley over Pittsburgh on September 7. From then on, he watched from the sidelines as Clarkson tried to pitch Boston to the 1889 National League pennant, only to come up one game short of the champion New York Giants.21 In nine appearances for Boston overall, Daley posted a 3-3 (.500) record, with a 4.31 ERA in 48 innings pitched. Over that span, he surrendered more walks (43) than base hits (34) while striking out 40, a total made more impressive because a foul ball did not yet count as a strike against the batter.22

Commentary on the upheaval attending the arrival on scene of the Players League in 1890 is beyond the scope of this profile. Suffice it to say that securing talent for the Boston entry into the upstart circuit fell to erstwhile Beaneaters star Mike (King) Kelly, and that Bill Daley – along with Boston stalwarts Dan Brouthers, Hoss Radbourn, and Hardy Richardson, plus lineup regulars Joe Quinn, Tom Brown, and drinking buddy Kid Madden – was among the teammates recruited by Kelly for the new Players League club.

Usually slotted behind Radbourn and right-hander Ad Gumbert in the Boston Reds rotation, Daley began the campaign successfully, laboring to a 10-7 complete-game victory over Brooklyn in his initial start. The contest, however, ended in hairbreadth fashion. Facing Emmett Seery – who had already touched him for four base hits – with two out and the bases loaded, the young lefty went to a 3-2 count before fanning Seery.23 Days later, he notched a second victory with excellent relief work in a 14-10 win over New York. He was hit hard in a follow-up start against the Giants but contributed to a 15-13 slugfest triumph by blasting a home run over the left field fence.24 Thereafter, Daley settled down, capturing four of his next five decisions.

Despite that success, after mid-June manager Kelly began calling on Daley less regularly, at times using left-handers Matt Kilroy and, occasionally, Kid Madden, in his stead. Still, Daley’s log included second-half highlights such as shutouts of Buffalo (10-0 on August 23) and Philadelphia (6-0 on September 4). Meanwhile, Boston, spearheaded by the pitching of Radbourn (27-12, .692) and Gumbert (23-12, .657), finished 81-48-4 (.628) and cruised to the Players League title. Daley did his part as well, going 18-7 with a league-leading .720 winning percentage – achieved despite walking an unsightly 178 batters in 253 innings pitched. He also finished second in strikeouts per nine innings (4.091) and fifth in ERA (3.38) among PL hurlers.

Even before Boston completed its pennant-winning season, the Players League was disintegrating. The dissolution was complete by late fall 1890, leaving PL players the property of the National League and American Association clubs that they had abandoned to join the rebel circuit. But soon, AA dissatisfaction with the dispersal of former Players League personnel led the Association to withdraw from the National Agreement, forfeiting in the process the protections afforded by the reserve clause in player contracts. Although this ill-considered action set the American Association on the path to oblivion, it proved a short-term boon for members of the Boston Reds.

No longer bound to their 1889 National League employer, players from the PL Boston club provided the personnel core of a newly formed American Association franchise placed in Boston.25 In mid-February 1891, “Billy Daley, the famous left-handed pitcher” joined them, signing with the new Boston Reds.26 The same ballclub name was not the only coincidental feature of Daley’s new affiliation. Once again, he was slotted in a pitching rotation behind two dominant right-handed starters – George Haddock (34-11, .756) and Charlie Buffinton (29-9, .763) – on a Boston major league team that coasted to a championship. But Daley did not last out the season with his third Boston squad.

Daley began the 1891 season smartly, winning six of seven decisions. But thereafter, his pitch control unraveled and he lost five of his next six. On June 30, Daley overcame the “blind staggers” that led to the issuance of nine walks, posting a 16-4 victory over Washington.27 The win raised the lefty’s season record to 8-6 (.571). Almost three weeks of regular season inactivity followed, punctuated only by a “listless” exhibition game outing in which Daley walked 10 Columbus Solons batters.28 In mid-July, Boston released him.29 Sporting Life approved the action, commenting that Daley “has been so wild he has disgusted both the players in his own club and the spectators, and it was determined to be in the best interests of the game in this city to let him go.”30 Subsequent reference to Daley’s “careless habits” by Sporting Life editor Frank Richter, however, insinuated that more than just control lapses had prompted Daley’s dismissal.31

Whatever its basis, the release brought the major league career of Bill Daley – who had just turned 23 – to a close.  In 64 games for three different Boston ballclubs, he had posted a facially handsome 29-16 (.644) record, with a 3.37 ERA in 427 2/3 innings pitched. Daley registered 223 strikeouts and held enemy batsmen to a .245 batting average. Aside from behavioral issues, his undoing had been the 302 walks that translated into 6.4 free passes per nine innings.

Following his release, Daley returned home to Poughkeepsie, where he kept himself busy pitching for the town nine while awaiting offers from professional clubs. In early August, he reportedly turned down “a good offer” from the cellar-dwelling Providence Clamdiggers of the minor league Eastern Association.32 Seven weeks later, Daley accepted the contract proposal of another EA club, the Buffalo Bisons – a first-place club managed by Daley’s original minor league mentor Pat Powers. According to a local report, Daley won two of three late-season starts for his new club but exhibited “a mania for sending men to bases on four balls.”33

That fall, an opportunity to return to the majors foundered when Daley and the New York Giants could not agree on salary terms.34As a result, Daley rejoined Buffalo the following spring but newly hired Bisons manager Dan Shannon did not have Powers’ patience with the inconsistent left-hander.35 Given his outstanding stuff, Daley was overpowering at times, throwing an eight-strikeout one-hitter at the Rochester Flour Cities in late June.36 Three weeks later, he retired eight batters with the bases full without allowing a run over the final three frames of a 12-2 victory over Providence.37 But more often, Daley did not escape the jams created by his chronic wildness. In a rematch with Providence, he lasted only seven batters before being yanked.

With his record standing at 8-14 (.364), Willie Daley (as he was known in Buffalo) was released on July 10.38 The Buffalo Courier summed up local sentiment thus: “Daley has been a great disappointment, and his work as a whole has been far from first-class. One day he would pitch the most brilliant game imaginable, and the next he would lose the contest before it was fairly begun.” Daley’s weakness for “the wine when it was red” was also cited as a shortcoming.39 Sporting Life’s Buffalo correspondent concurred in the decision to jettison the left-hander, calling Daley “as unsteady and unreliable as a thirty-three-cent alarm clock.”40

Despite his unreliability, Daley did not remain idle long, quickly being snatched up by another Eastern League club, the Albany Senators.41 The erratic hurler was his usual self in his Albany debut, striking out six but walking eight in breezing to a 22-7 triumph over Providence. The following month, Daley’s sojourn in the state capital was interrupted by an event on the domestic front: marriage to hometown girl Lena Mullen, the daughter of local Irish immigrants. The couple tied the knot at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Poughkeepsie in mid-August.42 Thereafter, the Daleys proceeded to have five children in rapid succession.43

The change in his personal situation effected little change in Bill Daley’s professional performance. Once back in Albany, he resumed alternating strong pitching efforts with exasperating ones. He finished at 10-12 (.455) in 22 outings for the Senators. For the 1892 season overall, Daley was the epitome of inconsistency, leading Eastern League pitchers in strikeouts (207)44 while walking even more (211), with 14 hit batsmen and 15 wild pitches added for good measure.

Daley’s youth and unrealized promise earned him another chance in Albany, and he initiated the 1893 Eastern League season with a route-going victory over the Binghamton Bingos. But he did not make it out of the second inning in either of his next two starts, and in mid-May Senators manager Joe Gerhardt sent his errant lefty “home to get into condition.”45 Daley never made it back to Albany, being waived by the Senators a few weeks later.46 Without a professional engagement, he spent the summer lazing in Poughkeepsie and occasionally pitching for the crack hometown team against overmatched upstate amateur clubs.47

In 1894, Daley’s return home landed him back in professional baseball, albeit at the entry level, when Poughkeepsie joined the newly formed minor New York State League. Alternating between pitching and playing center field for the Poughkeepsie Bridge Citys, Daley’s Organized Baseball comeback lasted until late July. Then, the six-club NYSL abandoned play. And with that, the pro career of the lefty (by then 27) was over. Daley played several more summers, however, for amateur clubs in his hometown.

Daley remained in Poughkeepsie for the rest of his life, working odd jobs (day laborer, mill hand, mason assistant) to support himself and family. For several years during the early 1900s, he served as groundskeeper for the ballpark of a Poughkeepsie club admitted to the low minor Hudson River League. In June 1905, the death of wife Lena seems to have accelerated a downward spiral in Daley’s life. By 1910, only youngest son Edward remained under his father’s roof. The older Daley boys were cared for by relatives.48 A decade later, widower Daley was living alone and near destitute, plagued by rheumatism.

On the morning of Sunday, May 7, 1922, a neighbor investigating Daley’s whereabouts found him dead in his bed. Daley’s body was in a “considerably emaciated” condition, and death at age 53 was attributed by the coroner to “heart failure.”49 Following funeral services held at the residence of a local baseball team manager, the deceased was interred at Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery. A week later, a collection was taken at an amateur game in Poughkeepsie to defray funeral expenses.50 William Henry Daley was survived by sons Alonzo, George, and Martin, as well as by his brother George, all of whom he was apparently estranged from at the time of his passing.

Acknowledgments

This story was reviewed by Gregory Wolf and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Dan Schoenholz.

Sources

Sources for the biographical info imparted herein include the Bill Daley profile in Major League Baseball Profiles, 1871-1900, Vol. 1, David Nemec, ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press: 2011); US and New York State Census data and other governmental 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.

Notes

1 The younger Daley children were George (born 1872) and Mary Ellen (1875).

2 According to Wellington C. Lansing, “A History of Sport in Poughkeepsie: Base Ball,” Poughkeepsie (New York) Eagle-News, September 22, 1928: 14, father Lon Daley starred for the Unions of Poughkeepsie, a fast local Civil War-era nine.

3 See “Opening of the Base Ball Season,” Poughkeepsie (New York) Daily Eagle, May 19, 1887: 3 “Daley played a fine game throughout, only six safe hits being made off his delivery” in a 6-1 loss to Newburgh.

4 See “Billy Daley, Former Big League Pitcher, Dies,” Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, May 8, 1922: 9.

5 Per International Association stats published in the 1888 Reach Official American Association Guide, 79. No win-loss numbers were published in the Guide.

6 The placement of Daley on the Jersey City reserve list was noted in “The International League,” Paterson (New Jersey) Morning Call, October 3, 1887: 2.

7 Per “Sporting Notes: Base Ball,” Jersey City Evening Journal, May 24, 1888: 3: “The Binghamton hitters could do nothing with Daly [sic].”

8 See “Goose Eggs for Detroit,” New York Daily Tribune, October 2, 1888: 5. See also, “Sporting Notes: Base Ball,” Jersey City Evening Journal, October 2, 1888: 3: “Not a hit was made off Daly [sic], and the way he kept the plate clear through the ‘three strikes and out’ system pleased everybody, except the Newarkers.”

9 According to the Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, eds. (Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, Inc., 3d ed., 2007), 151. Neither the Reach nor Spalding Guides provide pitching stats for the 1888 Central League, while Baseball-Reference supplies no data whatever for Daley’s three seasons with Jersey City.

10 Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 153.

11 As reported in “Another Left-Hander,” Boston Globe, July 13, 1889: 5; “Boston Gets a New Pitcher,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 13, 1889: 6; “Boston Buys a New Pitcher,” Trenton (New Jersey) Evening Times, July 13, 1889: 4. In return for Daley, the Skeeters reportedly received $3,000. Less than two weeks later, the Jersey City franchise folded.

12 “Echoes of the Game,” Boston Globe, July 18, 1889: 5.

13 “Boston Wins Two Games,” Boston Post, July 18, 1889: 9.

14 “The Second Game,” Boston Daily Advertiser, July 18, 1889: 8.

15 See “Won by a Scratch,” St. Paul Globe, August 11, 1889: 6.

16 Per “Second Fiddle,” Boston Globe, August 14, 1889: 3: “Daley would try from the start to get them over, but somehow … the batsman was either too short or too tall.”

17 Timothy H. Murnane, “What They Hit,” Boston Globe, August 12, 1889: 3. The article subheadings included: “Bacchanalian ‘Kids’ on Midnight Bender,” “Madden and Daley’s Sour Mash Diet,” and “Home Plate with Every Drink of Chicago Whiskey.”

18 “Base Ball Notes,” Boston Globe, August 12, 1889: 3.

19 See again, “Billy Daley, Former Big League Pitcher, Dies,” above.

20 “Brown the Weak Man” Boston Globe, August 14, 1889: 5. While he was at it, Hart badmouthed the work of John Clarkson and Kid Madden, as well, concluding that “altogether we are very weak in pitchers.”

21 Hoss Radbourn (five) and Kid Madden (two) were also accorded late-season starts from Boston manager Hart. The other 19 season-ending games were pitched by Clarkson. For the season, Clarkson posted a sterling 49-19 (.721) record, with Radbourn (20-11, .645) and Madden (10-10, .500) providing support.

22 A foul ball was not counted as a strike until 1901 in the National League.

23 As reported in “Weary and Sore Today,” Boston Globe, April 24, 1890: 3.

24 See “Went Away Happy,” Boston Globe, April 30, 1890: 3. A low .167 career batting average hitter, Daley occasionally hit for distance. He hit another homer in a May exhibition game and a second regular season clout over the left field fence in a late August rout of Pittsburgh. Although modern reference works list southpaw pitcher Daley as bats unknown, circumstantial evidence, particularly the directionality of his extra-base hits, strongly suggests that Daley was a righty batter.

25 Also transferring from the Boston Reds of the Players League to the new Boston Reds of the American Association were NL Boston Beaneaters refugees Dan Brouthers, Tom Brown, Hardy Richardson, and Kid Madden.

26 As reported in “Great Base Ball Business,” Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, February 19, 1891: 5. According to Daley’s other hometown newspaper, the Poughkeepsie (New York) Courier, February 22, 1891: 3, the pitcher was to receive $3,000 for his services.

27 T.H. Murnane, “Simply a Walkover,” Boston Globe, July 1, 1891: 5.

28 Per “Phenomenon Exploded,” Boston Globe, July 6, 1891: 3. Final score: Columbus 16, Boston 6.

29 Daley’s release was reported in “The American Association,” Springfield (Massachusetts) Daily Republican, July 17, 1891: 5; “Echoes of the Game,” Boston Globe, July 16, 1890: 2; “Ball Players Released,” Boston Post, July 16, 1891: 8; and elsewhere.

30 “A Boston Change,” Sporting Life, July 18, 1891: 1.

31 See Francis C. Richter, “Philadelphia Pointers,” Sporting Life, July 25, 1891: 9.

32 According to the Poughkeepsie Courier, August 2, 1891: 3.

33 “The Eastern Association,” Buffalo Commercial, September 28, 1891: 10. Baseball-Reference has Daley going 1-1 in only two game appearances for Buffalo, walking 13 batters in 13 innings, while striking out 11.

34 Per the Bill Daley profile in Major League Baseball Profiles, 1871-1900, Vol. 1, David Nemec, ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011), 42, which places events in August 1891. For the later date, see the Poughkeepsie Courier, November 15, 1891: 3.

35 Powers had ascended to manager of the National League New York Giants in 1892. Meanwhile, the Eastern Association had disbanded, leaving the Buffalo Bisons to affiliate with the newly-organized Eastern League.

36 Per “The Bisons Won Yesterday,” Buffalo Commercial, June 20, 1892: 10; “How They Began,” Buffalo Courier, June 20, 1892: 8.

37 See “Our Erratic Pitcher,” Buffalo Commercial, July 6, 1892: 10; “Eccentric Daley,” Buffalo Express, July 6, 1892: 8.

38 As reported in “Baseball Gossip,” Buffalo Enquirer, July 11, 1892: 3; “Sporting Briefs,” Buffalo Evening News, July 11, 1892: 4; and elsewhere.

39 “Pat’s Giants,” Buffalo Courier, July 11, 1892: 8.

40 Louis H. Rathman, “Buffalo Budget,” Sporting Life, July 23, 1892: 11.

41 As noted in “Around the Bases,” Buffalo Express, July 13, 1892: 8.

42 As reported in “Social News and Gossip,” Poughkeepsie (New York) Journal, August 21, 1892: 3; “Billy Daley Married,” Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, August 17, 1892: 3.

43 The birth of eldest son Alonzo may have preceded his parents’ marriage by a couple of months. The arrival of Martin (born 1893), George (1894), William (1895), and Edward (1900) followed.

44 Per Baseball-Reference. The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 161, credits Daley with an EL-leading 196.

45 “Hurrah Again,” Buffalo Courier, May 13, 1893: 8. Gerhardt and Daley were well acquainted, having been teammates on the 1888-1889 Jersey City Skeeters.

46 Albany’s waiver of Daley was reported in “Eastern League Affairs,” Sporting Life, June 3, 1893: 1.

47 It appears that the pitching rule changes of 1893 (elimination of the pitcher’s box and elongation of the pitching distance to the present-day 60 feet, six inches) had little harmful effect on Daley – at least when it came to the amateur competition that he faced for most of the season.

48 As reflected in the 1910 US Census.

49 Per “Billy Daley, Former Big League Pitcher, Dies,” above.

50 See “Fans Contribute to Billy Daley’s Burial,” Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, May 15, 1922: 11.