Billy Ging

In the New York State League, he came to be known as “Bill Ging with the Wonderful Wing.” William Joseph “Bill” Ging was born in Elmira, New York, on November 7, 1872, the second son of Lawrence and Mary Ging. Lawrence was born in Ireland and immigrated to the United States in 1860 before marrying Mary, an immigrant from Canada, and settling first in Southport, New York, and then in adjacent Elmira. According to local census records and city directories, Lawrence ran a successful blacksmith shop at 603 South Main Street for over 25 years, roughly a mile from the local baseball park.

Baseball was popular in Elmira, and the Ging brothers likely played with and learned from older future professionals in the city like Danny Richardson, Jack Barnett, and Bill Heine. When not playing ball or attending school, the Ging brothers also likely helped out at their father’s blacksmith shop. By 1892, according to city directories, Bill was a laborer and big brother John a clerk, both still living at their parents’ house.

The author found no record of Ging’s baseball work prior to 1897, by which time he had grown into a lean 5-foot-10 right-handed pitcher known for his intelligence and finesse. In 1897 he pitched for a semipro team in New London, Connecticut, alongside fellow Elmiran Ralph Hutchinson. Ging and Hutchinson were both known for being smart players. According to the Elmira Daily Gazette and Free Press, “Either is capable of the best kind of work with head as well as arm.”1

During the war-dominated 1898 season, Ging pitched for New London in the Connecticut State League and finished with a promising 22-10 record. “In Ging and [Ike] Van Zant, New London has without a doubt two of the best twirlers in the League,” Sporting Life reported on July 2. “They are cool and calculating, never ‘go up in the air,’ as the saying is.”2

Ging started the 1899 season with Montreal in the Eastern League, but was back with New London by May 20.3 On August 16 he traveled to Boston to watch the Brooklyn-Boston National League contest, where Brooklyn manager Ned Hanlon greeted him and asked him to join the Brooklyn team after the Connecticut League season.4 The attention bode extremely well for Ging’s chances to earn a major-league trial.

Ging pitched well through the end of 1899, leading New London in wins for the second straight year, but his 16-17 record was not quite as stellar as 1898’s had been. Nevertheless, as September rolled around, he joined numerous other minor-league and college prospects in hoping for a late-season call-up.

For whatever reason, the Brooklyn transaction did not materialize. Instead, Ging and teammate Pete Woodruff, the league home-run leader, were among the fortunate few to receive major-league call-ups or “trials” – Woodruff going to New York and Ging going to Frank Selee’s defending champion Boston Beaneaters club.5

Soon after his arrival with Boston, Ging made his major-league mound debut on September 25, 1899, earning a 2-1 complete-game victory over the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds.

Speculation as to Ging’s next step began in earnest in the sports media, and on October 7 Sporting Life reported, “Boston had an option on this man but failed to avail itself of it, and it looks as if Brooklyn would get him. There are few opportunities offered nowadays to get such men as Ging for the modest price of $200. If he enters fast company and does not do well it will be a great surprise to many.”6

On December 9 Sporting Life reported that “Pitcher Ging, who was dropped by Boston after winning one game for the Beaneaters, has been secured by Brooklyn.” Sporting Life went on to explain that Ging “wanted more than a Class Z salary from the Boston Club, and so they allowed him to go.”7

Unfortunately for Ging, however, heading into the 1900 season, the National League contracted from 12 teams to eight. The reduction in teams cost at least 60 major-league player jobs in addition to the jobs of all those who supported each team, which did not sit well with players.

As a result, Ging started the 1900 season back in the minor leagues, not far from his Elmira hometown. He had signed with Brooklyn, which farmed him to Syracuse in the Eastern League in early March.8 (That was the National League’s way of reserving Brooklyn’s right to retain him.)

On April 26 Ging pitched in relief for Syracuse against Worcester and made a “good showing” despite losing 8-6. He gave up none of the runs, but walked five and struck out only two. He made his first start for Syracuse on May 1, while on the road against Providence, facing 27-year-old major-league veteran Danny Friend.

Friend had no problem with the Syracuse hitters at first, shutting them down for the first four innings. The same could not be said for Ging, however, as he gave up two runs in the first inning and three more in the second. His control was better than in his previous appearance on the pitcher’s mound, but those five runs were enough for him to absorb the loss.

It was an adequate performance that should have earned Ging another start. However, Willie Brandt came in to relieve Ging and promptly gave up 15 runs. In the end, Syracuse lost 20-4. It was an ugly loss.

“Providence hammered both Ging and Brandt all over the lot and piled up twenty runs on Syracuse,” said Sporting Life. Afterward both Ging and Brandt were released and “sent home by Manager Arthur] Irwin.”9 Had it been a simple 5-4 loss, the story might have been different.

Ging still had options, but his odds of getting back to the majors in 1900 had worsened considerably. “Oswego [in the New York State League] is after Ging,” the Elmira Daily Gazette reported on May 10. “The Oswego team has wired Ging for terms, but as yet has heard nothing from him.”10

While waiting for other potential offers, Ging joined the semipro team in Waverly, New York, 16 miles east of Elmira. A salacious local murder in early April earned the small town unflattering headlines throughout the region, and Waverly was eager to build a powerful semipro team that would enable it to compete against Elmira and Binghamton for attention and business. Ging was a perfect addition.

Ging’s work for semipro Waverly included not only pitching for the team but occasionally pitching for the opposition. This included several town teams throughout the region as well as traveling teams. It was ideal for both Waverly and for Ging, since it contributed to competitive games and allowed him to pitch multiple innings to keep his arm in shape. Before the late spring was out, however, Ging made the mistake of accepting an offer from Jersey City in the Atlantic League just before that team folded.  As a result, instead of rejoining the professional ranks that summer, he stuck with semipro Waverly.

Among the strong semipro teams Waverly played in 1900 was the shoe factory team from Lestershire, New York, featuring future major-league stars Frank “Wildfire” Schulte and Harry Lumley. During one popular series of games between the teams, Ging had no problem handling the Lestershire lineup when his turn on the mound came up, defeating them 7-2 before a large crowd.11

Waverly next welcomed one of the era’s legendary barnstorming teams – the “much heralded” Nebraska Indians – to a morning-afternoon doubleheader on Labor Day Monday, September 3, at the Howard Street Grounds in Waverly. The Indians, led by lawyer and promoter Guy Wilder Green, had been touring the Upper Midwest each year since 1897, and in the previous two years expanded the trip East to include Pennsylvania and New York. The team was primarily composed of indigenous Americans from Nebraska and Kansas tribes, with a few nonnatives sprinkled through their lineup. In addition to playing excellent baseball – their reported 1899 record was 108-3512 – the Indians were known to entertain spectators with baseball gags, as well as Native and clown costumes, “Indian village” encampments, mock war chants, and the like.

Reliable Ging pitched the first game of the doubleheader against the tall, dark-haired 26-year-old Danny “The Terrible Swede” Salene for Nebraska. Salene and Ging each held most of their opposing batting orders in check through the first few innings. Unfortunately for Salene, Waverly smacked three home runs leading to nine runs. Ging, meanwhile, seemed to lull the Indians hitters to sleep by scattering eight hits and giving up only four runs, resulting in a 9-4 Waverly victory. 

The second game was more exciting, with Waverly winning 6-5, sweeping the doubleheader before a raucous crowd of nearly 2,000 that included the town band.

Subsequently Waverly and Ging played several town teams and then wound up the season losing a two-game series on September 24-25 to the Cuban X Giants, an African American barnstorming club led by Clarence Williams that had been playing almost daily since early February. The X Giants’ season started with a tour of Cuba, and continued through the Midwest and Northeast straight through September.

Ging failed again to secure a professional spot during the offseason, and remained with Waverly in 1901, earning a 28-8 Opening Day win against the Syracuse Shamrocks. Roughly 1,500 fans crowded into the Howard Street Grounds to witness the festivities.13 A few weeks later, Waverly played a three-game series against future Hall of Famer Frank Grant and the Cuban Giants (a different team from the Cuban X Giants), with Ging defeating the Giants 10-1 in his turn in the rotation.14

In July Waverly’s semipro days were over, as the town assumed a New York State League franchise from Cortland. This brought Ging and his teammates more consistent competition and media attention. With this in mind, Waverly began a homestand on July 29 with a two-game series against first-place Albany. Ging started on the mound for Waverly, but had trouble handling Albany’s top four batters, especially veteran left fielder Hank Simon. Dell Hughes relieved Ging in the late innings, but did not have much better luck. Simon and the other top four Albany hitters combined for 10 of the team’s 13 hits, three of them triples, and seven runs in defeating Ging and Waverly 11-6. The Waverly Free Press reported that Albany was “more than we could handle,” and Sporting Life called the game “slow and uninteresting.”15

Ging did not do well against the NYSL competition immediately after the shift from semipro, struggling through July and early August with a 0-7 record. At this point a most unusual series of events occurred that brought Ging’s prospects renewed publicity.

Mickey Mullin, Ging’s roommate on the road, had been Waverly’s most effective pitcher, and he was frustrated when a scheduled pitching start against Binghamton was rained out. The team remained in Binghamton on Tuesday, August 6, in anticipation of traveling to Troy the next day. The team slept at the Lewis House, near the Erie Railroad station.

Like baseball players today, players in 1901 tended to be very superstitious, and few objects were more associated with superstition than the number 13. Waverly was traveling with 13 players, and Ging and Mullin were roommates in the Lewis House, assigned to room 13 on the fourth floor. According to multiple news accounts, that night’s events were ascribed to “unlucky 13.”

Very early Wednesday morning, while sleeping, Mullin dreamt he was playing in a big game. Around 2:30, Mullin yelled out, “Thirteen, my God!” as if celebrating a victory, which awoke Ging. Ging shouted his roommate’s name and watched helplessly as Mullin jumped out of bed and started to act out a slide into home, diving head-first straight over a chair and out through their fourth-floor window. Mullin plunged onto a veranda below, and then dropped in a clump onto Prospect Avenue.

J.W. Stevens, the baggagemaster of Erie train number 13, was the first to find Mullin in the street, his head in a ditch, blood everywhere. Ging and a local barber staying in the neighboring room soon joined them on the street. Mullin groaning and moving very slowly, was found to have “three deep gashes on his left leg, some bad bruises on the head and body and a broken collar bone.”16 Fortunately for Mullin, his internal injuries were found to be insufficiently severe to threaten his survival, but he remained too banged up to pitch again in 1901.

Grateful for Mullin’s likely eventual recovery, Waverly resumed its schedule, traveling that Wednesday afternoon to Troy and losing 11-1, with Jack Lee taking the loss. Thursday’s game with Troy was rained out.17

The team headed to Albany for a Friday doubleheader. Mullin was out, and Lee had just pitched. This meant that, despite having just witnessed his roommate’s four-story tumble and carrying a 0-7 record, Ging had to pitch the first game of the doubleheader against Albany, the NYSL’s first-place team. And given the lack of any other available pitchers, he likely had to pitch the second game as well.   

Waverly arrived at Riverside Park on Friday morning well aware of the odds against them for the day’s doubleheader. Riverside Park was located in Rensselaer, directly across the Hudson River from the capital city, and a crowd of 1,200 gradually streamed into the park from all directions, including many in boats. They were eager for two easy wins that would increase the daylight between them and second-place Schenectady, with third-place Utica close behind. They had little respect for the visitors, whom the local press dubbed “babies” and “orphans” on account of their newly found league status.

While Bill Heine and the other Waverly old-timers on the team took the disrespect in stride, Ging warmed up before the hostile crowd. The Albany hitters had just lit up Ging 10 days earlier, and they must have been extremely eager to get into the batter’s box against him again.

Game one began with the two starters picking carefully through the lineups. Ging gave up early hits, just as he had in his last appearance against Albany. Only this time in the early going, the hits were scattered, not bunched, and they were mainly singles, not triples. He walked four batters, including Simon, in an effort to keep his pitches from being too hittable. Meanwhile, Albany’s Bill Cristall kept the Waverly hitters off-balance as well, and the two remained scoreless through five innings. Cristall’s luck ran out in the sixth, when he gave up one run. This was followed by two more in the seventh for a 3-0 Waverly lead. Ging gave up one run in the eighth, and then shut Albany down in the ninth, quieting the crowd, and earning a 3-1 win.18

In the second game, Waverly jumped on Albany starter Charles Baker right away, bunching hits and stolen bases to score two runs in the first inning and take a 2-0 lead. Pitching with a lead, Ging went right back to work on the Albany hitters, strategically scattering hits so as to keep the baserunners away from the plate. His control was better as well, and he whitewashed the Senators through all nine innings, earning a 2-0 shutout victory and a doubleheader sweep, sending the crowd home disappointed.19

Ging “pitched great ball and was given fine support,” noted the Cortland Evening Standard.20 “We still lead,” reported Sporting News Albany correspondent H.L. Fry, “although our margin has been materially reduced mainly through the great pitching feat accomplished by Ging of Waverly on Friday last. In a doubleheader, this tireless gentleman allowed the usually hard-hitting Senators exactly one run and 14 hits. Ging, who seemed to grow stronger as the afternoon waned, was invincible, and our five scattered hits resulted in a symmetrical row of ciphers.”21

Ging and teammates celebrated the doubleheader win that night in Albany, but they may have imbibed too much or too late, as the very next day they returned to Riverside Park and were listless in a 2-0 loss. They then returned home to lose to last-place Ilion, 8-4, on August 12.22 Rather than change the team’s momentum, Ging’s doubleheader victories appeared to merely represent a joyful blip in an otherwise rough stretch of August’s dog days.

The long 1901 season was finally winding down, and Waverly’s last four games were at home. Ging’s last pitching appearance for Waverly was a 4-3 loss to Schenectady. In 1902 the Waverly franchise moved to Johnstown-Amsterdam-Gloversville. Several Waverly players continued to play for the team, settling in with the “JAGs” and enjoying a measure of success. Among these were Ging and fellow pitcher John “Sandy” McDougal. Ging and McDougal stood out for the length of time and number of games they pitched for both Waverly and the JAGs. Each had a brief stint in the National League before joining Waverly, and each also had stints in the high minors before, during, and after their time in Waverly, thus demonstrating their ability to be noticed and recalled.

In 1902 they both started with the JAGs and faced plenty of good competitive hitters in the NYSL. One such competitor was Syracuse’s Wildfire Schulte, formerly with Lestershire (and briefly with Waverly). Another was Troy’s Johnny “Crab” Evers. Both Ging and McDougal faced Schulte and Evers multiple times with mixed success.

Ging at 29 was a crafty baseball veteran. “To see ‘Bill’ mix ’em up and toss ’em over, one would imagine he was playing ping-pong at a swell evening party,” the Gloversville Daily Leader wrote. “His smile was childlike and bland, but he was a gay deceiver with the sphere.”23

Ging faced Syracuse on July 8, and held Schulte hitless in earning a 9-2 victory.24 Ging would meet Schulte many more times before their minor-league careers were over. In 1903 Ging started against Schulte in at least three games, and Schulte gradually caught up to him, going 5-for-13. By 1904, Schulte had the fifth-highest batting average in the league, at .307, and was sent to the major leagues for outfield duty with the Chicago Cubs in time to help propel them to World Series championships in 1907 and 1908.

One of Schulte’s teammates for those Cubs teams, Johnny Evers, played for Troy in 1902 and finished his season with them with a .285 batting average. A talented infielder, Evers reached the Cubs after just one season in the NYSL. This was plenty of time for him to get a good taste of Ging. Unlike the hard-swinging, right-handed Schulte, Evers was an excellent bunter and a “pesky left-handed hitter”25 with a good batting eye, which made him less likely to be fooled by “crafty” pitches.

In his first game against Ging, on June 25, 1902, Evers tagged him for a double and two singles, but Ging held on for an 11-10 victory.26 Evers feasted on Ging’s pitching again at their next meeting, on August 8, cracking a triple and two singles.27

Ging and McDougal had a number of opportunities to face each other during their years in the NYSL. On August 18, 1903, for instance, Ging pitched for the JAGs and faced McDougal, pitching for Schenectady.

The umpire that day was 29-year-old Bill Klem, who was in the midst of a miserable year for umpires in the NYSL. Umpires were so routinely harassed by players and fans that most left the league before the season was over. In Klem’s case, he was in perpetual battle with fans and players, resorting to whatever means he could to keep the peace. On June 25, for example, he fined Binghamton outfielder Harry Croft $5 for laughing at one of his decisions. On July 10 Binghamton fans were so annoyed by his calls that they locked him out of the ballpark. His biographer wrote, “His tenacity and courage were tested on an almost daily basis in a league [that] refused to hire more than one umpire for a game.”28

On August 18, both Ging andMcDougal “pitched fine ball” against one another, and Schenectady won 3-0. McDougal had five strikeouts to Ging’s two, and McDougal helped himself to a single and scored a run. The game lasted just 1 hour and 20 minutes, and appeared to be free of incident, which must have suited the young Klem just fine.29

“Bill Ging with the Wonderful Wing,” as local crowds knew him, never did return to the major leagues, but continued to pitch in the minors until his arm stopped “working properly” while he pitched for Scranton in 1905.30 In the meantime, he “had all the curves in the book and remarkable control.”31 After a successful outing against Ilion in ’03, the Gloversville Leader remarked, “The way [Ging] treated the Ilion crowd was like refusing children a ride on a merry-go-round. They wanted to hit the ball and William knew it. He had all the change in his pocket – and kept it there.”32

Ging was a fan favorite and an effective mentor to many teammates, including George “Farmer” Bell, who went on to pitch several years for Brooklyn.

After baseball, Ging was an active Democrat in Elmira politics, serving as city sealer in 1906, the position in charge of the city’s weights and measures.  He worked in Elmira for the next 44 years as a bartender, clerk, and watchman. He remained active in local sports and politics, serving as an umpire in the Southern Tier League and as an officer with local civic groups. He never married or had children. His grandnephew, Jerry Coffey, recalled that Ging was an invalid and chain smoker in his later years who, contrary to his pitching reputation, always gave his nephews pocket change to use to buy candy.33 Upon Ging’s death in Elmira in 1950, multiple newspapers in the state mentioned both his five-hit victory against New York and his “iron man stint” against Albany.34

Ging happily attended Elmira baseball games throughout his life and enjoyed greeting old friends at the ballpark. He passed his love of baseball onto his niece, Gladys. Gladys in turn shared this love of baseball with her husband, John. They frequently attended minor-league games at Elmira’s Dunn Field, the same Maple Avenue location where “Uncle Will” once pitched, and traveled to New York City several times to watch the World Series. By the late 1940s, the two were Brooklyn Dodgers fans.

In 1951, a little over a year after Ging died, Gladys and John left their five children with a sitter and took the train to New York City to catch the World Series. The Yankees had already clinched the American League pennant, and the National League pennant was up for grabs between the Dodgers and Giants.

On October 3 the two teams played the deciding game of a best-of-three playoff series between the two pennant contenders. It was held at the Polo Grounds, the same spot where “Uncle Will” had spun his complete-game victory over the Giants 52 years and 8 days earlier.

Not to miss such an occasion, Gladys and John were there at the Polo Grounds that auspicious day to witness the Giants’ revenge. It was the first-ever nationally televised baseball contest and arguably the century’s most dramatic game, as the Giants defeated the Dodgers 5-4 on Bobby Thomson’s ninth inning walk-off home run, known by fans as baseball’s “Shot Heard ’Round the World”35 – a suitable Polo Grounds connection for a family proud of its wonderful baseball lineage, even if the major-league portion lasted just one game.

Sources 

Portions excerpted from: 

Brewster, William H. That Lively Railroad Town: Waverly, New York and the Making of Modern Baseball, 1899-1901 (Eugene, Oregon: Luminare Press, 2020).

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted US census records and other public records via Ancestry.com and Baseball-Reference.com. Thanks to the Chemung Valley Historical Society (Elmira, New York), the Waverly Free Library, the Waverly Historical Society, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Library.

Bevis, Charlie. Jimmy Collins: A Baseball Biography (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2012).

Brands, H.W. The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890s (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995).

Brewster, William H. The Workingman’s Game: Waverly, New York, the Twin Tiers and the Making of Modern Baseball, 1887-1898 (Eugene, Oregon: Luminare Press, 2019)

Green, Guy W. (Jeff P. Beck, ed.) The Nebraska Indians and Fun and Frolic with an Indian Ball Team. (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2010).

Lomax, Michael E., Black Baseball Entrepreneurs, 1860-1901 (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2003).

Riess, Steven A. Sport in Industrial America, 1850-1920 (Arlington Heights, Illinois: Harland Davidson, 1995).

White, Sol. Sol White’s History of Colored Baseball (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995).

Notes

1 “The Coming Season,” Elmira Daily Gazette and Free Press, July 29, 1897: 8.  

2 “Kinney’s Kids,” Sporting Life, July 2, 1898: 6.

3 “Connecticut Lease,” Sporting Life, May 20, 1899: 7.

4 “Notes of the Game,” Hartford Courant, August 23, 1899: 2.

5 “Out of the Grater,” Sporting Life, September 23, 1899: 9.

6 “Hub Happenings,” Sporting Life, October 7, 1899: 4.       

7 “The Great Failing,” Sporting Life, December 9, 1899: 4. The reference to “Class Z” was likely a tongue-in-cheek reference to a very low (i.e. the lowest) salary available in the National League’s classification system.

8 “Hub Happenings,” Sporting Life, March 3, 1900: 6.

9 “Items of Interest,” Sporting Life, May 12, 1900: 6; “Syracuse Stars,” Sporting Life, May 12, 1900: 7.

10 “Oswego After Ging,” Elmira Daily Gazette and Free Press, May 10, 1900: 6.

11 “Ging Pitched Well,” Elmira Daily Gazette and Free Press, September 1, 1900: 6.

12 “News and Comment,” Sporting Life, February 17, 1900: 4.

13 “The Opening Game,” Waverly (New York) Advocate, April 30, 1901: 1.       

14 “The Waverly Baseball Team Trims the Dark Nine,” Waverly Advocate, June 21 1901: 1.

15 “Games Played July 29,” Sporting Life, August 10, 1901: 11; “Base Ball,” Waverly Free Press, August 3, 1901: 1. 

16 “Mullen Got a Fall,” Waverly Advocate, August 9, 1901: 1.  

17 “Base Hits,” Waverly Free Press, August 10, 1901: 1.

18 “Albany Lost Two to Waverly,” Albany Evening Journal, August 10, 1901: 6.

19  “Albany Lost Two to Waverly.”

20 “Waverly Wallops the Senators,” Cortland (New York) Evening Standard, August 10, 1901: 7.

21 “Wilson Is a Wonder,” The Sporting News, August 17, 1901: 1.

22 “No More Baseball,” Waverly Free Press, August 17, 1901: 1.

23 “A.-J.-G. 10, Ilion 3,” Gloversville Evening Leader, July 16, 1902: 5.

24 “Games Played July 8,” Sporting Life, July 19, 1902: 21.

25 David Shiner, “Johnny Evers,” SABR BioProject.

26 “Games Played June 25,” Sporting Life, July 5, 1902: 21.

27 “Games Played Aug. 8,” Sporting Life, August 23, 1902: 6.

28 David W. Anderson, “Bill Klem,” SABR BioProject.

29 “Games Played Aug. 18,” Sporting Life, September 5, 1903: 12.

30 “News Notes,” Sporting Life, June 17, 1905: 21.

31 “Death Serves to Recall Ging and His Work,” Gloversville and Johnstown Morning Herald, September 16, 1950: 9.

32 “Tall Typewriters Trimmed Twice,” Gloversville Daily Leader, July 24, 1903: 3.

33 Author interview with Jerry Coffey, February 22, 2018.

34 “Ex-Ball Player Billy Ging Dies,” Elmira Star Gazette, September 15, 1950: 14.

35 Author interview with Jerry Coffey, February 22, 2018.