Billy Hulen

According to conventional wisdom, a left-hander should not play second base, shortstop, or third base, because throwing to first base is awkward. This view was expressed as far back as 1867, when Henry Chadwick wrote, “A left hand player is the man for a first baseman; on any other base such a player is out of place.”1

In the 1890s, southpaw Billy Hulen provided a counterexample; he played these infield positions with impressive agility. It is “very hard to discern” any handicap, said the Oakland Enquirer in 1896.2

Hulen was a solid hitter and speedy leadoff man adept at drawing walks, stealing bases, and scoring runs. After starring in the Western League, he appeared in 107 major-league games, mostly at shortstop, with the 1896 Philadelphia Philles and 1899 Washington Senators. His career spanned more than 20 years as a player, manager, owner, and scout.

On and off the diamond, Hulen was intriguing. He was a businessman and gold miner, and he married two women named Blanche. While married to Blanche Upham, he disappeared in 1906 and was located a year later playing baseball in Canada under an alias. He had eloped with Blanche Logan.3 Upham was granted a divorce. Logan later divorced him, and he remarried Upham.

William F. “Billy” Hulen4 was born and grew up in Dixon, California, 20 miles southwest of Sacramento. Baseball records give his birthdate as March 12, 1870, but the 1900 US census says he was born in January 1870. His parents were George Washington Hulen and Lucy Ann (née Hulett) Hulen. George was a stagecoach driver and mail carrier in California. He and Lucy had moved to the Golden State from northeast Missouri in 1864.5 Billy was the fifth of their eight children.

Hulen played for amateur teams in Northern California, including the Woodland Hinks (1888),6 Auburn Placers (1889),7 Santa Rosas (1890),8 and Napas (1891).9 He went south in the winter of 1891-92 to play for the Los Angeles Apollos. His “magnificent work” at third base earned him his first professional contract, with the 1892 Los Angeles Angels of the California League.10 He was 5-foot-8½ with a slender build.11 At age 22 and weighing 150 pounds, he was the youngest and lightest of the Angels.12

A left-handed batter, Hulen went 5-for-5 in the Angels’ 13-5 victory over Oakland on April 17, 1892; “Kid Hulen Smashes the Ball,” was the headline in the Los Angeles Herald.13 Against San Francisco on May 15, he made “sensational stops and lightning throws” at third base, “accepting 11 difficult chances without an error.”14 He played the entire season – 177 games – and batted .251 with 43 stolen bases and 97 runs. In the offseason he worked as a carriage painter in Dixon.15

Hulen returned to the Angels in the spring of 1893 and remained with them until the California League collapsed in August. He hit .289 and scored 95 runs in 94 games. He was versatile, playing in 51 games at shortstop, 32 at third base, and 11 in the outfield.

In 1894 Hulen joined the Minneapolis team of the Western League. He swatted two singles, two doubles, and a home run against Toledo on May 25.16 In three games against Kansas City, June 26-28, he went 11-for-19 (.579) with three home runs and 10 runs scored.17 For the season he batted .340 in 128 games and ranked fifth in the league in stolen bases (69) and runs (178). He hit a career-high 17 home runs, a feat made easier by the compact Athletic Park of Minneapolis.

The next year, Hulen batted .369 in 123 games for Minneapolis and ranked second in the league in stolen bases (58) and runs (187). He was the leadoff man against Grand Rapids on August 1, 1895, and drew a walk in each of his six plate appearances. He stole five bases and scored six runs that day.18 In six plate appearances the next day against Milwaukee, he was credited with one double in two at-bats, four bases on balls, two stolen bases, and four runs. That made 10 walks, seven steals, and 10 runs in two days.19

A pull hitter, Hulen targeted the right-field fence at Aurora Park in St. Paul; a hit over that close barrier counted as a double. In a twin bill on August 14, he drove seven balls over that fence for seven doubles.20

The Philadelphia Phillies acquired Hulen in the offseason. There were skeptics who did not believe a left-handed shortstop could succeed in the majors. One of them was Western League president Ban Johnson, who recommended that the Phillies put Hulen in the outfield.21 But Billy Nash, the new Phillies manager, had seen Hulen play in California and was a believer.

On March 7, 1896, Hulen married Blanche Upham. She was the 19-year-old daughter of a Dixon dentist. Her parents disapproved of the marriage. The young couple headed to Philadelphia for the upcoming season.22

The 1896 Phillies featured future Hall of Famers Dan Brouthers, Ed Delahanty, and Sam Thompson (as well as rookie Nap Lajoie, who debuted in August). The veterans were impressed with Hulen. Manager Nash said he was “the quickest man I ever saw in the infield. He’s off like a shot when the ball is hit.”23 But there were concerns about Hulen’s slight frame – at spring training he weighed in at 143 pounds. The team averaged 185 pounds.24

Hulen debuted on May 2, 1896, against the New York Giants in Philadelphia; in the sixth inning, he replaced an injured Bill Hallman at second base.25 Hulen’s first start came on May 5 against the Browns in St. Louis. He batted leadoff and went hitless, and handled seven chances at shortstop without error.26 He stroked his first major-league hits the following day, a single and triple off the Browns’ left-handed ace, Theodore Breitenstein.27 On June 8, he got four hits off Cleveland’s Cy Young.28

Francis C. Richter, writing in Sporting Life, noted that Hulen was a “cool, patient waiter” at the plate, skilled at drawing walks, and that he demonstrated “marvelous agility” in the field.29 His .923 fielding percentage through games of July 1 ranked with the best shortstops in the league.30 “His left-handed throwing does not embarrass him in the least, and makes him fast and safe on double plays,” said sportswriter W.A. Phelon, Jr.31 Against the Giants on July 30, Hulen splendidly turned the pivot in a 4-6-3 double play. “A right-handed thrower never would have completed” it, said the Philadelphia Inquirer.32

Hulen described the pros and cons of being a left-handed shortstop:

“The right-handed shortstop naturally has a shade the better of me in fielding balls that he picked up to the right of him or on the third base side, but on balls that come to me on the second base side or to my left I have the advantage of the right-hander. In making a double play on a ball hit to the second baseman with a man on first, I have the right-handed shortstop beaten in making time, as I catch the ball on the run and shove it over to first base as I run; that is, without having to take the time to steady myself.”33

Though Hulen began his major-league career in a promising way, his fielding declined as the season wore on. In games after July 1, his percentage at shortstop was .851. The nadir came on August 17 when his defensive lapses were blamed for both losses in a doubleheader against the Baltimore Orioles.34 Richter now wrote, “Hulen is too easily rattled to make a first-class infielder.”35

Hulen batted .265 in 88 games for the Phillies, well below the National League average of .290, but he excelled in several statistical categories. His 55 bases on balls and 23 stolen bases were second most on the team, and his 87 runs ranked third. He may have reminded fans of another speedy left-hander, Billy Hamilton, an outfielder on the 1890-95 Phillies who led the National League several times in these categories. But Hulen did not make the grade, and in the offseason the Phillies sold him to the Columbus (Ohio) Senators of the Western League.

With Columbus, Hulen hit .292 in 1897 and .276 in 1898, and was regarded as the “star shortstop of the Western League.”36 In 19 games from May 17 to June 7, 1898, he committed only one error in 106 chances, a remarkable .991 percentage.37 Against Minneapolis on June 11, 1898, he “made the phenomenal catch of the year,” said the Minneapolis Times. “Lew] Ritter lined the ball by an awful welt over second base. Hulen at full speed ran back and pulled it down with his left hand.”38

Hulen was drafted in December 1898 by the Washington Senators.39 He had another chance to make good in the majors, but illness derailed the opportunity. When he arrived at spring training in March 1899, he was a picture of fitness. He weighed 158 pounds40 and was “as trim and sturdy as a gymnastic athlete.”41 But he caught “quite an illness, bordering on typhoid fever,” and lost 15 pounds.42 He played in 19 games for Washington at the start of the season but hit only .147 in 68 at-bats and reportedly lacked “confidence and vim.”43 He played his final major-league game on May 12 against Brooklyn. The next day, the Senators sold him to the Kansas City Blues of the Western League.44

On May 22, 1899, in his second game with the Blues, a revived Hulen stole four bases in a 2-1 victory over Detroit; he “ran bases like a Kansas jack rabbit,” said the Kansas City Times.45 On August 6, he stole four bases in a doubleheader against St. Paul, including a steal of home.46 In the field six days later, he “knocked down four or five hits over second base and covered a wide stretch of territory in superb fashion.”47 He batted .252 in 102 games for the Blues with 40 stolen bases and 95 runs, and his .916 fielding percentage was among the league’s highest for shortstops.48

During a postseason barnstorming tour with the Blues in September 1899, Hulen discovered Joe Tinker, a future Hall of Fame shortstop. Tinker was playing third base for a Coffeyville, Kansas, squad.49 Hulen recommended the 19-year-old Kansan to George Tebeau, owner of the Denver Grizzlies in the Western League, who gave Tinker a trial in 1900.50

With Tebeau’s help, Hulen became the owner of a new Western League franchise in 1900 representing Pueblo, Colorado. He played shortstop and managed the team. In 63 games he batted .317 with 36 stolen bases.51 A Pueblo newspaper praised his fielding: “Hulen is as effective at short as a wire netting stretched from second to third would be.”52 But his team finished in last place.

Hulen moved the team to Colorado Springs for the 1901 season, and again it finished last in the Western League. He played briefly for Salt Lake City in the spring of 1902, jumped to Sacramento in the California League, and then finished the year with Seattle in the Pacific Northwest League. In 1903 he played second base for Seattle in the Pacific National League. He batted .285 and stole 38 bases in 120 games, and his .964 fielding percentage was the highest among the league’s second basemen.53

About 1903 Hulen and his wife moved from Dixon to a ranch in Ashland, Oregon, and in 1904 he focused on real estate and other business interests.54 He also prospected for gold. In early 1905, he worked at a mining camp at Tonopah, Nevada.55

Hulen returned to baseball for the 1905 season. As first baseman and manager, he led Everett, Washington, to the pennant in the four-team Northwestern League. He hit .296 in 88 games and led the league with 85 runs.56 On July 20, 1905, he slugged a game-winning, ninth-inning home run in Everett’s 14-13 triumph over Spokane.57

In the winter of 1905-06, Hulen worked a mining claim along the Little Humbug Creek in California, about 50 miles south of Ashland.58 In March 1906, his whereabouts were unknown, and he was reported missing.59 His wife and friends worried that he may have been a victim of foul play. He was last seen in Yreka, California, in February. A Yreka newspaper told what happened: It was Hulen who was guilty of foul play; he had eloped with Blanche Logan.60

Blanche Dolores Logan of Ashland was 23 years old.61 Hulen’s whereabouts remained a mystery until the summer of 1907, when he was found playing baseball in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. His 30-year-old wife, Blanche Upham, was granted a divorce in 1907 on the grounds of desertion.62 Hulen and Logan wed soon after.

Using the name Billy Hamilton, the 37-year-old Hulen played second base and managed the 1907 Medicine Hat Mad Hatters. The team won the pennant in the four-team Western Canada League. In 87 games, Hulen aka Hamilton batted .319 and led the circuit with 72 runs.63 The next year, he was first baseman and captain of the Spokane Indians of the Northwestern League; in 141 games he hit .237 (the league average was .225).64

In 1909 Hulen, “or Hamilton, as he still persists in being called,” owned businesses and real estate in Medicine Hat.65 He operated a “wholesale liquor store” and “a saloon and cigar store,” but baseball was his primary interest.66 He again managed the Mad Hatters and led them to the pennant in the Western Canada League. He was “the best field general” in the eight-team league, said the Edmonton Journal.67 But his playing career was ended on June 24, 1909, by a freak occurrence. In a game against Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, a foul tip from his own bat struck him in the left eye and caused him to lose sight in the eye.68 Team photos from that season show him with a patch over it.69

Hulen and his wife (Blanche Logan) welcomed son William Benjamin, born March 24, 1910, in Medicine Hat.70 Hulen managed the Mad Hatters in 1910 until the team was purchased and relocated to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in July. He moved with his family to Roseburg, Oregon, where he purchased a billiard hall and soft drink concession.71 In 1913 he managed the Regina (Saskatchewan) Red Sox of the Western Canada League, but the team struggled and he resigned in July.72 For the next several years, he scouted for the Pittsburgh Pirates.73

Blanche Logan divorced Hulen in 1921.74 He remarried Blanche Upham in 1933, and they lived in and managed the Earl Hotel in Petaluma, California.75 She died in 1941, and he married Nellie Hein in 1942. After Hein died in 1944, he lived in Portland with his son, who was by then a sportswriter for the Oregonian.

After suffering a heart attack, Hulen died on October 2, 1947, at a hospital in Santa Rosa, California.76 He was 77. He was interred beside Blanche Upham at the Cypress Hill Memorial Park in Petaluma.

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Bill Lamb and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Tony Oliver.

Sources

Ancestry.com and Baseball-reference.com, accessed December 2023.

Photo credit: Minneapolis Tribune, June 10, 1901: 3.

Notes

1 Peter Morris, A Game of Inches, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee (2010): 140.

2 “Sporting Notes,” Oakland Enquirer, January 2, 1896: 8.

3 “Brevities,” Siskiyou News (Yreka, California), March 22, 1906: 3.

4 Hulen’s middle name was Frank or Franklin.

5 “George W. Hulen Passes,” Sacramento Bee, December 6, 1915: 8.

6 “Local Intelligence,” Sacramento Record-Union, October 1, 1888: 3.

7 “Downed Again,” Sacramento Record-Union, September 9, 1889: 3.

8 “The Amateur League,” San Francisco Examiner, April 28, 1890: 4.

9 “Nine to Three,” Napa (California) Journal, September 15, 1891: 3.

10 “The Los Angeles Team,” Los Angeles Express, March 26, 1892: 1.

11 “The Ball Players Slow to Arrive,” Washington Times, March 14, 1899: 6.

12 “The Pennant Winners,” Los Angeles Herald, March 21, 1892: 5.

13 “Kid Hulen Smashes the Ball,” Los Angeles Herald, April 18, 1892: 5.

14 “Hoffman Was Hit Hard,” San Francisco Call, May 16, 1892: 8.

15 “Baseball in Los Angeles,” Los Angeles Herald, January 2, 1893: 2.

16 “Back to Fourth Place,” Minneapolis Times, May 26, 1894: 5.

17 Sporting Life, July 7, 1894: 9.

18 “Big Chief Pounded,” Minneapolis Tribune, August 2, 1895: 5.

19 “They Are Seven,” Minneapolis Times, August 3, 1895: 2.

20 “Gorgeous George,” St. Paul Globe, August 15, 1895: 5.

21 Francis C. Richter, “Philadelphia News,” Sporting Life, December 14, 1895: 1.

22 “Hulen Married,” Woodland (California) Democrat, March 9, 1896: 3.

23 “Hulen; Well, He’s a Bird,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 19, 1896: 5.

24 “Hist! Who’s the Hoodoo?” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 1, 1896: 5.

25 “New York Won by Hard Hitting,” Philadelphia Times, May 3, 1896: 10.

26 “Nash’s Men Used Their Bats,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, May 6, 1896: 4.

27 “Delightful, Very,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 7, 1896: 5.

28 “National League,” Philadelphia Times, June 9, 1896: 8.

29 Francis C. Richter, “Philadelphia News,” Sporting Life, June 6, 1896: 4.

30 “How the Men Stand,” Chicago Inter Ocean, July 6, 1896: 4. This source indicates that he made 10 errors in 130 chances in 23 games at shortstop through games of July 1, 1896. Subtracting these from his season totals, he made 41 errors in 275 chances (.851) in 50 games at shortstop after July 1.

31 W.A. Phelon, Jr., “Chicago Gleanings,” Sporting Life, July 25, 1896: 6.

32 “Passed Balls,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 31, 1896: 5; “National League,” Philadelphia Times, July 31, 1896: 8.

33 “Base Ball Notes,” Kansas City Times, March 27, 1899: 3.

34 “Hulen’s Disgusting Work,” Philadelphia Times, August 18, 1896: 8.

35 Francis C. Richter, “Quakers Quashed,” Sporting Life, August 22, 1896: 6.

36 Francis C. Richter, “Painful Phillies,” Sporting Life, August 14, 1897: 4.

37 Determined by the author from box scores appearing in Sporting Life.

38 “No News in This,” Minneapolis Times, June 12, 1898: 3.

39 L.L. Nicholson, Jr., “From the Capital,” Sporting Life, December 17, 1898: 6.

40 “The Ball Players Slow to Arrive.”

41 “Senators Arrive,” Washington Star, March 14, 1899: 9.

42 “Unlucky on Bases,” Washington Star, May 2, 1899: 7; “Another Victory for the Senators,” Washington Times, April 29, 1899: 8.

43 “News and Comment,” Sporting Life, May 6, 1899: 4.

44 “New Men for Kansas City,” Detroit Free Press, May 14, 1899: 10.

45 “Great Game on a Dark Day,” Kansas City Times, May 23, 1899: 3.

46 “This Is Too Much Joy,” Kansas City Journal, August 7, 1899: 5.

47 “They Outbatted Us,” Kansas City Journal, August 13, 1899: 5.

48 “Players’ Work,” Sporting Life, October 21, 1899: 6.

49 “Blues Won Both Games,” Coffeyville (Kansas) Journal, September 22, 1899: 1.

50 “Tinker Once Failed to Make Good Even with Denver Club,” Chattanooga News, March 14, 1917: 12.

51 Reach’s Official Base Ball Guide for 1901, Philadelphia: A.J. Reach Co. (1901): 115, 116, 120.

52 “Judged from the Bench,” Pueblo (Colorado) Chieftain, May 17, 1900: 3.

53 Francis C. Richter, ed., Reach’s Official American League Base Ball Guide for 1904, Philadelphia: A.J. Reach Co. (1904): 251, 254.

54 “The Sporting World in Brief,” Grass Valley (California) Union, February 16, 1904: 7; “Sporting Tips by the Man Who Smokes,” Tacoma News, August 4, 1905: 8.

55 “Hulen Would Come Here,” Spokane Chronicle, March 22, 1905: 5.

56 Francis C. Richter, ed., The Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide for 1906 (Philadelphia: A.J. Reach Co., 1906), 286-289.

57 “Heavy Slugging Match,” Tacoma Ledger, July 21, 1905: 6.

58 “‘Billy’ Hulen Missing,” Medford (Oregon) Mail, March 16, 1906: 5.

59 “Kid Hulen Missing,” Vancouver (British Columbia) Province, March 13, 1906: 8.

60 “Brevities,” Siskiyou News, March 22, 1906: 3.

61 1900 US Census.

62 “Hulen Sued for Divorce,” Napa Journal, March 1, 1907: 5; “Local Items Briefly Told,” Woodland Democrat, August 10, 1907: 1. Research has not turned up any children of Hulen and Blanche Upham; it seems that the couple was childless.

63 Francis C. Richter, ed., The Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide for 1908, Philadelphia: A.J. Reach Co. (1908):, 187-189.

64 Francis C. Richter, ed., The Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide for 1909, Philadelphia: A.J. Reach Co. (1909): 277, 279.

65 “Baseball Prospects for 1909,” Edmonton Journal, March 10, 1909: 5.

66 “Baseball Prospects for 1909”; “Canadian League Organized,” Tacoma News, March 5, 1909: 13.

67 “Baseball,” Edmonton Journal, May 10, 1909: 5.

68 “Play Four Innings at the Hat,” Edmonton Bulletin, June 25, 1909: 9; “Sport Summary,” Winnipeg Free Press and Prairie Farmer, June 30, 1909: 6.

69 “1909 Medicine Hat Mad Hatters, WCBL Champions,” attheplate.com/wcbl/1909_1g2.html, accessed December 2023.

70 WWII draft registration for William Benjamin Hulen.

71 “Local News,” Roseburg (Oregon) Review, October 28, 1910: 3.

72 “Regina Loses at Moose Jaw, Manager Quits,” Saskatoon (Saskatchewan) Star, July 19, 1913: II-3.

73 “Necrology,” The Sporting News, October 15, 1947: 25.

74 “Local and Personal,” Ashland (Oregon) Tidings, April 13, 1921: 4.

75 “Will Locate in Petaluma,” Petaluma (California) Argus-Courier, August 3, 1933: 2.

76 “Last Rite for Wm. Hulen,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, October 6, 1947: 8.