Ham Iburg

Following his death in February 1945, long-forgotten turn-of-the-century pitcher Ham Iburg was accorded a singular accolade by The Sporting News. “Iburg is credited with having the slowest ball ever hurled in the majors or higher minors,” declared the Bible of Baseball. “He had three speeds – slow, slower and slowest.”1 Some 40-plus years earlier, it was wryly observed that Iburg’s best slowball took about eight minutes to reach the plate.2 As a rookie in 1902, Iburg parlayed his batter-frustrating off-speed repertoire into an 11-win season for a weak Philadelphia Phillies ball club. But like other Californians before him, he disliked spending his summers in the East and declined to return the next year, choosing instead to play out his professional career on the West Coast. Once that was done, Iburg spent the remainder of his working life as a watchman and equipment repairer for the San Francisco Fire Department. His story follows.

Herman Edward Iburg was born in San Francisco on October 30, 1873.3 He was the fifth of eight children born to William M. Iburg (1833-1896) and his wife Anna (née Fortmann, 1842-1922), both German Lutheran immigrants.4 The business success of their father – he was involved in the restaurant, grocery, and saloon trades as well as real estate speculation – afforded the Iburg children a comfortable upbringing. Ham (as Herman was usually called)5 attended local schools through graduation from San Francisco Polytechnic High School. He thereafter found employment as a bookkeeper.6

During the 1890s, the names of our subject’s older siblings frequently appeared on the social pages of San Francisco newspapers.7 Meanwhile, Ham and younger brothers Fred and Jack gravitated toward the baseball diamond.8 The specifics of when Iburg first began playing are uncertain but one improbable tale maintained that Ham and future minor league teammate Will Brockhoff were graduates “of the sand-lot school. … They began with one-o-cat, using a pick handle for a bat and a roll of rags for a ball.”9 More certain is that by spring 1894, the right-handed Iburg was pitching for the baseball team fielded by San Francisco’s Sacred Heart College10 (although there is no evidence that Ham attended classes there). The following year, he pitched and occasionally played right field for a local amateur club called the Pacifics.11

In May 1896, Iburg entered the professional ranks when the Pacifics became a charter member of the newly formed San Francisco Professional Base Ball League.12 But shortly thereafter, he became affiliated with a different team, being among the signees announced by the San Francisco Metropolitans of another nascent pro circuit, the California League.13 Ham was the Metropolitans’ opening day hurler, dropping a 6-3 verdict to Oakland. Noteworthy for our purposes is the Iberg misspelling of our subject’s surname in game coverage by the San Francisco press.14 In time, the Iberg misnomer was adopted by wire services and ultimately by newspapers nationwide, with the misspelling enduring with certain news outlets for our subject’s lifetime.15 But whatever the press confusion about his surname, by early August Ham’s work was attracting favorable attention, with Sporting Life’s San Francisco correspondent reporting that “the superb pitching of young Iberg alone saved the day for us in Sunday’s game. This young man is playing fast ball and will make a good man for a major league team if we must lose him.”16

Given California’s temperate climate, baseball was a year-round sport there. Over the winter of 1896-1897, Iburg pitched for the California Markets club, a crack San Francisco semipro nine.17 Thereafter, he signed with a professional club in nearby Stockton18 before returning to the California Markets team for the winter baseball season.19 In spring 1898 the California League and another local circuit, the Pacific States League, dissolved, freeing their best clubs to enter the newly organized Pacific Coast League. In the shuffle, Iburg left the Metropolitans to sign with the San Jose Prune Pickers.20 Shortly after he arrived in town, Ham tied the knot, taking San Francisco sweetheart Katherine O’Brien as his bride.21 The following year, the arrival of daughter Helen completed the family.

Apart from the wedding, events in San Jose proved disagreeable for Iburg. He pitched well for the Prune Pickers but left the club when shorted in salary due in early July. Iburg’s treatment drew an indignant reaction from former major league pitcher turned sportswriter Joe Corbett, who lambasted the club’s action while observing that “with the baseball public Mr. Iberg is a very popular individual … [who] pitches good baseball.”22 A reconciliation between the parties was brief, undone when the cash-strapped club again withheld player salaries in late August, prompting Iburg to quit San Jose for good.23 A report that had Ham joining the PCL’s Watsonville (California) Babies proved unfounded;24 he finished the season back home pitching for the San Francisco Friscos, where his work again drew kudos from sportswriter Corbett.25

Reliable pitching stats from 19th-century West Coast minor leagues are sparse, but Iburg was plainly held in high esteem by contemporary observers of the local game. Indeed, in the estimation of Sporting Life correspondent Forest D. Lowry, “Iberg is without exception the best twirler on the [West] coast to-day.”26 As the 1899 season was about to begin, Lowry chimed in again, declaring that “Herman Iberg of the California league was a fit candidate for the National League [and that] the clever pitcher … [had] some flattering offers. But Herm is modest, and does not think he could do the work in faster company [and] he has decided to remain here for another season before aspiring to puzzle the major league’s batters.”27

Pitching for the San Francisco Athletics of a reconstituted California League, Iburg was inconsistent during the 1899 season, strong at the beginning and end, hittable during the interim. At the campaign’s close, his record stood at 21-21 (.500) for a second-place (45-41, .523) San Francisco ball club.28 Of interest, press descriptions of Iburg’s hurling repertoire did not mention his later-celebrated slowball. Rather, young San Francisco Examiner sportswriter Charles Dryden took note of Iburg’s “infinite assortment of dips, spurs, angles, bends and shoots, coupled with absolute control,”29 while a Sacramento newspaper cited “an underhand shoot that is very effective.”30 As the season headed toward its finish, Sporting Life observed that “Iberg is one of the best twirlers in this league, having perfect command, good curves and a good head.”31 Also left unmentioned was that Iberg led league pitchers in fielding percentage (.980) and that the right-handed hitting hurler was a near-helpless batsman (.128 BA).32

During the offseason both the National League Cincinnati Reds and the Kansas City Blues of the Class A minor Western League laid claim to Iburg and San Francisco batterymate John Sullivan.33 In time, Cincinnati relinquished pursuit of the pair to Kansas City,34 but the Blues proved unable to sign them. “Pitcher Iberg and catcher Sullivan have notified [Kansas City club boss] Jimmy Manning that the salary offered is no temptation for them to leave the California League, and they will not report,” revealed Sporting Life.35 Instead, the two returned to San Francisco for the 1900 season  – which, given that the independent California League was not a party to the National Agreement, they could do with impunity.

No official pitching stats were discovered for the 1900 California League,36 but Iburg led the circuit in strikeouts (129) according to at least one modern reference work.37 During the season, press note was taken of the “slow outshoot” that had become Iburg’s out pitch. “The ball, in my opinion, that makes the batter guess is the gentle thing that when it gets there seems bashful and avoids the punch by moving quietly to one side,” related Ham, floridly. “To do this and get results you must make your victim think you are going to hand him something that will go by like a bullet … and he generally lets [the bat] go three seconds too soon.”38 By late September, he and catcher Sullivan were “doing battery work of the highest order”39 for a San Francisco club that finished 47-43-5 (.522). Iburg then spent the winter months pitching for the semipro Levy club of Los Angeles.

For the 1901 season, Iburg returned to San Francisco where he teamed up with fireballer Jimmy Whalen to provide the club, by then called the Wasps, with the California League’s dominant pitching duo. Personal Iburg highlights included a one-hit, 4-0 shutout thrown at the Los Angeles Angels on June 1.40 Midway through the campaign, however, third starter Leroy Evans jumped the Wasps. In lieu of looking for another arm, the solution adopted by club boss Hank Harris was to offer Iburg and Whalen the salary of such a replacement in return for their agreement to form a two-man rotation for the rest of the season (with shortstop Henry Krug stepping in on Sundays). The two readily agreed, and dutifully hurled (97-65, .564) San Francisco to the league title.41 Iburg (37-27, .578) led California League pitchers in victories, with Whalen (36-23, .610) only one win behind.42

Iburg’s performance attracted major league interest, with his most ardent suiter, again the Cincinnati Reds, dispatching star first baseman Jake Beckley to the West Coast to sign the pitcher.43 But Iburg chose to join the Philadelphia Phillies instead, accepting the $2,200 salary with $250 advance money offer extended by club boss John I. Rogers.44 Ham then demonstrated what the Reds would be missing, setting down an all-National League team that featured Beckley and Cincinnati third baseman Harry Steinfeldt with ease, winning an early January exhibition contest, 9-4.45

Ham Iburg made his major league debut in the Polo Grounds on April 17, 1902. With the Phillies trailing, 7-0, he was sent up as an improbable Opening Day pinch-hitter to face New York Giants ace Christy Mathewson. He promptly struck out. The following day, the teams traveled to Philadelphia, where the rookie hurler received another improbable assignment: starting pitcher for the Phils’ home opener. After the customary parade and pregame festivities (with Philadelphia Mayor Samuel H. Asbridge throwing a ceremonial first pitch) had consumed an hour and a half,46 Iburg toed the slab to face Giants leadoff man Jack Dunn. Three slowballs later, Dunn was back on the New York bench, a strikeout victim. Ham then whiffed Jimmy Delahanty on three pitches before a two-strike Henry Thielman pop-up concluded the frame. The Giants scratched out a run against Iburg in the top of the second and another in the ninth but were otherwise befuddled. With the Phillies hitting Giants starter Brickyard Kennedy liberally, Ham cruised to a five-hit, eight-strikeout victory, 9-2.47

Although we are without video evidence or newsprint elaboration, Iburg’s slowball does not appear to have been an eephus or blooper pitch. It was, rather, a conventional change-up, the speed of which Iburg could vary by altering grip pressure or how the ball was placed in the hand or fingers. He rarely threw a fastball in the strike zone and relied on a variety of curves – it was once said that Iburg had the biggest curveball in the California League48 – in addition to his slowball. In the end, however, what seemed to perplex major league hitters was Ham’s repetitive use of the slowball, often throwing it pitch after pitch.49 The frequent assertion that a frail physique reduced Iburg to such soft-tossing is doubtful.50 At 5-feet-11 and 165 pounds, Ham was above average size for a turn-of-the-century ballplayer, and his physical stamina was manifested in the 400+-inning seasons that he regularly compiled as a minor leaguer. Instead, it seems likely that Iburg relied on this unique pitching style because it worked for him.

Iburg followed up his impressive big league debut with another winning effort, scattering eight singles and striking out five in an 8-4 victory over Brooklyn on April 23. Three days later, he was yanked after the fourth inning of a 13-9 loss to Boston, but rebounded with a route-going 4-1 win over the Beaneaters on April 28. Ham dropped his next two starts and was then sidelined until early June by a flareup of the malaria that he had contracted during spring training.51 He returned to action by spacing 11 base hits in a 6-1 triumph over New York; however, he did not appear to be the same pitcher he had been before during an ensuing five-game losing streak. By that time, opposition batsmen had discovered that while Iburg’s slowball was difficult to square up and drive for extra bases, it was easy to bunt, and they began doing so frequently and with success. Iburg compounded his problem by failing to field bunts capably.52 Years later, this defensive shortcoming was attributed, dubiously, to poor eyesight.53

Iburg’s record had sunk to 6-14 when he took the ball for an August 21 game against Chicago. Nine innings later, he merged with a five-hit 2-0 victory, the only whitewash of his major league career. He then turned in well-pitched triumphs over New York (6-2) and Chicago (4-1), before dropping his next two starts. A poor outing on the last day of the 1902 season finalized Iburg’s record at 11-18 (.379), a shade below the 56-81-1 (.409) log turned in by his seventh-place Phillies club, overall. His 3.89 ERA in 236 innings pitched was also inferior to the 3.50 staff norm. On the plus side, Iburg struck out 106 opposing hitters while walking 62; he also surrendered only a single home run in his 30 appearances.

Phillies manager Billy Shettsline thought that Iburg would improve with experience and wanted him back for the following season.54 In an effort to assure Iburg’s return, Philadelphia placed him on the club’s reserve list. But that afforded the Phillies no protection from players signing with a new incarnation of the Pacific Coast League, an independent circuit not bound by the mutual respect-for-contracts covenants reached at the National League-American League peace parley of January 1903.55 In the case of Ham Iburg, the hurler had asked Shettsline for his release prior to returning to San Francisco at season’s end.56 Among other things, Iburg was said to have become disenchanted pitching for a bad team, and then became further disaffected when the Phillies did not strengthen the roster during the winter.57 He also had a decided preference for “the balmy climate of his native state” as opposed to the cooler weather of the East Coast.58 As a result, Iburg spurned the Phillies, signing instead with the San Francisco entry in the PCL, a move that reunited him with both ex-pitching mate Jimmy Whalen and Hank Harris, his manager on the San Francisco club in the by then deceased California League.59

Reportedly having “discovered a slowball that is slower” than what he had used previously,60 Iburg went 26-22 (.542), with a 2.51 ERA in 437 1/3 innings pitched during the grueling nine-month long PCL schedule. Whalen (29-21, .580, with a 2.82 ERA in 443 2/3 frames) also performed ably. But the two were not enough to save San Francisco from posting a losing (107-110, .493) final record. Also unhelpful was Iburg’s stick work. His (13-for-158) .082 batting average gave Ham “the distinction of being the worst batsman in the league.”61

That winter, San Francisco sold Iburg to a Pacific Coast League rival, the Tacoma (Washington) Tigers, but the pitcher, by then 30, did not fit into Tacoma’s pitching plans. Once granted his release, Ham reportedly had “good offers from both National and American Leagues but prefers to play ball on the [West] Coast.”62 Accordingly, he signed with yet another PCL club, the Portland (Oregon) Browns.63 In 58 games for a last-place (80-136, .370) team, Iburg posted a respectable 23-30 (.434) record, with a 2.73 ERA and only 74 walks in 461 1/3 innings pitched.

During the offseason, Iburg was on the move again, traded to the PCL’s Oakland Commuters for infielder Larry Schlafly.64 There, his work replicated that of the previous campaign: a 22-26 (.458) record with a 2.04 ERA in 428 1/3 innings pitched for another losing (103-119, .464) team. Except Ham’s batting was even worse than previously; he posted a pitiful (8-for-136) .059 batting average for Oakland.

Iburg intended to return to Oakland for the 1906 season but a prolonged salary dispute kept him on the sidelines as the campaign began.65 Threats to sign with an outlaw league in Pennsylvania did not impress club officials,66 and by the time that Iburg moderated his salary demands, the Commuters had lost interest in him.67 As a result, Ham spent most of the summer pitching for the Gantner & Matthews Knitters, a San Francisco semipro club. In early August, he came to terms with the PCL San Francisco Seals but then failed to show up for a scheduled start against Oakland.68 Instead, he pitched for a semipro club in nearby Modesto that afternoon.69 Upon receiving the news, San Francisco immediately voided Iburg’s contract.70 Ham spent the remainder of the season as an arm-for-hire engaged by various California semipro nines.

Despite testy prior experience with him, the Oakland Commuters re-signed Iburg for 907 but did not invite him to preseason training.71 When the regular season began without him, Ham demanded and received his release from the club.72 He then spent much of the summer playing with his younger brother Jack on a semipro team in Redwood City. The following March, it was reported that the Seattle Siwashes of the Class B Northwestern League were anxious to sign Iburg,73 but negotiations foundered when the club declined to meet the pitcher’s salary demands.74 Ham thereupon returned to the semipro ranks.

As far as has been discovered, Ham Iburg completed his professional career in late October 1908 after a late-season signing by the Oakland Commuters, by then a member of a newly formed and independent circuit called the California State League.75 Arguably the worst team in minor league baseball history, the Commuters finished the season with a ghastly 4-71 (.053) record. On October 25, new addition Iburg threw a route-going six-hitter at the pennant-winning Stockton Millers but dropped a respectable 3-0 decision.76 Notwithstanding that quality performance, Oakland did not give him another shot.

Although he later pitched an occasional semipro game, Iburg’s career was effectively over. He began his post-baseball years by returning to bookkeeping.77 But after he passed the requisite civil service exam, Ham spent the remainder of his working life in the employ of the San Francisco Fire Department, serving as a watchman and equipment repairer until his retirement in 1932.78 Thereafter, he lived quietly with his wife in their longtime San Francisco residence and came to suffer from hypertension.79 He subsequently contracted terminal cancer of the lymphatic tissue and died in the San Francisco home of his younger sister Henrietta on February 11, 1945.80 Herman Edward “Ham” Iburg was 71. Following funeral services, his remains were interred in Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma, California. Survivors included widow Katie, daughter Helen Iburg Blake, and his sisters Matilda Schemmelphennig and Henrietta Wollesen.

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Darren Gibson and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Tony Oliver.

Sources

Sources for the biographical info imparted above include the Ham Iburg file maintained at the Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, New York; US Census 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 “Necrology,” The Sporting News, February 22, 1945: 16.

2 See “The Sporting World in Brief,” (Grass Valley, California) Daily Morning Union, December 20, 1903: 7, citing the New York Telegraph.

3 According to Baseball-Reference, Retrosheet, and other current authority. That is also the date of birth that Iburg provided authorities under oath when he registered for military service at the time of World War I. Otherwise, Iburg was inconstant, placing his year of birth anywhere between 1873 and 1878.

4 In addition to Herman, the Iburg offspring were Matilda (born 1865), William N. (1867), Anna (1869), Elisabeth (1871), Henrietta (1876), Frederick (1878), and John (1882).

5 The basis for the Ham nickname was not discovered.

6 The 1897 San Francisco City Directory lists Iburg as a bookkeeper for a local brewery.

7 See e.g., “Society,” San Francisco Call, February 20, 1893: 3, complete with ink drawing of older sister Lizzie Iburg.

8 Fred and Jack Iburg later played for various San Francisco-area amateur and semipro ball clubs.

9 “About People,” Petaluma (California) Daily Courier, April 30, 1903: 1, citing the San Francisco Examiner.

10 See e.g., San Francisco Morning Call, March 29, 1894: 7. Iburg absorbed a 10-5 defeat. Two weeks later, he dropped a 17-10 decision to St. Ignatius.

11 Iburg’s association with the Pacifics is memorialized in the reportage of San Francisco newspapers. See e.g., “The Pacifics Easily Beaten, … Iburg Pitches a Steady Game,” San Francisco Examiner, November 25, 1895: 5. In late December, he was the Pacifics hurler in a $300 stake game lost to the Olympics, 15-8. See “Olympics Are Champions,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 30, 1895: 4.

12 Per “Professional Baseball,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 16, 1896: 10.

13 See “Sporting News,” Oakland Tribune, May 27, 1896: 6. See also, “The California League,” San Francisco Call, June 22, 1896: 5.

14 See “Oakland Won Easily,” San Francisco Call, June 29, 1896: 14; “Pugilists Cheered by the Rooters,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 29, 1896: 10; “Tom Sharkey Appears as Umpire of the California League Games,” San Francisco Examiner, June 29, 1896: 9, all of which used the Iberg misspelling.

15 With certain news outlets, the Iberg misspelling endured until the pitcher’s death more than a half-century later. See e.g., “Iberg, Baseball Oldtimer, Passes,” Pasadena (California) Star-News, February 13, 1945: 12; “‘Ham’ Iberg Dies,” Stockton (California) Record, February 12, 1945: 11.

16 “San Francisco Budget,” Sporting Life, August 8, 1896: 17.

17 See “Baseball at Central Park,” San Francisco Call, February 21, 1897: 8.

18 As reported in “San Francisco Budget,” Sporting Life, May 8, 1897: 6.

19 As memorialized in San Francisco newsprint. See e.g., “Markets Win by Superior Stick Work,” San Francisco Examiner, November 15, 1897: 4: “Ham Iberg, the brewery boy, yesterday pitched California Markets into first place.”

20 As reported in “Iberg Signed by the San Joses,” Daily Morning Union, May 5, 1898: 4. See also, Joe Corbett, “News of the Diamond,” San Francisco Call, May 12, 1898: 10.

21 As subsequently noted in “Married,” San Francisco Call, July 12, 1898: 11. According to State of California marriage records, the couple was married by a justice of the peace in San Jose on May 21, 1898.

22 Corbett, “Standing of the Clubs in the League Race,” San Francisco Call, July 9, 1898: 8. Iburg left San Jose when the club deducted $10 from his paycheck to pay another recently engaged pitcher. After going 24-8 for the Temple Cup-winning Baltimore Orioles in 1897, San Franciscan Corbett declined to return East the following spring, becoming a local sports columnist instead.

23 As reported in “Sports,” Los Angeles Evening Express, August 23, 1898: 2; “The Salary Question,” Los Angeles Times, August 23, 1898: 3; “Wanted Money to Play Ball,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 23, 1898: 11; and elsewhere.

24 See “Sporting Notes,” Oakland Enquirer, August 24, 1898: 8.

25 See e.g., Joe Corbett, “Ham Iberg Was Again the Star,” San Francisco Call, November 7, 1898: 10, taking note of Iberg’s “excellent form” in throwing a 2-0 shutout at the San Francisco Athletics.

26 Forest D. Lowry, “The California League,” Sporting Life, February 25, 1899: 5.

27 Lowry, “California Cullings,” Sporting Life, April 15, 1899: 6.

28 Per official California League stats published in the San Francisco Chronicle, December 24, 1899: 28. Baseball-Reference has no data for Iburg’s 1899 season.

29 Charles Dryden, “Loyal Baseball Fans and Notes of the Game,” San Francisco Examiner, April 15, 1899: 7.

30 See “Three to a Goose Egg,” Sacramento Record-Union, August 13, 1899: 4.

31 “Sacramento Scraps,” Sporting Life, November 11, 1899: 8.

32 Per the official 1899 California League stats published in the San Francisco Chronicle, above.

33 See “Baseball: Two New Players for the Reds,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 31, 1899: 9; “Facts from Frisco,” Sporting Life, December 2, 1899: 6.

34 Per “Official News,” Sporting Life, February 10, 1900: 7. See also, “Got a Tip,” Cincinnati Enquirer, January 15, 1900: 3.

35 “News and Comment,” Sporting Life, April 14, 1900: 5. Reportedly, Manning offered the two a $140/month salary and round-trip railroad fare from San Francisco, per “Baseball Men in Session,” Santa Cruz (California) Morning Sentinel, February 6, 1900: 1.

36 California League batting and fielding stats were published in the 1901 Reach and Spalding guides. Same placed Iburg in 49 games during the year.

37 See The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, Lloyd Johnson and Miles Wolff, eds. (Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, Inc., 3d ed., 2007), 181.

38 “Uncle and His Trio of Twirlers Talk Bravely of Pennant-Winning,” San Francisco Examiner, July 14, 1900: 7.

39 Lowry, “California Cullings,” Sporting Life, September 29, 1900: 10.

40 For details, see “Same Story of Defeat,” Los Angeles Times, June 2, 1901: 25.

41 The tale subsequently served as California sports page fodder for almost 20 years. See e.g., “Two Pitchers Win Pennant for Seals Once,” San Jose Evening News, July 25, 1917: 5; “Photographs Excavated from Catacombs of Sport: Ham Iberg,” San Francisco Bulletin, February 13, 1913: 17; “Champion Team Is Sadly Scattered,” Daily Morning Union, December 3, 1909: 7.

42 According to Baseball-Reference and the 1901 Reach Official Base Ball Guide, 231. Other authority places Whalen’s record at 38-24 (.613) and accords him the league lead in victories. See The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, above at 184. Meanwhile, Sunday specialist Krug went 8-2 (.800) for San Francisco down the stretch.

43 As reported in “Recruiting for the Reds,” Washington (DC) Evening Star, November 11, 1901: 9; “Princely Salaries for Base Ball Princes,” Wheeling (West Virginia) Sunday Register, November 10, 1901: 9; “Ham Iburg Is Wanted East,” Los Angeles Evening Express, October 23, 1901: 7.

44 Per “Reds Lose ‘Ham’ Iberg,” Cincinnati Post, November 30, 1901: 4. See also, “Unjust Criticism from the East,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 7, 1901: 8. Rogers used former Phillies third basemen Charlie Reilly as his intermediary in negotiations with Iburg.

45 As reported in “Base Ball Talk,” Boston Herald, January 19, 1902: 43, and “Baseball Gossip,” St. Louis Republic, January 3, 1902: 7.

46 According to “New Yorkers Are Victims of Phillies,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 19, 1902: 6.

47 See “Yesterday’s Baseball Games,” New York Times, April 19, 1902: 6, and “Quakers Beat New York,” New York Tribune, April 19, 1902: 6, both of which describe Iburg’s pitching as “invincible.” See also, “Iberg Pitched a Fine Game,” Philadelphia Times, April 19, 1902: 2.

48 See “Curves Used by League Pitchers,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 18, 1901: 12.

49 In this regard, Iburg pioneered the pitching pattern that All-Star reliever Doug Jones put to effective use some 85 years later – except Iburg kept it up for an entire game, not just an inning or two.

50 See e.g., Will Connolly, “Ham Iburg of Our Town Was Pioneer of Slow Ball Pitching in the Majors,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 13, 1945: 11: ‘[Iburg] was never a robust man and lacked the weight required for burning the ball in. … Realizing his physical shortcomings, Ham took refuge in his noodle.”

51 See “Notes of the Game,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 13, 1902: 10.

52 As recalled in Hiland Baggerly, “30 Years of Sports: Ham Iberg, Slow Ball Pitcher,” Oakland Post-Enquirer, February 23, 1926: 13; “Ham Iberg Fooled Ned Hanlon as Well as Batsmen,” San Francisco Bulletin, December 22, 1909: 8; and elsewhere.

53 See e.g., A.R. Cratty, “Pittsburg Points,” Sporting Life, November 18, 1905: 6: “Iberg was handicapped when in the East by his poor eyesight. He could not see well and bunts got away from him.”

54 Per “Phyle to Remain Another Season,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 21, 1902: 8. See also, “Baseball Gossip,” Columbus Dispatch, February 4, 1903: 13.

55 See “Short Jottings,” (Portland) Oregon Journal, February 16, 1903: 3; “Base Ball Notes,” Washington (DC) Evening Star, February 7, 1903: 9.

56 According to Francis C. Richter, “Philadelphia News,” Sporting Life, January 24, 1903: 6.

57 See “Iberg and Irwin Sign with Locals,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 29, 1903: 4.

58 Per E.B. Lenhart, “Incorporated and Five Directors Named,” San Francisco Examiner, March 15, 1903: 9.

59 See again, “Iberg and Irwin Sign with Locals,” above. See also, “Go to the ‘Frisco Team,” Los Angeles Evening Express, January 29, 1903: 5; “Two Cracks Signed by San Francisco,” Salt Lake Telegram, January 29, 1903: 7.

60 “Pacific Coast League News,” Sporting Life, December 5, 1903: 5.

61 Per “Lumley Finished in the Lead in Batting Averages,” Oakland Enquirer, December 1, 1903: 6.

62 Per “Iberg to Pitch Here,” (Portland) Morning Oregonian, February 11, 1904: 7.

63 As reported in “Portland Signs Iberg,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 11, 1904: 9; “Iberg Signed to Play with Browns,” Oregon Journal, February 10, 1904: 5.

64 See “Iberg Traded for Schlafly,” Los Angeles Herald, January 19, 1905: 10, and San Francisco Call, January 17, 1905: 10.

65 See “News Notes,” Sporting Life, March 31, 1906: 11; Del Reynolds, “Observations of a Fan,” Los Angeles Evening Express, March 20, 1906: 10; “Jim Morley’s Club Will Train at Home,” San Francisco Bulletin, March 14, 1906: 14.

66 Reported in “Outlaws Send Offers to Iburg,” Oakland Tribune, April 4, 1906: 12. See also, San Francisco Bulletin, April 3, 1906: 11.

67 Per “Oaks to Leave to Open Baseball Season,” Oakland Enquirer, April 5, 1906: 6.

68 “Ham Iburg Signed, But Fails to Show Up,” San Francisco Bulletin, August 4, 1906: 7.

69 Per “Ham Iberg Turns Up in the Bushes at Modesto,” San Francisco Call, August 7, 1906: 2. Pitching for the Oakdale club, Iburg was hammered by the Modesto Reds, 12-3.

70 As reported in the Daily Morning Union, August 10, 1906: 3.

71 Per “Gossip About the Players,” Seattle Daily Times, March 19, 1907: 15; “Ham Iberg Signs with Oakland,” Stockton Daily Evening Record, March 13, 1907: 4.

72 See Harry B. Smith, “Pacific Coast Baseball League Will Open Season To-Day in This City,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 6, 1907: 8.

73 Per “Ham Iberg Wanted by Seattle Nine,” Oakland Tribune, March 3, 1908: 10; “Dugdale Wants Ham Iberg for Seattle,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 3, 1908: 8.

74 See “With the Coasters,” Oregon Daily Journal, March 6, 1908: 12; “Baseball Notes,” Stockton Daily Evening Record, March 4, 1908: 4.

75 Oakland had been dropped from the reduced-to-four-clubs Pacific Coast League over the preceding winter.

76 See “Leaders All Take Easy Game and Standing Unchanged,” Sacramento Bee, October 26, 1908: 8, complete with Stockton-Oakland box score.

77 As reported in “When the Locals Won a Pennant in 1901,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 15, 1909: 45.

78 As reflected in San Francisco city directories (1909-1932) and the brief Iburg obituary published in the Pasadena (California) Star-News, February 13, 1945: 12.

79 According to the posthumous player questionnaire completed by daughter Helen Iburg Blake in September 1970 and now contained in the Ham Iburg file at the Giamatti Research Center.

80 Bill Lee, The Baseball Necrology (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2003), 195. Surgery in 1943 failed to arrest the spread of the disease.