Harry Raymond

Harry Raymond was a light-hitting third baseman who played mostly for the Louisville Colonels of the American Association in the late 1880s and early 1890s. While his statistical performance as a hitter was hardly exceptional, with a career batting average of only .235, Raymond was at the center of several remarkable events. He was part of what may have been the first strike by major-league players. He was also briefly “permanently” banned for “jumping” his contract. And, when pressed into an emergency stint as a pitcher, Raymond threw a complete-game victory, in his only major-league pitching stint, giving up only two runs (one earned) despite surrendering eight hits and 11 walks.

Although he played his entire baseball career as Harry Raymond, his birth name was John M. Truman.1 John was born on February 20, 1862, in the hamlet of Sauquoit in the town of Paris, near Utica in upstate New York. His parents, James and Margaret, were of Irish heritage. James was born in Canada and Margaret in New York; but all of John’s grandparents were born in Ireland. James was a carriage maker. John was the seventh of the couple’s eight children. The 1880 Census listed 17-year-old John as living with his parents in the town of Paris and attending school. By 1883, John had moved to the Midwest. On November 9, 1883, a 21-year-old John and Mary Jane Lane, 19, were married in Jackson County (Kansas City), Missouri.2

John began his professional baseball career, as Harry Raymond, in 1887, playing for three Western League teams in the Kansas City area: the Kansas City Cowboys, Leavenworth Soldiers, and Emporia Reds.3 Raymond broke into the majors late in the 1888 season, appearing in 32 games for the Colonels, all but one at third base. He batted .211 with 13 runs batted in.

In 1889, the 5-foot-9, 179-pound Raymond was the Colonels’ regular third baseman throughout the season. The Colonels’ season was a disaster. The club compiled a 27-111 record, including a record-setting 26-game losing streak.4

In addition to poor performance, the Colonels were plagued by a mercurial and penurious owner, Mordecai Davidson. Undercapitalized and facing low ticket sales, Davidson trimmed the roster and fell behind in meeting the payroll. Then he instituted a system of fines to be imposed on the players for perceived errors. The situation came to a head in mid-June as the team arrived on a road trip to Baltimore. The June 15 Baltimore Sun summarized the turmoil: “The trouble which has been brewing in the Louisville club culminated yesterday. When the game was called at the Oriole grounds, only six of the Louisville players put in an appearance. … The players who refused to play say they were short of salary and that on [the previous day] after the game, Shannon and Cook each were fined $25 for errors and stupid base running.”5

Three local amateurs were recruited to enable the Colonels to field a team, but rain washed out the contest in the second inning. A day before the team left Louisville for the Baltimore road trip, Davidson was presented with a petition signed by the players, including Raymond, stating that unless Shannon’s and Cook’s fines were rescinded, the players would not play. A copy of the petition was sent to the president of the American Association, C.W. Wikoff. Wikoff, coincidentally, was presiding over a special meeting of the Association’s leaders in New York City to determine what to do about the problematic Louisville franchise.

In an attempt to end the players strike, on Saturday, June 15, Davidson and Wikoff traveled to Baltimore to order the players to report for that day’s games. Wikoff was reported to have assured the players that their complaints would be fairly considered by the Association. The players were unmoved. They boycotted that day’s games, as well.

There were no games on June 16, which was a Sunday, but progress toward a resolution of the stand-off was made. According to the Baltimore Sun, the striking players met with Billy Barnie, the Baltimore manager, and followed his advice to file a grievance with the Association, and the two games scheduled for Monday went off with full rosters of players. The Sun summarized the resolution: “The trouble in the Louisville Club has ended temporarily. A committee representing the players called upon Manager Barnie, of the Baltimore Club, in whom they have confidence, and accepted his advice to continue playing and lay their grievances before the association for settlement. The sympathy of the public is with the players. The men did wisely in acting upon Manager Barnie’s advice.”6

The American Association’s Board of Directors took up the players’ grievances at a meeting in Louisville on July 5. The board heard statements from Raymond and the other teammates who had refused to play, as well as from Davidson. The board found that, while the players’ refusal to play the June 14 game was “reprehensible and almost unpardonable,” they had been “arbitrarily and unreasonably treated in many ways.” Accordingly, the board reversed the fines, including those imposed for boycotting the June 14 game. This included $100 levied against Raymond. The board, however, left in place the $100 fines against Raymond and the five other players who boycotted the June 15 game, with the rationale that this refusal came after a direct order by Association President Wikoff.7 Meanwhile, Davidson turned the franchise back to the Association on July 2. At the meeting on July 5, the board approved the transfer of the Colonels franchise to a new syndicate of local businessmen.

In the midst of this chaos, Raymond contributed an unlikely feat. On July 27 the Colonels faced a game against the Columbus Solons in Columbus without a starting pitcher. Their already barebones roster had been further depleted by injuries to three of the regular starters. Despite having never pitched in the majors and having pitched in only three minor-league games, Raymond took the mound against the Solons.

Raymond threw a complete-game 6-2 victory, a remarkable achievement in itself. Even more remarkable, however, is that he accomplished this despite giving up eight hits, allowing 11 bases on balls, and throwing two wild pitches. One helpful factor was good fielding, which the Courier-Journal called “the most brilliant fielding the club has done this season.”8 Three times the Solons loaded the bases without scoring. There were also at least four inning-ending double plays. Raymond’s pitching was also solid at crucial times. The Courier-Journal summed up his performance: “It is true that he was wild, sending eleven men to bases on balls, but at critical times his judgment was good and his delivery hard to get outside the diamond. Umpire Jack Holland was also very severe in calling balls on him.”9

Holland did indeed call a severe game on Raymond, while charging Al Mays, the Solons pitcher, with only two walks. Raymond’s victory, while inspiring, did not affect the remainder of the 1889 season, which saw the Colonels finish dead last, in eighth place. Raymond improved his batting average to .239 in 130 games, driving in 47 runs.

In 1890 the Colonels and Raymond pulled off a remarkable rebirth, going from worst to first and winning the American Association title.10 The formation of a third major league – the Players’ League – led to the defection of many players to the new league for the 1890 season. The loss of players took a toll on the American Association. The Louisville team nonetheless played well throughout the season. Raymond was the Colonels’ regular third baseman. He appeared in 123 games, drove in a career-best 51 runs and hit .259, the highest of his four years in the American Association and one in the National League.

Despite his relatively brief time in the major leagues, Raymond was a central figure in another significant baseball occurrence. It occurred during the 1891 season, a period of labor turmoil in baseball. The Players’ League went out of business before the 1891 season and a new national agreement was negotiated by the National League and American Association. A new National Board of Control, chaired by Nick Young, the National League president, was established to oversee relations among the clubs. Disagreements arose, however, over who had the right to sign former Players’ League players and even whether Young and the Board of Control had jurisdiction over non-National League clubs.

Raymond started the 1891 season under contract with the Lincoln Rustlers of the Western Association. In June he jumped to the Louisville Colonels. The Louisville Courier-Journal on June 21 published a report from a Kansas City newspaper describing Raymond’s “jump”:

“After a great deal of talk and very little action, the American Association has at length succeeded in stealing one player away from the Western Association. The report of the desertion of third baseman Raymond of the Lincoln Club to the Louisville Club turns out to be true, as Raymond played with the Louisvilles yesterday. … The question now is what the Western Association is going to do in the way of reprisal or self-protection from the raid of the self-styled pirates. The desertion of Raymond is a serious blow to the Lincoln team.”11

The National Board of Control quickly acted, ruling that Raymond and another jumping player were permanently ineligible. On June 17, 1891, the Board of Control, in a statement signed by its chairman, Young, declared that Raymond and the other player were “forever ineligible to play with or against another National Agreement club.” Lest there be any doubt about the finality of the board’s ruling, its statement added that “this order or any other that may be made for the same cause, will never be modified or revoked during the existence of the present board, whose term of office will not expire for five years.”12

Despite the board’s order, Raymond continued to play for the Colonels, logging 14 games at shortstop. Then, despite having just negotiated a two-year contract with Louisville, Raymond jumped back to the Rustlers, along with Louisville pitcher Red Ehret. On July 7 Chairman Young issued a new statement, “clarifying that under the Board’s prior order “it was not my intention, nor do I consider I had the authority to thus punish any person whose overt act occurred prior to the issuance of the orders.”13 Young’s new order gave jumping players 10 days to return to their prior clubs. Since Raymond had already rejoined the Rustlers, Young’s second statement rendered Raymond’s case moot. 

In 1892 Raymond played in only 16 major-league games, all in the National League – 12 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and 4 with the Washington Nationals. He also played 12 games for the Spokane Bunchgrassers in the Pacific Northwest League and apparently for the Phillipsburg Burgers in Phillipsburg, Montana.

He was well-traveled and continued playing in the minor leagues, however, until 1899. In 1893 he is seen in 64 games for the Montgomery (Alabama) Colts. In 1894 he played for Binghamton, New York, and (when the franchise was transferred) Allentown, Pennsylvania. He also logged 86 games – batting .342 for the Western League’s Detroit Creams (and pitching in one game for Detroit). The Creams changed their name to the Tigers in 1895 and Raymond hit .290 in 121 games.

In 1896 Raymond played for Syracuse, Rochester, and Dubuque – continuing to log an impressive amount of travel for any player in the days before the automobile. Statistics are spotty. 

Raymond’s 1897 season included stints for Newark and Reading. In 1898 he played in Utica.

In a touch of symmetry, Raymond finished his career in 1899 playing for three New York State League teams – the Utica Pentups, near his childhood home, the Albany Senators, and the Schenectady Electricians.14

Harry Raymond/John Truman disappeared from the public eye after Raymond’s career ended. At some point after his playing days, he apparently moved to California, where he died in San Diego at the age of 63 on March 21, 1925.15 He is buried, as John Truman, at Greenwood Memorial Park in San Diego.16

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, the Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, and Ancestry.com.

Notes

1 It is unclear why John Truman adopted Harry Raymond as his “baseball name,” using it from his first game in he minor leagues through more than a decade of playing, contract negotiations, and disciplinary disputes. Perhaps the most logical explanation is that his parents did not view professional baseball as an appropriate occupation, and that he adopted Harry Raymond as his baseball name to mollify his parents.

2 Marriage Records, Jackson County Clerk, Kansas City, Missouri.

3 https://www.statscrew.com/minorbaseball/stats.

4 A thorough discussion of the hapless Colonels’ season and losing streak is found in Bob Bailey, “Sad-Sack Colonels” in Bill Felber, ed., Inventing Baseball, the 100 Greatest Games of the Nineteenth Century (Phoenix: Society for American Baseball Research, 2013) and in David Nemec, The Beer and Whisky League (New York: Lyons & Burford, 1994).

5 “LOUISVILLE BASE-BALL CLUB. Six Men Refuse to Play Without Salaries,” Baltimore Sun, June 15, 1889: 6.  

6 “The Louisville Trouble Settled,” Baltimore Sun, June 17, 1889: 5.

7 “Adjusting the Fines,” Louisville Courier-Journal, July 6, 1889: 6.

8 “WON THE GAME. At Last Louisville Earns a Victory From a Base Ball Club.” Louisville Courier-Journal, July 28, 1889: 4. 

9 “WON THE GAME.”

10 For an account of the losing streak see Jimmy Keenan, “The First Worst to First,” in Inventing Baseball, the 100 Greatest Games of the Nineteenth Century

11 Louisville Courier-Journal, June 21, 1891: 13.

12 “Oh, Come On, Nick Young,” Louisville Courier-Journal, June 18, 1891: 6.

13 “YOUNG EXPLAINS. Of Course Black Listed Players Can Return to Their Clubs,” Louisville Courier-Journal, July 8, 1891: 6.

14 Statscrew.com/minorbaseball/stats.

15 California Department of Health and Welfare, Vital Records.

16 Author’s 2022 telephone interview with Greenwood Memorial Park representative.