Hugh High

Hugh High’s brother, Andy, himself a 13-year big leaguer, once succinctly summarized big brother Hughie’s career: “He played center field in place of Ty [Cobb] for about six weeks one year when Ty held out,” then “he went to New York to help the Yankees out, but the Yankees got to the point where they didn’t need any help.”1 Hugh played in 516 games with the Tigers and Yankees from 1913 to 1918, hitting .250 and twice leading all American League outfielders in fielding average.

Hugh Jenkins High was born October 24, 1888, in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, where his father, Richard, conducted the Pottstown Silver Cornet Band. Hugh’s mother, Margaret (Aird) High, was born in Northern Ireland and immigrated to the United States with her mother and three siblings in 1876. Richard and Margaret met and married in 1883 while Richard was serving as a musician in the United States Army at Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis. Hugh was named after his father’s brother, who, in 1885, as captain of the Pottstown Bicycle Club, rode his 50-inch Columbia Expert from Pottstown to Seward, Nebraska, and back — a round trip of over 2,600 miles.2 Together, the Highs had 13 children, including Hugh, Andy, and Charlie — all major league baseball players — and Ralph High, whose poor eyesight prevented him from sticking with either of the Nebraska State League teams he auditioned for in the early 1930s.

In 1892, the Highs moved to New Jersey and then a few years later to Ava, Illinois. Margaret had several aunts, uncles, and cousins in southern Illinois, and Richard found work as a stationary engineer at the small town’s grain mill while he learned electrical engineering through a correspondence course. In 1903, Richard moved the family to St. Louis so the children could receive a better education. The Highs settled in Kerry Patch, a baseball-rich Irish neighborhood just north of downtown where Hall of Fame pitcher Pud Galvin had been born and raised.

By 1909, baseball was beloved in the Mound City and “there was a team on every vacant lot.”3 One such semi-professional team was the Ellendales, featuring 21-year-old left fielder Hugh High, who would lead the Missouri-Illinois Trolley League with a .444 average in 23 games played on Sundays and summer holidays.4 St. Louis Browns center fielder Danny Hoffman took in an Ellendales game one Sunday while he was nursing a sore wrist and recommended High to Browns owner Robert Hedges.5 High was offered a tryout for 1910, but elected to instead complete the final year of his plumber’s apprenticeship before pursuing a baseball career.6 High stayed in St. Louis and led the Trolley League in hits (23) and games played (28) in 1910 while playing with the Belleville (Illinois) Maroons.7

With his plumber’s apprenticeship finished, High, “a very fast man and a left-handed hitter who knows how to nail them proper,” entered professional baseball in 1911 after being signed by fellow Kerry Patch native Bob Connery, who was in his fourth year as player-manager of the Class B Hartford Senators.8

High excelled in his first year of pro ball, and when he went 6-for-6 against the Springfield Ponies on June 20, major league teams began to notice. Billy Hamilton of the Boston Braves was the first to show interest in High, with Bill “Boileryard” Clarke of the Tigers and Sam Kennedy of the Indians giving him looks soon thereafter.9 The Philadelphia Phillies were the first to make Hartford owner James Clarkin an offer on High, but when they wanted the Senators’ leading hitter immediately, Clarkin responded “not a chance.”10 High was hitting .307 and Hartford was only four games off the Connecticut State League lead with 32 left to play.11 On August 15, Clarkin accepted $2,500 for High — half of what the Phillies were willing to pay — from the New York Giants, but only after John McGraw agreed to let High finish the season in Hartford.12

On January 6, 1912, the St. Louis Star ran a feature on High wherein sports editor Billy Murphy assured readers that High “is going to take Jack [Red] Murray’s place in the New York National’s outfield.”13 Murphy sang High praises in tune with the flowery fluff common in editorials of the day:

Here we have a boy in perfect health; an athlete in body; a head for baseball; a man who can listen; a man who is patient; a man who has eliminated whim, grouch and notion; a man who eats and sleeps baseball; a man who is an aggressive, nervy player — but a gentleman with it all.14

Murphy went on to tell a story about High being spotted in 1907 by St. Louis amateur baseball promoter Charley Fesenfeldt, who — according to Murphy — intervened on the teenager’s behalf just as High was about to be hauled off to jail for playing ball in the street. Fesenfeldt allegedly convinced the arresting officer to release High, and Fesenfeldt put High on the roster of his Talking Machines, long since recognized as one of the best youth baseball teams to ever play in St. Louis.15

Despite Murphy’s assurances, High never even received an invitation to Giants’ spring training in 1912. McGraw preferred not to use the left-handed hitting High, and after initially indicating that the young outfielder would be sent to the Mobile Sea Gulls of the Southern Association, sold High back to Hartford for $2,500 on January 19.16 Incensed, High was rumored to be looking to sign with a team in the upstart Columbian League being planned by publicist John T. Powers as the third major league.17 High denied the rumor and said he was “glad to get back to the culture and civilization of the East” in Hartford.18

After being scorned by the Giants, High hit often and he hit hard in Hartford in 1912. High was especially productive late in the season while the Senators were chasing the first-place New Haven Murlins. The Senators finished the season seven games behind the Murlins, but High hit .327 to become the first Hartford player to lead the league in hitting.19 High also paced the Connecticut State League in hits (145), doubles (31), triples (13), and slugging (.490), as well as leading all left fielders with a .957 fielding average and 21 assists.20

With High having the season he had, scouts again hurried to see him. The Browns dispatched Fred Lake to Hartford with hopes of bringing the unlikely 5-foot-7 slugger back home to St. Louis, and Cy Ferry of the Tigers arrived on July 10 to see High go 1-for-4 and make a “fine catch” that “cheated Chet [Waite] out of a hit.”21 High impressed again on August 12 in a charity all-star game when he was clocked circling the bases in 15.2 seconds in a pregame race.22 In late August, the Tigers purchased High for $3,000, and as a reward for being “the best all around player in the league,” Hartford owner James Clarkin gave High a $100 bonus.23

Hugh High’s second try with a major league team also almost ended before it started. When High received his contract from Tigers owner Frank Navin, the salary was less than he had been paid in Hartford — a violation of the bylaws of the National Commission which called for players coming up from the minor leagues to be paid at least 25 percent more in the majors.24 High had made $175 a month in Hartford and his initial Tiger contract called for a monthly salary of only $166.50.25

When High called attention to the unacceptable amount, Navin replied: “We will pay you what the contract calls for and not a cent more, and if this is not satisfactory to you, you can remain idle during the coming season.”26 High would not sign and vowed to return to St. Louis as a plumber before he would be an underpaid ball player in Detroit. High held out for nearly a month before Navin relented and issued High a new contract paying the 24-year-old rookie $300 a month.27

Going into spring training at Gulfport, Mississippi, in February 1913, Tiger manager Hughie Jennings had room for just one reserve outfielder with Bobby Veach, Ty Cobb, and Sam Crawford set from left to right. High, the “daintiest piece of bric-a-brac on the Tigers roster,” and Ray Powell were “putting up a scrap for the fourth outfield position,” with Powell holding the advantage.28 High struggled against left-handed pitching, while Powell, who had spent five years in the minor leagues, was believed to be the better all-around hitter.29

Undeterred and humble, High finished the spring hitting .324 and pledged to be the first to congratulate Powell should Jennings choose him over High.30 In the end, no congratulations were in order: Cobb held out for a raise until April 29, the ankle Veach sprained in Chattanooga on April 2 didn’t heal for almost three weeks, and both rookies made the team.31

High made his major league debut on April 11, 1913, in St. Louis, pinch-hitting for Tigers pitcher Al Klawitter in the eighth inning with the bases loaded. High popped out to Browns shortstop — and his best friend — Dee Walsh, and the Tigers lost both games in St. Louis to start the season.32 With Cobb and owner Navin still far apart on a salary, High made his first start on April 14 in Cleveland. High walked to lead off the top of the eighth inning and came around to score the tying run as the Tigers scored three in the inning to win their first game of the season. High got his first major-league hit the next day, beating out a groundball back to Naps pitcher Cy Falkenberg, as the Tigers were shut out.

Cobb eventually signed his 1913 contract — for $12,000 — and returned to the Tigers on April 29. High was coming off a recent four-game series against the Browns in which he went 7-for-13, making Jennings reluctant to send him back to the bench as the fourth outfielder. In the meantime, as of May 2, first baseman Del Gainer’s average had slipped to .194, and, after Sam Crawford was convinced there was a “pressing need of making room for Hughie High to become a regular member of the cast,” agreed to play first base so that High could remain in center with Cobb in right.33 High got just one hit in the next five games, however, and was returned to a part-time role on May 13.

High played his best ball of 1913 during a two-week stretch filling in for Cobb after Ty hurt his knee on July 2. High went 13-for-39 with eight walks and five runs batted in, and when Cobb returned on July 12, Jennings put him at second base for only the second time in his career so High could stay in the lineup. Cobb was open to a permanent switch to second base but preferred not to learn the position during the season and was returned to the outfield.

In all, High made it into 87 games his rookie season, and while his .230 batting average wasn’t what he or the Tigers had hoped for, his style of play earned adoration from the fans as it was “the stuff that Manager Jennings likes.”34 High had a knack for hitting with two strikes and made just two errors all season (for a .982 fielding average); “that stuff will win” wrote Ralph Yonker of the Detroit Times.35

On October 21, 1913, High married Gladys Fahning of St. Louis. The two remained married until Hugh’s death nearly 50 years later. The couple had no children.

That same October, George Stovall, still under contract with the St. Louis Browns, was offered $7,000 to manage the Kansas City Packers of the newly-formed Federal League.36 Stovall eventually accepted and offered High a guaranteed three-year contract at $2,700 annually if he would jump from the Tigers and play for him in Kansas City. The offer was much more than the Tigers were paying High, but when Stovall refused to deposit the money upfront, High declined and became the first Tiger to sign his 1914 contract.37

The Detroit Times’ spring training correspondent reported that High was “so changed from last season that he would hardly be recognized as the same man.”38 He was no longer battling for a roster spot in 1914, and had become so close with manager Jennings that the two were often spotted joking and playing handball together.39 With little pressure to impress, “the little St. Louis plumber” started “rapping [the ball] a mile-a-minute on the ground or lining into the outfield with great regularity,” and very nearly pushed Bobby Veach to the bench.40

The Tigers broke camp with Veach as their left fielder, but when he started May hitless in 17 at-bats, High got the call. Hughie went 7-for-19 in his first five games playing in Veach’s stead, and the Tigers built a four-game lead atop the American League standings. High also filled in dutifully for Cobb again in 1914. The Peach missed 15 games in mid-May after a pitch from Boston’s George Foster fractured one of his ribs and another 42 games after Cobb broke his right thumb in a fight outside a Detroit butcher shop on June 21 that stemmed from Cobb pulling a gun on the proprietor after Cobb claimed the man had insulted Mrs. Cobb when she refused to pay for fish she said was spoiled upon delivery.41 Cobb missed 42 games while High hit .432 platooning in center field with rookie Harry Heilmann.

On October 20, 1914, the New York Times reported that George and Robert Ward, owners of the Federal League Brooklyn Tip-Tops, had been approached regarding the sale and transfer of the Yankees from the American League to the upstart Federal. Yankees co-owner Frank Farrell insisted his team was not for sale, but American League President Ban Johnson was not convinced and redoubled his efforts to see to it that Jacob Ruppert and Til Huston acquired the Yankees.42 In the meantime, Johnson called on the league’s other teams to offer quality players to the Yankees at reasonable prices in hopes that strengthening the club (they had only finished in the first division four times in their 12 years of existence) would help keep it in the American League. The first to answer Johnson’s request was Tigers owner Frank Navin, who offered up High and first-base prospect Wally Pipp. After weeks of negotiating, the sale of High and Pipp to the Yankees was finalized at $5,000 each on February 4, 1915.43

No longer playing in the shadows of two future Hall-of-Famers (Cobb and Sam Crawford), High had a career year in 1915. He not only achieved personal bests in every offensive category, but the 27-year-old outfielder was instrumental in the Yankees fifth-place finish, their best since 1910. Beginning Opening Day — when he walked three times against Walter Johnson, stole two bases, and made five putouts in left field — High was a catalyst for the emerging Yankees. He ranked second on the team in doubles (19), triples (7), walks (62), and on-base average (.356), and his .981 fielding average was better than all other American League outfielders. In June, teammates donned him “the luckiest ball player alive” after he returned to the lineup following a hitting slump and sparked a seven-game winning streak by hitting .360 and reaching base more times (14) than any other player.44

The Yankees continued their slow and steady rise to American League dominance in 1916 by bringing on the likes of Frank “Home Run” Baker, Nick Cullop, and Lee Magee, a .289-hitter in five seasons with the Cardinals and Brooklyn Tip-Tops. By the last week of spring training in Macon, Georgia, Magee, Fritz Maisel, and Frank Gilhooley had outhit High and though “it seem[ed] a pity to keep a man like that out of the game,” manager Bill Donovan “very wisely figure[d] that wallops are what make runs,” so Hugh lost his spot as a Yankee starter.45

A week into the season, however, both Magee and Gilhooley were stricken with tonsillitis, and on May 15, Fritz Maisel broke his right collarbone. High got the call to replace his injured teammates but struggled to keep his average above .200 in his first month as a starter. By July 19, however, High had made 20 hits in his last 50 at bats, and “was just getting into a hitting fury” when he sprained an ankle running in on a shallow fly ball.46 High was the seventh Yankee lost to injury, and the team fell from first place less than two weeks later.

High played the rest of the season on the weak ankle and dealt with occasional bouts of leg cramps, but “proved himself one of the fastest outfielders in the American League” and led all left fielders with a .974 fielding average.47 High also led the Yankees in on-base percentage (.349) and was second to only Home Run Baker in batting average (.263 to Baker’s .269), prompting Bozeman Bulger of the New York Evening World to remind readers: “Don’t forget that little lad in the daily discussion of heroes.”48 Even with all the injuries, the Yankees broke into the first division in 1916, finishing just one game ahead of the fifth-place St. Louis Browns.

Over the winter, High developed blood poisoning after a blister on his foot became infected, and he arrived at spring training in February 1917 able to wear just one shoe. The blister was slow to heal, and High could only wear an open sandal on the injured foot.49 High eventually got his work in, provided clutch hits in exhibition games, and broke camp having reclaimed the left field spot he lost to Magee the season before.

Through the end of May, High was hitting just .190 in the second spot of the Yankee lineup, but he was not alone in his early-season slump. Aside from Wally Pipp (.296) and Home Run Baker (.262), no Yankee was hitting above .244, and the outfielders were particularly anemic.50 High was getting on base and scoring runs, however — his 18 walks were second on the team — and with no one to replace him, High remained in the lineup until May 24 when a breakout of boils on his neck sidelined him.

High returned on June 4, and, with two on and two out in the bottom of the ninth of a tie game with the Tigers, shot a single past shortstop Donie Bush to beat his old team, 6-5.51 High looked “to have recovered his mislaid batting eye” with nine hits in nine games at the end of June before he was again laid up when the boils reemerged, this time on his knees.52 Hugh missed 19 games and returned on July 16 to hit .267 through the season’s end, which, for High, came on September 20 when rookie Bill Lamar replaced him in the lineup.

In November, the Washington Post speculated that High would join the Washington Nationals for 1918 after manager Clark Griffith showed interest in High toward the end of 1917.53 Griffith had put in a waiver claim on High, but the Yankees held on to him after his average began to rise in July and August. Griffith was no longer interested in High, however, after the Nationals acquired Burt Shotton in a December trade with the Browns.54 In March, the Yankees traded for Ping Bodie and offered High, now 30 years old, to the Dodgers, but they too passed.55

Unable to move High before the start of the season, the Yankees kept five outfielders, with High ranked behind Bodie, Gilhooley, Elmer Miller, and Armando Marsans. On May 1, Red Sox manager Ed Barrow offered to purchase High to serve as a reserve on his first-place club, but new Yankees manager Miller Huggins refused to sell High, preferring instead to trade him for a pitcher.56 A week later, a deal was in place that would send High to the Cardinals for pitcher Jakie May, but Barrow blocked it.57 On Memorial Day, Huggins informed High — who was hitless in 10 at bats — that he had been sold to the sixth-place Athletics, but High refused to go and was suspended.58

While the Yankees were figuring out what they were going to do with High, the plumber-outfielder took a job in the engine plant at the Sparrow’s Point, Maryland shipyard — and center field on the company’s Bethlehem Steel League team.59 High got two hits in his Pointers debut on June 8, but no more until he collected four in a Fourth of July doubleheader.

Earlier that same Independence Day, Bostonians awoke to news that Babe Ruth had quit the Red Sox following another argument with manager Barrow.60 Ruth had stormed home to Baltimore and was said to be ready to join the Chester Ship team in the Delaware River Shipbuilding League that afternoon.61 Though few believed Ruth would really join the shipbuilders (he rejoined the Red Sox just two days later), Boston owner Harry Frazee announced he would bring suit against the shipyard, and, just in case, he made a deal with the Yankees for Hugh High.62

Before he would go to Boston, however, High demanded the Yankees pay his salary for the time he was suspended.63 When the Yankees declined, High quit major league baseball and stayed with Sparrow’s Point, where his “sensational catches” were the “constant subject of conversation among the Steel Workers.”64

On February 5, 1919, both High and his Sparrow’s Point teammate Allen Russell were reinstated to the Yankees by the National Baseball Commission.65 Russell went on to have the best season of his career in 1919; Hugh High wasn’t even invited to spring training. High was instructed to stay home, and when he was optioned to Toledo ten days before the season started, he kept on plumbing, “consider[ing] that more lucrative than playing in the minors again.”66

The thought of playing in the big leagues again, however, still appealed to High, and after meeting with Miller Huggins in St. Louis in late May, High accepted a sale to the Vernon Tigers of the Pacific Coast League. High became “bent on returning to the big show,” going 3-for-6 with four runs scored in his Tigers debut on June 5, and hitting .317 for the Tigers’ 1919 championship season that became tainted when it was revealed that first baseman Babe Borton was in cahoots with Seattle gambler Nate Raymond and had paid players on opposing teams to throw games in Vernon’s favor.67 With no team having called by the end of the season, High announced his retirement and the opening of his own plumbing business back in St. Louis with brother Charlie as his partner.68

But High just couldn’t quit, and he spent six seasons doing all he could to again catch the eye of a major-league team. He led the Pacific Coast League in fielding (.993) in 1920 by making just three errors in 177 games, and became respected as “one of the niftiest gardeners ever seen in the Far West” over the next two seasons.69 After the Vernon Tigers lost 122 games in 1923, many of the team’s veterans were sold off, with High going to Columbus.70 High hit .306 and fielded .990 for the Senators in 1924, and was then sold to Birmingham of the Southern Association.71 High couldn’t break the Barons outfield out of spring camp and after refusing to be sold to the Class A Shreveport Sports was sold to the Reading Keystones, where he hit .307 in the final 94 games of his professional career.72

Finally and fully retired from baseball in 1926 at age 38, High returned to plumbing full-time in St. Louis, where he remained until his death on November 16, 1962. High was 75 and had spent the better part of the past 18 months battling diabetes and heart disease. Gladys was his only survivor, and she oversaw his burial in the city’s Bellefontaine Cemetery.

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Darren Gibson and Howard Rosenberg and fact-checked by Kevin Larkin.

Sources

Ancestry.com

Baltimore Sun

Baseball-Reference.com

Cleveland Plain Dealer

St. Louis Globe Democrat

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

St. Louis Star

Notes

1 Eugene Murdock, Baseball Players and Their Times: Oral Histories of the Game, 1920-1940 (Westport, CT: Meckler Publishing, 1991), 107.

2 The Milford Weekly Nebraskan, September 4, 1885: 2.

3 Eugene Murdock, 108.

4 The Ellendales were named after Ellendale Park where the team played its home games. Ellendale Park was renamed Francis R. Slay Park in 2009, and is located in the Ellendale neighborhood, seven miles southwest of downtown St. Louis. “High Leader in Trolley League,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, December 10, 1909: 13; and “Ellendale Neighborhood Overview,” City of St. Louis (website), accessed January 29, 2022, https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/live-work/community/neighborhoods/ellendale/ellendale-overview.cfm.

5 Wagner [William E. Smith], “Danny Hoffman Gave Tom Connery Tip on Hugh High,” Bridgeport (CT) Evening Farmer, November 9, 1911: 7.

6 “Soccer Sidelights,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 8, 1909: 11; and “Make-up of Maroons for Season of 1910,” Belleville (IL) News-Democrat, March 5, 1910: 1.

7 The St. Louis and Belleville newspapers tended to use such terms as “Trolley League,” “Illinois-Missouri League,” and “Missouri-Illinois Trolley League” interchangeably, which can be confusing. The league in which the Ellendales had played in 1909, appears to have been renamed the Old Trolley League for 1910, while the four-team league that included the Belleville Maroons, was known as the New Trolley League in 1910. The Illinois-Missouri League was a Class D, professional minor league. “Maroons Held Batting Record of 1910 Season,” Belleville News-Democrat, January 21, 1911: 1.

8 “Current Sporting Gossip,” Hartford (CT) Courant, November 22, 1910: 14; and “New Outfielder for Hartford Team,” Hartford Courant, October 3, 1910: 10.

9 Wagner [William E. Smith], “Here’s Where You Get Fresh Baseball Jottings,” Bridgeport Evening Farmer, June 21, 1911: 7; and “Twenty Innings for One Admission,” Hartford Courant, August 5, 1911: 10.

10 “Phillies Offer $5,000 for High,” Bridgeport Evening Farmer, August 9, 1911: 7.

11 “Phillies Offer $5,000 for High.”

12 “High to Succeed Murray,” Hartford Courant, January 12, 1912: 10; and “High and Rehg Sold by Hartford,” Hartford Courant, August 16, 1911: 15.

13 Billy Murphy, “‘Lefty’ High will Succeed Jack Murray,” St. Louis Star, January 6, 1912: 6.

14 Billy Murphy, “‘Lefty’ High will Succeed.”

15 Gus Klemme, “Lefty High and Dee Walsh, St. Louis’ Own, are Two Very Likely Diamond Neophytes,” St. Louis Star, January 26, 1913: Section 2, Page 2.

16 “Current Sporting Gossip,” Hartford Courant, January 11, 1912: 16; and “High, Rehg and Vann will be Back,” Bridgeport Evening Farmer, January 19, 1912: 13.

17 Wagner [William E. Smith], “Some Sporting Snapshots,” Bridgeport Evening Farmer, February 23, 1912: 7; and Bill Lamb, “John T. Powers,” SABR BioProject, accessed January 30, 2022.

18 “Manager Connery Back in Hartford,” Hartford Courant, April 17, 1912: 18.

19 “Lefty High is Leading Hitter,” Hartford Courant, September 17, 1912: 16.

20 “1912 Connecticut State League Leaders,” Stats Crew (website), accessed January 30, 2022, https://www.statscrew.com/minorbaseball/leaders/l-CTST/y-1912; and John B. Foster, ed., Spalding’s Official Base Ball Record (New York: American Sports Publishing Company, 1913), 136.

21 Wagner [William E. Smith], “Why Mild Mike Doherty Lost His Job as Umpire,” Bridgeport Evening Farmer, July 11, 1912: 7; and “Springfield Wins in Tenth Inning,” Hartford Courant, July 11, 1912: 16.

22 “Carnival of Sports for Genest’s Aid,” Hartford Courant, August 13, 1912: 17.

23 Wagner [William E. Smith], “Jason Malcolm Promises to Join Phila. Athletics,” Bridgeport Evening Farmer, September 17, 1912: 7.

24 “Detroit Pays $3000 for St. Louis Boy, Offers Him Salary of $1000,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 21, 1913: 16.

25 Gus Klemme, “St. Louis Boy is Offered Less by Detroit Team than He Got in Minors,” St. Louis Star, January 14, 1913: 8.

26 Gus Klemme, “St. Louis Boy is Offered Less.”

27 “Lefty High Gets Boost and Signs with Tigers,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 11, 1913: 16.

28 “Hugh High Looks Fragile but His Record Proves He’s Tough,” Detroit Times, March 22, 1913: 1; and Ralph L. Yonker, “Will Powell or High do a Gainer This Spring?” Detroit Times, March 24, 1913: 6.

29 Wagner [William E. Smith], “Around the Circuit,” Bridgeport Evening Farmer, March 28, 1913: 7.

30 Wagner [William E. Smith], “Mechanics and Yosts May Play Game for Flood Benefit,” Bridgeport Evening Farmer, April 4, 1913: 10; and “Lefty High Not Worrying on Job,” Bridgeport Evening Farmer, April 10, 1913: 7.

31 Thomas E. Merrick, “April 29, 1913: Ty Cobb’s Holdout Ends,” SABR Games Project, accessed February 2, 2022; and “Lookouts Hold the Tigers to 4 to 2 Victory,” Detroit Times, April 2, 1913: 6.

32 High and Walsh had been best friends and teammates since childhood. The two played together with the Talking Machines and Ellendales, and when Walsh was signed by the Dallas Giants in 1911, he asked for his release so he could join High in Hartford. Walsh was released by the Senators before the start of the season, picked up by the Hannibal (Missouri) Cannibals, and then sold to the Mobile Sea Gulls in July.

33 E.A. Batchelor, “Wahoo Yields to Popular Demand; Will Play First,” Detroit Free Press, May 7, 1913: 12.

34 Ralph L. Yonker, “Tigers Will Have Better Fielding and Fewer Alibis,” Detroit Times, December 8, 1913: 7.

35 Ralph L. Yonker, “Tigers Will Have Better Fielding.”

36 “$7,000 Bait Dazzling Stovall,” St. Louis Star, October 15, 1913: 10.

37 “Hughie High Turns Down Offer from Federal Leaguers,” Detroit Free Press, January 7, 1914: 10; and Ralph L. Yonker, “Hugh High is First Tiger to Sign the New Contract,” Detroit Times, January 14, 1914: 6.

38 “Hughie High Should Worry About His Job as Utility Outfielder,” Detroit Times, March 6, 1914: 8.

39 “Sporting Notes,” Norwich (CT) Morning Bulletin, April 2, 1914: 3.

40 E.A. Batchelor, “Hughie High’s Great Work in Exhibition Games May Earn Him a Place in Line-Up,” Detroit Free Press, April 13, 1914: 10; and “Vitt and High are Both Much Improved Men,” Detroit Times, March 21, 1914: 6.

41 “Police Detain Ty Cobb After Fight in Store,” Detroit Free Press, June 21, 1914: 1; and “Cobb has a Broken Thumb and will be Out of Game 10 Days,” Detroit Free Press, June 22, 1914: 8.

42 Mark Armour and Daniel R. Levitt, “New York Yankees Team Ownership History,” SABR Biography Project, accessed February 21, 2022.

43 “Yanks to Report at Savannah March 1,” New York Times, February 5, 1915: 9.

44 Bozeman Bulger, “Collegians Force Yankees to Play Double Headers with Browns and Naps,” New York Evening World, June 14, 1915: 10.

45 Bozeman Bulger, “Yanks’ Outfield is Smallest, Yet Fastest in Game,” New York Evening World, March 23, 1916: 14.

46 “Bang! Another Yank Bit the Dust,” New York Tribune, July 20, 1916: 14.

47 “Sport Topics of the Past Week,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 27, 1916: Junior Eagle Section, Page 7.

48 Bozeman Bulger, “As a Regular Mullen is Biggest Boost for Yanks Since Gedeon Lost His Cunning,” New York Evening World, August 22, 1916: 10.

49 “News Notes from Training Camps,” The Sporting News, March 15, 1917: 8.

50 See H.D. Hamilton, “Outfielders are Badly Wanted for the Yanks,” Buffalo Times, July 16, 1917: 8.

51 W.O. McGeehan, “Rally in Ninth Wins for Yanks,” New York Tribune, June 5, 1917: 13.

52 W.O. McGeehan, “Giants and Yankees Break Even,” New York Tribune, June 21, 1917: 13.

53 “Hughie High, of Yanks, May Become a National,” Washington Post, November 12, 1917: 8.

54 “Baseball Bits,” Hartford Courant, January 16, 1918: 13.

55 Len Wooster, “Chuck Ward Lost to Dodgers; Will Join Uncle Sam’s Team,” Brooklyn Daily Times, March 29, 1918: 12.

56 “Redsox After Players,” Pittsburgh Press, May 1, 1918: 24.

57 “Red Sox Stop Deal,” Washington Times, May 9, 1918: 18.

58 “Manager Huggins Suspends Hugh High,” Hartford Courant, June 1, 1918: 12.

59 “High Joins Sparrows Point,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), June 4, 1918: 18; and “High May Leave Diamond Pastime,” Altoona (PA) Times, June 21, 1918: 10.

60 “Ruth Quits Red Sox After Row,” Boston Herald, July 4, 1918: 1.

61 “Babe Ruth Gets Job as Shipbuilder,” Pittsburgh Post, July 4, 1918: 15; and Bob Dunbar, “Bob Dunbar’s Sporting Comment,” Boston Herald, July 4, 1918: 4.

62 “Ruth Quits Red Sox;” and “Story That Babe Ruth Has Deserted is Denied,” Pittsburgh Press, July 3, 1918: 11.

63 “High’s Demand Turned Down,” New York Tribune, July 14, 1918: Part 2, Page 1.

64 “Al Mamaux and Jackson Top Steel Ring Batters,” Baltimore Evening Sun, September 27, 1918: 17; and “Baseball Classic at Cottage Hill Tomorrow When Steelton Meets Sparrows Point Twice,” Harrisburg (PA) Telegraph, July 19, 1918: 15.

65 “Two Yankees Reinstated,” New York Tribune, February 6, 1919: 17.

66 “Eastern League to Meet Saturday,” Hartford Courant, May 1, 1919: 14.

67 “High Back in Baseball Again,” Hartford Courant, June 15, 1919: Part 4, Page 4; and Josh Jackson, “Truth About Tigers Emerges in Pennant Race,” MiLB.com, accessed March 7, 2022, https://www.milb.com/milb/news/grand-jury-exposes-babe-borton-s-cheating-for-1919-vernon-tigers-in-pc-312312742.

68 “Lefty High Quits Baseball for Good,” Hartford Courant, November 30, 1919: Part 4, Page 1; and “Heard in the Stove League,” Elmira (NY) Star-Gazette, November 4, 1919: 8.

69 John B. Foster, ed., Spalding’s Official Base Ball Record (New York: American Sports Publishing Company, 1921), 120-21; and “Kerry Patch’s Famous Son, Los Angeles Times, August 4, 1921: Part 3, Page 1.

70 “Skipper Essick is off for Chicago,” Los Angeles Times, December 7, 1923: Part 3, Page 2; and “Hughie High Sold by Vernon Tigers,” Oakland Tribune, December 20, 1923: 23.

71 Zipp Newman, “Hugh High of Columbus Added to Club Roster,” Birmingham News, December 4, 1924: 19.

72 “‘Hughie High’ Sold to Shreveport in Long Horn Circuit,” Birmingham News, April 11, 1925: 14; Zipp Newman, “Dusting ‘Em Off,” Birmingham News, April 19, 1925: Section 2, Page 5; and Dan Harper, “Keys Trim Tribe in Extra Inning, 5 to 4,” Reading (PA) Times, June 15, 1925: 10.