John Cavanaugh

When 19-year-old John Cavanaugh took the field in the opener of a July 7, 1919 doubleheader at Philadelphia’s Baker Bowl, he became the first player born in the 1900s to appear in a major-league game.1 A late-inning defensive replacement for the last-place Philadelphia Phillies, Cavanaugh struck out in his only at-bat, then watched as his teammates fell one shy of equaling a major-league stolen base record. The next day, Philadelphia manager Jack Coombs was fired. His replacement, Gavy Cravath, cleaned house, unloading several players recently brought on, including Cavanaugh, who never made it back to the big leagues.

A strong-armed infielder from the sandlots of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Cavanaugh split his time over the next two decades between the minor leagues and a bevy of lesser teams across eastern Pennsylvania and Ohio. Known as “Sleepy,” Cavanaugh was anything but, bringing energy to the baseball and amateur basketball teams that he played for.2 Held in high regard for his shortstop play, Cavanaugh’s lone foray into management proved a failure – he lasted just one month as skipper of the Ohio State League Fostoria Red Birds in 1937.

John Joseph Cavanaugh was born on June 5, 1900 in Scranton, the hub of northeast Pennsylvania’s coal region, to John J. Cavanaugh and Ellen Barrett.3 The couple’s 1892 marriage registration lists both as born in Ireland, while US Census listings identify them as Pennsylvania-born of Irish descent. Ellen was a widow and 10 years older than her husband when they wed.4 A brakeman for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, the elder Cavanaugh died when young John was three. The 1910 US census lists Ellen as the head of a household that included John, older brother William, younger brother Thomas (whose given name was Basil), and two younger sisters, Mary and Helen.5

Raised in an Irish section of Scranton known as Sandy Banks, the blue-eyed, brown-haired Cavanaugh’s first known baseball experience was with a youth team called the Olives, named after a street that ran through the community.6  At the age of 18, Cavanaugh was an infielder for the Electric City Throwing Mill industrial team. He played well enough to appear on a roster for a September 1918 benefit held in nearby Dickson City alongside a trio of active major-leaguers, two of whom also hailed from Pennsylvania coal mining country: Hughie Jennings and Steve O’Neill.

Overshadowing that showcase was the prospect that Cavanaugh, a casket trimmer by trade, might soon be joining the military. A week earlier, he had registered for the draft, as all 18- to 45-year-old males had to do on the third and (as it turned out) final registration day during World War I.7 Cavanaugh was neither tabbed for induction into the armed forces nor inserted into the benefit game lineup.8

The 1919 baseball season began with Cavanaugh manning “short field” (shortstop) for the Sandy Banks Uniques, an Intercounty League team led by player-manager Doc Whelan, a former minor-leaguer who was building a solid reputation developing ballplayers.9 The strength of the Uniques was their middle infield. According to the later recollections of a Scranton sportswriter, the combination of Cavanaugh and second baseman, later Father, Chuck Cummings “canceled seemingly positive hits and recorded double plays with professional efficiency,” which helped the club pack local ballparks each Sunday.10 By mid-June, Cavanaugh had moved up to play for the National Marines in Scranton’s Industrial League, and was being called  “one of the [Wyoming] [V]alley’s crack infielders, [able to] field and hit with the best of ’em”.11 Before the month was out, Cavanaugh had an invitation from Coombs to come to Philadelphia for a tryout.12

National League champions in 1915 under rookie manager Pat Moran, the Phillies had fallen on hard times. Nipped for the 1916 pennant by the Brooklyn Robins, they were a distant second to the New York Giants in 1917, but still 22-games above .500. The bottom fell out in 1918, as the team finished 55-68 in the war-shortened season after trading away the National League’s best pitcher, Grover Cleveland Alexander. Phillies owner William Baker let Moran go at the expiration of his contract and signed the recently retired Coombs to take the reins.

Hovering just below the .500 mark on June 1, the Phillies went 5-21 the rest of the month, suffering through a 13-game losing streak during a brutal seven-city road trip. Held sometime around when last-place Philadelphia fell to the first-place Giants in an Independence Day doubleheader, Cavanaugh’s audition was promising enough to earn him a ticket aboard the Phillies’ fast-sinking ship.

It was during Philadelphia’s second twin bill in four days with New York that Cavanaugh made his major-league debut. Down 9-2 after six innings in the opener, Coombs pulled third baseman Doug Baird and inserted Cavanaugh. An inning later, Cavanaugh came to the plate to face Jesse Barnes with runners on first and third and two out.  Two wins into a 10-game winning streak that propelled him to a league-leading 25 victories, Barnes fanned Cavanaugh to end the inning. In his two innings on defense, Cavanaugh had no fielding chances.

Trailing 10-2 in the bottom of the ninth with two out, the Phillies started taking liberties on the basepaths. Four baserunners combined to swipe seven bases against indifferent Giant reliever Pol Perritt in the course of scoring three runs. Philadelphia’s seven thefts in a single inning were one shy of the major league record, set by the 1915 Cleveland Indians.13 A scorekeeping change made in February 1920 eliminated the possibility that another team could replicate Philadelphia’s stolen base numbers against an indifferent opponent. Barely six months after the July 7 contest, Organized Baseball agreed to “eliminate from stolen bases those credited to [a] runner who is allowed to advance without any effort to stop him in [the] last half inning of [a] game when [the] score is such that his run will not effect [sic] the result.”14 This has since come to be known as the defensive indifference rule.

The morning after Cavanaugh’s debut, Coombs was out as Phillies manager, replaced by outfield star Cravath.15 Unhappy with the popular skipper’s removal, several Phillies players “held a high carnival in the centerfield bleachers” during that afternoon’s game with the Chicago Cubs, wearing street clothes and getting drunk.16 It’s unknown where Cavanaugh was during the protest, but by the end of the week he’d been sent home – informed by Cravath “that he showed promise of developing into a likely ball player” but didn’t fit into the team’s immediate plans.17 Told not to sign with another club because the Phillies intended to invite him to 1920 spring training, Cavanaugh returned home to play semipro ball and waited.18

When the Phillies gathered in Birmingham, Alabama, next March for the opening of camp, Cavanaugh wasn’t there, presumably not extended an invitation.19 He reunited with the Uniques, where for a few weeks he once again formed a double-play combination with Cummings.20

After a postwar lull, baseball popularity was on the rise in 1920 across Scranton and surrounding communities. A new industrial league found success and the eight-team Intercounty League offered a level of competition high enough to attract talent from outside the region.21 Cavanaugh returned in May to the Intercounty League, where he had begun the 1919 season, while also playing shortstop for a pair of industrial teams, including the Bolt & Nut Works foundry where he pickled iron.22 In a July Scranton Times article announcing that Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack planned to send several of his scouts to evaluate Intercounty players, Cavanaugh was singled out as being much improved from when the Phillies signed him. Mack was reportedly keen to find quality shortstops and third basemen, but there’s no indication that his men took note of Cavanaugh.23

Before the year was up, Cavanaugh was signed by the Reading (Pennsylvania) Marines/Aces of the International League, on the recommendation of Scranton native Bill Coughlin, a former Reading manager and major-league third baseman.24 Pleased with the acquisition, the Reading Times called the 5-feet-9, 158-pound Cavanaugh “a typical Irish type of baseball player … a literal pepperbox on the diamond.”25 The Scranton Times suggested that “with proper guidance [Cavanaugh] ought to make a good ballplayer.”26

A last-minute replacement at third base on Opening Day, Cavanaugh hit a game-tying double as Reading rallied from behind to defeat a Rochester team whose first baseman was Fred Merkle, of “Merkle’s Boner” fame.27 Plugged in at second, third, and shortstop by first-year player-manager Dick Hoblitzell, Cavanaugh hit .231 across 132 games and provided solid defense for the last-place Aces wherever he was stationed.28 His most memorable days at the plate came against the Newark Bears. On June 2, he hit a game-winning, eighth-inning double in a come-from-behind 4-3 win over them and on September 6, he homered in both ends of a doubleheader loss.29

Invited back to Reading for the 1922 season, Cavanaugh faced an uphill climb. In addition to holdovers Walter Wolfe at shortstop and former major-leaguer Fred Thomas, at third, new pitcher-manager Charles “Chief” Bender had brought on Gus Getz, who had seven years of experience as a major-league infielder. The Reading Eagle applauded the 21-year-old’s heart in trying to stick with the club despite “weak hitting” the year before and touted his potential. “Cavanaugh has an exceptionally strong throwing arm, and with development in hitting may yet attain high honors in baseball.” 30 He contributed the Aces’ lone RBI in an April exhibition loss to the Phillies but was farmed out to Richmond of the Virginia League after playing in a single regular season game – “for more seasoning in a lower league,” according to Bender.31

Cavanaugh was installed as the Colts’ everyday shortstop by acting player-manager John Keller, but once again a manager change brought about his quick exit. Unlike his dismissals from Philadelphia and Reading, Cavanaugh’s departure from Richmond was triggered by his poor play. Over a span of five games in late May and early June, he committed eight errors, including three during new manager Rube Oldring’s first game at the helm. After going 0-for-15 in four games under the longtime Philadelphia A’s center fielder, Cavanaugh was released.32 In 25 games with Richmond, he hit .195 (17-for-87), and compiled an .869 fielding percentage.33 For some unknown reason, Richmond never compensated Reading for Cavanaugh after acquiring him from that team. The Aces appealed to Organized Baseball’s National Board of Arbitration, and won a $300 judgment against the Colts.34

Cavanaugh finished 1922 back in Scranton playing semipro ball, then the following year found a home as a middle infielder for Hazleton of the independent Anthracite Baseball Association.35 He starred in a pair of games played against talented Black clubs, collecting three hits including a home run off Pop Watkins’ Middletown Cubans,36 and a home run off Nip Winters, a hurler for the Hilldale club of the Eastern Colored League who was making some extra money moonlighting for the Richmond Giants. Hazleton topped Richmond 5-4 in that game, which the Hazleton Standard-Sentinel called Winters’ first loss to a white team all year.37 Cavanaugh went home for the season in late September and so missed the chance to help defeat Babe Ruth’s barnstorming All-Stars on October 23 at Hazleton’s Cranberry Park.38

Cavanaugh returned to Organized Baseball in 1924, as a member of the Wilkes-Barre Barons of the New York-Pennsylvania League. Playing shortstop alongside ill-fated second baseman Neal Finn,39 he hit a career high .275 over 97 games with 20 extra-base hits for a quartet of managers. Dubbed “Spark Plug” by the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader, Cavanaugh suffered a leg injury in late July. He collected four hits in his first game back a few weeks later but was hobbled so badly that a courtesy runner was needed for him three times in one game.40

On October 2, Cavanaugh played for a makeshift Wyoming Valley all-star team in an exhibition game with the Philadelphia Phillies. He went hitless against swingman Huck Betts and shortstop-turned reliever-for-a-day Heine Sand, who at that time was embroiled in a high-profile game-fixing scandal.41 The day before, baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis had expelled outfielder Jimmy O’Connell and coach Cozy Dolan of the New York Giants for offering Sand $500 to help throw a game, a proposition that Sand had reported to Phillies management.42 “Extremely nervous and ill-at-ease” the day before the exhibition game, Sand got little sleep but played well nonetheless.43 Later that same month, Cavanaugh represented the town of Larksville, Pennsylvania, in an exhibition game against a lineup of more relaxed major-leaguers that included Lou Gehrig of the Yankees and Joe Judge of the World Series champion Washington Senators. Batting second against the Senators’ George Mogridge, Cavanaugh failed to get a hit.44

Cavanaugh’s last stint as minor-league ballplayer came in the spring of 1926, when he briefly manned second base for the Elmira Colonels of the NY-Penn League. Under player-manager Ed Barney, he played eight games between Mother’s Day and Decoration Day, hitting .111 with one error in 40 chances.45 Rumored to be brought back by the Barons of Wilkes-Barre, Cavanaugh instead chose to play semipro ball in that city as well as in Scranton.46 He hit “the longest drive ever recorded in the up-country,” for the Avoca club, played shortstop for a team in the Hudson Coal League, and held his own against Ed Dudley of the Eastern Colored League Brooklyn Royal Giants while once again playing for Larksville.47

During the winter of 1925-26, Cavanaugh earned considerable attention in Scranton for his feats on the basketball court. A “fleet guard, who is typical of anything but the moniker prefixed to his name,” “Sleepy” buried a late free throw to give the Meadow Athletic Club a win in one Lackawanna County league match and sank a midcourt shot to clinch another.48 The caliber of play by Cavanaugh’s team was high enough to cause the Scranton Times to call it “on par with that of the [New York] Original Celtics,” a member of the fledgling professional American Basketball League.49 The previous winter, Cavanaugh played alongside a Jimmy Cavanaugh in winning the league title for the same club.50 Cavanaugh continued to play in Scranton amateur basketball leagues until the early 1930s.51

Between 1926 and 1928, Cavanaugh’s baseball playing was limited to the amateur ranks. In 1927 he played third base and shortstop for the Bellevue Boosters, a team that won the Pennsylvania state industrial championship but fell one win shy of winning that year’s national amateur championship.52 Otherwise Cavanaugh’s name rarely appeared in local box scores. In 1929, he turned up in Akron, Ohio, playing second base on Sunday afternoons for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, where he presumably worked.53 In August of that year, Cavanaugh married Helen Holofast of South Scranton.54 By May 1931, the couple was back in Scranton.

Aside from a brief stab at skippering, as discussed below, Cavanaugh stayed in the Scranton area between 1931 and 1939, playing for a variety of industrial, semipro, and amateur teams.55 His longest affiliation was with the Victor Alfieri Club, a literary society “formed to help young Italian men [which Cavanaugh surely was not] meet fellow immigrants to help each other find jobs and adjust to American ways.”56  In a team photo taken after the Victors captured a local league championship in 1934, the 34-year-old Cavanaugh had the well-worn look you might find on a manager.57 Three years later, he was one.

In March 1937, Cavanaugh was named manager of the Fostoria Red Birds, a St. Louis Cardinals affiliate in the Class D Ohio State League. He was recommended for the job by Jack Murphy, a longtime Philadelphia Athletics scout from northeast Pennsylvania.58 A pair of first-year Red Birds identified as friends of Cavanaugh told a club official that “Fostoria will certainly go for Johnny Cavanaugh. You couldn’t get a better man anywhere.”59 Unfortunately for Cavanaugh, Fostoria couldn’t get a win anywhere once the season got underway. After an Opening Day triumph over the Findlay Browns, a team owned and managed by former Federal Leaguer Grover Hartley,60 the Red Birds lost 20 of their next 21. Discouraged by his team’s performance, Cavanaugh resigned.

Once his days of playing competitive baseball were over, Cavanaugh took to guiding young athletes. In the years leading up to World War II he served as a handler and second for amateur boxers and as a W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration) athletic instructor.61 For a time, he also played in annual Victor Alfieri Club oldtimers’ games.”62

In the mid-1950s, Cavanaugh and Helen moved to New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he worked as a grinder for Sorbo-Cast, an auto parts manufacturer that boasted boxing legend Ray Arcel in its purchasing department.63 Cavanaugh died unexpectedly on January 14, 1961, two years after losing his wife. Survived by his mother, brother Basil, and sisters Mary and Helen, he was buried in Scranton’s Cathedral Cemetery.64

Acknowledgments

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

Photo credit: John Cavanaugh, Mansfield News-Journal, April 6, 1937.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted FamilySearch.com, Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, Statscrew.com and stathead.com.

Notes

1 Larry DeFillipo, “Point Men: First MLB Players Born in Each Decade of the 20th Century,” The National Pastime, (Volume 25, 2005), https://sabr.org/journal/article/point-men/. The article mistakenly places Cavanaugh’s debut as taking place at the Polo Grounds in New York.

2 “Electric City Mill to Play Hyde Park,” Scranton Republican, August 22, 1918: 10; “Meadow A.C. Wins from Providence,” Scranton Republican, December 26, 1925: 15.

3 “Pennsylvania, Births and Christenings, 1709-1950”, John J. Cavanaugh, FamilySearch, June 5, 1900, Image 982, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HH55-F1N2. Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and databases stretching back to Turkin and Thompson’s 1951 Official Encyclopedia of Baseball mistakenly identify Reading, Pennsylvania, as Cavanaugh’s birthplace.

4 “Pennsylvania, County Marriages, 1775-1991,” Entry for John Cavanaugh and Ellen Cavanaugh, June 14, 1892,

FamilySearch, (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VFWX-H5H.

5 “Pennsylvania, Births and Christenings, 1709-1950”; 1900 US Census, Scranton City, Lackawanna County, Supervisor’s District No. 4, Enumeration District No. 96, 16th Ward, Sheet 11G, dated June 8, 1900; “John Cavanaugh Injured,” Scranton Times, February 17, 1902: 5; “Obituary,” Scranton Times, February 12, 1904: 11; 1910 US Census, Scranton City, Lackawanna County, Supervisor’s District No. 5, Enumeration District No. 82, 7th Ward, Sheet 15A, dated April 10, 1910; John Cavanaugh Dies in Jersey; Ex-Phillies Player,” (Scranton, Pennsylvania) Scrantonian, January 15, 1961: 16; “Rev. Basil Cavanaugh, CP,” Scranton Tribune, November 16, 1985: 7.

6 Edward J. Gerrity, “This is My Town,” Scranton Times, December 17, 1967: B-5.

7 “United States, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918,” John Joseph Cavanaugh, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K6KR-QND.

8 “Electric City Mill to Play Hyde Park”; “Leaguers in Local Game,” Scranton Times, September 19, 1918: 12; “Big Leaguers Appear in Game,” Scranton Republican, September 23, 1918: 10. The third major leaguer was Eddie Murphy, from Hanover, New York.

9 “Uniques Team Fast,” Scranton Republican, May 10, 1919: 10; “Is Going Good,” Scranton (Pennsylvania) Truth, September 1, 1914: 8.

10 Chic Feldman, ‘‘Father Chuck’ … Great Competitor,” The Scrantonian, October 4, 1964: 50. Cummings was a Catholic who entered the priesthood after his playing days. During World War II, he served as an infantry chaplain, ministering to soldiers in France following the invasion of Normandy. In January 1945, it was Father Charles Patrick Cummings whom Private Eddie Slovik last spoke with before he became the first American soldier executed for desertion since the Civil War. Rosemary Giles, “Eddie Slovik: The Only US Solder to Be Executed for Desertion Since the Civil War,” War History Online, March 1, 2023, https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/eddie-slovik.html

11 “Industrial League,” Scranton Republican, June 10, 1919: 16.

12 “Scranton Player to Join Phillies,” Scranton Republican, June 30, 1919: 14.

13 Various contemporary box scores credited Philadelphia with eight stolen bases in the ninth inning (see, for example “Giants Take Two and Regain Lead,” New York Times, July 8, 1919: 12), prompting several websites and online articles created decades later to give the 1919 Phillies a share of the major league record – but Baseball-Reference’s play-by-play record of the game shows that only seven bags were swiped. Warren Corbett, “July 19, 1915: Washington Senators set a stolen-base record, sort of,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/july-19-1915-washington-senators-set-a-stolen-base-record-sort-of/, accessed March 5, 2025.

14 “Amendments to Baseball Rules by Major Leagues,” Greensboro (North Carolina) News, February 16, 1920: 7; Official Base Ball Rules (New York: American Sports Publishing: 1920), 74.

15 The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Coombs “either resigned or was discharged.” Coombs claimed that he’d been fired, Baker said that he’d resigned. “John Coombs Retires as Manager and Cravath Is New Leader of Phillies,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 9, 1919: 14.

16 “John Coombs Retires as Manager and Cravath Is New Leader of Phillies.”

17 “Cavanaugh to Play with Marines Today,” Scranton Republican, July 12, 1919: 20.

18 “West Pittston Team Wins from Marines,” Scranton Republican, July 24, 1919: 16.

19 Robert W. Maxwell, “Phillies Going to Put Up a Scrap to Keep Out of National Cellar,” Evansville (Indiana) Courier, March 23, 1920: 8.

20 “County League Notes,” Scranton Republican, May 6, 1920: 14.

21 “Intercounty Baseball League Organizes,” Scranton Times, November 5, 1920: 37.

22 “Industrial Nines in First Game,” Scranton Republican, June 14, 1920: 12; “New Shortstop for Marines,” Reading (Pennsylvania) Eagle, November 21, 1920: 17; “Amateur Player Injured,” Scranton Times, August 7, 1920: 18; 1920 U.S. Census, Scranton, Lackawanna County, Supervisor’s District No. 9, Enumeration District No. 133, 7th Ward, Sheet 7A, January 5, 1920; “Nicholson Defeats Scranton Pump Team,” Scranton Republican, August 28, 1920: 16.

23 “Connie Mack’s Scouts to Watch Players in Intercounty League,” Scranton Times, July 13, 1920: 13.

24 “Peppery Infielder from Scranton,” Reading Eagle, April 3, 1921: 6.

25 “New Shortstop for Marines.”

26 “Cavanaugh Offered Place with Reading,” Scranton Times, October 19, 1920: 21.

27 G.H. Fleming, “The Merkle Blunder: A Kaleidoscopic View,” The National Pastime, 1982, https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-merkle-blunder-a-kaleidoscopic-view/

28 See, for example “Locals Start Another Winning Streak – Colts are Victims,” Reading News-Times, June 25, 1921: 18 and “Bisons Bumped by Ints,” Reading News-Times, August 10, 1921: 8.

29 “Barnhardt Turns Trick, Wins from Former Team Mates,” Reading News-Times, September 7, 1921: 10.

30 “Refuses to Be Eliminated,” Reading Eagle, April 20, 1922: 20.

31 “Phillies Win by a Run,” Reading News-Times, April 8, 1922: 14; “Cavanaugh Farmed Out,” Reading Eagle, April 27, 1922: 17.

32 “Cavanaugh Is Given His Release by Colts,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, June 6, 1922: 6.

33 Cavanaugh’s Richmond statistics are based on a game log compiled by the author from box scores published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Portsmouth Star, Daily Press (Newport News, Virginia), and (Hampton Roads) Virginian-Pilot.

34 “Ints Given $300 Claim,” Reading News-Times, December 22, 1922: 14.

35 “Hazleton Refuses N.Y.-Pa. Franchise,” Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Patriot, April 19, 1924: 20.

36 “Hazleton Beats Middletown Team,” Hazleton (Pennsylvania) Plain Speaker, July 30, 1923: 10.

37 “Hazleton Team Takes Three Out of Four Over Week-End,” Hazleton Standard-Sentinel, September 4, 1923: 11.

38 “Hazleton Beats Ruth’s All Stars Before Great Crowd at Cranberry,” Hazleton Plain Speaker, October 23, 1923: 10; “The Day Babe Ruth Came to Town,” Neon Rocketship, October 22, 2020, https://www.neonrocketship.com/2020/10/babe-ruth-hazleton-1922.html. The home team scored four runs off World Series game-winning hurlers Jack Scott and Dutch Ruether, while holding scoreless a lineup filled with minor-leaguers and local semi-pro ballplayers. For more on Babe Ruth’s 1921 barnstorming tour, see T.S. Flynn, “Slowdown: Babe Ruth’s Rebellious 1921 Barnstorming Tour,” The Babe (Phoenix: SABR, 2019), https://sabr.org/journal/article/showdown-babe-ruths-rebellious-1921-barnstorming-tour/

39 See, for example “Barons Lose in Twelfth to York, 4-2,” Wilkes-Barre (Pennsylvania) Evening News, July 8, 1924: 14. Finn died at the age of 29 after undergoing surgery for a stomach ailment, on July 7, 1933 – the 14th anniversary of Cavanaugh’s lone major-league appearance.  “Philly Player Dead,” Bridgewater (New Jersey) Courier-News, July 8, 1933: 4.

40 “Fulweiler Hurls Like Big Leaguer Against Champions,” Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader, July 24, 1924: 17; “Cavanaugh Injured Sliding into Second,” Scranton Republican, July 26, 1924: 19; “Barons Put the Skids Under York in Opening Game,” Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader, August 12, 1924: 23.

41 “Sand Maintains Silence as Phillies Play Here,” and “Phils Play at Exeter To-day,” Wilkes-Barre Record, October 3, 1924: 29.

42 “O’Connell and Dolan Are Expelled by Landis,” Bellingham (Washington) Herald, October 2, 1924: 9.

43 “Sand Maintains Silence as Phillies Play Here.” Sand made several “thrilling stops” while playing shortstop and baffled the All-Stars in three innings of relief, “displaying plenty of steam and a pretty curve.”

44 “Major Leaguers Down Larksville in Comedy Game,” Wilke-Barre Times-Leader, October 15, 1924: 20.

45 Dates and fielding percentage based on a game log compiled by the author from box scores published in the Scranton Republican, Elmira Star-Gazette, and York Gazette and Daily. “Final York-Penn Averages Show Miners Landed Fifth,” Scranton Times, September 28, 1925: 22. See, for example “Scranton Evens Series with Elmira,” Scranton Republican, May 19, 1925: 18.

46 “Shakeup Threatened in Wilkes-Barre Team,” Scranton Times, June 1, 1925: 22.

47 “Avoca, 2; Hamtown, 1,” Wilkes-Barre Evening News, June 30, 1925: 19; “Shea’s Hit Wins for Marvine Club,” Scranton Republican, July 18, 1925: 17; “Colored Nine Defeats Larks,” Wilkes-Barre Record, August 28, 1925: 20.

48 “Meadow A.C. Wins from Providence.”; “Meadows Take Up Perch on Top of County Circuit,” Scranton Times, January 13, 1926: 21. The high scorer in the latter contest was a teammate of Cavanaugh’s with a last name of Rose. A player and coach prominent in Scranton basketball circles for decades, Rose shared the same given name (Harry) and the same nickname (Pete) as the father of major-league baseball’s all-time hits leader, Pete Rose, who, as SABR biographer Andy Sturgill, noted was also a semipro basketball player. The author found no indication that Scranton’s Pete Rose was related to the Cincinnati Roses. “Dishing the Dirt,” Scrantonian, January 23, 1949: 33; Andy Sturgill, “Pete Rose,” SABR Biography Project, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/pete-rose/, accessed March 8, 2025.

49 “Two Anthracite Games Scheduled for Tonight,” Scranton Times, February 25, 1926: 24.

50 “Meadow A.C. Basketball Team, Champions of County League,” Scranton Times, April 1, 1925: 28; “Meadow A.C. Quintet Wins Honors in County Basketball League,” Scranton Republican, April 1, 1925: 16.

51 See, for example “St. John’s to Play Providence Tonight,” Scranton Republican, March 25, 1927: 17 and “Swas Club Cagers to Play South Side Boosters’ Team,” Scranton Times, January 16, 1932: 12..

52 “Bellevue Boosters Take First Victory in Series for Scranton Championship,” Scranton Times, September 26, 1927: 18; “Boosters Eliminated from National Amateur Series,” Scranton Republican, September 16, 1927: 16.

53 See, for example “Goodyears Trim Fishers, 8 to 2,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 5, 1929: 20, “Goodyear Beats Cuban Nine as Michaels, Rife Rampage,” Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal, July 22, 1929: 21 and “Akron Guards Beat Goodyear Outfit, 3-2,” Akron Beacon Journal, June 2, 1930: 22.  

54 “Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2016,” Entry for John Cavanaugh and Helen Holofast, FamilySearch, June 15, 1929, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2ZQ-NVTT?lang=en; “Helen Cavanaugh Taken by Death,” Scranton Times, March 12, 1959: 12.

55 “Esso Team Wants Players,” Scranton Times, July 11, 1934: 24; “D.L. Nine Engages Danville Tomorrow,” Scranton Republican, June 1, 1935: 16; “’Wyo’ League to Lift Lid,” Wilkes-Barre Record, May 6, 1932: 24; “Ciccotti Team Players Lauded at Fine Dinner,” Scranton Times, October 26, 1938: 37; “Alfieri, 20th Ward Will Tangle Today,” The Scrantonian, October 15, 1939: 33.

56 “History,” Victor Alfieri Society, https://victoralfierisociety.com/, accessed March 8, 2025. See, for example “Victor Alfieri Wins,” Scranton Republican, May 25, 1931: 15, “Remember ‘Way Back,” Scrantonian Tribune, May 24, 1953: 59 and Joe Polakoff, “Sandlot Boner: Breaks and Breaks,” Scranton Republican, June 2, 1936: 14.

57 “Feted for Capturing 1934 Championship of Scranton Association,” Scranton Republican, October 29, 1934: 16.

58 “Johnny Cavanaugh Signs as New Pilot for Fostoria,” Fremont (Ohio) Messenger, March 27, 1937: 8; Joe M. Butler, “The Sportscope,” Scranton Times, December 17, 1968: 27.

59 “Johnny Cavanaugh Signs as New Pilot for Fostoria.”

60 “Fostoria Beats Hartley’s Team,” Fremont Messenger, May 14, 1937: 12.

61 “Boxing Program Thrills Fans at Cathedral Club,” Scranton Times, October 24, 1939: 20; “Kane’s Killers Annex Boys’ Club Baseball League Title at Camp,” Scranton Times, July 24, 1940: 30.

62 “Battaglia-Colizzo,” The Scrantonian, September 3, 1944: 25.

63 “Dishing the Dirt,” The Scrantonian, September 20, 1959: 41; “John Cavanaugh Dies in Jersey; Ex-Phillies Player.”; “Difficult Casting Jobs Done by Sorbo-Cast Corporation,” Home News (New Brunswick, New Jersey), January 16, 1955. Temporarily retired from the ring at that time, Arcel was a boxing trainer who handled 20 world champions, including Ezzard Charles, Jim Braddock, Roberto Duran, and Larry Holmes, the latter two after he unretired in 1972.

64 “John Cavanaugh Dies in Jersey; Ex-Phillies Player.”