Roscoe Coughlin

The late-19th century hurler known as Roscoe Coughlin on the West Coast and Bill Coughlin most everywhere else possessed all the attributes seemingly required for success in the major leagues: good stuff, command of the strike zone, pitching intelligence, a durable arm, and temperate habits. And he was a consistent winner in the high minors, pitching three different clubs to league pennants and eventually accumulating over 200 victories. Yet his time as a big leaguer was curiously short, confined to two brief stints with pitching-thin National League clubs during the early 1890s. On each occasion Coughlin turned in decent performances only to be given his release.

Upon his return to the minors, Coughlin registered three 20-win seasons but never received another chance in the majors. In 1898 he abandoned the game for naval service during the Spanish-American War. Thereafter he returned to his native Massachusetts, where he spent the remainder of his working life as a machinist at the Boston Navy Yard. Long out of the limelight, Coughlin died of old-age-related infirmities in March 1951. The life and enigmatic baseball career of this now-forgotten old-timer is recounted below.

William Edward Coughlin was born on February 23, 1865 in Dedham, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb.1 He was the eighth of nine children born to laborer-mill hand James Coughlin (1826-1887) and his first wife, Margaret (née Lehan, 1834-c.1878), both Irish Catholic immigrants.2 The Coughlin family moved to nearby Walpole, Massachusetts, when Bill was still a toddler, and he was educated in local schools through the ninth grade. He then entered the area labor force.3

Although the precise origins of his initiation into the game are lost to time, Coughlin grew up in a baseball-playing family and likely followed his older brothers on to local sandlots. According to one source Coughlin, a 5-foot-10, 160-pound right-handed batter and thrower,4 gained his first organized team engagement in 1885 when he pitched for a club in Braintree, Massachusetts.5 The following season, he led a Concord, New Hampshire, nine to the New Hampshire state championship, winning 40+ games in 52 outings.6

Coughlin entered the professional ranks in 1887, joining the Lynn (Massachusetts) Lions of the New England League.7 Opposition New England League batsmen included younger brother Dave of the Manchester (New Hampshire) Farmers, a club whose employment overtures Bill had declined. Dave batted .380 for Manchester that season but enjoyed little success against his older sibling.8

Our subject was among the “Midnight Quartet” who drew curfew-violation fines from martinet Lions manager Henry Murphy in mid-July,9 the only instance of misbehavior discovered during Coughlin’s 11-season professional career. But three weeks later a 7–3 victory over Manchester placed Coughlin back in the club’s good graces. “Bill Coughlin pitched quite a game,” exclaimed a Lynn newspaper. “And his catch of Farrell’s fly was very clever. Bill is a winner sure.”10 In the end, however, wins proved hard to come by. Coughlin’s 9-15 (.375) final record was on par with the 40-64 (.385) log posted by last-place Lynn.

Coughlin signed with the Chicago Maroons of the Western Association for the 1888 season but got off to a belated start, not making an appearance in Chicago livery until early June. Once he arrived Coughlin pitched well for another ball club headed for a last-place (41-71, .366) finish. But with his record standing at 4-4 (with a 2.33 ERA in 65 2/3 innings pitched), Coughlin was released at his own request to return to the East.11 In early August he joined yet another cellar dweller, the Albany Governors of the International Association, destined to post a dismal 19-86 (.181) final record. Pitching and playing occasionally in the outfield, Coughlin matched the performance of his new club. He lost eight of nine decisions, while logging a harmless .151 batting average (8-for-53).

After a month with Albany Coughlin was eager to escape and entered into long-distance negotiations with the Greenhood & Morans (G&Ms) club of Oakland, a member of the independent four-team California League. Because California League clubs were not signatories of the National Agreement, the G&Ms were at liberty to disregard contract/reserve clause holds on ballplayers employed by the likes of the Albany Governors—and did so, signing Coughlin. In early September the G&Ms’ new pitcher completed the nearly 3,000-mile train trip to the West Coast, arriving in Oakland to find that “much confidence is placed in him” by the locals.12 Unhappily, the club’s Eastern acquisition got off to a disappointing start, dropping a 5–4 decision to the Pioneers of San Francisco. Still, the Oakland Evening Tribune reported that “if Coughlin was hit hard, he proved himself to be a good twirler and has splendid control of the ball.”13 Two defeats later, however, the Tribune changed its tune, declaring that Coughlin was “not a success” and had “not come up to the expectation of the public.”14

But Coughlin finished strong. In 11 outings overall he posted a 4-7 record, with a 1.18 ERA, holding opposition batsmen to a .214 batting average, while throwing only one wild pitch.15 He also fielded his position flawlessly, handling 70 chances without an error.16 Meanwhile, the G&Ms’ last-place finish (26-40, .394) made the team the third cellar dweller that Coughlin pitched for during the 1888 season. By then the Tribune altered its assessment of the pitcher once again, stating that “Coughlin is about the only twirler the Pets have in whom they can place any reliance. He is a gentlemanly young man in appearance, and will be returned in the team next year.”17

Over the winter the pitcher heretofore known as Bill Coughlin acquired a nickname: Roscoe, the source and meaning of which is shrouded by time.18 As far as has been discovered, the new appellation first appeared in newsprint in February 1889.

Discounting rumors that Coughlin was intent on leaving Oakland for a berth in another league, the Oakland Evening Tribune assured readers that “Roscoe has no idea of leaving the home nine. He is content to remain where he is.”19 A good thing for Oakland, too. Pitching for the Oakland Colonels of a reconstituted California League, Coughlin was the circuit’s preeminent hurler. Featuring a serviceable fastball and a puzzling assortment of breaking pitches, he went 32-15 (.681), leading California League hurlers in victories.20 And on November 24 Coughlin pitched the season-ending 5–4 victory over the San Francisco Friscos that gave Oakland the league pennant by a one-game margin.21 For the ensuing three decades, Coughlin and the champion Oakland Colonels would be remembered fondly in Bay Area newspapers.22

Like numerous other minor leaguers Coughlin benefited from the roster upheavals that attended the arrival of a third major league circuit in 1890, the Players League. Among the clubs particularly hard-hit by defections to the Players League was the National League’s Chicago Colts, which lost three members of its four-man pitching rotation.23 Coughlin was among the replacement candidates signed by Colts manager Cap Anson. The engagement was approved by the press, with Sporting Life’s Chicago correspondent informing readers that “Coughlin … is a very intelligent fellow, with self-confidence stamped upon his lineage, yet modest in his address and more wiry … than muscular. … He will be a good man under Anson and will improve with each year of his connection to the team.”24 The signing also was endorsed by the Chicago Tribune, which observed that “Coughlin from California has good curves and nerve and hits well, which is a rather rare accomplishment for a pitcher.”25 Manager Anson stated his opinion succinctly, informing the Tribune: “I believe we have an excellent pitcher in Coughlin.”26

Coughlin made his major league debut on April 22, 1890, scattering six hits and pitching “very effective ball” in a 13–3 triumph over the Cincinnati Reds.27 A week later, he allowed only five hits, two “being of the scratch order,” in downing Pittsburgh, 9–4.28 Coughlin dropped his next five decisions before a late-game Chicago rally awarded him an 8–7 victory over Pittsburgh on June 3. In the opener of a June 11 doubleheader against Cleveland, Coughlin was in command the entire way and breezed to a 7–1 win. The victory raised his season record to 4-6 (with a 4.26 ERA) in 11 appearances.

Shortly thereafter, though, Coughlin was handed the requisite 10 days’ notice of his release by manager Anson.29 The dismissal was unanticipated—the general perception being that Coughlin had performed decently for the Colts. But no explanation for this seemingly surprising action was provided by the club.30

Upon release Coughlin reluctantly signed with the Evansville (Indiana) Hoosiers of the Central Interstate League.31 He dutifully reported to his new club but immediately put out feelers about returning to the California League. Soon the Sacramento Senators and San Francisco Metropolitans courted the pitcher. In the meantime Coughlin entered the box for Evansville, winning two of three starts. Via telegram Coughlin dickered with San Francisco manager Mike Finn over contract terms. Coughlin wanted $250 per month, while Finn offered $200, before finally acceding to Coughlin’s figure. By that time, however, Coughlin had agreed to play for Sacramento.32

Once in California Coughlin defended his conduct. “There is nothing in all this talk about me playing fast and loose with the San Francisco and Sacramento managers,” he informed the sports press. “The Sacramentos accepted my terms and Manager Finn didn’t—and that’s all there is to it.”33 Coughlin then added, “I am not playing ball for my health nor for glory. I make my living at it. Sacramento offered me what I asked, and I am here. I helped to win the pennant for Oakland last year, and I will contribute what I can to bringing it to Sacramento this season.”34

San Francisco management, however, did not accept the outcome, protesting Coughlin’s appearance against their club to California League directors.35 Coughlin was permitted to play for Sacramento while league elders dithered over his eligibility and soon reverted to being “Roscoe” in newsprint and the best pitcher in the circuit. Starting with a 13–6 win over San Francisco on July 19, Coughlin reeled off six straight victories for Sacramento. But after posting complete-game wins in both ends of a doubleheader against Stockton on August 3, Sacramento abruptly released him to San Francisco.36 According to club boss Buck Ebright, the action was taken “to do away with the squabble over Coughlin and the necessity for protesting games.”37

Finn left Coughlin hanging for several weeks before offering him a contract at a cut-rate $180-per-month salary.38 Luckily for Finn, Coughlin accepted—and then proceeded to pitch the Metropolitans to the California League pennant. Over the final three months of the elongated season, Coughlin posted 21 victories that included a one-hit, 3–0 whitewash of Stockton on September 27.39 He finished the season with a combined 27-8 record, leading California League hurlers in winning percentage (.771).40 That more than provided San Francisco (82-58, .586) with its three-game margin of victory over Coughlin’s erstwhile Sacramento employer in the final league standings.

Despite his sterling performance the preceding season, Coughlin’s 1891 salary demands proved too steep for California League clubs. Hence, the pitcher informed the local press that “I have sent my terms to three Eastern clubs, and no doubt will receive an offer soon.”41 And in early April,the San Francisco Chronicle announced that “W.E. Coughlin, better known as Roscoe Coughlin, the pitcher who won the pennant for San Francisco last year, has signed with Syracuse.”42 Being a member of the Syracuse Stars of the Eastern Association brought Coughlin much closer to his Massachusetts roots. He pitched well for his new club, going 28-12 (.700) with a minuscule 1.05 ERA in 367 1/3 innings pitched before the financially shaky franchise imploded in late August.

Although it put him temporarily out of work, the dissolution of the Syracuse club ultimately redounded to Coughlin’s benefit. In dire need of arms to support staff ace Amos Rusie, the New York Giants signed “Will Coughlin, the star pitcher of the disbanded Syracuse team,” for the National League stretch run.43 On September 2, 1891, Coughlin returned to major league ball but was treated rudely by the Chicago Colts, who touched him up for six runs during a four-inning relief stint that ended in a 14–2 New York loss. Given a start a week later, Coughlin was “especially effective when men were on base and a hit meant runs” in pitching the Giants to an 8–2 win over Cleveland.44 Five days later he pitched well again but was undone by a Giants defense that cost him six unearned runs in a 7–1 loss to Pittsburgh.

In the second game of a September 22 doubleheader, Coughlin held the opposition to six hits and only one earned run in an 11–5 victory over Philadelphia. The following day, he downed the Phillies again, 9–7. But Coughlin ended the season on a downturn, losing three late-season decisions. In the process he became one of the causes of a brief brouhaha stirred up by the Chicago Colts, locked in a tight pennant battle with the Boston Beaneaters. With the outcome of the race turning largely on the outcome of a five-game New York-Boston series, the Giants’ use of the recently acquired Coughlin and Chicago reject Big Mike Sullivan (rather than staff ace Amos Rusie and 21-game winner John Ewing) provoked alarm in Chicago. Then after Coughlin and Sullivan lost the four games that they started, Colts club president Jim Hart and field leader Cap Anson publicly accused New York of throwing the league crown to Boston.45 Although stridently made, the complaint was widely dismissed as unsubstantiated sour grapes and soon faded from public consciousness.46

Notwithstanding his poor finish Coughlin (3-4, with a 3.84 ERA in 61 innings pitched) had proved a useful addition to the Giants roster and was thereafter signed for the coming season.47 The following spring, he was in camp with New York but was cut loose as the exhibition season ended.48 Although several more outstanding minor-league campaigns lay in Coughlin’s future, his brief time as a major leaguer was over. In 19 games total, he posted a 7-10 (.412) record, with a 4.10 ERA in 156 innings thrown. A pitch-to-contact breaking ball pitcher, Coughlin struck out only 51 enemy batsmen while walking 63. A passable batter himself, he hit .210 (13-for-62). In the field, he committed only two fielding errors in 51 chances (.961).

After pitching a couple of games for the amateur Manhattan Athletic Club, Coughlin resumed his professional career, joining the newly organized Syracuse-Utica Stars of the Eastern League. Here recent history semirepeated itself. Coughlin pitched well (14-8, .636, with a 1.39 ERA in 194 innings) for a hapless (otherwise 10-28, .263) ballclub teetering on the brink of financial collapse until it went under in late July. Brief, less successful stints with Eastern League clubs in Binghamton and Rochester completed Coughlin’s year at 19-17 (.528), with a 2.34 ERA in 323 1/3 innings pitched, combined.

The following spring Coughlin was auditioned by the defending National League champion Boston Beaneaters but eventually relinquished to the Eastern League’s Springfield (Massachusetts) Ponies without having appeared in a regular season game.49 Springfield’s acquisition of Coughlin met with the approval of the club’s Sporting Life correspondent, who declared, “I consider him the equal of any pitcher in our league. He is a gentleman, an earnest player and a credit to any team.”50 Coughlin did not disappoint his press admirer, promptly embarking on a productive four-season run with the Ponies. Unimpaired by the pitching rule changes implemented that season,51 Coughlin posted a handsome 19-11 (.633) record for a Springfield club that finished the campaign a close second in the Eastern League pennant chase (64-44, .593).

The next year, “Uncle Bill Coughlin” (as the New England sports press had taken to calling him) had an up-and-down season, logging close to 400 innings on his way to a 20-23 (.465) record52 for a Springfield Ponies club that fell to fourth place in the final Eastern League standings. Both Coughlin and his team rebounded in 1895. Although hampered by a slow start due to illness, “Uncle Bill” fashioned a 24-8 campaign that featured an Eastern League-leading 1.87 ERA.53 He combined with young Jimmy Callahan (30-9) to lead Springfield (79-36, .687) to the circuit crown.

Coughlin’s hopes for another shot in the big show, however, were dashed when he was not among the Springfield players selected in the postseason minor-league player draft. He presumably found consolation in marriage, taking Canadian emigrant Anna Keefe of Prince Edward Island as his bride. In time the birth of Elise (1896), William (1900), and Margaret (1903) completed the Coughlin family.

With Callahan gone to the Western League and Springfield otherwise draft-depleted,54 Coughlin returned to the role of Ponies staff workhorse. By mid-July it was reported that “Uncle Bill Coughlin is being tired out with his recent use.”55 Although the Ponies tumbled to a sixth-place finish (54-64, .458), Coughlin ground out another 20-win (20-19, .513) season, throwing 337 innings in the process.56

Coughlin returned to Springfield for the 1897 season but was soon supplanted in the rotation by newcomers. With his record standing at 3-4 in early June, he “asked for and received his release. He was not satisfied with his position on the team, so manager [Tom] Burns thought it better to let him go.”57 Coughlin then signed with another Eastern League club, the Wilkes-Barre (Pennsylvania) Coal Barons. After going 2-4, he was released in mid-August,58 bringing an 11-season professional career to a close.

Whether as Roscoe or Bill, Coughlin was an outstanding hurler in the high minor leagues, with an overall record of 214-156 (.578). In the process he led the California League in wins (32, 1889) and winning percentage (.771, 1890) for pennant-winning clubs in Oakland and San Francisco, respectively. His 24-win season with a circuit ERA crown (1.87) was crucial to the capture of the Eastern League flag by Springfield in 1895.

As baseball prepared for the opening of the 1898 season, the Spanish-American War erupted. Notwithstanding that he had a wife and infant daughter, Coughlin enlisted in the US Navy and served on active duty until hostilities ceased that August. He then returned home and found employment as a machinist in the Boston Navy Yard, a position that he held for the next 30 years. Unlike other former players Coughlin did not much involve himself in the game after he left the diamond. Rather he devoted his spare time to the affairs of the machinists’ union and veterans’ organizations, serving as commander of the United Spanish War Veterans camp in Revere, Massachusetts.59

Late in life Bill and Annie Coughlin took up residence in the home of daughter Margaret Randall in Lowell, Massachusetts. But sometime in 1949 Bill, suffering from heart disease and likely the onset of dementia, was removed to the Old Soldiers Home in nearby Chelsea, Massachusetts. He died there on March 20, 1951, some four weeks after the passing of his wife. The immediate cause of death was pneumonia.60 William Edward “Roscoe” Coughlin was 86. Following a Requiem Mass said at St. Michael’s Church, the deceased was interred next to Annie in St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Lowell. Survivors included his three adult children and three grandchildren.

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Will Christensen and fact-checked by Dan Schoenholz.

Sources

Sources for the biographical data imparted herein include the Roscoe Coughlin file at the Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, New York; US and Massachusetts census data; the Coughlin profile in The Rank and File of 19th Century Major League Baseball, David Nemec, ed. (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2012); and certain of the newspaper articles cited in the endnotes. Unless otherwise specified, stats have been taken from Baseball-Reference.

Notes

1 As confirmed by a recent genealogical inquiry by the Biographical Research Committee. See the March-April 2024 BRC Report, 1. Current reference authority that places Coughlin’s birth in nearby Walpole in March 1868 is mistaken. 

2 The other Coughlin children were John (born 1854), Thomas (1856), Julia (1857), James, Jr. (1859), Michael (1861), Catherine (1862), Anna (1864), and David (1866).

3 Per the 1940 US Census.

4 Modern reference authority lists Coughlin as bats unknown, but the probabilities and circumstantial evidence from game accounts strongly suggest that he was a righty batter.

5 “The Lynn Team: William E. Coughlin,” Lynn (Massachusetts) Daily Evening Item, April 5, 1887: 2.

6 Same as above, stating that Coughlin “as a pitcher in 52 games his record was .802.”

7 As reported in “Lynn’s Team Already Completed,” Sporting Life, March 16, 1887: 2.

8 See “Earned and Stolen Bases,” Lynn Daily Evening Item, May 5, 1887, citing the Manchester (New Hampshire) Mirror. Dave Coughlin went on to have a solid 10-season minor-league career but undermined his major league chances by heavy drinking.

9 As reported in “Earned and Stolen Bases,” Lynn Daily Evening Item, July 12, 1887: 4. See also, “Base Ball,” Lynn Daily Evening Item, July 18, 1887: 2.

10 “Earned and Stolen Bases,” Lynn Daily Evening Item, August 9, 1887: 4.

11 As reported in “Minor Leagues,” Chicago Tribune, July 22, 1888: 11.

12 “Will They Be Champions? Coughlin, the Eastern Twirler, Arrives in Oakland,” Oakland Evening Tribune, September 5, 1888: 3.

13 “Field Sports: Coughlin, the New Pitcher of the Pets, Is Batted Hard,” Oakland Evening Tribune, September 7, 1888: 4. Pets was an unofficial nickname for the G&Ms.

14 “Stray Hits,” Oakland Evening Tribune, September 19, 1888: 3.

15 Per California League stats published in the 1889 Reach Official Base Ball Guide, 98 (which does not supply win-loss records for California League pitchers). The writer is indebted to Will Christensen for Coughlin’s win-lost record. Baseball-Reference does not include Coughlin’s California League tenure in its entry on him.

16 1889 Reach Guide, 96. See also, “Baseball Victors,” Santa Cruz (California) Daily Surf, December 10, 1888: 1.

17 “Stray Hits,” Oakland Evening Tribune, November 14, 1888: 3.

18 In his second season on the West Coast, it was said of Coughlin that “aside from being a splendid ballplayer, he is a polite, agreeable well-behaved young gentleman with the voice and manners that have won him the appellation—the gentle Roscoe.’” The meaning of this descriptive is unknown to the writer.

19 “Stray Hits,” Oakland Evening Tribune, February 27, 1889: 3.

20 Per 1889 California League stats published in the 1890 Reach Official Base Ball Guide, 108. See also, Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, eds. (Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, Inc., 3d ed., 2007), 153.

21 See “Oakland’s Pennant,” San Francisco Examiner, November 25, 1889: 1. Unbeknownst to the 20,000 fans in attendance, Oakland had been awarded the game by forfeit before the contest began.

22 See e.g., “When ‘Tip’ O’Neill and His Huskies Won Pennant for Oakland; O, Boy! Those Were the Grand Old Days!” Oakland Tribune, February 11, 1917: 31; and “Old-Time Winners of Baseball Pennants,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 13, 1910: 52.

23 Departing for the Players League were 1889 Chicago stalwarts Frank Dwyer (16-13), Ad Gumbert (16-13), and John Tener (15-15). For the coming season, the only staff holdover was Bill Hutchison (16-17).

24 Harry Palmer, “Chicago Gleanings,” Sporting Life, February 19, 1890: 2.

25 “Condition of Anson’s Colts,” Chicago Tribune, March 10, 1890: 5.

26 Letter of Anson published in the Chicago Tribune, March 2, 1890: 3.

27 “National League Games: Anson’s Colts Easily Win at Cincinnati – 13 to 3 the Score,” Chicago Tribune, April 23, 1890: 2. Certain wire service box scores credited Cincinnati with seven hits.

28 “Pittsburgh Men Defeated,” Pittsburgh Post, April 30, 1890: 6.

29 As subsequently reported in “Base Ball News,” Sacramento Bee, June 24, 1890; 1; “Notes of the Game,” Chicago Tribune, June 22, 1890: 3; and elsewhere.

30 As noted in “Baseball News,” Sacramento Weekly Bee, June 25, 1890: 6; and “Coughlin Released,” Oakland Evening Tribune, June 24, 1890: 1.

31 See “Base-Ball Notes,” Baltimore Sun, June 27, 1890: 32; and “Base Ball,” Evansville (Indiana) Courier, June 22, 1890: 1.

32 As recounted in “Slippery Roscoe,” San Francisco Call, July 6, 1890: 1. See also, “The New Pitcher,” Sacramento Daily Record-Union, July 15, 1890: 3.

33 “Senator Coughlin,” Sacramento Weekly Bee, July 16, 1890: 5.

34 Same as above.

35 As reported in “Baseball Notes,” Sacramento Daily Record-Union, July 20, 1890; 3; and “Notes of the Game,” San Francisco Examiner, July 20, 1890: 5.

36 “Coughlin Released,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 6, 1890: 8; and “Coughlin No Longer a Senator,” San Francisco Examiner, August 5, 1890: 5.

37 “Waives All Right,” Sacramento Evening Bee, August 4, 1890: 2. See also, “California Cullings,” Sporting Life, August 16, 1890: 11, wherein it was asserted that Coughlin’s release was part of the Sacramento club’s effort to “reduce expenses.”

38 Per “The Umpire,” Oakland Evening Tribune, August 20, 1890: 6. See also, “League Liners,” San Francisco Call, August 18, 1890: 8.

39 See “No Runs and One Hit,” San Francisco Examiner, September 28, 1890: 4.

40 Per Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 157.

41 “Coughlin in the Cold,” Oakland Evening Tribune, January 28, 1891: 8. See also, “The Umpire,” Oakland Evening Tribune, March 4, 1891: 6, wherein Coughlin reiterated that “I’m not playing ball for my health.”

42 “Notes on the Game,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 6, 1891: 3. The Coughlin signing with Syracuse was also reported in “General Sporting Notes,” Oakland Morning Times, April 6, 1891: 3.

43 “News, Gossip and Comment,” Sporting Life, September 5, 1891: 2.

44 Per wire service reports. See e.g., “National League: At New York,” (Lincoln) Daily Nebraska State Journal, September 12, 1891: 2; and “New York 8-1, Cleveland 2-1,” Omaha Evening World-Herald, September 12, 1891: 5.

45 See “Anson Downed by Fraud,” Chicago Inter Ocean, October 1, 1891: 2; “Plot Against Chicago,” Chicago Tribune, October 1, 1891: 1; and “Suspicious Ball Games,” New Haven (Connecticut) Register, October 1, 1891: 3.

46 See “No Dishonesty,” Sporting Life, October 10, 1891: 2.

47 Per “Notes of the Game,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 16, 1891: 4.

48 As reported in “Condensed Dispatches,” Sporting Life, April 9, 1892: 1; and “Crane a Giant, Again,” New York Herald, April 7, 1892: 11.

49 Per “Springfield Splints,” Sporting Life, June 3, 1893: 15. See also, “A New Pitcher Secured by Springfield,” Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, May 20, 1893: 4. Coughlin did not appear in any regular season games for Boston.

50 “Satisfied Springfield,” Sporting Life, May 20, 1893: 4.

51 The changes included the elimination of the pitcher’s box and the elongation of the pitching distance to the modern-day 60 feet, six inches.

52 As calculated by the writer from newspaper published box and line scores. Baseball-Reference and the 1895 Reach Official Base Ball Guide provide only batting and fielding stats for Coughlin’s 1894 season with Springfield.

53 Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 167.

54 “Baseball,” Oakland Enquirer, July 22, 1896: 8. By mid-July 1896, the Springfield roster contained only five players (including Coughlin) who had been with the club the previous season.

55 “Eastern League,” Boston Herald, July 12, 1896: 3.

56 As calculated by the writer from published box and line scores of 1896 Springfield games. Again Baseball-Reference and Reach Guide data for Coughlin are confined to batting and fielding stats.

57 “Springfield Splints,” Sporting Life, June 12, 1897: 8.

58 Per “News and Comment,” Sporting Life, August 21, 1897: 5.

59 Per the Coughlin obituary published in the Boston Herald, March 21, 1951: 35.

60 Death certificate contained in the Coughlin file at the Giamatti Research Center.