Biographical Committee News: Peter Morris Finds Himself!
As reported in the latest edition of the SABR Biographical Committee Newsletter by editor Bill Carle….
Peter Morris Finds Himself!
A man named Morris played one game at shortstop for the Washington Unions in a game at Chicago on May
As reported in the latest edition of the SABR Biographical Committee Newsletter by editor Bill Carle….
Peter Morris Finds Himself!
A man named Morris played one game at shortstop for the Washington Unions in a game at Chicago on May 14, 1884. We had few clues to his identity and it seemed unlikely we would ever determine who he was. Peter Morris researched this player and found that there was a shortstop called Peter Morris who played shortstop for the Milwaukee Maple Leafs in 1883 and 1884. On May 13, 1884, the Milwaukee team traveled to Chicago to play a series of games with the Chicago Blues.
Peter Morris played shortstop in all those games except the one on May 14, the same day Morris played shortstop for Washington. Less than a week later, Washington signed John Deasley off the Milwaukee team.
Obviously, the Washington Unions had a connection with the Milwaukee team and it would seem to be a pretty odd coincidence if Peter Morris played shortstop in all the Milwaukee games in Chicago except May 14, the day Morris appeared at shortstop for Washington, and he was not the Morris with Washington. I think we can be reasonably safe in assuming that the shortstop for Washington was none other than Peter Morris. Researcher Peter Morris was able to find a report of the death of ballplayer Peter Morris in the Milwaukee Sentinel of December 11, 1884. He died while coupling cars on a train and the paper identified him as a member of the Milwaukee Maple Leafs.
Congratulations to Peter Morris for finally finding Peter Morris and winning the Find of the Month award! To download the May/June 2007 edition, click HERE.
The March/April 2007 edition includes more informative articles on research finds and a detailed description of the history of the SABR Biographical Database, how it was constructed and what it contains. To download, click HERE.
SABR’s Biographical Committee reported in the January/February issue an addition to the major leaguers of the 1920s. Norman Matt Glaser pitched in one game for the 1920 Detroit Tigers. Previously, the Biographical Committee had thought that the game on 9/21/1920 had been pitched by John Glasier. Up to the challenge of this new finding, Marc Okkonen discovered an image of Norman Glaser in the 1925 Spalding Guide (page 171) as seen in the 1924 Toronto team photo. To download, click HERE.
Originally published: July 5, 2007. Last Updated: July 5, 2007.