Major League Playing Career
After playing with the Milwaukee Grays in 1878 and the Worcester Ruby Legs, Bennett played eight seasons with the Detroit Wolverines from 1881-1888. He played with the Wolverines during every season that the franchise existed and became the most popular baseball player in 19th Century Detroit.
In the first season of major league baseball in Detroit, Bennett hit .301 and led the team with 64 RBIs, 18 doubles, 7 home runs, and a .478 slugging percentage. He also finished among the National League leaders in home runs (2nd), RBIs (2nd), slugging percentage (4th), and extra base hits (4th). He is also credited with being the first baseball player ever to take a curtain call that season.
In 1882, Bennett hit .301 for the second consecutive season and led the Wolverines in batting average (.301), on base percentage (.340), slugging percentage (.450), hits (103), and RBIs (51).
In 1883, Bennett raised his average to .305 and led the Detroit team in batting average (.305), on base percentage (.350), slugging percentage (.474), doubles (34), home runs (5), and RBIs (55).
In 1884, Bennett led the Wolverines in slugging percentage (.378) for the fourth consecutive year. He was the team's #1 slugger for the first four years of the franchise's existence. He also led the team in on base percentage (.334) for the fourth consecutive year.
In 1885, despite the addition of Sam Thompson, Bennett once again led the team in RBIs (60), on base percentage (.356), doubles (24), triples (13), and extra base hits (42). However, he finished second in slugging percentage behind Sam Thompson. In the first five years of major league baseball in Detroit, Bennett was the top slugger and the most popular player.
In 1886, Bennett's seven years as a major league catcher began to take a toll, as his offensive production fell off substantially. But with sluggers Dan Brouthers, Sam Thompson, and Hardy Richardson in the lineup, the Wolverines were a greatly improved team, finishing with a record of 85-38 and finishing in second place to the Chicago White Stockings.
Though he shared catching duties in 1887 with Charlie Ganzel, Bennett was with the Wolverines in 1887 when they won the National League pennant and then defeated the St. Louis Browns in the World Series. In the 1887 World Series, Bennett had 9 RBIs, 11 hits, and scored 6 runs.
The 1888 season was the last year for the Detroit franchise in the National League, and Bennett was with the team throughout its existence. The only other player who was with the team for all eight years of its existence was center fielder Ned Hanlon.
Bennett played his last five major league seasons with the Boston Beaneaters. He played with the Beaneaters in their 1892 World's Championship Series victory over the Cleveland Spiders.
Read more about this topic: Charlie Bennett
Famous quotes containing the words major, league, playing and/or career:
“Give me the keys. I feel for the common chord again,
Sliding by semi-tones till I sink to a minor,—yes,
And I blunt it into a ninth, and I stand on alien ground,
Surveying a while the heights I rolled from into the deep;
Which, hark, I have dared and done, for my resting-place is found,
The C Major of this life: so, now I will try to sleep.”
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)
“I am not impressed by the Ivy League establishments. Of course they graduate the best—it’s all they’ll take, leaving to others the problem of educating the country. They will give you an education the way the banks will give you money—provided you can prove to their satisfaction that you don’t need it.”
—Peter De Vries (b. 1910)
“The essential is to excite the spectators. If that means playing Hamlet on a flying trapeze or in an aquarium, you do it.”
—Orson Welles (1915–1984)
“I began my editorial career with the presidency of Mr. Adams, and my principal object was to render his administration all the assistance in my power. I flattered myself with the hope of accompanying him through [his] voyage, and of partaking in a trifling degree, of the glory of the enterprise; but he suddenly tacked about, and I could follow him no longer. I therefore waited for the first opportunity to haul down my sails.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)