Deacon White - Career

Career

Born in Caton, New York, Deacon White's pro career began in 1868 with the Cleveland Forest Citys club, at a time when no team was entirely composed of professional players. He earned the first hit in baseball's first fully professional league – a double off of Bobby Mathews of the Fort Wayne Kekiongas in the first inning of the first game in National Association history on May 4, 1871; he also made the first catch. His long career allowed him to play with many of the legendary figures of 19th-century professional baseball. White played on the great National Association Boston Red Stockings teams of the early 1870s, and also played with Cap Anson and Al Spalding in Chicago, King Kelly in Cincinnati, Dan Brouthers in Buffalo, and Ned Hanlon and Sam Thompson in Detroit, as well as Jake Beckley and Pud Galvin in Pittsburgh.

White led his league in batting average twice (including the NA in 1875), and in RBI three times (including the NA in 1873); in 1953, Roy Campanella became the first catcher since White in 1876 to lead his league in RBI. White started out early enough to have played against the undefeated Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869, baseball's first all-professional team. He was considered the best barehanded catcher of his time, as well as one of the best third baseman during the second half of his career; his combined total of games caught in the NA and NL was eventually passed by Pop Snyder in 1881. On May 16, 1884 White recorded 11 assists at third base, which remains the major league record for a nine-inning game although eight other players have since tied the mark. To top it all off, in the rough-and-tumble 19th-century baseball era, White really was a nonsmoking, Bible-toting, church-going deacon.

In 1889, White and teammate Jack Rowe were sold to the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, but the pair refused to report unless they were paid additional money, leading to a protracted dispute. Eventually the two men were paid, with White telling a reporter, "We appreciate the money, but we ain't worth it. Rowe's arm is gone. I'm over 40 and my fielding ain't so good, though I can still hit some. But I will say this. No man is going to sell my carcass unless I get half." Complaints like this were part of the reason that the Players League was formed in 1890.

White's playing career ended after the 1890 season. He remained in baseball managing a number of minor league clubs including the Elmira Gladiators of the New York-Pennsylvania League (1891), the McAlister Minors of the Oklahoma-Arkansas-Kansas League (1907), the Tulsa Oilers of the Oklahoma-Kansas League (1908), and the Buffalo Bisons of the International League (1912).

According to Lee Allen in The National League Story (1961), White was one of the last people to believe that the earth is flat. He tried and failed to convince his teammates that they were living on a flat plane and not a globe; they ridiculed him. Then one asked to be convinced, and the Deacon gave him an argument suited to the hypothesis that the earth is not really turning. He convinced the teammate but the argument would not prove that the earth is not a sphere.

White died in 1939 in Aurora, Illinois at the age of 91 and is buried at Restland Cemetery in Mendota, Illinois. He had been greatly disappointed over not having been invited to the opening ceremonies to the Baseball Hall of Fame that summer, having been completely overlooked in the voting for inductees.

In August 2008, he was named as one of ten former players who began their careers before 1943 to be considered by the Veterans Committee for induction into the Hall of Fame in 2009; although he fell short in final voting, he received the most votes of any player whose career ended before 1940. On December 3, 2012 it was announced that he was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Pre-Integration Committee, receiving 14 out of 16 votes. He will be inducted in July 2013