Marty Hogan - Playing Career

Playing Career

Before joining the major leagues, Hogan played for minor league baseball teams in the northeastern United States, including the Akron (Ohio) Summits and Scranton (Pennsylvania) Miners. He began his career as a major league player with the Cincinnati Reds, on August 4, 1894, but played only six games before switching to the St. Louis Browns (later known as the Cardinals). By this time, St. Louis had been eliminated from league championship contention, after being tied with Cleveland and Boston for first place in April. Hogan participated in 29 games with St. Louis in the 1894 season. According to the 1895 edition of Spalding's Official Baseball Guide, he ranked tenth among league outfielders with a percentage of .941 for put-outs, assists, and errors. Among his teammates, Hogan held the second highest percentage of stolen bases for games played. In March 1895, a reporter for Sporting Life praised the Browns' decision to retain Hogan in center field and emphasized the young outfielder's potential. "On the bases and in the field the lad is a wonder", the paper stated. "His only fault is weakness at the bat, but increasing confidence and familiarity with League players will undoubtedly improve him in this respect". Despite Hogan's physical speed, however, his overall performance with the Browns proved uneven, and his two-season batting average was just .241. On May 17, 1895, the Youngstown Daily Vindicator reported that Hogan had been "farmed out" as a center fielder to the Indianapolis Hoosiers, a club connected to the well-organized Western League, the predecessor of the American League. The Vindicator added, "At any time by giving a proper notification the St. Louis team, of which club Hogan is a member, can again secure his services". Yet, for reasons that are unclear, Hogan never returned to the St. Louis Browns. He played his last game with the team on April 24, 1895, concluding a major-league career that comprised 40 games over two seasons.

At Indianapolis, Hogan led at the bat, and contemporary sources indicate his performance improved. "Marty Hogan, who is playing temporarily in middle field for the Indianapolis team of the western league...is covering himself in glory with his superb playing", the Vindicator reported on June 4, 1895. "The Indianapolis Sentinel of May 31st says: Hogan made a great record at the bat yesterday morning", the newspaper added. "One of the drives was for a home run and three of the hits were bunts". In addition, the article credited Hogan with four runs, five base hits, and two put outs in a late morning game against a rival team from St. Paul, Minnesota. The Vindicator went on to quote the Indianapolis Journal as follows: "Among the features of the forenoon game was Hogan's batting. He got five hits, one a home run, and his bunting was even cleverer than usual, and that is saying a great deal". The article concluded, "If he keeps up this gait, it will not be long before Von der Ahe reclaims his pet".

Hogan's obituary stated that, at some point in his playing career, he set a record for baserunning. Several sources trace this record to a field day event held in Indianapolis in 1895, when he reportedly rounded the bases in 13.2 seconds. The World Almanac and Encyclopedia 1906, for instance, reported that Hogan "lowered the base-running record" in 1895, noting that "he distance around the bases is 120 yards". In January 1906, Sporting Life reported that Hogan had "taken steps to have the base running record awarded to him". The report added, "Under proper conditions turned the route in 13 1–5 seconds at Indianapolis in 1895". Some observers questioned the veracity of the record, however. In 1907, for instance, Washington Post sports columnist J. Ed Grillo conceded that "Hogan was a great sprinter" but described his unofficial record as "out of reason". Grillo, who argued that "the fastest runners in baseball failed to come anywhere near the mark", lent his support to an official record of 14.1 that had been set more recently by Eastern League player Wally Clement. An article published in the Washington Herald days earlier also raised questions about Hogan's baserunning record. In this case, however, the writer claimed that the most "authentic" record had been set by Harry Berthrong in the 1860s. The article stated that, while Hogan was "said to have beaten Berthrong's base-circling record of 13 2–5 seconds by a fifth of a second", this alleged feat was not "performed under official sanction". One year earlier, in 1906, Berthrong, himself, weighed in on the debate. According to an article that appeared in Sporting Life in March of that year, Berthrong disputed Hogan's claim. "My time...around the bases was made in Washington, D.C., in July 1868, after the old Nationals of Washington, D.C., had played a game with the Pastimes of Baltimore, Md.", Berthrong was quoted as saying in an interview. "Three stop watches were held over me, the slowest giving me 14 1/4". The retired player added: "I am skeptical about this man Hogan doing the bases in 13 1-5: nobody but an Arthur Duffey could possibly do it, and I doubt if he could". For reasons that are unclear, the article indicated that Hogan claimed to round the bases in 1889, six earlier than other reports. (A similar description of Hogan's claim appeared elsewhere in the same edition of Sporting Life; a brief news item suggested he claimed to set the record "in Indianapolis in the 80's".) Baseball historian Jon Daly traced Hogan's contested record to 1898; he speculated that Ben Morgan, an official of the National Association, "disputed that claim when doing a study of field day records". The most widely accepted national baserunning record was set by Evar Swanson, who rounded the bases in 13.4 seconds in 1929. Despite questions surrounding Hogan's baserunning record, he became popularly known as the "Indianapolis Ringer". Newspaper reports suggest he defended his position as baserunning champion of the Western League in various pre-game competitions. On August 2, 1895, the Vindicator noted that the outfielder had "a rival for the base running honors in the western league in George Nichol of the Milwaukees who, it is claimed, can get down to first quicker than Hogan". The article added, "A race between the two is talked of". Then, on August 17, 1895, the Vindicator reported that Hogan had defeated Detroit outfielder Frank Tower in a baserunning contest. "The Hoosiers have in Mart Hogan a pretty good extra card", the article added. "Indianapolis goes around the land, and their sprinting outfielder meets all comers in foot races before the game. He has not yet been defeated". Several days earlier, the same newspaper quoted a journalist from Sporting Life, who reportedly commented: "Mart Hogan, the Indianapolis outfielder, is showing such astonishing speed that he will probably be taken to England next year for the Sheffield Handicap".

In February 1896, Hogan received an offer to manage the Youngstown (Ohio) Puddlers, a minor league team associated with the Interstate League. The Vindicator reported that the outfielder refused the offer. "Hogan expects to play again with the St. Louis team in the National League", the Vindicator stated. The paper went on to quote an article that supposedly appeared in the Cincinnati-based Commercial Gazette: "St. Louis fans are opposed to the idea of selling Marty Hogan, the fast out-fielder, who played with the Indianapolis team last season, having been loaned by the Browns". In the spring of 1896, however, Hogan attempted to extricate himself from remaining contractual obligations to the St. Louis Browns. Sporting Life reported, in May 1896, that Hogan was unsuccessful in his efforts to obtain a final release from the Browns, who retained him as an "extra" right fielder. "Marty has not been given any kind of trial by the manager of the Browns, although he stood high in batting and base running in the Western League last year", the article stated. "He is in fine condition, and is anxious to play, but does not prepare to be shifted about at the will of alleged managers". The paper added that Hogan had returned to St. Louis in March 1896, prepared to "purchase" his release, "but he has been held onto until now, when he could have secured $1550 for his services in the Western League". Hogan appeared especially confident of his baserunning abilities. The article noted that the outfielder had "offered to match himself to run 100 yards for $500 a side against any player in the National League". Meanwhile, his batting evidently continued to improve. On May 24, 1896, an article in the St. Paul (Minnesota) Globe indicated Hogan performed exceptionally well at the bat during a contest between the Hoosiers and the St. Paul Saints. "Marty Hogan...through an inadvertent mix-up of pugilism and baseball...tried to hammer the face off the ball, which had tantalized the other Hoosiers", the article stated, "and when Marty's work was done, the ball was out of the lot and he was on second base".

At some point in the 1896 season, Hogan apparently secured his release from the Browns. Once again, however, his physical speed offered no guarantee of consistency on the playing field. On July 21, 1896, the St. Paul (Minneapolis) Globe reported that Hogan had performed poorly in a contest between the Hoosiers and the local ball club. "Marty Hogan...made a bad fumble, and then looked up at the sky to see if it had moved while he was locating the ball", the paper reported. "It was a good bluff, but the crowd discovered Marty's weakness before the end of the game". In January 1897, the Vindicator reported that the Hoosiers had sold Hogan to a club in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The article called Hogan "one of the fastest outfielders and baserunners in the Western League" and predicted he would "greatly strengthen the Grand Rapids outfield". The following month, however, the paper described the previous report as a "mistake", indicating instead that Hogan had signed a contract with baseball executive John T. Brush to play with the Hoosiers for another year. The paper also reported that the contract granted Hogan "the largest salary he has ever drawn". Despite this lucrative contract, Hogan established and maintained his own advertising distribution agency in Indianapolis. "He goes about the streets dressed much like an English costermonger", Sporting Life reported in January 1897. "Marty can be seen with a little red wagon full of signs and advertising matter chasing up and down streets nailing the signs to buildings and convenient places and distributing advertising literature in the reel-dance portion of Indianapolis". Less than four months later, in May 1897, he was released by the Indianapolis ball club. In June 1897, the Kansas City Journal indicated Hogan had moved on to the Dayton (Ohio) Old Soldiers, a team affiliated with the Class B Interstate League, where he was "playing a sensational center field". In October of the same year, Sporting Life speculated Hogan would remain with Dayton during the upcoming 1898 season. "Marty Hogan's contract with Dayton is such that he cannot be reserved, as are the rest of the players", the article stated. "Unless Marty has a better offer to play with some other team it is safe to say that he will be with Dayton next year". Further research is required to determine how long Hogan continued to play as an outfielder in the minor leagues. (His obituary indicated that he also worked as a major league trainer.) During his playing career, he apparently received at least one serious injury. In February 1903, Sporting Life reported that the former baseball player's friends were "anxious to get him appointed on the staff of American League umpires". The article added, "Hogan has suffered from operations to remove portions of his breast bone, which was injured in a collision during a baseball game".