| Roger Connor | |
|---|---|
 Connorc. 1880–1882 | |
| First baseman /Manager | |
| Born:(1857-07-01)July 1, 1857 Waterbury, Connecticut, U.S. | |
| Died: January 4, 1931(1931-01-04) (aged 73) Waterbury, Connecticut, U.S. | |
Batted: Switch Threw: Left | |
| MLB debut | |
| May 1, 1880, for the Troy Trojans | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| May 18, 1897, for the St. Louis Browns | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .317 |
| Hits | 2,467 |
| Home runs | 138 |
| Runs batted in | 1,322 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Managerial record at Baseball Reference | |
| Teams | |
As player
As manager | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
| Member of the National | |
 Baseball Hall of Fame | |
| Induction | 1976 |
| Election method | Veterans Committee |
Roger Connor (July 1, 1857 – January 4, 1931) was an American 19th-centuryMajor League Baseball (MLB) player. He played for several teams, but his longest tenure was in New York, where he was responsible for theNew York Gothams becoming known as the Giants. He was the player whomBabe Ruth succeeded as the all-time careerhome run champion. Connor hit 138 home runs during his 18-year career, and his career home run record stood for 23 years after his retirement in 1897. He was one ofjust seven players with 2,000 hits when he retired.
Connor owned and managed minor league baseball teams after his playing days. He was elected to theBaseball Hall of Fame by itsVeterans Committee in 1976. Largely forgotten after his retirement, Connor was buried in an unmarked grave until a group of citizens raised money for a grave marker in 2001.
Connor was born inWaterbury, Connecticut. He was the son of Irish immigrants Mortimer Connor and Catherine Sullivan Connor. His father had arrived in the United States only five years before Roger's birth.[1] The family lived in the Irish section of Waterbury, known as the Abrigador district, which was separated from the rest of the city by a large granite hill. Connor was the third of eleven children born to the family, though two did not survive childhood. His younger brother,Joe, also played in the majors over several seasons from 1895 to 1905. Connor left school around age 12 to work with his father at the local brass works.[2]
Connor entered professional baseball with the Waterbury Monitors of the Eastern League in 1876. Though he was left-handed, Connor was initially athird baseman; in early baseball, left-handed third basemen were more common than they are in modern baseball.[3] In 1878 he would transfer to the minor league Holyoke Shamrocks, where he became known for hitting home runs across the field into the Connecticut River. This so impressed Springfield baseball boss Bob Ferguson that he signed Connor onto theNational League (NL)Troy Trojans when he bought them out in 1880.[4]
In Connor's first year with the Troy Trojans, he teamed with future Hall of Fame playersDan Brouthers,Buck Ewing,Tim Keefe andMickey Welch, all of whom were just starting their careers. Also on that 1880 Trojans team, though much older, was player-managerBob "Death to Flying Things" Ferguson. Though Connor, Ferguson and Welch were regularly in the lineup, the other future stars each played in only a handful of the team's 83 games that season. The team finished in fourth place with a 41–42win–loss record.[5] Connor committed 60 errors in 83 games and sustained a shoulder injury, prompting a position change tofirst baseman for 1881.[6]
He later played for theNew York Gothams, and, due to his great stature, gave that team the enduring nickname "Giants". Connor hit baseball's firstgrand slam on September 10, 1881, at Riverfront Park inRensselaer, New York.[7] His grand slam came with two outs and his team down three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, a situation known today as awalk-off home run.George Vecsey, inThe New York Times wrote: "Roger Connor was a complete player — a deftfirst baseman and an agile base runner who hit 233 triples andstole 244 bases despite his size (6 feet 3 inches and 200 pounds)."[8]
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He led the NL with a .371 average in 1885. On September 11, 1886, Connor hit a ball completely out of the Polo Grounds, a very difficult park in which to hit home runs. He hit the pitch from Boston'sOld Hoss Radbourn over the right field fence and onto 112th Street. The New York Times reported of the feat, "He met it squarely and it soared up with the speed of a carrier pigeon. All eyes were turned on the tiny sphere as it soared over the head ofCharlie Buffinton in right field."[9] A group of fans with theNew York Stock Exchange took up a collection for Connor and bought him a $500 gold watch in honor of the home run.[6]
Another New York baseball team, also known as the Giants, emerged with the founding of thePlayers' League (PL) in 1890. Several players from the NL team left for the new league's Giants team, including future Hall of Famers Connor, Keefe,Jim O'Rourke andHank O'Day. In 123 games, Connor registered 169 hits, a .349 batting average, 14 home runs, 103runs batted in (RBI) and 22 stolen bases. His home run total led the league and it represented the only major league single-season home run title that he won.[10] Connor experimented with some changes to his batting style that year. He hit more balls to theopposite field and he sometimes batted right-handed, though he did not have much success from the right side.[11]
Though Connor had success in his season with the PL, the league struggled. Some of the teams ran into financial difficulties. National League teams rescheduled many of their games to conflict with PL games in the same cities, and a high number of PL games were cancelled late in the season due torainouts.[12] Connor was optimistic that the league would be successful in 1891, but it officially broke up that January.[13]
Returning to the NL Giants for a season in 1891, Connor hit .294. In the offseason before 1892, Connor signed with thePhiladelphia Athletics. The team broke up shortly after Connor signed, and his contract was awarded to thePhiladelphia Phillies for that year. He returned to the Giants in 1893, raising his average to .322 and hitting 11 home runs. During the 1894 season, the Giants looked toward the team's youth and Connor lost his starting position toJack Doyle. He was released that year and picked up by theSt. Louis Browns.[13] The next year, his brotherJoe Connor made his major league debut with the same team. Joe played two games with St. Louis before being sent back down to the minor leagues. That year's St. Louis team finished with a 39–92 record,48+1⁄2 games out of first place.[14]
Connor was released by the Browns in May 1897 after starting the season with a .227 batting average. His major league playing career was over. While a major league player, Connor was regularly among the league leaders inbatting average and home runs. Connor's career mark of 138 was a benchmark not surpassed until 1921 byBabe Ruth. He finished his career with a .317 batting average.[15] Connor finished in the top ten in batting average ten times, all between 1880 and 1891. Over an 18-year career, Connor finished in the top ten for doubles ten times, finished in the top three for triples seven times and remains fifth all-time in triples with 233. He was also the first player to reach 1,000 career walks. He also established his power credentials by finishing in the top ten in RBI ten times and top ten in homers twelve times.[10]
In 1886, Connor and his wife Angeline had a daughter named Lulu.[13] She died as an infant. Connor interpreted the baby's death as God's punishment for marrying Angeline, who was not Catholic. Angeline had secretly begun receiving Catholic education and was planning to surprise Connor by getting baptized on the day that Lulu would have turned a year old. The couple later adopted a girl named Cecelia from a Catholic orphanage in New York City.[16]
Roger and Angeline Connor lived in Waterbury, Connecticut, for many years, even while Roger played in New York. Every winter, a banquet was held in Waterbury in Connor's honor. Near the end of the 19th century, Angeline gave Roger a weather vane which had been constructed from two of his baseball bats. The weather vane served as a well-known landmark in Waterbury even after the couple moved away.[13]
Connor signed with the Fall River Indians of theNew England League in June 1897. Connor attracted some attention by wearing eyeglasses on the field. He hitcleanup, played first base and was popular among fans. In 1898, Connor moved back to his hometown of Waterbury and purchased the local minor league team. He served as president, manager and played first base on the side.[17] Connor's wife, Angeline, kept the team's books and his daughter helped by collecting tickets. Joe Connor was the team's catcher; he later returned to the major leagues for several seasons.[13] After the 1899 season, Connor expressed satisfaction with his Waterbury team, saying that the team played well and did not lose money despite not getting strong attendance numbers at their games.[18]
In 1901, Connor became interested in purchasing the minor league franchise inHartford, Connecticut. The team had been dropped from theEastern League and had suffered financial losses related to traveling as far away as Canada for games. Connor proposed that he might purchase the team and attempt to have it admitted to theConnecticut State League, decreasing its travel requirements.[19] However, upon selling the Waterbury club at the end of that season, he bought theSpringfield Ponies franchise in the same league.[13]
In September 1903, Connor announced his retirement from baseball and placed his team up for sale.[20] He had made a similar statement the year before and apparently on a frequent basis before that. In June 1902, the local newspaper said, "Roger bobs up every summer and makes his farewell to the baseball public."[21] His 1903 retirement was earnest though; he attended a 1904 Springfield-Norwich game as a retired spectator.[22]
Connor worked as a school inspector in Waterbury until 1920.[17] He lived to see his career home run record bested byBabe Ruth, although if it was celebrated, it might have been on the wrong day. At one time, Connor's record was thought to be 131, per theSporting News bookDaguerreotypes. As late as the 1980s, in the MacMillanBaseball Encyclopedia, it was thought to be 136. However, John Tattersall's 1975Home Run Handbook, a publication of theSociety for American Baseball Research (SABR), credited Connor with 138. BothMLB.com and the independentBaseball-Reference.com now consider Connor's total to be 138.[10][23]
Connor died on January 4, 1931, following a lengthy stomach illness, at the age of 73. A news article after his death said his "likeable personality and his colorful action made him an idol."[17]
He was interred in an unmarked grave at St. Joseph's Cemetery in Waterbury.[6]
Decades after his death, Waterbury citizens, as well as through donations from baseball fans, raised enough money to purchase a headstone for his grave, which was dedicated in a 2001 ceremony.[24]
Connor was inducted into theBaseball Hall of Fame in 1976. Baseball Hall of Fame umpireBill Klem had long campaigned on behalf of Connor's inclusion to the Hall of Fame.[13]
· Baseball Reference · Fangraphs · Baseball Reference (Minors) · Retrosheet · Baseball Almanac, orRetrosheet| Records | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Career home run record holder 1895–1920 | Succeeded by |
| Achievements | ||
| Preceded by | Hitting for the cycle July 21, 1890 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
