Friday, June 6, 2008

Joe Gannon's Rather Bitter Cup Of Coffee


I came home from work last night and was randomly searching Find A Grave when I found the burial record and a grave photo for Joseph S. Gannon. According to Connie Nisinger, Gannon was a professional baseball player who pitched one game for the Browns on August 28, 1898. So being the person I am (easily distracted), I had to go and look up the box score for Gannon's one major league game (which is posted above).

That was one rough outing. Nine innings pitched, thirteen hits, five walks, thirteen runs, eleven earned, no K's. It kind of reminds me of Mike Parisi's first two big league starts (wait...am I really going to write that...it's a bit harsh-Gannon was actually better in his one start then Parisi was in either of his).

To top it off, Gannon went 0-3 at the plate. That's a bitter cup of coffee.

On the "comprehensive Joe Gannon baseball stats page" at Baseball Almanac, it's noted that Gannon was born on February 22, 1877 in St. Louis and died on March 19, 1931 in St. Louis. He's buried in Calvary Cemetery.

Peter Morris, over at his website, has a very nice piece on Gannon and notes that the first four hitters that Gannon faced in his only big league start were future Hall of Famers (and Baltimore had five future HoF's total in the lineup that day). That's a rough way to break into the big leagues. I seriously doubt Mike Parisi has faced five future Hall of Famers in his two starts.



Gannon's grave at Calvary Cemetery.

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