An Irish Pioneer in America

In the spirit of St Patrick Day, and in honor of my ancestral home, I wanted to pay tribute to the 40 native Irishman who have played major league baseball.  According to Baseball-Reference.com, the first players from Ireland to play in the majors were Ed Duffy (shortstop for the Chicago White Stockings), Jimmy Hallinan(shortstop for the Ft. Wayne Kekiongas), Fergy Malone (catcher for the Philadelphia Athletics) and Andy Leonard (second baseman for the Washington Olympics).  The quartet began play in May 1871 in the National Association. 

That the four played major league ball is impressive (even if there careers were not particularly noteworth); yet their survival in the rough and tumble world of 19th century baseball was nothing compared to their real life survival.  All four were born or were infants during the time of the Great Famine between 1845 and 1851.

Technically, Leonard was the pathmaker, as his first game was on May 5.  Leonard was born on June 1, 1846.  The potato fields were luxuriant and hopes were high for a plentiful harvest. Two months later, everything had changed.  As one eyewitness observed:

I beheld with sorrow one wide waste of putrifying vegetation.  In many places, the wretched people were seated on the fences of their decaying gardens, wringing their hands, and wailing bitterly [at] the destruction that had left them foodless.  James Donnelly, Jr.  The Great Irish Potato Famine, p. 57.   

In Leonard's birthplace County Cavan - in northern Leinster - the impact of the Famine was severe:

The population of the county [Cavan] fell by nearly 29 per cent between 1841 and 1851. Part of this was due to starvation- and disease-induced mortality. A significant part was also due to emigration to England and America. 

The Great Famine in Cavan

Although the details behind the journey is lost, Leonard is one of the fortunate ones who survived the hunger the disease, and the dangers of the trans-Atlantic journey to become one of the Irish Diaspora.  How did Leonard adjust to urban life in a country that more often than not despised the native Irish?  How did baseball help the social and cultural development? I don't have the answers.  But one thing is clear, Andrew Jackson Leonard learned how to play the national game of his new home.

Raised in Newark, New Jersey, Leonard eventually moved to Cincinnati, Ohio.  In the Queen City, Leonard was hired by Harry Wright to join the Cincinnati Red Stockings and was an important member of the unbeaten 1869 team.

Subsequently, Leonard joined the Olympics of the National Association and played in the first game of the newly formed National League on April 22, 1876.

Leonard may have been the first native-born Irishman to play in the majors, but hundreds of second-generation Irish transformed the game in the 1880s and 1890s.  Today, Baseball Ireland presents the most valuable player in the Irish Baseball League the 'Andy Leonard League MVP Award.'

'Tis a grand day to be Irish!  Erin go bragh.

Comments

[Cormac]

Nice article, Happy St Patrick's Day!