Archive for November, 2011

A copy of Sheppard Trusty’s death certificate from the New Jersey Archives. Only addition from my biography is that he was buried in Pleasantville.

Hugh Gilgan

In 2010 I submitted a biography of Barney Gilligan to the SABR Biography Project. Within it I wrote of his time in the National Association, 2 games with the Brooklyn Atlantics in 1875. This information was readily available at the encyclopedia reference sites. The Atlantic research led me to his playing with the New York Flyaways. 

Not long after the publication of the bio, I started to receive emails that I may have based the Atlantics/Flyaway part on incorrect data. I posted it here hoping for continued discussion. 

Unfortunately, it seems the encyclopedias were wrong, as was I for not picking up on the discrepancy. A game account from the New York Times on 26 September 1875 clearly shows that “Gilligan” indeed came from the Flyaway club. However, information provided to my by Richard Malatzky and Robert Richardson (via Peter Morris) shows that it wasn’t Barney Gilligan with the Flyaways but a man named Hugh Gilgan. They offered several convincing references from 1874 and 1875 which shows this. (Obviously, both Gilligan and Gilgan were catchers) 

Thus, it appears that Barney Gilligan did not play in the National Association. In response, today I asked for my Gilligan bio to be amended and it was. I am not a member of the SABR Biographical Committee which typically investigates these variances but I assume an investigation is already underway. 

Here I offer the section of the bio which now pertains to Gilgan, appropriately altered to correspond to Gilgan. I offer no further material that I have been privy to. It is not my work and thus for another to present.

Hugh Gilgan returned with the Flyaways in 1875. The New York Flyaways were acknowledged as the leading club of the area in 1874 and ’75, winning various championships each season.

The latter season, he caught a pitcher named Fallon. Among his teammates, Molly Moore joined the Brooklyn Atlantics of the National Association, the top league of the time, at the end of June.

In September the Atlantics found themselves in need of more bodies. According to the New York Times, “The Atlantic club, of Brooklyn, having disbanded last week and several of the members going to other clubs, a new nine has been organized by the introduction of several amateur players.” Gilgan and former Flyaway players Bill Rexter and a man named Stoddard joined the Atlantics on September 25.

In New York on the 25th, Gilgan caught Frank Fleet and went hitless against the Mutuals’ Bobby Mathews in a 10-7 loss. It was the next-to-last game of the season. The team didn’t play another league contest until October 9. Very few took note of the game so late in the season, “not more than one hundred persons were present,” according to the Times. Gilgan manned right field and collected two hits and a run off Tommy Bond of Hartford in an otherwise humiliating 20-7 loss. The Atlantics of 1875 were an overmatched club, finishing the year with a 2-42 record.