[RUKen]

Jack McFetridge 1890
Jack McFetridge was an amateur baseball pitcher in the Philadelphia area from a wealthy family who agreed to start one game for the Phillies in 1890. On June 7th of that year he defeated the Brooklyn Bridegrooms in the second game of a doubleheader, 4-1, and batted 3-for-4. He allowed just five hits and walked two. Although he had beaten the team that had been the American Association champion the previous season and would go on to win the National League pennant in 1890, McFetridge refused to sign a contract with the Phillies, and returned to amateur baseball, where he pitched into the next century. In 1901, he began to occasionally pitch in exhibition games for the Phillies, and in 1903 he finally signed a contract at age 33. McFetridge started just thirteen games throughout the season, and did not win one until September19th against Cincinnati. He finished that season with a record of 1-11, and did not appear in the major leagues again. He pitched semi-professionally until late 1907, when he signed with the Wilmington Peaches in the Tri-State League. He sustained an injury in the following off-season, and was out of professional baseball for good. These details are mostly taken from McFetridge’s SABR biography, which ends with the following: “Remarkably, despite all the attention he received in the Philadelphia press for well over a decade, there was never any mention of which arm he favored when he pitched.” We now know from the photo below (taken in1903) that he was a right-hander.