FABL Bio of the Day
WASHINGTON ADAMS
The bio of the day delivers a minor league edition this time around as we focus on a player with one of the most creative nicknames in FABL history. Washington Adams, dubbed "Two Prez" by teammates early in his career, pitched in 850 games in a career that stretched from 1899-1916. However, only 3 of the those games for a total of 6 and a third innings were in the big leagues. That brief stint came in 1902 for the New York Gothams as Adams fanned four and walked one while allowing 3 earned runs on 7 hits. He did not earn a major league decision.
Adams career certainly took the scenic route as the Frederick, Maryland native did not debut in organized American minor league ball until he was 24 years old. I say 'American' minor league ball because the pitcher somehow found his way into a professional league in the Dominican Republic before the old Scranton Sailors of the AA Eastern League signed him to a contract prior to the 1899 campaign. His stay in Scranton lasted all of a month before they cut him loose without ever seeing him pitch. He did get picked up by the Washington Eagles but they too cut him loose before spring training got underway and Adams ended up catching on with the Nashville Chieftains of the AA Dixie League.
He would spend 4 seasons in Nashville, pitching entirely in relief. Adams would appear in 51 games over those 4 seasons and be a member of the Chieftains 1899 Dixie League championship club. It would be the only title team Adams would ever be a part of. In 1902 he would catch the attention of the New York Gothams, who purchased his contract and would eventually give him those 3 precious games that made up the entirety of his big league career. In 1903 the Gothams elected not to renew his contract and he was signed by the Washington Eagles once again. He spent the entire 1903 season on the taxi squad - in those days teams carried a few extra players in case of injury rather than the modern minor league affiliate system we say today - and did not appear in a single game either for the Eagles or the Detroit Dynamos, who signed him in July after Washington cut him loose. Adams also spent some time in a similar fashion the next season with the Brooklyn Kings but after not playing at all in mid-July he was dispatched to the Wichita Rustlers, then of the Heartland League.
That would begin a journey that would take Adams to minor league outposts in Evansville, Fort Wayne, Memphis and Cedar Rapids. In all he would appear in 850 games, with all but one of his appearances in relief. His only start came in 1906, in his final game with Wichita and it did not go well. He allowed 9 runs on 13 innings and did not survive the 5th inning. He actually did not survive Wichita that night as the Rustlers released him and he did not pitch again until the next season in Evansville.
A relief specialist before that really became a thing, Adams is one of only 10 players in the entire history of professional baseball - major or minor league - to appear in at least 850 games but start no more than 1 of them. Number one on that list is still an active player. Carl Briggs is presently with the independent Tulsa Roughnecks of the Lone Star Association, but before that spent 13 seasons in FABL with the Boston Minutemen and Philadelphia Keystones. Briggs has pitched in 1,320 contests including 779 in the major leagues but his lone starting assignment came for the Minutemen in a 1917 game. Many on that select list of 10 players are much like Adams, career minor leaguers who spent a couple decades in the game but rarely got to the top of the hill. At least he has a great nickname though.