Quote:
Originally Posted by prewinter
I'm almost certain John Firth was not the player with Williamsport in 1885. The Williamsport Daily Gazette and Bulletin reported that the club signed Firth "of last year's Millvilles [NJ]" on Feb 3, 1885 (pg. 5). Later that season, the Meridan Daily Republican named the player with the Williamsport club as George Firth. That would be George W. Firth, from Philadelphia, who was mistakenly reported as killed in 1883 in Iowa. As I look at the records on Baseball-Reference, the two players are confused in several instances.
(Daly was Tom Daly, who would go on to play 17 seasons in the majors, with his last MLB season being 1903.)
So on the one hand, the player in the Williamsport composite is most likely not John Firth. On the other hand, I'm still trying to figure out whether the pitcher for Richmond in 1884 was John or George, or some other yet-to-be identified Firth. My money is on John, but I haven't found the smoking gun yet in the records of the time.
For what it is worth, John Firth seems to have been with Williamsport in 1886.
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This was a very early ID for me, never looked at Firth's case before.
Here's what I've tracked down for the two Firths:
just found some box scores that confirm George Firth is most likely not the guy - on August 14 and 16, 1884 he was pitching for Millville, NJ club - while the Richmond player made his one appearance on August 15. The one catch is that the Richmond game was in Brooklyn - so plausible to have gone from Millville to Brooklyn for the day to pitch. But there is good coverage of the Millville club in the Bridgeton, NJ newspaper and I figure they would*have mentioned that.
Here's George Firth's career so farGeorge Firth
1883 Pottsville Anthracites
1883 Brooklyn ISAS
1883 Millvilles NJ
1884 Chester
1884 Millvilles
1884 August 14, 16 - appears for Millville vs. Lancaster
1884 Wyoming PA (Philadelphia semipro)
1885 Williamsport
1885 Meridens
1885 Millvilles
In April 1885, he was reported to have been murdered in Marshalltown, Iowa (possibly by Cap Anson, who can say?), but later reports are that it was his brother Elmer who died.
As for John Firth, here is best I can do tracking his career:
John Firth, pitcher
September - November 1884 Norfolks
April - June 1885 Wilmington / Atlantic Citys
July 1885 Portsmouth
July - September 1885 Portsmouth Old Soldiers Home Nationals *
May - June 1886 Saratogas
June - July 1886 Norfolk
July 1886 blacklisted for jumping SaratogasAugust 1886 Saratogas**
April 1887 reinstated
1888 Ashland
I suspect John Firth ID is probably correct, I checked with the Biographical Committee and the ID dates back to 1997 (he used to be listed as Ted Firth) and it was done by some reputable folks. Would still like to firm up the ID though.
But I figure it's about 95% that George Firth was not the big leaguer - so we're back to a missing photo for Firth 1884 Richmond.