Washington Monument

[Brian McKenna]

just want to check my facts - have the first major leaguer tossing a ball off the top to a catcher in august 1894 - clark griffith to pop schriver - please tell me if i am wrong

[Bench 5]

I did a quick search on ProQuest and found the following:

Article dated 12/31/1884 in Washington Post that Superintendent McLaughlin was willing to wager that nobody could catch a ball dropped from the Washington Monument. Article states he made a bet with Paul Hines.

Article dated 1/10/1885 states that Hines along with Baker, Yewell, Ryan and others went to attempt to make the catch on 01/09/1885. It states that they all failed. However Baker caught it for a second but it popped out of his hands. Looks like they weren't using a mitt. Ouch!!

Article dated 1/12/1885 states that Clarence Paige an amateur player claimed he could do it and was going to attempt it. No mention if he succeeded.

Artcle dated 8/26/1894 states that Schriver caught the ball and became the first to catch one. It mentions that Hines had tried and failed before. So it looks like Schriver was the first to actually catch one although others tried before.

[csh19792001]

just want to check my facts - have the first major leaguer tossing a ball off the top to a catcher in august 1894 - clark griffith to pop schriver - please tell me if i am wrong

Oops. Thought this thread was about Frank "Hondo" Howard...:o

[Brian McKenna]

thanks bench5 - thorough work

[RuthMayBond]

I did a quick search on ProQuest and found the following:

Artcle dated 8/26/1894 states that Schriver caught the ball and became the first to catch one. It mentions that Hines had tried and failed before. So it looks like Schriver was the first to actually catch one although others tried before.

What date do they have him catching it, I've seen the 24th and the 25th? And then Gabby Street did it on 8/21/1908?

[Brian McKenna]

article says on the 25th - it was a good thing schriver caught it on the first chance - the cops chased them after that

[Bench 5]

I've never attached something so hopefully this will work. Here's the 1884 article about the 1st attempts.

[Brian McKenna]

how did you attach that - whenever i found an article on proquest i wanted i just emailed it to myself

[Bench 5]

When you are in the ProQuest document click on the Save icon in the upper left of the screen. You can save it to a PDF on your computer. If you click on File under the Explorer bar it won't work so you have to use the Save icon on the ProQuest page.

Next when you are sending a message on BBF, go to Manage Attachments and click on it. Next click on Browse and find the file and then click on Upload.

Here are the other two earlier articles that I mentioned.

Eric

[Brian McKenna]

henry thomas' bio of walter johnson says that many decades later griffith told washington post sportswriter shirley povich that schriver did not catch the ball

the reference is povich's washington senators book