Jeff Tesreau

[OleMissCub]

Apparently he got in a fight with McGraw and never played again in the bigs at the age of 30. Where would he rank had he stayed in the league? HOF material?

206 games started, 115-72, 2.43 ERA.

1912: 17-7, 1.96 ERA
1913: 22-13, 2.17 ERA
1914: 26-10, 2.37 ERA
1915: 19-16, 2.29 ERA
1916: 14-14, 2.92 ERA
1917: 13-8, 3.09
1918: 4-4 in 9 starts, 2.32 ERA

Doesn't seem to me that he'd have been a HOFer even if he had stayed. He seems to have suffered a bit because of several reasons, including that he got a late start at 24 years old and was already beginning to show some decline at the time he left the game.

[Brian McKenna]

Tesreau left the Giants on 7/19/1918, jumping to Bethlehem in the Steel League. He said that he was "disgusted with baseball" and wanted to go someplace else. His draft status was not an issue as he was Class 4. Tesreau also working at Bethlehem Steel Works.

Fred Anderson also jumped the Giants for the Steel League.

Due to war, the Steel League made out:
Steelton: Eddie Plank
Bethlehem: Tesreau
Four River: Dutch Leonard, Al Mamaux
Wilmington: Joe Jackson

He signed with Dartmouth to coach. Over the summer he joined a club called "Treat 'Em Rough" and barnstormed against black clubs, etc.

From the SABR Bio Project:

Prior to spring training McGraw had asked Tesreau to take the pitchers, catchers, and some out-of-condition players down South for some early work. When the manager arrived later, he asked Jeff to report on the players' evening activities. The big pitcher refused, claiming that a man's behavior away from the ballpark was his own business. That touched off a feud between the stubborn manager and his equally stubborn pitcher. Tesreau got off to a tough-luck start, going 4-4 but with a 2.32 ERA in his first dozen games, and suddenly left the team. He never pitched another game in Organized Baseball. With World War I underway, Tesreau took a job with Bethlehem Steel and went 7-4 in 12 games in the Steel League that year. He struck up an acquaintance with Tom Keady, the company's recreational executive who had connections at Dartmouth College. Dartmouth was looking for a new baseball coach and Keady recommended Tesreau for the position. Jeff refused to report to the Giants in 1919, and McGraw refused to release or trade him, so the big pitcher spent the year coaching the Dartmouth team.

Despite an offer from the Boston Braves, Tesreau ended up spending the rest of his life coaching at Dartmouth, though he occasionally pitched for New England semipro teams like Treat 'Em Rough and Tesreau's Bears through 1925.