Thursday, April 15, 2010

A Worthless, Ungrateful Whelp

Speaking of people who've been more than helpful, brilliant reader and friend of the blog David Ball sent along this note about Lip Pike, from a letter that William Hulbert wrote to Freeman Brown on September 9, 1881:

Lipman Pike has for many years been notorious as a shirk, fraud and beat. He has made trouble in every club that has hired him; he has made trouble between clubs. He is a conspicuous example of the worthless, ungrateful low lived whelp, that the League will do well publicly to throw overboard by means of a published black list.

A few months ago, I posted something about Lip Pike talking about the 1876 McGeary affair where he basically flat-out stated that Mike McGeary was a crooked ballplayer and had thrown a game. David, in the comments, noted that Pike had a reputation as a troublemaker and I think I told him that I had never come across anything like that. Well...here it is.

Much thanks to David and everybody who has helped out with the research. I have more stuff in the inbox but I think it's time to get back to the Brown Stockings and wrap up the 1876 season.

No comments: