1875
Born February 1, 1875
Oakland, WI, USA
Billy Sullivan Marquee
b. February 1, 1875 · Boston Beaneaters 1899–1900, Chicago White Sox 1901–1912, 1914, Detroit Tigers 1916
Billy Sullivan caught for the 1906 Chicago White Sox, the club remembered as the Hitless Wonders: they batted .230 as a team, lowest in the American League, and won the World Series against a Cubs side that had won 116 games.
Sullivan's own .213 average across sixteen seasons is among the lowest of any player with more than a thousand games, and it did not matter much, because he was regarded as the best defensive catcher of his era. He managed the White Sox in 1909.
Born in Oakland, Wisconsin in 1875, he caught 1,147 games, most of them in Chicago, and later saw his son of the same name play a dozen major league seasons. He died on January 28, 1965, four days short of ninety.
Honors
| Award | Times | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Baseball Magazine All-Star | 2 | 1908, 1909 |
Batting, season by season
| Year | Team | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | AVG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1899 | BSN | 22 | 74 | 10 | 20 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 1 | 8 | 2 | .270 |
| 1900 | BSN | 72 | 238 | 36 | 65 | 6 | 0 | 8 | 41 | 9 | 33 | 4 | .273 |
| 1901 | CHW | 98 | 367 | 54 | 90 | 15 | 6 | 4 | 56 | 10 | 38 | 12 | .245 |
| 1902 | CHW | 76 | 263 | 36 | 64 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 26 | 6 | 32 | 11 | .243 |
| 1903 | CHW | 32 | 111 | 10 | 21 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 13 | 3 | .189 |
| 1904 | CHW | 108 | 371 | 29 | 85 | 18 | 4 | 1 | 44 | 12 | 50 | 11 | .229 |
| 1905 | CHW | 98 | 323 | 25 | 65 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 26 | 13 | 54 | 14 | .201 |
| 1906 | CHW | 118 | 387 | 37 | 83 | 18 | 4 | 2 | 33 | 22 | 67 | 10 | .214 |
| 1907 | CHW | 112 | 329 | 30 | 59 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 36 | 21 | 69 | 6 | .179 |
| 1908 | CHW | 137 | 430 | 40 | 82 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 29 | 22 | 62 | 15 | .191 |
| 1909 | CHW | 97 | 265 | 11 | 43 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 17 | 50 | 9 | .162 |
| 1910 | CHW | 45 | 142 | 10 | 26 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 7 | 26 | 0 | .183 |
| 1911 | CHW | 89 | 256 | 26 | 55 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 31 | 16 | 47 | 1 | .215 |
| 1912 | CHW | 41 | 91 | 9 | 19 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 15 | 9 | 16 | 0 | .209 |
| 1914 | CHW | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 1916 | DET | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Career | — | 1147 | 3647 | 363 | 777 | 119 | 33 | 21 | 378 | 170 | 565 | 98 | .213 |
On this day & linked events
1965
Died January 28, 1965
1899
Major-league debut: Billy Sullivan
Billy Sullivan made a major-league debut on September 13, 1899.
1916
Final major-league game: Billy Sullivan
Billy Sullivan played a final major-league game on April 15, 1916.
Image: Library of Congress, public domain