The mystery continues: Holman

As mentioned in the previous post, I've been meaning to try and identify the many former Beavers who are currently listed on various sites by just their last name. Seeing as how this is the second post in a row on this topic, I think it's safe to say that I've finally found the energy to get this item crossed off the to-do list. Not to toot my own horn, but I was able to successfully "identify" the player in Sunday's post. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about today's.

Holman isn't the most common of last names, so if there was any information out there, it didn't seem like it would be very hard to find -- problem is, at this time, there's only two mentions of this Holman, and both are from recaps of a two-game series.

The 1914 season was one of the better seasons in Beavers franchise history (113-84). They had already locked up the pennant with a couple of games left to go in the season, and a such, were still competing, but were not going out of their way to risk injury to any key players. The final day of the season saw the team down in San Francisco for a double-header against the Seals. There was some effort on the part of the Beavers to compete during the first game, but they ran into a buzzsaw in Skeeter Fanning, and were ultimately shutout 7-0. The second game however, was more of a "let's just get this over" kind of affair, which was reflected in the final score, 13-1.

Despite already having the season in hand, and clearly not caring too much about these last two games, it's a bit surprising to see that so many of the regulars still played in both of these games. The only exceptions were  Ed "Soldier" Barnes being handed the rock for game 2, and the mysterious Holman getting one at bat in each game.

The Oregon Daily Journal 10/26/14

This recap provides the only additional information that I could find on Holman, and it isn't much to go on. Apparently he was from Eugene, and played in Tillamook. Given that he was referred to as a "busher", I'm assuming that his time in Tillamook was spent playing for the cheese factory's amateur team. I couldn't find any team info for 1914 or 1913. There's a notice about a team being fielded in 1912, but he isn't listed amongst it's members.

Aside from telling us that he spent at least one inning in right field during the first game, and at least one inning in left during the second game, the box scores yield no additional information.

The San Francisco Chronicle 10/26/14

The Chronicle didn't provide any assistance either, other than to remind everyone that the beat writers in bigger leagues really didn't think too highly of the "bushers" back in those days.

Hopefully some more info will come to light one of these days, but until then, the mystery of Mr. Holman's first name will continue to be just that, a mystery.

The man who never was: Grogan

As far as this blog goes, I have many things on my to-do list; one of which is to try and go back and identify all of the former Beavers who appear on multiple websites as just a last name.

Today's name, ___ Grogan, is mentioned on three sites that I know of, including Baseball Reference...

Not a lot of information to go on there, huh? I'm sure that it won't always be the case, but thankfully today's name took very little research to find.

Let's start with what has to be the source for this mysterious "Grogan".

The Salt Lake Tribune 5/8/22

The Beavers played a doubleheader against Seattle on May 7th, 1922. This box score appeared in the following day's Salt Lake Tribune. One can clearly see a "Grogan" listed as having pitched in the first game. However, the summary doesn't mention a "Grogan", instead showing that Walt Leverenz went seven innings, and Harvey Freeman, not this mysterious "Grogan", relieved him for the final two.

This unto itself could prove to be confusing if it were the only available box score for this game, but less than a minute's worth of searching yields multiple examples from other papers, none of which show a "Grogan" as having pitched in this particular game. 

One correct example from the Oakland Tribune 5/8/22

This, along with the correct information appearing in the Salt Lake Tribune's own Summary, is enough to prove that there wasn't, and never would be, a "Grogan", who played for the Beavers.

Even if someone wanted to play devil's advocate, and say that every other papers box score was wrong. It would have been highly unusual for a player, especially a pitcher, to have appeared in only one game less than two months into the season. Doubly so for a pitcher who, if he existed, gave up no runs in his only two innings of work. One could try to say "Oh, but maybe he was injured?". Sure, but then it would've been mentioned. Injuries were always mentioned. 

The 1922 season wasn't a good one for the Beavers (87-112), and a handful of players were brought in for management to get a look at during the latter part of the season, when it was clear that they would be finishing in last place. However, as of May 8th, they were only 11-17, and no team in those days would've been giving up on the season that early, and therefor would not have been bringing in an unknown to pitch only two innings of relief work. Such things just didn't happen.

"Grogan" was clearly just a typo, and yet, that "source" alone seems to have been enough to get "his" name added to the list of former Beavers on multiple websites. For my sake, or anyone else out there who's contemplating doing the same research, I sure hope that the rest of the mystery names will prove this easy to identify. 

P.S. If anyone reading this has any pull with Baseball Reference, maybe you could get them to remove this name from their site. It might make things a little easier for folks in the future.