American baseball player (1851?1922)
Baseball player
Orator Shafer
|
---|
|
Right fielder
|
Born:
(
1851-10-04
)
October 4, 1851
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, US
|
Died:
January 21, 1922
(1922-01-21)
(aged 70)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, US
|
Batted:
Left
Threw:
Right
|
|
May 23, 1874, for the Hartford Dark Blues
|
|
September 13, 1890, for the Philadelphia Athletics
|
|
Batting average
| .282
|
---|
Home runs
| 11
|
---|
Runs batted in
| 317
|
---|
|
---|
|
|
|
|
George W. Shafer
[sometimes spelled
Shaffer
or
Schaefer
[1]
] (October 4, 1851 ? January 21, 1922) was an
outfielder
in
Major League Baseball
. Nicknamed
"Orator"
, because he was an avid speaker, Shafer played for 10 teams in four different major leagues between 1874 and 1890. Though he was a good hitter who batted over .300 three times, Shafer was best known for his defensive abilities. He led the
National League
's outfielders in assists four times. In 1879, he set an MLB single-season record with 50 outfield
assists
, which is a mark that has stood for over 130 years. He was considered by some to be the greatest
right fielder
of his era.
Shafer was 5 feet 9 inches (1.75 m) tall and weighed 165 pounds (75 kg).
[2]
Background
[
edit
]
Shafer was born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, in 1851.
[2]
He was a "promising young Philadelphia amateur"
[3]
before starting his professional baseball career in 1874 in the
National Association
.
[2]
That year, he played in nine games for the
Hartford Dark Blues
and in one game for the
New York Mutuals
, with a cumulative
batting average
of .225. His
fielding percentage
was a career-low .710. The following season, he played 19 games for the
Philadelphia Whites
and batted .243.
[2]
Shafer was known during his playing career by the nickname "Orator". According to
Alfred Henry Spink
, founder of
The Sporting News
, he received the nickname because he "was a great stickler for his rights and talked to himself when not talking to the Umpire."
[1]
[4]
Another player of the era, future
Baseball Hall of Fame
inductee
Orator Jim O'Rourke
, shared the same nickname.
[5]
Major league regular
[
edit
]
Shafer joined the National League's
Louisville Grays
in 1877. He earned a job as the team's starting right fielder, and he led the league in
games played
(61), outfield assists (21), and outfield
errors
(28). He also batted .285 and had the second-most
home runs
in the league with three.
[2]
(
Lip Pike
had four homers.)
[6]
In 1878, Shafer had one of his best seasons at the plate for the
Indianapolis Blues
. He batted .338 to finish sixth in the batting race and also ranked among the league leaders in
on-base percentage
(third),
slugging percentage
(third), and total bases (fourth). His
OPS+
total of 186 led the league, and his 3.8
wins above replacement
was the highest among all position players. Shafer also had 28 assists in the outfield.
[2]
In 1879, Shafer signed with
Cap Anson
's
Chicago White Stockings
. However, he had left Indianapolis the previous year with some unpaid debts. The White Stockings traveled to Indianapolis to play an exhibition game in June, and the local sheriff was waiting for both him and teammate
Silver Flint
. After the game, Shafer and Flint escaped the ballpark in a horse-drawn carriage to avoid arrest, and only their manager, Anson, was taken to jail.
[7]
Shafer batted .304 for Chicago in 1879 and also set a career high by getting 50 assists.
[2]
The 50 outfield assists was 20 more than any other NL player and established a major league record that has never been broken.
[8]
In 1880, Shafer joined the
Cleveland Blues
and was their regular right fielder for the next three seasons. He continued his good hitting and fielding during his first year with the club, batting .266 with an OPS+ of 125 and leading the league again with 35 assists. However, his batting average dropped to .257 the following season and then to .214 in 1882. His fielding percentage dropped as well, from .901 in 1880 (fourth in the league) to .805 in 1882.
[2]
Shafer played for the
Buffalo Bisons
in 1883. He batted .292 and led the NL in outfield assists for the fourth and final time, with 41.
[2]
He then signed with the
St. Louis Maroons
in the new
Union Association
for the 1884 season.
[9]
Playing in a career-high 106 games in 1884, Shafer also batted a career-high .360 and was one of the best hitters in the UA.
[2]
He led the league with 40
doubles
, and he finished second only to teammate
Fred Dunlap
in several other offensive categories, including batting average, on-base percentage (.398), slugging percentage (.501),
runs scored
(130),
hits
(168), and total bases (234).
[10]
The Maroons went 94?19 and finished first in the Union Association.
[11]
Later career
[
edit
]
Shafer stayed with St. Louis as they moved to the National League in 1885; his batting average fell to .195. The following season, he played 21 games for the
American Association
's
Philadelphia Athletics
, hit .268,
[2]
and then spent the next few years in the minor leagues. In 1887, he played for Lincoln of the Western League until he was suspended in September for punching an umpire in the face.
[12]
Shafer moved on to the
Western Association
's Des Moines team in 1888, and he played well, batting .338 and leading the league in hits.
[13]
In 1889, he was the captain of the Detroit Wolverines, which won the International League championship.
[14]
Shafer then rejoined the Philadelphia Athletics in 1890.
[15]
In his final major league season, he played in 100 games, batted .282, and led the AA's outfielders with a .958 fielding percentage. He was the second-oldest player in the league, at 38 years old.
[2]
Shafer's younger brother,
Taylor
, also played for the 1890 Athletics.
[16]
Legacy
[
edit
]
Over his 13-season Major League Baseball career, Shafer played a total of 871 games. He had 1,000 hits in 3,552
at bats
, a .282 batting average, 11 home runs, 601 runs scored, and 317
runs batted in
.
[2]
He also had 290 career outfield assists, which is the 10th highest total in MLB history.
[17]
Shafer was an outstanding fielder. Fellow major league right fielder
Paul Radford
, when writing about how to play the position, said: "I always considered 'Orator' Shaffer a splendid right fielder, because of his skill in throwing out men at the initial bag. I know he threw me out thus in two successive games at Buffalo."
[18]
According to
The Sporting Life
, Shafer "was for years considered the best man in his position."
[13]
In 2001, statistician
Bill James
ranked Shafer as the 99th greatest right fielder of all time.
[19]
After his baseball career ended, Shafer worked at a race track as a book-writer.
[20]
He died in Philadelphia in 1922 and was buried in
West Laurel Hill Cemetery
in
Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania
.
[2]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"How Orator Shaefer Used To Roast Himself"
.
Detroit Free Press
. May 7, 1905.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
"Orator Shafer Statistics and History"
. baseball-reference.com
. Retrieved
August 28,
2011
.
- ^
Arcidiacono, David (2009).
Major League Baseball in Gilded Age Connecticut
. McFarland. p. 209.
ISBN
978-0-7864-3677-4
.
- ^
Spink, Alfred Henry (1910).
The National Game
. The National Game Publishing Co. p. 271.
ISBN
0-8093-2304-4
.
- ^
"Jim O'Rourke Statistics and History"
. baseball-reference.com. Retrieved September 11, 2011.
- ^
"1877 National League Batting Leaders"
. baseball-reference.com. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
- ^
Fleitz, David L. (2009).
The Irish in Baseball
. McFarland. p. 18.
ISBN
978-0-7864-3419-0
.
- ^
"Single-Season Leaders & Records for Assists as OF"
. baseball-reference.com
. Retrieved
August 28,
2011
.
- ^
Achorn, Edward (2010).
Fifty-Nine in '84
. HarperCollins. p. 195.
ISBN
978-0-06-182586-6
.
- ^
"1884 Union Association Batting Leaders"
. baseball-reference.com. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
- ^
"1884 St. Louis Maroons"
. baseball-reference.com. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
- ^
"Reorganized"
.
The Sporting Life
. September 14, 1887.
- ^
a
b
"Notes and Comments"
.
The Sporting Life
. December 19, 1888. p. 2.
- ^
Bak, Richard (1998).
A Place for Summer
. Wayne State University Press. p. 38.
ISBN
0-8143-2512-2
.
- ^
Shiffert, John (2006).
Base Ball in Philadelphia
. McFarland. p. 138.
ISBN
0-7864-2795-7
.
- ^
"Taylor Shafer Statistics and History"
. baseball-reference.com. Retrieved August 28, 2011.
- ^
"Career Leaders & Records for Assists as OF"
. baseball-reference.com. Retrieved September 11, 2011.
- ^
Brawn and brain
. J.B. Alden. 1889. p. 25.
- ^
James, Bill (2001).
The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract
. Simon & Schuster. p. 842.
ISBN
0-7432-2722-0
.
- ^
"News Notes and Comment"
.
The Sporting Life
. January 17, 1891. p. 2.
External links
[
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]