Sunday 3/17/24
Who was Paddy Livingston? He was a turn-of-the-century catcher and a player with one of the most Irish-sounding names in baseball history (tough to beat out fellow backstop Paddy O'Connor, another backstop, who played from 1908-1918), but names can be misleading. My name sounds very Irish, but I am a Portuguese.
Anyway, Livingston was born in Cleveland on January 14, 1880, and lived until September 19, 1977, which means that we were in this world together for two years and two days--or two years, a day, and a part of a day. Livingston was the last player left--makes sense, right?--from the American League's first year of 1901.
He was a member of two World Series-winning teams--the 1910 and 1911 Philadelphia Athletics, managed by Connie Mack--and played in seven seasons. Alas, poor Paddy was no threat at the dish--he never hit a home run and batted .209 over his career. You'd think his career OPS+ of 72 would be much lower, given that unsightly .568 OPS, but these were the Deadball days.
He was pretty reliable defensively, but here's something odd: Light-hitting Paddy left the game in 1912, during his age thirty-two season. No more was seen of him on the diamond until 1917, when, at the age of thirty-seven, he returned to appear in seven games for the St. Louis Cardinals. I have no idea why. He hit all of 17 doubles in his career, and nearly as many triples, with 13.
Defense was highly prioritized for catchers at the time. Catchers are always important defensively, but you didn't even need to hit your proverbial weight back then--though technically Livingston did--to have a place on a team as a catcher if you were a reliable receiver. And look at that glove. If the ball is not right in the pocket, it's bouncing away from you. (Classic can-of-corn photo.)
There's not much out there about Livingston, but he was interviewed in the first month of the last year of his life, and he grumbled about how baseball players these days--those days--were making too much money. This was the off-season when Reggie Jackson signed with the Yankees.
