1894 by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
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Page 52
professional baseball, but he had played on some of the best amateur teams on Staten Island, and we know that he was on the island’s best semi-pro team of his day, the West New Brighton Corinthians, and several other highly respected semi-pro clubs in the greater New York City area.
In 1892, and for the start of the 1893 season, Turner played on one of these teams, the New York State Asylum team in Middletown, New York. Some of the players worked at the asylum and others came to play on the team. Patients did not play.
Before Turner’s mid-August major league debut with the Phillies in 1893, he played for another excellent semi-pro team, the Plainfields of New Jersey of the Central New Jersey League. On July 13 and August 16, the team traveled to Middletown where the Asylums defeated the club 10–7 and 17–8 with Turner playing in the first game. In 1904 and 1905, Turner played for Hoboken.
Like the New York Asylum team, this team played against top competitors, including exhibition games with major and minor league teams, top college clubs and other semi-pro organizations.
In 1893, two other Staten Islanders were playing for the Philadelphia Phillies; both were from Turner’s West New Brighton neighborhood. The first was right hand pitcher John “Brewery