1894 by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
Download the book in PDF, ePub, Kindle for a complete version.
Page 80
match in five games to the runner up Baltimore Orioles. But that was no fault of Duffy’s. He hit .524, 11 for 21, with seven runs batted in, a fitting capstone for what was his last truly outstanding major league season.
The next two seasons Hugh posted respectable, if not Duffy-esque, numbers; .298/8/108 in 1898, and .279/5/102 the next year. His playing days, however, were clearly waning. A .304
batting average in an injury plagued 1900 campaign brought his nine season run as a Boston Beaneater to a close. The next year, he was among the multitude of NL stalwarts jumping to Ban Johnson’s new major league circuit, the American League. With Connie Mack and Tommy McCarthy, Duffy also served on the committee that located suitable playing grounds in Boston for the new league.
Engaged as player-manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, Duffy was saddled with a hapless roster, one whose ablest player was its now 34 year old skipper. Appearing in 79 contests, Hugh batted
.302 for the last place, 48-89, Brewers. The league thereupon removed the franchise to St. Louis, but Duffy declined to accompany it. Instead, the “Duffmeier,” as admiring fans in the heavily German city had nicknamed him, chose to remain in Milwaukee and take charge of the city’s entry in the Western League, the Milwaukee Creams.