The sad one-year career of Ben Conroy

I can assure all of you that this will be the first and last time that you will ever hear of Ben Conroy. Conroy was a 19 year old rookie in 1890 for the Philadelphia Athletics of the American Association (which is widely considered a major league). In 1890, his only season, he appeared in 117 games. Clearly, he was not some random minor leaguer who appeared in a couple games. He was the youngest player in the AA to appear in ten or more games. In those 117 games, Conroy played like no player I've ever seen before. He somehow lasted 117 games while hitting .171. Yeah, that's not a typo, .171. Was Conroy really that bad? Well, he did hit 13 doubles and 1 triple while stealing 17 bases. His OBP was .262, nearly .100 better than his BA, so that's pretty good. Defensively, he posted a .893 Fld% in 74 games at SS, which would be terrible today, but which was good for 3rd in the AA, in addition to a .947 Fld% in 42 games at 2B, which also would be bad today, but which was significantly above-average back then. He also posted an 1.000 Fld% in one game in CF. Maybe with a couple more seasons in the majors he would have developed into a decent player. But, right after the year, Conroy was sent back down to the minors and toiled there for 5 seasons, hitting .273, before retiring in 1897 at age 26.

What happened to America being a land of second chances? He was certainly a good enough fielder (compared to his peers) to remain on the team in some capacity. He probably could have been a defensive replacement and pinch-runner for some major league team! Well, 1890 was the last year of that Philadelphia Athletics franchise (there was another franchise called the Philadelphia Athletics that started in 1901 with the founding of the American League, and has become the Oakland A's of today). Conroy had terrible luck. If he had come to the big leagues one year earlier, he probably would have been in the big leagues in 1890 as well, and maybe with 2 years of experience, he would have gotten better in 1890 and been signed by another major league team.

What a sad story. He plays one full season in the majors, plays badly, and never gets another chance. Conroy is just one of many who this happened to in the late 1800's (and to a lesser extent, throughout baseball history). With a second chance, at least a couple of them could have become Hall of Famers.