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Home | MLB Player | Blondie Purcell
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On June 6, 1882, while playing for the Buffalo Bisons, he was fined $10 ($ today) for slicing open a soggy baseball. He did this to compel the umpire to put a fresh ball in play so his pitcher, Pud Galvin, would be able to throw his curveball. In 1883 he was the player-manager for the Philadelphia Quakers. He took the reins of the team after just 14 games, when they were only 4 – 13 under player-manager Bob Ferguson, and finished the season with an equally dismal 17 – 81 record. The 8th-place Quakers finished 23 games behind the 7th-place Detroit Wolverines. Purcell never managed another major-league game. Purcell is one of the few players in major-league history whose death is not documented by the Society for American Baseball Research, although according to Find A Grave he has a death date of February 20, 1912, and is buried in Greenmount Cemetery located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. |
