Harry Stovey- 19th Century Baseball Player

Posted on September 2, 2022

Harry Stovey, pronounce Stowe. was the first player in major league history to amass 100 career home runs. He played for fourteen seasons and was a player and later a player-manager. He was the first to wear sliding pads and among the first to slide feet first.

In 1883, he lead the league with fourteen homer runs and stole a league leading 97 bases in 1890. In his career he is tied 35th all-time among players for the number of stolen bases (599) in less than fifteen seasons.

Harry Stovey eleven years in which he finished in the top ten in home runs and that was from 1880-1886 and 1888-1891. This spanned over three leagues.

He also finished in the top ten in runs scored ten times, batting average six times, and on-base percentage seven times.

Stovey started his amateur career with the Philadelphia Defiance in 1877 and moved to the professionals ranks with the Philadelphia Alliance. He made his debut on May 1, 1880 with the Worcester Worcesters. His final game came on July 29,1803 with the Brooklyn Grooms.

Harry Stovey -Final MLB statistics

Batting average .288
Home runs 122
Runs batted in 912
Stolen bases 509

Harry Stovey – Teams As Player

Worcester Worcesters (1880–1882)
Philadelphia Athletics (1883–1889)
Boston Reds (1890)
Boston Beaneaters (1891–1892)
Baltimore Orioles (1892–1893)
Brooklyn Grooms (1893)

As Manager

Worcester Worcesters (1881)
Philadelphia Athletics (1885)
Career highlights and awards
AA pennant (1883)
Players’ League pennant (1890)
2× NL pennant (1891, 1892)
2× NL home run leader (1880, 1891)
3× AA home run leader (1883, 1885, 1889)
2× NL triples leader (1880, 1891)
2× AA triples leader (1884, 1888)

Pete Browning

Deacon White

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