That day, with the Giants leading in the eighth inning, manager John McGraw finally put him in right field. Nobody hit the ball near him. With two out in the top of the ninth inning, Moonlight Graham was on deck. He would have been the next hitter, his first time up in the big leagues. But Claude Elliott flied out to end the inning. The Giants sold him to Scranton 16 days later. And he never left. Graham lived in Chisholm right up until his death 54 years later in Ponikvar is also in Field of Drams.
The actress Ann Seymour reads the obituary of Doc Graham that Vida wrote: "And there were times when children could not afford eyeglasses or milk or clothing. Yet no child was ever denied these essentials because in the background there was always Dr. Bob McDonald was one of the other children. But he comforted people. Kinsella says it was an asset. In the top of the ninth inning, Graham was on deck scheduled to be the next batter when the Giants made their third and final out.
He played the bottom of the ninth in right field but never came to bat, and that game turned out to be his only appearance in the major leagues.
After playing in the minor leagues through the season, Graham completed his medical degree from the University of Maryland in He obtained his license the following year and began practicing medicine in Chisholm, Minnesota. From to , Graham was the doctor for the Chisholm schools. In , author W. Kinsella happened to notice Graham's entry in The Baseball Encyclopedia. He made note of his unusual career, and then incorporated Graham as a character in his novel Shoeless Joe , on which the movie Field of Dreams was based.
Mungo was the only one of the four to have a significant major league career. In the novel, the dates of Graham's big-league appearance and death are kept as in real life, making the appearance 74 years prior to the book's timeframe, and the Ray Kinsella character quickly finds out that Graham has been dead since The time-travel scene has Kinsella meeting Graham in , ten years prior to Graham's death.
He was one of nine children born to Alexander and Katherine Sloan Graham. He enlisted in the 3rd North Carolina Regiment during the Civil War and was captured at the battle of Bentonville in When he returned home, Graham soon realized that Fayetteville was in dire need of public schools.
In , the Graham family moved to Charlotte, where Alexander assumed the same educational position in that city. All of the Graham children went on to successful careers including Frank, who later served in the U. Archie grew up to be a great athlete and an extremely swift runner, an attribute that would serve him well in his sports endeavors. Young Graham honed his diamond and gridiron skills in pick-up games with family and neighbors in the Charlotte area. Archie was also an outstanding student at Davidson High School, where his interests included science and medicine.
While attending UNC, Archie played in the intramural football league. Archie experienced much greater success on the diamond. For the next three seasons, Archie was the starting center fielder and leadoff hitter. That fall Graham returned to Chapel Hill to start a two-year postgraduate medical course. Charlotte was managed by his college coach, Ed Ashenbach.
It is hard to know for sure whether Graham entertained notions of making it to the big leagues or just a making a few extra dollars at a summer job. Either way, the opportunity to stay close to home while getting paid to play baseball was quite appealing to the young student athlete. When Graham joined the Charlotte team, the ballclub was in the midst of a hot streak. Archie broke into the lineup on the day the Hornets won their twentieth straight game.
The ballclub reeled off five more consecutive victories before a loss to Durham on June 11 th ended their impressive run. The North Carolina League played two separate seasons in , and the Hornets ran away with the first half honors. This circuit, like many minor leagues of that era, had numerous internal issues that came to the forefront during the season.
The league office absorbed the Charlotte club a short time later. Some of the players moved on to play in other cities or were picked up by the remaining teams in the loop. Graham, who hit. Instead, he went home to prepare for the last year of his medical course at Chapel Hill. The following summer, after the school year ended, he received a contract offer from Ashenbach who was now managing the Nashua team of the New England League.
Graham joined the Nashua club a short time later, winning the starting job in right field, while hitting second in the batting order. Archie was sold to the Manchester team of the same league late in the season. However, his 30 stolen bases, 10 doubles and 7 triples, along with his strong defensive skills in the outfield led Manchester to retain him for the following year. In the off-season, Archie took on more postgraduate studies at the University of Maryland Medical School in Baltimore.
Due to the informal rules of this era that allowed college athletes to play professional sports, Graham was also able to play two more seasons of collegiate baseball at Maryland. He is fast on his feet and a strong hitter.
McGraw believes he has in Graham, [ sic ] a great find. Graham was thought by some baseball insiders, including his former college coach Ed Ashenbach, to be the fastest man in the game. Ashenbach, who was a good judge of talent, served as a scout for baseball magnate John Brush in addition to playing or managing in nearly every minor league in the country.
Bay was a speedster who led the American League in stolen bases in and Ashenback told the press that Graham would easily defeat Bay. For the next few weeks Archie sat on the bench, never getting a chance to prove himself. McGraw may have been hesitant to use him due to his inexperience.
The more likely explanation is that Graham was suffering from the lingering effects of a gridiron injury, which had caused him to miss a few games during the college football season at Maryland. The Giants were winning against the Brooklyn Superbas when he got in for the last two innings of the game.
McGraw, who had been clearing his bench since the fifth inning, sent Archie in to replace right fielder George Browne in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Graham took his place in the outfield while the Washington Park crowd watched their hometown nine go through the final throes of defeat. Archie was the next man due up in the top of the ninth when pitcher Claude Elliott popped out to the end the inning. The boxscore does not show him making any putouts or assists, but Archie may have handled one or two of the Brooklyn hits that came his way in the bottom of the ninth. The young player was surely disappointed in his short-lived stint in the majors.
However, he was happy to be reunited with his former Tar Heel coach Eddie Ashenbach who had just taken over as the Miners manager. Archie got off to a good start with Scranton, and word of his hitting prowess began to spread to other teams in the area.
A short time later, officials from the Altoona Mountaineers of the outlaw Tri-State League contacted Graham and offered him more money. Archie, citing a previously unknown aversion to playing Sunday baseball, jumped his contract with Scranton and joined up with the Altoona club.
Doc soon found out that the loosely organized Tri-State League was a far cry from the high level of baseball that was played in the New York State loop. It was at this time that Archie contacted Ed Ashenbach and made arrangements to talk to him when the Mountaineers were playing in Johnstown.
At the meeting, Doc agreed to rejoin the Scranton club. The problem was that the Altoona players and some of the fans that traveled with the Mountaineers were not too happy about their star player leaving the team. The disgruntled contingent from Altoona had an idea something was afoot and was keeping a watchful eye on the former major leaguer. In order to effect a quiet getaway, Graham and Ashenbach sneaked out of town under the cover of darkness.
The pair walked ten miles to the small town of Steward, where they caught a train to meet up with the Scranton team in Albany. For the next few months Archie played well for the Miners, and even though he had briefly jumped ship, Graham remained popular with the local fans. These reports turned out to be incorrect. Doc told reporters that he was in communication with McGraw and that the Giants leader assured him that the team would retain him. Around this same time, there were reports in the newspapers that Graham was scheduled to report to the Giants at the conclusion of the New York State League season.
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