Happy Mother’s Day
Posted by Steve Lombardi on May 8, 2011
Seems like the perfect day to make this call to the Baseball-Reference.com Bullpen for Mother Watson:
Mother Watson appeared in a couple major league games with the 1887 Cincinnati Red Stockings, a team which went 81-54. Watson was 22 years old at the time. He pitched 14 innings, giving up 9 earned runs along with 9 unearned runs. He also played in the outfield but had no chances.
He is the only major leaguer named or nicknamed "Mother". A 1987 article in the New York Times said that he "was considered virtuous". However, that explanation of his nickname doesn't square with the fact that a "Mother Watson" was a character in Horatio Alger novels, and not a nice one. Perhaps, the fame of the novels made the name just too enticing for major leaguers of the time not to utilize when a man named Watson came along.
He is recorded as weighing only 145 pounds.
The Wheeling Daily Register, March 30, 1888, reported that Watson was going to be given a trial by the Zanesville team, with expenses paid.
One source thinks he belongs on the "All-Family Team" with Willie "Pops" Stargell, Grandma Murphy, and Uncle Robbie Robinson.
He died at age 33 after being shot.
Betcha there's a lot of mothers out there who either tolerated and/or fostered some baseball fanatic children. If yours was one of them, pay her back today with a thank you. She'd probably love it.
May 8th, 2011 at 6:15 pm
My mother, God bless her, still alive at 84, introduced me to radio baseball in the late fifties, early sixties. In Southern Ontario, a province of Canada we used to get Yankees games from Massena, NY, a Yankees network affiliate, call sign WMSA, I believe. She was a sports fan and a high school coach.
At our cottage in the summer I can remember listening to Red Barber, Mel Allen and Phil Rizzuto call games over the airwaves. What a broadcasting triumvirate! At the time I was a Baltimore Orioles fan.
Thank you Mom.
May 8th, 2011 at 6:45 pm
When I was young and living at home, my mother once offered the observation that “Before you kids were born” – as in my older sister and I – “your Dad used to watch baseball games on TV. Then, he never got to watch the games because you two wanted to watch cartoons. Now, your father can’t watch anything on TV because all you want to do is watch baseball.”
When VCRs first became household items, I took it to another extreme. I would tape games (as I watched them) and then watch them over and over again. Mom would walk into a room, at any given point in the day, see a game on the TV and would ask “Is this a new game or an old game?” That question became an entering the living room staple query for my mother over the years when I lived at home.
Thanks for putting up with me Mom!
May 8th, 2011 at 6:48 pm
Another Mother's Day Memory;
My mother was throughout her life a Tigers fan; and she remembered with amusement how Connie Mack complained once that Ty Cobb "drew too many women" to the park -- which meant that the players had to be too careful to watch their language.
Mack obviously didn't mean my mother; a lady, she was -- but NEVER think you could cross her. It would have been smarter to come to bat against Sal Maglie, and point to the fences a la Babe Rith legend.
Thanks for letting me share that memory of Mom.
May 8th, 2011 at 7:05 pm
*Cheers* to Moms
A huge reason why I'm obsessed with baseball & the White Sox.
May 8th, 2011 at 8:33 pm
I taught my mom about baseball and she taught me about physics.
Love you mom!
May 8th, 2011 at 8:48 pm
For the all-family team, there have been several major leaguers named (or nicknamed) Dad. Dad Clarke played for 7 seasons, Dad Clarkson for 6, and then there's Leon "Daddy Wags" Wagner. Sis Hopkins played a few games in 1907. Scott Cousins? Sonny Siebert and Sonny Jackson?
May 8th, 2011 at 8:53 pm
@6, how can you leave out Dan Brouthers?
May 8th, 2011 at 9:14 pm
Since they started playing major league baseball in Denver, how many years of complaining about high ERA's and home runs were there before someone thought, "hey you know not only are we a mile high, it's also dry up here. So let's stick these balls in a humidor and see what happens." That very small thing has made a huge differnce. Now go and weigh a "dry" ball and a ball left in the humidor. I'll bet you the differnce is so small that NASA would say it's not going to affect the game. Well it has, and the numbers since at Coors Field don't lie. Now I know it wasn't the dry ball that made them fly out, but I'm sure any balls, and it's not only the weight of the ball, it's the balls internal dynamics that are changed by the humidor.
May 8th, 2011 at 9:17 pm
Another clue to Mother Watson's true disposition might be in the manner in which he died!
http://pinetarandbrickbats.blogspot.com/2011/05/break-out-pink-bats.html
May 8th, 2011 at 9:45 pm
Mother Watson didn't even live to see the year 1900. That bums me out big time.
May 8th, 2011 at 11:10 pm
@9 Dan Berman4: That link has nothing to do with Mother Watson. What's up with that?
May 9th, 2011 at 12:55 am
My dad was in the swimming pool business during my Little League years. When he was out of town, my mom would often manage our team. Line-up cards, batting order, pitching changes the whole works. Another dad would help by coaching third and would sometimes make trips to the mound... but my Mom was the manager of record at least five times for my team, and perhaps two or three times for my little brother's team.
Soccer too... but less so as we had more parental help with that sport
May 9th, 2011 at 7:45 am
Joe -
This is my first year of coaching Little League. (Second year that my kids are playing.) I've gone to a large coach's clinic that was held inside a H.S. gym since it had so many coaches/managers attending. And, I've attended coaches meetings that had all the coaches in my league.
Both times, I would say at least 10% of the room were women. How great is that? Some kids are very lucky to have mom's who are willing to coach or manage teams.
Back in the day, my mom did her "Liitle League time" working the hot dog and hamburger stands with the other moms and sisters of the players. Times have sure changed - and for the better. Nice that your mom was one of the front runners on this!
May 9th, 2011 at 7:46 am
Stu - it's SPAM, I suspect.
May 9th, 2011 at 9:43 am
My mom used to let me listen to Brewer games on the radio when I was supposed to be sleeping. Then in the summer I'd get to spend a week or so with my great aunt & uncle and we'd watch Cubs games, where they bet against each other for a dollar every game. It wasn't such a conflict of interest when the Brewers were still in the AL.
Thanks Mom!
May 9th, 2011 at 11:37 am
My mother is the perfect age for a baseball fan: 81, the number of home games! She watches or goes to just about every Blue Jays' game.
I love you, Mom!
May 9th, 2011 at 1:32 pm
Steve: It takes you to a blog with an article about players using the pink bats for Mothers Day.
May 9th, 2011 at 6:28 pm
@6 - When I read your message yesterday, I knew there was someone on the Whiz Kids Phillies for your team, but I couldn't get past Puddin' Head Jones and Putsy Caballero in trying to figure it out. Today at work, I got it:
Granny Hamner
May 9th, 2011 at 8:57 pm
@18
Kudos, Double. Nice catch. How apropos in the spirit of Mother's Day. Grandmothers are moms also!
May 9th, 2011 at 11:56 pm
@7, I left out Brouthers because I read that his name was pronounced "broothers", not "brothers". But I'm happy with giving him an Honorable Mention.