Billy Sunday

William Ashley Sunday
(Parson or The Evangelist)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 160 lb.
• School Northwestern University
• Debut May 22, 1883
• Final Game October 4, 1890
• Born November 19, 1862 in Ames, IA USA
• Died November 6, 1935 in Chicago, IL USA

BR page

Biographical Information

" . . . the greatest high-pressure and mass-conversion Christian evangel that America, or the world, has known." - from his obituary in the New York Times

"I was a good baserunner. . . (b)ut there were better hitters. - Billy Sunday, asked why he didn't put himself on an All-Time team he composed late in life

Bill Sunday, famous as an evangelist, played eight years in the major leagues. He was twice third in the league in stolen bases.

He briefly attended Northwestern University and would coach them in 1888. He was playing semi-pro ball in 1882 when Cap Anson signed him for the Chicago White Stockings after he beat Fred Pfeffer, reputed to be the fastest player on the team, in a footrace. He had a religious conversion at a Salvation Army meeting in 1886.

He worked at a YMCA before becoming an evangelist. His main issue was the danger of alcohol (or "demon whiskey" as he called it), something which he felt personally since his stepfather had been a drunk, and his grandfather, with whom he went to live after his stepfather skipped town, was also an alcoholic. His tireless preaching to large crowds around the country was instrumental in promoting passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1920, which banned the sale of all alcoholic beverages across the country. However, the amendment proved to cause greater problems than it solved and was repealed 13 years later.

In the first couple of decades of the 20th century he was the best known evangelist in the country. The character of preacher Elmer Gantry, in Sinclair Lewis' 1927 novel of the same name, is said to have been modeled after him: Gantry was a star college athlete who became a preacher, but he was also a grifter and a hypocrite. However misguided may have been Sunday's views about banning alcohol, they were sincerely-held however, and there was never any scandal about his personal life. Sunday was not amused by the book, which was a huge best-seller, calling Lewis "Satan's cohort".

He died of a heart attack in 1935; he had previously had two other heart attacks.

The only other major league player whose last name was Sunday through 2006, Art Sunday, also played in the majors in 1890. They both make the "Days of the Week" team, along with Rick Monday and Skipper Friday.

In the 1930s, Sunday was asked to compose an All-Time lineup, and he chose Hal Chase or Lou Gehrig at first base, Tony Lazzeri at second base, Honus Wagner at shortstop, nobody at third base, Buck Ewing as catcher, and Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Tris Speaker in the outfield with Chuck Klein as utility player.

"Billy Sunday Invades New York To-Day; Sinners Expect Thrills" - headline from The New Orleans Bee, April 8, 1917

Further Reading

• Joseph L. Thompson: "The White Stockings' Fleet-Footed Preacher: Billy Sunday vs. the Alcohol Machine", The National Pastime, SABR, 51, 2023, pp. 38-40.

Related Sites

• Billy Sunday at the SABR Bio Project