Charlie Parsons

Charles James Parsons

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 10", Weight 160 lb.

• Debut May 29, 1886
• Final Game April 23, 1890
• Born July 18, 1863 in Cherry Flats, PA USA
• Died March 24, 1936 in Mansfield, PA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Charlie Parsons was up in the majors three separate years with three different teams. Altogether, he pitched 59 innings.

Charlie was born in Cherry Flats, PA, in north-central Pennsylvania not far from the New York border. By 1884 he was playing minor league ball, and he first came to the majors in 1886. At age 22, he was one of the younger players on the 1886 Boston Beaneaters, a team which featured Old Hoss Radbourn. Charlie's .375 batting average was more impressive than his 3.94 ERA.

The following year he moved to the 1887 American Association where his 4.50 ERA was better than his team's 5.28. He also hit .200 (better than most of the pitchers) on a team which hit .248.

He came back one more time with the 1890 Cleveland Spiders where he was a teammate of the young Cy Young. Parsons hit .750, giving him a career major league batting average of .333.

Sporting Life made quite a to-do when Parsons was signed for 1887 by the Rochester team. The paper called him "Bancroft's costly experiment", referring to the price paid for him by manager Frank Bancroft in 1886 the first time around, and apparently so many negative things were said about Parsons that it was a surprise he was re-signed.

The May 3, 1890 Sporting Life stated that Cleveland released Parsons because "he failed to get into condition".

Newspaper accounts often referred to him just as "Parsons". The August 31, 1887 issue of Sportng Life, however, indicated that Parsons had the nickname "Deacon".