Dan Devinney

Daniel H. Devinney

• Born November 1852 in Ohio USA
• Died July 31, 1905 in Gary, IN USA

Biographical Information

Dan Devinney was a major league umpire from 1876, when he worked four National League games, until 1887, when he was in the American Association for a couple of games. He was busiest in the Union Association in 1884, as he worked 57 games in the fledgling circuit.

Before his time as an umpire, he played as an amateur for the Empires of St. Louis in 1875 and at the end of that season, played one exhibition game for the St. Louis Red Stockings against the Louisville Olympics in Louisville, KY on September 7th. In 1876 he played for the Louisville Riverside Club and was apparently nominated by the Louisville Grays to serve as a National League umpire towards the end of that season. He did well enough that he worked more games the following season, but in August, he made allegations that St. Louis Brown Stockings manager George McManus attempted to bribe him to throw the games with Louisville to the Browns. This was prior to the gambling scandal implicating pitcher Jim Devlin and others that resulted in Louisville being banned from the National League.

He moved back to St. Louis, MO after that episode and worked for a while as a pipe fitter while also organizing the St. Louis Standards club. He continued to work as an umpire around St. Louis before his busy season in 1884, when he worked regularly in both the Union Association and the American Association. In 1889, he worked in the Texas League and abandoned his family to set up with a second wife in Cincinnati, OH. He then moved to Chicago, IL, reuniting with his original family. He worked as a pipe fitter or gas fitter in all of these cities, according to city directories and census records.

Probate records indicate that his wife Frieda died in February 1904 and that he followed soon after, likely in 1905. There is a Daniel Deviney who died in Toledo, OH on September 23, 1905, but details concerning this person do not match what is known about the umpire. Genealogy sites give a death date of July 31, 1905, in Gary, IN that does seem to correspond to him, however.

Related Sites

• Dan Devinney on Retrosheet.org