Jocko Flynn

John A. Flynn

• Bats Unknown, Throws Right
• Height 5' 6½", Weight 143 lb.

• Debut May 1, 1886
• Final Game May 23, 1887
• Born June 30, 1864 in Lawrence, MA USA
• Died December 31, 1907 in Lawrence, MA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

"On the field he is, to quote everyone, a perfect terror." - from a newspaper around 1886, quoted in the book Cap Anson: The Grand Old Man of Baseball

Jocko Flynn pitched and played outfield in the majors in 1886, and came back for one at-bat in 1887.

The Cap Anson book indicates that Flynn and George Moolic, both from Lawrence, MA, had been a successful minor league battery the previous year, and Cap Anson signed them both for the Chicago White Stockings. The book states that Flynn fit in well with the hard-drinking White Stockings team.

In his first major league game, on May 1st, he beat the Kansas City Cowboys by the score of 17-8. By the end of the season, when the White Stockings had won the pennant with a record of 90-34, all three of the starting pitchers (including Flynn) complained of sore arms. The team lost the 1886 World's Series to the St. Louis Browns.

Flynn's sore arm did not heal over the winter, and although he played one game in 1887 as an outfielder, his major league career was over. Flynn had been an excellent pitcher as a rookie but he had not been a strong hitter. He was briefly a National League umpire, for one game in 1893.

He is, though 2008, one of seven major leaguers who have had the first name/nickname "Jocko", with the first one being Jocko Milligan who made his debut a couple of years before Flynn did.

Notable Achievements

• NL Winning Percentage Leader (1886)
• 20 Wins Seasons: 1 (1886)
• 200 Innings Pitched Seasons: 1 (1886)

Related Sites

• Jocko Flynn at the SABR Bio Project