Patrick McKenna

Patrick J. McKenna

• Debut July 14, 1877
• Final Game July 14, 1877

• Born December 27, 1854 in St. Louis, MO USA
• Died October 27, 1922 in St. Louis, MO USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Patrick McKenna played one game in the outfield for the St. Louis Brown Stockings in 1877. He went 1 for 5. His record was for many years erroneously attributed to Ed McKenna who played for the Washington Nationals in 1884, as had the record of another man named McKenna, Frank McKenna.

Nothing else was known about Patrick McKenna until 2016, when SABR researcher Peter Morris was able to trace him. He figured that since the one game he played in the majors was a home game in St. Louis, MO, he was likely an amateur from a top local club. He thus found a McKenna who played for the Grand Avenues and West Ends, two amateur clubs, around the same period. While there was no mention of that player's first name in contemporary newspaper accounts, it was found in a later article published in The Sporting News in 1896 on early baseball history in St. Louis, where he was identified him as first baseman P. McKenna.

Now turning to the St. Louis city directories, Morris found a person listed as Patrick McKenna, whose day job was police officer. He eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant. His obituary mentioned that he still worked as a special investigator after his retirement from the force, and that three of his relatives - a brother and two sons - were also police officers. There was no mention of baseball, however. That confirmation came from a brief mention in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of April 5, 1908, when he is mentioned among attendees at the pre-season city series between the Cardinals and Browns as "Lieutenant Patrick McKenna [...] who was a professional ball-player in youth."

Further Reading

• "The McKennas", in Bill Carle, ed.: Biographical Research Committee Report, SABR, May/June, 2012, p. 1.
• "Patrick McKenna", in Bill Carle, ed.: Biographical Research Committee Report, SABR, May/June 2016, p. 3.