Pete Woodruff

Peter Francis Woodruff

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10" Weight unknown

• Debut September 19, 1899
• Final Game October 14, 1899
• Born April 2, 1874 in Baltimore, MD USA
• Died April 21, 1918 in New York, NY USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Pete Woodruff was an outfielder for the New York Giants in 1899. He played 20 games, hitting .246 with 2 homers and 7 RBI.

Born and raised in Baltimore, MD, he signed with the Richmond Bluebirds in the Atlantic League in 1897, then played with New London in the Connecticut League from 1900 to 1903, when he retired because of eye problems. He had married an actress and went into the theater business after his baseball career. He appeared in a touring production of the play Call of the Wild around 1910 and acted in at least one motion picture in the 1910s, playing "Constable Joyce" in The Long Trail in 1917. However, nothing was known for years about his death.

SABR researcher Peter Morris managed to track down Woodruff by focussing on family members for whom records were easier to find. His father, listed in census records as Spencer Woodruff, and whose full name turned out to be Samuel Spencer Woodruff, allowed him to search genealogical data bases. Through this he found a marriage record for Samuel's son, "Peter F. Woodruff" in New Hampshire, and eventually an obituary in the Baltimore Sun for the ballplayer, who was listed as a motion picture actor when he died in New York, NY in 1918. The obituary lists his middle name as "Francis", not "Franklin" as had been wrongly recorded years earlier. Peter Morris then found the death certificate, which also provided full birth details for the player.

Further Reading

• "Franklin Woodruff", in Bill Carle, ed.: Biographical Research Committee Report, SABR, November/December 2011, p. 2.