Tom Stanton

Thomas Patrick Stanton

• Bats Both, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 175 lb.

• Debut October 14, 1900
• Final Game April 19, 1904
• Born October 25, 1874 in St. Louis, MO USA
• Died January 17, 1957 in St. Louis, MO USA

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Biographical Information

For over one hundred years, it was known that Tom Stanton had played catcher for the Chicago Cubs on April 19, 1904 when they were in St. Louis to play the St. Louis Cardinals. Tom had played minor league ball in 1898-1899 but does not seem to have been in the minors in 1904 or for a few years before that. He was born, and died, in St. Louis, MO, so perhaps was an active amateur player who was chosen to play for that one day. The Cubs' regular catcher, Johnny Kling, missed a week of play and manager Frank Selee had to use other people. On the day before Stanton's appearance, Selee chose Frank Chance, who appeared at catcher just that one time in 1904. Kling was back playing catcher on April 27th.

Before that, a phantom ballplayer named Harry Stanton was listed as catching the final game of the 1900 season for the St. Louis Cardinals. There was no such person, and the name came from conflating those of two contemporary catchers. The first of these was Henry Stein, better known as Harry Stein, from Hannibal, MO. He had played that season for an outfit called the Alton Blues and was a long-time friend of Jake Beckley. He played in the Southern League for Ft. Worth in the early 1890s. The second was Stanton, whose own big league debut was only listed as taking place four years later. The game was originally attributed to Stein, but after further research, it was determined that Stanton had been the catcher in 1900, moving his big league debut four years earlier

Further Reading

• "Harry Stanton Found", in Bill Carle, ed.: Biographical Research Committee Report, SABR, May-June 2011, p. 1.