finalyear bats death_date death_place birth_place debutyear finaldate statvalue position finalteam statlabel debutdate birth_date image article_title debutteam name throws
1885 right 23 april 1932 philadelphia , pennsylvania philadelphia , pennsylvania 1875 october 10 545 555 .243 right fielder/pitcher/manager providence grays games played hits batting average september 4 16 june 1853 lon knight.jpg lon knight
 philadelphia athletics lon knight right
lon knight

alonzo p. `` lon '' knight , born alonzo p. letti -lrb- june 16 , 1853 -- april 23 , 1932 -rrb- , was an american right fielder , right-handed pitcher and manager in major league baseball .
he threw the first pitch in the first game played in the new national league on april 22 , 1876 .
born in philadelphia , pennsylvania and a graduate of girard college , he began playing with the philadelphia athletics in when the team was in the national association , then stayed with them when they joined the national league in 1876 .
when the team folded after the 1876 season , he did not play in the major leagues again until 1880 , when he joined the worcester ruby legs of the nl for one season , and the detroit wolverines for two .
in , he was named the manager of the philadelphia athletics of the american association , and the team won the league pennant with knight also playing right field .
in 1884 the team fell back to seventh place in a 13-team league .
he finished his career in 1885 when he split the season between the athletics and the providence grays .
on may 21 , 1880 , he was playing right field at riverside park in albany , new york when lip pike hit a ball over the fence and into the river .
few parks at the time had ground rules concerning balls hit over the fence .
it was not an automatic home run , so knight pursued the ball in a boat , eventually giving up .
knight died of poisoning at age 78 in philadelphia when his gas line sprung a leak .
he is interred at laurel hill cemetery in an unmarked grave in section h , lot 63-64 .
