finalyear death_date death_place debutyear birth_place article_title position birth_date college
1898 19 december 1934 vienna , austria 1895 new brunswick , new jersey , united states charlie atherton
 end november 19 , 1874 penn state
charlie atherton

charles morgan herbert atherton -lrb- november 19 , 1874 -- december 19 , 1934 -rrb- was a major league baseball third baseman .
nicknamed `` prexy '' , he batted and threw right-handed , was tall and weighed 160 pounds .
atherton was also an early professional football player and coach for the greensburg athletic association .
he also played professional football in 1896 for the pittsburgh athletic club .
charles attended penn state university and was the son of the university 's president , george w. atherton .
he was penn state 's first sports star as a member of the school 's baseball and football teams .
he is also credited with inventing the place kick .
atherton made his major league debut on may 30 , 1899 at the age of 24 .
he hit .248 in 242 at bats in 1899 , which would end up being his only major league season .
he also hit 5 doubles , 6 triples and had 23 rbi .
defensively , atherton committed 26 errors , which was fourth worst on the now defunct washington senators team of the national league .
he played his final game on august 22 , 1899 .
outside of sports , charlie was an accomplished musician and writer who witnessed the russian revolution , world war i , and the nazis rise to power first hand .
he documented each event in highly descriptive letters to his sister , harriet .
