finalyear bats death_date death_place birth_place debutyear finaldate statvalue position finalteam statlabel debutdate birth_date image article_title debutteam name throws
1887 right 4 april 1902 san francisco , california san francisco , california 1882 july 9 64-52 505 2.87 pitcher/outfielder cleveland blues -lrb- aa -rrb- win-loss record strikeouts earned run average may 11 13 april 1863 charlie sweeney.jpg charlie sweeney
 providence grays charlie sweeney right
charlie sweeney

charles j. sweeney -lrb- april 13 , 1863 -- april 4 , 1902 -rrb- was an american major league baseball pitcher from 1882 through 1887 .
he played with moderate success for several teams , but he is best known to historians for the inadvertent career boost that he gave to future hall of famer old hoss radbourn .
sweeney began his major league career with the providence grays of the national league in 1882 .
by the 1884 season , sweeney and radbourn were the grays ' two main pitchers .
the 1884 season had 50 fewer scheduled games than today , and most teams got by with two-man starting rotations .
through much of april and may , sweeney outshone the veteran and ace of the grays , radbourn .
this , of course , created a lot of tension between the two as sweeney was seemingly stealing the limelight from the hobbled but proud `` old hoss . ''
on june 7 , 1884 , these tensions reached a zenith , when sweeney took the box and struck out 19 boston batters to set a major league record that would be tied a few times but not broken for 102 years , until roger clemens struck out 20 in a game in 1986 .
sweeney was feted upon his return to providence for days following his accomplishment , much to the bitter jealousy of radbourn .
sweeney 's success would be short-lived .
not long after his amazing accomplishment , he suffered arm problems , not uncommon in the day , which sidelined him .
this meant radbourn would suffer the workload of two men , further driving a wedge between the veteran and the upstart .
after a meltdown by radbourn , sweeney was forced to return to his regular pitching duties , which he did effectively for a time .
-lrb- the arm trouble may have been a result of his reliance on the `` fadeaway , '' or screwball , which involves turning the wrist outward as the pitch is delivered . -rrb-
following an exhibition game on july 21 in woonsocket , ri , sweeney , who had allegedly been drinking throughout the game , refused to return with the team to providence , choosing to stay in woonsocket with a lady he had escorted to the park that day .
waking the next morning , he realized he missed morning practice and raced to make it back to providence for his start that afternoon .
though most players in the day were held to temperance clauses during the season , the grays manager was left with little choice but to pitch his drunkard ace .
after five effective innings , grays manager frank bancroft signaled for the team captain joe start to make a pitching change .
sweeney refused to budge and continued to pitch for another two innings .
before the start of the eighth inning , bancroft insisted that sweeney vacate the pitcher 's box and move to right field .
possibly still drunk , as well as the prevailing sentiment of 1880s baseball finishing a game a pitcher started was a question of manhood , sweeney flatly refused .
when bancroft threatened the pitcher with a $ 50 fine , sweeney told him to take his fine and the rest of his salary , promptly quitting .
sweeney spent the rest of the game watching from the field in street clothes and left with two women , presumably prostitutes .
the grays , frustrated by not only sweeney , but radbourn 's insubordination , expelled sweeney from the national league .
left with no other alternative , he signed with the st. louis maroons of the newly formed union association .
radbourn , who had spent the last several weeks demanding he be paid for doing the work of two men , finally received his wish of being paid both his salary and sweeney 's salary , along with the promise of a full release from the grays following the season , as long as he pitched out the season and tried to earn the grays the pennant .
he did just that , eventually winning an astonishing 59 games for himself and for the pennant-winning grays .
meanwhile , in st. louis , the maroons roared through the `` onion league '' and easily won the union 's first and only championship .
the 21-year-old sweeney already had 17 wins for providence , and he won 24 more for the maroons to guide them to the pennant .
for the season , he went 41 -- 15 with a 1.70 earned run average in 492 innings .
it is possible that sweeney 's arm could n't handle the strain of all those innings , because he never pitched as well again .
the maroons joined the national league for a brief time -lrb- 1885 -- 1886 -rrb- and sweeney continued to pitch for them .
however , he pitched poorly .
on the 12th of june 1886 , sweeney gave up seven home runs in one game , which still stands as the mlb record .
after the maroons moved to indianapolis , he played a few games for cleveland of the american association before being released .
he then moved on to play for various teams in the california league .
as with his old teammate radbourn , sweeney 's life was meteoric .
in 1894 , he killed a man in a saloon and was convicted of manslaughter .
in 1898 , he was pardoned by the governor of california , james budd.shortly after being released from prison , he died from tuberculosis in his hometown san francisco , california , nine days short of his 39th birthday .
he is interred at cypress lawn memorial park in colma , california .
