The Story of Henry Havelock Oxley, Major Leaguer

Home , Buck Ewing, Christy Mathewson, Jim Mutrie, Jim Whitney, John Montgomery Ward, Mickey Welch

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M™ ham The original Polo Grounds, where Henry Oxley made his Major League debut THE STORY OF HENRY HAVELOCK OXLEY, MAJOR LEAGUER

Well, it's not so much what I want to picture Field of Dreams), the one-line Island-Born ask as what I want to get a feel for. If entry that summarizes "Moonlight's" someone asks, you can say, UI played for evanescent career would likely have During the early days of 1858, rival the New York Giants." Willie Mays or remained forever invisible among the Charlottetown newspapers, the Christy Mathewson could say the same brilliant records of baseball's stars. Examiner and the Islander, carried dis- words, but they'd have a very different Two decades before Graham's major patches out of India relating the death meaning. What was it like to brush league debut, another player destined of British army officer Sir Henry against fame like a stranger hurrying past in a crowd? to be a "one-liner" put on his New Havelock, a hero of the Sepoy Ray Kinsella to "Moonlight" Graham York uniform and trotted out on to the Rebellion. On 4 January 1858, a Cove- (from Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella) infield grass of the Polo Grounds. His head blacksmith, Alexander Oxley, and name was Henry Oxley and he will be his wife, Mary (Stead), welcomed the ccording to The Baseball Ency- remembered as the first Prince arrival of their second son. They named A clopedia, Archibald "Moonlight" Edward Island-born player in major him Henry Havelock Oxley. Graham appeared in just one game for league baseball. Alexander Oxley had been born in the New York Giants of 1905. If it had Charlottetown in 1826. His wife was not been for his magical comeback in By Michael A. O'Grady the daughter of William Stead, a black- Shoeless Joe (and the resulting motion smith in Wheatley River, and Mary

13 (Lawson) Bovyer from Stanhope. The Among fellow Islanders and Irish Edward Island-born friends and neigh- Oxleys were married in 1848. For the immigrants, Henry Oxley was raised. bors in East Boston. next dozen years, Alexander attempt- In the narrow alleys, crowded streets, ed to hammer out a living at his forge and few vacant lots of East Boston, he on the Stanhope East Road.* By 1860, learned the game of baseball. For a "Play Ball!" however, he had made the decision to boy growing up in a crammed tene- join the vanguard of Island emigrants ment that might admit little sunlight In 1875, at the age of 17, Henry Oxley to the "Boston States." He booked pas- and even less fresh air, baseball (or "Harry" as he was known on local sage for himself and his family, which offered an escape. In its early, urban- diamonds), was playing organized at this point included five-year-old ized form, the game was aggressive baseball in Chelsea, the neighbouring Alexander, Jr., and young Henry, and and physical, which was appealing to town to East Boston. One of his set sail from Charlottetown to Glou- the tough young men and boys who Chelsea teammates, James "Truthful cester, Massachusetts. played it. On a higher level, the Jim" Mutrie, would go on to become It would have been impossible for ordered nature of baseball was allur- one of the winningest managers in Henry Oxley to have played baseball ing; the game stood in contraposition major league history and would figure on Prince Edward Island before he left to the usual squalor of the congested prominently in Oxley's own baseball for the United States. Although varia- urban environment. future. The following season, Oxley tions of the game's English ante- Attractive as the game was to those and Mutrie teamed up again, this time cedent, rounders, and other bat-and- who played it, baseball did not meet in Fall River, a textile center south of ball games were undoubtedly played with universal interest or approval. As Boston. Mutrie played at shortstop in the colony, baseball was not intro- historian Ronald Story points out, and Oxley in center field for a team duced on the Island until at least the "Nineteenth century adults did not that captured the New England latter half of the 1860s. really want their adolescent sons play- Association championship in 1876 and ing baseball." He refers to numerous featured five future major leaguers in stories of "fathers tracking down sons its lineup. Boston-Raised and whipping them off the ball field, o f Throughout the latter half of the mothers throwing iron pots and boil- 1870s, Oxley lived and worked in East The Oxleys settled in East Boston, ing water at team organizers, [and] of Boston. He is listed in the Boston city which would become an enclave for tempestuous quarrels over ball play- directories for that period as a machin- Island emigrants in the second half of ing instead of chores and serious ist. Presumably, he continued to play the nineteenth century. Already there, work." It can never be known if young baseball with area teams. In 1882, in large numbers, were the Irish, who Henry Oxley played baseball in the Oxley signed with the Star Base Ball had disembarked from their immi- face of disapproval or with parental Club of Beverly, on the Massachusetts grant ships in East Boston and then support, but it can be presumed that North Shore. He played with the immediately sought a livelihood in the he did play. Certainly, the level of "Stars" the following season, as well, factories and on the docks of that part achievement he later attained in the and also in Springfield, in the western of the city. Like the Boston Irish, sport set him apart from his Prince part of the state. In 1884, he moved to Prince Edward Islanders attempted to create a home-like community within their new surroundings. The transference of occupational and social characteristics to their new home was typical of the Island emigrants. Displaced by an outmoded economy, they did not leave Prince Edward Island in pursuit of fortune and fame; rather, they sought a viable continuation of the humble way of life that they had left behind.** The Boston Directory for 1860 shows that Alexander Oxley was employed as a blacksmith, the same work he had done in Covehead.

*According to Stanhope: Sands of Time, a road- widening operation in the 1920s unearthed arti- facts associated with Alexander Oxley's blacksmith shop.

**See Alan A. Brookes' discussion of emigration Playground in a Tenement Alley by Lewis W. Hine. Henry Oxley learned to play base- to the "Boston States" in Number 2 (Spring- ball among fellow immigrants in a Boston alley like this one, not in the wide-open Summer 1977). fields of his native Prince Edward Island.

14 Lynn, another North Shore communi- youngsters. Second-generation Irish ty and, at that time, America's leading +%m$m+ and Germans dominated the players' manufacturer of shoes. ranks, the Irish to the extent that The Lynns, as the local nine was sportswriters wondered if they had called, belonged to the Massachusetts been born with "a special talent for ball Association of Base Ball Clubs. The GRAND >BM,L playing." players were paid and considered The 1884 season was the first in themselves professionals, although it which National League pitchers were was necessary for them to augment ^OTM^^—or THK—/p^gS^S* permitted to use an overhand delivery. their baseball earnings through other There was no pitcher's mound; the ball employment. Oxley continued to work ^M 1 was delivered from a four-by-six-foot as a machinist while catching for the box, just fifty feet from home plate. A Lynns. The Lynn Item regularly SflVN ' pitcher was allowed a windup that praised the man "behind the bat." included a few quick steps and a jump, "Harry Oxley Distinguishes Himself," as long as he released the ball without the headlines exulted after one game: stepping out of the box. This latter rule "Oxley's play was exceptionally bril- was violated so often that Manager liant. He had four beautiful foul tips, Tnwn nauTnBirerh^ Mutrie of the Metropolitans had a piece and his work at the ash was remark- of thick glass laid down in front of the able, he getting a hit every time he pitcher's box to discourage illegal deliv- stepped to the plate." M0UDAY EVE3OTG, MAY 14, 1883, eries. Three strikes and the batter was The 1884 season had barely begun out, but six balls were required for a when the Lynn catcher began attract- A relic of "Harry" Oxley's minor league walk, and batters had the option of call- ing the attention of major league clubs. career - a dance card from a fund-rais- ing for a low or high pitch. The "brush- In late April, with his team in Boston, ing ball sponsored by the Beverly back" was already in vogue. 'Truthful Jim" Mutrie, now manager of (Massachusetts) Stars. On the back of Spalding supplied the Official the card, Oxley and some of his team- the American Association New York ,f League Ball, of which teams kept a Metropolitans, took the train up to mates are listed as %ids for the event. supply of both "dead" and "live" ver- Lynn to meet with his former team- sions. The former were sometimes mate. According to the Boston Globe of Harry Oxley was a major league base- "deadened" in an icebox overnight and 1 May 1884, Mutrie "offered Harry ball player, joining a game that was still put into play when the other team was Oxley $1000, with $200 advance money, evolving into what it is today. at bat. Trickery extended to the base if he would sign as change [backup] paths, where runners were tripped and catcher with the 'Mets,'" Although infielders knocked down. "Give 'em $1,000 was the minimum salary for "The Old Ball Game" the spikes!" was a cry that base run- American Association players in 1884, ners often heard from their coaches. it was as much as Oxley could expect The 1880s has been called a "Golden Profanity and fights were common- to earn in a year as a machinist, work- Age" of major league baseball. place and everyone - players, man- ing sixty hours per week, Alas, the Stimulated by a healthy economy and agers, and spectators - berated the Lynn club would not release its top expanding urbanism, the professional umpires. Ball players spent their idle player; Oxley had to wait for his chance game experienced a period of rapid hours in barrooms and brothels. It was to play in the major leagues. growth. Baseball became, in the a rough game played by tough men, Through the late spring and early words of Mark Twain, "the very sym- and people loved it. summer of 1884, Oxley was his team's bol, the outward and visible expres- The 1880s saw great team names - leading hitter. In mid-July, the Lynns sion of the drive and push and rush the Spiders, the Beaneaters, and the tested themselves against the National and struggle of the raging, tearing, Bridegrooms; and colorful nicknames League Philadelphia Phillies in an booming nineteenth century." Fans, or - "Grasshopper Jim" Whitney, "Piano exhibition match played in the "Shoe "kranks" as they were then called, Legs" Gore, and "Orator Jim" City." Harry Oxley caught for his flocked to ballparks to see an enter- O'Rourke. To accommodate the grow- younger brother George against the taining game that was being continual- ing number of "kranks" who came to Phillies. In his first taste of major ly improved by better competition, the see their heroes in action, owners league competition, Harry had a single recruitment of highly-skilled players, sought out bigger parks. In New York, in four at-bats as the Lynns fell 7-3. and the refinement of playing rules. John B. Day, who operated both the Within a week of the match against In 1884, 34 major league teams rep- Metropolitans and the Gothams, Philadelphia, the Lynn club disbanded, resented American cities from Boston leased the former home of the citing financial reasons. Harry Oxley in the east to Kansas City in the west. Manhattan Polo Club. The Polo immediately entertained an offer from a The majority of players were drawn Grounds had two diamonds, separated team in Portland, Maine, as well as from the northeastern United States, by a canvas fence. The Gothams had offers from Kansas City of the Union where the game had first developed. the better of the two fields and played Association and the New York During the decade of the 1880s, 34 their games in front of a double- Gothams Cater called the Giants) of the major leaguers were Canadian-born, decked wooden grandstand. Addition- National League. He signed with the although most of them, like Oxley, al seats, called "bleachers" for the sun- Gothams. At the age of twenty-six, had emigrated to the United States as bleached boards from which they were

15 Baseball: Not Just "America's National Game" In his "official" history of baseball pub- teenth century. Historian Colin Howell has ulation already familiar with bat-and-ball lished in 1911, Albert Goodwill Spalding, determined that organized baseball was games, including cricket. former player and sporting goods mag- played in Halifax and Saint John in the late It is probable that Islanders began nate, wrote: "The progress of the 1860s. From those centers, the game playing baseball at the same time that American national game in [the] British spread to smaller communities and, within the game caught on in Nova Scotia and provinces has been slow but sure - except two decades, was popular region-wide. New Brunswick (the late 1860s), in Canada, where it gained a footing in its \ Howell's findings for Halifax are consistent although what might be termed "orga- early days, rose rapidly, and has for many with broader analyses: in the 1870s and nized" baseball did not appear until the years been regarded as the National following decade. That the game was Game/' Canadians, he suggested, were clearly established in the pre- comparable in "spirit and temperament" Confederation period is evidenced by to Americans and had "absorbed Yankee the following advice provided by the characteristics" (i.e., competitiveness) %M Examiner on 25 September 1871: "Base through their contact with United States Ball is undoubtedly good exercise and businessmen. As a result, so Spalding ! capital punishment, but often occasions argued, they could not be satisfied with banged eyes, broken shins and blistered the playing of "slow" British field sports; hands. We can tell you that in such | only baseball could "keep pace with the cases if Johnson's Anodyne liniment is vigorous, wide-awake instincts" of resorted to, it will reduce the swelling America's "neighbors to the North." and stop the pain." Spalding was a leading proponent of By 1877, there were formally consti- the Abner Doubleday myth, which pur- tuted teams in the province's two princi- ports that baseball was invented at pal communities. In mid-June of that Cooperstown, New York, in 1839. For year, the Examiner carried a challenge many Americans, establishing a local ori- issued by the "Charlottetown Base Ball gin for their "national pastime" was a mat Club" to the "Prince Edward's" of ter of pride and patriotism. Actually, base- Summerside for a match on Dominion ball evolved from English bat-and-ball Day. It could not be determined if the games, most notably, rounders, and was game was ever played. The city team almost certainly influenced by cricket. was preparing diligently, however, and Ironically, in light of Spalding's patroniz- In 1988 Canada Post issued this stamp the Examiner encouraged its readers to ing comments, there is a well-document- to commemorate 150 years of Canadian "'go West' [meaning the west end of ed account of a "baseball" match played at baseball Charlottetown] and see the noble band Beachville, Ontario, in 1838 that predates of batters who every evening practice in Doubleday's apocryphal invention of the Major Lane's Square." The Honourable game. Origins aside, Canadians and their 1880s, baseball was played by young work- Ambrose Lane, at one time the Town hale neighbors to the south have been ing-class males; the majority of the players Major, owned a large home (the Lane- playing "baseball," in some form, for over Douse-Gaudet House) adjacent to two hundred years. Contrary to the findings of existing Rochford ["Lane's"] Square. The game's popularity, in both coun- reviews of Canadian and local baseball his- During the late 1870s, "base ball" tries, grew rapidly during the 1850s and tory, the current study has discovered that | was a regular feature of community pic- 1860s, especially in major urban centers. | baseball was played in Prince Edward nics across the Island. In Charlotte- Amateur and professional versions of the Island at an early date. The game's presence town, the base-ballists shared Victoria | Canadian game appeared first in south- here should not be surprising, considering Park with the cricketers, whom they western Ontario, but it did not take long the strong commercial and social links would eventually supplant as the prima- for baseball to reach the east coast. In between the Island colony and her Maritime ry tenants of the "Cricket Grounds." By Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the and New England neighbors. Even though the time Henry Oxley reached the major game's development has been linked to Prince Edward Island lacked the urban and leagues in 1884, baseball was already the region's industrialization and urban industrial centers that spawned baseball one of Prince Edward Island's favorite expansion in the last third of the nine- elsewhere, it did have a sports-minded pop- summer pastimes. constructed, extended down the right A "Brush With Fame" the season and the Gothams needed a and left field lines. The Irish, in shirt- "change" catcher. sleeves and caps, filled up these sec- The New York Times of 28 July 1884 Oxley would have arrived at the tions. The tonier crowd, top-hatted had announced the signing of "a ballpark early for the Wednesday after- gentlemen and their lady friends, catcher named Oxley" and the fact noon game, his carriage dropping him viewed games from the comfort of that he came "well recommended." off at the Polo Grounds gate at Fifth their carriages parked along the edge He would, the Times had noted, be Avenue and 110th Street. In the days of the outfield. For a big game, up- given "a trial." Oxley joined a team before extended pregame infield and wards of twenty thousand people that had four players destined for batting practice, players were expect- could squeeze into the Polo Grounds. induction into the Hall of Fame, ed to help out with ticket-selling. Once It was into this arena that Harry Oxley including the great "Buck" Ewing the white-collar, Wall Street crowd was stepped for his major league debut on at catcher. But Ewing had been seated, it was game time. In his light 30 July 1884. nagged by injuries in the first half of gray flannel uniform and maroon

16 woolen socks, with mask and catcher's unsatisfactory to both clubs." It would not been for the protection of the gloves in hand, Oxley joined his team- only get worse! police at the close of the game he mates on the field. The Gothams and the Grays met at would have been handled in a pretty The Gothams' opposition was the the Polo Grounds again the following rough manner." Apparently, one "gray Providence Grays, led by their per- afternoon. New York sent its top pitch- haired gentleman begged the police to durable pitcher, "Old Hoss" Rad- er, "Smiling Mickey" Welch, to the let him get at Miller, only for a minute, bourne. He appeared in 75 games that box. Welch, who won over 300 games and a lady in the grand stand said, season, winning 59 of them, still a during his Hall of Fame career, credit- 'Why don't some person hit that fel- major league record. Ed Begley, the ed that success to his beer-drinking, low? I could whip him myself.'" Before Gothams' second starter, was in the which was also legendary. Oxley was the 1884 season was over, it was said box for New York; Harry Oxley was the catcher for Welch. Radbourne to be worth "as much as a man's life... his catcher. The Gothams held a 1-0 again pitched for Providence. It had to umpire a game on the Polo lead after the first inning, but rained heavily before the game and Ground." Providence came back with three runs only 500 people showed up to view the Owners were not required to pay in the second and led the rest of the contest; the official umpire was not players who were out with injuries, so way, winning the game 8-5. Only two among them. Against protestations Oxley was undoubtedly anxious to of the Grays' runs were earned, the from the Gothams, the Grays insisted return to the Gothams lineup. majority coming on Begley's five wild that the game be played and offered However, "Buck" Ewing was back pitches. Oxley received mixed reviews one of their own players, Miller, as behind the plate for New York's next for his debut, which included two umpire. In the third inning, Oxley game, and the Gothams promptly passed balls. Sporting Life reported injured his hand and had to be signed another catcher to serve as his that the new catcher "did very poor removed from the game. To that point, backup. Harry Oxley did not play work"; the New York Times allowed he had allowed two passed balls. again for the National League New that he had caught "fairly well, consid- Batting from the lead-off position, he York Gothams. ering Begley's erratic pitching." had gone hitless in one official at-bat. In early August, Oxley was trans- Manager Price of the Gothams had The game was called because of dark- ferred to the American Association made a standing offer to his players: "a ness after the ninth inning with the New York Metropolitans, where he good cigar" for every base hit. There score tied at three runs. The New was reunited with "Truthful Jim" was no cigar for Oxley. Although he York faithful claimed that their team Mutrie. Referred to as the "beer and did reach base on a walk, he went hit- had been robbed of certain victory. whiskey" circuit for the "refresh- less against future Hall of Famer According to the New York Herald, ments" offered at its games, the Radbourne. As a final note in its Miller's umpiring did not suit the American Association was held in dis- account of the game, the New York crowd, which worked itself into a "per- dain by some purists. There were Clipper related that the "umpiring was fect frenzy over his rulings, and had it Sunday games and low-priced admis-

The 1884 New York Gothams. This photo was taken just one week before Henry Oxley joined the team; hence, he is not shown. Among Oxley's teammates were four future Hall ofFamers: Roger Connor, "Buck" Ewing, John Montgomery Ward, and "Smiling Mickey" Welch.

Y7 sions (twenty-five cents, thousand. The game resulted in a Behind the Bat compared to fifty cents for "grand victory for St Louis." Surpris- National League games), ingly, considering the reputation of the In 1884, the use of a glove for fielding had not yet been widely adopted. Catchers did wear a lightweight fin- which attracted a different Browns, it was the New York players gerless glove on each hand and also a mask. The latter "crowd" than did League who were chastised for their "ruffianly equipment was the object of some derision, and one games. For Oxley, though, behavior." Among other "outrages," a wag suggested that the "bird-cages" might be better it was a second chance to Browns base runner had been tagged used by young women to protect themselves against play in the majors, and he out, after having been knocked uncon- unsolicited kisses from ball players. was joining a team contend- scious on the base path. The Post- The position of catcher was, as it is today, the most ing for the pennant. Dispatch declared that "no nine has demanding one on the field. John Montgomery Ward, a He was again relegated ever visited St. Louis that behaved as teammate of Henry Oxley on the New York Gothams, to the role of "change" badly as did the Mets." Although acknowledged as much in his 1888 classic, Base-Ball: catcher. Through August, Oxley did not play, no doubt he joined How to Become a Player "Were it not for the extreme his teammates in "howling and shout- liability to injury, the position of catcher would be the j Oxley appeared in just one most desirable on the field; he has plenty of work of exhibition game for the ing" at the umpire from the bench. the prettiest kind to do, is given many opportunities for Metropolitans, in Jersey When the Mets finally concluded the employment of judgment and skill, and, what is City; he went hitless, but their road trip at the end of September, dearer than all to the heart of every true ball player, he played well defensively. In the American Association pennant was is always in the thickest of the fight." mid-September he was secure. Returning to the Polo Grounds Although Ward noted that a catcher's size was not added to the roster for a for the final two weeks of the season, of "vital importance," he suggested that a "tall, active month-long western road they played a rematch with the trouble- man should have an advantage because of his longer trip. Following stops in some Browns. On 10 October 1884, 'reach' for widely pitched balls, and on account of the Cincinnati and Louisville, Oxley appeared in his final major confidence a big mark to pitch at inspires in the pitch- where club-wielding police- er." At 5' 11" and 163 pounds, Henry Oxley was only of league game, catching for "Sir Timothy" average size, but as Ward observed, "pluck and stami- men had to subdue irate Keefe, who was on his way to winning na" were more important qualifications for a catcher. spectators after they rushed 37 games that season (and 342 for his Actually, little is known of Oxley's personality; and the field following a contro- Hall of Fame career). Unfortu-nately, he no photograph of him is known to exist. For now, the versial call by the umpire, did not record a victory with Oxley as man behind the bat must remain the man behind the the Metropolitans arrived in his backstop. St. Louis defeated the mask. St. Louis for a series against Metropolitans by a score of 3-1. Blame the Browns. Led by player- for the loss was placed squarely on manager Charlie Comiskey Oxley. Sporting Life suggested that he and Canadian-born "Tip" was "unable to catch Keefe properly," O'Neill, the Browns includ- while the New York Times questioned ed some of the greatest his throwing arm. Oxley had two players of the 1880s, but passed balls; at the bat he had not per- they had also earned a repu- formed well, either, again going hitless. tation as the roughest. One Although Manager Mutrie did not season, their third baseman, believe in releasing players, as he felt Arlie "The Freshest Man on it had a "bad effect on the rest of the Earth" Latham, is said to men," Oxley was definitely not with have scheduled twenty the New York club at the end of the fights against other players, season. Nor was he was present for a five of whom were his own gala torchlight procession held to cele- teammates. brate the Metropolitans' pennant victo- In what was termed "an ry. When New York and Providence exhibition affair," New York met in a three-game series for the and St. Louis met at Sports- "championship of the United States" man's Park on Saturday (sometimes referred to as the first- afternoon, 13 September ever World Series), Oxley was in 1884. Mclntyre and Oxley Portland, Maine, working as an formed the battery for New umpire. His major league career was York. Since it was an exhibi- over - three official games,* seven at- tion contest, no records bats, no hits, no runs scored, and six were kept for the game. The passed balls. Saint-Louis Post-Dispatch re- Though my face is bruised and I'm badly used ported only that the Browns By a hot ball, what of that? had "played a fine batting I'll boldly stand, with blistered hand, and fielding game and won A catcher behind the bat easily and cleverly." *In error, both baseball encyclopedias, Macmillan's (9th ed.) and Total Baseball (3rd (from "The Song of Baseball," A regularly-scheduled New York Clipper, 2 May 1885) ed.) have that Oxley played in four games; cor- contest the following day rections are pending. drew a crowd of twelve

18 Former Major Leaguer Baseball historian Harold Seymour has described the cycle of the nineteenth century major league ball player in this way: While a few great stars lived on in legends and were eventually canonized in the Hall of Fame, most of them returned to obscurity after their brief years in the lime- light. [I]n his prime the player was a pet, cheered, patted on the back, and called by his first name. Girls pointed to him on the street, and he swelled with pride and importance, even putting paper in his stock- ings to make the calves of his legs stand out. But at last the day came when all his glory disappeared. The Polo Grounds action - New York turns a double play against Boston. crowd was quick to turn on him. His popularity van- Boston, working at his father's trade, Sources ished, the dudes snubbed him, and blacksmithing. By this time, there newspapers advised him to go back to were several thousand Prince Edward The reconstruction of Henry Oxley's husking corn. Island emigrants living in Boston, baseball career is based on research Harry Oxley did manage to hang on many of them in Oxley's "Eastie" conducted in archives, libraries, and to the fleeting glory of the professional neighborhood. Among those Islanders historical societies in New England, ball player for a while longer. He start- was Frances "Fanny" Auld, who, in New York, and Prince Edward Island. ed the 1885 season in the New England 1902, became Henry Oxley's bride. Consulted for contextual information League with Portland, Maine, where he (Oxley had been married once before, were: Diamonds: the Evolution of the was touted as the "well-known catcher but that union had not lasted, undoubt- Ball Park by M. Gershman; Baseball: of last season's Metropolitans." edly a casualty of the ball player's A History of America's Game by B.G. Through 27 games, he batted only .185 lifestyle.) Coincidentally, "Fanny" Auld Rader; Baseball: The Early Years by H. and left Portland for a team in was also born in Covehead and was a Seymour; the Total Baseball encyclo- Yarmouth, Maine. Before the season cousin of Henry Oxley. They lived out pedia; and "The Country of the Young" was over, he had moved on to the their lives in Somerville, Massachu- by R. Story in Cooperstown Symposium "Queen City" club of Bangor, where he setts. From 1914 until his retirement in on Baseball and the American Culture earned high praise as both a pitcher 1930, Henry Oxley owned the New (1989). For Canadian baseball history, and a catcher. Oxley was in the box for England Engineering Company, a see W. Humber's Cheering for the a game in which John L. Sullivan, then welding and machine shop on Atlantic Home Team and C. Howell's article in bareknuckled heavyweight champion Avenue in Boston. He died in 1945 at Histoire social - Social History, vol. of the world, acted as umpire. the age of 87; "Fanny" Auld died nine XXII, no. 44. For their research assis- According to the Bangor Daily years later, at 88. The Oxleys are tance, I am indebted to fellow mem- Commercial of 22 August 1885, Oxley buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in bers of the Society for American pitched a "splendid" game in earning Everett, Massachusetts. Baseball Research and to Laura the victory, and Sullivan (not surpris- The story of Henry Oxley is very O'Grady. iai ingly) umpired to the "satisfaction of all much the story of the Island emigrant, concerned." one of leaving, adapting, and, on occa- Oxley continued the life of the itin- sion, excelling. He was an ordinary erant semi-professional ball player for man, who, like "Moonlight" Graham, several more seasons. Scattered was a ballplayer "patted on the head reports tell of his involvement with by a dream." The baseball numbers teams in Maine and Massachusetts Oxley left behind, however modest, and further afield, in Atlanta, Georgia, have granted him a measure of immor- and Toledo, Ohio. tality; his Prince Edward Island her- By the early 1890s, his playing days itage assures him a permanent place in over, Oxley was back living in East the province's sports history.