“Smiling Mickey” Welch (1859-1941)

Today marks the death of a hall of famer buried locally, and the following is adapted from Wikipedia:

Born Michael Francis Walsh in Brooklyn, he the third big league pitcher to accumulate 300 career victories during thirteen seasons in the major leagues, beginning with three on the Troy Trojans in 1880, and 10 with the New York Gothams/Giants. He was noted for having an effective curveball, a change of pace, and a version of the screwball. Over the course of his career he posted 20 or more wins nine times, seven in succession. On September 10, 1889, he is credited as having become the first pinch hitter in Major League history, when he batted for Hank O’Day‚ and struck out. (Conventional wisdom indicates that this must have been an injury situation since a rule allowing pinch hitters in non-injury situations was not instituted until 1892. The first pinch hitter under that rule is generally agreed to be Jack Doyle‚ on June 7‚ 1892.) Welch died in Concord, New Hampshire at the age of 82, and is interred in the Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, Queens, New York, under his birth name of Walsh. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973.