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Jim O'Rourke

Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.

Jim O'Rourke was born on Sunday, September 1, 1850, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He was 25 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 22, 1876, with the Boston Red Caps. His height was 5 feet 8 inches with a weight of 185 pounds. Veterans Committee elected him to Hall of Fame in 1945. He had quickly established himself as one of the country's top baseball players. He had played baseball until he was past fifty, including twenty-one Major League seasons. An outfielder and catcher for the Boston red stockings of 1873, he later wore the uniforms of the championship providence team of 1879, buffalo, New York and Washington.

Years later, he had sign a contract with the New York Giants with the stipulation that the team pay for him to attend Yale Law School. It did and he graduated in 1887, becoming a lawyer in the off-season. But baseball was his passion. And the educated man stood in stark contrast to his often-bawdier teammates. His eloquent colloquies earned him the nickname Orator Jim. The owner of the National League's very first hit, Jim O'Rourke played baseball until he was past the age of 50, after which he continued in the game as a manager, umpire and minor league president. Nicknamed Orator Jim because of his tendency toward lengthy rhetoric, he began his professional career in 1872 and played on six pennant-winning clubs in seven years, from 1873 to 1879. He had captured the National League batting title in 1884 by hitting 0.350, and in 1888 and 1889 helped New York to its first two league championships.

Unfortunately Jim O'Rourke died on 08 January 1919, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He was a principled and educated man. He believed in hard work and complete teamwork. He was totally dedicated in his play.

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