Great Uncle Mike

[Dave]

I have a plethora of graphics, etc. of my great uncle Michael Griffin, mostly all of it unearthed by his great-great nephew Steven Griffin, my cousin's son.

Mike played for the Brooklyn team that became the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was a star player, and he and his team are in the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame.

Mike's father, my great grandfather Patrick, ran a tobacco business on Bleecker Street with his brother John (my father's namesake) from sometime in the 1870's through 1900 or so. Patrick was quite well known in Utica for his business ability and was City Treasurer as well as Utica's only IRS agent for a time. (Just one was needed. Only well off people paid federal taxes at the time.)

Michael become known nationwide for his abilities in the sport of baseball, a summer endeavor before the turn of the century.


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[Dave]

Here's Uncle Mike playing for Baltimore in 1888. This was a publicity photo and he was well known by then.

Baseball was definitely a summer gentleman's pursuit. Mike luckily worked in his father's tobacco business on Bleecker Str. and got the summer off to play baseball, but the summer season was nowhere near as long as today.

[Dave]

Here's a player's card from the late 1880's. Mike shares the card with another player. The likeness of Mike is not at all accurate. Interesting looking bats. I wonder if that's a weighted area on the end of the bat.

[Dave]

Here's Uncle Mike as a young center fielder. He looks eerily very much like
my younger brother Mike (named after the ball player). I'd say this photo had to be taken quite early in Mike's career with Brooklyn, which lasted from 1890 to 1898. He left Brooklyn over a contract dispute, which I'll tell about later.






So, of course we need the following:

[Dave]

Great Uncle Mike in his last year with Brooklyn, 1899. In this photo, he looks very much like my father (Mike's nephew) as a young man.






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[Dave]

[fiona]

Fantastic, Dave! I have been wishing you would put this thread up for a while. What a handsome man! You may not recall, but in the beginning of OGH, when Mary B. mets Annie I tell the reader that Mary has a " dog eared baseball card in her little velvet purse of Mike Griffin, who incidentally happens lives in Utica, and whom she somedays hopes to meet and possibly marry." Very nice work. We need to celebrate the "heroes of Old Utica" the common man, as well as the Conklings, Seymours, ect. Thank you. Do you want to keep this thread locked until you are finished with it? If so, then you may move this comment. May I put this pic and info up on my facebook, also?

[Dave]

No need to lock this thread. I like the conversation! Go ahead and put the pics up, I don't believe they are copyrighted. I should put them on photobucket, but it's possible my nephew has already done that.

Anyway, the above images are on my webspace and can be hotlinked to and in order of appearance above the addresses are:

www.windsweptpress.com/images/mikecatch.jpg

www.windsweptpress.com/images/mikecard.jpg

www.windsweptpress.com/images/mikeyoung.jpg

www.windsweptpress.com/images/mike99.jpg

www.windsweptpress.com/images/mikecontract.jpg

[Dave]

www.windsweptpress.com/images/mikedodgers1.jpg

[Dave]

This is readable, but barely. I'll try to find a more readable copy. It's from a few years ago when Uncle Mike was inducted into Utica's sports hall of fame. Use your browser to enlarge, if possible.

[fiona]

Where did your Uncle live and how did he die? I think a while back we put something up on Clipper's didn't we? I seem to remember there was another player we were talking about also...

[Dave]

Fiona, I'll be retelling his life and exploits in coming posts, and I'm trying to enlarge and sharpen his obits into a composite so you'll eventually see it in print. But for now ... after his contractual problems with the Brooklyn team (they reneged on a pay offer), he returned to Utica around 1899/1900 and became part owner of a brewery. He was out with friends one evening when he felt sick and went home. He died of pneumonia within a matter of days in 1908.

[Dave]

This was probably Uncle Mike's first year with Baltimore, 1888. He's in the center of the photograph with the bat, player no. 7. He was about 23 years old at the time.

[Dave]

I'm not sure where the following came from, but I think an OD writer penned it in 2004 with information from my nephew, Steven.




"Mike Griffin is one of the most interesting yet least known players of the 19th century. In 1884 the 19 year-old Griffin played for Utica's amateur team. The success of this team (one of the finest amateur teams in the state, with three future major leaguers) led to Utica fielding a professional team in 1885. Griffin began his professional career with this team and, after spending the winter as a cigar-maker, would return to play for Utica's International League champions the following season. Towards the end of the 1886 season, manager Billy Barnie of Baltimore in the major league American Association, came to Utica to scout players. He was impressed by Mike Griffin and signed him to play for Baltimore the following season.

Mike Griffin began the 1887 season with a bang, as he became the first player to hit a home run in his first major league at bat. In 1889 Griffin led the American Association with 152 runs scored in only 137 games. He played the next season for Philadelphia in the Players League. By the time Griffin was signed by Brooklyn in 1891 he was one of the finest (perhaps even the best) centerfielders in the major leagues. He promptly led the National League with 36 doubles and would remain with Brooklyn until the end of his career. He would provide Brooklyn with an offensive spark in his eight seasons there, averaging 110 runs a season. In 1894 Griffin hit .365 with 123 runs and in 1895 he batted .335 with 38 doubles and 140 runs.

Griffin was team captain in 1897 and 1898, serving as interim manager for part of 1898. After the 1898 season Brooklyn signed him to a $3,500 contract to manage the following season. But before the season started, Brooklyn and Baltimore merged and Baltimore manager Ned Hanlon became Brooklyn's manager. Griffin was offered a $2,800 contract to play by Brooklyn, but he refused to sign. Brooklyn released him to Cleveland, who released him to St. Louis. No team would pay him the $3,500 he felt he was entitled to and he never played baseball again. Griffin brought suit against Brooklyn for the salary he believed they owed him from the contract he had signed and won a judgment of $2,300 from the club. Griffin returned to Utica where he became involved in the management of local breweries. He frequently attended ball games in Utica and occasionally umpired, especially in games for charity. Griffin was one of Utica's most well liked and respected citizens when pneumonia took his life at age 43."

[Dave]

An aside .... Great Uncle Mike's brother, William, the black sheep of the family, married the lovely young lass below, Mary Lynch. She was my grandmother. I never knew her. She died long before I was born.