WORCESTER—It has been a little more than five years since someone from this city appeared in a Major League Baseball game.
It was southpaw reliever Tim Collins. He pitched a scoreless ninth inning for the Cubs on July 23, 2019, in a 5-4 loss to the Giants in San Francisco. One other Worcester native ended his career that season as well. That was another lefty reliever, Ryan O’Rourke, who worked an inning for the Mets in Milwaukee on May 4.
In all, 18 players from Worcester have played Major League Baseball since the game took its current form in 1901 with the birth of the American League. That list includes three hybrids. John Anderson was born in Norway and moved here at age 5 in 1879. Jigger Statz was born in Waukegan, IL, but grew up in Worcester. Keith Reed was born on Cape Cod but attended Doherty High School.
The list includes Worcester players only. Players such as Tyler Beede of Auburn, John Andreoli of Shrewsbury, Chris Colabello of Milford and Ron Darling of Millbury do not count.
The 18 players are, including their final major league season:
LHP Collins, 2019; LHP O’Rourke, 2019; 1B Bryan LaHair, 2012; RHP Tanyon Sturtze, 2008; OF Reed, 2005;:1B Mark Johnson, 2002; C Rich Gedman, 1992; RHP Paul Mitchell, 1980; C Eddie Phillips, 1935; RHP Rosy Ryan, 1933; and OF Jigger Statz, 1928.
Also, LHP Hugh Canavan, 1918; LHP Bruno Haas, 1915; RHP Allan Collamore, 1915; C Art Lavigne, 1914; 1B Kitty Bransfield, 1911; and OF John Anderson, 1908.
Several of the group had brief careers. That list would include Reed, Canavan, Haas, Collamore and Lavigne.
Of the other 14, some played in the World Series, some were All-Stars. Some were part of baseball history. They all had what could be called significant major league careers. That’s saying something about players who grew up where there was a chance of snow seven months out of a year.
What Worcester product played the most major league games?
That was Anderson, whose family moved here in 1879. Perhaps the Andersons relocated for better weather, or perhaps they figured their son could make a better living playing pro baseball than doing pro biathlon. More likely is that Anderson landed a job in a Worcester factory.
Anderson played for six different teams from 1894 through 1908, a total of 1,636 games.
Bransfield played in 1,330 big league games from 1898 into 1911. He is the only one of the group to have also played Triple-A ball in Worcester. He was with the Farmers in 1898 and 1899 when the International League was called the Eastern League.
Statz’s formal first name was Arnold. He went to Classical High, then Holy Cross, and was also a tremendous golfer. Statz played in 683 major league games but is best known as being (probably) the greatest Triple-A player in history.
He played in 2,790 games for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. That was during an era when many players who could have been in the big leagues played in the PCL because the money was almost as good as the majors and the weather was a whole lot better.
Between the majors and minors, Statz had 4,093 hits.
Ryan’s first name was Wilfrid. He went to South High and then Holy Cross. Ryan made his major league debut in 1919 with the New York Giants. His big league career ended in 1933.
It was memorable career. Ryan was on five pennant-winning teams including four with the Giants and one with the Yankees. He pitched in the 1922, ’23 and ’24 World Series and was 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA in the Fall Classic.
Most significantly, Ryan hit a home run against the Washington Senators in Game 3 of the 1924 World Series. He was just the second pitcher ever to hit a World Series homer, something that has been done only 15 times total. Ryan is the only one of the 15 to hit it as a reliever.
Phillips also went to Classical High. He played parts of six seasons in the majors including a nine-game stint with the Yankees in 1932. That team won the World Series, but Phillips was not with them for that.
He played his final game on Sept. 29, 1935 and it was 40 baseball seasons before another Worcester product played in the major leagues. That was Mitchell, who debuted for the Orioles on July 1, 1975 in a game at Fenway Park. He went on to play six big-league seasons and appear in 125 games.
Mitchell’s arrival in the majors signaled a new era of Worcester players in the majors. Gedman debuted in 1980, Sturtze and Johnson in 1995, Reed in 2005, LaHair in 2008, Collins in 2011 and O’Rourke in 2015. At several points in that span there were two Worcester guys in the major leagues.
The record is three, done 100 years ago in 1924 when Statz, Ryan and Phillips were all in the major leagues.
Ryan, Gedman and Collins are the only three Worcester products to play in a World Series. Gedman and LaHair are the only two be recognized as All-Stars. Gedman is the only one with both items on his resume.
Gedman’s well-known career spanned 12 seasons. Sturtze had a long career that included stints with seven different teams, including the Yankees, and he worked 797 innings total. Johnson was a Dartmouth graduate who had a seven-year career that included 38 homers and 137 RBIs.
LaHair played parts of three seasons and his last one, 2012 with the Cubs, was a glorious one. He made the National League All-Star team. At the break LaHair was batting .286 with 14 home runs and 31 RBIs.
That was an especially good season for Worcester products as Colllins, in his
second season with the Royals, was 5-4 in 72 relief appearances. Collins endured two Tommy John operations and missed three full seasons before returning to the majors with Washington in 2018.
O’Rourke also had a hiatus in his major league career. He was in 54 games with the Twins in 2015-16, had elbow surgery, and finally returned to the big leagues in 2019 for two games with the Mets.
The city had a pair of “almosts” in southpaw pitcher Ed Riley and outfielder Paul Thoutsis. Riley got as high as Triple-A and pitched for Pawtucket in 1992 and ’93. Thoutsis was Boston’s Minor League Player of the Year with New Britain in 1993 and spent part of ’93 and all of 1994 with Pawtucket.
Several recent Worcester products have remained in baseball at some level.
Gedman managed the Worcester Tornadoes and has been a longtime batting coach in the Red Sox’ farm system, the last four years with the WooSox. Collins is back in the game in his first season as pitching coach with the Clearwater Threshers, the Phillies’ Florida State League affiliate.
LaHair is the batting coach for the Reds’ Triple-A affiliate, the Louisville Bats, who do not play the WooSox this season. O’Rourke lives in Greater Boston and works in real estate, but also pitches amateur baseball for the Irish WolfHounds.
It has been five years since he and Collins beat the odds to become big leaguers. That is a bit of a gap, but nowhere nearly as long as the 40 years between Phillips and Mitchell.
Bill Ballou covered the Red Sox for the Worcester Telegram from 1997 through 2018. He has covered pro hockey in Worcester since 1994 and currently does a weekly column for the Worcester Red Sox. Ballou can be reached at vetgoalie@aol.com
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