“Joe had no prominent weakness. He was fast on the bases, could hit the ball hard and was as graceful an outfielder as one would care to see.” –John McGraw

Today’s Dodger of the Day is left fielder Joe Kelley (no, no that one). A staple on the Baltimore Orioles teams of the mid-1890s, Kelley is the first Hall of Famer in this series.

Joseph James Kelley was born December 9, 1871, in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Irish immigrant. He attended a parochial grammar school and St. Thomas Aquinas College in Cambridge. It was at Aquinas that Kelley first acquired notoriety for his ball-playing abilities; he was the team’s ace pitcher.

He joined the Superbas in 1899 after six seasons and change with the National League’s Baltimore Orioles. He begrudgingly moved to Brooklyn at the behest of his manager in Baltimore and new Brooklyn part owner and manager Ned Hanlon.

Kelley was not thrilled about bringing his new wife to Brooklyn just after buying a house in Baltimore, but his request for a trade to the Washington Senators wasn’t granted.

The 1899 Superbas were a dominant team, winning the National League by eight games behind Kelley’s .325 batting average and 108 runs. Kelley also led the team in hits, home runs and RBI. Fellow outfielders Willie Keeler and Fielder Jones also led the charge for the Superbas, batting .379 and .285 respectively.

The Superbas repeated their success in 1900 with Kelley as the captain. He proved he deserved the title, batting .319 and leading the team in triples, home runs and RBI.

It all came crashing down in 1901. The Superbas sat firmly in 3rd place, 9.5 games behind the pennant-winning Pirates. This occurred despite many of the same pieces returning from their 1899 and 1900 pennant teams, including Willie Keeler. Rumors surrounding a return to Baltimore for Kelley may have proven a distraction; he hit .307 and didn’t reach the heights of his 1899 or 1900 campaigns.

Those rumors proved true as the 1902 season loomed; after being on the shortlist for the New York Giants’ managerial position, Kelley accepted stock and a contract from the American League’s Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles’ majority owner at the time was John Mahon, his father-in-law.

Kelley signed with Lowell of the New England League in 1891 and was an incredibly versatile asset. At 5’11” and 190 pounds, Kelley played at every position at some point in the season, frequently rotating through the field on pitching off-days. He led the New England League with a .323 batting average and had a 10-3 win-loss record on the mound.

Lowell folded in July, but Kelley wasn’t out of baseball for long: three days later, the Boston Beaneaters (now the Atlanta Braves) signed him to a professional contract. The NL champion Beaneaters released Kelley after he appeared in 12 games with a .244 batting average.

Kelley turned down a $1,200 (about $33,000 in modern terms) offer from the Oakland Colonels of the Pacific League to play for the Omaha Omahogs of the Western League. Yes, that was their name. The 1890s were weird.

During his time in Omaha, Kelley hit .316 with 19 stolen bases over 58 games. The Pittsburgh Pirates purchased his contract July 2 and he remained on the Pirates through September. On September 5, Orioles manager Ned Hanlon traded the popular and successful George Van Haltren to Pittsburgh for Kelley. Kelley was hitting .239 for Pittsburgh at the time of the deal, while Van Haltren was batting .302.

Hanlon had had his eye on Kelley for some time, though. He put some effort into training the 20-year-old, holding private practice sessions and teaching Kelley how to play the outfield. The work immediately bore some fruit: Kelley hit .305 as a starter in 1893 and led the team in doubles, home runs and RBI. it was the first of 11 straight seasons where Kelley hit over .300 and 13 straight above .275.

The next season, Kelley took a massive step forward, notching career highs in hits (199), runs scored (165), doubles (48), triples (20), on-base percentage (.502), and batting average (.393). Along with John McGraw, Willie Keeler, Hughie Jennings, and Dan Brouthers, the Orioles won the first of three consecutive National League pennants.

The Orioles played the New York Giants in a postseason series but were swept in four games, because they didn’t see the series as worth playing. The team made many guest appearances after winning the pennant and the payout ($768 to the winning team) wasn’t worth it. The two teams largely agreed to split the winnings no matter who won the series; Kelley got $200 from Giants pitcher Amos Rusie.

Kelley was the co-captain of the 1895 squad with catcher Wilbert Robinson. Kelley batted .365 with 54 stolen bases. His 10 home runs and 154 RBI were both career highs. He also stood defensively, only making 16 errors over more than 1100 innings.

The Orioles won their second straight pennant and for the second year in a row did not give a shit about the Temple Cup. The Cleveland Spiders swept the Orioles in four games.

Kelley was good to the fans in Baltimore and he gained a large fanbase. The left-field bleachers of Oriole Park became known as “Kelleyville” because his fans (many of them female) congregated there when Kelley took the field.

These Orioles were an innovative bunch. They were among the first to use hit and runs and relay men effectively and their groundskeeper, Tom Murphy, created the Baltimore chop by burying cement in the ground in front of home plate and instructing players swing down on the ball. The crafty groundskeeper also laid foul lines at an angle such that balls rolled back into fair territory...somehow. They were also inclined to use psychological tactics on their opponents, including filing their cleats while sitting on a bench opposite the opponent’s dugout.

In 1896, Kelley’s Orioles would win their third and final pennant. Kelley led the team in slugging, OPS, doubles, triples and home runs. His 87 stolen bases were also a career-high. The team won the Temple Cup this time, beating the Spiders four to one. Kelley hit .471 in the series in the series.

Kelley led the Georgetown Hoyas to the college championship in 1897 while he, Keeler, Jennings held out. Hanlon relented and Kelley provided the team with a .362 average and 118 RBI. The Orioles didn’t win the pennant in 1897, falling to second behind Boston. The Orioles beat the Beaneaters in the final Temple Cup four to one. Kelley hit three doubles and five RBI in the series.

The Orioles finished in second again in 1898. Kelley led the team in triples and RBI and hit .321 on the season. The holdout also REALLY paid off for him: he was paid $2500 plus a $200 bonus for the captaincy and a $100 bonus for finishing in second.

His 1902 return to Baltimore was not nearly as glorious as his mid-90s run. Under former teammate John McGraw, Kelley played 60 games for the Orioles, batting .311 and hitting 34 RBI. McGraw was suspended by the American League in July and resigned to begin his 31-year managerial career with the New York Giants. Kelley split duties with Wilbert Robinson before leaving Baltimore for Cincinnati July 17. There, he took over as player-manager from Bid McPhee and Frank Bancroft.

Kelley’s career slowed down as he entered his early 30s. He wasn’t quite the batter he used to be; his time in Cincinnati is in the bottom half of his career numbers in almost every stat, counting or otherwise. He wasn’t a top-tier offensive option either. Players like Cy Seymour, Tom Corcoran and Miller Huggins filled that role for the Reds. 1903 was his best season in Cincinnati, slashing /.316/.402/.418 with 121 hits over 383 at-bats.

He wasn’t a particularly good manager either. His Reds third, fourth, or fifth in each of his four years as a manager and he never finished closer than 16.5 games back of the pennant. The 1903 Reds finished 88-65, but they were 18 games behind the 106-47 Giants (the Superbas, for their part, were 56-97. Dem Bums indeed).

Kelley relinquished his position as manager to Ned Hanlon in 1906 but stayed on as a player. He batted a career-low .228 and was released that December. The Toronto Maple Leafs took him on as a player-manager in 1907 for a $5000 salary, reportedly the highest-ever for a minor-leaguer at the time. Kelley managed the Maple Leafs to an 83-51 record and an Eastern League championship as well as hitting 322 with 15 stolen bases.

His success with Toronto brought him back to the majors that December. The Boston Doves paid him $5500 on a two-year deal to be a player-manager and captain. The Doves featured several of Kelley’s former teammates, such as Willie Keeler, Bill Dahlen and George Browne. That arrangement did not work out; in a seeming precursor to the beer-and-chicken debacle more than a century later, the team was completely undisciplined and had given up by season’s end. The 1908 season would be Kelley’s last as a major leaguer.

Team owner George Dovey wasn’t happy and tried to weasel his way out of Kelley’s deal. Kelley balked and threatened a lawsuit. An agreement was reached where Kelley would leave and rejoin the Maple Leafs as a player-manager. Kelley played a total of 153 games in 1909 and 1910 before solely managing. An 11-game losing streak kept Toronto from the pennant in 1911, but the team rebounded and won the title in 1912. Toronto released Kelley from his position in 1914.

Shortly thereafter, he became the Yankees’ chief scout, bringing 17(!) pitchers into camp in 1916. He continued in this role until 1926, when he became a coach for the Brooklyn Robins. He was left go after one year; the Robins finished sixth in the National League with a 71-82 record. The Robins’ job would be his last in major league baseball.

Kelley died August 14, 1943, aged 71. He was survived by his wife and two sons. He is buried at New Cathedral Cemetery in Baltimore, the same cemetery as John McGraw, Wilbert Robinson, and Ned Hanlon.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veteran’s Committee in 1971.