Jack Fitzgerald
Position: Pitcher
Bats: right • Throws: right
Height – 5′ 9"
Weight – 185 lbs (from his 1942 U.S., World War II Draft Registration Card)
Born: March 8, 1881 in Sacramento, California
Died: December 2, 1947 at age 66 in Sacramento
Full Name: John Patrick Fitzgerald
Nicknames – Fitz, Jawn, Fireman
Link to his minor league stats – www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=fitzge…
Link to – Sacramento Senators and Solons – Player Rosters 1903 – 1933 – www.sacramentosolons.com/
On the 27 April 1909 Jack Fitzgerald, the pitcher on the Stockton team who has played here since the season opened, left to join the Sacramento Pacific Coast league team.
"Daily Capital Journal" (Salem, Oregon) – newspaper – April 27, 1909 – PITCHER FITZGERALD ABANDONS STOCKTON SACRAMENTO. Cal., April 27. 1909 – Pitcher Jack Fitzgerald is today a member of Charlie Graham’s Senators of the Coast league. Fitzgerald has been Stockton’s mainstay in the box during tho current outlaw season and his deflection will be felt sorrowfully. With the addition of Fitzgerald to his pitching staff, Graham has a bunch of twirlers he believes to be second to none In the league. It Is rumored here that Ed Walters, owner of the Oakland Coast league team, Is trying to Induce Danny Shay to forsake Stockton and assume the managerial duties called with tho Oakland team. Shay, It is said, has announced that he will remain in Stockton.
(Morning Oregonian, October 27, 1909) – PITCHER FELLS DETECTIVE – Fitzgerald Knocks Down Kripp When He Draws Gun. SACRAMENTO, Cal., Oct. 26. (Special) Jack Fitzgerald, pitcher on the Sacramento Coast League team, worsted Police Detective Fred Kripp, brother of Ed. Kripp, California sportsman and baseball manager, early this morning when the officer, while intoxicated, drew his gun and held It in the ballplayer’s face with threats to kill him. The trouble resulted from Kripp’s taking offense at Fitzgerald’s jibes about a local political fight. When Kripp whipped a gun in Fitzgerald’s face, the latter floored the officer with a blow to the face. Bystanders pulled Fitzgerald away and picked up the gun. Kripp is likely to lose his position on the police department.
"The San Francisco Call", – newspaper – October 28, 1909 – SUSPENDS – DETECTIVE WHO FOUGHT PITCHER – Sacramento Chief Charges Officer With Drunkeness – SACRAMENTO. Oct. 27.—City Detective Krlpp, who was worsted in a fight with Jack Fitzgerald, pitcher of the Sacramento ball team, was suspended from the department by Chief of Police Sullivan today for drunkenness while on duty. Kripp drew a gun on Fitzgerald while both were engaged In a heated argument. Chief Sullivan, is investigating the case and Krlpp’s dismissal Is likely to follow.
(Sacramento Union, 7 April 1910) – ANGELS ARE DUCK SOUP FOR “FITZ” – ‘‘Jawn” Hits His Gait While Dillon’s Boys Look Askance – In a pitchers’ duel, lasting eleven innings, Jack Fitzgerald of the Senators triumphed over Tozer of the Angels yesterday afternoon and in an eleven-inning game brought home a victory by a score of 2 to 1. “Fitz’ had everything. "Jawn” was very careful with his passes, allowing nary a one, and in addition forced three of the Angels to whiff.
"The San Francisco Call", – newspaper – April 29, 1910 – Pitcher Jack Fitzgerald Suspended • SACRAMENTO, April28, 1910.—For falling to report at Recreation Park; San Francisco, last Sunday. Pitcher Jack Fitzgerald of the Sacramento Coasters has been given a blue envelope with a string on it by Manager Charles Graham. A fine of six days’ pay was inflicted and Fitzgerald was suspended indefinitely. Graham says he is through with banking on Fitzgerald staying on the water wagon.
"The San Francisco Call", – newspaper – August 09, 1910 – Jack Fitzgerald Suspended By Senator Chiefs – SACRAMENTO, Aug. 8—Jack Fitzgerald, pitcher on the Senators staff, has again broken the training rules and Manager Charles Graham has suspended him indefinitely. Graham will try to trade him for another man.
Fitzgerald is best remembered for one September Sunday in 1911 when he pitched against the Portland club. The game went 24 innings. He allowed just 10 hits and one run, and the game ended in a 1 -1 tie because of darkness. (see newspaper story below)
"University Missourian", newspaper (Columbia, MO) – September 14, 1911 – TIE AFTER 24 INNINGS. – Sacramento and Portland Finally Abandoned Struggle 1 to 1. SACRAMENTO. Cali. – One of the most remarkable games in the history of baseball was played here Sunday when Portland and Sacramento battled for twenty-four innings, one to one tie. The game was to have been the first of a double header. Portland scored its run in the fourth inning on two hits, Sacramento tying it up in the sixth on two hits. Thereafter, no more runs were made and the umpire finally called the game after It had been in progress three hours and forty minutes. One of the remarkable features was the fact that each team used only one pitcher. Jack Fitzgerald twirled for Sacramento, allowing only ten hits. Seven of these were made in the first nine innings. Elmer Koestner, the Portland pitcher, allowed only twelve hits. Excepting in the fourth and sixth innings, when the runs were made, neither team was able to get more than one hit in any one inning. Fitzgerald fanned fourteen batters and Koestner eleven.
(Mariposa Gazette, 16 September 1911) – A Record Breaking Ball Game. Sacramento. —Baseball history was made Sunday afternoon when the Beavers and Senators for 24 innings tried to down each other and then had to give it up with the score standing one to one, because of from 1:30 o’clock to 5:15 the battle was waged by "Jawn" Fitzgerald and Koestner and when Umpire McGreevy finally called it quits 3000 fans took their first long breath since the sixth inning.
(Sacramento Union, 11 June 1912) – The pitching staff is going along in good shape. Last year, it will be remembered that Jawn Fltzgerald showed no class in the early part of the season, but one day he landed on the ball for a home run out at Buffalo Park and from that time on none of the clubs could touch him. Last Sunday Jawn got his annual home run and the superstitious ones are now for the belief that Fits is due to turn around and pitch some wonderful games. Let’s hope so.
(Sacramento Union, 24 August 1912) – Jawn Fitzgerald’s Pitching Arm Is Broken By Drive Off Butcher’s Bat – VETERAN SLABSTER OUT OF GAME FOR REST OF SEASON – Special to the Union. PORTLAND (Ore.), Aug. 23.—‘Jawn’ Fitzgerald, the Sacramento pitcher who is admitted by every Coast leaguer to be the worst hardluck victim of the season, reached the climax of his ill-fated career of 1912 today when a cannonball drive off Hank Butcher’s bat in the eighth inning broke his throwing arm near the elbow. Fitzgerald was immediately placed under a doctor’s care, but the veteran twirler will probably be out for the rest of the season, and his effectiveness as a pitcher may suffer even after this year.
(The Sunday Oregonian, September 08, 1912) – FITZGERALD IS DAZZLING – Sacramento "Has-Been" Comes Back and Holds Beavers to 8 Hits and Wins 10 to 0 Game in His Old-Time Fashion – SACRAMENTO, Sept. 7. (Special.) – Old "Jawn" Fitzgerald came back into his own today and pitched one of those games that helped to make him famous last season. From the first inning until the last Fitz was invincible, and he led the Senators to a 10 to 0 victory over the Beavers. Fitzgerald fanned 10 Portland batsmen. In the first inning he retired two by the air line route, in the second one and in the third inning he fanned three. In only three Innings did he permit more than three batsmen to face him. Two of these occasions came when a hit was scored, the third on a walk, the only walk Fits gave through-out the entire session. On one other occasion a hit was lined out, but a nappy double play kept the limit down to three.
(Sacramento Union, 22 April 1913) – John Fitzgerald Signs With Trolley Team – Well Known Twirler Will Try to Come Back and Climb the Ladder Again, John Fitzgerald, for many years one of the leading twirlers of the Coast league and well known in the baseball circles of the West, was signed yesterday by Manager Frank Bacon of the Brooke Realtys in the Trolley league “Jawn” will go to work immediately and promises to lead the local boys to victory and pennant, Fitzgerald was dropped from the local Coast league team this year after a bad season last year. Although he has been many years in the game, he is not yet willng to be counted with the downs and outs. He thinks that he will be able to come back by working faithfully two or three years in the smaller leagues. Fitz has had several offers from the Northwestern league, but refused to accept them on account of the salary question.
(Sacramento Union, 4 June 1913) – JAWN FITZGERALD TO PITCH FOR VICTORIA CLUB IN NORTHWEST – Jawn Fltzgerald, veteran pitcher of Sacramento, who was turned loose last winter by the local Coast league club and who has since been pitching a winning brand of ball with the Brooke Realty team of the Trolley league, has left for other climes in his fight to show the real comeback stuff. Fitzgerald left last night for Victoria to take a place on the pitching staff of the Victoria club of the Northwestern league. Fitz was to have pitched for the Brookes against the Trolley league leaders in Chico next Sunday, when a special train will be run from Sacramento to take in the battle for first place. Fitz has an old grudge against the Chicoites which he wanted to settle next Sunday, but the Victoria job gives him a chance to show his old-time form and break back into organized ball and he sacrificed his grudge to his meal ticket.
(The Sunday Oregonian, June 22, 1913) – In 1906 Pueblo, Colo., in the Western League, gave Melchoir eating money and the following season he was traded to San Francisco, in the Pacific Coast League, for Pitcher Fitzgerald, now with Victoria. – so this Fitzgerald is indeed "Jack Fitzgerald" – Link to his 1913 Victoria stats – www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=fitzge…
(The Sunday Oregonian, July 06, 1913) – Fitzgerald Holds Tacoma to 4 Hits – White Bees Bat Freely. TACOMA, Wash., July 5. (Special.) Victoria shut the Tigers out today, 8 to 0, through the masterful pitching of Fitzgerald and the inability of the Tacoma batsmen to hit. Boice, who started for Tacoma, was yanked in the middle of the third and Belford took his plate, but was unable to stop the Bees.
(The Sunday Oregonian, October 05, 1913) – JACK FITZGERALD MAY RETIRE – Erstwhile Pacific Coast Pitcher Returns to Oakland. OAKLAND, CaL. Oct. 4. (Special) – Jack Fitzgerald, a pitching star of the Pacific Coast for the past 16 years, is figuring on retiring. Jack has just returned from the Northwest, where he pitched for a club (Victoria) in the Northwestern League until his bread-earner weakened. Last season Our Jawn was a heaver for the Senators, and he did not make much of a showing. This was a big surprise, as he had one of the greatest years of his career the previous
season, when he was one of the best pitchers In the league. Fitzgerald has been umpiring around quite a bit. And he is a fair indicator man and is figuring on striking President Baum for a job. It has been whispered about that he might become one of the Sacramento’s "best" by joining the ranks of the police force. Anyway, Fitz Is home again and glad to be able to answer "present" to his old-time pals.
(Sacramento Union, 26 December 1918) – “Jawn” Fitzgerald Back From Dixie – Lieutenant John Fitzgerald, the oldtime Sacramento ball player, returned to the city yesterday noon, after 18 months service at Camp Jackson, South Carolina. At the time the armistice was signed the regiment with which Fitzgerald was connected was already makings preparations for active service overseas. “Jawn," as he is familiarly known among his cronies here, looks to be in the best of condition and ten years younger. The erstwhile slab artist says he has not had a ball in his hands since he left Sacramento more than a year ago. He has not yet made any definite plans for the future, although he says he will stick to civilian life, having been granted his discharge from the army.
(Sacramento Union, 5 March 1922) – Jawn Pitches Better Brand Than Bob Cat – Today, from the archive of Sacramento baseball greatness, we are reprinting, not an East vs West game, but a wonderful 24 inning record I to 1 contest staged between Portland and Sacramento, with Jack Fitzgerald and Elmer Koestner opposing each other on the mound at Buffalo Park. Jack Fitzgerald, still living here in Sacramento, had been consistently turning in good games for the few weeks previous to his great duel against “Bob Cat” Koestner, and began his career as a professional baseball player as a member of Mike Fisher’s pitching staff of the Senators of 1903. Jack moved with the franchise to Tacoma in 1905 and returned with that same franchise to this city a few years later. Jawn was an overhand pitcher with a corking good drop curve, was almost always in there fighting to win, and was much above the average twirler in the matter of mixing gray matter Info the art of bending ’em over. He was possessed of an peculiar style of delivery which gave one the impression that his arm was being overworked, but I don’t believe I ever heard Jack complain of having a sore arm. Most certainly never during the time we were members of the same team. JACK WAS BEST.
After baseball Jack Fitzgerald earned his living as a hotel clerk in Sacramento.