Flynn

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Acquired: Played one game for the St. Louis Whites on June 17, 1888 as a fill-in.

On June 17, 1888, the Whites played the Maroons in Chicago. Two names, Brown and Flynn, appear in the box score. Flynn (identified as Glynn in the Chicago Tribune, but as Flynn in the Inter Ocean and box scores elsewhere) played right field, batted eighth, and went 1-3. While some game reports make mention of "Brown" as being a fake name and even give his real last name (Tilden, identified as Fred Tilden), nothing is said about Flynn. (It may be that the use of "Glynn" in the Tribune was intended to hide the real name of the player and the player. More likely it was a typo.)

Who is Flynn?

Assuming the name Flynn is actually the real last name of the player, Flynn could be W. Flynn, who played for the Jenny & Graham Gun Co. team in the Commercial League in Chicago in 1888. Flynn shows up in boxscores for the club on June 10 and June 24, but not on June 17. Fred Tilden also played for a club in that league in 1888 (Putnam Clothing). With the Whites needing some help that day in Chicago, it would make sense that both players come from a quick and available source. W. Flynn shows up in rosters for the club in the Chicago Tribune in May and again in June. He also shows up as playing for Jenny & Graham in a game on ice in January 1889, along with Ed Flynn.

Ed Flynn was a professional player from Chicago who played a few games with Cleveland in 1887. In May and early June 1888 he played in the Tri State League with Kalamazoo and Jackson. He was released from Jackson on June 6, after W. Flynn started playing with J & G in the Commercial League. Ed had a younger brother, George (Dibby) Flynn who had a long minor league career and a brief appearance with Chicago in 1896. Dibby was only 17 in 1888, so he is not likely to have been in the Commercial League that summer. But there was a third brother, William B. Flynn, born in 1869, who would have been 19 in the summer of 1888. This is the most likely option for W. Flynn of the Jenny & Graham Gun Co. club. It is possible that the player was Ed Flynn, but that wouldn't explain why W. Flynn was absent from the Jenny & Graham club that day.


Stats with the St. Louis Whites
Batting stats

Year   Team              Pos            Age    G   AB    R    H   2B   3B   HR  RBI   BB    K   SB   CS      AVG   OBP    SLG
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1888   STW                               --    1    3    0    1    0    0    0                   0         0.333        0.333
Why Brown and Flynn?

June 17th was the back end of a road trip that had started April 29th with three games in Kansas City. (These games were originally scheduled to be played in St. Louis, but attendance at the Whites games had been so poor that Von der Ahe arranged to have them played in KC instead.) From Kansas City they went on to play three games in Des Moines, three games in St. Paul, three games in Minneapolis, and two in Milwaukee (the third scheduled game having been rained out). The road trip ended with three games in Chicago on June 16, June 17 and June 19. Six cities, eighteen games (including one double-header) in twenty-two days. They started the road trip with a record of 11-10. After losing six of the first nine on the trip in Kansas City, Des Moines and St.Paul, they were at 14-16 going into the series at Minneapolis.

The wheels started coming off in Minneapolis. Herr, the starting shortstop, was transferred to the Browns due to an injury to Chippy McGarr, the Browns regular second baseman. The Whites had started the road trip with eleven players - the starting seven infielders and outfielders, two catchers (Dolan and Arundel), and two pitchers (Staley and Nyce). The loss of Herr left them with only one extra player for the remainder of the road trip. After Herr was transferred, center fielder Hines was moved to shortstop, and right field and center field bounced between the non-starter and the two catchers, plus Cantz (who played right field prior to Herr's departure). The Whites lost three games in Minneapolis and two in Milwaukee, and then the first game in Chicago, on June 16th. By this point, Staley and Nyce had been alternating between pitching and the outfield for the past several games. On the 17th of June, Nyce pitched and Cantz caught, while Brown and Flynn were brought in to cover center field and right field, giving Staley, Dolan and Arundel a day off. June 18th was an off-day, and on June 19th Pete Gallagher was brought in to play third base, giving Dolan and Arundel a third day off, and Nyce a second day off. The Whites lost both games, finishing the road trip with eight straight losses to return home at 14-24. On the last day of the trip (June 19), Von der Ahe sold Beckley and Staley to Pittsburgh. Eleven players left St. Louis at the start of the trip, but only eight returned to St. Louis with the club.