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Kick Kelly

Kick Kelly
Catcher/Manager/Umpire
Born: (1856-10-31)October 31, 1856
New York City
Died: March 27, 1926(1926-03-27) (aged 69)
Malba, New York
Batted: Unknown Threw: Unknown
MLB debut
May 1, 1879, for the Syracuse Stars
Last MLB appearance
August 7, 1879, for the Troy Trojans
MLB statistics
Batting average .155
Home runs 0
Runs batted in 2
Teams
Career highlights and awards
  • Set major league record for games as an umpire
  • Called two no-hitters

John O. "Kick" Kelly (October 31, 1856 – March 27, 1926), also nicknamed "Honest John" and "Diamond John," was an American catcher, manager and umpire in Major League Baseball who went on to become a boxing referee and to run gambling houses in his native New York City. He made a notable impact on the development of umpiring, helping to pioneer the use of multiple umpires in games in the 1880s. By the time he initially retired in 1888, he held the record for most games umpired in the major leagues (587); he returned to work the last two months of the 1897 season.

Kelly played just one season in the National League in 1879, split between two teams, the Syracuse Stars, for which he played in ten games, eight of them at catcher, and then another six games with the Troy Trojans. He played in 16 total games, had a .155 batting average, and scored five runs.

After his playing days were over, Kelly became an umpire, working games in both the National League and the American Association. He began in the NL in 1882, working 51 games, but then jumped to the American Association from 1883 to 1886. He returned to the NL in 1888. The early years of the major leagues were particularly hard on umpires, with hostile crowds and vicious arguments, in addition to the difficulty of constantly working games single-handedly. Few officials lasted more than two or three seasons, and by the end of the 1885 campaign Kelly had passed Billy McLean's total of 317 major league games as an umpire.


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Wikipedia

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