Complete Universe Facegen Pack

[LansdowneSt]

The archives of baseball are filled with the stories of players whose major-league careers spanned one year, others who played a decade or more, and an unfortunate few who only grabbed a cup of coffee, arriving after years in the minors and leaving after a scant handful of games that gave their careers a certain kind of baseballic mystique. And then, there were the players who fall somewhere between. Roy Franklin Zimmerman, a first baseman from the Pennsylvania coal country who could hit home runs and field very well, spent years touring America courtesy of several minor-league teams. His brief major-league career, although more than a cup of coffee, lasted barely a month, and therein lies a tale mixed up with triumph and woe.

While in the Yankees system, Zimmerman felt like he never got a shot and was very upset at being traded across town to the NY Giants. After a contract dispute soured the relationship with his new team, he finally got his shot filling in at first base in September as injuries hit the club. By the end of the season, he had come to bat 98 times, hit five home runs, knocked in 15 runs, and finished with a .276 average. In 1946, the Mexican League and promises of rich contracts lured several big-name MLB players to Mexico for the season and Roy too jumped his Giants contract. The Mexican adventure was a disaster. The stadiums were shabby, and crowds sometimes turned violent when the fans disagreed with an umpire’s decision. Travel was arduous as well as dangerous at times. Just two weeks into the season, Zimmerman was injured, did not play again for a week, and was replaced. While an unhappy Commissioner Happy Chandler eventually relented and allowed players that jumped back in the bigs, there was no major-league comeback for Zimmerman who played out his time in baseball in the minors until 1951. - SABR

I didn't find a facegen for him in the pack so made this one.

[LansdowneSt]

Rudy Kemmler was a good defensive catcher who moreover had the virtue of being quite durable in the days before catchers had protection against pitched balls. [Let the record show, however, he allowed 114 passed balls in 1883 in 82 games - Ed.] He played eight years in the majors and other years in the minors. He became a laborer after his baseball days and when he died the extremely gnarled condition of his hands was noted. - bRef Bullpen wiki

Redid the facegen. Most of the faces were on the round side akin to the one in the striped Browns hat that I based the facegen on.

[LansdowneSt]

Syd Cohen saw limited action as a relief pitcher for the Washington Senators over the course of three major league campaigns. He made his major league debut at the tail end of the 1934 season and became the last American League pitcher to both serve up a home run to Babe Ruth and to strike him out. Syd also enjoyed particular success against Lou Gehrig, whom he struck out five times in seven at-bats. Before his major league career, Cohen played in the Mexican League at a time when the locals were demanding more Mexican players on the team. Thanks to his swarthy appearance and his flawless Spanish (he was raised in El Paso), the team introduced him as Pablo Garcia, and he played under that pseudonym. When he returned to the Mexican League as a coach many years later, the fans still called him Pablo. Cohen Stadium in El Paso, Texas, is named for Syd and his older brother Andy, who also played major league ball. - jewishbaseballmuseum.com

Redid the facegen. Kept is simple.

[LansdowneSt]

"The greatest play I ever saw was made by Paul Hines . . . he caught a low fly ball behind shortstop on a full run, continuing on to third base where he put out the two men . . . from second and third bases, making the triple play unassisted." - from the book A History of the Boston Base Ball Club, 1897, quoting Arthur Irwin regarding one version of the famous event

Paul Hines was one of the top stars in the early days of baseball and his statistics indicate that he would be a reasonable Hall of Fame candidate. Hines broke in at age 17 in 1872 and played 20 years, accumulating 2,133 hits and a career OPS+ of 132. He is given credit for 13 "firsts" in the major leagues, including the first unassisted triple play. One of his other firsts, the first Triple Crown, was unknown for a spell, as he was listed for years as the runner-up in the 1878 NL batting race. - bRef Bullpen wiki

Let's dig deeper with help from thebaseballbloggess.com...

"Why doesn't he take off his cap?" asked Miss Lakeside as Paul Hines crossed the plate on his home-run hit amid hearty applause. "'Cause he's deafer'n a post," volunteered a peanut boy, "He ain't even heerd a umpire for 10 years. That's the reason he never kicks." - Boston Globe, August 2, 1889

In addition to being famously hard of hearing, Hines popped up in the news quite a bit back then.

In 1884, the Providence Grays played the New York Metropolitans in baseball’s first interleague championship – what we today call the World Series. Leading off for Providence, Hines is hit by a pitch and, after another hit batsman and a couple wild pitches, scores the first run ever in a World Series. In the 3rd inning, his single is the first hit ever in a World Series game. The Grays go on to win the series.

In December 1884, Hines makes news when he attempts to win $100 by catching a baseball dropped from 585 feet up the Washington Monument. He later reports that he missed three chances that day, and that the new white baseballs they used were hard to see against the white of the monument. He got a hand on just one of the balls, which brushed against his bare fingers. It was moving so hard and fast it left a dent when it hit the frozen ground.

In 1890, Ella Black, baseball’s first female baseball reporter, writes that Hines causes a sensation when he takes the field “in a shirt that fit him like a kid glove. … and his appearance in that shirt would have brought a blush to the face of many a fair maid.”

When, in 1888, he becomes one of the first players to wear sunglasses while fielding – “smoked glasses,” Sporting Life called them – it makes the news.

When he shows off a new ear trumpet that doubles as a walking cane, it makes the news.

After baseball he settled in DC, working in the Department of Agriculture mailroom, eventually rising to become its postmaster. On November 15, 1922, Hines, then 67, was arrested on three charges of pickpocketing. It was a sting at 9th and New York Avenue, NW in Washington, and Hines nicked the pocketbook of a female police officer.

He had been under surveillance for some time, The Washington Evening Star reported. After his arrest, police searched his home and found “a number of purses and pocketbooks … as well as twenty-five pairs of eyeglasses and spectacles.” "I am not a pickpocket, but I may have about 25 pairs of cheap drugstore reading glasses lying around the house." said Hines. The Evening Star continued: “Hines is the last man in Washington the police wanted to arrest on such a charge. His record is known to many of them and he has many firm friends in the department who did not desert him yesterday in his extremity. His reputation has always been of the highest and Inspector Clifford L. Grant, in charge of the detective bureau, said he was inclined to regard the alleged activities of the man as a kleptomania attendant upon advancing years.” “I have played my last game and lost,” Hines is reported to have told the arresting officers.

Hines was released on $1,000 bond and there's no report of a trial. If he had been sent to jail, it certainly would have made the news. Maybe Inspector Grant just let it drop. But, baseball fans didn’t. It was this last sad story that becomes the turning point. After that, Hines becomes suspect. His accomplishments are increasingly questioned. He is never seriously considered for the Baseball Hall of Fame. He becomes just a blurry footnote in a story that always ends with “he was arrested as a pickpocket in 1922.”

As for the facegen, the file size is so small, I don't think I made the original source. I've also had it for some time. As I was going to post it, I cleaned it up and certainly relative to what was there, it's a better image of him.

[actionjackson]

Great work as usual!

[LansdowneSt]

Derby also played for the 1880 Nationals of Washington, a top team which played the 1880 Chicago White Stockings in a post-season set of games. Both had been champions of their respective leagues. Thereafter, his brief career in the majors began. He played in the National League in 1881-83. His performances steadily got worse, which is perhaps not surprising in that he pitched 494 innings in 1881 and 362 innings in 1882. His Wikipedia entry (02-11-20) states he developed shoulder problems after the 1881 season. After he left the 1883 Buffalo Bisons, he eventually refused an offer from the Cincinnati Red Stockings, saying his arm was no longer any good. - bRef Bullpen wiki

Redid the facegen.

[LansdowneSt]

In late July 1958 newspapers nationwide published a brief Associated Press dispatch announcing the death of Deadball Era pitcher Jack Rowan. Follow-up articles supplied poignant detail. The elderly gent, believed to be about 85 and without family, had spent his final years living alone in a small Detroit hotel room, surviving on a small monthly stipend provided by the Association of Professional Base Ball Players of America. That dole had been secured for him through the intervention of a prominent local clergyman, Auxiliary Bishop John A. Donovan of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Detroit. For years prior to his death, Rowan had divided his time between making himself useful at a downtown Catholic church and taking in Tigers games at Briggs Stadium, where he regaled fellow onlookers with tales of his bygone hurling exploits.

All of this was read with some degree of astonishment by a retired postal worker living in Dayton, Ohio: the actual Jack Rowan. “There must be some mistake,” he told inquiring reporters. This Rowan, also without family, did not begrudge some impostor eking out an existence through impersonating him. But he was concerned that the deceased might be interred in the family cemetery plot reserved for him back in Rowan’s hometown, New Castle, Pennsylvania. As it turned out, the faux Jack Rowan was buried in Detroit, his true identity undiscovered. When the real Rowan died in 1966, his passing created none of the stir of eight years earlier. In fact, the death of the real Jack Rowan went unnoted in the press. - SABR

Redid the facegen.

[LansdowneSt]

George Decker spent most of his career as a utility player with the Chicago Colts, often backing up Hall of Famer Cap Anson as the club's first baseman. His obituary in Sporting Life called him "Anson's Understudy", saying that he was an all-around player who played both in the infield and outfield and finally succeeded Anson at first base. He died after several years in an asylum. As early as 1899 he said he had been sick all season and not been himself. In 1900 he was reported to have gone insane at his ranch in Compton, CA but had supposedly recovered from "brain fever, not insanity". - bRef Bullpen wiki

Digging deeper I found the following paragraph in a 2010 article from the New York Times on the toll paid by the game's early catchers...

Nor were catchers alone. In an 1897 game, Chicago Colts (now Cubs) first baseman Gentleman George Decker was struck in the head by a pitch and fainted several hours later. Manager Cap Anson pooh-poohed his request for more time to recover and returned him to action two days later. Another concussion apparently followed; three years later, Decker was institutionalized.

His apparent recovery led to his release, but he soon threatened “instant death to everyone who goes near him,” The Los Angeles Herald reported. At a heartrending institutionalization hearing, Decker prattled merrily about getting “a million billion a year from the Mikado of Japan,” promised the judge “a bang-up auto” and confided his plans “to be married this afternoon,” according to The Los Angeles Times. Decker returned to the asylum and died in 1909.

Redid the facegen as best I could given the turn of his head.

[LansdowneSt]

"Charles Edward Duffee, aged 28, died to-day (said to be Dec. 25 but was actually Dec. 24) of consumption. He was well known as "Home Run" Duffee and ex-member of the St. Louis Browns, of the National League and American Association, also of the Washington Club, of the National League. He left the League in 1891 on account of ill health, but afterward played with the Atlanta team in 1892. Charlie 'Home Run' Duffee will be forever remembered for his proclivity to strike prodigious home runs at the ballpark." - Sporting Life, December 29, 1894

Duffee, the first Alabama-born player to come to the major leagues, wasn't "forever remembered," but like everything in baseball, he wasn't completely forgotten either.

As evidence thereof, here is a redone facegen.

[LansdowneSt]

Although twice a 20-game winner in the Federal League, lefthander Gene Packard lingers in baseball’s consciousness only because of a phrase once purportedly inscribed next to his name: 1918 Series fixer. The accusation, attributed to a diary maintained by Chicago White Sox club secretary Harry Grabiner, did not surface during Packard’s lifetime. Rather, it appeared in a memoir penned by maverick baseball team owner Bill Veeck Jr. in 1965. Veeck, however, never produced the Grabiner diary for public inspection and it is now said to be lost – leaving those who would defend Packard’s memory a task akin to bottling a shadow.

That said, publication of the Veeck memoir did not inflict a stain on an otherwise unblemished reputation. Gene Packard’s character had been called into question decades earlier. Despite his ability, Packard rarely lasted long in any one clubhouse, often leaving under cloudy circumstances. His frequent uniform changes made Packard a teammate, at one time or another, of some of the Deadball Era’s more disreputable characters: Heinie Zimmerman, Gene Paulette, Claude Hendrix, Phil Douglas, Tom Seaton, and others suspected of too-close ties to professional gamblers. More ominous than dubious associations, however, were the events attending Packard’s departure from the game.

According to the testimony of Otto Floto, sports editor of the Kansas City Post, there had been a plot to fix the Cubs-Phillies game on August 31, 1920. The scheme’s principals were scheduled starting Cubs pitcher Claude Hendrix and Kansas City gambler H. A. “Frock” Thompson. It was alleged that Hendrix had wired Thompson the instruction to bet $5,000 on the Phillies. Similar instructions were also sent to Thompson by Hal Chase, the just-released major league star suspected of involvement in any number of game fix schemes, and by “Eugene Packard, a former major league player.” The investigation was soon overcome by events, however. Fixated on the Black Sox scandal, the Chicago grand jury was no longer interested in the possible fix of an inconsequential Cubs-Phillies game.

Having escaped his brush with the Cook County grand jury unscathed, Gene Packard lived the remainder of his life in quiet obscurity. Six years after Gene Packard went to his grave, The Hustler’s Handbook hit the nation’s book shelves. Essentially a memoir, the book regaled readers with Bill Veeck Jr.’s many adventures in the game. But one chapter, entitled Harry’s Diary – 1919, was different. In it, Veeck summarized and commented upon diary excerpts written by longtime White Sox club secretary Harry Grabiner at the time of the Black Sox scandal. These excepts were presumably based on the work of detectives engaged by White Sox owner Charles Comiskey in the aftermath of the 1919 World Series. According to Veeck, the Grabiner diary, the text of which Veeck did not reproduce verbatim, contained the name of 27 corrupt players, including Hall of Famers Grover Alexander and Rabbit Maranville, boyhood idols of the author. But, Veeck added, “the most interesting name of all is one nobody would recognize: Packard … a pitcher who had knocked around from club to club, ending with the Phillies in 1919. Opposite Packard’s name are the chilling words: 1918 Series fixer.” - SABR

Redid the facegen. Shown as a 1917 Cub - he was in St. Louis by the time the Cubs lost (threw?) the Series to my Red Sox in 1918.

I'll be back posting tomorrow or Sunday at the latest. I got five episodes of Money Heist to binge...

[The Game]

found another one.

[LansdowneSt]

Not long after Leon Viau was born, his father found employment as Dartmouth College’s only janitor. In modern terminology, he was a one-man building-and-grounds crew, not a bad achievement for an itinerant French-Canadian carpenter. At Hanover young Leon, by then nicknamed “Lee,” grew up and gained entrance to Dartmouth in the fall of 1884. There he attracted the attention of a major leaguer named Jim Keenan, who caught for the American Association’s Cincinnati Reds. Keenan recommended him. Shortly thereafter, Lee began his minor league career. Viau signed a $2,500 contract with Cincinnati. The Reds gave him an early chance to prove himself. For the season, Viau went 27-14 (fifth in the Association in wins and fourth in winning percentage), and compiled an ERA of 2.65 (tenth), 387.2 innings pitched (eighth), 42 complete games (seventh) and 164 strikeouts (tenth). Though he showed occasional flickers of brilliance, Lee Viau never fulfilled the bright promise of that first season and was out of the majors by age 22 (1892). - SABR

Redid the facegen.

[luckymann]

Righto bud I know we've still got a small number outstanding but thought I'd get these in before the list gets out of control again.

This is 1917 thru 1919 plus some stragglers.

Rube Benton CIN 1910-25
Speed Martin CIN 1917-22
Phil Slattery CLE 1915
Hugh Bradley NYG 1910-15
Rudy Kallio PHI 1919-25
Larry Gilbert SLA 1914-15
Jack Martin WAS 1912-14
Bert Niehoff WAS 1913-18
Win Noyes BOS 1913-19
Tommy McMillan BRO 1908-12
Jim Scott CHW 1909-17
Charlie Pick CIN 1914-20
Bill Steen DET 1912-15
Wally Snell NYY 1913
Bill Evans PHA 1916-19
Bill Jones CHC 1911-12
Joe Kutina CIN 1911-12
Roy Sanders CLE 1917-18
Chuck Ward PHI 1917-22

Thanks

G

[AESP_pres]

I sure recognize many of my old 19th century FG here... I've updated them years ago but never thought of posting the new one, but LansdowneSt does a pretty good job updating them so I'm sure some will be use by me with next year version when I'll start all over again as always.

[LansdowneSt]

A talented athlete in both basketball and baseball, Hiram Bithorn was signed by the Yankees in 1936. After three seasons with the Oakland Oaks and Hollywood Stars in which he won 40 games, he finally reached the majors with the Chicago Cubs. His debut in 1942 made him the first Puerto Rican to play in the majors. He won 9 games his rookie year, then became the Cubs ace with a league leading 7 shutouts and 18 wins in 1943. He spent the next two years in the U.S. Navy where he injured his arm. Bithorn managed to win just seven games before retiring in 1947 to become a minor league umpire. In 1951 he was attempting a comeback in the Mexican League when he was murdered by a corrupt Mexican police officer. In 1962, Puerto Rico's biggest baseball stadium was named in his honor. - studiogaryc.com

Redid the facegen with the sketch as the source file and then smoothed it out a lot but hopefully not too much. He gained weight coming out of the service (per his SABR bio) so some of the early photos of him don't capture that but the in-game weight added does. I didn't force the raw fg to be overly thin to offset it but let the game weight reflect some in the face.

[LansdowneSt]

In 1950, Paul Smith was a young outfielder from outside Pittsburgh and just the kind of young player new Pirates, GM, Branch Rickey, was looking for. To prepare Smith, Rickey sent him to Cuba for the 1952-53 winter season. There he played with Cuban and Negro League veterans as well as young Cuban and American talents who were trying to make it to the big time. The experience helped him sharpen his skills for major league competition. When Smith returned from Cuba, Rickey immediately started him on a new position, first base. He finally came up in 1953 at age 22, playing 118 games for the Pittsburgh Pirates and hitting a very respectable .283 with only 23 strikeouts. With a positive rookie campaign done, Smith anticipated building a prosperous major league career. A few fateful moves, however, including a military deferment, derailed his dreams.

Smith recalled, “During a practice session [in 1954 spring training] where pitchers were doing a pick-off play at first base, one threw a little wild and whacked me right in the side of the head,” he said. “I was out for a while and had a concussion. A day before, I just received notice that I was going to be drafted into the service. Branch Rickey, in his wisdom, talked to the people in Cuba and asked if they would like me to play for Havana in the International League." Eventually the Army did call. "I went to Iceland. There was no baseball up there, but we played softball at midnight during the summertime.” He returned to the Pirates in 1957 after a two-year layoff. Smith batted .257 in a limited role. His major league time ended in 1958, just shy of a pension.

Redid the facegen, likely from the same source file.

[LansdowneSt]

Thanks, AESP_pres. I do the best I can with the time I have - esp. with the older photos/sketches!

[AESP_pres]

I won't flood the thread with my works but I think that my FG of Tom Underwood is better than the one in the game... I let you judge.

edit: In case you'd curious most of the time I use baseball card to create my files.

[LansdowneSt]

I did a Tom Underwood on my other thread:

https://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/...od#post4834010

They are both better than the one without the mustache and pink/dark orange face

[AESP_pres]

Didn't knew that you had another thread... Thanks for linking it, as you post your work in both.