Bob Ferguson (infielder)
| Bob Ferguson | |||
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| Third baseman/Second baseman/Manager/Umpire | |||
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Born: January 31, 1845 Brooklyn, New York |
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Died: May 3, 1894 (aged 49) Brooklyn, New York |
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| MLB debut | |||
| May 18, 1871, for the New York Mutuals | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| July 1, 1884, for the Pittsburg Alleghenys | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .271 | ||
| Runs | 346 | ||
| Runs batted in | 226 | ||
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| Career highlights and awards | |||
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Robert Vavasour Ferguson (January 31, 1845 – May 3, 1894) was an American infielder, league official, manager and umpire in the early days of baseball, playing both before and after baseball became a professional sport. In addition to playing and managing, he served as president of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players from 1872 through 1875, the sport's first entirely professional league. His character and unquestioned honesty were highly regarded during a period in baseball history where the game's reputation was badly damaged by gamblers and rowdy behavior by players and fans. However, his bad temper and stubbornness were traits that created trouble for him at times during his career, and caused him to be disliked by many. His nickname, "Death to Flying Things", was derived from his greatness as a defensive player.
A native of Brooklyn, Ferguson played for two of New York's earliest semi-professional clubs in the late 1860s and early 1870s, the Atlantics and Mutuals. On June 14, 1870, Ferguson provided the hit that created the tying run and he later scored the winning run in a match against the famous , the first team that was composed entirely of professional players. This win brought to an end the Red Stockings' 81 consecutive game winning streak. He is credited with being the first player to bat from both sides of home plate, known as switch-hitting, but the practice was not popular at first. Among the explanations for this, it is claimed that, due to his personality, players did not want to emulate him. Managers, however, recognized the practice's importance soon after, and began to play their players according to the opposing pitcher that day, known today as platooning, and the advantages that switch-hitting posed would later become accepted strategic baseball philosophy, and many players began to experiment with the idea.
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