Tom Hess, baseball player and traveler

While going through the roster of the 1892 Baltimore Orioles, a player’s age caught my attention. Thomas Hess, age 16.
Hess was not the youngest major league ballplayer. That distinction goes to Joe Nuxhall, who was 15 years and 11 months old on June 10, 1944, when he pitched 2/3 of an inning for the Cincinnati Reds.
Hess was about two months away from his 17th birthday when he started his only major league game on June 6, 1892. He went to bat two times. He did not get a hit, but he didn’t strike out, either.
Hess is an interesting character for reasons other than catching a major league game at 16.
For one thing, his name was not Tom Hess. He was born Thomas Joseph Heslin on Aug. 15, 1875, in Brooklyn. He died Dec. 15, 1945, in Albany, N.Y. Name changes by ballplayers were not unusual in the 19th and early 20th centuries. For example, Browns and Yankees pitcher Urban Shocker was born Urbain Jacques Shockcor in 1890.

Some changed names for simplicity, others for reasons unknown. For simplicity, Jack Shocker would make a greater impact than “Urban.” Tom Heslin’s parents might have changed the family name to Hess to make it more easily remembered.

The Orioles released Hess eight days after his one major league game. Hess was out of professional baseball for nine years, returning in 1901 with the Class C Albany Senators. In the next 10 years, Hess went from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Texas to Canada, playing on minor league teams from D League to AAA League – 1902 with Albany; 1903 with the Portland, Ore., Browns; Class D Waterloo Microbes and the Class A Sioux City Soos in 1904; Oskaloosa Quakers in 1905; renamed Sioux City Packers in 1906; Texas League’s Class C Galveston Sand Crabs in 1907; Class D Winston-Salem Twins and Class B Wikes-Barre Barons in 1908. In 1909 Hess was with the Class B Elmira Colonels. He did not play in 1910. In 1911, Hess was with the Class D Hamilton Kolts of the Canadian League, where he batted .293 and had three doubles and a triple among his 29 hits in 28 games.
Hess did not play professionally after 1911, but his time in Hamilton, Ontario, must have had an influence of a peculiar nature.

“Sporting Life in 1916 reported that he enlisted ‘for overseas service’ with a battalion in Hamilton, ON. According to the Utica Herald-Dispatch of January 5, 1918:

"’Hess has been gassed, shell shocked and wounded severely on the right side, just above the hip. After going the round of ... hospitals in a vain attempt to recover from his shrapnel wound, Hess was released ... He was cited at the Battle of the Somme for unusual bravery... Tommy was a catcher popular with all the baseball bugs, game as they make 'em, and in the game for all he was worth.’"

http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Tom%20Hess

Despite 10 screens of searches, I found nothing else on Hess.