Laboring in obscurity

There was this baseball player, pitched four games for the St. Louis Maroons between May 28 and June 3, 1885. By calendar count, that is a seven-day major league career. The pitcher started all four games. He completed all four games. He lost all four games. His earned run average was 3.44. In 34 innings, he gave up 46 hits, 33 runs; 13 of those runs were earned. He walked 20 batters and struck out 9. He threw 6 wild pitches. He went to bat 11 times. He got 1 hit. He knocked in 1 run.

The pitcher’s name was Palmer. First name, unknown. Date and place of birth, unknown. Date and place of death, unknown. Bats/throws, unknown. Height/weight, unknown.

In these times, when we can find out just about everything on anybody, the lack of knowledge about a major league baseball player seems strange. Unknown Palmer shows up and suits out for the St. Louis nine, and seven days later, he is gone.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=palme01