Published June 13, 2021
By Greg Kreinberg
The story of Quincy’s
contributions to Major League baseball is an impressive one. It involves
All-Star games, World Series, League Leader titles, and Most Valuable Player
votes. Quincyans have played for St. Louis and Chicago franchises as well
as the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Giants, and the Yankees of New York. Their
teammates have included Christy Mathewson, Jackie Robinson, Ernie Banks, and
Lou Brock.
The
story begins in the 1890s, when the spitball was still legal, some fielders
played with their bare hands, there was one umpire, no World Series, only day
games, no playing on Sunday in most cities, and the only way to see a game was
to go to it. The first Quincy native to reach the majors was Charles
Lutenberg (1864-1938), whose father was a city fireman. Nicknamed Luke, the
husky pitcher (6’2”, 225) spent much of his youth on a baseball sojourn—leaving
town to play for other cities (twelve all told, starting with Macon, Georgia,
in 1886) then returning to play a year for a Quincy team. Lutenberg left and
returned to Quincy four times over a fourteen-year period. From Macon he
went west to play for Denver in 1887, then further west to play in California,
then home to play for the Quincy Black Birds of the Central Interstate League.
Used mostly as first baseman to keep his potent bat in the lineup, Luke had the
second-most hits on the team.
In
1890 Lutenberg took the train north to play first base for London, Ontario, of
the International League, staying three months. In July he traveled back south
to play for teams in Indiana.
Lutenberg
played parts of the 1891 and 1892 seasons for the Quincy Ravens before signing
with Mobile, GA. In 1894 he was sold to the Louisville Colonels of the
National League—a last-place team— for his only season in the Majors (70 games,
49 hits, 23 runs batted in, 15 errors). Lutenberg tried out for the Pirates’
first base job in 1895, but could not beat the veteran Jake Beckley, a native
of Hannibal, Missouri, and a future Hall of Famer. He made seven more
baseball trips after Louisville but remained a local hero by returning to
Quincy to play several years for the Reserves, finally hanging up his spikes in
1905 at age 41.
Lutenberg
married in 1900, settled at 3rd and York, and entered the saloon business, at
one time operating two saloons on Maine Street. He had some run-ins with
the law: punching and kicking a fellow bar patron; operating a saloon on
Sunday; selling liquor to a minor, and his “roadhouse” on 36th and State was
closed for selling liquor during Prohibition. After repeal, he tended bar at
the Lincoln-Douglas Dug-Out. Lutenberg is buried at Woodland Cemetery.
Ike Samuels (1874-1964) has the
unusual claim of
starting
his pro career in the Majors. At age 19 he was
signed by the St. Louis Brown Stockings for the last two months of the 1895
season, earning $50 a month. The infielder did not impress, making 24 errors in
as many games in his only ML season (17 hits, 5 RBIs). Little is known about
him. He died in New York but is buried in Chicago, where he had played amateur
ball before signing with St. Louis.
Art
Fromme (1883-1956) was the first Quincyan to make a real mark in the Majors.
Raised on 10th and Jefferson, he played pick-up games on local sandlots and
probably saw Lutenberg play at Sportsman’s Park, at 17th to 18th streets
between Cedar and Cherry, or Baldwin Park, at 30th and Maine. They were
teammates on the 1905 Quincy Reserves when Fromme pitched a no-hitter against
Hannibal on Sunday, July 30.
Next
year Fromme signed with Springfield of the Three-I League, and on September 11,
1906, he faced the Chicago Cubs—winners of the National League pennant that
season—in an exhibition game. Using his underhand and sidearm deliveries,
Fromme held the team of Tinkers, Evers, and Chance to three hits, no-hitting
them for five innings. The St. Louis Cardinals took notice and signed him
quickly. Three days after beating the Cubs in Springfield, he faced them
again in his first Major League game, losing this time and making three
errors. He did record his first big league victory September 29 against
another famed team of the era, the New York Giants, 1-0, with Fromme batting in
the only run.
Fromme
stayed with the Cardinals through 1908, his highest earned run average in his
two-plus seasons with the Cards was 2.90—but he was hurt by the worst defense
in all of baseball. St. Louis led both leagues in errors in 1907 and 1908.
Fromme’s record was 5-13 both years. Traded to Cincinnati for 1909 where he was
used more and had better fielders, he won 19 games with an ERA of 1.90.
He played four years for the Reds, earning double-digit victories in three of
those years and, unfortunately, a greater number of double-digit losses. In
1913 he was traded to the best team in the National League, the New York Giants
managed by future Hall of Famer John McGraw. His teammates included Christy
Mathewson, Jim Thorpe, and fellow Quincy native Al Demaree (1884-1962), who had
signed with McGraw at the end of 1912.
Demaree
never played for any Quincy team, his family moving to Chicago when he was a
teenager. Al and Art both had winning records in 1913, sometimes pitching in
the same game. In a July 29 doubleheader against the Cardinals, the two
Quincyans pitched complete-game wins. The Giants reached the World Series that
year, thanks in part to the Quincy tandem’s combined 25 victories. Demaree
started Game 4 of the Series, going four innings, giving up two earned runs in
a loss. Fromme was not used.
Demaree
also achieved renown as a cartoonist. During his playing career his sports
cartoons were printed in several newspapers. He drew player pictures for some
baseball card sets of the 1930s. Demaree and Fromme both moved to California
after their careers and are buried there.
Sources
Archive.quincylibrary.org.
Contemporary Quincy newspaper reports on Lutenberg, Fromme, and Demaree.
Quincy, IL, USA: Quincy Public Library, 2021.
Baseball-almanac.com.
Major
League Baseball Players Born in Illinois.
Baseball Almanac, Inc.,
1999-2021. (No city listed.)
Baseball-reference.com.
Career and season statistics pages for Lutenberg, Samuels, Fromme, and Demaree.
Sports Reference LLC, 2020-2021. (No city or state listed.)
Neft, David; Cohen,
Richard, and Neft, Michael,
The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball.
New York,
NY, USA: St. Martin’s Griffin Press,2003.
Sabr.org.
Art
Fromme
and
Al Demaree
. Phoenix, AZ, USA: Sabr.org (Society for
American Baseball Research), 2021.
