If not the very best of all time, Tim Keefe surely belongs among the ranks of the best pitchers that most baseball fans have never heard about. And why should they, since Keefe’s 14 major-league seasons all took place in the late 1800s, from 1880 to 1893. His achievements were too impressive, however, to be ignored by the Baseball Hall of Fame, whose Veterans Committee voted him in in 1964. The hurler with the submarine delivery compiled some mind-boggling statistics, including completing 554 games of the 594 he started, winning 42 games for the New York Giants in 1886, and once pitching a one-hitter and two-hitter on the same day. Some of these stats were compiled while pitching closer to the plate than today, but Keefe was effective as the pitching distance evolved from 45 feet to 50 and finally 60 feet 6 inches. This first-ever biography of Keefe not only establishes him as a crafty player but one who diligently studied shorthand to prepare for life after baseball.
Here’s an excerpt from Tim Keefe:
“While his shorthand skills have always been the avowed reason why he held the secretary position in the Brotherhood [of Professional Base Ball Players], Keefe was not just a mere scribe. Keefe was the unsung officer of the Brotherhood, who operated, by choice, in the shadow of John Ward, who has received the lion’s share of the credit for developing the organization as its president and highly vocal spokesman. However, Keefe was instrumental in membership recruitment and retention, as the oft-described ‘genial Keefe’ bonded with the ballplayers better than did the gruff Ward. Keefe likely made a valuable contribution to its strategy by advocating the profit-sharing element of the eventual Brotherhood-spawned Players’ League in 1890. And Keefe had a significant role in the formation of the Brotherhood.”
