The Baseball Prospect So Bad His Team Had Him Arrested for Fraud
Someone who turned out to be an MLB icon was once taken into police custody after his team had enough of how bad he was as a player
No matter how talented a young baseball player may be, any team investing time, money and other resources in developing them are always taking a risk. Unfortunately, there is no ironclad way of guaranteeing the outcome of a prolonged and successful career. Gambling on player prospects is typically chalked up as the cost of doing baseball business but not every team has reacted the same way when a youngster didn’t pan out. This included the Chattanooga Lookouts, who in 1885 had one of their players arrested after he turned out to be way less talented than they believed him to be before they signed him.
An April 2, 1940 article by Russell Newland that appeared in the Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Washington), delved into the odd story of a young minor league player named Jack Sheridan who wound up being taken into police custody after the Lookouts swore out a complaint against him because of his lousy playing ability.
Newland spoke with Mike Fisher, a co-founder of the Pacific Coast League and a former owner of teams in Sacramento and Tacoma, for details about the incident…
