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Pfeffer was born in March 1882 in Champaign, Illinois, the eighth of twelve children of farmer William and Mary Jochim Pfeffer, both born in Illinois of German Catholic ancestry. Educated through high school while helping on the farm, Frank was a big youth — over six feet and weighing 185 pounds — and athletically gifted. Enrolling at the University of Illinois, he initially played varsity football, but when the university needed a pitcher he converted to baseball, winning fifteen games and losing only two while leading Illinois to the 1904 conference championship.
Dropped from the team for playing summer semi-pro ball, Pfeffer turned professional, accepting an offer from the Chicago Cubs. Along the way, he picked up the nickname “Big Jeff,” a moniker of murky origins, used by the press but not by Pfeffer. After a so-so season in Chicago, the fireballing right-hander in late 1905 was traded to Boston, a frequent cellar-dwelling club called the “Beaneaters.”
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By 1911 he was back in Boston for a team that thankfully had shed “Beaneaters” for “Braves” but still languished last in the National League. After a promising 4-0 start in spot duty on the mound, Boston tried option Pfeffer to New Orleans of the Class A Southern Association. When that failed, his career in the major leagues was over. He was not yet 30.
Subsequently Pfeffer continued to be associated with baseball as a pitcher, hitter and sometimes manager for a series of minor league teams in and around New England. In April 1914, he was hired as the player-manager of the Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Tigers of the Class C Colonial League. As reported in the Providence Daily Journal: “Pfeffer opines he is not through with baseball itself and he will play somewhere on the team, likely first….”
Known for his temper, Pfeffer’s days in organized baseball came to an end in 1914 when during a game in Pawtucket he engaged in an on-field fistfight with the vice president of the Colonial League and was summarily fired. He continued to make the baseball diamond a centerpiece in his life, playing in semipro, industrial and town leagues until well into middle age.
Frank’s return to the East Coast, however, had a bright spot. He had met Martha Osborn, a Massachusetts native. On December 29, 1909, they were married at St. Cecilia’s Church in Boston. He was 27; she was 26. The couple would have only one child, Herbert John, born in October 1912. Faced with familial responsibilities, in 1913 Pfeffer moved to Providence, Rhode Island, to manage a hotel, bar and liquor store at 703-707 Westminster Street, a major commercial thoroughfare, shown above.
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A final blow to Pfeffer’s career in the hospitality industry came with the advent of National Prohibition in 1920 when he was forced to end all sales of alcohol. In February of that year he advertised an auction sale of the contents of his hotel bar. It included four cash registers, the bar and back bar, beer and liquor bottles and cases, two cigar cases, carbonating apparatus, ice chests, 500 bottles, seventeen tables and fifty chairs. A year later Pfeffer found himself sued by the owner of the building, possibly for breaking his lease once the possibility of profits from alcohol sales had ended. Whatever the cause, the judge found in Pfeffer’s favor.
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Frank Pfeffer will never be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was just one of the thousands of journeyman players who have made their way for a few years in the major leagues and gone on to other occupations. But his apparent lifelong dedication to the game make Pfeffer worthy of notice — as does his turn as a Rhode Island “whiskey man.”
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Frank Pfeffer |
Note: This post would not have been possible without information from two major sources: 1) SABR-The Society for American Baseball Research, in an article entitled “Big Jeff Pfeffer.” Written by Bill Lamb it is carefully researched and documents much of Pfeffer’s playing life. The photo of Frank pitching also is from that article. 2) A research staff member of the Rhode Island Historical Society in Providence. She found a considerable amount of information in its newspaper archives regarding Pfeffer's liquor business and was able to send me copies. I am indebted to her and to the Society for their help.
My great grandfather, John "Jack" McElroy pitched for the Pawtucket Tigers of the Colonial League 1914-1915. I have a team photo of him along with Pfeffer and teammates.
ReplyDeleteAnon: Thanks for being in touch. If Jack McElroy ever sold whiskey, as Pferrer did, I would consider him for a post of his own. With your help, of course.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a minute since my initial post in which I erroneously identified Jack McElroy as my "great" grandfather. He is was my grandfather. Additional research revealed that, with the collapse of the Federal Basebal League , in 1915 he continued to play semi-pro in Rhode Island.
DeleteI also found that his younger brother, Tom McElroy, pitched for Providence College circa 1928. And on the occasion when the two would pitch against each other the crowd turn out by the thousands. Anecdotally, I also learned that in retirement, Jack might have been a sports " bookie."
DeleteAnon: Thanks for the additional details.