All-Time Indians: Jack Glasscock

Heading back into our way-back machine, we take a look at another of Cleveland’s early stars, Jack Glasscock of the original Cleveland Blues in 1879.

Glasscock originally played for multiple teams in the mid-west to begin his career in 1877 in the League Alliance before playing with Pittsburgh Allegheny in the International Association. Although there aren’t stats available from these years, he obviously was impressive enough that the Blues signed him in the first year of the franchise, 1879.

There weren’t many household names on that roster, although Jim McCormick was an incredible pitcher. Glasscock was the starting second baseman with Tom Carey at short and both were among the Blues top hitters. That wasn’t saying much at the time, but eventually the offense would come around and Glasscock would be a huge part of that.

In their second season, the Blues made great strides, jumping up from 27-55 to 47-37 in 1880, good for third in the National League. He jumped from a .209 average to .243, striking out just 21 times in 296 at bats. Carey was gone by this point and the impressive Fred Dunlap moved Glasscock over to short. Dunlap lead the team with 27 doubles and four home runs, but Glasscock was also impressive with 27 RBI in 84 games.

Continuing steadily in his improvement at the plate, he jumped his average again in 1881 to .257 while continuing his great defensive play. While numbers don’t compare fairly to the current age of specialized gloves and well manicured fields, he lead the league in fielding percent for the first time in 1881, his first of six seasons as the National League’s top short stop. He also lead the league in assists from short in all, but two seasons from 1881 to 1889 and double plays four times during that stretch. Even when he wasn’t first, he was always among the leaders in defensive numbers at short stop for the Blues and his later franchises.

The 1882 season was really a break out year for Glasscock on the other side of the ball. In 84 games, he lead the team in doubles (27) and triples (9) and was second in home runs (4) and RBI (46). He also scored 66 runs while batting .291 in what would ultimately be the best year of his career in Cleveland.

From his age 21 season in 1879 through his final full season in 1883, Glasscock hit at least nine doubles each year and never struck out more than 25 times in a season.His 1883 season would be much more like his 1882 than his first few years as he lead the team in runs knocked in (46) and crushed another 19 doubles. Interestingly enough, after finding incredible power in ’82 with those four long balls, he would hit just one more in his Blues career, in his short season of 1884, ending his Cleveland career with five total.

This was a tumultuous time in baseball as leagues were springing up everywhere to challenge the National League. It shouldn’t be hard to see why either as the monopoly and total player control allowed teams to completely take advantage of players. While inflation has changed thing, it hasn’t changed them that much considering that Glasscock’s rookie salary was recorded at $800 and his 1884 deal at $1,800. That dollar amount translates to about $42,000 today, but with the profits being brought in by owners, there was plenty of room for competition.

Jack started the 1984 season in Cleveland and batted .249 in 72 games before the lure of another league drew him away. He knocked in 22 and had nine extra base hits and was coming off six seasons of being not only the top defensive short stop in baseball, but one of the top hitters in Cleveland. For this, Glasscock was offered an increase in salary to $2,500 and a $1,000 bonus for switching leagues. While fans could want to hate him for this financially motivated move, it was actually the best he could have made as the Blues franchise folded after the 1884 season.

By jumping right before the demise, Glasscock had leverage that his teammates didn’t although the league, Union Association, and team, Cincinnati Outlaw Reds, didn’t last much longer. He would only play 38 games with this new franchise before jumping back to the National League where he would play out his career. With no more Cleveland franchise, he went from St. Louis to Indianapolis, New York, Pittsburgh, Louisville and Washington from 1885 through 1895. Even in his final season at the age of 37, Glasscock was still an offensive contributor, ending with full career numbers of 313 doubles, 98 triples and a .290 average. Even though steals weren’t a recorded stat during his time in Cleveland, he officially stole 372 over his final ten seasons, so one has to assume he was doing that for the Blues as well.

In addition to being one of the best hitters on the Blues, he was one of the best including those who later played for the Spiders before they were destructed after 1899. He played in almost 500 games for Cleveland and knocked in 203 with 81 doubles and 30 triples. For his career effort, Glasscock got 2.6% of the Hall of Fame vote in 1936, but with so many other players still needing entry, he was largely overlooked. He lived to the old age of 89 when he passed away in his home town of Wheeling, West Virginia in 1947.