Peter Morris (baseball)

Morris played in one major league game in his career. This came on May 14, 1884, as the shortstop for the Washington Nationals of the Union Association. In the game, he recorded no hits in three at-bats and had three assists and an error in the field.{{cite web|title=Pete Morris Stats / Baseball-Reference.com|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/morrip.01.shtml|website=Baseball-Reference.com|publisher=Sports Reference, LLC|accessdate=December 11, 2018}}

All that was originally known about Morris came from an initial listing in The Baseball Encyclopedia, first published in 1969,{{cite journal|last=Berring|first=Robert C.|date=Fall 2010|title=The Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia, the West System, and Sweat Equity / Society for American Baseball Research|url=https://sabr.org/research/macmillian-baseball-encyclopedia-west-system-and-sweat-equity|journal=Baseball Research|publisher=Society for American Baseball Research|accessdate=December 11, 2018}} for a player known as "P. Morris".{{cite book|last=Morris|first=Peter|author-link=Peter Morris (writer)|date=March 13, 2013|title=Cracking Baseball's Cold Cases|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1oi1jNrctpIC|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|publisher=McFarland & Company|pages=131–137|isbn=9781476603315}} This player was said to have been born in Rockford, Illinois.{{cite book|last=Prebenna|first=David|date=1993|title=The Baseball Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SV8RAQAAMAAJ|location=New York City|publisher=Macmillan Publishers|page=1265|isbn=9780025790414|edition=9th}} The entry had been unchanged around the release of the ninth edition. This entry, with the Rockford birthplace and the lack of a first name, persisted in the Total Baseball books of later vintage.{{cite book|last=Thorn|first=John|author-link=John Thorn|date=2001|title=Total Baseball|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=42gNAQAAMAAJ|location=Raleigh, North Carolina|publisher=Total Sports Publishing|page=1032|isbn=9781930844018|edition=7th}} For example, the 2001 guide continues with the original listing.

In 2007, a writer for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), coincidentally also named Peter Morris, discovered newly researched information on the ballplayer. The writer Morris found that the ballplayer Morris was also named Peter, learned his middle initial, and that he was born in Rhuddlan in Wales on January 1, 1854.{{cite journal|last=Carle|first=Bill|date=2007|title=Biographical Research Committee: May/June 2007 Report|url=https://sabr.org/latest/biographical-committee-news-peter-morris-finds-himself|publisher=Society for American Baseball Research|accessdate=December 11, 2018}} This made Morris the first major leaguer from Wales, predating Ted Lewis by 12 years.{{cite book|last=Chetwynd|first=Josh|date=January 10, 2014|title=Baseball in Europe: A Country by Country History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=USi7PA151vIC&pg=PA288|location=Jefferson, North Carolina|publisher=McFarland & Company|page=288|isbn=9780786451753}}

The ballplayer was listed as having been a reserve player for the independent Milwaukee Maple Leafs baseball club in 1883 and 1884. In learning about the ballplayer, the writer Morris found a mention of the Maple Leafs playing a series hosted by a team from Chicago on May 13. The ballplayer Morris started every game of that series save for one. The only game he did not start was on May 14, the date the previously known "P. Morris" appeared in a game for the Nationals, an away game against the Chicago Browns, another Union Association team. As the Nationals were known to have a link to the Milwaukee club,{{efn|Nearly a week after Morris appeared on the team, teammate John Deasley was signed to play shortstop for the Nationals. Pat Dealy, a catcher, was also purchased by Washington during the season but did not appear in any games with the club.}} it was surmised by the writer Morris and SABR editor Bill Carle that the player who appeared for Washington on the 14th was indeed the ballplayer Peter Morris. In the same discovery, the writer found that the ballplayer died nearly seven months later, on December 9, in a railway coupling accident, and was buried in Ixonia, Wisconsin.

In his 2013 book, Cracking Baseball's Cold Cases, the writer Morris included further information on his search for the ballplayer. He found that the ballplayer had likely played for the Aetna Club of Detroit in the 1870s, and later played briefly for the Stillwater, Minnesota club of the Northwestern League three months after his time representing Washington before rejoining the Maple Leafs. The research on the ballplayer Morris led to the writer also obtaining a copy of the ballplayer's birth certificate from Wales.

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Category:1854 births

Category:1884 deaths

Category:19th-century baseball players

Category:Major League Baseball shortstops

Category:Washington Nationals (UA) players

Category:People from Rhuddlan

Category:Sportspeople from Denbighshire

Category:People from Ixonia, Wisconsin

Category:Major League Baseball players from Wales

Category:Baseball players from Wisconsin

Category:Stillwater (minor league baseball) players

Category:Accidental deaths in Wisconsin

Category:Railway accident deaths in the United States

Category:Welsh emigrants to the United States