Bill McClellan Biography
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- Born March 22, 1856
William Henry McClellan (March 22, 1856 – July 3, 1929) was an American Major League Baseball player for eight seasons, and primarily played as a second baseman and shortstop from 1878 to 1888.
Born in Chicago, McClellan played one season for the St. Paul Red Caps of the League Alliance in 1877. He appeared with the Chicago White Stockings of the National League in 1878, then with the Washington Nationals of the Nationals of the National Association in 1879 and 1880. McClellan returned to the National League and the American Association after that, and he led the league in games played in 1885 (112) and 1886 (141) with the Brooklyn Grays.
McClellan was unwittingly involved in the first of several forfeits that resulted from disagreements between a two-man umpiring crew. On July 14, 1888, the single scheduled umpire for the Brooklyn-Kansas City game was unable to make the game. Brooklyn's Bill Terry had umpired other games and was volunteered as a replacement umpire, but Kansas City asked that one of their players, Jim Donahue, be named the base umpire. In a close game in the ninth inning, Donahue called McClellan out on a pickoff play. Brooklyn captain Dave Foutz ordered his team off the field in protest, and the game was ruled a forfeit in favor of Kansas City.
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