Casey Challenged

Last week TIME printed the following paragraphs:

In 1885, E. Robinson Casey was third baseman on the Detroit National League ball team. In a game at Minneapolis when the bases were full and the score four to three with but one inning to play," he struck out . .

On the register of the Hotel Majestic, Manhattan, last week, appeared the name of E. Robinson Casey, Syracuse, N. Y. He was, it developed, President of the Central New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the original Casey.

There was no reason to doubt his story.

Charles W. Mears of Cleveland furnishes the following information:

"Detroit had no Casey on third base in 1885, and played no game in Minneapolis. On third Detroit had at various times Donnelly, Morton, Ringo, Sam Thompson, Olin, Ned Hanlon, Moriarty and Wood.

" On June 25, 1885, Detroit tried out a pitcher named Casey, but he was not mighty at bat and did not last the season through as a pitcher. A strike out by him would not have shocked the populace.

"This was W. B. Casey, who played with Wilmington, Del., in 1884 and with Indianapolis, Western League, the fore part of 1885.

"Prior to the time that Casey at the Bat appeared, there were two other professional Caseys. One was Dan M., a pitcher with the Philadelphia Nationals for several years from 1886 on, and the other was Dennis, an outfielder with Baltimore in the Baltimore Association in 1885 and 1886.

" Dennis was the best hitter of the three, and yet, since the name Dennis was a byword in those days, had it been he who struck out with the bases full, Thayer would most likely have referred to the Dennis factor.

" Although I have the largest collection of baseball statistical literature extant, surpassing even the Spalding collection in the Astor library, I find in it nowhere the name of E. Robinson Casey."