Loading...
 

Jack Love

Image
Jack Love, born April 5th, 18811 in Arkansas2 , was a professional baseball player between 1904-1916.

Biography

Love debuted with Springfield in 1904. He played with Hot Springs in 1906.

Love was a quite popular player.

Love died December 29th, 1918 in Russellville, AR at age 37 due to tuberculosis. He was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Russellville.

Excerpts

"In fining Left Fielder Jack Love $100 for his attack on E. W. Cochrane, a sporting writer on the [Kansas City] Journal, at the ballpark just before yesterday's game the management of the Kansas City club meted out a heavy punishment to the ball player. No ball player can be justified for attacking writers of the game. The player gets big money for playing the game and the baseball writer is there to praise when praise is due and perchance to criticise. The ball player should take the bitter with the sweet. Love regrets the trouble, although he spoke in a light vein of the affair when questioned this morning. "I'm sorry about the thing," Love said. I didn't hit him with my fist, just slapped with with by open hand. I did not lose my temper and I couldn't have hit him very hard because he covered up like a prize fighter. I really shouldn't slapped him, though, as he's a little fellow --only six feet one. If I had it to do over again I wouldn't." Although Love showed himself too sensitive to criticism in attacking Cochrane, yet there was ordinary provocation for the ill feeling on part of the ball player. The play in which Jack was referred to as the only player who would pull such a play happened in the first game of the last series here with the Louisville club. No ball player likes to be dubbed a "bonehead" and such an epithet hurts doubly when applied to a player after pulling off a really smart play. Hugh was on second base and one was out when Cheney hit a long high foul toward the right field fence and close to the grandstand. Lose who was playing first base turned his back to the diamond at the crack of the bat. He picked the foul close to the grandstand and near the gate where the players enter the field. Of course, he thought that Hughes would stick to second and try for third as any smart player would have figured. Love didn't have time to turn, stop and see where Hughes was. Instead Love turned and threw hastily and accurately to third base. It so happened that Hughes started for third when Cheney hit the foul (probably playing hit and run) and a throw to second might have doubled Hughes. However, Love did not have time to stop and find Hughes. Had he done that the Louisville catcher would have had time enough to get safely back to second. Love took the only course a brainy ball player would have taken and was commended by Manager Shay and other players."3

"WILL LOVE BE TRADED? "RUSSELLVILLE KID" MAY BE REPLACED BY CHADBOURNE. As for Jack Love. Well, Jack is a bit awkward, that's true. He admits it, laughingly. But awkwardness and all Love is a pretty good ball player and a player feared by every pitcher --every ball club in the circuit. The Arkansas athlete is a good batter, a dangerous hitter and a clever base runner, although not a fast one. In the last two months of the season of 1911 Love develops into an outfielder of more than ordinary class. Some of his catches at Association Park during the final series at home bordered on the wonderful. It was a matter of comment among his mates, with whom Love is popular that the Arkansas kid sure was learning the outfield game. As a batter Love would be a potent factor in the success of any ball club. The official averages of last season show that Love hit .279. And he earned every hit he got. His batting was a great factor in the remarkable winning streak of the Blues on the swing around the circuit early last season, the club returning home in first place. It was in that series that Love hit safely in more than twenty consecutive games and had the eyes of the league centered on him in his race to overtake the record made by Otis Clymer of the Millers. It was Laddie Link, the Indianapolis southpaw, who finally put a crimp in Jack's daily swatting. Trade Jack Love? Well a hustling manager is liable to make a trade any old time if his team may be benefited thereby. So the baseball bugs could rejoice in a trade that would help the Blues. But Love for Chadbourne! Hardly."

"Little Rock, Ark., Jan. 1. — Jack Love, former baseball player died at his home near Russellville, Ark., according to word received here Tuesday. Love was second baseman for the Kansas City, American Association Club, Memphis, Southern Association team, and the San Antonio and Beaumont teams of the Texas League. His death was due to tuberculosis."4

"Jack Love was with the [San Antonio] Bronchos in 1915 and 1916, playing second base and in the outfielder. He was bought by the San Antonio team from Beaumont, where he played during the 1914 season. Love was a played of the old school and was one of the most popular men that ever donned a San Antonio uniform. Short and husky, he was the kind of player who fought for every break and would not yield an inch of ground to the opposition. There was nothing flashy about him but he earned a reputation before quitting baseball on account of ill health being a dangerous man in pinch. While with the Bronchos, Love was field captain of the team. His batting average was usually between .275 and .300 and he was batting in the clean-up position on the local lineup. the "big day" in Love's career with the Bronchos came in a game in 1915 against his old team-mates, Beaumont. Grover Brandt, later a Broncho, was pitching for the Oilers and had pitched a wonderful article of shut-out ball up to the ninth inning. The Beaumonters had accumulated four runs. in the ninth, Brandt went wild, walking a run in. He was replaced by Ollie Jost. with the bases full, Love came to bat and poked the ball over the left field fence, getting credit for a three-bagger and winning the game. Love did his best playing with the Kansas City Blues. He was about 28 years old. After quitting the Bronchos, he went to Arizona in search of a more healthful climate, but unsuccessful, returned to San Antonio. He lived near Kerrville for some time before going to his home in Russellville, Ark. When in San Antonio last year, Love seemed on the road to recovery."5

"Jack Love, who played second base for Kansas City, Memphis and other cities in the Southern and Texas Leagues, and whose death was noted last week, had a strange experience in stating his baseball career. Love played in the first professional ball game he ever saw. He was a brakeman on the Missouri Pacific railroad when Boss Schmidt, later with Detroit, induced him to come to Springfield in the old Missouri Valley League to fill the hole on its infield. he never went back to railroading."6

Stats

[http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=love006-|1904 Statistics at Baseball-Reference.com.]

1906 Statistics at Baseball-Reference.com.

Statistics at Baseball-Reference.com.
1 Love's WWI Draft Card (Residing in Roswell, NM)
2 1910 U.S. Census
3 Kansas City Star, 7/15/1911
4 San Antonio Light, 1/1/1919
5 San Antonio Light, 1/1/1919
6 The Sporting News, 1/9/1919