Roger Bresnahan Stats

Did you know that Roger Bresnahan was such a versatile player that he appeared in all nine positions at the Major League level? Let's take a look beyond the stats:

Roger Bresnahan Biography

Bresnahan began his career as a pitcher first for Washington then the Cubs before finally hooking up with McGraw in Baltimore in 1901. He impressed the Orioles field boss right from the start when, after giving up the mound, he played well as an infielder and outfielder before finally showing he was a top notch catcher when an injury to starting backstop Wilbert Robinson forced him behind the plate. When McGraw left Baltimore for the Giants in 1902 he brought Bresnahan with him. New York was blessed with depth at catcher, leading McGraw to take advantage of Roger’s versatility and play him in the outfield.

The following year Bresnahan blossomed as an every day player batting .350 and finished fourth in the National League batting race won by Honus Wagner. He finished in the top ten in eight offensive categories. In 1905 he became the Giants starting catcher and hit .302 as New York won the pennant and went on to participate in the World Series for the first time versus Connie Mack’s Philadelphia A’s. In the only World Series that saw every game end in a shutout Bresnahan was behind the plate for Christy Mathewson’s three blankings, caught Joe "Iron Man" McGinnity’s whitewashing and batted .312.

Along with being one of the finest catchers of his era, Bresnahan was also one of the game’s first innovators. After a serious beaning in 1905 he became the first known player to wear a batting helmet. Although wearing protective headgear didn’t catch on another Bresnahan experiment did in 1907: shin guards. The first ones he used were copied from those worn in the game of cricket. There were protests to wearing this kind of protection for many felt they endangered runners sliding into home plate, but eventually they were accepted and became standard equipment for catchers. Bresnahan the turned his attention to the catchers mask and in 1908 he added padding to the faceguard to absorb shock.Defensively, he is also credited with being the first to use the snap throw to first and the slide step style to block the plate.

After catching an unheard of 139 games in 1908 Bresnahan was traded to St. Louis where he became Cardinals player-manager. After four tumultuous seasons he was sold by St. Louis to the Cubs in 1913 and eventually became their player-manager for the 1915 season, his last. Bresnahan returned to the game as owner and manager of minor league Toledo in 1923 and later on returned to the majors for coaching stints with the Giants and Tigers. In 1945, he became the first catcher to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

You can follow the team links in the chart above to locate common statistics (singles), advanced statistics (WHIP Ratio & Isolated Power), and unique statistics (plate appearances & times on bases) not found on any other website.

If you find this type of "free" data useful please consider making a donation to Baseball Almanac : a privately run / non-commercial site in need of financial assistance.