Introducing The Daily Denizen!

When most people think of famous figures in New York sports lore, they inevitably arrive at the same names, legends like Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, and Lawrence Taylor (to name a few). Younger fans will go for today’s household names: Jeter, A-Rod, Eli Manning. But in the 164 years since Alexander Cartwright organized the world’s first baseball game at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, an endless list of characters left their indelible mark on Big Apple sports. These men and women may not be as well-known as Jeter or the Babe, but their lives were no less extraordinary.

So here, on The Back Page, we will pay homage to them with a recurring feature called The Daily Denizen. The word ‘denizen’ is best defined as ‘inhabitant,’ and while those honored here did not garner the headlines and attention of some of their peers, they most certainly inhabited New York and its sports scene. Enjoy.

Today’s Denizen (our first ever!) is EDD ROUSH One of baseball’s brightest stars at the beginning of the 20th century, Roush played for five teams in his Hall of Fame career. Like the other greats of his day, Roush hit for average and played with speed, finishing his career with a .323 career batting average and 182 triples, tied for 15th all-time with the equally immortal Ed Konetchy.

On the surface, Roush is unusual Denizen material. He made his biggest impact on another city, spending the prime of his career with the Cincinnati Reds. Fellow Hall of Famer Joe Morgan, Cincinnati’s second baseman during the “Big Red Machine” years, called Roush “the best of us all,” high praise from a guy who played with Pete Rose and Johnny Bench. And Roush only spent four years playing pro ball in the New York area.

But it doesn’t matter, because Mr. Roush had too many things going for him. For one thing, his name was “Edd,” presumably because he was cool enough to pull off the second D. Or maybe it was because he swung a gargantuan 48-ounce bat, which is more than enough to earn him my posthumous moniker “The Lumberjack.” Remember when Yankee fans were fawning over Alfonso Soriano for swinging such a heavy bat? That was 34 ounces. Babe Ruth? Though he began his career using a 54-ounce bat, the Bambimo had dropped down to 40 ounces by his 60-homer season in 1927. So whether Roush spoke softly or not, he carried a bigger stick than the Sultan of Swat in his prime.

Roush also carries a badge of honor held by only 28 men; he played for the Newark Pepper. The Federation League team played in Newark for only one year, 1915, when they sported perhaps the best baseball team name of all time. I mean, the Pepper? Anytime you come up with a name that encapsulates the whimsy of baseball and rolls snappily off the tongue, you’ve struck gold.

So for his two Ds, 2,376 hits, three-pound bat and Federation League affiliation, Edd Roush is The Back Page’s Denizen for the day. Now get out there and play some pepper.