Major League Baseball Player. A centerfielder and celebrated home run hitter, he began his career in 1871 with the Washington Olympics, moving to the Baltimore Canaries in 1872, the Boston Red Stockings in 1874, the Philadelphia Athletics in 1875, and the Philadelphia team of the National League in 1876. That year he hit five home runs, becoming the first person to hold the home run record (lifetime and season), and the first person to hit two home runs in one game. But scandal cut his career short. When the Philadelphia team was dropped from the National League, he moved to the Louisville Grays in 1877. After a spectacular early season, the Grays mysteriously dropped seven games in a row, with players flubbing easy plays and swinging wildly at pitches. By the end of the season they had fallen seven games behind the Boston Red Stockings, and the players were seen wearing expensive jewelry and spending lavishly. An investigation followed, and he and pitcher Jim Devlin confessed to throwing games for the benefit of an East Coast gambling ring run by a man named "McCloud." It was the first scandal of its kind in baseball, and the most notorious until the "Black Sox" of 1919. Hall was thereafter banned from baseball for life.
Major League Baseball Player. A centerfielder and celebrated home run hitter, he began his career in 1871 with the Washington Olympics, moving to the Baltimore Canaries in 1872, the Boston Red Stockings in 1874, the Philadelphia Athletics in 1875, and the Philadelphia team of the National League in 1876. That year he hit five home runs, becoming the first person to hold the home run record (lifetime and season), and the first person to hit two home runs in one game. But scandal cut his career short. When the Philadelphia team was dropped from the National League, he moved to the Louisville Grays in 1877. After a spectacular early season, the Grays mysteriously dropped seven games in a row, with players flubbing easy plays and swinging wildly at pitches. By the end of the season they had fallen seven games behind the Boston Red Stockings, and the players were seen wearing expensive jewelry and spending lavishly. An investigation followed, and he and pitcher Jim Devlin confessed to throwing games for the benefit of an East Coast gambling ring run by a man named "McCloud." It was the first scandal of its kind in baseball, and the most notorious until the "Black Sox" of 1919. Hall was thereafter banned from baseball for life.
Bio by: Joe Fodor
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