Patsy Tebeau


Oliver Wendell "Patsy" Tebeau was an American first baseman, third baseman, and manager in Major League Baseball.

Career

Tebeau was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1864. His brother, George Tebeau, was also an MLB player.
Patsy started his professional baseball career with the Western League's St. Joseph Reds in 1886. The following season, while playing for Denver of the WL, he had a.424 batting average in 94 games. Tebeau made his major league debut with the National League's Chicago White Stockings in September of that year. In 20 games with Chicago, he batted.162. He then played in the Western Association in 1888. In 1889, Tebeau joined the NL's Cleveland Spiders and batted.282. The following year, he was a player-manager for the Cleveland Infants of the Players' League. In 1891, Tebeau returned to the Spiders and was a player-manager for the team until 1898. His lowest batting average with the Spiders was.244 in 1892, and his highest was.329 in 1893. He never managed the Spiders to a first-place finish; the team was second in 1895 and 1896. In March 1899, the Spiders assigned Tebeau to the St. Louis Perfectos. He managed the team before quitting in the middle of the 1900 season.
In his 13-year MLB career, Tebeau played 1,167 games and batted.279 with 27 home runs and 735 runs batted in. His managing record was 726–583. He was known for verbally abusing umpires and opposing players, for which he was criticized by journalists.
After retiring from baseball, Tebeau ran a saloon in St. Louis. His wife left him, and in 1918, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.