Washington Callahan
by Steve McCarthy
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Not everyone baseball player can be a Hall of Famer. But any player could have a Hall of Fame moment. Case in point: Washington Callahan, who is a study in preseverance and for one brief day in 1919 bottled magic in his right arm. Callahan threw the 26th no-hitter in National Baseball League history as a 32 year old rookie. He was not the first rookie to throw a no-hitter, a feat also accomplished by Soup Boles and Lester Howel as debutants before him, but he was by far the oldest rookie to turn the trick. While the no-hitter is what gained him mention in the Hall of Fame, it is the fact that he was still pitching professionally at the age of 32 despite being repeatedly told he was not good enough for the NBL that illustrates just how determined Washington Callahan really was.
Callahan pitched 5 mediocre seasons for a mediocre Buffalo Beavers team from 1919 until 1923. He compiled a medicore career record of 46-64 including an 8-14 campaign as rookie in 1919. Among those 8 victories was the aforementioned no hitter. It came in a meaningless early September game between two teams who's hopes for a division title had long been extinguished that summer and both were now simply trying to avoid finishing in the bottom half of the standings. Callahan got the start on a crisp September afternoon against the Boston Terriers and while he did surrender 3 walks, he kept the Boston bats in check for the full nine innings to earn the rare accomplishment of pitching a no-hitter. It was actually the third no-hitter of the season and the second by a Beaver hurler as Buffalo's top pitcher for well over a decade, Giles Rieley, had also thrown one that summer. What made Callahan's special and one that deserves mention is the circuitous route he took to get there.
Callahan had baseball in his blood as his maternal grandfather was Lew Hamlin, who played just over 600 games with 3 teams in the 1880s. Callahan, the oldest of 6 siblings, came from a farming family in Jerseyville, Illinois, about 100 miles north of St Louis, and was a diehard fan of the St Louis Explorers despite the fact his grandfather had primarily played in New York. Tragically, Callahan's dad passed away in a farming accident and his mother died shortly after leaving a now 17 year old Callahan to support his 5 brothers and sisters. He did so by farming and playing for Jerseyville's semi-pro ball team. By the time he turned 22 his brother Jefferson was old enough to look after the farm and Callahan accepted a contract from his favourite team - the St Louis Explorers. The Explorers loaned him out to a Class B team in Montgomery, Alabama and he pitched for various minor league clubs in the Terriers system for the next 4 years but never got an opportunity to pitch with the big club.
By 1914 at the age of 28 the Explorers felt he was no longer a candidate to make their club so they released him. Over the next 4 years he would be signed and later released by Cleveland, New York, Brooklyn, Baltimore and Chicago. Each would loan him out to a minor league club to pitch but he was never given the opportunity to show his stuff in a big league ballpark. In May of 1919, the now 32 year old Callahan would be handed his walking papers once again as the Brooklyn Bluebirds cut ties with him. It appeared that perhaps the National Baseball League was not meant to be for Callahan, who was an outstanding semi-pro pitcher and a very good minor leaguer but maybe not quite big league timbre.
Then Franklin Burnett entered the picture. Burnett, a former Buffalo Beavers pitcher who was now working as a bird dog for the organization, had seen Callahan pitch with various clubs through the years and convinced his employers to give Callahan a shot. He was signed by Buffalo on May 29, 1919 and made his major league debut just under 2 months before his 33rd birthday, setting the stage for his one moment of baseball glory.
Callahan's no-hitter would be the 6th one thrown in Beavers history but a Buffalo pitcher would not throw another no-hitter until 33 years later when Tony Williams tossed a perfect game against Philadelphia in 1952. As for Callahan, he would finish the 1919 season with an 8-14 record and a 4.95 era. He would play four more seasons with the Beavers winning 8,9,9 and finally 12 games to give him a career record of 46-64. In one of his final starts he would throw a 6-hit shutout, just the second one of his career, and then retire following the 1923 season. The no-hitter as a 32 year old rookie being the one special stamp on an other-wise non-descript career.
Callahan's baseball legacy lives on today as his nephew is Doc Kendrick, who plays for the Baltimore Lords and is the son of Callahan's youngest sister Mary. Kendrick did not become a pitcher like his Uncle Washington, but instead followed the family history of catchers like his great-grandfather Lew Hamlin.