PIKE, LIPMAN EMANUEL

PIKE, LIPMAN EMANUEL (Lip ; "The Iron Batter"; 1845–1893), U.S. baseball player, considered the first professional baseball player for openly receiving money to play. Pike was born in Manhattan, the second of five children to Emanuel, a haberdasher of Dutch origin, and Jane. The family moved to Brooklyn, where Pike and his siblings became engrossed in the newly invented American game of baseball. One week after his bar mitzvah in 1858, Pike appeared in a box score playing first base, while his older brother Boaz played shortstop. The Pike brothers played for various teams, including the renowned Brooklyn Atlantics. In 1866, the Philadelphia Athletics offered the 21-year-old Pike $20 per week to play third base. It exposed for the first time the widespread though hushed up system of paying supposedly amateur players to play baseball, thereby legitimizing the practice of play for pay. Pike played from 1866 to 1881, switching teams often throughout his career: he also played for Irvington, New Jersey (1867), New York Mutuals (1867–68), Brooklyn Atlantics (1869–70), Troy Haymakers (1871), Lord Baltimores (1872–73), Hartford Dark Blues (1874), St. Louis Brown Stockings (1875–76), Cincinnati Reds (1877–78), Providence Grays (1878), Worchester Ruby Legs (1881) for five games, and one last appearance with the New York Metropolitans of the American Association for one game on July 28, 1887, at the age of 42. While no statistical records exist of his career through 1870, Pike appeared in 425 National Association and National League games beginning in 1871, hitting .321 with a .465 slugging average. Standing only 5ʹ 8ʹʹ and weighing 158 pounds, Pike was known as both a powerful batter and the fastest base runner of his time. He led the league in home runs four times, including 1872, when his six home runs accounted for a sixth of the National Association's 35 home runs. So fast was Pike that on August 16, 1873, at Baltimore's Newington Park, he raced in a 100-yard dash against a horse named Clarence, and won. After his career was over, Pike followed his father and became a haberdasher in Brooklyn, but he remained involved in the game as a part-time umpire. One of his younger brothers, Jay (Jacob), played one game in the major leagues on August 27, 1877, and became the first Jewish umpire when he officiated in 1875 in the National Association.

[Elli Wohlgelernter (2^nd ed.)]