JESSE HALL ALLEN

The first person born in Columbiana County to play for a professional Cleveland sports team did not have a career in pro sports at the front of his mind.

Jesse Hall “Pete” Allen, born in 1868 in Columbiana, suited up for the Cleveland Spiders of the National League on Aug. 4, 1893 against the Chicago Colts at League Park in Cleveland. He was said to have been a desperation signing by the club who was short at the catcher position at the time.

After starting catcher Jack O’Connor broke his little finger in the first inning, Allen, a son of a hardware merchant, was brought in to catch a future Baseball Hall of Famer.

Cy Young, then in his fourth season of a 22-year career, was already an innings eater as he had pitched more than 400 innings the previous two seasons with the Spiders. The Spiders, in no way associated with the later American League team which would be called the Indians, had finished 93-56 in 1892 could not convert that into success against the Boston Beaneaters (now Atlanta Braves) in a World’s Championship Series at the end of the season.

On that day in 1893, the Spiders sat in fourth place with a 43-32 record. Chicago, which later became the Cubs, was third from bottom with a 34-46 record.

Allen, who was 5 feet, 8 inches and 185 pounds, had spent time with the Binghamton (New York) Bingoes of the Eastern League earlier that season. In 12 games, Allen batted 48 times with 11 hits including two doubles and a triple. He batted .229 for that season.

Allen, then 25, batted sixth that day and went 0-for-4 in the 7-2 Spiders’ win. It turned out to be his only appearance in a Major League Baseball game.

It was noted in a game recap at the time that Allen caught well and had one put out as well as a passed ball. In the announcement of his signing a few days after the game newspapers called him “a heavy batter who never gets rattled.” He was still with the Spiders on Aug. 29 as a newspaper announcement said he was heading east with the club that would win Cleveland’s first pro sports championship in 1895 and fold under embarrassing circumstances in 1899.

Throughout his baseball career, Allen was balancing the sport with his studies in medicine. He began that course in the fall of 1887 when he enrolled in the veterinary program at Ohio State. While there he helped bring back the Ohio State baseball team which had been out of commission for a few years. He was the team’s captain, manager and starting pitcher in 1888 as the team went 0-3. As a team captain and catcher in 1889 the Buckeyes went 2-1-1. In addition he was one of the first Buckeyes to play Major League Baseball. He received his two-year veterinary degree from Ohio State and came back to Columbiana where he was a postal clerk for a few years. He also played amateur baseball for an Alliance club for two years, winning a state championship along the way.

In 1892 Allen went to study at Amherst College in Massachusetts where he played on the baseball team for two years becoming the first attendee of that school to play Major League Baseball.

Allen had one more run in the minor leagues as he joined the New Castle (Pa.) Quakers of the Iron and Oil League in 1895. The team finished in fourth place with a 40-33 record and the league folded following the season. Allen’s manager was Will Thompson who played one game with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1892.

In 1896 Allen enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine where he coached the 1896 and 1897 Penn baseball teams. Graduating in 1897, he entered general practice at first before settling into proctology. He eventually became the assistant professor of proctology at Jefferson Medical College and was well respected enough in his field that his obituary in 1946 ran in the New York Times. His baseball career was not mentioned at the time of his death.

Allen married Clara Orne, a daughter of a Civil War veteran, in 1910 in Philadelphia. Orne died in 1933 at the age of 57.

He had three sons, all now deceased. He is buried in Media Cemetery in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.