William E. Hallman(1867-1920)

(1867) Bill Hallman was an actor and vaudeville song-and-dance man in the off-season during his playing days. It kept his legs in shape and seems to have earned him more recognition than he ever received for what appears on the surface to have been a solid fourteen-year ML career. But that appearance is deceiving. Hallmans peak years came in 1893-96, when anything less than a .300 BA was a mark of failure. Consequently, his .272 career BA (built around four consecutive .300 seasons during his peak) was about average for his position and some 10 points below the league mark of .282. Hallman was also about dead average as a fielder and achieved black ink in a positive department only twice in his fourteen seasons. In 1891 he tied for the AA lead in games played, and ten years later he topped the NL in sacrifice hits. Hallman turned pro in 1886 with Wilkes-Barre of the Pennsylvania State Association as a pitcher but moved behind the plate when the regular catcher took sick one day prior to an exhibition game and hit a grand slam home run in his first at bat. He opened the following season with Hamilton, Ontario, of the International Association but returned to Wilkes Barre when the Canadian club signed Chub Collins. Philadelphia N acquired him in the spring of 1888 for insurance behind incumbent second baseman Charlie Ferguson. Although Hallman failed to win the job after Ferguson unexpectedly died, he claimed the spot in 1889. He then joined George Wood and Joe Mulvey in playing with Philadelphia teams in three different major leagues in three consecutive seasons before returning to the Phillies in 1892. Hallman remained a Philadelphia fixture until June 1897 when he and Dick Harley were traded to St. Louis for outfielder Tommy Dowd. Initially a favorite of Browns owner Chris VonderAhe's, he swiftly lost the fickle mogul's support once he was named manager of the club. Hallman was fined $200 by Von der Ahe after he broke his thumb in Cleveland and then contracted malaria that he claimed was brought on because "the dressing rooms which Von der Ahe furnishes his players are never clean." Hallman also contended that while the Browns were on the road for six weeks in 1897 the team wasn't paid, and he threatened, after he was traded to Brooklyn in November 1897, to "tie up" the St. Louis gate receipts when the Browns came to Brooklyn the following year in order to recover the s200 fine that had been deducted from his pay unfairly. Meanwhile he hit just .244 for the Bridegrooms and spent the next two seasons in the minors. A good year in 1900 with Buffalo in the newly renamed American League earned Hallman a contract with Cleveland when the AL went major in 1901. He lasted only 5 games in the Forest City before returning to the Phillies to fill the hole vacated by Nap Lajoie when he jumped to the Philadelphia AL club. While Lajoie was hitting .426 to lead the AL in 1901, Hallman batted .184, a mere 242 points less, to bring up the rear among NL qualifiers. He was retained as a "utility man" for two more seasons and then drifted back to the minors, where he finished his baseball career in 1909 with Denver of the Western League.