Bridgeport\u2019s Scholar-Athlete<\/p>\n
James Henry O\u2019Rourke<\/p>\n
1850 \u2013 1919<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u201cOrator Jim\u201d O\u2019Rourke, one of the most colorful, popular and accomplished baseball ballplayers of the 19th century was born in East Bridgeport, Connecticut on September 1, 1850. His parents, Hugh and Catherine, had migrated from County Mayo, Ireland, and eventually settled in the section of Bridgeport being developed by P. T. Barnum. Jim attended Waltersville School (where his sister Sarah would one day teach) and Strong\u2019s Military Academy. As a teenager Jim played ball with local clubs, including the Stratford Osceolas, while cultivating a statewide reputation as an outstanding batter. In 1872 Jim joined the Middletown Mansfields, thus becoming a member of America\u2019s first professional baseball league, the National Association. Jim\u2019s father, Hugh, had passed away roughly three years earlier so the twenty-year old ball player refused to leave his widowed mother until the Mansfields\u2019 business manager agreed to hire a farmhand to take Jim\u2019s place. The following season, 1873, O\u2019Rourke became a member of the powerhouse National Association Boston Red Stockings. Jim and his teammates were among baseball\u2019s first international ambassadors, touring Ireland and England with the Philadelphia Athletic Club during 1874. Partly due to Boston\u2019s continued domination of the NA, the National League was formed. The East Bridgeport native made baseball history when he recorded the first hit in the National League, while a member of the Boston Red Caps, on April 22, 1876.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Orator Jim played for a total of 8 major league teams during 23 seasons: Middletown Mansfields (NA), Boston Red Stockings (NA), Boston Red Caps (NL), Providence Grays (NL), Buffalo Bisons (NL), New York Giants (NL), New York Giants (Players League) and the Washington Senators (NL). O\u2019Rourke\u2019s lifetime major league batting average (combining the NA and NL) is .313.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Noted for his ornate language, Jim entertained and confounded teammates, opponents and umpires alike, \u201cWords of great length and thunderous sound simply flowed out of his mouth.\u201d Always an advocate of education, before signing with the New York Giants, O\u2019Rourke negotiated that the club pay his college tuition. Attending classes during the off season Jim graduated from Yale Law School in 1887. Following his major league playing days the Orator attempted a brief stint at umpiring, but the thankless, and often dangerous, role of diamond arbiter was not to Jim\u2019s liking.<\/p>\n
Returning to the Park City fulltime, O\u2019Rourke helped organize the Connecticut State League in 1895, serving as league official, team owner, manager, and player. As a direct result Bridgeport retained a professional baseball team for over a third of a century. Proximity to Yale allowed Jim to umpire Ivy League ball games and he also devoted his expertise to consulting baseball hierarchy at the national level. Jim is credited with signing Harry Herbert in 1895, Bridgeport\u2019s first African American to play pro ball. O\u2019Rourke built a minor league stadium, Newfield Park, on his family\u2019s farmland in the city\u2019s East End in 1898. His on field contributions to the national pastime went unabated in Bridgeport for over sixteen seasons. During that time he batted .301 with his team, the Orators. At age 54 Orator Jim caught a complete game, the pennant clincher, for the 1904 New York Giants. He played his final professional game with the New Haven White Wings at age 62. During a stormy winter day, while walking to meet a client, Attorney O\u2019Rourke caught a cold which quickly turned to pneumonia; he died January 8, 1919. Because of his outstanding play, as well as contributions to the game both on and off the field, James Henry O\u2019Rourke was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945.<\/p>\n
Some of James O\u2019Rourke\u2019s Baseball Accomplishments<\/span><\/p>\n Bridgeport\u2019s Scholar-Athlete James Henry O\u2019Rourke 1850 \u2013 1919 \u00a0\u00a0\u201cOrator Jim\u201d O\u2019Rourke, one of the most colorful, popular and accomplished baseball ballplayers of the 19th century was born in East Bridgeport, Connecticut on September 1, 1850. His parents, Hugh and Catherine, had migrated from County Mayo, Ireland, and eventually settled in the section of Bridgeport being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[29,57],"tags":[107,135,158,159],"class_list":["post-536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heroes-and-villains","category-sports","tag-east-end","tag-james-orourke","tag-newfield-park","tag-orourke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bportlibrary.org\/hc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n