Doc Bushong

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American baseball player (1856–1908)

title: "Doc Bushong" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1856-births", "1908-deaths", "central-high-school-(philadelphia)-alumni", "major-league-baseball-catchers", "brooklyn-atlantics-players", "philadelphia-athletics-(nl)-players", "worcester-worcesters-players", "cleveland-blues-(nl)-players", "st.-louis-browns-(aa)-players", "brooklyn-bridegrooms-players", "janesville-mutual-players", "buffalo-(minor-league-baseball)-players", "utica-(minor-league-baseball)-players", "worcester-grays-players", "lebanon-cedars-players", "syracuse-stars-(minor-league-baseball)-players", "baseball-players-from-philadelphia", "university-of-pennsylvania-school-of-dental-medicine-alumni", "19th-century-american-dentists", "deaths-from-colorectal-cancer-in-new-york-(state)", "burials-at-holy-cross-cemetery,-brooklyn"] description: "American baseball player (1856–1908)" topic_path: "science/astronomy" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doc_Bushong" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American baseball player (1856–1908) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox baseball biography"]

Field	Value
name	Doc Bushong
position	Catcher
image	Doc Bushong baseball card from 1888 Old Judge Cigarettes.jpg
bats	Right
throws	Right
birth_date
birth_place	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
debutleague	MLB
debutdate	July 19
debutyear	1875
debutteam	Brooklyn Atlantics
finalleague	MLB
finaldate	September 9
finalyear	1890
finalteam	Brooklyn Bridegrooms
statleague	MLB
stat1label	Batting average
stat1value	.214
stat2label	Home runs
stat2value	2
stat3label	Runs batted in
stat3value	184
::

Brooklyn Atlantics ()
Philadelphia Athletics ()
Worcester Ruby Legs (–)
Cleveland Blues (–)
St. Louis Browns (–)
Brooklyn Bridegrooms (–) |highlights=
4× American Association champion (1885–1887, 1889)
National League champion (1890)

Albert John Bushong (September 15, 1856 – August 19, 1908), known as Doc Bushong, was an American catcher in Major League Baseball. Bushong also made appearances as an umpire and after his retirement from baseball, he practiced as a dentist. Some sources credit him with the invention of the catcher's mitt.

Early life

Descended from the Colonial immigrant Bushong family, Albert John Bushong was born September 15, 1856, in Philadelphia, the son of Charles A. Bushong and Margaret Moore Bushong. After playing baseball in various minor league teams for a couple of years, he enrolled in 1878 in dental school at the University of Pennsylvania. Bushong was one of the first to matriculate in the brand-new Department of Dentistry and he received his D.D.S. in 1882. While attending dental school, he played professional baseball every year, catching in more than 230 games as well as "barnstorming" in the off-season with a different team, the Hop Bitters. Bushong was the first University of Pennsylvania graduate to play in Major League baseball. He did not play ball for the university, as he was already playing pro-ball. Shortly after graduation Albert J. Bushong and Theresa M. Gottery were married and together they had seven children.

Baseball career

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Doc_Bushong,_catcher,_St._Louis_Browns,_1887.jpg" caption="Doc Bushong on an 1887 baseball card.}}" alt="Doc Bushong in 1887"] ::

His baseball career, spanned from 1875 to 1891, and Bushong played on various professional minor league and major league teams, including the Brooklyn Atlantics (1875), Philadelphia Athletics (1876), Worcester Ruby Legs (1880–82), Cleveland Blues (1883–84), St. Louis Browns (1885–87), Brooklyn Bridegrooms (1888–90).

Some believe his greatest success came in the latter part of his career, when Bushong played on five pennant winning teams and was in post-season play five times. His most notable performance is most likely in the 1886 St. Louis Browns of the American Association when they beat the Chicago White Stockings of the National League, for the Championship (later called World Series). For his part in the championship, in 1886, the Missouri Pacific Railroad, honored Bushong and several other players by renaming some of their whistle-stop towns. The town of Weeks in Kansas, became, Bushong, Kansas.

In 1887 Bushong became one of the first baseball players to do paid product endorsements, in an advertisement for Merrell's Penetrating Oil, which was a cold medicine.

On July 4, 1889, in the second game of a doubleheader in St. Louis, Bushong injured his arm and played in only two more games during the regular season. He never fully recovered from the injury, which marked the beginning of the end of his baseball career. The 1890 season, was Bushong's last on the Bridegrooms and in major league baseball and he was officially released on March 26, 1891. Within a couple of weeks still wanting to play for the 1891 season, Bushong signed on with a minor league team and eventually played on two different teams through mid-July before he was released.

Catcher's mitt

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Doc_Bushong_in_1888_Old_Judge_baseball_card,_crouching_position.jpg" caption="Doc Bushong in the 1888 Old Judge baseball card, showing glove.}}" alt="Doc Bushong on an 1888 Old Judge baseball card, showing glove."] ::

In a game that was traditionally played bare-handed, it is difficult to say who was first to make and use the padded catcher's mitt similar to today's glove. The first player to wear a glove was catcher Doug Allison, in 1870. In 1888, Joe Gunson described his catcher's mitt, and is sometimes associated with its invention, along with Doc Bushong and others. But his claim as first is brought into question by a Brooklyn Eagle article that describes Bushong with his special glove at least a season before Gunson's claim.{{cite book| last =Shafer | first =Ronald| title =When the Dodgers Were Bridegrooms: Gunner McGunnigle and Brooklyn's Back-to-Back Pennants of 1889 and 1890| date =10 January 2014| publisher =McFarland | pages =62–65| url =https://books.google.com/books?id=LpG92B3_17gC| isbn =978-0786458998 ::quote "he feels pretty badly over the matter.. it was padded and fixed up until it was as soft to his hand as a pillow and it was his best friend while he was up under the bat. It will take him some time to become accustomed to a new glove and it will be several seasons before he can get as many patches on the one he wears now as he had on the old one." ::

Scandal in the 1889 World Series

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/1889_Brooklyn_Bridegrooms_cropped.jpg" caption="Albert ''Doc'' Bushong back row, 2nd from right, with 1889 Brooklyn Bridegrooms.}}" alt="Albert "Doc" Bushong with 1889 Brooklyn Bridgrooms"] ::

A minor scandal involving Bushong and the 1889 World Series came to light in November 1889. Following the Bridegrooms' series loss to the New York Giants, six games to three, a telegram from Bushong to Giants catcher Jocko Milligan was revealed.

::quote

The scheme involved a $400 prize to the individual winners of the series. Bushong's idea was prize sharing, where, before the actual games, they were to agree, whoever was the winner would split the prize with the loser. In the newspapers, it was briefly mentioned as cheating, even though the practice was common in numerous sports and had been around in baseball for over a decade. Though embarrassed over the affair, nothing more came of it and Bushong continued playing.

Later life

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Albert_J._Bushong_obituary.jpg" caption="Doc Bushong's 1908 obituary from the New York Times"] ::

Following his baseball retirement in 1891, Bushong, then 33 years old, began practicing dentistry full-time along with two brothers, who were also dentists, at a large dental house in Hoboken, New Jersey. Eventually he became manager of the establishment. Also while working in Hoboken, he began and, according to baseball historian William Rankin, "built up a large and flourishing practice", at his home in south Brooklyn, 442 Ninth Street. On November 9, 1898, Bushong's 4-year-old son died after being severely burned in an election night bonfire, which were common ritual at the time. Eventually three of his sons, as well as a nephew, also became Brooklyn dentists and several worked at the Bushong family business, which was in operation as late as 1942. On August 19, 1908, Albert John Bushong died of cancer at his home, 442 Ninth Street, Brooklyn, at the age of 51 and was buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.

Notes

References

[http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?includedb=bushongbeardsley Search the Bushong United Family tree]
Bushong attended public schools in Philadelphia and graduated from [[Central High School (Philadelphia). 5d4b5fe8. Brian McKenna. November 21, 2013
[http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0706/pro02.html University of Pennsylvania Alumni Profiles]
Leading up to the 1888 season, Bushong made news again, when [[Chris von der Ahe]] owner of the St. Louis Browns sold the contracts for Bushong, along with pitcher [[Bob Caruthers. "Parisian Bob" Caruthers]], and first baseman/outfielder/pitcher [[Dave Foutz]]. The sale was to the Brooklyn Bride Grooms and their owner, [[Charlie Byrne (baseball)
[http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90059522/1887-07-02/ed-1/seq-1/ St. Paul Daily Globe, July 02, 1887]
[http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1889-11-16/ed-1/seq-4/ ''The Sun''], New York, November 16, 1889, Page 4.
The prize had been offered by a chewing gum firm, likely the Green and Blackwell Company of New York, known as ''G and B Chewing Gum Co.'', who in 1888, were first to issue gum with their baseball cards.[http://autographmagazine.com/2010/06/sports-collecting-a-brief-history-of-baseball-cards/ A Brief History of Baseball Cards]

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