Thomas Edward Bannon nicknamed "Ward Six" and "Uncle Tom", was a professional baseball

Professional baseball

Baseball is a team sport which is played by several professional leagues throughout the world. In these leagues, and associated farm teams, players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system....

 player and manager

Manager (baseball)

In baseball, the field manager is an individual who is responsible for matters of team strategy on the field and team leadership. Managers are typically assisted by between one and six assistant coaches, whose responsibilities are specialized...

. He played Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

 for the New York Giants

San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....

 in 1895 and 1896, mostly as an outfielder

Outfielder

Outfielder is a generic term applied to each of the people playing in the three defensive positions in baseball farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder...

. Bannon was 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighed 175 pounds.

Career

Bannon was born in Amesbury, Massachusetts

Amesbury, Massachusetts

Amesbury is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. Though it officially became a city in 1996, its formal name remains "The Town of Amesbury." In 1890, 9798 people lived in Amesbury; in 1900, 9473; in 1910, 9894; in 1920, 10,036; and in 1940, 10,862. The population was 16,283 at...

, in 1869. He started his professional baseball career in 1891. During the 1895 season, he played for the Eastern League's Scranton Coal Heavers and the National League

National League

The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...

's New York Giants; he had batting average

Batting average

Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...

s of .340 for Scranton and .270 for New York. Early in the following season, Bannon appeared in two games for the Giants, which was his last major league experience. He spent most of the summer in the Atlantic League, where he batted .387.

From 1897 to 1901, Bannon played for various teams in the Eastern League. Among his teammates in those years was his younger brother, Jimmy

Jimmy Bannon

James Henry Bannon was a Major League Baseball player for the St. Louis Browns and Boston Beaneaters. Bannon was primarily an outfielder, though he played a few games as an infielder and pitched in three games...

. In 1898, while with the Montreal Royals

Montreal Royals

The Montreal Royals were a minor league professional baseball team located in Montreal, Quebec, that existed from 1897–1917 and from 1928–60 as a member of the International League and its progenitor, the original Eastern League...

, Tom batted .287. The following year, he batted .274 and led the league with 64 stolen base

Stolen base

In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a baserunner successfully advances to the next base while the pitcher is delivering the ball to home plate...

s.

Bannon went to the Connecticut State League

Connecticut League

The Connecticut League, also known as the Connecticut State League is a now defunct minor baseball league based in Connecticut. The league began as off-shoot of the original Connecticut State League in 1902 as a Class D league with teams in eight cities...

 in 1902, played there for three seasons, and then moved on to the New England League

New England League

The New England League was a mid-level league in American minor league baseball that played sporadically in five of the six New England states between 1886 and 1949. After 1901, it existed in the shadow of two Major League Baseball clubs in Boston and alongside stronger, higher-classification...

. In 1909, he became a player-manager

Player-coach

A player-coach, in sports, is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. The term can be used to refer to both players who serve as head coaches, or as assistant coaches....

 for the Lowell Tigers. In 1910, he was a player-manager of the Connecticut Association's Middletown Jewels, where he batted .282 in the final season of his playing career. He managed two teams in 1911.

Bannon was an umpire

Umpire (baseball)

In baseball, the umpire is the person charged with officiating the game, including beginning and ending the game, enforcing the rules of the game and the grounds, making judgment calls on plays, and handling the disciplinary actions. The term is often shortened to the colloquial form ump...

 in the New England League for several years afterwards and then worked in the supply department for the General Electric Company

General Electric

General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...

. He died in Lynn, Massachusetts

Lynn, Massachusetts

Lynn is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 89,050 at the 2000 census. An old industrial center, Lynn is home to Lynn Beach and Lynn Heritage State Park and is about north of downtown Boston.-17th century:...

, in 1950 and was buried in St. Joseph Cemetery.

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