Joe Slattery believed he was jinxed by an entire city.
Joseph Patrick Slattery was born on March 15 in 1888 or 1889—his WWI and WWII draft registrations give the 1889 date, early census data and his death certificate say 1888—in St. Louis.
He played with semi-pro teams in Mount Vernon and Kewanee, Illinois before playing his first professional game with the Dallas Giants in the Texas League in 1908. Described by The St. Louis Globe as an excellent fielding first basemen with a weak bat, he lived up to that label during his first two seasons as a pro—hitting .125 and .199 with Dallas, the Brockton Tigers in the New England League.
In 1910, he joined the Rock Island Islanders in the Three-I League and began to hit. He was hitting .300 in June when The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said:
Joe Slattery, Rock Island, 1910
“(Slattery) may obtain a trial with the Browns. Early this week, owner (Robert) Hedges dispatched Harry Howell, one of his scouts, to look over Slattery. It is said that Howell made a favorable report.
“Hedges is not the only club owner who has been tipped off about Slattery. The Pittsburgh Club has had a scout looking over Slattery while it is understood that the Brooklyn Club has made an offer for his release.”
Slattery immediately went into a slump and finished the season with a .216 average. With Rock Island again in 1911, Slattery hit .280 and was sold to the Syracuse Stars in The New York State League (NYSL). Slattery played for three teams in the NYSL from 1912 to 1915, hitting in the .290s.
Then he had his best season as a professional—one that has been incorrectly credited to another player with the same last name.
Slattery was sold to the Montreal Royals in the International League in 1916. He hit .298 and led the league’s first basemen with a .991 fielding percentage, but most sources incorrectly credit those statistics to John Thomas “Jack” Slattery—who actually played his last professional game in 1911.
Near the end of the 1916 season, The Washington Herald reported in October that Slattery’s contract was purchased by the Senators, but later the same day Clark Griffith told The Washington Times that the report was untrue.
Slattery hit .252 in 1917 for Montreal. Before the 1918 season, he was sold to the Memphis Chickasaws the Southern Association and went to the city that “jinxed” him.
The (Memphis) Commercial-Appeal reported before the season opened that the Chickasaws would “have their new first sacker longer than expected.” It had been expected that Slattery would be drafted before the season began, but the paper said his draft board in St. Louis now said he wouldn’t be entering the military until later in the summer.
All involved later wished the delay never happened.
Slattery with Memphis, 1918
as the season progressed, The Memphis News-Scimitar said:
“Slattery is the greatest fielding first baser in the Southern today and he made stops and throws that would have done credit to Hal Chase…But Joe can’t get started hitting.”
Slattery appeared in 59 games for Memphis. He hit .197 in 208 at bats and quickly became the most unpopular man in town
As he struggled, the paper said he was “the target for all verbal bricks the lower end of the stands could hurl.” His “hitting fell off almost to nothing,” but the paper said it was “due for the most part to the panning the bugs handed him.”
Slattery thought he was jinxed and the newspaper agreed:
“The story of Slattery is the story of a jinx that has been camping on the big fellow’s trail…one of the niftiest first basemen in the game; Slattery from the outset has been handicapped by his inability to hit the ball.”
Slattery blamed the city:
“It’s a fact that I am absolutely jinxed in Memphis, I can hit the ball anywhere else in the world but Memphis, it seems.”
After being drafted, Slattery played first base for the Tenth Training Battalion at Camp Pike in Arkansas. He returned to Memphis in the spring of 1919 and immediately stopped hitting again during exhibition games.
He told The New-Scimitar:
“When I was in camp at Camp Pike I hit for an average well in the .300 class, and I was hitting against good pitching, too. But in Memphis, I’m helpless with the stick. I guess I am too anxious to hit…Last season the jinx was astride my neck all year…I couldn’t hit at all like I used to…the jinx came back and got with me, and I have not been able to hit at all.”
Sold to the Tulsa Oilers in the Western League, he hit.263. In July, Slattery was playing well in Tulsa, and The News-Scimitar reminded fans that his “jinx” was their fault. The paper said from July 13 through July 17 Slattery was 8 for 23:
“Which goes to show that in the proper environment when he is not being ridden by the bugs as he was here, Slattery is a good hitter.”
He finished his professional career in 1920 where he started it in 1908, with Dallas in the Texas League.
Never to return to Memphis, he headed west.
He played semi-pro ball for the next decade, primarily with Brigham City Peaches in Utah.
Slattery with the Brigham City Peaches, 1922
The once “jinxed” Slattery settled in Idaho where he died on June 14, 1970.
Baseball History Daily 
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