Collins, "Jimmy" (James J.)
Baseball
b. Jan. 16, 1870, Niagara Falls, NY
d. March 6, 1943
Though almost forgotten now, Collins invented modern third-base play. He was the first to play some distance from the base, allowing him to cut off grounders hit to the right of the shortstop, and the first to charge bunts and field them bare-handed. One sportswriter described him as charging "with a swoop like a chicken hawk."
Collins joined the Boston NL team in 1897, but was loaned for most of the season to Louisville, which was short of players. He was an outfielder at the time, but after Louisville's third baseman made four errors on bunts by the Baltimore Orioles, Collins was asked to try the position. The next four Oriole hitters bunted down the third base line and he threw all four of them out. From then on, he was a third baseman.
In 1896, Collins returned to Boston. He batted .346 in 1897 and .337 in 1898, when he led the league in home runs with 14. Boston won the NL pennant both seasons.
The Boston Red Sox of the new American League in 1901 offered Collins $4,000, twice what he was being paid by the NL team, to become player-manager. He hit .329 in 1901 and .325 in 1902, then guided the Red Sox to a pennant in 1903, when his average dropped to .296.
In the first modern World Series, Boston beat the favored Pittsburgh Pirates five games to three. The Red Sox won another pennant in 1904, but John McGraw, manager of the New York Giants, refused to play a post-season series.
Collins was replaced as manager during the 1906 season and was traded to the Philadelphia Athletics in 1907. He retired as a player after two seasons in Philadelphia and then managed in the minor leagues for several years.