Tommy Leach

Tommy Leach
Tommy Leach
1877–1969

Category
Baseball
Year Inducted
2008
Baseball is the sport where 5-foot-6, 150-pound Thomas William Leach stood tall and made a name for himself in the early years of major league baseball. Leach was born in French Creek on Nov. 4, 1877, and was a direct descendant of Alexander Findley, the founder of Findley Lake. His family moved into Chautauqua County in 1811 and to Findley Lake in 1815. Leach, who was nicknamed Wee because of his small stature, lived in French Creek until he was about five years old when his family moved to Cleveland in the early 1880s.

He was one of the first major leaguers to reach the 2,000-hit plateau (2,143 hits) as he played 19 years with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1900-1912, 1918), the Chicago Cubs (1912-1914) the Cincinnati Reds (1915) and the Louisville Colonels (1898-1899) in the National League. His outstanding career was made mostly with the Pirates as he is ninth in games played (1,548), at-bats (5,909), runs (1,007) and singles (1,229) and was sixth in stolen bases (246) and seventh in triples (137).

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