Bad Bill Eagan

WILLIAM “BAD BILL” EAGAN was one of the premier amateur ballplayers in Camden during the mid-1880s. He turned professional in 1887, and played briefly for three different major league teams. A superb defensive second baseman and no slouch at the plate, Eagan had a terrible problem with alcohol which completely derailed his career and for intents and purposes destroyed his life.

The combination of Eagan’s talent on the field and his behavior… which ranged at various times from erratic to atrocious… made him great newspaper copy and the course of his life once he turned professional has been fairly well documented. There are two excellent on-line articles on Bill Eagan, one from SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research, the other, a two-part effort, at Baseball History Daily, and his major league and minor league statistics are easily found on the Internet. What has not been much documented at all is Eagan’s early years and family background. As best can be determined, no one to date has ever done any genealogical research on him, which is not surprising, as he was the only one of his six siblings to reach majority and he himself appears to have died childless. A look into his background is quite revealing, and perhaps in some ways explains his behavior.

By cross-checking data available at www.ancestry.com, specifically Census records, City Directories, birth, death and church records one finds that William Eagan was the son of Patrick Eagan and his wife Margaret, both Irish-born residents of Camden. In a time where all records were handwritten and spelling a far from exact science, the Eagans in Camden are found as Egans, Agans, Eagins, and Agins. William is recorded as being born or christened to Patrick and Margaret on January 15, 1866 and on August 14, 1868. Baseball records give a date of June 1, 1869. This date may possibly have been garnered from his obituary, or simply was a best guess on the part of the baseball community of Denver, Colorado where he died of tuberculosis, alone and penniless, on February 13, 1905.

Bill Eagan’s childhood was no laughing matter. His father, Patrick Eagan, was a drunk and a serial wife-beater, and when the wife wasn’t at hand Patrick would find someone else to assault. Newspaper articles on-line, which represent a small fraction of what newspaper accounts there were at the time, give account of his escapades and imprisonments, and there were many of them, over a period beginning in 1861 and ending in 1902. The 1902 article tells of his escape from the Camden County Lunatic Asylum, which was located at the Lakeland complex in Gloucester Township, and describe with the sentence “Eagan is known as a dangerous man.” Margaret Eagan, though reportedly much beloved by her son, appears to have been something of a piece of work herself. When the 1880 Census was taken, Patrick was locked up in the Camden County jail once again on one Census sheet, while Margaret had a man named Samuel living with her under the name of Eagan. While Patrick was serving a two-year sentence in a New Jersey state prison for assault, she was beaten up in March of 1891 by a John Tom McCann. The 1870 Census shows William Eagan with brothers John, Edward, and a sister Mary. By 1880 John was no longer living at home, and both Edward and Mary were dead. The 1880 Census shows three children in the household, William and sisters Annie, 8 and Mary, 6. The 1900 Census shows Patrick Eagan as an inmate at the Camden County Insane Asylum, and Margaret living alone, and that of her six children, 5 were no longer alive.

Bill Eagan got into a few scrapes with the law, but he found some refuge during his youth playing baseball. Growing up at South 2nd and Mickle Streets (Directories and news accounts show the Eagans there from the 1860s through the 1900s), he became friends with William J. “Kid” Gleason. Eagan and Gleason were two of the best young ballplayers in Camden in the mid-1880s. Both turned professional, appearing together for the Scranton Miners in the International Association league in 1887. Gleason went on to a long career as a star player and pennant winning manager. Bill Eagan went from being known as “Billy” Eagan in the newspapers to being known as “Bad Bill.”

Bill Eagan returned to organized baseball in 1889 and played two seasons at Harrisburg. In 1891 he went to the major leagues, played 83 games at second base for the St. Louis Browns of the American Association before being kicked off of the team after alienating owner Chris Von der Ahe. Eagan’s drinking was a major factor in his being cut. Eagan went to Albany of the Eastern League for the 1892 and 1893 seasons, and was again given an opportunity to play at the major league level, with the Chicago Colts of the National League, managed by Adrian “Cap” Anson in September of 1893. He lasted six games with the Colts, although it is unclear if he was let go because of his play or because of his behavior. Bill Eagan, full into his Bad Bill persona, next went to the Eastern League’s Syracuse club, where he lasted for five years… one of which, 1897, he was forced to sit out after being suspended. In May of 1898 he was given another shot at the majors with Pittsburgh Pirates, but was cut after showing up to a road game in Philadelphia “unfit to play through over-indulgence” after a night of drinking in Camden. Bad Bill Eagan returned to Syracuse, played 24 games, then quit the team when forced to take a pay cut. He returned to Camden and took a job working in a saloon, not the best place to work for an alcoholic.

By now Bill Eagan’s life was completely off the rails. In October he procured a pistol and declared his intention to shoot his wife and kill himself. He fired one shot at his wife, which missed, and would have shot policeman William Schregler, who was trying to subdue him, if his gun arm had not been knocked away. Eagan was arrested and sat in Camden County Jail until March of 1899, when he was let go with the condition that he leave New Jersey. He was signed by Detroit of the Western League, and lasted three months before his behavior caused his release. In 1900 Bad Bill Eagan played briefly for the Youngstown Little Giants of the International League. He appeared in 26 games before his behavior caught up with him. He never played another game in organized baseball.

Late in August of 1900 the Indianapolis News reported that Eagan was picked up on the streets of Detroit “insane. He was removed to the emergency hospital, where he became violent and it took a number of men to overpower him and take him to the station and confine him in a padded cell. Drink caused Eagan’s downfall. Sober he was a hard working ambitious ball player; if a drink or two were given to him he became a dangerous maniac.”

Bill Eagan was released after several days and tended bar in Detroit for a few years. By April of 1904, he had contracted tuberculosis and was sent to a sanitarium in Denver, Colorado. On February 13, 1905 Bill Eagan died alone and in poverty in Denver. It was thought that he was survived by his mother in Camden, and an effort was made to raise enough money to send his body home. This effort apparently came up short, and Bad Bill Eagan was buried in Denver. His mother still appeared in Camden City Directories at 204 Mickle Street as late as 1908. His father had escaped from the Camden County Insane Asylum at Lakeland in 1902. As of this writing his fate is undetermined.