Leech Maskrey

Who was Leech Maskrey?

Samuel Leech Maskrey was an American Major League Baseball left fielder. He played five seasons in the majors, from 1882 until 1886, for the Louisville Eclipse and Colonels and the Cincinnati Red Stockings. His brother, Harry Maskrey, was his teammate on the 1882 Eclipse.

After spending the 1887-89 seasons playing minor league baseball, Maskrey was part of a contingent sent to England in 1890 by Albert Spalding at the behest of a newly formed national professional baseball body. This organization had sent a letter to the American Spalding requesting help in establishing a league. They requested eight to ten players to coach and convert the existing players. Spalding sent a skilled manager, Jim Hart, along with players Maskrey, William J. Barr, Charles Bartlett, and J. E. Prior. Maskrey was the only one of the players who had played in the majors to that point, and stayed there for one season as a manager.

Following his sojourn in England, Maskrey returned to the U.S. minor leagues in 1891, where he played for the Tacoma team in the Pacific Northwestern League. After spending the 1892 season with the Atlanta Firecrackers of the Southern Association, part of which he spent as a player-manager, he retired and went into the hotel business with his brother Harry.