🧾 Jim MacCannon
Born: November 3, 1856
Birthplace: Edinburgh, Scotland
Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland
Throws: Right
Bats: Right
Nickname: “Mac” or “The Scotsman”
James MacCannon was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on a windswept November morning in 1856, the third of seven children in a stonecutter’s household. His father, Malcolm MacCannon, labored in the quarries outside the city and had dreams of better prospects in America. In 1865, when Jim was not yet nine, the MacCannon family boarded a steamer bound for the port of Baltimore, following a cousin who had found steady work in the booming shipyards.
The MacCannons settled in South Baltimore, in a crowded rowhouse near the docks. Malcolm found work as a caulker and later as a warehouse foreman, while Jim took to the streets with a quiet intensity. Though thick-accented and foreign-born, he quickly earned a reputation in the schoolyard for his fists, his grit, and most of all, his arm.
By his early teens, Jim worked as a laborer’s assistant at the port—hauling crates, sweeping docks, and sneaking away whenever he could to play ball with local firehouse and warehouse teams. His natural ability on the mound was impossible to ignore. By 17, he was known across the city's informal circuits as a pitcher with unnerving precision, a deceptive motion, and a rising fastball that seemed to pick up speed after it left his hand.
Though stoic and serious, MacCannon drew attention. In the fall of 1877, scouts for the fledgling Baltimore Clippers, newly admitted to the professional ranks, offered him a contract—modest in pay, but rich in opportunity. He accepted without fanfare.
When the 1878 season began, Jim MacCannon, just 21 years old, was handed the ball for the Clippers. The club would not last long, but even in those uncertain early days, MacCannon’s mechanical poise and iron temperament marked him as a ballplayer built for the long haul.
He wouldn’t say much. He rarely cracked a grin. But if you gave him a ball and a lead, you could almost always walk away with a win.