#5: John Merritt

John Merritt


Dear Lord, I've stumbled upon Archie Graham! OK, so he's not really Archibald "Moonlight" Graham, but look at this guy's page! This guy got into 1 game with the Giants at the ripe age of 18 on September 27, 1913. No at bats, no fielding chances. That's it. Done. If I can do this, I don't think there's a player I can't do this with!

John Merritt --> '13 Giants --> Grover Hartley
--> Hartley --> '34 Browns --> Bobo Newsom
----> Newsom --> '53 Athletics --> Bobby Shantz
------> Shantz --> '64 Cardinals
------> Shantz --> '64 Cubs
------> Shantz --> '64 Phillies

I may have caught a break here. Three teams in one year gives me a lot of options.

------> Shantz --> '64 Phillies --> Tony Taylor

Tony Taylor helped me get the Ty Tyson completed. I know for certain I can connect the chain to Stairs:

Merritt --> '13 Giants --> Hartley
Hartley --> '34 Browns --> Newsom
Newsom --> '53 Athletics --> Shantz
Shantz --> '64 Phillies --> Taylor
Taylor --> '76 Phillies --> Cash
Cash --> '77 Expos --> Carter
Carter --> '92 Expos --> Stairs

OK, so worst case scenario, I can link Merritt to Stairs in 7 degrees. However, since the goal is to get 6 or less, I'll go back to Shantz and the three teams he played with.

------> Shantz --> '64 Phillies --> Rick Wise
--------> Wise --> '82 Padres

------> Shantz --> '64 Cubs --> Fred Norman, Don Kessinger
--------> Kessinger --> '79 White Sox
--------> Norman --> '80 Expos

------> Shantz --> '64 Cardinals --> Lou Brock, Tim McCarver, Mike Cueller
--------> Brock --> '79 Cardinals
--------> Cuellar --> '77 Angels
--------> McCarver --> '80 Phillies

I have two potential links to my "Big 3" - Fred Norman most definitely played with Carter on that Expos team, and Mike Cuellar was an Oriole with Denny Martinez. Since I used Carter last time, let's go with Martinez today.

1. John Merritt played for the 1913 New York Giants with Grover Hartley
2. Grover Hartley played for the 1934 St. Louis Browns with Bobo Newsom
3. Bobo Newsom played for the 1953 Philadelphia Athletics with Bobby Shantz
4. Bobby Shantz played for the 1964 St. Louis Cardinals with Mike Cuellar
5. Mike Cuellar played for the 1976 Baltimore Orioles with Dennis Martinez
6. Dennis Martinez played for the 1992 Montreal Expos with Matt Stairs!

Degrees of Matt Stairs: 6

Seriously, can this get any more difficult? Abner Doubleday doesn't have a page, does he? (I checked, he only has a bio.)