Bob Addy

Robert Edward Addy (February 1842 – April 9, 1910), nicknamed "the Magnet", was an amateur and professional baseball player who was the first Canadian player, manager, and umpire in major league baseball. Playing mostly right field and second base, Addy's professional career spanned from in the National Association to in the National League. He was often credited as the first player to introduce the slide in an organized game, but this is doubted by modern historians.

Career Bob Addy was born on February 1842 in Port Hope, located in what is now Ontario. Historically, he was credited with employing the first slide in an organized baseball game while playing for the 1866 Rockford Forest Citys, but historians consider him to most likely be simply an early popularizer of the tactic. Addy continued to play with the Forest Citys through 1871, and became the first Canadian player in the major leagues when Rockford joined the first all-professional league, the National Association. playing in right field, hitting .355, and finished ninth in the league with a .354 on-base percentage.

He did not play for the Red Stockings in 1874, as he signed to play for the Hartford Dark Blues, but his batting declined to .239, and his on-base percentage dropped to .243.

At season's end, the Association folded and was replaced by the National League, and Addy joined the Chicago White Stockings. Chicago won the league title that season, with Addy playing 32 games and hitting .282. Addy moved to his second Major League team in two years, and sixth team in seven years, when he joined the Cincinnati Reds, playing every day in right field, and later took over as the team's manager after Lip Pike quit the position.

Post-career In his autobiography, Cap Anson described Addy's playing style, writing, "Bob Addy, who was one of the best of the lot, was a good, hard hustling player, a good base runner and a hard hitter. He was as honest as the day is long... He was an odd sort of a genius and quit the game because he thought he could do better at something else."

Addy later made an unsuccessful attempt to popularize baseball played on ice. He died at the age of 68 in Pocatello, Idaho, and is interred at Mountain View Cemetery.