Looking for info about Bill Fincher

[mac30]

Hi! I'm currently working on a town history project in Arkansas and in my research of old newspapers, I came across this:

Brinkley Argus
Mar. 17, 1916
Holly Grove Boy Now in St. Louis
Bill Fincher, the Holly Grove boy who broke into League Baseball last year and
made a splendid record as a pitcher, with the Little Rock Club of the Southern League and who was at the end of the season drafted into St. Louis Brown’s team, is already showing himself a big favorite.
In the Little Rock Club, he was known and referred to as “Wee Willie”, but in the St. Louis papers and baseball circles they are already calling him “Big Bill” and “Wonder Worker”.
Here’s hoping that he will make the greatest record of the year.

The town I'm researching is Holly Grove. I've looked Bill Fincher up online and found his stats. Now I'm wondering if a photo of him as a St. Louis Brown exists? I'm also wondering why he only played for a year? Does anyone know what happened to him after he played for the Browns?

[VIBaseball]

Here's what I gathered from my search of ProQuest:

July 29, 1916: Browns sell Fincher to Memphis Chicks. Article notes again that Fincher pitched with Little Rock in 1915.

He must have been recalled, though the papers don't show it, because his last appearance with the Browns was on 9/30/16.

March 23, 1920: This is the only other mention of our man (there was a Georgia Tech football player who was his namesake). Fincher was a member of the San Antonio club in the Texas League, facing a squad of New York Giants rookies.

There is an image of Fincher, though I can't see it online. It's his black and white 1917 Zeenuts Pacific Coast League card, #45. This is the only one cited in the SABR Encyclopedia; not sure if one in Browns uniform exists.

[VIBaseball]

I searched under "William" -- that's how he's billed on the Zeenuts card. And that brought me to a story from October 20, 1918 saying that Fincher served in the Army (World War I). No mention if he went overseas.

[mac30]

Thanks so much for this information! That helps more than you know! I'll see if I can find his image in the encyclopedia you mentioned.

[VIBaseball]

mac30, the SABR Encyclopedia isn't a book, it's an online resource and you have to be a SABR member with a login to see it.

Also, while that web page shows you the reference to the image, the image itself isn't stored there. Unfortunately, the page I saw on Google that once had the Zeenuts cards posted in .jpg form is now a dead link. So I couldn't tell what PCL team Fincher played for in 1917.

[mac30]

Thanks. To be honest, I know very little about baseball - I'm more of a history researcher, so all of this is really educational for me. Do you think it's possible that the people who work for the SABR Encyclopedia would be willing to send the photo in an email? Thanks again!

[VIBaseball]

I dug around some more and found my way to the image, mac30!

Here's the link:

http://www.cardpricer.com/images.php?postfix=s&mainpage_id=&directory=Zeenuts/17Zeenuts#

This is the main site, which notes that the broken link I found earlier is from the project of a collector named Wayne Delia:

http://www.cardpricer.com/

This is Wayne's site:

http://s102071221.onlinehome.us/

[VIBaseball]

Here's the pic itself:

[mac30]

This is SO terrific!! Thank you so very much for finding the picture!! I really can't tell you how much I appreciate it!!!!