Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The daily newsletter that loves this game as much as chicks dig the long ball.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about one of the top pitchers of the 1890s and his mysterious suicide.

You’ve probably never heard of George “Win” Mercer, but he was an absolute workhorse for the Washington Senators back in the day.

During his six seasons with the club (1894-1899), he averaged 30 complete games a year.

His career total for CG’s (253) is still ranked 76th all time.

Mercer quickly became a fan favorite in Washington, especially with the ladies.

According to sportswriter Fred Lieb “Mercer was one of the most handsome players in the game.”

The club liked pitching him on Tuesdays and Fridays because those were “ladies days” at the ballpark, and he drew huge crowds.

These woman loved him so much that they even beat up an umpire for him.

Bruce Nash and Allan Zulo described the incident in their book, The Baseball Hall of Shame:

Win pitched well through the 1897 season, but the years of overuse caught up to him, and he started playing in the field a lot more starting in 1898.

After the 1899 season, the National League disbanded the Washington Senators because they were a godawful baseball team, but Mercer continued to play in the big leagues for the next few years.

He suited up for the Giants, the Senators again (this time in the AL), and then he played his final season in 1902 with the Tigers.

Win was super popular with fans and players, and at 28 years old, he had been offered his first managerial job by Detroit for the 1903 season.

It seemed like things were going in the right direction, but to everyone’s surprise Mercer killed himself on January 17th that year.

He was found in the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco, and the cause of death was determined to be carbon monoxide poisoning caused by inhalation of illuminating gas.

Which left everyone wondering… why?

There was immediately conflicting stories, and to this day, no one really knows the truth.

One of Mercer’s suicide notes contained a warning.

“A word to friends: beware of women and a game of chance”

So some people thought this might have something to do with a woman, but there was no credible theories around that.

Other sources reported that Mercer was deep in debt, to the tune of over $8,000, and that some of that money wasn’t even his.

That off season, he had organized a barnstorming tour of the west with Tip O’Neil and it was thought that Mercer had gambled some of the players’ money away.

But Addie Joss was on that tour, and he claimed that he received his share of the proceeds (around $600).

That doesn’t necessarily rule out that his gambling debt was a factor, but it does show that Mercer probably wasn’t defrauding his players.

The reality is, no one actually knows the cause except Mercer himself, and unfortunately, we’ll never get that answer.

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STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

He kicked off his pro baseball journey with the Haverhill Hustlers, and not too long after, he snagged a deal with the St. Louis Cardinals.

But Simmy was a total flop when he got into the big leagues.

He swung the bat like he was chasing butterflies in the outfield, putting up a cringe-worthy .137 batting average.

And just when you thought things couldn't get worse, the next season arrived, and his hitting slump showed no mercy.

He went to the New England League and spent a couple of years there before getting another shot in the show with the Brooklyn Superbas.

Unfortunately, Simmy's stint with the Superbas lasted about as long as it takes to microwave a bag of popcorn – just six games.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

If you like this story, check out some of our past favorites:

• The Chalmers Scandal: Ty Cobb wins a car

• The Conman: Pearce Chiles escapes from prison

• The Sodfather: Meet the first family of groundskeeping