The thread that pulled the Sox together: The legacy of Buffalo's Baseball Hall of Famer Jimmy Collins

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) -- A 1917 "Buffalo Evening News" article deemed legendary Boston third baseman and manager Jimmy Collins as "the first one to put Buffalo on the map as a city which rears great baseball players."

Throughout his career, Collins used the money for which he negotiated in his contracts to invest in his business endeavors, including various baseball clubs, but primarily in South Buffalo real estate. Upon moving back home in the years following his retirement, Collins and his family relocated to one of his South Buffalo properties. He also owned a summer home at Crystal Beach.

In addition to 674 games with the Boston Beaneaters and 741 games with the Boston Americans between 1901 and 1907, plus 96 games while on loan to the Louisville Colonels in 1895, Collins also played 214 games with the Philadelphia Athletics between 1907 and 1908 before his retirement.

After years of being cheered on by Boston baseball's loyal fanbase the Royal Rooters, it was time for Collins to return to his roots.

"Jimmy certainly needs no introduction to Buffalo fans," another "Buffalo Evening News" article reads. "He is known as the greatest baseball player Buffalo has ever produced. He was born in Buffalo (sic) and was the son of the late Police Captain Anthony Collins. Jimmy now takes care of his real estate in Buffalo."

Collins grew up as the middle child of five, his siblings including Mary, Harry, Anthony Jr., and Margaret.

According to census records, Collins married Sarah Murphy in late 1906 or early 1907, however, record keepers in Boston, the State of Massachusetts, Buffalo, and Philadelphia were unable to locate his marriage record upon request. Jim Walsh said he believes they were married in Cape Cod, but is not certain. Sarah Murphy's mother, Honora Murphy, speculated in a June 1907 edition of "The Boston Daily Globe" that the pair had been married two months prior in Buffalo.

The 1910 census shows the pair as married for four years and living with daughter Kathlyn (though her name was spelled "Kathleen" on the 1910 document, unlike future census records, which have it spelled correctly), at the home of Collins' brother-in-law, Thomas Goode Jr. on Calumet Street in Boston.

In total, Collins had three children: Agnes, who was born in 1908 and died the following year, Kathlyn, who was born in 1909, and Claire, who was born in 1912.

In censuses leading up to 1920, Collins had some variation of "ballplayer" listed under the occupation. In the 1920 census, back in Western New York, he was listed as a "real estate owner." Collins at the time was living at 30 Edson Street in Buffalo, adjacent to Cazenovia Park and what is now Warren Spahn Way, named after one of Collins' successors in the Buffalo baseball pantheon.

Following Collins' death, he was survived by his wife, Sarah (nee Murphy), his brother Anthony Jr., his daughter, Kathlyn and her husband Frank Walsh, and his daughter Claire and her husband George McCall. Kathlyn Walsh gave birth to Jim Walsh later that year.

Jim Walsh laughed as he explained why he himself never played baseball at a high level like his grandfather, though he did play third base, in addition to shortstop and catcher in little league.

"When I was very little, I was playing in the midget leagues of Buffalo, N.Y. Everybody thought I was going to be the next Jimmy Collins," he said. "Unfortunately, at 13, I found out what girls were."

Though Walsh was more enamored with chasing girls than baseball, when Jimmy Collins took over as president of Buffalo's youth Municipal League in March 1922, "Buffalo Times" reporter Robert Stedler asked rhetorically if anyone could name a more fitting selection for the position and highlighted how kids in the area idolized Collins.

"Jimmy Collins the idol of every youngster of today who has heard or read of the one-time peerless third sacker," Stedler wrote upon the move. "Jimmy Collins to whom all Buffalo has pointed with pride and who is today one of the most highly respected citizens of the south side."

Collins was elected to the position after then-president Albert Febrey got himself in some legal trouble. Febrey was arrested on fraud charges in February and later sentenced to two to five years in prison.

"When he returned home, he certainly became a fixture," Boston sports historian and Sports Museum curator Richard Johnson said of Collins.

Upon his death, each Municipal League game observed a minute of silence in honor of "The People's Choice."

Johnson noted the similarities between Boston and Buffalo, two cities with large Irish communities proud of their heritage. He said that the bookends of the Buffalo-Boston sports connection are currently Jimmy Collins and Rob Gronkowski, joking that if time travel existed, Gronk would have been at Collins' wake, leading the group in celebration.

In 2018, KO Bar & Grill owner Kevin Osinski hosted a four-day event at the North Buffalo bar in to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Collins' wake. It was held as a fundraiser for amateur youth baseball at the Hertel North Park league, which hosted an annual Jimmy Collins Tournament until 2022. The bar, also near Collins’ Wilbury residence, paid tribute to Collins with various promotions, including a specialty beer brewed by Community Beer Works, deemed “The People’s Choice,” in honor of Collins' nickname. Before the bar was named "KO," Osinski and his brother Jeff had initially considered naming it "Skipper's" in honor of Collins.

"Jimmy Collins was a great citizen of the city of Buffalo, great baseball player, great union guy," Osinski said. "When he retired and came back, he was heavily involved in the Buffalo Muny League, which I played in as a young man, and it just had a great impact on the city of Buffalo."

Osinski said he thought it was important that people unaware of Collins' impact on Buffalo learn about it, especially given his legacy in North Buffalo. Though the bar closed upon Osinski's retirement last year, his fondness for Collins and what he meant to Buffalo has not wavered.

"He was almost the essence of Buffalo," Osinski continued. "He was involved, a hard-working guy, became famous in Boston, came back, had a huge impact on building housing in South Buffalo, later moved to North Buffalo."

Jim Walsh said his son Stephen traveled to Buffalo for the event. Osinski had the chance to speak with him and said their conversations were wonderful.

According to his "Buffalo Evening News" obituary, Collins' pallbearers were fellow directors of the Muny Association: Albert Hanavan, Frank Klipfel, Thomas Bowman, Leon Nowak, Leo Packanowski, and Frank Denny. The ceremony was celebrated by Rev. James A. Horrigan and Collins is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Lackawanna.

Richard Johnson said the wake was a farewell to Collins done in "the most traditional way possible," describing it as, "like a scene from a movie."

Although Johnson was not alluding to Honus Wagner being present at Collins' wake in the lyrics of "Jimmy Collins' Wake," Wagner and Collins remained close following their baseball careers, with Wagner visiting Collins on several occasions, per Collins' obituary. Wagner deemed him "a tough guy on the field and a grand ball-player."

In addition to Wagner, Collins was also friends with heavyweight champion bareknuckle boxer John L. Sullivan, who was nicknamed " The Boston Strong Boy."

Sullivan reportedly roused a crowd at a public dinner for Collins in 1897, telling the Boston third baseman that he'd go further for him than any man in Boston. The following year, he congratulated Collins on winning the home run title.

Joseph Kelly -- the mayor of Buffalo at the time of Collins' death -- named him "the greatest player Buffalo has ever given the game." Others, such as New York Yankees manager Joe McCarthy and Bisons president John Gehm clamored for Collins to be put in the Hall of Fame, saying he should have already been inducted. Collins was inducted into the Hall in 1945.

In 2016, "The Buffalo News" named Collins the seventh-greatest male athlete and second-greatest baseball player to come from Buffalo, behind Jimmy Slattery (boxing), Christian Laettner (basketball), Rob Gronkowski (football), Patrick Kane (hockey), Bob Lanier (basketball), and Braves pitcher Warren Spahn, who was ranked number one overall by "The News" and still holds the record for most Major League wins by a left-hander.

Spahn played with the Braves from 1942-52 in Boston and 1953-64 in Milwaukee, with a three-year hiatus from 1943-45 to serve in World War II. He split the 1965 season -- his final year of play -- between the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants. Spahn was a graduate of South Park High School and played semi-professional baseball as a third baseman while Collins was heading up the Muny League.

Slattery, a former professional boxer, had a brief overlap working at the Buffalo Parks Department with Collins in 1942 while Collins served as head of the Muny League.

Part of why Collins may not be as well-known in Buffalo, as opposed to ballplayers like Spahn, is because a symbol of his legacy: the Jimmy Collins Memorial Fountain, which was set to be built in Delaware Park and was approved by the Buffalo Common Council, was vetoed in July 1946 by Irish-American Mayor Bernard Dowd, who instead elected to allocate funds to World War II memorials. A memorial to Collins never made it back to the table in the years following.

Bohen notes the general lack of celebration of Collins in the city of Buffalo in his book "Emerald Thread", and elaborated further in a phone call.

"We haven't done anything to correct that [veto]," Bohen said in the call. "I cannot believe people are not more excited about him. I've got to think he's a top-10, if not top-5, athlete to come out of Buffalo."

In separate conversations with Charlie Bevis and Richard Johnson, both historians came to the conclusion that without Collins' negotiation efforts and move to the Boston Americans from the Boston Beaneaters in 1901, the Red Sox franchise would not exist as it does today.

"It was Collins who had that businessperson attitude and understood the dynamics of the spectator base in Boston," Bevis said. "You had to have a deeper understanding of what it was going to take to get the fans to move over from the National League team to support the new American team. Collins had that perspective and could figure out how to monetize it. He was way ahead of his time, I think, as a businessperson -- I mean, he had a decent education, it wasn't like he had a sixth grade education -- but I don't know, I think that's an important perspective."

Johnson argued that the war between the Boston teams was won before a single pitch was thrown, with the Americans building their stadium across the train tracks from the Beaneaters stadium, empowering National League players like Collins and Young to swap teams.

"When he returned home, he was not at loose ends the way many players would have been," Johnson said. "He knew what he was doing. You know, he was a landlord, he was a business guy. He certainly parlayed a degree of his fame as a ballplayer into his business exploits and, again, really set a great example for future players, I think, in terms of how to conduct oneself afterwards. Baseball needed him more than he needed baseball."

He also noted that Forbes currently estimates the value of the Red Sox at over $4 billion, and questioned whether the team would be as valuable and historically significant without Collins' involvement early on.

Bevis and Johnson are unquestionably the leading authorities on Collins' life, and both have sung his praises, though he has in other ways gone largely unsung, especially outside of Boston. Following Johnson's correspondence with the Dropkick Murphys, the band quite literally sang his praises, helping to further cement the legend of Jimmy Collins in baseball history.

To read more on the legend of Jimmy Collins, click the links below.

Part I: Buffalo's Baseball Hall of Famer: The legend of Jimmy Collins
Part II: Jimmy Collins’ Wake: How a Red Sox Hall of Famer from Buffalo inspired a Dropkick Murphys song
Part III: Herd mentality: Baseball Hall of Famer Jimmy Collins' time with the Buffalo Bisons and growing up in WNY
Part IV: How Buffalo's Jimmy Collins helped spur the rise of the Irish-American in early-1900s Boston