Yep, The Chronicle is still going... it was on hiatus for a bit, but we're getting ready for 1904 right now and here's a bio on one of the game's biggest stars, the recently retired Charlie Shanafelt:
Charles Robert Shanafelt was born in North Canton, Ohio on June 22, 1864. His father, Horace, a blacksmith by trade, was in the Union Army at the time, serving with General Sherman's army as it "Marched to the sea."
Young Charlie was a rambunctious child, often getting into mischief. He discovered base ball at an early age and it was a pursuit his father, who had played in the Army, approved of despite his mother Mary's aversion to it. To Horace's delight, not only did Charlie enjoy the game, but he also quickly demonstrated a high degree of skill as a batsman. By the time the lad was 12 he was playing with boys three and four years older than he and holding his own.
Charlie joined a barnstorming team at age 16 causing a huge fight between his parents - his mother forbade his leaving, but his father quietly handed the boy $20 and wished him luck. Leaving his mother in tears, Charlie joined his team, which had dubbed itself the Superbas and toured Ohio and Pennsylvania during the summer of 1881, celebrating his 17th birthday by hitting for the cycle in Harrisburg.
Later that summer, he was signed by York of the Pennsylvania League for the balance of the 1881 season and he also spent 1882 in the Penn League, hitting over .400 and ultimately drawing the attention of Ben Groves, who would sign him the next spring to play in the American Association for the New York Metropolitans.
In 1883 Charlie Shanafelt arrived in New York where he quickly showed himself to be a star in the making. He hit .350 to lead his club in batting. He also showed a penchant for breaking curfew and though his nightly excursions became legendary, they also earned him the moniker "Traveler" after his roommate, young catcher George Christian was asked where Shanafelt had gone and replied, "He's out travelin' - you know Charlie."
Shanafelt may have been a nighttime wanderer, but it didn't hurt his play in the days that followed. Charlie would play 21 seasons at baseball's top level, spending three years with the Mets before he was sold to the National League's New York Giants. After four years with the Giants, Shanafelt jumped to the Player's League, but stayed in New York (presumably the plethora of nightly distractions made him a fan of New York City).
Where Shanafelt really made his mark though, was when the Player's League experiment failed and he signed on with the Brooklyn club of the National League. Shanafelt became a fixture in center field with Brooklyn and spent ten years there, with yearly appearances amongst the league leaders in hits and batting average (as well as curfews broken). His 'wandering' ways led him to take a spot with the fledgling American League's Milwaukee entry in 1901, but he spent just one unhappy year in the Midwest before returning to Brooklyn in 1902 and ending his career there in 1903 with a .334 lifetime average and a hit total of 3197, behind only Tom Ewart and Otto Bentz on the all-time list.