John J. McGraw Monument

There are in Truxton, New York, three interrelated sites associated with legendary baseball manager John J. McGraw, who was born in that Central New York town in 1873. The three are a monument to the native son, a baseball field named in his honor, and a sign memorializing the game played at John J. McGraw Field that funded the carving and installation of the memorial to McGraw.

McGraw’s father, also named John, emigrated to the United States in 1856. In his first fifteen years in America, John Sr. served in the Union Army during the Civil War, married and fathered a daughter, suffered the death of his wife, and relocated to Truxton. There, he married Ellen Comerfort, who bore seven children of which the younger John McGraw was the eldest.

Young McGraw had a difficult childhood. The family of ten was poor in an era before public assistance. When he was 12, a diphtheria epidemic struck the area, killing his mother and four of his siblings, including his older half-sister. John Sr. never recovered from the trauma of burying a second wife and became physically abusive to his namesake. McGraw fils ran away at 12 and a neighbor persuaded the father to let the boy live with her and her two sons.

McGraw had an early love of baseball and worked odd jobs—including walking the aisles of the Elmira, Cortland and Northern Railroad selling candy, fruit, and magazines—so he could afford to purchase sports equipment. A star pitcher locally at 16, McGraw talked his way on to a minor league baseball team in Olean, New York. In his first minor league contest, McGraw made eight errors in 10 chances at third base and was released after six games. It was a momentary setback.

Picked up by Wellsville, one of four squads competing in the sole season of the Western New York League, McGraw batted .364 in 24 games but more importantly, met former National League player Al Lawson, who brought the 17-year-old on a winter exhibition tour of Cuba. Returning home, the “American All-Stars” took on the Cleveland Spyders at the latter’s spring training camp. McGraw hit three doubles in five at-bats, garnering national notice in The Sporting News and thereby, multiple offers for the coming season.

McGraw signed with the Cedar Rapids Canaries of the independent Illinois-Iowa League, where he batted .276 in 85 games as the club’s everyday shortstop. At the request of the Baltimore Orioles, the Canaries released McGraw and he made his major league debut at age 18. McGraw played eight seasons with the Birds, then another nine as a player-manager with the Orioles, Cardinals, and Giants, becoming the full-time skipper of the Giants in 1908. He had a lifetime batting average of .334 and on-base percentage of .466, trailing only Ted Williams and Babe Ruth in career OBP, admittedly in far fewer games. He had five seasons in which he scored 100 or more runs and three seasons with 50 or more stolen bases, admirable statistics today even with a longer season.

That said, McGraw is primarily known as a manager. He was an innovator and tactician, for example popularizing the hit-and-run play first used by his mentor in Baltimore, Ned Hanlon. McGraw was the first baseball manager to hire coaching staff and use relief pitchers. Among his nicknames was “Little Napoleon” because (he was 5’-7” tall and) called every pitch from the bench, told players how to live their lives off the field, and was verbally abusive. Decades before football coach Vince Lombardi said winning is the only thing, McGraw managed according to that credo and his players by and large bought into the philosophy.

McGraw remains the longest-serving major league manager at 31 seasons. His 2,763 victories ranks third overall behind Connie Mack (3,731) and Tony La Russa (2,880). However, Mack was famously quoted as saying, “There has been only one manager, and his name is John McGraw.” For managers with more than 1,000 victories, his .586 winning percentage is second only to Joe McCarthy (.615), who managed for half as long. McGraw won ten National League pennants, tying him for first with Casey Stengel, and managed three World Series champions.

Four years after McGraw died from prostate cancer at age 60, the New York Giants were permitted to play an exhibition game against a Truxton squad. The friendly match was scheduled to raise funds for a monument to the local lad made good who never returned to his hometown after leaving in 1890 to play baseball in Olean. Unsurprisingly, the professional ball players bested the amateurs, 8-1, but consistent with the game’s purpose, the contest raised the money needed to carve and install the memorial to McGraw. 

The monument is located in a small triangle on the main thoroughfare through town and can be easily overlooked, especially if one is focussed on the bend in the road. The face of the memorial includes a bust of McGraw in relief and the legend, “A great American / One of baseball’s immortals / Dynamic leader of the New York Giants for thirty years.” Carved into the rear is the record, “On August 8, 1938 the New York Giants played an exhibition game with the Truxton ball team in this village which made possible the erection of this memorial.”

John J. McGraw Field, where the exhibition game was held, continues to host amateur sports and other events. A small off-street parking lot is located opposite the Truxton Town Hall, 6290 Railroad Street. On the left field side of the ballpark, along Chenango Road (County Road 600A), is a sign erected in 2025 to remember the 1938 exhibition. According to the sign, approximately 8,000 people attended the game, paying $1.10 (roughly $25.00 in 2025) to watch the contest.

Shortly after McGraw’s death, as it were to happen, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was founded in 1936. John. J. McGraw was one of the 26 members of the 1939 inaugural class, inducted as a manager. Truxton is about an hour-and-a-half west of Cooperstown and a short detour from Interstate-81 between Binghamton and Syracuse.