Jacob P. Beckley

(1867-1918) lived in Lincoln. Professional baseball player, manager, umpire, credited with developing an effective hidden-ball trick as a first baseman, he played in 20 major league seasons, compiling a career batting average of .308, and holds records for most games played, most putouts, and most chances accepted at first base; he played in Lincoln during the 1887 Western League season, and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971. Consult Nebraska State Journal, July 29, 1906, Sec. 2, p. 7 and Ira L. Smith, Baseball's Famous First Basemen (A. S. Barnes, 1956) 35-42 and Biographical Dictionary of American Sports: Baseball, Vol 1 (Greenwood Press, 2000) 81-83.

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