John Fulton Woods (January 18, 1898 – October 4, 1946) was a professional baseballpitcher and police officer. He appeared in one game in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox during the 1924 season. Listed at 6feet 0inches (1.83m), 175lb (79kg). During his career, Woods batted and threw right-handed.
John Fulton Woods was born to Judge John Hugh Gordon Woods and Margaret Peck Woods on January 18, 1898, in Princeton, West Virginia.[1] He and his twin brother, Carl, had three older siblings and one younger sister. Raised near the East River, he went to the Knob Street School for eight years and graduated from the East River District High School. In 1970, his widow told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that Woods starred in baseball, basketball, and track and field while in high school.[2]
According to Russo, Woods spent most of 1924 pitching for Charleston.[1] The city did not have a minor league baseball team at this time, so the team was likely a semipro team.[2][4] The Red Sox purchased his contract that September.[2][1]
After the 1924 season, the Spartanburg Spartans of the Class CSouth Atlantic League acquired Woods's contract, then sold it back to the Red Sox on March 20, 1925. Woods would not pitch in the major leagues for Boston again, spending most of 1925 with the Dover Dobbins of the Class DEastern Shore League.[2]Baseball-Reference.com credits him with 22 appearances for Dover, though the statistics are incomplete.[6] According to baseball historian Frank Russo, Woods also played for the Binghamton Triplets of the Class BNew York-Penn League in 1925. He played for the Easton Farmers of the Eastern Shore League in 1927. After tearing tendons and ligaments in his left shoulder while helping move a car out of a ditch, he retired.[1][2]
Norfolk Police Department
Following his retirement, Woods became a policeman in 1927 and joined the Norfolk Police Department (NPD) in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1929.[1][2] Part of the reason he was hired was that the department desperately needed a pitcher for its baseball team.[2] Woods progressed through the ranks of the department and attended the FBI National Academy.[1][2] In 1939, he became the NPD's Chief of Police.[1] He served as the president of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police in 1943. The second vice president of the International Chiefs of Police Association, he was in line to take over as the organization's president in 1947.[2]
On October 4, 1946, Woods was responding to a car crash on Cottage Toll Road (now known as Tidewater Drive). When he arrived at the scene at 12:20 AM, he crashed into a parked tow truck. Suffering a broken neck and crushed right side of his chest, he died instantly.[1][2] Only 48 years old, Woods was buried in Block 9, Lot 19, Space W of the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Norfolk on October 6.[1]
Personal life
Woods married Sarah Elizabeth Charlton, a North Carolina resident, on July 12, 1922. They lived with Sarah's sister, M. Kathleen Wickers, and her children in Norfolk. The Woodses had three children: John Jr., George, and Robert. According to his widow, Woods was "a very capable person, and a fine Christian gentleman".[2] Though Woods was listed at 6feet 0inches (1.83m), 175 pounds (79kg) during his career, his widow said that he weighed just 150 pounds (68kg) in later years.[2]
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article John_Woods_(baseball), and is written by contributors.
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