Marty Bergen (baseball player)
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Martin Bergen (October 25, 1871 - January 19, 1900) was a Major League Baseball player with the Boston Beaneaters from 1896-1899. His baseball career and life came to an end after the 1899 season in a multiple murder and suicide.
Born in North Brookfield, Massachusetts, Bergen played in 344 major league games for the Beaneaters teams that won two straight National League pennants (1897-1898) and finished in 2nd place in 1899. He had a career batting average of .258 with 69 extra base hits and 176 RBIs.
As a catcher, he had mixed results, as exemplified by the 1898 season. On the plus side, he had a Range factor of 5.17 in 1898 -- well above the league average of 4.60 for catchers. However, he also led the league's catchers with 24 errors and 38 passed balls.
After four seasons with the best team in baseball, Bergen was one of the best-known players in the country. In January 1900, the 28-year-old Bergen ended his life in a horrific bloodbath, as Bergen killed his wife and two children with an axe and then cut his own throat with a straight razor at his home in North Brookfield, Massachusetts. Bergen's father discovered the bodies. According to an article from The New York Times reporting on the tragedy:
| “ | The little boy (Bergen's 3-year-old son) was lying on the floor with a large wound in the head. Mrs. Bergen's skull was terribly crushed, having evidently been struck more than one blow by the infuriated husband. The appearance of the little girl (his 6-year-old daughter found on the kitchen floor next to Bergen) also showed that a number of savage blows had been rained upon the top and side of her head. Bergen's throat had been cut with a razor, and the head was nearly severed. | ” |
("Kills His Entire Family: Martin Bergen, Boston's Catcher, a Murderer and Suicide," The New York Times, Saturday, January 20, 1900)[1]
Prior to the tragedy, Bergen's behavior had become erratic. At times during the 1899 season, Bergen disappeared from the team without notice. He once went home and refused to play, alleging that he had been mistreated by fellow players and his manager. Bergen was persuaded to return to the team, but had been subject to "fits of melancholy" and had "showed signs of insanity" in the fall of 1899. [2] There were also reports that he had suffered a career-ending broken hip during a game in the 1899 season [3] and that he was depressed over the sudden death of a child in 1899. (Floyd Conner, "Baseball's Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of the National Pastime's Outrageous Offenders," p. 360)
In one book on Boston baseball history, Bergen was recalled as an eccentric catcher who kept the Boston team in turmoil in 1899. The book recounts that Bergen's son died in 1899, and that Bergen "would catch a few games, then ask manager Frank Selee if he could return home for a few days." (Harold Kaense, "The Boston Braves, 1871-1953," p. 97.) [4] When Selee refused permission, Bergen would go home anyway. Bergen complained that players kept reminding him of his son who had died, and he resented a $300 fine imposed for being AWOL. "Black moods came on Bergen who seemed to be happy only when on his farm in North Brookfield." Several players said they would not return to the Beaneaters in 1900 if the increasingly erratic Bergen was still with the club. (Kaense, "'The Boston Braves," p. 97)
In 1934, Connie Mack and George M. Cohan, both of whom had ties to Brookfield, helped raise funds to erect a granite memorial to Bergen. The inscription on the monument at Bergen's grave site at St. Joseph's Cemetery on Bell Street read: "In memory of Martin Bergen, 1871-1900. Member of the Boston National League Club. Erected in appreciation of his contribution to American's national game." (Kaense, "'The Boston Braves," pp. 97-98) Connie Mack (who was born in East Brookfield 9 years before Bergen) reportedly knew Bergen and played baseball with him in "The Brookfields." [5]
Marty Bergen's brother Bill Bergen played 11 seasons as a major league catcher from 1901-1911, and was thought of as a terrific catcher but one of the worst hitters in baseball history.
