one of the leading players of the age, but this talk of his being better than Herman Long is all rot." In the 2001 book The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, writer Bill James ranked Long as the 34th greatest shortstop of all-time. Fielding Long holds the major league record for most errors in a career (1,096). Only three other players have made more than 1,000 errors in their careers: Bill Dahlen, Deacon White, and Germany Smith. White is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Long's total includes a record 1,070 errors committed while playing shortstop. Despite the errors, Long actually fielded slightly better than the league average for a shortstop during his career, and he was considered an excellent fielder by his contemporaries. The seeming contradiction between a high error rate and exceptional fielding skill is attributable to the fact that Long had a greater fielding range than most shortstops. He could get to balls batted to his left and right that other fielders would not have reached; a certain percentage of these difficult plays were mishandled, resulting in Long being charged with errors on grounders and flies that lesser shortstops would not have touched (and on which they would not be charged with errors). There was also another major factor which contributed to Long's relatively large total of career errors: the comparative abundance of errors during gameplay in 19th century professional baseball. In a typical game played in the 1800s, each team committed about ten errors (for a one-game combined total of about 20). Death In August 1909, The New York Times reported that Long was very sick. Several months earlier, he had moved to Denver, Colorado, because he was suffering from a lung condition. He died of tuberculosis the next month in Denver. See also List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders List of Major League Baseball career stolen bases leaders List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders List of Major League Baseball annual runs scored leaders List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle Notes References External links 1866 births 1909 deaths 19th-century baseball players 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Major League Baseball shortstops National League home run champions Kansas City Cowboys players Boston Beaneaters players New York Highlanders players Detroit