James Creighton, Jr. was born on April 15, 1841, in lower Manhattan to Irish immigrant parents. When Creighton was just eight years old, his mother passed away. Then, in late 1857, his father moved the family to Brooklyn, and by the time he was sixteen, young James had become recognized for his superior athletic skills in baseball and cricket.

At the age of seventeen, Creighton joined the Niagara of Brooklyn club as a second baseman. In a game on July 19, 1859, the Niagaras were being pummeled by the Star Club of Brooklyn, and Creighton was brought on as a relief pitcher. Under the rules at the time, a pitcher was required to deliver the ball underhanded with his arm locked straight at the elbow and at the wrist. However, Creighton somehow managed to apply a spin to the ball, making it harder for batters to hit it squarely. Players for the Star Club claimed that Creighton was using an illegal snap of the wrist to deliver the pitch. The Star Club would eventually win the game, but following the match, Creighton left the Niagaras and joined the Stars for the rest of the 1859 season.

Before the 1860 season began, Creighton left the Star Club and joined the Brooklyn Excelsiors. It was during his time with the Excelsiors that Creighton became one of baseball’s earliest stars. In addition to his pitching skills, Creighton was reportedly an excellent hitter and fielder. He helped popularize a more competitive style of baseball and is often considered one of the game’s first pitching innovators. The spin that Creighton managed to apply to his pitches would frequently cause the pitch to veer upwards, making Creighton the inadvertent inventor of the breaking ball. Due to his dominance on the mound, opponents naturally accused Creighton of cheating. However, other pitchers eventually started to mimic his technique, and it soon became a standard pitching tactic.

Tragically, Creighton died at only 21 years old, supposedly after suffering a serious injury while playing against the Union of Morrisania club on October 14, 1862. Hitting a home run in the sixth inning of the contest, Creighton allegedly suffered an injury in his abdominal area. After the game, he began to experience severe pain and hemorrhaging in his abdomen. He died in his father’s home on October 18, 1862.

Creighton’s cause of death remains disputed, however. Tom Shieber, senior curator of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, commented, “Dying while hitting a long home run is a great story; it’s just not true.” Shieber researched original news sources and found no references to Creighton hitting a home run in that game, although he did hit four doubles in the contest. Later research suggested that Creighton suffered from a chronic inguinal hernia, and that the overwhelming workload from playing both baseball and cricket contributed to worsening the hernia.

Despite his short career, Jim Creighton had a major influence on the development of early American baseball. Baseball writer John Thorn wrote that Creighton “was baseball’s first hero, and I believe, the most important player not inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.”