Walter Thornton, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetWalter Thornton
Major League Baseball player, Christian Evangelist
Date of Birth: 18-Feb-1875
Place of Birth: Peoria, Illinois, United States
Date of Death: 14-Jul-1960
Profession: baseball player
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Aquarius 
About Walter Thornton
- Walter Miller Thornton (February 18, 1875 – July 14, 1960) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher who played from 1895 through 1898 for the Chicago Colts / Orphans. A skilled athlete who excelled in baseball, Thornton pitched Snohomish, Washington, to the state's amateur championship in 1893.
- In the spring of 1895, two Cornell College graduates who owned the Snohomish Tribune arranged a scholarship for Thornton to attend Cornell.
- He dominated the college competition and was invited to a tryout with the Chicago Colts (later the Chicago Cubs) National League baseball team.
- He made his major league debut on July 1, 1895, while still enrolled at Cornell. He pitched a no-hitter on August 21, 1898 against the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, a 2-0 victory.
- In 1896, Thornton married a Cornell teacher, Sarah Andrews, director of the School of Oratory and Physical Culture.
- She was 26, he was 21.
- After a salary dispute ended his major league baseball career, the Thorntons returned to the Pacific Northwest, where Walter played semi-pro ball and worked in Everett, Washington.
- In 1901, Thornton compiled what is arguably the county's best baseball team.
- The Everett semi-pro team won its first 27 games and shut out professional teams from Spokane, Washington, Seattle, Washington and Tacoma, Washington. In 1910, an evangelist named Billy Sunday, a former professional baseball player for the Chicago White Stockings and the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, brought a six-week religious campaign to Everett.
- Thornton became a lifelong follower of Sunday and his religious teachings.
- He later moved to Los Angeles in the 1920s, after Sarah's death, to become a street preacher and help the poor.
- In July 1960, Thornton died in a Los Angeles hotel, and was cremated.
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