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Emmett Tully

 

Date and Place of Birth: April 21, 1905 Eufaula, AL
Date and Place of Death:    January 13, 1943 Savannah, GA
Baseball Experience: Minor League
Position: Pitcher/First Base
Rank: Private First Class
Military Unit: Signal Corps, Fourth Service Command, U.S. Army Air Force
Area Served: United States

George Emmett Tully, most commonly known as Emmett Tully, was the son of Irish immigrants Daniel and Elizabeth Tully, who were living in Eufaula, Alabama, where the Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia border, when he was born on April 21, 1905.

Tully’s father died in 1908 following a long illness and the family moved to Savannah, Georgia, where Emmett attended the Benedictine Roman Catholic military high school. From there he entered the University of Georgia and was a standout baseball player, pitching and playing first base from 1925 to 1927.

Following his graduation, Tully signed with the hometown Savannah Indians of Class B Southeastern League. He appeared in 59 games, 21 of them as a pitcher, and batted .241 with a 4-9 won-loss record.

Tully was not involved in organized baseball in 1928, but in July 1929 he was playing for the Fitzgerald club of the semi-pro Southeast Georgia League, when he was signed by the Greenville Spinners of the Class B Sally League. Tully played 12 games for the Spinners, four as a pitcher, and batted .238 with a 1-2 won-loss record.

That was the last of Tully’s pursuit’s into minor league baseball, probably because he was raising a young family by this time, although in 1932 he was pitching for the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills team in Atlanta. He and his wife, the former Virginia Kenney, had four children - George, Jr., Virginia, Daniel and Charles. Over the next decade Tully worked as a bookkeeper and as a shipping and receiving clerk.

In April 1942, just five months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Tully, aged 37 and living with his family in Athens, Georgia, entered military service with the Army Air Force. Serving as a Private First Class with the Signal Corps, he was stationed at Hunter Field in Savannah, Georgia, with the Fourth Service Command, where he worked as a teletype operator at the Hunter Field Weather Bureau.

On the evening of January 13, 1943, Emmett Tully was fatally stabbed during a street fight in Savannah and died on the way to the hospital at Hunter Field. Funeral services were held at St. Joseph’s Church in Athens, Georgia, and he was buried at Prospect United Methodist Church Cemetery in Jackson County, Georgia.

Year

Team

League

Class

G

IP

ER

BB

SO

W

L

ERA

1927 Savannah S'eastern B 21 101 - 40 - 4 9 -
1929 Greenville Sally B 4 - - - - 1 2 -

 

Year

Team

League

Class

G

AB

R

H

HR

RBI

AVG

1927 Savannah S'eastern B 59 145 - 35 1 - .241
1929 Greenville Sally B 12 42 - 10 0 - .238

 

Thanks to Jack Morris for "discovering" Emmett Tully and allowing me the opportunity to include him as part of the Baseball's Greatest Sacrifice family.

Date Added July 28, 2020

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