Jack Graney

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Jack Graney baseball card

John Gladstone Graney (June 10, 1886 – April 20, 1978) was a Canadian left fielder in Major League Baseball who played his entire career with the Cleveland Indians (1908, 1910-1922). He was born in St. Thomas, Ontario.

On June 26, 1916, the Cleveland Indians used numbers on their uniforms on an experimental basis in a home game against the White Sox. The numbers, which were worn on the players' uniform sleeves, corresponded with information in the scorecards. Jack Graney was the first major league player to appear in a game with a number on his uniform.

After retiring from playing, Graney became a play-by-play broadcaster for the team, thus being the first former major league player to become a broadcaster in the United States. He died at age 91 in Louisiana, Missouri. He has been inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

In the 1980s, the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame instituted an award in Graney's name, presented periodically to journalists deemed to have made notable contributions to promoting baseball in Canada.