Born in
New Haven, Connecticut, Corcoran gained the nicknames
Corky and
Tommy the Cork. He was considered a hard-working, supple-handed shortstop. His fielding style was compared with
Hall of Famer Bid McPhee. Corcoran
batted .300 in a season just once (1894). He was a barehanded fielder early in his career when gloves were gradually becoming standard equipment, and made the transition to a
glove without difficulty. He became adept at going to his right to field ground balls backhanded. Corcoran set a still-standing ML record for shortstops with 14
assists in a nine-inning game. (
Lave Cross had 15 assists in a 12-inning game in 1897.) Corcoran finished in the top 10 in the league in
at bats seven times. After starting his Major League career with the
Pittsburgh Burghers of the
Players Association in 1891 and then joining the
Philadelphia Athletics in 1892, he started his
National League career with the
Brooklyn Grooms in 1892. He was traded to the
Cincinnati Reds after the 1896 season. He had held out on Brooklyn before the 1896 season and held out again at the beginning of the 1897 season after the trade in order to get an increase on his $10 per day salary. He was sold from Cincinnati to the
New York Giants for an undisclosed sum in December 1906. After being released by the Giants in July 1907, Corcoran played for a few minor league teams in 1907 and 1908, including the
Uniontown Coal Barons. While with the Coal Barons he spent some time as interim manager before
Billy Lauder took over, and he received offers to manage the
Dayton Veterans of the
Central League and the
Jersey City Skeeters of the
Eastern League, both of which he declined. Over an 18-season career, Corcoran
batted .256, with 34
home runs and 1,135
RBIs. He had a total of 387
stolen bases, scored 1,184
runs, and made 2,256
hits in 8,812 career at-bats. He accumulated 2,957
total bases. Late in his playing career Corcoran stated that baseball had become more of a trade than it was when he began his career, stating that "The compensation for good ball players is better now than when I began playing the game, but the extractions are greater. In the old days baseball was more or less a lark; now it is a business, and our business is to win." After retiring as a player, Corcoran became an
umpire; his umpiring included one season in the short-lived third major circuit, the
Federal League. Corcoran had four sons and a daughter. He died at the age of 91 in
Plainfield, Connecticut. ==See also==