Samuels was 19 years old when he broke into the big leagues on Aug. 3, 1895, with the St. Louis Brown Stockings, who later became the Cardinals. Overall, he hit .230 in the high-powered National League. He also fielded only .736, with 20 errors in 21 games at third base and 4 errors in 3 games at shortstop, atrocious even in those days’ standards. He never played in the majors after that year. He was proud of his brief time in the majors and reportedly stopped by a newspaper office in New York in the early 1960s to respond in person to an article about still-living players from the 19th Century.