He played on the 1884 Providence Grays team which won the first interleague series to decide the world champions of baseball.

For most of Irwin's career, the collegiate and professional baseball schedules allowed him to hold positions at both levels in the same year.

He took the field with the first baseball fielder's glove, invented a type of football scoreboard, promoted motor-paced cycling tracks and ran a short-lived professional soccer league.

Shortly after his death from an apparent suicide, Irwin made headlines when it was discovered that two wives and families survived him in separate cities.

[3] In late 1879, manager Frank Bancroft took Irwin and most of the other Worcester players on a baseball tour which included visits to New Orleans and Cuba.

He led the league in assists in his rookie season,[5] and remained with the team through 1882, when it folded due to poor attendance.

[6] Irwin moved on to the recently formed Philadelphia Phillies in 1886 where he was named team captain during spring training.

[7] Tragedy struck the Philadelphia squad in 1888 when pitcher Charlie Ferguson developed typhoid fever, dying at Irwin's home.

[10] Although Irwin's regular playing career ended after the 1890 season, he appeared in six games while managing the Boston team after it moved to the American Association in 1891.

In 1894, he angered Penn supporters when a talented first baseman named Goeckle nearly signed with Irwin's major league team just prior to a series of collegiate championship games.

[12] Nonetheless, by 1895, Irwin's coaching role at Penn included the selection of players and other duties that traditionally fell to the team captain.

He faced arrest on a libel charge in 1898, which stemmed from comments made by Irwin about the actions of the Philadelphia ownership during his time there.

In fifty games as an umpire, Irwin ejected nine players, including future Hall of Fame inductees Roger Bresnahan and Fred Clarke.

[20] Irwin, who had retained partial ownership of the Toronto club, then returned to manage that team for a couple of seasons.

[21] Even after entering baseball scouting, Irwin briefly managed the 1908 Washington club in the short-lived Union Professional League.

[24] In 1909, New York manager George Stallings rented an apartment overlooking Hilltop Park and sent Irwin up to steal signs from the opposing team.

In a newspaper interview covering his scouting career, Irwin asserted that he preferred signing young prospects over expensive stars.

Upon his promotion, a statement from the team said, "He has been of such service to the club in numerous ways that Mr. Farrell has invested him with full power to look after business details in future.

[28] Irwin became part-owner of the Lewiston Cupids in 1915 and managed that club in the final season of the original New England League.

[31] Irwin and Christy Mathewson were considered for a coaching position at Harvard College that year, but former Highlanders catcher and professional scout Fred Mitchell was ultimately selected.

[32][33] In 1916, Irwin publicly accused Philadelphia's Connie Mack of underhanded dealings in obtaining third baseman Jim Ritter from Baltimore.

Not wanting to miss any games, he obtained an oversized buckskin driving glove, padded it and sewed the third and fourth fingers together to allow space for bandages.

Some of the active baseball managers served as coaches for the soccer teams, and fans were sometimes enticed by the rumor of MLB players who might participate in the league.

[43][44] The large scoreboard featured a miniature representation of a football field, and the ball moved along the board to report each play.

[49] On June 21, 1921, Irwin gave up his managerial role with the Hartford club in the Eastern League due to health concerns.

While traveling from New York City to Boston on the vessel Calvin Austin, Irwin was lost overboard in an apparent suicide on July 16.

[51] When Irwin was last seen aboard the ship around midnight on July 16, he told a friend that he was "coming home to his brother John's to die.