Mike Prendergast was born in Arlington Illinois in 1888.
He was known as Iron Mike when pitching for various teams in the Three I league. In 1910 he was 2-7 for Bloomington.
In 1911 he pitched in 39 games and managed a 15-16 record while pitching for Peoria and Quincy.
In 1912 he was 17-20 for Peoria while pitching in 40 games. He had 171 k's.
He followed that up by pitching in 42 games in 1913. He was 17-20 and had 192 k's for Peoria.
In 1914 he joined Chicago in the Federal League. The Federal League was considered to be a major league during this time. The team played in Weeghman Park, now named Wrigley Field. He pitched in 30 games and had a 5-9 record.
In 1915 he continued with the Chicago Whales in the Federal League as they won the league championship. Joe Tinker was his manager. Mike had a 2.48 ERA, pitched in 42 games, had a 14-12 record and 95 k's. The pitching staff had Mordecai "Three Fingers" Brown and Claude Hendrix in addition to Mike.
At the end of the 1915 season the Federal League ceased to exist. Charlie Weeghman was allowed to buy the struggling Chicago Cubs. He merged the two teams into one. Mike pitched in 35 games in 1916 for the Cubs and had a 6-11 record.
Mike was 3-6 in 1917 while pitching in 35 games. In 1918 he was was 13-14 in 33 games and he finished his major league career in 1919, pitching in 5 games and managing a 0-1 record.
In 1923, Mike pitched for Des Moines and Omaha in the Western League. He had a 7-10 record for the year.
The Sporting News reported that he was named manager of the Texarkana team for 1925. The News reported that Barney Burch thought he would make an excellent player/manager.
In 1932 he won the Omaha Ping Pong championship.
He died in 1967 in Omaha Nebraska.