John "Jack" Bentley

[Chris Counts]

Whenever I pick up a card of a player I've never heard of, I can't resist looking him up and learning more about him. I never ceased to be amazed by what I discover about a seemingly obscure player.

This 1927 Exhibit card of Jack Bentley arrived in the mail today — courtesy of a board member — and I couldn't wait to look up his stats.

The first thing I noticed was that he was a pretty decent pitcher for the Giants for three years. But when I clicked on his minor league stats, my eyes just about popped out: In 13 seasons in the minors, he batted .354 AND had a .727 winning percentage as a pitcher (to put his winning percentage in perspective, Spud Chandler holds the major league mark at .717). Even more remarkable was his 1921 season for the Baltimore Orioles, one of the greatest of all minor league teams. That season Bentley recorded 246 hits, 57 doubles, 16 triples, 24 home runs, a .412 batting average, a 12-1 record and a 2.34 ERA. His minor league exploits were so impressive that he was dubbed, "The next Babe Ruth."

As a big leaguer, his greatest distinction was batting an off-the-charts .427 while he was a member of the 1923 Giants' starting rotation (he won 13 games). He was also on the mound when Earl McNeely hit his famous bad hop hit over third baseman Fred Lindstrom's head to win the 1924 World Series.

My discovery of Bentley's minor league greatness is just another confirmation that every baseball card has a story to tell. Who knows what great stories lurk in your collection?

http://minnieminoso.blogspot.com
http://imageevent.com/ccmcnutt

[Jason]

I enjoy that too.So many great stories to learn with every card and he did have some amazing stats.

[Brian Van Horn]

Another one of Bentley:

[FrankWakefield]

That's a fine story. And a good looking card. To me, that's what this hobby is about. It's not so much about a possible value of the card, but more about the player, the set, the era... Thanks for posting that.

[rhettyeakley]

My favorite Bentley card...

[tonyo]

Chris,

Thanks for sharing that thumbnail about Bentley. I wonder how many players had comparable hitting AND pitching stats....... Babe Ruth I guess

While collecting t206, reading "the players and their stories" and "glory of their times", and watching all the threads showing t210's, I've really developed a mild fascination with the minor leagues (and all forms of organized baseball) back in the day.

Anyone know just how many Minor Leagues and teams existed at their peak?


Tony

[Chris Counts]

Anyone know just how many Minor Leagues and teams existed at their peak?

I'm not sure what the answer is, but it likely can be found by following the links here ...

www.baseball-reference.com/minors/league.cgi

[tonyo]

Wow

[jerseygary]

If anyone's interested in reading some more about the great Orioles teams of 1919-25, I wrote a story about Bentley's teammate and fellow pitcher Harry Frank who played on those teams from 1919-1924. You can read it HERE.

[matty39]

Years ago when my dad died I had the responsibility of going through some of his things. In this process I found several ticket stubs to the old Lexington ball park (St. Paul). They were dated 1923 and 1924. One of the stubs had printed on it "game 9". I couldn't figure out what game that could have been. Recently I read a SABR article dealing with the 1924 Little World Series between the St Paul Saints and the Baltimore Orioles (Won by the Saints in 10 games) It was only then did I realize I had a ticket stub from game 9 of that series. Guess who my dad saw pitching for the Orioles that day - Lefty Grove.

[FrankWakefield]

Game 9, great!!! Post a scan for us, please.

[jerseygary]

Yeah, let's see that ticket! I've never seen one of those. Also, can you tell me what SABR publication you read that article on the '24 LWS in? I think I'm going to write a small book on those Orioles teams and I'd like to find all the reference I can.

[skooter]

I love the path this thread has taken, all because I sold an obscure Exhibit of John Bentley to Chris. It could only happen on net54!

[matty39]

The SABR article can be found in THE NATIONAL PASTIME, A REVIEW OF BASEBALL HISTORY, vol 28, 2008. The article is written by Roger A. Godin
These are my dad,s old ticket stubs. The one to the far right is game nine.

[jerseygary]

Matty, thanks for posting that for us!

[FrankWakefield]

Thank you, Matty. They look great!!!

Seems to me that the next step is for you to gather some cards of the various players that appeared in those games.

Some possible cards for the 1924 Baltimore players...

ss Joe Boley is on a 1931 Exhibit
3b Fritz Maisel is on a 1915 Cracker Jack, a 1913 T222, a 1921 Exhibit
c Lew McCarty is on a W514 and an E135

manager Jack Dunn is on a T206

p Jack Ogden is on a 1933 Goudey
p Lefty Grove is on a bunch of stuff
p George Earnshaw is on several cards
p Tommy Thomas is on 33 Goudey and some Exhibits

I've no doubt overlooked a few cards of some of the other players.

[jerseygary]

Ogden's Goudey has the added bonus of has him as a Baltimore Oriole. In '33 he was back a second time with the Birds.