Bobby Estalella
 

Roberto "Bobby" Estalella Ventoza [es-tah-LAY-yah] was a Cuban professional baseball outfielder and third baseman, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Washington Senators (1935-1936, 1939 and 1942), St. Louis Browns (1941), and Philadelphia Athletics (1943–1945 and 1949). 620 hits and 44 home runs in 9 MLB seasons. He was selected to represent the American League (AL) in the ill-fated 1945 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which was scheduled for July 10 at Fenway Park but never played because of World War II restrictions on civilian domestic travel.

Bobby Estalella played nine years in the majors, with a career OPS+ of 128, well above average. While his 44 career home runs don't look impressive, during the era in which he played, he was typically first or second in home runs on his teams. With the Philadelphia Athletics in 1943, for example, his 11 home runs were by far tops on the team, with the second-best total only three home runs. Even before World War II, with the Washington Senators in 1939, his eight home runs were second on the team. In his best year, with the Athletics in 1945, his OPS of .834 was a huge amount ahead of the team average of .622 (and was third in the American League).

Bobby Estalella was signed by Washington Senators scout Joe Cambria and was one of many Cuban players the Senators carried through the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

He played parts of nine seasons in the majors with the Senators, St. Louis Browns, and Athletics between 1935 and 1949, serving as a regular for the Senators and Athletics during World War II. In the minors, he won the Piedmont League Triple Crown with the Charlotte Hornets in 1938, hitting .378 with 38 homers and 123 RBI.

With Philadelphia, Estalella hit .298 in 1944 and .299 in 1945 (fourth in the league). He would have played many more years, but he was one of the players suspended by Commissioner Happy Chandler in 1946 for jumping to the outlaw Mexican League. Chandler mentioned a lifetime suspension for them, but when the penalty was reduced in 1949, Estalella came back to the majors.

Although Estalella vigorously denied it during his life, several current baseball writers now consider him to have been the first player of some African ancestry to have played in the Major Leagues in the 20th century.

Bump Hadley
 

Player #131B: Irving D. "Bump" Hadley. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1926-1931 and 1935. 161 wins and 25 saves in 16 MLB seasons. 3-time World Series champion with the New York Yankees in 1936, 1937, and 1939. His most productive season was 1933 with the St. Louis Browns as he posted a 15-20 record with a 3.92 ERA in 316.2 innings pitched. season was His last season was 1941 with the Philadelphia Athletics.

Hadley's SABR biography: After three uncharacteristic second-place finishes in 1933, ’34, and ’35, the New York Yankees responded in decisive fashion. Changes were in order, as reported by Dan Daniel in The Sporting News: “Joe McCarthy is making every effort to win this year.” Significant personnel moves prior to the start of the 1936 season included the signing of Joe DiMaggio and the acquisition of veteran pitcher Bump Hadley.

“McCarthy liked power pitchers,” a baseball historian has written. “Within reason, he was willing to put up with pitchers who did not have outstanding control.” This definition perfectly fit Hadley’s erratic career path to New York, where the right-hander became a valuable part of the (1936-39) dynasty. . . .

. . . Hadley’s start (for the St. Louis Browns) on June 6, 1934, against Washington at Griffith Stadium was an eerie precursor to an event in the pitcher’s future. With Washington leading 2-1 in the bottom of the third, an errant offering by Hadley struck the head of Nats catcher Luke Sewell.

Washington Post columnist Shirley Povich described the incident: “If I recall, before the ball hit, Hadley yelled – look out, but (Sewell) couldn’t duck. As he sagged to the ground, Hadley whitened in horror.” Manager Rogers Hornsby removed the still trembling Hadley, who later remarked, “I’ll never throw that side-armed curve again. I can’t control it. I’ll hit somebody bad.”

Sewell recovered to play again that season. Hadley finished 10-16, helping the Browns improve to sixth place. Ironically, Hadley was traded back to Washington for Sewell (and cash) on January 19, 1935. Bump posted a 10-15 record, with a 4.92 ERA, for the 1935 Nats.

Walter Johnson
 

Player #54T: Walter P. "Barney" Johnson. "The Big Train". Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1907-1927. 417 wins and 34 saves in 21 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. 1913 and 1924 AL Most Valuable Player. 3-time triple crown. 6-time AL wins leader. 5-time AL ERA leader. 12-time AL strikeout leader. He had a career ERA of 2.17 in 5,914.1 innings pitched. He pitched a no-hitter in 1920. He holds the MLB record with 110 career shutouts. MLB All-Time Team. Inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame in 1936. One of his best seasons was 1913 as he posted a record of 36-7 with a 1.14 ERA in 346 innings pitched.

Walter's SABR biography quickly summarizes his life after pitching: After 1927, his final season, Walter Johnson managed for a year at Newark in the International League, then returned to Washington, where he served as manager for four seasons. He also managed at Cleveland from 1933-35, where he was constantly under attack by the local press. Although his managerial style was criticized as too easy-going, it should be noted that his teams had an overall winning percentage of .550.

The biggest tragedy of Walter’s later years, though, was Hazel’s death at age 36 on August 1, 1930, apparently the result of exhaustion from a cross-country drive during one of the hottest summers on record. After he lost the woman he idolized, a cloud of melancholy descended over the rest of Johnson’s life, darkening what should have been tranquil, happy years of retirement on his Mountain View Farm in the Maryland countryside.

During his later years, Walter kept busy on the farm, served as Montgomery County commissioner, was brought back by the Senators in 1939 as their broadcaster, and made an unsuccessful run as a Republican for a seat in the U.S. Congress. On June 12, 1939, along with such other greats as Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Honus Wagner, Johnson was inducted into the newly-created Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. During World War II, he made several brief playing appearances in war bond games, including serving up pitches to Ruth in Yankee Stadium.

After an illness of several months caused by a brain tumor, Walter Johnson died in Washington at age 59 on December 10, 1946, and is buried next to Hazel at Union Cemetery, in Rockville, Maryland.

More than 75,000 fans were on hand when Babe Ruth drove the ball (seen over base line between first and second) into Ruthville -- the right field stands -- during an exhibition with his old-time fireball foe, Walter Johnson (pitching) during the Washington-New York doubleheader in New York, Aug. 23rd, for the benefit of the Army-Navy relief funds.:

Joe Kuhel
 

Player #135D: Joseph A. "Joe" Kuhel. First baseman for the Washington Senators in 1930-1937 and 1944-1946. 2,212 hits and 131 home runs in 18 MLB seasons. He had 107 RBIs in Washington's pennant-winning 1933 season, but his best season was probably 1936 as he posted an OBP of .392 with 118 RBIs and 107 runs scored in 660 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1948-49.

We will follow Kuhel's SABR biography as we encounter him in 1935 and the next two years: As is the case with many clubs, it’s hard enough to win a pennant, but to duplicate the feat becomes even more arduous. The following season (1934), Kuhel was having a fine year when his season ended abruptly due to a splintered fibula and fractured bone in his ankle. In the first game of a double-dip on June 23 against Detroit, Kuhel slid into second base in the eighth inning and his left leg crumpled underneath his body. The club was already dealing with injuries to Sewell, Schulte, Stewart, and Cecil Travis when the blow to Kuhel struck. Washington finished the season in seventh place, 34 games off the pace.

Over the next three seasons, Kuhel performed admirably at first base, leading the league in double plays in 1935 (150) and 1937 (141). His defensive skill was considered to be in the top echelon of either league, with a fielding percentage of .993 in 1936 and 1937. He paced the Senators’ offense in home runs (16), RBIs (118), doubles (42) and hits (189) in 1936. He tied a major league record with three triples in a game on May 13, 1937, against Chicago at Comiskey Park.

But the Nats were a predominantly left-hand-hitting club. In order to buck this trend, Kuhel was sent to the Chicago White Sox on March 18, 1938, for Zeke Bonura. A right-handed power hitter, Bonura had hit .345 for the Sox the year before and was a threat to go yard. But he was an annual holdout during spring training and the Sox front office had had enough of him. The knock against Bonura was that he did not possess the defensive abilities of Kuhel, and was termed as “clumsy” around the bag. But Chicago manager Jimmy Dykes had coveted Kuhel for some time and was eager to make the switch.

Lyn Lary
 

Player #156: Lynford H. "Lyn" Lary. Shortstop with the Washington Senators in 1935. 1,239 hits and 162 stolen bases in 12 MLB seasons. World Series champion in 1932. 1936 AL stolen base leader. He debuted with the New York Yankees in 1929-1934. Lary's most productive season may have been 1931 with New York as he posted a .376 OBP with 107 RBIs and 100 runs scored in 712 plate appearances. He also led the AL in plate appearances in 1936 with St. Louis (.404 OBP and 112 runs scored) and 1937 with Cleveland (.378 OBP and 110 runs scored). His last season was 1940 with the St. Louis Browns. Lary had a career OBP of .369.

Lary's SABR biography: Babe Ruth called him “Broadway” because Lyn Lary loved the theater in New York, and Lary’s obituary in The Sporting News said he “tried his best to live up to the nickname the Babe hung on him. He was one of the best dressers in the majors and drove a big eight-cylinder car that had a silver nameplate on the door.” And Lary married Mary Lawlor, who was part of the original 1925 cast in former Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee’s Broadway musical No, No, Nanette.

Lary was an infielder for 12 seasons who played for seven clubs in the major leagues from 1929 to 1940 and was part of a couple of the bigger money deals of the 1920s and 1930s, but “never quite lived up to baseball expectations,” despite posting a respectable .269 career batting average. . . .

. . . For Boston (in 1934), Lary hit .241 but drew a good number of bases on balls (66) and had an on-base percentage of .344 (over the full course of his career he had a .369 OBP). And he served as fodder for one of the more momentous trades in team history – to provide the Washington Senators with a shortstop in exchange for Joe Cronin. Washington also pocketed perhaps $250,000 – at the time the largest amount ever spent for a player. Consummated on October 26, this was the second big-money deal in Lary’s career (after his purchase from the Oakland Oaks by the Yankees in 1927), though in this case Cronin was the main man. Lary was not just a throw-in, though. Paul Shannon rated him highly: “[T]he Red Sox gave the Senators a man who practically made the Red Sox infield in 1934. While Lary never rated as a hard hitter, his fine work at short atoned for any weakness with the bat.” His .965 fielding percentage led all shortstops in the American League.

With the Senators, Lary faced some unexpected competition from Ossie Bluege, but won the shortstop job – at first. But with Lary batting only .194 after 39 games, the Senators handed the job to Bluege and traded Lary to the St. Louis Browns on June 29 for backup shortstop Alan Strange. Playing under manager Rogers Hornsby, Lary hit .288 in the 93 games he played as a regular for the Browns. And in 1936 he enjoyed the best season of his career: He hit .289, with a .404 on-base percentage, and scored 112 runs. He led the league in stolen bases with 37. In mid-September Hornsby said he rated Lary the best shortstop in the league.

Heinie Manush
 

Player #136D: Henry E. "Heinie" Manush. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1930-1935. 2,524 hits and 110 home runs in 17 MLB seasons. Had a .330 career batting average. 1934 All-Star. 1926 AL batting champion. Had more than 200 hits four times. In 1964, was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. Debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1923. Leading batter on the 1933 Washington Senator team that won the AL pennant. First and last player to be ejected from a World Series game. Had 241 hits in 1928. Coach for the Washington Senators in 1953-1954.

Again, Manush's SABR biography takes us back ti the 1933 pennant-winning season: The Senators faced the New York Giants in the 1933 World Series. The Giants were led by a trio of Hall of Famers: pitcher Carl Hubbell, right fielder Mel Ott, and first baseman-manager Bill Terry. Apart from Cronin, the Senators could not get their bats going during the Fall Classic. That included Manush, who after his stellar season managed just two singles in the Series as the Giants won in five games. Before the start of the third game, Manush scrambled to retrieve the ceremonial first pitch thrown by President Franklin D. Roosevelt from his box seat. Ably supported by Cronin, Roosevelt threw the ball and his off-line toss set off a mad scramble. Manush bulled his way through a bunch of souvenir-seeking ballplayers to come up with the treasured keepsake. Southpaw Earl Whitehill’s tosses were more on the money as he scattered five hits and shut out the Giants 4-0. In appreciation of his sterling performance, Manush presented Whitehill with the “FDR ball,” which Earl would treasure for the rest of his life.

It was a thrill to be in the World Series, but Manush was terribly disappointed in his performance. During the Series, he took it out on the umpires. In Game 3, the Senators had the tying run on second with two out in the sixth inning, when Manush hit a ball past a diving Bill Terry that Howie Critz somehow grabbed and flipped to Hubbell to nip Manush — that is, according to umpire Charlie Moran. It was an extremely close play, and an enraged Senators outfielder and his infuriated manager hotly debated the call! The home plate umpire finally broke up the fierce confrontation by ordering Cronin and Manush to take their positions in the field. While Cronin reluctantly sauntered out to shortstop, Manush gave Moran one more verbal blast on his way out to right field and was tossed from the game. It took all of Cronin’s strength to restrain his right fielder from attacking Moran. After being dragged off the field, Manush had to be physically restrained from throwing things at the first-base umpire. Washington fans showed their displeasure at the call by heaving hundreds of soda bottles in the umpire’s direction. Manush recalled the play years later. “It actually was more than an argument,” he said. “Moran had every right to chase me when I tell you what I did. I was too smart to lay a hand on Moran when I was arguing the call. But when he bellied up to me and asked me what I wanted to make of it, there was a temptation that was too great. Moran, like the other umps in those days, was wearing a black bow tie, the kind that comes with an elastic band. What I did was grab the tie and let it snap back into Moran’s neck. That’s when he gave it to me.”

Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who was at the game, disagreed with the umpire’s decision to kick Manush out, and ruled from then on that no player in the World Series could be thrown out without first getting the commissioner’s almighty permission.

Buddy Myer
 

Player #139D: Charles S. "Buddy" Myer. Second baseman with the Washington Senators in 1925-1927 and 1929-1941. 2,131 hits and 38 home runs in 17 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .389. 2-time All-Star. 1935 AL Batting champion. 1928 AL Stolen Base leader. His best season was 1935 for Washington as he posted a .440 OBP with 115 runs scored and 100 RBIs in 719 plate appearances. He was involved in one of baseball's most violent brawls when he was spiked and possibly racially derided by the Yankees' Ben Chapman.

We will follow Myer's SABR biography as we track his career -- Part 4: Early in the 1933 season, the Yankees’ Ben Chapman took him out with a hard slide, slicing open his shoe and cutting his foot. Myer kicked Chapman and Chapman fought back. Both men were ejected, but as Chapman passed through the Senators dugout on his way to the visitors’ clubhouse, he slugged Washington pitcher Earl Whitehill, igniting a near-riot that was remembered for years. The Senators swarmed Chapman, the Yankees charged across the field to his rescue, and angry fans joined the festivities. Police broke it up and arrested five civilians. Chapman, Myer, and Whitehill were suspended for five days and fined $100 each. (Chapman was traded to the Senators three years later. When he joined the team on the road, he walked into the hotel dining room and sat down beside Myer. They were soon talking and laughing together.)

With 26-year-old shortstop Joe Cronin taking over as manager, the Senators fought the Yankees for the 1933 pennant until August, when Washington won 13 straight games and pulled away. The Senators’ lineup included six regulars hitting over .290, backed by a pair of 20-game-winning pitchers. Myer’s .810 OPS was the best of his career so far. “I wasn’t the best player in the league that year, but I was the tiredest,” he remembered. “I led off in front of three good hitters—Goose Goslin, Heinie Manush and Cronin—and they put on the hit and run so many times, they had my tongue hanging out.”

The club won a franchise-record 99 games on the way to its third pennant in 10 years and a meeting with the New York Giants in the World Series. Before Game 1, Myer was riding in a cab to the Polo Grounds when he witnessed a gory traffic accident in which a pedestrian was run down by a truck and killed. A superstitious man would call it an omen. Myer led off the game by striking out, the first of 10 victims of the NL’s Most Valuable Player, Carl Hubbell. He fumbled the first ground ball he saw in the bottom of the inning, leading to two unearned runs. He was charged with another error on a wild throw and a third when he dropped the catcher’s peg as Mel Ott tried to steal second. New York won, 4-2, and beat the Senators again the next day.

When the Series moved to Washington for Game 3, Myer led off the bottom of the first with a single and scored the Senators’ first run. He added an RBI double in the next inning and drove in another run with a seventh-inning single as Whitehill shut out the Giants, 4-0. It was the Senators’ only victory. New York won the championship in five games.

Bobo Newsom
 

Player #157A: Louis N. "Bobo" Newsom. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1935-1937, 1942, 1943, 1946-1947, and 1952. 211 wins and 21 saves in 20 MLB seasons. 4-time All-Star. 1947 World Series champion. 1942 AL strikeout leader. He had a career ERA of 3.98. He debuted with the Brooklyn Robins/Dodgers in 1929-1930. He changed teams 16 times. Almost joined Benton as only to have pitched to Ruth and Mantle. He was known for his eccentricities. In 1940 with the Detroit Tigers, he posted a 21-5 record with a 2.83 ERA in 264 innings pitched. His last team was the Philadelphia Athletics in 1952-1953.

We pick up Deveaux's account of Bobo's zany ways and time in Washington: His (Newsom's) 30-win campaign (in 1933 in the Pacific Coast League) earned him another (after cups of coffee with the Dodgers and the Cubs) shot at the big time with the St. Louis Browns. With the Brownies, a team on the level of the Senators, the rookie led the entire league in losses (20) and walks (149) in 1934. Newsom also regularly led the league in outrageous remarks and sheer color. The man had a flair for exaggeration and a cheerful disposition, and could always be counted upon to vehemently uphold any outrageous declaration he might make. Clark Griffith liked the barrel-chested, boastful Bobo.

The nickname evolved from the fact that Newsom seldom bothered to learn anyone's name. This was understandable, considering that he was the most celebrated baseball traveler of his time. Eventually, Bobo Newsom would make 17 stops along the major-league trail, and Clark Griffith would acquire his services on five different occasions. The old man's best explanation for that would be that he rather enjoyed playing pinochle with the fellow. Buck Newsom's career would span 26 years and include ten different minor-league stops as well.

Another nickname Bobo earned was the "Hartsville Squire," because he told tall tales of owning a 13-room mansion on a plantation back home, where he hunted with hounds and made more money growing cotton than he made playing baseball. Vexed once with a Washington writer who had labeled him "a $14,000-a-year pitcher," Newsom admonished the reporter for making him look bad, insisting he would never have signed for less than the $18,000 he was earning at the time. In actual fact, he was making $13,000.

Money and all of its trappings were what Bobo liked to show off most. As a Detroit Tiger in 1940, he arrived at training camp in a car which had "BOBO" in neon lights on the door, and a horn which played "The Tiger Rag." In 1942, a rookie invited for a drive in Newsom's convertible was astonished when Bobo insisted on paying double the fine after getting pulled over for speeding. He wanted to pay double, he told the officer, because he certainly intended to drive just as fast on his way back. . . . (We will return to Bobo's story when we next encounter him in our progression.)

Fritz Schulte
 

Player #149C: Fred W. "Fritz" Schulte. Center fielder for the Washington Senators in 1933-1935. 1,241 hits and 47 home runs in 11 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .362. He debuted with the St. Louis Browns in 1927. His best year was 1932 for St. Louis as he posted a .373 OBP with 106 runs scored in 639 plate appearances. He also posted a .366 OBP with 98 runs scored in 622 plate appearances in 1933 as Washington won the AL pennant. He finished his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1936-1937.

Schulte's SABR biography sums up his career and covers the 1934 injury that marked the beginning of the end for him in Washington and as a frontline MLB player: Fred Schulte played center field for the pennant-winning 1933 Washington Senators. His three-run homer in Game Five of the World Series against the Giants pulled the Senators even. But New York won on a 10th-inning homer by Mel Ott that tipped off Schulte’s glove. The victory gave the Giants the championship.

In his 11-year big-league career, Schulte hit .291. A solid fielder, he was the regular in center for five seasons with the St. Louis Browns and two with the Senators. He often was among the league leaders in assists and double plays for center fielders; as calculated retrospectively, he twice led the league in range factor for his position. . . .

. . . The veteran Senators lineup was hit with a series of crippling injuries (in 1934), and the pitching didn’t hold up. General Crowder, a 24-game winner in 1933, fell to 4-10 with a 6.75 earned run average and was waived in August. Earl Whitehill went from 22 wins to 14 with an ERA more than a run higher. The team ERA went from 3.82 to 4.68. Washington finished seventh, 20 games under .500.

The injury jinx didn’t hit Schulte until September, a week after Cronin had broken his arm in a collision at first base. Schulte caught a spike when sliding home in a September 11 loss and seriously injured an ankle. He had to be carried off the field and was sent to a hospital. He had torn a ligament and was out for the season, immediately returning home to Belvidere.

At that point, Schulte had been in 136 games and was hitting an even .300, rounded up from .2996 with 157 hits in 524 at-bats.

Rocky Stone
 

Player #155B: John T. "Rocky" Stone. Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1934-1938. 1,391 hits and 77 home runs in 11 MLB seasons. His career OBP was .376. he debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1928-1933. His most productive season may have been 1932 with Detroit as he posted a .361 OBP with 106 runs scored and 109 RBIs in 643 plate appearances. His best season in Washington was 1936 as he posted a .421 OBP with 95 runs scored and 90 RBIs in 500 plate appearances.

Back to Stone's SABR biography: Cronin’s departure (following the 1934 season) resulted in the return of Bucky Harris to Washington as skipper in 1935. Bucky was certainly well acquainted with Johnny from their days together in Detroit and immediately announced plans to utilize Stone as the Senators’ clean-up hitter for the upcoming season. Harris commented: “He’s got the power that a fourth-place hitter needs. I don’t mean home runs, but those frequent doubles and triples that roll off his bat.” Stone went on to hit .314 in 125 games.; however, Harris wasn’t pleased with either the team’s sixth place finish or the overall performance of Johnny Stone.

Harris unfairly assumed southern ballplayers had a lazy streak, a trait he referred to as the “Tennessee hookworm.” The Senators manager surmised Stone was simply not giving it his all, both offensively and defensively. Harris even speculated about the possibility of relegating Stone to part-time status, fueling rumors of a potential salary cut for the 1936 season.

Johnny ultimately signed, retaining his $7,500 salary, plus his clean-up spot in the batting order. Perhaps the motivational tactic worked; he went on to post a .341 average with 15 home runs and 90 RBIs as the Senators moved up to finish third with an 82-71 record.

Washington fell back to sixth place (73-80) in 1937, with Johnny posting a .330 average in 139 games. Sportswriter Al Costello described Stone: “He is as colorless as a newly whitewashed fence. Not one bit of showmanship or grandstanding is in his makeup as he goes along his business of fielding almost faultlessly and hitting often and hard. Ask any of the players in the American League what sort of a player Stone is and you’re sure to receive the answer that to a player is the acme of praise. They’ll tell you concisely the words that best explain a good ballplayer to another ballplayer when they explain: Stone is a ballplayer’s ballplayer.”

Montie Weaver
 

Player #149B: Montie M. Weaver. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1931-1938. 71 wins and 4 saves in 9 MLB seasons. In 1933 as Washington won the AL pennant, he posted a 10-5 record with a 3.25 ERA in 152.1 innings pitched. He finished his career with the Boston Red Sox in 1939.

Weaver's SABR biography goes on to describe the troubles and criticisms he endured while in Washington: Weaver started strongly in 1934 and had won nine games by mid-July. But the Nats lost 11 of his last 13 starts as they sank to seventh place, crippled by injuries to Cronin, catcher Sewell and first baseman Joe Kuhel.

The sporting press turned on Weaver. He had been portrayed as an oddball, but a respected, educated one; now his quirks were blamed for his poor performance, an 11-15 record with a 4.79 ERA. In September The Sporting News labeled him a “hypochondriac” and made the first mention of his vegetarian diet: “addicted to the spinach habit.”

The next spring Washington Star sports editor Denman Thompson wrote that he “does not resemble even remotely the well-built pitcher bought by Griffith from Baltimore five [actually four] years ago. Monte sticks to peas and carrots and passes up the starches and meats so necessary to the profession that is his. As a result, the gaunt Weaver has been unusually tardy in hitting his stride and fails to promise much improvement when warmer weather comes.” The Post reported that his weight was down to 146 pounds, from 170 when he broke in.

Other writers of the meat-and-potatoes school ridiculed Weaver. Dan Daniel of the New York World-Telegram wrote, “They tell a strange story about Weaver down in Washington… [A] disciple of a certain school of bone manipulation and starvation came to Monte and sold him the idea of taking treatments – for $500.” According to Daniel, the quack showed Monte an alarming x-ray of his sore back – actually an x-ray of a hunchback – and promised to cure him with a vegetarian diet. Months later he displayed an x-ray of Weaver’s own straight back – “a marvelous cure.” Daniel said Weaver was hooked on the diet, and his weight and his pitching declined.

“It seems you can’t throw strikes on collard greens,” the sportswriter-nutritionist concluded.

Whatever the merits of greens, peas and carrots, Weaver was hammered in his first two starts of 1935. In May he was waived by all other American League teams and sent down to Albany in the International League. Clark Griffith said he was too weak to pitch in the hot weather at the Nats’ other top farm club in Chattanooga.

Earl Whitehill
 

Player #153B: Earl O. Whitehill. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1933-1936. 218 wins and 11 saves in 17 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1923-1932. His best season came as Washington won the AL pennant in 1933 as he posted a 22-8 record with an ERA of 3.33 in 270 innings pitched. He ended his career with the Chicago Cubs in 1939. His only World Series start was a complete game shutout in Game 3 of the 1933 World Series, which Washington lost in 5 games.

Whitehill's SABR biography: Earl Whitehill, one of the solid yet increasingly anonymous pitchers of the 1920s and 1930s, played 17 major league seasons and remains one of the top 100 winning pitchers of all time. A southpaw, he mixed a tantalizing curve with a fiery disposition to win 218 games for the Detroit Tigers, Washington Senators, Cleveland Indians, and the Chicago Cubs. . . .

. . . In Elden Auker‘s Sleeping Cars and Flannel Uniforms, the former Tiger relates a story about a time he and Whitehill played golf in Arizona during Tiger spring training. Well down the fairway, a golf ball suddenly landed close to Earl (known to have a short explosive temper), and he charged back to the tee box to “take care” of the hacker. Providentially, his fellow golfers talked him out of the quest, as later on they learned that the “assailant” was actually heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey.

1936 Washington Senators
 

The 1936 Washington Senators won 82 games, lost 71, and finished in third place in the American League. They were managed by Bucky Harris and played home games at Griffith Stadium.

This club (the 1936 Senators) put forth a much more spirited effort (than the 1935 one). There was leadership from old champions Harris and Bluege. There was some slugging, provided by Kuhel and Stone. There was a newfound cohesion after the trade of Jake Powell, and plenty of team speed (the Senators led the league in triples for the sixth consecutive year) supplemented by the addition of Ben Chapman. Young players Travis and Lewis made enormous contributions, and of course there was the constant presence of the raucous Bobo Newsom.

The Senators in 1936 were a winning ballclub again, finishing with 82 wins, 11 games above .500. This was good for a tie for third place with the Chicago White Sox, but a long way from the World Series. The Nats finished an even 20 games behind the Yankees, who defeated the Giants in six games in the fall classic. The previous year's World Series hero was Goose Goslin, who had singled in the winning run in the sixth and final game with two out in the ninth. (It was during this Series, as well, that umpire Bill Klem was sharply rebuked and fined by Commissioner Kenesaw Landis for dressing Goslin down as a result of a heated on-field discussion.) This year's (World Series) hero was none other than Jake Powell, who had ten hits and batted .455. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

Ossie Bluege
 

Player #89I: Oswald L. "Ossie" Bluege. Third baseman for the Washington Senators in 1922-1939. 1,751 hits and 43 home runs in 18 MLB seasons. 1935 All-Star. 1924 World Series champion. He played his entire career in Washington. He was best known for his defense, but his best season at the plate was 1928 as he posted a .364 OBP with 78 runs scored and 75 RBIs in 588 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1943-1947.

Bluege's SABR biography helps us say farewell to Ossie: Bluege retired as a player after the 1939 season. He had played in 1,867 games with 6,440 at-bats and hit .272. He started 1,454 games at third base, fielding the position at a clip of .957.

Cliff Bolton
 

Player #125E: William Clifton "Cliff" Bolton. Catcher for the Washington Senators in 1931, 1933-1936, and 1941. 280 hits and 6 home runs over 7 MLB Seasons. His best season was 1935 as he posted a .399 OBP with 55 RBI's in 435 plate appearances. He also had a .500 OBP in 46 plate appearances coming off the bench in 1933 as Washington won the A.L. pennant.

In 1930, he (Bolton) hit .380 for the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Southern Association, and in 1931 he made his major league debut with the Washington Senators. Bolton spent the next few years with Washington. In 1933, he hit .410 coming off the bench; Washington won the American League pennant that season, and Bolton batted twice in the World Series. His only two years as a major league regular were 1935 and 1936.

George, wonderful thread going here. Do you happen to know anything about Cliff's nod to the "fatherly counsel of Daniel Boone"?

I don't think I've ever heard of it. What's the context?

Bucky Harris
 

Player #83L: Stanley R. "Bucky" Harris. Second baseman for the Washington Senators in 1919-1928. 1,297 hits and 167 stolen bases in 12 MLB seasons. 1924 and 1947 World Series champion. In 1975, inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. Named player-manager of the Washington Senators in 1924 at age 27. "The Boy Wonder" led Washington to World Series victory as "rookie" manger. Managed Washington Senators in 1924-1928, 1935-1942, and 1950-1954. Managed the Detroit Tigers in 1929-1933 and 1955-1956. Managed the Boston Red Sox in 1934. Managed the Philadelphia Phillies in 1943. Managed the New York Yankees in 1947-1948, including winning the 1947 world Series. Served as the General Manager of the Boston Red Sox in 1959-1960.

We go to Bucky's SABR biography to hear about his managerial career: In 1934 Harris managed the Boston Red Sox, who were in full rebuilding mode under new owner Tom Yawkey, to a fourth-place finish. The next season Harris returned to Washington to lead the Senators for eight more seasons, never finishing higher than fourth. In 1943 he signed on as manager of the National League’s perennial losers, the Philadelphia Phillies. Phillies owner William D. Cox fired Harris less than two months into the season. So popular was he with his players that they threatened to strike when he was fired. (After he was fired, Harris told reporters that Cox had been placing bets on Phillies games. Cox was forced to resign and slapped with a lifetime ban from baseball.)

In 1944 and 1945 Harris served as manager and general manager for Buffalo, a Detroit Tigers affiliate, in the International League, before returning to the majors in 1947 with the Yankees. He led New York to the American League pennant and victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series, for which he received his second Manager of the Year award. In 1948 the Yankees finished third despite a 94-60 record, and Harris was fired at the end of the year.

He managed San Diego of the Pacific Coast League in 1949, before returning to manage the Senators (1950–1954) and the Tigers (1955–1956), but with little success. Harris quipped of his three stints as manager in Washington that “Only Franklin D. Roosevelt had more terms than I did in Washington.” He was remembered as a popular and knowledgeable manager who brought out the best in his players. Joe DiMaggio said, “If you can’t play for Bucky, you don’t belong in the major leagues.” Goose Goslin called him “the best manager I ever played for.”

(Note the bizarre facsimile signature on the Chicle Fine pen: It shows Bucky misspelling his own name! Presumably, a mis-informed ghost writer was responsible.)

The last sentence of his bio on the back of the WWG card...

Ah, I see that. Means nothing to me. Figurative, obviously, as Boone died in 1820. Don't think Boone ever lived in Chattanooga, either. 1933 was Bolton's age-26 season, so he was hardly ancient arriving in MLB. You got me!

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

Joe Kuhel
 

Player #135E: Joseph A. "Joe" Kuhel. First baseman for the Washington Senators in 1930-1937 and 1944-1946. 2,212 hits and 131 home runs in 18 MLB seasons. He had 107 RBIs in Washington's pennant-winning 1933 season, but his best season was probably 1936 as he posted an OBP of .392 with 118 RBIs and 107 runs scored in 660 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1948-49.

Kuhel's SABR biography continued: Neither team’s fortunes were dramatically changed with the trade (just before the 1938 season), as both the Chisox and the Nats finished towards the middle of the junior circuit in the ensuing years. Kuhel enjoyed a monster year in 1940 by tying the club record of 27 home runs (set by Bonura). He also led the team in RBIs with 94 and put together the longest hitting streak of his career, 20 games from June 30 to July 20. However, on the whole his hitting diminished with the White Sox, reaching a rock-bottom .213 in 1943.

(This thread will now enjoy a brief pause. As always, thank you for your continued time and attention. Should restart ard 14 March.)

There was one person, himself an astute judge of talent, who heaped praise on Kuhel for his style of play. And that was none other than Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack. “A team composed of nine Joe Kuhels hardly would need a manager,” said Mack.“ I always use him as my No. 1 example when I give my boys their pep talks. Year after year, he goes on playing for teams which haven’t a chance to win the pennant, yet he keeps hustling as if the championship depended on every game.”

Heinie Manush
 

Player #136E: Henry E. "Heinie" Manush. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1930-1935. 2,524 hits and 110 home runs in 17 MLB seasons. Had a .330 career batting average. 1934 All-Star. 1926 AL batting champion. Had more than 200 hits four times. In 1964, was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. Debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1923. Leading batter on the 1933 Washington Senator team that won the AL pennant. First and last player to be ejected from a World Series game. Had 241 hits in 1928. Coach for the Washington Senators in 1953-1954.

Manush's SABR biography winds up: During the 1933 season, baseball held its first annual midsummer All-Star Game. Manush was not selected for the team despite his average being second in the league that season. In 1934, Manush appeared in the only All-Star Game of his career. In the first inning, he faced Hubbell for the first time since the 1933 World Series and drew a walk. Hubbell shook it off and struck out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, and Cronin in succession. . . .

. . . Heinie’s final career numbers are often overlooked, but he was one of the most dominating hitters of his time. He slapped 200 hits four times, 40 doubles five times, and finished his 2,008-game career with a .330 batting average, 2,524 hits, 491 doubles, 1,288 runs scored and 1,183 runs batted in.

. . . Manush moved to Florida and continued his competitiveness in a different sport: golf. He played just about every day until his death, which came on May 12, 1971, in Sarasota, Florida, after a long fight with cancer. The connection between Manush and Goslin continued as Goslin died three days later in New Jersey.

Buddy Myer
 

Player #139E: Charles S. "Buddy" Myer. Second baseman with the Washington Senators in 1925-1927 and 1929-1941. 2,131 hits and 38 home runs in 17 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .389. 2-time All-Star. 1935 AL Batting champion. 1928 AL Stolen Base leader. His best season was 1935 for Washington as he posted a .440 OBP with 115 runs scored and 100 RBIs in 719 plate appearances. He was involved in one of baseball's most violent brawls when he was spiked and possibly racially derided by the Yankees' Ben Chapman.

We will follow Myer's SABR biography as we track his career -- Part 5: Bucky Harris returned for his second term as the Senators’ manager in 1935 and named Myer the team captain. Myer was having his usual .300 season when Harris moved him from leadoff to the third spot in the order in June. Around the same time, his friend Bill Werber of the Red Sox gave him a lighter bat. He took off on a 21-game hitting streak that boosted his average to .347, one point ahead of Cleveland left fielder Joe Vosmik for the league lead.

In the 1930s, and for decades afterward, a player’s batting average was his meal ticket. A batting championship was the pinnacle of achievement. Myer, Vosmik, and Philadelphia’s Jimmie Foxx vied for the lead down the stretch. Going into the final day, Vosmik stood at .349, Myer at .345, and Foxx at .343.

Vosmik’s name was missing from the lineup for the first game of Cleveland’s season-ending doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns. It’s not clear whether he decided to sit out to protect his lead or his manager, Steve O’Neill, made the decision. Myer calculated that he needed four hits in the last game against the Athletics to win the title. He got three in his first four at-bats: a bunt single, a single to center, and another to left. In his final plate appearance, in the eighth inning, the count ran to 3-and-2. Myer thought a walk would kill his chances. He reached for a wide pitch and fouled it off, then cracked a long double to left center. The 4-for-5 day (and 10 for his last 15) lifted his average to .349.

The news reached Cleveland late in the Indians’ first game. Vosmik hurried to the plate to pinch hit in the ninth but made an out. In the second game, he managed one single in three tries before darkness ended his season after six innings. The final averages: Myer .349026, Vosmik .348387, Foxx .345794.

By one account, Myer beat out 60 bunt hits during the season, a total impossible to verify. He was renowned as the game’s best drag bunter, who took advantage of the league’s slower first basemen. Opponents said the Washington groundskeepers sloped the foul lines inward so his bunts would stay fair, but Myer protested, “I got a lot of bunt base hits on the road, too.” He finished with 215 hits, one fewer than Vosmik, and walked 96 times for a .440 on-base percentage. He batted in 100 runs for the only time in his career. He also set a major league record (since broken) by turning 138 double plays, quite a feat for a man whose weak defense had once threatened his job. Vosmik, who led the league in hits, doubles, and triples, finished third and Myer fourth in the MVP voting.

To further honor Byddy Myer for his 1935 AL Batting Championship, here's a Myer card you don't often see, his 1934 R304 Al Demaree card:

Bobo Newsom
 

(Thanks for posting Val. Very nice card!)

Player #157B: Louis N. "Bobo" Newsom. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1935-1937, 1942, 1943, 1946-1947, and 1952. 211 wins and 21 saves in 20 MLB seasons. 4-time All-Star. 1947 World Series champion. 1942 AL strikeout leader. He had a career ERA of 3.98. He debuted with the Brooklyn Robins/Dodgers in 1929-1930. He changed teams 16 times. Almost joined Benton as only to have pitched to Ruth and Mantle. He was known for his eccentricities. In 1940 with the Detroit Tigers, he posted a 21-5 record with a 2.83 ERA in 264 innings pitched. His last team was the Philadelphia Athletics in 1952-1953.

Deveaux addresses Bobo's 1936 season: Bobo was also in the spotlight, right where he wanted to be, when Bucky Harris selected him as his starting pitcher for the 1936 season opener against the Yankees. Always up to challenge, later in this season, with a start against the Yankees forthcoming, Newsom, unwisely, publicly vowed to find a weakness in rookie Joe Dimaggio's batting eye. Following the game, much hay was made of the fact that he had indeed uncovered something. It was obvious that DiMaggio had a penchant for doubles, having hit three of them off Bobo.

On opening day, 1936, Newsom got to exchange autographs with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. With the President, his Cabinet, the Army Band, and 31,000 faithful in the seats, Bobo may have been a little overwhelmed. He wasn't very alert when Yankees outfielder Ben Chapman bunted to the left side of the infield. Newsom made a move toward the ball, and then decided to let Ossie Bluege field it. For some unknown reason, Bobo made no attempt to get out of the way of what had to be a strong throw to nip the swift Chapman. Bluege's missile traveled all of 15 feet or so before it conked Bobo right on the coconut.

Instead of falling, the 6'3" Newsom embarked on a stagger which took him toward the presidential box before veering back toward the mound. He was steered to the bench by his teammates, and, revived with nothing more than a cold towel, proceeded to pitch a complete game 1-0 shutout. The Nats got the season off on the right foot. Newsom was a horse for Harris all year, won 17 games against 15 losses, and, with 286 innings pitched, was just 15 short of league leader Wes Farrell of Boston. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

Cecil Travis
 

Player #158A: Cecil H. Travis Part 1. Infielder for the Washington Senators in 1933-1941 and 1945-1947. 1,544 hits and 27 home runs over 12 MLB seasons. 3-time All-Star. One of two to get 5 hits in first game. Led American League in hits in 1941 despite DiMaggio's 56-game hit streak and Ted Williams hitting .406. His best season was 1941 as he posted a .410 OBP with 101 RBIs in 663 plate appearances. In the Army during 1942-45, he wound up a frostbite victim in the Battle of the Bulge and a Bronze Star recipient. His return to MLB after the war surgery was not the same.

Cecil Howell Travis was a three-time All-Star who played in twelve Major League seasons between 1933 and 1947, all of them with the Washington Senators. Playing primarily as a shortstop, Travis hit .300 in eight of his first nine Major League seasons. A three-time All-Star, he had his best year in 1941, when he hit .359 (second in the American League), led both leagues in hits (218), and was named by The Sporting News as the best shortstop in baseball. After missing nearly four seasons serving in the Army during World War II, earning the Bronze Star, Travis returned to the Senators at the end of the 1945 season, but he was never able to regain his prewar all-star form.

Whitey Whitehill
 

Player #153C: Earl O. Whitehill. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1933-1936. 218 wins and 11 saves in 17 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1923-1932. His best season came as Washington won the AL pennant in 1933 as he posted a 22-8 record with an ERA of 3.33 in 270 innings pitched. He ended his career with the Chicago Cubs in 1939. His only World Series start was a complete game shutout in Game 3 of the 1933 World Series, which Washington lost in 5 games.

We go back to Whitehill's SABR biography: His temper notwithstanding, Whitehill had his best season was 1933, and his pitching was largely responsible for the Senators finding themselves in the World Series against the Giants. During that contest, New York enjoyed a 2-0 series lead when Whitehill took the hill for the third game. He made the most of his only World Series appearance by tossing a complete game shutout of the Giants, scattering five hits and two walks in front of 25,727 at Griffith Stadium. In doing so, he also held future Hall-of-Famers Mel Ott and Bill Terry to a collective 0-for-7 day at the plate. On the biggest stage, Earl brought his best stuff.

Whitehill played three more consistent, winning seasons for Washington, despite one aberrant game in 1935 in which he gave up ten doubles, but on December 10, 1936, he anchored a three-team trade that sent him to Cleveland. The Senators received Jack Salveson from the White Sox, while Chicago took Thornton “Lefty” Lee from the Indians.

1937 Washington Senators -- Part 1
 

The 1937 Washington Senators won 73 games, lost 80, and finished in sixth place in the American League. They were managed by Bucky Harris and played home games at Griffith Stadium.

Deveaux takes on the 1937 season: The 1937 Washington Senators' batting lineup was bolstered by the addition of a man destined for the Hall of Fame, Al Simmons. Known as "Bucketfoot" because of his open stance and movement toward third as he took his righthanded swing, Simmons was simply one of the greatest batsmen to ever come down the pipe. Just coming up on his 35th birthday, he had enjoyed a terrific 13-112-.327 year with the Tigers in 1936, his first season in Detroit. In 1935, however, he had experienced an off year for the first time in his illustrious 12-year career. He'd been Connie Mack's all-time favorite, and the revered McGillicuddy said as much at the end of a 50-year career during which he had performed double duty as both A's owner and manager. When asked to name his all-time favorite players, the octogenarian wistfully replied that he wished he could have "nine players named Simmons."

The presence of a two-time batting champion in Washington was exciting for the fans. But which Al Simmons had Clark Griffith just spent $15,000 for? If he could replicate what he'd done last season, and if the Yankees let up, who knew! It was thought that just about every hitter in the lineup had the ability to hit .300. Pitching had been the Nats' strong suit in '36, and this continued early in '37. Unfortunately, the offense sputtered horribly, resulting in a 2-7 start. . . .

. . . The club's pitching took a step back in '37, despite the addition of the Ferrels (brothers, catcher Rick and pitcher Wes). Both were disappointments, as was Simmons, the team's other important acquisition. Coming off two straight seasons in which he'd hit over .300, Bucketfoot Al faltered to .229 in 104 games for Washington after the June trade. Wes Farrell went 11-13 the rest of the way as Harris's stopper, and was 14-19, 4.90 overall. At 29, Farrell had already passed his prime, and he would be gone from the roster before the end of the following campaign.

The staff as a whole was mediocre in '37, with no one standing out. Jimmie DeShong bloomed in the spring, winning four in a row in one stretch, but then wilted badly. Shelled repeatedly, DeShong was lucky to finish with the 14-15 record he earned while allowing nearly five runs a game. Monte "Prof" Weaver, having taken up red meat again, did have a decent comeback year with a 12-9 slate and a good 4.20 ERA (the league average was 4.62). Pete Appleton, as in the case of all of the previously mentioned Nats pitchers, was also on the decline. He never did get back to the standards of his one good year, and in this season, he did not get good support and finished 8-15. Ed Kinke had an incongruous record of 6-1 with an appalling 5.60 ERA. . . .

The final averages: Myer .349026, Vosmik .348387, Foxx .345794.Had a .330 career batting average. 1934 All-Star. 1926 AL batting champion. Had more than 200 hits four times. In 1964, was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. Debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1923. Leading batter on the 1933 Washington Senator team that won the AL pennant.

1937 Washington Senators -- Part 2
 

. . . Another highlight of this baseball season in Washington took place on April 30, 1937, when the Senators were mired in their early slump. They had just dropped a pair of games at Griffith Stadium to the Yankees (Cecil Travis had suffered his ankle injury in the first game), and in the final game of the series, Joe DiMaggio made his first appearance of the season. DiMaggio was already the hottest ticket in baseball. At age 22, he was coming off a 46-167-.346 sophomore year.

Enlightening as to just how good a season "Joltin' Joe" had just had is the fact that his totals for home runs, runs scored (151), and slugging percentage (.673) were figures he would never surpass in the 11 years of his golden career still ahead of him. DiMaggio had been a member of a world championship club in each of his first two years. In his first appearance of 1937, he connected for a pinch single in the seventh inning off Bobo Newsom, but Newsom won his first game of the year with a complete-game five-hitter as the Senators salvaged their only win of the three-game set.

The highly promising roster of players Clark Griffith had assembled, seemingly enhanced by the addition of the Ferrell boys and Al Simmons, was a major letdown for the old man. His ballclub dropped three places in the standings, managing only to place ahead of some of the most infamous teams in the entire history of both the Philadelphia A's and St. Louis Browns. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

Ben Chapman
 

Player #159A: W. Benjamin "Ben" Chapman. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1936-1937 and 1941. 1,958 hits and 287 stolen bases in 15 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .383. 4-time All-Star. 1932 World Series champion. 4-time AL stolen base leader. He managed the Philadelphia Phillies in 1945-1948. His playing reputation was eclipsed by the role he played as manager of the Phillies, opposing Jackie Robinson's presence in MLB, including shouting racial epithets. His best season as a player was 1931 for the Yankees as he posted a .396 OBP with 61 stolen bases, 120 runs scored, and 122 RBIs in 686 plate appearances.

Deveaux outlines Chapman's brief, initial stint in Washington: The man Washington got (in a trade with the Yankees during the 1936 season) in exchange for Powell (Jake Powell, a temperamental outfielder who had alienated Griffith and the Washington fans), Ben Chapman, also had an interesting, but much longer, career in baseball. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, on Christmas Day, 1908, the 27-year-old Chapman was a converted infielder who'd been moved to the outfield so that New York could maximize the benefit from his outstanding speed and throwing arm. Chapman went on to rack up great numbers on some very good Yankees teams of the early 1930s. With the arrival of Joe DiMaggio in the spring of '36, however, he had outworn his welcome. Moving him to Washington meant the Yanks could open up centerfield for DiMaggio, who'd been playing in left. But Chapman was certainly a welcome addition in the Washington outfield, scoring an awesome 91 runs in just 97 games, and batting .332. . . .

. . . The following day (11 June 1937), Griffith pulled off a much more important coup, landing the celebrated Ferrell brothers from the Red Sox in exchange for Bobo Newsom and centerfielder Ben Chapman. Bobo was allowing nearly six runs per nine innings in 1937, and Chapman had only 12 RBIs in 35 games and his average was a puny .262. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

Rick Ferrell
 

We stay with Deveaux regarding the acquisition of Rick Ferrell and his brother, Wes: In return (for Bobo Newsom and Ben Chapman), the Senators were getting a sibling battery the likes of which has not since been seen in the major leagues. Catcher Rick Ferrell, a .296 career hitter (Hall of Fame, 1984), still just 31, had hit .312 in '36 and was at .308 this season. He was known for his good eye at the plate and was a crackerjack receiver.

Wes Ferrell
 

Player #161A: Wesley C. "Wes" Ferrell. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1937-1938. 193 wins and 13 saves in 15 MLB seasons. 2-time All-Star. 1935 AL wins leader. He pitched a no-hitter in 1931. His 37 career home runs are the MLB record for a pitcher. He debuted with the Cleveland Indians in 1927-1933. His erratic behavior caused concern. He last played with the Boston Braves in 1941. He is a member of the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame. He is a member of the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. His brother Rick is a member of the MLB Hall of Fame.

Deveaux continues: The brothers were North Carolina farm boys and Rick Ferrell, one of the best catchers of his time, was the more mild-mannered of the two. Three years younger than Rick, Wes Farrell was as handy with a guitar and a banjo as with a pitchfork or a baseball. Younger than Bobo Newsom (who'd won 47 big-league games to this point), Wes Farrell had already racked up six 20-win seasons in the majors. Included were two 25-win years, in 1930 and '35, when he led the league.

Wesley Cheek Ferrell seemed to have a lot more cheek than his older brother. He was a hothead who would at times fly into rages even if he was just having a bad day at the card table. Teammate Billy Werber told of how he'd seen him stomp on an expensive watch after some setback on the field. In 1932, Wes's manager at Cleveland, Roger Peckinpaugh, fined him for refusing to come out of a ballgame. In '36, Wes had a run-in with another old Nat, Joe Cronin, his manager at Boston, who fined him for doing exactly the opposite and leaving a game without permission. Later, while managing in the minor leagues, Wes would be suspended for smacking an umpire, and on another occasion for pulling his team off the field.

Apart from the fact that he'd won 20 or more in six of eight seasons, Wes Farrell also arrived in Washington carrying the reputation of being the best-hitting pitcher in the history of baseball. His lifetime .280 average and 38 home runs are still all-time records. In one memorable contest involving the Senators in late July 1935, he slammed two homers off Bobo Newsom while pitching the Bosox to victory -- remarkably, he hit two home runs in the same game on five different occasions. A week before he had victimized Bobo, he had pinch hit for the immortal Lefty Grove in the ninth inning with two men on base and the score 6-4. The pitcher was Tommy Bridges, who had 21 wins, four shutouts, and who led the league in strikeouts that year. Wes homered, for the victory. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

Joe Kuhel (pronounced "Cool")
 

Player #135F: Joseph A. "Joe" Kuhel. First baseman for the Washington Senators in 1930-1937 and 1944-1946. 2,212 hits and 131 home runs in 18 MLB seasons. He had 107 RBIs in Washington's pennant-winning 1933 season, but his best season was probably 1936 as he posted an OBP of .392 with 118 RBIs and 107 runs scored in 660 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1948-49.

Kuhel's SABR biography continued: One weapon that Kuhel added to his arsenal was the stolen base. Kuhel explained his strategy on the “hesitation steal”. ‘You take a fair lead off first base, three or four steps. As the pitch passes the batter, you stop momentarily, as if intending to return to the bag. You lean toward first for that split second until the ball hits the catcher’s glove-and then the moment it does, you tear for second. In other words, it’s lead, stop, lean and go!

“The catcher, having seen you stop, takes the ball convinced that you don’t intend to run. He cocks his arm for the throw back to the pitcher. The second baseman and shortstop, also seeing the ball pass the plate without your making a break, are just as likely to relax, pawing the dirt with their spikes, heads half down. By the time they all realize you’ve double-crossed them and are on your way, the catcher has to cock his arm again for the longer throw to second and he has to look to see whether the shortstop or second baseman is going to cover.” There may have been something to Kuhel’s technique, as he was among the league leaders in stolen bases in both 1941 and 1942 with 20 and 22 swipes, respectively.

On November 24, 1943, Chicago sold Kuhel back to Washington. With World War II raging, many ballplayers were starting to be drafted into the service. Kuhel, at 37 years of age, was one of the many older ballplayers who were able to extend their careers past their prime years, when Mickey Vernon, Washington’s regular first baseman, missed the 1944 and ‘45 seasons because he was called up to active duty. Kuhel was brought in to plug the hole, and he performed competently in the absence of Vernon.

Buddy Myer
 

Player #139F: Charles S. "Buddy" Myer. Second baseman with the Washington Senators in 1925-1927 and 1929-1941. 2,131 hits and 38 home runs in 17 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .389. 2-time All-Star. 1935 AL Batting champion. 1928 AL Stolen Base leader. His best season was 1935 for Washington as he posted a .440 OBP with 115 runs scored and 100 RBIs in 719 plate appearances. He was involved in one of baseball's most violent brawls when he was spiked and possibly racially derided by the Yankees' Ben Chapman.

We will follow Myer's SABR biography as we track his career -- Part 6: Myer credited his big year (in 1935) —a batting average 36 points above his previous high—to giving up cigars and taking up golf. He said playing golf helped him stay in shape in the offseason and stopping smoking increased his energy, as well as pleasing Clark Griffith, an antismoking crusader. (Myer continued to chew unlit cigars.) He believed the switch from leadoff to third in the order was an advantage, because he didn’t feel the need to take as many pitches.

The batting championship earned Myer a $500 bonus from the league and a $4,500 raise from Griffith, to $14,000. As to what he was really worth, Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert offered a reported $200,000 for him. Griffith said, “Well, I sold Joe Cronin to Tom Yawkey for $250,000; Ruppert is worth twice as much as Yawkey, so I’m asking $500,000 for Myer.” New York writer Dan Daniel reported that the Yankees thought “the big army of Jewish fans of this tremendous Metropolitan area would be lured into the park by a Jewish star.” While the big dollars made good publicity, Myer stayed in Washington.

Comments on players’ ethnic backgrounds were common in a time when many American cities were full of first- and second-generation European immigrants. A player’s Irish, Italian, German, or even Bohemian (Joe Vosmik) ancestry was part of his public biography. Newspaper stories during Myer’s career routinely referred to him as a Jew. The sportswriter Fred Lieb ranked him as the second-greatest Jewish player of all time, after Hank Greenberg. (This was before Koufax.) Jewish writers such as Daniel and the Washington Post’s Shirley Povich, who covered the Senators every day, apparently never questioned his Jewishness. And Myer never denied it.

Bobo Mewsom
 

Player #157C: Louis N. "Bobo" Newsom. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1935-1937, 1942, 1943, 1946-1947, and 1952. 211 wins and 21 saves in 20 MLB seasons. 4-time All-Star. 1947 World Series champion. 1942 AL strikeout leader. He had a career ERA of 3.98. He debuted with the Brooklyn Robins/Dodgers in 1929-1930. He changed teams 16 times. Almost joined Benton as only to have pitched to Ruth and Mantle. He was known for his eccentricities. In 1940 with the Detroit Tigers, he posted a 21-5 record with a 2.83 ERA in 264 innings pitched. His last team was the Philadelphia Athletics in 1952-1953.

. . . Bobo Newsome made a habit of holding out at the beginning of many a spring and was ahead of his time in that he might be considered one of the first player reps in baseball. He had become known as the "The Voice" around St. Louis because of his willingness to tangle with management whenever he felt a teammate was being slighted. Despite the man's nature, Bucky Harris went along with Griffith's plan to purchase Bobo from the Browns on May 21, 1935. The Old Fox had decided to parlay some of his "winnings" from the sale of his nephew, and Bobo was as good a $40,000 investment as any other.

Bucky Harris, in despair over the disarray of his pitching staff, recognized that Newsom was a blowhard, and said as much, but reasoned that he could handle the headaches if the hard thrower could win Washington some games. Newsom was off to a bad 0-6 start when acquired, and he went 11-12 for the Nats to finish with a very ordinary 11-18, 4.52 slate for the season. But it didn't take him long to get attention with the Senators. In one of his first starts, Earl Averill conked the big guy on the knee with a line drive. Bobo made a show of it, delaying proceedings while he went to the bench for a while, but it wasn't until after the game that he was taken seriously. He had, after all, pitched until the end, and won. It was discovered later that his kneecap was broken.

Newsom would again show uncommon courage in 1940, while a member of the Tigers. After witnessing his son start and win the first game of the World Series, Bobo Newsom's dad died suddenly. A distraught Bobo dedicated his next game to his father and, with all of America's baseball fans except for a few Cincinnati dissenters behind him, won that one as well. Nonetheless, the Cincinnati Reds insisted on deviating from the consummate script, and handed Newsom a very tough 2-1 complete-game loss in game seven. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

Bucketfoot Al Simmons
 

Player #162: Aloysius H "Al" Simmons, born Alois Szymanski. "Bucketfoot Al". Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1937-1938. 2,927 hits and 307 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. 3-time All-Star. 1929 and 1930 World Series champion. 2-time AL batting champion. 1929 AL RBI leader. 1953 inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. He debuted with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1924-1932, 1940-1941, and 1944. In addition to Philadelphia, he played for 6 other MLB teams. His career OBP was .380. His best season may have been 1930 as he posted a .423 OBP with 152 runs scored and 165 RBIs in 611 plate appearances. In 1938 he was the first Washington Senator to hit 20 or more home runs in a season.

From Simmons' SABR biography: Al Simmons (Aloysius Harry Szymanski) was a premier hitter and left fielder for Connie Mack’s formidable Philadelphia Athletics from 1924 to 1932 and subsequently for other major-league clubs through 1944.

Simmons’ powerful hitting was achieved despite his unusual batting stance. A right-handed hitter and thrower, Simmons stood at the plate with his left (front) foot pointed toward third base, “in the bucket” in baseball parlance. Accordingly, he gained the nickname Bucketfoot Al, which he resented. Theoretically, he should have had difficulty in hitting outside pitches solidly. But Simmons overcame this apparent weakness by using an unusually long bat and moving his left foot closer to home plate with the approach of an outside pitch. As Simmons explained, “I’ve studied movies of myself batting. Although my left foot stabbed out toward third base, the rest of me, from the belt up, especially my wrists, arms, and shoulders, was swinging in a proper line over the plate.”

Simmons had a lifetime batting average of .334 with 2,927 base hits (including 539 doubles) and 1,828 RBIs. Despite his induction into the Hall of Fame in 1953, Simmons is not rated by all baseball experts as highly as his gaudy statistics would suggest. Bill James did rate him seventh among left fielders based upon his 375 Win Shares. But in the Seventh Edition of Total Baseball, possibly through inadvertence, Simmons was not rated among the top 100 all-time players.

Well-respected catcher and baseball observer Ralph “Cy” Perkins summed up Simmons when he spoke at Al’s Hall of Fame induction: “He had that swagger of confidence, of defiance, when he came up as a kid. He was as sensational as a rookie as he was as a star. I’ve always classed him next to Ty Cobb (Simmons’s idol) as the greatest player I ever saw. … He was what I would call the ‘perfect player’.”

Rocky Stone
 

Player #155C: John T. "Rocky" Stone. Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1934-1938. 1,391 hits and 77 home runs in 11 MLB seasons. His career OBP was .376. he debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1928-1933. His most productive season may have been 1932 with Detroit as he posted a .361 OBP with 106 runs scored and 109 RBIs in 643 plate appearances. His best season in Washington was 1936 as he posted a .421 OBP with 95 runs scored and 90 RBIs in 500 plate appearances.

We'll begin the end of Stone's MLB career here and finish it the next time he surfaces in our progression. From his SABR biography: As the Washington Senators’ 1938 spring training got underway in Orlando, Florida, no player was more anxious to get started in the warm air and brilliant sunshine than veteran outfielder John Thomas Stone.

A respected American League veteran, John Stone had enjoyed a successful campaign in 1937, posting a .330 batting average in 139 games for the Senators. But the winter that followed had been an extremely difficult time for Johnny; he spent the off-season fighting a persistent cold, coinciding with mysterious weight loss and what he called a funny feeling of weakness. Despite the hard work and long hours devoted to his usual pre-season regimen, he nonetheless got off to a poor start in 1938 and the steady play rapidly wore him down.

Johnny was hitting an uncharacteristic .192 when the team began a series against Cleveland. On May 5, 1938, facing Indians right-hander Mel Harder, the left-hand hitting Stone painfully fouled a ball off his front right foot. Limping back into the batter’s box, he settled down and drove the next pitch on a wicked line to right-center. Johnny, with his foot throbbing, raced around the bases for an inside-the-park grand slam home run.

Back on the bench, Shirley Povich wrote, “teammates jeered him pleasantly for being out of condition, and some suggested he get in shape, but the kidding stopped when startled teammates realized his desperate gasping for air was not fun and games but something much more serious than just a shortness of breath.” When he collapsed; shaken teammates realized that “Rocky” (as he was nicknamed) was ailing from something far more serious than simply being out of shape. To be continued . . .

Cecil Travis
 

Player #158B: Cecil H. Travis Part 2. Infielder for the Washington Senators in 1933-1941 and 1945-1947. 1,544 hits and 27 home runs over 12 MLB seasons. 3-time All-Star. One of two to get 5 hits in first game. Led American League in hits in 1941 despite DiMaggio's 56-game hit streak and Ted Williams hitting .406. His best season was 1941 as he posted a .410 OBP with 101 RBIs in 663 plate appearances. In the Army during 1942-45, he wound up a frostbite victim in the Battle of the Bulge and a Bronze Star recipient. His return to MLB after the war surgery was not the same.

. . . In 1933, Travis was invited to spring training by the Washington Senators, Chattanooga’s parent club. After nearly making the team that spring, Travis was called up from Chattanooga to fill in for injured third baseman Ossie Bluege on May 16. Arriving at Griffith Stadium just one-half hour before game time, Travis had one of the most remarkable Major League debuts in baseball history, collecting hits in his first four at-bats and finishing the day with five hits. It was the first time since Fred Clarke’s debut in 1894 that anyone had collected five hits in his first game; no other player has since managed this feat. Travis hit .302 in limited duty for the Senators that season, and even though he was on Washington’s World Series roster, his teammates voted him a share of the team’s bonus for winning the American League pennant.

Travis won the starting third base job over Bluege in 1934. He hit his first major league home run on June 23 off the Detroit Tigers’ Vic Sorrell. Travis batted .319 in this first full season in Washington, overcoming a terrifying early season beaning by Chicago’s Thornton Lee that sidelined him for several games. (In his first game back, Travis faced Lee again and tripled on the southpaw’s first offering.)

Travis battled injuries throughout the early stages of his career, and he was dogged by criticisms that he was not the defensive player that Bluege was. The team shuffled Travis from position to position in both the infield and outfield over the next two seasons as it sought to keep his bat in the lineup. He was named the team’s full-time shortstop in 1937 and responded by playing solid defense. In 1938, he earned his first All-Star selection but did not play in the game.

1938 Washington Senators -- Part 1
 

The 1938 Washington Senators won 75 games, lost 76, and finished in fifth place in the American League. They were managed by Bucky Harris and played home games at Griffith Stadium.

Deveaux puts the 1938 season in context: When Mel Almada, the "California Spaniard," hit only .244 in nearly 200 at bats (to start the 1938 season), Griffith engineered a deal with the Browns which brought Sammy West back to the Senators after a 5 1/2-year separation. This exchange would be the first one in a while to turn heavily in the Nats' favor. West, still a dependable centerfielder at 34, hit .302 in 92 games after coming on board. The trade was consummated on June 15, 1938, an important date on baseball's timeline. On this day, Johnny Vander Meer, a 23-year-old lefthander of the Cincinnati Reds, hurled a second consecutive no-hitter.

Vander Meer's feat remains unique in baseball history. The second of the no-hitters took place in the first night game played at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. (Cincinnati's Crosley Field had been the scene of the first night game in the big leagues, back on May 24, 1935.) Clark Griffith had said that there was no chance night baseball would ever catch on in the majors. The game, the Old Fox reasoned, was meant to be played "in the Lord's own sunshine."

It was longer still before baseball began to see another kind of light. On the same day John Vander Meer tossed his second no-hitter, Billy Leo Williams was born in Whistler, Alabama. Williams, a sweet-swinging lefthanded hitter who would make the Hall of Fame, was black. To baseball's eternal shame, it would be nearly ten more years before a black man would be allowed to participate in a major-league game.

1938 Washington Senators -- Part 2
 

In the 1930s and 40s, Griffith Stadium was home not only to the Senators, but to the Homestead Grays of the Negro National League. Clark Griffith therefore had occasion to reflect prophetically on the future of blacks in baseball. The Grays, who played some home games at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh and the rest in Washington, had a catcher who was on his way to winning the home-run and batting titles of Negro baseball in 1938 (and he would win the home-run title again in 1939). His name was Josh Gibson, and Griffith knew darn well that Gibson was hitting more home runs into the distant left-field seats than the entire white American League combined.

In March of this year, Griffith told the Washington Tribune that the time was not far off when black Americans would be playing in the big leagues. He wasn't sure, however, that the time had arrived yet. He did talk about the subject often, but never did anything about it. In 1944, he was polled by sportswriter Wendell Smith of the Pittsburgh Courier, a black newspaper, who wanted to know what Griffith thought of Commissioner Landis's statement that the major leagues were not actively excluding blacks.

1938 Washington Senators -- Part 3
 

The commissioner had made the pronouncement in reply to the troublesome Leo Durocher, outspoken manager of the Dodgers, who had stated during an interview published in the Communist Daily Worker that he felt it was Landis who was really the one keeping blacks out of the majors. The Old Fox may have come across as somewhat evasive to Wendell Smith. His idea, Griffith told Smith, was that the Negro Leagues needed to continue to develop so that someday, when they were good enough, the best black players might play for a world championship against the best the big leagues could offer.

Once, Clark Griffith had reportedly called Josh Gibson and the Homestead Grays' other great hitter, Buck Leonard into his office to tell them the only reason he wasn't signing them to big-league contracts was because of the hardships they would encounter due to racial tensions. Of Gibson, the great Walter Johnson once said, "There is a catcher that any big-league club would like to buy for $200,000. I've heard of him before. His name is Josh Gibson. He can do everything. He hits that ball a mile. And he catches so easy he might as well be in a rocking chair. Throws like a rifle. Bill Dickey isn't as good a catcher. Too bad this Gibson is a colored fellow." (Washington Post, April 7, 1939.)

Clark Griffith did predict that the player who would eventually break baseball's unwritten color ban would have to be a martyr, impervious to the taunts and insults contrived to show the black man unworthy of playing with whites. In this Griffith was right, but by the time that chosen man, Jackie Robinson, came along, Josh Gibson was dead. He was just past his 35th birthday when he died of a stroke on January 20, 1947, just 85 days before Jackie Robinson graced the field among white players -- one of the greatest moments in the history of baseball and because of what it symbolized for so many, one of the greatest moments in the history of America. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

Zeke Bonura
 

Player #163A: Henry J. "Zeke" Bonura (pronounced like Sonora) -- Part 1. First baseman for the Washington Senators in 1938 and 1940. 1,099 hits and 119 home runs in 7 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .380. He debuted with the Chicago White Sox in 1934. His best season was probably 1936 for the White Sox as he posted a .426 OBP with 120 runs scored and 138 RBIs in 688 plate appearances. His indifferent defense on balls hit to his right gave rise to the "Bonura Salute".

We'll let Deveaux explain Washington's 1938 acquisition: On March 18, 1938, Joe Kuhel was traded to the White Sox for the antithesis of Kuhel, a big lummox with the rhyming name of Zeke "What a physique" Bonura. A classic good-hit, no-field first baseman, the muscular Bonura (also affectionately called "Banana Nose" for obvious reasons) was a fan's delight but a manager's nightmare. He held out practically on an annual basis, and Jimmy Dykes, the White Sox pilot, was of the opinion that Bonura was the worst first baseman who had ever lived, and said so publicly.

Bonura, in actual fact a college man, was so slothful a fielder as to often make himself look ridiculous on a ballfield when he didn't have a bat in his hands. When he mysteriously led the league's first basemen in fielding in '36, Dykes was quick to discredit Bonura, pointing out that players don't get errors on balls they don't touch. What's more, Bonura wouldn't just wave at ground balls, he would give them the "Mussolini salute" with his glove. Opposing fans in particular loved this, but it is not hard to imagine what his manager thought of the behavior.

Zeke Bonura
 

Player #163A: Henry J. "Zeke" Bonura (pronounced like Sonora) -- Part 2. First baseman for the Washington Senators in 1938 and 1940. 1,099 hits and 119 home runs in 7 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .380. He debuted with the Chicago White Sox in 1934. His best season was probably 1936 for the White Sox as he posted a .426 OBP with 120 runs scored and 138 RBIs in 688 plate appearances. His indifferent defense on balls hit to his right gave rise to the "Bonura Salute".

There are several versions of the following apocryphal story. Chisox manager Jimmy Dykes had decided that it would hardly be worth the trouble of changing his signals just because Bonura was now on the opposing team. Dykes told coach Bing Miller that Bonura had never been able to remember the signs when he was with Chicago anyway. As the story goes, the dreadfully slow-footed Bonura had made it to third on behalf of the Senators against his old team. At this point, Dykes began waving his scorecard to shoo away some flies which had been buzzing around him on the bench. Bonura, forgetting which side he was on, took Dykes' motions to be the steal sign, and he took off for the plate. He barged into the catcher, the ball was shaken loose, and he was in there. While this makes one hell of a good story, it indeed could not have happened in a regular-season game -- Bonura stole home only once in his seven-year big-league career, and that happened when he was a member of the White Sox. in the 15th inning of a game against the Yankees.

Zeke Bonura did bring the anticipated bat the Senators had been banking on, however, and slugged 22 homers for them in 1938. Despite a terrible start which had him hitting just .190 in mid-June, Bonura batted .289 and drove in 114 runs, which tied him for sixth best in the league with Lou Gehrig. Once again, his lack of range enabled him to lead all American League first basemen in fielding. Jimmy Dykes may have had a point when he'd said that at Chicago, Bonura let in three runs for every one that he batted in. Coupled with the resurgence of Al Simmons, who banged out 21 dingers in 1938, the Senators nearly doubled their home-run output. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

This thread will now enjoy a pause to enjoy the TEOTS in Dallas.

Wes Farrell
 

Player #160B: Wesley C. "Wes" Ferrell. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1937-1938. 193 wins and 13 saves in 15 MLB seasons. 2-time All-Star. 1935 AL wins leader. He pitched a no-hitter in 1931. His 37 career home runs are the MLB record for a pitcher. He debuted with the Cleveland Indians in 1927-1933. His erratic behavior caused concern. He last played with the Boston Braves in 1941. He is a member of the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame. He is a member of the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. His brother Rick is a member of the MLB Hall of Fame.

We'll use Wes's SABR biography to follow his time in Washington which came at the tail end of his career: Ferrell bounced back (from a disappointing 1933 season that included an attempt to become an outfielder) to enjoy three good seasons in Boston, with his brother as his battery mate in each. No longer a power pitcher, he relied on control and his knowledge of the hitters for success. He ended the 1934 season with a 14–5 record. In 1935 his record was 25–14. The following year, 1936, he won 20 and lost 15. As a result of his mound prowess, Ferrell finished second in the voting for the Baseball Writers Association of America MVP award in 1935, losing out to Hank Greenberg, and finished fifth in the balloting for the Sporting News MVP.

Nor was the Ferrell bat idle during this period, especially in clutch situations. Over the 1934–1936 seasons he averaged .303 at the plate, peaking with a .347 average, 7 home runs, and 32 RBIs in 75 games in 1935. Figures like these would be impressive for a position player, let alone a pitcher.

His temper remained volatile as well. In a game against Philadelphia on August 8, 1934, Ferrell took the mound in the bottom of the third inning with a 10–1 lead but then proceeded to give up six runs on a pair of homers. When the manager, Bucky Harris, came out to relieve him, not only did he refuse to hand over the ball; when he was finally persuaded to return to the dugout, he punched himself in the jaw with his fist and slammed his head against a concrete wall. He had to be forcibly restrained to prevent him from doing further harm to himself. During the 1936 season, Ferrell walked off the field in disgust and refused to continue pitching twice in the space of five days, angered each time by his teammates’ defensive shortcomings. On the second occasion he was fined $1,000 and suspended for several days. Ferrell’s reaction was to threaten to punch the manager, Joe Cronin, in the nose.

In 1937, Ferrell’s record fell to 14–19. After a slow start, resulting in a disappointing 3–6 record, he was traded to the Washington Senators on June 11, along with his brother Rick and outfielder Mel Almada, for pitcher Bobo Newsom and outfielder Ben Chapman. For the Senators, Ferrell managed to win an additional 11 games while losing 13. He began the 1938 season with Washington. By August 2, he had won 13 games, more than anyone else on the team, while losing only seven. Nevertheless, 10 days later, the Senators released him. His continued temperamental behavior seems to have been the chief factor underlying this decision, although the fact that he had accused the club’s owner, Clark Griffith, of being cheap cannot have helped. Two days later, on August 14, Ferrell signed with the New York Yankees, who were in need of pitching, and finished out the season with them, winning two games and losing two, compiling an overall record of 15–10 for the year.

Wes Ferrell
 

.. I have this Burke Postcard of Wes Ferrell that might be rarely seen . It's postally-used and addressed to a fan in Boston , in his own hand and was mailed from Spring Training in Florida. People were better-looking in those days IMHO . Especially ballplayers.


http://imagehost.vendio.com/a/204295.../BURKE_NEW.JPG



..Great thread , thanks very much.

Rick Ferrell
 

(Mike: Thank you for the kind words and great images.)

Player #160B: Richard B. "Rick" Ferrell. Catcher for the Washington Senators in 1937-1941, 1944-1945, and 1947. 1,692 hits 28 home runs in 18 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .378. 8-time All-Star. Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. In 1984, was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. He debuted with the St. Louis Browns in 1929-1933. His best season may have been 1932 for the Browns as he posted a .406 OBP with 67 runs scored and 65 RBIs in 514 plate appearances. He held the record for most MLB games caught for 40 years until unseated by Carlton Fiske in 1988. First catcher to receive from staff of four K-ball pitchers for the Senators in 1944. He joined the Detroit Tigers as a coach in 1950, became general manager and vice president in 1959, and continued with the Tigers until 1992. During his tenure as a Tigers executive, they won the 1968 and 1984 World Series and AL Eastern Division titles in 1972 and 1987.

We'll use Rick's SABR biography to highlight his career and time with Washington: Hall of Fame catcher Rick Ferrell (1905-1995) caught in the American League for eighteen years (1929-45,’47) during two of America’s most challenging periods: the Great Depression and World War II. Playing for the St. Louis Browns, Boston Red Sox, and Washington Senators, his skill as a durable knuckleball catcher with a laser-accurate arm for picking off potential base-stealers was held in high regard. His .378 career on-base percentage is eighth, all-time, among 50 catchers with 3000 at-bats, according to www.sabr.org, and fourth among the thirteen major league Hall of Fame catchers, bested only by Mickey Cochrane (.419), Roger Bresnahan (.386), and Bill Dickey (.382). . . .

. . . During the 1930s, Rick became one of several major league catching stars that included Mickey Cochrane, Bill Dickey, Al Lopez, Ernie Lombardi, and Gabby Hartnett. On May 10, 1933, young Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey purchased Ferrell from the fiscally strapped Browns with southpaw Lloyd Brown for catcher Merv Shea plus cash estimated at between $50,000 and $100,000. From 1929-early 1933 with the Browns, Rick had hit .289 in 430 games.

With the east coast Boston Red Sox, the catcher enjoyed his best years, catching and hitting well. Two months later on July 6, 1933, Connie Mack chose Rick to catch the entire inaugural All-Star Game. The American League team, consisting of such luminaries as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, All Simmons, Charlie Gehringer, and Lefty Grove, beat the National League, 4-2. Rick was selected to a grand total of eight All-Star teams (1933-38, 1944-45; no game in 1945 because of wartime travel restrictions).

When Cleveland and his brother Wes played against Boston two weeks later on July 19, 1933, Rick homered off Wes, after which Wes homered off Boston’s Hank Johnson, marking the first time brothers on opposing teams had homered in the same game. They taunted each other about their home runs during the game and went out for a steak dinner afterwards. Rick caught a career-high 137 games in 1933. . . . (We'll pick this up when Rick next appears.)

Goose Goslin
 

Player #90I: Leon A. "Goose" Goslin. Left fielder for the Washington Senators in 1921-1930, 1933, and 1938. 2,735 hits and 248 home runs in 18 MLB seasons. 1936 All-Star. 1924 and 1935 World Series champion. 1928 AL batting champion. 1924 AL RBI leader. 1968 inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. He drove in the game-winning, walk-off run to win the 1935 World Series for the Detroit Tigers. With Gehringer and Greenberg, was one of the Detroit "G-Men". In 1936 he had an inside-the-park HR when both outfielders (Joe DiMaggio and Myril Hoag) collided and were knocked unconscious. He had one of his best seasons for the WS-winning Washington Senators in 1924 as he posted a .421 OBP with 100 runs scored and 129 RBIs in 674 plate appearances.

One nice touch to this year (1938) was that Clark Griffith was able to bring Leon Goslin back for one final go-round. Goslin hit only .158 in 38 games, putting the cap on an outstanding career. Quite likely the best hitter in the team's history, he finished his big-league journey with an even 500 doubles, 173 triples, 248 home runs, and a .316 batting average. Clark Griffith had a job for him the following year, and the Goose returned to his home state of New Jersey to play for the Nats' Trenton farm team, where he hit .324.

Buddy Myer
 

Player #139G: Charles S. "Buddy" Myer. Second baseman with the Washington Senators in 1925-1927 and 1929-1941. 2,131 hits and 38 home runs in 17 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .389. 2-time All-Star. 1935 AL Batting champion. 1928 AL Stolen Base leader. His best season was 1935 for Washington as he posted a .440 OBP with 115 runs scored and 100 RBIs in 719 plate appearances. He was involved in one of baseball's most violent brawls when he was spiked and possibly racially derided by the Yankees' Ben Chapman.

We will follow Myer's SABR biography as we track his career -- Part 7: Myer had little opportunity to enjoy his (1935) batting title. In the spring of 1936, he began suffering from persistent stomach trouble. Some thought he was worried sick by his wife’s pregnancy, but other accounts say he had an ulcer. He played only 51 games before he went home in August.

He bounced back the next year to make the All-Star team for the second time. He never appeared in an All-Star Game; Detroit’s Charlie Gehringer was the AL’s premier second baseman and played every inning of the first six classics from 1933-1938.

Rocky Stone
 

Player #155D: John T. "Rocky" Stone. Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1934-1938. 1,391 hits and 77 home runs in 11 MLB seasons. His career OBP was .376. he debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1928-1933. His most productive season may have been 1932 with Detroit as he posted a .361 OBP with 106 runs scored and 109 RBIs in 643 plate appearances. His best season in Washington was 1936 as he posted a .421 OBP with 95 runs scored and 90 RBIs in 500 plate appearances.

Back to Stone's SABR biography: . . . Early in 1938, despite his physical deterioration and lackluster play (his manager, Bucky Harris, unfairly diagnosed Stone's malady as "Tennessee hookworm", a euphemism for a lazy streak that Harris saw as common among Southern ballplayers), teammates still voted him Most Valuable Team Member for the month of May. The club was in Detroit when Johnny’s mysterious lingering ailment prompted Harris to order a hospital examination on June 19. Test results revealed a sinus infection and severe bronchial attack, initiating an order by Harris to send Stone back to Washington.

A series of tests at Georgetown Hospital revealed the Washington outfielder was suffering from tuberculosis, a highly infectious disease primarily spread through coughing and sneezing. The disease seriously affected a patient’s lungs and in an era prior to the introduction of antibiotics, tuberculosis was very difficult to treat and ultimately claimed the lives of many victims. Restoring Johnny’s body back to health would be a long and tedious process.

The Sporting News reported that, upon hearing of Stone’s diagnosis, “Clark Griffith whirred into action. Griff didn’t want his star outfielder, or members of his family, to worry about finances or how to pay for Johnny’s care. The next day, to Johnny’s hospital room was delivered his salary check for the remainder of the season. Arrangements for treatment at Saranac (New York) were also made by Mr. Griffith.”

Stone wrote to clubhouse manager Frankie Baxter, “Be sure to save my uniform. Maybe a lot of people don’t think I’ll never wear it again, but I’ll climb into it in Orlando and I think I’ll be ready.” Griffith and Harris were less optimistic. “We can’t figure much on Stone, but if he comes around he will be more than welcome.”

Reports from Saranac indicated Stone benefitted greatly from the healthy atmosphere. Doctors called him, “the best patient we ever had, with remarkable recuperative powers and he’ll beat this lung infection 100 per cent.” After hearing the story of Johnny’s inside-the-park home-run back in May, a physician shook his head and remarked: “Only a man with tremendous courage could have kept playing the way he has.”

Stone wrote to Griffith from Saranac describing how he “benefitted from the atmosphere and passed his lung tests and emerged triumphant from an operation,” adding he gained weight and looked forward to the start of spring training. . Despite speculation that Stone might return to the game in time for the 1939 season, it was further determined that although considered to be recovered, he’d risk further illness subjecting himself to the rigors of professional baseball. “Stoney” regrettably announced his retirement.

Stone and his family were residing at the tuberculosis sanatorium in Asheville, North Carolina, when plans for a day in his honor were announced. The event would be held at Griffith Stadium on September 17, 1939; fittingly, the Detroit Tigers would be in town as the visiting team. Initially, Johnny was told to bypass the rigors of the trip, but doctors later relented and allowed him to travel from North Carolina back to D.C.

A special section of the stadium was designated to accommodate Stone’s family, friends and admirers. Funds were raised to purchase a trophy and plans were made to fill a cash purse for the popular former outfielder. Proceeds from the fundraiser were expected to be sufficient enough to pay off the mortgage on the family farm back home in Tennessee.

Cecil Travis
 

Player #158C: Cecil H. Travis Part 3. Infielder for the Washington Senators in 1933-1941 and 1945-1947. 1,544 hits and 27 home runs over 12 MLB seasons. 3-time All-Star. One of two to get 5 hits in first game. Led American League in hits in 1941 despite DiMaggio's 56-game hit streak and Ted Williams hitting .406. His best season was 1941 as he posted a .410 OBP with 101 RBIs in 663 plate appearances. In the Army during 1942-45, he wound up a frostbite victim in the Battle of the Bulge and a Bronze Star recipient. His return to MLB after the war surgery was not the same.

In 1939, Travis -- naturally thin at 6’1″ and 185 pounds -- suffered two bouts with the flu and lost considerable weight from his already lanky frame. He rebounded to hit .292, the first time in his professional career that he failed to break the .300 mark. That year, he participated in an all-star exhibition game in Cooperstown, New York, to celebrate the dedication of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. In 1940, playing mostly at third base, a healthy Travis rebounded to hit .322 and earn his second All-Star selection. This time, he not only played in the game but also was in the starting lineup and led off for the American League.

As Travis emerged as a star in the league, he drew interest from other teams, especially the perennially contending Detroit Tigers. One persistent rumor had Travis going to the Tigers in exchange for either all-star Rudy York or future Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg. But Washington never traded Travis, and he remained with the Senators his entire career, never playing in the postseason.

1939 Washington Senators -- Part 1
 

The 1939 Washington Senators won 65 games, lost 87, and finished in sixth place in the American League. They were managed by Bucky Harris and played home games at Griffith Stadium.

This was the year that possibly the best hitter of all time made his debut in the league, with the Boston Red Sox. Later in the season, on August 19, 1939, Theodore Samuel Williams smashed his first career grand slam against the Senators in an 8-6 Red Sox victory. Williams would go on in his rookie season to hit 31 homers, drive in a league-leading 145 runs, and bat .327. The league's great star, Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, would lead the junior circuit in batting with .381, which would hold as the highest average of his career. DiMag did miss five weeks of the season, though, as a result of a muscle tear in his leg sustained on Griffith Stadium's muddy outfield grass while chasing a Bobby Estalella liner on April 29.

Players of the caliber of Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams may come along once in a generation, but not likely twice, as they did. While the Senators didn't have a DiMaggio or a Williams, they did unveil some future standouts of their own in 1939. On July 8, a 21-year-old first baseman made his first appearance in a box score. Mickey Vernon would remain at the position for a period spanning four decades, most of which he would spend in Washington. Vernon's debut year was relatively inauspicious, as he hit just .257 with one home run the rest of the way. By season's end, the native of Marcus Hook, Pa., had played in 76 games, and before his career ended, he would hold the major-league record for most games played at first base. Quiet, consistent, and blessed with a good deal of charisma, Vernon would win the batting title twice, lead the league in doubles three times, and hit 490 career doubles. As a fielder, he was outstanding as well, the best at his position four times, twice pacing the entire majors.

Before being called up by the Washington Senators in July of 1939, James Barton "Mickey" Vernon (my second most favorite Senators player when I was a kid in the 1950's) played in 76 games and batted .343 for the Springfield (MA) Nationals of the Eastern league, a Class A minor leage affiliate of the Senators. The earliest Vernon collectible I have is this advertising photo issued by a Springfield clothier:

What a great piece, Val! And what a great player and man Mickey was. In 2007, Mickey and I were two of a contingent of four who threw out the first pitch on Opening Day--the White House wouldn't send anybody that year because VP Cheney got booed so roundly when he did the honors the year before. I had Mickey to myself in the "green room" for about half and hour before they called us out, and I asked him about his rookie year of 1939, when the radio broadcaster was none other than Walter Johnson. Of course, Mickey remembered that year, and Johnson, well, and it was a treat to hear stories about it from someone who was there! I got him to sign the ball I threw out, and it's one of my treasures.

1939 Washington Senators -- Part 2
 

(Thanks to Val and Hank for their Vernon inputs. I wondered if Val could come up with something I couldn't -- a pre-war Vernon. Of course he could!)

On September 13, a Joe Cambria (we will introduce Joe shortly) protégé', Early "Gus" Wynn, a 19-year-old righthander from Hartford, Alabama, started on the trail to Cooperstown. Unfortunately, Wynn would not find the right fork in the road until he left Washington, but eventually he too, like Mickey Vernon, would extend his career beyond the 1950s. He managed to play long enough to earn his 300th and final win, thereby guaranteeing immortality in the Hall of Fame, into which he was inducted in 1972. A scowling type on the mound, Wynn had a live fastball, but indeed never assembled the complementary pitches required for consistency until the Nats traded him to Cleveland at the end of 1948. In retrospect, that deal may well have been the worst the Senators made in their entire history, but for the time being, Wynn lost both his late-season decisions, and he would spend the better part of the next two years in the minors before resurfacing in Washington in 1941. . . .

1939 Washington Senators -- Part 3
 

. . . One of baseball's most moving dramas unfolded right before the Senators in 1939. On April 30, the day after Joe DiMaggio tore up his leg at Griffith Stadium, Lou Gehrig appeared in his 2,130th consecutive game, the last one of his streak, which had begun against the Nats 14 years earlier. The Iron Horse went hitless against Joe Krakauskas, and upon making a routine play, was congratulated by Yankees pitcher Johnny Murphy. Two days later, after traveling to Detroit, Gehrig would take himself out of the lineup, suffering from unexplained sluggishness. His replacement, a rookie named Babe Dahlgren, homered and doubled and the Yanks won 22-2. (Coincidentally, pitcher Fred Hutchinson of the Tigers, later a World Series manager and well-loved figure, made his big-league debut in the same game, and it was a disaster for him. Hutchinson surrendered five walks, four hits, and eight runs in two-thirds of an inning.)

On June 20, Gehrig was diagnosed at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., as suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an incurable form of paralysis which became known as Lou Gehrig's disease. When he appeared in front of nearly 62,000 fans at Yankee Stadium for Lou Gehrig Day two weeks later, the visitors were the Washington Senators. Gehrig gave his stirring "luckiest man on earth" speech, during the course of which he reflected on the courage and support displayed by his wife and family throughout his ordeal, and the good fortune he had to be associated with some of the finest men in baseball. "I might of had a bad break," he concluded, "but I have an awful lot to live for." Less than two years later, a few days short of his 38th birthday, Lou Gehrig was dead. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

I don't have anything with the Iron Horse on it; here's a 1939 photo of Jack Dempsey signing for the Big Train):

Pete Appleton
 

Player #163: Peter W. "Pete" Appleton. He was born Peter Jabionowski and was sometimes known as "Jabby". He changed his name in 1934. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1936-1939 and 1945. 57 wins and 28 saves in 14 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Cincinnati Reds in 1927-1928. His best season was 1936 with Washington as he posted a 14-9 record with a 3.53 ERA in 201.2 innings pitched.

We will use Appleton's SABR biography to highlight his career and time in Washington: In September 1927, the Cincinnati Reds brought up a 23-year-old right-handed pitching prospect named Pete Jablonowski for a late-season look-see. Although he made a good first impression, going 2-1 with a 1.82 ERA and a shutout victory, Jablonowski struggled the following year in 31 games. In 1930-1931, however, he saw considerable service with the Cleveland Indians, posting a combined 12-11 log over two seasons of spot starting and relief work. But Jablonowski was thereafter cast adrift again, with only a brief stint with the Boston Red Sox and a single game appearance for the New York Yankees preceding his return to the minors.

Three seasons and one legal name change later, he resurfaced as Pete Appleton, notching a career-best 14 wins for the 1936 Washington Senators. For the next nine years, with time out for World War II naval service, Appleton remained in uniform, hurling his final major-league game as a 41-year-old in September 1945. The remainder of his life was likewise devoted to the game, first as a player-manager in various minor leagues and thereafter as a fulltime scout for the Senators and Minnesota Twins. By the time of his death in early 1974, Pete Appleton had spent 47 years associated with professional baseball. . . .

. . . That winter (after the 1935 season), appreciative (for Appleton's 23-9, 3.17 season helping Montreal win the International League pennant) Montreal owner-manager Frank Shaughnessy cleared the way for Pete to get another major-league shot, selling his rights to the Washington Senators for $7,500.

The 5’11” and 183 lb. veteran was now almost 32 years old. As described by Washington Post sports columnist (and soon-to-become ardent Pete Appleton booster) Shirley Povich, Appleton was a deliberate worker who did not throw hard, delivering his assortment of pitches via an over-the-top motion. But while his stuff was still adjudged no more than adequate by major-league standards, Washington brass hoped that Pete, if used judiciously, would prove a useful addition to a Senators pitching corps in serious decline from the pennant-winning performance of three seasons earlier. Alternating between the rotation and the bullpen, Appleton vindicated his acquisition, going 14-9, with 12 complete games and a creditable 3.53 ERA for the 1936 season, one that saw the Senators (82-71) post a 15-win improvement over the previous campaign. Unhappily for the DC faithful, neither the Senators nor Appleton would continue the good work, with the 1937 season seeing both the club (73-80) and the pitcher (8-15) headed in the wrong direction. The following two years, Appleton worked primarily in relief, turning in sub-par (7-9 and 5-10) logs for second division Washington teams.

In December 1939, Appleton was a throw-in in the trade that sent hard-hitting Taft Wright to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for outfielder Gee Walker.

George Case
 

Player #164A: George W. Case. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1937-1945 and 1947. 1,415 hits and 349 stolen bases in 11 MLB seasons. 4-time All-Star. 6-time AL stolen base leader. Only player to ever lead MLB in stolen bases for five consecutive years (1939-1943). His best season was probably 1942 for Washington as he posted a .377 OBP with 101 runs scored and 44 stolen bases in 563 plate appearances.

We will start with Deveaux on Case and then continue on in tomorrow's introduction: On the Washington club of 1939, the revelation was second-year outfielder George Case. Indeed, Case caused a sensation throughout baseball, stealing 51 bases, the highest total in the majors since Ben Chapman's 61 eight years earlier. Case would become the greatest base stealer of his time; in the 40-year period from 1921 to 1961, no one would pilfer more bases than the 61 he would swipe in 1940. For five straight years beginning in 1939, Case would lead both major leagues in steals, a feat unprecedented in major-league history. He did incur numerous injuries while sliding, but in 1948, hobbled by pains which were bringing his career to an abrupt end at age 31, he would win a sixth league title.

Papa Joe Cambria
 

Player #165: Joseph C. "Joe" Cambria Part 1. "Papa Joe" (born Carlo Cambria) was an American professional baseball scout and executive who was a pioneer in recruiting Latin American players. From 1929 through 1940, he owned several Minor League Baseball teams, as well as the Negro league Baltimore Black Sox. He is best known, however, for his work as a scout for Major League Baseball, especially for his work in Cuba. From the mid-1930s until his death in 1962, he recruited hundreds of Cuban players for the Washington Senators and Minnesota Twins. Cambria was described as the first of many scouts who searched Latin America for inexpensive recruits for their respective ball clubs.

George Washington Case's association with the Washington Senators was the product of a business relationship which had existed between Clark Griffith and a Baltimore laundryman named Joe Cambria since 1934. Originally from Messina, Italy, but brought to America around 1890 when he was just three months old, Cambria was to become the Bobo Newsom of baseball club owners. Raised in Boston, his baseball travels began in 1910 as an outfielder with Newport of the Rhode Island State League. He hung on to a career as a minor-leaguer until 1916, when he fractured his leg. Cambra nevertheless did serve in World War I and, after the war, got into the laundry business, once sponsoring a boys team on which Clark Griffith's young nephew, Calvin, played.

For ten years beginning in the late twenties, Joe Cambria furthered his career as a nomadic minor-league operator. He successively bought clubs in various leagues in outposts like Hagerstown (Blue Ridge League); Youngstown (Middle Atlantic League); Albany (International League); Harrisburg (New York-Penn. League); Salisbury, Maryland (Eastern Shore League); St. Augustine (Florida State); and Greenville (Sally League).

In 1934, Cambria ran into some difficulty in meeting his payroll. It was then that he introduced himself to Clark Griffith for the first time. Needing $1,500 to stay afloat, Cambria was able to coax the sum out of the Old Fox, who would over the years reap a return worth many times his initial investment. At first, Cambria began beating the bushes for Griffith as a scout on a part-time basis only. He had no license to spend Griff's money, so as a result, he did his bird-dogging in locales less frequented by other scouts, generally in the lower minor leagues.

Papa Joe Cambria Part 2
 

Player #165: Joseph C. "Joe" Cambria Part 2. "Papa Joe" (born Carlo Cambria) was an American professional baseball scout and executive who was a pioneer in recruiting Latin American players. From 1929 through 1940, he owned several Minor League Baseball teams, as well as the Negro league Baltimore Black Sox. He is best known, however, for his work as a scout for Major League Baseball, especially for his work in Cuba. From the mid-1930s until his death in 1962, he recruited hundreds of Cuban players for the Washington Senators and Minnesota Twins. Cambria was described as the first of many scouts who searched Latin America for inexpensive recruits for their respective ball clubs.

This approach led Joe Cambria clear out of the country to explore talent in Puerto Rico, Panama, and Mexico. In 1911, he had played in Cuba and recalled having been impressed with the ability of the players and the overall quality of play. He would eventually sign a great number of Cuban players for the Washington Senators on behalf of Clark Griffith.

The first of those was Bobby Estalella, a powerful hitter who packed 185 pounds on a 5' 6" frame. Discovered by Cambria in the Havana winter league while in his early twenties. Estalella could hit the ball a long way, when he connected. Unfortunately, his fielding average at third base risked dropping to the level of his batting average. In his debut with the Senators, in 1935, he got into 15 games and hit a couple of homers. In the field, he was knocking balls down any way he could, and the Griffith Stadium fans loved him. He faded back to the minors, but nearly four years later, Estalella was brought back to spend the better part of six seasons in the big leagues. In '39, the Nats made use of him in about half their games, but only in the outfield, and he managed to hit a creditable .275 with eight homers. Estalella was not destined to ever become a star, however.

Papa Joe Cambria Part 3
 

Player #165: Joseph C. "Joe" Cambria Part 3. "Papa Joe" (born Carlo Cambria) was an American professional baseball scout and executive who was a pioneer in recruiting Latin American players. From 1929 through 1940, he owned several Minor League Baseball teams, as well as the Negro league Baltimore Black Sox. He is best known, however, for his work as a scout for Major League Baseball, especially for his work in Cuba. From the mid-1930s until his death in 1962, he recruited hundreds of Cuban players for the Washington Senators and Minnesota Twins. Cambria was described as the first of many scouts who searched Latin America for inexpensive recruits for their respective ball clubs.

A more pronounced flop was Cuban pitcher Rene Monteagudo, whom Cambria had had on his Greenville, South Carolina, club. Monteagudo beat the Senators in an exhibition game and Griffith took him on, but his career in the big leagues was very brief. In 33 games with the Nats over two years, he was 3-7 with an atrocious earned run average of six runs per game. It had been said that Monteagudo's chief asset in terms of pitching in the big leagues was that he could speak English. This would have made him easier prey for Joe Cambria who, surprisingly, knew very little Spanish. On one occasion, after Clark Griffith had been unsuccessful in attempts to elicit some information from a Latin player, he asked Cambria to speak for him. Cambria went up to the player and asked the same thing Griffith had, in English, but he asked louder.

Next on the Cuban prospect list, and considerably more successful, was Alejando Alexander Aparicio Elroy Carrasquel, a name which might possibly been rendered even mor elegant had his parents left out the "Elroy." Certainly, Alex Carasquel was an elegant pitcher. His age was officially given as 27 when he joined the Nationals for the 1939 season, but some Cubans who had played with him during a tour of Florida insisted that he was more like 35. At his first training camp, all Carrasquel could say in English was, "Me peech good."

What Alex Carrasquel was for sure was a man fond of the rumba and the night life, and the owner of a nice fastball. Following his rookie season in 1939, in which he went 5-9 for another underachieving Washington ballclub, Carrasquel would find his niche with the Senators as a reliever throughout the war years. His fastball became a prized commodity on a staff which would be comprised almost entirely of knuckleballers, and his 50-39 career record, amassed on losing clubs, attests to his competence. Eventually, like Bobby Estalella, Carrasquel would be banned from baseball for jumping to the Mexican League, but would later make a brief return to the majors, with the White Sox, in 1949.

Papa Joe Cambria Part 4
 

Player #165: Joseph C. "Joe" Cambria Part 4. "Papa Joe" (born Carlo Cambria) was an American professional baseball scout and executive who was a pioneer in recruiting Latin American players. From 1929 through 1940, he owned several Minor League Baseball teams, as well as the Negro league Baltimore Black Sox. He is best known, however, for his work as a scout for Major League Baseball, especially for his work in Cuba. From the mid-1930s until his death in 1962, he recruited hundreds of Cuban players for the Washington Senators and Minnesota Twins. Cambria was described as the first of many scouts who searched Latin America for inexpensive recruits for their respective ball clubs.

Joe Cambria's most heralded Cuban prospect, brought up for the 1941 season, would be a flop. Roberto Ortiz was a 6' 4", 200-pounder who, according to Cambria, threw harder than Walter Johnson and could hit a ball farther than Jimmie Foxx. None of that was ever placed into evidence, however, and Ortiz hit a grand total of eight homers in a career spanning just 659 at-bats, mostly on weakened wartime teams in the early forties. Later on, Joe Cambria would have better luck with his recruits. Eventually, he would have a hand in bringing to the Senators' organization such Cuban stalwarts as Connie Marrero, Sandy Consuegra, Mike Fornieles, Pedro Ramos, Camilo Pascual, Zoilo Versalles, and, last but not least, Tony Oliva.

While other clubs began scouring the Pearl of the Antilles, Cambria remained the most popular scout with the Cuban people. He headquartered at the American Club in Havana, and in fact became so well known that a cigar was named after him -- it was called the "Papa Joe." Cambria earned a reputation as a man genuinely concerned for the Cuban players he did sign, but in the first few years of his association with Clark Griffith, he had more success recruiting Americans. Among these, George Case was already a star. There would be others, like Eddie Yost and Walter Masterson, but never again would Cambria help promote players of the caliber of a pair of rookies who first appeared in the big leagues with the 1939 edition of the Washington Senators. These two Cambria proteges were Mickey Vernon and Early Wynn.

Ken Chase
 

Player #166A: Kendall F. "Ken" Chase. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1936-1941. 53 wins in 8 MLB seasons. His best season was 1940 for Washington as posted a 15-17 record with a 3.23 ERA in 261.2 innings pitched. He gave up Lou Gehrig's 2721st and last hit, as Gehrig removed himself from the line up the next day in 1939. He finished his career with the New York Giants in 1943.

We will use Chase's SABR biography to follow his career in Washington: Ted Williams called him “the toughest southpaw I ever batted against.” But wildness was a problem that persisted throughout Ken Chase’s career. . . .

. . . In 1936, Chase went to spring training with the Nationals and experienced his big-league debut for Washington on April 23 at Yankee Stadium. He threw 2 1/3 innings in relief of Monte Weaver, giving up three runs, walking four and striking out one. When the Southern Association season began, Chase was sent back to Chattanooga. He put up a 3-10 record for the Lookouts, with a 5.13 ERA that more or less matched his earned run average from the year before.

In 1937 he was 5-12 for Chattanooga when the manager gave up on him. But manager Bucky Harris of the Senators had seen something in him and called Chase up to Washington on July 4. There he succeeded where he had not in Class A. Starting on July 10, Chase appeared in 14 games and put up a winning 4-3 record, with a respectable 4.13 ERA (the team average was 4.58). On August 29 he outpitched Bob Feller, 6-2. Two of the wins were against the Yankees, Red Ruffing the loser both times. “I knew he could pitch,” crowed Harris a little later. “You telling me?” asked coach Nick Altrock. “That boy is fast and has a great curve.”

In 1938, he spent the full season with Washington, starting 21 games and appearing in another 11. He was 9-10 with a 5.58 ERA. Team owner Clark Griffith took him aside that fall. “When you go back to Oneonta this fall,” Griffith told him, “I want you to forget all about that milk business of your father’s. Milking 25 cows a day and hoisting 20-gallon cans of milk into a truck is ruining you as a pitcher.”

The advice may have helped. Chase’s earned run average in 1939 was 3.80, though playing for the 65-87 Senators, his won/loss record was a disappointing 10-19. On July 28, he pitched a masterpiece, taking a no-hitter into the ninth against the visiting Cleveland Indians in a Ladies Day game. He gave up a single and then another one, but won the game, 2-0. Another highlight of the season was being at Yankee Stadium for Lou Gehrig‘s farewell speech on July 4. . . . (We will come back to this when we see Chase next.)

Jimmie DeShong
 

Player #167: James B. "Jimmie" DeShong. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1936-1939. 47 wins and 9 saves in 7 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1932. His best season was 1936 with Washington as he posted a record of 18-10 with a 4.63 ERA in 223.3 innings pitched.

DeShong's playing career lasted for 14 seasons (1928–1941). His MLB service saw him miss, by one year, two dynasties: the 1929–1931 Athletics and the 1936–1939 Yankees. However, he enjoyed a stellar campaign as a member of the 1936 Senators, posting an 18–10 won–lost record and finishing eighth in the American League in victories. His high win total in 1936 was accompanied by a mediocre 4.63 earned run average, and he permitted 255 hits (among them, 11 home runs) and 96 bases on balls in 223.2 innings pitched, with only 59 strikeouts.

Overall, in his 175 games, which included an even 100 starts, he compiled a 47–44 record and a 5.08 career ERA, permitting 968 hits and 432 walks, with 273 strikeouts, in 872.2 career innings pitched. He threw two shutouts and 44 complete games, and was credited with nine saves, then an unofficial statistic.

Rick Ferrell
 

Player #160C: Richard B. "Rick" Ferrell. Catcher for the Washington Senators in 1937-1941, 1944-1945, and 1947. 1,692 hits 28 home runs in 18 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .378. 8-time All-Star. Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. In 1984, was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. He debuted with the St. Louis Browns in 1929-1933. His best season may have been 1932 for the Browns as he posted a .406 OBP with 67 runs scored and 65 RBIs in 514 plate appearances. He held the record for most MLB games caught for 40 years until unseated by Carlton Fiske in 1988. First catcher to receive from staff of four K-ball pitchers for the Senators in 1944. He joined the Detroit Tigers as a coach in 1950, became general manager and vice president in 1959, and continued with the Tigers until 1992. During his tenure as a Tigers executive, they won the 1968 and 1984 World Series and AL Eastern Division titles in 1972 and 1987.

Back to Rick's SABR biography: . . . A strong contact hitter, the catcher developed a pattern of hitting in the .300’s during the season until September, when due to exhaustion and the wool uniforms in the summer heat, his batting average would invariably drop. Yet he still hit over .300 five times during his career. . . .

The following June 10, 1937, as Rick was batting a strong .308, he and Wes were unexpectedly traded together with Mel Almada to the Washington Senators for pitcher Bobo Newsom and outfielder Ben Chapman. (Washington’s Cal Griffith would only make the deal if Rick was included.) Totaling a .302 batting average from 1933-37 with Boston, Rick had broken Red Sox catcher’s records in batting, home runs, doubles, and runs-batted-in.

With the Senators, Rick and Wes again formed a battery under manager Bucky Harris and both were selected for the 1937 AL All-Star team. In a season of double-injuries, Rick hit a mere .244 in 104 games, playing the season with a partially broken right hand while gripping the bat with his single, left hand at the plate. Playing through the pain, he never once asked to come out of the lineup. Wes went 14-19 for the season but was released in August 1938 (13-8). As his battery mate for five years, Rick had caught 141 of his starts, including nine shutouts.

In 1938, Rick topped all catchers at starting double plays with 15. Also in 1938, he first began successfully catching the Senators’ big knuckleball pitcher Emil “Dutch” Leonard, giving Leonard a new chance in the major leagues. By 1939, Leonard became a 20-game winner, success he attributed to having a catcher like Ferrell, who could handle the knuckleball pitch.

The Senators played at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939, when Lou Gehrig retired from baseball with his “Luckiest Man” speech. Rick was standing three feet from the microphone and always clearly remembered that day. When Ted Williams once asked Ferrell how to pitch to Gehrig, Ferrell replied, “No one way. You’ve got to move the ball around, try to cross him up and outguess him…keep him off-stride.” . . . (We will finish this when Rick surfaces again.)

Charlie Gelbert
 

Player #168A: Charles M. "Charlie" Gelbert. Shortstop for the Washington Senators in 1939-1940. 766 hits and 17 home runs in 9 MLB seasons. 1931 World Series champion. He debuted with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1929-1932 and 1935-1936. In 1930 with the Cardinals, he posted a .360 OBP with 92 runs scored and 72 RBIs in 574 plate appearances. He finished his career with the Boston Red Sox in 1940. He lost two full seasons recovering from a severe ankle injury suffered while hunting. Though he returned to baseball in 1935 and played six more seasons, he was limited to a utility role for the rest of his career.

We pick up Gelbert's SABR biography for an account of his time in St. Louis and then Washington: The (St. Louis) Cardinals placed him with Rochester in 1928 and Branch Rickey himself apparently wrote to Warren Giles, the head of the Rochester Red Wings, “I am sending you a shortstop. If he strikes out every time and boots every ball, I want him to play the first 30 games. He will be the Cardinal shortstop next season.” . . .

. . . Rickey was right; Gelbert was the shortstop for the Cardinals in 1929. The team was so sure of Gelbert that they sold the contract of future Hall of Famer Rabbit Maranville to the Boston Braves in December 1928.

Gelbert played almost every game of the 1929 season (146 of 154), hit .262, and drove in 65 runs, but he was a little porous at shortstop, leading the league in errors at the position. The team finished fourth.

Under manager Gabby Street, the 1930 Cardinals again won the National League pennant (as they had in 1926 and 1928) with a .314 team batting mark; Gelbert hit .304 and drove in 72 runs in 139 games. He had an excellent World Series; though the Cards lost to the Philadelphia Athletics in six games, Gelbert hit .353, and won praise for some outstanding fielding plays.

During the World Series, Gelbert drove in key insurance runs in Games Three and Four, but he shone in the field as well. Tom Meany’s mid-Series column in the New York Telegram was titled “Gelbert Voted Series Hero by Both Cardinals and A’s.” Grantland Rice wrote, “The star of the Cardinal front line was young Charley Gelbert at short.” He handled 28 chances without an error. . . .

In 1931 Gelbert hit .289 in the regular season, playing in eight fewer games due to an injury that forced him to cut back some on his playing time. The Cardinals won the pennant once more and faced off against the Athletics again, this time winning the World Series in seven games. Gelbert collected six more hits and handled 42 more chances without an error.

. . . During the October 1938 major-league draft meeting, the Washington Senators selected Gelbert. He played in about half the Senators’ games (68) in 1939, and assembled 222 plate appearances, compiling a batting average of .255 (with a .361 on-base percentage).

Walter Johnson
 

Player #54U: Walter P. "Barney" Johnson. "The Big Train". Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1907-1927. 417 wins and 34 saves in 21 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. 1913 and 1924 AL Most Valuable Player. 3-time triple crown. 6-time AL wins leader. 5-time AL ERA leader. 12-time AL strikeout leader. He had a career ERA of 2.17 in 5,914.1 innings pitched. He pitched a no-hitter in 1920. He holds the MLB record with 110 career shutouts. MLB All-Time Team. Inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame in 1936. One of his best seasons was 1913 as he posted a record of 36-7 with a 1.14 ERA in 346 innings pitched.

The biggest tragedy of Walter’s later years, though, was Hazel’s death at age 36 on August 1, 1930, apparently the result of exhaustion from a cross-country drive during one of the hottest summers on record. After he lost the woman he idolized, a cloud of melancholy descended over the rest of Johnson’s life, darkening what should have been tranquil, happy years of retirement on his Mountain View Farm in the Maryland countryside.

During his later years, Walter kept busy on the farm, served as Montgomery County commissioner, was brought back by the Senators in 1939 as their broadcaster, and made an unsuccessful run as a Republican for a seat in the U.S. Congress. On June 12, 1939, along with such other greats as Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Honus Wagner, Johnson was inducted into the newly-created Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. (We will finish "wrapping up" Walter's life in our next, and final, visit with him.)

1924 Washington Team Cabinet Rarity
 

Pleased to be the new owner of this super rare piece

1924 Washington Senators Wright and Ditson Cabinet Photograph with Charles Conlon Images. Rarely seen, this 7x9.25" cabinet photograph was given away at a banquet at the Bond Hotel in Hartford, Connecticut following the Senators' championship season. Hall of Famer Walter Johnson is front and center while his Cooperstown compatriots Bucky Harris, Goose Goslin, Sam Rice and Clark Griffith are found on the edges. Ossie Bluege, Joe Judge, Muddy Ruel and Roger Peckinpaugh are also in attendance.

Truly incredible piece, Wayne, especially tough in the original mount.

Dutch Leonard
 

(Great piece Wayne! Thanks for posting.)

Player #169A: Emil J. "Dutch" Leonard. Knuckle-ball pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1938-1946. 191 wins and 45 saves in 20 MLB seasons. 5-time All Star. Pitched complete game to beat Yankees in 1st game of doubleheader, after which Lou Gehrig gave "luckiest man in the world" speech. In 1945, part of four-man rotation, made up by four knuckle-ball pitchers. Debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1933.

We will follow Leonard's SABR biography for a 3-part overview of his career in Washington -- Part 1: Dutch Leonard rode his knuckleball to a 20-year big league career, baffling batters, catchers, and umpires until he was 44 years old. As Jackie Robinson described Leonard’s knuckler, “It comes up, makes a face at you, then runs away.” . . .

. . . For the next two years (1935 and 1936) Leonard worked primarily in relief. He complained that the Dodgers’ catchers wouldn’t call for his knuckleball, leaving him with an assortment of hittable pitches. He led the NL with eight saves in 1935, but nobody knew that because the statistic did not yet exist. His 2-9 record marked him as a failure. In 1936 he was used mostly as a mop-up man in games that were already lost. The club’s new catcher, Babe Phelps, was more hitter than catcher and wanted nothing to do with the knuckleball. He told manager Casey Stengel it was too hard to handle. Stengel barked, “Don’t you think it might be a little hard to hit, too?” Phelps led the Dodgers that season with a .367 batting average, so Stengel needed him more than he needed a mop-up reliever. Leonard was sent down to Atlanta in the Class A-1 Southern Association.

Joining the Crackers in June 1936, Leonard met his new catcher, Paul Richards, another washout from the majors. After getting a look at the knuckler, Richards told him, “You keep throwing it, and it’s my job to catch it.” Leonard said, “Richards was the first catcher I ever worked with who wasn’t too timid to call for my knuckleball.” Leonard went 13-3 with a 2.29 ERA, best in the league, and helped Atlanta win the pennant. . . .

. . . The Washington Senators drafted Leonard after the 1937 season, paying Atlanta $7,500 for a castoff who was approaching his 29th birthday. Washington owner Clark Griffith said he was confident his catcher, Rick Ferrell, could deal with the knuckleball. The pitch had always been an oddity since it was introduced early in the 20th century. Some pitchers used it occasionally as a change-up or surprise pitch, but few—notably Jesse Haines, Eddie Rommel, Fred Fitzsimmons, and Ted Lyons—had made it their trademark. The knuckler is hard to hit and hard to catch, but also hard to throw, since the pitcher has to deliver it with little or no spin. Even a slight breeze at the pitcher’s back can turn a knuckleball into a nothing ball. As Leonard said, “That knuckler can be either a pitcher’s meat or his poison depending on how it’s working.”

Leonard gripped the ball with the tips of his index and middle fingers. He said, “I just throw it straight forward like you’d flip a cigarette butt.” He threw with different arm angles, so the pitch moved up, down, or sideways. He stuck with the knuckler unless he fell behind in the count, when he had to rely on his sort-of fastball or slow curve. What distinguished Leonard from most of his tribe was his excellent control. Although he said he never knew exactly where the pitch was going, he usually walked no more than two batters per nine innings in his prime. But he realized he was balancing on the edge with every pitch: “The trouble with the knuckle ball is that the .250 hitters are just as apt to hit it safe as the .350 hitters. None of them will hit the knuckler if it’s breaking right and all of them will hit it if it isn’t breaking.”

Shortly after Leonard joined Washington in 1938, sportswriter Robert Ruark described him as “a fat bald man.” He was six feet tall and topped 200 pounds. In his first start he shut out the Athletics. On May 4 he faced Cleveland’s 19-year-old phenom, Bob Feller. The league’s fastest pitcher and its slowest matched zeroes for 10 innings. Feller was relieved, but Leonard kept knuckling until the Senators won in the 13th.

He had secured a regular starting job for the first time in his career. In 1939 he won 20, lost 8, for a sixth-place club that recorded only 65 victories. He was the Senators’ first 20-game winner since their pennant season of 1933. He made the All-Star team in 1940, despite leading the league with 19 losses, then bounced back with 18 wins in ’41, all the while with a losing club.

Buddy Lewis
 

Player #170A: John K. "Buddy" Lewis. Third baseman/right fielder for the Washington Senators in 1935-1941, 1945-1947, and 1949. 1,563 hits and 71 home runs in 11 MLB seasons. He played his entire career in Washington. 2-time All-Star. He had a career OBP of .368. His most productive season was 1938 as he posted an OBP of .354 with 122 runs scored and 91 RBIs in 724 plate appearances.

In the off-season (following the 1937 season), Lewis worked hard to receive a good contract from Griffith, who was quickly becoming Buddy's greatest fan. Though Griffith had his favorites, including former Washington great Walter Johnson, Lewis was near the top of the list. But the Nats' owner never let personal feelings interfere with contract negotiations, and he and Lewis haggled for a period prior to the 1938 tipoff. Finally, Lewis won out, securing a sizable raise.

In 1938, Lewis earned his first All-Star selection, joining New York's Red Rolfe as third basemen for the squad. The worst stretch of Lewis' career came in August of 1938, when his mysterious defensive problems were at their worst. During a four-game series against the New York Yankees, Lewis committed 8 errors, leading to 9 unearned runs. Washington Post columnist Shirley Povich noted that Lewis had committed 11 errors in 6 games against the Yankees in just over a week. But to his credit, Lewis did not let his defensive woes affect his hitting. His average still hovered near the .300 mark, and he batted in 91 runs from the #2 spot in the order, while crossing the plate 122 times.

In the first month of the 1939 season, Lewis suffered from an illness (diagnosed as a type of influenza known as "grippe") that knocked him out of the lineup for nearly two weeks. When he returned, he posted the highest batting mark of his career, hitting .319 with 49 extra-base hits, including a league-best 16 triples.

In spite of his fine offensive numbers, Lewis struggled in the field, often in spurts. In 1939 he made 7 errors in one week, on his way to 32 for the season. His fielding woes in 1938 had resulted in 47 errors and a terrible .912 mark with the glove. His miserable play at third was not lost on manager Bucky Harris, who often criticized Lewis' defensive work in the papers and the clubhouse. In 1940, Harris used the emergence of young infielders Jimmy Bloodworth and Jimmy Pofahl as the impetus to get Lewis out of his infield. Bloodworth moved into second base, Pofahl took over at short, and Travis moved from short to third. That pushed Buddy to right field, where Harris felt he could do far less damage with the leather.

Buddy Myer Part 8
 

Player #139H: Charles S. "Buddy" Myer. Second baseman with the Washington Senators in 1925-1927 and 1929-1941. 2,131 hits and 38 home runs in 17 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .389. 2-time All-Star. 1935 AL Batting champion. 1928 AL Stolen Base leader. His best season was 1935 for Washington as he posted a .440 OBP with 115 runs scored and 100 RBIs in 719 plate appearances. He was involved in one of baseball's most violent brawls when he was spiked and possibly racially derided by the Yankees' Ben Chapman.

We will follow Myer's SABR biography as we track his career -- Part 8: Myer turned in another gaudy season at bat in 1938, with a line of .336/.454/.465, but he started only 117 games and was on the downslope at 34. When a wrist injury knocked him out of the lineup the next year, a 21-year-old rookie, Jimmy Bloodworth, staked his claim as the second baseman of the future.

In September 1940 Myer told Clark Griffith he was retiring to tend to his construction business in Mississippi. He had gotten a government contract to build army camps. Griffith persuaded him to play another year as a benchwarmer before he left the game for good.

Al Schacht
 

Player #88C: Alexander "Al" Schacht. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1919-1921. 14 wins and 3 saves in 3 MLB seasons. Was highly regarded as a third base coach in Washington (1924-1934) and Boston (1935-1936). Performed player mimicry and comedy routines with fellow Washington coach Nick Altrock earning the nickname of "The Clown Prince of Baseball". After leaving coaching he continued comedy but settled in as a restauranteur.

Al's SABR biography sums up his relationship with baseball and its fans: To say that Alexander Schacht was obsessed with baseball is to understate. He was possessed by it. Schacht was an undersized man with an oversized heart and love of baseball. It consumed him as he traveled from hamlet to hamlet trying to sell his wares as a pitcher. When he did finally make it to the big leagues, he hurt his arm and his playing days were over. But Schacht had something more than pitching ability. He had the talent to make people laugh. He did not have to speak a word; his actions portrayed what he was trying to convey. What he conveyed so pointedly is that there is a jester to put things in perspective. The jester points out that life is often absurd, so instead of letting it get us down, we should laugh at the absurdity in baseball or life. Schacht was the court jester, crying and laughing at the world of baseball and life.

He would come in with his battered top hat and ragged tails, blowing mightily on a tuba. Maybe he’d wield a catcher’s mitt that weighed twenty-five pounds into which one could fit an entire meal. In fact, this zany guy once ate a meal off home plate. Zany like the Ritz or Marx brothers, Schacht became the first Clown Prince of Baseball. Alexander Schacht or just plain Al was a smart buffoon. One wonders when clowns perform whether they are really happy or sad or both. Tragedy and comedy hang side by side in many theaters, and just a turn of the mouth can be sad or happy.

Al Schacht once said, “I came into this world very homely and haven’t changed a bit since.”

Cecil Travis
 

Player #158D: Cecil H. Travis Part 4. Infielder for the Washington Senators in 1933-1941 and 1945-1947. 1,544 hits and 27 home runs over 12 MLB seasons. 3-time All-Star. One of two to get 5 hits in first game. Led American League in hits in 1941 despite DiMaggio's 56-game hit streak and Ted Williams hitting .406. His best season was 1941 as he posted a .410 OBP with 101 RBIs in 663 plate appearances. In the Army during 1942-45, he wound up a frostbite victim in the Battle of the Bulge and a Bronze Star recipient. His return to MLB after the war surgery was not the same.

The historic 1941 baseball season set the stage for Travis’ most remarkable season in the majors. After experimenting that spring with a heavier bat, different grip, and a stance farther back in the batter’s box, the former opposite-field hitter emerged as a pull hitter with some pop. He went on to set career highs in batting average (.359), doubles (39), triples (19), home runs (7), RBIs (101), and runs scored (106). He also collected a career-best 218 hits, which led all of baseball that season-a surprising fact when considering that Joe DiMaggio staged a record 56-game hitting streak and Ted Williams hit .406 that same year. In the classic 1941 All-Star game in Detroit, Travis’ take-out slide at second base in the ninth inning prevented a double play and kept the game alive, allowing Ted Williams to follow with his memorable game-winning home run.

Sam West
 

Player #122C: Samuel F. "Sam" West. Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1927-1932 and 1938-1941. 1,838 hits and 75 home runs in 16 MLB seasons. 4-time All-Star. His career OBP was .371. In 1931 for Washington, he posted an OBP of .369 with 91 RBIs in 559 plate appearances. In 1934 for the St. Louis Browns he posted an OBP of .403 with 91 runs scored in 554 plate appearances. His last season was 1942 with the Chicago White Sox.

We go to Sam's SABR biography for a look at how his baseball career began: Sam West could not believe what he was hearing.

On this holiday in the early 1920s, Rule (Texas) High School was about to cap a day of festivities with a baseball game against Hutto High School. West, a student at Rule High, expected to be one of the starting outfielders but was informed by his coach that he would be viewing the game from the bench. Angry and unwilling to sit before the student body, West left the picnic and hurried into town to watch the Rule semipro baseball team play. That was when destiny came calling.

When West got to the ballpark, he found that there was a delay. The right fielder for the Rule nine was missing. West seized the opportunity by volunteering to fill in, and the Rule manager agreed to start the game with the raw schoolkid patrolling an outfield position.

Like a chapter out of the book of Frank Merriwell, West proved to be an asset instead of a liability, and soon enough he was installed as the team’s regular right fielder. But the pleasure of winning a starting job on the town’s team and pointing at the high-school coach each time he saw him, wasn’t enough for Sam West, who wanted to conquer bigger and better goals. . . .

. . . While playing for Rule, West was scouted and signed by Roswell, New Mexico, of the Class D Panhandle-Pecos Valley League, for 1923. At the age of 18, he batted .282 in 99 games. The next season he batted .271 for Sulphur Springs of the Class D East Texas League. He began the 1925 season with Monroe, Louisiana, of the Class D Cotton States League. After hitting .341 in 23 games, he was back in the East Texas League in July, this time with the Longview Cannibals, and on July 19 the Longview native hit for the cycle in the Cannibals’ 9-5 win over Texarkana. He finished the season with a second tour of Sulphur Springs. The Cannibals finished the season with an eight-game winning streak and a 37-26 second-half record. West’s strong showing – he hit .325 in 81 East Texas League games – convinced a scout for the Birmingham Barons of the Southern Association that he was ready to play in the upper levels of the minor leagues. Playing the last month of the 1925 campaign for the Barons, West hit .265 in 24 games. In 1926 he burned up the league, and played so well that the caught the eye of the Washington Senators’ super-scout, Joe Engel. Convinced that West would prove to be the center fielder of the future for Washington, Engel began to arrange for his purchase. His scouting report noted West to be a good hitter but, surprisingly, a poor fielder. Engel would have been surprised to know that this prospect would become one of the best defensive center fielders in major-league history.

But Engel’s report about West’s good hitting was accurate. After the first week of July, he was hitting .340 and he was leading the league with 16 home runs and 90 runs.

The 1940 Washington Senators
 

Deveaux on the 1940 season: The decade of the forties, destined to be the darkest of the century for major-league baseball, got off with the biggest kind of a bang. On April 16, 1940, 21-year-old "Rapid Robert" Feller of the Indians pitched a no-hitter on Opening Day, the first time this had ever happened. The command performance was given in 47-degree weather at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The final out registered when Feller induced Taft Wright to ground out.

The 29-year-old Wright had been a Washington Senator until recently, when he'd been traded to Chicago, with Pete Appleton, in exchange for a powerfully built 31-year-old outfielder named Gerald "Gee" Walker. Walker had slipped below .300 the previous season for the first time since 1933, but had slugged 13 homers, with 111 ribbies, as compared to just four homers for Taffy Wright. As for Appleton, he had not been an especially effective pitcher since 1936, and would not be again.

Gee Walker had hit as high as .353 in 1936, and had followed that up with .335 in '37. He had been immensely popular in Detroit before moving on to the White Sox prior to the 1938 campaign. While he often made up for his deficiencies with his bat, his frequent mental lapses when dealing with other phases of the game had earned him the unflattering nickname of "Ironhead." Once, he tried to steal a base while the batter was being walked intentionally. On another occasion, he was picked off base twice in the same inning.

At Detroit, Walker had been on the outs with manager Bucky Harris for two seasons because of something that happened in 1933. He had hit a line shot directly to the second baseman, who made a nifty stab on a hard skip. Walker, disgusted, flung his bat and headed for his defensive position. His playing time was curtailed after that. Then, during the 1934 World Series, while busy arguing with some of his enemies on the St. Louis Cardinals bench, he was picked off first base.

At Washington Gee Walker would not disappoint Bucky Harris, under whom he'd played for three years in Detroit; this time he produced 13-96-.294 numbers for the Senators on what was ironically the most anemic offense in the American League in 1940. Second baseman Jimmy Bloodworth was the only other player on the club to hit more than six homers. In terms of home run production, the Nats finished dead last in the league, by far, with their total of 52. They scored the fewest runs in the process.

By way of contrast, the Yankees, who would finish third, but a mere two games behind the pennant-winning Tigers, slugged 155 home runs. Clark Griffith raised a few eyebrows at the 1940 winter meetings of baseball's owners by sponsoring a motion prohibiting trades between the pennant winner and other clubs in the league. In actual fact, it had been years since the Yankees had obtained a player in a trade who had made a critical difference in a pennant race. When the Yankees wound up third, the whole no-trade notion was permanently scrapped. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux)

(This thread will now enjoy a pause.)

Jimmy Bloodworth
 

Player #171: James H. "Jimmy" Bloodworth. Second baseman with the Washington Senators in 1937 and 1939-1941. 874 hits and 62 home runs in 11 MLB seasons. His most productive season may have been 1942 with Detroit despite an OBP of only .295 as he posted 13 home runs and 62 runs scored in 579 at-bats. He last appeared with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1950-1951.

Bloodworth's SABR biography guides us through his MLB arrival in Washington: In 1934 a Washington Senators scout — believed to be former lefty hurler Joe Engel – spied Francis (Jimmy's older brother) among the town teams in Florida’s panhandle and extended a contract. The father of one with another on the way, Francis felt the offer was insufficient to sustain his growing family and declined but pointed the scout to his younger brother. “Francis was a better player than me and everyone in Apalachicola knew that,” Jimmy quipped years later. “And he was lucky. He got to stay home and play baseball, but I had to go all the way to Washington, D.C., to find someone to let me play.” . . .

. . . Bloodworth’s continued progress over the next two years eventually earned a call to the majors. On September 14, 1937, he played his first big-league game, in Washington’s Griffith Stadium against the Detroit Tigers. He went hitless in his first two games, then connected for a single against the St. Louis Browns on September 18. After “showing signs of getting over stage-fright,” Bloodworth produced at a .294 pace with eight RBIs in his next 34 at-bats and positioned himself for a berth on the 1938 Senators team. Bloodworth’s competition would have been steep. The incumbent second baseman, Buddy Myer, was concluding his second All Star campaign. But Bloodworth did not get the opportunity to compete for any position at all due to the high-level machinations of the Washington franchise.

The owner of the Senators, Clark Griffith, owned the minor-league affiliate Chattanooga Lookouts as well. In 1937 he had appointed his 25-year-old nephew, Calvin Griffith, as manager of the moribund club. As losses mounted and attendance waned, Clark Griffith sought to rid himself of the Tennessee-based franchise. A buyer was found within the organization itself — farm director Joe Engel — but the sale was conditioned on a commitment extracted by Engel to let him select a number of players from within the franchise to improve Chattanooga’s on-field product. In November the Senators “carried out their part of the bargain” by assigning six players to the Lookouts. One was a player with whom Engel had a close familiarity: Jimmy Bloodworth. . . .

. . . In 1939 two developments ensured Bloodworth’s re-emergence on the major-league scene. Since their 1933 American League championship, the Senators had collapsed to the second division in four of five seasons. The 22-year-old fit in nicely with the vigorous youth movement that ensued. Meanwhile Buddy Myer, the 35-year-old second-base incumbent, was suffering from a recurrence of a stomach ailment that plagued him three years earlier and regularly forced him to the bench. Bloodworth was recalled from the Eastern League to fill the void. . . .

. . . But lose it (the Washington 2B job) Bloodworth nearly did as he suffered through a difficult 1940 spring camp. Though he had plenty of company struggling in Florida, he drew considerable criticism from the same writers who had fawned over him the year before. The 1940 Senators suffered a 90-loss season — the most since 1911 — and although Bloodworth placed among the team leaders in homers (11) and RBIs (70), he was constantly cited for a low batting average (.245; league average: .271). Pitchers had discovered his weakness on breaking pitches. “I don’t know what to think of Bloodworth,” Clark Griffith said. “He’s got plenty of power and he’s hit a lot of home runs, but he still goes for that outside curve ball and isn’t consistent. He isn’t fast in the field and doesn’t cover too much ground, but where is there a fellow with better hands than Bloodworth?”

Bloodworth’s 1941 line of .245-7-66 for the sixth-place Senators mirrored his preceding campaign. Offseason speculation arose that he would be moved to third base in 1942 to make room for another budding second-base prospect. The shift never took place. In a four-player swap on December 12, 1941, the Tigers acquired Bloodworth to replace retiring second baseman Gehringer.

(Bloodworth's 1940 Play Ball card includes a tease for a coming new attraction: Millions demanded him. Thousands are asking for him. That popular hero of the hour . . . SUPERMAN. He's coming with the most thrilling Adventure and Taste Thrill ever offered . . . Watch for SUPERMAN CARD GUM.)

Zeke Bonura
 

Player #163B: Henry J. "Zeke" Bonura (pronounced like Sonora). First baseman for the Washington Senators in 1938 and 1940. 1,099 hits and 119 home runs in 7 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .380. He debuted with the Chicago White Sox in 1934. His best season was probably 1936 for the White Sox as he posted a .426 OBP with 120 runs scored and 138 RBIs in 688 plate appearances. His indifferent defense on balls hit to his right gave rise to the "Bonura Salute".

We'll let Zeke's SABR biography lead us through his time in Washington: A leading slugger of the 1930s, Zeke Bonura was “one of baseball’s best-loved figures.” He was a colorful first baseman with an indomitable spirit, and his great enthusiasm resonated with fans. In seven major-league seasons, he hit .307 and averaged 100 RBIs per season. During World War II, he received the Legion of Merit medal for creating baseball fields and leagues in North Africa, enabling service men and women to play and watch the national pastime. . .

. . . He (Bonura) was a holdout in the spring of 1938, the fourth consecutive spring in which he held out, and this time White Sox owner Louis Comiskey refused to meet his salary demands and traded him to the Washington Senators.

On Opening Day, April 18, 1938, in Washington, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Vice President John N. Garner saw Bonura slug a three-run homer in the Senators’ 12-8 victory over the Athletics. On Opening Day in Chicago the next day, many fans booed as the White Sox took the field, to protest the trade of Bonura. “South Side fans are really SORE at Comiskey,” wrote Arch Ward of the Chicago Tribune.

During the first two-thirds of the 1938 season, Bonura was mired in a slump. His batting average through games of August 3 was .232, but then his bat caught fire: From August 4 to August 27, he hit .476 and knocked in 37 runs in 23 games. He finished the season with a .289 average and led the fifth-place Senators with 114 RBIs, and his 22 home runs set a franchise record.

Bonura led AL first basemen with a .993 fielding percentage in 1938, yet his fielding was widely criticized. As he aged, he became heavier and less mobile. Sportswriter Sid Keener scoffed at the fielding stats and said, “It is a known fact that Bonura prefers to remain in a stationary position as bounders zip past his bulky frame, skipping to the outfield for base hits.” His fielding percentage reflects his errors of commission but not his errors of omission.

Bonura has “a great pair of hands,” said Jimmy Dykes. “His only weakness is on hard-hit balls to his right, but he won’t drop any thrown balls.” But Senators owner Clark Griffith said, “Zeke is too clumsy in the field and it’s too bad, because he’s a nice fellow and nobody tries harder.” Griffith traded him to the New York Giants in December 1938. If it were 35 years later, Bonura would have become a designated hitter.

(Bonura's 1940 Play Ball card includes a tease for a coming new attraction: Stop! Look! Ask for that new great sensation . . . SUPERMAN GUM with Thrilling Adventure Cards. This exciting series will soon be here.)

George Case
 

Player #164B: George W. Case. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1937-1945 and 1947. 1,415 hits and 349 stolen bases in 11 MLB seasons. 4-time All-Star. 6-time AL stolen base leader. Only player to ever lead MLB in stolen bases for five consecutive years (1939-1943). His best season was probably 1942 for Washington as he posted a .377 OBP with 101 runs scored and 44 stolen bases in 563 plate appearances.

We go to Case's SABR biography to follow his remarkable career: George Case was a four-time major-league All-Star who devoted almost 50 years of his life to the game he loved. His playing career, cut short by injuries, spanned 11 years (1937-47), ten years with the Washington Senators and one with the Cleveland Indians. . . .

A natural athlete in his youth, George Case had one remarkable talent that separated him from his peers: his blazing speed. He wasn’t just fast. George Case could run like the wind. This extraordinary ability became his ticket into professional baseball; and once he made it to the majors, he fine-tuned his skills and emerged as the premier base stealer of his generation. According to author Mark Stang: “His raw speed and ability to read pitchers and catchers made him the most feared base stealer in either league.” . . . .

. . . As a pitcher and second baseman with terrific foot speed, George Case was noticed by local scouts. Before long the talented teenager came to the attention of Philadelphia Athletics owner-manager Connie Mack. Observing young George in a tryout Mack suggested a switch to the outfield, where his speed would be a valuable asset. George accepted Mack’s advice and developed into an exceptional defensive outfielder. He remained an outfielder for the rest of his career except for three games as a pitcher in the minors.

Since the A’s were stocked with outfielders at the time, Mack advised his friend Clark Griffith of the Washington Senators to take a look at the young speedster. In 1936 Washington scout Joe Cambria, who signed many of the Senators’ best players during the 1930s and ’40s, inked George to his first professional contract. . . .

With word of his extraordinary speed spreading throughout the Washington organization, the parent club called Case up for a “look-see” in September 1937. The 6-foot, 183-pound right-handed-hitting outfielder made an inauspicious big-league debut on September 8 in a game at Philadelphia’s Shibe Park. He went 0-for-4 against Athletics pitcher George Caster in a 2-0 Washington loss in the first game of a doubleheader. In the second game he was also hitless in four at-bats. He recovered from this temporary setback and finished the season strong, hitting .289 in 93 at-bats. 1938 Case hit .305 in 107 games. His breakout year came in 1939, when he hit.302, led the Senators in runs (103), and topped the American League in steals (51). For the next seven years Case was baseball’s most feared and most successful base stealer. After he was traded to the Cleveland Indians in 1946, his new manager. Lou Boudreau jokingly remarked that he was relieved he no longer had to worry about “that pest” George Case on the bases. (We will return here when Case next surfaces.)

Thought I would add my only Washington Senators item. 10 sheets of 1952 schedule backed matchbook uncut sheets. I bought them because I thought they would display well, but sadly Ive never done anything with them, just setting in the back of a closet.