Washington DC Baseball
 

My pre-war collecting is focused on Washington (The District of Columbia) baseball. To amuse myself, I thought I would initiate a thread that showcases items involving the teams and players that have represented Washington. I realize that, with very few exceptions such as Walter Johnson, Washington items are under-represented in most collections, unless needed to complete a set. So, in many cases, I'll be posting items most collectors are used to ignoring. I will include readily available biographical information that I deem interesting. I apologize in advance for the poor quality of some scans. I will start with the 1887-1889 Nationals.

(Feel free to contribute any images or thoughts that my postings may provoke, but please refrain from quarrelling over religious subjects involving TPGs, AHs, or PWCC. Especially PWCC.)

The 1887 Washington Nationals finished with a 46–76 record in the National League, finishing in seventh place.

The 1888 Washington Nationals finished with a 48–86 record in the National League, finishing in last place.

The 1889 Washington Nationals finished with a 41–83 record in the National League, finishing in last place. The team folded at the conclusion of the season.

Player #1: James B. "Jim" Donnelly. Third baseman for the Washington Nationals in 1887-1889. 549 hits and 173 stolen bases in 11 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Indianapolis Hoosiers in 1884. His most productive season came in 1896 for the NL-pennant-winning Baltimore Orioles as he posted a .387 OBP with 70 runs and 71 RBIs in 454 plate appearances. His final season came in 1898 with the St. Louis Browns.

James B. Donnelly used to be conflated with a fellow New Englander named James H. Donnelly. Both Donnelly's made their MLB debut in 1884.

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1887 Nationals cards
 

Here are two 1887 Nationals cards from my collection:

The Big Train…

Not really a “card,” but a pretty cool shot of Washington’s best ever…

19th century cards have never been a focus, but one of the three Old Judge cards I have happens to be of Washington outfielder/infielder George Shoch, who had an 11 year career in baseball, including the 4 year stint with the Nationals at the beginning of his career in 1886 to 1889. As a bonus, this card also features John Gaffney, who was the manager of the Nationals for part of 1886 and in 1887. Before and after this managerial stint, he was a noted umpire, perhaps influencing the photo selection seen on this card.

Brian

Here's 4 more Buchner's

https://www.qualitycards.com/pictures/buchner12.jpg

Grasshopper Whitney
 

Player #2: James E. "Grasshopper" Whitney. Pitcher with the Washington Nationals in 1887-1888. 191 wins and a career ERA of 2.97 in 10 MLB seasons. He was the 1881 NL wins leader and the 1883 NL strikeout leader. He debuted with the Boston Red Caps in 1881. In 1881, Whitney's 31-33 record led the league in both wins and losses; 31 wins still stands as the MLB record for wins with a losing record. His best season was 1883 with the Boston Beaneaters as he posted a 37-21 record and a 2.24 ERA in 514 innings pitched. He finished his career with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1890. He died in 1891 of tuberculosis at the age of 33.

"There were no restrictions placed on (pitchers) as to delivery, and they could double up like a jack-knife and deliver the ball. That was the way Jim Whitney used to do, and he would let the ball go at terrific speed. It was a wonder that anyone was able to hit him at all. He was the swiftest pitcher I ever saw." - Hall of Famer Jim O'Rourke, quoted in Sporting Life of December 4, 1915

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Jim Banning
 

Player #3: James M. "Jim" Banning. Catcher with the Washington Nationals in 1888-1889. He appeared in one game in 1888 and two games in 1889. He had no hits in 1 plate appearance over 2 MLB seasons.

During 1888 and 1889, Washington's regular catcher was Connie Mack.

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I do not own the image posted below, but I hope it is deemed appropriate for this thread. It is a photograph that had been published in The Washington Sunday Star on October 5th, 1924--a rarely seen image of the 1892 Washington Nationals. Most professional teams of that era had the name of their city on their uniform, or the initial of the city name, or no lettering at all, but this team had NATIONAL across the chest. The players are identified in the caption, which helps to confirm that this is, in fact, the National League team of 1892. I found the image on one of the online newspaper archives a while back, and am pretty certain that the original photograph is no longer in existence.

That's a great picture. Thanks for posting it.

Wikipedia reports that "The 1891 Washington Statesmen baseball team finished the season with a 44–91 record in the American Association in their first season. After the season, the AA disbanded and the Washington club, renamed the "Senators," joined the National League.

So, despite the "National" on their uniforms, the team was apparently officially named the Senators. Perhaps the first official use (in MLB) of the team-name Senators -- I believe the American League team that began in 1901 (now the Minnesota Twins) was not officially designated as Senators until after Clark Griffith died in 1955.

The official name of most 19th Century (and early 20th Century) professional baseball teams consisted of the city name and "Base Ball Club", or something similar. There were a few exceptions in the major leagues, such as the Eclipse club that was eventually renamed the Louisville club, and the Metropolitan club (of New York), which disbanded after the 1887 season. The nicknames given to teams, such as the Giants, Browns, Statesmen, and Senators, were just that--informal names used by the fans and the press, but not really official names, and different newspapers in the same city might favor different names.

Anyway, whoever made the Wikipedia entry had probably never seen the image of the 1892 team or done much research in the newspaper archives. By the end of the decade, the team was usually called the Senators in the press, but it's hard to imagine that this was the most commonly used nickname for the 1892 team, considering what was printed on their uniform shirts.

Might be far afield from what the OP is thinking but I’m a huge fan of the 5th all star game ever played, which was in Washington in 1937. FDR threw out the first pitch, Gehrig homered, Dizzy’s career got derailed by a liner from Earl Averill. Awesome game.

The American League took the game, 8-3, Lefty Gomez besting Dizzy Dean, Lou Gehrig blasting a home run for the AL. And, as you say, Dean's broken toe was the beginning of the end of his Hall-of-Fame career.

The images of Griffith Stadium are from 1924 and FDR's first pitch is from the 1940 season.

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Cod Myers
 

Player #4: J. Albert "Al" Myers. "Cod". Second baseman with the Washington Nationals in 1887-1889. 788 hits and 111 stolen bases in 8 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1884. His best season was 1890 with the Philadelphia Quakers as he posted a .365 OBP with 95 runs scored, 81 RBIs, and 44 stolen bases in 554 plate appearances. He ended his career in 1891 still with Philadelphia.

The book Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball says that Mack and his new wife Margaret, in the off-season after the 1888 season, along with Myers and Jim Whitney, traveled toward California, playing on a pay-per-game basis for various barnstorming teams. The players made enough money for their expenses as well as some left over.

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Sam Crane
 

Player #5: Samuel N. "Sam" Crane. Second baseman with the Washington Nationals in 1887. 276 hits and 3 home runs in 7 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Buffalo Bisons in 1880. His final season was 1890 with the Pittsburgh Alleghenys. He managed the Buffalo Bisons in 1880 and the Cincinnati Outlaw Reds in 1884.

After his playing days, Sam had a long and distinguished career as a sportswriter. It was his connection to baseball as a player, manager, and sportswriter that lent credibility to his assertion that Cooperstown, New York be the location for a "memorial" to the great players from the past. Cooperstown was, at the time, the place that many people believed was where Abner Doubleday had invented the game of baseball. It was this idea of a memorial that eventually led to the creation of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 1939.

Crane's playing career ended when he was arrested after having an affair with the wife of a fruit dealer and stealing $1,500 from the husband.

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Spider Clark
 

Player #6: Owen F. "Spider" Clark. Utility player with the Washington Nationals in 1889. 106 hits and 5 home runs in 2 MLB seasons. He also played in 1890 for the Buffalo Bisons of the Players' League. While he was primarily a right fielder, he played all over the diamond on defense, playing every position at least once, including one game as a pitcher for the Bisons.

With the Nationals in 1889, Clark also became the first major league player with the nickname of "Spider," a moniker he received because of his thin build and his excellent range as a fielder. Clark died of tuberculosis in 1892 at 24 years old.

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Pat Dealy
 

Player #7: Patrick E. "Pat" Dealy played all or part of five seasons in the majors between 1884 and 1890. 113 hits and 2 home runs in 5 MLB seasons. He debuted with the St. Paul Saints of the Union Association in 1884 as their backup catcher, which was his primary position throughout his career (he also played substantial numbers of games at shortstop, third base, and the outfield). He then played three seasons in the National League, with the Boston Beaneaters in 1885 and 1886 and Washington Nationals in 1887. His final season came with the Syracuse Stars of the American Association. Dealey also umpired two NL games in 1886. In 1887, he was Connie Mack's back-up.

Dealy is said to have allowed 10 passed balls in a game on May 3, 1886, which is odd given that he appeared in 14 games at catcher that season and allowed a total of 20 passed balls, which means that he had a total of 10 in the other 13 games. It was apparently typical to allow one passed ball per game - Dealy allowed 24 during 28 games at catcher in 1887 while Connie Mack allowed 76 passed balls during 76 games at catcher in 1887.

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Moose Farrell
 

Player #8: John A. "Jack" Farrell. "Moose". Second baseman with the Washington Nationals in 1886-1887. 877 hits and 23 home runs in 11 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Syracuse Stars in 1879. His best season was 1883 with the Providence Grays as he posted a .329 OBP with 92 runs scored in 435 plate appearances. He last played for the Baltimore Orioles in 1888-1889. In 1881, he managed the Providence Grays.

Farrell was the second baseman for the Providence Gray's in 1879-1885, a consistently good team that won the pennant in 1879 and 1884.

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Barney Gilligan
 

Player #9: Andrew B. "Barney" Gilligan. Catcher with the Washington Nationals in 1886-1887. 386 hits and 3 home runs in 10 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Cleveland Blues in 1879-1880. His best season was 1884 with the Providence Grays as he posted a .325 OBP with 47 runs scored in 329 plate appearances. He was Hoss Radbourn's catcher as Radbourn won 54 games and the Grays won the 1884 pennant. He finished his MLB career with the Detroit Wolverines in 1888.

In the 1880's catching was brutal, dangerous work using the primitive equipment of the day. It was also customary for "batteries" to stay together. Most teams had two pitcher/catcher duos and rarely mixed them up barring injury. So, when Hoss Radbourn took over starting every Providence Grays game in the second half of the 1884 pennant-winning season, it meant Gilligan caught every game as well. It is well understood that Radbourn's was a feat of fantastic endurance; less appreciated, is Gilligan's ability to catch Radbourn game after game. Despite the physical demands of all the catching, 1884 was also Gilligan's finest offensive season.

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Egyptian Healy
 

Player #10: John J. "Egyptian" Healy. "Long John". Healy was born in Cairo, IL, hence the nickname, "Egyptian". Pitcher with the Washington Nationals in 1889. 78 wins and a 3.84 ERA in 8 MLB seasons. He debuted with the St. Louis Maroons in 1885-1886. His best season was 1890 with the Toledo Maumees as he went 22-21 record with a 2.89 ERA in 389 innings pitched. His final season was 1892 with the Louisville Colonels. Healy's career W-L record was 78-136; during the 1880s, his .310 winning percentage (44-98) was the lowest of any Major League pitcher in the decade.

During the 1888-89 off-season he was part of the world tour which Al Spalding organized. Among other places, they went to Egypt. Healy died of consumption in 1899 at age 32.

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Paul Hines
 

The Washington Nationals played their first and only season of professional baseball in 1872 as a member of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players. They finished eleventh in the league with a record of 0-11.

The Washington Blue Legs played their first and only season in 1873 as a member of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players. They finished seventh in the league with a record of 8-31.

The 1891 Washington Statesmen baseball team finished the season with a 44–91 record in the American Association in their first season. After the season, the AA disbanded and the Washington club, renamed the "Senators," joined the National League.

Player #11: Paul A. Hines. Outfielder with the Washington Nationals in 1886-1887. 2,133 hits and 57 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. 1884 World Series champion with the Providence Grays. 1878 Triple Crown winner. 2-time (1878 and 1879) batting champion. 1878 NL home run leader and NL RBI leader. Hines debuted with Washington in the National Association in 1972 and played for eight other MLB teams, including the Washington Blue Legs (1873), Washington Nationals (NL) (1886-1887), and, in his final season, the Washington Statesmen (1891). During the first five NL seasons, from 1876 through 1880, Hines had more base hits than any other player, and he retired third to Cap Anson and Jim O'Rourke with 1,884 career hits in the majors.

Hines' total of sixteen seasons as a major league team's primary center fielder was not surpassed until Tris Speaker and Ty Cobb in 1925.

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Bill Krieg
 

Player #12: William F. "Bill" Krieg. Catcher/1B/Outfielder with the Washington Nationals in 1886-1887. 127 hits and 4 home runs in 4 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Chicago Browns/Pittsburgh Stogies in 1884.

Krieg started 1887 with Washington. On opening day, he hit a home run, and in the stands, "hats, umbrellas and canes were thrown into the air and the multitude shouted forth their joy in hilarious manner." However, Krieg batted just .253 in 25 games and was released in midseason.

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Here's a photo of a black team, the 1921 Washington Athletics. I previously posted a thread looking for information and didn't get too far, so if you know about this team I'd love to hear it.

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=301569

I like the picture, thanks for posting. Who they are? is a pitch I can't hit.

Miah Murray
 

Player #13: Jeremiah J. "Miah" Murray. Catcher with the Washington Nationals in 1888 and the Washington Statesmen in 1891. 17 hits in 125 plate appearances spread across 4 MLB seasons. Murray debuted with the Providence Grays in 1884.

Murray worked as a full-time National League umpire for the 1895 season.

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Billy O'Brien
 

Player #14: William S. "Billy" O'Brien. Third baseman with the Washington Nationals in 1987-1989. 364 hits and 32 home runs in 5 MLB seasons. Debuted with the St. Paul Saints in 1884. His best season was 1887 with Washington as he posted a .317 OBP with 19 home runs and 73 RBIs in 479 plate appearances. He finished up with the Brooklyn Gladiators in 1890.

In March 1887, O'Brien was acquired by the NL's Washington Nationals. That season, he played 113 games, batting .278 with 73 runs batted in (RBI) and a 126 OPS+. He led the league in home runs, with 19.

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George Shoch
 

Player #15: George Q. Shoch. Utility player with the Washington Nationals in 1886-1889. 671 hits and 138 stolen bases in 11 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .354. He finished his career with the Brooklyn Grooms/Bridegrooms in 1893-1897.

Although rarely in the everyday lineup for an extended period, Shoch was a useful member of several late-19th-century major-league teams. In an era of small rosters, Shoch’s versatility – he could play second, shortstop, third, and the outfield competently – was coveted by his managers.

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Walt Wilmot
 

Player #16: Walter R. "Walt" Wilmot. Switch-hitting outfielder with the Washington Nationals in 1888-1889. 1,100 hits, 58 home runs, and 383 stolen bases in 10 MLB seasons. 1890 NL home run leader. In 1891 he was first MLB player to be walked 6 times in one game. His most productive season was 1894 with the Chicago Colts as he posted a .368 OBP with 136 runs, 76 stolen bases, and 130 RBIs in 655 plate appearances. He last played for the New York Giants in 1897-1898.

Wilmot set three rather obscure records that have never been broken. On September 20, 1890, he was hit twice in the same game by batted balls while running the bases. The next year, on August 22, 1891, he drew six walks in a nine-inning game; only one other player, Jimmie Foxx in 1938, has equaled that feat. Finally, in August 1894, Wilmot stole eight bases in two consecutive games. Rickey Henderson stole seven bases in two games, but no one has ever tied or broken Wilmot’s mark.

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Photograph appears to be one of Jack Farrell's Old Judge poses
 

I recently picked up the photograph on the left below, which the seller was unable to tie to a specific player. But it appears to be related to the Jack Farrell Old Judge pose on the right. The card is not mine -- I have five of Farrell's Old Judge Washington poses, but not the one related to the photograph. Anybody (if anybody is paying attention) have any thoughts regarding how unusual the photograph is?

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Your photo appears to be an amazing artifact.

Nice photo. I am probably mistaking but it sort of looks like one of those later Old Judge images. Those surface abrasions are similar to other ones I have seen. If I recall they were made in the early 1900s....but maybe I am thinking of tintypes or something...?

Actually, I think I used to own that LOL...

Is that good or bad?

Hahaha! Maybe I should have said fascinating rather than amazing. Given the resolution of the photo, I think it's more likely that cards were made from the photo than the other way around, or at the least that they were both made from the original negative. How many of those can there be for 19th century cards? Anything on the back?

The "photo" is "stuck" to a piece of black "construction paper". Any writing or marking on the back of the "photo" will not be easy to access.

Jumbo Cartwright
 

Player #17: Edward C. "Jumbo" Cartwright. First baseman for the Washington Senators in 1894-1897. 562 hits and 144 stolen bases in 5 MLB seasons. He debuted with the St. Louis Browns in 1890. His best season was 1895 with Washington as he posted a .400 OBP with 95 runs scored, 90 RBIs, and 50 stolen bases in 531 plate appearances.

Cartwright is most famous for having seven RBI in one inning, accomplished with the Browns in 1890; his record would stand for 109 years until it was broken by Fernando ("Bodacious") Tatís of the Cardinals in 1999.

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Hi George,
I am very much enjoying all of your posting in this thread, both the great cards and the interesting biographic info re the players.

But, I'm curious about one aspect of the bios. Why is it that with all of the statistics you mention, you never or virtually never mention a player's batting average?
Best,
Val

Hi Val! Thank you for the kind words. I am trying to provide a brief career overview, in a standard format, without losing (or abusing) the attention of readers (most of whom are, I assume) not intensely interested in the players or their history. If your question is Why not BA AND OBP? my answer is that it might begin to clutter the writing with "too many" (similar) numbers. If your question is Why OBP in lieu of BA? my answer is that I subscribe to the modern view that OBP is a richer statistic that conveys more meaningful information regarding the "value" of the player's offensive production.

I realize the players in question and the fans of their time were largely oblivious to OBP but keenly aware of batting average as a basis for evaluating and comparing offensive performance across teams, players, and seasons. That was then; this is now.

Bill Joyce
 

Player18: William M. "Bill" Joyce. Third baseman with the Washington Senators in 1894-1896. 971 hits, 70 home runs, and 266 stolen bases in 8 MLB seasons. He was the 1896 NL home run leader. He debuted with the Brooklyn Ward's Wonders in 1890. He had a career OBP of .435. His best season was 1896 as he posted a .470 OBP with 121 runs scored, 94 RBIs, and 45 stolen bases in 600 plate appearances. His 1896 season was split between Washington and the New York Giants. He finished his career as the player-manager of the Giants in 1896-1898. He holds (a tie for) the record with 4 triples in one game. In 1891, he reached base in 64 consecutive games, a record that stood until Ted Williams broke it in 1941.

The Brooklyn Grooms traded Joyce to the Washington Senators in the 1892-93 offseason, but he refused to play for the Senators at the salary offered and held out for the entire 1893 season. Joyce finally signed with the Senators in the spring of 1894 and was named the team captain. Praised as “an intelligent, energetic and aggressive captain,” Joyce had one obvious fault: He was “a kicker from Kickersville,” who obsessively and persistently protested umpires’ calls. On May 1, 1894, his incessant kicking resulted in the forfeiture of a game to the Brooklyn Grooms. Worse, after the game he and several teammates followed the umpire into the dressing room spouting “obscene and blackguard language.” It was an “act of hoodlums,” wrote Henry Chadwick, the 69-year-old “Father of Baseball.”

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I have three N300 cards with a total size of approximately 2.375 normal examples. My full one happens to be formally attired Otis Stocksdale, pitcher for Washington. I will let George post his great writeup on him when he shows his example.

Brian

Great Stocksdale, Brian! Is that the right rear pocket fold over variation? Or the left?

Old Gray Fox Stocksdale
 

The 1895 Washington Senators baseball team finished the season with a 43–85 record, tenth place in the National League.

Player #19: Otis H. Stocksdale. "Old Gray Fox". Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1893-1895. 15 wins and 1 save in 4 MLB seasons. 1896 NL pennant winner. His final season was with the Baltimore Orioles in 1896.

Stocksdale never had a winning record as a pitcher but hit over .300. He was born in Maryland and attended Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore; he is the player with the highest major league batting average to come out of Johns Hopkins.

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Scoops Carey
 

The 1903 Washington Senators won 43 games, lost 94, and finished in eighth place in the American League. They were managed by Tom Loftus and played home games at the American League Park I.

Washington had finished in sixth place in each of the previous two seasons (the first two seasons of the American League's existence). However, they fell to eighth and last in 1903. Their only star player, Big Ed Delahanty, got drunk and fell off a bridge into Niagara Falls midway through the season.

The Senators' pitching had always been bad, and indeed, they would allow the most runs in the AL, but without Delahanty the offense sputtered to a halt. Their collective batting average was .231, bad even for the dead-ball era, and no one drove in more than 49 runs.

Player #20: George C. "Scoops" Carey. First baseman with the Washington Senators in 1902-1903. 313 hits and one home run in 4 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Baltimore Orioles in 1895. His best season was 1902 with Washington as he posted a .350 OBP with 60 RBIs in 482 plate appearances.

Carey is quoted in his SABR biography regarding one aspect of playing for the Orioles in 1895: There was also a mission of considerable importance for the Orioles — make life “miserable” for umpires: “They were after the umps all the time and whenever a close decision went against them, there was sure to be trouble. It got them something, too. All the umpires were afraid of the bunch. I remember in one of the games that we played against Cleveland, Bob Emslie called a strike on me that was clearly wide. I started to make a kick. If you say another word I’ll fine you and put you out of the game. There are enough crabs on this team without you youngsters.”

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George, your description of the 1903 Senators reminded me of the Senators teams I grew up with and rooted for in the 1950's and 1960's. Ugh!

And, having just watched them lose their 6th game in a row to fall to a record of 23 wins - 44 losses when I read your post, it also reminded me of my current Washington Nationals, who have hit rock bottom since winning the W. S. in 2019. The pitching is absolutely pathetic, and the star player, Juan Soto, is mired in a season-long slump, currently batting in the .220's with a measly 28 RBIs. Sigh!

Sigh back at you.

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

Doughnut Bill Carrick
 

Player #21: William M. "Bill" Carrick. "Doughnut Bill". Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1901-1902. 63 wins and a 4.14 ERA in 5 MLB seasons. He led the NL in complete games in 1899 and in games pitched in 1900 and in games started both years. He debuted with the New York Giants in 1898-1900. In 1900 he had his best year posting a record of 19-22 with a 3.53 ERA in 341.2 innings pitched.

Doughnut Bill Carrick pitched five years in the majors. He was a workhorse, twice leading the league in starts. At one point during the 1901 season, Carrick lost seventeen consecutive decisions.

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Rowdy Bill Coughlin
 

Player #22: William P. "Bill" Coughlin. "Scranton Bill". "Rowdy Bill". Third baseman with the Washington Nationals in 1899 (NL) and Senators in 1901-1904 (AL). 972 hits and 159 stolen bases in 9 MLB seasons. He was known as a master of the hidden-ball trick. He was a key figure on the Detroit Tiger team that won AL pennants in 1907 and 1908. But his most productive season was 1902 with Washington as he posted an OBP of .348 with 84 runs scored and 71 RBIs in 506 plate appearances. His final seasons were with Detroit in 1904-1908.

In 1919, Coughlin was involved in the occupation of Germany after World War I. Coughlin conceived and operated a school for umpires run by the Knights of Columbus in occupied Coblenz, Germany. Coughlin taught the umpire candidates to officiate baseball games for the occupying servicemen. Coughlin taught his umpires to play "The Star-Spangled Banner" if fights erupted among the players, causing "rocks held ready to avenge an unpopular decision" to fall from "reverent hands."

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Ryan Zimmerman compared to WaJo
 

Prior to the game on Saturday vs. the Phillies, the Wash. Nationals held an on-field ceremony to honor Ryan Zimmerman and retire his jersey number. A good player but not a HOF candidate, Zimmerman has been the face of the Nats franchise from almost when the team moved to DC from Montreal. I think this read, which appears in today's Wash. Post, will interest all Washington fans, and hopefully others as well. I have copied and pasted this piece becaise I believe the Post has a paywall.


A century before Zimmerman, Walter Johnson transformed D.C. baseball

By Frederic J. Frommer
Updated June 18, 2022 at 8:00 p.m. EDT|Published June 17, 2022 at 10:01 a.m. EDT

When the Nationals celebrate Ryan Zimmerman and his career at Nationals Park on Saturday, they paid tribute to a player who has been the face of Washington baseball in a way no one has in a century, since Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson.

Like Johnson, Zimmerman, who announced his retirement in February, played his entire career here, slogged through many years of bad baseball, and helped lead his team to a World Series title in the twilight of his career.

Zimmerman made his debut at the age of 20, 98 years after Johnson’s first game with the Washington Senators at the age of 19. Johnson finally got a chance to play in the World Series when he was 36 and the entire nation rallied around the underdog Senators, who beat the New York Giants in seven games.

Zimmerman was 35 when the Nats upset the Houston Astros in the 2019 World Series, also in seven games. Those remain the only World Series titles for Washington, 95 years apart. Zimmerman is also retiring 95 years after Johnson did in 1927.

The Senators and the Nats were nearly equally bad when Johnson and Zimmerman started their careers. In his first five seasons in the big leagues, Johnson pitched for a team that finished in last or second-to-last place in the American League every season. In the first five seasons Zimmerman played for the Nats, the team finished in the bottom two in the National League East Division.

Twice in those periods, their teams had the worst record in baseball. The Nats got to restock off those fallow years by drafting Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper with back-to-back No. 1 draft picks, but there was no draft back when Johnson played, making a rebuild much more challenging.

Both players dated back to the beginning of the Washington teams. The Nats made Zimmerman their first draft selection after moving here from Montreal in June 2005, and he made his debut three months later. The Senators scouted Johnson playing semipro baseball in Idaho and signed him in June 1907 during their seventh season.

“Secures A Phenom,” a Washington Post headline declared on June 30, 1907. “Johnson Is His Name and He Hails from the Wooly West.” He debuted for the Senators that August. They both put up spectacular numbers in their first abbreviated first seasons. Zimmerman hit .397 in 20 games, while Johnson posted a 1.88 earned run average in 14 games.

Zimmerman played his entire career with one team, a feat almost unheard of in this era of free agency, but it was more common when Johnson played. Zimmerman helped bridge generations of Washington baseball fans, many of whom lived 33 years without a local team. As he told me after the Nats won the 2019 World Series for my book on Washington baseball history, “You Gotta Have Heart”:

The team has been here long enough where I’ll have 20-year-old or 25-year-old guys or girls come up to me and be like, “Hey thanks, you know you’ve been my favorite since I was a little kid,” which makes me feel really old, but also it is really cool because you have that again now.

Being here for so long, I’ve talked to some people who said they used to go to Senators games with their parents. These people went to games with their dad or mom when they were four or five or six years old, but their kids are now grown, and they never had a baseball team to do that with their dad or mom. So you missed that whole generation.

One of the most important things this World Series did was restore baseball back to D.C. It’s almost like some closure to baseball coming back.

Both Zimmerman and Johnson knew when it was time to retire. Johnson, 39, went 5-6 with a 5.10 ERA in his final season, although he hit .348 and slugged .522 in 46 at-bats. Zimmerman, 37 when he retired, hit .243 last year, but he did have some pop left in his bat, homering 14 times and driving in 46 RBIs in just 255 at-bats.

ohnson had arguably the best career of any big league pitcher in history and holds the record for most shutouts, with 110. Zimmerman was not that kind of transformational player, but he retired as the all-time Nats leader in homers, hits, RBIs and games played. On Saturday, his No. 11 was retired, the first time a Nats player has received that honor.

Johnson remained a fixture in the region, as Zimmerman, known as “Mr. National,” plans to do. “Although my baseball career has come to an end, my family and I will continue to be heavily involved in the DMV community,” he said.

A few years after retiring, Johnson became manager of the Senators. In three of those four seasons, the Senators had a winning percentage of .597 or better but never made it back to the World Series. Later, he entered politics, winning a seat on the Montgomery County Commission and nearly pulling off an upset victory as a Republican candidate for Congress in 1940. There is also a high school named for him in Bethesda.

Both excelled in unassuming ways, without seeking the spotlight. When Johnson retired, he said he “simply does not want to be in the way next season.”

“Walter Johnson, more than any other ball player, probably more than any other athlete, professional or amateur, became the symbol of gentlemanly conduct in the battle heat,” wrote Washington Post sports columnist Shirley Povich in 1946, following the death of Johnson at the age of 59.

“The big fellow from Coffeyville, Kan.,” wrote New York Times sports columnist Arthur Daley, “was a gentleman of the highest type, a distinct credit to his sport.”

Although players today are not often described as “gentlemen,” the sentiments behind those comments describe Zimmerman. He told The Post that when people see him and thank him for being a role model, “I feel like I don’t know why you’re thanking me. All I did was play baseball. I got to play baseball for a job. That is the best way to put it. I shouldn’t be being thanked. I feel like I should be thanking them.”

Frederic J. Frommer, a writer and sports historian, is the author of several books, including “You Gotta Have Heart: Washington Baseball from Walter Johnson to the 2019 World Series Champion Nationals.”

Lew Drill
 

Thanks Val.

Player #23: Lewis L. "Lew" Drill. Catcher with the Washington Senators in 1902-1904. 231 hits in 4 MLB seasons. His career OBP is .353. His last MLB seasons were 1904-1905 with the Detroit Tigers. He declined a contract offer for the 1906 season because he could make more money working as a lawyer.

Drill's SABR biography picks up his 1903 season: With (William "Boileryard") Clarke back in the fold, Drill had less opportunity to play in 1903. He batted .253 in 51 games and kept up his studies while playing ball, earning his law degree from Georgetown in June. After the season he and Bob Blewett, a classmate at Georgetown and a former pitcher with the New York Giants, opened a law office in Seattle; one report stated, “Both men are out of baseball for good.” Drill must have reconsidered: He was one of the first to report for Senator's spring training in 1904.

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Thanks, Val, for posting this nicely done and apropos article by Fred Frommer, who has become the unofficial historian of the original Nats.

Watty Lee
 

Wyatt A. "Watty" Lee. Outfielder and Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1901-1903. 30 wins in 549.1 innings pitched over 4 MLB seasons.

In 1903 he had an 8-12 record with a 3.08 ERA in 166.2 innings pitched. He finished up with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1904.

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George, I'm greatly enjoying seeing the pics of your vintage Washington cards and reading your informative write ups. Here's another "Watty" Lee card to augment your last post.

Delete - wrong forum!

Al Orth
 

Val, that's a very nice Lee! Thank you for posting it. I don't have Lee, but I do have:

Player #25: Albert L. "Al" Orth. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1902-1904. 204 wins and 6 saves in 15 MLB seasons. He was the MLB wins leader in 1906. He was known as "The Curveless Wonder" relying on control and differing speed. His best season may have been 1901 with Philadelphia as he posted a 20-12 record with a 2.27 ERA in 281.2 innings pitched. He umpired, when necessary, as a player and in one game umpired and pinch-hit in the same game. He debuted with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1895-1901. He finished his career with the New York Highlanders in 1904-1909. He debuted as an umpire in the NL in 1912 and in 1917 was the umpire when Toney and Vaughn each pitched 9 innings of no-hit baseball, the only time it has happened.

Orth's SABR biography relates how his time in Washington ended as his discovery of a new pitch came too late: Like many of his Philadelphia teammates, following the 1901 season Orth jumped to the American League, signing with the Washington Senators. Orth again posted the lowest walk rate in his league in 1902, with just 40 base-on-balls allowed in 324 innings. Unfortunately, Orth only struck out 76 batters that year, finishing with a 19-18 record and subpar 3.97 ERA. He was even worse in 1903, winning 10 games against 22 losses while posting a horrendous 4.34 ERA. After starting the 1904 campaign 3-4 with a 4.76 ERA, Orth was traded to the New York Highlanders.

Shortly after his arrival with the Highlanders, Orth turned his season around, helping to keep New York in the pennant race until the last day of the season with an 11-6 record and league-average 2.68 ERA. Orth’s turnaround was probably due in part to teammate Jack Chesbro, who rode the spitball to a 41-win season that year. Orth himself said he first used the spitball at the end of the 1904 season and considered the pitch “more effective than a curve” with a “quicker break.” Orth threw it “regularly” in the 1905 season, as he posted an 18-16 record with a 2.86 ERA for the sixth place Highlanders.

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Kip Selbach
 

Player #26: Albert K. "Kip" Selbach. Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1894-1898 (NL) and 1903-1904 (AL). 1,807 hits and 334 stolen bases in 13 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .377. He led the NL in triples in 1895. Among his many good seasons was 1900 with the New York Giants as he posted a .425 OBP with 98 runs scored and 36 stolen bases in 611 plate appearances. His final seasons were with the Boston Americans in 1904-1906.

From Selbach's SABR biography: During 1902 it became known that the American League would not have a team in Baltimore in 1903. On August 26 Clark Griffith – acting as an agent for the league – signed Selbach, Billy Gilbert, and Jimmy Williams; all expected to play for the new team that was thought to be placed in New York. “Selbach and Williams said they are under guaranteed two-years’ contract to the Baltimore Club, which they would insist upon being fulfilled to the letter. Selbach says he called upon Johnson and Griffith merely to see if the American League would voluntarily increase his salary as a reward for his loyalty.”

In early December Selbach himself said he had not signed with Griffith. There were rumors that there wouldn’t even be a team in Washington and that the AL would place a team in Pittsburgh instead. Concerns among Washington area fans were assuaged on December 28, when Selbach signed a two-year contract – with the Washington Senators. Since he remained popular in the area (because of his previous stint with Washington's NL team), that seemed like a bonus.

Note that the back of the card was blank until its early owner took advantage of the spot to attach return instructions should it ever become lost.

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1905 Washington "Nationals"
 

The 1905 Washington Senators won 64 games, lost 87, and finished in seventh place in the American League. They were managed by Jake Stahl and played home games at National Park.

Prior to the start of the 1905 season, Washington's new ownership group attempted to put the club's recent history behind it by inviting baseball fans to submit their suggestions for a new name. "The Nationals" was selected as most acceptable but did not truly take. The name was ill-suited in the first place, as it suggested a National League team, and merely represented an oddly nostalgic longing for the bad ballclubs of the 1880s and 1890s. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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1906 Washington Senators
 

The 1906 Washington Senators won 55 games, lost 95, and finished in seventh place in the American League. They were managed by Jake Stahl and played home games at National Park.

The highlight of Washington's 1906 season came in late August when the Senators brought an end to the 19-game winning streak of the "hitless wonders", the Chicago White Sox. This White Sox squad eventually won the pennant despite maintaining a .230 team batting average, the worst in the league by far. The White Sox took the 1906 World Series in six games from their crosstown rivals the Cubs, despite hitting just .198 in the fall classic. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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Lave Cross
 

Player #27: Lafayette N. "Lave" Cross. Born Vratislav Kriz. Third baseman/catcher with the Washington Senators in 1906-1907. 2,651 hits, 47 home runs, and 303 stolen bases in 21 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Louisville Colonels in 1887-1888. In 1894 with the Philadelphia Phillies, he had one of his most productive seasons as he posted a .424 OBP with 128 runs scored and 132 RBIs in 593 plate appearances. At retirement in 1907, he ranked fifth in MLB history in hits and runs batted in. He captained the Philadelphia Athletics teams which captured two of the first five AL pennants.

Cross' SABR biography summarizes his brief, career-ending time in Washington: Cross was 39 years old. The strains of captainship, upon his own game and in relations with teammates and ownership, wore upon him. Yet, even as he sought a younger third baseman, Mack was grateful for Cross’s contributions. Consequently, he allowed Cross to come to an agreement with Washington, then released him to the Senators with no compensation in return that December.

Although Washington had finished in seventh place in 1905, and their promising young shortstop Joe Cassidy died before the 1906 campaign launched, the Senators played .500 ball through the first month. Cross started well, hitting .333 and scoring 16 runs through Washington’s first 21 games. But the team soon sank out of contention and finished seventh again. Cross contributed a .263 average (an OPS+ of 100) and led AL third basemen in fielding percentage, although his range metrics were below average.

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I am doubtful that the name "did not truly take", as the team wore "NATIONALS" on their home uniforms that year. The newspapers adopted the name, which was often shortened to "Nats", a nickname that persisted for decades even after everyone stopped calling them the Nationals.

Thanks for the comment. I'm not sure what Deveaux is basing his use of "truly" on, but he continues "Fans and reporters alike, in Washington and elsewhere, continued to call the team the Senators and to nickname the team the Nats. It would be 50 years, however, before 'Senators' would become the official team name".

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

Just to point out, Nats is part of SeNATors too, so it might be considered a duo use nickname.

Brian

The Old Fox
 

Player #28A: Clark C. "The Old Fox" Griffith. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1912-1914. Debuted with the St. Louis Browns in 1891. 237 wins and 8 saves in 20 MLB seasons. Was 1898 MLB ERA leader. Managed the Chicago White Stockings (1901-1902), the New York Highlanders (1903-1908), the Cincinnati Reds (1909-1911), and the Washington Senators (1912-1920). Was principal owner of the Washington Senators from 1920 until his death in 1955. In 1946, was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame.

Griff's SABR biography picks up his career with the New York Highlanders: In 1903, Griffith was named manager of the NY AL team that replaced Baltimore. 1906 found him still managing the Highlanders. We pick up his SABR biography: In 1904, mainly through the machinations of Ban Johnson, New York was fortified by the additions of Jack Powell and John Anderson, and the pick-up of Smiling Al Orth in July helped to solidify the team in its run for the pennant. On the season’s final day, however, a wild pitch by Jack Chesbro denied the Highlanders a championship. It was the closest Griff would come to a flag in New York.

The club was up and down in the standings over the next several seasons, sagging to sixth place in 1905, finishing second in 1906 and falling back again to fifth in 1907. In June 1908, as the team was beset with injuries and spiraling downward, losing 12 of 13 games, Clark announced his resignation. He blamed bad luck which followed the club, intimating that perhaps it was he, himself, who was the hoodoo. A disheartened Griffith stated, “It [is] simply useless for me to continue…I have tried everything, but it [is] fighting against fate.”

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Charlie Hickman
 

Player #29: Charles T. "Charlie" Hickman. Utility player with the Washington Senators in 1905-1907. 1,176 hits and 59 home runs in 12 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Boston Beaneaters in 1897-1899. His 1902 season was split between the Boston Americans and the Cleveland Bronchos but was his most productive as he posted a .387 OBP with 110 RBIs in 564 plate appearances. His final season was 1908 with the Cleveland Naps.

Hickman's SABR biography summarizes his time in Washington: After struggling at the plate and in the field for Detroit in 1905, and again tangling with Armour (now managing the Tigers), he was sold to Washington, where he remained for one complete season and parts of two others. He was the team’s leading hitter, but his defensive woes continued. On September 29, 1905, Hickman entered the record books again when he had a five-error game at second base. Though still an effective hitter who batted .284 with nine home runs for the Senators in 1906, Hickman’s inability to play defense limited his value. During spring training in 1907, Hickman suffered a knee injury that would hamper him through the rest of the season (and signal the end of his career).

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Casey Patten
 

Player #30: Case L. "Casey" Patten. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1901-1908. 101 wins and 4 saves in 8 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of 3.36. His best season was 1906 with Washington as he posted a 19-16 record with a 2.17 ERA in 282.2 innings pitched. He finished his career in 1908 with the Boston Red Sox.

Patten's SABR biography lays out his time in Washington: Patten debuted with Manning’s Senators on May 4, 1901, pitching in relief of Win Mercer, who was up against Cy Young and some hot Boston batters. (James H. Manning owned the Kansas City Blues and went on to become one of the incorporators of the Washington Senators. A good part of the Washington team, including Patten, was built from Manning's Kansas City club.) Mercer let in seven runs in the first four innings, and Patten got the call. He struck out two and walked three and let in three more runs. It was a lopsided 10-2 win for Jimmy Collins and the Bostons.

(Despite that introduction,) Patten (had) a pretty good year on the mound. Though he was pitching for a sixth-place team which wound up with a 61-72 record, Patten was 18-10 with a 3.93 earned run average, the best pitcher on the staff. If not his best year, it was one of his two best. “I never saw a pitcher with a better curve,” said Kid Gleason at year’s end. (Washington Post, September 27, 1901.) Patten was often superb with the spitball. Over seven seasons with Washington, Patten averaged over 14 wins a year (though, it must be said, more than 17 losses). He played with Washington throughout his entire major-league career save for one game that he pitched for the Boston Red Sox in 1908.

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Jake Stahl
 

Player #31: Garland "Jake" Stahl. First baseman with the Washington Senators in 1904-1906 and manager 1905-1906. 894 hits and 31 home runs in 9 MLB seasons. 1912 World Series champion. 1910 AL HR leader. He debuted with the Boston Americans in 1903. His most productive season may have been 1910 with the Boston Red Sox as he posted a .334 OBP with 77 RBIs in 598 plate appearances. His last days as a player were with Boston in 1908-1910 and 1912-1913. He also managed Boston in 1912-1913.

Stahl's SABR biography covers his rise and fall as Washington's manager: During the winter of 1903-04, Boston shipped Jake to the floundering Washington franchise. Johnson (Ban Johnson was grateful for Stahl’s role in Boston’s successful 1903 season -- Boston’s World Series victory ensured the long-term viability of his new American League) was in charge of the team until suitable owners could be found and (he) converted Jake into a first baseman. He appeared in 142 games and finished the year with a .262 batting average, three home runs, and 50 RBIs. Even by Deadfall Era standards, these numbers were not exceptional, yet Stahl led the woeful (38-113) Nationals in all three categories.

In 1905, Johnson promoted Jake to manager. Having just turned 26 years old the day before the season began, he became the youngest player-manager in American League history. Employing the inclusive management style he used in college, Jake quickly won the support of the team’s veteran players. Coupled with a focused disciplinary approach emphasizing direct out-of-public-view communication with offenders, punctuated by demonstrations of potential physical force, Jake led the 1905 squad to 64-87 record.

For a short time early in the season, Jake even had the team in first place. When the team returned from a successful road trip, Washington gave the team a rousing parade and celebratory dinner. More importantly, Johnson found new owners for the shaky Washington franchise. Stahl had become, in the words of one observer, “popular with the players, and so well liked by the club owners that it has been officially announced that he can retain his present berth until he voluntarily resigns.”

In the offseason, Jake married his college sweetheart, the daughter of highly successful businessman Henry Weston Mahan. In 1906, however, things fell apart for Jake and the Nationals. Popular shortstop Joe Cassidy unexpectedly died of typhus at the beginning of the season and the team fell into a tailspin, finishing 55-95. The frustrated Washington owners replaced Jake as their manager during the 1906-1907 offseason.

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Wee Willie Sudhoff
 

Player #32: J. William "Wee Willie" Sudhoff. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1906. 102 wins and 3 saves in 10 MLB seasons. He debuted with the St. Louis Browns in 1897-1898. His best season was 1903 with the St. Louis Browns as he posted a 21-15 record with a 2.27 ERA in 293.2 innings pitched.

Sudhoff's SABR biography covers his time in Washington: Blond-headed Wee Willie Sudhoff, although short in stature, was a solid, if mostly unspectacular, pitcher who spent all or parts of 10 seasons in the major leagues. He was the first Missouri-born player to appear for both the National League’s St. Louis Cardinals and the American League’s St. Louis Browns. The bulk of his career was spent on those two teams, but he also played for the woeful 1899 Cleveland Spiders and the 1906 Washington Senators. The diminutive right-hander relied primarily on curves and change of speed as he didn’t have particularly great pace on his fastball.

During the (1905-06) American League winter meetings, he was traded to the Washington Senators for left-handed starter Beany Jacobson. Sudhoff felt he still had something left. In an interview with the Post-Dispatch he confidently stated, “Why should I get out of the game so long as the public and the managers will stand for me? I’m still a young fellow.” The Washington Post was not as optimistic: “The Washington baseball club has traded Pitcher Jacobson for Pitcher Sudhoff, of the St. Louis Browns. Jacobson was a failure last season. Sudhoff was a great pitcher in his day but is believed to be going back.”

The Washington paper proved to be correct. While Jacobson was average in a tail-end role (he pitched 155 innings, fifth of the six pitchers on the team), Sudhoff had nothing left. The sore-armed twirler started five games and relieved in four others but managed a total of just 19⅔ innings with a bloated 9.15 ERA. That was a far cry from the pitcher who completed 199 of his 239 major-league starts.

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1907 Washington Senators
 

The 1907 Washington Senators won 49 games, lost 102, and finished in eighth place in the American League. They were managed by Joe Cantillon and played home games at National Park. The 1907 season was noteworthy for the debut of a future hall-of-famer.

By the time Cantillon finally entered Walter Johnson in a game, on August 2, 1907, the city of Washington was rabid with baseball fever brought on by all the talk in the papers of this young man's fastball. More than 10,000 fans packed American League Park for the first game of a doubleheader against the Tigers, the best-hitting team in the league and the eventual pennant winners. These were the Tigers of Ty Cobb, then just 20 years old, the most ferocious of players who will likely forever remain baseball's all-time batting champion.

By all accounts, many fans were surprised by Johnson's sidearm delivery and sweeping underhand motion. He sure didn't move like a fastballer, and yet there was no doubt in the minds of the witnesses that day that his pitches were really moving. The record shows he gave up just six hits, three of which were bunts; two of these were by Cobb, who felt that bunting was the only counter to the incredible speed of Johnson's hard one. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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Gabby Street and How Walter Johnson became a National Hero Part 1
 

The 1908 Washington Senators won 67 games, lost 85, and finished in seventh place in the American League. They were managed by Joe Cantillon and played home games at National Park.

How Walter Johnson became a National Hero Part 1: The Senators were reasonably competitive in 1908; but for Walter Johnson, though, this was the season during which he became a national hero. First, however, he had to contend with an operation in late February for the removal of an abscess located behind his right ear. The operation was a serious one and his family had feared for his life. Johnson survived but was in considerable pain for several weeks afterward. He missed all of spring training as a result, and didn't join the club until June 6, nearly two months into the season. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.) We will return to this account of How Walter Johnson became a national hero in a subsequent episode. In the meantime,

Player #33A: Charles E. "Gabby" Street. "The Old Sarge". Catcher for the Washington Senators in 1908-1911. 312 hits and 2 home runs in 8 MLB seasons. Debuted with the Cincinnati Reds in 1904. Caught ball dropped from top of Washington Monument. Holds MLB record for longest gap between MLB games at 19 years -- 1912-1931. Managed the St. Louis Cardinals in 1929 and 1930-1933, including the 1931 World Series championship. Managed the St. Louis Browns in 1938.

(In 1908) The man who would become known as "Walter Johnson's catcher," Charles "Gabby" Street, also joined the Senators, his contract having been purchased from San Francisco of the Pacific Coast League. Street, who would manage the St. Louis Cardinals to a World Championship in 1931 (the same year he sent himself up to bat as he approached his 49th birthday), was just 25 when he joined Washington after having appeared in only 45 National League games. Nineteen hundred and eight and 1909 would be his two busiest seasons in the majors, but he would bat just .206 and .211, assuring himself of a more regular place "riding the pine" for another two seasons in Washington. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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The 1909 Washington Senators
 

The 1909 Washington Senators won 42 games, lost 110, and finished in eighth (last) place in the American League. They were managed by Joe Cantillon and played home games at National Park. The 1909 Senators still hold the Major League record for the most games lost in one month of a season, with 29 losses (and only 5 wins) in July.

(Both Germany Schaefer and Nick Altrock joined Washington in 1909. Though their comedic antics would not begin in earnest until 1912,) Comedy was indeed what the Washington ballclub was best at in 1909; it slipped to only 42 wins in 152 games. The highlight of the season was a scoreless, 18-inning tie with the Detroit Tigers on July 16. Ed Summers pitched the whole way for the Tigers, and he permitted just seven hits and one walk until, mercifully, the game was called because of darkness. The 1909 Nationals still hold records for fewest runs scored in a season (380) and the most times shutout in a season (29). They finished an unbelievable 56 games behind the first-place Tigers and 20 games out of seventh place. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

Clown Prince of Baseball: 1912 photograph of ballplayer turned comedy act, Nick Altrock, as he dances on the sidelines of a game in full uniform.

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How Walter Johnson became a National Hero (Part 2)
 

How Walter Johnson became a National Hero (Part 2): We return to Deveaux's account of Walter Johnson's rise to national recognition: Johnson's record was 1-6 largely because of a lack of offensive support, when, on July 28, he struck out 15 Browns in St. Louis to earn a 2-1 win in 16 innings. With that game, in which Walter recorded his highest strikeout total to date, he undertook a string of 11 wins in 13 decisions. Then, over four glorious days in early September, the 21-year-old accomplished a feat not seen before or since.

The chain of events began innocently enough when on Friday, September 4, 1908, Johnson pitched a six-hit 3-0 shutout against Jack Chesbro and the New York Highlanders. On the following day, the New Yorkers' chagrin, not to mention surprise, can only be imagined when they saw Johnson warming up on the sidelines. It should be pointed out that in 1908, Big Ed Walsh of the White Sox led the league in games started with 49, the rough equivalent of a start every third game. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

We will pick this account up again soon, but in the meantime, the photograph by Thompson shows Walter Johnson swinging the bat c.1912-15. Walter was a good hitter for a pitcher at a time when pitchers were expected to be able to hit well enough to play the field and pinch hit to compensate for small rosters and frequent player injuries.

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Cliff Blankenship
 

Player #34: Clifford D. "Cliff" Blankenship. Catcher/first baseman for the Washington Senators in 1907 and 1909. 49 hits in 231 career plate appearances. He debuted with the Cincinnati Reds in 1905. He played a key role in Washington's signing of Walter Johnson.

Blankenship is remembered as a scout of sorts -- while injured with the Senators, he was sent to check out Walter Johnson in Idaho. Per the legend, he was told to bring his bat and, because he wasn't much of a hitter in the majors, to sign Johnson only if it was not possible to even hit a foul ball off him. Blankenship wired back: "You can't hit what you can't see." The Senators signed Johnson and the rest is history.

Here Deveaux picks up the story of Johnson's discovery: The baseball gods were indeed smiling down upon the Washington Senators on the day in 1907 when catcher Cliff Blankenship broke his finger. Joe Cantillon wanted to get some use out of the disabled Blankenship and decided to dispatch him on a scouting assignment. . . . Initially, Johnson wasn't even the main focus of Blankenship's scouting mission. The Senators already had their eye on Clyde Milan, a 20-year-old outfielder with Wichita, of the Western Association. An esteemed judge of talent, Joe Cantillon had spotted Milan when the Senators had played Wichita during a spring exhibition game on their way home from training camp in Galveston, Texas. There is little doubt that Blankenship's scouting trip was the most successful in all of history. Milan was signed for $1,250 and would become the team's best outfielder for the next 14 years. During all of that time, his roommate would be Walter Johnson. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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Wid Conroy
 

Player #35A: William E. "Wid" Conroy. Utility player for the Washington Senators in 1909-1911. 1,257 hits, 22 home runs, and 262 stolen bases in 11 MLB seasons. Debuted with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1901. He had at least 384 plate appearances in each of his 11 MLB seasons. He was the first-string SS on the NL champion Pittsburgh Pirates in 1902. He moved to 3B in 1903 with the New York Highlanders, twice leading AL third basemen in total chances per game. He was an opening day starter for the Highlanders for the first five years of the team's existence. In 1907 he swiped 41 bases second only to Ty Cobb. He finished his career with Washington and in one of his last games set an AL record with 13 total chances at 3B.

Conroy's SABR biography covers his heyday in New York and his demise in Washington: Wid spent the next six seasons (1903-8) with New York, never batting higher than .273, but finishing among the league’s top ten in home runs twice, triples four times, slugging percentage once, and stolen bases four times. In 1907, Conroy’s 41 steals tied for second, behind only Ty Cobb‘s league-leading 49. Consistently praised for his deft handling of the bat (like many players of the era, Conroy choked up on the bat several inches and found his base hits by punching the ball to all fields), Conroy was also known as a smart, speedy base runner, routinely taking “the biggest leads off base of any player in the big show.”

Following the 1908 season, in which he batted just .237 with a .296 slugging percentage, Conroy was sold to the Washington Senators for $5,000. Reflecting his solid standing within the game, Conroy’s acquisition was greeted with delight by Washington fans, who took it as a sign that “the local owners are sincere in their efforts to build up a winner.” Now 32 years old, Conroy failed to live up to the high hopes that had been set for him and finished the year with a .244 batting average and career-low .293 slugging percentage. He spent the following offseason “boiling out” in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and his offensive production improved slightly in 1910, but the following year he finished with a .232 batting average, the lowest of his career, while stealing just 12 bases.

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Jerry Freeman
 

Player #36: Frank E. "Jerry" Freeman. "Buck". First baseman with the Washington Senators in 1908-1909. 142 hits in 2 MLB seasons.

Jerry Freeman was nicknamed "Buck", presumably after the major league star Buck Freeman, whose eleven-year major league career ended with 4 games in 1907. Buck then played most of the 1907 season with the Minneapolis Millers, hitting .335, while Jerry Freeman played for the same team and hit .362 (in his fourth season with Minneapolis). The next year Jerry was a regular in the majors. Buck stayed with Minneapolis in 1908 but hit over 100 points lower.

Jerry played almost all of the 1908 Washington Senators games at first base, making 41 errors, a total which led the league by a comfortable margin. His hitting was above average - his .253 batting average was second highest among the regulars, and his 15 doubles were also second highest. In addition, his 45 RBI led the team. The next year, however, he started slowly with the bat and the glove, and was gone after 19 games.

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How Walter Johnson became a National Hero (Part 3)
 

How Walter Johnson became a National Hero (Part 3): Only three pitchers had made the road trip for the Senators, as the mound corps was beset by injuries, and Joe Cantillon had asked Walter prior to the first game of the four-game set in New York whether he could start three times in a row. The big Train would later confide that Cantillon had been able to placate him time and again in the same way -- Walter would ask the manager for an extra seating pass to a game for a friend, and Pongo Joe would surprise him with a half a dozen. When the manager unexpectedly asked him to pitch, Walter couldn't turn him down because, he explained, his friends were always after passes.

Going the route for a second straight day, Johnson gave up just four hits and shut out the Highlanders again, 6-0. Now there was talk that Walter might not only start three games in a row, but get a shutout in all of them. The Washington Post reported that manager Cantillon had joked that maybe Johnson would pitch again Monday. The city was mad about Walter and the sports pages were jammed with stories about him. There was no chance that he would get three shutouts on consecutive days, however, since the third day was the Sabbath day. It would be another ten years before baseball could be played in New York on Sundays. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

We will get back to this account again soon, but in the meantime, here's a pin featuring Walter from the 1924 season.

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Bob Ganley
 

Player #37: Robert S. "Bob" Ganley. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1907-1909. 540 hits and 112 stolen bases in 5 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1905. His best season was 1907 for the Washington Senators as he posted a .337 OBP with 40 stolen bases and 73 runs scored.

Ganley played a lot of all three outfield positions during his five years in the majors, appearing with three teams. He went from playing for excellent Pittsburgh Pirates teams in 1905-06 to poor Washington Senators teams in 1907-08 and part of 1909 to an excellent Philadelphia Athletics team for most of 1909. Ganley was in the top ten in the league in stolen bases twice while with the Senators, and was fourth in the league in hits in 1907. Bob came to the majors at age 30, after a long career in the minors. After his major league days, he again played in the minors. He moved around so much that he was called "the globetrotter of organized baseball". He played for New Haven, Albany, Brockton, Columbus, Toledo, Marion, Schenectady, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Oakland, Johnstown, Des Moines and Newark, and that was just in the minors. He managed the Fredericton Pets in 1913 and the Perth Amboy Pacers in 1914.

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Clark Griffith 1909
 

Player #28B: Clark C. "The Old Fox" Griffith. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1912-1914. Debuted with the St. Louis Browns in 1891. 237 wins and 8 saves in 20 MLB seasons. Was 1898 MLB ERA leader. Managed the Chicago White Stockings (1901-1902), the New York Highlanders (1903-1908), the Cincinnati Reds (1909-1911), and the Washington Senators (1912-1920). Was principal owner of the Washington Senators from 1920 until his death in 1955. In 1946, was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame.

Griffith's SABR biography takes us through the developments that followed his resignation (during the 1908 season) as manager of the New York Highlanders: Over the next few months Griff was deluged by offers to manage other clubs. He made no secret of his desire to assume an ownership role, even in the minor leagues, and for several months he carefully considered all of his options. Finally, in December, in something of a surprise move, he signed a contract to manage the Cincinnati Reds and was back in the National League.

Under Griffith, Cincinnati finished fourth in 1909, just nosing into the first division, distantly behind perennial leaders Pittsburgh, Chicago and New York. After three straight losing seasons, the campaign had to be considered a success, but it would mark the high point of Clark’s brief stay in the Queen City, as the Reds dropped a notch in the standings each of the next two years. Although managerial success eluded him, Clark managed the NL’s first Cuban ball players, Armando Marsáns and Rafael Almeida. He still longed to be an owner, however, and when the opportunity arose in 1911, he was ready to do whatever was necessary to avail himself of it.

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Mike Kahoe
 

Player #38: Michael J. "Mike" Kahoe. Catcher with the Washington Senators in 1907-1909. 278 hits and 4 home runs in 11 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Cincinnati Reds in 1895 and 1899-1901. He may have been one of the first catchers to wear shin guards.

Kahoe's SABR biography touches on some of his career highlights: Mike Kahoe appeared on major league rosters mostly as a catcher for eleven seasons. In that time he played in an unremarkable 410 games and batted a mere .212. Yet his career is forever joined with some of baseball history’s most celebrated individuals, unique events, and folklore. Kahoe’s acquisition by the Chicago Nationals in 1901 allowed that team to move Frank Chance from catcher to the outfield and eventually to first base where he was immortalized in “Tinker to Evers to Chance.” In 1907 Washington was hit with the injury bug at catcher and in August acquired the veteran Kahoe from Chicago. Mike was immediately put to work as the personal catcher of a rookie from Idaho, Walter Johnson. Later Kahoe would scout and sign dozens of players for the Senators and Braves.

His Sporting News obituary also called attention to his claim that he used shin guards (possibly in 1902 to protect an injury) before Roger Bresnahan ever did. An extensive search of newspapers did not turn up any mention of Kahoe’s use of protection until the 1908 season. In fact, in a Washington Post article from June 17, 1907, Mike was interviewed about Bresnahan’s use of shin guards. He discussed their use saying; “I believe there are more low fouls hit nowadays than there were two or three years ago and ones shins are likely to get it any minute. Also they are a good protection when a man is sliding into the plate…” There is no mention in the article that Mike had ever used shin protection.

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How Walter Johnson became a National Hero (Part 4)
 

How Walter Johnson became a National Hero (Part 4): On the Monday, September 7, 1908, there was to be a doubleheader in New York. It must have occurred to Johnson that he might start, but if so, likely not in the first game. While warming up with Gabby Street, it became apparent there was no one else getting ready. Johnson reportedly looked at Joe Cantillon, received a nod from the manager, and when he got back to the dugout after just a few easy tosses, told Cantillon, "It's all right with me if it's all right with you."

Barney then went out and tossed a third shutout at the Highlanders in just four days. He showed no sign of tiring during the course of the game. In fact, he yielded just two hits, having improved each game as he'd gone along. (He had given up six hits on Friday and four on Saturday.) He walked no one and struck out five, beating Jack Chesbro again despite taking one of Chesbro's spitballs in the ribs in the third inning. Furthermore, from Monday to Monday, the Big Train had made four mound appearances, having pitched 4.2 innings against Boston on the previous Monday.

Following the third shutout in a row, W.W. Aulick wrote in the New York Times of September 8, 1908: "We are grievously disappointed in this man Johnson of Washington. He and his team had four games to play with the champion (sic) Yankees. Johnson pitched the first game and shut us out. Johnson pitched the second game and shut us out. Johnson pitched the third game and shut us out. Did Johnson pitch the fourth game and shut us out? He did not. Oh, you quitter!" (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

We will get back to this account soon, but in the meantime, another pin commemorating the 1924 American League Pennant eventually won by Walter and his Washington Senators on their way to a World Series victory.

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Deerfoot Milan
 

Player #39A: J. Clyde "Deerfoot" Milan. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1907-1922. 2,100 hits and 495 stolen bases in 16 MLB seasons. 1912 and 1913 AL stolen base leader, including a then record 88 in 1912. His career OBP was .353. Managed the Washington Senators in 1922. His best season was probably 1911 for the Washington Senators as he posted a .395 OBP with 58 stolen bases and 109 runs scored in 705 plate appearances.

Milan's SABR biography recalls his introduction to Washington: Milan and (Walter) Johnson had a lot in common: They were the same age, they both hailed from rural areas–Washington outfielder Bob Ganley started calling Milan “Zeb,” a common nickname for players from small towns–and they were both quiet, reserved, and humble. Naturally, they became hunting companions and inseparable friends, and eventually they became the two best players on the Senators team. “Take Milan and his roommate, Walter Johnson, away from Washington, and the town would about shut up shop, as far as base ball is concerned,” wrote a reporter in 1911.

But stardom was not immediate for Milan. After making his debut with the Senators on August 19, 1907, he played regularly in center field for the rest of the season and batted a respectable .279 in 48 games. In 1908, however, Milan batted just .239, and the following year he slumped to .200, with just 10 stolen bases in 130 games. Cantillon wanted to send him to the minors and purchase an outfielder who could hit, but the Senators were making so little money that they couldn’t afford a replacement. Fortunately for Washington, Jimmy McAleer took over as manager in 1910 and immediately recognized the young center fielder’s potential. Under McAleer’s tutelage, Milan bounced back to hit .279 with 44 steals, and in 1911 he became a full-fledged star by batting .315 with 58 steals.

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Muskrat Bill Shipke
 

Player #40: William M. "Bill" Shipke. "Muskrat Bill". "Skipper Bill". Third baseman for the Washington Senators in 1907-1909. 110 hits in 4 MLB seasons. Debuted with the Cleveland Naps in 1906. His best season was 1908 for the Washington Senators as he scored 40 runs and stole 15 bases in 410 plate appearances.

Shipke was the starting third baseman for the 1908 Senators and fielded .932, average for the 1908 AL at the hot corner. He hit .208/.297/.276; as it was the heart of the Deadball Era, his OPS+ was a perfectly respectable 93. He stole 15 bases, hit 8 triples and laid down 26 sacrifice hits. An old Senators fan convinced Bill to paste a piece of paper with "magical properties" to his bat and Shipke had a great month after starting the experiment. After Bob Unglaub joined the Senators, Shipke wound up on the bench. Bill went 2 for 16 with the 1909 Senators to conclude his big-league career with a .199/.280/.261 batting line and an 81 OPS+. Al Pepper notes that "He left the majors with more nicknames than career home runs."

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Charley Smith
 

Player #41: Charley Smith. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1906-1909. 66 wins and 3 saves in 10 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Cleveland Bronchos in 1902. He had a career ERA of 2.81. His best season was 1910 with Boston as he posted a 11-6 record with a 2.30 ERA in 156.1 innings.

Smith's SABR biography explains his time in Washington: In 1905, Smith was 13-8. He returned to the majors in 1906, working for the Washington Senators. Smith impressed in spring training and got off to a good enough start. Sporting Life commented, “He has a world of speed, excellent control, god (sic) curves and a profound indifference to the efforts of his opponents. He held the visitors to five hits, which were all made in two innings. Evidently, he will do, and is a valuable find.” Smith’s record was 9-16, but his 2.91 earned run average was better than the team ERA of 3.25 and he was brought back for 1907.

He won ten games in 1907, though he lost 20, despite an improved ERA of 2.61. Smith struck out a career-high 119, walking 75. And he had some tough luck, wrote the Washington Post: “On just one occasion this season has he had an easy game…in all his other games this season, he has had tight games to contend with, and has unquestionably lost more games by one run than any other pitcher in the league.” He had, the Post wrote a week later, “a chin that indicates determination.” He brought his ERA down again in 1908, to 2.41. His record was 9-13, though he missed several weeks during the season with a lame arm. The Senators placed seventh. The hard luck theme hadn’t gone away. The May 13, 1908 Post went into even more detail, this time adding, “If there is anything in physiognomy, his jaw would indicate that he has the nerve to face a lion.”

In 1909, Washington dropped back to last place again. Smith didn’t help the team that much; he had a recurrence of the arm problem from which he’d suffered in 1908; his record was 3-12 and he’d pitched to a 3.27 ERA. He escaped before the season was over, however, traded to the Boston Red Sox. Despite what looked like a sorry record, Washington manager Joe Cantillon said, “I am sorry to lose Charley Smith, for everybody knows I think he is one of the best pitchers in the American League. He has been with me three years and during that time he has always twirled great ball.” Smith was re-energized, perhaps: he started three games for Boston and won all three. The first was a 4-2 win against Washington on the 13th.

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How Walter Johnson became a National Hero (Part 5)
 

How Walter Johnson became a National Hero (Part 5): After the third straight whitewash, Cantillon must have thought it was time to rest his 20-year-old prodigy. Johnson came out again on Thursday, three days later, and edged the A's and their ace Eddie Plank 2-1. He said after this particular game that he did not deserve the victory, an early sign of his humble disposition. Over the years, Walter would consistently credit his teammates for his own well-deserved successes.

On the day following the victory over Eddie Plank, young Johnson was asked to start again because sore-armed Charley Smith was unable to take the turn. Again, the Big Train went all the way, for his fifth victory in nine days. Throughout his lengthy career, Walter Johnson would display tremendous stamina. According to team trainer Mike Martin, the effortlessness with which he threw a ball, which Johnson himself felt was a result of his use of the sidearm delivery, could be compared to the energy a normal human expends in snapping his fingers.

Following a three-inning shutout performance in relief two days later that saved the last game of the Philadelphia series, Johnson finally lost on September 18. He gave up just three hits but lost a 1-0 decision to Big Ed Walsh (the league's top winner at 40-15 in '08) and the White Sox on a tenth-inning bunt. This setback ended a string of five wins for the rising star. In acquiring those five wins, Barney had allowed just five runs in 58 innings. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

We will finish this account soon, but today we end with Walter and his team of prized pointers and setters from October of 1927. More than just the pitcher from Washington, Johnson was an avid outdoorsman and could often be found in the wilderness of Virginia during the offseason hunting for quail and partridge.

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