Player #135A: 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.
The only major roster change in 1931 involved the demise of Joe Judge. (Washington manager Walter) Johnson had grown disenchanted with Judge, who had saved his no-hit game with his glove work back in 1920. He felt Judge was a little too prone to injury and otherwise missed too many games. Johnson did like the new guy, Joe Kuhel, who, like Walter himself, had a self-effacing personality. What Kuhel lacked in flamboyance, he made up for with great style around the first-base bag. With Joe Judge at that position for 15 years, this had come to be expected in Washington.
To Johnson's dismay but to Clark Griffith's glee, Joe Judge had a better training camp than the 24-year-old Kuhel, so the latter was farmed out to Baltimore in late April. Four days later, Judge had an appendicitis attack at Fenway Park and was hospitalized. Kuhel was summoned and took over as the first sacker, fielding brilliantly. While he hit a merely creditable .269 with eight homers, Kuhel drove in 85 runs.
During the same week in late April that Kuhel was dispatched to the minors, Lou Gehrig, at this early juncture in the season, actually lost the home run title right at Griffith Stadium. With Lyn Lary on first with two out, Larrupin' Lou hit a monstrous shot a dozen or so rows beyond the centerfield fence. The ball bounced off a bleacher seat, and Lary somehow concluded the ball had been caught. Manager Joe McCarthy was making wild gestures from the third base coach's box, and Lary figured that meant that the third out had been made.
These misjudgments were compounded by the fact that Gehrig remained oblivious to what was going on. Confident that he'd indeed hit a home run, Gehrig passed Lary on the bases, thereby becoming the third out. The Iron Horse's home run was scored a triple. At season's end, Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth tied for the home-run title with 46. Ruth and Gehrig had finished 1-2 in the home-run derby for four years running, and Gehrig would have to wait three more years, when the Babe would be on his downside, before he could at once overtake the Babe in homers and also lead the league in that category.
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