Buddy Myer -- Part 3 (Cont.)
Player #139C: 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 3 (Continued): (In 1929,) Bucky Harris was gone from Washington, so the new manager, the former pitching great Walter Johnson, had to sort out a crowded infield. He had a slick-fielding third baseman in Ossie Bluege and Jackie Hayes was the favorite to replace Harris at second. Joe Cronin had won the shortstop job in 1928 but didn’t hit. Johnson and Griffith decided Bluege would move to short with Myer at third and Hayes at second. During spring training in 1929 the Senators and New York Giants barnstormed north together, and Giants manager John McGraw, a former third baseman, tutored Myer.
Johnson moved the pieces around the board before settling on Bluege at third, Cronin at short, and Myer at second—another new position. When Bluege went down with a knee injury, Myer stayed put and Hayes filled in at third. Through all the juggling, Myer’s bat was consistent: .300/.373/.403. In the heavy-hitting climate of 1929, that was no better than average, and the Senators brass still didn’t trust his defense. After four years as a regular player, he had to win his job again in 1930. Hayes was a better glove man, but couldn’t match Myer’s bat or speed.
The Senators installed Myer as their leadoff hitter in 1931 and he was a fixture in the lineup after that. Griffith called him the most improved fielder in the league. But he quickly turned belligerent whenever a base runner hit him hard on a double play, maybe because he remembered the spiking that had sent him to a hospital in New Orleans. The writer Robert C. Ruark recalled him as a “cocky little second baseman [who] would hit you before he was properly introduced.”
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