Player #75C: Howard S. "Howie" Shanks. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1912-1922. 1,440 hits and 185 stolen bases in 14 MLB seasons. His best season was 1921 with Washington as he posted an OBP of .370 with 81 runs scored and 69 RBIs in 647 plate appearances. He finished his career with the New York Yankees in 1925.
We go back to Shanks' SABR biography: Through 1916, Shanks played almost exclusively as an outfielder. But, in 1916, he played six different positions, though primarily left field (71 games) and third base (31 games). Already in September 1916, Griffith started talking about using Shanks regularly at shortstop. He did just that in 1917, and Shanks appeared in 90 games at short against just 26 in the outfield. He also played a couple of games at first base. By the end of his career, the only positions he had never played were pitcher and catcher.
His batting averages fluctuated around .240 for his first eight seasons with Washington, but in 1920 he hit for a .268 average (his best to that date) and hit four homers (matching the four he’d hit in 1914). He topped both figures, by a big margin, in 1921. It was his career year, perhaps also reflecting the livelier baseball. Shanks hit .302, knocked out seven home runs, and led the league with 18 triples. The most triples he’d hit before was also in 1914, with 10. He established career highs with 69 RBIs and 81 runs scored.
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