Player #65B: Raymond C. "Ray" Morgan. Second baseman for the Washington Senators in 1911-1918. 630 hits and 88 stolen bases in 8 MLB seasons. His career OBP was .348. His best season was 1913 as he posted a .369 OBP with 19 stolen bases in 565 plate appearances. He has an odd link to Babe Ruth: in 1917, he led off a game by drawing a 4-pitch walk from Boston starter Ruth, who was then ejected from the game by the home plate umpire. Ruth was replaced by Ernie Shore and Morgan was thrown out attempting to steal on Shore's first pitch. Shore then retired the next 26 batters he faced. Shore's "perfect game" was eventually down-graded to a "combined no-hitter" by subsequent revisions in the MLB criteria.
Morgan's SABR biography: During the 1913 season, he began to draw Griffith’s ire, who didn’t like Morgan’s frequent trips home to Baltimore by automobile to socialize with his friends. Travel by car, even the 30 or so miles between Washington and Baltimore, could be an adventure in those days. Morgan also developed a reputation as a fun-loving cut-up on road trips. He was an accomplished piano player, able to accompany any song his teammates wanted to sing. He’d break out in song by himself in hotel rooms or on trains “in that high tenor of his,” often in conjunction with a teammate or two. When these performances came late at night, they surely would not have pleased Griffith, a stickler for training rules.
Spring training in 1914 was the first of several to which Morgan reported well over his playing weight. Although a March 24 report praised his pre-season hitting, it noted that “Morgan is still considerably overweight.” He again started at second base on opening day. Morgan “Chevrolets to Baltimore and back twice a week,” the Washington Times wrote. Driving a car still was unusual enough that when Germany Schaefer, his roommate on the road, joined Morgan as an automobile owner, it was news. So was Griffith’s concern for his player’s safety.
The concern proved warranted. On April 10, Morgan’s auto collided with a Baltimore trolley car. He and two friends were on their way back to Washington. Morgan and another man were thrown from the automobile. All three men were shaken up but uninjured. “The machine was so badly damaged that it had to be abandoned,” a newspaper reported.
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