Player #28I: 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.
We go back to Deveaux's account of Griffith's early days in baseball: Griffith had developed a sore arm at the end of the previous season (1891), and no National League team bid for his services, so he found himself back in the minors at Tacoma, Washington. He rehabilitated his arm and had great success at Tacoma. His team was so strong, though, that the league ended up disbanding as a result. The Tacoma players hadn't been getting a paycheck for weeks anyway, so from there Griffith persuaded several of his teammates to follow him to Missoula, Montana; the townspeople there had offered to pay them Tacoma salaries to represent their team in the Montana State League, an outlaw association which pirated players from wherever it could. Missoula was a wild mining town full of gambling joints and saloons crowded along the one main street. In this atmosphere, Griffith became a hero, but it wouldn't be enough for a man who had already tasted the rewards of playing in the best leagues.
There were no offers coming Clark Griffith's way in 1893 either, so he headed for the west coast, where he joined Oakland of the tough Pacific Coast League. The star second baseman at Oakland was young Joe Cantillon. Again, Griffith was victimized by the instability of the minor-league baseball of the times. Unpaid for several weeks, he led an insurrection against the Oakland owners. The players refused to take the field for a game at San Francisco, and this precipitated a chain of events that led to the disbanding of the entire league.
Griffith had become close friends with Cantillon, and the two drifted up the California coast where they found work as, of all things, actors in a traveling vaudeville show. Griffith put his frontier background to good use, playing the part of an Indian who was shot, twice a night, by the six-shooting Cantillon. In late August, the young pitcher got his reprieve when the major leagues beckoned. James A. Hart, who had signed Griffith to his first contract with Milwaukee, had become president of the National League club at Chicago. Hart needed pitching help for his hapless Colts, and telegraphed Griffith, who proved of little use. Starting but two games, he was hit solidly. The 23-year-old righty made two relief appearances, one of them in Washington, his first appearance in the city where he would leave his most indelible mark. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)
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