Pre-War Players Who Were Incredible Athletes - Non-HOFers

[packs]

I've been re-reading Glory of Their Times and came back to Rube Bressler's chapter. It's one of my favorite chapters because Bressler is one of the least heralded players in the book but was clearly such an incredible athlete.

Bressler was a pitcher by trade, but by 1920 he was a 25 year old wash out with a dead arm. He wasn't going to let that send him home though. He decided he'd start hitting instead. And despite being a 215 lifetime hitter while he was pitching, in 1921 he appeared in 109 games and hit 307. He would go on to play 12 full seasons as an everyday hitter and ended his career with a lifetime average of 301.

Joe Wood is another one, and so is Lefty O'Doul. Who else is out there in the pantheon of incredible athletes who may have washed out otherwise?

A card for the thread:

[paul]

Jim Thorpe comes to mind immediately as an incredible athlete who played major league baseball but did not reach Cooperstown.

[packs]

Greasy Neale is another guy that doesn't get mentioned a lot. From 1917 to 1919 he managed to play in the majors for the Reds and in the professional football league in Ohio in the same season. One of which was spent on the 1917 Canton Bulldogs coached by Jim Thorpe.

He was a member of the 1919 World Series Reds team that beat the Black Sox and eventually wound up in the College and Professional Football Halls of Fame.

[packs]

Another obscure guy I learned about is Jim Riley. He only played 6 major league games, 4 for the 1921 Browns and 2 more for the Senators in 1923. But I believe Jim Riley has the distinction of being the only major league baseball player to also win a Stanley Cup, which he did in 1917 as a member of the Seattle Metropolitans who defeated the Montreal Canadiens.

[jingram058]

Van Lingle Mungo was supposedly an incredibly fast runner. So was Hans Lobert.

[oldjudge]

George Halas, Billy Sunday. Sunday was supposedly the fastest man in the NL when he played.

[robw1959]

Originally Posted by paul

Jim Thorpe comes to mind immediately as an incredible athlete who played major league baseball but did not reach Cooperstown.

This wasn't due to Thorpe's lack of baseball skills at all, but rather due to John McGraw's stubborn determination to keep Thorpe on the bench because he wasn't one to cower in Mugsy's presence. Talk about two alpha males!

[robw1959]

Cool Papa Bell was clocked at ten seconds flat while running the bases from home plate all the way around to home plate again. Of Bell's speed, Satchel Paige famously said, "That man was so fast, he could turn out the lights and be in his bed before the room got dark!"

[Huysmans]

Speaking of speed, when the Mick first attended spring training with the Yankees in 1951, it was stated that "Mantle was the fastest thing on cleats that anyone could remember seeing". The first time Stengel saw Mantle running windsprints with other players at his rookie camp, he couldn't believe his eyes. He had them run again, and then put Mantle against everyone in camp. "My God," Stengel said. "The boy runs faster than Cobb."

Stengel also stated, "This kid ain't logical, he's too good. It's very confusing."




Taken from an online article.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by robw1959

Cool Papa Bell was clocked at ten seconds flat while running the bases from home plate all the way around to home plate again. Of Bell's speed, Satchel Paige famously said, "That man was so fast, he could turn out the lights and be in his bed before the room got dark!"

I call BS since that is over 3 seconds faster than the stated record.

Basically you're saying that Bell could run 360 feet from a standing start around corners in the same time Usain Bolt could run 328 feet out of blocks in a straight line.

[jakebeckleyoldeagleeye]

Paddy Driscoll played a few games with the Cubs and is also in the PFHOF.

[packs]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

I call BS since that is over 3 seconds faster than the stated record.

Basically you're saying that Bell could run 360 feet from a standing start around corners in the same time Usain Bolt could run 328 feet out of blocks in a straight line.

In The Glory of Their Times Hans Lobert claims he was asked to race a horse around the bases and led the entire way until the rider got into his path and he had to slow down or else be run over.

Who knows.

[robw1959]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

I call BS since that is over 3 seconds faster than the stated record.

Basically you're saying that Bell could run 360 feet from a standing start around corners in the same time Usain Bolt could run 328 feet out of blocks in a straight line.

Funny you say that, because I have a track and field buddy who said the exact same thing. But I don't doubt the account at all. For example, Jorge Mateo of the Baltimore Orioles has been clocked in his career at over 33 feet per second. So all Cool Papa Bell had to do was be about 10% faster than Mateo, or at about 36 feet per second. Because the diamond is 360 feet around its perimeter, a 36 feet per second rate would bring him all the way home in ten seconds.

[scotgreb]

Posey, Cum 1988 NLS3 PSA 10 42818435.jpg

The only person in both the baseball and basketball Halls of Fame.

It's hard to know how good of a player Posey was, as he cut his playing short to take over the Homestead Grays at a fairly young age. He led his college basketball team in scoring (Holy Ghost College (Duquesne)) and played professional basketball several years. Well enough to make the HOF. He was also the captain of the Holy Ghost golf team. Cumberland Posey is an incredibly interesting man.

Edited to add: I just realized the thread was looking for non-HOFers (whoops)