Washington DC Baseball

[GeoPoto]

Player #164C: George W. Case Part 3. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1937-1945 and 1947. 1,415 hits and 349 stolen bases in 11 MLB seasons. 4-time All-Star. 6-time AL stolen base leader. Only player to ever lead MLB in stolen bases for five consecutive years (1939-1943). His best season was probably 1942 for Washington as he posted a .377 OBP with 101 runs scored and 44 stolen bases in 563 plate appearances.

In addition to his skill on the basepaths, Case had many other career highlights. As a line-drive-hitting leadoff man, he compiled a respectable .282 lifetime batting average in 1,226 games, with 1,415 hits and a .341 on-base percentage playing for mostly second-division Washington teams. He hit over .300 three times and scored over 100 runs four times, leading the league in 1943. He struck out only 297 times in 5,016 at-bats (5.9 percent). Case was one of the hardest players ever to double up, hitting into a double play only once in every 94 at-bats. (As of 2013 he ranked in the top five in this category.) Case led the American League in plate appearances in 1940 and ’41, and had three top-ten finishes in hits. He earned four All-Star selections (1939, ’43, ’44, and ’45) and tied a major-league record with nine hits in a doubleheader against Philadelphia in 1940. He was on the field when Lou Gehrig gave his “Luckiest Man” speech on July 4, 1939, at Yankee Stadium, and caught the last ball that Gehrig hit in his major league career, a fly ball to center on April 30, 1939.

Case was thought by many to be the fastest ballplayer in the game between the 1920s and ’50s. He was possibly the fastest ever to play the game, at least until the time of his retirement. His baseball mentor, Clyde Milan, Washington’s all-time leading base stealer, thought so and once paid him the ultimate compliment: “George Case was the fastest man ever to play baseball. … He was faster than Ty Cobb, Eddie Collins, Max Carey. …”

This view was also shared by sportswriter Edwin Rumill of the Christian Science Monitor: “In the person of George Washington Case, the senatorial outfielder, you are looking at the fastest human in the American League. …” This claim is not without merit. In 1943 Case was credited with the fastest time ever circling the bases. In a pregame exhibition at Griffith Stadium, he was clocked by an AAU timer in 13.5 seconds from a standing start. This broke the previous record of 13.8 seconds set by Hans Lobert. In 1946 Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck staged one of his famous promotions, pitting Case against the legendary Jesse Owens in a 100-yard dash. Case lost to “The World’s Fastest Human” by a mere one-tenth of a second, possibly the only race he ever lost.

In another promotional race in 1946 staged by Clark Griffith at Griffith Stadium, the speedster was matched against super-fast rookie Gil Coan, who at the time was seven years Case’s junior. Although Case was ailing from a bad back, he was clocked at 10 seconds flat in the 100-yard dash, beating the stunned rookie by half a stride.