Washington DC Baseball

[GeoPoto]

Great cards Val! Thank you.

Player #87B: Herold D. "Muddy" Ruel. Catcher with the Washington Senators in 1923-1930. 1,242 hits and 61 stolen bases in 19 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. He debuted with the St. Louis Browns in 1915. He was the Yankees catcher in 1920 when Ray Chapman was hit and killed by a Carl Mays fastball. He scored the tying run in regulation and then the winning run in the 12th inning of game seven in the 1924 WS. His best season was 1923 with Washington as he posted a .394 OBP with 54 RBI's and 63 runs scored in 528 plate appearances. His final season as a player was 1934 with the Chicago White Sox. He was manager of the St. Louis Browns in 1947. He was GM of the Detroit Tigers in 1954-1956.

Deveaux introduces the newest catcher: There was also the new catcher, Herold "Muddy" Ruel. A practicing attorney in the off seasons (in later life, he became an assistant to Commissioner Happy Chandler), Ruel had an average arm, but his quickness, ability to handle pitchers, and uncanny ability to deliver the clutch hit would become trademarks. He was obtained from the Red Sox, but earlier had been let go by the Yankees in a deal Miller Huggins later identified as the worst move he'd ever made.

Muddy Ruel was about to realize the baseball dream of his boyhood days, when he'd always made a special effort to attend games which had featured Walter Johnson at Sportsman's Park, in his hometown of St. Louis. His goal had been to someday catch the great righthander, and now he would. However, only the most hopeful of Washington fans could have fantasized at this point that among position players, Ruel was the last important piece to be added to a championship ballclub.

(We apologize for the premature introduction of Sheriff Smith's card, which defies all of our efforts to remove it. Smith and his card will be the subject of tomorrow's entry.)

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