Washington DC Baseball

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

Both Joe Martina and Byron Speece made their only 1924 World Series appearances in Game 3. Both had short Major League careers, but both had long professional baseball careers. Joe "Oyster Joe" Martina's first minor league season was 1910, and his last was 1931 at age 41. He won 322 games during his 21-year minor league career. I think the two cards shown below are the only cards issued for Martina during his playing career. Byron "By" Speece's first minor league season was 1922, and his last was 1945 at age 48. No, age 48 is not a typo! He won 229 games during his 20-year minor league career. I think the cards shown below are the only cards issued for Speece during his playing career, except for his 1945 Centennial Flour card which I am still seeking (the Centennial Flour cards shown below are Speece's 1943 & 1944 issues).

It's so interesting that players could have such amazing careers in the minor leagues, and get only a cup of coffee or not even that much in the majors in all that time. I'd like to see a listing, or even a book about, the longest and best careers in the minors by players who never got a pitch or at-bat in the bigs. To them, of course, playing in the bushes still beat working for a living! Another thing that occurs to me for the first time, Val, looking at your cards, is that in the ninth inning of game seven, although the pitching staff was exhausted from its seventh game in seven days, is that when Bucky brought in WaJo he had the two righthanders Martina, who had given him a shutout inning in the third game, and Speece, who been so successful during the season, completely fresh and ready to go against the Giants, now deprived of the lefty hitters he feared so much. It's actually amazing that The Boy Wonder brought in Johnson, with only one day's rest following his complete-game pounding at the Polo Grounds, instead of one of those one-year wonders. One more of the multitude of fascinating tidbits of that incredible game to ponder and be amazed by.