Washington DC Baseball

[ValKehl]

Originally Posted by GeoPoto

As near as I can tell, the fourth card shown is mislabeled by PSA as a W516 2-2: It appears (to me at least) as though it is actually a W516 2-1. The fifth card shown appears to be labeled correctly as a W516 2-2. Alas, I do not have a W516 2-3 to complete the quintet.

George, you are correct. The fourth card is a W516-2-1. Here is a W516-2-3 to complete the quintet:

[GeoPoto]

Thanks go to Val for completing the strange 5-card run of W516 Walter Johnson's from 1920-21.

Player #56F: George F. "Pinch" McBride. Shortstop for the Washington Senators in 1908-1920. 1,203 hits, 7 home runs, and 133 stolen bases in 16 MLB seasons. Debuted with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1901. Has the lowest batting average of any player with 5,000 MLB at-bats. Managed the Washington Senators in 1921 but was struck in the face by a line drive during batting practice and forced to retire.

. . . Fittingly, as the Deadball Era wound down, so did McBride’s playing career. He was replaced as the Senators’ regular shortstop in 1917 by Howard Shanks, reducing his playing time to 50 games that season. He remained on the roster through 1920, but saw his playing time further curtailed, never again playing in more than 18 games in a season. However, his primary role with the Senators during these final seasons was not as a player, but as a “manager in training” under the watchful eye of Clark Griffith. During this time he served as an instructor to the team’s younger infielders, as a base coach, and as a fill-in as manager when Griffith was away from the team scouting or tending to other front office duties. Prior to the 1921 season, Griffith stepped away from his on-field duties and appointed McBride the new team manager, the first in a long line of ex-Washington players to take the reins for Griffith. . . .

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1671704278

[GeoPoto]

Today's entry is made possible by the generous contribution of Val Kehl who provides images of today's card, a D327-1 Holsum Bread Sam Rice from 1920:

Player #74E: Edgar C. "Sam" Rice. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1915-1933. 2,987 hits and 34 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. 1920 AL stolen base leader. He was inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in 1963. Led the Senators to three AL pennants (1924,1925, and 1933). Best known for controversial "over the fence" catch in the 1925 World Series. He had many excellent seasons, but one of his best was 1930 as he posted a .407 OBP with 121 runs scored in 669 plate appearances. He had 63 stolen bases in 1920. He last played in 1934 with the Cleveland Indians. His early life was marred by tragedy when his wife, two daughters, parents, and two sisters were all killed by a tornado in Indiana.

Carroll highlights Rice's 1920 season: Though Rice had shown promise in his previous two full seasons, the 1920 campaign was a breakthrough for him. Rice turned 30 years old two months before the season began, but played like a man entering the physical prime of his mid-twenties. He had 211 hits, the first of six times he'd reach the magic two hundred-hit mark during his career. Not that Rice was any kind of free swinger before, but he was getting the bat on the ball even more in 1920, striking out just twenty-six times in 624 at-bats. And he was durable, leading the team with 153 games played. In all of Rice's full seasons as an outfielder, in fact, he had led Washington in games played.

He also, once again, managed to finish among the top ten in the American League in hitting. Curiously, Rice's .338 final mark put him eighth in the league -- in 1917, he had finished eighth, as well, but batted just .302. It seemed that Rice wasn't the only American Leaguer in 1920 who was improving his hitting, however. (Lagging a little behind, the National League saw Brooklyn's Ed Konetchy finished eighth in that league with a much more modest .308 mark.) In a year and a league in which offense increased so dramatically, Rice managed to stay in the top five of the American League in batting for most of the summer. Well into August, the newspaper listings of the American League top five in hitting read the same almost every day -- Tris Speaker, followed by George Sisler, then Joe Jackson, Babe Ruth, and Rice. The first four spent a lot of the season flirting with the .400 mark. Rice couldn't seem to surpass his high-water mark of .370, a mark he actually reached as late as August 1 after a 4-for-5 game at Cleveland. . . .

. . . There were other memorable personal moments for Rice throughout the season. On June 26, Rice collected the 500th hit of his career. The fact was noted by the local press, curiously so since years later, fatefully, no one would seem to notice when he moved to the brink of 3,000 career hits. And his fielding prowess in the outfield was beginning to draw some attention, as well. A newspaper account of the team's July 25 game against the Philadelphia Athletics, a 4-3 Washington victory, noted "another one of his brilliant catches." In late August, he made a breath-taking one-handed catch in the deepest part of center field in Washington to rob Chicago's Eddie Collins of an extra-base hit. (Sam Rice by Jeff Carroll.)

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1671790371
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1671790374

[GeoPoto]

Player #87A: 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.

Ruel's SABR biography: Ruel spent the remainder of the 1918 season and all of 1919 and 1920 with the New York Yankees. The Yankees were not yet the powerhouse they would later become. Babe Ruth was still with Boston and the Yankees had yet to appear in a World Series.

On August 16, 1920, Ruel was a witness to one of the most tragic events in baseball history. Ruel was behind the plate when Carl Mays’ fateful pitch struck and killed Ray Chapman.

Later in the season, Ruel described the tragic event in detail to his old friend John B. Sheridan, who used Ruel’s insights for his column in The Sporting News. He made it clear in his eye-witness account that Carl Mays was not guilty of trying to kill Chapman. Ruel’s assessment was that it was a tragic accident.

(Aside: My grandson's surname is Chapman, which has given impetus to a small portion of my collecting. As a result, I wound up with this photo, despite it violating my well defined, but somewhat flexible, collection boundaries. I am including it here out of respect for the 1920 tragedy and Ruel's eventual role in Washington baseball history. This photograph served as the source image for Ruel's 1922 E120 American Caramel card.)

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1671876473

[GeoPoto]

Player #88A: Alexander "Al" Schacht. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1919-1921. 14 wins and 3 saves in 3 MLB seasons. Was highly-regarded as a third base coach in Washington (1924-1934) and Boston (1935-1936). Performed player mimicry and comedy routines with fellow Washington coach Nick Altrock earning the nickname of "The Clown Prince of Baseball". After leaving coaching he continued comedy but settled in as a restauranteur.

Deveaux tells about one of Schacht's debut moments: Walter's (Johnson) arm hurt so much after this game (the game in which he no-hit the Red Sox) that he was not able to make his next start, the second game of a doubleheader, which was to follow a morning game against the Yankees at Griffith Stadium. Clark Griffith had advertised that Walter would be pitching, and he was hard up for someone to put out there as an emergency replacement. Asking for conscripts, he chose among the volunteers a grass-green rookie named Al Schacht. A New Yorker, Schacht would later write that he had sent Clark Griffith several letters in the past, in the manner effectively employed by Ty Cobb about fifteen years earlier. Schacht, who had simply signed the letters, "A. Fan," had begged Griff to scout a young phenom named Al Schacht.

We wouldn't be telling this story, naturally, if Schacht hadn't beaten the league's best offensive team that day. Babe Ruth, who would lead the league with his unbelievable total of 54 home runs, was the first to get a hit off Schacht -- in the fourth inning. Schacht came away with a seven-hitter and a 9-3 win, and needless to say, his pitching skills and penmanship earned him a tidy contract from Griffith for 1921. In this way began a playing career cut short by a sore arm, but followed by his very long run as a baseball comedian.

Widely recognized as the "Clown Prince of Baseball," Schacht became a full-time baseball comic in 1921, teaming up with Nick Altrock, coach and resident clown. The two revived some of the routines Altrock had first performed with Germany Schaefer. Eventually, Schacht would strike out on his own, touring major- and minor-league ballparks across America. His act, part pantomime and part anecdotes, got him bookings at 25 World Series and 18 All-Star games. During World War II, he would tour Europe, Africa and the Pacific theater with the USO. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1671966354

[sb1]

Read thru this entire thread. A very in depth collection of cards and player history.

I will add a few more images from the W600 Series.

[Kawika]

Great show, Scott.

[ValKehl]

Originally Posted by sb1

Read thru this entire thread. A very in depth collection of cards and player history.

I will add a few more images from the W600 Series.

Scott, I was aware that you had a very nice collection of W600s, but WOWZERS!!

While not nearly as gorgeous as any of Scott's W600s, but just as scarce, is this rough 1925 W504 Universal Toy & Novelty card of Al Schacht & Nick Altrock.

This National Photo of Schacht & Altrock appears in the Senators' 1924 WS Program.