Washington DC Baseball

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Thank you, Rad Hazard, for posting two nice OJ cards featuring Washington players.

Player #75D: Howard S. "Howie" Shanks. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1912-1922. 1,440 hits and 185 stolen bases in 14 MLB seasons. His best season was 1921 with Washington as he posted an OBP of .370 with 81 runs scored and 69 RBIs in 647 plate appearances. He finished his career with the New York Yankees in 1925.

We finish from Shanks' SABR biography and his life and death road to the big leagues: “My boy, prepare for the finish. You ain’t got more than a couple of weeks to live.” That is what a doctor told Howard Shanks in 1910. Shanks was told he had consumption (tuberculosis). He had just finished his second year of professional baseball, playing at East Liverpool, Ohio. Barney Dreyfuss of the Pittsburgh Pirates was interested in him, but Shanks only weighed 130 pounds at the time, and someone saw something that concerned them regarding his overall health. When they saw the medical report, the Pirates lost interest. For his part, Shanks went home, to prepare for death or one of the greatest comebacks of all time. He went on to play 14 seasons of major-league baseball and, though he died at the relatively young age of 51, it would be safe to agree with Shanks that “Either that doc didn’t know his business or Monaca (his hometown) is some health resort.” . . .

. . . In 1911, having survived the diagnosis, and put on about 40 pounds, he played for the second-place Youngstown Steelmen and hit .291 with nine homers in 124 games, while committing only three errors. Clearly, he was healthy. He stood 5-feet-11 and is listed as weighing 170 pounds. As early as May, he was being looked over by Jimmy McAleer. “The lad is about the best young outfielder I have seen this year…I had been tipped off some time ago to this player, and so I thought I’d go down and look him over. The lad is marvelously fast in the field and seems to know just what to do with himself. I can have him if I want him, and most likely I’ll take him, too, after a few weeks.” McAleer was unable to act right away, because Shanks was so popular with Youngstown fans that manager Bill Phillips did not want to let him go. (Washington selected him in that year's Rule 5 draft.

Note: Here we feature a putative Howie Shanks card from 1921, the W461-1 issued in his name, which actually pictures Wally Schang of the New York Yankees. Schang, thus, is the only player in the set technically featured more than once.

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[GeoPoto]

The 1922 Washington Senators won 69 games, lost 85, and finished in sixth place in the American League. They were managed by Clyde Milan and played home games at Griffith Stadium.

Smiles summarizes the early optimism surrounding Washington going into the 1922 season: . . . The Senators looked strong in March, and as Opening day approached the scribes rated them as serious contenders. "So wise a diagnostician as Babe predicts more trouble for his champions (the Yankees) from the Capital City, strange to say. Tris Speaker, manager of the Indians, and Lee Fohl of the St. Louis Browns, both of whom have high pennant hopes, figure Old Fox Griffith's club and not New York the one that must be headed in order to annex the laurel crown."

From another story that same day: "The acquisition of Peck (Peckinpaugh) just about made the ballclub. The Senators were weak at short for years. He fits in nice and pretty and the team is all ready to go. The players feel they have a good chance to win the pennant and we are inclined to string along with them."

. . . Another new attendance record was set as more than 25,000 saw the Senators open with a 6-5 win over the Yankees. The crowd was loud, animated and colorful. President Harding was seen to clap his secretary of state heartily on the back during the Senators' seventh-inning rally. The president kept a scorecard even with Walter Johnson Jr. sitting on his knee for the first three innings. The first lady wore out a pair of white gloves with her clapping. The crowd was "made up almost one-half of women in gayly decked hats and clothing, the mass took on the appearance of the spectrum. A splotch of gay red, a mass of green, somber black, grays in abundance, the peculiar mixture of colors which the flapper fan will wear to games this year all blend into a living, moving panorama of lights and shades."

Babe Ruth, under suspension for three days, walked into the stands alone in "spitter clothes to cheers and he smiled grimly as he took his seat." Ban Johnson entered later and sat next to the Babe.

(But) the spring analysis was way off. After that Opening Day win, the Senators lost eight of their next nine . . . They never recovered from that disastrous start. (Bucky Harris by Jack Smiles.)

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Player #93: Henry S. "Harry" Courtney. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1919-1922. 22 wins and 1 save in 4 MLB seasons. He finished the 1922 season with the Chicago White Sox.

Courtney also played for the Washington Senators of the American Professional Football Association in 1921. That season he signed with the football Senators for their November 20 game against a team from Clarksburg, West Virginia. However Clark Griffith, the owner of the baseball Senators, found out about Courtney moonlighting as a football player. Griffith ordered Courtney to stop playing football or risk finding himself without a job in baseball. Courtney gave up his football career and continued to focus only on baseball.

With his football career ended, Courtney pitched five times for Washington in 1922 before Griffith sold him to the Chicago White Sox in May; 1922 was to be his last big-league season.

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Player #82C: Edward P. "Patsy" Gharrity. Catcher with the Washington Senators in 1916-1923 and 1929-1930. 513 hits and 20 home runs in 10 MLB seasons. He also played some first base and outfield. He had a career OBP of .331. His best season was 1921 as posted a .386 OBP with 55 RBIs in 455 plate appearances.

Gharrity's SABR biography: . . . In 1921 Gharrity played in 121 games, 116 of them behind the plate. Offensively it was his finest year in the majors. He posted his best single-season totals in runs scored, RBIs, hits, doubles, triples, home runs, walks, batting average (.310), slugging, and on-base percentage. The Washington-St. Louis game of August 9 is known in baseball circles because Browns pitcher Dixie Davis threw all 19 innings, allowing no hits in the last 9. Not to be outdone, Gharrity caught all 19 for the Senators, who lost 8-6.

Gharrity was the number-one backstop again in 1922. He got off to a slow start at bat and was hitting only .182 on April 25. In the next six games, against Boston and Philadelphia, he went on a hitting tear, going 12-for-22, scoring 9 runs and driving in 9. The pattern continued with Gharrity enjoying hot streaks and then slumps. His defense also suffered, especially on May 11 against the Browns. He made two errors on throws, lost his confidence and held the ball in a critical situation as St. Louis won 5-3. His shoulder bothered him most of the season and in early August he was sent to Excelsior Springs, Missouri, for treatment drinking the city’s spring water. He finally returned to the starting lineup on August 22.

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Player #90B: Leon A. "Goose" Goslin. Left fielder for the Washington Senators in 1921-1930, 1933, and 1938. 2,735 hits and 248 home runs in 18 MLB seasons. 1936 All-Star. 1924 and 1935 World Series champion. 1928 AL batting champion. 1924 AL RBI leader. 1968 inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. He drove in the game-winning, walk-off run to win the 1935 World Series for the Detroit Tigers. With Gehringer and Greenberg, was one of the Detroit "G-Men". In 1936 he had an inside-the-park HR when both outfielders (Joe DiMaggio and Myril Hoag) collided and were knocked unconscious. He had one of his best seasons for the WS-winning Washington Senators in 1924 as he posted a .421 OBP with 100 runs scored and 129 RBIs in 674 plate appearances.

Deveaux describes Goslin's less-than-ideal young ways: The sensation of the (1922) spring, however, was the young slugger, Goose Goslin. His defense was still suspect at this point in his career, but he was knocking the ball around with authority against big-league pitchers. Goslin had an abundance of confidence. The previous September, when he had made his big-league debut, he had hit the ball hard off of White Sox ace Red Faber. Faber was completing a 25-win season, the third of his career with more than 20 wins up to that point, and on his way to the Hall of Fame. After Goslin scored and got back to the bench, Joe Judge remarked that he never thought he would have seen the day the Nats would have a healthy lead against Red Faber. Goslin, on the other hand, said he doubted this Faber fellow was actually any good at all.

Cockiness was already getting Goslin, who loved to live the good life, in trouble. He got fined before he ever got paid. One night, two weeks into 1922 spring training, he stayed up and won big money gambling. He went directly from the craps table to the breakfast table, only to run into his furious manager, Clyde Milan. Escorted to his room, Goslin was told to rest and that Milan would return to talk to him in an hour. When Milan showed up again, he found nothing but an open window. Nevertheless, Goslin ended up being the club's only .300 hitter, as 1922 unfolded into a poor year for the Nationals. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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Player #83C: Stanley R. "Bucky" Harris. Second baseman for the Washington Senators in 1919-1928. 1,297 hits and 167 stolen bases in 12 MLB seasons. 1924 and 1947 World Series champion. In 1975, inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. Named player-manager of the Washington Senators in 1924 at age 27. "The Boy Wonder" led Washington to World Series victory as "rookie" manger. Managed Washington Senators in 1924-1928, 1935-1942, and 1950-1954. Managed the Detroit Tigers in 1929-1933 and 1955-1956. Managed the Boston Red Sox in 1934. Managed the Philadelphia Phillies in 1943. Managed the New York Yankees in 1947-1948, including winning the 1947 world Series. Served as the General Manager of the Boston Red Sox in 1959-1960.

Smiles takes us through Bucky's 1922 season: To avoid the temptation of the cage and a $1,000 fine if he gave in, Bucky left for Washington three weeks early. He spent several days golfing in the D. C. area before going south for spring training of his third major league season under his third different manager. . . .

. . . The infield with Bucky at second, Judge at first, Howard Shanks at third and Peckinpaugh at short was rated the best in the league. . . .

. . . Bucky was 2-for-4 with two doubles and two runs scored in the (season) opener and the Senators were off and running to nowhere. The spring analysis was way off. After that Opening Day win, the Senators lost eight of their next nine, giving up 59 runs, an average of over six per nine innings. They never recovered from that disastrous start. . . .

. . . Surprisingly, the fielding, at least by error count, was disappointing. The Senators were second in errors in the A. L. with 199. Sam Rice led all center fielders with 21 miscues. Only one second baseman had more errors than Bucky's 30, but Bucky got to far more balls than most. He led in putouts and total chances per game with 6.4. (He was second in the league in fielding percentage to Eddie Collins.) He, Peckinpaugh and Judge all led in double plays at their position. (Bucky Harris by Jack Smiles.)

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Player #54K: Walter P. "Barney" Johnson. "The Big Train". Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1907-1927. 417 wins and 34 saves in 21 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. 1913 and 1924 AL Most Valuable Player. 3-time triple crown. 6-time AL wins leader. 5-time AL ERA leader. 12-time AL strikeout leader. He had a career ERA of 2.17 in 5,914.1 innings pitched. He pitched a no-hitter in 1920. He holds the MLB record with 110 career shutouts. MLB All-Time Team. Inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame in 1936. One of his best seasons was 1913 as he posted a record of 36-7 with a 1.14 ERA in 346 innings pitched.

Deveaux touches on the difficult 1922 season and what Walter thought went wrong: . . . While the pitching improved marginally, the Nats were again next to last in hitting.

The keystone combo of Harris and Peckinpaugh was the main asset, setting a then major-league record for double plays with 168. On the other side of the coin, third base remained a trouble spot, and the Nats had too little power overall. They fell to 69-85 and, after just one year at the helm, Deerfoot Milan gave up his managing job, having found the work deeply unsatisfying. He'd been beset by stomach problems all year, brought on by nonstop worry about his sixth-place charges. In Walter Johnson's opinion, his best friend was too nice a guy, and some players had taken advantage of him. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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