Washington DC Baseball

[GeoPoto]

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.

Now, Deveaux addresses Walter's 1922 season: Walter himself was still a key factor, more effective than he'd been the previous year, finishing at 15-16, but his 2.99 ERA was good for fifth in the league and still more than a run better than the league average. He had, however, stood at 9-3 at one point and had been particularly effective during the latter part of June. On the 28th, Barney pitched a third consecutive shutout to beat the Yanks 1-0 at Griffith Stadium. He gave up just seven singles, two to Babe Ruth. His poor finish was primarily due to the lack of offensive support he got from the sixth-place team behind him.

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Player #73C: Joseph I. "Joe" Judge. First baseman with the Washington Senators in 1915-1932. 2,352 hits and 71 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. In 1924, as Washington won the AL pennant and the World Series, he had one of his better years as he posted a .393 OBP with 71 runs scored and 79 RBIs in 593 plate appearances. He finished his career with the Boston Red Sox in 1933-1934. He may have been the basis for the character of Joe Hardy in Damn Yankees, whose author dated Judge's daughter in the 1940's.

Judge's SABR biography has him in the middle of Washington's rise to compete for the pennant: Judge hit a career high.333 in 1920. He had five hits in a game twice, once on May 7 against New York and on May 29 versus Cleveland. He committed 10 errors that season as well, the last time he would record double-digits in that category. The 1920 season was also Griffith’s last as manager.

As the deadball era was ending, Griffith was slowly putting the pieces together for a competitive team, with Johnson, Judge and Judge’s fellow outfielder (sic) Sam Rice, as the foundation. Rice and Judge were teammates for 18 seasons in Washington, which was a record for the longest pairing of two teammates until surpassed by Detroit’s Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker (1977-1995). In 1918, Judge played a handful of games with the Baltimore Drydocks, a shipyard team he joined in keeping with the pattern for many major leaguers during World War I. Also on the team was young second baseman, Stanley “Bucky” Harris, whom Judge and scout Joe Engel recommended to Griffith. The “Old Fox” then acquired Harris in a trade with Buffalo in 1919, thus solidifying the right side of the Senator infield for many years.

In 1921 Griffith signed outfielder Goose Goslin from Columbia (SC) of the South Atlantic League for $7,000 and obtained shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh in a trade with Boston in 1922. When Ossie Bluege was signed to man the hot corner for the 1923 campaign, the Nats’ infield was being compared to Connie Mack’s famed $100,000 infield in Philadelphia. Griffith admitted that while Mack’s foursome might outhit his, he was confident that “we could outfield them in three of four positions”.

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[GeoPoto]

Player #91B: George E. "Duffy" Lewis. Left fielder with the Washington Senators in 1921. 1,518 hits and 38 home runs in 11 MLB seasons. 3-time World Series champion. Member of the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. He debuted with Boston in 1910-1917. He teamed with Tris Speaker and Harry Hooper to comprise Boston's "Million-Dollar Outfield". During his tenure, the Red Sox won three World Series championships. He was so admired for his defense playing in front of the Green Monster, that the incline leading up to the wall in left field became known as "Duffy's Cliff". The incline was reduced in 1934 and eliminated in 2005. His most productive season was 1912 as he posted a .346 OBP with 109 RBIs in 664 plate appearances.

Lewis's SABR biography describes the tail end of his career: In 1920 (playing for the New York Yankees) he found himself fighting for playing time (.271 in 107 games) after the acquisition of Babe Ruth and the debut of rookie Bob Meusel. After the season Lewis was traded to the Washington Senators, for whom he hit .186 in just 27 games before being released in mid-June. . . .

. . . His finances wiped out by the stock-market crash, Lewis was a coach for the Boston Braves from 1931 to 1935, and may have been the only man to have witnessed Babe Ruth’s first home run (when he was Lewis’s Red Sox teammate in 1915) and last (when Ruth was playing out the string for the 1935 Braves).

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Player #39K: J. Clyde "Deerfoot" Milan. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1907-1922. 2,100 hits and 495 stolen bases in 16 MLB seasons. 1912 and 1913 AL stolen base leader, including a then record 88 in 1912. His career OBP was .353. Managed the Washington Senators in 1922. His best season was probably 1911 for the Washington Senators as he posted a .395 OBP with 58 stolen bases and 109 runs scored in 705 plate appearances.

We finish with Milan's SABR biography: On March 3, 1953, Clyde Milan died from a heart attack at a hospital in Orlando, Florida, two hours after collapsing in the locker room at Tinker Field. Three weeks short of his 66th birthday, he had insisted on hitting fungoes to the infielders during both the morning and afternoon workouts, despite the 80-degree heat.

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[GeoPoto]

Player #93B: George A. Mogridge. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1921 1925. 132 wins and 21 saves in 15 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. He debuted with the Chicago White Sox in 1911-1912. His most productive season was 1921 with Washington as posted a 18-14 record with a 3.00 ERA in 288 innings pitched. He finished his career with the Boston Red Sox in 1926-1927. In 1917 he threw the first no-hitter in New York Yankee history. It was also the first no-hitter thrown in Fenway park.

Mogridge's SABR biography summarizes his career and points at some highlights in Washington: The tall, lanky, left-handed pitcher George Mogridge is best remembered today as the answer to a trivia question: Who pitched the first no-hitter in New York Yankees history? Yes, the answer is George Mogridge, on April 24, 1917, against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. During his time in the major leagues from 1911 to 1927, however, Mogridge was known for more than just that one memorable pitching performance. No less an eminence than Babe Ruth, lamenting the trade that sent Mogridge from the Yankees to the Washington Senators, called him the “best left-hander in the league.” Hall of Fame center fielder Tris Speaker echoed Ruth’s sentiment: “George Mogridge is not only the best southpaw in this league, but also the best pitcher.” This “best pitcher in the league” never won more than 18 games in a season, and finished his career with a 132-133 record, but he helped the Washington Senators become pennant contenders in the 1920s and was a key figure in their World Series victory in 1924. . . .

. . . With Washington, Mogridge became the consistent winner he had never been with the Yankees. Used almost exclusively as a starter, he had a banner year in 1921, winning 18, losing 14, with a respectable 3.00 ERA. He was Washington’s top pitcher, outpointing even the great Walter Johnson, who was 17-14 with a 3.53 ERA that year. In his first start against the Yankees in the second game of a doubleheader on May 30, Mogridge outdueled the old spitballer Jack Quinn, 1-0, allowing only two hits. On July 1, also in the second game of a doubleheader, Mogridge pitched a 12-inning, three-hit shutout to best Bob Hasty and the Philadelphia A’s, 1-0. . . .

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[GeoPoto]

Player #94: George B. Morgan. Pitcher who never appeared in MLB. Played 6 seasons in the minor leagues. Had a 58-60 career record in 153 game appearances. His highest achievement was one season (1921) with AA Rochester, where he posted a 17-10 record with a 4.04 ERA in 214 innings pitched.

Not everybody makes it! Enough said.

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[GeoPoto]

Player #95A: Roger T. Peckinpaugh. Shortstop for the Washington Senators in 1922-1926. 1,876 hits and 205 stolen bases in 17 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. His best season at the plate was probably 1921 as he helped the New York Yankees reach the World Series and posted a .380 OBP with 128 runs scored and 72 RBIs in 694 plate appearances. He debuted with the Cleveland Naps in 1910 and finished his playing career with the Chicago White Sox in 1927. He managed the New York Yankees in 1914 and the Cleveland Indians in 1928-1933 and 1941.

Deveaux explains how complex (and expensive) Griffith's acquisition of Peckinpaugh was Part 1: For third base for 1922, to replace Howard Shanks, Griffith got Donie Bush, who'd been the Tigers' regular shortstop since 1909. The idea was to get Bush to spell Shanks at third and Blackie O'Rourke at short, as the dark-featured Canadian hit only .234 as the regular. Shortstop was Griffith's main concern and in the first month of 1922, he decided to make a pitch for veteran Roger Peckinpaugh, a 31-year-old who had been the best in the league at the position for years. What the bow-legged Peckinpaugh may have lacked in grace, he made up for in range and strength.

The regular Yankees shortstop since 1914, "Peck" had been traded to Boston in another sensational, money-saving deal engineered by the Red Sox's Harry Frazee on December 20, 1921. (Everett Scott, "Bullet Joe" Bush and "Sad Sam" Jones were sent to the Yankees.) Money, however, had not been the only motivation behind that particular deal. Babe Ruth disliked Yankees manager Miller Huggins, and wanted to have Peckinpaugh named manager of the New York club, for which Ruth had now completed his first season. The Yankees had obviously decided not to grant Ruth the power of deciding who his immediate superior was going to be.

In any case, Peckinpaugh became a Red Sox in name only. He'd been on their roster for all of three weeks, obviously never even suiting up for them. On January 10, 1922, he was moved to Washington by Frazee, who had been tempted to accept cash from Griffith. Frazee had thought better of that, however. He was the most unpopular man in Boston, having already expelled, in addition to Bush, Jones, and Scott, the likes of Waite Hoyt, Herb Pennock, and Wally Schang. Then, of course, there had been that kid called the Babe. If cash wouldn't do in an exchange for Peckinpaugh, though, Clark Griffith had no star player he could part with.

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