Washington DC Baseball

[GeoPoto]

Player #83D: 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 touches on highlights from Harris' 1923 season: On the opening day of camp Griffith named Bucky captain of the Senators. Being captain got Bucky a banner headline in the Post but not much power. It was largely a ceremonial position, but he took it to heart. "The responsibility, as I took it, was more intense study of the players and the game." . . .

. . . On September 25 Bucky helped rookie pitcher Frederick "Firpo" Marberry win his first start, 5-3, over the White Sox. Bucky knocked in three of the Senators' five runs and made a "brilliant catch of Blankenship's liner doubling up Crouse to end the game." Marberry, an obscure 24-year-old Texan, got in 11 games in 1923 and was little noticed. But in 1924 Bucky, as the Senators' manager, would use Marberry in an unprecedented way. Decades ahead of his time, Bucky turned Marberry into a closer who was as vital to the Senators' pennant and World Series triumphs as Walter Johnson. . . .

. . . Muddy Ruel led the team in batting average, hitting .316. Bucky batted .282 with 36 extra-base hits, the most of his career. Two were home runs, his first since 1921. He readily attributed his power surge to the live ball. Bucky again led second basemen in putouts with 418, 71 more than Collins; double plays with 120, 43 more than Collins; and total chances per game. Bucky and Peckinpaugh became the first shortstop-second base tandem in which both took part in 100 double plays. Peckinpaugh made 100 exactly. Babe Ruth was selected American League MVP with 64 votes. Ruel got seven votes, and Bucky received three. (Bucky Harris by Jack Smiles.)

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[GeoPoto]

Player #54L: Walter P. "Barney" Johnson Part 1. "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 takes us through Waler's 1923 season: Walter Johnson hurt his left knee while striding, on May 20, in St. Louis. The incident eventually led to the dismissal of coach George Gibson. It had been Gibson's idea that the way to get the kinks out of Walter's leg was to have him chase fungoes every day. When the strategy backfired, Gibson was replaced with the old pitching great, Jack Chesbro. Chesbro wasn't around long, replaced as third-base coach before the beginning of the next season by Al Schacht, the ex-pitcher and funnyman with the hangdog look.

Schacht had called Clark Griffith on a promise the Old Fox had made three years earlier on the occasion of another Walter Johnson injury. Back on July 5, 1920, when Barney was to have started one of the games of a doubleheader at home versus the Yankees but had been unable to come out, Schacht had saved the day, as mentioned (see entry for Schacht in the 1920 portion of our thread) before a large crowd that the owner would have been loath to disappoint. When he volunteered, Griff had promised Schacht a job forever if he went out and won the crowd over, and of course, he did. There was no question that the Clown Prince of Baseball was no clown when it came to baseball know-how, and now he would be reaping his reward on the coaching lines. (We will return to this account in Part 2 of Walter's entry, but first a diversion to introduce a noteworthy MLB player despite his unfortunate role in Walter's 1923 season.)

(Quick aside: As a team collector, I am generally denied the joys of collecting hall of fame and other famous players, unless their careers included time in Washington. A key exception occurs when they are found sharing a card with a Washington player. Here we find a three-card panel with Walter Johnson and, as a bonus, the circumstantially famous, Wally Pipp.)

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[GeoPoto]

Player #101: George C. "Mooney" Gibson. Catcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1905-1916 and with the New York Giants in 1917-1918. 893 hits and 15 home runs in 14 MLB seasons. 1909 World Series champion. His best season was 1909 as he posted a .326 OBP with 52 RBIs in 571 plate appearances. During the 1909 season, he caught in 134 consecutive games, which was the record until 1940 when it was broken by Ray Mueller. His 150 games caught during the 1909 season was also a record, which stood until broken by Ray Schalk in 1920. He led the 1909 National League catchers in fielding percentage, baserunners caught stealing, and in caught stealing percentage. He also caught all seven games in Pittsburgh's 1909 World Series championship. Gibson managed the Pirates in 1920-1922, the Chicago Cubs in 1925, and the Pirates again in 1932-1934. He is a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Gibson's SABR biography summarizes his career as a player in MLB: Over the three-year period from 1908 to 1910, Pittsburgh Pirates catcher George Gibson averaged 144 games behind the plate per season, an unheard-of figure for a catcher during the Deadball Era. “Wagner, Clarke, and Leach have been set above all others in allotting credit for Pittsburgh’s success, but there is a deep impression in many people’s minds that ‘Gibby’ was the one best bet,” wrote Alfred H. Spink in The National Game. Though he wasn’t much of a hitter, as evidenced by his lifetime .236 batting average, Gibson was generally regarded as one of the NL’s premier catchers because of his stellar defensive skills and his deadly, accurate throwing arm. When his playing days were over, the popular former backstop turned his reputation as a smart player and square shooter into a moderately successful managing career, compiling a 413-344 record in parts of seven seasons as one of the first Canadians ever to manage in the major leagues. . . .

. . . Catching veteran twirler Deacon Phillippe in his major-league debut at Cincinnati on July 2 (1905), “Hack” Gibson recorded six putouts, two assists, and one error. In The Glory of Their Times he explains how the error occurred on a throw to second base: “The first time one of the Cincinnati players got on first base, he tried to steal second. I rocked back on my heels and threw a bullet, knee high, right over the base. Both the shortstop and second baseman—Honus Wagner and Claude Ritchey—ran to cover second base, but the ball went flying into center field before either of them got near it. I figured they were trying to make me look bad, letting the throw go by, because I was a rookie. But Wagner came in, threw his arms around me, and said, ‘Just keep throwing that way, kid. It was our fault, not yours.’ What had happened was that they had gotten so used to Heinie Peitz‘s rainbows that any throw on a straight line caught them by surprise.” Although he posted back-to-back batting averages of .178 in 1905-06 and allowed 31 passed balls during the latter season, Gibson diligently studied the mental game of baseball under Fred Clarke’s tutelage and worked hard to improve his skills. Years after his retirement he credited Clarke with teaching him to play intelligent baseball and boasted that “thinking was my real specialty.”

Gibson’s greatest season was the phenomenal 1909 campaign, in which the Pirates posted a 110-42 record. That year he caught 150 regular-season games for the Corsairs, including a remarkable string of 134 consecutive games to set an NL record. “There is no doubt but that Gibson could have caught every game of the National League schedule had it been necessary for him to do so,” wrote Spink. “However, the pennant was clinched many days before the wind-up and Clarke gave Gibson the rest he so richly deserved.” He never missed a game despite “black and blue marks imprinted by 19 foul tips upon his body, a damaged hand, a bruise on his hip six inches square where a thrown bat had struck, and three spike cuts,” and he even managed to post one of his better offensive seasons: .265 with 25 doubles, nine triples, two home runs, and 52 RBI. In the midst of his streak, Gibson slugged a double for the final hit in Pittsburgh’s Exposition Park on June 29, and the next day captured the Pirates’ first hit (a single) in the new Forbes Field. On the eve of the World Series, press reports described him as “far and away the best catcher in the National League.” The London Free Press, his hometown newspaper, even credited him with the World Series success of pitcher Babe Adams: “His ability to quickly discover the weakness of the Detroit heavy hitters undoubtedly was the cause of Adams’ strength.”

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[GeoPoto]

Player #54L: Walter P. "Barney" Johnson Part 2. "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.

We return to Deveaux's account: Walter Johnson's early-season leg injury slowed the 35-year-old icon for most of the rest of the 1923 campaign. But then he had another strong finish, winning both ends of a doubleheader for the only time in his unbelievable career, at St. Louis on September 17. Nine days later, he won another of his 38 career 1-0 decisions over the White Sox. In the last game of the year on October 5, in the epitome of a strong end to a season, the power of the Big Train was fully in evidence. In beating the Red Sox 4-2, Walter struck out 12, the highest total for the year in the American League. Added all up, his record amounted to 17-12, 3.48, highly creditable considering the injury and slow start. He led the league in only one major category, strikeouts, with a modest 130.

While showing improvement, Washington wasn't able to quite elevate itself above .500 in 1923, winding up 75-78. The club did, however, vault itself out of the second division, where it had spent the whole season, making to fourth place with a victory over the Browns on the last day of the campaign. (In the National League, Rodgers Hornsby of the Cardinals went 3-for-5 in the last game to finish at .401, becoming the first to crash the .400 barrier in that league since Ed Delahanty had done so for the Phillies of 1899.) The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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[GeoPoto]

Player #102A: Harry L. "Nemo" Leibold. Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1923-1925. 1,109 hits and 136 stolen bases in 13 MLB seasons. 1917 and 1924 World Series champion. He had a career OBP of .357. He debuted with the Cleveland Naps in 1913-1915. His best season statistically was 1919 with the Chicago White Sox as he posted a .404 OBP with 81 runs scored in 523 plate appearances.

Leibold's SABR biography takes us through his 1920 season: A scrappy outfielder, Nemo Leibold had a 13-year major-league career and played on four World Series teams, winning a championship with the Chicago White Sox in 1917 and another with the Washington Senators in 1924. Later a distinguished manager in the minor leagues from 1928 to 1948, Leibold is best known for passing through the Black Sox Scandal of 1919 with his reputation and honor intact. . . .

. . . For the 1913 season, Leibold joined manager Joe Birmingham’s Naps (a name honoring the team’s star player, Nap Lajoie) and was given the title of “smallest man in the league” (he was 5'6'') by Sporting Life. Teammate Jack Lelivelt began calling Leibold “Nemo” based on the popular comic strip “Little Nemo,” and the nickname stuck with Leibold for the rest of his playing career. Teaming with Shoeless Joe Jackson and Jack Graney in the outfield, Nemo took over center field by midseason and finished with a .259 batting average in 286 at-bats. “[Leibold] should be one of the best flychasers in the American League next season,” Sporting Life predicted. . . .

. . . In 1919 the White Sox got off to a fast start and won their second pennant in three seasons. Under new manager Kid Gleason, Leibold excelled, platooning in right field with Shano Collins, but seeing most of the playing time and batting .302 in 434 at-bats. His 72 walks led the team and his .404 on-base percentage trailed only Shoeless Joe Jackson among the regulars.

The White Sox were to face the Cincinnati Reds in the best-of-nine World Series. Washington Senators manager and co-owner Clark Griffith predicted that Chicago would win the Series and praised Nemo: “[Leibold is] hard to pitch to and has a good eye. If the balls are bad, he won’t take a cut at them. If they are in, he is liable to crack for two or three as he is a single.”

Playing against right-handed pitchers in the Series, Leibold went hitless in his first 13 at-bats (with two walks) before lining a single in the deciding Game Eight loss. He finished the Series with just one hit in 18 at-bats.

With rumors of a fixed World Series resonating throughout baseball in 1920, a grand jury was convened in Chicago in September to investigate the allegations. Despite the disruptions, the 1920 White Sox played well and were in first place to begin the last month of the season. “It was a reeling blow to us when the investigations proved the 1919 Series had been fixed,” Leibold recalled almost 40 years later. “We could not believe that eight of our teammates let us down.” . . .

. . . Summoned by the grand jury to testify, Leibold revealed that friends from Detroit had contacted him about a rumored fix and wanted an inside scoop, but he never wrote to them. Under oath, Leibold said, “[I told them] I was in a spot where I couldn’t advise you either way, so I just didn’t answer. That was the only thing I could do.” Leibold said he had no knowledge of a fix. “I roomed with Buck [Weaver] throughout the 1919 and 1920 season and I never had any inkling that there was anything wrong,” he said. Leibold, who suffered a broken left hand in 1920 that limited his batted average to .220, was never implicated in the scandal.

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[ValKehl]

Here's a couple of earlier cards of "Nemo" that show him with the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox. George, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you only collect cards that show a player being with the Senators.

[ValKehl]

Duplicate post - sorry!

[brianp-beme]

I had trouble finding Nemo in my collection, but as is seen with this V100 Willards Chocolate card, there is a happy ending to this story.

Brian