Washington DC Baseball

[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

[GeoPoto]

Thank you, Val and Brian, for augmenting the Little Nemo display. And yes, Val, I try to stick to cards et al depicting players while they were with Washington. Now to your favorite in 1923 . . .

Player #74H: 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 takes us through the 1923 season: At the plate, Rice had a tremendous year in 1923. He batted .316, rebounding from the off year in 1922. He led the American League with eighteen triples, and he stole 20 bases, the sixth consecutive season he had reached that mark (not counting the war-shortened 1918 campaign). Rice scored 117 runs, the first time he had scored more than one hundred in a season. . . .

. . . Though it didn't keep him out very long, Rice had a frightening run-in with the right-field fence in St. Louis on July 11. He raced back on a long fly ball by Browns first baseman Dutch Schliebner. While the ball sailed over the fence, however, Rice collided with it. A nail in the fence dug a gash in his scalp and knocked him out cold. Obviously, a player who would sacrifice himself like that in a game that was already out of reach -- the Browns won 10-4 -- would likely gain the respect of his manager for his effort. Bush, however, didn't really see it that way.

In early September, Rice was suspended for insubordination. The trouble began when he and second baseman Bucky Harris argued over several short fly balls, which had been dropping between them at an unacceptable rate. Each blamed the other.

But Bush screamed at Rice in front of the entire team, and Rice, usually a picture of calm, "lost all restraint and fired both verbal barrels back at his manager," as one Senators historian put it.

Bush benched him. Griffith, for his part, was staying out of it, at least publicly. He said, "Bush is the manager of the (Senators) and the whole case rests in his hands. I do not believe, however, that Donnie will keep Sam on the bench long. These little arguments are bound to come up in baseball from time to time and the chances are that the two will straighten things out between them when the team comes back here for its long home stay, which opens with the New York Yankees Saturday.

The suspension lasted five days before Rice was finally reinstated by Bush. Though he backed his manager in the newspapers, behind closed doors there was no doubt whose side he was on in the dispute -- Rice's. Rice returned for a game against the Yankees on September 8. The fans, holding no grudge against him, gave him a "rousing welcome."

The stubborn dispute with Rice, along with the team's under whelming performance, sealed Bush's fate. After one season, he was fired. (Sam Rice by Jeff Carroll.)

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[ValKehl]

As George mentioned, Sam Rice is my favorite pre-War Senator position player. Here's a couple more 1923 Rice cards plus one of my absolute favorite Rice cards (from 1922):

[GeoPoto]

Great cards Val! Thank you.

Player #87B: 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.

Deveaux introduces the newest catcher: There was also the new catcher, Herold "Muddy" Ruel. A practicing attorney in the off seasons (in later life, he became an assistant to Commissioner Happy Chandler), Ruel had an average arm, but his quickness, ability to handle pitchers, and uncanny ability to deliver the clutch hit would become trademarks. He was obtained from the Red Sox, but earlier had been let go by the Yankees in a deal Miller Huggins later identified as the worst move he'd ever made.

Muddy Ruel was about to realize the baseball dream of his boyhood days, when he'd always made a special effort to attend games which had featured Walter Johnson at Sportsman's Park, in his hometown of St. Louis. His goal had been to someday catch the great righthander, and now he would. However, only the most hopeful of Washington fans could have fantasized at this point that among position players, Ruel was the last important piece to be added to a championship ballclub.

(We apologize for the premature introduction of Sheriff Smith's card, which defies all of our efforts to remove it. Smith and his card will be the subject of tomorrow's entry.)

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[GeoPoto]

Player #97A: Earl L. "Sheriff" Smith. Outfielder/Third baseman with the Washington Senators in 1921-1922. 429 hits and 9 home runs in 7 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Chicago Cubs in 1916. His most productive season was 1920 with the St. Louis Browns as he posted a .336 OBP with 55 RBIs in 378 plate appearances.

Smith's minor league career spanned 20 seasons, including nine years at Minneapolis. He was still hitting over .300 at age 44 in 1935. Earl also took a whirl at pitching in 1922 for Topeka, winning 20 games and losing 18.

Smith managed the Denver Bears (1932), Huntington Boosters (1933), Charleroi Tigers (1935), and Bluefield Blue-Grays (1938). He also umpired in the Middle Atlantic League in 1937.

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