Interesting facts about Pre-War Players - share yours

[ParisianJohn]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

A couple of additions to John's post about Sam Rice. Rice told very few, if any, of his teammates about the tragedy that befell his family.

Rice actually came to the Senators as a pitcher in 1915. Clark Griffith acquired Rice from the Petersburg Goobers of the Virginia League in exchange for cancelling a debt of several hundred dollars owed to Griffith by the cash-strapped Goobers owner. Rice's MLB pitching record for 1915-16 is 1 win and 1 loss with a 2.52 ERA. It wasn't until July 1916 that Rice was converted to a full-time outfielder.

Sam Rice's SABR bio is an interesting read: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Sam-Rice/

Thanks for that correction on when Rice switched to the outfield, thus making his career hit total more impressive.

In addition to his SABR bio Val posted, here is an article Sports Illustrated wrote about him in 1993. I read it as a teenager and was fascinated by the man, this his card was the first Goudey I ever bought (it does cover a lot of the same ground that the SABR bio has, but they don't totally overlap):

https://vault.si.com/vault/1993/07/1...re-was-nowhere

[darkhorse9]

George Browne played right field for the New York Giants in 1905. Late in a game against Philadelphia manager John McGraw took Browne out of the game and substituted him with a rookie named Archibald "Moonlight" Graham.
Attachment 577823

[ValKehl]

John, thanks for the link to the very enjoyable SI piece about Sam Rice.

[Tabe]

My go-to for this topic is this:

Hoss Radbourn is the first person known to have been photographed flipping the bird.

And he did it at least twice.

[Casey2296]

Amos Rusie is the reason they moved the pitchers mound to 60'6".

Bob Gibson is the reason they lowered the mound.

[Tabe]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

Bob Gibson is the reason they lowered the mound.

You sure he was pre-war?

[brianp-beme]

George "Tex" Wisterzil played in both 1914 and 1915 in the Federal Leagues, as well as 16 years in the minors, including a 1918 through 1923 stretch in the PCL. He is featured in four different Zeenut sets (1918, 1919, 1920 and 1922) with three different spellings of his last name (Wisterzill, Westerzil, and Westersil), all incorrect.

Brian

[GeoPoto]

James E. "Grasshopper" Whitney. Pitcher with the Washington Nationals in 1887-1888. In 1881, Whitney's 31-33 record led the league in both wins and losses; 31 wins still stands as the MLB record for wins and a losing record. He died in 1891 of tuberculosis at the age of 33.

(Note that the flip identifies Art Whitney, who was an active MLB player in the era, but never for Washington. Jim Whitney, on the other hand, played for Washington in 1887-1888. The picture on the card is generic.)

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1688118228

[z28jd]

Reddy Grey got into his only big league game by very lucky timing. The 1903 Pirates were short two position players on a road trip and needed a fill-in for their final game against Boston. Grey was on his way to Worcester that same day to report to his new team. Worcester had the day off, so he filled in for the Pirates, singled, walked and drove in two runs (online stats say one, but numerous sources from the day say two). He left the Pirates after the game and joined his new team.

Grey was a former minor league teammate of Zane Grey, the famous author, who was also his brother.

https://history.pittsburghbaseball.c...-smiling-pete/