Interesting facts about Pre-War Players - share yours

[Jcosta19]

Tony Lazzeri slashed .355, 60HR. 222 RBI for Salt Lake City of the PCL in 1925 and was passed up for a Major League contract by Chicago due to his history of epilepsy allowing the Yankees to ultimately sign him for the 1926 season.

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[Touch'EmAll]

Walter Johnson vs. Babe Ruth

These are consecutive head-to-head games of the two pitchers:

August 14, 1915 - Ruth defeats Johnson 4-3
April 17, 1916 - Ruth defeats Johnson 5-1
June 1, 1916 - Ruth defeats Johnson 1-0
August 15, 1916 - Ruth defeats Johnson 1-0 in 13 innings
September 9, 1916 - Ruth defeats Johnson 2-1
September 12, 1916 - Johnson defeats Ruth 4-3

Walter Johnson was in his prime. Babe Ruth was very young. Ruth defeated Johnson 5 times in a row before he lost to the Big Train. Walter Johnson is considered one of the top pitchers of All Time, arguably the best.

I know I've tossed this info out a couple times before, but again for those who haven't seen it.

[tedzan]

Francis Joseph "Lefty" O'Doul is one of my favorite guys in Baseball.
Lefty's career BA is an outstanding .349 over a Major League career that spanned 11 years. His hitting ability is high-lighted by a .398 BA with 254 Hits,
32 HR's, 122 RBI's, while playing for the Phillies in 1929. He followed that up with a .383 BA in 1930.
I could relate a number of interesting stories about Lefty, but I leave it to you to read his SABR write-up...... https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/lefty-odoul/


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TED Z

T206 Reference
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[jingram058]

Originally Posted by tedzan

Francis Joseph "Lefty" O'Doul is one of my favorite guys in Baseball.
Lefty's career BA is an outstanding .349 over a Major League career that spanned 11 years. His hitting ability is high-lighted by a .398 BA with 254 Hits,
32 HR's, 122 RBI's, while playing for the Phillies in 1929. He followed that up with a .383 BA in 1930.
I could relate a number of interesting stories about Lefty, but I leave it to you to read his SABR write-up...... https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/lefty-odoul/


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TED Z

T206 Reference
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He ought to be in the HoF. Cannot believe he isn't. There are others. We've been through it here, everyone has their opinion. I just feel he and a few others ought to be in.

[cgjackson222]

Harry Stovey was a trailblazing baseball player and a good person. Some of my favorite facts about him:

1) Was the all-time career Home Run king on separate occasions. He surpassed Charley Jones in 1885 when he hit his 46th career Home Run. Though he was surpassed by Dan Brouthers, he later retook the lead in 1889 and became the first player to reach 100 Home Runs the following year.

2) Is one of only three players to have played in a minimum of 1,000 games and averaged more than one run scored per game. Billy Hamilton and George Gore are the others. Stovey scored 1,495 runs in 1,489 games, including nine seasons of 100 or more runs scored.

4) Played on championship teams in 3 Leagues. He won the pennant in 1883 in the American Association, the year he became the first hitter to hit more than 10 Home Runs in a season (14), which was more than five of the seven American Association Teams hit in total. He won a championship in the short-lived Players League with the Boston Reds in 1990. And he won a pennant in 1891 with the Boston Beaneaters.

4) He is credited with inventing sliding pads to protect the often bruised and scraped hips he suffered while sliding on the crudely manicured nineteenth-century fields. He is recognized as one of the first baserunners to slide feet-first into bases and mastering the technique of the pop-up slide, a revolutionary method of going into a base that put added pressure on the defense. However, his aggressive sliding led to many leg injuries (of himself—he did not spike people) during his career.

5) Was born Harry D. Stow but went by Stovey so that his Mom wouldn’t know he was playing baseball if she read a box score in a paper. After he retired from baseball in 1893, he resumed the name Harry Stow, and Harry Stovey ceased to exist. In 1895 he joined the New Bedford police force and served for 28 years. While patrolling his beat along the city’s waterfront one day in 1901, Officer Stow spotted a seven-year-old boy who had fallen between two piers and was struggling in the water. He dived in and saved the boy’s life. Soon afterward he was promoted to sergeant for bravery and became a captain in 1915.

[doug.goodman]

While researching my m113 Phillies team tonight I discovered that there was a player who's actual given name was Bud Weiser.

I think that it itself is an interesting fact, but here's some other stuff :
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Bud-Weiser/

Oh, and the m113 is the 1915 Team, due to Beals Becker being in the picture, and I think the existence of a 1916 Phillies team m113 (or m114) is a mistake in the Standard Catalog.

[mrreality68]

Wow some amazing history being brought to life.

Love the history of baseball

Keep them coming

[Yoda]

Originally Posted by tedzan

Francis Joseph "Lefty" O'Doul is one of my favorite guys in Baseball.
Lefty's career BA is an outstanding .349 over a Major League career that spanned 11 years. His hitting ability is high-lighted by a .398 BA with 254 Hits,
32 HR's, 122 RBI's, while playing for the Phillies in 1929. He followed that up with a .383 BA in 1930.
I could relate a number of interesting stories about Lefty, but I leave it to you to read his SABR write-up...... https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/lefty-odoul/


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TED Z

T206 Reference
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Lefty owned a great watering hole just off Union Square in San Fran called, not surprisingly, O'Doul's, where I managed to quaff a few ales when I was in town. Food wasn't too bad either, as I recall.
He was also a force in the development of Japanese professional ball.

[GeoPoto]

Bill Joyce: In 1941 Ted Williams set a record for reaching base in consecutive games (among others); in doing so, Williams broke Joyce's record of 64 games set in 1891. Joyce also holds (a tie for) the record with 4 triples in one game.

Otis Stocksdale: Stocksdale pitched for four MLB seasons, but never had a winning record; he did, however, hit .310. He was born in Maryland and attended Johns Hopkins University, which makes him the player with the highest major league batting average to come out of Johns Hopkins.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1688723023
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1688723028

[brianp-beme]

Originally Posted by GeoPoto

Otis Stocksdale: Stocksdale pitched for four MLB seasons, but never had a winning record; he did, however, hit .310. He was born in Maryland and attended Johns Hopkins University, which makes him the player with the highest major league batting average to come out of Johns Hopkins.

By utilizing the magic that is the internet, I located the following starchy Stocksdale footnote in the SABR writeup for turn of the century pitcher Moxie Manuel:

The starch ball was likely invented by pitcher Otis Stockdale, who worked in the laundry business in the offseason. Mineral ingredients in the Atlanta soil gave the loaded spitball a soapy, oily feel. Stockdale used starch to counteract that condition, according to the article “Can’t Use the Spit Ball in Atlanta,” Altoona (Pennsylvania) Times, June 14, 1907

Brian