Washington DC Baseball

GeoPoto · #1 07-16-2023, 04:06 AM

Player #121A: Samuel P. "Sad Sam" Jones. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1928-1931. 229 wins and 31 saves in 22 MLB seasons. 2-time World Series champion: 1918 with the Boston Red Sox and 1923 with the New York Yankees. He went to Boston in 1916 as part of the trade that sent Tris Speaker to Cleveland. He pitched a no-hitter in 1923 without striking out a batter. He debuted with the Cleveland Indians in 1914-1915. One of his better seasons was 1921 with Boston as he posted a 23-16 record with a 3.22 ERA in 298.2 innings pitched. Another was 1928 with Washington, 17-7/2.84 in 224.2 innings pitched. His final seasons were with the Chicago White Sox in 1932-1935. His 22 consecutive years pitching in the same league is an MLB record, shared with 4 other players.

Jones' SABR biography explains his early days with the Boston Red Sox: For a player so significant in Red Sox history, surprisingly little is known about Samuel Pond �Sad Sam� Jones. Despite his incredible contributions to the Red Sox World Series victory in 1918, the most often discussed thing about Jones is his curious nickname. . . .

. . . The new (Red Sox) manager for 1918, Ed Barrow, saw that Jones had a �most baffling delivery� and nurtured him into a pitcher who delivered 16 victories against only five losses (2.25 ERA). Though Barrow would later say that he was equally as proud of turning Babe Ruth into an outfielder as he was of turning Jones into a great pitcher, Jones and his manager had a contentious relationship at best. In his interview with Laurence Ritter for The Glory of Their Times, Jones admitted that he was a bit hard to handle as a ballplayer in his younger years, something that would become a semi-serious problem in his years with the Washington Senators. . . .

. . . When Ernie Shore left for the Navy, Dutch Leonard took a shipyard job, and Babe Ruth cut back a bit on pitching, Joe Bush and Sam Jones got the opportunity to pitch in 1918. Bush won 15, Jones won 16, and Carl Mays won 21. It was a terrific year, and Jones led the league in winning percentage as the Red Sox advanced to the World Series against the Chicago Cubs. Though Jones lost his start in Game Five, 3-0, the Sox won the Series�it would be their last world championship for 86 years.

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GeoPoto · #2 07-17-2023, 04:09 AM

Player #73F: 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 tracks his path to the major leagues: . . . Joe played semi-pro ball as a teenager, attracting the attention of New York Giants Manager, John McGraw. But McGraw advised the youngster that he would be better off as a pitcher, as he was too short to make it as a first baseman.

The Judge family relocated to Yorkville, a neighborhood in Manhattan, and Joe joined the Yorkville Orients semipro team. The move to Yorkville was a fortuitous one for Judge. One day, as the team practiced, a mail carrier was watching the scene, taking note of the young, left-handed man playing shortstop. The postman, Bud Hannah, told Judge he would never make it to the majors playing an infield position left-handed. Hannah further told Joe to get himself a first baseman�s glove, and to start practicing to become a first sacker. Judge told Hannah that he was poor and could not afford a new glove. The next day Hannah showed up at the practice field and gave Joe a box. �Inside was the most beautiful first baseman�s mitt I�ve ever seen, before or since. I don�t know how he could afford it. Mailmen didn�t get much in those days. It must have set him back a week�s pay,� recalled Judge. When Joe became a big leaguer, he always left a pair of tickets for Hannah when the team played in New York. �It was little enough for me to do for him after all he had done for me,� said Judge.

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GeoPoto · #3 07-18-2023, 03:53 AM

Player #74M: 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 talks to Rice's 1928 season: Speaker and McNeely were both now gone, opening at least one Washington outfield spot for one of the team's farm league up-and-comers. Regardless, Rice's starting position still wasn't guaranteed.

Reported the Washington Post: "It is no secret that the veteran, Sam Rice, will report at next spring's Tampa training camp with the knowledge that he is merely a candidate for the right-field job and hasn't a stranglehold on it, as has been the case in many previous seasons."

But Rice did win his spot in the lineup, and soon showed why he deserved to still be out there.

By July, the Senators had long been an afterthought in the American League pennant race, and faced the prospect of nine games in five days. Somehow, Washington managed to string together five straight victories during that time. Rice was the hottest Senator of all. The stretch included four double headers, both pairs coming on consecutive days, yet Rice didn't miss an inning. Not only that, but he was flat-out torrid at the plate, collecting sixteen base hits over the five days.

Although his team struggled for the entire season, prompting ever louder calls for Bucky Harris' firing or resignation, the once-again healthy Rice was enjoying a sort of renaissance season a year after his worst overall season since he became a full-timer in the big leagues. On September 5, he was batting .340. . . .

. . . There was a late April scare that Rice's sinus problems, or whatever they were, from the season before were creeping back up, but that turned out to be nothing more than a common cold. Otherwise, while the team mostly struggled, Rice had a terrific season, batting .328 with 202 hits. He had fifteen triples, the second-highest total of his career, and his thirty-two doubles gave him more than thirty doubles and ten triples for the eighth consecutive season. Perhaps one of the few signs of aging was Rice's sixteen stolen bases, his lowest total in a full season since he had been in the big leagues. But Rice was stealing smarter these days, only getting thrown out three times two seasons after he was nailed twenty-three times. (Sam Rice by Jeff Carroll.)

This thread will now enjoy an extended pause -- planned restart date: 2 August.

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ValKehl · #4 07-18-2023, 04:30 PM

The F50 Yuengling's Ice Cream cards are found with two different backs. This one below doesn't have the sentence at the bottom about saving the Babe Ruth card for ice cream or a $5.00 skooter, like the example George posted above has.

ValKehl · #5 07-20-2023, 11:28 AM

Here's a 1928 F50 Harrington's Ice Cream card of Sam Rice to keep this most interesting thread near the top until George returns:

ValKehl · #6 07-24-2023, 12:35 PM

Here's a 1928 F50 Sweetman card of Sam Rice to help keep this most interesting thread near the top until George returns:

GeoPoto · #7 08-02-2023, 04:09 AM

Val: Thank you for keeping the pilot light on in my absence.

Player #87E: 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.

We return to Ruel's SABR biography as it recounts Muddy's role in integrating baseball: Part 2 -- Meanwhile (in 1947 as newly hired Muddy Ruel began managing the St. Louis Browns), (Hank) Thompson and (Willard) Brown were attempting to earn a spot on the team and make good in their opportunity in the American League. Thompson played second base regularly during the absence of Johnny Berardino who was out with a broken hand. Brown, however, did not see much playing time and was used mostly as a pinch hitter. Unfortunately for Brown, his batting average likely suffered from not seeing American League pitching on a daily basis.

Sam Lacy, a prominent sportswriter in the African-American press and future inductee of the baseball Hall of Fame, interviewed Muddy Ruel a couple of weeks into the Browns� experiment with integration. Lacy wrote that it was �refreshing� to see firsthand that Ruel was giving Brown and Thompson every opportunity to prove themselves as ballplayers, not as black ballplayers. Ruel told Lacy that he was watching Brown and Thompson �just as I watch every man on the team.� Ruel further stated that Brown and Thompson were �no different than Vern Stephens with me,� referring to one of the Browns� best players. Lacy walked away from this interview feeling Ruel never hinted at the fact that Lacy was interested in Brown and Thompson because of their race. Lacy added, �. . . each time he spoke of Brown or Thompson, it was as though either or both were just two new men�not two COLORED men.�

After approximately six weeks of integration, the Browns released Thompson and Brown. The two players passed through on waivers with no other takers in either league. They returned to the Kansas City Monarchs and the Browns were once again an all-white ballclub. Though the Browns road attendance was up, the attendance at home in St. Louis remained low during the period that Thompson and Brown were with the team and the team remained in last place in the standings and that is where the Browns finished the season.

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