Washington DC Baseball

[GeoPoto]

Player #122B: Samuel F. "Sam" West. Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1927-1932 and 1938-1941. 1,838 hits and 75 home runs in 16 MLB seasons. 4-time All-Star. His career OBP was .371. In 1931 for Washington, he posted an OBP of .369 with 91 RBIs in 559 plate appearances. In 1934 for the St. Louis Browns, he posted an OBP of .403 with 91 runs scored in 554 plate appearances. His last season was 1942 with the Chicago White Sox.

Now the Senators’ everyday center fielder, West batted just .267 in 1929, mostly due to an inability to step in against left-handers. Since that rainy July day in 1926 (when West was hit in the head by a pitch), West had consistently taken a weak swing against left-handers while striding out of the box. After the season, a disappointed Walter Johnson said of West, “There is no question that ‘Sam of Birmingham’ is one of the best fielders in the majors today. But for a team that is looking for his big batting punch to be furnished, West has been unable to show us this.” . . .

. . . The 1930 Senators, according to the sportswriters, were expected to finish seventh, but they shocked the baseball world by winning 94 games and contending for the American League pennant. They finished in second place, eight games behind the Philadelphia Athletics. West contributed with clutch hitting and a .327 batting average while playing against just right-handed pitching, but the Senators ran out of patience with his weakness against left-handers. At the Del Prado Hotel in Chicago on the morning of July 27, West was summoned to Clark Griffith’s room. The longtime president of the Senators informed the 25-year-old outfielder that George Loepp (who had been platooning with West) had been sold, meaning that West would now play center field every day, regardless who was hurling for the opposition. Griffith bluntly told West that if he couldn’t learn to hit left-handers, he would be replaced.

The message was heard. Later that day West banged out a pair of hits against Chicago left-hander Dutch Henry. The next week he smashed two hits off Herb Pennock, one of the best lefties in the league. A few weeks later he tagged Pennock for three hits in a game.

West continued his batting rampage. Now able to hit lefties was well as right-handers, he was batting .362 on June 21, and was moved to the number three spot in the Washington batting order. He finished the season with a .333 batting average, good for eighth in the American League, and drove in 91 runs. In the field he made over 400 putouts, and his 15 assists proved his arm was fine. But a full season of wear did damage that required surgery before the 1932 season. . . .

. . . In 1932 West hit .287 and drove in 83 runs. In the field he made 450 putouts and had 15 assists. The Senators finished in third place for the second straight season, and Walter Johnson lost his job. “He was just a little too nice” was West’s explanation to why the Senators fell short of winning the pennant under Johnson’s direction.

In December 1932 new manager Joe Cronin and Griffith attended the baseball winter meetings in New York City with the intention of strengthening their team by acquiring veteran talent. They made a trade with the St. Louis Browns that brought Goose Goslin back to the Senators. However, with Goslin in the Washington lineup, there was an unbalanced batting order of five left-handers and three right-handers. With that in mind, Cronin and Griffith made a trade they did not want to make but felt was necessary: a swap of center fielders with the Browns. Sam West was traded for Fred Schulte, a right-handed hitter. (It all was considered one trade: West, pitcher Lloyd Brown and outfielder Carl Reynolds to the Browns for Goslin, Schulte and pitcher Lefty Stewart.)

“You are always unhappy when you leave all your friends,” West said of the trade. “We were all one big happy family over in Washington.” (We will see West again with Washington.)

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1695720200

[GeoPoto]

The 1932 Washington Senators won 93 games, lost 61, and finished in third place in the American League. They were managed by Walter Johnson and played home games at Griffith Stadium.

The 1932 Season Part 1. We let Deveaux provide highlights from 1932: The Senators were in the running for second until the last weekend (of the 1931 season), when they were edged out by the Yankees and settled in third, a full 16 games behind the Athletics. Despite having dropped a rung in the standings, Clark Griffith still felt that the eight men he could put on the field could match the more powerful lineups in the league, namely New York and Philadelphia. Griff decide not to do much tinkering with his ballclub for 1932, a year which would prove to be another exciting one for his team. The Nats had, above all, a terrific infield. Joe Cronin drove in 116 runs, batted .318, and led the league's shortstops in put-outs, assists, double plays, and fielding average. The Senators as a team were once again at the top of the league in fielding in 1932, in a virtual tie for the top spot with the A's.

Offensively, Joe Kuhel improved to .291 in his second full year, although he shared- first base with Joe Judge, who hit .258 in his 18th and final season in Washington. Third baseman Ossie Bluege hit .258, and his production returned to normal, with 64 ribbies, compared to his anomalous 98 RBIs the previous year. Buddy Myer dropped to .279, the second-lowest mark of his career, but, ironically, scored a career-high 120 runs.

Preparing the outfield for the '32 campaign presented a bit more of a challenge to Griffith, who decided to trade for outfielder Carl Reynolds of the Chicago White Sox. Reynolds, solidly built but viewed as temperamental by Chicago manager Donie Bush, had slipped to .290 in 1931 after finishing third in the batting race in 1930 with .359. That season, during which he bashed three homers in consecutive at-bats in a game at Yankee Stadium, Reynolds accumulated 22 homers and 100 RBIs, but those figures dipped to 6-77 in '31.

Griffith figured the righthanded Reynolds would counterbalance the lefty-hitting Sammy West and Heinie Manush. Manush hit a resounding .342, fourth-best in the league, and exactly matched Cronin's RBI output of 116. West slipped to .287 from .333, but had 15 outfield assists, just one short of the tally of the league leader in that department, Goose Goslin of the Browns.

Photograph by Brown Brothers capturing President Herbert Hoover as he prepares to throw out the ceremonial first pitch of the season on opening day, April 11, 1932, at Washington's Griffith Stadium:

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1695805314

[GeoPoto]

The 1932 Season Part 2. Griffith 's plan (for the outfield in 1932) worked well, as Reynolds, who would end up hitting .302 for his career, was having a great season until Independence Day, 1932, when he crashed into Yankee catcher Bill Dickey in a close play at the plate. This triggered one of the rowdiest incidents in Griffith Stadium history. Dickey, a tough 25-year-old already on his way to the Hall of Fame, was incensed by the way Reynolds barged into him, which had caused him to drop the ball. Unbeknownst to anyone but the Yankee players, the same thing had happened to Dickey a few days before in Boston. Furthermore, Reynolds, a 200-pounder, was known for being one of those players who slid particularly hard, which may endear a player to his manager, but not to enemy fielders.

As Reynolds trotted toward the dugout following the collision, Dickey came running from behind, got in front of him, and socked him in the mouth, breaking his jaw in two places. Dickey was suspended for 30 days and fined $1,000 for his one-punch decision. Carl Reynolds, who had been hitting for the Nats like he had for Chicago during his great season in '30, did not regain his batting eye when he returned following a six-week layoff. Underweight after having his jaw wired during the convalescence, his average slumped over 50 points to .305 for the season.

It must be said that Sam Rice, at 42 years of age, performed admirably while Reynolds was absent, managing .323 in 106 games. Rice, who would have to wait until age 73 to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, was performing at a high level at an age when most Hall of Famers were either on the coaching lines or enjoying a more leisurely lifestyle back in their hometowns.

Another snap by Brown Brothers:

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1695892403

[GeoPoto]

The 1932 Washington Senators won 93 games, lost 61, and finished in third place in the American League. They were managed by Walter Johnson and played home games at Griffith Stadium.

The 1932 Season Part 3. The Nats were themselves able to subdue other A.L. teams more often than not in 1932, and this was largely thanks to a pitching staff that allowed fewer runs than any other in the league. General Alvin Crowder had a career year, 26-13, 3.33. He led the league in wins and was also the number-one workhorse in the loop, with a whopping 327 innings (Dizzy Dean was first in the National League with just 286). Crowder's 26th win was his 15th in a row, a 2-1 decision over the A's at Griffith Stadium. Philadelphia's only run resulted from Jimmie Foxx's 58th home run, which turned out to be his last of the year in the first serious challenge mounted on Babe Ruth's 1927 standard. In this season, Foxx had had two home runs canceled because of rainouts in the early innings of games.

Rookie righthander Monte Weaver, purchased from Baltimore the previous season, spun a very gratifying 22-10 record for Clark Griffith in 1932. In later years, Weaver recalled how he'd been greeted upon his arrival in '31, when he won his first big-league decision. While he was shagging flies in the outfield, Walter Johnson went up to him and said that if Weaver pitched like he had in Baltimore, everything would be fine. The fact was, however, that Weaver had been pitching, to quote him, "lousy" in Baltimore at the time of his purchase. Being a brainy guy who later earned a master's degree in mathematics, he knew that Walter was just being nice. In addition to Weaver's phenomenal rookie year, Lloyd Brown contributed a 15-12 slate, and Firpo Marberry, used primarily as a reliever for the first time in four years, went 8-4 with a league-leading 13 saves.

All added up, the Senators had another great year -- 93 wins, third-highest in club history, against 61 losses. It was a better record than that of the National League champions, the Chicago Cubs. However, Washington only gained two games in the standings, winding up a disappointing 14 lengths behind New York, winners of 107 games, who finished 13 ahead of the defending champions, the Athletics. While Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig drove in 288 runs between them, it was with pitching -- courtesy of Gomez, Ruffing, Pipgras, and Pennock -- that the Yankees were able to outclass the A's.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1695978216

[GeoPoto]

The caption from the reverse of the 1932 photograph (taken around an "old-timers" game) reads: Washington's Greatest Infield Play Together Once More. Wash. D.C. . . . . The members of the team that represented Washington in 1924, the year the Griffmen won the World Series, pictured here when they played together again yesterday, August 15th, against the 1932 aggregation of Senators. Left to right are, Ossie Bluege, who played third base; Roger Peckinpaugh, who played shortstop and who is now manager of the Cleveland Indians; Bucky Harris, who played second base, and who is now manager of the Detroit Tigers, and Joe Judge, still first baseman for the Senators.

The second photograph, which shows the same four infielders during their championship season, is from 1924.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1696063999
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1696064006

[GeoPoto]

Player #142A: Morris "Moe" Berg. Catcher with the Washington Senators in 1932-1934. 441 hits and 6 home runs in 15 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Brooklyn Robins in 1923. His most productive season was 1929 with the Chicago White Sox as he posted a .323 OBP with 47 RBIs in 384 plate appearances. He finished up with the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1939. His MLB career was statistically mediocre, but he is remembered as a colorful personality. He was a graduate of Princeton University and the Columbia Law School. He spoke several languages and read 10 newspapers a day. He worked as a spy during and after WW2.

Deveaux on Berg: Moe Berg was much more than a competent defensive catcher. The man was an alumnus of three universities -- a lawyer, mathematician, and linguist. He reputedly spoke as many as 17 languages and by the time he joined the Senators, his thesis on Sanskrit was listed in the Library of Congress. Nonetheless, coach Al Schacht, Berg's best friend on the team, referred to him regularly as "just an educated imbecile." With respect to Berg's poor hitting, it was often said that he could speak in many languages, but could hit in none.

Casey Stengel, the "old perfesser," once said that Moe Berg was just about the strangest bird he'd come across in baseball. Still active as a player with the Giants when Berg broke into the National League with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1923, Stengel had not been the only one to hear stories about him. Berg would carry piles of books and newspapers to his dressing-room stall. Not only did this mystify his generally poorly educated teammates, they were amazed that they were not permitted to touch any of Berg's stuff. Berg believed the printed page to have "life," and should his papers be read by anyone else, they would "die." He was known to go out to get copies of newspapers to replace those that someone had "killed."

His eccentricities aside, Berg would eventually become one of America's most important spies. When teams of major leaguers visited Japan in the early thirties, baseball fans might have been amazed that a third-string catcher like Berg had been sent along. He was actually there to take photos for the government. During World War II, he was assigned to the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA. During the war, he was parachuted behind enemy lines to kidnap atomic scientists and bring them back to America.

For his heroism, Berg was to have been awarded the Medal of Merit, but he turned it down. Dark and highly refined in manner, attractive in the eyes of many highly placed ladies, Berg was also honorable and forthright whenever it was suggested that he was wasting his intellect on baseball. He always answered what the most bright-eyed of American youth would have -- that he would rather be a ballplayer than a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. (Deveaux will have more to say about Berg, when we get to Dave Harris.)

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1696151991

[EddieP]

Originally Posted by GeoPoto

Player #142A: Morris "Moe" Berg. Catcher with the Washington Senators in 1932-1934. 441 hits and 6 home runs in 15 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Brooklyn Robins in 1923. His most productive season was 1929 with the Chicago White Sox as he posted a .323 OBP with 47 RBIs in 384 plate appearances. He finished up with the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1939. His MLB career was statistically mediocre, but he is remembered as a colorful personality. He was a graduate of Princeton University and the Columbia Law School. He spoke several languages and read 10 newspapers a day. He worked as a spy during and after WW2.

Deveaux on Berg: Moe Berg was much more than a competent defensive catcher. The man was an alumnus of three universities -- a lawyer, mathematician, and linguist. He reputedly spoke as many as 17 languages and by the time he joined the Senators, his thesis on Sanskrit was listed in the Library of Congress. Nonetheless, coach Al Schacht, Berg's best friend on the team, referred to him regularly as "just an educated imbecile." With respect to Berg's poor hitting, it was often said that he could speak in many languages, but could hit in none.

Casey Stengel, the "old perfesser," once said that Moe Berg was just about the strangest bird he'd come across in baseball. Still active as a player with the Giants when Berg broke into the National League with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1923, Stengel had not been the only one to hear stories about him. Berg would carry piles of books and newspapers to his dressing-room stall. Not only did this mystify his generally poorly educated teammates, they were amazed that they were not permitted to touch any of Berg's stuff. Berg believed the printed page to have "life," and should his papers be read by anyone else, they would "die." He was known to go out to get copies of newspapers to replace those that someone had "killed."

His eccentricities aside, Berg would eventually become one of America's most important spies. When teams of major leaguers visited Japan in the early thirties, baseball fans might have been amazed that a third-string catcher like Berg had been sent along. He was actually there to take photos for the government. During World War II, he was assigned to the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA. During the war, he was parachuted behind enemy lines to kidnap atomic scientists and bring them back to America.

For his heroism, Berg was to have been awarded the Medal of Merit, but he turned it down. Dark and highly refined in manner, attractive in the eyes of many highly placed ladies, Berg was also honorable and forthright whenever it was suggested that he was wasting his intellect on baseball. He always answered what the most bright-eyed of American youth would have -- that he would rather be a ballplayer than a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. (Deveaux will have more to say about Berg, when we get to Dave Harris.)

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1696151991

His Goudey Card is in the Museum of the CIA.