Washington DC Baseball

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Player #125B: William Clifton "Cliff" Bolton. Catcher for the Washington Senators in 1931, 1933-1936, and 1941. 280 hits and 6 home runs over 7 MLB Seasons. His best season was 1935 as he posted a .399 OBP with 55 RBIs in 435 plate appearances. He also had a .500 OBP in 46 plate appearances coming off the bench in 1933 as Washington won the A.L. pennant.

Cliff Bolton was a catcher who played several years in the big leagues, most notably hitting .410 in 33 games for the 1933 Washington Senators who won 99 games and went to the 1933 World Series. The only three catchers used that year by the Senators were Luke Sewell, Moe Berg, and Bolton. Bolton also hit .304 with 11 triples in 1935, a year in which he appeared in 110 games. His 11 triples were 8th in the league. One source says that after his 1933 season, he held out for more money, and Moe Berg was given the catcher's job. Berg was released in midseason, and Bolton ended up playing 42 games. Eddie Phillips had 53 games at catcher, and Luke Sewell played 50 games.

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Player #127B: Robert J. "Bobby" Burke. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1927-1935. 38 wins and 5 saves in 10 MLB seasons. In 1931, he pitched a no-hitter against Boston at Griffith Stadium. He was the last Washington pitcher to pitch a no-hitter until Jordan Zimmerman in 2014. His best season was 1934 as he posted a 8-8 record with a 3.21 ERA on 168 innings pitched. He ended his career with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1937.

Burke's SABR biography covers his less-than-stellar contributions to Washington's 1933 pennant: A holdout in 1932, Burke reported late to spring training. Sportswriter Harold C. Burr reported that team owner Clark Griffith as well as skipper Johnson had grown tired of Burke’s inconsistencies. Nonetheless the 25-year-old started off well, tossing a complete-game five-hitter with no walks to defeat the Red Sox, 4-3, in his season debut, on April 20. With two outs in the ninth inning, Burke (a career .194 hitter with 54 hits) slashed the game-winning single to drive in Ossie Bluege. In his next start, Burke issued a career-high 12 free passes to the New York Yankees, yet somehow managed to surrender just one earned run in a 6⅔-inning no-decision. He was erratic and often roughed up in his occasional starts. Burke’s big-league career seemed to be at a crossroad after a disastrous relief appearance on August 5 (seven runs in 4⅔ innings). “[Burke] is about washed up after six years in Washington regalia,” wrote Denman Thompson. Burke was optioned to Chattanooga in the Southern Association; however, he complained of a sore arm, did not pitch for the Lookouts, and was ultimately placed on the voluntarily retired list.

Burke was reinstated in the offseason, but his future with the club remained murky under first-year player-manager Joe Cronin. Coming off a dismal (1932) season (5.14 ERA in 91 innings), Burke was playing for his career. Thompson reported excitedly that Burke was “one of the most pleasant surprises” at Washington’s spring training in Biloxi, Mississippi. Once described as a “lobby sitter, his interests in the game negligible,” Burke seemed, according to Harold C. Burr, “refreshed,” while Thompson noted a different “attitude.” Unfortunately, Burke’s arm and shoulder pain returned by the end of camp. He was sent to Selma, Alabama, for medical treatment, and also trained with Chattanooga before returning to Washington for the start of the season. In limited action, Burke went 4-3 with a 3.23 ERA in 64 innings for the surprising pennant-winning Senators, who won a franchise-record 99 games. Burke did not pitch in Washington’s World Series loss to the New York Giants in five games.

Shamelessly pumping Washington baseball images in fine forums everywhere. Burke is second from left in the final image.

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Player #144: Edwin V. "Ed" Chapman. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1933. Appeared in 6 games with one start and a total of 9 innings pitched.

Chapman didn't play much, but he made it into this picture set and the photograph of relief pitchers shown in the previous post (furthest left):

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Player #145: B. Earl Clark. Outfielder with the Boston Braves 1927-1933. 240 hits and 4 home runs in 8 MLB seasons. In 1929 he posted a .346 OBP with 43 runs scored in 303 plate appearances. He finished his career with the St. Louis Browns in 1934. He was once a ball boy with the Washington Senators.

My pre-war collection is supposed to be limited to players in Washington uniforms. But this fringe big leaguer elbowed his way in. Besides a beautiful card, Clark has many connections to Washington (and the Senators). He served as a ball boy for the Washington Senators before playing eight seasons in MLB, mostly with the St. Louis Browns. He was born in Washington and 30 years later (having just retired from MLB to take a job with the FBI) was struck and killed by a streetcar in Washington. He played for the Browns for seven seasons, including the start of the 1933 season. Nevertheless, he is shown here playing for the Albany -- wait for it -- Senators.

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Player #128C Part 1: Joseph E. "Joe" Cronin. Shortstop for the Washington Senators in 1928-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1945. 2,285 hits and 170 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .390. He was a 7-time All Star. Boston Red Sox #4 retired. Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. In 1956, he was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. His best season was probably 1930 for Washington as he posted a .422 OBP with 127 runs scored and 127 RBIs on 686 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1933-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1947. He was General Manager of the Boston Red Sox in 1948-1958. He was president of the American League in 1959-1973. When he left the Red Sox in 1959, they were the only MLB team without a black player. He and team owner Tom Yawkey are generally viewed as responsible for this injustice which ended six months after Cronin's departure.

There is no doubt that chopping Walter Johnson's $25,000 salary was a key consideration for Clark Griffith when he politely showed Barney the door. Attendance at the stadium had plummeted from 614,000 two years before to 371,000 during the throes of the depression in 1932. The intelligent guess was that Griff would again dip into the ranks of his own club to find a replacement for Johnson. Since he'd given up managing in 1920, he'd followed this pattern on five successive occasions, hiring George McBride, Clyde Milan, Donie Bush, Bucky Harris, and Walter Johnson. There was also widespread speculation that Griffith wanted to purchase Al Simmons' contract from Connie Mack and make him the manager. The old man added fat to the fire by reminding members of the media that he'd once himself managed an American League pennant winner, and that he wasn't too old to do so again.

On October 8, 1932, just four days before his 26th birthday, Joe Cronin was named manager of the Washington Senators, making him at the time the youngest to be appointed manager of a big-league team before the start of the season. (Roger Peckinpaugh still holds the big-league record as the youngest manager to ever end a season, having guided the Yankees for the final 17 games as a 23-year-old in 1914.) Cronin was more than a year younger than Bucky Harris had been when he was hired to skip the Nats back in '24.

Cronin had first been spotted by the Pirates as a 17-year-old playing semi-pro ball around his hometown of San Francisco. After impressing many in his first season by hitting .313 at Johnstown of the Middle Atlantic League in 1925, the Pirates brought him up to the big team to sit on the bench during the hard-fought World Series against the Senators. He got to pose for the team picture with the world champs. But Cronin hit only .257 in brief tryouts with the Pirates over the next two seasons and was batting only .245 for Kansas City of the American Association in midsummer 1928 when Joe Engel came calling.

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Player #128C Part 2: Joseph E. "Joe" Cronin. Shortstop for the Washington Senators in 1928-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1945. 2,285 hits and 170 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .390. He was a 7-time All Star. Boston Red Sox #4 retired. Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. In 1956, he was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. His best season was probably 1930 for Washington as he posted a .422 OBP with 127 runs scored and 127 RBIs on 686 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1933-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1947. He was General Manager of the Boston Red Sox in 1948-1958. He was president of the American League in 1959-1973. When he left the Red Sox in 1959, they were the only MLB team without a black player. He and team owner Tom Yawkey are generally viewed as responsible for this injustice which ended six months after Cronin's departure.

Washington's ace scout (Joe Engel) had been "beating the bushes," looking for a good shortstop the likes of whom the Nats had not had since the departure of Peckinpaugh. As the story goes, the owner of the Kansas City ballclub was entertaining a number of scouts in his brewery one night and proclaimed with discust that a week before, he could have gotten $15,000 for Cronin's contract, but that he'd stupidly turned the offer down. Now, he said, he'd accept $10,000.

Joe Engel, not quite sure he had the authority, nonetheless immediately chimed in with an offer of $7,500. The deal done, he reached Griffith by phone and the old man exploded, wondering very loudly whether Engel had lost it completely by agreeing to pay such a large sum for a minor-league shortstop batting .245. So furious was the old man that Engel thought it best to keep Cronin with him for a week or so while he continued his scouting trip. This seemed far preferable to sending the youngster to Washington right away, and thereby possibly exposing him to Griffith's wrath firsthand.

If Griffith was not smitten with Cronin at first, finding him awkward in the field and with an open stance that showed little likelihood of any power in his batting stroke, he of course came to realize that Joe Engel's purchase had been as good a deal as he'd ever made. Now he'd be making even more money with that investment. Cronin was getting a raise of $2,500 for managing as well as playing in 1933. Griff could thereby pocket the rest of Walter Johnson's $25,000 salary. But what the Old Fox had come to like beyond all else about his perennial all-star shortstop was the man's combativeness. The handsome, square-jowled Irishman had a temper that came to the surface quickly on the field. That was why Clark Griffith made his great shortstop his manager.

A couple of months after being hired, in early December 1932, Joe Cronin arrived in Washington from San Francisco to meet with Griffith and plot strategy for the coming campaign. The owners of the major-league clubs would be meeting the following week in New York for the annual trading sessions. Cronin would come to that meeting with his owner, and he would come prepared. Based on his own experiences as a batter, and on a hunch that the men involved could be acquired by Washington, Cronin announced to Griffith that he had a short list of pitchers that he just had to have. He boldly challenged Griff to get those men for him, emphasizing that from all accounts he'd heard, if there was any baseball man who could make a deal for these men, Clark Griffith was that man. The acclamation may well have helped Cronin's case.

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Player #128C Part 3: Joseph E. "Joe" Cronin. Shortstop for the Washington Senators in 1928-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1945. 2,285 hits and 170 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .390. He was a 7-time All Star. Boston Red Sox #4 retired. Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. In 1956, he was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. His best season was probably 1930 for Washington as he posted a .422 OBP with 127 runs scored and 127 RBIs on 686 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1933-1934 and the Boston Red Sox in 1935-1947. He was General Manager of the Boston Red Sox in 1948-1958. He was president of the American League in 1959-1973. When he left the Red Sox in 1959, they were the only MLB team without a black player. He and team owner Tom Yawkey are generally viewed as responsible for this injustice which ended six months after Cronin's departure.

The three pitcher's Cronin named were lefthanders Earl Whitehill of the Tigers and Walter Stewart of the Browns, and righty Jack Russell of the Indians. (This is the same Jack Russell for whom the Phillies' spring training facility in Clearwater, Florida was named -- in his later years, Russell was City Commissioner of Clearwater and instrumental in getting the facility built.) It was Cronin's opinion that the Yankees were the team to beat, and that what separated the Yankees from the Senators was pitching, particularly of the lefthanded variety. Whitehill and Stewart were two who matched up well against the Bronx Bombers. As for Russell, Cronin wanted him for quite another reason -- he had owned the Senators the previous season, and that had to mean something.

Griffith decided to accede to Cronin's demands, possibly spurred on by vanity after Cronin expressed confidence in his skill as a shrewd negotiator. When they got to New York, Cronin was dispatched to the hotel lobby to accost some of the officials of the three teams the Senators wanted to deal with. Their first move was to reverse a trade they had made on June 9 by reobtaining southpaw Carl Fischer (who had had one good year with the Senators in '31 when he went 13-9) in exchange for Dick Coffman. Fischer had gone 3-7 for the Browns after the June deal, but the Detroit Tigers had some interest in him. Coffman, a lefthanded, had registered a 1-6 on a strong Washington club. . . .

. . . Joe Cronin now had all he had asked for, and more. In addition to the three pitchers, the Senators were better set behind the plate with the reliable Sewell. Goose Goslin's lefthanded power and Fred Schulte's righthanded bat were expected to round out an even better outfield with Heinie Manush, the high-percentage lefthanded-hitting left fielder for whom Goslin had been traded 2 1/2 years earlier, being the third flycatcher.

At the Biloxi training camp, the young manager sought to enlist the support of the veterans the way Bucky Harris had during the Senators' salad days in the midtwenties, and he got it. One day, however, General Crowder, yanked out of a game by Cronin, hurled his glove all the way from the mound to the dugout. When fined $25 on the spot, Crowder yelled at Cronin that $25 amounted to a bush-league fine. To which Cronin retorted that Crowder's outburst had been exactly that -- bush. There was nothing bush about General Crowder's results in 1933, however, as he went on to win 24 games, best on the staff. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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