Washington DC Baseball

[GeoPoto]

Player #148: Jack E. Russell. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1933-1936. 85 wins and 39 saves in 15 MLB seasons. 1934 All-Star. He debuted with the Boston Red Sox in 1926. His best season was 1933 for Washington as posted a 12-6 record with 13 saves and a 2.69 ERA in 124 innings pitched. He ended his career with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1940.

Deveaux details the acquisition of Russell: President Alva Bradley of the Cleveland Indians was the next to be brought in by Cronin to talk turkey with Griffith at the late 1932 New York meetings. The Senators were playing on Cleveland's desperate need for a first baseman. Secure in his belief that Joe Kuhel would be around for a long time (which would prove to be correct), Washington would part with promising Harley Boss from its Chattanooga farm club and an undisclosed amount of cash for Jack Russell, the third pitcher Cronin had requested for his team. Russell at this time had an atrocious 46-98 record in the big leagues, but the 27-year-old had spent most of his career in the National League with the sad-sack Boston Braves. Griffith even managed to wrangle an outfielder, Bruce Connatser, from Bradley as part of this exchange. This would prove of no consequence as, Connatser, a part-timer with the Indians the two previous years, never again appeared in a single major-league game. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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[GeoPoto]

Player #149A: Fred W. "Fritz" Schulte. Center fielder for the Washington Senators in 1933-1935. 1,241 hits and 47 home runs in 11 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .362. He debuted with the St. Louis Browns in 1927. His best year was 1932 for St. Louis as he posted a .373 OBP with 106 runs scored in 639 plate appearances. He also posted a .366 OBP with 98 runs scored in 622 plate appearances in 1933 as Washington won the AL pennant. He finished his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1936-1937.

Deveaux explains how Schulte came to Washington: To make it a three-for-three transaction (as Washington traded Sam West, Carl Reynolds and Lloyd Brown to St. Louis for Lefty Stewart and Goose Goslin), the Senators settled on righthanded outfielder Fred Schulte, who'd enjoyed what was for him a typical .294 season in '32.

The loss of centerfielder Sam West had to be seen as leaving the biggest void on the Washington side, and he would indeed hit an even .300 and nearly double his home run output for St. Louis in 1933. But the Browns would finish last. The mild-mannered Schulte, truly a fine fielder, kept right on hitting and would drive in nearly twice as many runs for the Senators as West would for the Browns while batting .295. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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[GeoPoto]

Player #150: James L. "Luke" Sewell. Catcher for the Washington Senators in 1933-1934. 1,393 hits and 20 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. 1937 All-Star. He debuted with the Cleveland Indians in 1921. His best season at the plate came in 1933 for Washington as he posted a .335 OBP with 65 runs scored and 61 RBI's in 537 plate appearances. He finished his playing career while managing the St. Louis Browns in 1942. He managed St. Louis in 1941-1946. He also managed the Cincinnati Reds 1949-1952.

We let Deveaux explain Sewell's introduction to Washington: The (December 1932) trade with the Indians may have been incomplete, for at the end of the first week of January, another deal was struck. The Senators sent their most reliable catcher, Roy Spencer, to Cleveland, for Luke Sewell, an experienced veteran receiver. Sewell, a year younger than Spencer and at least his equal as a hitter, had turned 32 two days before the trade was made. He had hit .253 in 300 at-bats for the Browns in '32, and was a good defensive catcher, as demonstrated by the fact that he'd led American League backstops in assists three years straight years, 1926-28. He had already spent 12 years in the American League, all with the Indians, and was the younger brother of future Hall of Famer Joe Sewell. (The same Joe Sewell who had begun his career under a microscope as the replacement for star shortstop Ray Chapman of the Indians, the victim of the majors' only on-field player fatality, in 1920.) (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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[GeoPoto]

Player #151: Walter C. "Lefty" Stewart. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1933-1935. 101 wins and 8 saves in 10 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1921. His best season was 1930 with the St. Louis Browns as he posted a 20-12 record with a 3.45 ERA in 271 innings pitched. He ended his career with the Cleveland Indians in 1935.

Deveaux gives us the trade that brought Stewart (among others) to Washington: The trade for Whitehill (which sent Firpo Marberry to the Tigers) appeared relatively insignificant, however, compared to the other deal swung by the Senators on the same day, December 14, 1932. Since the firing of Walter Johnson, Goose Goslin, who didn't get along with Johnson, had put the word out to Clark Griffith that he would love to come back to the capital. As Griffith negotiated with the Browns for Walter "Lefty" Stewart in exchange for Sammy West, he kept Goslin's plea in mind. He offered Carl Reynolds if the Browns would include Goose, who'd hit .299 with 17 homers and 104 ribbies in the last campaign. The Browns didn't think that was quite equitable, and asked Griffith about Lloyd Brown, the lefty who'd won 15 in '32. (Brown would never again win more than nine games in a season and would be gone from St. Louis after just eight games at the start of the '33 campaign.)

Deveaux goes on about Lefty: Stewart born in 1900 in central Tennessee, nearly died in 1927 when his appendix burst while he was out hunting. Told he'd never play baseball again, lefty persisted and eventually proved the experts wrong. Nevertheless, he was only 24-26 over three years with the Browns, who had been enjoying relatively good years over that same period. Then, in 1930, Stewart came into his own, sounding the death knell for the Washington Senators in the process. Lefty beat the second-place Nats five times that year on his way to a breakthrough 20-12 season during which the Browns made a swift return to mediocrity. While he remained the Brownie's ace in '31 and '32, he recorded a composite 28-36 over those two seasons. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

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[brianp-beme]

The below entry evidently got attached to the wrong thread. I am tipping the Net54 world back into semi-equilibrium with the attached post from earlier today.

Brian

Originally Posted by GeoPoto

Player 119B: Alphonse "Tommy" Thomas. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1932-1935. 117 wins and 13 saves in 12 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Chicago White Sox in 1926-1932. His best season was 1927 with Chicago as he posted a 19-16 record with a 2.98 ERA in 307.2 innings pitched. He finished his career with the Boston Red Sox in 1937.

Thomas' SABR biography talks to his injury-prone career in Washington: Thomas was still having arm problems during the summer of 1932 but still managed to win games on three consecutive days for the Senators in the middle of July. The first two victories were in relief, and on July 16th he threw a five-hit shutout against the St. Louis Browns. At the end of the season, he had surgery to remove a growth in his pitching arm and to relieve what was reported in the newspapers to be a locked elbow. The numerous innings that Tommy pitched during his early days on the mound contributed heavily to the myriad of injuries and maladies he struggled with later in life.

Tommy was a decent pitcher for Washington over the next few years, but the harsh reality was that his arm was never the same after the 1932 operation. The Senators captured the American League pennant in 1933 but lost out to the New York Giants in the Fall Classic. Thomas, playing in his first and only World Series, made two brief relief appearances, allowing one hit in a little over an inning of work.

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[GeoPoto]

(Thanks Brian: I'm not sure where this post ended up, and I appreciate Brian's rescue. It looks "wrong" on my desktop, however, so I am inserting it again, just for the record.)

Player 119B: Alphonse "Tommy" Thomas. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1932-1935. 117 wins and 13 saves in 12 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Chicago White Sox in 1926-1932. His best season was 1927 with Chicago as he posted a 19-16 record with a 2.98 ERA in 307.2 innings pitched. He finished his career with the Boston Red Sox in 1937.

Thomas' SABR biography talks to his injury-prone career in Washington: Thomas was still having arm problems during the summer of 1932 but still managed to win games on three consecutive days for the Senators in the middle of July. The first two victories were in relief, and on July 16th he threw a five-hit shutout against the St. Louis Browns. At the end of the season, he had surgery to remove a growth in his pitching arm and to relieve what was reported in the newspapers to be a locked elbow. The numerous innings that Tommy pitched during his early days on the mound contributed heavily to the myriad of injuries and maladies he struggled with later in life.

Tommy was a decent pitcher for Washington over the next few years, but the harsh reality was that his arm was never the same after the 1932 operation. The Senators captured the American League pennant in 1933 but lost out to the New York Giants in the Fall Classic. Thomas, playing in his first and only World Series, made two brief relief appearances, allowing one hit in a little over an inning of work.

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[GeoPoto]

Player #152A: Montie M. Weaver. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1931-1938. 71 wins and 4 saves in 9 MLB seasons. In 1933 as Washington won the AL pennant, he posted a 10-5 record with a 3.25 ERA in 152.1 innings pitched. He finished his career with the Boston Red Sox in 1939.

Weaver's SABR biography sums him up and then takes us though his 1933 season in Washington: Sportswriters treated pitcher Monte Weaver as a curiosity during his nine seasons with the Washington Senators and Boston Red Sox. He was a college professor, a mathematician, a hypochondriac and – most radically – a vegetarian, according to the sports pages. . . .

. . . In that game (April 19, 1933, against the New York Yankees) Weaver was the beneficiary of what Povich called “the play of the century.” Lou Gehrig reached base on a topped ball that traveled only four feet. Gehrig advanced to second and Dixie Walker was on first when Tony Lazzeri hit a drive to right-center. Gehrig held up until he was sure Goslin couldn’t catch the ball. Then he took off, with the speedy Walker close behind. The relay – Goslin to Cronin to catcher Luke Sewell – cut down Gehrig at the plate, and Sewell spun around to tag Walker for a double play at home. Clark Griffith said, “Forty-eight years in baseball and I’ve never seen the likes of it before.”

The revamped Nats won the 1933 pennant, the last for a Washington team. Weaver pitched even better than in his rookie season – when he was able. He missed more than a month with a sore right shoulder. Without him, the Nats charged into a pennant race with the Yankees. When he recovered, he contributed six wins to the club’s successful stretch drive, two of them over the Yankees.

That summer Povich commented that Weaver was “given to worrying over every ailment, be it hang-nail or toe-nail.” It was the first mention of what would become a familiar criticism. He also acquired a new sports-page nickname: “Brain Truster” Monte Weaver, after the college professors who advised the new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Weaver finished with a 10-5 record in 21 starts; his 3.26 ERA was ninth best in the league. Cronin chose him to start the fourth game of the World Series, with Washington trailing the New York Giants two games to one. His opponent was Carl Hubbell, that season’s National League MVP, who had beaten the Nats in game one.

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