Washington DC Baseball

[GeoPoto]

Player #155: Carl N. Reynolds. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1932 and 1936. 1,357 hits and 80 home runs in 13 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Chicago White Sox in 1927. He had a career OBP of .346. His best season was 1930 with the White Sox as he posted an OBP of .388 with 103 runs scored and 104 RBIs in 602 plate appearances. He finished his career with the Chicago Cubs in 1939.

Carl Reynolds played 13 seasons in MLB and twice played seasons for Washington in 1932 and 1938. Nevertheless I do not have any cards for either of those years showing Reynolds in a Washington uniform or designating him as a member of the Senators. I do, however, have these two 1934 cards showing Carl in a Washington uniform and designated as a Senator:

[GeoPoto]

Player #155A: John T. "Rocky" Stone. Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1934-1938. 1,391 hits and 77 home runs in 11 MLB seasons. His career OBP was .376. he debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1928-1933. His most productive season may have been 1932 with Detroit as he posted a .361 OBP with 106 runs scored and 109 RBIs in 643 plate appearances. His best season in Washington was 1936 as he posted a .421 OBP with 95 runs scored and 90 RBIs in 500 plate appearances.

Stone's SABR biography: Meanwhile (following Stone's marriage in early 1933), according to writer Al Costello, Clark Griffith, president and owner of the third-place Washington Senators, “sniffed the air which hinted pennant breezes in 1933.” Trying to strengthen his outfield, Griff attempted to lure Detroit into letting Johnny Stone go. Griffith packaged Sam West, Carl Reynolds and Lloyd Brown, into a proposed deal for Stone. The Tigers declined, explaining they did not want to part with the outfielder. Stone had no idea how close he came to being a member of the Senators and earning a World Series share.

Johnny spent 1933 patrolling right-field for the fifth-place Tigers, contributing a .280 average with 11 home runs and 80 RBIs. Following the season, Detroit sought a powerful left-handed hitter to complement the right-handed power of young Hank Greenberg. Griffith again talked turkey and this time dangled Goose Goslin in front of the Tigers. The bait worked and on December 14, 1933, the Tigers sent Stone to Washington in a straight-up deal for Goslin. Goose would become part of the pennant-winning Detroit clubs in 1934 and 1935. Once again, Stone missed out on the chance to play in a World Series.

Upon learning of the transaction, Senators’ player-manager Joe Cronin was delighted, stating: “In acquiring Stone, I think I have materially strengthened the offense, as well as the defense. Stone’s ability to drive in runs and his youth made him attractive to me.” Another contributing factor may have been the fact that Cronin and Goslin never really got along. In addition, Stone was five years younger than Goslin and a much better defensive outfielder.

Shirley Povich of the Washington Post described the Senators’ new outfielder: “He was undoubtedly one of the handsomest men in the big leagues. Handsome in body as well as face. If a human can have the legs of a thoroughbred, Stoney had them – stout but shapely calves, nicely tapering ankles. He was 6 feet, broad but not too broad of chest, and thin of waist.” Stone’s playing weight was a muscular 180 pounds.

Senators’ owner Clark Griffith may have been enamored with his new acquisition but had trouble recognizing the outfielder in street clothes. Just before the start of spring training 1934, Griffith was chatting with Cleveland Indians skipper Walter Johnson in Biloxi, Mississippi, when he inquired: “Who’s that big strapping fellow over there? He’s a nice-looking chap, all right. What does he play?” That fellow,” said Johnson “is John Stone, your new outfielder.”

It didn’t take long for the Griffith Stadium faithful to get acquainted with “Stoney”, as they lovingly called the new right fielder. Possessing the speed of a center fielder, he’d smoothly chase down long fly balls, hauling them in while perfectly positioned to throw with power. Wrote Povich, “There are possibly better arms in the American League than that possessed by Stone. But it is doubtful if there is an arm more feared. Base runners refuse to take liberties with that ‘gun’ of Stone’s and unless that single to right when a runner is on first is a long one, few will dare to try to go to third.” As a base runner, “Stoney” would gladly take an extra base when the opportunity arose and rarely made a mistake on the base paths.

Unfortunately for Johnny and his teammates, the defending American League champion Senators would be decimated by injuries in 1934. Johnny was not exempt; his playing time limited to only 113 games by a fractured ankle suffered in Cleveland on Friday, July 13. Overall, Stone posted a .315 average, as the Nationals fell to seventh place in what would be Joe Cronin’s last season as player-manager of the club.

[GeoPoto]

Player #149B: 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.

From Schulte's SABR biography we get the highlights of his time in Washington: Schulte got off to a hot start (in 1933) and had his average over .400 as late as May 10. Despite missing time after breaking a finger, he was still hitting .330 in late July. By then the rest of the Washington lineup was picking up any slack. Schulte hit and fielded well enough that fans soon stopped lamenting the loss of (Sam) West (who had been part of the deal to obtain him).

In a potent Senators lineup, Schulte held his own: second in runs scored (98), fourth in RBIs (87), and fifth in hits (162, one behind Goslin). On a team with four regulars who hit .302 or higher, Schulte’s .295 was just sixth best. As a team, Washington hit a league-leading .287.

Schulte’s numbers fell off after the All-Star break, when he was hitting .337 with a .406 on-base percentage. His second-half average was .259 with a .329 OBP. After an ice-cold August (.191), however, Schulte hit .316 in September. So, he was ready when the Senators, AL champs for the first time since 1925, faced the Giants in the World Series.

In Game Five, with two men on base in the sixth, he homered on the first pitch from Hal Schumacher to tie it, 3-3. The game, played in Washington, remained tied after nine. With two outs in the 10th, Ott hit a 2-2 pitch to deep center. As in the 1924 and ’25 Series, outfield depths had been reduced to increase Griffith Stadium’s seating capacity. Fans were allowed behind a low barrier erected in front of the outfield walls. Schulte went back on Ott’s fly and leaped near the barrier. His glove tipped the ball, which ended up in the temporary bleachers. At first, Cy Pfirman, the second base umpire, ruled it a double, but after consulting with his colleagues, the hit was correctly ruled a home run.

In the bottom of the inning, Dolf Luque allowed a two-out single to player-manager Joe Cronin and walked Schulte before striking out Kuhel to give the Giants a 4-3 win and the championship.

Despite Washington’s defeat in the World Series, Schulte was received as a conquering hero when he returned home to Belvidere. He was well-known locally as newspapers had chronicled his baseball career.

“The Washington centerfielder was greeted at the station by a 75-piece band, which headed a parade staged in his honor,” the Washington Post reported. “A banquet was held at a local country club to mark ‘Schulte Day.’”

(This thread will now enjoy (yet another) pause. Expected restart is 16 February,)

[GeoPoto]

The 1935 Washington Senators won 67 games, lost 86, and finished in sixth place in the American League. They were managed by Bucky Harris and played home games at Griffith Stadium.

Deveaux sums up the 1935 season: In late November 1934, the Yankees made a much better deal (than their 1927 purchase of Lary and Reese from Oakland) with another Coast League club, purchasing the rights to a terrific outfielder, just turned 20, who was a cinch to be a star. The youngster had injured his knee while getting out of a cab the previous June, and, given his age, the New York brain trust felt it might be a good idea to leave the phenom, a fellow named Joe DiMaggio, in the minors another full year. The Yanks had just come off a 94-win season, which in most years is enough to win the pennant. In '34, however, the Bombers fell seven games short of the Tigers. The rumors flying about in the New York newspapers were to the effect that the Yanks, badly in need of a left fielder, were about to close a deal with Washington for Heinie Manush. What's more, the Yankees might even land Buddy Myer, too.

None of that came to pass, and a good thing indeed that was for the Senators. Nineteen thirty-five was to be Buddy Myer's big year. He stayed injury-free, rapped out 215 hits, and hit .349. Defensively, he led all American League second baseman in put-outs and double plays. Going into the last game of the '35 season at Philadelphia, Myer, now 31, trailed Cleveland outfielder Joe Vosmik by one point in the batting race. Vosmik, just 25, was having the season of his life, leading the league in hits, doubles, and triples. The Indians were sitting Vosmik down for the first game of their doubleheader, protecting his lead for the time being. But at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, Myer was having a terrific day. When news reached Cleveland of his three singles, one of them a bunt (Myer was an expert drag bunter who, it was estimated, had gotten as many as 60 bunt singles in 1935), the Indians had to play Vosmik in their second game. He went 1-for-4.

Buddy Myer needed a hit in his last at-bat against the A's to win the batting title. As related by Shirley Povich in The Washington Senators (Povich's book about the team), Myer had found a pin on the sidewalk that day on his way to board a morning train from Washington to Philadelphia. He'd remarked to his wife, in these more superstitious times, that this was a sign of a two-base hit. He got it in his last at-bat of the season, and his .349 won the batting crown.

Myer thus became the third Washington Senator, after Ed Delahanty (1902) and Leon Goslin (1928) to win a batting championship. The margin over Vosmik went down in the books as .3490 to .3483. Some Senators fans would have considered Myer's title particularly sweet simply because of the fact that he had edged out a Cleveland player. The Indians had ditched Walter Johnson as their manager on August 5, two weeks after Walter Johnson Day at Griffith Stadium, where he had been showered with gifts and adulation by his old fans. As it turned out, this brought the Big Train's managing career to a permanent end. . . .

The President's party is pictured at Griffith Stadium, Washington, D. C., April 17th, as the Washington Senators opened the baseball season in the Capital by defeating the Philadelphia Athletics, 4-2. Left to right are Buddy McIntyre, son of the secretary to the President; Captain Wilson Brown, White House aide; Commander Ross McIntyre, White House physician; Postmaster General James A. Farley; President Roosevelt; Clark Griffith, President of the Senators; Bucky Harris, Manager of the Senators; and Jimmy Fox, Athletics slugger:

[GeoPoto]

. . . Buddy Myer's batting title was the best thing to happen on the Washington baseball landscape during the summer of 1935, unfortunately. The team never got untracked. It lost exactly the same number of games as in '34, 86, and won one more game, 67. It stayed reasonably injury-free, but of course, there was no 100-RBI producer at the shortstop position either. There was no ready solution there, with Ossie Bluege, now 34, given some of the work at the position. If Bluege's range was not what it had once been, it certainly didn't hurt the Nats to have him at short.

Red Cress, the old Browns shortstop who hadn't played short with any regularity in five years, ended up with Bluege's job by year's end. This was quite a turnaround for Kress. He had hit poorly after coming over to the Senators during the '34 season, and at mid-season 1935, he was demoted to Chattanooga. While packing his bags, he got a phone call. Buddy Myer had been ejected from the first game of a doubleheader and would not be allowed to play the second game. Kress got four straight hits against Cleveland that day and, with Myer obviously a fixture at second, was promptly installed at short for the rest of the season.

Kress hit .298 for the year, and sophomore Cecil Travis followed up a .319 season with .318. But Travis, almost strictly an opposite-field hitter, had zero homers. Kress had two all year, Bluege none. Buddy Myer had five. The other infielder, first baseman Joe Kuhel, showed some rust after missing half the previous season with his broken ankle. Kuhel had just two homers in 633 at-bats and batted just .261, the lowest mark of his career. Cliff Bolton, always a hitter and given a chance to catch almost regularly, responded predictably well but he too had only two home runs. Joe Cronin, out in Boston, hit nine home runs and drove in 95, while batting .295. However, the Red Sox, like the Senators, didn't improve, winning only two more games than they had in '34.

The lack of power hitting on this edition of the Washington Senators was so pronounced as to be laughable. Rookie Jake Powell was able to wrest the centerfield position away from incumbent Fred Schulte, who'd been one of the few Senators to play in nearly all the games the previous season. A true gentleman in an era when players were, in the main, rambunctious country boys, Schulte was 34 years of age and would be out of the big leagues for good within two years.

Young Powell, a native of nearby Silver Spring, Maryland, who had been plucked off the local sandlots, doubled Schulte's home-run output. That meant he hit only six all year, however, but it led the club. The Senators, playing half their games in the vast expanse of Griffith Stadium, hit only 32 as a team, the lowest collective total in the majors in four years. Right fielder John Stone, who had eight hits in a doubleheader on June 16th, contributed a .315 average, but with only one homer. Heinie Manush slumped badly, and his .273 mark was by far the worst of his career.. . .

[ValKehl]

George, I'm glad you have continued your history of the Senators. Here's a tough Buddy Myer card that I meant to post following your piece yesterday about Myer.

[GeoPoto]

(Thanks for the encouragement, Val, and for showing the cool Myer item.)

. . . An old rookie at 27 whose years exceeded his maturity, Jake Powell hit .312 and produced 98 runs, just two short of Myer's output of exactly 100. Powell wouldn't be kept on, though, and by mid-June of the following season would be traded to the Yankees. After starring in the 1936 World Series, his life would unravel quickly. Daring on the ballfield and prejudiced off it, Powell had a reputation of not getting along well with his teammates. In 1938, he was suspended for slurring black people during the course of a radio interview. In 1948, at the age of 40, while being detained in a Washington police station on a charge of passing bad checks, Jake Powell shot himself to death.

In terms of the discussion of the 1935 Senators, we have saved the worst for last. The pitching staff continued its slide, allowing an appalling 903 runs. The team ERA was an eye-popping 5.25, an iota better than the 5.26 of the Browns. Southpaw Earl Whitehill was by far the best of the starters, at 14-13, 4.29. Stocky curveballer Bump Hadley followed up his 10-16, 4.35 totals in '34 with 10-15, 4.92. A year after leading the league in saves and appearances, Jack Russell's days as an effective reliever seemed pretty much over. He wound up 4-9 with an abhorrent 5.71 earned run average. Ed Linke did manage his 11 wins, but with an ERA over 5.

To sum up the 1935 season for the Washington Senators -- teams with lousy pitching and no power don't go anywhere in the game of baseball. The pitching staff did provide, however, the best comic relief in an otherwise relatively dull season. This came in the person of one Norman Louis "Bobo" (or "Buck") Newsom. The brash Bobo, a tall chunky fellow from Hartsville, South Carolina, had seen limited action with the Dodgers and Cubs before winning 30 games in the Pacific Coast League in 1933. Bobo liked to say he'd actually won 33 in '33 and, when challenged and told the record books said 30, he'd respond "Who are you going to believe?" (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.) We will hear more from Deveaux regarding Bobo as we progress.

1935 was also the last time Walter Johnson wore an MLB uniform as part of his job: he was fired as manager of the Cleveland Indians in August: