Washington DC Baseball

[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:

[GeoPoto]

Player #89H: Oswald L. "Ossie" Bluege. Third baseman for the Washington Senators in 1922-1939. 1,751 hits and 43 home runs in 18 MLB seasons. 1935 All-Star. 1924 World Series champion. He played his entire career in Washington. He was best known for his defense, but his best season at the plate was 1928 as he posted a .364 OBP with 78 runs scored and 75 RBIs in 588 plate appearances. He managed the Washington Senators in 1943-1947.

Bluege's SABR biography: Bluege showed his versatility, moving over to shortstop to replace Cronin, who had been shipped to Boston before the 1935 season to become the Red Sox’ manager. When second baseman Buddy Myer was sidelined the next season with a stomach ailment, Bluege moved over to the keystone position, started 50 games, and hit .311 while playing second base, and .288 for the year.

[GeoPoto]

Player #125D: 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.

1935 was the only season that saw Bolton get more than 400 plate appearances. He had a very good year at the plate as he posted a .399 OBP with 55 RBIs in 436 plate appearances. The next year fell off a little but was still respectable as he posted a .349 OBP with 51 RBIs in 315 plate appearances. After the 1936 season, Bolton would reach the plate only 77 more times as his career quickly petered out.

[GeoPoto]

Roberto "Bobby" Estalella Ventoza [es-tah-LAY-yah] was a Cuban professional baseball outfielder and third baseman, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Washington Senators (1935-1936, 1939 and 1942), St. Louis Browns (1941), and Philadelphia Athletics (1943–1945 and 1949). 620 hits and 44 home runs in 9 MLB seasons. He was selected to represent the American League (AL) in the ill-fated 1945 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, which was scheduled for July 10 at Fenway Park but never played because of World War II restrictions on civilian domestic travel.

Bobby Estalella played nine years in the majors, with a career OPS+ of 128, well above average. While his 44 career home runs don't look impressive, during the era in which he played, he was typically first or second in home runs on his teams. With the Philadelphia Athletics in 1943, for example, his 11 home runs were by far tops on the team, with the second-best total only three home runs. Even before World War II, with the Washington Senators in 1939, his eight home runs were second on the team. In his best year, with the Athletics in 1945, his OPS of .834 was a huge amount ahead of the team average of .622 (and was third in the American League).

Bobby Estalella was signed by Washington Senators scout Joe Cambria and was one of many Cuban players the Senators carried through the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

He played parts of nine seasons in the majors with the Senators, St. Louis Browns, and Athletics between 1935 and 1949, serving as a regular for the Senators and Athletics during World War II. In the minors, he won the Piedmont League Triple Crown with the Charlotte Hornets in 1938, hitting .378 with 38 homers and 123 RBI.

With Philadelphia, Estalella hit .298 in 1944 and .299 in 1945 (fourth in the league). He would have played many more years, but he was one of the players suspended by Commissioner Happy Chandler in 1946 for jumping to the outlaw Mexican League. Chandler mentioned a lifetime suspension for them, but when the penalty was reduced in 1949, Estalella came back to the majors.

Although Estalella vigorously denied it during his life, several current baseball writers now consider him to have been the first player of some African ancestry to have played in the Major Leagues in the 20th century.

[GeoPoto]

Player #131B: Irving D. "Bump" Hadley. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1926-1931 and 1935. 161 wins and 25 saves in 16 MLB seasons. 3-time World Series champion with the New York Yankees in 1936, 1937, and 1939. His most productive season was 1933 with the St. Louis Browns as he posted a 15-20 record with a 3.92 ERA in 316.2 innings pitched. season was His last season was 1941 with the Philadelphia Athletics.

Hadley's SABR biography: After three uncharacteristic second-place finishes in 1933, ’34, and ’35, the New York Yankees responded in decisive fashion. Changes were in order, as reported by Dan Daniel in The Sporting News: “Joe McCarthy is making every effort to win this year.” Significant personnel moves prior to the start of the 1936 season included the signing of Joe DiMaggio and the acquisition of veteran pitcher Bump Hadley.

“McCarthy liked power pitchers,” a baseball historian has written. “Within reason, he was willing to put up with pitchers who did not have outstanding control.” This definition perfectly fit Hadley’s erratic career path to New York, where the right-hander became a valuable part of the (1936-39) dynasty. . . .

. . . Hadley’s start (for the St. Louis Browns) on June 6, 1934, against Washington at Griffith Stadium was an eerie precursor to an event in the pitcher’s future. With Washington leading 2-1 in the bottom of the third, an errant offering by Hadley struck the head of Nats catcher Luke Sewell.

Washington Post columnist Shirley Povich described the incident: “If I recall, before the ball hit, Hadley yelled – look out, but (Sewell) couldn’t duck. As he sagged to the ground, Hadley whitened in horror.” Manager Rogers Hornsby removed the still trembling Hadley, who later remarked, “I’ll never throw that side-armed curve again. I can’t control it. I’ll hit somebody bad.”

Sewell recovered to play again that season. Hadley finished 10-16, helping the Browns improve to sixth place. Ironically, Hadley was traded back to Washington for Sewell (and cash) on January 19, 1935. Bump posted a 10-15 record, with a 4.92 ERA, for the 1935 Nats.

[GeoPoto]

Player #54T: Walter P. "Barney" Johnson. "The Big Train". Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1907-1927. 417 wins and 34 saves in 21 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. 1913 and 1924 AL Most Valuable Player. 3-time triple crown. 6-time AL wins leader. 5-time AL ERA leader. 12-time AL strikeout leader. He had a career ERA of 2.17 in 5,914.1 innings pitched. He pitched a no-hitter in 1920. He holds the MLB record with 110 career shutouts. MLB All-Time Team. Inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame in 1936. One of his best seasons was 1913 as he posted a record of 36-7 with a 1.14 ERA in 346 innings pitched.

Walter's SABR biography quickly summarizes his life after pitching: After 1927, his final season, Walter Johnson managed for a year at Newark in the International League, then returned to Washington, where he served as manager for four seasons. He also managed at Cleveland from 1933-35, where he was constantly under attack by the local press. Although his managerial style was criticized as too easy-going, it should be noted that his teams had an overall winning percentage of .550.

The biggest tragedy of Walter’s later years, though, was Hazel’s death at age 36 on August 1, 1930, apparently the result of exhaustion from a cross-country drive during one of the hottest summers on record. After he lost the woman he idolized, a cloud of melancholy descended over the rest of Johnson’s life, darkening what should have been tranquil, happy years of retirement on his Mountain View Farm in the Maryland countryside.

During his later years, Walter kept busy on the farm, served as Montgomery County commissioner, was brought back by the Senators in 1939 as their broadcaster, and made an unsuccessful run as a Republican for a seat in the U.S. Congress. On June 12, 1939, along with such other greats as Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Honus Wagner, Johnson was inducted into the newly-created Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. During World War II, he made several brief playing appearances in war bond games, including serving up pitches to Ruth in Yankee Stadium.

After an illness of several months caused by a brain tumor, Walter Johnson died in Washington at age 59 on December 10, 1946, and is buried next to Hazel at Union Cemetery, in Rockville, Maryland.

More than 75,000 fans were on hand when Babe Ruth drove the ball (seen over base line between first and second) into Ruthville -- the right field stands -- during an exhibition with his old-time fireball foe, Walter Johnson (pitching) during the Washington-New York doubleheader in New York, Aug. 23rd, for the benefit of the Army-Navy relief funds.: