Washington DC Baseball

[GeoPoto]

Player #157A: Louis N. "Bobo" Newsom. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1935-1937, 1942, 1943, 1946-1947, and 1952. 211 wins and 21 saves in 20 MLB seasons. 4-time All-Star. 1947 World Series champion. 1942 AL strikeout leader. He had a career ERA of 3.98. He debuted with the Brooklyn Robins/Dodgers in 1929-1930. He changed teams 16 times. Almost joined Benton as only to have pitched to Ruth and Mantle. He was known for his eccentricities. In 1940 with the Detroit Tigers, he posted a 21-5 record with a 2.83 ERA in 264 innings pitched. His last team was the Philadelphia Athletics in 1952-1953.

We pick up Deveaux's account of Bobo's zany ways and time in Washington: His (Newsom's) 30-win campaign (in 1933 in the Pacific Coast League) earned him another (after cups of coffee with the Dodgers and the Cubs) shot at the big time with the St. Louis Browns. With the Brownies, a team on the level of the Senators, the rookie led the entire league in losses (20) and walks (149) in 1934. Newsom also regularly led the league in outrageous remarks and sheer color. The man had a flair for exaggeration and a cheerful disposition, and could always be counted upon to vehemently uphold any outrageous declaration he might make. Clark Griffith liked the barrel-chested, boastful Bobo.

The nickname evolved from the fact that Newsom seldom bothered to learn anyone's name. This was understandable, considering that he was the most celebrated baseball traveler of his time. Eventually, Bobo Newsom would make 17 stops along the major-league trail, and Clark Griffith would acquire his services on five different occasions. The old man's best explanation for that would be that he rather enjoyed playing pinochle with the fellow. Buck Newsom's career would span 26 years and include ten different minor-league stops as well.

Another nickname Bobo earned was the "Hartsville Squire," because he told tall tales of owning a 13-room mansion on a plantation back home, where he hunted with hounds and made more money growing cotton than he made playing baseball. Vexed once with a Washington writer who had labeled him "a $14,000-a-year pitcher," Newsom admonished the reporter for making him look bad, insisting he would never have signed for less than the $18,000 he was earning at the time. In actual fact, he was making $13,000.

Money and all of its trappings were what Bobo liked to show off most. As a Detroit Tiger in 1940, he arrived at training camp in a car which had "BOBO" in neon lights on the door, and a horn which played "The Tiger Rag." In 1942, a rookie invited for a drive in Newsom's convertible was astonished when Bobo insisted on paying double the fine after getting pulled over for speeding. He wanted to pay double, he told the officer, because he certainly intended to drive just as fast on his way back. . . . (We will return to Bobo's story when we next encounter him in our progression.)