Washington DC Baseball

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Player #158A: Cecil H. Travis Part 1. Infielder for the Washington Senators in 1933-1941 and 1945-1947. 1,544 hits and 27 home runs over 12 MLB seasons. 3-time All-Star. One of two to get 5 hits in first game. Led American League in hits in 1941 despite DiMaggio's 56-game hit streak and Ted Williams hitting .406. His best season was 1941 as he posted a .410 OBP with 101 RBIs in 663 plate appearances. In the Army during 1942-45, he wound up a frostbite victim in the Battle of the Bulge and a Bronze Star recipient. His return to MLB after the war surgery was not the same.

Cecil Howell Travis was a three-time All-Star who played in twelve Major League seasons between 1933 and 1947, all of them with the Washington Senators. Playing primarily as a shortstop, Travis hit .300 in eight of his first nine Major League seasons. A three-time All-Star, he had his best year in 1941, when he hit .359 (second in the American League), led both leagues in hits (218), and was named by The Sporting News as the best shortstop in baseball. After missing nearly four seasons serving in the Army during World War II, earning the Bronze Star, Travis returned to the Senators at the end of the 1945 season, but he was never able to regain his prewar all-star form.

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Player #153C: Earl O. Whitehill. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1933-1936. 218 wins and 11 saves in 17 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1923-1932. His best season came as Washington won the AL pennant in 1933 as he posted a 22-8 record with an ERA of 3.33 in 270 innings pitched. He ended his career with the Chicago Cubs in 1939. His only World Series start was a complete game shutout in Game 3 of the 1933 World Series, which Washington lost in 5 games.

We go back to Whitehill's SABR biography: His temper notwithstanding, Whitehill had his best season was 1933, and his pitching was largely responsible for the Senators finding themselves in the World Series against the Giants. During that contest, New York enjoyed a 2-0 series lead when Whitehill took the hill for the third game. He made the most of his only World Series appearance by tossing a complete game shutout of the Giants, scattering five hits and two walks in front of 25,727 at Griffith Stadium. In doing so, he also held future Hall-of-Famers Mel Ott and Bill Terry to a collective 0-for-7 day at the plate. On the biggest stage, Earl brought his best stuff.

Whitehill played three more consistent, winning seasons for Washington, despite one aberrant game in 1935 in which he gave up ten doubles, but on December 10, 1936, he anchored a three-team trade that sent him to Cleveland. The Senators received Jack Salveson from the White Sox, while Chicago took Thornton “Lefty” Lee from the Indians.

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The 1937 Washington Senators won 73 games, lost 80, and finished in sixth place in the American League. They were managed by Bucky Harris and played home games at Griffith Stadium.

Deveaux takes on the 1937 season: The 1937 Washington Senators' batting lineup was bolstered by the addition of a man destined for the Hall of Fame, Al Simmons. Known as "Bucketfoot" because of his open stance and movement toward third as he took his righthanded swing, Simmons was simply one of the greatest batsmen to ever come down the pipe. Just coming up on his 35th birthday, he had enjoyed a terrific 13-112-.327 year with the Tigers in 1936, his first season in Detroit. In 1935, however, he had experienced an off year for the first time in his illustrious 12-year career. He'd been Connie Mack's all-time favorite, and the revered McGillicuddy said as much at the end of a 50-year career during which he had performed double duty as both A's owner and manager. When asked to name his all-time favorite players, the octogenarian wistfully replied that he wished he could have "nine players named Simmons."

The presence of a two-time batting champion in Washington was exciting for the fans. But which Al Simmons had Clark Griffith just spent $15,000 for? If he could replicate what he'd done last season, and if the Yankees let up, who knew! It was thought that just about every hitter in the lineup had the ability to hit .300. Pitching had been the Nats' strong suit in '36, and this continued early in '37. Unfortunately, the offense sputtered horribly, resulting in a 2-7 start. . . .

. . . The club's pitching took a step back in '37, despite the addition of the Ferrels (brothers, catcher Rick and pitcher Wes). Both were disappointments, as was Simmons, the team's other important acquisition. Coming off two straight seasons in which he'd hit over .300, Bucketfoot Al faltered to .229 in 104 games for Washington after the June trade. Wes Farrell went 11-13 the rest of the way as Harris's stopper, and was 14-19, 4.90 overall. At 29, Farrell had already passed his prime, and he would be gone from the roster before the end of the following campaign.

The staff as a whole was mediocre in '37, with no one standing out. Jimmie DeShong bloomed in the spring, winning four in a row in one stretch, but then wilted badly. Shelled repeatedly, DeShong was lucky to finish with the 14-15 record he earned while allowing nearly five runs a game. Monte "Prof" Weaver, having taken up red meat again, did have a decent comeback year with a 12-9 slate and a good 4.20 ERA (the league average was 4.62). Pete Appleton, as in the case of all of the previously mentioned Nats pitchers, was also on the decline. He never did get back to the standards of his one good year, and in this season, he did not get good support and finished 8-15. Ed Kinke had an incongruous record of 6-1 with an appalling 5.60 ERA. . . .