Half-Baked Hall: 1934-1935

So we're going to be this a little bit different now. We have some wonderful volunteers who agreed to write a small blurb about a player or two to generate discussion and help us all learn more about baseball history.

Final Ballot

Sherry Magee
Bobby Wallace

Below is the list of new batters and who is responsible for writing about them. Remember, this is just a short blurb. Don't stress out about it. Find one thing interesting about the person. You can talk about if you like them for a vote or not but you don't have to. If it's more than two paragraphs you're probably trying too hard.

Due Date For Blurbs: June 30th

New Hitters

Max Bishop (CanofCorn)
Earl Combs (Freealonzo)
George Grantham (nibbish)
Joe Judge (AMR)
Willie Kamm (Beau)
Rabbit Maranville (bhiggum)
Marty McManus (DPWY)
Lefty O'Doul (Geoff)
Sam Rice (New Britain Bo)
Babe Ruth (philosofer)
Riggs Stephenson (yickit)
Hack Wilson (daneekasghost)

If I get any more volunteers, I'll add them to the pitcher list. Otherwise, I'll probably write something up.

New Pitchers

Burleigh Grimes
Sad Sam Jones (philosofer)
Dolf Luque (Scot)
Herb Pennock (Scot)
Dazzy Vance

Stats

Most Recent Ballot

76 thoughts on “Half-Baked Hall: 1934-1935”

  1. If you would like to volunteer to do a second blurb, or if you didn't sign up but wanted to, let me know.

        1. Nicknamed after a popular candy bar because a glandular problem kept him from aging once he turned 3, George Herman Ruth's Chris still managed to start 140 games for the Boston Americans of the American League, completing more than 100 of them. He was so disappointed by his intra-league trade to the New York Highlanders, that he refused to ever pitch again.

          As the team allowed him this, Ruth's Chris thought he would push them further and he purchased land in the Bronx and constructed a house. Upon its completion, he refused to commute to the "prissy Polo Grounds" but insisted the team play its home games in his back yard. The team acquiesced (he was nearly as formidable a batter as a pitcher). Eventually, the team purchased the surrounding land and constructed a stadium with Ruth's Chris's house as part of it. Though he didn't do any of the construction after building the original two-bedroom house, he was widely considered the primary architect and constructor of the entire stadium.

          He was a very good baseball player on top of that, and was named the league's Most Valuable Player in 1923 (the first year played in his yard), and played in two All-Star Games.

          1. At the end of a long career playing in his New York backyard, he was able to finish out his career in Boston, though for the National League club, and he never pitched for them.

            After his career, Ruth's Chris became a well-known actor, playing himself in "The Pride of the Yankees". That role led to his nomination for an Oscar, which he lost to James Cagney, who curiously played Ruth's Chris in a rival film about the baseball team, "Yankee Doodle Dandy".

  2. Riggs Stephenson -

    Part-time player for most of his career. Football injury in college really hurt his arm, and probably lead to his part time status. I think read he had 11 errors in 66 games at 2b one season. So he really couldn't throw, but he carried a big stick and was a doubles machine.

    From Wiki -

    After baseball, he went back to Alabama, and he opened up a successful car dealership in Tuscaloosa and a lumber yard in Akron.

    Stephenson has one of the highest lifetime batting averages of eligible 20th-century players not in the Baseball Hall of Fame, although his relatively short career (1310 games, 4508 at bats) was barely long enough to qualify for official recognition among the career leaders; other than Earle Combs and Shoeless Joe Jackson, every other 20th-century player with a .325 batting average exceeded 6000 at bats. Stephenson's .336 career batting average, 22nd highest in major league history, is also tied with that of Bill Madlock's for the highest in Cubs team history. Stephenson hit over .300 in all but two of his seasons in the big leagues.

  3. Earl Combs

    Position/Team: Centerfielder for the New York Yankees (1924-35).

    Hall of Fame?
    Yes. Elected by Veterans Committee in 1970

    Nickname: The Kentucky Colonel

    Notoriety: Part of famed Yankees Murderers’ Row

    Old fangled Stats:
    .325 Batting Average
    1866 Hits
    58 Home Runs
    633 RBI

    Stats my dad doesn’t understand:
    850 OPS
    125 OPS+
    42.5 WAR

    Fun Facts: Led league in triples 3 times; Replaced in CF by Joe DiMaggio

    Personality Quirks/Character Flaws: None. Generally considered a real nice guy.

    Cool Name Bro: Earl Combs? Meh, not really.

  4. Sam Rice

    One tornado, two funerals, eight souls.
    2,987 hits, not bad.
    And the Catch.

    1. Sam Rice would not approve of our project:

      When he finally was inducted in 1963 (after a pretty organized campaign which included an endorsement by Ty Cobb of all people), Rice was humble as always. His reaction: “Oh it’s fine, but I can’t say I’m too thrilled about it. If it were a real Hall of Fame, you’d say Cobb, Speaker, Walter Johnson, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and a few others belonged and then you’d let your voice soften to a mere whisper.”

  5. Marty McManus:

    Born: 1900

    First Job: Accountant with Carson Pirie Scott in Chicago

    Military Service: 1918-19 in the Panama Canal Zone with US Army

    Signed with St. Louis Browns for $5,000 in 1920 while playing with the Tulsa Oilers, they brought him up for a September call-up that year

    He had a bum throwing arm (pretty big problem for a shortstop) that didn't heal over the winter. Just before 1921, the Browns brought him to a physical therapist by the name (probably not birthname) of Bonesetter (!) Reese. Reese proceeded to basically beat the shit out of McManus's right arm with a bunch of punches. When he finished punching him, Reese had cured McManus.

    He served as a utility infielder before shifting to everyday second baseman in 1922. The Browns had a silly park-effect aided offense, so his .312 average was actually lower than the team average that season.

    McManus held out before both 1924 and 1925 for more money, but eventually agreed to terms before Opening Day in both seasons. After 1926, his wife filed for divorce alleging that he lost most of his money at the racetrack.

    He was sent to Detroit before the 1927 season and continued his nearly yearly tradition of holding out for more money. After bouncing around for a few years, he became interim player-manager of the Red Sox in 1932 after the team got off to a 11-44 start. He got ejected in his first game at the helm. He guided them to a 32-67 record the rest of the season, and got the full-time gig. He was fired as skipper after the 1933 season and released.

    He signed with the Dodgers for 1934, but they sold him to the Braves just before Opening Day. He split his final Major League season between second and third base. After it concluded, he was granted his release so he could become player-manager of the St. Paul Saints. He only lasted a year in St. Paul because team management, in his words, "failed to cooperate" with him.

    He continued to dabble in the minor leagues as a player manager for a few more years (and would randomly insert himself as a relief pitcher on rare occasions). In 1944-45, he was a manager in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. He finally washed out of managing in 1948, but briefly reentered baseball in 1951 attempting to help unionize the players.

    He got two votes in two separate years on the HOF ballot.

    1. Just before 1921, the Browns brought him to a physical therapist by the name (probably not birthname) of Bonesetter (!) Reese. Reese proceeded to basically beat the shit out of McManus's right arm with a bunch of punches. When he finished punching him, Reese had cured McManus.

      I'm not finding this treatment in the ICD-10 listing.

      1. Some information on Bonesetter Reese. His given name was John. "Bonesetting" was a Welsh term for treatment of muscle and tendon strains. The Welsh were apparently pretty tough.

              1. I don't even have a vote, and I'm still voting for this guy. (Thanks for the link, Jeff!)

  6. Willie Kamm was known for his defense at third base more than anything. Bill James considers him one of the best defensive third basemen ever. rWAR has him as the 27th best ever, which is pretty good given he only played 13 years. There is no question he was the best of the 1920s, always first or second in fielding percentage and range factor. He was well known for using the hidden ball trick, and once finished off a triple play after a double play was recorded and he got the next guy leading off third before the next pitch was thrown.

    One of Kamm’s favorite foils on the Tribe was catcher Frankie Pytlak. “Somebody hit a pop fly between third and home once,” said Kamm, “I was yelling, ‘I got it,’ but I didn’t hear any answer. Calling for a ball is one thing, but getting the answer is more important. I was running under the ball yelling, ‘I got it’ and wondering where Frankie was. I didn’t hear him so I guessed he was standing back to let me take it. Of course we plowed right into each other. Luckily, Frankie was a short guy and I still reached out and made the catch. But Frankie jumped up and said, ‘Didn’t you hear me waving?’

    He was a solidly average hitter with a career OPS+ of 97. He got MVP votes three different years, presumably for his defense.

  7. Babe Ruth: Vote for him. Or don't. I don't care. (I do care. Vote for him already, would ya!?!)

    Sad Sam Jones: True story - there was more than one professional baseball player known as Sad Sam Jones. The other played in the 50's and 60's. He's a fraud. This guy? This guy's the real thing. Well, sort of. Probably not HOF material, but his nicknames! He was known as "Sad Sam", "Horsewhips Sam" and "The Cemetery Man." The last one might have been because after baseball he moved back home and drove a hearse. He played 21 years, and managed to win the World Series with both Boston and New York, which is kind of neat. Not much else to say about him. The stats are decent but don't stand out. So probably don't vote for him, unless you really like cool nick names. Oh, and also, he wrote this poem:

    BASE BALL IS BUT A GAME OF LIFE

    First base of Egotism, Second base of overconfidence,
    Third base of indifference, Home Plate of honest achievement.

    A good many men lose by reason of pop-flies;
    the short-stop of public opinion frequently nips short the
    career of a man who fails to connect with the ball of life
    with a good sound wallop.

    The winner is the man who knocks the horse-hide of opportunity
    loose with the bat of honest effort.

    When you have batted for the last, made the rounds of the bases
    and successfully negotiated home-plate,
    may we hope to hear the Umpire of LIFE, which after all,
    is the esteem of friends and acquaintances,
    call to you that you're safe.

  8. Dolf Luque

    Adolfo Luque had a long major league career that seems more impressive considering the fact that he essentially played baseball year round due to participation in Winter Leagues. Though his skin was light enough to make it past baseball's color barrier, the Cuban-born pitcher was no stranger to racial abuse from opposing teams. In one instance, early in his career, Luque had grown tired of the taunts from the New York Giants dugout. He placed his glove and ball in the middle of the field and charged at the opposing team's worst offender: Giants' outfielder Bill Cunningham. Luque reportedly charged the dugout and took a swing at Cunningham but missed, hitting Casey Stengel instead. The punch set off a brawl and the story followed Luque throughout the rest of his life. As is common, the story became exaggerated in it's retelling, often air-brushing out the taunts from the Giants that escalated the situation and overselling Luque's reaction as a crazy man attacking an innocent Stengel.

    Luque did have a tendency to show his temper, however, particularly while managing in the Cuban leagues where he reportedly pulled a firearm on at least two occasions on players he thought were not putting in maximum effort.

    As far as statistical considerations for the Hall go, Luque had an amazing 1923 season (10.6 rWAR), a very good 1925 season (6.0 rWAR), and a handful of 3-4 win seasons, but in total he averaged just over two wins per season over the course of his 20 year career.

  9. Herb Pennock

    "The Squire of Kennett Square"

    Babe Ruth called him a "honey of a pitcher who never made an enemy"

    He spent his early years with the A's learning the screwball from Chief Bender. Connie Mack said that sending Pennock to the Red Sox was a major regret in his career. Still, Pennock did not settle in as a regular with his new team until he joined the Navy (from the SABR bio):

    Frustrated by six partial seasons, Pennock joined the Navy in 1918, and actually steered clear of the Navy baseball team until dispatched to Gibraltar in late June. Navy officials, gearing up for a game against the Army in the 40,000-seat Chelsea Stadium, found out Pennock was mid-Atlantic and had the ship diverted to Portsmouth so he could pitch. He beat the Army in ten innings, 2-1, in front of the King of England on the Fourth of July. When Ed Barrow sent him a Boston contract after the war, Pennock held out until Barrow promised to use him regularly.

    He was among those sold to the Yankees to fund Harry Frazee's other projects. His biographer notes that he was the 11th of 11 Red Sox players to arrive in New York. Yankees World Series wins before Pennock: 0; after Pennock arrived in New York: 27.

  10. Rabbit Maranville

    C'mon, he's nicknamed "Rabbit"! As expected of someone with that moniker, he was diminuitive- 5'5" and 155 pounds.
    He played mostly shortstop and some second base for 23 seasons, which was an NL record for seasons played for over 50 years- until some Rose fellow beat it.
    Known as a colorful character and practical joker, he missed almost all of the 1918 season to serve a year in the Navy. His career almost ended in 1926 due to his boozing and partying, but after being sent to the minors by the Cardinals, he quit drinking and turned things around, helping the Cardinals win the National League pennant in 1928 and playing five more solid years of 142+ games per year until breaking his leg in a spring training game in 1934, effectively ending his career at the age of 42.

    Stats-
    .258 batting average,
    2,605 hits
    1,255 runs
    28 home runs
    884 RBI
    291 stolen bases.

    More stats that might be more meaningful-
    .318 OBP
    .340 SLG
    .658 OPS
    82 OPS+

    Rabbit finished in the top 10 in WAR for position players five times (42.8 career WAR) and he's 9th all-time for games played at shortstop, so he played valuable defense(30.8 dWAR, good for 7th all time).

  11. Max Frederick Bishop

    Position/Team: Second Baseman for Philadelphia Athletics & Boston Red Sox (1924-35).

    Hall of Fame? No

    Nickname: Tilly - “because he holds his arms stiff at his side when he runs.” or Camera Eye - for his ability to monitor the strike zone and predict the parabola of a pitch.

    Notoriety: Second only to Ted Williams (20.75) in walks percentage at 20.46.

    Old fangled Stats:
    .271 Batting Average
    .423 On Base Percentage
    1216 Hits
    41 Home Runs
    379 RBI

    Stats my dad doesn’t understand:
    .789 OPS
    103 OPS+
    37.4 WAR

    Fun Facts:
    -Career on-base percentage of .423 – which ranks him 15th all-time, tied with Shoeless Joe Jackson.

    “Connie Mack wanted me to be a lead-off man, so I became a ‘base-on-balls hitter.’ With Baltimore, I was a slugger, leading the circuit in home runs one year."
    -Max Bishop to writer C. William Duncan

    On April 29, 1929, Bishop helped win a game against the Yankees by walking every time he appeared at the plate – a record five times. The box score shows him as having zero at-bats, but scoring three runs and driving in one.

    His father's name was Ulysses Grant Bishop. (included for DPWY)

    Personality Quirks/Character Flaws:
    Folks either called him “uninspired, unemotional … so phlegmatic about the game and everything” and compared the zest he brought to the job to a plumber or plasterer.
    -or-
    “He is a quiet gentleman both off and on the field..." "He does not like ‘whoopee’ parties and does not rush first to Mexico and then to China in search of excitement."

    Cool Name Bro: Meh, even cooler nicknames.

    Philadelphia took the 1929 World Series in five games from the Cubs. They were widely expected to repeat in 1930, and they did. It took them six games to beat the Cardinals. They bowed to St. Louis in 1931 as the Cardinals had their revenge, the Series running to seven games and the A’s succumbing to the superb pitching of our next candidate...

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Burleigh Arland Grimes

    Position/Team: Pitcher for the Robins, Pirates, Cardinals, Cubs and Giants (1916-34).

    Hall of Fame? Yes - Elected by Veteran's Committee as Player in 1964.

    Nickname: Ol' Stubblebeard - [By] the time he reached the majors, Grimes chewed slippery elm in order to better load up the ball. He sliced the bark right off the tree, and put the fiber from inside on the ball. However, he said the juice from the wood irritated his sensitive skin, so he refrained from shaving on the mornings of the days he was scheduled to pitch (and perhaps on the day before as well). The dark growth of stubble on his face gave rise to his nickname.

    Notoriety: “Burleigh never pitched a no-hit game in the majors, but five times he went into the ninth without having allowed a safety. Once, against the Phillies in 1918, there were two out in the ninth when Fred Luderus connected for the first hit.”
    Awarded the ex post facto Cy Young Award by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette for 1921, 1928 & 1929.

    Old fangled Stats:
    270 - 212 (.560) Win - Loss Record
    3.53 Earned Run Average
    4180 Innings Pitched
    314 Complete Games
    1512 Strikeouts
    1295 Walks

    Stats my dad doesn’t understand:
    108 ERA+
    1.365 WHIP
    3.65 FIP
    46.9 WAR

    Fun Facts:
    -Placed 3rd in Most Valuable Player voting in 1928 and 4th in 1929 ... at age 35.
    -Born in Emerald, Wisconsin in 1893 (approximately 1 hour east of St. Paul) and passed away in Clear Lake, Wisconsin (approximately 15 minutes north of Emerald, WI) in 1985.
    -When Burleigh was 13 years old (1906), he attended a baseball game in St. Paul and was so impressed by the spitball offerings of Minneapolis Millers pitcher Hank Gehring that he went home and practiced the damp delivery until he mastered the pitch.

    -On February 9, 1920, the joint rules committee of the major leagues outlawed the spitter. Twenty-two pitchers were exempted for the 1920 season; after that no one was to be allowed to use the pitch. Bill Doak spearheaded a campaign to modify the rule so established spitball pitchers could continue using the pitch. Burleigh Grimes became one of the more eloquent spokesmen for the proposed modification. The pleas of Doak, Grimes, and others prevailed and the rule was modified. Seventeen pitchers, including Grimes, were granted lifetime exemptions from the ban.

    Personality Quirks/Character Flaws:
    “When he pitched,” the [New York] Times reporter wrote, “he always had a two-day black stubble on his face. He walked with a swagger that infuriated batters, and when he measured a hitter from the mound he would peel back his lips to show yellow teeth in a snarl. He often threw at the batters’ heads without the slightest hesitation.” Someone once said that Burleigh’s idea of an intentional walk was to throw four straight fastballs at the batter’s head.

    Years later Burleigh explained his willingness to brush back hitters as an economic necessity. “When I was a teenager, I decided that the best I could make back home was thirty-five dollars a week driving horses in a lumber camp. Baseball was my answer….There was only one man standing between me and more money, and that was the guy with the bat. I knew I’d always have to fight that man with the bat as if he were trying to rob me in a dark alley.”

    Cool Name Bro: Most definitely.

    All information from BBR & SABR

  12. Joe Judge, 1B
    Played 1915-1934, almost entirely for the Washington Senators (87 games at the end of his career for the Dodgers and BoSox), about evenly split).

    From 1917-1930 (14 seasons), was a ridiculously consistently good (but never great) player.
    Averaged 132 games and 3.2 bWAR per season over that time with a slash of .304/.383/.432 for a 118 OPS+.
    Not one season above 4.0 bWAR and not one below 2.2, and all OPS+s between 104 and 140.

    Remember Doug Mientkiewicz? M16's three best years, 2001-03, he average 145 games and 2.8 bWAR with a slash of .290/.382/.437 for a 116 OPS+
    So Joe Judge was a slightly better version of peak Minty, but for a good decade and a half.
    And like Doogie, Judge was a well-regarded fielding 1B, but that doesn't really show in modern fielding stats.

    In 1920, Walter Johnson threw his only no-hitter, which Judge preserved by making the 27th out with a great play on an over-the-bag linear headed foul. It must have been a pretty terrific play.

    He also hit .385/.484/.423 in the 1924 World Series (4 Runs, no RBI, 1 CS) for the only Title the franchise would win between its inception and 1987 (Walter Johnson's only ring). It was a 7-game series in which the Senators were actually outscored by one run, winning games by 1, 1, 1, and 3, while the Giants won by 1, 2, and 4. Games 1 and 7 actually went 12 innings. Judge scored the walk-off run in game 2, walking to lead off the bottom of the ninth after the Giants had scored two in the top to tie it up. Judge walked, was bunted to second, and scored on a double.

    When he hit .174/.269/.348 with 2R and 4 RBI in the next year's series, the Pirates won. Interestingly, the Senators outscored them by one run over the seven games.

    Judge got some MVP votes in 4 different years, coming in 3rd in 1928 for no reason that I can tell (although the fact that previous MVPs were not eligible may have had a lot to do with it -- Ruth led the league with 10.1 bWAR, followed by Gehrig's 9.4). Judge's slash that year? .306/.396/.417, 115 OPS+, I guess he did have his career year with 93 RBI, probably batting in Goose Goslin a lot, (.442 OBP, 80 R, batted one or two spots before Judge in all but 11 of the games both men started).

    In 1931, he caught appendicitis in May and his replacement kept the starter's role for the rest of that season and the next. In 1933, he started those two years playing for teams without the sans-serif "W" on their cap, but he was basically done.

    Fun Trivia:
    Only 5'8.5" tall.

    Had been playing SS lefthanded for a semipro team when a local postman saw him and told him he should play first. When Judge told him that he couldn't afford a 1B's glove, the postman bought him a glove, "The most beautiful first baseman's mitt I've ever seen, before or since.... It must have set him back a week's pay." Judge would leave tickets for the postman every game he played in New York.

    Walter Johnson's Roommate.
    In 1927 spring training, hit a line drive that broke Johnson's ankle. Johnson still managed to pitch in 18 games that year, but they were the last of his career, and it was his only season with negative bWAR and OPS+ below 100.

    1. Bummer about the comebacker to The Big Train.

      This should go somewhere, figure here's as good as anywhere.
      httpv://youtu.be/imwUHeuVqME

  13. A couple of decades ago, Bill James set out to find if there was any player who:

    1) Played in 1200 or more games
    2) Played a key defensive position
    3) Was above average in every basic offensive category (James had 11 different basic offensive category: doubles, triples, home runs, runs, RBIs, steals, walks, strikeouts—all eight of which were determined on a per-at-bat basis—as well as batting average, slugging average, and on-base percentage. )

    He found two. Willie Mays and George Grantham. There's a sort of interesting rabbit hole here, if you're interested.

    He got one vote for election to the Hall of Fame...22 years after he retired.

    All things considered, Grantham is probably a borderline Half-Baker, at best.

    Points in His Favor
    He walked a fair bit, leading to some impressive OBPs and an impressive OPS.
    Had a career batting average above .300
    That whole "totally above average in every way" thing is kind of cool

    Points Against His Favor
    Per rWAR, didn't ever have a season as good as, say, Brian Dozier's 2014.
    Played only 10 full seasons, leaving him short on both counting stats and peak.
    JAWS ranks him around Orlando Hudson among second basemen, and that's if you conveniently ignore the fact that he played over a third of his games at first base.

    Still, though, that whole thing with him and Willie Mays is pretty cool.

      1. 13 seasons, actually (cup of coffee in 1922, 32 games in 1934).

        He played almost every day for the first half of 1933 and was turrble. Did not play after August 3. In 1934, he appeared in 32 games, plus 46 games in the minors. In 1935, played in the minors, appearing in 47 games, but did not hit very well.

        1. Yeah - nibbish noted the 10 full seasons so, based on what you've pointed out: his turrble '33 and relegation to the minors in '34 & '35, it seems effectiveness (or lack of) is why he didn't stay longer.

          1. A little more on him (the story is mostly about the April 1, 1924 game the Cubs and Pirates played in Kingman, AZ; kinda interesting):

            Grantham's playing career spanned 12 years and he was a lifetime .302 hitter. His .315 average is 11th on the Pirate's all-time list, right behind the .317 by a guy named Roberto Clemente. In addition to his average, Grantham is fifth on the team's on-base slugging percentage with .901, sixth in on-base percentage with a .419 and 10th in slugging at .491.

            In 1951, Grantham attended Old Timers Day at Forbes Field where the city of Pittsburgh named a street in his honor.

            Grantham was traded to the Reds in 1932 and then to the Giants in 1934. In 1935 Grantham played minor league baseball before retiring.

            After baseball, he returned to Kingman where he managed the Men's department in the Central Commercial Company from 1935 until his death on March 16, 1954. Grantham is buried at Mountain View Cemetery.

  14. Lefty O'Doul

    Nickname: The Man in the Green Suit

    --Failed relief pitcher for the early 20's Yankees and Red Sox. He once gave up 16 runs in 3 innings of relief.
    --Came back as a hitter in 1928 and wound up with the 4th highest career batting average of all-time (.349), albeit in just 3,600 plate appearances, and his hitting career was exclusively in the craziest hitting era ever. That said his, OPS+ was 143, so he wasn't just a singles hitter.
    --Baseballs ambassador to Japan before and after WWII, helped train players there, and is one of the founding fathers of the Nippon Professional Baseball. He's a member of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.

    1. O'Doul is a fascinating case. He went back to the minors in 1924-25 (ages 27 and 28) and just destroyed PCL pitching (.392 BA and .565 SLG in 416 AB in 1924 and .375/.579 in a ridiculous 825 AB/198 games in 1925) to earn a return...THREE YEARS LATER in 1928 at age 31. WTF?

      From 1935-1940, he again played in the PCL, for his hometown Seals as a part-timer (and player-manager), then came back during the war for two more token appearances at ages 47 and 48, and finally one more appearance at age 59 in 1956 (hit a triple in his only AB with Vancouver; I wonder if shenanigans were involved*).

      from his SABR bio:

      Suffering chronic arm trouble, he gave up pitching and became a full-time outfielder, but he acknowledged his deficiencies with the glove. One of his favorite stories, true or not, concerned a man who signed O'Doul's name to a bad check in a bar. O'Doul told the bartender, "The next time somebody comes in here and says he's me, take him out in the back and have somebody hit a few balls to him. If he catches them you know he's a phony."

      *Yes, sort of. I didn't get far enough in the SABR bio. It says:

      On September 16, 1956, at age 59, O'Doul went to bat for his Vancouver Mounties against Sacramento. The opposing manager pulled in his outfielders. O'Doul knocked the ball over the centerfielder's head for a triple and later scored.

      1. Ok, this is weird. b-r has no stats for him in 1926-27, but the SABR bio says

        With Hollywood in the PCL in 1926 he batted .338 with 223 hits and 20 home runs. Back with San Francisco in 1927, O'Doul won the first-ever PCL most valuable player award, batting .378 with 278 hits and 33 home runs. On October 4 he was drafted by the New York Giants. Returning to the majors at age 31, O'Doul broke his ankle in the seventh game of the 1928 season, and missed six weeks. He managed to hit .319 in 94 games in left field. On October 29 he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies with cash for Freddy Leach.

        1. that SABR bio is a jewel.

          In October 1932 O'Doul went back to Japan for nearly three months to help train ballplayers at the Big Six colleges, Hose, Imperial, Keio, Meji, Rikkio and Waseda. He coached the hitters and outfielders, Ted Lyons taught pitching and Moe Berg showed his catching skills. The men conducted about 40 lessons at each school. Members of the royal family attended, including Prince Chichibu. The Americans also participated in exhibition games that drew crowds of well over 60,000. One day, O'Doul and Lyons were walking along Tokyo's waterfront with a camera taking "moving pictures." They were arrested for violating Japan's strict espionage laws. After they were identified, the American ballplayers were cordially treated at the precinct and happily granted unlimited access with their camera; however, they were arrested again by an officer in another precinct.

          Moe Berg, of course, was indeed a spy. Although it's unclear whether he was spying on this trip (his bio references a 1934 trip for intelligence-gathering later used by Jimmy Doolittle and his raiders).

            1. Yeah, this is really cool. There was an exhibit on it at The Spy Museum at one point (if anyone is ever in D.C., this museum is highly recommended. Expensive, but totally worth it.)

              1. Really? I was a bit underwhelmed. If your in DC for a while sure, but hit the Smithsonians and the Dulles Air and Space first if you can.

                1. I was also underwhelmed. The Building Museum is an unappreciated jewel.

                  1. Absolutely the Building Museum. I may have had the opportunity to attend a gala there. That was a cool experience.

                    But I really enjoyed The Spy Museum. Maybe that's just my affection for the subject matter.

            1. Concerned? Clearly we're having a positive influence on culture. I see no need to be concerned about that. Soon, WGOMbucks will be actual currency!

              1. But consider the topic... "they" are watching us, and I don't mean the four letter.

                    1. I read The Catcher Was A Spy a few years ago. It was pretty interesting, but Berg seemed like a very hard person to have nearby.

  15. Dazzy Vance

    Nickname: Dazzy, because of his dazzling fastball. Of course.

    --Led the league in WAR once, pitching WAR four times, strikeouts 7 times, FIP 7 times. Won the MVP in 1924, where he was awarded $1,000 in gold coins by the league. Almost threw consecutive no-hitters, took the second one into the ninth.
    --Elected to the Hall of Fame by the writers 20 years after he retired. So, in modern parlance, his 15th year of eligibility, though they voted on him 20 times.
    --JAWS has him as a low-end Hall-of-Famer. Not surprising, since his career didn't really start until age 31. He pitched well for 11 years, then hung around until he was 44.

    --Only got another chance in the majors at 31 because of some hardball negotiations. Ebbets wanted some catcher, but the minor league team he was on refused to sell him unless they also took Vance, who they thought deserved another shot.

    While pitching, Vance wore a tattered, sweat-stained shirt. Opposing players accused him of using a razor blade to slit the right sleeve of his sweatshirt from the forearm to the wrist, in narrow strips. The effect of the fastball coming out of waving strips of flannel was disconcerting to batters, to say the least. When rival hitters claimed that he had cut the shirt on purpose, Dazzy denied the charge. He said it got that way only because it was wearing out. If so, one opponent said, Vance should buy a new shirt. “Oh, no!” Dazzy responded. “This is my lucky shirt. I’ve had it since I was in New Orleans, and I ain’t even washed it.”

    Casey Stengel Quote: a pleasant man with a good disposition, a fellow you liked to be with and have around

    1. From the Repository about his 1924 season:

      He finished the season with 262 strikeouts, more than any two National League pitchers combined (Burleigh Grimes with 135 and Dolf Luque with 86 were second and third respectively). That season, Vance had one out of every 13 strikeouts in the entire National League.

        1. I remember Chris Jaffe calculating K+ (like ERA+ with league average set to 100, but with strikeouts instead), and finding that Vance was the best strikeout pitcher of all time.

    2. from his bio at shoestring catches: in his near back-to-back no-hitters, the only baserunner he allowed in the first game was a single to Chicken Hawks, who was then erased trying to steal. Five days later, he got the no-hitter, but allowed one run scored by, of all people, Chicken Hawks:

      After Brooklyn built a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first, it was Philadelphia’s turn at the plate.

      Hawks reached base on a two-base error by Brooklyn left fielder Jimmy Johnston. Hawks made it to third on the same play as Johnston was charged with another miscue on the throw back to the infield. Hawks would score on a sacrifice fly by Bernie Friberg.

  16. Ballots going out here this afternoon. Let me just make a final plea for Bobby Wallace:

    Nickname: Mr. Shortstop

    1. He's yet another defensive wizard, probably better than Dahlen. Not as good as Glasscock, but he was a better hitter. Led the league in WAR in 1901, finished top 10 nine times.
    2. He PITCHED. And well, for two seasons. In his age 21 and 22 seasons, he accumulated 6.1 WAR over 400 innings. He was considered too good a fielder, though, to be wasted at pitcher. How crazy is that?
    3. He was smart. He never had kids, but said if he had a son would he want him to play baseball: "Where else could he lead a cleaner and healthier life in sunshine and fresh air? Or bring so much pleasure to so many people? And be paid for it too?"

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