Fred Beebe

A hard-throwing right-hander, Fred Beebe began and ended his major-league career in fine style. As a rookie in 1906, he posted 15 wins and led the National League in strikeouts. Ten years later, he provided excellent spot starter-relief work as a midseason Cleveland Indians call-up. In between, Beebe suffered from bouts of wildness, arm problems, and mostly from pitching for awful St. Louis Cardinals teams. Still, Beebe persevered, even after Cleveland discarded him after the 1916 season. He continued to pitch, turning in first-rate minor-league seasons until he retired from the game six years later at age 42.

Frederick Leonard Beebe and his twin sister, Minnie (Mary Yates Beebe), were born on December 31, 1879, in Lincoln, Nebraska.1 They were the youngest of five children born to traveling salesman John Hillis Beebe (1846-1903) and his wife, the former Julia Titus (1844-1923).2 When Fred was a youngster, the family relocated to Chicago, where Fred attended local schools. At Hyde Park High School in suburban south-side Chicago, Beebe was a baseball standout, alternating between the mound and third base. When pitching, the large (6-feet-1, eventually 190 pounds) and overage (for some reason Beebe did not finish high school until he was 21) Beebe dominated opposing batsmen, usually registering double-digit strikeouts. In 1900 and 1901 Beebe and catcher Samuel Ransom were city league all-stars.3 They also formed Chicago’s first known interracial battery, with Ransom (black) succeeding Beebe (white) as Hyde Park team captain in 1902.4

After his high-school graduation, Beebe matriculated to the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, where he majored in electrical engineering. Once on campus, he also entered the domain of George Huff, the Fighting Illini baseball coach and athletic director. Given Beebe’s size and athletic ability, he was immediately drafted for the football program and placed in a starting eleven that featured halfback-captain Carl Lundgren, defensive tackle-fullback Jake Stahl, linemen Claude Rothgeb, and left end Jim Cook, all of whom would go on to play major-league baseball. At the right-end position of a nonpassing team, Beebe’s value to the team reposed in his right leg. He was an outstanding punter, an indispensible team asset in the days of field-position football.5 In two years on the gridiron, Fred played on Illini teams that posted a handsome 18-4-1 overall record.

While no more than a spear-carrier on the football team, Beebe was a Fighting Illini standout on the diamond. As a freshman, he pitched sparingly as big-game assignments invariably went to upperclassmen Lundgren and Cy Falkenberg.6 He did, however, post a complete-game 7-3 victory over the University of Chicago in a rare mound outing in early May of 1902. But for the most part, Fred, a good righty batter, played third base for the 1902 Western (later Big Ten) Conference champions. During the summer recess, Beebe sharpened his hurling skills pitching for amateur teams in Wisconsin.7 The following collegiate season, he was the ace of a 17-1 Fighting Illini nine that won a second consecutive Western Conference crown. Fred’s college career was now complete, as he left Illinois after the death of his father in August 1903. For the next year he “worked at his profession in electrical engineering, and played [weekends] with semi-pro teams.”8 In March 1905 the Beebe name was back on Chicago sports pages, with Fred coming to the aid of University of Chicago football star Walter Eckersall, a former teammate on the Hyde Park High School baseball team. Eckersall had been banned from competition by the Amateur Athletic Union for reportedly accepting payment for performance at a track meet, and a letter from Beebe was a significant factor in Eckersall’s exoneration and reinstatement by the AAU.9

Fred entered professional baseball in 1905, signing with the Oshkosh Indians of the Class D Wisconsin League. By season’s end he was the circuit leader in wins (27), strikeouts (291), and winning percentage (.727).10 At the urging of Coach Huff, who doubled as a scout for the Chicago Cubs, Beebe was drafted by Chicago,11 now poised on the cusp of National League dominance. Initial reports on the new Cubs acquisition were promising: “Fred Beebe, the young giant hurler signed by Chicago, is a rattling good third baseman and hitter. … Beebe has a good disposition and is always out to win. He has marvelous speed and George Huff thinks that he will make good with a vengeance.”12 But making the Chicago roster seemed a daunting proposition. In spring camp, Fred battled for the sixth position on the Cubs staff, behind established veterans Mordecai Brown, Ed Reulbach, Bob Wicker, and Carl Lundgren, and coveted lefty prospect Jack Pfiester.13 Despite the odds, Beebe made the club, cementing his position on the Opening Day roster by combining with Lundgren in a 2-0 whitewash of their alma mater in a late-exhibition-season game played in Urbana-Champaign.14

Beebe made his major-league debut on April 17, 1906, pitching a scoreless ninth inning in a 6-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. Chicago sportswriter Hugh Fullerton advised readers that Beebe showed “terrific speed” but had walked the bases full before striking out the final two batters.15 Another Beebe appearance impressed Sporting Life correspondent W.A. Phelon, who wrote: “The surprise has been the work of Beebe, a tall, angular college pitcher. Beebe has been sent in to finish twice games already lost, and the enemy were like clay in his hands each time. He whips the ball through like a bullet and the strikeouts come thick and often on his delivery.”16 On May 1 a complete game 5-1 triumph over the Cardinals gave Beebe his first big-league win. Over the next six weeks, he posted five more victories. But pitching chances in the overcrowded Cubs rotation came only irregularly, and on June 21 Beebe finally turned in a clunker, a 10-1 loss as a starter to the last-place Boston Braves. A week later he was gone, traded with catcher Pete Noonan and $7,500 to St. Louis for veteran right-hander Jack Taylor.

The transfer would prove a cruel blow to Fred Beebe. At the time of his departure from Chicago, his record stood at 6-1, with a 2.70 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 70 innings pitched for a team headed toward the best regular season record (116-36) in major-league history and three consecutive NL pennants. Now he would toil for one of baseball’s worst teams, the St. Louis Cardinals. Their sorry 52-98 log for 1906 was hardly the fault of the club’s new hurler. He went 9-9 in 19 starts for the Cards, striking out 116 in 160? innings pitched. In all between his two clubs, the 26-year-old rookie had gone 15-10. His 171 strikeouts were tops in the National League, while his on-base average against (.209) and hits-per-game ratio (6.67) were fourth-best in the circuit.17 From there, Beebe’s numbers took on the characteristics of the lousy clubs that he had to pitch for. But for the moment, life was good. On October 24, 1906, Fred married sweetheart Maude Stannard in Chicago, then honeymooned in North Dakota.18 In time, the birth of daughter Virginia (born 1907) and son Frederick (1911) would complete the family. Meanwhile on the baseball front, Beebe was reported to be “much delighted with the $3,000 contract sent to him by the Robisons [the St. Louis team owners]. He says that he was splendidly treated in St. Louis and more than happy to go back there.”19 But before returning to the Mound City, he spent the early preseason period back on a college campus, tutoring pitching staff hopefuls at the University of Indiana.20

The first of three nightmarish seasons in St. Louis began with the 1907 campaign. Despite hurling four shutouts, Beebe posted a dismal 7-19 record that included a midseason ten-game losing streak. The season, however, was not without a few redeeming features. Fred’s strikeout total (141) was fourth-highest in the NL, while his 5.32 strikeouts per game ranked second. His ERA (2.72) was Deadball Era-respectable, and the opposition had been held to a .230 batting average. But control problems – 109 walks issued and 15 wild pitches – also permeated the season. In the end, the last-place (52-101) Cardinals finished a whopping 55½ games behind the pennant-winning (107-45) Chicago Cubs, the club that Beebe had pitched for only a year before.

The following season brought more of the same for Beebe, in slightly smaller doses. Given only 19 starts, his 5-13 log was about on par with the 49-105 record posted by another noncompetitive St. Louis team. In 1909 the Cardinals (54-98) vacated the NL cellar, displaced by a Boston Braves club (45-108) that was even worse. But for the third straight season, St. Louis had not come within 50 games of the pennant-winner, the Pittsburgh Pirates (110-42). In 44 games, Beebe posted a decent 15-21 record with a 2.82 ERA, pacing the Cardinals staff in wins, losses, and innings pitched (287?). Control, however, remained a problem. Beebe’s walk total (104) was virtually the equal of his strikeouts (105), and his 15 wild pitches were the most in the NL. Relief from the situation took the form of an offseason trade to the Cincinnati Reds.21 Now pitching for a mediocre (as opposed to a terrible) club, Beebe posted a 12-14 record about in keeping with the 75-79 overall mark of the 1910 Reds. A multiplayer trade then sent Beebe to his third club in the calendar year: the Philadelphia Phillies.22 Unbeknownst to the Phillies, they had acquired damaged goods. A sore arm, which Beebe later attributed to overuse of his roundhouse curve, limited the now 31-year-old hurler to nine appearances during the 1911 season. When he was able to pitch, Beebe was ineffective, a facially-neutral 3-3 record belied by a high 4.47 ERA and 79 baserunners allowed in only 48? innings pitched. During a July 20 game against Pittsburgh, a line drive struck Beebe on the pitching hand, necessitating seven stitches and putting him out of action for a month.23 Before the recuperation period was up, Philadelphia sent Beebe (and an undisclosed amount of cash) to the Buffalo Bisons of the Class A Eastern League in exchange for catcher Bill Killefer.24

Against the odds, Beebe’s career revived in Buffalo. Some years later, he explained that, once the roundhouse had been jettisoned from his pitching repertoire, he began experimenting with other types of breaking balls, pitches that proved both effective substitutes and easier to control. He also changed his pitching approach, forgoing constant hard stuff in order to pitch to batter weaknesses.25 The recipe worked. Pitching one rung below the majors, a rejuvenated Beebe went 16-10 in 272? innings for a fifth place (71-78) Buffalo club. The following season, he fell off to 11-14 in a reduced 188? frames, and drew no interest from the new arrival on the major-league scene, the Federal League. But Fred bounced back in 1914, going 22-10 as Buffalo (89-61) advanced to second place in the International League.26 Despite that fine performance and his prior big-league experience, Beebe went surprisingly unpursued by any of the clubs in the now-three major-league circuits. He therefore returned to Buffalo, where he was the outstanding pitcher in the International League of 1915. His league-leading 27 wins included an August 18 no-hitter against Montreal, and Beebe led IL pitchers in winning percentage (.794), as well. He also went a career-high 301? innings for the pennant-winning (86-50) Bisons.

Beebe reasonably assumed that he would now receive another major-league shot, but his age and circumstance worked against him. Managers John McGraw (New York Giants) and Pat Moran (Philadelphia Phillies) deemed the now 36-year-old Beebe too old to be of interest.27 Perhaps more crippling to Beebe and others aspiring to advance in status, the demise of the Federal League after the 1915 season drastically reduced the number of berths available in major-league baseball. The Buffalo Bisons tried to take advantage of the situation. Notwithstanding his superb pitching the previous year, Buffalo offered Beebe a 1916 contract with a pay cut. Fred rejected the pact, choosing instead to become head baseball coach at the University of Indiana.28 That spring, he guided the Hoosiers to an 8-4 mark. Thereafter, Fred pitched for a semipro team in Peru, Indiana, where he caught the eye of the pitching-strapped Cleveland Indians.29 It cost Cleveland owner James Dunn $5,000 to secure Beebe’s release from Buffalo,30 and he reportedly told Beebe that “he was being taken merely on trial and that if he didn’t make good, he would be released.”31 Beebe thereupon informed his new employer that “You won’t have to release me. If I can’t pitch the sort of ball that I know is my best and that ought to win games, then I’ll quit of my own accord.”32

Beebe soon rendered the issue academic. In his Cleveland debut, on June 26, 1916, Beebe fired a three-hit shutout at the Chicago White Sox, winning 3-0.33 He was almost as good the next time out, beating the St. Louis Browns 3-1 on a five-hitter. Hampered by a swollen pitching hand, Fred was hit hard by Detroit in his next start, but returned to form with a fine four-hits/no-earned-runs performance against Boston days later. The sports press was enthralled by the success of a grizzled pitcher unseen in the majors for the past five seasons, giving Beebe’s comeback plenty of newsprint.34 Fred continued to be useful in spot starter-relief duty for the remainder of the season, finishing 5-3, with a 2.41 ERA in 100? innings pitched for the sixth place (77-77) Indians. Notwithstanding such fine work, Beebe did not figure in Cleveland plans. That December the club sold his contract to the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League.35 The major-league career of Fred Beebe had come to its close.

In seven seasons, Beebe had compiled a record of 62-83 (.428), the promise of his rookie season stiffed by assignment to the awful St. Louis Cardinals of the era. In 1294? innings pitched, he posted a commendable 2.86 ERA, and had been difficult to hit, as reflected in a .227 opponents batting average. But Beebe had been hampered by control problems, with a walks/HBP total (580) that approached his strikeouts (634) number. Some years later, a news feature on former University of Illinois pitching stars maintained that “Beebe had more stuff than [Carl Lundgren and Cy Falkenberg] but was wild and erratic. … He was unhittable when he was running right.”36

Notwithstanding his age and the demotion, Beebe still wanted to pitch – but not for Portland. He declined to report, effectively compelling the sale of his contract to the Louisville Colonels of the American Association.37 Beebe became a rotation regular in Louisville, going 16-13, with a 2.26 ERA in 226 innings for the second-place (88-66) Colonels. He returned to Louisville the following year but was less effective, posting a 4-6 record before the American Association season was suspended on July 21, 1918. Fred then returned to his home in Paonia, Colorado, listing himself as a self-employed farmer on his World War I draft registration form. He declined to return to Louisville when the American Association resumed operation in 1919 and was placed on the club’s suspended list.38 Rather, he stayed close to home, organizing an unrecognized baseball league on the western slope of Colorado.39 Fred continued to play in Colorado and Wyoming the following year, all the while remaining on the Louisville suspended list.40

In 1921 Beebe expressed a desire to return to Organized Baseball. Louisville promptly obliged, reinstating the now 41-year-old hurler and then selling him to the Wichita Witches of the Class A Western League.41 The new association proved a happy one, as Beebe went 19-9 in 255 innings for the pennant-winning (92-61) Witches. In 1922, Fred posted a 12-15 mark in 38 games for a repeat WL champion (106-51) Wichita club. He then hung up the glove, having won a combined 216 major/minor-league games.

After his retirement from the professional game, Fred signed to become an assistant baseball coach at Purdue University.42 But shortly before Beebe was scheduled to take up his duties, the university announced that he had been released from his contract “so that he might accept a permanent business position.”43 From then on, Fred worked as an engineer for the People’s Gas Company of Chicago, until an unspecified illness precipitated his retirement in 1937. He lived on for another 20 years, cloaked in the anonymity of private life.44 Beebe’s final years were darkened by the death of his wife, Maude, in 1952 and that of his son, Fred, the next year. In May 1957 Beebe was admitted to Elgin State Hospital in Elgin, Illinois. He remained hospitalized there until his death from pneumonia on October 30, 1957. He was 77. After funeral services conducted by a Presbyterian minister, Frederick Leonard Beebe was laid to rest in Parkholm Cemetery in LaGrange, Illinois. Survivors included his daughter,Virginia Beebe Patterson; his older sister, Julia Beebe Fowler; and his twin, Minnie Beebe Curry.

Notes