May 30, 1928: Months before his death, Urban Shocker pitches two final innings for Yankees in loss to Nationals

The 1927 New York Yankees are considered among the best teams ever. Two of their pitchers – Herb Pennock and Waite Hoyt – are members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.1 Another star pitcher on that legendary team who is not in the Hall of Fame is Urban Shocker. Shocker, who started 27 games for the Yankees in 1927, had a career that rivaled those of Pennock and Hoyt.2 Over a nine-year span between 1919 and 1927, the spitballer ranked among the American League’s top 10 pitchers in ERA eight times while winning 169 games.

But Shocker pitched the Yankees’ incredible 1927 campaign with a terrible secret: He was suffering from heart valve disease. With his health in dire straits, Shocker briefly retired after 1927, only to return for one final big-league appearance in 1928, less than four months before his tragic death.

After going 18-6 with a 2.84 ERA at the age of 36 in 1927, Shocker dropped hints he might retire to pursue other interests, including aviation and radio, throughout the winter preceding the 1928 season.3 In early March 1928, Shocker wired skipper Miller Huggins that he was retiring from baseball. “I’m not going to waste any more time or telegraph tolls on Shocker,” said Huggins. “He says he has quit and so I’ll take him at his word.”4 Yet by late April, Shocker had decided to return to baseball and sign with the Yankees, although his salary would not start to be paid until he could pitch satisfactorily.5

On May 18 Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis formally reinstated Shocker. The New York Times reported, “Shocker’s reinstatement comes at an opportune time [because] the Yankees have been none too well equipped with dependable pitchers,” instead relying heavily on Pennock, George Pipgras, and Al Shealy.6    

Despite the lack of “dependable pitchers,” the Yankees picked up where they left off in 1927 and came into a May 29 doubleheader against the Washington Nationals pacing the American League at 31-7. In the first game of the twin bill, Washington’s Sad Sam Jones held the Yankees to six hits. But one of those hits was a bases loaded triple by shortstop Leo Durocher that provided Pipgras all the run support he needed in a 3-2 Yankees victory. In the second game, Murderers’ Row displayed its might as the Yankees hit five home runs (two by Ruth, two by Lou Gehrig, and one by Earle Combs) en route to a 12-3 victory.

On May 30, Decoration Day,7 70,000 fans packed Yankee Stadium for a scheduled doubleheader.8 The pitching matchup for the first game pitted Washington southpaw Garland Braxton against Yankees righty Al Shealy. Braxton, who had pitched for the Yankees in 1925 and 1926, was making his first start since June 5, 1927. Braxton had a career year in 1928, winning the American League ERA title by posting a 2.51 ERA over 218⅓ innings. Shealy, meanwhile, had made his major-league debut on April 13 against the Athletics, and came into the May 30 game with a solid 6-1 record and a 4.13 ERA.

Braxton and Shealy matched zeros during the first five frames. In both the first and second innings, Braxton spun groundball double plays, wiping away a single by Combs in the first and a walk to left fielder Ben Paschal in the second.

The best scoring chance for the Yankees came in the bottom of the fifth. Gehrig led off with a single, and after the next two batters popped out to first baseman Joe Judge, third baseman Joe Dugan doubled to left. As left fielder Goose Goslin retrieved the ball, Gehrig headed toward home.9 Goslin relayed to shortstop Bobby Reaves, who threw wide of Washington catcher Muddy Ruel. Ruel corralled the relay and dived to tag Gehrig out. The New York Daily News described it as a “truly sensational play.”10

After allowing only one hit and two walks in his first five innings, Shealy weakened in the sixth. Sam Rice singled to right to open the frame, and took second on Ruth’s error playing the ball. Next up was Reaves, who homered to left to give Washington a 2-0 lead. The Nationals added three more runs in the seventh. With one out, Durocher’s error allowed second baseman Jackie Hayes to reach first. After Braxton sacrificed Hayes to second, successive singles by Rice, Reeves, Red Barnes, and Goslin increased the Washington lead to 5-0.

Huggins called on Shocker to replace Shealy in the eighth. In two innings of relief, Shocker held the Nationals scoreless: Although he surrendered three hits (the Washington Post’s coverage noted that the Nationals “nicked [Shocker’s] moist ones”), a double play in the eighth and a caught-stealing in the ninth helped Shocker escape damage.11 Newspaper accounts of the game did not note anything unusual about Shocker’s pitching or physical appearance. But this, the 412th appearance of Shocker’s career, turned out to be his final major-league game.

Braxton completed the shutout, facing only 28 batters during the game. Braxton allowed only three hits, striking out three (two strikeouts of Ruth and one of Combs looking to end the game). The Washington Post wrote that Braxton “ha[d] never pitched a better game.”12

Less than two weeks later, while throwing batting practice in Chicago at Comiskey Park, Shocker collapsed.13 He lay on the field “ashen grey with barely a pulse,” and was carried into the clubhouse where he was revived.14 Shortly thereafter, the Yankees gave him his unconditional release.15 Reporting on Shocker’s release, James Harrison of the New York Times wrote that when he returned to the Yankees in 1928, “it was apparent that he was a sick man and not himself.”16

Determined to keep pitching, Shocker journeyed west to Denver to pitch for a semipro team.17 In his first appearance, Shocker lost consciousness.18 He was hospitalized at St. Luke’s Hospital on August 13 with pneumonia and an athletic heart.19 After an illness of several weeks, Shocker died at St. Luke’s on September 9. He was only 37.  

On September 15 the entire Yankees team and many St. Louis Browns – Shocker’s club from 1918 through 1924 – were among the nearly 1,000 mourners who attended his funeral at All Saints’ Church in St. Louis. Several of Shocker’s former Yankees teammates – Hoyt, Gehrig, Combs, Gene Robertson, Mike Gazella, and Myles Thomas – served as pallbearers.20

The same day Shocker died in Denver, the Yankees swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Athletics to regain first place in the American League. The Yankees went on to win their third straight pennant and sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series for their second consecutive championship. The Yankees gave Shocker’s widow, Rene, $500 of World Series money.21

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Larry DeFillipo and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA192805300.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1928/B05300NYA1928.htm

Photo credit: Urban Shocker, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 The baseball writers elected Pennock to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1948 and the Veterans Committee selected Hoyt for induction to Cooperstown in 1969.

2 Shocker’s total career Wins Above Replacement as calculated by Baseball Reference (59.0) ranks first among pitchers on the ’27 Yankees. In total career Wins Above Replacement as calculated by FanGraphs, Shocker ranks third behind Hoyt and Pennock.

3 Steve Steinberg, Urban Shocker: Silent Hero of Baseball’s Golden Age (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017), 218. See also “Shocker to Learn to Fly; Says He Has Quit Baseball,” New York Times, February 22, 1928: 24; John Kieran, “Sports of the Times,” New York Times, February 19, 1928: 2S. Author Steve Steinberg, in his definitive biography of Shocker, contends that Shocker engaged in a form of subterfuge to hide his health problems, noting that if Shocker reported to spring training, he would have been limited to hobbling and staggering.

4 “Yanks Wash Hands of Urban Shocker,” New York Times, March 9, 1928: 29.

5 “Shocker Signs With Yankees; Salary Begins When He Is Fit,” New York Times, April 25, 1928: 21.

6 “Shocker Ban Lifted; To Reinforce Yanks,” New York Times, May 19, 1928: 9.

7 Today Americans celebrate Memorial Day on the last Monday of May. Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day and was observed on May 30 each year between 1868 and 1970.

8 The second game was called because of the rain with the Yankees leading 7-0 in the second. It was not resumed, and statistics from the game do not count.

9 The game stories from the New York Times and the New York Daily News both note that Goslin had an ailing arm.

10 Will Murphy, “Braxton Checks Yanks,” New York Daily News, May 31, 1928: 34.

11 Frank H. Young, “Braxton Holds Yanks to 3 Hits as Nats Win, 5-0,” Washington Post, May 31, 1928: 11.

12 Young.  

13 Steinberg, 221.

14 Steinberg, 221.

15 Steinberg, 222.

16 James R. Harrison, “Shocker Released as a Free Agent,” New York Times, July 7, 1928: 8.

17 Steinberg, 224-225.

18 Steinberg, 228.

19 Shocker’s Condition Reported Improving, Los Angeles Times, August 14, 1928: III-2; Shocker’s Condition Improves, New York Times, August 15, 1928: 14.

20 “Last Tribute to Shocker,” New York Times, September 16, 1928: S3.

21 Steinberg, 238.