It Was ‘Smoky’ in Cleveland: Indians win 19-inning game in 1918
This article was written by Rick Huhn
This article was published in Batting Four Thousand: Baseball in the Western Reserve (SABR 38, 2008)
The Ruth era was still a year or two away in 1918. Two home runs in one baseball game was still a big deal. When Frank Baker hit a home run in back-to-back games for the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1911 World Series, it earned him the nickname “Home Run.” Thus, it was a matter of note on May 24, 1918, when a classic nineteen-inning battle at the Polo Grounds between the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians was won by a Cleveland outfielder who launched his second home run in that game. According to the next day’s New York Times, the contest “scintillated with brilliant plays,” and the hero was “as fine a piece of outfielding bric-a-brac as there is in the game right now.”1
The performance that day by the object of the newspaper’s affection overshadowed a great pitching performance by Stanley Coveleski. The Tribe’s pitching ace went the distance, giving up just two hits in the last six innings. Still, it was the twenty-eight-year-old left fielder, all five feet eleven inches and 180 pounds of him, who supplied the real fireworks. His home run into the left-field bleachers in the seventh inning increased the visitors’ lead to 2-0. His towering drive over the fence in the top of the nineteenth broke a 2-2 tie. But even that was not the whole story. In the bottom of the ninth, this same fellow climbed the left field fence to rob Yankee Elmer Miller of an extra-base hit and help preserve the tie. Then, in the twelfth inning, he brought Miller up short once again, throwing the Yanks’ center fielder out at second as he tried to stretch a single.
Certainly a casual fan need not look far to identify the Cleveland outfielder who carried the day: Tris Speaker. No one in the game roamed the outfield like the “Grey Eagle.” The fleet outfielder was better known for stroking doubles and triples, but he was no stranger to the home run. If it wasn’t Spoke, then most certainly it had to have been Robert Braggo Roth. In 1915 he led the American League with seven home runs. But alas, it was neither. The hero that late May day was Joe Wood, better known as Smoky Joe, a title earned in Boston, not Cleveland, achieved by staring down batters, not pitchers. All that changed, however, in that wonderful nineteenth inning on a day he later termed “one of the biggest days of my life,” a day when Joe could finally look back and say the haze had lifted and “the worst was finally over.”2
As this last poignant statement reflects, Smoky Joe Wood’s journey to the Cleveland outfield in 1918 was an arduous one. The future baseballer was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on October 25, 1889, eventually landing in Ness City, Kansas, where he began seriously playing town baseball in 1906. In the early days he played the infield and pitched. The next two years found him playing professional ball in the minors for Hutchinson of the Western Association and Kansas City of the high-end American Association. By then it was clear that he would make his real mark as a pitcher. By the end of the 1908 season he was pitching for the Boston Red Sox. His seven-plus seasons in Boston were nothing short of sensational, particularly 1912, when he finished with a 34-5 record that included a 16-game winning streak, which tied an American League record. Walter Johnson set the record earlier that same season. Wood’s victory over Johnson, at a time when the Washington pitching star was in the midst of a winning streak of his own, preserved Wood’s own streak and became a baseball classic. Wood’s mound heroics continued into the 1912 World Series with the Giants. Here he was the pitcher of record in four games, the winning moundsman in three, two at the Polo Grounds and then the deciding victory in Boston in Game 8, as his Red Sox captured the crown.
In 1913, the Smoky Joe “Express” rounded a bend and almost derailed. In a 1963 interview with baseball historian Larry Ritter, Wood told of an injury to the thumb of his pitching hand that occurred in early 1913, when his feet slipped as he came off the mound to field a ball. In 1917, writing for Baseball Magazine, he gave a slightly different version. “I broke my [right] thumb in sliding to base and started to pitch before the thumb had fully regained its strength.”3 Be that as it may, since he was not fully healed he threw awkwardly, incurring a sore right pitching arm as a result. Then in 1915, after below-par years in both 1913 and 1914, he again strained the arm. By now the pain was severe, sending him to doctors who diagnosed neuritis. Following the 1915 season, he sought chiropractic treatment, at the time thought unconventional and frowned upon. Joe offered differing versions of the effectiveness of that treatment, but he felt ready to return to pitch for the Red Sox during the summer of 1916. It was at this point that he and Sox owner Joe Lannin bumped heads on the terms of a contract. As a result, Wood sat out the entire 1916 baseball season.
In early 1917 Wood saw yet another physician who x-rayed him and determined that at some point the pitcher “had torn the lining of the bone” in his shoulder. The tear was healed, perhaps aided by his forced layoff. By that time theatrical producer Harry Frazee was the new owner of the Red Sox. On Joe’s word that he was recovered, Frazee offered a new contract at a substantially reduced figure from the previous one. Joe refused it but received assurances that he could try to negotiate a deal with other clubs. “He [Frazee] offered to let me make all the negotiation and promised if the sale could be effected to his satisfaction as well as mine, to go through with his part of the deal,” Wood recalled. “I had been Speaker’s room-mate for a very long time and wished to join him at Cleveland. So I immediately got in touch with the Cleveland club, and as they seemed to want me the sale was speedily arranged.”4
Actually, the negotiations were not that simple. At first the Red Sox demanded Cleveland catcher Steve O’Neill. Eventually they sought a straight cash payment of $25,000, finally settling for $15,000. When the deal was completed on February 24, 1917, Cleveland owner Jim Dunn and manager Lee Fohl thought they were getting a pitcher. As Fohl noted at the time, “If it were otherwise, I know Spoke would not have advised us so strongly to land him.”5
Despite management’s optimism, not everyone was convinced that Wood was the Smoky Joe of old. Cleveland sportswriter Henry P. Edwards made sure he advised readers that “Wood also is something of a batter, having hit .250 or better in five of his campaigns with Boston. During seven seasons as a member of the Red Sox he has made 121 hits, including twenty-six doubles, six triples and four [actually five] home runs. In home runs he excelled the total output [three] of the Cleveland hurlers for the last ten years.”6
Wood’s pitching comeback was short-lived. He pitched in only five games in 1917, covering just over fifteen innings. He started one game against the Yankees at Cleveland’s Dunn Field (League Park) on May 26, a 4-3 loss in which he gave up all four runs, allowed eleven hits, and struck out one. By mid-June, local newspapers were calling the pitching effort against the Yanks a “comeback stunt.” According to Robert Drury, a medical doctor who treated Joe that year, the hurler should have limited his action to an inning or two. In fact, he held the New Yorkers scoreless through four and pitched eight. Drury recounted that Wood had “strained his arm badly and probably permanently as the result of trying to earn his salary too early in the season.”7
That was essentially it for Joe Wood’s major-league pitching career. Not much was heard from his bat that season, either. In six at-bats, he did not fashion a hit. When he announced that he would not accept another dime from the Indians until he was pitching, again it seemed certain his short but illustrious career was finished. But those who thought Wood had tossed in the towel had never taken true measure of the man. In order to stay in baseball, he would “have carried the water bucket if they had water boys.”8
In order to strengthen his arm, Wood followed Drury’s advice, performing hard labor outside in the cold during the offseason. In the spring of 1918 he reported to camp, thinking he could make his way back to the mound. It did not pan out, but in Joe’s case a world’s misfortune opened another avenue, and he turned it into a five-year career as a Tribe outfielder.
As the 1918 season opened, the Indians, like many other teams, experienced a shortage of players because of World War I. In Cleveland’s case the situation was exacerbated by illness and injury to several players, including outfielder Jack Graney. Buoyed by a spring of hard work in the batting cage, Wood regained his ability to hit, underscored in dramatic fashion in the Polo Grounds on May 24, which led to his appearance in 119 of the 127 games his team played that war-shortened season. In the field he played nineteen games at second base, four at first, and the remainder in the outfield. Despite a right wing too sore to pitch, he demonstrated an adequate throwing arm and average range. He was, it turned out, a natural fly chaser who could hit. He finished this-in many ways his rookie season with a healthy batting average of .296, 5 home runs, and 66 RBIs. Among players with at least 400 plate appearances, he ranked seventh in the league in batting average. He ranked fifth in home runs, and he tied a young pitcher named Babe Ruth for third in RBIs, two ahead of a fellow named Ty Cobb. He had accomplished the task through hours of hard work, shagging fly balls, taking infield practice, and choking up on his bat. His efforts once again earned him a big-league paycheck. In June he signed a new contract.
Heading into the 1919 season, Joe Wood was a solid member of the Indians’ outfield corps. When he arrived for spring training, he welcomed a new manager. Tris Speaker had replaced Lee Fohl. Although he was obviously happy for his friend, the change did not bode particularly well for Joe. Spoke was an early proponent of the platoon system. In 1919, Cleveland had a number of capable outfielders. In addition to Speaker, definitely not a candidate for the platoon, there were lefties Elmer Smith and Jack Graney and the right-handed Wood. As the season wore on and Joe saw mostly left-handed pitching, his games played (72), as well as his average (.255), home runs (0), and RBIs (27) dropped accordingly. Apparently the platoon system worked, however, as the team improved its record and finished in second place for the second consecutive year.
In 1920, the Indians took direct aim at the American League pennant and went it one better, topping the Brooklyn Dodgers by winning five of seven games to capture the franchise’s first World Series. Wood played his part, again serving on the platoon detail. In this first year of “lively” ball, he played sixty-one times, batted .270, slugged a home run, and drove in thirty mates. He even followed up on a brief 1919 relief appearance with two innings of relief, which included the last of 989 career strikeouts. The 1920 pitching performance was to be his last.
In the 1920 World Series the platoon system permitted Joe to appear in four games. In so doing, he joined Babe Ruth as players with the rare distinction of both pitching their teams to victory and later playing the outfield in World Series play. His two hits in ten official trips included a double. He scored two runs, both in Game 1, a 3-1 Cleveland win. He also walked once.
In 1921, Wood hit his batting stride, although by now the addition of Charlie Jamieson had pretty much rendered him a part-timer. He ended the season with a .366 average as he hit four home runs and doubled his RBIs to 60. Given that it was an era of inflated averages (the league hit .292), one still wonders why Joe appeared in only 66 games. After all, he outhit all Tribe outfielders, even Speaker at .362, as the Indians finished as bridesmaid to the pennant-winning Yanks. Had Joe batted enough to qualify for the title, his average would have placed fifth, just five points shy of George Sisler of the Browns.
Whatever the reason for his limited play in 1921, it was remedied in 1922 when Elmer Smith was sold to the Red Sox and Wood appeared in 142 games against both right-and left-handed pitchers for the fourth-place Indians. In 505 at-bats (583 plate appearances) he hit a very respectable .297. Moreover, his eight home runs and team-leading 92 RBIs were both career highs. It was therefore a surprise when Joe announced that fall that he was leaving baseball to coach the varsity pitchers and take charge of the freshman squad at Yale. Later he took over the varsity and was a fixture at the school until 1942.
Why did Smoky Joe Wood, age thirty-two and in his prime, follow his best year as a position player by announcing his retirement? He always offered that he came to realize that the rigors of professional baseball were keeping him from quality time with his growing family. Then there were the rumblings of the Cleveland fans. They once adored him but now voiced their displeasure, particularly in early 1922, when he showed a propensity for taking a called third strike.9 Or just maybe Joe Wood had come to Cleveland to lift the “smoky” haze that hung over him. Although not exactly according to plan, he had eventually proven to everyone, including himself, that he was much more than a great pitcher; he was a mighty fine everyday player too. Maybe now, his place in baseball history secure, it was the perfect time to lay down bat and glove and move along.
NOTES
1. New York Times, May 25, 1918.
2. Joe Wood, quoted in The Glory of Their Times, by Lawrence A. Ritter (New York: Morrow, 1985), 169.
3. Joe Wood, “Doing the Come Back Stunt,” Baseball Magazine, August 1917, 425-26.
4. Wood, “Doing the Come Back Stunt,” 426.
5. Lee Fohl, quoted in Plain Dealer, February 25, 1917.
6. Lee Fohl, quoted in Plain Dealer, February 25, 1917.
7. Dr. Robert Drury, quoted in news article, source unknown, June 13, 1917, Joe Wood’s clippings file, National Baseball Library, Cooperstown, New York.
8. Joe Wood quoted in The Glory of Their Times, 169.
9. The Sporting News, November 16, 1922.