To the Cardinals and their future Hall of Fame manager Miller Huggins, one incident may have been an accident but twice was certainly a trend. So when Cather got into a fistfight with pitcher Dan Griner during a game in late June of 1914, Huggins had enough of his streak-hitting player and Cather was traded to the last-place Boston Braves.

Little did Huggins know that the trade would help propel the Braves from last to first as Cather, as a right-handed-hitting platoon player, was one of several pieces that fell into place for the Miracle Braves. In the 50 games the 5-foot-10, 178-pound Cather played for the Braves after the trade, against almost exclusively left-handed pitching, he hit .297 with 27 RBIs. Sporting Life took notice after the season in a review of the Braves’ incredible run when it wrote that the team “was considerably strengthened by the acquisition.”1

It was quite a turn of events for Cather who, at the end of the 1913 season wasn’t even sure if he would be in the major leagues in 1914, let alone play in and win the World Series.

Theodore Physick Cather, born on May 20, 1889 in Chester, Pennsylvania, was the youngest of three sons born to Samuel and Mary Cather.2 He was named after his maternal grandfather, Theodore Physick.

His father, Samuel, who was a carpenter, was of Scottish descent and pronounced his last name “Car-ther.”3 Both parents had been born on Maryland’s Eastern Shore but had moved to Chester, 15 miles south of Philadelphia on the Delaware River, before Ted’s birth.

By the time Ted had turned 11, his father was no longer living with the family in Chester but had moved to Rising Sun, Maryland. Ted lived with his mother, two older brothers, his grandmother, and an uncle. By 1902 he was getting noticed as a pitcher while playing for the Larkin School team.4 As he got older, he found himself pitching for local semipro teams.5

Before he got his break in Organized Baseball, Cather worked many jobs to help his family. He was a plumber, barber, druggist, roller-skating instructor, and an asbestos coverer in a locomotive works.6

By 1909 Cather was a pitcher of some note in the Philadelphia semipro community. His break came that year when the Johnstown Johnnies of the Class B Tri-State League came to Chester to play a game. Pitching for the Delaware County All-Stars, Cather shut out the Johnnies. Curtis Weigand, manager of the Johnnies, signed him to a contract soon after the game.7 He made a big splash right away, pitching a two-hitter against Lancaster on May 4.8

Weigand also noted Cather’s ability to hit the ball and played him in the outfield on occasion.9 Cather played with the team until July 3. It’s not clear whether he was let go or left the team on his own.

But he must have made an impression because Lancaster manager Marty Hogan signed him in January for the 1910 season.10 Cather responded with a fine season in which he went 20-9, finishing second in the league in wins. It was a good year for Cather: Immediately after the season he was sold to Toronto of the Eastern League11 and then he was married on November 1 to Martha Worshaw. At the age of 21, Cather’s life seemed to be heading in the right direction.

Cather started the season at Toronto in 1911. The Harrisburg Patriot reported early in the season that he was “doing good work on the mound”12 but by midseason his record was only 3-4 and Toronto, with a chance to add former major-leaguer Les Backman, demoted Cather to Troy of the Class B New York State League.13 Cather finished at Troy with a 6-7 record. What was once a promising career seemed to be headed in the wrong direction.

But just as in 1910, another opposing team picked him up. This time it was the Scranton Miners of the Class B New York State League. Instead of just pitching for the Miners, Cather was called on to both pitch and play the outfield. In his first game as a pitcher, he took a no-hitter into the ninth inning and went 4-for-4 at the plate with a triple.14 He played in 80 games for the Miners, 49 as an outfielder.

Cather ended the season batting .312, a figure that caught the notice of the sixth-place St. Louis Cardinals. Looking to find any kind of hitting, the Cardinals drafted Cather from Scranton at the annual meeting of the National Baseball Commission on September 16.15 A week later he made his major-league debut in Brooklyn in a 7-2 Cardinals’ loss to the Superbas.

Playing in the outfield, Cather was red-hot in the five games he played in, batting .421. The buzz began to grow in the offseason that Cather would become a key player for the Cardinals in the 1913 season.

By the time Cather arrived in Columbus, Georgia, for spring training in 1913, he was already penciled in by the press as an extra outfielder on the big-league roster.16 Cather played well enough to make the roster though he was still shaky in the field. But his hitting won him a spot going north with the big club.

For years after, Huggins was credited with moving Cather permanently from pitcher to everyday player.17 And while Huggins didn’t pitch him (except for one-third of an inning in 1913 in mop-up relief), he hardly can be given credit for seeing Cather’s ability at bat. As far back as his first season in Johnstown, Cather had played some games in the field. His 1912 season proved that he was a better everyday player than a pitcher.

Cather started the season on the bench but soon replaced Jimmy Sheckard in the outfield.18 But just as soon as Cather was getting accustomed to starting, on June 13 he broke his arm when he crashed into wall making a catch on a Gavvy Cravath fly ball. He held onto the ball but was out for about a month.19

He made it back onto the field by mid-July and started the second game of a doubleheader against the New York Giants on July 17. In the third inning the Giants’ Larry Doyle hit a short fly ball between Cather and Lee Magee. The papers at the time said that it fell in between the two.20 Magee remembered it three years later as the two colliding on a ball that Magee had called.21

As the two ran in at the end of the inning, they began jawing at each other. According to the papers, Cather swung and hit Magee with a punch.22 As with almost any baseball fight, chaos ensued. Umpire Malcolm Eason and several Cardinals players moved in to break up the melee. Cardinals first baseman Ed Konetchy was punched breaking up the fight.23

The New York Times wrote, “The fight stopped the game for a time and the spectators who tried to jump over the boxes into the field [to get a better view of the fight] were turned back by the police.”24

When peace was brought to the situation, Eason threw both players out of the game. So the fight wouldn’t continue in the locker room, 6-foot-5, 228-pound backup catcher Larry McLean was sent with the two to make sure there was no more bloodshed.25

National League President Thomas Lynch fined each player $25. He said that the incident “warranted suspension” but that because St. Louis had so many injuries, he wouldn’t punish them more than the fine.26

A little over two weeks later, Cather and Magee were pictured on the front page of The Sporting News. Both were in uniform with boxing gloves on. The picture was entitled “Battling Magee and Kayo Cather.” Both players were smiling as The Sporting News made light of their battle.27

Despite Cather’s problems with his fellow outfielder, the newspapers reported that he was making progress as an outfielder.28

A wire service story with the headline “Teddy Cathers [sic] Makes Good” was carried in many papers throughout the country. The story related how the Cardinals were turning many of their players into outfielders in the hopes of bettering the team.29 And Cather was one of their latest successful projects.

While Cather’s fielding was getting better, his hitting was not. He was suffering through a long slump. Then on September 1, he broke his leg sliding into second base. His season was over.

Having batted just .213 for the season, Cather was released, along with catcher Skipper Roberts, to Indianapolis on September 12. Cather was facing what could have been the end of his major-league career. His personal life was in a state of flux as well. After the season, he started divorce proceedings against his wife, Martha, on the grounds of unfaithfulness. At the time of the divorce filing, he didn’t even know where she was living.30 She had taken their 3-year-old son as well, which led to one of the more bizarre events in Cather’s life.

While driving through Camden, New Jersey, on December 15, Cather saw his mother-in-law walking his son down the street. He stopped the car, jumped out, and grabbed the boy from the woman. His mother-in-law screamed, then ran to the car and interlocked her arms around the steering wheel.31

Cather attempted to drive the car but had trouble without hurting the woman.32 As a large crowd gathered, he handed his son over to the woman and drove away.33 The story made national news.

But in 1914, luck changed for Cather. The Indianapolis team had a change of heart, decided it didn’t want Cather, and returned him to the Cardinals. With the Federal League making raids on the major leagues, the Cardinals needed Cather to fill in as an extra outfielder.34

The Federal League also was interested in Cather. Otto Knabe, manager of the Baltimore Terrapins, talked to Cather about playing for his team.35 But in the end, Cather went to camp with St. Louis and made the squad as one of only two right-handed-hitting outfielders. The other was Cather’s former fighting partner, Lee Magee.36

Cather started the season on fire. He was among the league leaders in hitting. Toward the end of May, Cather was hitting .352, tied for third in the National League.

But the events of May 27 signaled the beginning of the end of Cather’s tenure with the Cardinals. During a 7-4 home loss to the Boston Braves, Cather fought pitcher Dan Griner after Griner became incensed over a play Cather made in the outfield. The two fought long enough for the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Griner to open up a gash on Cather’s chin that required five stitches to close.37 The teammates were fined $100 apiece by Huggins and left home as the team traveled to Chicago.

A month later, despite his hot bat off the bench, Cather was traded with infielder-outfielder Possum Whitted to the Braves for pitcher Hub Perdue. Perdue was 2-5 with a 5.82 ERA for Boston when he was traded, yet the Cardinals were willing to give up both Cather and Whitted for him.

Four years later Miller Huggins explained, “I needed a pitcher badly.” He “discovered that Hub Perdue might be had. I was glad to get him as he always pitched great against my club.”38

After two fights with his own teammates, it was clear to the press that Cather “could not get along very well with several of the players.”39 Baseball Magazine wrote that he was “condemned at St. Louis as too crude” and was just “tossed in as part of a midsummer trade for Hub Perdue.”40

Whatever the reason for the trade, Cather paid off for Braves manager George Stallings. Playing left field when the Braves opposed a left-handed pitcher, Cather hit .295 in 41 games from July 4 to the end of the season.41 The team turned around shortly after the trade and played great baseball, rising from last place to win the pennant.

In a retrospective after the season, William A. Phelon in Baseball Magazine wrote that the trade “is often spoken of as something which counted heavily in the winning of the flag. It did and it didn’t. As far as any change in the playing array was concerned it made little difference.”

He went on to note that “Cather was little used” but “Whitted made himself a regular outfielder toward the end of the season.” But he did believe the trade was responsible in part for the Braves’ turnaround. “Where the trade made the most real difference was in the way it woke up the fellows who still clung to the payroll and made them hustle from that time on until the end,” Phelon wrote.42

The nationally syndicated columnist “Monty” had a different take: Stallings “takes boobs and turns them into star ball players.” That was “9/10 of the reason” why Braves played so well.43

Whatever effect the trade had, the Braves turned their season around and won the National League pennant. Their reward was to play the powerful Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series.

The Braves continued their amazing play, sweeping the Athletics in four games. Cather played in one game in the Series, Game Two. Batting third in the lineup, he was 0-for-5 against future Hall of Famer Eddie Plank as the Braves eked out a 1-0 win.

After the World Series Cather was the toast of his hometown, Chester. October 22 was declared “Cather Day.” The day included a parade and banquet. The parade consisted of baseball teams from throughout the area.44 At night, 250 people attended a banquet at the Masonic Hall.45 Cather, in a brief speech, “predicted that the Braves would carry off both pennants again in 1915.”46 If the Braves would win the pennant in 1915, it would be without Cather, however.

Spring training was a highlight of Cather’s 1915 season. After catching a train with a bunch of his teammates from Chester to Macon, Georgia, Cather found himself being tried out in the infield by Stallings. Stallings needed some depth in the infield and felt that Cather had the “natural grace and intelligence” to be a good utilityman.47

Stallings worked Cather at both shortstop and third base but mostly at third. Third base had been a question mark for Stallings even in 1914, with five players holding down the position at one time or another during the season. Charlie Deal, who had played the most games at the position in 1914, had jumped to the Federal League. With Red Smith getting the starting nod, it fell to Billy Martin, who had played all of one game at third, to be Smith’s backup for the coming season. But Martin had been injured early in training camp and Stallings decided to move Cather from the crowded outfield battle to the infield.48

None other than Grantland Rice noticed that “Cather is playing fine ball at third, fielding well and batting up with the club average and a few points higher.”49 Cather’s hometown paper, the Chester Times, went even further about “Lucky Ted,” writing that he “may get a regular berth.”50

But when the season began, Cather again found himself on the bench, starting only against left-handed pitchers. He struggled, batting .206 in 40 games. He did, however, hit the only two home runs of his major-league career. Both, curiously, came off future Hall of Famer Rube Marquard in different games.51

But it wasn’t enough for Cather to keep his spot on the roster as the Braves floundered. On July 12 he played his last major-league game. With the Braves’ record at 32-41 after a doubleheader sweep by the St. Louis Cardinals, Stallings released Cather, along with fellow outfielder Larry Gilbert, to Toronto of the International League.52

Though Cather never played in another major-league game, the release was far from the end of his baseball career. For the next ten years he played at the highest level of the minor leagues, just a short jump to the majors.

Cather played for less than a month before Toronto released him. On August 10 he signed with Jersey City, where he finished out the season. His combined average was .284.

Soon after the season was over, the Braves, who still had a string on Cather, traded him, outfielder Herbie Moran, and catcher Bert Whaling to Vernon of the Pacific Coast League for promising outfielder Joe Wilhoit.53

While Cather’s professional career was in disarray, he had managed to get his personal life under control. After finally being granted a divorce from his wife, he married Ida E. Dodge, a 28-year-old nurse. They moved to Charlestown, Maryland, at the head of Chesapeake Bay, a town he would live in for the rest of his life.54

Cather’s baseball odyssey continued in April 1916. Vernon sold him to Montreal along with infielder Billy Purtell and Herbie Moran.55 So Cather headed to Hackettstown, New Jersey, where the Royals had their training camp. The Royals were interested in trying Cather at second base.56

All of the changes of teams left Cather in a strange position of being paid by three different clubs in 1916, though Organized Baseball’s National Commission had to step in to ensure that he got his full amount.

Cather’s release from Jersey City to Vernon was brought about by the Boston Braves, who had entered in an agreement with Vernon by which that club would pay Cather $325 a month and Boston would make up the rest of his salary. But Vernon decided it couldn’t pay Cather that much, and sent him to Montreal, which would pay him $250 a month. The National Commission ruled that Vernon had to pay the extra $75 a month.57

Cather got into 83 games for Montreal, playing solely in the outfield and batting .274. He returned to Montreal for 1917 and didn’t fare much better. He batted only .240 in 87 games. But he did manage to supplement his salary by hitting the Durham Bull, Blackwell Tobacco Company’s iconic ad for its popular smokeless tobacco product, which adorned the outfield walls of some of the parks in the International League. If you “hit the bull,” it was worth $50. Cather did it three times during the season.58

After the season the International League ousted Montreal, Richmond, and Providence in an effort to cut travel costs. Binghamton, Jersey City, and Syracuse were added to the league.59 As a result, Cather was a free agent. He was snapped up by Rochester manager Arthur Irwin and went to training camp.60 But there was a dispute over who actually owned the rights to Cather and eventually his contract was awarded to Newark.61

For the first time in his career, Cather was a regular and played injury-free. He played in all 127 games for the Bears, batting .278 and playing mostly in the outfield.

In 1919 Cather’s batting average dipped to .226 in 105 games. After the season he was looking for a new team. When none came knocking, Cather played in an industrial league in Ohio for the 1920 season.62 But in 1921, Oakland Oaks owner Cal Ewing signed him to a contract that led to Cather’s best playing days.63

For the next four-plus years, Cather was a mainstay in the Oaks’ lineup. In his first season, 1921, he was mostly used as a utility player, getting into 63 games and batting .217. However, for the next couple of seasons, Cather improved on the previous season’s performance, culminating in his best season as a pro in 1923. Playing in 184 games that season, Cather led the Oaks in batting average (.344), hits (269), and doubles (46), and was second on the team in home runs (10) and triples (11).

While 1923 was the high mark professionally for Cather, personally it was a low mark as he filed for divorce from his second wife, saying she had struck him.64

The 1924 season was another good one for Cather; he batted .300 in 173 games. But the 35-year-old player was noticeably slowing down. The Oakland Tribune wrote that he wasn’t a “good ground coverer” in the outfield.65

Cather started the 1925 season off poorly with the Oaks. By the end of May, he was hitting only .220.66 On June 14 the Oaks released him so they could sign Chicago Cubs castoff Hack Miller.67 Sacramento picked up Cather for some of the remaining season but cut him loose after it.

The next year, 1926, became one of new starts for several reasons for the 37-year-old Cather. First, his third wife, the former Clara “Carrie” Bishop of Wilmington, Delaware,68 gave birth to his second child, a daughter named Mary Theo Cather.69

Second, after turning down and offer to become player-manager of the Logan Collegians of the Utah-Idaho League,70 Cather returned home to Maryland and joined the Easton Farmers of the Class D Eastern Shore League. Buck Herzog, manager of the Farmers, told the press that Cather was “setting a fine example” and had been given the nickname Old Folks by his teammates.71 He played in the Eastern Shore League for two seasons. In 1927 he briefly succeeded Herzog as manager of the Farmers. He also spent time with the Cambridge Canners of the ESL. At the age of 38 he retired after the 1927 season, going out with a flourish: He had batted over .300 in both seasons.

By the time Cather retired, he was well established as a businessman in Charlestown. He owned the general store in town and became Charlestown’s postmaster.72 He built and operated 10 rental cabins for summer tourists along Chesapeake Bay.73 Later he became a member of the town commission. He spent the rest of his life in Charlestown.

On March 3, 1945, Cather went into the hospital for an abdominal abscess that turned out to be appendicitis.74 While recovering in Union Hospital in Elton, Maryland, on April 9, Cather died of a coronary thrombosis at the age of 55. He was buried in Charlestown Cemetery.75

This biography is included in “The Miracle Braves of 1914: Boston’s Original Worst-to-First World Series Champions” (SABR, 2014), edited by Bill Nowlin.

Notes

Cocreham was born on November 11, 1884, to Thomas Edward Cocreham and his wife, Lola, in Luling, a small town near Austin, Texas. Thomas and Lola, who were 35 and 22 years old respectively when he was born, had been married for six years and Eugene was their first child. Thomas was a native of Arkansas and his wife had been born and raised in Texas. Eugene’s paternal grandparents were from Kentucky and his maternal grandparents were Mississippians. Eugene spent his entire childhood in the same house, as in 1910 it was noted that the Cocrehams had lived in that location for 31 years.1

Gene, as he was usually known, was the Cocrehams’ only child for five years, then was followed by four brothers and three sisters.

Luling was a town of under 1,500 residents at the turn of the century.2 Thomas Cocrehan was a doctor and the proprietor of the town’s drugstore, while Lola does not appear to have worked outside the home; it is likely she spent her time with the demanding challenge of raising Gene and his siblings.3 In 1910 Gene was working as a salesman at the town’s furniture store, while also pursuing a semiprofessional baseball career. His two eldest brothers both worked at the town’s general store, Roland as a salesman and Lewis as the store’s bookkeeper.4 Given Thomas’s position at the drugstore and these connections to many of the small town’s central retail stores, it is probable the Cocrehams were one of the town’s most prominent families.

Gene took to baseball and was known as a standout outfielder for the local team in his teens. Despite these accolades, it appears he only began playing semipro baseball in 1909, at the age of 24, which may be connected to other opportunities available to him. In the end, it’s unclear why the 6-foot-3, 187-pound Texan did not pursue baseball more seriously earlier in his life.

Gene began playing semipro baseball as a shortstop in nearby Flatonia, Texas. With his tall frame, he was encouraged to begin pitching late during that 1909 season and did so to great success.5 In 1910 he pitched for a semipro team in Brownsville, a bigger town on the northern bank of the Rio Grande.6

Cocreham started his career in Organized Baseball in 1911 with the Beeville Orange Growers of the Class D Southwest Texas League. In nine games for the Orange Growers, the 26-year-old Cocreham allowed 45 hits and 18 walks in 59 innings. The right-hander finished the season in the Class B Texas League for the Galveston Sand Crabs and the San Antonio Bronchos. Cocreham went only 1-8 in his first exposure to the Texas League, surrendering 61 hits and 17 walks in 58 innings. He didn’t return to the Texas League again for five years.

In 1912 Cocreham started the season with the Manhattan Elks of the Class D Central Kansas League, finishing 10-5 in 15 games. In the middle of the season he moved within the state to the Topeka Jayhawks of the Class A Western League. There was an impressive collection of talent on the 1912 Jayhawks and eight members of the team, Al Bashang, Josh Billings, George Cochran, Joe McDonald, Ross Reynolds, Joe Rickert, Harley “Cy the Third” Young, and Cocreham, ultimately played in the major leagues. Cocreham hurled 174 innings, allowing 154 hits and 81 bases on balls. He posted a record of 7-13 in 29 games for Topeka and, for Manhattan and Topeka combined, he finished with a 17-18 record.

Cocreham pitched a career-high 305⅓ innings in 1913, 297 of them in the Western League for the Jayhawks. Cocreham was one of the linchpins of the staff, along with Reynolds and William Fullerton. All three threw over 250 innings for the Jayhawks and none of the club’s other hurlers reached 100. Gene finished with a 3.61 ERA, second lowest on the club behind Reynolds, and led the team by pitching in 44 games.

The Texan was sold to Boston by Topeka on July 5, but it was agreed that he would remain with Topeka until October 1.7 However, dealing with a potential shortage of pitchers, Boston was insistent that Cocreham join the team before the end of the year and on September 10, 1913, he left Topeka to report for duty with Boston.8

The 28-year-old Cocreham made his major-league debut when he started the second game of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies at the National League Park on September 25. The Braves lost the game 7-6 and Cocreham gave up all seven runs in 8⅓ innings. He surrendered 13 hits and four walks, and hit a batter, while striking out three. It may not have been the debut he was hoping for, but Cocreham had reached the major leagues in less than three years after beginning his career in Organized Baseball. It was his only game with Boston in 1913.

All but two of Cocreham’s big-league appearances came in 1914, when he worked primarily out of the bullpen for the Braves while serving as a spot starter in three games, one of which was a complete game. His three starts came on June 2, September 5, and September 9. Like his previous major-league start, his first start in 1914 came in the second game of a doubleheader against the Brooklyn Robins, which the Braves lost, 4-3. The second came on September 5 against the Phillies in the final game of a 22-game road trip that had begun on August 13. The Braves were sitting a half-game out of first place and Cocreham pitched the Braves to a 7-1 victory and a tie for first place with John McGraw’s New York Giants. Cocreham was handed a start four days later, but was defeated by the Phillies, 10-3.

Cocreham also made 12 relief appearances, finishing the game in ten of those outings. In his only year as a major-league regular, he posted a 3-4 record with a 4.84 ERA in 44⅔ innings. He allowed 48 hits and 27 walks, while striking out 15. He finished with the sixth most appearances on the Braves. He did not pitch in the World Series.

Cocreham’s only major-league appearance in 1915 was his last. It came on April 21, 1915, in an 8-4 loss to Brooklyn with the Braves hosting the Robins at Fenway Park. Cocreham relieved starting pitcher Dick Crutcher and went 1⅔ innings, allowing two runs, one earned, on three hits. On April 29 Boston released Cocreham and Adolfo “Dolf” Luque to the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League, where Cocreham pitched in 16 games.9 He was one of only six pitchers used during the season by the Maple Leafs, and finished 2-6 in 16 games, pitching 88 innings, before being released at the end of July.10

In 1916 Cocreham played for the Kansas City Blues in the American Association. He hurled 133 innings in 22 games and went 7-11. He began the 1917 season with the Blues, going 1-2 in nine games, but spent most of the season with the San Antonio Bronchos of the Class B Texas League. In 24 games for the Brochos, Cocreham went 11-12. He posted an impressive 2.23 ERA in 206 innings, the lowest of Bronchos pitcher for whom their season’s ERA is known.

Cocreham made 18 starts in the 1918 season, winning seven games and losing nine. He registered for the military draft on September 12, listing himself as a self-employed farmer. Three days after Cocreham registered for the draft, his brother Lewis was severely wounded in action near Villers-sur-Prency, France. (Lewis, a sergeant, was awarded a Silver Star for gallantry. He led a patrol in an attack on two enemy machine guns. The patrol captured one of the machine guns, but Lewis was wounded leading a patrol against the second machine gun after one patrol had already been driven off.)11

Cocreham did not pitch professionally in 1919, but he returned to San Antonio, now nicknamed the Bears, in 1920. He finished with a 5-1 record in eight starts. In the offseason he was listed as living with his brother Roland on a farm in Luling.12

In 1921 Cocreham spent time in the Texas League with both San Antonio and the Shreveport Gassers. He went 6-8 with a 5.52 ERA in his final season in Organized Baseball.

After ending his playing career, Cocreham spent the 1922 season coaching baseball at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (now known as Texas A&M University) and led the Aggies to a 9-8 record. He didn’t return to coach a second season.13 Cocreham also managed clubs in Gonzales and Lockhart.14

Cocreham studied horticulture at the Agricultural and Mechanical College before returning to Luling to take a position as a manager of McKean Orchards, supervising the planting and budding of fruit trees. Toward the end of his life, he returned to being a farmer and was involved in raising broiler chickens.15

Cocreham died on December 27, 1945, in Luling of a coronary occlusion complicated by diabetes. He had been ill for five months and hospitalized for the last three months of his life. He was single at the time of his death and was survived by three of his brothers, Roland, Lewis, and Guy, and three sisters. He is buried at Luling City Cemetery.

This biography is included in “The Miracle Braves of 1914: Boston’s Original Worst-to-First World Series Champions” (SABR, 2014), edited by Bill Nowlin.

Notes

A big-hearted and friendly man, Collins fashioned a reputation as one of the South’s most successful high-school football coaches during his remarkable 14-year career at Knoxville (Tennessee) High School, winning three mythical national championships. A Tennessee newspaper said, “Year in and year out, Collins has … the best teams in the US. He goes over the country beating the best teams other sections have to offer.” 2

Cyril Wilson Collins was born on May 7, 1889, in Pulaski, Tennessee. He was the younger of Roy P. and Ella (Loyd) Collins’s two sons; his brother Clifford was four years older. His father was described as “for more than fifty years one of the leading school teachers in Giles County.”3 Mrs. Collins, along with her husband, was a devout member of the Methodist Church and was noted for bringing cheer and comfort to those who were experiencing times of trouble, sickness, or sorrow. Brother Clifford owned Loyd’s Drug Store.

Cyril Collins was known as Willie. His athletic career began at the Massey School, a private prep institution in Pulaski later known as Massey Military Academy. Massey, behind junior pitcher Willie Collins, won the prep championship of Tennessee and Alabama in 1909, a feat it repeated in 1910 when he was team captain.

After his spectacular career at Massey, Collins enrolled at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. In March 1911, the Atlanta Constitution pegged him as one who would likely be the baseball team’s starting pitcher. Instead, Collins played some early games in center field. Writing about a 6-4 loss to Michigan on April 15, the Chicago Tribune noted, “The game was featured by a brilliant stab by Collins … which cut off two runs in the third inning.”4 The Commodores finished the season with an 8-7 record.

With Collins at right halfback, the Vanderbilt Commodores football team finished 8-1, outscored the opposition 259-9, and won the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship. The Atlanta Constitution declared Vanderbilt’s backfield (besides Collins, quarterback Ray Morrison, fullback Ammie Sikes, and left halfback Lewis Hardage) the best in the South5

Ty Cobb came to Nashville in November 1911 to perform in a play. Coach McGugin, who practiced law in Detroit during the winter, was Cobb’s old friend and invited him to participate in a Vanderbilt football practice. When it was over McGugin set up a race between Cobb and several of his fastest players. According to the Constitution, Cobb “made a monkey out of Captain Ray Morrison and Wilson Collins, in a practice sprint, distancing them to the tune of about eight yards in a 50-yard dash.”6 The Nashville Tennessean agreed: “Ty had a race with several of the fastest Commodores and put them all to rout.” 7

Later published versions turned the result in Collins’s favor. In August 1912 Sporting Life reported that Clark Griffith of the Washington Senators was trying to sign Collins to a contract. If Griffith was successful, Sporting Life said, “he’ll have the fastest man in baseball. … Last Fall Dan McGugin … kidded Ty Cobb into a 100-yard dash against Collins. … At the 50-yard mark Collins was looking over his left shoulder at Ty and at the end of the stretch found him 10 yards to the good.”8 A similar story appeared in Sporting Life in February 1914: “It is said that last Fall Collins and Cobb met in a 100-yard race, and at the finish Collins was leading Cobb by ten yards.” 9

Collins family lore says that Wilson ran in his football uniform while Cobb was in street clothes, Collins won the race and Cobb was furious. A second race was run and Coach McGugin suggested to Collins that he allow Cobb to win the second time. This time Cobb won, family legend says.

Whatever the outcome, the perception of Collins being faster than Cobb took on a life of its own. In 1916 Les Mann of the Cubs called himself the fastest man in baseball because he won a challenge race with Collins when they were with the Boston Braves in 1913 or 1914. Mann said, “We started and I finished first, two yards ahead of Collins.” Braves’ catcher Bert Whaling, who had bet on Mann, “cashed in. It sort of surprised the fellows, I guess, for Collins had beaten Ty Cobb in a foot race, so I’m told.”10

Collins was on the pitcher’s mound from the start of Vanderbilt’s 1912 baseball season. With what the Boston Globe later called his “armor-piercing speed,”11 wicked curve, and spitball, he shut out Georgia, 2-0, on April 18, giving up two scratch hits while fanning 11. In May Vanderbilt faced Alabama in a series that would determine the Southern championship. In the first game Collins gave up six hits and struck out six in a 4-3 victory. Vanderbilt (15-3) won the championship as Collins posted a 6-0 record on the hill. The Montgomery Advertiser called him “the leading pitcher of the team … [who] is thought by many to be the best college pitcher in the south.”12

At the end of the baseball season, Collins did outdoor work with the Tennessee Power Company at Murfreesboro.

The Boston Globe called Collins “one of the [Vanderbilt] track management’s best sprinters.” Grantland Rice noted that he “had done 9 4/5s on the track before turning to baseball, and this is about as fast as any big-league ball player ever traveled.”13

In September 1912 Collins scored five touchdowns in a 105-0 rout of Bethel College in the season opener. Vanderbilt (8-1-1) won the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association football championship for the third consecutive year. Collins was named All-Southern second team by the Constitution, which called him “the fastest back in the South.”14 Georgia Tech coach John W. Heisman picked Collins for his second-team all-Southern squad.

The Pittsburgh Press called Collins “the most sought after college pitcher of the year.”15 In February 1913 the Atlanta Constitution reported that he had turned down offers from the Athletics and the Senators so he could stay at Vanderbilt. But the offers continued to come, and by mid-April Collins had signed with the Boston Braves for a salary of $2,500. Manager George Stallings had outbid at least six other teams, including an unspecified New York club that offered a monthly salary of $400. Stallings intended to make Collins an outfielder because of his speed.

Collins made his major-league debut in left field on May 12, 1913, in a 6-4 Braves win over St. Louis. His first hit came in his initial at-bat – he was safe on an infield chopper over third in the first inning off pitcher Slim Sallee. He finished the game 1-for-2. Collins was a ninth-inning pinch-runner the next day. He was defensive replacement in left field in the May 14 Cardinals game.

On July 28, with the Boston trailing Chicago 9-3 with two outs in the top of the ninth, Collins ran for John Titus, who had singled. The next batter, Tex McDonald, slashed the ball to shortstop Red Corriden, who booted the ball behind second and then tried and failed to force Collins, who kept running. Corriden recovered in time to throw to third baseman Art Phelan. Phelan tagged Collins but dropped the ball. Les Mann scored on the play. In the excitement after the play, Phelan tucked the ball under his arm. A few seconds later Collins stepped off third and was tagged by Phelan, ending the game. According to baseball historian Bill Deane, this was the fifth time a major-league game ended on the hidden-ball trick.

Collins’s last 1913 at-bat earned him a unique double-whammy. On August 2 Boston trailed St. Louis 4-1 in the top of the seventh with runners on first and second. On a hit-and-run play, Collins rapped a hard liner at shortstop Possum Whitted, who made the grab, stepped on second to double up Bill Sweeney, and fired the ball to first baseman Ed Konetchy, tripling up runner Hap Myers. In the space of five days, Collins had been victimized by the hidden-ball trick and a triple play.

In August Stallings sold Collins to the International League’s Buffalo Bisons, hoping he would get some work as an outfielder and pitcher. Collins declined to report and returned to Nashville, where he attended classes at the Vanderbilt Law School. In his three months with the Braves Collins had only three plate appearances in 16 games, being used primarily as a pinch-runner and outfield defensive replacement.

After the season the St. Louis Terriers and the Pittsburgh Rebels of the new Federal League tried to sign Collins but failed, Pittsburgh under threat of an injunction obtained by Stallings. Collins did well in spring training. But once the season began he was limited to 27 appearances and 35 at-bats in 1914, mostly as a pinch-runner or late-inning defensive replacement. The platoon-loving Stallings gave him nine starts, eight versus left-handers and one against a right-hander. His best game at the plate came on June 3 in a 6-3 loss at Brooklyn when he was 2-for-4 with a run and an error in left field.

Collins played in his last major-league game on July 8 in Chicago, as a late-inning replacement for Les Mann in a 7-4 Braves win. The Boston Globe said, “Collins, substitute center fielder, really saved the day for Boston. His catch of Corriden’s fly in the eighth was the best bet of the day.”16 In mid-July Collins was optioned to the Binghamton Bingoes of the New York State League. One of his better days was a combined 3-for-6 in a July 26 doubleheader sweep of Syracuse. He doubled home two runs during a three-run seventh in the first game and doubled up a runner at first base after catching a fly ball in the second contest. He played in 16 games for the Bingoes, batting .220 and posting a fielding average of.912. Binghamton returned Collins to Boston on August 29 and the Braves released him in September.

Collins returned to his law studies during the winter of 1914-15, this time at Cumberland University Law School in Lebanon, Tennessee. In April 1915 he announced that he had signed a contract with the International League’s Jersey City Skeeters. Manager Hooks Wiltse released him after two weeks of spring workouts.

At the behest of George Stallings, Jesse Burkett, manager of the Worcester Busters in the New England League, picked up Collins in mid-May to bat leadoff and play left field. Collins first appeared in a 6-3 win over Lynn on May 18, getting a hit and scoring two runs. One of his best games came ten days later when he had a triple and two singles and scored a run in a 9-4 victory over Fitchburg. He also starred in a doubleheader victory over Lynn on May 31, getting four hits including a double and scoring three runs.

A few good games were not enough for Burkett to keep Collins. He was released in mid-June and soon found his way to the Fitchburg Burghers of the same circuit. There is little evidence of Collins’s brief time in Fitchburg; the Boston Globe showed him appearing in games on July 7 and 12 with no offensive output. His statistics with Worcester and Fitchburg show a combined 30 games and a .200 batting average. His .912 fielding percentage placed him near the bottom of New England League outfielders.

Despite his setbacks, Collins was not ready to give up on the 1915 season. On July 16 he signed with the Springfield (Massachusetts) Tips of the Colonial League, a circuit subsidized by the Federal League and not part of Organized Baseball. Collins played in 51 games for Springfield and hit .250. His final appearance in professional baseball came on September 6, when he was 2-for-5 with two runs in a 5-4 win over Pawtucket in the season closer. His career average for 97 minor-league games was .230. Kid Elberfeld of the Southern League’s Chattanooga Lookouts gave Collins one last chance in March 1916, but released him after four weeks of spring drills. A few weeks later, Collins received his law degree from Cumberland University.

Collins then turned to professional football, probably in the fall of 1915 and 1916, although it is difficult to determine where. A Collins family member said that he played on the West Coast. The Pulaski Citizen of March 24, 1921, said Collins was “a star football player of the National Football League,”17 although the league didn’t exist until 1922.

Collins registered for the World War draft in 1917. His registration listed him as a time keeper for the Louisville Gas and Electric Company in Louisville, Kentucky. Sometime that year he journeyed to Placerville, California, on business. With Collins’s background in utility work, it is likely that he was employed in some capacity on a Western States Gas and Electric project to increase the capacity of its power plant on the American River, which runs near Placerville.

With the World War raging in Europe, Collins returned to Pulaski and was sent to Camp Gordon, Georgia, an Army basic training facility near Atlanta, arriving on September 5, 1917. He was appointed battalion sergeant major, then on January 5, 1918, was selected to attend officer training camp. Collins also played for the Camp Gordon football team, which won the Army’s Southeastern championship.

On April 15, 1918, Second Lieutenant Collins’s 321st Machine Gun Battalion sailed to England, then made its way to LeHavre, France. The battalion never saw combat. After the Armistice was signed, the 321st was sent to Coblenz, Germany, where Collins was the assistant division personnel adjutant. He left Germany on April 1, 1919, and was discharged at Camp Pike, Arkansas, on June 12. He returned home to Pulaski and was appointed football coach at Massey Military Academy. He remained there for seven years, posting a 6-2-1 record in 1923, when the team outscored the opposition 149-24.

On April 17, 1920, Collins married Ruth (Porter) Yokley in Pulaski. She was the widow of Hume Steele Yokley, who was in the Army and died from the flu while on the way to Europe in 1918. Wilson and Ruth had a daughter, Ruth Porter Collins, who was born on September 27, 1922. Two other children did not survive infancy, Jane in February 1921 and an unnamed son in October 1933.

In 1925 Collins spent a year coaching football and basketball and teaching English and history at Alabama Military Institute in Anniston, then he spent a year teaching and coaching at Columbia (Tennessee) Military Institute. In March 1927 Collins became Knoxville High School’s athletic director and football, basketball, and baseball coach. His presence paid immediate dividends when the 1927 baseball team won the East Tennessee championship and the 1927-28 basketball team went 19-2 and won the city and East Tennessee championships.

Utilizing Dan McGugin’s short-punt-formation offense, Collins led Knoxville’s Trojans to the mythical Southern prep championship in 1928 with a 9-0-1 record, outscoring the opposition 310-22. More success followed in 1929 as 9-1-1 Knoxville won a state championship. A perfect 13-0 season in 1930 included state, Southern and mythical national championships. Some called this team Knoxville High’s greatest – it demolished the opposition by a cumulative score of 592-12 (including 11 shutouts). Bob “The General” Neyland, the University of Tennessee’s coach, recruited eight members of the 1930 team to his Volunteer squad. Of those eight, seven played first team.

The championships kept piling up. Knoxville won three more state championships (1931, 1933, 1934), another Southern championship (1933), and two more mythical national championships (1933, 1937). One constant from 1928 to 1934 was suffocating defense – the Trojans shut out opponents in 75 percent of its games. Collins had only one losing season, going 3-8 in 1939. In his 14 seasons, Collins compiled a record of 122-28-5.

Knoxville High School did not have a home field during Collins’s first 12 seasons. This problem was remedied in 1939 when Evans-Collins Field, named in honor of W.E. Evans, the Knoxville High School principal, and Collins, was dedicated.

Collins coached basketball for 12 years and never had a losing season, posting a record of 250-52 from 1927-28 through 1938-39, collecting four district championships and three East Tennessee championships. The 1938-39 Trojans (30-4) won the state championship. The baseball team won the East Tennessee championship in 1927, and East Tennessee and Southern championships in 1928.

Collins’s personality helped him achieve coaching success. After his death the Knoxville News-Sentinel wrote of him, “His influence over the years had reached many a home. … He had developed not only athletes that won championships but young men that had character. He was none of your hard-boiled coaches that … insist on winning at any price. He was rather a father to his boys. He taught them skill [and that] … they must always play fairly. Such standards yielded his dividends. … He loved his athletes. And it’s no wonder they loved him.” 18

Collins was sometimes mentioned as a college coaching candidate – Southwestern of Memphis considered him in 1935, as did Vanderbilt in 1940. Collins stayed in Knoxville, where he was influential in the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association. He was one of the organizers of the Big Six, a conference of East Tennessee high schools in 1938. For relaxation, Collins played golf at the Cherokee Country Club, where he occasionally won a match play tournament. He also was a college football official in the 1930s. His highest profile assignment was the 1938 Rose Bowl game between California and Alabama.

On January 8, 1941, the Kingsport Times reported that Collins was about to retire from coaching; his physician had advised him to curtail his strenuous activities. He died seven weeks later, on February 28, after a ten-day hospitalization for a heart ailment. He was 51 years old. Collins was survived by his wife, Ruth; his daughter, Ruth; his brother, Clifford; and his father, Ray. He is buried in Pulaski’s Maplewood Cemetery. He was later inducted into the Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame. In 2009 the Giles County Bicentennial Committee named Collins as one of its 198 most influential citizens.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Chambliss “Bliss” Pierce, Knoxville, Tennessee, for providing materials and insights regarding Collins, his grandfather; Robert Roe, Pulaski, Tennessee, a cousin of Wilson Collins’s daughter, for acting as a liaison with the Giles County Historical Society and its director, George Newman. Bill Deane shared his hidden-ball trick database.

Sources

In addition to the newspapers cited in the text, the following sources were used.

Syracuse Herald, 1914

Fitchburg (Massachusetts) Daily Sentinel, 1915

Hartford Courant, 1915

New York Times, 1916

New Orleans Times-Picayune, 1916

Mountain Democrat (Placerville, California), 1917

State (Columbia, South Carolina) 1917

Oakland Tribune, 1938

Books

William D. Hunt. Knoxville High School, 1910-1951, The Alpha and Omega of the Trojan Dynasty, 3720 Essary Rd., Knoxville, Tennessee 37918: Self-published, 1988.

Articles

Clifford Blau. “Leg Men: Career Pinch-Runners in Major League Baseball.” Baseball Research Journal 38, No. 1 (Summer 2009): 70-81.

Vanderbilt University. “Baseball Review.” Vanderbilt University Quarterly 12 (1912): 213.

Yolanda Hughey Ezell. “Cyril Wilson Collins: Giles County’s Own Version of ‘Moonlight’ Graham.” Unpublished biography, Giles County (Tennessee) Historical Society (No date).

Hugh Wallace. “My Earliest Recollections: Pulaski 1901-1914.” Unpublished paper, Giles County (Tennessee) Historical Society (No date).

Websites

Retrosheet.org

Baseball-reference.com (including minor league database)

Ancestry.com

Familysearch.org

GenealogyBank.com

NewspaperArchive.com

VuCommodores.cstv.com

Books.google.com

Rolltide.com

Ronald R. Allen, Running Plays and Passing Days: The first fifty years of high school football in Knoxville, Tennessee, 1900-1950.

http://www.knology.net/~ronallen/HS%20FOOTBALL.htm

Ronald R. Allen, From Cas Walker’s to Downtown Hawkers: Some happenings during more than seventy years in Knoxville, Tennessee 1934-2007 with comments, reminiscences, and observations of an old curmudgeon. 2008. http://www.knology.net/~ronallen/cas.htm

Notes

The Blackstone Valley River Canal Corridor extends 45 miles from Worcester, Massachusetts to Providence, Rhode Island. At the turn of the 20th Century, textile mills were located in both urban and rural sites along the Blackstone River. This geographical area was also a hotbed of baseball activity in the amateur, semiprofessional, and professional levels. It was within this context that Connolly lived.

Joseph Francis Connolly was the ninth of 11 children of Thomas Francis and Ellen (Powers) Connolly, emigrants from Ireland who married in Cumberland, Rhode Island during the last year of the Civil War, 1865, and established a family farm in the Sayles Hill section of nearby North Smithfield. Until recently, most baseball chronicles listed Joseph’s birthdate as either February 12, 1886 or February 12, 1888. But according to the birth records in the North Smithfield Town Hall, Connolly was born on February 1, 1884, a finding that is corroborated by documents in the Rhode Island State Archives as well as the baptismal record at St. James Church in the village of Manville, where the family worshiped because of its proximity to their home. During this historical period, it was the Roman Catholic tradition to have an infant baptized soon after birth. Even though the church register lists his date of birth as February 2, 1884, Joseph was definitely baptized on February 10, 1884. Despite a one-day discrepancy with respect to the day of his birth, legal documentation is in complete agreement regarding the birth year.

Connolly’s sons said that their father never liked to talk about his age.2 The reason for changing his date of birth may have been to protect and advance his baseball career, which was a common practice at the time. Even the family never knew that 1884 was the year he was born, for to them it had always been February 12, 1886. It was a secret that Connolly took to his grave.

Connolly has also appeared in some reference books as Joseph Aloysius Connolly. According to both state and church documents, his name was Joseph Francis Connolly, Francis being his father’s middle name. Given his Roman Catholic background, the most plausible explanation for Aloysius is that Joseph accepted this name when he received the sacrament of Confirmation on September 21, 1902. It was then an accepted practice to take a saint’s name during the liturgical rite and to incorporate it into one’s identity. Baseball annals for the most part refer to Connolly as Joe. Further, his sons said (and Rhode Island newspapers of the period concur) that Connolly preferred the nickname “Joey.”3

As a youngster, Joey participated in the family’s farming chores. His brothers often played baseball with him either on the farm or in the neighborhood. Joseph also found time to play in Manville, later joining a mill league team and eventually climbing to the semipro level. The right-hander pitched for a number of independent clubs, primarily for the Putnam, Connecticut entry in the New England League during 1906-07. His pitching impressed Frank Rudderham, a former National League umpire from Providence, who recommended Connolly to manager Michael Finn, manager of Little Rock in the Southern Association. According to the Pawtucket (Rhode Island) Evening Times, Rudderham said Connolly, “had the best curves he ever saw in his life, even after doing big league service.”4

In a 1908 spring-training outing for his new team, he lost 4-0 to Christy Mathewson and the New York Giants, having hurled a complete game. The pitcher’s persona was quiet and “Joey did not smoke, chew, nor drink,”5 habits he avoided his entire life. One reason for this lifestyle was that some of his older brothers suffered from alcoholism.6 After registering a 2-5 record during the first two months of the season at Little Rock, Connolly was sent to Zanesville, Ohio, of the Central League where he achieved an impressive 15-8 slate. He also hit .333 in 78 at-bats—the first hint that his future lay in hitting baseballs instead of pitching them.

In 1909 Connolly pitched at Little Rock for two months, then returned to Zanesville, compiling a combined 9-5 season log. He had some limited outfield play at Zanesville and batted .308. Renewing his Zanesville contract in 1910, Joey won 16 games while losing 17 for a team that finished 16 games below .500. His accomplishments included throwing a no-hitter, a one-hitter, a two-hitter, and four three-hitters. The left-handed batter hit .255 in 169 at-bats. Central Leaguers nicknamed him “Old Hickory Jerkey” because of his unusual delivery.7 The latter, combined with “a fine assortment of speed and curves, made him a cracker jack hurler.”8 Two factors hindered his progression. First, scouts thought he was too small (he stood only 5 feet 7½ inches and weighed 165 pounds), and second, he was experiencing arm trouble.9 Various people advised him to return to farming.

Connolly’s major-league ambition in jeopardy, he remained in Zanesville for the 1911 campaign and insisted on playing the outfield full-time. This was a dramatic change at the age of 27. Manager Joe Raidy resisted this request and limited Connolly’s playing time. The demand for a trade and team financial problems led to his being sent to Central League rival Terre Haute. In his first few games there, Connolly “misjudged flies and booted grounders like a rank amateur.”10 But he never gave up on himself and his fielding, running, and hitting improved as he won the league’s batting crown with a .355 average and stole 27 bases. This proved to be his big break, with five teams bidding for his services. Terre Haute sold Connolly to the Cubs, who in turn traded him to Montreal of the International League. In 1912 at Montreal Connolly hit .316. Having established his credentials, he was drafted by the Washington Senators. Despite having a good spring in 1913, he was sold to the Boston Braves.

Manager George Stallings made Connolly his regular left fielder in 1913, even though he often sat him down against left-handed pitchers throughout his career. Though his first major-league season ended prematurely when he broke his ankle while sliding, the 29-year-old rookie led all Braves regulars with 79 runs scored, 57 RBIs, 11 triples, a .281 batting average, and a .410 slugging average. He also stole 18 bases and tied Les Mann with a team-high 34 extra-base hits. As for Connolly’s hitting strategy, it included adapting an at-bat to a pitcher’s style. If a hurler threw a spitball, Connolly would chop down on the delivered pitch. In another situation, when Connolly first faced Grover Cleveland Alexander, he was outmatched by Pete’s “baffling hooks.” Thus, on one occasion, he rushed forward and swung before the ball broke. A furious Alexander yelled, “Listen kid, if this ball isn’t coming at you fast enough, just let me know.”11 From that day on Alexander threw him only fastballs, which Connolly preferred. One of his 14 career major-league home runs was off the Hall of Famer.

The 1914 Miracle Braves owed their success to players like Connolly. The sportswriters often referred to him as “slugger” or “star.” Boston’s only regular to hit .300 (.306), he was also the team leader in doubles, home runs, extra-base hits, total bases, and slugging average (third in the National League at .494). Manager Stallings demonstrated his high regard for Connolly by having him hit third in the lineup and by reportedly betting several suits that he would out-hit Philadelphia’s Home Run Baker in the World Series. The manager’s prediction did not come to fruition as Connolly was limited to one hit (.111) in the Series while Baker finished at .250. Nevertheless, Stallings’ respect was further highlighted by a comment made after Game Three of the World Series. On the occasion of a fielding play, Stallings commented that “Connolly showed a remarkable instance of pure grit when he went head-first into the left-field bleachers in a fruitless attempt to get [Stuffy] McInnis’ two-bagger.”12

As a member of the world champions, Connolly was the guest of honor at a number of banquets scheduled throughout Rhode Island. Because of his personality and baseball connections, he had been designated a “native son” by several communities. Joey Connolly Days were celebrated in Putnam and Manville. In recognition of his accomplishments, the Braves outfielder was presented with loving cups at both localities. The Manville reception was the apex of Connolly’s victory tour. Rhode Island dignitaries, including Congressman Ambrose Kennedy who gave the testimonial, attended it. Joey was “a hero in his own hometown,”13 but he was also recognized on the national scene. Baseball Magazine described Connolly as “the bearer of universal good cheer, the most pleasant, genial, likable person in baseball today.”14 The article labeled him as “the man who always smiles” and “Stallings’ heavy slugger.”15

The Braves challenged unsuccessfully for the pennant during the 1915 and 1916 seasons. In 1915 Connolly hit .298 but his slugging average dropped nearly 100 points (.397). Despite this downturn in power, he still led all Braves regulars in both categories. The drastic change in offensive statistics by Connolly and his teammates was the result of moving from the South End Grounds to the more spacious new Braves Field. The following year, Connolly’s production and playing time decreased dramatically. He hit a meager .227 in just 110 at-bats. Boston’s contract offer for the 1917 season slashed his salary in half. When the outfielder refused to sign, he was sold to Indianapolis of the American Association. Realizing that his combined income from farming and playing semipro ball locally would exceed that from his major-league contract, he retired.

Connolly began a new phase in his life. On October 25, 1916, he married Manville resident Mary Delaney at St. James Church in Manville. They had three children, Doris, Joseph, and Edward. Besides farming, Connolly continued to play semipro baseball in the Blackstone Valley until around 1928. He coached and managed at the semipro, college, and sandlot levels. Other endeavors marked his life. He was an active member of his church, dedicating his time to Catholic youth activities. An ardent sportsman, Connolly was the founder and first president of the Sayles Hill Rod & Gun Club. On the political front, even though North Smithfield was a Republican enclave, Connolly, a Democrat, won election to the town council and later was elected as a state representative (1933-34) and as a state senator (1935-36). Beginning in the mid-1930’s, Connolly was employed as an investigator by the Rhode Island State Board of Milk Control.

On September 1, 1943, Connolly suddenly became ill and died at home, the cause of death being listed as coronary disease.16 A local headline read, “Joey Connolly Called Out By Great Umpire.” 17 Throngs, including church and state dignitaries attended the funeral. The relationship “Old Joey” had with the local communities was confirmed by the fact that the lifelong Sayles Hill resident died there, his funeral was at St. James in Manville, and he was buried at St. Charles Cemetery in Blackstone, Massachusetts.

Having baseball talent, Connolly nevertheless worked hard to refine his skills. Although he achieved success throughout his life, he always remained humble and unpretentious. He shunned the nightlife but enjoyed socializing. During Connolly’s major-league days, Sunday baseball was prohibited in Boston, so his teammates would often join him at his farm. Connolly was also a man of principles. When a situation appeared unfair to him, he acted accordingly. He left the Braves over a salary dispute and he resigned as Providence College baseball coach in 1924 over faculty interference. In the latter situation, the friction was primarily with Father Ambrose Howley, the athletic director. Connolly did not believe his services were needed by the college “since there were enough coaches on the field already.”18

He helped found the Carney Sandlot Baseball League. Upon his death, the league suspended play several days “in reverence to the memory of Joey Connolly.”19 He had recently attended a game and observed his son, Joseph Jr., lash out three hits. Dedication to his family was always a priority. When the children were going through their father’s belongings, Joseph Jr. relates that they found about ten of his hunting licenses. “And you know,” said a smiling Joseph Jr., “his age on those licenses never changed—he never got older!”20

A version of this biography originally appeared in “Deadball Stars of the National League” (Potomac Books, 2004), edited by Tom Simon. It is also included in “The Miracle Braves of 1914: Boston’s Original Worst-to-First World Series Champions” (SABR, 2014), edited by Bill Nowlin.

Notes

Ensign Stover Cottrell was born in the village of Hoosick Falls, New York, not far from Albany. His parents, William and Lottie Worthington Cottrell, had both been born in the town of Hoosick, which includes Hoosick Falls. Although his date of birth is generally given as August 29, 1888, both his death certificate and a Syracuse University alumni questionnaire have him a year older, born on August 29, 1887.

Cottrell, also known as Dick, was a left-handed pitcher who was prone to wildness, often walking as many batters as he struck out. He grew up playing baseball and was a varsity pitcher for Hoosick Falls High School, from which he graduated. In 1907 he entered Syracuse University and continued to show his athletic prowess, playing both basketball and baseball. But he was also a scholar, winning an award for the athlete with the best academic record, finishing with an average of 93.7 for his four years of work and earning a degree in civil engineering.

In his senior year Cottrell was the captain and star pitcher of the baseball team. He was reported to have had a record of eight wins with a single loss (to West Point), with five shutouts and two one-hitters.1 In his final college game, on June 13, 1911, he threw a no-hitter against Columbia, winning 2-1. Cottrell attracted the attention of multiple major-league teams, including the New York Giants and the Cincinnati Reds, but in a scout’s letter to Cincinnati president August Herrmann, Cottrell was said to have “ ‘teed’ himself up with the Pittsburg club,”2 allegedly because they had made a close friend of Cottrell as the Pittsburgh representative.3

Cottrell, listed as 5-feet-9 and 173 pounds, reported to the Pittsburgh team on June 17, 1911, and within days made his first and only appearance for the Pirates. On June 21 in Chicago against the Cubs, he entered the game in the bottom of the seventh inning with the Pirates trailing 7-1 and quickly discovered the difference between college and big-league batters. He got Heinie Zimmerman, the first batter he faced, to fly out to right, but after a walk, Cottrell surrendered his first hit and run when Joe Tinker tripled to right. A single, two stolen bases, a sacrifice fly, and two doubles soon followed and the single-inning debut finally ended with four runs scored and the Pirates now down 11-1. In the next inning John Shovlin also made his major-league debut as he pinch-hit for Cottrell and struck out in what would be his only at-bat of the season.

Manager Fred Clarke didn’t call on Cottrell after that, and when the team left for an Eastern road trip in early July, Cottrell and three other players were left behind with instructions “to work out daily at Forbes Field and be ready to join the team in the East on short notice.”4

By the end of August Cottrell found himself released unconditionally by the Pirates and quickly caught on with the Scranton Miners of the Class B New York State League. He made his first appearance with the Miners in a complete-game 2-1 loss to Utica, and manager Monte Cross used him as a starter for the rest of the season. Cottrell finished with a 3-3 record in six games with Scranton, including two complete-game losses in which he gave up only two runs. Scranton finished a disappointing seventh place in the eight-team league but the team appeared to have obtained a solid starter heading into the 1912 season.

Under new manager Buck Freeman, Cottrell soon became established in the starting rotation. On April 26, 1912, he started and lost the Miners’ second game of the season, but five days later he came back to pitch a complete-game 6-5 victory against the Binghamton Bingoes for Scranton’s first victory after three losses. Scranton rapidly fell into the second division and stayed under .500 the entire season, but Cottrell was a consistent winner for the Miners. On August 3 he lost a 2-1 game to Binghamton and saw his record dip to 9-10, but finished the season strongly from that point on with six wins and two losses.

The first of those two losses came on September 2. A morning-afternoon two-city doubleheader was scheduled for that day with the Wilkes-Barre Barons, winners of their previous 24 games; with that morning’s game, it looked as though Cottrell was going to end that winning streak. For most of the game he held the home-team Barons hitless and took a scant 1-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning. With two outs, however, Wilkes-Barre got its only hits of the game, a double and two singles, and pushed two runs across the plate. The Barons took the contest for their 25th victory in a row. For the afternoon game, the teams traveled to Scranton, and the Miners reversed the score to pin a 2-1 loss on Wilkes-Barre and end the team’s incredible run.

In the next to last game of the season, on September 7, Cottrell pitched well but dropped a 2-1 decision to Utica. Scranton ended the season in fifth place with a 62-69 record. Cottrell finished with 15 wins and 12 losses, but those losses included four complete games in which he allowed only two runs and a 16-inning complete game in which he gave up three.

Cottrell’s winning record for a losing team had been drawing attention from scouts throughout the season, and on September 16 the Baltimore Orioles of the International League drafted him in the Rule 5 draft. But the Chicago Cubs, who had reportedly tried to acquire Cottrell early in the season, also drafted him and as a major-league club, had priority in acquiring his services.5 The Cubs had a pennant-contending team that year, but the New York Giants were better, and by September 27, 1912, the second-place Cubs trailed in the standings by ten games. That afternoon, in the first game of a doubleheader, Cottrell made his Chicago debut in relief of Fred Toney, who was knocked out after allowing six runs to Cincinnati in five innings. Cottrell gave up two runs in each of his first two innings, allowing eight hits, a walk, and a strikeout in four innings of relief as Chicago started a five-game skid with a 10-3 loss to the Reds, ending the season in third place.

That appearance would be the only one Cottrell made for Chicago. Connie Mack of the Philadelphia Athletics had also had his eye on the young left-hander. In November, when Chicago mistakenly included his name on a list of players for whom it was seeking waivers, Mack seized the opportunity and grabbed him – Cottrell would start the 1913 season as an Athletic.

Cottrell’s chances of making the club weren’t assured, however. After being world champions in 1910 and 1911, the Athletics had fallen to third place in 1912, but had still won 90 games and had a deep pitching staff. With two winners of more than 20 games in Jack Coombs and Eddie Plank, as well as 13-game winners Chief Bender and Boardwalk Brown, the starting rotation for the 1913 season was established. However, Cottrell and fellow youngsters Herb Pennock, Joe Bush, and Weldon Wyckoff made a strong showing in spring training, and Mack headed into the regular season with a ten-man pitching staff. But even with the early-season loss of Coombs to typhoid fever, there simply weren’t enough shots at game time. Cottrell made his American League debut at home in the season’s eighth game, on April 23 against the newly renamed New York Yankees. He relieved fellow rookie Bush in the ninth inning of a 4-0 loss, striking out one batter and yielding two hits, including a run-scoring single by Hal Chase, who played center field that day while manager Frank Chance enjoyed a rare start at first base.

Cottrell didn’t see action for another six weeks. On June 5, in the third game of a four-game home series against Detroit, he finally got a chance to make his first start in the big leagues. He helped his own cause with a bases-loaded double to score three runs as the A’s jumped to a 9-2 lead. By the end of the game, Cottrell had held on for what became an ugly complete-game 10-6 victory, yielding 13 hits and two walks while striking out two. Sam Crawford got four hits, and Ty Cobb was held hitless in four at-bats. As it turned out, that would be the highlight of this chapter of Cottrell’s career.

Mack was always looking for new talent, and after only these two appearances, he sent Cottrell to Jack Dunn’s Baltimore Orioles in a deal that would soon see Bob Shawkey make his way to the A’s.6 The second-division Orioles put Cottrell right to work on June 19, but he lasted just a third of an inning in a 13-8 victory over the Montreal Royals. He found his bearings in his next start, seven days later, striking out 11 Buffalo batters and limiting the Bisons to four hits and two runs in a 5-2 victory, which ended with his collapsing from the heat after the game. With Shawkey’s departure, Cottrell received steady work as a starter and by the first week of August had racked up ten wins. His workhorse status peaked in a stretch between the 8th and the 25th of August as he started and relieved five times each, but his record suffered for it as he took six losses, four at the hands of Montreal. In September manager Dunn used him at a more measured pace and by season’s end Cottrell had appeared in 32 games and had compiled a 14-8 record in helping Baltimore finish with a winning season and a third-place standing in the eight-team International League.

The 1914 season brought many changes to the world of baseball in Baltimore, two of which had significant impact on the Orioles. The Baltimore Terrapins of the new Federal League came to town, and the Orioles signed a young left-hander named George Ruth. Ruth picked up the nickname “Babe” in spring training in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and on March 7 Ensign Cottrell was on second base during an intrasquad game when Ruth hit his first home run as a professional. As the team came north to open the season, the Baltimore fans quickly abandoned the Orioles in favor of the major-league Terrapins. Playing before scant crowds, Cottrell got off to a slow start and had a losing record as May ended with the Orioles in third place. But in June he turned things around, starting with a win on the 3rd when he entered the game with one out in the first inning and shut the door on the Jersey City Skeeters in a come-from-behind 4-3 victory. Wins on the 6th and 9th helped the Orioles surge into first place, and on June 13 Ruth and Cottrell teamed up for complete-game victories as the Birds swept the Newark Indians. Seven days later Cottrell was once again part of a doubleheader sweep, this time pairing with Ernie Shore against the Montreal Royals.

By the end of June the Orioles were playing .670 ball, but the financial woes brought on by a lack of attendance had Dunn listening to offers from major-league teams for his players, as well as considering a proposal from Richmond, Virginia, to move his team. In order to survive, Dunn began selling his players and by July 9 five players, including Ruth, had been sold to major-league teams. Cottrell continued his winning ways with a 12-inning shutout of the Skeeters on July 2, and another shutout of Newark on the 11th in which no Indian made it as far as third base. Four days later Cottrell bested Carl Mays and the Providence Grays with a three-hit, 2-1 victory for his tenth consecutive win. After a loss to Newark, he tossed a 1-0 masterpiece on July 24 against the Toronto Maple Leafs in what would be his final game for the Orioles. With another round of selloffs by Dunn, on July 29 Cottrell and his 13-7 record were headed to Boston to join the Braves.

In last place on the Fourth of July, Boston had climbed to fourth place when Cottrell joined the team, and had won nine in a row when he made his first appearance for the Braves, on August 7, starting a home game against Pittsburgh. The left-hander gave up two runs on three walks and a hit in just 1? innings, and manager George Stallings wasted little time in replacing Cottrell in an eventual 5-1 loss. His wildness cost him dearly, as the Braves relied on a three-man rotation for much of August, and although he was with the team for the rest of the season, Cottrell didn’t see action as a Brave again. He was carried on the World Series roster, but he didn’t play in Boston’s four-game sweep of Philadelphia, and when the Braves awarded winners’ World Series shares of just over $2,700 to themselves, they voted only partial shares of $500 to Cottrell and infielder Bill Martin, “which their fellow players considered ample in view of the fact that neither man did any thing in particular toward bringing the pennant to Boston.”7

Cottrell headed to spring training with the Braves in 1915, but with a strong staff returning from the championship season and a 21-player limit, there wasn’t a spot available for him. In the American League, new Yankees manager Wild Bill Donovan needed a left-hander and had seen Cottrell the previous two seasons while manager of the Providence Grays. A deal was struck and Cottrell was sold to New York in early April. By the time he joined the club, the Yankees had established their starting rotation, so Cottrell was destined for relief duties and to hope for a chance to start. The Yankees’ quick start that season would keep him waiting. After 24 games New York sported a 16-8 record, and its starters had hurled 22 complete games, with only two appearances by relievers for a total of three innings. But the team started losing and on May 27, New York’s 32nd contest of the season, Cottrell finally made it into a game. He pitched the final inning and two-thirds in an 8-2 loss to Chicago, still only the fifth appearance by a reliever for the Yankees that season. On June 9 Cottrell relieved Marty McHale in the second inning of a game against the White Sox, and gave up 14 hits, two walks, and one hit batter in an ugly 13-0 loss. A month later he pitched one final inning in a loss to Cleveland. New York management, having seen their team fall below the .500 mark, decided that changes were in order and released Cottrell and McHale. Cottrell had made seven appearances for the Yankees, all in relief, and all in losses, giving up 29 hits and seven walks in 21? innings for a 0-1 record and a 3.38 ERA.

Once again Cottrell found a job with Jack Dunn, who had relocated to Richmond when competition from the Federal League drove the Orioles out of Baltimore. After the previous summer’s sale of its best players, the franchise, now named the Climbers, was struggling with a losing record, and Cottrell was slotted back into his old starting role.8 On July 15, six days after his last appearance with New York, he went the distance to beat Buffalo 6-4 before a home crowd. He got steady work for the rest of the season, but was less effective than the previous summer, appearing in 20 games for the Rebels with 15 complete games, and ended up with a record of seven wins and 11 losses, allowing just over four runs and 13 walks and hits per nine innings.

After the season Cottrell’s rights were sold back to the Yankees, but he decided to retire in order to establish a new career in the field he had studied. In January 1916 he entered Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for a semester and while there helped mentor the school’s pitching staff. In August 1917 he married Evelyn Taylor of Syracuse, and a year later their first child, Jack, was born. Two daughters would later join the family. Cottrell worked for a civil engineering firm in Syracuse and later established his own practice as a civil engineer and surveyor. In early 1947 Cottrell suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died several days later, on February 27, in Crouse-Irving Hospital in Syracuse. Cottrell was a member of Theta Alpha fraternity and the Syracuse University Hall of Fame, as well as Victor Lodge 680 (F&A M). He was survived by his wife, his three children, a brother and sister, and two grandchildren.

This biography is included in “The Miracle Braves of 1914: Boston’s Original Worst-to-First World Series Champions” (SABR, 2014), edited by Bill Nowlin.

Sources

Smelser, Marshall, The Life That Ruth Built (New York: Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., 1975).

Baltimore Sun online archives.

Sporting Life online archives.

baseball-reference.com

retrosheet.org

Ensign Cottrell player file from the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Notes

Crutcher had been drafted from the St. Joseph team of the Western League the previous fall and there had been high hopes for the man the Boston Globe had referred to as the “Strikeout King.”3 His nickname, Little Dick, stemmed from both his heritage as Richard Luther Crutcher Jr. and from the 148 pounds he carried on a 5-foot-9-inch frame.4 Even Deadball Era managers and scouts preferred large, strapping men who could throw hard, and Dick’s slight build was repeatedly noted by commentators.

Crutcher was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, on November 25, 1889, to Richard and Emma Crutcher. The Crutchers were farmers who had moved to the city of Frankfort, where the elder Crutcher was involved in politics and the couple ran a boarding house.5 Their first-born son, Lewis, would play ball in 1907 with Kansas City in the American Association and then for three more years with Frankfort in the Blue Grass League before retiring after the 1910 season to become a bookkeeper with a local firm.6

Like his older brother, Dick Crutcher also began his professional career pitching in the Blue Grass League.7 In 1908 he pitched briefly for Lexington8 before spending the next two years with the Frankfort nine. Sometime during that summer, Crutcher experienced the first bout of the arm trouble that would surface occasionally throughout his career.9 The problem passed and he was well enough to pitch during August and September.10

Crutcher’s debut season was impressive enough that the local papers referred to the “kid” pitcher as an essential part of the team’s plans for 1909.11 However, after beginning the season with Frankfort, he moved west to Oklahoma and signed first with Muskogee12 and then with the Sapulpa club of the Western Association in July.13 During his brief time with the Oilers he pitched a one-hitter against Springfield on August 4.14 Later that year he signed with Enid15 and spent parts of the next two seasons there, winning 20 games in 1910.

Crutcher then joined the St. Joseph Drummers of the Western League, with whom he spent the next three-plus years. Although 3-7 during the remainder of 1910, he rebounded to 9-4 in 1911 despite missing time because of illness. In 1912 he established himself as a regular by winning 18 of 31 decisions and pitching more than 300 innings for the second-place team. His success continued in 1913, when he won 19 games and lost 17 for the third-place Drummers. Crutcher struck out 211 batters in 304 innings but also walked 145, by far the most in the league.

The Braves trained in Macon in the spring of 1914 and there was optimism in camp regarding several new young hurlers. Crutcher was well regarded and rated a mention by Hugh Fullerton. The nationally-known sportswriter said of Crutcher, “His right arm ought to figure strongly in the race.” Despite a setback with problems in said right arm, Little Dick was slated for regular use when the championship season began.

Unfortunately for Braves fans, the team started poorly and quickly fell off the pace. Opening Day in Brooklyn was a farce as the home team hit Lefty Tyler early and often en route to an 8-2 win. The only bright spot was the performance of Crutcher, who pitched three innings of hitless relief and also doubled and drove in a run in his only at-bat.

On April 22 manager George Stallings gave Crutcher the opportunity to start against the Phillies and he was a success both on the mound and at the plate. The rookie had a pair of hits and pitched a complete game, striking out four while walking only one batter. However, he also gave up ten hits and was consistently in trouble before the Braves broke through in the ninth to get the tiebreaking run, the tally being scored by Crutcher himself. It was an auspicious beginning but it was not a harbinger of things to come.

The rookie pitched well in his next start but lost a 4-0 decision to the Brooklyn Robins. A bloop double followed by an error led to three runs in the decisive sixth inning. The defending champion Giants and Rube Marquard were next and if any team was to be Little Dick’s bête noire, it would be McGraw’s men, who tormented him numerous times over his career. On this day the first four batters hit safely and Crutcher was gone by the third inning of the 11-2 defeat.

Stallings matched the rookie against Marquard again on May 7 and the results were only slightly better. As was becoming common, Crutcher was in constant danger but managed to take a two-run lead into the late innings. Three hard hits beginning the bottom of the eighth cut the margin to 5-4 and sent Crutcher to the showers. Dick Rudolph relieved and was victimized by some bad breaks in the eventual 7-6 Giants win.

In his next start Crutcher lasted only five innings before being lifted for a pinch-hitter in a 4-2 loss to the Reds. Four days later, on May 19, he held the Pirates scoreless through three innings before the roof fell in and five runs scored, leading to 7-5 Pittsburgh victory. The rookie’s wildness was evident in a hit batter and then a pair of walks that opened the floodgates. Those four innings marked the end of Crutcher’s stint as a regular Braves starter.

For the rest of the season, Stallings primarily used the rookie in relief with a few spot starts because of doubleheaders or the need to rest other pitchers. Most of the relief outings occurred in low-leverage situations with Boston trailing. If saves were recorded in those days, Crutcher would have had none, and he completed only five of his 15 starts.

Little Dick was matched against Grover Cleveland Alexander in the second game of the Decoration Day twin bill but was pulled in the sixth because of control problems and did not figure in a 3-2 ten-inning Boston win. In his next start, a month later on June 30, he lasted six innings. Wildness was an issue again and he allowed seven hits and four walks in a game that ended in a 5-4 13-inning defeat. But on July 6 Crutcher turned in his best effort, pitching his only major-league shutout, against the Robins. Crutcher allowed six hits and one walk in the 1-0 decision that left the Braves still 14 games out of first place.

On July 19 Crutcher carried another shutout into the seventh inning against the Reds but was pulled after allowing a pair of runs that broke the scoreless tie. The Braves rallied to score three times in the ninth to win and began to build some momentum. They next steamed into the Smoky City and shut out the Pirates in four of five games. The one exception was when Crutcher again weakened and gave up a 4-2 eighth-inning lead. He left with the bases loaded in a tie game and the next batter unloaded them with a double off George Davis, leading to an 8-4 defeat.

In spite of the loss, the Braves continued on a hot streak that saw their record rise to ten games above .500 after a doubleheader sweep of the Reds on August 17. During the streak Stallings had been working his top starters hard and he decided to throw Crutcher into the breach on the 18th. The result was positive – six innings pitched with only a pair of hits allowed – but although the three Cincinnati runs were unearned, the decisive rally was triggered by a pair of walks. The 3-1 defeat did not stop the Braves’ surge but it was three more weeks before Stallings gave Crutcher another start.

That start came the aforementioned unseasonably cold day in September in Boston with the Braves holding a 2½-game lead over the suddenly struggling Giants. A brutal skein of three doubleheaders in four days left the Braves staff worn thin and gave Crutcher the chance. The Braves got to Eppa Rixey for three early runs. Philadelphia plated a run on a double-play grounder in the fourth and then broke free in the fifth, scoring three runs off Crutcher and relief pitcher Paul Strand to take a one-run lead. Boston ended up winning the game, scoring two runs in the last of the ninth, and maintained its lead over the Giants. Crutcher’s performance had been disappointing and although he had walked only one batter it had led to a big inning and he had given up eight hits as well. It was Crutcher’s last meaningful impact on the pennant race; he sat on the bench as the Braves pulled away from their rivals. Stallings gave him two more starts after things were all but decided. His final appearance was a 15-2 romp over Brooklyn on the next-to-last day of the regular season. Although active for the World Series, Crutcher never made it into a game as the Braves swept the highly favored Athletics.

Crutcher’s final 1914 statistics were not pretty: a 5-7 record with an ERA of 3.46 and 48 strikeouts and 66 walks in 158 innings pitched. The sole highlight was a fielding percentage of .981, which placed him fifth in the league among pitchers. Yet even after a subpar first year, Stallings saw enough promise in the youngster to re-sign him for 1915. Crutcher appeared very much in the defending champions’ plans throughout the spring and started the third game of the season, a solid 5-1 win over the Robins. However, Stallings had brought the hook again in the eighth inning, showing the same lack of patience or confidence as in the prior season. The Robins then hit Dick hard four days later and drove him into the bullpen.

It was more than a month before Crutcher drew another start, and he went the distance in a sloppy 5-5 tie against the Giants that was called on account of darkness. On June 20 the Cardinals drove him from the box by the fifth inning of an 8-2 loss. His last major-league appearance came on the 26th, when he relieved Tom Hughes and poured gasoline on the fire by giving up three hits and a hit batter without recording an out. The next day Crutcher, with a 2-2 record and a 4.43 earned-run average for 1915, was released along with catcher Walt Tragesser to Jersey City in the International League. Dick Crutcher’s major-league career was over at the age of 25 and his 1915 Braves totals were particularly grim: 2-2 with a 4.43 ERA. He gradually slid out of the limelight, his name surfacing only briefly in a series of strange incidents. One of these occurred when indifferent outfield play by the great Olympian Jim Thorpe angered Crutcher enough for the smaller man to threaten to “take a little slap” at his Jersey City teammate. Given the size and physiques of the combatants, it was fortunate the confrontation did not lead to blows.16 Crutcher ended up 9-9 for a mediocre Skeeters team.

Later that year the Braves’ share of the gate receipts for a September game in St. Louis was attached by deputy sheriffs as a result of a disagreement with Kansas City’s American Association club. The Blues alleged that they had not received agreed-upon compensation from Boston for a player sale, nor had they received Crutcher and Lawrence Gilbert as agreed.17 There must have been some merit to the Kansas City case; Crutcher played there for the next three seasons.

Dick was a mainstay of the Blues rotation in 1916, compiling a 16-15 record for a fourth-place club. The following year arm troubles struck again and Crutcher was winless in three decisions, leading to friction with management. A syndicated feature ran in many papers insinuating that he was a lazy malingerer who could be great if he wanted to but instead had been suspended for “failing to condition himself.”18 A contemporary article in the Kansas City Star stated that Crutcher was consulting a local dentist who believed the arm trouble was caused by abscesses at the roots of his teeth.19

Crutcher’s 1918 record was similarly truncated and he spent time with both the Blues and with Joplin of the Western Association before traveling north to Wisconsin.20 He did war work at the Nash Motor plant in Kenosha and pitched for the company team.21 He also appeared with the Manitowoc Shipbuilders and was the winning pitcher in the game that decided the Lake Shore League championship.22 After the war he had an unsuccessful stint with Joplin before returning to Wisconsin.

Crutcher pitched for Manitowoc, Oshkosh, and Waukesha along Wisconsin’s Lake Shore and, other than an abortive attempt to rehabilitate his arm at French Lick, Indiana,23 and rejoin Organized Baseball in 1922, he remained in the area for the rest of the decade.24 He continued to be employed by Nash, pitching for and managing the Nash Motormen semipro team before returning to Kentucky.25 Back in Frankfort, he found work as a duplicating equipment operator for the state Highway Department.26 He had married Ethel Armstrong of Frankfort before the World War. The couple had no children and were divorced by the early 1950s.27 On June 18, 1952, Crutcher complained of indigestion and went to bed. He died of a heart attack the next day and was buried in Frankfort Cemetery.28

Or maybe not. A few years later, baseball writer Shirley Povich encountered someone claiming to be Dick Crutcher. The reporter used the Encyclopedia of Baseball to test the man and while the stranger got the baseball statistics right, he claimed a date of birth of 1893 instead of the listed 1891 (which was off by two years). While Povich was willing to overlook that discrepancy, he could not help but notice that Crutcher was listed as having died several years before. When confronted with the fact, the visitor became angry and stormed out of the office.29

Who was it? The 1900 census showed Crutcher with six siblings but neither of his brothers was born in 1893 or 1891. In fact Dick was the youngest boy by several years, having older brothers Lewis (born 1881 or 1882) and Edward (born 1885).30 Both were still alive at the time and could be possible suspects but to what purpose or motive?31 Because Little Dick had been a member of the Miracle Braves, a team with a legend that still resonated a half-century later? Regardless of the impostor’s identity, the story was a final, bizarre coda to Crutcher’s life.

Sources

All statistics are taken from www.baseball-reference.com unless otherwise noted. All references to standings for the 1914 season are taken from www.retrosheet.org.

Notes

Before going to law school, Davis starred at Williams College, in Wiliamstown, Massachusetts. Amid his studies, he spent parts of four seasons in the majors from 1912 to 1915. His pro baseball career ended in 1916, and George returned to his hometown, the Buffalo suburb of Lancaster, New York. There, for more than four decades, he pursued a career in the law and enjoyed assorted intellectual interests.

George Allen Davis Jr. was born on March 9, 1890. In many ways, his life echoed his father’s. George A. Davis, Sr. (1858-1920), born in Buffalo to British immigrants, was a lawyer with what the Albany Law Journal called “a large and lucrative practice,” and also was active in public life. Davis married Lillie Nina Grimes of Lancaster, and was Lancaster town supervisor from 1888 through 1897. He also was a New York state senator, and commander of the 74th Regiment of the New York National Guard.

The Davises had one other surviving child besides George, a daughter named Gladys (another boy apparently died young). Lillie, his mother, died on May 1, 1900, when George, Jr. was 10 years old.

In a 1914 feature article on George, Jr., the sportswriter Hugh Fullerton wrote, “Davis was not a strong youth. He was handicapped by physical unfitness.”1 This was perhaps one reason why he went to St. John’s Military Academy in Manlius, New York.

After graduating from St. John’s, George went to Williams College. Though he eventually became vice-president of his class, he got off to a rocky start academically. His classbook said, “How George occupied himself his freshman year is more or less a mystery, and the class almost lost him.” It turned out that the would-be athlete – who apparently had no experience in baseball before he came to Williams – had devoted himself to exercise.

Prefiguring the Charles Atlas ads, “Iron” transformed himself physically, as Ring Lardner wrote. “His strength was confined to his brains and he had the physique of an Oliver Twist. …. Almost unnoticed, he worked long hours in the gymnasium and worked so hard that in a year his pals could scarcely believe he was the same boy.”2

Hugh Fullerton wrote, “He never had played a game of baseball, and his knowledge was confined to theory. In the gymnasium he commenced working with a baseball, throwing at a padded surface and studying every ball he threw.” Fullerton continued, “The coach discovered that there was a pitcher working in the gym who knew more about pitching than any of the regulars did, and Davis was allowed to join the squad and pitch. There were many things he did not know, but his theories worked out and he became a great college pitcher.”3 The coach was Billy Lauder, who oversaw the Williams nine from 1907 through 1910.

After emerging as a star – and lifting his classroom performance to Phi Beta Kappa level – George became team captain for the 1912 season. His accomplishments led major-league teams to take an interest in him. Even before Williams ended its season, Davis began to receive some offers, but deflected them so he could finish out the college campaign.

On June 27, the day after the school year finished, Davis signed with the New York Highlanders, as they were still known (it was their last season under that name before they became the Yankees). His salary was reported to be $5,000 – then the biggest ever for a pitcher coming out of college.4 “Possessing great speed, curves, and control. . .he has been a sensation in the college baseball world and has helped Williams to defeat practically all of her rivals. He is considered the leading college pitcher, either east or west.” 5

Davis made his debut at Hilltop Park in the second game of a doubleheader on July 16. He pitched well but lost 3-1 to the St. Louis Browns. Two runs scored in the third inning because of Ed Sweeney’s error at the plate. George’s first victory came on August 27, as New York beat Cleveland 6-4.6 It was his only win against four losses in 10 games that season. After a rough outing against Philadelphia on September 5, he was sent down to the Jersey City Skeeters. That December, the New York Sun sniped, “George Davis is the strongest man in Williams College. . . .but we regret that he didn’t put all that stuff on the ball when pitching for the Highlanders last summer.”7

Several college publications show Davis as a member of the Williams Class of 1913. While other sources say that he graduated in 1912, a 1915 feature in Baseball magazine said, “He finished all his required work in the mid-winter semester [of 1913] so he was able to take the early training trip with the Yankees to Bermuda.”8 This included some workouts at Hamilton Cricket Field.9

He did not make the big club, though; he was sent to Jersey City once again. Manager Frank Chance “did not like Davis because he quit the training camp to get married.”10 Another article added that “Chance did not like the young man’s spirit and said he did not take base ball seriously enough.”11

Davis’s wife was Georgiana Jones. A granddaughter, Suzy Kissee, said, “Georgiana (called ‘Kiddo’ by everyone) was a practical joker and a suffragette. She was the first in her circle to raise her skirts above the ankle, and to be seen in public smoking, drinking, and driving a car. She was a voice for women’s rights early in the century. Since her marriage was considered ‘high profile’ for the day, this took a lot of courage. He enjoyed it all.”12 George and Kiddo had four children: a son, George A. Davis, III, and three daughters, Delancy, Eunice, and Deborah.

After returning from his honeymoon, George went to the minors, although he wasn’t happy about it — he reportedly said that he had enough money not to need the sport. He went 10-16 for Jersey City, striking out 199 men in 208 innings, according to the 1914 Reach Guide. He was also quite wild, however, and the Yankees sent him to another International League team, the Rochester Hustlers, who had a working relationship with the Boston Braves.

On August 25, the Braves purchased Davis from Rochester before he even pitched once there. George Stallings, as an opposing manager with Buffalo in 1912, knew of the young pitcher and liked what he had seen. The new recruit appeared twice in relief for Boston, allowing four earned runs over eight innings without a decision.

Meanwhile, Davis had decided to enter Harvard Law School, and in 1914 he pitched with the Harvard Law team before joining the Braves. He did not get into a game for Boston until July 1, when he started and lost. Meanwhile, at the encouragement of Stallings, George had been developing a new weapon – the spitball. On August 19, the Pittsburgh Press reported, “Fred Mitchell, supervisor of pitchers, has had the chap in hand for about a month now and claims that at the present moment he is about the best spitball pitcher in the National League.”13

The Braves had a September 9 doubleheader against the Phillies at their occasional home that year, Fenway Park. After Boston lost 10-3 in the opener, Davis – who had appeared just twice more in relief since July 1 – started the second half of the twin bill. It turned out to be the only no-hitter pitched in the National League that year. Davis walked five batters, three of them in the fifth inning, but Davis struck out Ed Burns, one of his four K’s for the day. He then escaped the jam by getting pinch-hitter Gavvy Cravath to hit into a double play.14 He also survived two errors by Red Smith at third. George even added three hits of his own, as he was always quick to note.

There are some unusual facts about this feat. Davis had the second fewest career wins (seven) of any man with a no-hitter to his credit in the majors. Only Bobo Holloman, with three, had fewer. The no-hitter was also the first ever at Fenway Park, not to mention the only one there by an NL pitcher as of 2010.

Following another relief appearance two days after the no-hitter, Stallings gave Davis four more starts down the stretch. He had declared confidence in his second string and could afford to use them as the Braves pulled away from the Giants – but it was also a matter of necessity. The team played no fewer than eight doubleheaders from September 23 onward, including four straight days from the 23rd through the 26th. Davis pitched creditably, beating Pittsburgh on September 19 and New York on October 1. He lost to Cincinnati on September 23 and at Brooklyn on October 6, the last day of the regular season.

Shortly after the World Series, Davis was back for his second year at Harvard Law. In early 1915, he showed again where his “Iron” nickname came from by setting a university record in the intercollegiate strength test. In those days, college athletes competed in a series of push-ups, pull-ups, dips, and other exercises, doing as many as they could in half an hour. The goal was to measure speed and endurance as well as pure strength. On February 12, Davis surpassed football star Tack Hardwick’s mark of 1,381 points, notching 1,437.6. Then on February 24, he leapfrogged his own record with a score of 1,593.8. It was all done for the entertainment of a few friends, according to Ring Lardner.

Although Stallings had hoped to have Davis in spring training, he permitted the pitcher to remain in Cambridge.15 Returning to the Braves in June 1915, Davis started nine times in 15 appearances. Again he posted a 3-3 won-lost record, while his ERA was 3.80.

The same held true the next season, as Davis returned his contract unsigned in February 1916. It was “understood that he will be tendered a contract which will permit him finishing his course at the Harvard law school before resuming baseball activities.”16 In late August, the Braves sent George to the Providence Grays on loan. His two outings with the Grays were his only pro action all season. Boston recalled him and infielder Joe Mathes on September 7, but he did not get into a game.17

Davis signed with the Braves again in February 1917.18 However, “he received his law degree at the age of 27 and simultaneously announced his retirement from professional baseball.”19 He then went into the Army, like his father, attaining the rank of captain in the infantry. George, who had taken fencing at Williams, specialized in teaching bayonet fighting.

Once World War I ended, Davis returned to Lancaster and joined his father’s law firm. He later formed his own partnership. However, as Buffalo baseball historian Joseph Overfield wrote, “In the Davis scheme of things, the law always seemed to be of secondary importance. In 1929, with egregiously bad timing, he gave up law to join a brokerage firm.” The stock-market crash wiped out the bulk of the family’s wealth.20

Davis served as a councilman-at-large in Buffalo from 1927 to 1933. He ran for mayor of Buffalo in 1933, although he lost in the Republican primary. Having returned to the law, he specialized in real estate. Around this time the Davises’ daughter Deborah died as a tot of 3 years old. She came down with a severe strep throat.

In addition to his law degree, Davis did graduate study in philosophy and comparative religion at the University of Buffalo. This spurred a new passion: astronomy. He amassed a library of some 1,500 books on the subject. He founded the Buffalo Astronomical Society in 1930 and later became honorary curator of astronomy at the Buffalo Museum of Science, where he taught classes for 30 years. Davis was an authority on astronomical history and especially on star names, contributing several articles to Sky and Telescope magazine.21 Broad study of foreign languages aided him in this pursuit. “He fluently read and wrote Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Arabic,” Suzy Kissee said, “and he read Sanskrit. He learned these languages to help him in his passion.” George picked up Arabic using two dictionaries and no tutor. He also owned volumes in Egyptian hieroglyphics, and his monographs showed familiarity with Chinese.

“Another fun fact about him,” Suzy Kissee added, “is that he translated books from Latin to English for the library at Harvard when he attended there to help support himself. There is an old news clipping somewhere in the scrapbook that claims he worked on translations in the dugout during games and had to be told when it was his turn!”22

George’s deep love of books was also visible in his work for libraries. In 1947, he became a trustee of the Erie County public library system. Seven years later he was instrumental in the merger of Buffalo’s public libraries with the county’s. He continued to serve on the board and strongly supported the development of the Central Library.

On May 10, 1952, Georgiana “Kiddo” Davis passed away suddenly. Suzy Kissee said, “I deeply believe that my grandfather never recovered from her death. I have a picture of them taken nine days before she died, in which they look like a couple of high school sweeties. She kept him laughing. She was known as a practical joker. My mom told the story of her melting down chocolate Ex-Lax and including it in cookies to serve to guests she thought were arrogant!”23 George did get married again, to Grace Ogilvie, who shared his interest in astronomy.

Davis retired from his law firm on New Year’s Day 1961. He was 70 years old. “In an interview with the Buffalo Courier-Express, he said he planned to concentrate on his magnum opus, a two-volume work on the origins and history of the constellations. ‘I’ll probably be working on it for the rest of my life,’ he told the interviewer.”24 That work would remain incomplete, however – George Davis passed away on June 4, 1961.25 His obituaries did not mention that he ended his own life by hanging himself.

Joseph Overfield offered insight into his friend’s highly complex personality. Davis was “an intensely proud man, almost to the point of arrogance . . . an impatient man who did not suffer fools lightly . . . [yet] he often exhibited great patience with young lawyers who came under his wing, and it is told he delighted in playing mentor to neighborhood youngsters.” Overfield said that George’s only substantial asset was his library, and guessed that “he could not face a future of impecunity.”26

Davis is buried in the family mausoleum at Lancaster Rural Cemetery, along with his parents, sister, wife Georgiana, and children Deborah and George, III.

One may speculate about what George Davis might have achieved in baseball had he placed the sport over academics. There were certainly many lofty predictions. It’s a moot point, though, because Davis himself said, “Reading is my favorite sport. . . . There is nothing, not even baseball, that I like quite as well.”27 Yet even though his time in the majors was brief, he left a small but lasting mark. His Hall of Fame teammate on the Miracle Braves, Johnny Evers, said it well. “He is a fine fellow, a man who has little to say on the club and is generally popular among the players. I was glad to see him get the great reputation which goes to the pitcher of a no-hit game.”28

This biography is included in “The Miracle Braves of 1914: Boston’s Original Worst-to-First World Series Champions” (SABR, 2014), edited by Bill Nowlin.

Acknowledgments

Grateful acknowledgment to Suzan Davis Packer Kissee and Mary Tucci Damiani, granddaughters of George Davis, for their personal memories and for furnishing articles from their grandmother’s scrapbook. Thanks also to Alan Brownsten.

Joseph Overfield’s 1989 article for the SABR Baseball Research Journal provided some other facts on George Davis’ life and career at Williams, in baseball, and afterward.

Background on the Davis family, George A. Davis, Sr., and his wife Lillie:

Derby, George, and James Terry White. The National Cyclopedia of American Biography. New York: James T. White & Company, 1906: 496.

Hull, John M. “George A. Davis.” Albany Law Journal, January 7, 1899: 73.

Murlin, Edgar L. New York Red Book. Albany, New York: J.B. Lyon Company, 1910: 83.

Chester, Alden and E. Melvin Williams. Courts and Lawyers of New York: A History, 1609-1925, Volume 1. New York, NY: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1925:

Hills, Frederick Simon, editor. New York State Men: Biographic Studies and Character Portraits, Volume 1. Albany, New York: The Argus Company, 1910: 172.

Who’s Who in New York City and State, Volume 9. New York: W.F. Brainard, 1911: 247.

According to The Braves Encyclopedia, George Davis Sr. was also a judge, but neither his entry in the New York Red Book nor any other source confirms this. Confusion may have arisen either with his father-in-law or because Davis was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

http://www.findagrave.com

http://www.thedeadballera.com

Notes

Charles Albert Deal was born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan complex, on October 30, 1891. He was the fifth of six children of Alice Deal and Joseph Deal, a carpenter. He started playing baseball on the sandlots of Wilkinsburg. “That’s where I learned almost all the baseball I know,” he said in 1915 … Ever since I was able to throw bricks at a lamppost I have been playing ball.” 1

In 1910 the teenage Deal was working as a fitter for an electric company and playing baseball as a second baseman for semipro clubs in the area. The next season Howard Mitlinger of the Huntington club persuaded him to move to third base. While playing at the hot corner, Deal was spotted by a scout for the Philadelphia Phillies, who signed him for $200 a month. However, when he reported to Philadelphia, he was assigned to Lancaster of the Class B Tri-State League, where he was to receive only one-half the stipulated salary. Charlie protested and carried his case to the National Commission, baseball’s governing body at the time, which ruled that any player who signed with a major-league club would be restored to free agent status if the club did not pay him the salary specified in the contract or assign him to a minor-league club with no reduction in salary.

His free agency regained, Charlie joined the Bay City club in the Southern Michigan League. After a month he was sold to the Jackson club of the same league, where he was paid $125 a month. The third sacker hit .370 in 68 games, and was purchased by the Detroit Tigers for a reported $2,500. Deal complained that the Tigers had promised him half of the purchase price, but delivered only $300 of the amount. Once again he thought club owners were treating him unfairly. It was not to be the last time he entertained that opinion.

Deal made his major-league debut with the Tigers on July 19, 1912, at the age of 20. The right-hander was listed as 6 feet tall and weighing 160 pounds. (As he matured, his frame filled out. By 1915, he said he weighed 172 pounds.) He was paid $200 a month by Detroit in 1912 and signed for $1,200 for the 1913 season. After one of his early big-league games, a sportswriter penned these lines: “Charlie Deal was the three star special on the infield. He had eight chances and most of them were tough, particularly a one-handed stab of Wagner’s high bounder in the ninth. His throwing was a marvel of speed and accuracy, every ball going right into Onslow’s pocket.” 2 Despite his fielding exploits, Deal did not hit well enough to stick with the Tigers. On June 2, 1913, they released him to Providence of the International League. In 99 games with the Grays, he hit .312. On September 15 he was acquired by the Boston Braves in the post-season draft.

In 1914 Deal opened the season as the Braves’ regular third baseman. However, he did not hit well and was demoted to the bench in favor of Red Smith, whom the Braves had acquired from the Brooklyn Robins on August 10. On the final day of the regular season, Smith broke his leg, and Charlie was pressed into service as the third sacker in the World Series against the Philadelphia Athletics. He got off to a tough start. In the first game, at Philadephia, he hit into double plays three times in succession. (One of them was on a pop-fly bunt.) Fortunately for the Braves, they scored enough runs to win the game easily, 7-1, despite Deal’s lack of productivity.

In the second game of the Series, Charlie did not produce through the first eight innings. Three times with runners on base, he hit into force outs. Eddie Plank, the future Hall of Fame hurler for the Mackmen, was holding the Braves scoreless. Bill James was doing the same against the Athletics for Boston. The game went into the ninth inning tied 0-0. In the top of the ninth, with one out, the weak-hitting Deal came to the plate. To everyone’s surprise, he lined a drive over Amos Strunk’s head. The center fielder had perhaps been playing too shallow, but the ball was well struck. It might have gone for a triple, but Strunk made a remarkable recovery and throw to hold Charlie to two bases. The next batter, James, fanned for the second out of the inning. The A’s catcher, Wally Schang, tried to catch Deal off the base. Schang threw to second base, and Charlie took off for third, beating the relay by shortstop Jack Barry. From third, Deal scored on Les Mann’s scratch hit off the glove of second baseman Eddie Collins. James set down Philadelphia in the bottom of the ninth, and the Braves were well on their way to a sweep of the defending world champions. During the Series, Charlie Deal made only two hits in 16 times at bat, but by his daring base running the Braves had scored a decisive tally.

In recalling the 1914 season, Deal said: “We were a misfit bunch. There were a lot of old-timers and kids mixed in, guys other clubs had given up on. (Manager George) Stallings did a wonderful job with us. He was a great manager who suffered with every play. One minute he’d be playing and the next minute cursing. How that man could curse!” 3

After leaving the Braves in a salary dispute, Charlie was asked about Stallings. “Do you figure Stallings was lucky, had excellent material, or is he really a miracle man?” a reporter queried.

“Yes, I guess you could call him a miracle man.” Deal replied. “Why did I leave him? Because he answered my request for more money by reciting that ancient and honorable piece about a promising young man with a bright future, lots of time for more money and valuable experience and the balance of that bunky-doodle guff. I’m in it for business, and that’s why I jumped, and that’s why I never drink, smoke, or chew. I am married and love my home.” 4

For his part in winning the World Series, Charlie thought he deserved a $500 raise. The club refused to part with the additional money. Once again Deal thought he was being treated unfairly. He jumped to the St. Louis Terriers of the upstart Federal League, signing with the Feds on January 29, 1915. St. Louis gave him far more than the amount of the raise he had requested from the Braves. His salary went from $2,400 to $4,500, plus a $3,500 bonus.

During the summer of 1915 Charlie was hospitalized for several weeks with typhoid fever. He was able to play only 65 games for the Terriers, but hit a very respectable .323, his best average ever in the major leagues.

When the Federal League folded, Deal joined the St. Louis Browns of the American League in the spring of 1916. Fully recovered from typhoid, Deal expected to give Jimmy Austin a battle to be the guardian of the hot corner. However, he was unable to hit well, and Austin secured the position. On June 2, the Browns sold Deal to the Chicago Cubs. He spent most of the 1916 season with the Kansas City Blues of the American Association, where he hit .317 in 118 games. In the spring of 1917, Deal beat out Herb Hunter and Rollie Zeider for the third-base position with the Cubs. For the next five seasons he played for the Cubs, emerging as one of the best-fielding third basemen in the league. In 1917 he led the NL in sacrifices. Although he usually hit only around .250, Deal established a reputation for being a hard man to strike out. In his entire big-league career he fanned only 121 times in 851 games. In 1918, he appeared in the World Series again, as the Cubs lost to the Boston Red Sox in six games. He did not repeat his heroics of the 1914 series and went only 3-for-17. After the Series, in response to Secretary of War Newton Baker’s work-or-fight order, Deal worked at the Allegheny Steel Company plant in Brackenridge, Pennsylvania. He returned to the Cubs in 1919 for three more seasons. In May 1921 he was hit on the nose by a batted ball and missed several days.

Deal played his final major-league game on October 2, 1921, at the age of 29. In April 1922 he was sent to Los Angeles of the Pacific Coast League to complete a multiplayer deal made the previous December. He played for Los Angeles, Vernon, and Portland in the PCL from 1922 through 1925. In 1926 and 1927 Deal was with the New Orleans Pelicans in the Southern Association. Apparently, minor-league pitching was more to his liking than the major-league variety, for he hit better than.300 in six of his seven seasons in Class A and Double-A ball.

While at Providence in 1913, Deal married a Rhode Island woman named Mary. They had no children. The couple lived in his native Wilkinsburg until about 1920, when they moved to Pasadena, California. After his retirement from baseball, Deal’s occupation was listed variously as salesman, realtor, collector, and storeroom keeper. He kept an interest in baseball into his old age. After the major leagues voted to expand to 12 teams each for 1969, Deal wrote to the National Baseball Hall of Fame: “I hope these changes being made are for the betterment of Base Ball, but I have some doubt. Too many clubs and not enough Big League Players. Cut the Pitchers box to 10” high and gloves to size we used in our day.” 5

Charles Albert Deal died in a rest home in Covina, California, on September 16, 1979, at the age of 87. He is interred at the Pasadena Mausoleum.

This biography is included in “The Miracle Braves of 1914: Boston’s Original Worst-to-First World Series Champions” (SABR, 2014), edited by Bill Nowlin.

Sources

Charlie Deal player file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

www.ancestry.com

www.baseball-reference.com

www.newspaperarchive.com

Notes

Devore had made one of the greatest catches in World Series history to save a game for the Giants in 1912, and as of 2013 still held a record for the most stolen bases in one inning.

Devore was born in Murray City, Ohio, on November 13, 1887 and was raised on the family farm in the town of New Marshfield, a few miles away. Devore played as much baseball as possible when not doing chores around the family farm and grocery store. Like many boys, he dreamed of a career in professional baseball even though his father actively discouraged it. Nothing his father did, including beatings, could stop Devore from playing ball, at first with local amateur teams, and then with semipro nines.

When Devore reached 17 he moved to Seelyville, Indiana, and clerked in his older brother William’s grocery store while starring in the local semipro leagues. William saw an advertisement in a Terre Haute newspaper from a club in Meridian, Mississippi, seeking a left-handed-hitting outfielder. Devore hit left, threw right, and had already reached his full adult size, 5-feet-6 and 160 pounds. Guy Sample, the Meridian manager, thought Devore was too small, but agreed to give him a chance after William put up a $100 cash guarantee that his brother would make good.

Devore later told a reporter that even William’s cash investment didn’t mean making the Meridian team a sure thing. “It seemed like every aspiring outfielder within two hundred miles of Meridian had hot footed it into town,” Devore said.1 After two weeks of tryouts, Josh made the final three, but he wasn’t sure until the season started that he had won the job. Two weeks after that, William got his money back. Josh’s swiftness on the bases and in the field earned him the nickname the Seelyville Speed Demon.

Devore hit .242 during his first professional season, and proved the accuracy of his nickname by stealing 33 bases. His 1907 season was a carbon copy of the first, with Devore hitting .241 but stealing 35 bases. The New York Globe reported in 1910 that Devore’s fence-busting power in the minors brought him to the attention of a scout for the New York Giants.2 The reporter wrote that the carpenters union in Meridian was very sad about Devore’s leaving, since they would lose the extra money they made from repairing the outfield fence. The pleas of the union notwithstanding, the Giants purchased Devore for $750.

There was some dispute about the Giants’ obligations to the Meridian Club. The Hall of Fame’s files contain letters from Allan Canto, the Meridian club president, to the National Commission complaining that the Giants hadn’t fulfilled the terms of the purchase agreement, and Meridian wanted Devore back.

This is just the first of many contradictions in Devore’s record that makes it difficult to paint a comprehensive picture of him as a man and a ballplayer. Almost every trait attributed to him is contradicted by another account. For example, reporters talk about Devore’s power in the minors, yet he had very little power in the majors. One wonders if Devore’s mercurial nature was caused by his drinking. In his Historical Baseball Abstract Bill James lists Devore as one of the well-known “drinking men” in baseball during the 1910s. It’s possible that these contradictions could be caused by the difference between Devore drunk and sober.

In this case the Giants believed they had purchased Devore, but Meridian disagreed. The dispute ended with Devore the property of the Giants. The Giants’ John McGraw sent Devore to the Newark Indians of the Eastern League for most of the 1908 season, and he hit .290, a good average for the era. He led the league with 91 runs scored and stole 48 bases.

Devore’s manager at Newark was George Stallings, who would soon move up to manage the Highlanders in New York and later traded for Devore when he was managing the Miracle Braves. That team featured some players besides Devore who would play in the majors like Clyde Engel, Oscar Stanage, and Bud Sharpe, but still finished fifth in the Eastern League.

The Giants called Devore up at the end of the season and paid him $175 per month. Devore got into five games for the Giants in 1908. He batted only .167, and in his first game was sent in to pinch-run and was picked off first. He did score his first major-league run, and garnered his first hit and stolen base. Having proved he could play in the majors, even if he had a lot to learn, Devore was probably looking forward to playing a full season in 1909.

While training with the Giants in the spring of 1909, Devore developed appendicitis and was rushed to the hospital. Although newspaper reports said Devore was recovering well, he played in only 22 games that year and hit .143 with three stolen bases. In addition to his health problems, Devore had a foot problem – it ended up “in the bucket” too many times, especially against good southpaws like Slim Sallee. Devore’s front foot would step “in the bucket” rather than straight at the pitcher. In those days before batting helmets, Devore was concerned about getting hit.

As reported by Christy Mathewson, manager McGraw decided Devore needed a special intervention to keep him from shying away from the pitch. One day, after Devore struck out twice against Sallee, McGraw said, “That fellow hasn’t got speed enough to bend a pane of glass at home plate. … Go up there next time and get hit and see if he can hurt you. If you don’t get hit you’re fined $10.”

Josh responded to the $10 incentive by getting hit. He trotted to first base smiling. “What’d I say?” asked McGraw from the coaching box. “Could he hurt you?”

“Say,” Josh said, “I’d hire out to let them pitch baseballs at me if none of them could throw harder than that guy.”3 Devore batted with much more confidence after that, so much so that McGraw began playing him against both righties and lefties.

A healthy, speedy Devore returned to the Giants for the 1910 season. He played regularly in the outfield, hitting a career-high .304, with 10 triples, 2 home runs, and 43 stolen bases, fifth in the NL McGraw planned to split the position between Devore and Beals Becker, but Devore played well enough to take the majority of playing time. Devore became the leadoff hitter and main table-setter for the team, which finished second to the Chicago Cubs in 1910 but was about to win three straight pennants. Manager McGraw loved to use the running game during this part of the Deadball Era. Devore was one of several speedsters on the team.

In his classic Pitching in a Pinch, Christy Mathewson wrote about the impact of Devore and the other Giants runners, Fred Snodgrass, Red Murray, Fred Merkle, and Larry Doyle. He said, “Once they get on the bases they were like loose mercury. They couldn’t be caught. McGraw stole his way to a pennant with this quintet of runners.”4

Mathewson writes in more detail about basestealing technique. “If Devore sees Huggins of St. Louis behind the base he slides in front and pulls his body away from the bag so that he leaves the smallest possible area to touch. If he observes the baseman cutting inside to block him off, he goes behind and hooks it with just one toe, again presenting the minimum touching surface.”5 While we can’t credit Devore with the invention of the hook slide, because Mathewson thought this technique was worth mentioning, we may be able to credit Devore as one of its earliest and most successful practitioners.

In 1911 Devore, although by some accounts the smallest man in the National League, made a big contribution to the Giants’ pennant win. He led off most games, hit .280, scored 96 runs, and led this team of speed demons with 61 steals. The Giants won the pennant by 7½ games over the second-place Cubs. Writing after the 1911 season, Mathewson gave Devore great credit for his success in pressure situations. “Josh Devore is an in-and-out batter, but he is a bulldog in a pinch and is more apt to make a hit in a tight place than when the bases are empty,” Mathewson said. “He is the type of ball player who cannot be rattled.”6

Devore’s reported love of gambling may have helped him develop his coolness under pressure. He liked to gamble on the basepaths and in the field, and apparently off the field as well. Several sources said Devore was so fond of gambling that he would have no money left at the end of the season. Yet during his major-league career it was also reported that Devore spent his offseasons in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he owned a boxing club. If he had no money at the end of each season, how did he have money left to buy a business?

Devore may have been cool in the clutch, but off the field he appeared to some to be an overly trusting soul. On the train to the 1911 World Series he was very excited to meet Ty Cobb and talk hitting with him. “Gee,” Devore said to one of his teammates when they got off the train, “that fellow Cobb knows a lot about hitting. He told me some things about the American League pitchers just now and he didn’t know he was doing it.”7 Cobb gave him a lot of details about Eddie Plank, who was scheduled to start the first game.

Cobb may have targeted Devore because, as is quoted in the book Busting ’Em and Other Big League Stories, Cobb said, “Devore was a good money player, able to rise to the occasion.” In the event, Plank started the second game, not the first. Based on Cobb’s inside information, Devore went confidently to bat four times against Plank and four times struck out. Cobb liked Plank, and deliberately misled Devore. Devore hit only .167 as the Giants lost the Series in six games to Connie Mack’s Philadelphia A’s. He also went 0-for-3 in stolen-base attempts and struck out eight times. Although disappointing, Devore’s Series average was still higher than those of fellow speed merchants Snodgrass, Merkle, and Murray.

The Giants repeated as NL champions in 1912. Devore played both left field and right field, batted 327 times in 106 games, and hit .275 with 66 runs scored and 27 stolen bases. On June 20 he stole four bases in one inning. The Giants defeated the Braves 21-12, and during a long rally in the ninth, Devore singled twice and stole second and third each time. This is still reported as fact by several sources, although it was also disputed by some researchers 50 years after it occurred.

What is certain is that Devore remained a key member of this Giants club that won its second consecutive pennant and this time played a strong Boston Red Sox team. Sportswriters called the 1912 Series a classic as soon as it ended, and it still featured on many lists of the greatest World Series of all time.

Devore led off and scored the first run of the series in the third inning of Game One. He singled, went to third on a single by Doyle, and both of them scored on a single by Red Murray. That put the Giants up 2-0 against Smoky Joe Wood, but the New Yorkers couldn’t hold on and lost the game, 4-3. The Series moved to Fenway Park for Game Two, which ended in a tie, called on account of darkness. Devore didn’t play in Game Two.

Devore saved Game Three in Fenway for the Giants with what is considered one of the greatest catches in World Series history. Rube Marquard, who had set a record for the most consecutive games won in a season earlier that year, was pitching for the Giants and took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth. Marquard got Tris Speaker to pop for the first out. Duffy Lewis followed with a grounder in the hole to first baseman Merkle, who flipped to Marquard, covering. Marquard, his attention on the throw, felt for first with his foot but couldn’t find it and Lewis was safe with a hit. Gardner doubled Lewis in. Boston manager Jake Stahl, up next, grounded back to the pitcher who got Gardner at third, leaving a runner on first and two down. Stahl pinch-ran for himself with Olaf Henriksen. Merkle booted a grounder by the next batter, Heinie Wagner, which put runners on first and third. More than 34,000 “cranks” in Fenway were screaming as Wagner stole second, putting runners on second and third with two out.

Boston catcher Hick Cady came to the plate and hit a hard liner to deep right. With two outs, Wagner and Henriksen took off at the crack of the bat with the tying and winning runs. Devore started running toward the ball with his back to the plate but he appeared to many observers to have no chance. The Red Sox were already celebrating their win when Devore caught up to the ball. He just barely got his glove on it, tipped the ball in the air, and caught it with his bare hand for the final out. Tris Speaker, writing a column in the Boston Globe after Game Three, said, “The catch was as good as any I ever saw.”8 This spectacular play saved the victory and tied the Series.

Devore led off seven of the eight games. His .250 batting average was fifth highest on the team, and his .419 on-base percentage tied Chief Myers for the lead among position players. He led the team in steals with four. During the (infamous for Giant fans) Eighth Game, which the Giants lost in the bottom of the tenth due to errors of commission and omission, Devore went 1-for-3, with two walks, scored the first run, and caught several balls in the outfield. He didn’t make any of the key mistakes that lost the game in the bottom of the tenth inning.

Devore started slowly in 1913, hitting .190 in his first 16 games. McGraw had another young outfielder, George Burns, whom he preferred to play. On May 22 McGraw sent Devore, third baseman Heinie Groh, pitcher Red Ames, and $20,000 to the Reds for pitcher Art Fromme. The Giants won their third straight pennant, and Devore hit a respectable .267 with 17 stolen bases for the Reds until August 22, when the Reds sold him to the Phillies. Devore hit .282 in 22 games for the Phils.

Devore had a productive 1913 despite his travels, and started well for the Phils in part-time duty in 1914, hitting .302 in 30 games. Braves manager George Stallings, looking for a speedy left-handed-hitting outfielder to platoon in his current lineup, traded infielder Jack Martin to the Phils for his former Newark Eagles star on July 3. The Braves, in last place at the time, stunned the baseball world by moving from the basement to first before the end of the season.

The acquisition of Devore allowed Stallings to platoon at all outfield positions. Devore hit only .227 during the Miracle Braves’ stretch run, but walked enough for a .327 on-base average in his 51 games. Although Devore was known as a good fielder with the Giants, it was said that manager Stallings would turn his back when the ball was hit to him, as if he couldn’t stand watching. That led some to think Stallings had no confidence in Devore’s fielding, but the real reason was Stallings’ superstitious nature. Stallings had turned his back the first time Devore caught a ball, and he kept doing it for the rest of the season as the Braves surged to the pennant.

The pennant chase didn’t keep Devore from enjoying himself when the opportunity presented. In Run, Rabbit, Run, Rabbit Maranville tells a story about going to a party at a rich man’s house in Pittsburgh with Devore and teammates Hank Gowdy, Bill James, Boss Schmidt, and some others. The host offered his guests bourbon, wine, beer, and other liquors. Rabbit and Schmidt tried to stick to beer but succumbed to temptation, while Devore and Gowdy drank nothing but scotch with champagne chasers. The next day, Rabbit and Schmidt were very hung over, but Devore and Gowdy appeared in great shape. They attributed their good health to the combination of scotch and champagne, for which they must have developed quite a tolerance. Maranville, even hung over, hit the home run that won the game.9

Devore only got one at-bat during the Braves’ upset victory over the A’s in the World Series. He struck out, in what was to be his last major-league appearance. The Braves released Devore before the next season.

With the Federal League still active as a third major league, a player with Devore’s speed and record with winning teams would have had a good chance to find a major-league job. Instead of trying out for more teams, Devore bought stock in a minor-league team in Chillicothe, Ohio, near his hometown, and became player-manager for the 1915 season. This decision looks very curious from today’s perspective, but the difference between the majors and minors wasn’t as sharp in 1915 as it is now. A successful minor-league team could make money and pay salaries to some players comparable to those on major-league teams. After playing for four major-league teams in two years, Devore may have wanted the security of knowing he’d stay with the same team for a year. If so, that wasn’t how things worked out, since the Chillicothe Babes franchise fell apart in 1915 and Devore ended up playing for other minor-league teams that year and for many years afterward.

Devore’s ability to buy into the Chillicothe franchise is another fact that makes one wonder how much he actually gambled during the season. If he gambled away his salary every season, he couldn’t have saved enough money to invest in the club. Devore may have been smarter about his wagers than his teammates gave him credit for. All the sources do agree that Devore was an easygoing young man who played hard, made friends easily, enjoyed himself off the field, and made the most out of his speed and baseball ability.

Devore hit .306 his first year back in the minors. He would call Chillicothe home for the rest of his life. In 1916 Phillies manager Pat Moran brought Devore to spring training but he couldn’t win a job with the reigning NL champions. Moran sold Devore to Milwaukee in the American Association. Devore hit .244 in 46 games for Milwaukee, and went to Topeka in the Western League, where he hit .301 and stole 19 bases. He moved with the franchise to Joplin in 1917 and hit .280 with 20 stolen bases. Devore played another nine years in the minors, with some time out for military service during World War I.

Devore enlisted in the Army in 1918 and didn’t play in Organized Baseball. He jumped back into the American Association in 1919, hitting .310 for Indianapolis, and in 1920 started the first of five consecutive years with Grand Rapids, Michigan. Devore hit for good averages and stole bases even as he approached his late 30s. He hit .344 and .355 in 1920 and ’21 while managing the team. In 1924, his last year in Grand Rapids, he hit .278 at the age of 36. In 1925 Devore returned to Chillicothe, where he managed restaurants and lunchrooms and worked as a grocer, the same job he had when he started his baseball career. He lived in Chillicothe for the rest of his life.

Devore and his wife, Catherine, had one daughter, Patricia, who became a national swimming champion. Patricia married William Harkness, who was Yale’s lacrosse coach and later athletic director in the 1950s. Devore died in Chillicothe on October 6, 1954, a month before his 67th birthday. He is buried in the New Marshfield Cemetery. His obituary was on the front page of the Chillicothe Gazette, which called Devore the greatest ballplayer in the town’s history.

This biography is included in “The Miracle Braves of 1914: Boston’s Original Worst-to-First World Series Champions” (SABR, 2014), edited by Bill Nowlin.

Sources

Arnoff, Jason, and Dave Anderson, Going, Going, Caught: Baseball’s Great Outfield Catches (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2009).

Caruso, Gary, The Braves Encyclopedia (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995).

Cobb, Ty, Busting ’Em and Other Big League Stories (New York: EJ Clode 1914).

Gay, Timothy M., Tris Speaker: The Rough & Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005).

Honig, Donald, Baseball America (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985).

Hynd, Noel, The Giants of the Polo Grounds (New York: Doubleday, 1988).

Maranville, Rabbit, Run, Rabbit, Run: The Hilarious and Mostly True Tales of Rabbit Maranville (Phoenix: SABR, 2012).

Mathewson, Christy, Pitching in a Pinch (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press Edition of 1912 book, 1994).

Spalding’s official baseball guide, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915.

Vaccaro, Mike, The First Fall Classic: The Red Sox, the Giants and the Cast of Players, Pugs and Politicos Who Re-Invented the World Series in 1912 (New York: Anchor Books, 2010).

Baseball Magazine

Chillicothe (Ohio) Gazette

Rock Hill (South Carolina) Herald

Terre Haute (Indiana) Tribune

Baseball Hall of Fame Archives, Josh Devore file. Contains several newspaper clippings from various newspapers. The names of the papers are not listed in the file.

Baseball-reference.com

Notes

Brainy, quick-witted, and shrewd, Jake Dugey made his mark in the dugout, first as an aide to George Stallings on the 1914 “Miracle Braves,” then with Pat Moran’s Phillies, and later as a coach with Bill Killefer’s Chicago Cubs. The Boston Herald said, “Oscar knows baseball as played in the National League as even Pat Moran or John McGraw. You can say no more.” The Wilkes-Barre Times said Dugey “knows more baseball than lots of veterans nearly twice his age.” Renowned as a bench jockey, Dugey was also “one of the craftiest interpreters of signals in either major league,” according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The third of six children born to Oscar J. and Mattie Belle (Greene) Dugey, Oscar Joseph Dugey was born on October 25, 1887, in the East Texas town of Palestine. His father was born and raised on a Patterson, Louisiana, sugar plantation owned by his mother and grandfather. He married Mattie, a native of Louisville, Kentucky, in Palestine in July 1879. She was said to be a descendant of Virginia’s Robert E. Lee family. A year later he was working as a grocery clerk; by the turn of the century, the elder Dugey, known as O.J., was one of Anderson County’s most prominent citizens.

In December 1907, the Palestine Daily Herald called O.J. “perhaps the oldest Palestine merchant”; he was the proprietor of the Original Sample Store, a dry goods establishment on Main Street. He was also one of the founders of the Palestine Salt and Coal Company and a powerful member of the Democratic Party in Texas. During the gubernatorial campaign of 1906, O.J. stumped for Thomas M. Campbell, leading the Daily Herald to dub Dugey “the most demonstrative Campbell man in Texas.” When the governor-elect offered him an appointment in his new administration, O.J. turned it down, saying that he had supported Campbell “from principle and not for office.” He continued to be active in local affairs, among others petitioning for new public roads and canvassing businessmen for donations for a new ballpark. Unfortunately, O.J.’s business affairs went awry, causing him to file for bankruptcy shortly before Christmas 1907. A few days later, on January 6, 1908, he died suddenly at his home.

Mattie Dugey didn’t live in her husband’s shadow and outlived him by nearly 48 years. According to the Palestine Daily Herald, she was “a brilliant [play] writer”; her obituary in the Dallas Morning News noted that “several of them [are] on file at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.” In 1906, she traveled to Dallas to try to sell a play entitled Louisiana Before the War. The Morning News featured a photo of her in 1924 when there was a reading of Maelstrom, a work that “received much favorable mention.” Mrs. Dugey moved to Dallas in 1912, a few years after O.J.’s death and after selling the family home at 1211 S. Sycamore. The Daily Herald called it “one of the prettiest homes in Palestine.”

Oscar Dugey learned baseball from his brother Elmo, who was four years older. Elmo was labeled by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as “almost as good as his brother [Oscar]” in 1912 and was reported to have “received a number of very flattering offers to go into the professional ranks, [but] has refused to consider them, and plays only for the sport and the game.” Like his brother Oscar, Elmo was a second baseman. He managed the Washer Brothers team in the Fort Worth Commercial League and hit .356 in 1911.

According to the Palestine Daily Herald, “(Oscar) Dugey got his preliminary training in the baseball world in this city when he was a member of the Palestine champion team of a few years ago.” This might be a reference to the 1905 team, which the paper referred to as “all-professional, with the exception of little Dugey on second, who is as good as any of them.” An account of a 1-1 ten-inning tie with Tyler said, “Dugey at second made two fine stops.” In 1906, Dugey played second base for the semiprofessional Groesbeck team (31-9) of the Southwest Texas League, earning $30 a month. It was about this time that he acquired the nickname Stump. Dugey split his time in 1907 between the Tulia North Texas League semipro club (earning $50 a month) and the Palestine Elks. After a 1-0 Palestine win over Tyler in July, the Daily Herald said, “Broyles, Dugey, Hearne and Bowdon make a fast infield, and very few balls get by this quartette.” The Fort Worth Star-Telegram mentioned that Oscar was a student at Brantley-Draughon Business College in Fort Worth, probably in 1908, where he played with the student team, soon becoming a star in the local city league.

Oscar broke into Organized Baseball in July 1908 with the Waco Navigators of the Texas League. He played third base in a 3-1 win over San Antonio on July 10, batting 0-for-3. The Star-Telegram said “Dugey … played brilliantly at third base” while taking the place of player-manager Bill Yohe, who was sidelined with malaria. One of his best games was three days later, a 2-for-4 performance with a double and a run in a 4-0 victory over San Antonio. Dugey, now called “Kid” by Texas newspapers, didn’t continue his brilliant play over the rest of his 27 games, hitting .164 and fielding an unimpressive .880, posting ten errors and finishing 17th of 23 third basemen in the league.

Back with Waco in 1909 for his second of six seasons, Kid Dugey got his first taste of major-league competition in an exhibition game against New York on March 7. The Giants prevailed, 7-1, but Dugey scored the Navigators’ only run after hitting a triple in the third inning. The Daily Herald said Dugey “was the star attraction of the game, and was given an ovation by the Waco fans and made the Giants take notice of his work.” 

Meanwhile, other papers were noticing Dugey’s work. In late April, the Galveston Daily News called him “a gabby but good natured piece of baggage—not excess, either, for he is one of [manager Ben] Shelton’s best men.” After a 12-5 shellacking of Dallas on May 31, the Morning News said, “This Kid Dugey seems to be some ‘pumpkins’ with the stick. He got hits three trips out of four yesterday and most of his wallops came when men were on the sacks.” By the end of the season, Dugey, who had moved from third base to second, had shown marked improvement from his first year, hitting .250 for the last-place Navigators (51-91). His fielding was only marginally better, with an .895 percentage and 51 errors in 106 games, tied for last among the 15 second basemen in the league.

Dugey had to deal with health issues early in 1910, missing part of spring training with the measles and enduring an early May spike wound so serious that a doctor from the grandstand insisted that only a quick transport to the hospital via automobile, not a trolley or horse and buggy, would do. Once he was back in the lineup, Kid hit his stride and was being carefully watched by major-league clubs. In early July, the Beaumont Enterprise and Journal noted that “Dugey is playing excellent ball for Waco. It looks as if he is due to be called to a faster team. He is wasting his talents there.” His defense was improved, as evidenced by his play in a 6-1 win over Houston on July 16. According to the Morning News, “A feature was the playing of Dugey at second, fifteen chances without an error.” A week later, in a 7-6 loss to Oklahoma City, Dugey’s offensive talents were on display as he went 3-for-3 and stole home.

By early August, last-place Waco was disposing of as many players as possible. Deals for Dugey were at the forefront, and it was reported that he was on his way to either the Chicago White Sox or the Cleveland Naps. Wilson Matthews, a former minor-league manager and then Texas League umpire, told the Oklahoma City Daily Oklahoman, “Dugey is the best second baseman in the Texas League. …. He has been hitting well and has been playing grand ball with a tail-end club. … I believe that he has one of the brightest futures of any infielder in the circuit today. Youth, speed, a good batting eye, are all points in his favor.” In mid-August, the Dallas Morning News announced its Texas League All-Star team, with Dugey as the second baseman. Oscar had hit .237 in 114 games, but the Star-Telegram said “[he] is hitting at a .300 clip now and has been steadily improving for a month. … He is in the upper class of base runners.”

The deals to send Kid Dugey to the majors never materialized. Instead, he was purchased on August 22 by manager Charley Frank of the Southern Association’s first-place New Orleans Pelicans. Early reports said Dugey was setting the Southern Association afire with his hitting. He was 1-for-3 with a run in his debut, a 6-1 win over Nashville on August 28. Three days later, the Star-Telegram reported that “New Orleans is so pleased with Dugey that Charley Frank is now after [Waco’s] Jack Onslow and Harry Storch.”

New Orleans eventually cooled on Dugey as his overall game was not up to Southern Association speed; he was hitless in over half his games, and his wild throw to the plate allowed two runs to score in the first inning of a 4-0 loss to Chattanooga on September 10. When the season ended, the Pelicans (87-53) won the pennant and Kid had hit .138 in 19 games. On December 28, 1910, the Pelicans sent him back to Waco.

Appointed captain of the 1911 Navigators by manager Ellis Hardy, Dugey, now known also as Jake, had a difficult early season. On April 20, he protested an Oklahoma City runner scoring on an overthrow of first base and was ejected and fined. The next day, in a 4-3 loss, he severely broke his ankle sliding into third base and didn’t return to action until May 30. Three days later, Dugey’s two-run homer in the eighth inning was the winning blow in a 3-1 victory over Dallas. Shortly thereafter, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram was reporting that major-league scouts were hovering around Waco watching the work of Dugey and two others. On July 20, the Star-Telegram selected him as the second baseman for its midseason All-Star team. Final averages showed that Kid’s batting average had slipped to .219 in 110 games for fifth-place Waco. His fielding continued to improve, though, as he recorded a .960 percentage, placing him in the upper echelon of Texas League second basemen.

In mid-November 1911, the Star-Telegram reported that “Vic Miller … and Oscar Dugey, the clever little second sacker of the Navigators, have formed a partnership in a pool hall business down in Waco. Rumor has it that the pair are doing a grand business.”

On March 17, 1912, Dugey served notice that he was ready for major competition with a 4-for-6 exhibition-game performance against the Chicago White Sox. According to the Star-Telegram, “Dugey’s hitting was the feature.” His daring and speed on the basepaths was on exhibit on April 14 as he stole three bases in a 6-5 win over Dallas. Two weeks later, he singled in the third and then stole second, third, and home for the Navigators’ first run in a 4-1 victory over Austin.

Kid’s fielding and hitting had also improved. After a doubleheader split with Dallas on July 4, the Morning News reported that “Dugey beat down several fast drives that were labeled hits.” After a 3-1 win over Houston on July 22, the Morning News said, “Dugey’s fielding was sensational.” He was equally adept with the bat in July; in a doubleheader split with Galveston on the 18th, Kid was a combined 5-for-9 with five runs, a triple, and a home run. He was 2-for-3 with a run in a 3-0 win over Austin on the 29th. According to the Morning News, “The feature of the game was a three-base hit by Dugey, which was but little above the ground the entire distance.”

Waco’s third-place finish (82-63) was the best of Dugey’s tenure with the Navigators. His average improved to .250 in 145 games and he led the league in stolen bases with 54; he was fifth in runs with 85. On defense, he led the league in total chances at second base with 831 and posted a .951 percentage.

In 1913, Dugey’s stunning season paved the way for his rise to the majors. In 137 games at leadoff, he hit a personal best .279 (11th in the league), scored 85 runs (second), and stole a league-record 71 bases; his .955 fielding percentage was second among second basemen. Perhaps his finest game was on May 30 in a 3-2 win in 15 innings over Fort Worth. Dugey scored all of Waco’s runs, was 5-for-7 with two doubles at the plate, and stole two bases. Another stellar outing came on June 22 in a 5-0 victory against Houston; Dugey was 3-for-4 with a double, three runs scored and four stolen bases. Sporting Life said, “Dugey led the attack. … [his] sensational baserunning was the feature.” Other examples were abundant. He had at least three hits in ten other games, invariably coupled with scoring one or more runs, while stroking an extra-base hit and adding a stolen base or two. Sometimes it was just contributing a key blow; on June 2, his home run to deep left in the sixth was all Waco needed in a 2-0 win over Fort Worth.

The first indication that Jake was about to move up to the majors came in mid-June when Sporting Life reported that umpire Wilson Matthews had offered the Waco Base Ball Association $2,000 for Dugey, an offer that was neither accepted nor declined. The paper said, “It is rumored that Matthews wants Dugey for the Philadelphia Americans.” The answer came on August 13 when Waco sold him to the National League’s Boston Braves for $2,000, to be effective at the end of the Texas League season.

In reviewing Dugey’s game after the sale, Sporting Life said, “Dugey has been the leader of the Waco attack since he first became a member of the squad … [and] hitting close to a .400 clip for the past few games. No Waco player has ever achieved a greater popularity than ‘Stumpy.’ [H]e has earned this place. … His defensive work is on a line with his attack. A large number of the most thrilling catches of Texas League games have been executed by [Dugey].” 

Dugey made his major league debut in the first game of a doubleheader in Cincinnati on September 13. Reds manager Joe Tinker and Boston shortstop Rabbit Maranville had a first-inning fistfight and were escorted off the field by the umpires; Dugey took Maranville’s place and was 2-for-5 with a run against Reds pitcher Red Ames. Cincinnati won the game 5-4 in 11 innings. Dugey also played in the darkness-shortened second game, a 1-0 (5 innings) Boston win, and was hitless in two at-bats. He had ten chances in the field in the two contests and recorded two errors. Two days later, the Boston Globe said, “Dugey …. made a good impression.” He made three other appearances for the 1913 Braves, two as a pinch-hitter, drawing a walk and striking out. His average for five games was .250. 

In December 1913, the Morning News reported that Jake Dugey had visited relatives in Dallas and was on his way to Shreveport to visit his sister. A few days later, the Portland Oregonian said that Dugey would be spending the winter in Los Angeles, one of 16 major-league players who would vacation in the area.

In February 1914, the Boston Globe labeled Dugey “an infielder of considerable promise,” but his real on-the-field value was as a substitute for Johnny Evers at second; otherwise, he was a utility outfielder/pinch-hitter/pinch-runner. Given the opportunity, he was capable of making a contribution; Braves manager George Stallings inserted him as a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning of a scoreless game in Pittsburgh on May 12 and Jake came through with an RBI single. The game ended in a 1-1 tie after ten innings because of rain. On July 13, Dugey’s two-run homer in the top of the 12th inning, his only four-bagger in the majors, was the winning margin in an 8-7 win in St. Louis. Sporting Life called the home run “lucky,” saying, “[it] ordinarily would have been a good double, but Dolan fielded it poorly and it rolled to the fence.” Another key hit came on September 11 against Philadelphia. With the Braves trailing by a run going into the ninth, manager Stallings sent Dugey to the plate as a pinch-hitter. He singled, moved to second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on Possum Whitted’s single, and scored the tying run on Maranville’s sacrifice fly. Whitted scored the winning run in the 6-5 victory. The win enabled Boston to stay 2½ games ahead of New York. Dugey hit .193 in 58 games and only twice had more than one hit in a game.

In early August, Sporting Life reported that Dugey and Rabbit Maranville had met on July 22 with officials of the Pittsburgh Federal League club, which wanted both to sign contracts and immediately jump to their team. The paper said, “The two players were willing to sign with the Pittsburgh Federal Club for next year, but positively refused to jump at this time.”

Jake Dugey’s off-the-field work was his biggest contribution to the worst-to-first rise of the Miracle Braves of 1914. According to author David Cataneo, “Stallings obsessively kept the dugout free of pigeons, peanut shells, gum wrappers, and bits of paper. Opposing players threw peanuts to attract pigeons. [Stallings] assigned infielder Oscar Dugey to shoo away the birds, and Dugey claimed his career was shortened by a sore arm caused by heaving pebbles at pigeons.” He was also Stallings’ “jinx-killer.” Dugey once told the Star-Telegram that Stallings hated to have strangers staring into the Braves dugout. One of Dugey’s duties was to stretch out a tarpaulin to cut off the intruders’ view. One stranger got so close that Stallings ordered Jake to “bust his nose, douse him with water, do anything you want, but get him away before he hoodoos us!” Dugey rushed away to get a bucket but returned to find that the stranger had taken the hint and left before Dugey came back.

Dugey didn’t play in the 1914 World Series against the Philadelphia Athletics. As the Saturday Evening Post told it, “the defeat of the Athletics … in four straight World Series games was accomplished largely by the Boston [bench] jockeys. … Stallings hired three utility infielders, Dugey, Billy Martin, and Eddie Fitzgerald, whose chief value to the team was rattling the smug Athletics. Dugey, who had a dead arm and was never a good hitter, kept a little black book on the temperamental weaknesses of every player.” He told the Dallas Morning News in 1950, “[We] dug up more dirt on those players than anybody dreamed existed.”

Another of Dugey’s specialties was flashing and stealing signs. According to Dugey, “The A’s were so cocky they didn’t even bother to scout us Braves. Chief Bender figured they were about the best sign-stealers in the business. We gave him plenty to work on. The Braves had three or four completely different sets of signals. We’d use one set about two or three innings and then switch. The Athletics nearly went crazy trying to get those signals down. Two or three players were picked off at second when they got too busy watching for signals instead of our pitchers.”

After the sweep, it was a busy winter for Jake and the rest of the Braves. Some of the players remained in New England for the fall and played basketball. Sporting Life said that “Evers is … a star at the cage game, and Maranville … is also a wonder at this sport. Dugey is reported to be the best basket ball player in New England.” Then there was the matter of spending his World Series winners’ share — $2,812; Dugey used his money to buy a farm near his home in Palestine. He also visited friends and family in Dallas during the Christmas holidays. According to the Morning News, Dugey “has a host of friends, in fandom and out of it, who are watching his career.” An avid hunter, fisherman, and trap shooter, Dugey hosted a deer hunt for several players in Pittsburg, Texas, after the Christmas holidays.

Dugey was on a hunting trip near Shreveport on February 13, 1915, when he received a telegram from Braves president James E. Gaffney informing him that he been traded to the Philadelphia Phillies three days earlier as part of a December 24 deal that sent Sherry Magee to Boston. Philadelphia also received Possum Whitted on February 14.

A Star-Telegram story said Dugey didn’t like the idea of leaving a championship club for an also-ran and let Stallings and Phillies manager Pat Moran know it. It was during spring training that Jake asked Whitted why he was sent to Philadelphia; Whitted told him it was because he had recommended Dugey to Moran. Dugey then politely informed Whitted that if Boston won the pennant, he (Dugey) would ship all of his belongings to Whitted’s North Carolina home and spend the winter as a guest. “You’re on,” was Whitted’s reply, “but suppose we win the pennant, then what?” “Not a chance,” Dugey said, “but if we do, I’ll give you $50 to spend for a hunting dog.” 

After spending spring training laid up with injuries, Jake made his first appearance at second base for Philadelphia on April 28, going hitless in a 3-0 win over Brooklyn. He had another start five days later, in a 3-2 loss to New York, hitting 2-for-4 with a double and a steal of home. For the season, Dugey hit .154 in 42 games, mostly as a pinch-hitter and pinch-runner, appearing in just 14 games as a second baseman.

According to the Wilkes-Barre Times, “Pat Moran made him his field lieutenant and his work on the coaching line was pretty smooth.” Phillies pitcher Al Demaree called Dugey “one of the cleverest in the game at grabbing signs from the pitcher.” He was able to recognize the type of pitch from the pitcher’s grip. “By a pre-arranged word-sign … any time Dugey shouted, ‘Make it good’ to the hitter, he knew a curve ball was coming. If [he] told him to ‘crack it,’ he was set for a fast ball.” 

In early June, Dugey visited his mother in Shreveport. According to the Star-Telegram, she was “dangerously ill but is recovering.” He rejoined the team in St. Louis on June 7. The Phillies had a day off on September 22 during a trip to Chicago and catcher Bill Killefer took Dugey and Eddie Burns to his hometown of Paw Paw, Michigan, for the day.

Philadelphia (90-62-1) won the pennant by seven games over Boston. By September 28, Possum Whitted had a $50 check signed by Oscar Dugey and had ordered his hunting dog.

The Phillies lost the 1915 World Series 4 games to 1 to the Boston Red Sox. Jake Dugey appeared in two games as a pinch-runner; in Game Four, at Boston, Fred Luderus singled and drove in Gavvy Cravath from third with two outs in the eighth. Dugey ran for Luderus and stole second on pitcher Ernie Shore and catcher Hick Cady but was stranded a moment later when Whitted grounded out. Jake again appeared with two outs in the eighth inning of Game Five when Cravath walked and was replaced. Whitted again grounded out to end the inning. Called “one of the luckiest players in baseball” by the Washington Post for playing very little for two straight pennant-winners, Dugey pocketed his loser’s share of $2,520.17 and headed to Texas for the winter.

Shortly after the end of the season, catcher Bill Killefer and pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander, then the most famous battery in baseball, joined Dugey to hunt and fish at Ferndale Lake near Leesburg, Texas. After several weeks, Alexander left for his home at St. Paul, Nebraska, with Dugey and Killefer traveling to Dallas to buy supplies, visit with their mothers, and stop by the Morning News office to visit old friends. They returned to their camp by mid-December.

By the end of July 1916, Jake Dugey had the best average on the Phillies, .385 in 19 games according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, “principally acting as an understudy [to Bert Niehoff], coacher, and morning workout man.” On August 20, the Inquirer said, “Dugey … is roosting high these days … topping the Nationalmen in hitting with a snug percentage of .333 made in 23 games. …. To be sure [he] has not made many hits, nor has he been at bat very frequently, but his six hits from eighteen trips to the rubber are sufficient to give him the lead.” Jake’s average fell to .220 in the final weeks of the season as he batted 5-for-32 the rest of the way. His .967 fielding percentage in 12 games was the best of his career.

Jake again spent the winter in Texas, mostly at Leesburg, with Killefer and Alexander joining him on October 17 for several weeks of fishing and hunting.

Dugey wasn’t happy with the contract offered by Phillies president William Baker in 1917. According to Sporting Life, “O.J. suffered a cut in his contract … but on the evidence of his fellow players and the earnest entreaty of Manager Moran, President Baker added the copeks necessary to satisfy Oscar. The Dugey person appears to be one athlete who has been vastly underestimated by both the home fans and the club managers.”

Philadelphia trained at St. Petersburg, Florida, and Dugey had a curious and peculiar way of passing time in the evening, a “sport” he called “flushing chickens.” As told by The Evening Independent, Dugey, who never married, would wait until about 10 o’clock in the evening, take a soft-drink bottle and stroll down to the private pier on the beach front. Walking along, he would soon spot a couple “spooning” and make a quick flash with the bottle, startling the couple. After walking the length of the pier and flashing his bottle several times, he would yell, “This is a private pier and no trespassing is allowed on it. You have all got to get off.” Pair by pair, the couples beat it off the pier and then Oscar would go back to the Edgewater Inn and announce that he had flushed so many chickens. According to the Independent, “If Dugey could make as many base hits as he has chased loving couples off the pier this spring he would lead the National League in batting by a big margin.”

On April 11, Opening Day, Jake (1-for-4) drove in two runs with a third-inning triple in the Phillies’ 6-5 win over Brooklyn. He had an RBI single and scored in an 8-6 victory over Chicago on May 22, enabling Philadelphia to sweep a four-game series and take the National League lead. Sometimes Dugey’s defense let the team down. On August 10, the Philadelphia Inquirer said second baseman Dugey “was shaky on pretty nearly everything that came his way. He dropped Killefer’s good throw on a Jackson steal attempt that ultimately didn’t cost anything. In the seventh King of Pittsburgh reached on Dugey’s muff and eventually scored [the only run in the contest.]” Dugey hit .194 in 44 games with the 1917 Phillies.

With the end of the season, Grover Alexander visited Dugey and his mother in Dallas; they were photographed buying Liberty Bonds at the City National Bank on October 25. After the short visit, the two went to Shreveport for a hunting trip. Dugey later went hunting in East Texas in December with Hamilton Patterson, manager of the Dallas Submarines of the Texas League.

In January, the Racine Journal- News reported that Philadelphia would not offer Dugey a contract for 1918. President Baker, who was cash-strapped and had dealt Alexander and Killefer to the Chicago Cubs in December, wasn’t in the mood to retain his sore-armed utility player and sold him to the St. Paul Saints of the American Association on April 3. Dugey had worked out with players from the Dallas Texas League squad in mid-March and joined the Saints a month later, seeing action in 15 games during April and May, hitting .137, with just two of his seven hits going for extra bases. He was released shortly thereafter.

Jake Dugey was out of Organized Baseball in 1919. Instead, he was hired as captain of the Maxwell Motor Company semipro team based in New Castle, Indiana. In February 1920, the Dallas Morning News announced its All-Time Texas League team and named Jake Dugey as the second team’s second baseman.

George Stallings brought Dugey back to the Boston Braves as a coach in 1920. The Boston Globe said Stallings “was pretty well pleased. He believes Dugey is one of the best men in this respect that he has ever had.” The Columbus Ledger-Inquirer described his role as “see[ing] that the men shape into Stallings’ system of play.” Signed as a player-coach, Dugey appeared in five games as pinch-runner, scoring two runs, for the seventh-place Braves (62-90-1).

Jake made headlines as a coach on April 20, getting into a fistfight with Brooklyn Robins outfielder Hi Myers. According to the Globe, Dugey was loudly advising pitcher Joe Oeschger to “dust them off,” as Myers had struck out with a chance to drive in a run. The normally mild-mannered Myers responded with “some uncomplimentary epithets” to Dugey and the two were soon were exchanging blows, coming to a clinch, and scuffling around on the ground. Neither was damaged but both were ejected from the game. Joe Vila, writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer, concluded that “Myer did wrong …. but Dugey …. was primarily to blame. The practice of ‘riding’ opposing ball players has been characteristic of the Braves ever since Stallings assumed the management. It isn’t clean sport and shouldn’t be tolerated. Stallings tolerates rowdy conduct, while other big league managers can produce winning teams without it.”

Stallings resigned as Boston’s manager after the 1920 season, leaving Jake Dugey without a job. In mid-April 1921, he was signed by the Chicago Cubs to assist manager Johnny Evers, thus reuniting him with his close friends Killefer and Alexander. His most noteworthy act was an ejection from a 6-5 loss at New York on July 9 for registering his disgust with ball and strike calls, picking up a glove at first base and hurling it all the way to the plate.

On July 20, Dugey was given his unconditional release by team president William Veeck. Two weeks later, Veeck fired Johnny Evers and named Killefer the new manager. Killefer told Veeck that he wanted Dugey back in the coach’s box and was willing to forgo his pay raise in order for Jake to return. The Chicago Tribune wrote that Killefer said, “Every player on the team wants Oscar back, and they are willing to chip in to pay his salary.” Veeck immediately added Jake to the roster, explaining that he had been let go “under the Evers management.” Killefer said he “believes the coach will aid the club materially in restoring the old fighting spirit.” The Cubs’ (64-89) seventh-place finish suggests that fighting spirit wasn’t enough to lift them out of the second division.

The 1922 Cubs (80-74) moved up to fifth place under Killefer and Dugey. Jake was ejected from three contests, once, in the words of the Tribune, for “loud talking from the bench” and another “for howling about two decisions on runners at the plate.” On August 1, Killefer’s mother was killed in a Michigan auto accident. Bill left the team for 12 days to be with his family and Oscar Dugey was left in charge of the club, which went 7-4-1 under his guidance.

Dugey again found himself in charge of the club in March 1923, when the Cubs were training on California’s Catalina Island. Killefer was called to Chicago to attend to his seriously ill wife and was again absent for 12 days. In August, the St. Petersburg Times said, “Dugey is doing his stuff again. … [S]tories tell of teams that found their signals were in the hands of the enemy when they played Chicago. … [They] had to change their signals several times a game, and yet they seemed to divine every kind of ball that was pitched. Fingers are pointed at Dugey. …. [T]here is nobody apter in ‘getting’ the stuff of a ball team than Dugey.” 

Jake had his own bout of illness in September when he was hospitalized for ten days with tonsillitis. The 1923 Cubs (83-71) were Killefer’s best club, finishing in fourth place, 12½ games behind the champion Giants.

The 1924 Cubs got off to a good start and were in contention until late June, when Alexander’s wrist was fractured by a line drive. Without his pitching, Chicago fell out of the first division over the next two months and found itself ten games behind the Giants. The Cubs (81-72-1) finished fifth, 12 games in back of New York. On November 23, president Veeck announced that Dugey, who was on a player’s contract, would be released. According to the Tribune, Veeck said, “I like a coach who is more demonstrative in his work. I like to hear them yell on the coaching lines and display a lot of pep and spirit, and Dugey is not that kind of coach.” Norman E. Brown, writing in the New Castle News, countered by saying that “Dugey wasn’t very demonstrative with the Braves back in 1914. He made very little noise while stealing most of the signals that the National League opponents tried to flash around the field.” The News and the Tribune were both of the opinion that other big-league clubs would want him as a coach or that he would wind up managing in the Texas League.

Neither possibility materialized. Jake was next spotted attending the 1925 World Series with Killefer in Pittsburgh. Four years passed before he was mentioned in the press again; in July 1929, the Dallas Morning News noted that Dugey, who made Dallas his home, was employed as a Texas League scout for Montreal of the International League. A year later, the Olean Evening News reported that Oscar was the “constant companion and loudest rooter” for noted alcoholic Pete Alexander, who was attempting an ill-fated comeback with the Dallas Steers. “Pete has the stuff,” Oscar said, “There is not a minor league batter who can hit him when he keeps himself fit. If Pete keeps in training, he still has plenty of years to play.” Alexander’s comeback lasted five games, with a 1-2 record, 46 baserunners in 24 innings, and an 8.25 ERA.

Dugey had several jobs after he was out of Organized Baseball. A 1934 New York Times retrospective on the 1914 Braves said that he was in the electrical business in Dallas. Dallas city directories from the late 1930s and 1940s show Dugey working for the Ball Motor Company, a business that rebuilt wrecked cars. Perhaps Jake’s last connection with baseball was in March 1940, when he worked with former minor-league pitcher Roe Ikard at Harry Wanderling’s baseball camps for boys, a month-long series of conditioning, skill-based workouts, and daily practice games.

Jake Dugey spent his later years living at the Ambassador Hotel in Dallas. A March 1965 Denton Record-Chronicle article mentioned that he had suffered a stroke in 1962 that left him with impaired vision. A retired painter, he died at Parkland Hospital on January 1, 1966, after he fell and fractured his hip, an injury that was exacerbated by pneumonia and chronic lung disease. He was survived by three sisters, Dimple Whited, Gennevieve Phillips, and Virginia Marshall, and a brother, Frank. Dugey is buried at Oakland Cemetery in Dallas.

Sources

In addition to the newspapers cited in the text, the following sources were used.

Cataneo, David. Peanuts and Crackerjack: A Treasury of Baseball Legends and Lore (Nashville: Rutledge Hill Press, 1994), 79-80.

Macht, Norman L. Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007), 634.

Frank, Stanley. “Rough Riders of the Dugouts,” The Saturday Evening Post Vol. 213, Issue 46 (May 17, 1941), 18, 89.

Phelon, William A. “How I Picked the Loser,” Baseball Magazine Vol. XVI, No. 2 (December 1915), 116.

Baseball-reference.com (including SABR minor league database)

Retrosheet.org

Ancestry.com

Rootsweb.com

Texashistory.unt.edu