Agnew shared the catching duties with Schang and Wally Meyer in 1918, catching the most games of the trio. He was known for taking risks trying to throw out baserunners, which contributed to his leading the league in errors twice in three years while with the St. Louis Browns, with 28 errors in 1913; 25 in 1914; and 39 in 1915. In 1918, however, Agnew made only 13 errors, one of the lowest totals of his career, albeit in fewer games.

As a major leaguer, Agnew was never known for his hitting. Playing in 72 games in 1918, the right-handed batting Agnew got only 33 hits in 199 at-bats, finishing the year with a .166 average, no home runs, and six runs batted in. In fact, Agnew never hit better than .235 or drove in more than 24 runs in any of his seven major league seasons.

Samuel Lester Agnew’s first professional baseball experience came in California with Vernon of the Pacific Coast League in 1912. There, the Farmington, Missouri, native had a strong offensive season, hitting .283 with five home runs. His performance caught the eye of the St. Louis Browns, who selected Agnew in the day’s equivalent of the Rule 5 draft. One thing that had caught their eye: He was reported to be the only catcher in the United States who had caught more than 100 games without a passed ball.

Agnew made his major league debut with the Browns two days before his 25th birthday, on Opening Day, April 10, 1913, in a 3-1 St. Louis victory over Detroit. Agnew’s rookie season was his best offensively: The 5-foot-11, 185-pound backstop had a career-high nine doubles and five triples and stole 11 bases. Agnew also hit the only two home runs of his career in 1913, the first a three-run homer off Boardwalk Brown on June 11 and the second a solo homer served up by Russ Ford on July 13 at Sportsman’s Park.

Agnew’s rookie success was short-lived. On July 25, 1913, in a game against the Washington Senators, Agnew suffered a broken jaw after being hit by a Joe Engel fastball. During that game, which ended in an 8-8 tie after 15 innings, Johnson struck out 15 batters in the last 11 innings. Agnew was hospitalized for a week, until August 1; he began work again with the Browns on August 20. He completed the year hitting .208 with the two homers and 24 RBIs. After the regular season was over, Agnew took part in a spirited city championship series in which the Browns beat the Cardinals, the final doubleheader apparently degenerating, as reported in the New York Times to a “fist fight between players, numerous verbal battles between the managers, the desertion of the umpires, and many other existing features.”

Agnew caught more than 100 games in both 1914 and 1915 for the Browns, but the team languished, finishing in seventh place in both seasons. In 1914, he caught 115 games and hit .212, driving in only 16 runs. The following year, he hit .203 in 104 games with 19 RBIs. Incidentally, he led the league in passed balls both years, with 18 and 17 respectively. Once more, the Browns won the St. Louis city series. Agnew made one headline after a bizarre moment on August 18, 1914, when he was called out by the umpire while sitting in the Browns dugout. With two runners on base, when Tilly Walker came up to bat in place of Doc Lavan, umpire Evans noticed that, according to the lineup card, the Browns had been batting out of order. Agnew was supposed to be batting, not Lavan. Agnew was called out and Wallace, who had singled, was removed from first base.

On December 16, 1915, Agnew was sold to the Boston Red Sox, who wanted him to serve as a backup to incumbent catcher Pinch Thomas. He had impressed with his ability to cut down basestealers; in 1915, Agnew had thrown out Harry Hooper six times. Despite his anemic batting average, the Boston Globe termed the new acquisition “a fine all-around player” and asserted that “he is a pretty good batter.” The price was apparently $10,000. League president Ban Johnson announced that the deal would not be allowed to go through, but he was soon forced to back down

Although Agnew played in only 40 games in 1916 with Boston, he was involved in one of the most dramatic incidents of that season. During a June 30 game, Senators shortstop George McBride threw his bat at Boston pitcher Carl Mays, who had hit McBride with a pitch. In the ensuing brawl, Agnew reportedly punched Washington manager Clark Griffith in the face. The outcry was so great that Agnew was arrested on the field, and Boston manager Bill Carrigan was required to bail him out of jail. Fortunately for Agnew, all charges were ultimately dropped.

Agnew and Hick Cady both backed up Thomas throughout the 1916 season. Thomas, Cady, and Carrigan all saw service in the World Series, but Agnew did not. He was, however, the first player to report to Hot Springs for spring training in 1917.

Now 30 years of age, Agnew caught more games than any other Boston catcher in both 1917 and 1918. Appearing in 85 games to Thomas’s 83 in 1917, he hit .208 and drove in 16 runs. In 1918, after a brief holdout in spring training, Agnew appeared in 72 of the season’s 126 games, batting just.166.

Agnew did have his moments in the 1918 World Series: Though hitless in nine at-bats, he threw out three of the four Chicago Cubs baserunners who tried to steal against him and played errorless defense.

As noted above, Agnew and Babe Ruth were among those who played in a three-game exhibition series in Hartford; the final game on September 15 saw Ruth outpitch Dutch Leonard, 1-0, and Agnew single in the winning run in ninth inning of the rubber game.
In March 1919, Agnew was purchased by the Washington Senators. The move was surprising in that the Senators were still managed by Clark Griffith, with whom Agnew had brawled three years earlier. The Washington Post headline read: “Griff Will Have Real Scrapper. Claims Agnew, Red Sox Catcher, Who Punched Him in 1916.” As one contemporary article noted, “Griff is likely to have a little difficulty in getting [Agnew’s] signature to a contract. [Lest] we forget, a couple of years ago, Griff and Sam had a punching match at Fenway Park, which resulted in Sam being grabbed by a man who wears a blue coat and brass buttons.”

The six-year veteran was a known quantity at the time, but it was his work behind the plate — rather than at it –that presented value. The Post noted, “When it comes to slugging, as we know it in baseball, Sam is in the never-was class. Anything over a .200 batting average is as found money to him. But Sam can catch.” His defensive work had improved remarkably during his years in Boston.

With the Senators, Agnew played behind catcher Val Picinich. He caught only 36 games for the seventh-place Senators, appearing in six other games, and batting a career-high .235, with 10 RBIs. But he often served as the preferred catcher for Walter Johnson, because, according to the Post‘s J.V. Fitz Gerald, “he puts plenty of life and ginger in his work, something Johnson likes in a batterymate.”

Agnew’s major league career was over following the 1919 season. In addition to the eventual Hall of Famers who Agnew played with in Boston, Agnew in his career had also been a teammate of Walter Johnson, Branch Rickey, and George Sisler.

Agnew’s career actually got a boost after he left the major leagues. He was purchased by the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League for the 1920 season, where he became, according to his obituary in the August 1, 1951, issue of The Sporting News, “a favorite with the fans in the Bay Area” over what would become almost an eight-year stay with the team. There was a hitch at the start of the long relationship, though, when he balked at the pay he was offered. The Washington Post said he “shocked” the team with his salary demands. The Coast League played a longer season, and Agnew said he would need more than he was paid in the major leagues for that very reason, since he “must hire a man to run his farm for a longer period.”

In four of those seasons, Agnew batted over .300, and he hit more than 10 home runs in a season five times. Agnew was a key contributor to the 1925 Seals team that went 128-71, hitting 20 home runs, driving in 85 runs, and batting .326.
With the Seals, Agnew had the chance to catch Lefty O’Doul, Ernie Shore, and Walter Mails, among others. In the Coast League, Agnew also formed a strong friendship with Seals teammate Archie Yelle, a major leaguer with the Detroit Tigers from 1917 to 1919. Agnew’s obituary in The Sporting News recounted the following incident, as told by Agnew’s good friend, sportswriter Abe Kemp:

“One day, Agnew suspected that Yelle was injured in a close play at the plate. Archie brushed Sam aside when he offered to catch the remainder of the game. After the game Yelle dressed beside [Charley] Graham [the manager of the Seals]. As he took off his right shoe, blood splattered over the floor.

“‘When did you get cut, Arch?’ ” said Graham.

“‘In the second inning,’ ” replied Yelle.

“‘Why didn’t you mention the accident when it took place?’ “

“‘Sam has been working too hard,’ was Yelle’s laconic answer.”

Agnew was ambitious. In late 1922, while playing some winter ball with San Bernardino’s Santa Fe team, he partnered with two area men and organized the San Bernardino Baseball and Amusement Association, which planned to build a ballpark and launch a new Class B or Class C league in Southern California. In January 1923, backed by “unlimited financial interests” (Los Angeles Times), he shifted to trying to purchase the Salt Lake City Bees ballclub and move it to San Bernardino. The move never happened and Agnew kept on playing.

Agnew finished his playing career with Hollywood of the PCL, playing for the Stars at the end of the 1927 season and throughout 1928. At age 41, Agnew finished his playing career and opened a gas station in Boyes Springs, California.

Sam Agnew’s brother was Troy Agnew, who had an accomplished minor league career and was the player-manager for the 1924 Okmulgee Drillers team that had a 110-48 record in the National Association. Troy went on to run the Augusta franchise of the Sally League in the 1930s, and Sam managed. Troy later bought the Palatka Azaleas in the Florida State League.

Troy hired Sam to manage the Azaleas to start the 1937 season. However, according to a July 29, 1937, newspaper account, the Agnew brothers had several run-ins with the local community, “including a report that the city had refused water to [the team] to sprinkle the diamond and police to patrol the park. Now Mayor J.W. Campbell is rallying the citizens to the support of the club as a civic enterprise to show the Agnews the city is behind the team.” Sam Agnew soon left to become the manager of the team in Augusta, under his brother Troy.

In December 1939, Sam Agnew purchased the Meridian, Mississippi, team in the Southeastern League, where “he will be in complete charge next season,” according to one newspaper report. With experience managing minor league teams in San Diego, Augusta, and Palatka under his belt, Sam had taken the next step. The team had been known as the Scrappers since 1937, but fans argued for a name change to something more robust. Sam approved a contest run by the local Meridian Star newspaper to pick a new name, and the team became the Bears for the 1940 season. But the Mississippi team struggled to be economically viable from the start, and Sam publicly proposed relocating the team to Florida, making his tenure as owner a rocky one.

Agnew battled a severe heart condition in his later years. He slipped into what his obituary called a “semi-coma” for months before having a “miraculous” recovery in November 1950. His heart trouble caught up with him, however, and Sam Agnew died on July 19, 1951, at a hospital in Sonoma, California, at the age of 63. He was survived by his wife, Dorothy. Agnew is buried at Chapel of the Chimes Cemetery in Santa Rosa, California.

Sources

Agnew’s bio and World Series information on baseballreference.com, retrosheet.org, 1918redsox.com, baseballalmanac.com, and baseballlibrary.com.

“Sam Agnew, Batterymate for Ruth on Red Sox, Dies: He Caught Both of Babe’s Hill Victories Over Cubs in World Series of 1918,” The Sporting News, August 1, 1951, p. 30.

Several clippings from Sam Agnew’s Hall of Fame newspaper clipping file. Some have neither a title nor an author, but they include clippings from March 7, 1919, and July 29, 1937. Others from the file include:

“Troy Agnew Gives Brother Job,” February 4, 1937.

“Sam Agnew Buys Meridian,” December 21, 1939.

“Agnew’s New Deal Includes New Moniker for Meridian,” February 1, 1940.

“Sam Agnew Wants to Place Meridian Franchise in Florida,” October 24, 1940.

Bader was born on April 27, 1888, in Bader, Illinois, a small railroad town. Some sources list his hometown as Astoria, Illinois, but the Bader birthplace was confirmed by his wife, Lura, in a 1973 letter to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Lura described it as “a small town very near Astoria” that was “settled by the Bader clan. An old uncle was in the logging and lumber business and through him a [railroad] spur was built…”

Bader grew to be 6 feet tall. During his career, his average weight was 175 pounds. Although a righthander on the mound, he batted left-handed. How he earned the nickname “King” is unknown, but his fondness for playing cards won him a second moniker: “Two Pairs.”

During his childhood, Bader moved with his parents to LeRoy, Kansas. Starting in 1908, he began playing for a LeRoy town team. He originally was a first baseman, but one day the LeRoy hurler failed to appear for an important game. Bader volunteered to replace him. Despite his wildness, he emerged victorious–and decided to become a pitcher.

Bader went to work as an assistant cashier in banks in Lenora and Avard, Oklahoma. “But I was too much in love with baseball to settle down to any such business,” Bader told sportswriter T.J. O’Rourke during one of his Red Sox tryouts. “My head would fairly swim after poring over account books all day and I actually dreamed of figures at night.” By August 1909, he was pitching for a town team in Lenora. An item from an unidentified newspaper, published that month, noted, “Bader who pitched a good game in the morning against Cestos, was in the box again for the afternoon game, and the way he made the Mooreland salaried players fan the air was great.”

Bader was eager to become a “salaried player.” On January 5, 1911, he signed his first professional contract, with the Independence Packers in the Western Association, a D-level minor league, and, as he recalled to O’Rourke, he “quit the bank clerking business [forever].” When the league broke up prior to the season’s end he signed with Dallas, where he compiled a 1-1 record in eight games and 45 innings.

Nineteen-twelve was a momentous year for Bader. He returned to Dallas, compiling a 16-14 record in 41 games. He surrendered 215 hits in 273 innings while walking 71 and striking out 123. On June 21, the LeRoy Reporter noted that Bader had married Lura Brutchin in Dallas two days earlier. Then on July 31, New York Giants manager John McGraw announced that the team had purchased the contracts of two hurlers, Al Demaree from Mobile of the Southern Association and Bader of Dallas. In reporting the deal, The Sporting News referred to the hurler as “‘Iron Man’ Bader, the best right-handed pitcher Dallas has this year and one of the best in the Texas League…” On August 15, the Giants played the Cubs in Chicago. “Pitcher Bader of Dallas, Texas, joined the Giants to-day, and warmed up in a Cub traveling uniform,” reported the New York Times. “He is a big, husky athlete, and showed plenty of speed.”

Bader’s big league debut came on September 30, several days after the Giants clinched the NL pennant. It could not have been much more impressive. The 24-year-old tossed a nine-hit, complete game 4-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, besting Grover Cleveland Alexander, who had been vying for his 20th victory. The Boston Globe reported, “Another of McGraw’s recruits showed big league class today at the Polo Grounds….While Bader was hit hard, he always tightened in the pinches, and was at his best with men on bases.” Added the New York Times, under the headline “Giants Try New Pitcher and Win, “Lou [sic] Bader of Dallas, Texas…went to the rubber and showed that he had a backbone of steel under fire.” Damon Runyon described Bader as “a loose-jointed right-hander, who devotes himself to old-fashioned pitching. He appeared to have the limber curves expected of a young man of his occupation, and he also has quite some vapor on the baseball when he drives it through.”

Bader got into one final game that season, pitching a scoreless inning in relief on October 3 against Brooklyn, in one of the final games at Washington Park prior to the christening of Ebbets Field. His major league introduction augured well for Bader. In 10 innings pitched, he allowed just one earned run. His ERA was a snazzy 0.90. The one smudge on his record was his walk-to-strikeout ratio. He struck out three, but handed out six passes.

On December 31, the Giants announced that Bader was one of nine young pitchers invited to the team’s Marlin, Texas, spring training camp. On January 19, 1913, the New York Times ran his picture (along with those of Ferdie Schupp, La Rue Kirby, and Ted Goulait) under the headline “Young Pitchers for the Giants.” “From these four youngsters, and also Al Demaree,” the Times reported, “Manager McGraw expects to be able to pick out a couple of promising additions to his pitching staff next season.”

The Giants received Bader’s signed contract on January 18. Spring training commenced in mid-February and Bader promptly reported to Marlin, where he and his fellow rookies were tutored by Wilbert Robinson, McGraw’s assistant. On March 2, he pitched four shutout innings against Dallas. But his chance to make the team faded when he contracted measles and left training camp for two weeks. He was back by the end of the month; on March 30, he surrendered five hits in four innings’ work against Dallas. Despite his impressive debut the previous season, Bader never again pitched for the Giants. On April 9, as major league teams were finalizing their opening day rosters, McGraw announced that Bader had been released to Dallas. He was the workhorse of the Texas club’s staff that 1913 season, appearing in 46 games, tossing 308 innings, and compiling a 22-12 record. He surrendered 238 hits while walking 90 and striking out 170.

From 1914 to 1916, Bader was a leader on the pitching staff of the International League’s Buffalo Bisons, compiling records of 16-7, 20-18, and 23-8 while taking the mound for, respectively, 39, 48, and 36 games and 224, 334, and 294 innings. During his first season in Buffalo, he likely was tutored on how to toss the soon-to-be illegal emery ball. One of his teammates was Russ Ford, who is credited with perfecting the pitch in 1910.

Bader’s only opportunity to face major league batters in 1914 was in exhibition games. On March 27, he was one of three pitchers who toiled for Buffalo against the New York Yankees in Charlotte, North Carolina. Surely the highlight of his season came on opening day, when he pitched a 13-inning, complete game victory, besting the Baltimore Orioles (then an International League club), 1-0. Then on October 15, he hooked up with no less a personage than Walter Johnson. The Big Train, a native of Humboldt, Kansas, suited up with the Coffeyville nine–described in newspaper reports as “the home-town team”–and faced Bader, pitching for an Independence nine. Not only did Bader win the 1-0 contest, but he singled and scored the lone run on a three-bagger.

Despite these heroics, no big-league club considered Bader for a roster spot. But he was proving to be a steady performer at Buffalo. In an April 28, 1915, preseason game, he spun a four-hit, 3-0 victory against the Providence Grays. Similar heroics followed as the season progressed, with newspaper reports citing Bader as one of the International League’s premier hurlers.

In 1916, the hurler might have returned to the majors with the Red Sox. On January 12, Bill Carrigan, manager of the then-world champs, announced that Bader had been picked up by the team on the recommendation of Patsy Donovan, the Bisons’ skipper. The following day, the Boston Globe reported that “the chances are that [Bader] will get a good try out at Hot Springs [Arkansas].” On February 6, the day after the Bosox received Bader’s signed contract, the Globe ran a photo of the hurler under the headline, “‘King’ Bader, Latest Addition to the Red Sox Pitching Staff.”

Given his record in Buffalo, much was expected of Bader in 1916. “Manager Carrigan has confidence that Bader will show big league form this season and plans to give him a regular berth from the start,” the Globe noted. Boston Herald scribe Burt Whitman reported, “He’s a rookie here in the Red Sox camp…but [he] has the appearance and the self-possession and evidently the self-confidence of the seasoned veteran…” The headline of Whitman’s article described Bader as the “Hercules of the 1915 International league.”

But inconsistency and an injury-plagued spring training doomed his chances to stick with the big club. While warming up in the outfield prior to a March 18 exhibition, Bader severely twisted his knee. Three days later he was back on the field, pitching for the Boston regulars in a six-inning exhibition with the yannigans, and the Globe noted that he “was effective with a slow, dreamy delivery…” On March 26, the paper ran a photo under the headline “This Eleven Comprises the Pitching Staff of the Red Sox, One of the Best in Baseball.” Bader was pictured between two future Hall of Famers, Babe Ruth and Herb Pennock. But on March 29, Bader fared miserably in a six-inning contest pitting the Bosox regulars against the second-stringers. His failure was emphasized in the following day’s Boston Globe game report, which was headlined “Red Sox Jump on ‘King’ Bader.” Bader and Babe Ruth pitched for the second team. Ruth started, and limited the regulars to two hits in three innings. He was relieved by Bader, who promptly was pummeled. He also committed two errors, on a Dick Hoblitzell grounder and a Marty McHale squeeze play. “Bader’s showing was a disappointment,” the Globe wrote, “but a lame arm was undoubtedly responsible. Yesterday he showed signs of having overcome the ‘tied up’ feeling that has characterized his delivery, but today that old kink made its reappearance.”

Bader rebounded on April 11, when he and Herb Pennock combined to five-hit Boston College in a 9-1 victory. At the time, four hurlers were battling for the final spot on the Bosox pitching staff–and he was one of the odd men out. On April 19, soon after the regular season started, he was dispatched to Buffalo.

In 1916, Bader had a nifty 2.05 ERA. He pitched brilliantly that year, with a typical newspaper account of his heroics appearing in the May 4 Boston Globe, which reported that Providence “was almost helpless before Bader” in the previous day’s 3-2 Bisons victory.

In 1917, Bader finally stuck with the Red Sox. That season, with the permission of Jack Barry, the new Red Sox skipper, Bader came to Hot Springs to work out for 10 days before reporting to the Bisons’ Norfolk, Virginia, training camp. On March 23, the Boston Globe reported from Hot Springs, “Bader is here now and is looking fine,” and Barry became interested in securing the pitcher’s contract. Bader was scheduled to leave for Norfolk on March 28, but instead accompanied the Red Sox to Little Rock. Two days later, he was traded to Boston for pitcher Vean Gregg and a player or players to be named. These turned out to be infielder Bob Gill and outfielder Manny Kopp.

1917 was Bader’s busiest major league campaign. He started one game, pitched in relief in 14 others, and compiled a 2-0 record with a snazzy 2.35 ERA in 38 innings. As in 1912, his major debit was his walk-to-strikeout ratio; he gave free passes to 18 batters while striking out 14.

Bader saw his first action on May 17, when he followed Ernie Shore and Herb Pennock in a 7-1 loss to the Indians in Cleveland. The following day, he appeared in one of his more memorable major league games–if only because of the pitcher he replaced, and the streak that was halted. The Red Sox played the White Sox in Chicago. Babe Ruth, the Boston starter, had won eight straight games, but was fated to be the losing pitcher. The Babe surrendered three runs in the second inning. After he gave up two more in the third, Bader replaced him and surrendered three more runs in the sixth in the 8-2 loss.

Bader played in both games of a May 30 doubleheader against the Senators in Washington. It arguably was his finest day in the majors. In the first game, the Senators knocked out starter Ernie Shore in the eighth inning. Bader relieved with runners on second and third, retired the side and earned the save (retroactively calculated–there were no saves in 1917) in the 4-3 victory. Then he started the nightcap, surrendering six hits and eight walks in seven innings before handing the ball over to Herb Pennock in a 3-2 win. Yet again, Bader smashed a single off Walter Johnson.

Notwithstanding, Bader pitched sparingly for Boston. On August 11, the Globe reported that he had been traded to the Providence Grays for catcher Walter Mayer, but Bader remained in Boston. He was in the headlines again ten days later. In the fourth inning of an August 21 game against the Chicago White Sox, Red Sox first sacker Del Gainer was doubled off first base. He slid back into the base with one of his spikes too high off the ground to suit Chick Gandil, the White Sox first baseman. The two began jawing, with the argument continuing until later in the game when Gandil unnecessarily slid into first base. After the game, Bader and several teammates approached Gandil. Bader and Gandil began fighting and, according to the New York Times, Gandil “disposed of Lore Bader…in one round of [an] encounter on the way to the rival shower baths.” The paper added, “All accounts agree that one punch settled the argument for the rest of the season and Bader was the recipient of the punch.” He emerged with a split lip and claimed that Gandil had a ball in his right hand when he threw his punch.

Back in April, the United States had declared war on Germany and entered World War I. On December 14, 1917, Bader and Herb Pennock enlisted as yeomen in the Naval Reserve. Bader immediately reported for duty at the Charlestown Navy Yard and eventually found himself pitching for the Charlestown ball club, primarily composed of big leaguers from the Red Sox, the Boston Braves, and the Philadelphia Athletics. On May 4, 1918, Bader tossed a 12-0 shutout against the Harvard University varsity nine. His three hits were one more than he surrendered to Harvard, one a bunt single and the other a clean single. Bader’s teammates included Pennock, Rabbit Maranville, Ernie Shore, Whitey Witt, and Jack Barry, the team’s manager. On June 2 he allowed three hits in a 5-0 shutout of the Newport Naval Reserves. On June 18, he beat Holy Cross, 3-2. However, he was discharged from the Navy two days later because of a loose ligament in his knee.

Bader immediately rejoined the Red Sox, but was used sparingly. His Red Sox tenure may be summed up by the sub-heading of a Globe report on a June 28 game against Washington, which he lost, 3-1: “Pass By Bader Spells Trouble.” According to the Washington Post game report, “Bader walked Nationals at bad times. His wildness in the fourth helped the Griffs to a run and a walk in the eighth handed them another.” For the season, he had a 1-3 record, surrendering 26 hits in 27 innings while walking 12 and striking out 10 and compiling a 3.33 ERA.

On July 18, 1918, Bader played his final game for the Red Sox–and in the majors. It was a less-than-auspicious end to his big-league career. The St. Louis Browns bested Boston, 6-3, with the Globe reporting that the Brownies “found King Bader’s offerings soft picking, [as they] slammed him for 11 blows…” The game was not without some minor fireworks. In the fifth inning, Bader unintentionally hit George Sisler. The Globe reported that “the Michigan marvel before trotting to first strutted out toward the box and addressed some objectionable remarks, it is alleged, to the Boston pitcher.”

Bader then was quietly dropped from the Boston roster. He was not a part of the team during its pennant run and World Series victory over the Chicago Cubs.

In 1919, Bader was out of professional baseball, but various Boston Globe game reports in June and July recorded his pitching exploits for a local semipro team in Quincy, Mass. On July 8, in the paper’s “Live Tips and Topics” column, it was noted that Bader “turned a neat trick last Saturday down at Danielson, Conn., where he pitched against one of the mill teams. ‘King’ not only pitched a no-hit, no-run game, but fanned 22 batters…” On July 21, the Globe printed the following notice: “Quincy Baseball Club, with King Bader in the box and a record of victories over the [top] semiprofessional clubs in New England…wishes to book games away or at home in August.” Being a team’s marquee player and spinning a no-hitter is an accomplishment for any ballplayer. Only for Bader, who so recently had pitched in the big leagues, such exploits must have been bittersweet.

In 1920, Bader returned to pro baseball, playing for the International League Toronto Maple Leafs and compiling a 19-9 record with a 2.91 ERA. He appeared in 39 games, in which he tossed 229 innings, walked 77, and struck out 94. That season, a question emerged regarding Bader: Was he employing the emery ball in game situations? This issue was subtly referenced in a June 17, 1920, New York Times game report, which referred to the “failure to solve the puzzling delivery of Pitcher Bader by the Jersey City bat wielders…” Skepticism over the pitcher’s on-field ethics resulted in his being placed on Toronto’s “voluntarily retired list” for 1921-22.

Bader returned to the Boston area in 1921, where he worked in the mercantile business while pitching for the twilight league Haverhill Professionals. At this level, his walk-to-strikeout ratio was more than satisfactory. On August 4, he relieved in the third inning against Norton’s South Boston All Stars, fanning nine and surrendering no walks and one hit in an 8-7 defeat. Two days later, he struck out 12 while walking two as he bested Dorchester Town, 1-0, holding them to four scattered singles. His season was not without incident. On September 25, Bader led Haverhill to a 5-2, 10-inning victory over the North Cambridge Knights. He pitched the entire game, surrendering five hits and striking out 16. The Boston Globe reported, “The Cambridge players protested Bader’s pitching several times, claiming that he was roughing the ball.  Some balls were withdrawn from the game by umpire [and former Red Sox flychaser] Olaf Henriksen.”      

Bader again played ball in Massachusetts during the summer of 1922, spending May and June pitching for the twilight league St. Andrew’s A.A. of Forest Hills. By July, he had switched back to Haverhill. On July 8, in one of his best games of the season, he struck out 12 while spinning a one-hit, complete-game victory against Dorchester. Then in August, he was back with St. Andrew’s–and courting controversy. On August 15, he fanned 11 while shutting out Dorchester, 1-0. Reported the Globe, “Whether or not the contest will count in the league standings is a question, as [Dorchester] Manager Dan Leahy…protested the game in the eighth inning, declaring that King Bader, St. Andrew’s fadeaway slabster, was ‘roughing’ the ball.” Before the end of the month, he briefly pitched for Haverhill before signing on with the Sacred Hearts of Woonsocket, Rhode Island–and he must have savored the victory he earned on August 27. In an exhibition game against the Red Sox, played in Woonsocket, he bested his former team, 5-3, in a rain-soaked seven-inning complete game triumph. Bader’s elation might have been tempered by the Boston Globe game report. The paper noted that, “although the Red Sox hit the ball often, it usually went right at the infielders.”

On September 17, Bader hurled a complete game for the Sacred Hearts in an exhibition against the Boston Braves, also in Woonsocket. While he was the losing pitcher, the final 2-0 score was more than respectable. But again, the Globe report of Bader’s effort was less than complimentary: “King Bader, although allowing the Braves but seven hits, was wild in the early innings, but pulled out of several bad holes.”

In 1923, Bader “unretired” and rejoined the Toronto Maple Leafs, compiling a 3-1 record in seven games and 47 innings. Throughout his minor league career, his walk totals were high but never more than his number of strikeouts. Now, the aging hurler–he was 35 years old–walked 20 while striking out 13.

His tenure in Toronto ended in controversy. During his time with the Maple Leafs, newspaper reports hinted that he was doctoring his pitches. On June 2, he pitched against the Rochester Tribe, and the Chicago Tribune reported that manager George Stallings had complained about Bader’s “alleged ‘shine ball’ delivery.” The skipper even promised to protest any future game in which Bader pitched against his team. As proof, Stallings produced several of the balls he claimed Bader had used; reports vary as to whether Bader employed them only in this game or in several recent contests.

While the matter was under investigation by International League officials, Bader abruptly quit the Maple Leafs and returned to Boston. On June 6, the Syracuse Herald noted that the constant skepticism by rival teams “may have been the reason he decided to quit organized ball after only having been reinstated this year.” Bader finished the summer playing twilight league ball for the Sacred Hearts–and his reputation preceded him. He was dubbed a “Shine Ball Outlaw” and “Shine Ball Artist” in the headlines of articles appearing in June issues of the Fitchburg Sentinel. On June 15, the paper claimed that Bader “is barred out of the big leagues because of a freakish delivery and whose shine ball only recently caused a wrangle in the International league…” Ten days later, the Sentinel reported that “Speed” Shea, a St. Andrew’s pitcher, was a Bader protégé–and the veteran “is teaching the youngster how to get away with the spitter and the shine ball.”

In 1924-25, Bader continued pitching in the Boston area and coached a semipro team in East Douglas, Mass. A February 17, 1930, New York Times article cited him as the mentor of Bump Hadley, then an up-and-coming major league hurler who played in East Douglas prior to his 1926 debut with Washington. There was no mention of Bader counseling Hadley on how to scuff his pitches.

In March 1926, Bader was hired as a coach for the Boston Braves. After spring training, he was offered a job as pitcher-manager of the New England League Lynn Papooses. He hurled 102 innings, compiling a 6-3 record and 2.64 ERA. On June 30, the Daily Kennebec Journal of Augusta, Maine, described Bader as the “hurling ace of the Lynn team,” but quickly added that the 38-year-old “is not so young and spry as he was ten years ago.” The paper also reported that Bader “is said to be resorting to nicking the ball and this fad has resulted in the throwing out of a few horsehides in Lewiston and other places.”

Bader then became a Boston Braves scout. His assignment was to scrutinize promising minor leaguers from New York to the Midwest and Texas. In 1928-29 he returned to the field, managing the Providence Grays (which had become an Eastern League franchise). He also concluded his playing career as he pitched briefly during these seasons, appearing in seven games and winning one without a loss. As a minor league hurler, Bader compiled a respectable 124-72 record. At the end of the 1928 season, Providence scribe Frank Wakefield described him as “still a better twirler than one or two of the moundsmen collecting wages here…”

In 1930, Bader managed the Eastern League Hartford Senators. He was out of professional baseball the following year but returned in 1932 for one final fling as a coach for the American Association Milwaukee Brewers.

Starting in the mid-1930s, Bader was employed as a WPA manager in Coffey County, Kansas. (The WPA, or Works Project Administration, was a Depression-era jobs program.) According to a 1938 report in The Sporting News, he also operated a baseball school in Emporia, Kansas. Primarily, he spent the rest of his working life as a farmer. He and Lura purchased a farm near LeRoy, where they remained until 1955 before moving into a new house in town. For decades, Bader was active in LeRoy’s Neosho Masonic Lodge No. 27, and served as district deputy grand master and grand marshal of the Grand Lodge of Kansas A.F. & A.M. Masonic Temple.

A June 22, 1962 news item in the LeRoy Reporter noted that Lore and Lura Bader were about to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary. “Modern players,” exclaimed the old hurler, “are on the ‘sissy side’ when they protest that pitchers are throwing at them.” Six years later, prior to yet another wedding anniversary, Bader lovingly cited his wife while observing, “We sure have had a wonderful life together.”

During the early months of 1973, Bader began preparing his baseball mementoes for donation to the Baseball Hall of Fame. They included a ball autographed by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and a scrapbook, loaded with newspaper clippings charting his career, which had been presented to him by Providence Evening Bulletin sportswriter Bill Perrin. The scrapbook was inscribed, “To my friend Lore V. ‘King’ Bader…with whom I passed many pleasant moments during the Eastern League campaign of 1928.”

On March 22, Lee Anthony of LeRoy penned a letter in which he solicited the Hall of Fame’s interest in Bader’s memorabilia. Anthony noted that the aged pitcher suffered from glaucoma and was totally blind, and reported that he had once roomed with Babe Ruth. In a follow-up note, dated April 17, Lura Bader observed that the scrapbook “can tell you more about L.V.’s…baseball days than I can.” The book and the ball arrived in Cooperstown on May 14.

Bader died quietly in his sleep just over two weeks later, on June 2. He was 85 years old, and was survived by his wife; a brother, Max; and a sister, Ethel; he was predeceased by a brother, Dr. Jesse Moren Bader, the first president and general secretary of the World Convention of Churches of Christ, an evangelical organization. The Baders had no children.

During his later years, Bader savored reminiscing about his baseball career. In his obituary, published in the LeRoy Reporter, it was noted that from him “came a rich store of experiences which have made joyful listening for his friends over the past half century.”

Bader was buried in LeRoy Cemetery. It is a shame that the old pitcher played for the Giants and Red Sox, rather than Yankees. His funeral service was held at LeRoy’s Mattingly Funeral Home. Its proprietor was named Don E. Mattingly.

Sources

In preparing this biography, I consulted news items on Bader that appeared in the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Providence Evening Bulletin, Syracuse Herald, Washington Post, Fitchburg Sentinel, Daily Kennebec Journal, LeRoy Reporter and The Sporting News. The aforementioned scrapbook proved a treasure trove of information. Also helpful were Bill Nowlin, Dick Thompson, Tim Wiles, and Claudette Burke of the Baseball Hall of Fame, and Brad Bisbing of the Buffalo Bisons.

That 1918 season was Barbare’s least productive in the major leagues. He batted only .172 with five hits in 29 at-bats, no home runs, two runs batted in, and one stolen base. Barbare played 11 games at third base, where he joined George Cochran, Jack Coffey, Jack Stansbury, and Fred Thomas as players who attempted to fill the position for the 1918 Red Sox.

Walter Lawrence Barbare was born on August 11, 1891, in Greenville, South Carolina, and began his professional career with the Greenville Spinners, playing third base, accumulating 413 at-bats and batting .230 with its Carolina Association team in 1912. In 1913, he played third for Asheville in the North Carolina League, batting .273. He made his major league debut at the age of 23 on September 17, 1914, with the Cleveland Naps, and he soon established himself as a versatile utility infielder. He had begun the year with the New Orleans Pelicans, playing exclusively at shortstop, and building up a .296 average in 150 games. As soon as the Southern Association season was completed, Barbare joined Cleveland, playing short and tripling in the only run in the Naps’ 8-1 loss to the Red Sox in his very first game. “Dinty” Barbare hit .308 in the 15 major league games he played in 1914.

He was courted by the Chicago Federal League team, but was under contract to Cleveland and didn’t receive an offer sufficient to bolt. Barbare, who batted and threw right-handed, struggled during the 1915 and 1916 seasons with the Cleveland team, which was renamed the Indians in 1915. In 77 games in 1915, he batted only .191. In the two seasons, he drove in a total of 14 runs while playing in 90 games. He initiated a triple play with a spectacular catch on July 24, 1915. After playing half his team’s games at third in 1915, Barbare was a backup to Bill Wambsganss in 1916, and saw action in only 13 late-season games, with a .229 average.

At 6 feet even, weighing 185 pounds, and with very long arms, Barbare could be described as lanky. While he did bat .260 and accumulate 462 hits in his 500-game major league career, Barbare never hit for power. The only home run of his career came off Lee Meadows on September 11, 1919. Barbare batted in more than 30 runs in a season only three times as a major leaguer, and he never stole more than 11 bases in a season.

In a letter dated December 8, 1915, Franklin Rostock of the Cincinnati Post recommended Barbare to August Herrmann, president of the Cincinnati Reds:

“I received your analysis of Walter Barbare’s playing record,” said Rostock. “You say that I will notice that his per centage is very low and that he also appears to be a slow man, having stolen only three bases in 77 games [in 1915]. That is the very reason I recommend this player to you, paradoxical as it may seem.

“I saw Barbare play and know he is a real ball player, and, because of the poor record he made last season, I figured the Cleveland club might ask waivers on him and send him to a lower league. Of course, if Barbare had batted .280 last season, this matter would not be considered…

“Barbare can be used at either third or short, and that is why I recommend him.

“Barbare is only a kid and, with proper handling, should develop into a high class ball player. His habits are absolutely clean, and, if he is given a chance, I feel he will surely make good.”

But despite Rostock’s efforts, the Reds never did acquire Barbare, and his offensive struggles led him back to the minor leagues. Barbare played in 122 games with Little Rock of the Southern Association in 1916 in addition to 13 September games at the major league level with Cleveland. The next year, he began the season playing 21 games with Milwaukee of the American Association, hitting just .163, but the New Orleans Pelicans of the Southern Association traded for him in early May to bolster their defense at shortstop; he played in 123 games with New Orleans, batting .246.

In 1918, Barbare played short for the Pels again, batting a solid .283 in 70 games before the Southern Association closed its season in late June during the war-shortened campaign. After clinching the pennant, New Orleans announced on June 25 the sale of Barbare, along with infielders Jack Stansbury and Harvey “Red” Bluhm, to the Red Sox.

When the Sox left for Chicago on a road trip on July 24, Barbare (who had played 13 games in the month) wasn’t with them. Suffering from a “stone bruise,” he’d been left behind in Boston and the Sox picked up Eusebio Gonzalez as they passed through Springfield, Massachusetts on their way west. It was the end of Barbare’s major league season, as he played for Jersey City late in the year.

New Orleans still held his contract, but in a late September (Rule V) draft Barbare was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates. He got his first extended playing time in Pittsburgh, and batted better than .270 in each of his two seasons there, hitting .273 in 1919 and .274 while playing three infield positions in 1920, a season limited by the broken jaw he suffered. After two fairly productive years in Pittsburgh, Barbare was traded on January 23, 1921, by the Pirates to the Boston Braves along with Fred Nicholson, Billy Southworth, and $15,000 in return for future Hall of Famer Rabbit Maranville.

As he turned 30, Barbare enjoyed his greatest success in the major leagues as a member of the Braves. He set career highs in almost every offensive category in 1921 while playing as the team’s regular shortstop: Barbare batted .302 with 166 hits and 49 runs batted in. A solid bunter, Barbare also had 26 sacrifice hits during that season. One of his career highlights took place on April 26, 1921. In a game at Philadelphia, Barbare went 5-for-5 and scored two runs while batting second in the lineup during a 10-6 Braves win. The next year, which would be Barbare’s last in the major leagues, he played part time with the Braves and collected 86 hits while batting in 40 runs. He had a hit in his final major league game, getting a single at the Polo Grounds on October 1, 1922, against the New York Giants. On December 14, 1922, Barbare was purchased by Toledo of the American Association for a reported $7,500, and he never played again in the major leagues.

For the 1923 Mud Hens, Barbare played third base and second base, batting .288. He was sold to the Memphis Chicks in April 1924, and appeared in 74 games, batting .319. Come 1925, he began the year playing for Memphis but was sold to Knoxville of the Sally League in mid-June after batting .315 in 51 games. Barbare served as player-manager for the Smokies, appearing in another 51 games and hitting .317.

He managed Jackson, Mississippi, in the Cotton States League in 1926, hitting .296 while playing 65 games at second base, managed them again in 1927. By early 1930, he was found umpiring college baseball in Clemson, South Carolina. He was hired to manage Talladega of the Georgia-Alabama League that year, and put himself into 19 games, batting .277. They were his last in organized ball.

Barbare played extensively in the industrial leagues of his native South Carolina, including some post-season play for Judson Mills in 1924; Lyman in 1926; and Brandon in 1928.

In his post-professional years, Barbare umpired in the Piedmont League, the Mississippi Valley League, and the South Atlantic League, where he was umpire-in-chief in 1939 according to the plaque installed in the Greenville Baseball Hall of Fame at the time of his September 7, 1993 induction. He coached high school baseball and basketball, and the baseball team at Presbyterian College in Clinton, SC in 1950. Barbare lived in Traveler’s Rest, South Carolina, before moving to a nursing home in his birthplace of Greenville, where he died on October 28, 1965, at the age of 74 after a five-month illness. He is buried at Graceland Cemetery in Greenville, South Carolina.

Sources

Barbare’s bio and World Series information on baseballreference.com, retrosheet.org, historicbaseball.com, 1918redsox.com, baseball-almanac.com, and baseballlibrary.com.

Letter from Franklin Rostock to August Herrmann in Barbare’s Hall of Fame file.

Minor league data on Barbare from player’s Hall of Fame file.

Obituary dated November 13, 1965, from Barbare’s Hall of Fame file.

Communications from Arlene Marcley of the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum, Greenville, South Carolina.

Hot-tempered and autocratic, over the years Barrow crossed swords with Kid Elberfeld, Frank Navin, Babe Ruth, and Carl Mays, among many others. Harry Frazee, owner of the Red Sox during Barrow’s managerial tenure with the club, jokingly referred to his skipper as “Simon,” after Simon Legree, the infamous slave-driver from Uncle Tom’s Cabin. “Big, broad-shouldered, deep-chested, dark-haired and bushy-browed, [Barrow] had been through the rough-and-tumble days of baseball,” Frank Graham later wrote. “Forceful, outspoken, afraid of nobody, he had been called upon many times to fight, and the record is that nobody ever licked him.”

Edward Grant Barrow was born on May 10, 1868, in Springfield, Illinois, the first of four sons of Effie Ann Vinson-Heller and John Barrow. John and Effie met in Ohio after the Civil War, and the young couple decided to head west for the greener land-grant pastures of Nebraska; Edward’s birth came during that arduous journey.

The Nebraska land the Barrows settled proved unproductive, and the family left for Iowa after six bleak years.

The family finally put down roots near Des Moines. At 16, Ed went to work as the mailing clerk for a local paper, and when later promoted to city circulator, Barrow found himself in charge of the newsboys. A large, strapping, generally good-natured but hot-tempered lad who had some ability as a boxer, Barrow surely had the right attributes for his new job. A baseball enthusiast as well, Barrow pitched on a town team, but his playing career quickly ended when he critically injured his arm pitching in a cold rain. His baseball spirit remained intact, however, and he soon organized and promoted his own town teams. After accepting a more senior position at another paper, Barrow discovered future Hall of Fame outfielder Fred Clarke among his newsboys and recruited him for his ballclub. 

After a brief foray into the sale of cleaning products and time as a hotel clerk, in 1895 Barrow returned to baseball when he bought into the Wheeling franchise in the Inter-State League. At mid-season when the league collapsed Barrow moved his franchise into the Iron & Oil League. Baseball management now in his blood, Barrow acquired (with a partner) the Paterson, New Jersey franchise in the Atlantic League for 1896. Just after his acquisition of the Paterson club, Barrow signed the player he would later call the greatest of all-time, Honus Wagner. The following year, Barrow sold Wagner to the major league Louisville club for $2,100, a high price for the time.

The contentious Atlantic League elected Barrow as president for 1897, and for the next three years until the league folded after the 1899 season, Barrow oversaw the inter-owner squabbles, dealt with numerous player disputes, and managed the umpires. As league president during the Spanish-American War, he championed a number of marketing gimmicks to help keep the fan’s interest: he brought in a woman, Lizzie Stroud (she played under last name Arlington) to pitch in exhibition games and heavyweight champions John L. Sullivan and James Jeffries to umpire. Another heavyweight, Jim Corbett, often played first base in exhibitions, mostly in 1897.

For 1900, Barrow purchased a one-quarter interest in the Toronto franchise in the Eastern League and became its manager. With little inherited talent, Barrow brought the club home fifth in his first year. Barrow acquired some better players for the next season, including hurler Nick Altrock, and finished second. Despite losing a number of players to the fledgling American League, Barrow’s club captured the pennant in 1902.

With the tragic suicide of new skipper Win Mercer in January 1903, Detroit Tigers owner Sam Angus hired Barrow as manager on the recommendation of AL president Ban Johnson. Bolstered by two contract jumpers from the NL, pitcher Bill Donovan and outfielder Sam Crawford, Barrow brought the team in fifth, a 13-game improvement over the previous year. In one of the year’s most notorious controversies, Barrow was forced to suspend star shortstop Kid Elberfeld in June after some outlandishly lackadaisical play. The St. Louis Browns were actively tampering with Elberfeld and encouraging him to maneuver for his release. The Giants, too, were likely interfering with the unhappy Elberfeld. Barrow claimed he would see Elberfeld out of baseball before sending him to one of these two teams, and charged “that in three of the last six games lost to St. Louis, Elberfeld made a muff fumble or wild throw at the moment of a critical stage.” Ban Johnson intervened and engineered a trade of Elberfeld to the new AL franchise in New York.

After the season, Angus sold the franchise to William Yawkey after first offering it to Barrow and Frank Navin. The latter, soon promoted to secretary-treasurer, ingratiated himself with Yawkey, becoming his right-hand man. Barrow continued his effort to improve the club by adding several players that would contribute to the Tigers pennant four years later. Not surprisingly, however, Navin and Barrow, both young and ambitious, could not co-exist; with the Tigers at 32-46 Navin gladly accepted Barrow’s resignation.

Following his stint in Detroit, Barrow began a two-year odyssey managing in the high minors. Montreal, in the Eastern League, recruited Barrow right after his resignation to come finish out the 1904 season as their manager. For 1905 he was hired by Indianapolis in the American Association, and 1906 found him back in Toronto. Disheartened with his baseball career after his first-ever last-place finish that year, Barrow left baseball to run Toronto’s Windsor Hotel.

Four years later in 1910, Montreal offered Barrow the manager’s post and a chance to get back into baseball. Barrow happily accepted, and after the season he was elected league president. In recognition of the two Canadian franchises, Barrow persuaded the Eastern League to change its name to the International League (IL) prior to the 1912 season.

In January 1912, Barrow married Fannie Taylor Briggs whom he had met in Toronto many years earlier. It was the second marriage for both and would last until Barrow’s death many years later. Fannie brought her five-year-old daughter, Audrey, into the union, and Barrow raised her as his own. In his many autobiographical writings, Barrow never mentioned his first wife, whom he had married in 1898.  

When the Federal League (FL) challenged Organized Baseball as a self-declared major league in 1914, the most severe hardship fell upon the high minors, particularly Barrow’s IL, which lost numerous players to the upstart league. The FL also placed teams in the IL’s two largest markets, Buffalo and Baltimore, significantly affecting attendance.  To better position the IL for the struggle, Barrow tried to obtain major league status for his league or some eight-team amalgamation of the IL and the other affected high minor league, the American Association. Not surprisingly, nothing ever came of these efforts.

After holding the league together through the difficult 1914 season, 1915 proved even more challenging. The FL invaded Newark as well, and with Canada now fully engaged in the World War, the Toronto and Montreal franchises operated under wartime conditions. Before and during the season, moves and rumors of moves of IL franchises dominated league business. The financial strain forced the Jersey City and Newark (transferred to Harrisburg) owners to forfeit their franchises to the league, leaving Barrow to run both clubs until new owners could be found.

With the collapse of the FL after 1915, the IL received a brief respite in 1916. In 1917, however, America also entered the First World War, bringing financial hardship back to many of the beleaguered franchises. Barrow again battled to keep his league from folding, while at the same time striving to create a third major league of four IL and four AA franchises. After four extremely difficult years, a number of disagreements and bad feelings had developed between the authoritarian Barrow and several franchise owners, particularly those left out of the third major league scheme. When the owners voted to drastically cut his salary from $7,500 to $2,500, Barrow resigned. For 1918, he eagerly accepted the Boston Red Sox managerial post offered by owner Harry Frazee.

The Red Sox were less affected by war losses than most teams, and Barrow successfully guided the club to the pennant despite a showdown with his star player Babe Ruth in July. Earlier in the year, on the advice of outfielder Harry Hooper, Barrow had shifted Ruth to the outfield to take full advantage of his offensive potential. But when hurler Dutch Leonard left the team due to the war, Barrow looked to Ruth to pitch. Ruth begged off due to a sore wrist. The tension between the two erupted in July when Barrow chastised Ruth after swinging at a pitch after being given the take sign. When Ruth snapped back, the argument escalated, and Ruth left the club and returned to Baltimore, threatening to join a shipbuilding team. Ruth of course soon realized he’d gone too far and wanted to come back. Hooper and Frazee helped mediate and appease the furious, stubborn Barrow. The chastened Ruth ended up pitching a number of games down the stretch. Owing to complications from the war, in mid-year the season was shortened and adjusted to end on Labor Day, at which point the Sox found themselves 2½ games ahead of the Cleveland Indians. In the World Series, the Red Sox defeated the Chicago Cubs, four games to two.

Falling attendance and much lower receipts than anticipated from the World Series put additional financial burdens on Frazee. He now became a seller rather than buyer and sent three players to the Yankees for $25,000 prior to the 1919 season. During the year, Barrow became embroiled in two player controversies. The Babe spent the start of the season living the high life in Ruthian fashion beyond even his own standard. One morning on a tip, Barrow burst into Ruth’s room at 6 a.m. right after the latter had snuck back in and caught Ruth hiding under the covers with his clothes on. The next morning in the clubhouse, Ruth confronted and threatened to punch Barrow for popping into his room. Barrow, well tired of Ruth’s shenanigans, ordered the rest of the players onto the field and challenged Ruth to back up his threat. Ruth backed down, put on his uniform, and trotted out with the others. Barrow and Ruth eventually reached an unconventional detente: Ruth would leave a note for Barrow any time he returned past curfew with the exact time he came in.

The other hullabaloo began when star Boston pitcher Carl Mays refused to retake the mound after a throw by catcher Wally Schang to catch a base stealer grazed Mays’ head. Barrow intended to suspend the dour Mays, until Frazee quickly quashed any suspension so as to possibly trade him. After listening to several offers, Frazee sold Mays to the Yankees for $40,000. AL President Johnson voided the sale and suspended Mays, arguing Frazee should have suspended him. In contrast to his Elberfeld machinations, Johnson now argued that a player should not be able force a favorable outcome through insubordination. The Yankee owners went to the courts, which upheld the sale. Boston finished the 1919 season tied for fifth, 20½ games back.

That off-season, when Frazee sold Ruth to the Yankees, Barrow grimly told him, “You ought to know you’re making a mistake.” Frazee tried to placate Barrow by promising him that he would get some players in return for Ruth, but Barrow snapped back, “There is nobody on that ball club that I want. This has to be a straight cash deal, and you’ll have to announce it that way.”  Yankee owners Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast L’Hommedieu Huston paid $100,000 – $25,000 down and three installments of $25,000 – and Ruppert agreed to personally lend Frazee $300,000 to be secured by a mortgage on Fenway Park.

Frazee desperately needed the money. When Frazee purchased the Red Sox in 1916, he and his partner paid Joseph Lannin $400,000 down and assumed $600,000 in debt and preferred stock, including a $262,000 note from Lannin. With the Federal League war over, Frazee assumed he could pay the interest and principal out of the team’s cash flow. Attendance, though, collapsed in 1917 and 1918, and Frazee could not afford to carry both his ball club and his theater productions.

By the end of 1919, Frazee’s financial situation had become particularly acute. The principal on Lannin’s note was due, and Frazee was in the process of purchasing a theater in New York (the sale price of the theater is unavailable, but it cost $500,000 to build). Shortly after the Ruth sale, Frazee pleaded with the Yankee owners to help him borrow against the three $25,000 notes because he needed the money immediately. He further implored Ruppert to advance the funds from the promised mortgage loan quickly. With the money from the Ruth sale Frazee could meet his immediate financial obligations but showed little interest in reinvesting in his ball club.

The death of Yankee business manager Harry Sparrow during the 1920 season created an opportunity for the two sparing Yankee owners to bring in a strong experienced baseball man to run the team and thus help alleviate the friction between them. After a third-place Yankee finish in 1920, Huston and Ruppert plucked Barrow from Boston to run the baseball operation, technically as business manager, but practically in a de facto general manager-type role. While not technically a promotion, Barrow must have been relieved to escape a deteriorating situation in Boston to join well-capitalized, competitive owners.

One of his first orders of business was to hire Red Sox coach Paul Krichell as a scout. Krichell would actually outlast Barrow as a Yankee, and along the way develop one of baseball’s best scouting organizations. Barrow also quickly reassured manager Miller Huggins of his support despite Huston’s known aversion to his diminutive skipper: “You’re the manager, and you’ll not be second guessed by me. Your job is to win; mine is to get you the players you need to win.” And Barrow lived up to his half of the bargain: he found the necessary players and he did not interfere with his manager. 

Forceful and competitive, yet optimistic by nature, Barrow actively sought to solidify his new club. At first this mainly involved going back to his old boss Frazee with Ruppert’s money and acquiring the rest of Boston’s stars. Yankee co-owner Ruppert was willing to spend money to acquire players when many other owners were not, despite the threat to his livelihood as a brewer from Prohibition. With his owners’ encouragement, Barrow spent more, and more wisely, to build the Yankee dynasty.

In Barrow’s first season at the Yankee helm, New York won its first pennant before losing to the Giants in the World Series. After the season, Ruth left on an off-season barnstorming tour in defiance of an old rule and Commissioner Landis‘s warning. Barrow needed to aggressively lobby the furious Commissioner to limit the Babe’s suspension to the first 50 days of the 1922 season. 

After the 1922 season, Barrow had to referee a disagreement between his two owners.   Huston blamed manager Huggins for the World Series loss and wanted to fire him. Ruppert (and Barrow) supported Huggins, and Barrow helped instigate a relatively amicable solution: Ruppert would buy out Huston’s interest in the franchise. When Ruppert purchased Huston’s 50 percent ownership for $1.25 million, he allowed Barrow to buy a 10 percent interest in the club for around $300,000.

In 1923, the team opened Yankee Stadium, one of the great ballparks of American history. Several years earlier the New York Giants had informed the Yankees’ owners that they were no longer welcome to remain as tenants in the Polo Grounds (the Giants stadium). Ruppert and Huston then initiated a site search for a new stadium. Business manager Barrow played a subsidiary but active role in this politically sensitive project.

Bolstered by the nucleus of the team Barrow had managed in Boston, the Yankees won their first World Championship in 1923. The Yankees’ three straight pennants after Barrow joined the team foreshadowed the effectiveness of the Ruppert-Barrow team. The perfectionist Ruppert provided the capital and positive reinforcement to support Barrow’s own competitive desire and competence. Barrow proved able to impose his will on the Yankee front office to direct his team-building plans. And due to his good judgment, these were typically sound. 

By 1925 the Yankees had fallen to seventh. Ruth’s illness and antics made the year especially frustrating. Barrow began the season by extricating an incapacitated Ruth – he had succumbed to his world-famous “stomach ache” – through the window of a train car. Later in the year Huggins fined Ruth the then exorbitant sum of $5,000 after a confrontation regarding his off-field self-indulgence and tardiness to the ballpark. Ruth threatened to quit unless Huggins backed down, but Barrow stood behind his manager. 

The team returned to the top of the AL in 1926 behind a number of young stars including future Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig, Earle Combs, and Tony Lazzeri. The world champion 1927 ball club is considered by many to be the greatest team of all-time. Ruth and Gehrig were at the top of their game, and the club boasted a crack pitching staff as well. The Yankees repeated in 1928 despite a summer charge from the Philadelphia A’s.

Huggins died at the end of the 1929 season, and the club fell to second. At a game in May, two people died and many more were injured when fans tried to exit the right-field bleachers during a rainstorm. Barrow publicly defended the safety rules at Yankee stadium and showed little sympathy for the trampled fans amid accusations that particular doors were improperly locked. After a drawn-out legal process, the Yankees were eventually found partially liable, but damages were reduced well below what the injured plaintiffs were seeking.

To replace Huggins, Barrow eventually settled for his third choice, former Yankee pitcher Bob Shawkey. After Shawkey brought the team home third, a frustrated Barrow jettisoned Shawkey in favor Joe McCarthy. McCarthy proved a brilliant choice and would go to win seven World Series with the Yankees.

By 1932, after paying $125,000 for minor leaguers Lyn Lary and Jimmie Reese, neither of whom turned into stars, the success of the Cardinals minor league operation, and changes to the player limit and option rules, the Yankees recognized that they needed to develop a farm system. Following the acquisition of the Newark International League franchise, the club hired another future Hall of Fame executive, George Weiss, to run it. Barrow actually wanted to hire Bob Connery of the St. Paul Saints with whom the Yankees had a long relationship, but Ruppert insisted on Weiss. Barrow and Weiss soon fell into a smooth working relationship and created one of baseball’s most efficient farm systems. Krichell’s wide network of scouts fed Weiss’ well-run minor league clubs to produce some of the greatest teams in minor league history and several Hall of Fame ballplayers. 

In McCarthy’s second season, on the back of one last hurrah from Ruth and a typically great season by Gehrig, the Yankees again won the World Series. Over the next three seasons, however, the Yankees could not recapture the pennant. The clubhouse atmosphere was further eroded by an aging and dispirited Ruth. Frustrated by his declining skills and salary, Ruth desperately wanted to manage the Yankees, causing anxiety for McCarthy and a headache for Barrow. Barrow shrewdly engineered a move of Ruth to the Boston Braves, temporarily soothing Ruth and preventing the public relations nightmare of a disgruntled Ruth in New York.

Armed with a recommendation from his excellent scouts, in late 1934 Barrow took a chance on young west-coast star Joe DiMaggio despite a knee injury. The future Hall of Famer spent one final season in San Francisco before debuting with the Yankees in 1936.  With DiMaggio on board and several other prospects emerging as well, the Yankees began another run of dominance as they won the next four World Series and seven of the next eight pennants.  

During the Yankees string of titles, an incident in Chicago testified to the racism and race insensitivity in mainstream America. Before a July game in 1938, Yankee outfielder Jake Powell was asked on the radio how he kept in shape over the winter. “Oh, that’s easy, I’m a policeman,” Powell replied, “and I beat N______ over the head with my blackjack.”  When first publicized, the baseball establishment, the mainstream press, and Yankee management (including Barrow) were little exercised by this remark. The Black press, however, jumped on this egregious, racist remark and argued that Powell and his comments should be censured. Barrow tried to mitigate the fallout with the Yankees Black fans by ordering Powell on an apology tour of Black newspapers and establishments. In a reflection of their growing clout, Landis suspended Powell for ten days. Unfortunately the lesson the baseball establishment and mainstream press learned form this sorry episode was simply that players should be more careful when speaking on the radio. 

Ruppert died in 1939, and his will left the team (along with his other holdings) to a trust for the benefit of his two nieces and a young female friend. As expected, the trust named Barrow the new Yankees president; he had reached the pinnacle of his baseball career. His autonomy, particularly in financial matters, however, was limited by the estate tax requirement that tied up much of the team’s capital.

After the 1939 season, Barrow further found himself hamstrung in his team building efforts because of a startling rule introduced by his American League rivals. He lacked the political skill necessary to counter the anti-Yankee sentiment, and at the winter meetings the league passed a rule prohibiting the league champion from making trades (unless the player(s) cleared waivers) until it was no longer the champion. Clearly (but not publicly) directed at the Yankees after their four straight pennants, the decree seemingly achieved its unspoken objective as the Tigers broke the Yankees streak and won the 1940 pennant.

Barrow’s Yankees returned to the top in 1941 and continued to win during the first years of World War II with generally the same players (until they went into the military, of course) as during the late 1930s. But the replenishment of young stars slowed through this period. Naturally the war claimed healthy young men, but a couple other factors were at work as well. The push to the background of all non-military related activities during World War II leveled the economic playing field in baseball. In addition, the Yankees were now run as a trust, not as wealthy sportsman’s hobby, cutting into the franchise’s financial flexibility. 

In early 1945, the Yankees were sold to a triumvirate of Larry MacPhail, Del Webb, and Dan Topping. Barrow disliked the flashy MacPhail and tried to interest his hunting buddy and Boston owner Tom Yawkey in purchasing the club. The trust, however, needed money to pay its taxes, and the war-depressed sale price of only $2.8 million was well below the pre-war value estimate. Selling to an old rival and receiving no more for his interest than he originally paid 20 years earlier must have greatly annoyed Barrow. After the sale, the new ownership kicked Barrow upstairs with a title of chairman of the board, but it was a purely symbolic position.

Barrow’s daughter Audrey lived an unhappy and unlucky life. She was first married in the mid 1920s and shortly thereafter she had two children, a girl and a boy. Unfortunately, thenceforth her life began to spiral downhill. In 1933, her husband committed suicide by running his car in a closed garage under the house. In the process, he nearly asphyxiated the two children as well. A young mother with two young children, Audrey fell back on her parents for financial support.

In 1940, Audrey remarried an older man, but it didn’t take, and less than three years later she moved out to Reno to get a Nevada divorce. Shortly thereafter she married the nephew of the late Jacob Ruppert. Her new husband promptly joined the air force and headed off to WWII, leaving Audrey and her two children in their new waterfront home not far from the Barrows. Sadly, this marriage didn’t last either.  In the late 1940’s, Audrey tried marriage one more time and wedded an executive at a real estate agency. Tragically, in 1950 her fourth husband died at home from a heart ailment. A year later a despondent Audrey jumped (or fell) to her death from her 11th floor suite. 

Barrow officially retired in 1946 but remained fairly active in baseball. He participated in several ceremonial events and served on the Hall of Fame old-timers committee, the body responsible for inducting players passed over by the baseball writers or excluded from their purview. Barrow survived a heart attack during the 1943 World Series, but in December 1953 at age 85 Barrow passed away after several years at home in ill health, just three months after his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was buried in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.

Sources

This biography was consolidated from Dan Levitt’s book Ed Barrow: The Bulldog Who Built the Yankees First Dynasty (University of Nebraska Press, 2008).  Please contact the press at: http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu.

According to official baseball records, Harvey Fred Frank Bluhm was born in Cleveland, Ohio on June 27, 1894. The year of his birth is in doubt, however. Bluhm’s draft registration card from 1917 records his birth date as June 27, 1891. Census records from 1920 and 1930 have his birth year as 1892 and 1895 respectively. Earlier census records indicate he could have been born as early as 1889. Not much is known for certain of Bluhm’s early life. Bluhm’s parents were John Bluhm and the former Mary Saas. John was likely born in Germany. Mary was born in New York state. Harvey Bluhm may have had as many as 11 siblings and half-siblings. Sometime in 1915 or 1916, Harvey Bluhm married. His wife, Margaret Ann, came to the United States from Ireland in 1913 at age 17 or 18 and was a naturalized citizen by 1916. The two had a son, Richard James (b. 1917) and a daughter, Mae Irene (b. 1920).

How Harvey Bluhm got his early baseball education is not known. By 1912, the right-hand hitting, right-hand throwing first baseman was playing for the Duluth (Minnesota) White Sox of the Central International League. It was the inaugural year for the four-team, Class-C circuit. Duluth won the league title in 1912 with a 59-41 record. Statistics are incomplete but Bluhm played in at least 30 games, achieving a .342 batting average while playing first base. The following year, the 5’11”, 165-pound Bluhm was secured for the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association, a very high minor league at that time. The Mud Hens were owned by Charles Somers, who also owned the Cleveland Indians. It is possible the Indians secured Bluhm for the Mud Hens. Bluhm had 478 at-bats in 132 games for Toledo, batting .220 with a home run, six triples, 17 doubles, and 17 stolen bases. The Mud Hens, managed by 14-year major league-veteran Topsy Hartsel finished sixth in the eight-team league.

In 1914, Bluhm was transferred to the New Orleans Pelicans of the Southern Association, a very good minor league, equivalent to the modern Double A level. The Pelicans, owned in large part by Charles Somers, were a powerhouse in the second decade of the 20th century. Managed by former major leaguer Johnny Dobbs, the Pels finished no lower than third in the eight-team league between 1914 and 1922. Bluhm was with the team for most of those years, playing five seasons for the Pelicans.

In 1914, Bluhm played in 131 games, batting .229, with a homer, four triples, 13 doubles, and seven stolen bases in 449 at-bats. The following season, 1915, Bluhm had his finest season as a professional, hitting .293 (second highest on the team) with two home runs, 11 triples, 17 doubles, and 10 stolen bases. He set career highs in batting average, triples, total bases (184), runs (61), at-bats (475), games (137), and hits (139). Bluhm produced a .987 fielding percentage in 1915, good enough for third best among Southern Association regular first basemen. He was an integral part of the Pelicans’ success on their way to a 91-63 record and the 1915 Southern Association crown. In fact, Bluhm’s season was good enough to arouse the notice of the Cleveland Indians. Thanks to Indians scout Bob Gilks, who later told Cleveland sports reporter Henry P. Edwards that Bluhm would be “a sensation in the American League”, the Indians purchased the contract of native son Red Bluhm on August 24, 1915.

Bluhm was to join the big club at the end of the Southern Association season, but the Pelicans were involved in a pennant race and Bluhm played for New Orleans until at least September 26. Bluhm apparently did join the Cleveland club (photos show him wearing a 1915 vintage Indians uniform), however, he did not appear in a major league game in 1915. Unfortunately for Harvey Bluhm, Charles Somers sold the Indians during the offseason. The new owners had cash to spend and on February 15, 1916 purchased Arnold “Chick” Gandil from the Washington Senators. Gandil was a good-fielding, good-hitting, every-day first baseman. Bluhm, who had been touted by The Sporting News as “just the thing to round out the Indian infield”, was back with the Pelicans at the start of the next season. Bluhm tailed off in 1916 as did the Pelicans (they finished second in 1916 and 1917). Bluhm again played in 137 games but hit only .224. In 1917, Bluhm bounced back a little, hitting .266 with four home runs, eight triples, and 17 stolen bases in 121 games. In 1918, Bluhm was starting his fifth season for the Pelicans.

He had played in more than 500 Pelicans games and his spectacular play at first base and his shy demeanor made him popular with the Crescent City fans. A three-run, inside-the-park home run to break a 3-3 tie at the home ball yard (Heinemann Park) only increased his popularity with the locals. According to a New Orleans newspaper account, the Pelicans were playing the Birmingham Barons. With the score tied 3-3 in the eighth inning, Barons pitcher Perryman intentionally walked Pelicans outfielder Brittle to pitch to Bluhm. Bluhm responded with “perhaps the hardest hit ball of the season at Heinemann Park”. The report went on to say it was “the cleanest home-run ever hit inside the park–and doubtless the best hit Bluhm ever made”.

Red Bluhm was so popular in New Orleans in 1918 he was given his own “day”, the first Pelicans player so recognized. One newspaper report discussed at length Bluhm’s bashfulness and his reluctance to be in the limelight, and wondered whether the red blooms the lady fans would be wearing would come closer to matching the shade of Bluhm’s carrot top locks or his sure-to-be red face. Bluhm hit .267 in 69 games (the Pelicans played only 70 games in 1918) with one home run, three triples, nine doubles, and 12 stolen bases. The Pelicans finished with a 49-21 record, good enough for first place in the shortened season.

The 1918 season was an unusual one throughout professional baseball. The nation was at war. A “work or fight” order was in effect, and draft-age men either had to enlist in the armed forces or show they were working in an essential industry. Was playing professional baseball essential work? That was an open question during most of the 1918 season. With no firm federal guidance, local draft boards were left to their own devices. Between players voluntarily enlisting and various draft boards ruling baseball was not essential (and consequently enforcing the “work or fight rule”), major-league rosters were in tatters. Big league teams looked to the minors for players to fill their depleted dugouts. Further, attendance was down throughout professional baseball. With their demographic mainstays in the service or working long hours, baseball teams could not keep their turnstiles turning. Most of the minor leagues decided to end their seasons early. The Southern Association was no exception. The league voted to cease operations on June 28. On June 25, New Orleans Pelicans president A. J. Heinemann announced the sale of three infielders to the Boston Red Sox, namely Walter Barbare, Jack Stansbury, and Red Bluhm. The three players would join the Sox when the Southern Association ended the following Friday. Bluhm was about to get a second chance at playing in the big leagues.

Red Bluhm joined the Boston club, likely June 29 or June 30, while the Sox were on the road in Washington. Bluhm’s chance to play came against the last-place Philadelphia Athletics on July 3. The Red Sox were in a statistical first place tie with New York and Cleveland, but the team could be excused for looking past the lowly Athletics because Boston’s big star, Babe Ruth, had quit the team after an argument with manager Barrow. The Red Sox sent Lore “King” Bader to the mound at Shibe Park that day. The Athletics countered with southpaw Vean Gregg. The Athletics got to Bader in the second, third and fifth innings but the Sox could do nothing with Gregg. With the Mackmen leading 5-0 in the eighth inning, Bluhm got his opportunity.

The July 4, 1918 edition of the Boston Globe described the visitor’s half of the eighth like this: “…when McInnis and Whiteman both hit safely. Gregg disposing of the next man [Everett Scott], made short work of pinch hitters Barbare and Bluhm, Southern recruits”. Bluhm had been sent into the game to hit for the pitcher Bader and made the final out of the inning. The Athletics went on to win the game, 6-0. That was it, Bluhm’s only major league appearance.

Other than playing in some exhibition games on off days, Bluhm never got in another game with the Red Sox or with any other major league club. After the Red Sox beat Detroit at Fenway on July 19, 1918, Red Sox president Harry Frazee announced he had optioned first baseman Bluhm to Jersey City (NJ) of the International League. Bluhm played in 53 games for the Skeeters in 1918, hitting .291 with two homers, four triples, 10 doubles, and nine stolen bases. In 1919, Bluhm apparently played for the St. Paul (Minnesota) Apostles. His contract was sold to New Orleans for the 1920 season but Bluhm refused to report.

The Bluhms were renting a flat on White Avenue in Cleveland in 1920. They moved to Flint, MI in 1927 to work for Buick. While employed at the automaker, he played for the highly regarded Buick Majors. He was considered one of the finest first basemen to ever play on a Flint diamond. By 1930 the Bluhms owned their own home at 2840 Begole St in Flint. Bluhm went to work for Fisher Body in 1930 and played on their baseball team for four or five seasons. After his playing days were over, Bluhm remained actively involved in Flint baseball. He helped organize the City League in the mid-1930s and managed teams from Fisher Body and Citizens Bank. Bluhm succumbed to a heart attack while watching the Chuck Davey-Chico Vejar welterweight fight, shortly before 10pm on May 7, 1952. He is buried in Sunset Hills Cemetery in Flint. He was survived by his wife, two children, and grandson, James Edward Bluhm.

Interestingly, Bluhm’s participation in the July 3, 1918 contest was lost to official records for 44 years. While at least three Boston papers had Bluhm in the text of the account of the game and in the box score (additionally, the New York Times showed Bluhm’s name in the box score for that game), the official score card of the game sent to the American League did not include the pinch-hitting appearance of Red Bluhm. In the November 17, 1962 issue of The Sporting News, sportswriter Lee Allen titled his “Cooperstown Corner” column “Mystery Man Bluhm–Phantom of the ’18 Hub Hose”. He posed the question about Bluhm’s participation in the form of a limerick:

There once was a player named Bluhm.
To pitchers he symbolized doom.
Record-keepers insist
He belongs on the list.
But just when did he play, and for whom?

The question was answered by Bostonian Paul Doherty. Doherty went to the library, did the research, and reported to Lee Allen (Doherty’s letter is in Harvey Bluhm’s folder at the A. Bartlett Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame). In the December 15, 1962 issue of The Sporting News, Allen reported Doherty’s findings and declared the mystery solved.

Sources

Websites
www.baseball-reference.com
www.retrosheet.org
www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen
www.neworleansbaseball.com
www.sabr.org

Newspapers
The Sporting News
Boston Herald
Boston Post
Boston Globe
New York Times

Books
Waterman, Ty and Springer, Mel. The Year the Red Sox Won the Series. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1999.
Wood, Allan. Babe Ruth and the 1918 Red Sox. Lincoln, NE: Writers Club Press, 2000.

Other
Harvey Bluhm’s folder at the A. Bartlett Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame contains copies of scrapbook pages. The pages have newspaper clippings with pictures and stories of Bluhm’s baseball career. Unfortunately, most of the clippings have no attribution.

Two small articles about Bluhm in The Sporting News (November 25, 1915, page 1 and July 25, 1918, page 4) claim Bluhm had his first professional experience with Youngstown in 1911. If true, the team was probably the Youngstown Steelmen of the Ohio-Pennsylvania League. More research is necessary to verify this claim.

Leslie Ambrose (Joe) Bush was born on November 27, 1892, the third of seven children of John William “William” Bush and Margaretha “Maggie” (Wieshalla), of Gull River, Cass County, Minnesota. John William, originally from Ohio, was a conductor with the Northern Pacific Railroad. Mother, Maggie, was from Dziekanstwo, Poland. Joe’s formative years were largely spent in the nearby town of Brainerd, where his family resided in a tiny frame house on Fir Street that still stands, and where he attended high school starring in football and baseball.2 It is noteworthy that Hall of Famer Chief Bender — Bullet Joe’s teammate with Connie Mack’s Athletics — was also a Brainerd native.

A November 1974 article in the Crow Wing County Review by Brainerd historian, Dr. Carl A. Zapffe, described Brainerd as a “baseball-conscious town,” erecting a ball park in the very center of the village before many of the city streets were formed. He tells the story, as told to him by a former Joe Bush Brainerd teammate, Louis Imgrund, how Joe would practice his pitching in an old orchard by throwing “exceedingly-fast rotten apples” at the crescent-shaped hole of a neighboring outhouse. A direct hit meant considerable spray spattered throughout its interior, particularly annoying to anyone seated there. According to Imgrund, Joe “rarely missed.3

Brainerd was at the geographical center of Minnesota, populated by railway centers and mills, and was a gateway to numerous lakes and deep forests ideal for sportsmen’s pursuits. This lifestyle was influential on young Joe Bush — an avid hunter and outdoorsman — who was later a regular participant in sharpshooting events and hunting excursions, often with such gun-toting baseball cronies as Eddie Collins, Mickey Cochrane, Eddie Plank, Walt Huntzinger, and Sad Sam Jones.

The heretofore earliest known account of Joe Bush’s background was described by Joe, himself, to journalist, Carroll Slick, who wrote about Joe’s baseball exploits in a series of Saturday Evening Post articles in 1929 and 1930. In 1906 — at age 13 — Bush played some third base for the Brainerd town team, recognized as the Brainerd Baseball Club. It is unclear the extent to which he played for them at that young age, although he remained with the club until he turned pro.4

In 1910 — at age 17 — Joe began to do some pitching for the town team when the captain, Herb Payne, became impressed with the speed he had on his throws across the diamond. “He was knocking the mitt off the first baseman’s hand with his speed,” said Payne.5

Bush’s first important game as a pitcher was in 1911. “I won my spurs as a pitcher,” said Joe, in relief against a St. Cloud team. Bush said that he had relieved “an Indian pitcher” who had been hired by Brainerd to play professionally for them.6 He struck out 11 men that day, won all of his starts that summer, and never looked back.

Hugh Campbell, president of the Missoula, Montana, club of the Union Association (Class D) — upon advice of a friend who spotted the young Brainerd phenom — signed Joe to a contract for the 1912 season. Cliff Blankenship, an ex-major leaguer, then catcher-manager for Missoula, took Bush under his tutelage and helped him with the “rudiments of pitching,” said Joe. Blankenship had discovered and signed the great Walter Johnson to a contract after a scouting mission for the Washington Senators.

An April 1914 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer reported in great detail Bullet Joe’s experiences hunting and trapping deep in the woods of northern Minnesota in the fall of 1913, following the World Series that year. His guide and companion was Henry Thunderclap of the Red Lake reservation, who was Bush’s teammate on a “little team” at Cass Lake, Minnesota when — it is likely — Bush first started in organized ball. As the article describes, young Bush, with the help of his Indian teammate, “put it over their opponents in good style.”7

Most baseball record books regularly list Bullet Joe at 5 feet 9 inches tall. However, photographs of him standing next to players who, with more than a degree of certainty, were known to be 6 feet or better is persuasive that Joe’s height was probably closer to 6 feet. He is, in fact, listed on the Philadelphia A’s 1928 roster as 6 feet tall and 185 pounds.

He threw with great velocity and was generally compared with the best speed-ball pitchers of the day, second only to Christy Mathewson according to Connie Mack. He had a very good curve ball, and would later develop a forkball when arm trouble made throwing the curve more difficult. Although not the first to throw the unusual flutter ball, Bush would be credited as one of the earliest major leaguers to popularize the delivery, throwing the pitch with consistency and effectiveness. Some say he “invented” it, including Joe, himself.8 Others are usually credited with that distinction.

Bush had a few idiosyncrasies, as well, in his pitching delivery: he threw every pitched ball with such intensity that he emitted a “grunt” sound “that could be heard in the bleachers.”9 He had a pirouette style of delivery called the “Joe Bush twist-around” pitch that Babe Ruth considered quite effective. Ruth encouraged other young Yankees pitchers to mimic the style.

In the articles written with Carroll Slick for the Saturday Evening Post, Bush described his pitching style when he first arrived in Missoula as “depending on speed alone to win.” Blankenship took him under his wing and taught him how to pitch. It was effective. Missoula won the Gladsome Rug, emblematic of the Union Association championship, with an 83-51 record. Bush posted a league-leading 29-12 record, a winning percentage of .707.

The nickname “Bullet Joe” took hold in Missoula. The club president, Hughie Campbell, began to call him Joe Bush after a former local bronco buster. Later, the local media began to call him Joe Bullet, because of the speed of his fastball. Bush credits the nickname — Bullet Joe — to teammate Eddie Collins, who applied the label after observing a letter in the clubhouse that was addressed to “Joe Bullet” Bush. The nickname stuck for the rest of his baseball career.

Upon the advice of Blankenship, Connie Mack, distinguished gentleman, part-owner and manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, purchased Bullet Joe from the Missoula team on August 20, 1912. He made his debut with the A’s on September 30 against the New York Highlanders, a game the A’s won in 11 innings, 11-10. Bush pitched eight innings, yielding all 10 runs and giving way to future Hall of Famer Stan Coveleski, who got the win in relief. This was Bush’s only appearance in 1912.

Mack’s ace pitcher, Jack Coombs, fell ill in 1913 and missed most of that season. This unfortunate turn of events for the A’s proved fortuitous for Joe Bush, who was called on to be an “added starter” for Mack, and he fulfilled the role nicely, winning 15 of 21 decisions in the regular season.

“Bullet Joe Had Meteoric Rise,” proclaimed The Sporting News describing his rapid ascent from an obscure minor league team to sudden fame, in 1913, after Bush shut down the New York Giants in the third game of the World Series.10 At 20, he was but a lad, one of the youngest to play in a World Series at that time, but he stemmed the momentum of a New York team that had soundly defeated the Mackmen, 3-0, at the hands of Christy Mathewson the day before. That loss seemed to rattle McGraw and his Giants and the A’s went on to win that Series, four games to one.

A big touring car was his reward from adulating Philadelphia fans given to the youngster with idealizing enthusiasm and tribute for his decisive victory. It was a grand gesture usually reserved for more seasoned ballplayers and nearly overwhelming for young Bush. He proudly left the big city with his new motorcar and made his way home to Brainerd and a welcoming community. But his joy was short-lived; on November 26, a day before his 21st birthday, tragedy struck. Driving his new car in town Bush encountered a local Brainerd resident, Louis Miller, age 75, who stepped off the curb directly in front of the moving vehicle. According to witnesses Miller indiscriminately walked in front of the car “paying no heed to the signals.”11 He died from his injuries an hour later. Bush was quickly exonerated two days hence by the coroner’s jury of six ruling the accident “unavoidable.”12

Though he had an illustrious 17-year major league career, young Joe’s victory over the Giants in 1913 — early in his career — would be one of only two victories in his seven World Series’ decisions. He would long share the dubious distinction of five World Series losses with future Hall of Famers Christy Mathewson, Rube Marquard, and Eddie Plank, a record eventually surpassed by Whitey Ford of the Yankees in 1963. Ford would lose eight Series games, along with his ten victories. But Bullet Joe’s World Series losses are distinguishable from the others; his five losses were consecutive, a record that still stands.

Bush had another fine year with the Athletics in 1914, winning 16 games and losing 12, with a 3.06 ERA. As part of a strong staff with Chief Bender, Eddie Plank, and Bob Shawkey, he led the team into the 1914 World Series against the “Miracle Braves” from Boston, who rose from last to first place in little more than seven weeks, passing the New York Giants for keeps on September 8.

If the 1913 World Series was a crowning achievement for Bullet Joe, it was the opposite for him in the Series of 1914. Once again he was given the pitching assignment for Game Three, but this time the result was different. The A’s lost the first two games in Philadelphia. The third and fourth games were played at Fenway Park — the home of the Red Sox — due to the run-down condition of the Braves’ home field, the South End Grounds.

Bullet Joe’s pitching heroics in the 1913 World Series had buoyed his team to a championship. But his misplay in the 1914 Series helped lead to their downfall. Bush had pitched well and was locked in a duel with Lefty Tyler through nine innings, knotted at 2-2. Both teams scored two runs in the 10th. Then, in the 12th inning, Hank Gowdy, a .243 hitter during the regular season, but a .545 hitter in the Series, stroked a double. After an intentional walk to Larry Gilbert, the next play was a sacrifice bunt by Herbie Moran that Bush threw past third baseman Home Run Baker, allowing the winning run to score. The A’s were crushed. The Braves won the fourth and final game by a score of 3-1, and made a clean sweep of Connie Mack’s nine.

The next day’s October 13 edition of the New York Times reported that both starting pitchers that day had pitched with aplomb and neither team would give an inch, but the mood changed suddenly for the A’s when Bush made the errant throw, ending the game in defeat. The Times described the misplay as “fraught with tragedy” and it went on: “Then, by one tragic throw, he had knocked the foundation from under the Mackian machine and it came tumbling down in ruins.” Bush was inconsolable as he slinked away under the stands toward the clubhouse with tears in his eyes as the crowd roared its approval of the Braves’ victory. Not even Connie Mack could comfort him.

The Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society reported in a 2003 article that Joe Bush had an opportunity to join the upstart Federal League, for more money, after the 1914 season, but he passed it up. Phil Ball, owner of St. Louis’ Federal League club offered him a two-year contract for $18,000, to be paid up-front. Bush stayed with Philadelphia, and his reward for such loyalty was membership on a team that went into a precipitous decline.13

In 1914 Connie Mack began to dismantle his club selling off star players rather than compete in a bidding war with the Federal (“Outlaw”) League. Future Hall of Famers Eddie Plank, Chief Bender, Eddie Collins, and Frank “Home Run” Baker were not with the Athletics in 1915. Former ace pitcher Jack Coombs signed on with the Brooklyn Nationals for the 1915 season. Other prominent players like Bob Shawkey, Boardwalk Brown, and Jack Barry of Mack’s “$100,000 infield” fame would soon follow, through trades to other clubs.

Joe Bush would find little support from the fractured ranks of a team that bore no resemblance to the great Athletics teams of years past. The A’s were woeful, plummeting from first place in 1914 to last in 1915, finishing 58½ games behind the American League leader, the Boston Red Sox. Bush won five games and lost 15 with a 4.13 ERA that year.

The same ineptness that characterized the A’s in 1915 continued in both 1916 and 1917. The A’s lost more than 100 games in 1915 and 1916, and nearly as many in 1917, dropping 98 and finishing 44½ games behind the leader, the Chicago White Sox. In 1916, the A’s lost 117 games and, astonishingly, they finished 40 games behind the seventh-place finisher, Washington. The A’s held the record for most losses in a single season by an AL club for 87 years, until 2003, when the Detroit Tigers dropped 119 games.

Despite little run support and a poor defense behind him, in 1916 Bush still won 15 games, while losing 24. He put together a remarkable 2.57 ERA, striking out a career-high 157 batters, yielding 222 hits in 287 innings pitched, including eight shutouts and 25 complete games. He shares the distinction with several notable pitchers of having the highest percentage — 41.7 percent — of team wins in a single season, winning nearly one half of the 36 games won by Philadelphia that year. In 1917, he improved his ERA to 2.47, despite an 11-17 won-loss record.

Although the A’s faithful had little to cheer about in 1916, a highlight of that year was a near-perfect game no-hitter thrown by Bush at Shibe Park on August 26. He beat the Cleveland Indians, and their future Hall of Famer Stan Coveleski, 5-0, walking only one batter, the first he faced. As the Washington Post described the occasion, “When Graney ended the game by putting up a fly to McInnes, after O’Neill and Coleman had fanned, the crowd broke onto the field to congratulate Bush, and the latter was so excited that he pulled off his cap and joined in the cheering.”14

What made Bullet Joe’s feat more remarkable was that he had pitched against the same Cleveland team the previous day, and was soundly beaten. He was disconsolate over the loss and his poor performance, and persuaded manager Mack to let him pitch the next day to redeem himself. Mack had few options besides Bush, so he agreed to the proposal.

Another hallmark event that day: It was the last major league game played by future Hall of Famer Nap Lajoie, Connie Mack’s second baseman that year.

Cash-strapped Connie Mack dispensed with three more members of his once-great teams on December 14, 1917. He dealt Bush, Wally Schang, and Amos Strunk to the Boston Red Sox for three undistinguished players, and $60,000. All three ex-Athletics would contribute to the Boston ballclub in their run for the pennant in 1918, especially Joe Bush.

Bullet Joe managed a 15-15 won-loss record in 1918, but with a career-best — and team best — 2.11 ERA, a career-high 26 complete games, including seven shutouts and a team-high 125 strikeouts. Bush, Babe Ruth, Carl Mays, Sad Sam Jones, and Dutch Leonard formed a strong pitching corps that led the Red Sox into the 1918 World Series, which the Sox took in six games from the Chicago Cubs.

Bush appeared in two games in the 1918 Series. He lost Game Two, a well-pitched 3-1 contest, and saved a win for pitcher Babe Ruth.

The following year was a difficult one for Bullet Joe, who developed arm trouble and remained out of action most of the season. It was also not a good year for the Red Sox. They finished sixth.

It appeared that Bullet Joe was all but washed up due to the injury, but his toughness and indefatigable spirit sustained him and pushed him to a comeback with the Red Sox in 1920. Essentially, he reinvented himself, coming up with a new pitch — the forkball — that enabled him to pitch another nine years in the big leagues.

In the Saturday Evening Post series, Bush described his “invention” this way: “Probably one of the most bewildering balls ever pitched was my own invention — the fork ball, which I discovered in 1920 when I was essaying a comeback with the Boston Red Sox after I had hurt my arm several years before and was forced to stop throwing curve balls.”15 Though Bush claimed arm trouble of “several years” duration, there is no indication in the record that it pre-dated the 1919 season.

1920 was a comeback year for Joe, and he put together another 15-15 won-loss record. But the Red Sox bore no resemblance to the champions of 1918. Owner Harry Frazee had begun to dismantle his championship team at the end of the 1918 season. Once again Bush found himself on a team in the process of being sold off.

The Red Sox were now mired in mediocrity, finishing 1921 in fifth place once again. Bullet Joe had a good year, however, with a 16-9 won-loss record and a 3.50 ERA, second-best on the team. He struck out 96 batters, second to Sam Jones, who had 98. He also hit .325 with 39 base hits in 120 plate appearances.

On December 20, 1921, the Red Sox traded their two ace pitchers, Sam Jones and Joe Bush, along with shortstop Everett Scott, to the Yankees. It was a trade made in heaven for Bullet Joe, who expressed delight at the move. “It’s the greatest Christmas present imaginable,” said Bush. He added, “Then another good point is that I will have Babe Ruth with me instead of against me. That always makes a pitcher’s life a happier one.”16

Bush joined a strong Yankees club that had won the American League pennant in 1921, and would go on to win two more pennants and a World Series during his stay with them.

Joe had a career year in 1922 with a team-high 26 victories, losing only seven, for the best winning percentage in the American League. The Yankees won the pennant with a 94-60 record, but then were swept in the World Series, four games to none, with a controversial tie, to McGraw’s New York Giants. Bullet Joe started the opening and final games, losing both, by 3-2 and 5-3 scores. He had little run support from the team which had a combined .203 batting average. Babe Ruth hit an anemic .118 without a home run in the Series.

Joe was embroiled in controversy after the Giants’ Series-ending fourth victory. In the final contest, Bush and the Yankees were leading 3-2 in the eighth, but the Giants had men on second and third with two outs. Yankees’ skipper Miller Huggins ordered Bush to walk future Hall of Famer Ross Youngs and pitch to High Pockets George Kelly. Bush became enraged at the proposal, shouting audibly at Huggins, but he complied with his manager’s order, walking Youngs. Kelly then singled to center, scoring two runs. The Giants went on to win the game and the Series the next inning.

Bush further distinguished himself in 1922 by halting the consecutive game hitting streak of future Hall of Famer, George Sisler, who had hit safely in 41 straight games. Bush stopped the streak on September 18. Sisler’s record stood for 19 years until Joe DiMaggio eclipsed it in 1941, hitting safely in 56 consecutive games.

The Yankees had another strong year in 1923, finishing in first place by 16½ games over second-place Detroit. Joe Bush did not match his 1922 performance, but had a good year nevertheless, with a 19-15 won-loss record, a 3.43 ERA, and 125 strikeouts. The Yanks beat the Giants in the World Series this time, four games to two.

Game One of the 1923 World Series was the first Series game to be played in Yankee Stadium and the first to be broadcast nationally. Bullet Joe pitched well in relief that day, but his World Series jinx continued; he lost to the McGraw nine, 5-4, when Casey Stengel hit an inside-the-park home run off him in the ninth. He came back in a crucial fifth contest with the teams locked at two wins apiece, however, pitching a masterful game and shutting down the Giants, 8-1. The Atlanta Constitution reported, “’Bullet Joe’ Bush Baffles Sluggers of the McGraw Clan With Slow Fork Ball.” It broke the back of the Giants team, which lost the next and final game, 6-4.

The Yankees would not repeat in 1924, finishing second to Walter Johnson’s Washington Senators, who won the World Series that year over the Giants, 4-3.

Joe posted a 17-16 record with a 3.57 ERA, striking out 80 batters, a decline from previous years. He batted .339 with 42 base hits in 124 at-bats. “He is…one of the best hitting pitchers in the American League,” said a 1924 Washington Post article.17

On December 17, 1924, the Yankees traded Bush and two other players to the St. Louis Browns, obtaining spitballer Urban Shocker. This was a major disappointment for Bush, who had had three solid years with the Bronx-based team.

The Yankees finished a dismal seventh in the American League in 1925, while the Browns finished third, though 15 games behind the leader, Washington.

Bullet Joe compiled a 14-14 record that year, with 63 strikeouts, but had an unimpressive 5.09 ERA. He pitched two shutouts, one of them a splendid one-hitter on August 27 over Walter Johnson of the American League champion Washington Senators, 5-0. Johnson got the only hit off Bush, a double in the sixth inning.  

It must have seemed to some that Bullet Joe had a certain knack for transitioning to good teams in the course of his career. Others would say it was merely his good fortune. On February 1, 1926, the Browns traded Joe to the Senators. The Senators had won the World Series in 1924, and the AL pennant in 1925. Manager Bucky Harris was counting on him as the key player in the deal, in which pitchers Tom Zachary and Win Ballou went to St. Louis. The Washington Post quoted Harris stating that the addition of Bush “assured his team of a third American League pennant.”18

Harris’s predictions for Bush did not play out. On April 18, Joe was hit on the knee by a vicious drive off the bat of New York’s Earle Combs. Bush had pitched one-hit ball — a double by Lou Gehrig in the sixth — before he was struck by Combs’ shot in the top of the ninth. He was slow to recover, and was never able to regain form with Washington, posting a 1-8 won-loss record.

The Senators gave Bush his unconditional release on June 24, 1926. Bucky Harris would later say, “If I had to name the most disappointing event in the race, I’d probably say it was the failure of Joe Bush to win for us. I banked heavily for him to come through for us, but lost.”19

Ever a man of action, Bush immediately made arrangements with a semipro club — the East Douglas, Massachusetts team of the so-called “Millionaire League” — to play for them. He did play — one game. On June 29, 1926, Bush pitched a shutout over a local Worcester team. The next day, he signed to play for another contender, the reigning World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates. He was back in the majors.

Joe’s performance with Pittsburgh was more than respectable. The Pirates were in a pennant race and Bullet Joe was being counted on to bolster the staff. He was a contributor, as a pitcher and with his bat. Although his won-loss record was a mere 6-6, he finished with a 3.01 ERA, fanning 38 batters in 110 2/3 innings pitched, with two impressive shutouts, the second a two-hitter on September 20 against the Phillies. The Pirates were inconsistent as a team, however, and finished third, 4½ games behind the first-place Cardinals.

Bush was on the Pittsburgh roster at the outset of the 1927 campaign, but his tenure with them was short-lived. New Pirates manager, Donie Bush, a take-charge guy, sensed a pennant was possible, but knew he would need to shore up his pitching staff if he was going to win. Joe Bush was not in his plans and received his unconditional release from the Bucs on June 15.

The Pirates won the AL pennant that year, but lost to the Yankees juggernaut, led by Ruth and Gehrig, in four straight games.

Bullet Joe appeared in seven games for Pittsburgh in ’27, used as a pitcher and pinch-hitter. He was the starting pitcher in three games, won one and lost two, with an unimpressive 13.50 ERA.

Once again Joe was on the outside looking in. But an old opponent, John McGraw — the victim of Bush’s heroics in the memorable 1913 World Series — was in need of pitching; he threw Bullet Joe another lifeline, signing him to a contract with the Giants on June 29. But Joe lasted barely long enough to dirty his uniform. He pitched in three games — starting two — beating the Boston Braves on July 2, 4-1, with an impressive seven-hitter; but getting bombed by the Brooklyn Robins on July 9, giving up seven hits and four runs in the first inning. He was released by the Giants on July 19.

Wasting little time, in late August, Bush joined the Toledo Mud Hens of the Double A American Association, led by manager Casey Stengel. Stengel put together an assemblage of major league cast-offs for a stretch run at Toledo’s first pennant. Bullet Joe “turned in four important victories,” according to the New York Times.20 Toledo won the pennant and went on to win the Little World Series championship, five games to one, over the International League’s Buffalo Bisons. Bush pitched and took the one Toledo loss.

On December 7, Toledo released Bullet Joe, and later its other veterans, Irish Meusel and Everett Scott.

Joe’s resiliency in always landing on his feet emerged again when, in late December 1927, Connie Mack signed the 35-year old veteran to a contract with the Philadelphia Athletics. Bush joined a star-studded team that included Ty Cobb, Mickey Cochrane, Lefty Grove, Al Simmons, and Jimmie Foxx. They finished second to a strong Yankees team that swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1928 World Series.

Bullet Joe was used sparingly by Mack, finishing with a 2-1 won-loss mark. Sportswriter Frank Young of the Washington Post reported that Bush’s role on the A’s was largely one of fungo hitter most of the season. Joe was waived — along with Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker — by the A’s on November 3, 1928, and later released. It was the end of his major league career.

In 1929, Bush signed on with the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League as an outfielder. He was released on May 25, and promptly went back to the East Coast, joining player-manager Tris Speaker and his Newark Bears of the International League, on June 17. There he was used in utility roles and pitched, finishing with a 3-3 won-loss record.

On October 23, 1929, the stock market collapsed, leading to the Great Depression. Baseball was affected, especially the minor leagues, which lost three leagues almost immediately following the crash, and others later.

But Joe Bush once again demonstrated the adaptability that was becoming legendary when he surfaced again, in 1930, by getting a player-manager position with the Eastern League’s Allentown team. Frank Young of the Washington Post described Bush as “a high powered salesman” because of his ability to secure desirable posts when none appeared likely.21

Allentown won the 1930 Eastern League championship on September 22, beating Bridgeport, four games to one. Bush stayed with the team for the 1931 season but it finished a mediocre fifth, 34 games out of first.

Bullet Joe finished his baseball career in 1932 pitching for the Kentucky Colonels of New York City, a semipro club.

Leslie Ambrose “Bullet Joe” Bush was in organized baseball from 1906, it is believed, through 1932. He played 17 years in the big leagues, from 1912 until 1928. During his major-league career he won 195 games, lost 183, struck out 1,319 batters, and posted a quite respectable 3.51 lifetime ERA. He pitched 35 shutouts, including a no-hitter.

Bush was also a well-respected batsman and was used often as a pinch-hitter. He once pinch-hit for future Hall of Famer Joe Cronin in a 1926 game with Pittsburgh. Bush’s lifetime major-league batting average was a solid .253 with 313 base hits in 1,239 at-bats.

Aside from Joe’s well-known baseball talents, he was a man of some creative expression as well. As was true with many ballplayers of the period, on occasion Joe would participate in vaudeville skits — usually with other ballplayers. He was described as having an “excellent baritone voice.”

Joe also was a ventriloquist. On one occasion when he was with the Red Sox, traveling north from spring training with the Giants, Joe got himself into some trouble with the locals in the small town of Morristown, Tennessee. While in a restaurant there, he began to mimic animal sounds that could be heard coming from different parts of the room, alarming the restaurant staff. They called the local constable, who arrested Joe. As the story goes, Joe then mimicked the sound of a vicious barking dog projecting his voice behind the constable, and while the officer turned to protect himself, Joe broke free.

Describing Joe’s good nature, a sports journalist once characterized him as “the proverbial boy that never grew up.” He added, “Joe Bush has been a character as well as a great pitcher. Joe has a peculiar smile. It is one of great friendliness. It is a guileless one, a disarming one, and many a rookie has discovered that Joe Bush is the greatest kidder and practical joker in the world and yet has lived to forgive Joe because of that smile.”22

Bullet Joe credits himself with discovering Pie Traynor. Bush described his find — as well as disappointment in Red Sox manager Ed Barrow — to a reporter in a 1967 interview. Bush worked with Traynor who was working out with the team. He liked his hands and told Barrow to “get him a job and be sure and keep a string on him.” Barrow was not interested in the future Hall of Famer, but relented and “got him a job.” Barrow, however, “forgot to keep the string on him,” said Joe. Pittsburgh acquired Traynor in 1920.23

Bush’s draft registration card, signed by him in April 1942, lists an employer, the A. Overholt & Company of Philadelphia, PA. It is believed they were in the bituminous coal business. And then, a footnote in the March 11, 1943 edition of The Sporting News found Joe working as a timekeeper in a Philadelphia shipyard. Later, while attending a Yankees 25th reunion in June, 1948, Bush informed New York World-Telegram reporter, Lester Bromberg, that for the previous five years he had been working “a politician’s job” for the Bureau of Recreation in Philadelphia.

In his later years Joe Bush and his wife, Alice Marie Wray Bush, whom he married November 6, 1937, had a home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where they resided only part of the time. Beginning in 1946, Joe kept active from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. as a pari-mutuel clerk working at New Jersey and Florida race tracks, notably the Garden State, Atlantic City and Hialeah, Florida. “I’d rather have too much rather than not enough to do,” he once said to a sportswriter.24 According to his obituary he worked at the tracks “well into his seventies.”

Joe remained active throughout his life participating in numerous recreational pursuits. In September, 1958, Joe informed sportswriter Tom O’Reilly of the New York Morning Telegraph that he had sustained a heart attack the previous year causing him to give up bowling, a favorite pastime.

During an interview in 1967 with sportswriter Bill Duncan of the Courier-Post, a Cherry Hill, New Jersey paper, Bush described his “biggest kick” in baseball was picking off Ty Cobb at second base with the bases loaded. “Man, but he was furious! He pawed and kicked and howled at the umpire. It is a picture I’ll never forget,” said Bullet Joe.25

Leslie Ambrose (Bullet Joe) Bush died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on November 1, 1974 at the age of 81. He was survived by his wife, Alice, and three brothers. Joe Bush had no children.26 Bush’s marriage to Alice was preceded by a first marriage in 1914, at age 21, to Sylvia McMahon of Philadelphia, which ended in divorce in 1937.27

Bush married 17-year old Sylvia McMahon, a “remarkably pretty girl,” described the Philadelphia Inquirer, on October 14, 1914, two days after he pitched in Game Three of the WS against the Boston Braves. The marriage ended in divorce in 1937. Bullet Joe married Alice Marie Wray in the same year November 6, 1937.

An updated version of this biography appeared in “When Boston Still Had the Babe: The 1918 World Series Champion Red Sox” (SABR, 2018), edited by Bill Nowlin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted:

Bush, “Bullet Joe,” with Carroll S. Slick. “At Bat,” Saturday Evening Post, June 22, 1929: 40.

Bush, “Bullet Joe,” with Carroll S. Slick. “Breaking In,” Saturday Evening Post,. August 24, 1929: 38.

Bush, “Bullet Joe,” with Carroll S. Slick. “The Lost Arts In Baseball,” Saturday Evening Post, April 5, 1930: 54.

Chadwick, Bruce and David M. Spindel, Boston Red Sox: Memories and Memorabilia of New England’s Team (New York: Abbeville Press, 1991).

Cole, Milton and Jim Kaplan. The Boston Red Sox (East Bridgewater: World Publications Group Inc., JG Press, 2005).

Gentile, Derek. The Complete Boston Red Sox (New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2004).

Lane, F.C., “The Yankees’ Pitching Ace,” Baseball Magazine, February 1923: 395-396.

Nack, William. “Lost In History,” Sports Illustrated August 15, 1996: 74-85.

Neft, David S., and Richard M. Cohen. The World Series (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990).

Okrent, Daniel, and Harris Lewine, with historical text by David Nemec. The Ultimate Baseball Book (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988).

Stout, Glenn and Richard A. Johnson. Red Sox Century, The Definitive History of Baseball’s Most Storied Franchise (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004).

John Thorn and Peter Palmer. Total Baseball. 4th ed. (New York: Viking Press/Penguin Group, 1995).

Wolff, Miles and Lloyd Johnson. Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1993).

Notes

1 T. H. Murnane, “Giants Slain By Mere Boy,” The Sporting News, October 10, 1913: 1.

2 From records of: Crow Wing County Treasurer, Brainerd, Minnesota, and Cass County Treasurer, Walker, Minnesota, Cass County Birth Record Book, Book D, p. 259, Line # 424; F.C. Lane, “The Yankees’ Pitching Ace,” Baseball Magazine, February 1923: 395-396. Bush was popularly known as “the Brainerd Boy” — referencing the town of Brainerd — where he played high school and town team ball. According to the 1901-1902 Brainerd city directory, the Bush family resided at 907 Fir Street in Brainerd (Crow Wing County). Thus Brainerd was Joe Bush’s actual place of residence during his formative years. Evidence is persuasive, however, that Joe Bush was born in Cass County in an area known as Gull River — possibly a village or township — several miles west of Brainerd.

3 Dr. Carl A. Zapffe, “‘Bullet Joe’ Bush History Remains,” Crow Wing County Review, November 28, 1974: 1.

4 Zapffe, 1. The 1910-1911 Brainerd City Directory shows Leslie Bush employed as a “driver” for Hutchins Laundry on 719 Broadway in Brainerd. He would have been somewhere between age 17-19 at the time, when he was also playing ball for the local town team, the Brainerd Baseball Club.

5 Jim Nasium, “Lloyd Waner, the Rookie: And Other First-Year Stars,” The Sporting News, November 17, 1927: 3.

6 Bullet Joe Bush, with Carroll S. Slick, “On The Mound,” Saturday Evening Post, June 8, 1929: 10.

7 “Bullet Joe Bush Big Game Hunter,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 18, 1914. 

8 Bullet Joe Bush, with Carroll S. Slick, 152.

9 John Kieran, “Sports Of The Times: Faultless Pitcher,” New York Times, January 23, 1934: 24.

10 Jim Nasium, “Lloyd Waner, the Rookie: And Other First-Year Stars,” The Sporting News, November 17, 1927: 3.

11 “Neck Broken, Skull Fractured,” Brainerd Daily Dispatch, November 28, 1913: 1.

12 “Bush Exonerated from all Blame,” Brainerd Daily Dispatch, November 28, 1913: 3.

13 Dale B. Smith, “The Unsinkable Bullet Joe Bush,” Along The Elephant Trail (Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society, 2003).

14 “Bush Slabs No-Hit Game; Detroit Defeats Red Sox,” Washington Post, August 27, 1916: S1.

15 Bullet Joe Bush, with Carroll S. Slick, 152.

16 “‘Bullet Joe’ Bush Satisfied With Transfer To New York.” Washington Post, December 23, 1921: 16.

17 “Yanks Get Shocker In Trade For Bush And Pair Of Rookies,” Washington Post, December 18, 1924: 1.

18 “Old Master To Oppose A’s Today,” Washington Post, May 27, 1926: 17.

19 “Peck To Pilot Browns, Is Report,” Washington Post, July 31, 1926: 17.

20 “Joe Bush Returns To The Athletics,” New York Times, December 20, 1927: 36.

21 “Griffith Acts to Bolster Outfield,” Washington Post, February 13, 1930.

22 “Bush, Nemesis of Giants at 20, Now With Clan McGraw at 35,” New York Times, July 4, 1927: 11.

23 Bill Duncan, “Bullet Joe: At 74, He’s a Go-Go Guy,” The Sporting News, January 28, 1967: 23.

24 Ibid.

25 Bill Duncan, “Bullet Joe: At 74, He’s a Go-Go Guy,” The Sporting News, January 28, 1967: 23. 

26 Obituary from Brainerd Dispatch, November 1, 1974; Censuses for: Brainerd, Minnesota, Crow Wing County,1900 and 1910; Abington Lower District, Pennsylvania, Montgomery County, 1900. Moreland Township, Pennsylvania, Montgomery County, 1910; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1920 and 1930. See also “Cupid Strikes Out ‘Bullet Joe’ Bush,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 11, 1914: 3. Ancestry.com. Alice Marie Wray in the District of Columbia, Marriage records, 1810-1953.

27 Ancestry.com, Pennsylvania Marriages, 1852-1968, p. 419 of 631. Ancestry.com. McMahon Coat of Arms Family Crest. See also “Cupid Strikes Out ‘Bullet Joe’ Bush,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 11, 1914: 3. Evening Public Ledger (Philadelphia), October 14, 1914, Night Extra: 2, Image 2.

George Leslie Cochran was born in Rusk, Texas on February 12, 1889. His father was a Missouri native. His mother, the former Mary Guinly, was born in Pennsylvania, but the family moved to Missouri settling in the village of Steelville on the northern edge of Missouri’s Ozark region. Mary’s father was an ironworker. His father’s name is not known, but he was likely an ironworker imported from Missouri to work at a foundry near the prison in Rusk. That is the same work Mary’s father did.

Reasons are unclear, but by 1900, George and his older brother James were living with their elderly maternal grandparents Peter and Elizabeth in Steelville. Within a few years, the widowed Mary Cochran and her two sons were reunited and moved further west.

Carthage, Missouri is located in the southwest part of the state, near the Oklahoma and Kansas borders. Mary Cochran and her sons were living in Carthage by 1905 at 502 Budlong Street, a working class neighborhood. Carthage was mostly a farming community with some industry at the time the Cochrans moved there. Baseball Hall of Famer Carl Hubbell and future television host Marlin Perkins were born in Carthage during George’s early years in the city. George Cochran attended Carthage High School, starring on the baseball team as a pitcher and infielder. After graduating in 1909, he worked as a driver for the McCormick Grocery located at Second and Main Streets. He played ball when not working, and late that season began his professional baseball career.

Bartlesville, Oklahoma is about 120 miles southwest of Carthage. In 1909, the city had a team in the Class-C Western Association. The Western Association had once been a strong minor league. After losing Topeka and Wichita to the Western League, and Oklahoma City to the Texas League following the 1908 season, the Association was struggling. Playing in Bartlesville was a great opportunity for the 20-year-old infielder,1910 and manager Jake Beckley took advantage of Cochran’s strong arm using him mostly at shortstop. Unfortunately, even a great hitter like Beckley couldn’t help George at the plate. He managed to hit just .165 playing in all 102 Bartlesville games before the team disbanded on July 31. He stole 27 bases.

Despite his weak offense, Cochran received a tryout the following spring with the Class-B Three I League. One source said Cochran almost won the starting shortstop job, with Springfield, Illinois, but was beaten out by future major league star Heinie Groh. A Decatur, Illinois newspaper places him on the Bloomington, Illinois roster. After receiving his release, Cochran chose to play independent ball in 1911.

Ira Bidwell was just a few months older than Cochran. While still a teenager, he established the Kansas City Red Sox, an independent professional team. The Red Sox were competitive with minor league teams and even signed the occasional player under minor league contract. In the spring of 1910, Bidwell received an offer to move his team to Wyoming, and the Cheyenne Indians were formed. In 1910, pitcher Claude Hendrix jumped his contract with Salina of the Central Kansas League to play with Cheyenne. The next season George Cochran joined the team. His 1911 season was shortened by a broken leg, but he was a star in a series of games with Junction City of the Class D Central Kansas League. That winter, Bidwell decided to form a league of independent teams in the region. The Rocky Mountain League applied and was accepted as a Class D league under the National Agreement. Bidwell was league president as well as at least part owner of all the league’s teams. George Cochran started the season with Colorado Springs. Financial problems led to frequent franchise shifts before the league folded in June. Cochran returned to Cheyenne before the league folded. That season, he developed a reputation “of being a heavy hitter.” Kept alive after the league folded, by the middle of 1912, the Cheyenne team was losing money and George Cochran received an opportunity to return to organized ball.

Since joining the Class-A Western League in 1909, the Topeka club had been at or near the bottom of the standings, 1912 being no exception. Manager Dale Gear’s team was buried so deeply in the cellar that Topeka Daily Capital columnist Jay House later wrote, “Announcement has been made that the Western league season ends next Monday. The Western league season appears to have been detained along the route. It ended here in early June.”

Gear was an excellent judge of young talent, sending at least four members of that 1912 club to the major leagues – Ross Reynolds, Josh Billings, Gene Cocreham, and Cochran.  On July 16, it was announced he’d purchased Cochran from Cheyenne. George debuted that afternoon in a home game against St Joseph (Missouri) and House was impressed with the new switch-hitting infielder. “Cochran is a big fellow, very fast on his feet and has what appears to be the most wonderful throwing arm in the Western league. He shoots them across with a half arm motion and apparently with as little effort as the average man would employ in driving a fly from the bridge of his nose. His work on ground balls looked as strong as his arm. He hits from the right side of the plate and [also] increases by one Manager Gear’s long string of left handed hitters.”

Though very talented, Cochran’s inexperience was a problem in a Class-A league. In one early game, he made three errors. In another game, he made two errors, though one was a throwing error blamed on the ball still being moist from the pitch by a Topeka spitball pitcher. House said of the young infielder: “Cochran who showed finely in his first few games has aviated. [He is a] promising youngster but the class is, as yet, too fast for him.” Soon benched, Cochran might have been released or sent to a lower classification league, except for some quick thinking on his part. “He opined he might be able to pitch. Manager Gear told him to pick out a nice round ball and get busy. That was three or four days ago. With only that brief period intervening between his third basing and his pitching he was sent in to face Omaha, the shiftiest hitting team in the league. But Cochran looks like a thousand dollar bill. He made the mistake of most young slabsters and pitched his head off in the opening innings.” That was the first of three tie games Cochran pitched during the last two months of the 1912 season. He won his first game over Sioux City a few days later. Lack of endurance and control were noted as his weaknesses on the mound.

The remainder of the season, Cochran was the most versatile member of the Topeka Kaws. Between pitching assignments, he was used at second, short, third, and the outfield. A highlight was a 4-2 win over first-place Denver. In that game, “Cochran went over into foul territory and took a pop fly for the last out. Cochran began pitching so recently that he has not yet learned that the average pitcher considers it against the law to stir out of his tracks for a pop fly.” Future 1918 Red Sox teammate Jack Coffey went 0-4 against Cochran that afternoon. His control was gradually improving as well. He threw nine straight strikes to Denver’s Lee Quillan in one at-bat.

That was Cochran’s last win of the season. In consecutive September starts, he surrendered a total of five hits but lost both games. In one of those games, House wrote, “Cochran looked like a million dollars, except in the fourth. What happened in that round was enough and aplenty. Both the hits made by the [Des Moines] Boosters were plucked in this inning, and two walks and two errors by Cochran’s support and two stolen bases occurred during this spasm.” George Cochran finished 1912 with a 3-8 pitching record for a team that finished 51-109. He hit .276 in 48 games.

Offseason plans were to keep Cochran as a member of the Topeka pitching staff for 1913, but plans have a way of changing. When he reported to the Kaws spring camp in Denison, Texas, Cochran was a pitcher. When the team arrived back in Topeka, he started an exhibition game against Kansas City of the American Association. Cochran wasn’t particularly effective that afternoon, and began to be used at second base in later exhibitions.

When Topeka opened the 1913 season at home versus Denver, Cochran was the leadoff hitter, and tripled in his first at-bat of the season, scoring the team’s only run against former Red Sox pitcher Casey Hageman. He also made two errors that day. Another second baseman was soon signed, and Gear moved Cochran back to the mound. George made just one start allowing seven runs in five innings at Wichita on May 1.

The next day was a key day in Cochran’s career. Gear told the Topeka Daily Capital: “We used Cochran at third base yesterday, and he worked like an old hand at the station, besides getting two hits, stealing a base and scoring two runs.” Except for an occasional mop up relief stint, that was the end of George’s career as a pitcher. Cochran played 13 straight games without an error and hit .328 in that span but still couldn’t escape fan criticism. House said, “He booted a couple of hard chances and the hammer and anvil crowd fell upon his neck. What by the way, does the hammer and anvil crowd wish in the way of third basing?” House also believed “the Kaw infield as presently constituted is the fastest ever foregathered on this circuit.”

Cochran slumped at the plate, but continued his excellent defense. Only an injury kept him out of the lineup. While making a tag, “Cochran’s hand connected with Neff’s shinbone with such force as to fracture a small bone in the hand. The bone snapped with a pop which was heard all over the diamond.” Expected to miss a month, he was back at third in just two weeks.

In mid-August, he demonstrated another talent. The Capital noted: “Cochran was up twice in the seventh, was plunked in the slats on each occasion and scored two runs in the inning.” George was hit by a pitch three times in the game. Incredibly he was again hit three times in a game the following season. A few days later, George led off a game against Sioux City with a home run against former major leaguer Kirby White.

During Topeka’s last homestand in 1913, Cochran’s performance was “the finest ever given by a Western League third bagster at the local park. He has starred throughout the series, and has contributed one or more feature plays in every game.” Cochran finished 1913 with a .263 average and 22 steals. House predicted “Cochran should be among the top line of Western league third basemen next season.”

For the first half of the 1914 season, it looked like that prediction would come true. In late June he was batting .325 and was third in the league with 18 stolen bases. Chicago White Sox scout Jack Doyle was looking for a third baseman that summer, and in late June he was closely watching George Cochran. Doyle was looking for a player “who can smite the ball frequently.” Other clubs expressed interest as well and it was predicted Cochran would receive a promotion in 1915. A prolonged second-half slump resulted in 1914 stats quite similar to his 1913 numbers. Cochran’s final batting average was .261 and his stolen base total increased to 34.

On May 12, 1914, Cochran left the team after a series at Wichita to return to Carthage for a day. Jay House said: “George Cochran, who subscribed to a permanent lecture course in Carthage Monday, was back on the job. And George has fixed himself so that is where he will have to stay. The only chance a married man ever has to loaf is when the works shut down.” On his off day, he had married Wilma Ford, described “as the daughter of a mine operator at Carthage.” There were several lead and zinc mines west of Carthage, and the operators (including the Ford family) generally lived in Carthage, the nearest sizable town.

Dale Gear resigned as Topeka manager during the 1914 season. Gear was clearly an important figure in George Cochran’s career and life. The Cochrans named their son Dale. Cochran evidently didn’t get along with Jim Jackson, Topeka’s 1915 manager. Jackson was a veteran, apparently very critical of his players. 1915 was Cochran’s worst season at the plate since 1910. Playing in just 125 of the team’s 154 games, he hit .242.

The 1916 season presented challenges for players throughout the upper levels of the minor leagues. With the demise of the Federal League, there was an influx of players onto Western League rosters. One of those facing a challenge was George Cochran. Topeka signed a pair of former Federal League infielders. First baseman Joe Agler wasn’t a concern, but the other newcomer Pep Goodwin was a third baseman. New manager Ralph Lattimore was also an infielder.

Cochran was initially shifted to shortstop, and Topeka owner John Savage felt Cochran “was too fast to play the hot corner.” Savage had wanted to use Cochran at short in 1915, but Jackson was opposed to the idea. House was impressed with the change. “Cochran again played dazzling ball at short. If he keeps going he will have a lot of them eating their words.” His offense had improved so much that a photo was captioned identifying Cochran as a “heavy hitting shortstop.”

A game at Sioux City in late May was a highlight of his season. “The Savages robbed the home club of runs in the third frame with a lightning double play by Cochran unassisted. With Watson on third and Metz on first, Livingston, on a hit and run play, sent a liner to short. Cochran leaped two feet in the air to pull down the ball and then tagged Metz as he was sliding into second.” Later in the game, Cochran scored the winning run. The next day, he doubled twice in an 18-inning tie. One of those doubles was probably the most unusual hit of his career. “Cochran sent one to right and the ball stuck in the chickenwire and he was allowed two bases on the hit.”

The team wasn’t playing as well, and Cochran was shifted back to third base. Even that didn’t help, and manager Lattimore was fired and replaced by former Red Sox player Clyde Engle. The new manager meant changes for George Cochran. Always in the lineup, he was shuttled between short, third and the outfield. He even pitched in a game showing “a fast ball, a curve, and a change of pace, but as a pitcher he still ranks as one of the most brilliant third basemen in the league.” No matter where he played, he showed a consistency at the plate lacking in his previous seasons in the Western League. He also hit a career-high six home runs in 1916.

Cochran’s 1916 season ended early. On August 15, he was injured in a collision with catcher Lawrence Spahr of Des Moines. Expected to make a quick return, Cochran was unable to play the rest of the year. On the season, he hit .305 with 25 stolen bases. The team suffered a succession of injuries the latter part of 1916, worsening an existing attendance problem. In the offseason, owner Savage transferred the team to Joplin, Missouri.

The Western League was hit hard by World War I and worsening economic conditions. In a cost-cutting move, Savage became manager of the Joplin team during the second half of the league’s split season. There was also a pair of midseason franchise shifts. The St. Joseph, Missouri team moved to Hutchinson, Kansas. Two weeks later, the Sioux City, Iowa team moved to St. Joseph. Despite the confusion, George Cochran was one of the struggling league’s stars. He led the league with 55 stolen bases and was chosen by the league president as the All-Star third baseman. He also hit .301 with six home runs.

The 1917 Joplin team was Cochran’s opportunity to play postseason baseball. Pitcher Roy Sanders shut out Hutchinson in both games of a season-ending doubleheader to force a playoff series between the two teams for the right to meet first-half champion Des Moines. Just two weeks before, the Miners were in sixth place. Joplin lost the best of five series, 3-0, but Cochran contributed three hits including a double and stole a base in the series. After the 1917 season, Savage sold his third baseman to Kansas City of the Double-A American Association.

The American Association was one of the top minor leagues in 1918. Affected somewhat by wartime personnel losses, the league was a mixture of veterans like Napoleon Lajoie and Roger Bresnahan, minor league stars like Joe Riggert, and young prospects. The Kansas City Blues were managed by John Ganzel, a former major league third baseman. Ganzel had confidence in his new third baseman. George Cochran likely resembled one of those veterans. His hair was prematurely gray, his eyes blue, and he was described as being of medium height and build. He was the leadoff hitter for the Blues and was a key to the team’s success. Contending from the beginning, the Blues took over first place in the middle of June. Many of the league’s younger players were being inducted into the armed forces, but Cochran was deferred due to a wife and two-year-old son.

Secretary of War Newton Baker issued his work or fight order in July, and almost immediately, the American Association suspended operations for the duration. In fact the International League was the only minor league to complete its season in 1918. Kansas City held a two-game lead over Columbus when the American Association ceased play after the games of July 21. George Cochran was hitting .284 with 11 stolen bases, playing in 67 of the Blues 74 games. Thanks in part to Baker, George Cochran would receive an opportunity to play major league baseball.

Third base was a revolving door for the 1918 Red Sox. Stuffy McInnis began the season at third before moving to his accustomed station at first. Fred Thomas played the hot corner for most of May and June before joining the United States Navy. Wally Schang and coach Heinie Wagner also played third during the early months of the season. After Thomas left, Ed Barrow tried Jack Stansbury, Walter Barbare, and Eusebio Gonzalez in just a month.

The Red Sox were in St. Louis, when George Cochran was signed. Even before the Red Sox left St. Louis, there was indication that his major league career would be short. American Association President Thomas Hickey said that since his league didn’t disband for financial reasons, players not purchased would revert to their American Association teams when the league resumed operations. This included Cochran.

Cochran made his debut against the Browns on July 29. The Red Sox pitcher that afternoon was Babe Ruth. Cochran batted second and in his first major league at-bat against the Browns Allan Sothoron, he fouled out to third. He went 0-4 in a 3-2 Boston win. Boston won the next afternoon, 11-4. Cochran got his first major league hit off Dave Davenport, beating out a ball hit to George Sisler. Cochran made two errors that afternoon, the only miscues of his major league career. Overshadowing Cochran’s play and even the win, was the arrest of an estimated 20 gamblers at Sportsman’s Park by the St. Louis police.

July 31 was Cochran’s best day as a major leaguer. The Boston Globe said: “Cochran was a busy boy at bat. He got on four out of five times. The hustling third sacker singled in the second, was hit in the third, walked in the fifth, was called out on a doubtful third strike in the seventh, and again got his ribs in the way of the ball in the ninth.” Cochran scored two runs, stole a base, and advanced two bases on a Jimmy Austin error. The next day, Cochran scored the winning run after a Hank Severeid throwing error. It looked like Boston had found the answer to their third-base problem.

From St. Louis, the Red Sox went to Cleveland dropping three of the four games, and Cochran was dropped to seventh in the batting order because of Dave Shean’s return to the lineup. He went hitless in three of the four games, but managed two hits and stole a base and scored the only run in a 5-1 loss to Jim Bagby. He managed just one hit in a series at Detroit, but walked twice scoring a pair of runs in one of the games. That hit on August 8 would be his last for almost three weeks.

The Red Sox returned home on August 10, and on the return, there was bad news for George Cochran. The Globe reported the signing of Cochran’s former Western League rival Jack Coffey. Coffey’s managerial experience and a stint earlier in the season with Detroit made him a desirable addition. George made his debut at Fenway in that afternoon’s doubleheader against the Yankees. He again went hitless, dropping his batting average to .143 but fielded well and was part of an unusual 4-3-5 double play in the second game.

On August 14, Coffey joined the team and made his first start at third. Except for an exhibition game in New Haven, Connecticut, Cochran started just once in the next two weeks. Apparently considered the superior defensive player, he sometimes replaced Coffey in the late innings. As the Red Sox came close to clinching the pennant, Cochran began to play more. He started against Detroit on August 27 and 28 and started in both games of an August 30 doubleheader against Philadelphia. The weak hitting continued in those games. He was a combined 0-11 dropping his average to .091.

George Cochran was in the lineup batting seventh in the first game of the August 31 doubleheader against the Athletics. Boston beat rookie Jack Watson 6-1 in the opener. In what would be the last pennant clincher by a Boston team for almost three decades, Cochran broke out of his slump going 1-for-3. He replaced Everett Scott at shortstop in the latter innings of the second game. Watson returned to the mound for Philadelphia in that second game, shutting out the American League champs, 1-0.

What turned out to be George Cochran’s final major league game was Boston’s last regular season game in New York. Cochran managed a hit in four at-bats against Mogridge, and fielded flawlessly starting a double play. In an article comparing the relative strength of the Red Sox and Cub infields, Cochran’s defense was praised. The article also mentioned the possibility of Fred Thomas receiving a furlough from the Great Lakes Naval training station.

George Cochran traveled with the Red Sox to Chicago for the opening of the World Series. When the team arrived in Chicago, Thomas was waiting for them. Cochran sat on the Red Sox bench but didn’t appear in the Series. Cochran was one of six late-season acquisitions to receive a $300 share of the World Series proceeds. George spent that offseason working in the Oklahoma oil fields.

As American Association President Hickey predicted, Cochran and other players who went elsewhere after the league suspended operations were returned to their prior teams. That development, and the suspension of the major league draft, ended any chance of Cochran returning to the major leagues. George batted .311 for Kansas City in 1919. After sitting out the 1920 season, he returned and batted .322 for the Blues in 1921, his final professional season.

Cochran used his baseball earnings to move his family, which included Wilma, his mother, a son Dale G. (born in 1916), and daughter Marian (born 1919), to a newer home. He also opened a combination confectionery, cigar store, and newsstand with partner L.H. Dillard. The store was located on Carthage’s town square. He also owned and operated a ballpark on West Fairview Avenue in Carthage later in the 1920’s.

The Great Depression affected Missouri even before the stock market crash of 1929. Sometime near the end of that decade, George Cochran moved his family to California. Settling in Los Angeles, the family rented a home on East Rennington Road, and George opened another cigar stand. By the time George Cochran died on May 21, 1960, he was living in the Harbor City community located in the southern part of Los Angeles. He was working as a grocery clerk at the time of his death.

Sources

Decatur Daily Review, Decatur IL, 1911

Topeka Daily Capital, Topeka KS, 1912-16

Hutchinson Daily News, Hutchinson KS, 1917

Toledo Times, 1918

Boston Globe, 1918

Chicago Tribune, 1918

New York Times, 1918

Junction City (KS) Union, 1911

Manhattan (KS) Mercury, 1912

Carthage, Missouri, City Directories 1900-1927

United States Census, Missouri, 1900, 1920

United States Census, Oklahoma, 1910

United States Census, California, 1930

World War I Draft Registration, Carthage, Missouri, 1917

John Hall e-mail correspondence 2006-07

Michelle Hansford e-mail 2006

John Francis “Jack” Coffey, the son of immigrants, was born January 28, 1887, in New York City. Jack’s mother was born in England; his father, Michael, in Ireland. Jack attended Morris High in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx, playing baseball and football there. In the fall of 1905, Jack entered St. John’s College at Rose Hill in the Bronx (in 1907, St. John’s College became Fordham University), and excelled at academics and sports. He won eight varsity letters at Fordham, four each in baseball and football.³ His first game for the Maroon was a football game against Rutgers in the fall of 1905. Left tackle Coffey would drop off the line into the backfield to take the pitchout; the play, which became known as the “Coffey-Over,” worked for three touchdowns in that initial contest. While Coffey was quite adept at football, baseball was destined to become his career. The speedy Coffey was the star shortstop for four years and was the Rams’ team captain in 1909. During his playing career at Fordham, he was a teammate of three future major league players: pitcher Dick Rudolph, who won two World Series games with the 1914 “Miracle Braves,” and infielders Dick Egan and Dave Shean.

After the 1909 Fordham baseball season ended, Coffey signed a major league contract with the Boston National League franchise (the team was known then as the Doves, after team owner George Dovey but Coffey later joked the name derived from “their pacifistic tendencies.”)⁴ The 5’11”, 178 pound Coffey joined the Doves on June 23 at the Polo Grounds in New York City, where the Boston nine were scheduled to play a doubleheader against the Giants. The Doves were a very bad team, 13-35 as the day started, on their way to a 45-108, last-place finish. Luckily for Coffey, the Doves were desperate for help. Coffey entered the first game in the bottom of the eighth after starting shortstop Bill Dahlen was ejected for arguing a close play at third base. In the top of the ninth, with the score tied, 4-4, Coffey had his first major league at-bat. It came against future Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson, who had entered the game in the ninth in relief of starter Rube Marquard. The right-handed-hitting Coffey, who later recalled fouling off about a dozen pitches, struck out. In the bottom of the ninth, with the score still tied, Coffey made an error that gave the Giants an opening to win the game, 5-4. Between games, Coffey was honored with a ceremony on the field by “his young Westchester County friends.”⁵ He was given a gold watch and a floral horseshoe. Coffey started the second game at short. He got his first major league hit, a single, off the Giants’ Doc Crandall. Coffey also scored a run and made another error as the Doves were drubbed, 11-1.

Coffey became the everyday shortstop for the 1909 Doves, playing in 73 of 80 games between June 23 and September 9. He had a difficult time in the field, making at least one error in five of his first six games. He would go on to make 40 errors in 73 games for an .896 fielding percentage, well under the league average. He acquitted himself better at the plate for a while, reaching .268 (on a team that hit .223 for the season) before settling at .187. He had a 3-for-5 day on July 8 against St. Louis while playing errorless ball in the field. The Boston Globe enthused: “Coffey made it plain to all that he is a high class ball player”.⁶ Arthur D. Cooper wrote, “The Fordham shortstop has partially braced up an infield which as yet is a little wobbly. Coffey has certainly made good.”⁷ Coffey was moved up in the batting order from seventh to fifth and even batted in the third spot on occasion.

On July 16, Coffey was reunited with fellow Fordham alum Dave Shean, whom the Doves had acquired from the Phillies. By July 27, the Boston Globe noted, Coffey seemed to play better when the “Arlington boy [Shean]”⁸ was playing second. On July 26, the Doves were playing the Giants at the South End Grounds; Boston started Al Mattern. The Giants went with Leon Ames. Coffey, batting third, hit a long line drive to right center field with one on in the first inning. Giants center fielder Bill O’Hara cut in front of right fielder Moose McCormick, attempting to make the catch. The ball went off O’Hara’s glove deep into the right-field corner, allowing Coffey to circle the bases. The Globe gave Coffey credit for a home run. No error was given to O’Hara or McCormick. Although the Boston Herald and Journal described Coffey’s hit as a “long liner to right center and under almost any circumstances would have been an out,”⁹ the box score shows a home run for Coffey. The Boston Post gave Coffey credit for a triple but no error to O’Hara or McCormick. There is no further explanation of how Coffey scored. The New York Times credited Coffey with a home run in the box score and noted only that “O’Hara made an error of judgment” in the account of the game. The game was suspended because of darkness after 17 innings with the score tied, 3-3. Coffey reminisced about this home run to Arthur Daley¹⁰ and was proud of hitting a home run in each major league. He has not, however, been given official credit for the four-bagger.

After a forgettable August, Coffey went back to Fordham in early September to finish his bachelor’s degree and to coach the freshman football team. In late December, the Indianapolis Indians of the Class A American Association announced they had obtained Coffey from the Boston Nationals. His amateur eligibility exhausted, Coffey could not play for his college baseball team so, in 1910, he coached the Fordham nine to an 18-2 record.

With his degree in hand and the college season over, Coffey played for the 1910 Indians. Managed by former major leaguer Charlie Carr, the Indianapolis team finished fourth (83-85) in the eight-team league. Coffey, playing shortstop, hit .226 with six triples, four doubles, and 16 stolen bases in 93 games. In 1911, Coffey’s contract was purchased by the Denver Grizzlies of the Western League (Class A). The 1911 Grizzlies, managed by Jack Hendricks, were arguably the best team Denver ever fielded in the Western League and one of the finest minor league teams ever. Pitcher Buck O’Brien was 26-7 with the Grizzlies and, after a September call-up, was 5-1 with a 0.38 ERA for the Boston Red Sox. The Grizzlies reached first place in June and never let up, winning 111 and losing only 54, leaving the second place St. Joseph (Missouri) Drummers 18 games behind. Coffey had an excellent year for the Grizzlies, playing in 168 of the 169 scheduled games and hitting .278 with five homers, nine triples, 31 doubles, and a Western League record 68 stolen bases. He fielded .923, fourth in the l/League among everyday shortstops. An article in Baseball Magazine about the 1911 Grizzlies said, “The shortstop position had for several seasons been the weakest place on the Denver infield. Jack Coffey was bought from Indianapolis and took care of the position so well that the other shortstops in the league were forgotten”.¹¹

The Grizzlies also finished in first in 1912 and 1913 although in not so dominating a fashion as the 1911 squad. Coffey raised his batting average to .293 in 1912. He hit a career-high nine home runs along with 11 triples and 23 doubles over 147 games and stole 43 bases. For the 1913 Bears, as they were now known, Coffey’s power numbers were down from the previous year but he still hit .291 with 39 stolen bases while playing 154 games at shortstop.

In addition to his work with the Bears, Coffey was a co-manager of the Fordham varsity baseball team in 1912 and 1913. He was instrumental in the Rams’ early season workouts and with the team selection before leaving to join the Western League in April.

After the 1913 season and three successive Western League crowns, Denver team owner and president James C. McGill asked skipper Jack Hendricks to manage another of his baseball properties, the Indianapolis Indians. McGill then named Jack Coffey to succeed Hendricks. This was Coffey’s first foray into the ranks of player-management, a role that would last until the end of his minor league career. The pressure of management, apparently, had a salutary effect on Coffey’s playing. In 1914, he had the finest season of his professional career. Coffey achieved career highs in at-bats (628), batting average (.330), total bases (287), hits (207), triples (15), and runs (116) while playing in 165 games. The Bears finished second, however, winning 96 and losing 72.

In August of 1914, Coffey signed a contract extension, at an increased salary, to manage the Bears in 1915. In September 1914, though, the Pittsburgh Pirates purchased Coffey’s contract for $1,500. On September 21, the New York Times declared: “Coffey to Succeed Hans Wagner“.¹² The story that followed, however, dampened the grandiose claim somewhat. Coffey had not yet signed a contract with the Pirates. Pittsburgh scout Chick Fraser was dispatched to Denver to induce Coffey to sign. Coffey was balking at the idea, though. If he was going to move east, he wanted to be well compensated. Coffey was using the newly former Federal League as a bargaining ploy. Federal League teams in Indianapolis and Chicago were interested in Coffey. In the end, Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss would not pay Coffey what he wanted and Coffey was back with Denver as a player-manager in 1915. Coffey’s numbers tailed off that season, as they were bound to after his stellar 1914. He played in only 105 games but stole 34 bases and hit a respectable .282. He also saw some time at third base for the first time in his professional career. As a manager, he guided the Bears to another second-place finish at 82-55, three games behind Des Moines. After the season, St. Joseph owner Jack Holland tried to pry Coffey loose from Denver. Coffey told Holland he was under contract with the Denver club for 1916. McGill, miffed because of the attempted backdoor deal, set the price for Coffey’s contract very high. Holland declined to pay it and the popular Coffey appeared set to play and manage another year in Denver.¹³ It was not to be, however. Before the start of the 1916 season, Coffey’s contract was sold to the San Francisco Seals of the Class AA Pacific Coast League.

Jack Coffey was joining another very good team. The Seals won the PCL crown in 1915, posting 118 victories against 89 defeats under manager Harry “Fighting Harry” Wolverton, a nine-year major league veteran and one-time New York Yankees manager. Wolverton remained the manager for 1916 and Coffey was relegated to player-only status. The Seals played 206 games in 1916 (the PCL typically played the most games of any professional circuit). After briefly attaining first place in the league, the Seals fell to third before finishing in fourth place at 104-102. Their new shortstop had an offyear as well. Coffey hit only .223 in the tougher league, managing just two triples and 13 doubles in 135 games. Coffey had another good year in the field though. The shortstop fielded at a .948 clip in 135 games.

Coffey, now 30, was back in the Western League in 1917, this time as player-manager for the Des Moines Boosters. Coffey guided the Boosters, including future major league star Lefty O’Doul, to a 55-35 first-place finish for the first half of the season and a 29-27 fourth-place finish in the second half. The Boosters beat the Hutchinson (Kansas) Wheatshockers four games to two in the league playoff, winning the Western League crown. Coffey, playing second base, had a better year at the plate. He hit .289 over 142 games with four homers, eight triples, 19 doubles, 71 runs, and 28 stolen bases.

Coffey was back to manage the Des Moines club in 1918 but it was destined to be an abbreviated season. Larger forces than professional baseball were at work. World War I and the concomitant “work or fight” order was wreaking havoc with minor league rosters and with attendance. Most minor leagues decided to truncate their seasons. The Western League ceased operations on July 7, 1918. The Boosters were 36-31, in third place, and Coffey was hitting .267 when the season ended. The major leagues were having their own difficulties with the “work or fight” order. All of the big league teams had lost players to the draft or to jobs in “essential” industries. They were looking for players to fill their depleted squads. Coffey, at the age of 31, was unlikely to be drafted so the Detroit Tigers signed him to a contract on July 10, 1918.¹⁴ When Tigers second baseman Pep Young was out with an injury, Coffey filled in.

Coffey’s first game with the Tigers came on July 13 in Washington against the Senators. He went 0-for-3 in the Tigers 1-0 victory. Coffey’s last game for the Tigers came on August 3, also against the Senators. Overall, Coffey played in 22 games for the Tigers and hit .209 with two triples, four RBIs, and two stolen bases. He played well in the field, making five errors in 116 chances for a .957 fielding percentage. When Pep Young came back, however, Coffey became expendable. Old friend Dave Shean came to the rescue, indirectly. The 34-year-old Shean was the everyday second baseman for the first-place Boston Red Sox. He had rheumatism in his foot bad enough to cause doubt he would finish the season. Red Sox owner Harry Frazee had Eusebio Gonzalez on the bench but wanted a bit more insurance. When the Red Sox came to Detroit for a three-game set on August 6, a deal was made for Coffey.¹⁵ On August 10, Edward F. Martin of the Boston Globe reported that Coffey would join the Red Sox that day. He went on to say Coffey “played second base capably for the Tigers in the absence of Pep Young”.¹⁶

It was not at second base, but at third base, however, that Coffey would contribute to the Red Sox. He played 14 games at third and only one at second for the pennant winning team. He hit a lowly .159 with a homer and a double in 44 at-bats. He made two errors in 49 chances for a .959 fielding average. His best game at the plate came on August 21 against the St. Louis Browns at Fenway Park. Spitballer Allan “Dixie” Sothoron held the Sox to two hits through the first seven innings but one of the hits was a home run by third baseman Coffey in the fifth. Coffey hit what the Herald and Journal‘s Burt Whitman called “a funny home run …a whack which ordinarily would have been good for three bases and which Hooper or Speaker either would have caught or held to a double”.¹⁷ The speedy Coffey, however, turned it into an inside-the-park home run, only the second home run hit at Fenway Park in 1918.

Coffey played his last games as a major leaguer on September 2, 1918. (Due to the war, both the American and National League had agreed to end the season by September 2 and start the World Series on September 4.) Coffey played in both games of a doubleheader in New York against the Yankees. He played third in the first game, going 1-for-3 and second base in the second game, going 2-for-4. Coffey was on the roster for the World Series and it looked as though he might get to play when Dave Shean injured his hand fielding a ball during practice. A rainout on September 4, however, allowed Shean time to heal. Fred Thomas, who had played 44 games for the Sox in 1918, was on leave from the Great Lakes Naval Training Station and held down the hot corner during the Series. Consequently, Coffey did not appear in the World Series but was voted a $300 share of the victors’ prize money.¹⁸

It was back to the Western League and the Des Moines Boosters for Coffey in 1919. The player-manager played 123 games at second base and led his team to a fourth-place finish, just four games over .500 (71-67). Coffey bounced back at the plate, however, hitting .306 with three homers, seven triples, 29 doubles, and 32 stolen bases. In 1920, Coffey became a part-owner of the Des Moines franchise and, U.S. Census records show, by 1920 he was a married man. He was renting a home in Des Moines with his wife, Lorraine, a Missouri native, who was five years his junior. No other information is known about Lorraine Coffey.

It was a disappointing season for the Des Moines club. The Boosters finished in last place, 33 games behind the league-leading Tulsa Oilers. Coffey did his part, however. The 33-year-old played in 137 of the team’s 151 ball games. He was leading the team in hitting at .385 in mid-June¹⁹ before settling at .290 with four homers, four triples, and 25 doubles. He could still steal a base, garnering 26 more thefts that year. The next year, in what would be his final season in Des Moines, Coffey could improve his team’s fortunes by only one place as the Boosters finished seventh in the eight-team circuit. Coffey hit .300 but played in only 95 games, his lowest total in the minors since 1910 (the shortened 1918 season excepted). He hit 23 doubles but no home runs, only two triples, and only five stolen bases.

At the end of the 1921 season, Coffey announced that he would not be back for 1922. On November 17, 1921, The Sporting News reported, “Folk all over the circuit [the Western League] view the passing of Coffey with much regret for there never was a more popular man in the league than the prematurely-gray boss of the Des Moines outfit”.²⁰ Coffey was very popular with the players and the fans wherever he managed or played. After playing most of the previous 12 years in the West, Coffey was heading home.

On February 18, 1922, Fordham named Coffey and Billy Keane (Fordham Class of 1904) co-managers of the varsity baseball team.²¹ It was understood Coffey would manage the Rams only part of the time because he had also taken a player-manager position with the Hartford Senators of the Eastern League. Coffey was taking over a Hartford club that finished fifth in 1921, five games below .500 at 71-78. The veteran manager could coax only two more wins out of the Senators in 1922. They finished in sixth place at 73-76. In 1922 Coffey had his worst year in minor league ball. He hit only .231 and played in only 50 games.

As the Hartford skipper, Jack Coffey has the distinction of being Jim Thorpe’s last manager. Thorpe, 35, was signed by Hartford during the 1922 season. The aging star could still hit but his off-field activities became on-field problems. Coffey was forced to dismiss Thorpe for “indifferent play.” Coffey himself spent only one year in Hartford. The next year, Coffey again co-managed the Fordham baseball team but also was the player-manager for the Macon Peaches in the Class B South Atlantic League. The Peaches, who had started the 1923 season as the Charleston Pals, had won the Sally League championship in 1922. Coffey did not have much to work with, however, since most of the players were sold before the start of the 1923 season.²² It did not get any better as the seasoned progressed. Attendance dropped dramatically in Charleston and manager Coffey was “much handicapped by lack of funds.”²³ The Pals had won only seven of 28 games when they moved to Macon. Coffey rebounded nicely at the plate, at least partly due, no doubt, to the lesser quality pitchers in this league. The 36-year-old Coffey played in 114 games, hitting .294 (on the worst hitting team in the league²⁴) with 11 home runs (a career best), three triples, 30 doubles, and 53 RBIs. He also stole nine bases. Again, he lasted only one year with his team. In 1924, Coffey, who continued his co-managing duties at Fordham, was the player-manager for two teams in the Three-I League. He started the season with the Peoria (Illinois) Tractors and finished with the Decatur (Illinois) Commodores. He hit .270 in just 38 games for the two teams.

On New Year’s Day 1925, The Sporting News reported, “Jack Coffey, worthiest of managers and grandest of men in baseball, has made it positive he will not return”.²⁵ It was his last season of professional baseball. Coffey had played for 11 teams in eight leagues over the course of 16 seasons. The scholarly Coffey referred to his baseball sojourn as “a prolonged series of peregrinations to points provincial.”²⁶

In 1925, Jack Coffey returned to Fordham University to stay. He earned his law degree and was now the full-time, sole manager of the baseball team. During the summer of 1925, Coffey worked as a scout for old friend Jack Hendricks, who was now managing the Cincinnati Reds. Coffey scouted in the Eastern League as well as in the Pacific Coast League. In 1926, Coffey succeeded Frank Gargan as Graduate Manager of Athletics at Fordham. Coach Coffey held both positions until he retired in 1958.

While Coffey was in charge of athletics at Fordham, the University became a national sports powerhouse. The baseball team won five Eastern Collegiate Conference championships and 14 Metropolitan Conference titles. Coffey’s career winning percentage as a Fordham manager is above the .700 mark.²⁷ So popular was the baseball team it could draw 12,000 people to the Polo Grounds for games against Manhattan or Columbia. During the 1920s, 1930s, and into the 1940s, Fordham was a perennial football power. Fordham football games were extremely popular as well. Games against New York University would be played before more than 70,000 people at Yankee Stadium. Two Fordham teams, 1929 and 1937, went undefeated. The once-beaten teams of ’35 and ’36 included Vince Lombardi, whom Coffey had persuaded to come to Fordham in the fall of 1932.²⁸ Lombardi’s first brush with fame came as one of the “Seven Blocks of Granite,” as the ’36 Rams football line was called. Fordham football teams also made two bowl appearances, the 1941 Cotton Bowl and the 1942 Sugar Bowl (back when an invitation to a bowl game was a rare event). Fordham also produced quality basketball teams and track stars during Coffey’s tenure.

By the 1950s the awards and accolades started to accumulate. In 1953, Coffey received a citation for “long and meritorious service to sports” from the Sports Broadcasters Association. In 1954, he was elected to the Collegiate Baseball Hall of Fame. On April 3, 1954, Fordham University renamed its baseball field Jack Coffey Field, which it remains to this day. Also in 1954, Coffey was named to the Helms Foundation Collegiate Baseball Hall of Fame. In 1958 the Eastern College Athletic Conference awarded Coffey its annual James Lynch Memorial Award for outstanding service over a long period. By 1958, though, Coffey had passed the mandatory retirement age at Fordham and the 71-year-old made plans to retire at the end of the spring semester. May 17, 1958, was Jack Coffey Day at Fordham (it was actually the second Jack Coffey Day; Fordham had honored him with a day on May 17, 1947, for his 25 years as manager of the baseball team). The The 1958 Day’s events began with a baseball game against Manhattan College at Jack Coffey Field. The Rams prevailed, 14-7. A reception followed the game and a dinner was held that night. Among the 500 guests were Frank “The Fordham Flash” Frisch, Hank Borowy, Johnny Murphy, and sportswriter Tom Meany. The president of Fordham, the Very Rev. Laurence J. McGinley, SJ, announced the creation of the John F. Coffey Award, a medal given each year to the Fordham varsity athlete who achieves the highest academic standing. Father McGinley also announced that the title Graduate Manager of Athletics would be Coffey’s forever and would be retired in his honor. In 1966, Coffey was elected to the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.²⁹ In 1970, he was in the inaugural class of inductees in the Fordham Hall of Fame.

Jack Coffey had been associated with Fordham for more than 50 years. He was an institution at the university. He mentored countless baseball players at Fordham, teaching them not only the technical aspects of the game but also how to play the game with class. At least 23 of his baseball charges made it to the major leagues, among them Hank Borowy, who won World Series games with the Yankees and the Cubs; Johnny Murphy; Babe Young; and Sam Zoldak. To his friends and associates he was Genial Jack, Mr. Fordham, or Mr. Birthday, the latter sobriquet given to honor Coffey’s prodigious memory. Sportswriters at the time claimed Coffey could remember the birthdays of 3,000 people. He was in the habit of addressing people by their birthday instead of by name, as in “Hello, Mr. July 30.” Coffey, an autodidact in foreign languages, was fluent in French (he wrote a sports column, in French, for “Fordham France”³⁰), Spanish, Italian, and German. From at least 1929 until his retirement, Coffey traveled widely with his second wife, Anastasia. The two traveled to France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Alaska, Australia, and South America, among other places where Coffey would hone his language skills. At the end of his life, Coffey was suffering from arteriosclerosis and was confined to a nursing home. He succumbed to a heart attack on February 14, 1966. He was survived by his wife, Anastasia. The couple had no children. Coffey is buried at Calvary Cemetery, Queens, New York.

At Jack Coffey Field at Fordham a bronze plaque, placed there April 3, 1954, is inscribed: “To John F. “Jack” Coffey, A true sportsman, scholar and Christian gentleman.”

These are fitting words and a lasting testament to an exemplary person, baseball player, coach, and teacher.

Acknowledgement

The author gives special thanks to Patrice M. Kane, Head, Archives and Special Collections at the Fordham University Library. Ms. Kane kindly donated her time and resources, providing the author with invaluable information about Jack Coffey.

Sources

Websites
www.baseball-reference.com
www.sabr.org
www.minorleaguebaseball.com

Books
Waterman, Ty and Mel Springer, The Year the Red Sox Won the Series. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1999.

Newspapers
Boston Globe
Boston Herald and Journal
Boston Post
Fordham Ram
Hartford Courant
New York Mirror
New York Times
New York World-Telegram and Sun
The Sporting News

Notes

¹ Daley, Arthur. “Sports of The Times,” New York Times, May 12, 1958, p. 34.

² Adams, Caswell. “Through the Years…,” Fordham Ram, May 17, 1947, p. 2.

³ Gilleran, Ed. “Looking Them Over,” Fordham Ram, May 17, 1947, p. 3.

⁴ Daley, op. cit.

⁵ Boston Globe, June 23, 1909, p. 5.

⁶ Boston Globe, July 9, 1909, p. 5.

⁷ Cooper, Arthur D. Boston Post, July 8, 1909, p. 10.

⁸ “Doves Showing a Much Better Frame of Mind,” Boston Globe, July 27, 1909, p. 4.

⁹ Boston Herald and Journal, July 27, 1909, p. 4.

¹⁰ Daley, op. cit.

¹¹ Norton, Russell, F. “Baseball Above the Clouds,” Baseball Magazine, February 1912, Vol. VIII, No. 4, pp. 27-33.

¹² “Coffey to Succeed Hans Wagner,” New York Times, September 21, 1914, p. 8.

¹³ Niely. “Coffey Remains with Denver,” The Sporting News, October 21, 1915, p. 8.

¹⁴ Boston Globe, July 11, 1918, p. 4.

¹⁵ Wood, Allan. Babe Ruth and the 1918 Red Sox, Lincoln, Nebraska, Writers Club Press, 2000, p. 210.

¹⁶ Martin, Edward, F. Boston Globe, August 10, 1918, p. 4.

¹⁷ Whitman, Burt, Boston Herald and Journal, August 22, 1918, p. 4.

¹⁸ A full share was $1,108.45, the smallest amount ever awarded to a World Series winner. Wood, op. cit., p. 342.

¹⁹ The Sporting News, June 17, 1920, p. 3

²⁰ The Sporting News, November 17, 1921, p. 2

²¹ “To Coach Fordham Nine,” New York Times, February 18, 1922, p. 16.

²² The Sporting News, December 21, 1922, p. 8.

²³ The Sporting News, May 10, 1923, p. 2.

²⁴ The Sporting News, November 8, 1923 p. 6.

²⁵ The Sporting News, January 1, 1925, p. 3.

²⁶ Daley, op. cit.

²⁷ Solomon, Burt, Fordham University Press Release, May 19, 1958.

²⁸ Cohane, Tim. Bypaths of Glory: A Sportswriter Looks Back, New York: Harper and Row, 1963, p. 4.

²⁹ www.abca.org/downloads/pdf/ABCA_HallOfFamers.pdf

³⁰ www.fordham-tradition.org/SEP96.HTM

Before the turn of the century, the Dubuc family owned Granite Construction Company, an itinerant firm that specialized in building churches throughout the northeast. In the spring of 1887, Napoleon Dubuc relocated to Railroad Street in St. Johnsbury to start work on Notre Dame Church. That first summer, 150 carloads of Concord granite and thirty carloads of Isle la Motte stone were used to build the church’s exterior. In the summer of 1888, the interior was finished in ash, frescoed, and lighted with stained-glass windows–St. Patrick on one side for the Irish parishioners and St. John the Baptist on the other for the French-Canadians.

Later that summer–on September 15, 1888, to be exact–Napoleon and Mathilde Dubuc had a son (one of six she bore) whose given name at birth is variously reported as Jean Arthur, John Joseph, Jean Baptiste Arthur, and Jean Joseph Octave Arthur. As if those weren’t enough, somewhere along the line he picked up the nickname “Chauncey.” Despite his French-Canadian heritage, his first name was pronounced “Gene,” at least in American baseball circles, while his last name was pronounced like Dubuque, the city in Iowa.

When Jean was four, the Dubucs moved to Montpelier. The future major leaguer lived in Vermont’s capital city for seven years before his parents sent him to the Seminary of St. Theresa in Montreal, where he studied for the priesthood There, the Rutland Herald reported, Jean “was undefeated in high school games pitched in Canada.” As he entered adolescence, the family re-located yet again, this time to Fall River, Massachusetts, where Napoleon was the contractor in charge of building St. Ann’s Church. Dubuc relative Bob O’Leary recalls a story from his childhood about how the 15-year-old Jean first learned to control his pitches in Fall River: “Behind home plate at the sandlot was the exterior wall of a drug store. Jean was throwing so hard and wild that the catcher could not always catch the ball. When it struck the outside of the pharmacy, all the items displayed on the inside of that wall fell to the ground and broke. Jean learned to control his great arm so that they could keep playing.”

Jean attended the prep program at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester for one year, 1904-05, studying electrical engineering. He went out for varsity baseball, but on the second day of practice school authorities informed the 15-year-old that he was too young to play. For the 1905-06 school year, Dubuc enrolled at St. Michael’s College in Winooski Park, Vermont. In only its second year of existence, St. Mike’s already had a winning baseball team. Jean pitched every game that season, compiling a 13-4 record and recording double-digit strikeouts routinely. His exploits at the plate were even more impressive. Batting third in the order, he hit .528 with an .843 slugging average. To put that in perspective, subtracting Dubuc’s contributions, the team’s batting average falls from .300 to .271, and its slugging average plummets from .375 to .316. A century later, Dubuc, a three-sport athlete, was inducted into the college’s Athletics Hall of Fame in September 2006.

The following fall, Jean headed west to South Bend, Indiana, and enrolled at the University of Notre Dame. Though his first athletic participation on campus was as starting forward on the varsity basketball team, Dubuc showcased his true athletic brilliance on the baseball diamond. In the spring of 1907, the 18-year-old Vermonter posted a 5-1 record as the Fighting Irish amassed 21 victories against only two losses. Notre Dame was 20-1 the following season, with Jean upping his contribution to 9-1. Aside from Dubuc, the 1908 squad featured no less than four future major leaguers: second baseman George Cutshaw, who played regularly for 11 seasons with Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, and Detroit; first baseman Bert Daniels, who patrolled the outfield with the New York Highlanders for four seasons; catcher Ed McDonough, who backstopped for the Phillies for a couple of years; and pitcher Frank Scanlan, who had a cup of coffee with the Phils.

Even in that fast company, Chauncey Dubuc glistened. His nine wins in 1908 stood as a school record until 1989, though later Notre Dame teams played much longer schedules. Of his 14 wins over two seasons, seven were shutouts, and even his two defeats were glorious. In 1907’s only loss, Dubuc gave up just one hit and one walk while striking out 16–and getting three hits of his own. And his 1908 defeat was one of the most interesting games in the annals of Vermont baseball history.

When Jean Dubuc pitched against UVM at Centennial Field during Notre Dame’s 1908 eastern trip, Vermont baseball enjoyed a banner day. The game featured three of history’s most distinguished Green Mountain Boys of Summer: Dubuc on the mound for the visitors, Ray Collins for the home nine, and Larry Gardner at shortstop.

In a hard-fought game in which Collins struck out 13, UVM handed the Fighting Irish — and Dubuc — their only loss of the season, 6-3. “[Notre Dame], the much heralded champions of the Middle West, came to Burlington with a series of 12 victories,” bragged UVM’s yearbook, The Ariel, “yet even with the far famed Dubuc in the box, they were unable to keep us from scoring six runs.”

Jean Dubuc intended to return to Notre Dame in the fall of 1908 but was forced to change plans when a semipro game in Chicago cost him his amateur status. Adopting the alias of “Williams,” Dubuc pitched a lackluster team called the White Rocks to a 2-1 victory over the powerful Gunthers, but the ruse was detected and reported in the Chicago Tribune. Without hesitation, Notre Dame authorities ruled their best pitcher ineligible for further collegiate competition.

Jean barely had time to peel off his White Rocks uniform before receiving offers from seven major league teams. He signed with the Cincinnati Reds, with whom the 19-year-old made his major league debut on June 25, 1908. In his first big league game, he was pulled in the fourth inning after severely wrenching his knee, an injury that plagued him for the rest of his career. He pitched only once more until September, when he returned to action as a regular starter. Dubuc ended up 5-6 with a solid 2.74 ERA. One of his victories was a two-hit shutout over the world-champion Chicago Cubs.

That fall, Jean won three of his four decisions on Cincinnati’s barnstorming tour of Cuba. It looked like 1909 might be a big year for the young Vermonter. But in spring training he contracted malaria, causing him to miss most of the season and reportedly still affecting his play badly the following year. In 1910, Reds manager Clark Griffith sent Dubuc to Buffalo of the Eastern League, but when the pitcher continued to struggle (his record was 0-6), Buffalo released him. Jean went home to Montreal, where his father had moved after Jean’s mother’s death.

For the French-speaking Dubuc, Montreal was the perfect place to turn around his sagging baseball fortunes. Jean joined the Royals, the local Eastern League club, and rebounded to 21-11 in 1911, thanks mainly to an effective change-up reportedly learned from his catcher, major league veteran Frank Roth. Jean was no slouch at the plate, either. The Dubuc scrapbooks reveal that in 26 pinch-hit at-bats in Montreal, Jean had an astounding 22 hits. Dubuc also opened a successful business, The Palace Bowling Alley and Pool Room at 282 St. Catherine Street, and bought stock in the Montreal Wanderers, one of two local National Hockey Association franchises. Of course, with 21 wins to his credit, Dubuc was eagerly wanted back in the majors–it was said that 15 big league scouts were in the stands for one of his starts. Montreal’s asking price was reportedly $10,000 and a couple of players, but in September the Royals accidentally exposed him to the major league draft. Ten of the 16 clubs put in claims, with the Detroit Tigers finally obtaining him for the bargain price of $1,500.

Detroit offered Dubuc a salary of $2,250 for 1912. Sitting pretty in Montreal, Jean played coy. In a letter to Tigers owner Frank Navin, he pointed out that $2,250 for seven months’ work contrasted poorly with his 1911 salary of $2,196.68 for five months, not to mention the need to hire a manager to run his business if he left Montreal. Dubuc countered with two options: Navin could raise him to $2,800 or allow him to buy out his own contract for $1,500. While that response may seem brazen for an unproven youngster, Dubuc’s letter, preserved to this day in his file at the National Baseball Library, is a model of courtesy.

Somehow the differences were resolved, and in 1912 Jean Dubuc began a five-year stint in Detroit (rooming with Ty Cobb on road trips) with a spectacular first season, beginning with a win in the first game ever played at Tiger (Navin/Briggs) Stadium. Though overshadowed by Walter Johnson’s and Smoky Joe Wood’s record 16-game winning streaks, Dubuc compiled an 11-game streak of his own en route to a 17-10 record, with two shutouts and an ERA of 2.77. In a feature article in Baseball Magazine, F. C. Lane called Dubuc “The Slow Ball Wizard.” Lane wrote that it was Roth who taught him the slow ball in Montreal in 1911, though others claim that Clark Griffith had shown it to him two years earlier. Another sportswriter dubbed him the “best pitching find of the season.” Hall of Fame umpire Billy Evans pronounced his change-up the best in the American League.

Over the next four seasons, amid repeated salary wrangles, Dubuc showed flashes of his original glitter but never put together an entire season of distinction. In 1914, for example, he started off in a blaze, winning his first five decisions — despite hurting his knee again on April 15 – and bringing forth headlines like “Looks Better Than Ever.” According to one newspaper, “Some of the diamond critics believe that he is destined to become the best pitcher in baseball.” But for the rest of that year his won-lost record was only 8-l4, his ERA for the season escalating to 3.46. He came back in 1915 with a 17-12 record, including a career-high five shutouts (one of them a one-hit, 1-0 triumph over the great Walter Johnson). But when his knee injury resurfaced in 1916, causing him to tail off to 10-10, the Tigers figured he wasn’t worth a big salary and sold him to Chattanooga.

Dubuc went 22-16 games for the Salt Lake City Bees in the Pacific Coast League in 1917, playing outfield often and pinch-hitting with some frequency. He suffered a serious automobile accident in late March 1918 but again pitched well for Salt Lake that season. In July he was one of 10 Bees ordered to show cause why they should not be designated 1-A in the draft. Dubuc told the Salt Lake papers that he wanted to join the war effort as a French interpreter, but when he was granted a deferment due to his bad knee, his appeal increased to major league teams seeking to restore depleted rosters. The Boston Red Sox purchased his contract and on July 25 he reported to the Red Sox on the road at Comiskey Park.

With the Red Sox Dubuc appeared in five games, but pitched in only two. The first was his debut on July 28; he allowed one run, throwing the last two innings of an 8-0 loss to Chicago, and was 1-for-1 with a single in his only at-bat. His second appearance was his only start, the second game of a double header in New York, which he lost in the bottom of the ninth, 4-3. Dubuc was 1-for-6 at the plate during the regular season. His only appearance in the World Series came when Barrow wanted a right-handed pinch hitter in the ninth inning of Game Two. The Red Sox were down 3-1 with men on first and third and one out. Dubuc struck out, then Schang popped up to end the game.

John McGraw’s New York Giants acquired Dubuc before the 1919 season. In an era when relief specialists were unheard of–Firpo Marberry, often credited for launching that role, didn’t appear until five seasons later–Dubuc pitched in 36 games, only five of them starts, leading the N.L. with 31 relief appearances. He won six, lost four, saved three (tied for second in the league in that category), and led the league in games finished (22), an early example of the “closer” in baseball. Dubuc compiled a 2.66 ERA and allowed only 119 hits in 132 innings as the Giants finished in second place.. He seemed to have found a niche.

Based on his stellar 1919 performance, Jean Dubuc appeared to have earned another shot at the majors. “He doubtless will festoon the Giant staff for some time to come,” was how one writer put it. But after the fall barnstorming tour, McGraw unexpectedly released Dubuc. The 31-year-old veteran hooked on with the Toledo Mud Hens, for whom he played all positions except catcher and middle infield in 1920. In the American Association, Dubuc proved his value by winning nine games on the mound with a 2.72 ERA, batting .292, serving as field captain, and even replacing Roger Bresnahan as manager at midseason.

Why did the sage McGraw exile Dubuc to Toledo, and why did he never again pitch in the major leagues? The answers to those questions became apparent only as the details of the Black Sox scandal unfolded. On September 24, 1920, pitcher Rube Benton, a former teammate of Dubuc’s with the Giants, testified before a grand jury in Chicago that he’d seen a telegram disclosing that the Series was fixed. “I don’t know who sent it,” Benton said, “but it came to Jean Dubuc, who was barnstorming with us. It simply said: ‘Bet on the Cincinnati team today.’ I suppose it came from Bill Burns, who had been close to Dubuc a few weeks before the Series when both were living at the Ansonia Hotel in New York City.” Benton didn’t mention another possible source: Chick Gandil, with whom Dubuc had been good friends since they played together in 1911.

Having his name come up in the baseball bribery investigation wasn’t a positive development for Dubuc, to say the least. In the aftermath of Benton’s testimony, The Sporting News published a piece in its issue of November 11, 1920, entitled “Why Dubuc Was Dropped.” The article quoted McGraw as saying that he released Dubuc because he “constantly associated” with Burns, a gambler who’d played with Jean on the 1912 Tigers. According to The Sporting News, McGraw suspected that Burns and Hal Chase, who’d also been mentioned in the Chicago hearings, might have caused the Giants to lose out to the Reds in the 1919 pennant race.

While Commissioner Landis was handing out banishments from baseball, Dubuc wisely made himself unobtrusive by leaving the country for the entire 1921 season. Others who were no more implicated in the scandal than Dubuc were banned for life, but Landis failed to notice the newly obscure pitcher in Montreal’s Atwater Park Twilight League. By 1922, Jean was back in the United States, pitching in the minors for the Syracuse Stars. The Sporting News lifted an offended eyebrow: “The astounding news comes from Syracuse that President Ernest Landgraf plans to take on Jean Dubuc, former major leaguer and later with Toledo, from which club he drew his walking papers because he was supposed to know too much about the throwing of the 1919 World’s Series.” Still Landis looked the other way, and Dubuc was allowed to carve out a modest living in the minors for the-next several years.

Dubuc played for Syracuse again in 1923, and was a player-manager for both Ottawa and Hull in 1924. He played for Manchester in 1926 and Nashua in 1929, where his brother Arthur owned the team. In 1927 Jean moved to Providence, Rhode Island, where he coached the Brown University baseball and hockey teams and founded the Rhode Island Reds of the American Hockey League. While in Rhode Island he scouted for the Detroit Tigers, signing Josh Billings, Gene Desautels, Birdie Tebbetts, and the great Hank Greenberg among others. New York Yankees scout Paul Krichell recalled spending the better part of a year visiting the Greenberg family and manfully eating Yiddish food, only to watch with dismay as “in stepped Jean Dubuc… who called at the Greenberg house, bringing along his own ham sandwich, and signed up Hank right under the very shadow of Yankee Stadium.”

In 1936 Dubuc returned to his native state as manager of the Northern League’s Burlington Cardinals, but the following year he left sports altogether. For the next two decades he worked as a printer’s ink salesman for the Braden-Sutphin Ink Co., eventually retiring to Florida. His wife, Lu, died in 1956. The couple had no children. Bob O’Leary’s grandmother cared for her uncle Jean after a stroke robbed him of mobility and speech; she reported that for the last months of his life, the only word he could say was “merde.” Following a three-year illness, Jean Dubuc passed away in Fort Myers on August 28, 1958. “He was a very dear friend of mine up to the time of his death, was a very fine baseball man, an excellent baseball instructor, and a fine gentleman,” said Birdie Tebbetts.

Sources

Buffalo Bisons Historical Page

Burlington Free Press, June 29, 2006 and online edition, October 19, 2006

Dubuc scrapbooks in the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown NY

“Flaws in the Diamond” University of Massachusetts, October 15, 1975

Lane. F. C. “Slow Ball Wizard”

Correspondence from Bob O’Leary, December 31, 2006

University of Notre Dame website

Thanks for research assistance by Cappy Gagnon and Bob O’Leary.

Nevertheless Harry Frazee somehow became the most notorious owner in Red Sox history. The reason for that has little to do with the facts of his life and much more to do with the way the facts of history have been misused and overlooked.

Frazee owned the Boston Red Sox from November 1, 1916, to August 1, 1923. During his tenure the Red Sox finished in second place in 1917, won a world championship in 1918, finished sixth in 1919, fifth in 1920 and 1921, ended the season in last place in 1922, and were in last place when Frazee sold the club in 1923. Compared with the others who have owned the Red Sox, Frazee’s performance was strictly middle of the pack — more successful than the reign of Tom Yawkey, his wife, the Yawkey Foundation, and the syndicate headed by Bob Quinn that took over the team in 1923, and not as successful as those of Joseph Lannin or James McAleer. With one world championship followed by a slow demise, Frazee’s record most resembles that of John I. Taylor, who owned the Red Sox from 1901 through 1911.

Frazee was born in Peoria, Illinois, on June 29, 1880. He was one of five children born to William and Margaret Frazee. His father owned the Peoria Pump Company in Peoria, manufacturing wood and chain pumps.

At the age of 16, he dropped out of high school and went to work at the Peoria Theater, learning the theater business from the ground up, then was hired as an advance agent for a traveling show.

His involvement with baseball began a few years later. After the Western Association ceased operations, Frazee reportedly booked the Peoria club on a successful barnstorming tour and learned a lesson of lasting value — baseball could be a lucrative business.

Turning his attention back to the theater, in 1901, Frazee produced his first successful show, a play called Mahoney’s Wedding, which earned him a $14,000 profit. That attracted the attention of Cleveland outfielder Harry Bay, a school chum of Frazee’s. Bay backed Frazee’s next show, earned a 1,000% return on his investment, and Frazee was on his way. Over the next several years, Frazee produced a series of productions in and around Chicago, earning a small fortune. He then began to branch out, building Chicago’s Cort Theater and earning money on that side of the business. At the age of 30, Frazee moved to New York and took aim on Broadway.

But Frazee remained interested in baseball. As early as 1909 he inquired about purchasing the Red Sox, and in 1911, after his first Broadway production, Madame Sherry, ran for nearly eight months and earned Frazee $250,000, he made a bid to buy the Boston Braves. Over the next five years, as Frazee produced hit after hit — and, like any other producer, a few misses — he periodically made additional overtures about buying a major league team, and at various times was reported to be interested in both the Cubs and the Giants.

Meanwhile, he was printing money on Broadway. His shows Ready Money, A Pair of Sixes, A Full House, and Nothing But the Truth were huge hits that Frazee made even more profitable by breaking with convention and putting the productions on the road while the show was still a hit on Broadway. In 1913, he built the Longacre Theater — still in existence today — which he kept full with both his own productions and those of others. He was one of the most successful producers of his era. Nearly everything Frazee touched made money, and he continued to branch out, starting a real estate company and a brokerage business, managing professional wrestler Frank Gotch, and dabbling in the promotion of boxing. By 1916, he was a millionaire and knew everybody who was anybody, not just in New York, but all over the Northeast, including Boston.i

One of Frazee’s acquaintances was Red Sox owner Joseph Lannin. That was the beginning of Frazee’s troubles, at least in regard to his lasting reputation in Boston. American League founder and president Ban Johnson ruled the American League with an iron hand and liked to decide who could and who couldn’t own a franchise in his league, but his relationship with Lannin, once warm, had deteriorated. In October of 1916, Lannin decided to cash in on his championship team and he sold the club to Frazee and a partner, Hugh Ward, an actor and theatrical entrepreneur, for $675,000, without Ban Johnson’s permission. From the outset, Johnson disliked the fact that Frazee had crashed his private party. Like many in the game, Johnson looked at Frazee’s New York-based theatrical background and assumed he was Jewish. In fact, he was Presbyterian, but Johnson and Frazee’s other detractors sometimes referred to him in code, criticizing him for being too “New York,” and referring to the “mystery” of his religion. Few observers missed the inference. Although Barney Dreyfuss owned the Pittsburgh franchise in the NL and another Jew, Andrew Freedman, had once owned the Giants, the American League would not have a Jewish owner from 1902 through 1946.

As soon as Johnson learned about the sale, he tried to get Lannin to back out of the deal, but it was too late. From the instant Frazee took over the Red Sox, he and Ban Johnson were at loggerheads.

Frazee announced he would “temporarily retire” from the theater, and did so for one season, 1917, staying more or less in the background as the Red Sox team finished in second place. But soon after the end of the season the United States entered the World War, putting the 1918 season at risk. No one in the game knew whether the government would allow major league baseball to continue during wartime.

In face of such uncertainty, most major league club owners retrenched and tried to shed salaries in the event the 1918 season was put on hold. Harry Frazee, however, saw opportunity in the crisis.

Philadelphia A’s owner Connie Mack decided to break up his club and Ban Johnson steered Mack to Frazee, who he believed was the only man in baseball foolish enough to pay Mack the prices he wanted. On December 14, 1917, Frazee sent the A’s $60,000 — what he accurately termed the “heaviest financial deal ever consummated in the history of baseball,” and acquired catcher Wally Schang, pitcher Joe Bush, outfielder Amos Strunk, and a few prospects. A few weeks later, he picked up A’s infielder Stuffy McInnis.

The Red Sox, already a solid contender, suddenly looked like a powerhouse, a fact not lost on the rest of the league. When the Yankees complained that they had never been allowed to bid on Mack’s players, Johnson coerced Frazee into sending several players back to the A’s to make the deal appear more equitable. Frazee then signed former International League president Ed Barrow to serve as manager and de facto general manager of the Red Sox. Everything was in place.

With both the draft and a “Work or Fight” order looming over the 1918 season, spring training opened in uncertainty as many players took jobs in the war industry or joined the military to avoid the draft. Eventually, 124 major league players joined the service in 1918, leaving most rosters short. The Red Sox, however, flush with players from the A’s and supplemented with minor leaguers, were less affected by the war than most teams. Still, some adjustments were necessary and a temporary lack of bodies in the spring led the club to play pitcher Babe Ruth at both first base and the outfield, where his batting prowess against war-ravaged pitching staffs proved to be a sensation.

The Red Sox began the season with their starting pitching intact and a solid lineup made even stronger by Ruth’s occasional appearance. The club jumped out to a 12–3 start and didn’t look back.

But in mid-May the government ruled that professional baseball was a “non-essential activity,” meaning that players were supposed to go to work in the war industries or join the service. Ban Johnson tried to persuade the authorities to give the players a stay to allow the season to be completed, but Johnson made his argument on economic terms, offending the government and harming his cause. Johnson himself declared that the season was over “except for the cremation ceremonies.”

Enter Harry Frazee. He had a major investment in the 1918 season and didn’t want to see it wasted. With the blessing of a coalition of like-minded owners, he paid a personal visit to Secretary of War Newton Baker and convinced him that the season should continue, not because of economic reasons, but because it was good for the nation’s morale. The move saved the season but Frazee’s boldness embarrassed Johnson and relations between the two grew even colder.

The Red Sox, buoyed by Frazee’s acquisitions, won the pennant, edging out the Indians by 2½ games, then took the World Series from the Cubs in six games. But the Series was marred by the threat of a player strike when players learned that the club owners had changed the distribution of Series money, seriously cutting into the players’ take. In punishment, Ban Johnson refused to award Frazee’s Red Sox their World Series medallions, the equivalent of today’s World Series rings. All things Frazee, and Frazee-related, grated against Johnson.

When the war ended in November, baseball returned to normal. The Red Sox suddenly had more players than they needed and Barrow sold pitchers Ernie Shore and Dutch Leonard and outfielder Duffy Lewis to the New York Yankees. The Yankees, owned by Jacob Ruppert, were quickly becoming a Boston ally. Like Frazee, Ruppert disliked Johnson, who he felt had misled him by reneging on a promise to help him acquire players for the Yankees. Meanwhile, the relationship between Johnson and Frazee deteriorated even further as the two clashed on a host of issues in the offseason and Frazee floated an idea that would have dumped Johnson and the three-man National Commission that ran baseball and installed former President William Howard Taft as the commissioner of baseball. The enmity between Johnson and Frazee was palpable. Johnson was determined to drive Frazee from the league and Frazee was determined to stay.

The Red Sox got off to a terrible start in 1919 as Babe Ruth, enamored with batting, balked at taking the mound. On June 1, he was barely hitting .200, Boston’s pitching had collapsed, and the sixth-place club was already out of the pennant race. Although Ruth would eventually turn his season around and even agree to take the mound, the Red Sox’s season was over and Ruth was much of the reason.

In mid-July, Boston pitcher Carl Mays walked off the mound in the middle of a game. Ban Johnson wanted Frazee to suspend him. Frazee balked and instead sold Mays to the Yankees. The deal sparked a political crisis in the league, which in response split into two factions — the Insurrectos, which included the Red Sox, White Sox and Yankees — and everyone else, the “Loyal Five.” Johnson refused to recognize any game in which Mays appeared for New York and eventually withheld the money they were due after finishing third. For much of the next nine months, the biggest headlines in baseball weren’t about the game on the field but about the courtroom battles between the Insurrectos and the Loyal Five, with Frazee and Johnson as the main protagonists.

In the meantime, Babe Ruth, who was already signed through 1920, wanted a new contract and a big raise after hitting a record 29 home runs in 1919. Frazee balked, for despite Ruth’s raw numbers, Ruth was becoming a headache Frazee didn’t need. He was staying out all night, had balked at pitching, and at the end of the season jumped the team without permission. The Yankees had been after Ruth, who always hit well at their home field, the Polo Grounds, for more than a year, and in December of 1919 approached Frazee again. Frazee consulted with Barrow and Barrow told him there wasn’t a player he wanted from the third-place club. Frazee then agreed to a cash-only deal. On December 26, he sold Ruth to New York for $100,000 — $25,000 in cash and notes for the remainder in three installments.

That was Frazee’s great crime, which over time spawned the so-called “Curse of the Bambino,” the notion that a cash-starved Harry Frazee sold Ruth, accepted a mortgage on Fenway Park from New York as part of the same deal, then sold his other Red Sox stars, destroying his baseball team to finance his play No, No, Nanette, earning Frazee the lasting enmity of Boston fans, leading to the creation of the Yankee dynasty, the subsequent demise of the Red Sox, and a championship drought that did not end until 2004.

All that, however, was still years away. At the time Ruth was sold, no lynch mobs formed in Boston. Public opinion over the Ruth deal, in fact, was split in both Boston and New York. Although some, like uber fan Mike McGreevey of Boston’s Royal Rooters, bemoaned the loss of a talent like Ruth, others, such as former player Hugh Duffy and ex-manager Bill Carrigan, felt the Red Sox, who despite Ruth had finished sixth in 1919, would be better off without him. Many New York observers, such as New York Giants manager John McGraw, believed the Yankees were taking a considerable gamble. No one knew that Ruth would go on to hit 665 more home runs, and the notion that Ruth or anyone else ever could seemed as likely as sending a rocket to the moon.

Frazee immediately explained his reasons for dealing Ruth, which included his salary demands, his disruptive influence on the team, and the fact that he had jumped the club at the end of the 1919 season. Nowhere was it suggested that Frazee was broke or in any kind of financial difficulty whatsoever. He was, most certainly, not broke, either in 1919 or at any other time since he ran away from home at age 16. In fact, from 1911 through 1922, he never went more than a year between producing a Broadway hit, a remarkable record. His first play after returning to the theater in 1917, Ladies First, ran for 164 performances and was equally successful on the road. Three weeks before the Ruth deal, on December 3, 1919, his play My Lady Friends opened on Broadway and was an instant hit, eventually running for more than 200 performances.

Such successes were extremely lucrative. Frazee’s Broadway shows played in theaters that held nearly 1,000 spectators. Ticket prices generally ranged from $1.00 up to $5.00 or more for choice seats. In contrast, at the same time you could see a game in the Fenway Park bleachers for 25 cents. One successful show, running for 200 or more performances, grossed roughly as much as the Red Sox did in an entire season at the time (from 1915 through 1924, the Red Sox home attendance averaged nearly 400,000 fans annually). Taking into account Frazee’s income from his many other enterprises, from his theaters, and from the touring shows that he produced it is clear that the Red Sox were a relatively minor part of Frazee’s financial portfolio.

Frazee also did not use the proceeds of the sale to finance No, No Nanette, either directly or indirectly. All evidence suggests that he kept his theater operation completely separate from his sporting interests. In addition, Nanette, a musical adaptation of his successful production My Lady Friends, was not produced until more than three years after the Ruth sale, in 1923, and did not reach Broadway until 1925, when it became one of the most lucrative musicals of the era.

Despite this timeline problem, in 2003 historian Eric Rauchway propagated the notion, since aped by several other writers who have written that since Nanette was spun off from My Lady Friends, which predated the Ruth sale, Frazee must have used the proceeds of the Ruth deal to finance Nanette. This act of mental gymnastics conveniently ignores the fact that My Lady Friends was profitable on its own (and, in fact, even toured overseas), that in 1921 Frazee’s play Dulcy, written by George S. Kaufman, ran for 241 performances (at the time Frazee’s second most successful production ever) and that in September of 1920 Frazee was financially secure enough to purchase the Wallack Theater (likely with the proceeds of his 1919 sale of the Longacre Theater ). He renamed the theater the Frazee and, like the Longacre, it never sat empty for more than a few weeks.

Frazee announced that he planned to use the proceeds of the Ruth sale to rebuild his team, and even made noise about acquiring Joe Jackson from the White Sox, but before he was able to do so he became embroiled in two legal fights that combined to make his task nearly impossible. On February 1, the Yankees filed a half-million-dollar lawsuit against Ban Johnson, and a few days later Joseph Lannin, in a dispute with Frazee over which owner was responsible for making a $30,000 payment to the Federal League as part of major league baseball’s 1916 legal settlement with that failed enterprise, went to court and slapped a lien on Frazee’s “material assets,” which legally prevented him from making any trades. This came as no surprise to Frazee. The previous November, the dispute had led Frazee to purposely withhold an installment due Lannin on his purchase of the team.

Although Frazee and Lannin reached a settlement in May, by then the 1920 season was already under way. The result of the lawsuit against Johnson left Frazee and the other Insurrectos virtually frozen out by the Loyal Five, a situation soon made worse by the fact that the White Sox would soon be hamstrung by the emerging Black Sox scandal. Apart from waiver claims, the Yankees became Boston’s only willing partner in trades, and vice versa.

But what about that mortgage on Fenway Park? Actually, that wasn’t part of the Ruth deal at all. Frazee did not own Fenway Park at the time of the Ruth sale. As papers held by the University of Texas indicate, when the Taylor family sold the Red Sox to James McAleer, they kept Fenway Park. Frazee rented it from the Taylors for $30,000 annually until purchasing it outright on May 3, 1920. Three weeks later, on May 25, Jacob Ruppert of the Yankees gave him a $300,000 mortgage on the property.

So why did Frazee buy the park and why then did Ruppert take out a mortgage on the property? At the time, as part of Johnson’s ongoing battle with both Frazee and Ruppert, Ban Johnson had persuaded New York Giants owner Charles Stoneham to cancel the Yankees’ lease of the Polo Grounds. That would have left the Yankees homeless, allowing Johnson to force a sale. The AL president even promised Stoneham that he could select the Yankees’ new owner. It was an ingenious plot, but Frazee’s acquisition of Fenway and the subsequent mortgage thwarted Johnson’s and Stoneham’s plans. Frazee’s acquisition of Fenway may even have been at Ruppert’s behest. It served both Frazee and Ruppert — the mortgage on the ballpark gave Frazee access to some cash for his trouble, but, more importantly, gave the Yankees leverage if Stoneham and Johnson followed through with their threat. They had a place to play if necessary — Fenway Park. While any attempt to do so would have certainly sparked a legal challenge from Johnson, the league president wasn’t doing very well in his legal fight with the Insurrectos in the New York courts, where Ruppert and Frazee enjoyed a home court advantage — New York Supreme Court Justice Robert Wagner, who had considered the Yankees lawsuit, later represented Frazee in his 1923 divorce from his first wife, Elsie Clisbee. It was likely no accident that as soon as Ruppert acquired Fenway, Stoneham and Johnson abandoned their threat.

Babe Ruth, of course, flourished in New York, hitting a record 54 home runs and leading the Yankees to a second-place finish in 1920. Meanwhile the Red Sox, without Ruth, still managed to move up one spot in the standings, to fifth place.

At the end of the season, after Ban Johnson ruled against the Red Sox in an illegal arrangement Ed Barrow had made with a minor league team, costing Boston prospect and eventual Hall of Famer Pie Traynor. Frazee allowed Barrow to leave the Red Sox and join the Yankees. Over the next few seasons, the two clubs made a series of trades, most of which in the long run worked out to New York’s favor and were later used as evidence of Frazee’s incompetence.

Fair enough, but one must also note that at the time the deals were made, in both public opinion and statistical terms, the deals were roughly equitable. The press in both New York and Boston was split on virtually every deal between the two clubs through 1922. In 2002 at the convention for the Society for American Baseball Research, SABR member Steven Steinberg gave a graphic presentation that analyzed the deals according to Bill James’ “Win Shares” system and concluded that there was no great imbalance at the time the trades were made. Steinberg has since published his findings. Over time, of course, many of the deals did, in fact, work out to New York’s benefit, but as several promising players acquired by Boston during this time, such as pitchers Hank Thormahlen and Allen Russell, suffered serious injuries, while players like Herb Pennock and Waite Hoyt, who had been awful in Boston, suddenly flourished in New York.

Neither did the Red Sox instantly become a last-place team. They got off to a quick start in 1920 before falling back, and in 1921 the 70–70 Red Sox were in fourth place before stumbling over the final days of the season to finish in sixth place as the Yankees won their first pennant. Johnson was still politicking for Frazee’s ouster, and for the first time, Frazee, tired of fighting, admitted that he was thinking of selling.

Then, in September, Henry Ford’s virulently anti-Semitic nationally distributed weekly newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, slandered Frazee in a series of articles that falsely identified him as being Jewish. One article, in particular, excoriated Frazee, attacking him for promoting boxing matches featuring “Negro” fighters, for encouraging “sensuousness” in the theater, for his undermining of Ban Johnson, and for the demise of the Red Sox.

“Baseball was about as much of a sport to Frazee as selling tickets to a merry-go-round would be,” opined the Independent. “He wanted to put his team across as if they were May Watson’s girly girly burlesquers. Baseball was to be ‘promoted’ as Jewish managers promote Coney Island.” The Independent also asserted that when Frazee bought the Red Sox, “another club was placed under the smothering influences of the ‘chosen race.’” The article concluded that baseball’s essential problem was that Frazee and other Jews were “scavengers [that] have come along to reduce [baseball] to garbage. But there is no doubt anywhere, among either friends or critics of baseball, that the root cause of the present condition is due to Jewish influence. . . .  If baseball is to be saved, it must be taken out of their hands.”

From this point forward, almost to the present day, the facts of Frazee’s life and career became ever more distorted. The “curse” and virtually all that came to be attached to it came into being after the series of articles appeared in the Independent.

In 1922, the Red Sox again got off to another decent start. On June 24, after beating the Yankees four straight, they trailed the Yankees by only 6½ games. But a month later, after the team collapsed in July, Frazee made a truly bad trade, sending Joe Dugan to New York and receiving little in return. The Red Sox tumbled to a last-place finish as the Yankees won another pennant. Ironically enough, however, the last-place Sox were the only team in the league to win the season series against New York, beating the Yankees 13 times in 22 games.

Attendance tumbled and at the end of the season Frazee announced his intention to sell the team. Thereafter he gave his full attention to the theater, even buying Boston’s Arlington Theater. After protracted negotiations, on August 1, 1923, Frazee finally sold the Red Sox to a group financed by bottle manufacturer Palmer Winslow and fronted by Bob Quinn for one million dollars, $350,000 more than Frazee and his partner had originally paid for the team. Under Quinn, the Red Sox rapidly got worse. When Winslow died in 1926, Quinn, who had no financial resources whatsoever, took over. From 1924 through 1932, the Red Sox avoided last place only twice — barely — before Tom Yawkey purchased the team in 1933.

Meanwhile, Harry Frazee continued to flourish. After his divorce he married actress Margaret Boyd. He brought No, No, Nanette to the stage in Detroit in 1923 and spent the next two years tinkering with the production before finally taking over as director in 1925. The show opened on Broadway on September 16, 1925, and was a sensation, touring the world and over the next few years earning Frazee more than four million dollars.

Frazee was in his glory, one of Broadway’s giants, a man who knew everyone and everybody, a confidant of New York Mayor Jimmy Walker, a mover and shaker of the first order in New York politics and culture. A measure of Frazee’s stature is that when Charles Lindbergh returned to America for a tickertape parade in New York after his flight across the Atlantic, he spent the night at the home of Harry Frazee.

Frazee’s good fortune, however, did not last for long. For two decades he’d been the life of the party and it began to have an effect. He developed Bright’s disease, a kidney ailment exacerbated by alcoholism, and died on June 4, 1929, leaving an estate of nearly $1.3 million. Frazee had one son, Harry Jr., born to Elsie Frazee.

Harry Frazee should have passed into history as just another name in Boston’s ownership roster, for at the time of his death no one blamed Frazee for much of anything, and certainly not for the ongoing fate of the franchise. From the time of his death through World War II, Frazee’s name was rarely mentioned in regard to the Red Sox and he seemed destined to become a footnote in the history of the franchise, much like previous owners John I. Taylor, James McAleer, and Joe Lannin, all of whom won at least one championship but were little examined afterwards.

But in 1947, baseball writer Fred Lieb published the first narrative history of the team, The Boston Red Sox. Lieb, whose writing career began with the New York Press in 1911, was a longtime supporter of Ban Johnson. And unbeknownst to most of the people in baseball, Lieb was also an avowed occultist whose two books on the subject demonstrated pronounced anti-Semitic beliefs. In his Red Sox book, Lieb turned Frazee into a caricature with overtly Jewish overtone, as a money-grubbing skinflint who sold the Red Sox out to line his own pocket. In so doing, Lieb laid the groundwork and provided much of the misinformation that others later cobbled together to create “the curse.” For the next 50 years, virtually every printed discussion of Frazee took its cue from Lieb, repeating and enhancing his many inaccuracies.

Yet Frazee did not really become known to contemporary fans until 1986, when the Red Sox lost the World Series to Mets. To this point no one had ever assigned any kind of curse to Frazee’s sale of Ruth. But the excruciating nature of Boston’s defeat in Game Six called for an explanation and sent fans and sportswriters alike scurrying for some kind of precedent, something that could explain what had just happened. They found it in Fred Lieb’s book. First John Carroll in the San Francisco Chronicle and then George Vecsey of the New York Times made mention of such a notion, the first time the idea ever appeared in print. In Carroll’s story, the notion appeared in a quote from SABR president Gene Sunnen, while Vecsey wrote an entire column entitled “Babe Ruth Curse Strikes Again” around the idea.

Still, the idea had little traction until 1990, when Dan Shaughnessy published The Curse of the Bambino. That book, taking its cues from Lieb, gave both Frazee and Ruth a central role in Red Sox history that neither had ever had before. The book rescued Harry Frazee from obscurity, and a generation of Red Sox fans found the perfect patsy to explain how one team could go so long without winning a championship. As the author wrote in 2004 in an article on the subject for ESPN.com, the “Curse” fit Boston, a parochial place that always goes after the new guy, the outsider, perfectly. It made everyone an insider. Just as Boston’s Brahmins once blamed the Irish for Boston’s ills and Irish blamed the Yankees and Southie blamed busing and the Boston Globe, the “Curse” gave Red Sox fans someone to blame, that rat bastard Harry Frazee. He was perfect for the role: dead and a New Yorker, a patsy no one knew and who couldn’t fight back.

The Curse was narcotic. The Curse explained everything. The Curse made everybody an expert. The Curse worked. “See, it was somebody else’s fault after all.”

Somebody became Harry Frazee.

• Related link: Read “Harry Frazee and the Red Sox,” written by Daniel R. Levitt, Mark Armour, and Matthew Levitt

An earlier version of this biography appeared in SABR’s “When Boston Still Had the Babe: The 1918 World Series Champion Red Sox” (Rounder Books, 2008), edited by Bill Nowlin.

Last revised: October 31, 2020 (ghw)

Sources

Steve Steinberg, “The Yankees and the Red Sox: The Curse of the…Hurlers?” SABR Baseball Research Journal, No. 35.

Glenn Stout, ed., Impossible Dreams: A Red Sox Collection (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003).

Glenn Stout, Yankees Century (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 2002).

Glenn Stout, “A ‘Curse’ Born of Hate,” ESPN.com, October 3, 2004. The anti-Semitic roots of the so-called ‘Curse of the Bambino. Originally appeared in Boston Baseball, September 2004. Reprinted in the Elysian Fields Quarterly, vol. 22 #4, 2005. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2004/news/story?page=Curse041005

Glenn Stout, “When the Yankees Nearly Moved to Boston,” ESPN.com, July 18, 2002.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/s/2002/0718/1407265.html

Glenn Stout, “1918,” Boston Magazine, October 1987.

Glenn Stout, “The Last Champions,” NEW ENGLAND SPORT, July 1993.

Notes

1 Anyone interested in Frazee’s theatrical career would do well to examine the Internet Broadway Database, www.ibdb.com, created and maintained by the Research Department of the League of American Theatres and Producers. The database includes a wealth of information about Frazee, the plays he produced, and the theaters he owned and leased. Even a cursory glace at this source makes it clear that the notion that Frazee was a failure who operated on a shoestring is pure fiction.