Carl East

“What other player is there who bats like [Carl] East, fields like East, throws like East from right field and then can pitch the kind of a game that Carl did yesterday?” — Wichita Beacon, July 6, 19211

Carl East was a pitcher and an outfielder in the minor leagues. Like Babe Ruth, he began his career as a pitcher and then moved to the outfield to keep his productive bat in the lineup. East, the pitcher, was a two-time 20-game winner, in 1916 and 1917. A “great natural hitter,”2 he averaged .384 from 1921 to 1923, with 58 doubles and 29 home runs per season. And with an accurate rifle arm, he frequently threw out baserunners from his position in right field.

The Washington Senators acquired East in 1924 for his potent bat. But after appearing in two games with them, he jumped to an “outlaw” team in Beloit, Wisconsin, because he believed he could make more money there. This “man with a perfect swing,”3 who achieved a .364 career batting average in the minors,4 relinquished his best and last opportunity to play in the majors.

Carlton William “Carl” East was born in Marietta, Georgia, on August 27, 1893, one of eight children born to William and Mary (née Allen) East. According to census records, Carl’s father was a farmer in Haralson County, Georgia, in 1900 and worked at a cotton mill in Lindale, Georgia, in 1910.

Carl played on amateur teams in Lindale. He got a taste of professional baseball on August 3, 1912, when he pitched for the Class D minor-league team in nearby Rome, Georgia.5 The next year, the young right-hander posted a 9-9 record for Rome in 157⅓ innings pitched. Among his wins were shutouts of Bristol, Johnson City, and Cleveland, Tennessee.6 He was sold to Montgomery, Alabama, in the Class A Southern Association7 and pitched in three games for Montgomery near the end of the season.

At age 20, East was reported to be 6 feet tall and 163 pounds.8 (Later in his career, he was said to be over 6 feet and weighing 180 or 190.) He began the 1914 season with Montgomery and lacked control; on May 2, he walked 11 and hit two batters in a 9-2 loss to Birmingham.9 He was farmed out to Thomasville in the Class D Georgia State League and recalled in August.10 On September 7, he pitched the final 17 innings in Montgomery’s 18-inning affair at Memphis. Using a big overhand curve (“a wicked drop ball”), he struck out 15 batters, but Memphis prevailed, 7-6.11 In the offseason he married Elizabeth McIntyre.12

In 1915 East pitched for the Little Rock, Arkansas, team which had replaced Montgomery in the Southern Association. A left-handed batter, he demonstrated his hitting prowess with a .293 average in 75 at-bats (the league average was .249). His pitching was unremarkable – a 9-17 record and 107 walks in 203 innings.13 Nonetheless, upon the recommendation of scout Joe Sugden, he was purchased by the St. Louis Browns on August 13.14

East’s sole appearance with the Browns came on August 24, 1915. At Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis, he started the first game of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Athletics and surrendered six runs in 3⅓ innings. The Browns came from behind to win, 10-7. Pitching in relief, rookie George Sisler was credited with the victory.

Claiming he was not in condition due to sickness, the Browns suspended East; East said he was suffering from malaria.15 His wife charged him with infidelity and divorced him in October 1915.16 On February 7, 1916, she gave birth to his daughter, Beulah Odessa East. The Browns, meanwhile, released him to the Lincoln, Nebraska, team of the Class A Western League.

Coaching by Lincoln manager Ducky Holmes and catchers Elmer “Hick” Johnson and William “Dad” Rohrer put East on the right track. In 306 innings pitched in 1916, he achieved a 24-14 record and 3.44 ERA. He led the league in wins and ranked sixth in strikeouts (157). He also ranked third in bases on balls (123).17 His pitching was “almost persistently brilliant” and “more than offset” his “streaks of poor control.”18 Among his victories was a one-hit shutout of St. Joseph, Missouri, on May 25, in which batters were “absolutely helpless” against his “assortment of smoke balls and twisting curves.”19

After compiling a 20-17 record for Lincoln in 1917, East enlisted in the US Army during World War I. He married Ruth Leslie Northrup shortly before going overseas in January 1918.20 He served as a machine gunner in France and returned home in February 1919. His marriage to Ruth was brief; she divorced him in October 1919.21

The Lincoln team relocated to Sioux City, Iowa, in 1918. East began the 1919 season with Sioux City and was traded to Wichita in July.22 He was sidelined for part of the season by erysipelas, a skin infection believed to have been caused by exposure to mustard gas during the war.23 He struggled with his control; in 158 innings pitched in 1919, he walked 100 batters (5.7 per nine innings) and his record was 6-11. His batting average, though, was impressive: .352 in 125 at-bats. A player who can hit .352 deserves more than 125 at-bats in one season. The next year, he played in the outfield when not pitching and hit a league-best .377 in 326 at-bats.

On May 1, 1920, East pitched for Wichita and slugged three home runs in a 19-4 rout of Omaha.24 Playing in left field on May 22, he hit three doubles against Oklahoma City.25 And in the second game of a doubleheader on June 20, he hurled a one-hit shutout against Des Moines with seven strikeouts and no walks.26

Against Des Moines on September 8, his six putouts in right field included three remarkable “circus catches.”27 Four days later, in the second game of a doubleheader against Sioux City, he pursued a fly ball in right-center field and collided with the 20-year-old center fielder, Jocko Conlan, the future Hall of Fame umpire. East was knocked unconscious but soon came to. He remained in the game and hit a single, double, and home run in Wichita’s 10-3 triumph.28

East played in 64 games in the outfield and pitched in 22 contests, with a 9-6 record. His control had improved; in 148 innings, he walked 52 batters (3.2 per nine innings). In a furious pennant chase, Wichita came up short, a half-game behind Tulsa.

In 1921 Wichita made East a full-time outfielder, and he pitched only 36 innings. On Opening Day, April 14, he caught a high fly in the right-field corner and made a line throw home that nailed the runner by three feet; it was “one of the best throws ever seen” in Wichita.29 Offensively, it was a monster year. He ranked in the top four in the Western League in batting average (.385), hits (255), doubles (69), home runs (26), total bases (418), and runs scored (156). Wichita won the pennant decisively, 11½ games ahead of second-place Omaha.

Newly married to Elizabeth Rebecca “Reba” Driver, East repeated his stellar numbers with Wichita in 1922. He ranked in the top five in the league in batting average (.391), hits (270), doubles (61), home runs (30), total bases (433), and runs scored (157). In a span of three games, July 31 to August 2, he went 13-for-14, including hits in 11 consecutive at-bats (six singles, two doubles, and three home runs).30 Though regarded as a slow runner, he stole a career-high 15 bases.31 He was no longer used as a pitcher, though he did pitch one inning in relief on August 23.32

There was no better “throwing outfielder” in the league, said the Wichita Beacon.33 Baserunners had learned not to test his arm. George Grantham of the Omaha Buffaloes was new to the league and unaware of East’s reputation when he tested the right fielder on April 22, 1922. Grantham tried to go from first to third on a hit to deep right. “East’s throw was as true as Annie Oakley ever shot and [third baseman Johnny] Butler tagged the flying Grantham as he dove for third, one surprised human.”34

In December 1922, East was purchased by the Minneapolis Millers of the Class AA American Association for a reported $9,000 (about $165,000 in 2023 dollars).35 With the Millers, he continued his torrid hitting and pitchers feared him. In a doubleheader against Toledo on July 8, 1923, he hit two home runs in three at-bats and was walked intentionally six times.36 Opponents could not find his weakness, wrote Dick Cullum of the Minneapolis Journal:

“Every manager and pitcher in the league has been studying East to find his weakness. … If they put them inside they go over or against the right field fence. If they put them outside they crash into the left field fence. He hits them where they are pitched and shows no preference for high balls or low balls, inside or outside pitched by right or left hand pitchers.”37

To prove this point, East drove in six runs off Columbus right-handers on July 13 with a double to right field, a triple to left, and a home run to center.38 And his “terrific smash” to center field on August 23, off southpaw Jesse Petty of Indianapolis, was “the longest home run of the season” at Nicollet Park in Minneapolis.39 East led the American Association with 31 home runs and ranked in the top four in batting average (.375), total bases (383), bases on balls (87), and runs batted in (145). His average was barely exceeded by two future Hall of Famers, Earle Combs (.380) and Bill Terry (.377).40

In January 1924, East accepted a lucrative offer to play for a team representing the Fairbanks Morse Company, a large manufacturing firm in Beloit, Wisconsin. The offer “called for $6,500 a year for five seasons with a bonus of $1,000 for signing.”41 Due to the salary limit in the American Association, the most he could earn while playing for Minneapolis was $3,500 per season.42 Frank Isbell, a former major leaguer who, as owner of the Wichita team, had mentored East, convinced him to forgo the Beloit offer and return to Minneapolis. East was only 30 years old; jumping a contract with Organized Baseball to go to an “outlaw” team would be detrimental to East’s career, Isbell argued.43

East played in 13 games for Minneapolis in the spring of 1924 and was traded in late April to the Washington Senators of the American League. Senators manager Bucky Harris was thrilled to get him. “If he can wallop that onion, he will be given plenty of work with this club,” said Harris.44

The newcomer was immediately put onto the biggest stage in baseball. Starting in right field, East batted fifth in the Senators lineup against Babe Ruth’s Yankees, May 2 and May 3, 1924, at Yankee Stadium. Facing southpaw Herb Pennock in the first contest, East contributed a run-scoring single to left field in the seventh inning for his first major-league hit. And in the second game, facing right-hander Sad Sam Jones, his second-inning double to center field drove in a run.

East was off to a fine start. But rather than travel with the Senators to Washington for the next game, he boarded a train heading west. He said his wife was in Chicago and was ill, and that he needed to go to her.45 Soon after, he was playing ball in Wisconsin. His Beloit contract “called for more money than he was receiving” from the Senators.46

The Beloit team, dubbed the Fairies after Fairbanks Morse, was stacked with talent and included several players with major-league experience: catcher Ed Gharrity; outfielders Bobby Roth and Elmer Miller; and pitchers Hippo Vaughn, Carl Cashion, and Dave Davenport. The 1924 Fairies became champions of the industrial Midwest League, and East led the circuit with a .410 batting average. He struck out only seven times in 322 at-bats.47

Meanwhile, the Washington Senators won the AL pennant and defeated the New York Giants in the World Series. A full share of the World Series proceeds amounted to a reported $5,370 per Senator.48 East, of course, missed out on that. One can’t help but wonder how he would have fared with the Senators.

East played three more seasons in Beloit and was nearly 35 years old when he was reinstated by Organized Baseball in 1928. He was by then too old to be of interest to major-league teams. He played in 15 games for Minneapolis at the tail end of the 1928 season and in 24 games for Chattanooga the following spring. Hampered by lumbago, he was released by Chattanooga.49 In the summer of 1929, he played for the semipro Southwest LaGrange (Georgia) Skeeters; among his teammates were 22-year-old Luke Appling and 18-year-old Lou Finney.50

In 1930 East was the playing manager of Carrollton, Georgia, in the Class D Georgia-Alabama League. After the team disbanded in August, he finished the year with Anniston, Alabama, in the same league. He led the circuit with a .434 batting average.51

On July 1, 1931, as playing manager of Florence, South Carolina, in the Class D Palmetto League, East clouted three doubles, a single, and a home run and drove in seven runs in a 15-8 romp over Greenville, South Carolina.52 In 1933 he was player-manager of the Columbus team in the Georgia State League.53

East resided in Carrollton in 1940 and worked as a life insurance agent. He served as president of the Georgia-Alabama League in 1946 and managed the LaGrange team in that league the following year.

On January 15, 1953, at age 59, East died of heart failure at his home in Whitesburg, Georgia. He was interred at the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church Cemetery in Carrollton.

Acknowledgments 

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Mike Eisenbath and fact-checked by Larry DeFillipo.

Sources

Ancestry.com, Baseball-Reference.com, and Retrosheet.org, accessed October 2023.

Photo credit

Wichita Eagle, May 4, 1920: 7.

Notes

1 “Diamond Glitter,” Wichita Beacon, July 6, 1921: 5.

2 Halsey Hall, “Millers Open Fight for First Division,” Minneapolis Journal, September 1, 1927: 22.

3 Pete Lightner, “The Morning After,” Wichita Eagle, January 28, 1953: 11.

4 SABR, Minor League Baseball Stars, Revised Edition, Manhattan, Kansas: Ag Press (1984): 40.

5 “Baseball,” Gadsden (Alabama) Times-News, August 5, 1912: 3.

6 “Winning Streak of Cleveland,” Knoxville Journal and Tribune, May 31, 1913: 4; “Rome Trims Bristol,” Knoxville Sentinel, June 10, 1913: 16; “Rome Team Wins,” Knoxville Sentinel, June 25, 1913: 16.

7 “Dobbs Secures Young Hurler,” Atlanta Journal, August 23, 1913: 9.

8 “Billiken Number 2,” Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser, March 11, 1914: 9.

9 “Timely Hitting and Generosity of East Give Barons Game,” Birmingham (Alabama) Age-Herald, May 3, 1914: 14.

10 “Pitcher East Is Sent to Thomasville Club,” Atlanta Constitution, May 28, 1914: 16; “Leading Hitter of S.A.L. Is Billiken,” Birmingham Age-Herald, August 23, 1914: 15.

11 Jack Law, “Record-breaking Game Won by Turtles 7 to 6,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, September 8, 1914: 9.

12 “Cleveland Recruit Marries at Rome,” Atlanta Journal, December 27, 1914: 7.

13 Francis C. Richter, ed., The Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide for 1916, Philadelphia: A.J. Reach Co. (1916): 207, 209, 216.

14 “Brownie Scout Will Look Over Traveler Squad,” Arkansas Democrat (Little Rock), July 27, 1915: 10; “Carl East to Browns,” Charlotte (North Carolina) News, August 13, 1915: 6.

15 “Carl East Suspended for Balance of Season,” Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock), September 6, 1915: 5.

16 “Rome Judge Gives Mrs. Carl East a Divorce,” Arkansas Gazette, October 28, 1915: 10.

17 Francis C. Richter, ed., The Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide for 1917, Philadelphia: A.J. Reach Co. (1917): 157, 158.

18 Cy Sherman, “Hitting the High Spots on the Sporting Pike,” Lincoln (Nebraska) Star, July 19, 1916: 9.

19 Cy Sherman, “Hollanders Held to a Stingy Blow,” Lincoln Star, May 26, 1916: 12.

20 “Wedding of a Soldier,” Chattanooga Times, December 20, 1917: 6.

21 “War Brides Disappointed,” Lincoln (Nebraska) State Journal, October 10, 1919: 11.

22 “Isbell Makes Trade for East of Packers,” Wichita Beacon, July 12, 1919: 7.

23 “Players Report within Two Weeks,” Wichita Beacon, March 2, 1920: 7; Frank E. M’Mullan, “Izzies Await Opening Gong,” Wichita Beacon, April 19, 1920: 7.

24 “East Pitches Well and Hits Three Homers,” Wichita Eagle, May 2, 1920: 7.

25 “Bowman Blanks Oklas,” Sioux City (Iowa) Journal, May 23, 1920: 25.

26 “Great Hurling Boosts Witches to 3rd Place,” Wichita Eagle, June 21, 1920: 2.

27 “Two Circuit Smacks Combined with Musser’s Hurling Wins,” Wichita Beacon, September 9, 1920: 7.

28 “Isbell’s Youngster Twirlers Turned Back the Sioux Tribe,” Wichita Beacon, September 13, 1920: 7.

29 “Izzies Stage Great Uphill Fight but Drop Opener,” Wichita Eagle, April 15, 1921: 8.

30 “Shots of Sport,” Wichita Eagle, August 3, 1922: 11.

31 Minor League Baseball Stars, Revised Edition: 40.

32 “Izzies Break Scoring Record,” Wichita Eagle, August 24, 1922: 2.

33 “Sport Comment,” Wichita Beacon, September 17, 1922: 8.

34 “Izzies Bang Out Bunch of Extra Base Hits to Trim Omaha,” Wichita Eagle, April 23, 1922: 13.

35 “Millers Buy East, Wichita Slugger,” Minneapolis Star, December 7, 1922: 13.

36 Charles Johnson, “Carl East Walks Once Every Seven Times at Bat This Year,” Minneapolis Star, July 9, 1923: 8.

37 Dick Cullum, “Carl East Has Gone Hitless in But 12 Ganes This Year,” Minneapolis Journal, July 21, 1923: 8.

38 Irvin Rudick, “Carl East’s Stickwork Leads Millers from Slump with 11 to 7 Win,” Minneapolis Tribune, July 14, 1923: 24.

39 George A. Barton, “Carl East Hero of Millers’ 5-4 Victory over Indians,” Minneapolis Tribune, August 24, 1923: 14.

40 Charles Johnson, “Carl East Best All-around Batsman in A.A. in 1923,” Minneapolis Star, December 22, 1923: 10.

41 “Carl East Was to Get $6,500 from Outlaws,” Minneapolis Star, March 25, 1924: 11.

42 Charles Johnson, “The Lowdown on Sports,” Minneapolis Star, February 7, 1924: 11.

43 Charles Johnson, “Frank Isbell Swings Slugger Back to Kelley,” Minneapolis Star, March 1, 1924: 10.

44 Denman Thompson, “Carl East Expected to Add Punch to Griffs,” Washington Star, April 29, 1924: 24.

45 “East Quits Nationals and May Not Return,” Washington Star, May 5, 1924: 24.

46 “East Has ‘Jumped’ over Salary Deal,” Wichita Eagle, May 9, 1924: 16.

47 “Fairies Annex Midwest Title,” Kenosha (Wisconsin) News, September 15, 1924: 10; “Official Midwest League Batting Averages,” Kenosha News, October 1, 1924: 10.

48 “Players’ Share of Series Money,” Plainfield (New Jersey) Courier-News, October 11, 1924: 12.

49 E.T. Bales, “Local Club Buys Pat Duncan from Minneapolis—Waivers Asked on East,” Chattanooga News, May 16, 1929: 2-B.

50 “Meritas Beats Skeeter Team,” Columbus (Georgia) Enquirer-Sun, August 2, 1929: 3.

51 “Hitting .433, Carl East Captured Georgia-Alabama Batting Crown,” The Sporting News, November 13, 1930: 8.

52 Carl Weimer, “East Sets Dizzy Pace with Bat as Florence Wins from Spinners in Slugfest, 15-8,” Greenville (South Carolina) News, July 2, 1931: 13.

53 Ed Ray, “Sport-Rays,” Macon (Georgia) Telegraph, June 11, 1933: 6.