Herb McQuaid

On November 25, 1920, during a barnstorming matchup in San Jose, California, legend Ty Cobb, upset that the opposing pitcher was using a doctored emery ball against him, quit mid-game and vacated the premises. Faced with no subs, the remaining squad re-inserted their starting pitcher, a tall 21-year-old Bay Area lad named Herb McQuaid, to pinch-hit for the great Cobb. A notoriously poor hitter, McQuaid nonetheless got a hit!1 Less than a week later, and now in opposite dugouts, the young righthander retired Cobb twice in the same inning to wrap up another exhibition. Almost six years later, major league rookie McQuaid was the very last player on the roster of the 1926 American League champion New York Yankees, to “only be called as a last resort” in their epic World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals.2

Herbert George McQuaid was born on March 29, 1899, in San Francisco, California to Frank McQuaid, an Irish liquor merchant, and Lillian Cecilia (O’Neill) McQuaid. Frank was the brother-in-law of James J. Corbett, former heavyweight champion.3 Herb’s brother, Francis Joseph (also later referred to as Frank), was five years older. The McQuaids eventually lived right across the street from Recreation Park, home of the Seals in the Pacific Coast League.

Tragically, the elder Frank committed suicide during a poker game at one of his San Francisco saloons in July 1912 at the age of 43, when young Herbie was 13. As the story unfolded, the elder McQuaid had allegedly entered a partnership with former city police chief John Martin, co-investing in one of the saloons. Martin allegedly dissolved the partnership and stuck McQuaid with the proverbial tab after San Francisco Mayor P.H. McCarthy, whose campaign McQuaid had supported, had fired Martin from his post. McQuaid was soon forced to file for bankruptcy. McQuaid plotted to kill Martin, but instead took his own life.4

In July 1915, 16-year-old McQuaid pitched for the Visitacion Valley neighborhood team in “The City.” He attended Mission High School. The next year, Lillian and her two sons moved across the Bay to Oakland, into the Fruitvale neighborhood. By his September 1918 war draft registration, the brown-haired, blue-eyed Herb worked as a stenographer at Globe Inspection in Oakland. No records indicate military service during this time.

On the diamond, McQuaid had success in 1919 playing for the St. Joseph’s Sodality team of east Oakland.5 Later that year, McQuaid played in the Oakland Midwinter League. He nearly threw a no-hitter in January of 1920 for the J.J. Kriegs store team. The census that year showed widowed mother Lillian, Frank Jr. (by now a dentist), and Herb living with Lillian’s sister in Oakland.

McQuaid was invited to the 1920 training camp of the local Class AA San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. “The elongated Alameda busher,” measuring at 6’3” and 180 pounds,6 threw a complete game in Stockton, site of the Seals’ camp, against a local Olympic Club contingent, and seemed “to have a regular job cinched.”7 “Baby Seals” McQuaid (age 20) and Jimmy O’Connell (age 19) both made manager Charlie Graham’s opening day roster.8 Graham soon, however, wanted to ship McQuaid to Vancouver of the Pacific International League for more seasoning. McQuaid only stayed on the roster due to pitchers Tom Seaton (a 25-game winner for the Seals in 1919) and Luther “Indian” Smith being released by the Seals due to allegations of potential ties to gamblers.9

McQuaid’s “boyhood ambition” was realized in his first professional victory, on May 18, a 2-1 complete game over the Portland Beavers at Recreation Park, where six years prior, “young McQuaid used to watch the Seals from a window of his mother’s house near the ball yard.”10 Near the season’s conclusion, teammate and catcher Sam Agnew remarked: “This kid, McQuaid, is another Christy Mathewson. He is the best young pitcher I have ever seen in the minors and I am certain he will set the Coast League on fire next season.”11 McQuaid went 8-7 in 40 games for the Seals in his initial professional season.

That fall, Detroit Tigers star Ty Cobb began his first set of California barnstorming tours. McQuaid was one of three Bay Area pitchers, along with Carl Holling and Bert “Lefty” Cole, rostered for “Cobb’s All-Stars” first game on October 23. In San Jose on November 25, Cobb’s crew faced a local squad.12 After two unsuccessful at-bats, Cobb complained that local starting pitcher Frank Juney was using a scuffed emery ball. The umpire allowed the prestidigitation, so Cobb quit and left the ballpark in the seventh inning. McQuaid, who had previously been relieved as the starting pitcher, was forced to re-enter the game, as the squad had no subs, and he collected a base hit. (Records indicate that Cobb had not been pinch-hit for, at least in the majors, since his rookie year of 1906.)13 Bay Area papers for decades hence would lionize Herb McQuaid as the man who once pinch-hit for Cobb.

Just three days later, McQuaid, now part of a squad led by 1920 World Series hero Walter “Duster” Mails, faced the Georgia Peach in the ninth inning of Cobb’s final California exhibition.14 McQuaid got Cobb to ground out to begin the ninth. Then, after the opponents had loaded the bases with two out, Cobb was inserted to bat again. Again, McQuaid retired Cobb, this time on a pop up, to end the threat. Both events would remain highlights for the rest of McQuaid’s life.

For the Seals in 1921, McQuaid finished with a 6-8 record in 33 games, as the team fell two games short of the PCL crown to the Los Angeles Angels. During that off-season, McQuaid even laced them up as center for the St. Joseph’s Sodality basketball team.

In May 1922, San Francisco assigned McQuaid to the San Antonio Bronchos of the Texas League in early May, but the player refused to report. He was sold in mid-June to the Los Angeles Angels within the PCL. Nonetheless, Cincinnati Reds scout Dick Egan began to show interest in McQuaid.15 McQuaid finished with a 4-3 record in 27 games on the PCL season.

McQuaid didn’t pitch at all in Los Angeles’s first series of the 1923 campaign, as the Angels tried to re-assign him. The Los Angeles Evening Post-Record reported that, of McQuaid, “his people are independently wealthy and he does not need to depend on baseball for a living.”16 Herb convinced Angels manager Marty Krug to release him, whereby he quickly signed with the Reds. It was reported that Carl Zamloch, another Reds scout and University of California, Berkeley baseball coach, convinced McQuaid to go to Cincinnati to play for manager Pat Moran.17

McQuaid’s major league debut occurred on June 22, 1923, against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He pitched a scoreless 7th inning before allowing a run in the 8th inning of an 8-2 defeat to the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was said he “used a fast curve ball which he kept breaking about the enemies’ knees and had the distinction of fanning (Charlie) Grimm.”18 Papers reported that the Reds released McQuaid in early July after the Reds had signed promising college lefthander Harold “Haddie” Gill,19 but McQuaid would soon return. Suffering from a sore foot, he didn’t pitch for over a month, until July 31, when he “filled the fans with hope” with three hitless and scoreless innings in the second game of a doubleheader defeat at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies.20 Another scoreless inning followed on August 4 against the New York Giants. McQuaid didn’t see any game action during the Reds 15-game road trip later in the month.21

McQuaid appeared in nine games in September and October. After an effective four-inning relief appearance against the Pittsburgh Pirates on September 3, reports indicated that McQuaid showed “signs of becoming a valuable hurler.”22 Two more scoreless relief appearances earned McQuaid his first ever start, on September 13. Over seven innings, McQuaid “had good control and an effective curve ball, and a few young pitchers have looked any better than he did on the occasion of his first start on the main line.”23 He earned his first major-league win on September 22 in an extra-inning Cincinnati victory over Brooklyn. He entered the game in the top of the 10th inning. After allowing a run to Brooklyn, he got the win when Cincinnati scored a pair of runs in their half of the inning. His last appearance occurred on October 6, completing five innings in relief of Eppa Rixey in the Reds penultimate game on the season. McQuaid had allowed zero home runs in his 34 1/3 innings, posting a credible 2.36 ERA. He was awarded a partial share of the team’s second-place finish.24

Cincinnati sold McQuaid in February 1924 to the St. Paul Saints of the Class AA American Association as partial payment for Chuck Dressen.25 New Saints manager Nick Allen praised the acquisition of McQuaid, commenting “He’s got a ‘wicked’ underhand curve ball, a blinding fast ball that hops cleverly – but more than that, he’s got a good overhand curve ball, too.”26 St. Paul won the league crown by four games over Indianapolis, then captured the Little World Series against the Baltimore Orioles of the International League. McQuaid posted a 7-9 mark with a poor 5.12 ERA over 137 innings.

His second season in St. Paul proved much better for McQuaid. He ended 1925 with a 14-5 (.737) record, second to Louisville’s Ed Holley (.741) in league winning percentage, even though illness had kept Herb out for over a month. St. Paul finished in third place. Saints President Bob Connery, formerly a Yankees scout and close friend of Yankees manager Miller Huggins, sold McQuaid to New York in September.27 Some suggested the “sale” was simply a ploy by Connery to “cover up” McQuaid from the upcoming AA draft that fall.28 The Yanks had agreed to make payment of $25,000 if McQuaid was still on the Yankees roster as May 1 of the next year.29

To usher in 1926, McQuaid married Elsie Alice Byron, six years younger and the daughter of a doctor, in Piedmont, California, in late January.

Soon thereafter, McQuaid departed for the Yankees camp in St. Petersburg, Florida. McQuaid was reunited with two other Yankee newcomers: 21-year-old shortstop Mark Koenig, McQuaid’s teammate at St. Paul; as well as fellow San Franciscan Tony Lazzeri.30 McQuaid made the Opening Day roster. However, shortly after McQuaid’s initial appearance for New York on April 14 against the woeful Boston Red Sox, the team announced it would be returning the pitcher to St. Paul.31 Almost immediately, the Yanks had a change of heart and sent cash, pitcher Hank Johnson, outfielder Nick Cullop, and two future players,32 to the Saints to complete the deal for McQuaid’s services.33

Yankees skipper Huggins granted McQuaid one start, on June 9 in Detroit, where the rookie allowed three runs over seven innings in an eventual 4-3 New York victory. McQuaid earned his only victory and decision on September 11, also against the Tigers, as he “happened to be on the firing line when the Yankees bombardment started and consequently got credit for the victory.”34 McQuaid pitched a scoreless inning two days later, and that was it. He didn’t see any more action over the final 14 games of the 17-game road trip to end the Yankees regular season. He would end up with a 6.10 ERA over 17 games covering 38 1/3 innings.35 Although Cleveland surged late, the Yankees still won the American League pennant by three games. It was later remarked that McQuaid’s “greatest act with the Yanks was refusing to be released.”36 He was added to the Yankees 25-man World Series official roster against the St. Louis Cardinals but saw no action,37 as the Yankees fell in the classic seven-game series.

Just days after the World Series, The Sporting News reported that Huggins thought McQuaid needed more experience, and that George Pipgras would be replacing McQuaid on the roster.38 New York returned McQuaid to St. Paul for $10,000.39 This represented the “top figure paid by an American Association club for an athlete down from the big leagues.”40 McQuaid would never return to the majors, ending with a 4.33 ERA over 29 appearances. He did not collect a hit in 14 career at-bats.

St. Paul’s “big right hand curve ball specialist”41 McQuaid went 9-11 in 39 games over the course of the 1927 season. In 1928, he ended with a 4-6 record in 24 games. An old yarn was told after that season where Minneapolis Millers manager Mike Kelley had agreed to trade pitcher Bill Hubbell to St. Paul for McQuaid. Kelley then quipped: “I’ll give you Hubbell, but you keep McQuaid. Under this condition. That, every time we play you, you guarantee to pitch McQuaid the first and fourth games of the series.”42

During the year, Herb and Elsie welcomed a daughter Doris Lucille McQuaid, born back home in Berkeley.

In February 1929, McQuaid was traded by St. Paul to the San Francisco Mission Reds for pitcher Bill Hughes.43 Returning to the West Coast, McQuaid won his first four contests back in the PCL and finished 12-4, good for the league’s best winning percentage. Mission fell in a seven-game playoff against Hollywood.

Selected by manager Wade Killefer as Mission’s Opening Day starter in 1930, McQuaid was released in June after stumbling to a 5-8 record. He signed a week later with Oakland and posted a .500 record (5-5) for the Oaks. Continuing his PCL tour, McQuaid signed for 1931 with the Seattle Indians, but lasted only two games.44 He pitched in 12 games with Sacramento in early 1932 before he was cut in early June.45 He later pitched for Colusa and Chico of the new Sacramento Valley League in 1935.

By 1936, McQuaid ran a tap room in Modesto in central California. A 1943 phone book listed Herb as a bartender, now back in Oakland, where he coached local youth teams. He later worked as a security guard in San Francisco while residing in San Pablo.46 Herb McQuaid died of cancer on April 4, 1966, in Richmond, California, and is buried at the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland, California. He was survived by his daughter Doris and three grandchildren.47

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Terry Bohn and Jake Bell and fact-checked by Jeff Findley.

Sources

In addition to the sources shown in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com, StatsCrew.com, and MyHeritage.com.

Notes

1 “McQuaid’s Distinction,” Salt Lake Tribune, December 3, 1920: 14.

2 “Hornsby Versus Ruth is World’s Series Lineup,” Johnson City (Tennessee) Chronicle, September 26, 1926: 1.

3 “Accuser of Ex-Chief Martin is Suicide,” San Francisco Examiner, July 21, 1912: 1.

4 “M’Quaid Planned to Kill Martin,” San Francisco Call, July 26, 1912: 1.

5 “Hit by Smith Gives S.J.S. Win Over Fruitvale Natives,” Oakland Tribune, July 14, 1919: 10.

6 McQuaid’s Hall of Fame player file lists him as 6’4” and 225 pounds.

7 W.J. Rogers, “Seals Trounce Olympics in the Opening Game,” Stockton (California) Evening Record, March 8, 1920: 10.

8 “They’re Baby Seals,” Spokane (Washington) Press, April 6, 1920: 7.

9 “Herb McQuaid is Happy, Wins Contest for Seals,” San Francisco Examiner, May 19, 1920: 15.

10 “Herb McQuaid is Happy, Wins Contest for Seals.”

11 “What They Say,” Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner, September 6, 1920: 10.

12 “Ty Cobb Quits at San Jose because Juney Uses Emery,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 26, 1920: 5.

13 See https://www.vintagedetroit.com/four-men-pinch-hit-ty-cobb/ Accessed June 23, 2023.

14 Ed R. Harris, “Walter Mails Gives Ty Cobb No Safe Hits,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 29, 1920: 13.

15 “Cincinnati Scout Suggests McQuaid,” Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada) Sun, July 23, 1922: 15.

16 “P.C.L. Pace Makers Face Tigers Next,” Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, April 14, 1923: 18.

17 “Herbie McQuaid Will Join Cincinnati Club,” Oakland Tribune, May 5, 1923: 10.

18 “Notes,” Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, June 23, 1923: 11.

19 “McQuaid is Released,” Cincinnati Post, July 2, 1923: 6.

20 “McQuaid and Betts Promising,” Cincinnati Post, August 1, 1923: 15.

21 Tom Swope, “10-Inning Defeat at Boston is Costly,” Kentucky Post (Covington), August 30, 1923: 18.

22 Tom Swope, “Reds Stumbling, but So are Others,” Kentucky Post, September 4, 1923: 16.

23 Jack Ryder, “Reds Defeat Chicago in Ten-Inning Game, Score 5 to 3,” Cincinnati Enquirer, September 14, 1923: 11.

24 Two Swope, “Reds Could Have Done Better,” Cincinnati Post, October 17, 1923: 12.

25 “Cincinnati Reds Send McQuaid to St. Paul,” Des Moines (Iowa) Register, February 27, 1924: 8. Dressen remained to play with St. Paul in 1924 per the Reds instructions.

26 “A Hard Club to Beat,” Kansas City Star, March 19, 1924: 12.

27 Frank G. Menke, “Ruppert Spends $350,000 for Men,” Chattanooga Daily Times, October 10, 1925: 9

28 Charles Johnson, “Millers Land Infielder from Danville Club,” Minneapolis Star, September 14, 1925: 8.

29 L.S. McKenna, “Nick Allen Signs to Manage St. Paul Association Club in 1927,” Milwaukee Journal, November 9, 1926: 18.

30 Marshall Hunt, “Here’s Hug’s New Ivory Collection,” Daily News (New York), January 24, 1926: 36.

31 “Herb McQuaid Returned to Saints by Yankees,” Minneapolis Star, April 20, 1926: 8.

32 “Yanks Will Keep McQuaid,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 23, 1926: 22.

33 “Yanks Release Cullop,” Fresno (California) Morning Republican, May 3, 1926: 8.

34 “Ruth’s 42nd Gives Yankees 10-8 Win,” Times Union (Brooklyn), September 12, 1926: 19.

35 Baseball-Reference.com lists McQuaid’s composite ERA on the 1926 season as 6.10, but his game-by-game results calculate to a 5.87 ERA.

36 Rudy Hickey, “Pitcher Herb McQuaid May Join Local Team; McLaughlin’s Job Shaky,” Sacramento Bee, January 20, 1932: 18.

37 “Babe Ruth Versus Hornsby to Feature Series,” Tampa Tribune, September 26, 1926: 20.

38 J.E. O’Phelan, “Connery Has Another for Big Time Delivery,” The Sporting News, October 14, 1926: 7.

39 J.E. O’Phelan, “Allen Given Help and New Contract,” The Sporting News, November 18, 1926: 5.

40 McKenna.

41 “He Did It,” Milwaukee Journal, September 12, 1927: 16.

42 “Some Deal: Kelley Relates ‘Near Trade’ of 1929,” Minneapolis Star, April 3, 1944: 16.

43 “Herb McQuaid Will Pitch for Missions,” Modesto (California) News-Herald, February 5, 1929: 22.

44 R.A. Cronin, “Shulte’s Blow Sends 3 Runs Across and Gives Cherubs Win,” Daily News (Los Angeles), April 9, 1928: 13.

45 “Osborn, McQuaid and Ness Released by Senators,” Sacramento Bee, June 8, 1932: 18.

46 “McQuaid, Herbert G.,” Oakland Tribune, April 6, 1966: 37.

47 McQuaid, Ex-Acorn, Dies at 67,” Oakland Tribune, April 5, 1966: 49. Cause of death is from McQuaid’s death certificate from his HOF player file.