Most knowledgeable baseball fans assume that “Gentleman Jim” Corbett’s connection with baseball was through his younger brother Joe, who pitched several years in the majors between 1895 and 1904, and won 24 games for the Baltimore Orioles in 1897. But Jim, who was nine years older than Joe, was an all-around athlete and a good ballplayer on his own. He also was one of the biggest names in sports in the 1890s.

Jim Corbett, a member of the Olympic Athletic Club of San Francisco and a leading contender, knocked out the reigning heavyweight champion, John L. Sullivan, in 21 rounds in New Orleans on September 7, 1892. Sullivan had held the world championship for ten years and was a 4-1 favorite in this first championship fight under the Marquis of Queensbury rules. Corbett’s victory, achieved through speed, conditioning, and cunning over the powerful slugger, caused a sensation across the land. Tall, good-looking, and articulate, Corbett became a national celebrity. He put on numerous boxing exhibitions as champion, but, ironically, defended his title only once in five years – knocking out Charlie Mitchell of England in 1894.

Corbett, sometimes called “Pompadour Jim” because of his hair style, also spent considerable time on tour as an actor. These theatrical tours, directed at taking full advantage of the boxer’s great popularity, were arranged by his manager, Billy Brady, a shrewd businessman and promoter. It was Brady who made the arrangements for Corbett to appear in professional baseball games for part of the gate in 1895. Two of these games were official Eastern League contests. On August 12, 1895, Jim Corbett played first base for Scranton against Buffalo while his brother Joe played shortstop. Jim had two hits and knocked in two runs and he and his brother were involved in a double play. Almost a month later, on September 11, the two repeated their roles for Toronto against Buffalo. They again pulled a double play, but Jim went hitless in four trips.

Young Joe, still 19, had a pitching tryout at the end of the 1895 season with the Washington Senators. He didn’t make the grade with them, but caught on with the Orioles, who farmed him out for most of the 1896 season. The Orioles brought him up in September and he won three games.

On March 17, 1897, Jim Corbett defended his championship in Carson City, Nevada, against Bob Fitzsimmons, the British-born former middleweight champion. Corbett, the heavy favorite, was ahead on points when Fitz knocked him out in the 14th round with the famous solar plexus punch. Although Corbett lost the crown, most boxing fans thought he was done in by a lucky punch and he was still generally regarded as the top fighter in the world.

Since Fitzsimmons would not give him a return bout, Corbett agreed to exploit his own popularity by playing baseball. He negotiated arrangements with several minor league clubs to play first base for 50 percent of the gate. Between June 16 and September 20, 1897, Corbett, in addition to playing a number of exhibition games, took part in 26 regulation games in six minor leagues. He played for Scranton and Rochester in the Eastern League, Meriden in the Connecticut League; Hartford, Reading, Paterson, and the Athletics of Philadelphia in the Atlantic League; Youngstown, Mansfield, Springfield, Dayton, and Wheeling of the Interstate League; Des Moines, Burlington, and Quincy in the Western Association; and Milwaukee in the Western League. The Atlantic League tour included visiting team games in Richmond and Norfolk, Va., and Harrisburg, Pa. He twice played doubleheaders and once played three cities in three consecutive days.

The typical procedure would include a promotional story by the local newspaper a few days prior to the game. It would sometimes include a picture of Corbett in baseball garb. He wore his own uniform. It was plain gray without distinctive lettering and included black stockings and a checkered cap. Large crowds came out to see him. In Meriden, Connecticut, for example, 2400 jammed into the stands and 1000 stood on the grounds. Attendance ranged from 2000 on a bad-weather day to 6000. Corbett’s take was $300 to $500 per game. It was estimated that he made $17,000 by playing ball that summer – making him a rich man in a second sport. The New London Telegraph stated that “James J. Corbett can devote himself to winning fame in the American Game which will utterly eclipse the former championship.”

Fan and press reaction to Corbett as a ballplayer was generally good. When he played for Meriden against Waterbury on July 26, for example, “Corbett surprised everyone by his good work. He made two of Meriden’s four runs, got a fine hit and accepted fifteen chances without an error. The big fellow was very much in the game.”

There also was some tongue-in-cheek reporting: At Hartford on July 28, “Corbett’s seat on the bench was saturated with oil of pennyroyal to keep the mosquitoes away. One boy killed several on Corbett’s back and sold them for five cents each.” Another example: “The Readings, who usually kick on every close decision at first base, are expected to be very quiet on Tuesday.” At Richmond on 8-5, he was hit by a pitched ball. The crowd waited for some pugilistic reaction, but Corbett took it with good humor. In Youngstown on September 5 when a fight broke out in the stands right back of the first baseman’s position, the crowd called for him to intervene but he declined. Another time “the umpire called strikes on him with a recklessness that made the small boys in the crowd shiver.”

On July 14 in Philadelphia, where the Atlantic League Athletes were based, “Leever pitched for Richmond and delighted in fanning Corbett twice.” This was Sam Leever, who would shortly move up to the majors. This game was part of a twinbill where some liberties were taken by management, as noted in this report.

The first game was called at the end of the 11th inning with the score a tie at six. The game was called to allow the second to begin, in which Corbett was to take part. There is no baseball rule allowing such a proceeding, but the President of the Atlantic Association (Ed Barrow), who was present, sanctioned it. The second game also ended in a 1-1 tie in 11.

All reports of Corbett’s play or participation were not complimentary. The Youngstown Vindicator said on September 5 after a loss to Fort Wayne: “It was a big throng and an anxious crowd and they left the grounds in a disgusted mood because the game was lost and Corbett could not play marbles.” (He went hitless and made two errors.) On September 13, criticism was voiced in Youngstown that games in which Corbett plays “should be declared non-league games because he technically has not signed with a club.”

On September 22 the Cleveland Plain Dealer said “There has been a steadily growing opposition against Jim Corbett playing baseball and it is said that a motion to forbid the engagement of pugilists by any baseball club in the National Agreement is likely to be introduced at the next league meeting.” The reference to pugilists was, of course, directed at Corbett, but the wording was open to broader interpretation as both John E Sullivan and Bob Fitzsimmons umpired one or more games in 1897. The latter was upset that, while he was the champion, Corbett was the one reaping the rewards.

Corbett sometimes included a boxing exhibition with his baseball appearances. One of these occasions was at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines on September 14-15-16, when he played three Western Association games against Burlington. That was his longest stint in one city. He wound up the 1897 season by playing for Milwaukee: in the final game of the season against Minneapolis. This Western League contest was not only his last game, but probably his best. He collected two hits and was credited with knocking in the winning run in the 7-6 Milwaukee victory.

Going over the stats of his 26 regulation games in 1897, we find that Corbett collected 27 hits in 103 at bats for a .262 average. He scored 13 runs and knocked in 12. As far as can be determined, he had only two extra-base hits. One was a triple for Paterson against the Athletics on August 15. At Wheeling on September 10 he hit the ball over the short left-field fence and was given a ground-rule double. It was one of three hits he collected that game. One reporter noted that he swung the bat like he boxed; he jabbed and chopped and did not employ a haymaker swing. This carried over to his fielding where he seemed to keep his hands close to his body, maintaining good balance but not diving or stretching vigorously for the ball. In one game he “missed three wild throws which a better first baseman could have handled.” In his 26 games at first base, he made 270 putouts, 10 assists, and 17 errors for a .943 fielding average. That is not good by today’s standards, but wasn’t bad for 1897.

At the end of the season, there was some talk of Corbett buying into a major league club and playing first base on a regular basis. That did not materialize. There was some suggestion that he might have played a game or two for the San Francisco Olympics in the California League in 1898, but a box-score search proved fruitless. Corbett continued his theatrical tours and even took a shot at serious drama. He also continued boxing. Fitzsimmons lost the championship to Jim Jeffries in 1899, and Corbett tried twice to take the title from Jeffries, his former sparring partner, but lost on both occasions, in 1900 and 1903. That was his last professional fight, although he continued to give exhibitions.

Jim maintained his interest in baseball long after his playing days. For many years he was a familiar figure in a box at the New York Polo Grounds right over the Giants’ dugout. He was on close terms with manager John McGraw for the rest of his life. Corbett died of a heart ailment in Bayside, N.Y. in 1933. He was 66.

Gehrig came out front in runs batted in and in that most dramatic demonstration of RBIs, the grand slam homer, but only in retrospect. Ruth hit 16 of his 714 homers with the bases full and Gehrig hit 23 of his 493. Lou was very proud of the latter record. The main reason was that it took him out of the shadow of the Sultan of Swat in a specialty (home runs) that belonged lock, stock and batrack to Babe Ruth.

This emotion was surprisingly displayed on August 21, 1935, when Lou hit what he thought was his 17th grand slam. The jackpot wallop, which was really his 19th, broke up a 1-1 tie with the Browns in St. Louis and was a drive that went clean out of Sportsman’s Park. But, the thing that pleased Lou most was that it broke the Babe’s record of 16 slams. As noted in the New York Times, the normally modest and methodical slugger couldn’t hold back his elation over that particular wallop.

Actually, Lou had passed the Babe the year before, on July 5, 1934, when he hit a grand slam inside-the-park homer against Washington. If the press had reported this feat factually it would have had more significance because Ruth was still an active player; in fact, he was one of those on base when Gehrig unloaded his 17^th grand slam. It was just sloppy reporting. So much space was given to Ruth’s every movement in the period when he played in New York, that other important Yankee accomplishments were neglected.

It is interesting to note how the grand slam slugger of the majors gained his first bit of national attention. He was a high school junior playing for New York City’s School of Commerce in a game against Chicago’s Lane Tech at the National League park of the Cubs, known today as Wrigley Field. The date was June 26, 1920, and the youngster, who had just observed his 17th birthday the week before, came to bat in the eighth inning with the bases loaded and the score tied at 8-8. He belted the ball clean out of Wrigley Field, a schoolboy grand slam in a major league park, winning the game 12-8. Major league scouts sat there with their mouths open, and one newspaper account, although spelling his name Gherrig, referred to him as the schoolboy Babe Ruth.

Gehrig, signed out of Columbia University, got to the majors first in June 1923, but was at Hartford in the Eastern League for most of the next year and one half. He hit his only minor league grand slam on June 17, 1924, in a game at Worcester. He didn’t become a regular with the Yanks until June 1, 1925, which was the date he started his 2130-consecutive-game streak. Later that season, on July 23, he connected for the first grand slam of his major league career. It was in the seventh inning of a game with Washington in Yankee Stadium. Lou had already knocked in 3 runs with a homer and a single, but the Yanks were trailing 6-5. He cleared the sacks with a blast off Firpo Marberry, then baseball’s top relief pitcher. Lou batted fifth in the lineup then, and Aaron Ward, Ruth, and Bob Meusel scored ahead of him in what became a 11-7 victory.

When Gehrig connected for his first grand slam, the career record for bases-loaded homers was six   shared by George Kelly, Rogers Hornsby and Babe Ruth. But it was moving up quickly in that lively ball era. Kelly stopped at eight, Hornsby at 12 and Ruth at 16 in 1934 when Gehrig passed him.

The 1927 season was the one which lifted Gehrig to top flight stature that rivaled even the lofty position of Ruth. Lou’s second grand slam came off Ted Lyons in a game at Comiskey Park on May 7, 1927. The contest was attended by a capacity crowd of 32,000, including Vice President Charles Dawes, and the home run was the first hit into the new rightfield pavilion.

By the middle of the 1927 season, Ruth and Gehrig were demonstrating a one-two punch that was to be unmatched in major league history. On July 4, Washington came to New York with a ten-game winning streak. The holiday twinbill drew a crowd of 74,000, then the largest in baseball history.  The Senators had a solid team which included Sam Rice and Goose Goslin at their peak and Tris Speaker and Walter Johnson as fading stars. Johnson and Al Crowder started the two games, but the Yanks crushed them 12-1 and 21-1 and thereafter made a shambles of the American League pennant race. Gehrig banged a 3-run homer off the Big Train in the first game, and hit a 2-run double and a grand slam homer in the second.

The sixth inning of the 21-1 massacre was described by one New York newspaper reporter in these terms: “At this point there was a loud crash, a sickening thud and the sound of falling bodies. H. Louis Gehrig had hit a homer with the bases loaded. Subsequent details will be spared the gentle reader. Let us draw a curtain over the bloody scene.”

Ruth, who usually batted third and Gehrig fourth, was a frequent tenant on the bases when Lou connected for his big wallops. The two led a massive attack on the pennant-winning Philadelphia Athletics on May 22, 1930, when the Yanks took a twinbill by scores of 10-1 and 20-13. Ruth hit two homers in the first game and one in the second. Gehrig had four hits in five trips in the first game and three homers, one of them a slam, in the second game with Lyn Lary, Ruth, and Tony Lazzeri on base. Lou knocked in eight runs in that game, which tied the AL record.

The Yankee firstsacker again tied the record with eight RBIs in a 14-13 victory over the Red Sox on July 31, 1931, but Ruth contributed little in this slugfest. In the sixth inning, with the bases loaded, Ruth popped up. Gehrig followed with a double, scoring three runs. In the seventh, with the bases filled again, Ruth fanned. On the next pitch from Ed “Bull” Durham, Gehrig drove the ball into the righfield stands at Fenway Park. He had, in three trips, two doubles and a homer good for eight runs batted in.

Gehrig had another big flourish in late August 193 1 when he knocked in runs in ten consecutive games for a total of 27 RBIs. He hit homers in six consecutive games, three of them grand slams, on August 29, 31, and September 1. To show that Lou didn’t pick on the patsies, he teed off on Lefty Grove, knocking him out of the box for the first time that season on August 29. Grove was almost invincible in 1931 with a 31-4 record.

Other outstanding hurlers, in addition to Grove, Lyons, and Marberry, already mentioned, who suffered the indignities of a Gehrig Grand Slam, included 200-game winners Buck (Later Bobo) Newsom, Earl Whitehill, and Mel Harder, and Al Crowder when he was at the top of his form. Lefty Lloyd Brown was twice his victim, once with Washington and once with Cleveland. Nine of his clouts came off southpaws and 14 off righthanders. Lou hit grand slams at all AL parks, with 11 at Yankee Stadium and 12 on the road. The two at Cleveland were both at League Park.

It is interesting to note that Gehrig knocked in 21 different players off 22 different pitchers on his 23 bases-loaded home runs. Ruth got a free ride 15 times, Earle Combs 10 and Frank Crosetti six. Four times a pitcher was on the sacks ahead of him. The full list is on an accompanying chart, and provides some basis for analysis of Gehrig’s performance.

Why did Lou hit so many more grand slams than his contemporaries? Did the Yankees load up the bases more frequently than other clubs? Probably not; they led all major league clubs in batting only twice in the period 1925-38. The Giants got on base a lot in this period but Mel Ott hit only seven of his 511 homers with the bases loaded. The names of the players who rode home on Gehrig’s grand slams would indicate that they were not challengers for leadership in on-base percentage. Take for example, Mark Koenig, Lyn Lary, Sam Byrd, and Frank Crosetti, who had a career batting average of .245.

The number of times that Gehrig came to bat with the bases loaded has not been fully researched. The first time it happened was on September 26, 1923 in one of his very early games. It was the eighth inning in a contest against the Tigers and Lou unloaded a double against Ray Francis for the first runs batted in of his major league career. Some baseball historians imply that Francis walked Ruth to get to the untried rookie, but this was unlikely as the base on balls to the Babe forced in a run before Gehrig stepped in.

It is known that Gehrig hit six triples with the bases loaded – one off Lefty Grove. This is not a record, as John Shano Collins is credited with eight, and Stan Musial has the NL mark with seven. As Collins had only one grand slam homer in his career, and Musial had nine, it does reinforce the belief that Gehrig was the most dangerous batter with the sacks jammed.

Here are the all-time leaders in home runs with the bases loaded, with the number of homers and games per grand slam.

Yet Lefty George was one of the all-time greats albeit among minor leaguers. His record in the minors, specifically for teams in York, Pennsylvania, attracted a lot of attention in the 1920s, and it bears looking at today. The amazing part is Lefty’s durability; he was still playing in the 1940s. Any man who can pitch and win professional baseball games at the age of 57 has to be rated a phenomenon.

Lefty’s story is inextricably linked to York, where he lived for much of his life. However, it began at the other end of the state, in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh, on August 13, 1886. The last of six children, Lefty played sandlot ball and attended O’Hara Public School. He dropped out of Pittsburgh High School a month before graduation to take a job on a bread wagon.

While pitching semipro ball for the Beltzhoover team in Pittsburgh, he caught the attention of Dick Guy, at that time sports editor of the Gazette Times and Leader and manager of a team called the Pittsburgh Collegians. Guy saw to it that Lefty went for a year to Pittsburgh’s East Liberty Academy and then on to Staunton Military Academy in Virginia, where he pitched brilliantly.

After Staunton, Lefty entered Washington and Lee University, intending to study law. He needed money for his schooling, and it is said that Dick Guy steered him toward summer pitching jobs with professional teams in East Liverpool and Steubenville, Ohio, and with Trenton, New Jersey, of the Tri-State League. To preserve his college eligibility, Lefty apparently played under assumed names, including “George Miller,” but his statistics for those years – 1906, 1907, and 1908 – are unobtainable.

Forsaking the study of law, Lefty opted for a professional baseball career, which he began under his own name for York of the Class B Tri-State League in 1909. He put in a lot of innings that year and the next, enough to absorb a stinging 40 losses, 20 each season.

One of the wins was a big one, though. It came on his 24^th birthday, August 13, 1910, in York’s old fairgrounds ballpark, when he tossed a no-hitter against Harrisburg, winning 1-0.

From 1911 to 1921 he was a steady, occasionally impressive pitcher in the high minors and a so-so performer in the majors. He turned in a 19-14 record for Columbus, Ohio, of the American Association in 1917, with a 2.67 ERA, and 20-15 for the same team in 1919.

In fact, he pitched five straight seasons for the Columbus Red Birds, 1916 to 1920, except for a brief stint with the Boston Braves in 1918. When he “retired” from baseball in 1921 – note those quotation marks – it was from the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association.

He went home to York. He was 34 years old.

Retired though he was, he was not through. He spent a lot of his over-the-hill years on the hill for the York White Roses of the New York-Pennsylvania League (now the Eastern League), starting in 1923.

In the preceding year, there had been no NYP League, and Lefty’s statistical record for the year says “Voluntarily Retired.” It was a retirement that took a lot of stamina. In 1922 the aging portsider was working in the shipping department of the American Chain and Cable Company in York. Acco, as it was called, was a big outfit, and it sponsored a strong semipro team that featured Lefty George on the mound.

When the NYP League was formed in 1923, the Acco team under Frank (Rube) Dessau transformed itself into the York White Roses of the new Class B professional league. This Acco team, in its new guise, finished second in the NYP League in 1923, 1924, and 1926, first in 1925, and third in 1927. The “elongated portside twister,” as one writer described Lefty, started off well. He won 19 games in 1923 while losing 10, posting a career-high 162 strikeouts. At age 36 he had barely begun.

Stories from this period abound. There was the Sunday game in Binghamton, a town where the fans called him Andy Gump (a prominent cartoon character of that period) because of his prominent Adam’s apple. The crowd had been shouting “Andy Gump! Andy Gump!” at him for much of the afternoon, the idea being to rattle him. In the last of the ninth the White Roses were leading 3-2, but Binghamton, with runners at second and third, had mounted a threat.

In the best tradition of “Casey at the Bat,” their star hitter strode to the plate.

“Andy Gump! Andy Gump!”

The chant went on, the volume increasing. Lefty, working on two strikes, leaned back, fired, and struck out the local Casey to end the game. As the sigh from the crowd subsided, he looked skyward and shouted out the Gumpian line: “Oh, Min! I got him!”

The crowd, partisan though it was, loved it.

Lefty’s second year in the NYP League, 1924, bordered on the sensational. He won 16 straight games, including four shutouts in a row, and blazed his way through 45 consecutive scoreless innings. He finished the season with a 25-8 record.

A pitcher with that kind of season had to have something, and Lefty did. What they talked about in York and throughout the league was his superb move to first base. No record exists as to how many runners he picked off, but the number was high. Few baserunners stole on him.

Lefty George’s Adam’s apple also attracted a lot of attention. One anonymous bard of the `20s wrote:

He’s built straight.
Only thing that protrudes is the Adam’s apple.
It bobs up and down like a cork on the ocean every time he swallows.
Lefty has the best balk motion in baseball.
Doesn’t have to wiggle a finger.
All he has to do is wave his Adam’s apple and the runner dashes back to first.

As one bewildered commentator put it, “Nobody knew where the ball was going.” Nobody,that is, except Lefty. He knew. And that knowledge helped him gain or tie for the NYP League lead in shutouts in 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, and 1928.

Most ballplayers, no matter how long or short their careers, have one year that stands out above the rest. For Lefty George that year was 1925. It was the year Lefty George, the old pro, joined forces with Del Bissonette, a young, hard-hitting first baseman from Maine, to lead York to its only NYP League pennant.

Looking a bit lined and gaunt, but just as tough and able as ever, Lefty won 27 games in 1925, the most ever in the NYP-Eastern League. He threw seven shutouts, lost only seven games, and led the league with a 2.27 ERA. At Jack Benny’s fabled age of 39, Lefty was at the very top of his form.

Lefty got some pitching help in 1925 from Chant Parkes in the latter’s first year in the NYP League. A right-hander with York that year, he was to become another fixture in the league. Ultimately he would win almost as many games as Lefty George himself. The league record book reads:

Most games won, lifetime

    Lefty George (LHP)              165           1923-1933

    Chant Parkes (RHP)              151           1925-1934

A York sportswriter called 1925 “a spine-tingling, nerve-jangling, never-to-be-forgotten season in which Frank Dessau’s White Roses and the Williamsport Grays finished the regular season all even [77-55] , then tangled in a best-of-five series that was decided in the eleventh inning of the fourth contest at Eagle Park with a dramatic home run” [by Del Bissonette].

Rivalry between York and Williamsport was always intense. The Williamsport newspapers gave much play to Lefty George. Fans there called him Grandpa many years before he became one. One jay Lefty, to their wild amusement, got himself up in a white wig and flowing whiskers, rolled out to the mound in a wheelchair, and put in three sweltering innings in his old-folks’ get-up before the heat got the better of his clowning.

In 1926 Lefty’s won-lost mark fell off to 17-14. His effectiveness could hardly be questioned, though. His 1.95 ERA was his best ever.

He put in three more good seasons, including a 20-win year in 1929. During those seven years (1923-1929), up until the stock market crashed and Lefty’s ERA soared, the canny York southpaw won 138 games while losing 73, a .654 winning percentage.

But Lefty still managed to win in double figures at the age of 46. He became the grand old man of the league, a celebrity in all the cities of the loop. “If it was announced in advance that he was to pitch on any given day in Williamsport or Wilkes-Barre,” said Speed Williams, business manager of the White Roses, “it meant 800 to 1,000 more paid admissions.”

After 13 years in the majors and high minors, Lefty had bounced back and turned in a full decade of winning seasons with the York White Roses. In 1933 he retired again. It was over. Or was it? No. There was more to come, a full ten years down the road. Like that old retired general Douglas MacArthur, and also as a consequence of war, Lefty George   to the amazement of the baseball world returned.

Common sense suggests that no one can pitch and win in the professional ranks at the age of 57. But Lefty George had been far from idle after his second retirement. He continued to play semipro ball and even returned for a brief time with the White Roses’ team of 1940.

Then came the Second World War, and it was not easy to fill the minor league rosters. Seventeen-year-old pros were few, 4F athletes were hard to come by, and experienced oldsters were suddenly in demand.

Back came Lefty George, slim and apparently fit, once more pitching for hometown York, its team by now in the Class B Inter State League. The news of Lefty’s signing in 1943 created a sensation among baseball fans and the national press, especially when it was noted that another veteran pitcher, Dutch Schesler, who had played for Harrisburg in the long-ago 1925 season, was joining the York staff. He was 43. Sportswriters added their two ages together and announced the sum: 100.

It was great copy, but could Lefty actually pitch any more, even against the weak wartime competition? He could, although not with the old effectiveness. In 1943 he appeared in 21 games, winning seven and losing eight, with a 4.71 ERA. For a youngster with a 4F draft classification that might have been a disappointing season. For a grandfather of 57 it attracted coast-to-coast attention.

In his first starting assignment, June 16, 1943, Lefty pitched a three-hit shutout against the Lancaster Red Roses. The third baseman for Lancaster that year was future Detroit Tiger star George Kell, on his way to a .396 batting average in the Inter-State League. Kell put together an impressive consecutive-game hitting streak while winning the batting crown. It was ancient Lefty George, with help from Joe Narieka, who finally held Kell hitless, halting the streak at 32.

Lefty answered the call for the 1944 season, but the old fire was gone. Not the fire of his once-great fast ball; that had been gone for years. Everything was gone. The fabulous, seemingly indestructible soupbone had finally cooled. “I just can’t seem to get my arm in shape,” he said sadly. So, having pitched a single inning in 1944, Lefty George, almost 58, retired for the last time.

The classy southpaw died at his home in York on May 13, 1955. He is not much remembered in St. Louis or even Columbus these days, but he will never be forgotten in his adopted hometown.

In 1974, at the 10th York Area Sports Night, a number of latter-day baseball stars – Joe DiMaggio, Reggie Jackson, and Greg Gross among them – joined with 2,300 Yorkers as Lefty was posthumously inducted into York’s Hall of Fame.

Virginia George, one of Lefty’s five children, was on hand that night to hear the cheers for her father from the baseball fans of York, for whose teams he had taken the mound 423 times between 1909 and 1944.

An idol of the youngsters of York, he was the most colorful, popular, and proficient moundsman many of them would ever see in person. He was a remarkable man. “In my book,” said Speed Williams, echoing the sentiments of thousands of Pennsylvania and New York State minor league fans, “there will never be another like him.”

Two days later, on May 9, Troy opened its regular season playing visiting Ilion on the local Laureate grounds. Appearing in the box score as leadoff batter was

                                    AB       R         H         PO            A         E

            Evers, SS…….. 3          0           0         3               3           0

A local paper reported, “Evers did not get a hit, and the crowd was disappointed.” Evers’ team lost that opening game before a meager crowd of 300 which “braved the chilly atmosphere.” Despite the presence of four future major leaguers (Edward Hilley, Alex Hardy, Chick Robertaille, and George “Hooks” Wiltse) on that team, Troy would lose many more games, finishing in seventh place.

The youth had been signed to a $60 per month contract by team owner and manager, Louis Bacon. The $60 was more than young Evers ever earned in a variety of unskilled jobs. Bacon had a well-deserved reputation of being a low-paying, yet financially successful minor league team owner. Evers was receiving much less money than most other league players. But it was a chance to play professional baseball.

John Joseph Evers had eight years of education at St. Joseph’s Elementary School and no permanent job but had gained a reputation as a promising player on the many amateur and semi-professional teams in his home town of Troy. He came from a working class Irish family in south Troy, then a thriving upstate New York city. Some of his brothers, his father (a saloonkeeper), and his uncles were all ballplayers. Troy was one of eight upstate New York teams in the compact New York State League. The Class B league was about to start its sixth consecutive season. It was an established minor league with a remarkable degree of stability for 1902 under the strong leadership of its original president, John H. Farrell. A few of its players had gone directly to the major leagues; others reached the majors after further seasoning in the higher Class A minor leagues.

The skinny infielder hit amazingly well in his first year of organized baseball. A left-handed batter, he took advantage of the shallow right-field wall and actually led the league in home runs with ten (even though he hit only 12 in 18 major league seasons). He got his first hit as a professional player in his second game and Troy won its third game 4-3 over Utica when Evers doubled between two other hits during an eighth inning rally. “The ball struck the top of the fence and bounded back into the diamond, knocking the Trojan out of a home run.”

Continuous praiseworthy comments appeared concerning the play of Troy’s shortstop. Most of it referred to his defensive ability. During the first week of the season, the Amsterdam Evening Recorder said, “Evers, who plays shortstop for Troy, is a beardless youth who is said to be 19 years old. He bids fair to develop into a promising professional.” “Evers had eight chances yesterday, and he accepted every one of them.” A week later, “Evers took everything in a graceful way.” A week later, The Sporting News said, “Jack Evers, who is playing short, is conceded by the baseball writers in every city where he has appeared, to be the find of the season. He has more than made good…”

In early June, Troy beat Binghamton 12-6 and “Evers’ work at short, accepting 12 chances, was the feature.” Accolades continued. ” `Little’ Evers grabbed up a number of difficult ones and planked them over to first in fine style” can be found in the Schenectady press. The Evening Recorder in mid-June reported that “Young Evers still keeps up his grand work at short for the Troy club, and his brilliant performances are conclusive proof that the kid is a natural ballplayer, and not an `accident’.” The same paper later said, “For Troy, there is always one player who is always to be found in the game, no matter how the contest is going. Evers. He can hit and field and his appearance calls for a generous reception from the spectators.”

Somewhat less complimentary, an Albany writer wrote that “Troy has a youth of rare promise in Evers, but his career in professional baseball covers less than two months, and he has much to learn.” The same writer said “the premier shortstops of this league are Chick Cargo (of Albany), Dutch Jordan (of Binghamton) and Jim Maguire (of Syracuse).” Cargo and Maguire, age 31 and 27 respectively, had already had brief major league experience. Jordan, 22 years old, would play two seasons with Brooklyn in the future. Evers would play for almost two decades.

Professional baseball has an exciting glamour to it but it is also a very competitive, hard daily grind. Young Evers was tripped by manager Wally Taylor of Utica in the third game of the season. He suffered a “severe wound in the left leg near the knee” when a Syracuse player spiked him in early June but he continued to play. In late June he injured his foot but hit a home run over that right field fence as Troy lost 8-1. In early July, the struggling team won one game in 15 days when “Little Johnny Evers” hit a home run in the 12th inning to beat Utica 4-3. He erred once in 14 chances that day. Reports of his defensive ability continued. “Scarcely a day passes without Evers getting away with some almost impossible stunt. Evers filled the hole between 2nd and 3rd like a veteran, and his work was certainly the best of any as seen on the local grounds this season. The youngster from the South End got in front of scorching grounders and his throwing to the bases was accurate in every instance.”

He missed playing for five days in late July but returned with a bang. Evers, who had “been out of the game with illness,” hit a home run against Johnstown in his first game back. On August 16 the local press reported that he made three errors in a 4-2 loss to Binghamton but it was learned after the game that “his father was near death’s door.” It was the first time all season that he really played poorly. He then missed about a week of play as his father died on August 21 in his home at 385 Third Street. The funeral, on August 24, was “one of the largest ever witnessed in the city” with nearby St. Joseph’s Church thronged with mourners. Then it was back to work for John Evers, professional baseball player. “Troy won 2-1 in a game replete with sensational fielding. Evers for Troy excelling.”

The young infielder made errors (“Troy lost 9-7 in 11 innings to Binghamton. Errors by Evers and Wiltse responsible.”), but he evidently was able to cover much ground. He had range as well as a good arm. The Syracuse correspondent commented in early August how Evers had 478 chances compared to much lower numbers of two other shortstops who had higher fielding percentages and had appeared in a comparable number of games.

There are no recorded references to the youth’s later well-known combative pugnacious personality. Known in his major league playing days as “the brainiest ballplayer in the business,” he was also called an “insolent, snarling, aggressive grouch” by the New York press. With jutting jaw and chin, he was known as “the crab” on the field. Famed umpire Bill Klem said, “Johnny Evers was the toughest and meanest man I ever saw (in 36 years of umpiring) on a ball field. His tongue knew neither fear nor control when he was crossed, and he thought everybody within eye or ear range was crossing him.” Evers said, “My favorite umpire is a dead one.” Shortly after Evers’ death in 1947, long time respected journalist Fred Lieb described him as a “truculent little gladiator who packed more aggressiveness in his frame than any other player of his size.”

In early September The Sporting News simply reported, “SS Evers of Troy has been sold to the Chicago N. L. team. Has the goods, all right.” A few days earlier, one of his home town papers had reported that he had “been sold to the Chicago N. L. team.” On September 1, the same paper noted that “John J. Evers, Troy’s shortstop, left last night for Philadelphia, where he will join the

Chicago N. L. team.” The youth left from the same railroad station where, a few years later, thousands of local fans would greet him on his return to Troy after completion of the major league baseball season. A day later, it is recorded that he had played in his first major league game, a 6-1 Chicago victory over Philadelphia. The box score simply recorded

                                    AB       R         H         PO            A         E

             Evers, SS……. 5         0          0          0               4          1

The Philadelphia Ledger noted that Evers “played his first game for Salee’s team and put up a fine game. He is very fast on his feet, takes hard hit grounders in great shape and hits the ball hard. He made a good impression on the crowd, and was applauded several times.” Within a week, the Chicago papers praised Evers as “about the coolest man at handling a ball that has ever played on the Smoky City aggregation.” Again, it was his fielding ability that brought special attention – this time from the “big city” reporters in contrast to the reporters in the relatively small upstate New York towns.

Troy manager Bacon knew Chicago manager Frank Salee. When second baseman Bobby Lowe suffered a serious leg injury, Chicago took Evers. Bacon told young Evers to tell Salee that he was being paid $100 per month with Troy. Bacon told Salee if Evers did not make the grade to send him back. If Evers were to make the team, Salee was to send Bacon a $200 purchase price. Salee sent $200.

With Troy that 1902 season, young Evers batted .285 in 84 games. He made 65 errors on the battered minor league diamonds and had a recorded fielding percentage of .880. Yet, erring only once in 97 chances with the Cubs, his fielding percentage jumped to .989 on the major league level. Most of his late season 25 Chicago games were played at second base where the first “Tinker to Evers to Chance” double play occurred on September 15, 1902.

The rest is history. A long fiery, combative career, an integral part of the great Chicago Cub champion teams, principal participant in the1908 Merkle affair, most valuable player in the National League while playing for the 1914 “miracle” Boston Braves, a Hall of Fame plaque at Cooperstown, and lasting immortality as the middle man in the New York Evening Mail sportswriter Franklin P. Adams’ famous poem (“Baseball’s Sad Lexicon”) describing the New York Giants’ plight when they played the Chicago Cubs.

These are the saddest of possible words:

“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”
Trio of bear Cubs and fleeter than birds,
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”

There were only two recognized blacks who played in the majors prior to 1900. They were the Walker brothers, Moses and Welday, both of whom played for Toledo in the American Association in 1884. There also were stated opinions at the time that Vincent Nava, who played  1882-86 with Providence and Baltimore, and George Treadway, who played 1893-96 with Baltimore, Brooklyn and Louisville, were colored, but that is still speculative.

There were more than 60 black players in the minors, starting in 1878 when Bud Fowler pitched briefly for the Live Oaks of Lynn in the International Association, and winding up in 1899 when Canadian Bill Galloway played, also briefly, for Woodstock in the Canadian League. Blacks did not play in the minors between 1899 and 1946 except for the isolated case of Jim Claxton, who was passed off as an Indian and pitched two games for Oakland of the Pacific Coast League in 1916 (see 1979 Baseball Research Journal, pp. 3 1-35). There also was the possibility that some Latin players of the period were part Negro. One example was Ramon Herrera, who spent several years in the Negro National League before playing infield for the Boston Red Sox in 1925-26.

Much publicity has been given to Branch Rickey’s signing of Jackie Robinson in October 1945, and that story is well known. But what about the other early signings, not only for the majors but for the farm systems? In these moves the Brooklyn Dodgers were way out in front. After Robinson was signed to play for Montreal in the International League, the Dodgers followed up by signing returned serviceman John Wright in February 1946. He was 27, a righthanded hurler who had performed for the Newark Eagles, Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays. He and Robinson took spring training together with the Dodgers in Florida.

The Dodgers next signed Roy Campanella, a 24-year-old catcher of the Baltimore Elite Giants, and Don Newcombe, 19, who had played one season with the Newark Eagles. They were assigned to Nashua in the Class B New England League. In May, Roy Partlow, a 30-year-old southpaw from the Negro Leagues, was placed under contract with the Royals.

Robinson made his historic debut April 18, 1946, for the Royals at Jersey City’s Roosevelt Stadium. He collected four hits, including a home run, and stole two bases. Five days later, John Wright pitched in relief for Montreal. He was shortly demoted to the Dodger farm club in Three Rivers (Quebec) in the Canadian-American League, where he broke the color line on May 23. Roy Campanella was the first black in the New England League, where he homered in his debut on May 8. Don Newcombe broke in with a win on May 16 with Campy behind the bat. Partlow, after two weeks on the bench, pitched for Montreal on June 5. He lost, and a short time later, he, like Wright, wound up at Three Rivers.

A reporter for the Baltimore Afro-American, who interviewed Wright and Partlow in July, said: “It seems that Johnny and Roy, playing in an all-white environment that was entirely new to them, could not do themselves justice and, as a consequence, were suffering from nerves. This could be true, but neither will admit it.” Robinson, who was having a great season, was later quoted to the effect that Wright “was a good pitcher but had trouble taking the pressure.”

Wright won 12 and lost 8 for Three Rivers and had a 4.15 earned run average. He was released at the end of the year and went back to the Homestead Grays. Statistically, Partlow had a great year. As a pitcher in 14 games, he was 10-1, and as a batter in 23 games, he hit .404. The Dodgers invited the “temperamental southpaw” to camp in February 1947, but released him later in the spring. He went back to the Negro Leagues, but would show up again in O.B. in the Provincial League in 1950-5 1. (In three years of O.B., Partlow won 27 games and lost only 6.)

The three other blacks the Dodgers signed made good progress. Robinson went to the parent club as a first baseman in 1947. Campanella moved up to Montreal in 1947 and made his debut with the Dodgers as catching relief for Gil Hodges on April 20, 1948. He was sent down to St. Paul for a short time and broke the color line in the American Association on May 22, 1948, in Columbus, Ohio. Newcombe, only 19, spent another year at Nashua, where he led in wins, and then went to Montreal in 1948 and to the Dodgers in May 1949.

There was one other black player in the minors in 1946. This was Vincent “Manny” McIntyre from Fredricton, New Brunswick, who had no Negro League experience. The 26-year-old Canadian was signed by the Cardinals for their Class C Border League farm club in Sherbrooke, Quebec. A well-rounded athlete, he had played hockey in the Quebec Interprovincial League in 1944-45. As a shortstop for Sherbrooke, he batted .310, but made 30 errors in 30 games and was released.

From six blacks in O.B. in 1946, the total jumped to 17 in 1947, but this number is a little misleading considering the brief time some of the blacks played. While the emphasis was very much Canadian (Montreal Three Rivers, Sherbrooke) and New England in 1946, there was an immediate shift in 1947. Nate Moreland, who had pitched in the Mexican Leagues, crossed the border into the U.S. and into the Sunset League at El Centro, California. He opened on May 3, 1947, with a 14-2 victory over Reno and hit a grand slam. He won 20 games in the Class C circuit in 1947 and 17 the next year.

With Campanella gone to Montreal, the Dodgers signed Cuban catcher Ramon Rodriguez for Nashua in May 1947, but he got into only one game before he was injured and released. They also signed young Sammy Gee as a shortstop for Three Rivers in July, but he batted only .184 the rest of the season. The Dodgers had more success with Dan Bankhead, who became the first black pitcher in the majors on August 26, 1947. He pitched in relief and hit a home run in his first at bat. Bankhead pitched for Nashua and St. Paul in 1948 and Montreal the next year before getting back to Brooklyn in 1950. One of his four baseball brothers, Joe Bankhead, was signed to pitch for Grand Rapids in the Central League in 1948.

Because of the success of Robinson with the Dodgers, the Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Browns also decided to recruit black players. The Indians, after considering several players, selected Larry Doby of the Newark Eagles in early July 1947. The future outfielder was used sparingly in 1947 – at first, second, short, and as a pinch hitter. The Browns signed Henry Thompson and Willard Brown from the Negro Leagues. Thompson played second and Brown center and right field. They were both in the lineup on July 20, marking the first time that two blacks appeared in the same game. Brown was 4 for 5 against the Yankees on July 23, and he also was the first black to hit a home run in the American League. But he and Thompson later faded and were released. Both went back to the Negro Leagues, but returned to O.B. later.

In 1949 the New York Giants signed Thompson, as well as Monte Irvin, and assigned them to Jersey City for the first part of the season. Although Thompson is usually credited with being the first black on the Giants, he and Irvin actually broke in during the same game on July 8, 1949. Hank was the starting third baseman, and Monte pinch hit in the eighth. Brown never returned to the majors, but had some good years in the Texas League 1953-56.

The Browns also signed outfielder Chuck Harmon, a University of Toledo athlete, in July 1947, and sent him to Gloversville in the Can-Am League where he hit .270. He did not play in O.B. in 1948, but after returning a year later, gradually worked himself up to the Cincinnati Reds as a third baseman in 1954.

One of the strange happenings in 1947 was the signing of six black players by the Stamford Bombers of the Class B Colonial League. According to player-manager Zeke Bonura, the club found itself very short of players, particularly pitchers, in late July. On July 28, for example, the Bombers were leading Waterbury 16-15 with two out in the ninth but had to forfeit when their shortstop was tossed out of the game, and no additional eligible player, including Bonura, who was on the disabled list, was available. League president Ken Strong upheld the controversial decision. The club gave trials to five hurlers and one shortstop, most of whom had little experience. Johnny Haitch, 19, lost his first game and was released. Pitcher Andreas Pulliza was released two days after his debut and Roy Lee was dropped after only a few games. Al Preston and Fred Shepherd were the only ones to have served in the Negro Leagues, and Shepherd and Carlos Santiago were the only ones to play any with Stamford in 1948.

The color ban was broken in several additional minor leagues in 1948, starting with the Pacific Coast League on March 30. John Ritchey, the Negro American League batting champion in 1947, opened as a pinch hitter for San Diego against Los Angeles. A baseball star at San Diego State College, he was the starting catcher on April 1, and hit a home run the next day. He batted .323 in 103 games in 1948.

Ron Teasley of Detroit was the first black in the Pony League when he played the initial sack for Olean, N.Y., on May 2, 1948. Sammy Gee, who did so poorly for Three Rivers the year before, appeared at shortstop in the same lineup with him the next day. Gee hit better in this Class D circuit, but neither youngster lasted more than 25 games. It was even more of a disappointment for Josh Gibson, Jr., the first black in the Middle Atlantic League. The son of the Negro League Hall of Famer, playing second base for Youngstown, went hitless in a doubleheader on June 20. In fact, he didn’t get a hit until his sixth game, and was released on June 29.

Cleveland management had tryouts for several black players in June 1948. Fred Thomas, who had played in the Quebec Provincial League when it was not in O.B., was selected and sent to Wilkes-Barre. There he broke the Eastern League color line on July 4. Ten days later, he was joined in the outfield by Al (Fuzzy) Smith, who would later become a star for the Indians. On August 1, David Hoskins broke in as an outfielder with Grand Rapids in the Central League, hitting .393 in 46 games. Four years later he would be the first black in the Texas League, but as a star pitcher for Dallas where he won 22 games. He then went up to Cleveland.

By the end of 1948 – after three years of black player participation – a dozen minor leagues had been integrated in the sense that one or more blacks had played in those circuits. It would still be several years before most of the minor leagues were integrated.

The prospects for black minor league managers were not good at all, although there was one pioneer effort, thanks again to Branch Rickey. By 1950 Rickey had shifted to Pittsburgh, and his latest innovation involved the Pirates’ affiliate at Farnham, Quebec, in the Provincial League. He recruited Sam Bankhead, the oldest of five baseball brothers, who was player-manager of the Homestead Grays in 1950, to take over Farnham in 1951. Some of the players included Al Pinkston, Bob Trice, and Josh Gibson, Jr., who was giving it another try. In spite of Bankhead’s efforts as player-manager, the team finished seventh. It would be ten more years before another black (Gene Baker) would get a chance to manage in the minors.

In the major leagues, progress for black players was very gradual and slow until the 1950s. Actually, in 1950 there was only one new black player. This was Sam Jethroe, center fielder of the Braves, who broke in with a home run on opening day in Boston. (He was one of those considered in 1945 for the pathfinder role that fell to Jackie Robinson.) In 1951 there were eight new blacks in the majors and six more in 1952. They were concentrated on only six of the 16 clubs at that time, however. Ironically, while the Boston Braves had brought up four black players by that time, it would take seven more years before the Red Sox would insert in their lineup a black player. It took 12 years from Jackie Robinson to Pumpsie Green for each team to take this step. Here are the debut dates for each club:

      National League                                                          American League

Dodgers, Jackie Robinson, 4/15/47                    Indians, Larry Doby, 7/5/47

Giants, Henry Thompson, 7/8/49                       Browns, Henry Thompson, 7/17/47

      Monte Irvin, 7/8/49

Braves, Sam Jethroe, 4/18/50                         White Sox, Minnie Minoso, 5/1/5 1

Cubs, Ernie Banks, 9/17/53                           Athletics, Bob Trice, 9/13/53

Pirates, Curt Roberts, 4/13/54                       Senators, Carlos Paula, 9/6/54

Cardinals, Tom Alston, 4/13/54                       Yankees, Elston Howard, 4/14/54

Reds, Nino Escalera, 4/17/54                         Tigers, Ossie Virgil, 6/6/58

Phils, John Kennedy, 4/22/57                         Red Sox, Pumpsie Green, 7/21/59

The first 27 blacks to play in the minor leagues after World War II are carried below by debut date. This list is followed by the first 26 to play in the majors.

In the past 25 years, however, something entirely new has come upon the major league scene: the player who hits 40 home runs while batting in fewer than 100 runs. Duke Snider (40/92) was the first to do so, in 1957. The following season, Mickey Mantle (42/97) followed suit, repeating in 1960 (40/94). Rico Petrocelli (40/97) became the only shortstop to do it, in 1969. That same season, Hank Aaron (44/97) turned the trick, and in 1973 (40/96) joined his second base teammate Dave Johnson (43/99) on the list. Harmon Killebrew’s 1963 season (45/96) deserves special mention, with the Twins’ outfielder blasting the most home runs while falling short of the 100 RBI mark.

This phenomenon, however, represents only part of a larger trend. With the advent of the “lively ball,” in 1922 both Babe Ruth (35/99) and Tilly Walker of the A’s (37/99) hit at least 35 home runs without driving home   100 runs. A quarter-century passed before another major leaguer matched this “shortfall” performance, as Hank Sauer compiled 35/97 marks in 1948. Since that time, however, this feat has been accomplished a total of 34 times, the last being by Dave Kingman (37/99) and Mike Schmidt (35/87) in 1982. Fourteen times a player with 35 home runs has failed to drive in 90 runs, with Wally Post and the rookie Frank Robinson batting in but 83 in 1956.

Whatever the exact figures, there are many fine seasons represented in the efforts described above. These players, however, stand in sharp contrast to another, seldom-recognized, group of major leaguers. This select company is composed of those who have driven in the most runs during a season while hitting the fewest home runs.

We are aware that Hugh Jennings is credited with knocking in 121 runs in that big batting year of 1896 without hitting a home run; and that Lave Cross’ 108 RBIs in 1902 were produced without a four-bagger. However, we are limiting our brief study to the modern period of 1920 to the present, not because the RBI became fully official in 1920, but because the home run component came into relatively equal prominence with the RBI at that point. The lively ball made for more Ruthian home run hitters, sweeping the bases ahead of all others.

After 1920 it became rather exceptional to see batters like Larry Gardner, Joe Sewell, and Pie Traynor knock in 100 runs with only 2-3 home runs. Sewell almost made the list in 1925 when he hit only one homer and knocked in 98 runs. In most cases the clubs these run producers played for had healthy team averages around .300, there were no full-blown home run hitters in the lineup, and the individual hit for a good average himself.

There were a few exceptions. In 1931, for example, Pie Traynor of the Pirates knocked in 103 runs while hitting only two round-trippers and batting only .298. The club was sixth in batting (.266) and fifth in scoring runs. Six other Pirates hit more home runs than Traynor, but no one else knocked in more than 70 runs, which was Paul Waner’s figure. There is no doubt that Traynor came through with men on base.

In 1934 Bill Rogell batted only .296 for the Tigers, and his 3 home runs could not compare with Hank Greenberg’s 26, but he still batted in 100 runs. However, the Tigers batted .300 that season and scored a very high number of runs – 958 to 842 for the runner-up Yankees. Rogell batted sixth behind Gehringer (third), Greenberg (fourth) and Goslin, all of whom knocked in 100 or more runs.

In 1943, Billy Herman hit two homers and knocked in 100 runs for the Dodgers. However, he batted a solid .330 and the Bums, in spite of little help from their fading home run hitter, Dolf Camilli, led the league in runs.

Gradually it became more and more difficult to collect 100 RBIs with fewer than 10 homers. Pinky Higgins and Frank McCormick both finished with 5/106 in 1938; and Cecil Travis and Bob Elliott were both 7/101 in 1941 and 1943 respectively. Herman’s exceptional record in 1943 stood out in comparison.

In 1950, Detroit third baseman George Kell (8/101) became the last player to post an RBI total in three figures with a single figure HR mark. The shift was already in motion. When Kell played his last season in 1957 Duke Snider became a “first” in the other direction with 40 homers and 92 RBI. In 1983 it looked like Ted Simmons might be a throw-back to earlier decades when he was knocking in runs without the long ball. However, by the end of the season his round-trippers had gone up to 13 and his RBIs stood at 108.

Here are the two extremes: Those players with 40 home runs and fewer than 100 RBIs, and those players who knocked in 100 runs with three or fewer four-baggers. Although the period is restricted to 1920 to the present, the two groups still fall into separate eras.

Note: All stats through 1983 season.

Perhaps the most intriguing mystery in our pursuit of “missing” ballplayers is the case of Louis “Bull” Durham. He pitched briefly in four seasons in the major leagues between 1904 and 1909, and also attracted considerable attention in 1908 when he pitched and won five consecutive doubleheaders for Indianapolis in the American Association. The Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia indicated he was born in Bolivar, N.Y., in 1881 and was a brother of James Garfield “Jimmy” Durham, a contemporary ballplayer. Both facts proved to be incorrect, the one about their relationship being rather obvious. Both were listed as being born in 1881, one in New York and the other in Kansas.

For 13 years, this writer conducted a serious effort to turn up clues about the life and death of Louis Durham. The newspaper accounts of his baseball exploits indicated that he was married about 1907, but the name of his bride or the site of the marriage was never determined. Newspapers indicated that the player spent the winter of 1906-07 studying law in Geneva, Ohio. However, no such learning institution could be identified in or near that city. A newspaper note indicated that he was a patent medicine specialist, a jack of all trades, but there was no specific information reported which could be used to trace the man.

Although diligent efforts to pursue Mr. Durham were begun in 1969, a definite clue to the man’s identity wasn’t located until October 1982, when two other SABR members became involved. Ray Nemec of Illinois located a note in a 1906 Pennsylvania newspaper which indicated that Bull Durham’s correct name at birth was Charles Staub. Al Kermisch of Virginia, who has researched the early decades of professional baseball, had found a reference to a Louis Staub pitching in Pennsylvania in 1900-02. This Staub reportedly was born in New Oxford, Pennsylvania, in 1879.

With that knowledge in hand, a random phone call was made to several Staub families listed in the current New Oxford telephone directory. One such call referred this writer to a young lady in York, Pa., who has compiled a genealogy of all the Staub families of southeastern Pennsylvania dating back to the 1700s. A phone call to this lady produced the information that Louis Raphael Staub was born in New Oxford, Pa., June 27, 1877, the eighth of nine children. Within several weeks after making this discovery, two daughters of this man were found. They were able to provide biographical information needed for the record of their father to be brought up to date.

Louis Staub began playing professional baseball about 1898. In 1902, he found himself with the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, ballclub, a teammate of the above-mentioned Jimmy Durham. The latter, also a pitcher, fared well at Cedar Rapids and earned a trial with the Chicago White Sox. Louis failed at Cedar Rapids and was released by June. By August he was pitching at McSherrystown, Pa., his hometown. It was just about this time that Louis Staub changed his name to Louis Staub Durham, perhaps because of his liking for the popular Bull Durham tobacco of that period, or because of his friendship with Jimmy Durham, or perhaps a combination of the two. In any event, Louis “Bull” Durham, the silverhaired right-hander, became a better pitcher. He had a pretty good year at Augusta in the South Atlantic League in 1904, although he lost his debut on April 26. This also was the Organized Ball debut of Ty Cobb, the center fielder of Augusta, who broke in with a home run.

The Brooklyn Dodgers brought up Durham in September and on the 22nd of that month, “the white-haired lad from Atlanta” pitched a 4-hit, 3-1 win over Pittsburgh. The Atlanta reference was one of the many false leads about Durham, who had a very erratic career. He moved ever so quickly from the minors to the majors to the minors, to semipro ball, to the majors, etc. For one or two years there is no playing record of him at all. He was up with the Washington Senators briefly in 1907 and the New York Giants in 1908-09 after that great 19-6 season with Indianapolis when he won those five doubleheaders. His pro ball career apparently ended in 1913 when he pitched briefly and played the outfield for Long Beach and Pasadena in the Southern California League. At that location, Durham made the transition to a career as a silent screen movie actor in Hollywood.

Backtracking a little, we note that Durham (Staub) had attended Georgetown University briefly before the turn of the century. His first marriage in 1906 or 1907 ended about 1909 when his wife died of tuberculosis or a similar ailment. He married a Pittsburgh girl about 1914 and had one child, a daughter, by this marriage. In early 1918, his motion picture work came to an end and he moved back to Pittsburgh with his family. By the early 1920s, this marriage ended in divorce and Durham headed back to California. However, he never made it.

For some reason (perhaps to visit Jimmy Durham of Coffeyville, Kansas) Durham stopped off in Kansas on his way west. He met a young lady, married her in 1927, and made his home in Kansas for the rest of his life. Louis Durham adopted his third wife’s two children and the couple proceeded to have six more children. He was employed as a geologist in Kansas until his retirement, and died in Bentley, Kansas, June 28, 1960. His obituary in the Halstead Independent gave not the slightest indication that he had been a ballplayer, an occupation he had filled for about 15 years.

There still are a number of things we don’t know about Louis Durham. We can only speculate about why he changed his name and why he moved to Kansas, and why there was no mention of his long baseball background in his obituary. The family is of the opinion that he used the pseudonym of Bull Durham because of his appreciation for the popular smoking tobacco. However, one can’t help but wonder if his friendship with Jimmy Durham had something to do with it. The two had developed a close relationship when they first met as members of the Cedar Rapids pitching staff of 1902. Their friendship continued in 1907 when the two combined to win 34 games at Louisville. As a matter of fact, the 1907 Louisville team photo shows Jimmy seated with Louis standing right behind him. And, it has to be something more than mere coincidence that Louis settled in Kansas, the home state of Jimmy, upon heading west during the 1920s. Also, we know Jimmy was in the oil business in Kansas, and Louis became a geologist. Louis’ widow doesn’t recall him mentioning Jimmy by name, but then again, we know he was a mysterious sort of fellow, don’t we?

Ironing Jimmy by name, but then again, we know he was a mysterious sort of fellow, don’t we?

On July 14, 1915, Urban “Red” Faber of the White Sox defeated the Philadelphia Athletics 6-4 at Chicago. In the fourth inning of that game Faber was hit by a pitched ball by Joe Bush and then stole second, third and home to become one of the handful of major league players to make the record book for that feat. But Faber did not deserve that honor since the Athletics, using delaying tactics to have the game called because of rain, made no attempt to put him out. The storm never materialized and ironically the run that Faber scored proved to be the winning one. However, one month before, Faber walked seven times in a row in games played on June 18 and June 22, but never made the record books, which show Billy Rogell, Tigers, 1938; Mel Ott, Giants, 1943; and Ed Stanky, Giants, 1950; sharing the record of seven walks in a row. In the game at Philadelphia on June 18, Faber won the game 11-4, and walked successively in the third, fourth, sixth and eighth innings. In his next start at Cleveland on June 22, Urban beat the Indians 9-6 and walked in the second, third and sixth innings for seven bases on balls in a row. His skein ended in the eighth inning when he popped out to shortstop Ray Chapman. Faber was not a good hitter but apparently knew the strike zone.

When Editor Joss Interviewed Pitcher Joss

Hall of Famer Addie Joss, whose brilliant career in the majors was cut short in 1911 when he died two days shy of his 31st birthday of tubercular meningitis, had a great love for baseball and also enjoyed writing about it. His ambition was to be a full-time sporting editor when his playing days were over. He spent several of his winters in Toledo, Ohio, as sporting editor of the Sunday Times-Bee, and also contributed baseball articles to the Daily News-Bee and covered several World Series for that paper. After winning 21 games in 1906 for his second 20-game season in a row, Joss received a 1907 contract from Cleveland calling for $300 less than he made the season before. Addie was very unhappy with the offer and threatened to retire from baseball and stay on his editor’s job full time. The editor of the Sunday Times-Bee thought it would be a good idea for sporting editor Joss to interview player Joss about his salary situation with the Indians. Joss’ story about himself appeared in the Sunday Times-Bee on February 24, 1907, and read as follows:

Several weeks later, on March 9, Joss made a trip to Cleveland and huddled with the owners of the Cleveland club. After a confab that lasted half an hour, Addie signed for a flat $4,000 without any “ifs” or “ands” and departed for spring training.

The Hall of Fame Robinsons of Baltimore

Of the four Robinsons in Baseball’s Hall of Fame only Jackie, the Brooklyn Dodger star, did not have a Baltimore connection. Frank Robinson came to the Orioles after an outstanding career in the National League and sparked the club to four pennants and two world championships in six years. Brooks Robinson spent his entire 23 major league seasons in a Baltimore uniform and his third base heroics are legendary. Brooks, one of the finest gentlemen ever to play the game, was ecstatic over his induction into the Hall of Fame and also extremely proud that his former teammate and fellow traveler from Arkansas, George Kell, made it at the same time. Brooks still remembers vividly the thrill of his first appearance in a major league opening game, the Presidential opener in Washington in 1957. The 19-year-old Robinson started at third base while on the other end of the infield was the veteran Kell, playing first base that day. To top it all off, the Orioles won their first opener since returning to the American League in 1954, a 7 to 6 victory over the Senators in 11 innings.

Wilbert Robinson may be remembered by many as the jolly old manager of the Dodgers from 1914 through 1931, but he was an outstanding catcher in his playing days and No. 1 receiver for the colorful Old Orioles of the 1890s. In fact, Wilbert played for Baltimore in three different major leagues – the American Association, National League and American League – and one minor league – the Eastern. Besides, he played for Baltimore pennant winners in both the majors and minors. He was on the National League winners of 1894 through 1896, and in 1908 he came out of retirement long enough to help Jack Dunn win the first of his eight Baltimore pennants. Wilbert’s playing record does not include the 30 games he played for the 1908 Orioles nor the one game he played for the club in 1907. The following items should be added to his record:

Rickey’s O.B. Debut a One Day Affair

Branch Rickey, who was one of baseball’s most outstanding administrators, learned his craft from the ground up. After playing and coaching college baseball, he played in several minor leagues, advanced to the majors as player, then manager, and finally emerged as a front office genius. Rickey started his O.B. career in 1903 with Terre Haute in the Central League. His published playing record has no details of his stay with that club. There is no mystery, however, to Rickey’s stint with Terre Haute since it was only a one-day stop.

After coaching Ohio Wesleyan University’s baseball team in 1903, Rickey planned to join a group of Delaware, Ohio, college stars and barnstorm for the summer. On June 19, the last-place Terre Haute club was short of players since several of its cast had jumped to the outlaw California State League. The club picked up five Columbus, Ohio, amateurs to fill its ranks, Branch Rickey among them. The Columbus contingent did not help much since Wheeling drubbed the home club 10-2. Rickey caught the entire game, going 0 for 4, and had three putouts without an error. The next day the amateurs were on their way back to Columbus. Several days later Rickey received a good offer from the LeMars club of the Iowa-South Dakota League and took off to join that team. That really launched his career in Organized Baseball.

Tom Brown Had Six For Six Game in 1883

On September 4, 1883, Tom Brown, Columbus right fielder, who was in his rookie major league season, had quite a day with the bat as his team swamped Baltimore 21-4 in an American Association game in the Monumental City. Brown, a native of England, registered six hits in six times at bat, including two doubles and two home runs, but for some reason his performance is not included in the record books. This game, between the bottom two clubs in the Association, received a great deal of attention in the Baltimore press, not over Brown’s great batting but because of the poor playing of several of the local players. It seems that six of the Baltimore players attended a masked ball at Kernan’s Hotel the night before and stayed out all night. Shortly after leaving the hotel, pitcher Hardie Henderson engaged in a dispute with a young clerk on Baltimore Street about a girl. In the midst of the dispute, a policeman appeared and took the two men and the girl to the station-house, and all three were locked up. Henderson was released in the morning and though he had little sleep he attempted to pitch in the after noon. He was batted all over the lot, giving up, nine hits and nine runs in just three innings. Columbus continued the assault on Gid Gardner and Bob Emslie, two others who attended the masked ball.

The following day Manager Bill Barnie fined Henderson and catcher John Sweeney $100 each for drunkenness, Emslie and Gardner $10 each for being out late at night. Getting back to Brown, he had quite a series in Baltimore as Columbus won three of four games. He had 14 hits in 20 times at bat, including three doubles, two triples, three home runs and 10 runs scored.

Elton Chamberlain Another in Ambidextrous Class

Tony Mullane and Larry Corcoran will have to move over in the ambidextrous department to make room for Elton “Icebox” Chamberlain among those who pitched with both hands in a major league game. While both Mullane and Corcoran lost their games, Chamberlain was victorious in his effort for Louisville in. the American Association. Elton pitched with both hands on May 9, 1888, in a game against Kansas City at Louisville. Enjoying a big lead, Chamberlain pitched the last two innings of the contest with his left hand, allowing four hits and no runs in an 18-6 rout. The following excerpt is from the Louisville Courier-Journal of May 10, 1888: “Chamberlain had the big Kansas City batters at his mercy, and at the end of the fifth inning, when the score stood eight to nothing, but two scratch hits had been made. Afterwards he eased up, and in the last two innings pitched left-handed, when four of the eight hits were made.”

Tim Flood Jailed in Toronto in 1907

Baseball fans throughout the country may have gotten a few laughs out of the incident in Toronto on August 4, 1983, when Yankee slugger Dave Winfield accidentally killed a seagull while warming up in the outfield before the game. Winfield was taken to a police station after the game and had to post a $500 bond before he was released. You can rest assured, however, that Winfield breathed a sigh of relief when the charges were dropped the next day.

Back in 1907, Tim Flood, a former major league player, who was captain and second baseman for the Toronto club of the Eastern League, was sent to jail for charging into an umpire in the sixth inning of a game in Toronto on June 25. Flood had become so incensed at umpire John Conway after being thrown out of the game that he jumped at the umpire feet first, striking him in the chest. The umpire’s padded chest protector prevented any injury. Flood went to the dressing room and while changing clothes was arrested by a police captain and an acting detective and taken to a police station. He was released on bail but the next day was sentenced to 1 5 days in jail at hard labor. Officials for the ball club tried desperately to have the jail term changed to a fine but the magistrate would not alter his decision. The following day a petition was filed with the Ministry of Justice in Ottawa for the pardon of Flood. The ballplayer spent nine days in jail before the Department of Justice ordered his release on July 4. He had lost about 15 pounds during his short stay in jail. Since Flood had been suspended indefinitely and barred from further play in the Eastern League, he was sold by Toronto to Columbus of the American Association.

Ruth’s Laminated Bat Banned in 1923

With all the furor caused by George Brett’s celebrated pine tar bat, it is interesting to note that even the great Babe Ruth had a bat declared illegal in 1923. In mid-season, Ruth used a laminated bat which was manufactured for him by the old Detroit slugger Sam Crawford. The bat consisted of four pieces of seasoned wood carefully glued together. The Yankee slugger used the bat for several weeks and had good success with it before it was declared illegal. When the Babe got the message from American League President Ban Johnson banning the bat, he was puzzled at the action. He did not know the bat was illegal nor was he aware of any complaint being made over its use. Ruth probably was caught in the backlash of a protest made by Washington over a bat used by Ken Williams, the Browns’ home run slugger. Williams’ bat had been bored out and a wooden plug inserted in the base end. In his decree, Johnson stated that any bat used in the American League had to be made of one solid piece of wood, but that rule was not retroactive and that no protests of games in which “trick” bats were used would be considered. Johnson further stated that any player using a bat that did not conform to the new regulations would be automatically subject to five days’ suspension without pay.

Ruth may have been unhappy over the loss of his pet bat, but the loss of it had no effect on his season’s performance. He finished at .393, his highest batting average ever. Only Harry Heilmann, who batted .403 for Detroit, outhit him. Ruth led the league in home runs, runs scored, total bases, RBIs, and received a major league record 1 70 bases on balls, which attested to the fact that American League pitchers considered any bat used by the Bambino that year a lethal weapon.

Unusual Five-Inning No-Hitter in 1884

In 1884 St. Paul was a late-season entry in the Union Association. The club played just nine games, all on the road, won two, lost six, and one was a tie. After losing its first four games, St. Paul won its first major league game at St. Louis on Sunday, October 5, by the score of 1-0 in a five-inning game, curtailed by rain. The winning team failed to make a hit and the starting pitcher on the losing side struck out all six batters he faced. Charley Sweeney, who earlier in the season had fanned 19 Boston batters while pitching for Providence, started out as if he wanted to beat that record. In the first two innings he fanned six batters in a row, with only one batter getting as much as a foul off him. The St. Louis manager decided to save Sweeney for the tougher Cincinnati series coming up and moved him to left field, bringing in Henry Boyle to pitch the rest of the game. Boyle did not allow a hit in the three innings he worked but St. Paul scored an unearned run in the fourth inning on two errors and a stolen base. Jim Brown pitched for St. Paul and gave up but one hit – a single by Sweeney.

It was indeed ironic that Sweeney moved to the outfield without a protest. It was just such a move earlier in the season when he was with Providence that led to a major crisis for that club. On July 22, Sweeney was pitching against Philadelphia and enjoyed a 6 to 2 lead after seven innings. Manager Frank Bancroft thought it would be a good idea to rest Sweeney and asked him to change places with young Cyclone Miller, who was playing right field. When Providence took the field for the eighth inning, Sweeney was not in his position. He had gone to the clubhouse and when Bancroft went after him and ordered him to the field, Sweeney cursed him out and started to change clothes. Bancroft called in one of the directors of the club who also ordered Sweeney to play, but he still refused. When threatened with suspension, Sweeney just laughed and said he could make more money away from Providence. Providence had to play the rest of the game with eight men and the Phillies scored eight unearned runs in the ninth to win 10-6. After the game, Sweeney was expelled from the club and eventually signed with the St. Louis Unions.

First Regular NL Umpires Had No Protection

In pre-game ceremonies at all National League parks on June 26, 1983, the Senior Circuit marked the 100th anniversary of the appointment of its first regular umpiring staff. In contrast to the prestige, job security and benefits enjoyed by major league umpires today, National League umpires of 1883 had no protection whatsoever. All it took to remove an umpire that year was for four of the eight clubs to register an objection. As a matter of fact, the authority to remove an umpire was covered right in the official playing rules. Section Six, Rule 64 of the 1883 National League Playing Rules read as follows: “A League umpire shall be removed who shall be objected to in writing by four League clubs after the commencement of the championship season, and, in the event of the resignation, removal or expulsion of any League umpire, the secretary shall have the power to appoint a suitable person to fill the vacancy thus created.”

The four regular NL umpires were Stewart M. Decker, Bradford, Pa.; Frank H. Lane, Norwalk, Ohio; William E. Furlong, Kansas City, Mo.; and Albert F. Odlin, Lancaster, N.H. Odlin was a law student who had attended both Dartmouth and Amherst colleges. He had never umpired a professional game but had considerable experience in college circles and came highly recommended. His career as an umpire, however, was short-lived. He lasted about three weeks after getting into hot water with some of his decisions during a series in Detroit. William G. Thompson, president of the Detroit club, initiated the action against Odlin and got three other clubs Buffalo, Philadelphia and Boston – to go along with him. Odlin’s dismissal was carried out by the following terse telegram sent to him in Chicago by the secretary of the National League. “Washington, D.C., May 23 – Four clubs protest. You are removed. See Rule 64. N.E. Young.” Young then filled the vacancy of the staff by appointing George W. Burnham of Milan, Mich.

Phillies and Baltimore Tailenders 100 Years Ago

Perhaps it was poetic justice for the Philadelphia Phillies and the Baltimore Orioles to meet in the 1983 World Series. One hundred years ago – in 1883 – the Phillies in their first season in the majors finished a dismal last in the National League with only 17 victories and 81 defeats. At the same time, Baltimore finished last in the American Association with a mark of 28-68. It was Baltimore’s second year in the majors, both ending in the cellar. The Orioles and Phillies were in the NL together from 1892 through 1898. When Ned Hanlon’s Old Orioles were in their glory – three pennants and two second-place finishes from 1894 through 1898 – the Phillies were one of their favorite patsies. During that five-year period the Orioles won 46 games from the Phils against only 13 defeats for a .780 average. Moreover, Baltimore went two full years without losing a game to Philadelphia. From August 7, 1 895, through August 2, 1897, the Orioles defeated the Phils 22 straight times with one tie early in the streak. The long winless drought for the Phillies finally ended on August 3, 1897, when Al Orth beat Bill Hoffer 5-2.

Joe Altobelli Joins Select Group of Managers

    By directing the Orioles to the 1983 world’s championship over the Phillies, Joe Altobelli joined a select group of managers who won the World Series and also the Junior World Series, the series that was contested between the International League and American Association for many years. Altobelli was pilot of the I.L. Rochester Red Wings who defeated the A.A. Denver Bears in 1971. Others who managed World Series and Junior World Series Winners and the minor league clubs they won with were: Joe McCarthy, Louisville A.A. in 1921; Casey Stengel, Toledo A.A. in 1927; Billy Southworth, Rochester I.L. in 1930 and 1931; Eddie Dyer, Columbus A.A. in 1942; Walter Aiston, Montreal I.L. in 1953; and Ralph Houk, Denver A.A. in 1957. If you include the series of 1904 and 1906 in which Buffalo of the Eastern League, predecessor of the International League, defeated St. Paul A.A. two games to one in 1904 and Columbus A.A. three games to two In 1906, George Stallings, the manager of the Miracle Braves of 1914, can be added to the list.

Rookie Homered Off Matty and McGinnity Same Day

Emil Batch joined the Brooklyn club in September 1904 and hit two home runs in 94 times at bat. Both homers came in his first week and, in fact, in one day – September 16 – in a double-header against the Giants at the Polo Grounds. Although the Giants won both games, 2-1 and 5-3, Batch hit a fourbagger in each game and each time off a premier National League pitcher – off Christy Mathewson in the first contest and off Joe McGinnity in the second. Matty was 33-12 and McGinnity 35-8 in 1904. Batch’s home run off Mathewson was a real rarity and it would take close to ten years before another Dodger would hit a home run off him. On April 14, 1914, in a game at Brooklyn, the Giants and Dodgers met in the first game that John McGraw and his former teammate and first lieutenant, Wilbert Robinson, would oppose each other as major league pilots. The Dodgers broke open a close game with five runs in the seventh inning as they won 9-6, beating Mathewson in his season debut. The big blow in that inning was a three-run home run by Zack Wheat, the first roundtripper by a Brooklyn batter off Matty since the Batch homer in 1904.

Alas, to no avail. Keepers of the records from the first held that Marquard had no case. It was true, they admitted, that under present scoring rules he had a point. But, they hurried to add, Marquard won his games in 1912, not today, and under the rules of 1912, he won only 19 straight.

Marquard may have gained some satisfaction when early researchers discovered he really had won 20 straight by reason of a victory in his last 1911 game, but this feeling suffered somewhat when another New York Giant southpaw came along in the next generation who put together an undisputed chain of 24 wins over a two-year period. That would be Carl Hubbell, and there is no gainsaying he screw-balled his way to a record that, as is said about too many records, may well last forever.

But to start at the usual place – the beginning – 1936 was an unusual year as far as the Giants were concerned. World’s champions in 1933 and late season goof-ups in the next two seasons, they began 1936 as though winning was as bad as stealing.

Something was wrong with the club, and there were some unkind enough to say that everything was wrong with it. Their pitching staff was a shambles. Slick Castleman couldn’t get started. Schumacher’s arm was ailing. Veteran Fred Fitzsimmons just wasn’t ready. Frank Gabler was a risk. Hubbell was overworked, although he had managed ten wins against six losses. The promising Al Smith had his bad days.

But it was more than pitching. The aging Travis Jackson had a bad knee and was covering fully as much ground as his shadow. Dick Bartell at shortstop was making wild heaves past first base. Burgess Whitehead wasn’t hitting. Sam Leslie was lumbering around first base on damaged legs. Mel Ott and Joe Moore, the old reliables, had both fallen into hitting slumps. Manager Bill Terry had to drag his battered frame out on the diamond. Their defense, to sum it up, was as full of holes as a carload of Swiss cheese.

It was a time of disaster. Strategy was a dirty word. If Terry made a move it was sure to be a big help to the ball club — the ball club the Giants happened to be playing. If a Giant made a hit, it was with two out and nobody but the coaches near the bases. If a Giant made an error it was just in time to hand the other gents the ball game. Terry was on the grill and his critics were building a gorgeous bonfire under him.

Giant fans surely were not optimistic over their team’s chances when they opened their July 17 newspapers to find the club bogged down in fifth place with an uninspiring 42-41 record, 10-1/2 games back of league-leading Chicago. The low point in the season’s fortune seemed to come in Hubbell’s last defeat of the season. Playing in Chicago on July 13th (not a Friday, but a Monday) when Carl held the home team to two measly singles yet lost a 1-0 game when Whitehead made a throw that was both ill-advised and far over Bartell’s head.

The New Yorkers moved on to Pittsburgh and, suddenly, everything was changed. Bill Swift started for Pittsburgh and headed for the showers within minutes as Moore, Ott and Hank Leiber unloaded three-baggers in the first inning. Brought on in relief, Big Jim Weaver was tagged for a fourth triple in the same inning by utility infielder Eddie Mayo. Hubbell, poised as a poplar, coasted to a 6-0 win. The fairy godmother had waved her wand and the mice turned into beautiful stallions.

It would be folly to claim that Carl Hubbell, alone, won the oennant that year for New York, but there can be no gainsaying he was a key factor; nay, more, he was THE key factor. As he swung into his 16-game winning streak the rest of the pitching staff braced. Game after game was won on strong pitching and timely hitting.

The defense stiffened. When a fielder made a circus catch it was just in time to save the ball game. Where Mancuso had been the only man who could make a hit when it counted, Ott, Moore and Ripple began slapping out the hits that brought in the runs at the right time. Bartell settled down to accurate pegging and hammered out a couple of homers when they did the most good. If a fielder made an error, he picked the proper time and made it when it didn’t count in the scoring.

Every managerial move Terry made turned out to be perfect strategy. He was once again the mastermind of 1933. Take the day the Giants bounded over the Cardinals to the top. Terry put Leiber in and he delivered the blow that won the game. Bill took Leiber out and inserted George Davis for his fielding. George saved the game with his brilliant catches. If Terry had tried that six weeks before, Leiber would have gone 0 for 4 and Davis would have fallen on his face chasing the first foul hit near him.

Within a week’s time, the Giants slipped into third place and from then on it was a three-way contest among New York, St. Louis and Chicago. By August 2, by which time Hubbell had won five straight, the Terrymen had won 15 of their last 19, a pace that had them within five lengths of the leaders. During the second week of August the Polo Grounders began a terrific gait that kept the pressure on Cards and Cubs alike and didn’t end until August 29, when the Gothamites lost to the Pirates after winning 15 in a row. At that point they had captured 35 out of their last 40 games.

New York Timesman John Kieran rhapsodized thusly in his “Sports of The Times” column:

Out of the fog that blurred their game,
  Up from the dark that wrapped them `round,
Through bitter weeks to happy days –
  Behold the Giants, pennant-bound!
In the fell clutch of batting slumps,
  Bludgeoned by Pirates, Cards and Cubs,
The Giants looked the part of chumps
  And played the role of diving dubs.
Clear from the fifth-place vale of tears,
  Gaining by inning and by inch,
Turning the rasping jeers to cheers,
  They came back slugging in the pinch.

It was the month of August that put the Giants over. In third place at the start of that month, they swept into a lead of 3½ games by the 31st and went on to win the 1936 NL Pennant. Carl won 26 games, 16 of which were consecutive victories. He lost one of two decisions against the Yankees in the World Series, but the next season he picked right up again and won his first eight games.

Hubbell’s figures, of course, were outstanding. Over the course of his two-year win streak he hurled the equivalent of 23 nine-inning games. He allowed, roughly 7 hits and 2 runs per game and fanned 4.5 and walked 1.5 men per nine innings. While he pitched only two shutouts he held the opposition to a single run in nine other games. That he usually finished what he started is indicated by his complete game record. Of the 22 games he started during this long stretch, he completed 19 and required relief only three times.

Terry didn’t hesitate to use his ace in a relief role as the occasion required. When Coffman found himself in a jam on July 19, 1936, Carl came on to pitch a couple of excellent relief innings and “saved” the game, as it would be called today. And he was used in the same capacity several other times.

His best rescue job came in his 24th win on May 27, 1937. Again called on to replace Coffman, with the score tied in the eighth frame, he retired three Cincinnati batsmen on infield grounders, and in the last session got three more on pop flies. No one reached first.

More than once Carl, not especially noted for his batting, helped his cause with timely hits. On July 30, 1936, he drove in the tying run, then checked the Cubs for the rest of the game. Again on August 8, his “blazing single” after two were out in the seventh led to the winning score.

Probably his most satisfying blow came in a late season 1936 game against St. Louis. The score was tied in the ninth inning, as you must have surmised, and there were men on second and third, with one man out and Hubbell due to hit. The book, of course, cried for a pinch hitter, but Terry had the bit in his teeth by this time, and he waved Carl to the plate.

Hubbell missed two mighty swings, then lifted a puny fly to Pepper Martin in short right-center, a pop that fell only a few yards back of the clay infield. Whitehead, rushing in from third after the catch, found himself blocked off the plate by burly Spud Davis and slithered past the scoring station without touching it. But Burgess twisted and squirmed and somehow managed to reach past Davis’ blocking legs and touch the plate an instant before the catcher grabbed the ball.

Any long skein of victories is bound to be marked by controversies, and this one was no exception. There was, for instance, the famous “balk” incident of May 19, 1937, when Carl was seeking win No. 22. The Giants and the Cards were again fighting it out, this time for second place, when they met in St. Louis.

Trailing by one run in the top of the sixth, Whitehead led off with a single and Hubbell sacrificed him to second. While pitching to Dick Bartell, Dizzy Dean half turned toward second base and then, without halting his motion, fired to the plate. Bartell lifted an easy fly to left for what should have been the second out, but Umpire Barr ruled out the play and called a balk on Dean for failing to pause a full second in his delivery.

Whitehead was motioned to third and, after the ensuing argument had subsided, Bartell, batting again, sent a line drive to right-center which Martin dropped. There followed a couple of base hits and the resultant three runs sewed up the game.

Dizzy was so upset at the turn of events he took to throwing “knockdown” pitches at any one who dared show up at the plate with a bat in his hands. The Giants soon tired of this foolish game and presently Jimmy Ripple challenged Jerome, the challenge was accepted, and both teams tangled in one of those free-for-ails that enliven every season.

National League President Ford Frick slapped $50 fines on both Dean and Ripple and threw in a sharp reprimand for the pitcher, pointing out that every one had been warned in advance that the balk rule would be strictly enforced and, further, that Dean had already committed two balks in the game in question, each time being warned by the umpire.

Unabashed, Dizzy, loose-tongued as Memnon, counter-attacked by offering $1,000 to anybody who would print what he thought of his league president. Further, he shouted, he would not — positively not – appear in the All-Star game that year. If Dean had lived up to that threat he would have done himself a tremendous favor. It was in that All-Star game that Earl Averill stroked a line drive that  broke Dizzy’s toe. As every one knows, Dean, rushing back into action before the toe mended, altered his pitching style to favor the injury and irreparably damaged his arm.

Brooklyn, the team that always gave Carl the most trouble, finally brought him down. On May 31st, before the second largest crowd in Polo Grounds history up to that time, the Dodgers combed him for 7 hits in the opening game of a doubleheader. They also drew 3 walks in the 3.1 innings he was on the mound. When he trudged down the center of the field in the middle of the fourth frame he was trailing 5-2. The final count was 10-3.

Between games of that twinbill there was a little ceremony.  Hubbell was awarded the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award for the 1936 season. The fat man who handed that award to him was none other than Babe Ruth.

That scene was enough to curdle “The Babe Ruth Story,” a  cheaply made production of the great slugger’s life.

And Ty Cobb doesn’t fare any better. In 1916, Cobb was coaxed out to Hollywood to star in a movie titled “Somewhere in Georgia.” Ward Morehouse, a noted Broadway critic, remembered it as “absolutely the worst movie I ever saw.”

The plot was so thin, Morehouse said, that all he could remember about it was that Cobb was attacked by goons, tied up, and made his escape just in time to race to the ball park on a mule and save the old ball game for the home team. “It was simply awful,” Morehouse said.

Most baseball films are also bombs at the box-office. The possible exceptions were “Damn   Yankees,” which was more of a musical, and the delightful “Bad News Bears,” which inspired several weak sequels and a brutal short-lived TV series.

“Bang The Drum Slowly” was acclaimed by Time magazine as the “best sports movie ever made.” But it was no runaway success financially. “It was not just a baseball movie,” said Maurice Rosenfield, the film’s producer. “It’s about people who happen to be baseball players. They’re young and vigorous, and one of them is dying. There were no big names in the film and Paramount didn’t do much in promotions,” added Rosenfield. “It did well in New York and other urban areas, but little elsewhere.”

Rosenfield first thought of doing the film while he was recuperating from a heart attack. He reread Mark Harris’ novel and wondered why it had never been made into a movie. “It wasn’t easy tracking down novelist Harris,” revealed Rosenfield, who heads Chicago radio station WAIT. “I finally ran him down at the California Institute of Art in Valencia, Calif., where he is a teacher of English Literature.

“We inquired about movie options on the book and were somewhat surprised to find out that it had been under option for 16 years. We finally acquired the rights and set about for a director and a cast. My wife, Lois, surprised everyone with her ability to cast actors. She came up with the idea of using the little-known Robert DeNiro to play Bruce Pearson, the young catcher dying of Hodgkins Disease. He was kicking around New York, jobless.

“For the director, I remembered a TV program, a filler between football games. It was about some middle-aged men playing football in Central Park. I though it had the right kind of feel. I contacted John Hancock, who put our film together from there.

“We shot the film in Clearwater, Fla., and used Shea and Yankee Stadiums. After the music was added and the film was edited, `Bang The Drum Slowly’ was released in the fall of 1973,” said Rosenfield. The movie had a budget of around $950,000 and barely made a profit.

If “Bang The Drum Slowly” was the best baseball flick, undoubtedly the worst was “The Kid From Cleveland,” starring Bill Veeck, Bob Feller, Lou Boudreau and the rest of the 1948 Indians’ championship team. The plot concerns a juvenile delinquent who is befriended by the players. He does a few dastardly deeds and when the Indians go to bat for him, the youth (Russ Tamblyn) mends his ways.

“I would like to buy every print of the film and burn it,” said Boudreau. “All we received was a box lunch. Boy, that picture was a dog.” Veeck chuckled at the very mention of the film. “I have one unwritten law at home that I adhere to,” revealed Veeck. “I never allow my kids to mention or see that abortion.”

Of the film biographies, “Pride of the Yankees,” starring Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig, was the standout. Former Chicago Cubs coach Peanuts Lowrey, who grew up in Culver City, Calif., the home of MGM, played third base in the film and recalls some of the problems.

“Coop wasn’t much of an athlete,” said Lowrey. “He was a natural  right-handed batter and  encountered difficulty batting lefty. But he practiced by chopping wood.”

Director Sam Wood selected Cooper for the role even though he was lean and lanky, while Gehrig was stocky. Although he was awkward at bat and afield, his final scene when he considers himself “the luckiest man on the face of this earth,” was especially moving.

Babe Ruth played himself and was a natural ham. There were other old Yankee stars in the film, including Bill Dickey, Bob Meusel and Mark Koenig. And when Gehrig is taken out of the lineup after 2,130 consecutive games, manager Joe McCarthy scans the dugout and says, “Dahlgren, take first.” Up pops Rip Russell, a one-time Cub.

Wood used the same schtick in “The Stratton Story.” Instead of an incurable disease, Jimmy Stewart, as White Sox pitcher Monty Stratton, loses a leg in a hunting accident.

Lowrey again had a Peanut-sized role. “Stewart, like Cooper, was awkward,” said Lowrey, “and all but the close-up scenes were by ballplayers.” Besides Lowrey, there were such players as Johnny  Lindell, Gene Bearden and Jess Dobernic. “In one scene they needed someone to catch the ball and tumble over,” said Lowrey. “They hired an ex-football player and he broke a leg on his first try. I volunteered and did a perfect tumble. But when the movie was released, that scene tumbled on the cutting room floor.”

The picture is climaxed by a Stratton pitching comeback in an exhibition with the Houston Buffs. In the dramatic ninth inning outfielder Clarence Maddern climbs the wall to haul down a line drive and helps save the game for Stratton. Clarence never did that when he was a Cub.

Lowrey had a bigger role in “The Winning Team,” with Ronald Reagan as Grover Cleveland Alexander. Old Alex bent elbows with the best, but Ronnie took a more sober approach to the role by smooching with Doris Day.

“I was the player that plunked Reagan with a ball between the eyes as he was heading for second,” said Lowrey. “We used a cotton ball. And when I hit him I shouted, `Look out.’ But the director said, `Cut.’ He figured I would get an extra $350 for having a speaking role. So we reshot the scene, and after I hit Reagan, I had to look sad and keep my face down as Reagan was sprawled on the ground. Bob Lemon, incidentally, did most of the pitching for Reagan, and I filled in for Frank Lovejoy, who was Rogers Hornsby.

“And when Alex hit the skids and joined the House of David team, I donned a beard along with Hank Sauer, George Metkovich and Al Zarilla for that role. We once broke for lunch and had to eat with our full beards. We then went back on the field with soup-stained beards,” added Lowrey.

Baseball purists will wince in the early scenes when an extra steps to the plate as Eddie Collins and bats right-handed. And in the final scene Alexander strikes out the last batter to win the final game of the 1926 World Series. They know that Babe Ruth was out trying to steal second, with Hornsby putting the tag on him.

Among the musicals, “Damn Yankees” was darn good. Tab Hunter played the incurable Senator fan who sells his soul to the devil and becomes slugger Joe Hardy. Tab tags all the homers, but devilish Ray Walston and fetching Gwen Verdon bag all the gags.

Another was “Take Me Out To The Ballgame,” which was a takeoff on Tinker-to-Eyers-to-Chance.  Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munschin play the double play trio. But the film took a dip during Esther Williams’ swim scenes.

Comedy and whimsy had their turn at bat in “Rhubarb,” a tail-oops, tale about a cat that inherits a ballclub, and “Angels In The Outfield,” about an orphan who sees angels on the ball field.

But the most delightful of the gimmick films was “It Happens Every Spring,” starring Ray Milland as a college professor who invents a formula that is allergic to wood.

The prof turns pitcher and joins the Cardinals. He rubs the formula into his glove and wins 30 games. Stock footage of the sloppily played 1945 Cubs-Tigers World Series serves as a backdrop.

Following is a list of baseball movies:

Year    Title and Stars

1899   Casey At The Bat                                —

1913   The Shortstop’s Double                        Home Run Baker

1916   Somewhere In Georgia                        Ty Cobb

1920   Headin’ Home                                      Babe Ruth

1922   The Babe Comes Home                       Babe Ruth

1927   Casey At The Bat                                Wallace Beery

1927   College                                                 Buster Keaton

1928   Speedy                                                 Harold Lloyd (Babe Ruth in cameo)

1932   Death On The Diamond                          Robert Young

1933   Elmer The Great                                  Joe E. Brown

1935   Alibi Ike                                               Joe E.Brown

1941   Pride of the Yankees                            Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig

1942   It Happened In Flatbush                       Lloyd Nolan

1947   The Babe Ruth Story                            William Bendix as Babe Ruth

1948   The Stratton Story                               James Stewart as Monty Stratton

1949   The Kid From Cleveland                        Cleveland Indians

1949   Take Me Out To The Ballgame                   Frank Sinatra-Gene Kelly

1949   It Happens Every Spring                     Ray Milland

1950   Kill The Umpire                                  William Bendix

1950   Jackie Robinson Story                                     Jackie Robinson

1951   Angels In The Outfield                        Paul Douglas

1952   Rhubarb                                               A cat

1952   Pride of St. Louis                                 Dan Dailey as Dizzy Dean

1952   The Winning Team                              Ronald Reagan as Alexander

1953   Kid From Left Field                            Dan Dailey

1957   Damn Yankees                                    Tab Hunter

1957   Fear Strikes Out                                   Anthony Perkins as Jim Piersall

1961   Safe At Home                                      Mantle & Mans

1973   Bang The Drum Slowly                          Robert DeNiro

1975   Bad News Bears                                  Walter Matthau

1976   Bingo Long’s Traveling All-Stars              Richard Pryor