Archive for February, 2011

 

An initiative began in 1866 to form the Maryland Baseball Convention to help spread the organized sport throughout the state. George Gratton, a Baltimore entrepreneur, aided the formation of the MBC partily as an effort to increase the marketing base of his baseball goods business.

Easton in Talbot County, Maryland was one of many smaller towns in the state that fielded their first formal baseball clubs in 1866-1867.

ORGANIZING

Easton Gazette 9/29/1866

Easton Gazette 3/16/1867

PLAYING

The first formal baseball club in Easton, known as the Fair Play Club, was organized in late March 1867 and played their first game on Wednesday April 3, an intersquad contest.

Easton Gazette 4/6/1867

Soon though, the Fair Plays were face nines of surrounding towns, such as Trappe (Choptank Club) and St. Michael’s (Claiborne Club).

Easton Gazette 9/7/1867

A somewhat amusing letter to the editor by Brick Pomeroy, a Fair Play member, near the end of the hard-fought first season in the new sport.

Easton Gazette 8/24/1867

 

Continuing and earlier post and my work on the Bethlehem Steel League at the SABR Biography Project.

Babe Ruth arrived in Lebanon, PA on September 25, 1918 after the World Series:

Philadelphia Inquirer 9/26/1918

He played a gaome for Lebanon on the 29th versus an all-star squad that includes some familiar names:

Harrisburg Patriot 9/30/1918

Here’s a nice picture of Ruth with the Lebanon squad – generously added to the web by Bruce (BSmile) at Baseball-fever.com.

 

 

Augusta v Columbia, Tuesday, April 26, 1904

Augusta Cronicle 4/27/1904

 

Baltimore American 3/18/1906

Baltimore American 5/15/1906

Baltimore Sun 12/24/1906

 

The Early Baseball Career of Jim Thorpe 

Jim Thorpe, the product of an Irish father and Sac and Fox mother, was born in Indian Territory by the town of Prague, Oklahoma on May 22, 1887, a year and six days before the normally reported date. As a teenager, he entered the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg.

Generally acknowledged as one of the, if not the, greatest all-around athlete of the 20^th century, Thorpe began making a name for himself in 1902 at age 15, as did the Carlisle sports program under legendary coach Pop Warner. By the end of the decade, Thorpe was nationally known for his skills on the gridiron and in track and field. In 1912, Carlisle won the national collegiate championship in football.

Baseball, though present and respected, was a secondary sport under Coach Warner. Thorpe, growing to be 6’1” and 185 pounds, pitched for the college club and played most of the other positions as well.

1909

Thorpe played for the Carlisle nine into early June in 1909. On Wednesday the 16^th in Raleigh, he made his professional debut with the Rocky Mount Railroaders of the Class-D Eastern (North) Carolina League. The ECL was a six-team league with a 90-game schedule which began in mid May. That season, Rocky Mount fielded its first pro club in more than a decade.

Playing every position but catcher and second base for Rocky Mount, Thorpe was paid between $15 and $20 a week. Thorpe, age 22, and fellow Carlisle men Jesse Youngdeer and Joe Libby joined Rocky Mount at the same time. Libby was the baseball captain for Carlisle.

Philadelphia Inquirer 2/27/1909

According to the Raleigh News and Observer, Thorpe proved “very effective” on the mound in his debut, pitching the entire game and winning 4-2 and ceding only 5 hits.

Charlotte Observer 6/17/1909

Thorpe’s main catcher was Joe Walsh, a product of Villanova University, who would play five games with the New York Highlanders from 1910-11.

On the 19^th, Thorpe tossed a 1-0 shutout at home over Wilson, allowing four hits. The Charlotte Observer exclaimed:

Thorpe, the Carlisle Indian pitcher, for the second time this week proved his effectiveness and, while he gave up four hits, he was not to be touched when a hit was needed for run-getting.

Thorpe, a popular player, was called Chief or Big Chief in Rocky Mount, a common nickname for Native Americans during the era.

On July 2, he tossed a 2-hit, 6-3 victory over Goldsboro. He lost 1-0 to Wilson at home on the 24^th, conceding four hits. On August 7, Thorpe pitched both games of a doubleheader in Rocky Mount versus Goldsboro. He lost the first game 4-2 but ran away with an 8-0 victory in the second, a five-inning contest. According to the Charlotte Observer:

Thorpe pitched both game for locals and would have won both with proper support. The first game was lost on errors and passed balls…In the second game Thorpe held the Giants at his mercy. He allowed them only three clean hits.

At the end of the month, August 25, a drunken Thorpe and teammate Marvin O’Gara ran afoul of the law.

Charlotte Observer 8/28/1909

Rocky Mount was a poor team in 1909, the worst in the league. They finished with a 27-61 record, over 22 games out of first and 15 games behind the fifth-place Goldsboro. Likewise, Thorpe had a losing record on the mound. In 44 games, he posted a 9-10 record with a .254 batting average.

1910

Reserved the previous November, Thorpe returned to Rocky Mount in 1910, arriving on May 1. In 29 games for the club re posted a 10-10 record. His record belies his true effectiveness; he regularly kept Rocky Mount in a position to win their contests. Thorpe was charged with the loss in more than a few close games (all complete games):

• May 28, 1-0
• June 1, 2-1
• June 6, 2-0
• June 8, 2-1
• June 29, 3-2
• July 23, 4-3

He later claimed that he injured his arm during the preseason.

On May 28, Thorpe loss to the league champion Fayetteville Highlanders 1-0, ceding only 3 hits and striking out 5. The Greensboro Daily Times commented:

[Bill} Luyster was pitted against Thorpe, and both got off nicely. The Indian was wild at times, but he was equally as invincible in yielding hits.

On June 11, Thorpe won 3-2 over Raleigh and by the same score on the 25^th over Wilson, fanning six in the latter contest.

Greensboro Daily News 6/12/1910

Greensboro Daily News 6/26/1910

On July 20, Thorpe shut out Wilmington 2-0. Three days later, he tossed a doubleheader against the same club, losing the first contest 4-3 and winning the second 1-0.

On August 13, Thorpe was traded along with outfielder Schuman to Fayetteville for pitcher Pete Boyle and outfielder Oswald Peartree. Thorpe wasn’t needed on the mound in Fayetteville; he manned first base. In 16 games he hit a modest .250.

Fayetteville included 20-year-old Erskine Mayer who would pitch for two major league pennant winners later in the decade: 1915 Phillies; 1919 White Sox. Mayer went 15-2 for Fayetteville in 1910.

Thorpe reportedly had an iffy relationship with Fayetteville manager Charlie Clancy; the animosity would surface rather dramatically a couple of years later.

Fayetteville won the tight-knit ECL pennant with a 47-37 record, including a 4-game-to-1 victory over Rocky Mount in the playoffs.

1911

Thorpe returned home to Oklahoma in 1911. In the spring he signed with the semi-pro Anadarko Champions. He was released in July for financial reasons.

AFTERMATH

Thorpe was named to the All-American football team in 1911 and 1912. Thorpe and Carlisle were the talk of the nation in 1912. The college won the national championship. (In a game versus Army, future U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower was injured trying to tackle Thorpe.)

Thorpe dazzled the world at the Stockholm, Sweden Olympics that summer. Spurring his legend, he captured the pentathlon and decathlon. In September he also captured the All-Around Championship sponsored by the Amateur Athletic Union.

Rumors that Thorpe had previously played professional baseball had been ongoing. The Worcester Telegram broke the story on January 22, 1913. By this time, Thorpe had returned to Carlisle.

On a tip by Jesse Burkett, a local, a reporter was led to Thorpe’s former manager Charlie Clancy. He ran at the mouth to the reporter confirming the professional baseball story and for extra measure throwing in quite a few negative remarks about Thorpe: he had a “yellow streak;” couldn’t hit a curve ball; faked injuries; too much a drunk to make a good player.

Clancy mixed up the old team that Thorpe played with – thus allowing Thorpe a little room to say that he didn’t play for that team an initially deny the story. Clancy later retracted his statements to another reporter and even wrote Pop Warner denying the whole thing but it was too late. The reporter had already found a picture of Thorpe from in 1910 in a Reach Guide.

Philadelphia Inquirer 1/23/1913

Note the implication at the end of the article. Clancy, perhaps spitefully, relayed some old stories about Thorpe’s drinking escapades to the reporter. (How a sot could have racked up the accomplishments of 1912, Clancy failed to comprehend.) Two days later, the matter was formally addressed by the AAU.

Boston Journal 1/25/1913

Thorpe could have played in the ECL under an assumed name like many others did during the era. But he didn’t and never really hid his experience. His stats were readily found in the Spalding Guide. When called before the AAU, Thorpe owned up to his professional past.

New York Times 1/28/1913

He was consequently, striped of his medals. With the Carlisle man now a confirmed professional, major league baseball clubs immediately made their pitch for Thorpe’s services. Serious bidders included the New York Giants, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Browns. (Various minor league teams made claim to the Olympian – but none held up.) Within a week , John McGraw of the Giants inked the celebrity to a undisclosed contract. (Reports put it at a three-year deal at $6000 per, plus a $500 signing bonus and $2500 for Warner.)

SOURCE LIST

Ancestry.com

Baltimore Sun, 1908, 1911

Baseball-reference.com

Boston Journal, 25 January 1913

Kate Buford. Native American Son: The Life and Sporting Legend of Jim Thorpe. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010.

Charlotte Observer, North Carolina, 1909-1910

Cleveland Plain Dealer, 29 March 1953

Greensboro Daily News, North Carolina, 1910

Harrisburg Patriot, Pennsylvania, 27 February 1909

New York Times, 1909, 1913

Philadelphia Inquirer, 1909, 1913

Seattle Times, 26 February 1909

Leverett T. Smith, “Minor League Baseball in Rocky Mount”

Sporting Life, 1909

Springfield Republican, Massachusetts, 25 January 1913

The Sporting News, 1913

Washington Post, 1911, 1913

 

Johnny Mostil, A Troubling Time 

Johnny Mostil, born in 1896, grew up in Chicago. He landed a job briefly with the hometown Chicago White Sox in 1918. After that he was farmed to Milwaukee of the American Association for two seasons. After his third spring with the White Sox, Mostil finally stuck in 1921. 

Sometime around 1920 Mostil moved to Whiting, Indiana (probably around the death of his father in 1921 – his WWI registration card in 1917 notes his home in Chicago and his passport application in 1924 notes his home in Whiting). Whiting sits about twenty miles from Chicago. There, he met a young woman named Margaret E. Carroll, born in 1902 to Hammond, Indiana residents Dennis R. and Sarah M. Carroll. The couple started dating in 1924 became close enough to begin discussions of marriage in 1926. 

Entering spring training in 1927, Mostil was agitated and in pain. He was suffering from an ailment in or around his mouth. It was variously described as neuritis, an inflammation of nerves which cause pain and atrophy of muscles, or generically as a dental problem. Whichever was the case, he was uncomfortable and his mood was off. (It should be noted that in some sportswriters’ accounts it is evident that Mostil was a habitual complainer about health issues. The flippant nature in which reporters noted his ailments suggest that they deemed him a hypochondriac.) 

Mostil arrived in Shreveport, Louisiana in early March 1927 for spring training. One of his first stops was to the trainer for help with his facial issue. On March 7 he took part in his first workout of the year. To kick things off, he was nailed in the chest with a ball during batting practice. (Reporters snickered that Mostil would now have more ammo for his health complaints.) That night, he had Ray Schalk contact the hotel manager to call for a doctor. After the exam, the doctor commented to Schalk that Mostil was “…in bad shape.” X-rays were also taken of his mouth. 

The next day rain cancelled practice. Mostil hung around the hotel, Hotel Youree, and took an afternoon nap (He roomed with teammate Bill Barrett.) After the nap, he went to the room of Red and Irene Faber and had a conversation (Supposedly, it was a pleasant conversation.) Mostil ended up at the room of Pat Prouty, a fan and White Sox benefactor. Prouty was not present in the room, so Mostil let himself in. 

At about 5:30 p.m. Prouty returned to his room. After a few minutes, he opened the bathroom door and found Mostil lying on the floor (or perhaps in the tub). Mostil and the bathroom were covered in blood. A pocket knife and a razor were at his side. Schalk, Willie Kamm, Barrett and other ballplayers soon gathered in and around the room. They administered first aid as best as they could and called for an ambulance. 

Mostil had sliced (over a dozen times) his left wrist, throat, chest and ankles and had stabbed himself above the heart in an attempt to commit suicide. He was taken to Schumpert Hospital and administered the last rites of the Catholic faith. The newspaper headlines the next day held little hope for a recovery. 

Mostil’s family in Indiana (where he lived with his mother Barbara and brother Ed) was dumbfounded. He had just left for spring training and they apparently couldn’t understand what made him distraught; though, he had the recurring neuritis.

 Mostil recovered though the doctors gave him little hope of recovering the full use of his hands after he sliced the tendons leading to the second and third fingers on his left hand. Luckily, Mostil was righthanded. 

Mostil left the hospital on March 28, vowing to return to baseball by the middle of May. He returned home to Whiting. His fingers were healing nicely and he was developing a fuller range of movement, giving him hope that he could soon grip a bat. Mostil also went to a resort in Southern Wisconsin (probably at the behest and expense of Charles Comiskey) to rehab. 

On May 20 Mostil was placed on the voluntarily retired list. He continued to work out but was set back after dipping his healing wrist in scalding water. Mostil was eventually activated on the roster on September 1, appearing as a pinch runner on the 2^nd. 

On July 2, 1927 two Shreveport doctors, J.E. Slicer and E.L. Sanderson, filed $6,000 worth of lawsuits claiming that neither Mostil or the White Sox had paid the hospital bills. 

REASONS FOR THE SUICIDE ATTEMPT 

The reasons for Mostil’s actions are unclear (and naturally include a great deal of speculation). 

1) Medical – already discussed 

2) Financial – Some have suggested that Mostil’s contract squabbles with the club may have been weighing on him. It is true that he returned his contract unsigned twice over the winter, but he eventually signed for $12,000. It is unlikely that this prompted any sizable stress which could lead to the events of March 8. 

3) Irene Faber – The press made much out of the fact that Mostil visited the Fabers’ hotel room on that afternoon, suggesting that Mostil and Irene were having an affair. Wild speculation and rumors even suggested that Red Faber threatened Mostil’s life. However, none of this was even substantiated. 

Irene Faber was a constant around the ball club. She attended nearly every game and traveled with the White Sox. This doesn’t mean though that anything inappropriate happened. In fact, Red Faber never displayed any public distaste for Mostil. In actualyity, he remembered Mostil fondly to reporters later in life and complimented his skills on the diamond. Faber’s biographer Brian Cooper also found no family members who were aware of any inappropriate behavior. The Fabers themselves remained married until Irene’s death in 1943. 

4) Bill Barrett – It is suggested by Cooper that the real reason for Mostil’s actions was the supposed affair between his girlfriend Margaret Carroll, age 25 in 1927, and teammate Bill Barrett (Carroll was not at spring training). However, Cooper doesn’t relate one instance or comment relating to any relationship between Carroll and Barrett prior to the suicide attempt. 

It is true that Barrett and Carroll ended up together. They were married in 1929 and remained so until Barrett’s death in 1951(They had one son, Richard in 1938). Others have stated that Carroll broke up with Mostil as a result of the suicide fallout and then fell in with Barrett. 

The Barrett marriage though in and of itself suggests a complicate affair. It happened either of two ways. The first is that they began seeing each other seriously prior to spring training 1927 which would then be in all likelihood the reason for the suicide attempt. Or secondly, a troubled Mostil attempted and nearly committed suicide and then Carroll left him shortly thereafter for teammate Bill Barrett. Either way, the Barrett and Carroll relationship must have caused more than a few glances by teammates. 

Mostil and Barrett would remain teammates until 1929. Interestingly, they would both be gone from the club within the same week. On May 19 Mostil fractured his right ankle tripping over home plate. The injury would end his major league career. Four days later on May 23, Barrett was traded to Boston (near his Cambridge home) for Doug Taitt. Also, it is interesting to note that Barrett and Carroll were married around this time (Mostil was never married). 

Whichever reason for Mostil’s depression, it is a safe bet that it had something to do with baseball and the White Sox. The coincidence of the event occurring so soon after arriving at camp is telling.

 

Pitcher Virne Beatrice Mitchell was due to make her professional debut on April 1, 1931 with the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Class-A Southern Association but rain pushed her introduction to the following day. 

Virne, better known as Jackie, was only a reported 17 years old ( though the 1920 U.S. Census indicates that she was born in 1912 making her 18 in April 1931) at the time and had never really played against stiff competition on the baseball diamond. She was a softball player who dabbled in baseball, at times playing with the boys in her neighborhood and with female clubs. 

So how did a 130 pound, 5’8” (perhaps 5′5″) teenager jump all the way up to Class-A in a large southern city without a proving herself against professional batsmen? This was the 1930s not the 1890s or 1910s before the tiered minor league system took hold. 

A lefty, she didn’t possess much of a fastball; hence, she must have been training hard over the previous winter, working on a wicked curve or slider or perhaps tweaking an eely knuckleball. Actually no, Mitchell hadn’t pitched since the previous summer and that was against amateur/semi-pro female competition. She spent the cold months playing basketball with the self-titled Mitchellettes. 

No doubt Mitchell was a versatile athlete. She excelled further than the other local female athletes, holding her own against the boys. She excelled in swimming, basketball, baseball and softball. Despite her boyish talents, the Middletown Times Herald noted, “Interviews have found her distinctly feminine – she cooks and plays a piano.”

At age 7, Jackie lived next (in an adjoining apartment) to National League strikeout artist Dazzy Vance who taught her how to throw a baseball. As Mitchell’s father noted, “Vance took quite a liking to my daughter. He used to show her some of the tricks of the game.” She soaked it up and practiced though she was very young when she knew Vance. (In 1920, Vance played for Memphis. This seems like the period that he lived next to the Mitchells.)

She also received “encouragement” from Kid Elberfeld who owned an apple orchard on Signal Mountain outside Chatanooga. Elberfeld held a baseball training school in Atlanta. Mitchell attended it briefly in early 1931. 

She also had an attentive and well-to-do father, an optician, (her mother sold hosery) who pushed her and helped market her skills; hence, the Mitchellettes. Joe Mitchell gushed, “She is one of the greatest little athletes I ever saw. She has one of the most deceptive pitching deliveries, hits fair and fields way above the average that a boy of her age can field.” 

So how did someone fresh from a training school hook up with the Lookouts, an high minor league team? She lived three blocks from the stadium. 

In the late 1920s, Washington Senators’ owner Clark Griffith purchased controlling interest in the Chattanooga Lookouts. He sent his chief scout, Joe Engel, to oversee the franchise. Engel remained with the club for much of the next 3+ decades. He soon built one of the few new minor-league stadiums of the Depression era and creatively promoted the Lookouts ala Larry MacPhail and Bill Veeck. An interesting Wikipedia synopsis on Engel’s promotional skills:

One year, Engel had his players parade into the ball park on elephants for Opening Day. He traded a shortstop for a turkey, roasted it and served it to local sportswriters who had been “giving him the bird.” He raffled off houses and automobiles, and had canaries singing in the grandstands. Whenthe New York Yankees went to Chattanooga to play a pre-season exhibition game with his Lookouts, Engel located a female 17-year-old left-handed pitcher, Virnett “Jackie” Mitchell,  who struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Engel’s promotions were a hit in Chattanooga, and fans flocked to the new ballpark.

The Sporting News (8/23/1934) put it this way:

In 1930, Mitchell pitched for Engel’s girls baseball team known as the Engelettes. With the New York Yankees passing through Tennessee during spring training in 1931, Engel hit upon the idea of signing Mitchell and pitting her against the great Yankee lineup. He signed her (through her father) the week before, on March 26. At the time, she was out of town playing basketball. She returned a couple of days later and joined the Lookouts, chaperones by her mother. 

APRIL 2 

What took place on April 2 is astounding if it wasn’t predetermined. She fanned the two biggest names in the sport. Yes, an inexperienced pitcher took the mound and made fools of the great Ruth and Gehrig. Or did Joe Engel chat with the Hall of Famers beforehand and gain their complicity? It’s not hard to read between the lines. (The baseball bible – The Sporting News – took no interest in the subject in its next issue.)

Mitchell hadn’t played much ball since the previous fall. She was immediately pressed into strenuous practice after returning to Chattanooga. Naturally, her muscles rebelled and her pitching arm was quite sore, even with her limited practice schedule. Nevertheless, she was inserted on the mound against the powerful Yankee lineup. 

Washington Post – April 3, 1931 

39-year-old former major leaguer Clyde Barfoot, a two-decade professional, started the game for the Lookouts. The plan was for Mitchell to face Ruth every time he came to the plate. Barfoot faced Earle Combs and Lyn Lary to start the first inning, retiring neither and ceding a run. 

Mitchell was brought in to face perhaps the greatest of all baseball players and the idol of country, Babe Ruth, the mightiest swinger the game had seen. Four thousand sets of eyes watched the confrontation. Ruth played to the crowd, swung hard twice missing. Dismayed, he asked the ump to check the ball. The Sultan of Swat then watched the third strike sail over the played. Disgusted, he “flung his bat away in high distain and trudged to the bench.” 

Gehrig took his place in the box and swung through the next three deliveries. Mitchell then threw four wide ones to Tony Lazzari. She was pulled, her day and career in Organized Baseball at an end. As the Baltimore Sun noted, “The first woman in Organized Baseball had her fling. Then the game was resumed more sensibly…” 

Baltimore Sun – April 3, 1931 

Barfoot returned to the mound. The Yankees won 14-4. Ruth went 1 for 5, Gehrig 2 for 4. 

POST SCRIPT

Dr. Joesph F. Mitchell, Jackie’s father, worked even harder as his daughter’s manager and booking agent after the Ruth/Gehrig affair. A newspaper account two years later claimed that Mitchell had pitched in 156 games to date against male competition – with mixed success. In 1932, she earned $300-$400 for the season from pitching appearances.

In July 1933, Mitchell joined the House of Davids.

SOURCE LIST 

Baltimore Sun, 3 April 1931 

Middletown Times Herald, New York, 12 July 1933

New York Times, 2 April 1931, 3 April 1931 

Washington Post, 27 March 1931, 3 April 1931 

Wikipedia.org