Archive for August, 2011

 

Kid Johnson Ventures out of California

The Young Walter Johnson

Walter Johnson, who needs no introduction to baseball history fans, was born on the family farm in Allen County, Kansas in November 1887. The family moved to Southern California, settling in Brea in Orange County, in April 1902 when Walter was 14 years old. More accurately, they lived in Olinda, a village or neighborhood in Brea situated roughly in between Los Angeles and Anaheim. The area was popular for its petroleum excavation, the Olinda-Brea oil fields.

1900 US Census

On July 24, 1904, the 16-year-old was plucked off a juvenile sandlot team and pitched his first game for the Olinda Oil Wells, the local adult semi-pro club. Johnson manned the mound for three innings during a 21-6 romp over Eureka, fanning two men per inning. It wasn’t until the following year however that he landed a spot with the club. That year he appeared on the mound (as best as yet determined):

• Olinda, 15 games pitched
• Fullerton Union High School, 3 games
• Rivera, 4 games

(Johnson and several Olinda members joined Rivera after a financial dispute split the club – and then rejoined Olinda.)

In total, he posted a 12-9-1 record in 22 games undoubtedly striking out over 200. On April 15 in a high school contest versus Santa Ana, Johnson struck out 27 batters over fifteen innings, against only 3 walks. Neither team scored, resulting in a tie. With Olinda on November 12 versus Tufts-Lyon, he won his first of many 1-0 games; it was also his first one-hitter. He posted two more shutouts before the end of the year.

In 1906, Johnson pitched seven games for Olinda through April 8, notching a 5-2 record. Over the winter at age 18, he briefly attended Orange County Business College. In mid-April, Johnson received a telegram from former Olinda teammate Jack Barnett,  a Ventura native. Barnett had recently joined Tacoma in the Northwestern League at shortstop and his new club was willing to give the hard-throwing teenager a try.

Johnson arrived a few days before the season opened on April 28. He got his chance to pitch on an off day, Monday, April 30, during a hastily-scheduled exhibition game versus Grays Harbor. The contest proceeds were earmarked for the American Red Cross which was helping in the aftermath of the massive earthquake that hit San Francisco on the 18th.

Johnson lost 4-3 ceding ten hits. At the time a hiccup in the Pacific Coast League suggested to Tacoma and other western cities that a massive amount of established talent would soon be available. Considering this, Tacoma passed on the young Johnson and he was released, given $40, a week’s pay.

Johnson, alone and away from home for the first time, waited in Tacoma hoping the club would change its mind. The breakup of the PCL never did come about, leaving Tacoma in need of a pitcher. Considering that Johnson was young, far from home and personally inexperienced, he wouldn’t have stayed in Tacoma unless expecting or perhaps wishing for another baseball opportunity. Moreover, he was reluctant to leave California in the first place and otherwise probably would have headed back to his family.

Weiser

The call didn’t come from Tacoma but from another former Olinda teammate Claire Head, a California native and middle infielder who had appeared in one game for the Los Angeles Angels during the initial campaign of the PCL in 1903. Head had just landed a spot with a semi-pro club in a small town in southwestern Idaho near the Oregon border called Weiser.

Weiser, population around 3000, was a farming and mining community tucked in the Rocky Mountains. The busy work week relegated entertainments such as baseball to Sundays and the odd holiday. Vices though were plenty, presumably for the evening crowd. Saloons were plenty, as were opium dens. Presumably, gambling and prostitution also prospered.

was linked by railroad to five other southern Idaho towns that naturally decided to create a league, the Southern Idaho League:

• Boise
• Caldwell
• Emmett
• Nampa
• Payette
• Weiser

Admission was 25 cents and the season opened on April 28.

Johnson arrived in Weiser on May 18 and was on the mound two days later. He struck out seven and won 17-1, allowing only four hits. Weiser’s manager James B. Coakley had seen enough, Johnson was handed the mound duties, replacing captain A. Van Harton, and given a job during the rest of the week at the local office of the Bell Telephone Company at $90/month.

Note from the box score that Johnson is referred to as “H. Smith.” Head, the shortstop, was known as Roy Patterson. The reason for the deception is unclear.

Despite Johnson’s masterful game on the mound, Weiser’s new catcher “Foxy Grandpa” Miller received the accolades.

Idaho Statesman 5/21/1906

Foxy Grandpa

Miller’s unusual nickname stems from a popular cartoon of the era. His real name was Cornelius Uhl, at times referred to as Con or Neil. He weighed close to 250 pounds and was thought to be 53 years old.

Uhl, the son of a timber merchant, was actually born in August 1867 in Galion, Ohio, making him nearly 39 years old when he caught Johnson in 1906. Galion was a railroad town with two large depots and, naturally, Uhl took up the trade and worked as a brakeman and switchman through much of his life, moving from town to town, state to state.

His baseball career probably began in the late 1880s. In 1892, he caught Pink Hawley with Fort Smith, Arkansas and later boasted of catching quite a few of the top pitchers of the era:

Baseball Magazine 2/1916

With Weiser in 1906, Uhl “won a popular young telephone operator,” Pearl Elliott, about 20 years his junior, and married her. She was perhaps a co-worker of Johnson’s at the phone company. In June, Uhl secured a job with the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company and soon relocated to Le Grande, Oregon. The couple had a child, Cornelius, the following year. (Idaho Statesman 3 May 1907)

He did however rejoin the Idaho league in 1907 with Huntington, after losing about 50 pounds. As the Baseball Magazine article claims, he played through age 45 when his weight and advancing years became too much to manage.

Rest of 1906

On May 27, 1906, his second game with Weiser, Johnson tossed a 1-hitter, shutting out Payette 12-0. Henry Thomas, Johnson’s grandson, in his thoroughly-researched biography of the pitcher notes that Johnson was once again upstaged by Foxy Grandpa in the press.

In his next start on June 3, Johnson lost 2-0 despite striking out 12. Caldwell came into the June 10 game with a perfect record 6-0. Johnson held them to one run on 12 strikeouts, winning 8-1, amid a melee instigated by gamblers.

Idaho Statesman 6/11/1906

Weiser’s season ended in early July and Johnson returned home. His final record with the club stood at 7-1, averaging over 10 strikeouts per game.

In many of his games with Olinda, Johnson’s battery mate was Guy Meats, a farmer and California native three years older than Walter. After the Weiser season ended in 1906, Johnson returned home and joined the club from Olive, Meats’ hometown. Johnson would bring Meats with him to Weiser in 1907. (Meats would continue to catch Johnson’s postseason games in Olinda for a number of years after the pitcher joined the majors.)

1907

Johnson returned to Weiser for the 1907 season at $150 a month, pitching for the club by mid-April. The club was particularly raw; no member was older than 25, prompting the team nickname Kids. Johnson first had to contend with Tacoma who now realized their mistake wanted him back. Shunned once, he wasn’t interested.

The league changed its name to the Idaho State League and added to teams: Mountain Home and Huntington (Oregon). Huntington was neicknamed the Railroaders and included as their backstop the fan favorite Foxy Grandpa. Weiser refurbished and enlarged its ballpark.

Johnson’s record stood at 3-1, with a shutout through May 5. With his next string of starts in rural Idaho, Johnson became a national figure and was quickly signed to a major league contract.

Johnson was an impressive physical specimen, standing 6’1” tall and nearing 200 pounds; however, it was another feature which turned heads – his wingspan. “The lad is only nineteen years old, and is as strong as an ox. He is noted for the spread of his arms, which they say would make even Bob Fitzsimmons blush.” (Oakland Tribune 12 June 1907)

Back in 1890, the man whose name Johnson’s would forever be linked with as top two winning in major league history – Cy Young – gained an immediate call-up to the majors after pitching a no-hitter for Canton. As impressive as that was, Johnson would top it many times over, though albeit perhaps against lesser competition.

For the rest of his time in Weiser, twelve starts from May 19 to July 15, Johnson dominated, ceding few hits and even fewer earned runs – 4 if you can believe that. There was one 1-hitter, 3 two-hitters and yes 2 no-hitters. Only once did he strike out less than 10 batters, once as many as 19, another time 18 and averaging 13 (156 in total).

The no-hitters came in consecutive starts, on June 3 and 9. In the first one Johnson took the mound as a hired gun for Nampa, against Mountain Home. He allowed but a mere base on balls. It was a wild scene in which Nampa backers pocketed close to $5000 in wagers, and partied well into the night. In the second contest, versus Emmett, he didn’t even allow a walk, thus notching a perfect game. The catch phrase of the newspapermen at the time was that his opponents fell because of “Too Much Johnson,” the title of a popular stage production that Orson Welles later made into a film.

In one contest (the 19-K game), he fanned 8 of the first nine men who took the box (pitching against Spec Harkness). Perhaps putting aside the myth that Johnson was strictly a fastball pitcher in his youth, the Idaho Statesman noted that he sent the 19 packing “by his deceptive curves.” (Idaho Statesman 20 May 1907)

Idaho Statesman 5/20/1907

On June 30 versus Caldwell, Walter struck out an impressive 15 batters but was eclipsed by the opposing pitcher Irv Higginbotham, brought in from Aberdeen of the Northwestern League as a ringer, who nailed 17. The atmosphere was another wild one that almost seemed typical in the west. Caldwell brought in three other ringers at catcher, left field and second base. (One scored the game’s only run.) The fans were in a frenzy as wagering perhaps topped five figures.

Idaho Statesman 7/1/1907

Shutouts, well that brought the astonishment. Of those 12 games, the first 7 were shutouts, as were the last 2. In between, he allowed 5 runs, only 4 earned in three games. Unfortunately, Johnson lost two of them, 1-0 and 3-2. How many consecutive scoreless innings? 77 – that’s about eight and a half full games.

The national headlines began after the fifth shutout, first towards his home on the west coast and then in the east. Joe Cantillon, manager of the Washington Senators, dispatched someone to take a look at the Weiser Wonder, dubbed The Kid in the west.

(Photo: to left, Johnson in the dark blue Weiser uniform)

Washington Bound

The timing of Johnson’s streak couldn’t have been any better as far as the Washington Senators were concerned. One of Cantillon’s catchers, 27-year-old Cliff Blankenship, had injured his throwing hand on a foul tip in the seventh game of the season on April 20 in Philadelphia. He tried to play through it but was still lame in mid June.

Cantillon had just taken over the club and was in desperate need of quality ballplayers; the Senators were the running joke of the American League, having finished last in half of the league’s first six seasons as a major.

Blankenship was born in Georgia but played the last three seasons on Seattle in the Pacific Coast League. He was more than familiar with the western baseball territory and, more important, knew the ballplayers. In fact, outside three brief stints in the majors, he essentially relocated to the west coast in 1904 – and died in Oakland in 1956.

On June 17, 1907, Blankenship departed D.C., heading west in search of baseball talent for the woeful Senators. Johnson’s streak was still alive and, in fact, he had just notched the two consecutive no-hitters.

Cantillon’s first offer to Johnson arrived the same day Blankenship took off:

Idaho Statesman 6/18/1907

Blankenship emerged a week later in Wichita, Kansas. Cantillon wanted the club’s speedy center fielder Clyde Milan – who “attracted considerable attention this spring and no less than six major league clubs were after him. Cantillon saw him play against the Nationals [the Senators formal club nickname] in an exhibition game this spring, and was so much impressed with his work that he has been watching him ever since.” (Washington Post, 25 June 1907)

The 20-year-old Milan would anchor Washington’s outfield into the early 1920s. After securing the main focus of his trip, anyone else would be icing for Blankenship. That cake was served on June 30 as the Washington Post headlined “Secures a Phenom.” Biding his time at the team hotel on the 29^th amid a rainstorm, Cantillon received word that Blankenship had signed Walter Johnson, the Weiser fireballer (for $450 a month).

Blankenship had arrived in Weiser on the 28th and made an offer. Johnson initially rebuffed the scout but then decided to get some advice. He was tentative, unsure at age 19 if he was yet major league caliber. Sure he was dominating in Weiser but the Idaho backwoods was far from big eastern baseball in more than one aspect. (Many western ballplayers were hesitant to relocate to the large eastern cities where the lifestyle was well out of their comfort zone.)

Moreover, the locals naturally wanted the pitcher to hang around and lead the club; they were even offering to root him in the community with a business opportunity or two. He had to confer with others and do some soul searching. Johnson discussed the matter with his catcher Guy Meats, a hometown buddy, and surely others on the club, and also wanted input from back home. After a day, and a coaxing telegram from home, he made a handshake deal with Blankenship. However, the pitcher insisted on getting return fare to Olinda as insurance just in case he didn’t pan out. Plus, Johnson insisted on staying in Weiser until their season ended.

(Blankenship also signed third baseman Bill Shipke from Des Moines on his trip.)

The Senators expected Johnson to meet the club in Detroit on July 15 to kick off his major league career. Instead, he headlined a series against Mountain Home. Weiser won the first game, 6-1, with Johnson at first base. He pitched in Boise on the 14^th, winning 1-0 and securing $2500 in wagers for the Weiser fans. He defeated Mountain Home again the next day, 4-0.

On the 23^rd, the Washington Post wondered “What has become of Walter Johnson…?” No one had heard from the young pitching phenom. Unbeknown, he was on his way. He had left Weiser on the 22^nd, a tearful goodbye at the railway depot. He arrived in D.C. on the 26^th and would make his major league debut against Detroit on August 2.

SOURCE LIST

• Ancestry.com
• Baseball-reference.com
• Carey, Charles, “Walter Johnson,” SABR Biography Project
• Galveston Daily News, 30 June 1907
• Heritagequest.com
• Idaho Statesman, Boise, 1906-1907
• Logansport Pharos, Indiana, 26 July 1907
• Mapquest.com
• Oakland Tribune, 12 June 1907
• Retrosheet.org
• Salt Lake Tribune, 15 July 1907
• Thomas, Henry W. Walter Johnson: Baseball’s Big Train. Washington D.C.: Phenom Press, 1995.
• Thomas, Henry W. “The Weiser Wonder: Walter Johnson in Idaho,” Grandstand Baseball Annual, 1995, Joseph M. Wayman publisher, 1995
• Thomas, Henry W. and Charles W. Carey, “The California Comet: Walter Johnson in the Golden State,” Grandstand Baseball Annual, Joseph M. Wayman publisher, 1995
• Titusville Herald, Pennsylvania, 16 July 1907
• Washington Post, 23 April 1907, 18 June 1907, 9 July 1907
• Wikipedia.org

 

Formal Name: Players National League

# Teams: 8

Head-to-head versus National League:

• New York
• Boston
• Philadelphia
• Pittsburgh
• Cleveland
• Chicago
• Brooklyn

The other PL club represented Buffalo.

Head-to-head versus American Association:

• Philadelphia
• Brooklyn

The Ball: Tim Keefe’s company (est. 1889)

Gate Split: 50/50, home team keeps concessions

Schedule: No Sunday games

Liquor: No liquor sales

Admission: 50 cents minimum, 75 cents shaded (usually) bleacher seat

Pitching Distance: 57′ (distance of back line of pitcher’s box where foot is to be planted)

Umpiring System: 2 per game

Home Uniforms: Universal - white with blue stockings

Road Uniforms: Universal - blue with white stockings

SOURCE LIST

Alexander, Charles C. Turbulent Seasons: Baseball in 1890-1891. Dallas, Texas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2011.

 

In May 1941, the United States issued commercial television licenses for the first time. They took effect in July 1. At 2:39 pm on that date the first legal television commercial aired over the New York station WNBT (now WNBC), an ad for Bulova watches. The cost for Buluva was $4 for the 10-second ad.

It took place during a contest between the Philadelphia Phillies and Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.

 

The First Pennant Contested until the Last Day of the Season

The major league first pennant race solved on the season’s final day occurred in 1889, the National League. Entering the final week of the campaign, the defending National League champion New York Giants held a ½ game lead over the Boston Beaneaters. The two clubs were tied in victories but New York had one less loss and one less tie.

Giants

The arms for the Giants included Mickey Welch and Tim Keefe, both future Hall of Famers, who combined for 55 wins in 86 starts. Cannonball Ed Crane added another 14 victories. Still others accounted for 14 more. Of the latter, two stand out:

• Hank O’Day,  more famous as an umpire in three major leagues from 1884 to 1927
  

  Hank O'Day

• Hall of Fame catcher Buck Ewing

With the bat, New York shined. Five of Jim Mutrie’s regulars hit over .300: Ewing, first baseman Roger Connor and outfielders Jim O’Rourke, George Gore and Mike Tiernan. Shortstop Monte Ward was another standout, batting .299 with 62 stolen bases. At one time Ward was one of the league’s outstanding pitchers. After years of subbing in the outfield when he wasn’t on the mound, the future Hall of Famer converted to the middle infield, first at short and then ending his career at second base.

Beaneaters

John Clarkson led Boston with 49 victories, and all other clubs as well. Hoss Radbourn chipped in another 20, Kid Madden 10.

Boston’s regulars included such 19^th century stars as:

• Catcher Charlie Bennett
• First baseman Dan Brouthers, who killed the ball in ‘89
• Second baseman Hardy Richardson
• Third baseman Billy Nash
• And King Kelly, mainly in right field

Jim Mutrie

1889 NL Batting

New York led the league: Runs, Triples, RBI, Batting Average, On-base %, Slugging

Boston led the league: Stolen Bases

1889 NL Pitching

New York led the league: Fewest Hits Allowed, Strikeouts

Boston led the league: Shutouts, Fewest Runs Allowed, ERA (NY second)

Saturday, October 5

After the games of Friday, October 4, the standings stood:

• New York 82-43-5
• Boston 83-44-5
• All other clubs at least 19 games behind

It would be many years before each club would be mandated to play and equal number of games. The pennant still hung in the balance on Saturday, the scheduled end of the season. The Giants were away in Cleveland, the Cuban Giants at home using the Polo Grounds. The Beaneaters were away as well, in Pittsburgh.

New York was concerned over possible chicanery. The standings at this point had never been so close before. Unthinkable today, the Giants manager Jim Mutrie left the club at so tenuous a time. Years of fraud perpetrated to and by an array of New York clubs fed a healthy dose of suspicion that many today would call a guilty conscience. Where did he go? To Pittsburgh, of course, to gauge Boston’s intensions:

New York Times 10/5/1889

Both teams toed the line. It ended with a fizzle as New York won 5-3 and Boston lost 6-1. (Mutrie was also after Boston to play some exhibition games immediately after the end of the season, to capitalize on the pennant fever.)

New York Times 10/6/1889

In Pittsburgh, Clarkson took the mound opposite Pub Galvin, another Hall of Famer. Galvin had started the game on Thursday but he was well-rested compared to Clarkson who had started 15 of his club’s final 18.

New York Times 10/6/1889

Officially, Boston rested a ½ game behind:

• NYG 83-43-5
• BOS 83-45-5

“We are the People!”

New York Herald 10/7/1889

 

Postseason

There would be a World Series in 1889, as there had been since 1884. However, the American Association continued to play for another 10 days. The Giants looked forward to a healthy gate against the AA champions – the cross-town Brooklyn Bridegrooms.

The Giants took the series, 6 games to 3. Ed Crane proved the difference, claiming four of New York’s victories. Keefe and Welch won zero, as O’Day won the other two. Brooklyn exacted revenge though. They hopped into the National League for 1890 and took the pennant.

SOURCE LIST

• Baseball-reference.com
• New York Herald, 5 October 1889, 7 October 1889
• New York Times, 5 October 1889, 6 October 1889 
• Retrosheet.org

 

Stepping in for Ruth

While Babe Ruth was in St. Vincent’s Hospital in May 1925 famously incompacitated from “indigestion,” the 38-year-old Ty Cobb put on a slugging display which topped all others of the 20th century. He knocked five homers in consecutive games in St. Louis on the 5th and 6th. (Ruth, Ken Williams and Tillie Walker each had 2-game runs of 4.)

Remarkably, Cobb called his shots in the dugout prior to the first game, boldly telling sportswriter Harry G. Salsinger of the Detroit News of his intention of swinging for the fences. Specifically, Cobb declared, “I’ll show you something today. I’m going for home runs for the first time in my career.” This comes from St. Louis Star reporter Sid Keener who overheard the boast.

The Sporting News 12/27/1961

Cobb included this in his autobiography with Al Stump, stating:

I’d been hearing so much about Babe Ruth’s fence-busters that I switched to a long grip on the bat. And I called my shots in advance. To the newspaper boys I said, “I’m going to give you a little demonstration, just to settle a point I think you’ve been missing.

Unfortunately, there are no contemporary references to this. Keener didn’t share the tidbit until the end of 1961 just after Cobb had passed away and the book came out. The incident probably happened just as Cobb described; it’s just a shame that it wasn’t relayed until 36 years later.

Cap Anson

The top star of the 19th century – Cap Anson – actually did it in August 1884 but that comes with a distinct footnote. He punched 21 that year, all but one at home. The 21 is more than 1/5 his career total despite the fact he played 27 years in the big leagues.

The rub here is Chicago’s home field. Lake Front Park III allowed an unprecedented total of home runs in 1884. As a whole, the White Stockings hit 142 round-trippers, over 100 more than any other major league club – and there were over 30 of them that year. Besides Chicago in ‘84, no major league club to date had hit more than 40.

The White Stockings scored 498 runs at home that year, only 336 on the road. Their record reflects a severe home field advantage:

• Home: 39-17
• Road: 23-33

Why? The left field fence was only 186′ from home plate and, likewise, in right field 190′. Center field measured 300′. Thankfully, the park was around only two years.

Anson’s teammate Ned Williamson hit an unheard of 27 in 1884, 25 of them at Lake Front. The previous season high was 14 set the preceding year by Harry Stovey. Williamson’s mark wasn’t topped until Babe Ruth hit 29 in 1919. Moreover, in 1883, the park’s first year, Williamson shattered set the seasonal mark with 49 doubles.

Why? Well, balls flying over those pulled-in fences only counted as doubles in 1883. Comically, Chicago scored 18 runs versus detroit on September 6 – in one inning. In 1885 the White Stockings moved into West Side Park and, not unexpectedly, the outlandish power numbers neutralized.

Back to Cobb

Cobb’s five home runs on May 5 and 6, 1925 came off five different Browns’ pitchers:

• Joe Bush
• Elam Vangilder
• Milt Gaston
• Dave Danforth
• Chet Falk

They were his first homers of the season, which began on April 14. The fifth against Falk was Cobb’s 100th of his career. Later in May, Cobb became the first man to amass 1000 extra-base hits. (Honus Wagner had 996.)

(It is interesting to note the incorrect/nonexistent statistical information out there prior to the MacMillan Baseball Encyclopedia era. It was thought at the time that Cobb eclipsed Wagner in extra-base hits on the 6th. According to the Chicago Tribune, he now had 1456 to Wagner’s 1448.)

May 5

On May 5, Cobb went 6 for 6 with an astounding 16 total bases – 3 homers, a double and 2 singles – in a nine inning contest. Only one other man – Patsy Gharrity – had as many as 13 total bases since the turn of the century.

May 6

(Also on the 6th, Everett Scott ended his 1307 consecutive game playing streak.)

The fifth home run ball:

 

 

SOURCE LIST

Thanks to Bill Burgess for exchanging emails with me and leading me down the correct path.

• Alexander, Charles C. Ty Cobb. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.
• Baseball-reference.com
• Bill Burgess, exchange of emails
• Chicago Tribune 7 May 1925
• Cobb, Ty and Al Stump. My Life in Baseball: The True Record. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1961.
• New York Times 6 May 1925, 7 may 1925
• Retrosheet.org

 

Amateur game at Rockford, Illinois in 1867.

Rockford Weekly Register-Gazette 8/17/1867

 

June 27, 1911 – Heads-up Home Run

To speed up games, Ban Johnson ruled that to start a new half-inning pitchers would not be allowed to throw warm-up pitches.

On June 27, 1911 at the Hunington Avenue Grounds in Boston the sides changed in the middle of the eighth inning. Red Sox pitcher Ed Karger took the mound and began tossing warm-up pitches to catcher Les Nunamaker as personnel were changing sides.

Two Philadelphia players (Boston manager Patsy Donovan claimed) hadn’t left the field yet and center fielder Tris Speaker was casually talking to A’s second baseman Eddie Collins.

A’s first baseman Stuffy Mcinnis took note and quickly jumped in the batter’s box and smacked one of Karger’s tosses into an unmanned center field. Speaker and the Red Sox were taken unawares. The ball rolled to the wall as McInnis circled the bases.

Patsy Donovan and his men pitched a fit, but umpires Egan and Sheridan ruled it a home run. It was the final run in an A’s 7-3 victory. The Red Sox protested to Ban Johnson to no avail.

Baltimore Sun 6/28/1911