Sunday, November 23, 2008

Jud Wilson: You want him on your side in a fight


A savage, pure hitter who hit with power and was at this best in the clutch, Wilson could hit anything thrown to him and would have been an ideal designated hitter. Cum Posey considered him to be the most dangerous and consistent hitter in black baseball, calling him one of the stars of all time, and placed him on the all-time All-American team for a national magazine in 1945. So intense was his disdain and lack of respect for pitchers that he actually dared them to throw the ball. The left-handed slugger hit all varieties of pitching styles and all pitchers, including Satchel Paige, who considered him one of the two best hitters ever in black baseball.

The records bear this out as he consistently hit in the high .300s and even topped the .400 level on occasion. Beginning with a league-leading .373 batting average in 1923, he is credited with averages of .377, .395, .346, .469, .376, .350, .372, .323, .356, .354, .342, .324, .315, and .386 through the 1937 season. His career covered a quarter of a century, ending after the 1945 season, with a .345 lifetime average. He starred in Cuba for six winters, and his records there show a .372 lifetime average and two batting titles. Playing with Havana, he topped the league with averages of .403 and .441 during the winters of 1925-1926 and 1927-1928. His lifetime statistics in the Negro Leagues show an impressive .345 batting average, and against major leaguers in exhibitions the ledger shows a .442 average.

A product of the Washington, D.C., sandlots in the Foggy Bottom section of town, Wilson had a big upper body, a small waist, and was slightly bowlegged and pigeon-toed. Although he was awkward, he was fast and sure afield and, while lacking form, could play adequately at either corner. The rugged Wilson played third base by keeping everything in front of him, knocking the ball down with his chest, and then throwing the batter out, and was described as "a crude but effective workman."

A fierce competitor, hard loser, and habitual brawler, the bull-necked Wilson was fearless, ill-tempered, and known for his fighting almost as well as he is known for his hitting. Teammates, opponents, and umpires all feared the fury of the fiery-eyed, quick-tempered strongman.

On the field, Wilson was vicious, and especially rough on umpires. Once he became so angered at umpire Phil Cockrell, a former player, because of a call that he made in a game against the Grays, that he grabbed the arbiter by the skin of his chest and lifted him off the floor, berating him for cheating them out of a game. His fury did not abate until his teammate "Crush" Holloway picked up a bat and interceded on behalf of the umpire.

He was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.

Willie Foster, Hall of Famer Southpaw


A half-brother of the famous Rube Foster, Willie Foster was a pitching star for the Chicago American Giants for over a decade. With near perfect control and a wide assortment of pitches, all delivered with the same motion, the tall left-hander was at his best when the stakes were highest. With a crucial game to win, Willie was the kind of pitcher a manager wanted on the mound. He was a smart pitcher who knew how to get the most out of his vast repertory of pitches, which included a blazing fast-ball, a slider, a fast breaking drop, a sidearm curve, and a masterful change of pace. According to Jocko Conlon, "Foster was comparable to Herb Pennock, only faster and had beautiful control, adding that he was really something to watch."

His mother died when he was only four years old, and the youngster was reared by his maternal grandparents in Mississippi. He attended school at Alcorn College until 1918, when he traveled North to Chicago to work in the stockyards and attempted to sign on with Rube's team as a pitcher. His half brother's refusal to allow him to play with the Chicago American Giants created a resentment that continued throughout his life.

He always deported himself in a gentlemanly manner and commanded respect. During his baseball career, Foster had pursued his educational goals in the off seasons and, after retiring from baseball, he became dean of men and baseball coach at Alcorn State College in 1960, a position he held until shortly before his death. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996.

Fred Dunlap, Great 2B of the 1800's


1880-1891, 12 seasons, BA .292 OBP .340 SLG .406
pct vs. league .924 .902
range vs. league 6.31 5.84

"I have seen all the great 2B from Al Reach in the 60's to Lajoie to Evers, and I would easily pronounce Dunlap the greatest.

He never wore a glove and his hands were as small as a woman's but he could handle any sort of throw or hit. Dunlap was ambidextrous. He would run and catch a badly thrown ball as well with his left or right hand and put the ball swiftly on the runner.

When Dunlap was a lad of ten (1869) the baseball craze had begun to spread its wings. Dunlap had neither father nor mother and the people he lived with cared little where he went. So, when he was not eating, he was out on the prairie hitting fungoes or catching the ball. The lad learned nothing but ball playing. He could neither read nor write.

He had the finest features, the nose of an Indian chief and the brown eyes of a beautiful woman. From long service under the sun, he had grown almost almond-skinned. Off the field, he always dressed elegantly.

When Dunlap quit the game, his real life went out. He was never the same afterwards. He died at age 43 in an Alms House. "

The National Game, Alfred Spink, 1911.

19th CC Defensive Genius Jimmy McAleer


Jimmy McAleer was not much of a hitter, but this brilliant defensive outfielder was a smart, clever, and ambitious man who helped create two of the original eight franchises of the American League. In 1900 he became the first manager of the Cleveland franchise now known as the Indians, and two years later league president Ban Johnson chose McAleer to assemble and manage a new team in St. Louis in direct competition with the established Cardinals of the rival National League. McAleer's new club, the Browns, nearly won the pennant in its first year of operation. Though the Browns soon fell to the second division, McAleer led the team for eight years, winning more games than any manager in team history. He then moved on to manage the Washington Senators, where he started Walter Johnson on the road to stardom, and ultimately became president and part owner of the Boston Red Sox in 1912. His Red Sox won the World Series that year, but a series of disputes with his business partners drove him from the game and deprived the American League of one of its most talented leaders and organizers.

McAleer, who stood six feet tall and weighed 180 pounds, was the prototypical good-field, no-hit outfielder. One of the weakest batters in the National League (in 1898, 84 of his 87 hits were singles), his brilliance in the field more than compensated for his shortcomings at the plate, in the eyes of many of his contemporaries. He was considered the best defensive outfielder of the 1890s, and some say that McAleer was the first centerfielder to take his eyes off a fly ball, run to the spot where it would fall to earth, and catch it.

McAleer married at least three times, the first time by 1908; 1920 census records show McAleer with a wife six years his junior, Hannah B. McAleer. He later remarried a widowed Youngstown grocery clerk named Anna Durbin. He pursued business interests in Youngstown until becoming ill with cancer in the early 1930s. On April 28, 1931, four months after his second wife, Anna Durbin, passed away, and two months after remarrying singer Georgianna Rudge, Jimmy McAleer shot himself in the head with a handgun, and died the next day. He was 66 years old, and was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Youngstown.

Negro League Shortstop Dobie Moore


A great shortstop, Dobie Moore was a superb fielder with outstanding range and a terrific arm. He could go in the hole, make a diving, backhand stab, stand up, and, flatfooted, throw the man out at first. An outstanding hitter, he hit for average and could also hit the long ball, with his best season coming in 1924, when he hit .453, led the league in doubles, and had 10 home runs and a .694 slugging percentage. The outspoken shortstop was not hesitant to offer criticism of teammates, and sometimes this practice caused resentment.

Moore was one of the players from the 25th Infantry team stationed at Fort Huachuca who were recommended to Kansas City Monarchs' owner J.L. Wilkinson by Casey Stengel. After joining the Monarchs for the first Negro National League season, he stepped into the cleanup spot and posted respectable marks of .274 and .264 in their first two seasons. In 1922 he really came into his own, slapping the ball for a .385 batting average. During the next three years he led the Kansas City Monarchs to three consecutive pennants, with batting averages of .365, .453, and .325. In the 1924 World Series victory over Hilldale, he hit an even .300, second-best on the team, and in the following Series he led the team at the plate with a .364 average while leading the team in hits, runs batted in, and slugging percentage.

In 1926 he continued his hot hitting, getting off to a .381 start, but his brilliant career was cut short early in the season due to a shooting incident that disabled him while still in his prime. The incident was cloaked in an "air of mystery" as the parties involved told conflicting stories. The night began when Moore and three other ballplayers started out for a cabaret party in their honor, but he changed his mind and went to see Elsie Brown, who allegedly mistook him for a prowler in the alley and shot him. Later she claimed that Moore had hit her in the face three times before she shot him, but Moore responded that if he had hit her three times, she would not have been able to go get a gun. Other accounts indicated that Ms. Brown was his girlfriend and that she shot him in the brothel she owned following a lovers' quarrel. In an effort to escape, Moore jumped off a terrace and shattered the bones in his already wounded leg. Whatever the details regarding the cause of the shooting, Moore was shot in the leg, with the bullet breaking two bones into six pieces, which ended his baseball days.

King Kelly: Baseball's first Superstar


Kelly, who played every position, was one of the greatest players of his era. Beginning his career with the Reds in 1878, he soon was given the title King of Baseball, and became the number one idol of the nation. Joining Chicago in 1880, Kelly sparked Cap Anson's team to five NL titles. He performed on eight pennant winners in 16 seasons and hit .300 or better eight times. His .354 in 1884 and .388 in 1886 led the NL. He led the league three times each in doubles and runs scored, and he is one of ten NL players to have scored a league-record six runs in one game. Kelly won renown for his daring baserunning, stealing at least 50 bases for four successive years, with a high of 84 for the Braves in 1887. He once stole six bases in one game. His sensational baserunning and sliding led fans to cheer him on, yelling, "Slide, Kelly, slide!"

After Kelly was traded to the Braves for a record $10,000 in one of the biggest deals in baseball's early history, Chicago fans were so upset they boycotted their team, except when Boston played there. Joining the Players' League in 1890 as Boston's player-manager, Kelly's team captured the league championship by posting an 81-48 record. After serving as player-manager for Cincinnati-Milwaukee of the American Association for part of 1891, Kelly returned to Boston and helped the Braves win titles in 1891 and 1892. He played a few games for the Giants in 1893, then drifted to the minors, managing Allentown in the Pennsylvania State League and Yonkers in the Eastern'L-(((League.

Imaginative and quick-thinking, Kelly was credited by Cap Anson with devising the hit-and-run play, although this is disputed. He studied the rules and found ways to get around them, causing the league to make changes. Colorful both on and off the field, Kelly acted with flair and was admired and adored by fans. He wore the finest tailored clothes and the most current styles. American billboards featured the handsome, happy-go-lucky Irishman as the nation's best-dressed man. Kelly supplemented his income with off-season stage appearances and wrote Play Ball. Following his retirement from baseball, he opened a saloon in New York.

Negro League Hall of Famer Pete Hill


Hall of Famer Pete Hill excelled as an outfielder in the Negro Leagues for an incredible span of 27 years: from 1899 to 1926.

A left-handed batter, Hill was a great hitter, both for average and power. An amazingly consistent line-drive hitter who used the entire field and excelled at bunting for base hits, he was a superior contact hitter with a near perfect eye for the strike zone and seldom struck out. In 1911 he was credited with hitting safely in 115 of 116 games. As the first great outfielder in black baseball history, he was compared to Ty Cobb, and rightfully so. If an all-star team had been picked from the deadball era, Cobb and Hill would have flanked Tris Speaker to form the outfield constellation.

Hill was a complete ballplayer and, although slightly bowlegged, could field and run the bases as well as hit. The star center fielder was one of the fastest outfielders in the game, fielded flawlessly, and had a deadly arm. On the bases he was a very fast, graceful runner and a good base stealer. But more than that, he was a nervy base runner who upset pitchers and infielders like Jackie Robinson was to do a quarter decade later. He was described as a "restless type, always in motion, jumping back and forth, trying to draw a throw from the pitcher."

In 1915, in a hotly contested game against the Indianapolis ABCs, with heavy betting on the outcome, he became engaged in an argument with the umpire, who pulled a gun and hit Hill in the nose. A riot ensued and the game was forfeited to the ABCs. The two teams were very evenly matched, but by the end of the season the American Giants won the playoff for the championship.

Incomplete records indicate a lifetime .326 batting average in black baseball, and he proved his hitting ability in Cuba as well, compiling a .307 average for six winter seasons.

A hitting master, Hill could hit both left-handers and right-handers equally well and was the backbone of the great Chicago American Giants' teams for almost twenty years.

Harry Stovey: The Guy Who Stole 156 Bags in one Season!


"Harry Stovey was the Willie Mays of the 1880's. He combined awesome power with blazing speed. He was the first major leaguer to amass 100 home runs. He led the league in home runs six times and stolen bases three times. He stole 156 bases in 1888 and hit 19 HR in 1889.

"Stovey stole 744 bases in 931 games for a frequency of .80 SB per game. Rickey Henderson had a frequency of .56."

(The King of Swat by William McNeil)

"Stovey always wore a pad on the left hip to protect the bones, and when some twenty feet away from a base, he would make a great feet-first plunge. His hip would strike the ground about the time his feet reached the base bag, and, rebounding, he would come to a standing position, fully prepared to continue his chase around the bases."

(The National Game)

Mike Griffin


On April 16, 1887, Michael J. Griffin stepped to the plate in the first inning of a game between the Baltimore and Philadelphia clubs of the American Association. In his first major league at-bat, Griffin would enter the record books by homering off Philadelphia's Ed Seward. Griffin became either the first or second player to homer in his first major league at-bat. (George Tebeau of Cincinnati also accomplished the feat on the same day. Research has yet to determine which was "officially" first.) While it wasn't a portent of Griffin becoming a great home run hitter, that first time rounding the bases was the beginning of one of the finest careers in 19th century major league baseball.

Sever has picked a guy who knows how to cross home plate. His career average of .94 runs per game is #6 on the all-time list. In 1889, he scored 1.11 runs per game! In his 12 major league seasons, Griffin scored 100 runs ten times, a mark reached by only 17 players in history. Of these, only two of those eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame have not been inducted-Mike Griffin and George Van Haltren. He also accomplished the equally rare feat of averaging more than a run a game in six different seasons.

Griffin was often called the finest center fielder of his era. Five times he led the National League in fielding percentage for outfielders. He also led in putouts three times. His 3.0 range factor in 1891 and 1894 ranks second on the Dodger all-time list behind Jigger Statz's 3.16 in 1917. Bill James rates him as the 45th best CF.

When Charles Ebbets released him rather than pay him the $3500 he was owed, Griffin refused to report to Cleveland. Instead, he challenged Ebbets in court and won. He never played again.

In April of 1908, Griffin became ill with pneumonia, and his condition rapidly deteriorated. On April 10, the 43-year-old Griffin passed away.

Turkey Mike Donlin and Ossee Schreckengost



From The National Game, 1911:

Mike Donlin(top), who, with McGraw, Mathewson and Bresnahan three years ago formed the backbone of the NY Giants, has probably quit the game for good.

He and his wife, Mabel Hite, are now in vaudeville.

Donlin came to the St. Louis team ten years ago as a pitcher, but Ed McKeon was all to the bad and Mike was put in to play short-stop that Sunday. Say! But he was a wonder! The whole town was talking about the sensational work of the southpaw short-stop.

But the next day and the next-a difference. Mike bruised the fences with balls he kicked out of the diamond. Then he was tried at first. Not much better there, though the way he could slam the horsehide had the fans daffy with delight.

Mike won further fame by giving Schreckenghost (sic) (bottom left) a fine licking one evening while the team was about to start a trip. Schreck said Mike had a million dollar arm and a ten-cent head. No good Irishman could stand that from a Dutchman, so the fight went on. There was no one but Mike around when it was over.

Mike came from Pennsylvania originally, but as he played ball in California before coming to the National League he is now claimed as a native son by that State. They do that with all the boys who tarry a few minutes in California and then become proficient in any line of sport out there.