BASEBALL'S DYNASTIES AND THE PLAYERS WHO BUILT THEM Omitted Bios (Chapter 5 Boston Red Sox 1915-1918)

This installment of my omitted biography series features the fifth chapter of my latest book, Baseball's Dynasties and the Players Who Built Them, which is being released in July. This is actually one of my favorite chapters since it deals with a period of Babe Ruth's career that has been somewhat overlooked--his years as a pitcher. Though I have been a fan of the Yankees for most of my life, I find the history of the Red Sox fascinating. I love the fact that they still play in the same stadium that hosted three World Series during the late-Deadball Era. Ernie Shore's thumbnail bio did not make the final cut in this chapter. Though I find his brief career to be quite interesting, his contributions to the Red Sox were somewhat minimal compared to the higher profile players around him.    

BOSTON RED SOX
(1915-1918)

BEST RECORD 101-50 (1915)
NUMBER OF PENNANTS: 3
NUMBER OF CHAMPIONSHIPS: 3 (1915, 1916, 1918)
HALL OF FAMERS: Tris Speaker (OF), Harry Hooper (OF), Babe Ruth (P/OF), Herb Pennock (P)

OMITTED BIO

Ernie Shore

 Pitcher

            Baseball officials giveth—Baseball officials taketh away…

            Ernie Shore became famous for pitching a perfect game that was later downgraded. On June 23, 1917, Babe Ruth started the first game of a doubleheader against the Senators. He walked lead-off hitter Ray Morgan on four pitches and disagreed with every call. After the fourth offering was determined to be outside the strike zone, Ruth went ballistic, throwing a punch at home plate umpire Brick Owens. The Babe was ejected and Shore was summoned in relief. Ray Morgan was promptly thrown out trying to steal by catcher Sam Agnew and Shore retired all 26 batters he faced. AL president William Harridge recognized Shore’s performance as a perfect game and numerous statistical sources followed suit. But in 1991, major league baseball officially changed the game’s status to a “combined no-hitter” (an unfortunate turn of events since Ruth deserved virtually no credit). Shore wasn’t alive to learn of this development though it would have been very interesting to hear his reaction.

            A North Carolina native, Shore graduated from Guilford College and taught math in the offseason to supplement his income. Originally scouted by the Giants, he pitched just one inning for them in a 1912 mop-up assignment that went poorly. Demoted to the International League, he was sold to the Red Sox along with Oriole teammate Babe Ruth in 1914.

            For the era, Shore was considered quite tall at six-foot-four. He played for the Red Sox from 1914-1917, winning at least 10 games every year while posting earned run averages ranging from 1.64 to 2.63. His best season came in 1915, when he compiled a 19-8 record with 4 shutouts and 17 complete games. Over the next two seasons, he would add 29 more victories to his career totals.

            Shore was masterful in the postseason. He pitched in two World Series for the Red Sox, compiling a 3-1 record. His most dominant start came in Game 5 of the 1916 Fall Classic, when he held Brooklyn to 3 hits and 1 unearned run as the Sox clinched the Series.

            In December of 1918, Shore was sent to the Yankees with Dutch Leonard and Duffy Lewis in exchange for four players and cash. Shore hardly pulled his own weight, compiling a 7-10 record in thirty-four games with New York. He found himself in the Pacific Coast League during the 1921 slate and got hit hard in 19 appearances. It was the end of his professional career.  

When his playing days were over, he ran his own insurance company for awhile and was later elected Sheriff of Forsyth County in N0rth Carolina. He held that job until 1970. In later years, he groused about the smaller dimensions of ballparks and commented that under modern conditions, Babe Ruth would have hit 80 or 90 homers instead of the 60 he ended up with in 1927. During Roger Maris’s 1961 assault on Ruth’s single-season record, Shore commented: “I’d hate to see the Babe’s record get broken. I guess most of the old timers do. It’s one of the great records in baseball”

Shore lived to the ripe age of eighty-nine, passing away in 1980.  

 

BASEBALL'S DYNASTIES AND THE PLAYERS WHO BUILT THEM: Omitted Bios (Chapter 4 Philadelphia A's 1910-1914)

Greetings! For anyone just tuning in, I've decided to share some of the biographies that didn't make the final cut in my latest book release. In this installment, we'll be taking a look at the Philadelphia A's of the late-Deadball Era. My reasons for shortening the book were twofold. First and foremost, I wanted to reduce the cover price. Secondly, I was bending to the publisher's will, which was to focus more on higher profile players. There were two thumbnail bios omitted from this particular chapter and you'll find them below. These men ended up getting the axe because neither played a significant role in the A's pennant-winning seasons of 1913/'14.

 

PHILADELPHIA A'S

(1910-1914)

Best Record: 102-48 (1910)

Number of Pennants: 4

Number of Championships: 3 (1910, 1911, 1913)

Hall of Famers: Connie Mack (Mgr.), Frank "Home Run" Baker (3B), Eddie Collins (2B), Eddie Plank (P), Chief Bender (P)

OMITTED BIOS

Jack Coombs

Pitcher

            As a boy, Coombs’s family moved him from Iowa to Maine. In high school, he was a multi-sport star. He attended Colby College and played every position on the diamond while leading the team to multiple championships. He spent his summers playing semi-pro ball in various New England locations. Upon graduating in 1906, he put off further studies at MIT to play for the A’s.

            In his ’06 major league debut, Coombs twirled a 7-hit shutout. His most memorable start of the year came in September, when he ended up on the winning end of a 24-inning pitching duel with Boston’s rookie starter Joe Harris. He was plagued by arm trouble near season’s end and the malady followed him into his sophomore campaign.

            In 1908, Coombs began the season in right field. A switch-hitter, he got off to a hot start, but ended up on the bench when his average fell to .215. In the second half, he resumed pitching responsibilities, compiling a 7-5 record with a handsome 2.00 ERA. He was a mainstay in the A’s rotation during the 1909 slate, making 30 appearances while winning 12 of 22 decisions.  

            In the spring of 1910, Coombs lost his effectiveness and was briefly removed from the rotation. He returned a completely different pitcher, finishing the season with a remarkable total of 31 victories. His 13 shutouts that year are still an American League record. Polishing off one of the finest efforts of the twentieth century, he tossed three complete game victories over the Cubs in the World Series.

            Coombs’s ERA rose to 3.53 in 1911, but he still won 28 games, leading the league for the second straight season. Fittingly, he was on the mound for the A’s pennant-clinching victory in late-September. In the World Series, he prevailed against Christy Mathewson in Game 3 then came within one out of another win in Game 5 before the Giants rallied to tie the score in the bottom of the ninth. Coombs had pulled a groin muscle in the sixth, but refused to be taken out of the game. In the top of the tenth, he aggravated the injury beating out a bunt. He was replaced by Hall of Famer Eddie Plank, who surrendered the winning run. The A’s won the Series the following day at Philadelphia.

            Coombs was still hampered by a sore groin in 1912. Though he sat out for a full month, he won 21 games anyway. The rest of his career in Philly was star-crossed. He became extremely ill with typhoid fever in 1913 and missed most of the season. He lost over fifty pounds and came close to death. His recovery was slow as he sat out all but two late-season games in 1914. On the heels of the A’s humiliating Series loss that year, Coombs was released.

            The resilient right-hander had two more good seasons for the Brooklyn Robins in 1915-’16, notching a 28-18 record in that span. He was hailed by one writer as the “greatest comeback pitcher in the history of baseball.” He served as manager of the Phillies in 1919, but resigned after an 18-44 start. In 1920, he coached for the Tigers and relieved in two games. They were the last major league appearances of his career.

            Upon retiring, he coached college baseball for several schools, most notably Duke University from 1929-1952. He authored an instructional baseball book that became a standard reference manual. In his later years, he conducted an annual baseball clinic for high school players and coaches in Palestine, Texas. He died in 1957 at age seventy-four.

Danny Murphy

 Second Base/ Outfield

            Born in Philadelphia, Murphy joined the A’s in 1902. He was hitting .462 through 49 games in the Connecticut State League when Connie Mack signed him as a replacement for Napoleon Lajoie. In his first major league game, Murphy closely resembled his predecessor as he went 6-for-6 at the plate with an inside-the-park homer off of Cy Young at Boston. Though his numbers quickly fell back to earth, he was one of Philly’s most reliable players for many years.

            Murphy remained at second base until 1908, when Eddie Collins arrived. By then, he was tremendously popular with fans and his shift to right field was not well received by the Philly faithful. Murphy handled his new job quite well, leading the league in fielding percentage in 1909 and finishing second the following year. Collins gave Murphy a lot of credit for helping him polish his skills at second base.

            Murphy finished among the top ten in homers six times, though he didn’t have much power by today’s standards. During his ten seasons as a first-stringer in Philly, he clubbed 27 or more doubles on eight occasions, peaking at 34 in 1905. A speedster on the bases, he posted double digit stolen base totals in ten straight campaigns.

            During the A’s prime years of 1910-1914, Murphy managed a .300 average every season. He put forth his finest offensive effort in 1911, when he hit .329, scored a career-high 104 runs and collected 44 extra-base hits, 11 of which were triples. He exceeded that number three times in his career.

            Murphy had mixed success in the postseason. He flopped in the 1905 Fall Classic, but was a major contributor in 1910-‘11, scoring 10 runs and driving-in 12 more. Appointed team captain by Connie Mack after the 1911 campaign, Murphy broke his kneecap during a stolen base attempt in June of the following year. He was never the same, though he continued to hit well in a diminished role through the 1913 slate.

            In 1914, Murphy migrated to the Federal League. When the circuit folded after the 1915 slate, he was thirty-eight years old and past his prime. He finished his career with the New Haven Murlins of the Eastern League as a player/manager. He coached for the A’s from 1920-1924.

            In 1929, the Associated Press reported that Murphy had been arrested for vagrancy in Chicago. It turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. The vagrant being arraigned had listed his name as “Danny Murphy” and, when a member of the court erroneously recognized him as the former ballplayer, he began to spin a tall tale about having fallen on hard times after quitting baseball and losing his wife. Judge Samuel Heller was sympathetic, temporarily releasing the imposter. When the story broke, Hall of Famer Eddie Collins contacted the Judge to inform him that the real Murphy was a successful hardware dealer in Jersey City. The charlatan was taken back into police custody and the Associated Press gladly retracted the story.

BASEBALL'S DYNASTIES AND THE PLAYERS WHO BUILT THEM: Omitted Bios (Chapter 2: Pittsburgh Pirates 1901-1903)

Here's the second installment of my omitted biography series. This post features left-handed pitcher Jesse Tannehill. It was a tough decision to leave Mr. Tannehill out of my book, but he did desert the Pirates before their appearance in baseball's first official World Series. Proving they could win without him, the Pirates defeated the Red Sox in a best-of-nine format. Pitchers Sam Leever and Deacon Phillippe, (who are both featured in the book), stepped up during the 1903 regular season, gathering 49 victories between them.

PITTSBURGH PIRATES
(1901-1903)
Best Record: 103-36 (1902)
Number of Pennants: 3
Hall of Fame Players: Honus Wagner (SS), Fred Clarke (OF), Jack Chesbro (P)
Championships: 1 (Baseball's first World Series, 1903)

OMITTED BIO:

JESSE TANNEHILL

Pitcher

             

           The left-handed Tannehill was a top-notch hurler for Pittsburgh from 1898-1902. In that span, he compiled a healthy 107-49 record while keeping his ERA below the 3.00 mark every year. In all, he reached the 20-win threshold four times while wearing a Pirates uniform. Tannehill’s 2.18 earned run average in 1901 was tops in the National League. He posted a personal best of 1.95 the following year, but ended up with a rank of #3 behind Jack Taylor of the Cubs and Noodles Hahn of Cincinnati.

           

           Tannehill’s signature pitch was his curve ball, which was described by one source as “agonizingly slow.” He typically gave up a lot of hits—more than innings pitched in almost every season—and relied heavily on his team’s defense to back him up. He had pinpoint control, averaging less than 2 walks per nine frames over the course of his fifteen-year career. He never surrendered more than 63 bases on balls in any season.

            

In addition to his prowess on the hill, Tannehill was a pretty fair hitter. He batted .255 for his career with 83 extra-base hits in 507 games. A switch-hitter, he accrued an average of .250 or better on seven occasions including a career-high of .336 in 1900. He was so adept with a bat, in fact, that he was used as an outfielder in 87 games and was summoned to pinch-hit a total of fifty-seven times.

During the “war” between the American and National Leagues, rumors surfaced that multiple players from Pittsburgh had been negotiating with AL officials. Tannehill was accused of being a ring leader. This led to an altercation with utility man Jimmy Burke. During the scuffle, Tannehill dislocated his left shoulder. While under the influence of anesthesia, he allegedly admitted to owner Barney Dreyfuss that he had indeed been involved in conversations with AL president Ban Johnson. He offered names of other players involved though he never fingered himself as an instigator.

Tannehill eventually jumped to the American League in 1903, winning 15 games for the Highlanders (later known as the Yankees) in their inaugural season. 1911 was Tannehill’s last year in the big leagues. He continued in the minors until 1913. He later coached for the Phillies.