Archive | November, 2013

Lost Advertisements–25 Pictures of the Baseball Stars

15 Nov

bostonstoreadAn April 1917 advertisement for the Boston Store baseball card set at the chain’s Chicago store located on Madison Street between State and Dearborn. The 200 card set was sold in groups of 25 for 2 cents. This ad was for cards numbers 1 through 25.

 

bostonstore

“Most every Fan will want a set, and surely every boy in town will–for baseball is destined to be more popular than ever before.  Here are 25 pictures, each size 3 1/4 x 2 inches, that look exactly like photographs, all new and up-to-date, of the most popular players at the very low price of 2 cents.

“You won’t take a quarter or more for the set once you see it.  Special to-day on Seventh Floor (No Mail or Telephone Orders Filled).  While 5,000 sets last at the extremely low price of 2 cents for the set of 25 pictures.”

 

Joe Benz, Chicago White Sox, Boston Store card

Joe Benz, Chicago White Sox, Boston Store card

The Boston Store card reverse

The Boston Store card reverse

 

The First 25:

Sam Agnew

Grover C. Alexander

W.E. Alexander

Leon Ames

Fred Anderson

Ed Appleton

Jimmy Archer

Jimmy Austin

Jim Bagby

H.D. Baird

Frank Baker

Dave Bancroft

Jack Barry

Joe Benz

Al Betzel

Ping Bodie

Joe Boehling

Eddie Burns

George Burns

George J. Burns

Joe Bush

Owen Bush

Bobbie Byrne

Forrest Cady

Max Carey

 

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“I’d be Perfectly Willing to Split with Uncle Sam”

14 Nov

In 1915, The Chicago Eagle reported on the difficulty the government was having “getting at the facts,” in order to collect income taxes from ballplayers after the passage of the 16th Amendment two years earlier.   But the paper predicted that  players in the three major leagues “will pay into the internal revenue department something like $5,000 in income tax.”  Five thousand dollars total.

“But for the fact that 50 per cent of the players in the American, National and Federal leagues are married and thereby permitted to claim an exemption of $4,000 in salary, the sum exacted by the government would be considerably greater.”

The Eagle said there were approximately 300 players in the three leagues who earned more than $3000 per season and were subject to pay income tax, but half of those were exempt because they were married and could claim an exemption up to $4,000.

“(T)here are about 200 who earn more than $4,000.  There are close to 100 who draw more than $5,000 and 50 whose contracts call for amounts ranging between $6,000 and $10,000.  There are less than a dozen who make more than that.  The notable ones are Eddie Collins, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Walter Johnson and a few managers.  (John) McGraw is reputed to make $25,000 in salary.”

Tris Speaker was “the hardest hit” bachelor.  At a salary of $15,000 Speaker was taxed on $12,000 and paid income taxes for the year totaling $120.

Tris Speaker "hardest hit"

Tris Speaker “hardest hit”

Frank “Home Run” Baker of the Philadelphia athletics, who earned between $8,000 and $9,000, and was sitting out the 1915 season in a salary dispute said regarding his teammate Eddie Collins, who earned $15,000:

“Still, if they raise mine up to that of Eddie Collins I’ll be perfectly willing to split with Uncle Sam.”

Frank "Home Run" Baker, "willing to split with Uncle Sam"

Frank “Home Run” Baker, “willing to split with Uncle Sam”

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“I Consider him a Weak, Foolish Talker”

13 Nov

Bill Phyle was a no-show.  He failed to appear before Southern Association President William Kavanaugh at the league’s hearing regarding his charges that the end of the 1903 season was fixed.  After the league suspended him he failed to appear in St. Louis to defend his charges in front of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (NAPBL).  He claimed he was too ill to attend either meeting.

As a result he was expelled from organized baseball in October of 1903.  His appeal was denied in December.

Phyle had very few supporters by the time his fate was settled by the NAPBL, but he still had at least one—kind of:  Milwaukee Brewers Manager “Pongo” Joe Cantillon, the man who sold Phyle’s contract to the Memphis Egyptians.

Joe Cantillon

Joe Cantillon

Cantillon told William A. Phelon of The Chicago Daily News that his former player wasn’t too bright, but that he also wasn’t wrong:

“I consider him a weak, foolish talker, who opened his head when it did not do him any good.  Just the same, Billy Phyle had cause for the charges which he made, and I got it good and straight that there was work done in the Southern league last season which was on the scandalous pattern.”

Cantillon stopped short of saying the season was fixed—but not very far short:

“Understand I do not say, neither does Phyle charge, that any games were sold, or that either manager or club owners were in on any such deals.   Even though there are thousands who say—apparently with mighty good reason—that the league is crooked, always has been crooked since it started, and always will be crooked—I do not accuse anyone of selling out.”

Cantillon then came pretty close to accusing Atlanta of selling out:

“This is the way the thing was done—and if anybody wants to howl I’ll show the goods and produce the names.  When Memphis was playing Atlanta it was a case of anything to beat out Little Rock.  The Atlanta players, knowing that their only chances had gone glimmering, were anxious to help their friend’s to beat Mike Finn’s gang (Little Rock).  There was no sell out and there were no intentional errors—nothing so gross and coarse as that.  But a couple of the best regulars on the Atlanta team were laid off; a couple of substitutes were put in their places; a raw, unseasoned amateur was sent in to pitch, and then, to make assurances doubly sure, the Atlanta catcher told each Memphis batsman just what to expect as he came to the plate.”

Cantillon also said the Birmingham Barons were “trying to help (Little Rock) along,” and:

“Every player in the league was dead wise to the whole situation, but Billy Phyle was the only man who was foolish enough to open his face, and he got soaked proper.”

Cantillon claimed to “positively know” that Phyle had been sick, and that was the only reason he failed to appear to substantiate his claims in front the league and the NAPBL.  Regardless, he said Phyle would have had a difficult time:

“Even if he had been able to attend, what show would he have had, with every manager determined to clear his own skirts and swat Bill for the squeal he made?”

Cantillon challenged anyone in the Southern Association to refute his allegations.

In February of 1904 Cantillon cancelled a scheduled spring tour of the South and Phelon said in The Daily News that Southern Association teams had refused to play against Brewers.

The following month Clark Griffith, who was in the South with the New York Highlanders, told The Atlanta Constitution that Cantillon was “ a nice fellow,” who “had been misquoted and had not authorized the interview, and in fact knew nothing of it until it appeared in the press.”

Cantillon himself never directly denied his statement, but The Constitution, content to keep the focus of Southern wrath on Phyle was happy to give the Milwaukee manager a pass:

“(Griffith’s claim) puts a new light on the question and it is very probable that he has been judged too harshly in the south…Phyle as a baseball issue is now dead.  Any effort to revive him and bring him forward on the stage either as a hero suffering persecution or a sick man worrying his life out by the blacklist hanging over him, will meet with the opposition of every paper in the south.”

Phyle went to Toledo and spent the spring and summer wiring Southern Association President Kavanaugh asking for reinstatement so his contract could be assigned to the Mud Hens.  After his application was rejected in May, and again in July, Phyle joined the independent Youngstown Ohio Works team.  The team played exhibition games that summer with the Brooklyn Superbas and Pittsburgh Pirates—both National League clubs were fined $100 for playing against the blacklisted Phyle.

(Some sources list Phyle as a member of the 1904 Johnstown Johnnies in the independent Pennsylvania League, but several Pennsylvania newspapers, including The Williamsport Gazette and The Scranton  Republican said in August “Phyle turned down a $225 per month offer from Johnstown.”)

Phyle became part of another scandal in 1905.

Bill Phyle

Bill Phyle

Youngstown joined the newly formed Ohio-Pennsylvania League, and needed to submit a roster to the NAPBL for approval.  Phyle’s name did not appear on the submitted list, but he played third base for the club all season, including an exhibition with the Cincinnati Reds on August 31. Youngstown was fined $500 in mid September and ordered to release Phyle.  Cincinnati was fined $100.

Phyle was finally reinstated in February of 1906, after he submitted a letter to the directors of the Southern Association retracting all of his 1903 allegations.

His contract was assigned to the Nashville Volunteers who sold him to the Kansas City Blues in the American Association.  After hitting .295 in 72 games, Phyle got one last trip to the National League.  He was traded to the St. Louis; he hit just .178 for the Cardinals.  He retired after playing three years in the Eastern League with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1907-1909.

More than twenty years later Joe Cantillon was apparently forgiven in the South.  He managed the Little Rock Travelers to back-to-back eighth place finishes in 1926 and 1927.

The rest of Bill Phyle’s story next week.

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“The Montgomery Team Threw to us Three Games by Arrangement”

12 Nov

The Southern Association kicked off their 1903 season assuming things couldn’t help but go better than the previous year.  The actions of Memphis Egyptians owner/manager Charlie Frank—who continued to put players in the Memphis line up who had been blacklisted by the league—had thrown the season into chaos.  The situation became so contentious that the headline in The Atlanta Constitution said after the final day of the season:

  To The Relief of All the Season is Now Over

A post season agreement restored the league—and made Frank even a greater power in the league.

As part of the settlement Frank received an estimated $5000 which he immediately put towards building a contender for 1903.

Frank built a good team and continued to improve it; as the team battled for the pennant in the final month the roster included veterans Perry Werden, Joe Delehanty, and Charles “Dusty” Miller.

In July he paid a reported $2500 to the Milwaukee Brewers in the American Association for outfielder Sam Dungan, pitcher Ray “Dad” Hale and third baseman Bill Phyle; Frank named Phyle team captain.

Bill Phyle

Bill Phyle

Frank’s team finished strong and edged out the second place Little Rock Travelers on the final day of the season; Memphis beat the Atlanta Crackers 9 to 5 in front of 7500 fans—the then largest ever crowd at Atlanta’s Red Elm Park.

The final standings

The final standings

The following week Little Rock defeated Memphis 3 games to 2 in a best of five series; the Southern Association season appeared to have come to peaceful close on September 28, 1903.

That changed two days later.

Newspapers across the South reported on serious charges that were being made in Memphis.  The Associated Press said:

“According to statements made by William Phyle, former National League player and this year a captain of the pennant-winning Memphis team…the Memphis club won first honors by inducing players on the opposing team to ‘throw’ the final (series).”

Phyle told reporters the scheme began earlier in September:

“The Montgomery team (Black Sox) threw to us three games by arrangement, but Little Rock kept on winning and kept it close on out heals.  I knew that Birmingham (Barons) threw to Little Rock too.  Then the deciding and final game of the season between Memphis and Atlanta arrived, and we had to win the last two games to keep the lead.  Two of the Atlanta pitchers were given $25 each to allow Memphis to win…and another player was also bought.  We won one game by (George) Winters misjudging a fly that allowed (Ted) Breitenstein a three-bagger and the deciding run.”

Winters error came in the second to last game; he was absent from the final game of the season.

Phyle later told an Atlanta reporter that the pitchers who were paid off were Frank “Zeke” Wilson and John Ely.  Charlie Frank, who had just announced he was leaving Memphis to take control of the New Orleans Pelicans, denied the charges and claimed Phyle was simply angry over a “dispute involving money.”

Zeke Wilson

Zeke Wilson

Phyle also said the five-game post season series was “prearranged, so that the deciding game was played in Memphis before a Sunday crowd.”

League President William Kavanaugh scheduled a meeting in Memphis for October 17 to investigate the charges, and Phyle went to West Baden, Indiana.

Phyle demanded travel expenses to return to Memphis for the meeting, he initially claimed that the money the league wired came too late. Then Kavanaugh ordered him, by telegram, to “catch the first train for Memphis,” Phyle refused, now claiming he was ill.

The meeting was held without Phyle.  Zeke Wilson testified that he had received $50 from Charlie Frank, but that it was given to him after the season in order to secure his release from Atlanta.  He said he intended to sign with Frank in New Orleans (he ended up signing with Montgomery in 1905, but joined Frank in New Orleans in 1905).

As for Winters, who made the error that allowed Memphis to win the second to last game and was absent for the final game, The Sporting Life said that charge was “very easily explained.” It was claimed he failed to appear in the final game because of a dispute with Atlanta management over transportation money.

Managers Lew Whistler of Montgomery and Michael “Duke” Finn of Little Rock denied that either club was involved in “anything crooked.”  John Ely did not appear but sent a letter denying all charges.

Without Phyle in attendance to provide his evidence the league “exonerated all clubs and players mentioned in his charges,” and suspended Phyle indefinitely.

Next Phyle was ordered to St. Louis to defend his charges before the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues.  He again failed to appear.

On October 25 Bill Phyle was expelled indefinitely from professional baseball.

The following week he appealed the decision; claiming his illness was the only reason he failed to appear and that if allowed “he will appear and substantiate the charges which he has made.”

He was never given another opportunity to present his case.  His appeal was denied in December.

Tomorrow: More on Bill Phyle.

The 1903 Memphis Egyptians--

The 1903 Memphis Egyptians–Bill Phyle is number 11, Joe Delehanty 2, Perry Werden 4, “Dusty” Miller 12, Ted Breitenstein 13, Charlie Frank, bottom left with bow tie

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Veteran’s Day–Leonard A. Wattelet

11 Nov

Leonard A. Wattelet‘s professional career lasted just two games as a 19-year-old with the Seattle Siwashes in the Pacific Coast League in 1906.  He continued playing in amateur and semi-professional leagues in Texas and California, until 1911 when he gave up playing for management, and purchased an interest in the Victoria Bees in the newly formed Northwestern League.

The Sporting Life called him “the youngest magnate in baseball,” and during his first two seasons with the organization he served as secretary, business manager and treasurer of the team and became president after the 1912 season.

Wattelet and his partner sold the team at the beginning of the 1914 season, and he remained a club executive through the end of the 1915 season.

In August of 1917 he was commissioned a captain in the Officer’s Reserve Corps and sent to Camp Lewis, Washington where he was placed in charge of the camp’s baseball program.

Leonard A. Wattelet, second from left with other sports directors at Camp Lewis 1917

Leonard A. Wattelet, second from left with other sports directors at Camp Lewis 1917

Many current and former big leaguers played at Camp Lewis under his leadership including; Ralph “Hap” Myers, Jim “Death Valley” Scott, John “Red” Oldham, John “Duster” Mails, Lou Guisto, Charlie Mullen, Harry Kingman,  Charles “King” Schmutz, and dozens of West Coast professionals.

In 1918 Wattelet went to France with the 364th Infantry Regiment, 91st Division, U.S. Army.  On October 31, 1918 he was killed in action and was buried at Flanders Field American Cemetery in Belgium.

Word of his death did not reach the states until December 7.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Lost Pictures–1916 Champions of Chicago’s City League

8 Nov
1916bankers

The 1916 Fort Dearborn National Bank team

According to The Chicago Examiner, in 1916 there were “more than 2000 amateur teams in Chicago, representing an army of from 18,000 to 25,000 young Americans who believe in clean living and wholesome athletic diversion.”  The team from the Fort Dearborn National Bank was the best.

On August 6 the Fort Dearborn’s beat out The First National Bank of Chicago team for the Bankers League Championship in August.  They next won Chicago’s month-long City League Championship elimination series, beating The Illinois Toll Company 10-1 in the championship game on September 2.

The team traveled to Des Moines, Iowa where they were defeated two games to one by the Des Moines Gas Company team and eliminated from the National Baseball Federation tournament, which was eventually won by the “Norwoods,” a powerful semi-pro team from Norwood, Ohio, who also won the tournament in 1917.

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Clark Griffith “Convinced me of the Knuckle Ball’s Effectiveness”

7 Nov

As with most 19th Century players, Bill Lange had had several criticisms of players who came later, particularly the “batsmen of the present time,” when he spoke to a reporter from The Chicago Inter Ocean in 1909;  but unlike many of his contemporaries he thought some aspects of the game were better.  He said players were better behaved and were in better condition; he also believed pitching had improved:

“We old timers were a long time in believing there was anything in the so-called spit ball.  But results have forced us to admit its existence and its power to deceive.  Now they are talking about the knuckle or finger nail ball.  For a long time I supposed that was a joke.  But just this morning I had a letter from Clark Griffith, telling about a discussion he had with (Cap) Anson during the schedule meeting at Chicago over the knuckle ball.  Griff ought to know what he is talking about, and he convinced me of the knuckle ball’s effectiveness but his argument with Anse must have been funny.

“You know Anse has to be shown on every proposition.  Griffith told him that (Ed) Summers of the Detroit team had the best command of the knuckle ball and that it came up to the plate in such a peculiar manner that it fooled not only the batsmen, but the catchers too.

“’That’s all rot,’ Anson said to Griffith, but Griff came back with the willingness to bet Anson $100 that Anse couldn’t catch three out of five knuckle balls as thrown by Summers.  Anson jumped at the chance and took the wager, and it will be decided sometime this year, if Summers, Anson and Griffith happen to be in the same city at the same time.

“I guess Griff will win the money, for he told me in his letter that he couldn’t catch half the balls Summers had thrown to him in practice.  I can hardly believe any pitcher has such a funny delivery as that.  Of course, if the knuckle ball worked all the time, there wouldn’t be any hitting at all.”

Al Summers has his arm worked on by Tiger trainer Harry Tuthill, first baseman Del Gainer looks on.

Al Summers has his arm worked on by Tiger trainer Harry Tuthill, first baseman Del Gainer looks on.

There’s no record that the wager was ever decided.

Clark Griffith

Clark Griffith

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“In the ‘90s Nobody ever Thought Anything of telling the Manager to go Chase Himself”

6 Nov

Bill Lange played only seven seasons in the National League—all with Chicago–but his reputation lived on long after he walked away from the game in 1899 at 28 years-old.  Two of his biggest supporters, Connie Mack and Clark Griffith, remained influential until their deaths in the mid 1950s, and both helped to keep Lange’s legend alive until his death in 1950.

Long after his retirement to enter the insurance and real estate business in his native San Francisco, Lange remained extremely popular in Chicago;  he was frequently quoted by Chicago sportswriters (most often his friend Hugh Fullerton), and was even retained The Chicago Examiner’s  “World Series expert” in the early and mid teens.

Bill Lange

Bill Lange

In 1909, when the White Sox were training in San Francisco, Lange told a reporter for The Chicago Inter Ocean that “the batsmen of the present time had not advanced in any way” over the hitters of his day—and Lange felt they took too many pitches:

“I have noticed that the habit nowadays is to be altogether too scientific.  And that science is ruining the batters.  There used to be such things as .400 hitters in the big leagues and now the managers are spending fortunes in the hopes of finding a .250 hitter.  The reason they are so hard to find is because the batsmen don’t follow their natural inclinations to wallop the ball, but stall around at the plate in the artificial hope of drawing a pass instead of breaking a board in the back fence.

“No batter, who has any eye at all, ought ever to wait when he has three balls and one strike on him, unless the pitcher is uncommonly wild.  Think of the advantage of hitting when three balls have been called.  You are dead sure that the next one will be over the plate if the pitcher can get it there.  If he doesn’t, let it go and take your base.  But if you let a good one go then you are up against another proposition.

“Then the batsman is in a worse hole than the pitcher and his chances of making a safe hit are at least 4 to 1 against him, for a nervy pitcher will take a chance on a curve or a high one in the hope of making the batsman bite.  He wouldn’t dare do that very often when the count was only three and one.  The batsman who waits too long is just giving himself the worst of the deal.”

Unlike many players of his generation, Lange did note that some aspects of the game had improved since he played:

“We didn’t hustle like the players of the today do.  We would shirk morning practice all the time, so we could sleep late.  And take it from me, a lot of us needed the sleep, for most all of the boys belonged to the Ancient Order of Owls.

“The teams of today report at the grounds at 9:30 in the morning and work to beat the band for two hours. In the old days, after we had stalled the manager off as long as possible, we would finally show up for morning practice.  I don’t know all the systems the players on other teams had for dodging morning work, but with the old Chicago bunch we left it up to (Bill) Dahlen to break up the practice after about ten minutes of hustling.

“Dahlen could turn the trick might easily.  All he had to do was whiz four or five low throws at Anson’s shins.  ‘Pop’ used to bawl Dahlen out for a few minutes, but Bill would keep up the bum throwing until Anse would say ‘Enough.’  Nothing like that goes in the big or small leagues now.  It is a question of work and buckle down to business.  In the ‘90s nobody ever thought anything of telling the manager to go chase himself.  I haven’t heard of anybody doing anything like that in late years, and getting away with it.”

Bill Dahlen

Bill Dahlen

Lange on pitching, tomorrow.

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Bowerman by TKO

5 Nov

“The Popular Magazine,” a literary magazine that billed itself as a “magazine for men and women who like to read about men,” was published by Street & Smith from 1903 until 1931.

In 1904, the magazine told the story of a fight the previous season involving New York Giants catcher Frank Bowerman.

Frank Bowerman

Frank Bowerman

Bowerman was not kept by Fred Clarke when the Pirates and Louisville Colonels merged after the 1899 season; his contract was assigned to the  Giants.  Apparently some bad blood remained into 1903, and according to the magazine, Giants manager John McGraw used Bowerman’s grudge and some comments made by Clarke to try to light a fire under his team:

“When the Giants were in Pittsburgh (on June 1) last season McGraw noticed that there was bad feeling in the team.  The men stood in little knots in the hotel corridor glowering at other players; they rode to the field in a bus without exchanging a word; the preliminary practice, usually so brilliant, was dull and lifeless.  This worried McGraw.”

John McGraw

John McGraw

The article said McGraw had figured out the cause a few days later in Chicago; Bowerman had sat in the grandstand for that June 1 game, being unable to play due to an injured thumb.  Jack Warner caught Christy Mathewson that day.  What McGraw discovered was that Clarke said Bowerman was overheard criticizing Warner’s work behind the plate, blaming his teammate for one of the two runs scored off of Mathewson:

“This, of course, was tantamount to Bowerman’s asserting his superiority over Warner, a boast that ballplayers are rarely guilty of.”

McGraw cornered Bowerman who insisted Clarke had told “the meanest lie that ever was told, and I told Jack Warner so, but he don’t believe it.”  McGraw told him to keep quiet about it until the Pirates visited New York on June 26.

“(McGraw) proceeded to reinject that esprit de corps by a measure so drastic that it horrified ball patrons all over the country, who, however, thought it merely an incident of the brutality of ballplayers.  Instead of that, it was a well-planned scheme of a crafty general.”

When the Pirates arrived at the Polo Grounds on the morning of the 26th, McGraw took Bowerman aside:

“’Frank, have you got a good right swing?’  The Michigan Lumberman smiled grimly and clenched a fist knotted and as hard as Hercules’ war club.  ‘Well, it’s up to you, then,’ advised McGraw, “to put life in the team. Don’t lose any time.’ Bowerman understood.

“”’I’d like to speak to you a minute,’ he said to Clarke, as the Pittsburgh captain was passing through the gate on his way to the clubhouse.  They went into the stuffy box office; where there was hardly room to swing a cat.  Three times Bowerman demanded an explanation, offering to bring McGraw and Warner in as witnesses…Clarke went down three times and finally admitted he had enough…The Giants played that day, to use the expression of a rooter, as though they were ‘fighting their weight in wildcats.’  Bowerman and Warner coached each other with pet names, and walked lovingly from the victorious field arm in arm, while Fred Clarke was buying a pound of raw beef.”

Fred Clarke

Fred Clarke

“The Popular Magazine” story added an element that differed from the coverage in New York and Pittsburgh newspapers—while each town pointed fingers at the other (in Pittsburgh Bowerman was an out of control thug, while in New York, Clarke got what he deserved for stirring up trouble) no one else suggested that McGraw engineered the fight to motivate his club against the first place Pirates.

The Giants weren’t able to catch Pittsburgh, finishing in second place six and a half games behind the Pirates.

National League President Harry Pulliam initially announced that there would be no punishment for either player because the fight did not take place on the field, three weeks later, under pressure from Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss, Pulliam fined Bowerman $100.

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“He Used to Knock Down Infielders”

4 Nov

William Alexander “Bill” Lange is best known for a play that likely never happened.  The legend was that he had made a spectacular catch that culminated with the Chicago Colts’ outfielder crashing through the left-field fence in Washington in an 1897 game with the Senators.  It is most likely another in a long line of exaggerations and apocryphal stories from Lange’s friend, Chicago sportswriter Hugh Fullerton—a story that first appeared in that paper with no byline in 1903, but was repeated by Fullerton many times in later years.   A nice analysis of that story appears here.

Bill Lang, seated fourth from left, with 1896 Chicago Colts

Bill Lang, seated fourth from left, with 1896 Chicago Colts

Lange played just seven seasons, retiring after the 1899 season at age 28 to join his father-in-law in the insurance and real estate business in San Francisco.

During the spring of 1900, The Chicago Daily News said “The wise ones in the baseball business” were certain he’d be back, including Chicago’s manager Tom Loftus and President James Hart, and Charlie Comiskey, “’When the season opens and the sun warms up he can’t stay away,’ remarks Comiskey, with a knowing wink.”

Despite the certainty that he would, Lange never returned.

Lange, who stole 400 career bases, was called “Little Eva” because of his gracefulness.  In 1909 Billy Sunday called him “the greatest outfielder in baseball history.”  Connie Mack called him the best base-runner he ever saw.  In fact,  Mack and Clark Griffith considered Lange so good that they petitioned the Hall of Fame in 1940 to change the “rules (which) restrict membership to players of the twentieth century” in order to allow for Lange’s induction.

Griffith said Lange was “the best outfielder that ever played behind me:”

“Lange here was rougher base-stealer than (Billy) Hamilton.  He used to knock down infielders.  Once I saw him hit a grounder to third base.  He should have been out, but he knocked down the first baseman.

“Then he knocked down the second and third baseman and scored.  Connie Mack was the catcher.  No he didn’t knock Connie down because he didn’t have to.”

Mack told the same story over the years.

Lange never made the Hall of Fame.  He died in 1950.

Bill Lange 1931

Bill Lange 1931

In his final years the story about the “catch” had become so ingrained in the legend of Bill Lange that other players told essentially the same story Fullerton did (the most widely disseminated versions appeared in “The American Magazine” in 1909 and in Johnny Evers‘ book “Touching Second,” coauthored by Fullerton), but inserted themselves into the story.  In 1946 Griffith told reporters:

“It happened right here in Washington, I was pitching for Chicago.  Bill missed the train from New York, and arrived in the fourth inning.  We were then with the Chicago Colts and Cap Anson fined Lange $100 before he put him in the game.

“I had a one-run lead when Al (“Kip”) Selbach of Washington hit a terrific drive.  Lange ran back hard, and when he crashed into the wooden fence his 210 pounds took him right through the planks.

“He caught the ball at the same time and held it.  All we could see were his feet sticking through the fence and Bill’s arm holding the ball.  When he came back to the bench, he handed the ball to Anson and said:

‘This ought to cancel that $100 fine.’ It did too.”

When Lange died Griffith said:

“I have seen all the other great outfielders—Speaker, Cobb, DiMaggio –in action and I consider Bill Lange the equal of, if not better than, all outfielders of all time.  There wasn’t anything he couldn’t do.”

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