Tag Archives: Cleveland Naps

Buddy Ryan

15 Oct

During the 1912 season pitcher Bob Groom was having what would be the best season of his career; he was 24-13 with a 2.62 ERA for the Washington Senators.

His former teammate John “Buddy” Ryan was hitting .271 during his first season with the Cleveland Naps.

Groom and Ryan had been teammates with the Portland Beavers in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) in 1908. Ryan claimed that while they played together Groom had nearly quit baseball.  According to The (Portland) Oregonian:

“(Groom) was a most sensitive fellow.  One day we were playing San Francisco and had them 4 to 1 in the sixth inning, when Groom became a trifle wild , Mac (Walter “Judge” McCredie) jerked him after he had filled the bases with none out.  Bobby did not like it and he threw off his glove angrily and walked to the bench made as a wet hen.

According to Ryan, when Groom reached the bench he told McCredie he was through with the “blamed old club” and was going home.  All three San Francisco runners scored, tying the game.  The following inning:

“We got the bases full and (Otis) Ote Johnson up, when Groom ambled dejectedly out of the clubhouse, carrying his little grip with all of his baseball togs and stuff in it.  He got about as far as third base when Ote landed on one for one of those long triples of his, and Bobby forgot about quitting the club and going home, for he threw his cap, grip and everything in the air and yelled ‘Come on you Swede boy, it’s good for three.’ We won the game and Bobby never said a word about going home.”

Bob Groom

Bob Groom

Bob Groom remained in the big leagues through the 1918 season, compiling a 119-150 record with Washington, the St. Louis Brown, Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Terriers in the Federal League.

Buddy Ryan spent just two seasons in the major leagues, hitting .282 as Cleveland’s fourth outfielder in 1912 and 1913.  He returned to the Pacific Coast League and became one of the league’s most popular figures for the next twenty years.

buddyryan1

Buddy Ryan

His unusual wedding made headlines in 1915:

“John F. (Buddy) Ryan, one of the best-known and popular baseball stars on the Coast, was arrested early yesterday morning on a charge of immorality preferred by Deputy District Attorney Richard Ceich. At 2:08 PM he was married by Municipal Judge Stevenson to Miss Ruby Winters and the charge was dismissed.

“Miss Winters, who was at first held as a witness against the ballplayer, has been living with him for nearly 10 years, according to her statement, and has been known as Mrs. Ryan.  She said yesterday that she had asked Buddy to marry her several times.”

Failing that, she had him arrested:

“With Ed Kennedy (Ryan’s former Portland teammate and county jailer), as best man, the two were wedded in the Municipal Courtroom yesterday afternoon.  The bride wept for several minutes following the ceremony.  Mr. and Mrs. Ryan left last night for the training camp of the new Salt Lake Coast League team.”

Ryan had his best season in Salt Lake City in 1915, hitting .340 for the Bees.  That winter he had an emergency appendectomy and developed an infection, the newspaper headlines said his condition was grave: The San Francisco Chronicle said he was “In Very Bad Shape,” The San Bernardino News said “Buddy Ryan Near Death.”

Ryan recovered in time to return to the Bees for the beginning of the 1916 season.  He hit better than .300 the next three seasons, and after the completion of the PCL’s war-shortened 1918 season he played for and managed a team in Seattle’s Puget Sound “Shipyard League.”

He sat out the 1919 season and returned to the PCL in 1920—the rest of his story tomorrow.

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Fred Abbott

9 Oct

Fred Abbott (born Harry Frederick Winbigler) spent more than a decade in the minor leagues before the Cleveland Naps purchased his contract from the New Orleans Pelicans prior to the 1903 season.  The 28-year-old rookie appeared in 77 games for the Naps.

Fred Abbott

Fred Abbott

After his first big league season he told The Cleveland Press about his most embarrassing moment with the Naps:

“I was behind the bat in a game at Washington one day last summer when the batter hit a ball straight up over my head.  I should judge it went nine miles high.  As I tore off my mask a bleacherites flashed the sun’s rays in my eyes by aid of a looking-glass.  It nearly blinded me.

“’I can’t see it,’ I shouted, expecting either (Earl) Moore, who was pitching or Hick (“Cheerful” Charlie Hickman), who was at first, to take the ball.  But neither man stirred.  Instead Cheerful took my latitude and Earl my longitude.

“’Go toward first two steps,’ yelled Moore.  I did.

“’Go back about three feet,’ shouted Hick.  I did.

“Now put your hands straight over your head,’ howled both men in chorus when they had got me placed.  I did.

“And although my eyes were shut tight, the ball dropped straight into my hands.”

Abbott played one more season in Cleveland, and played for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1905.  The Phillies sold his contract to the Toledo Mud Hens in the American Association (AA).

Abbott laid down roots in Toledo.  He played five seasons there and operated a bowling alley and pool hall on Euclid Avenue with his teammate Harry Hinchman; until Hinchman took over as Mud Hens manager.

The Pittsburgh Press said:

“Rather tough on a baseball player when your own business partner releases you and sells your ability to play to a club on the other side of the country? “

Hinchman had succeeded James “Ducky” Holmes as manager late in the 1910 season; Abbott was sold to the Los Angeles Angels in the Pacific Coast League shortly after the season ended:

“One of Hinchman’s first managerial duties was to sell his partner to the Los Angeles club, Hinchman believing that Fred had been connected to the Toledo club too long and that both he and the club would be benefited by the change.”

Abbott wasn’t thrilled, but took the news in stride:

“Gee, I had been in Toledo so long that I had about made up my mind that I was going to die in the harness there…It’s a good move sending me to Los Angeles, but I will have to put in a longer season there than in the AA, and the pay offered is just the same.  I didn’t like that angle to the case very well, but they have got us ballplayers where they want us and I suppose it is up to Fred to run along and play.”

Fred Abbott with Los Angeles Angels 1911

Fred Abbott with Los Angeles Angels 1911

Los Angeles apparently grew on Abbott; he only spent one season with the Angels before retiring, but remained in L.A. until his death in 1935.

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Lost Advertisements–Federal League Notables–Cy Falkenberg

4 Oct

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One in a series of several 1915 advertisements from the Victor Sporting Goods Company featuring Federal League players.  Victor produced the league’s official baseball.

Frederick “Cy” Falkenberg made one of baseball’s great comebacks.  After an injury plagued 1911 season (8-5 in just fifteen games) the Cleveland Naps sold Falkenberg’s contract to the Toledo Mud Hens in the American Association.  The 32-year-old pitcher developed a pitch that saved his career; Hal Sheridan of The United Press said Falkenberg had begun “tossing a sand-papered sphere to the batters.”

Once he started throwing the Emery Ball Falkenberg went 25-8 with a 1.95 ERA at Toledo, and after returning to Cleveland the following season he was 23-10 with a 2.22 ERA.  Falkenberg jumped to the Indianapolis Hoosiers in the Federal League in 1914; he was 25-16 with a 2.22 ERA for the pennant-winning Hoosiers.

By the time this ad appeared the Federal League had banned the Emery Ball and Falkenberg had split the 1915 season between the Newark Peppers (the relocated Hoosiers) and the Brooklyn Tip-Tops; he was a combined 12-14 with 2.86 ERA.

Russell Ford, who pitched in the American and Federal Leagues from 1909-1915, is generally credited with developing the Emery Ball, but at least one American League pitcher said Ford didn’t deserve credit for the invention.  Bill Steen told The Pittsburgh Press in 1915 that John “Wee Willie” Sudhoff had shown him how to throw the pitch in 1907:

“He had a strip of emery paper glued on the heel of his glove and rubbed the ball on it.”

Sudhoff had retired after the 1906 season, so it’s unclear where and exactly when he would have shared the pitch with Steen.

Cy Falkenberg

Cy Falkenberg

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A Thousand Words—Deacon McGuire’s Left Hand

14 Jun

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James “Deacon” McGuire caught more than 1600 games in a career that spanned parts of 26 seasons between 1884 and 1912.  He broke every finger on both hands and suffered thirty-six separate injuries to his left hand.  In 1906, his x-ray was acquired by the New York papers after yet another injury.

The New York World said doctors were “amazed to see the knots, like gnarled places on an old oak tree, around the joints, and numerous spots showing old breaks.”

Deacon McGuire

Deacon McGuire

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Gus Dorner’s Spitball

7 Jun

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Augustus “Gus” Dorner suddenly became a successful pitcher in 1904.  He had brief trials with Cleveland in the American League in 1902 and ’03, he was 6-6 and control was a problem; on May 23, 1903, walked 11 batters in a game against the Philadelphia Athletics.  He finished the 1903 season with the Columbus Senators in the American Association posting a 7-7 record.

The next two seasons in Columbus Dorner was 18-10, and 29-8.  The Fort Wayne Daily News said:

“The big German attributes his success to condition, control, study of the batsman and mastery of the spitball.”

Dorner said, “I use the spitball a great deal.”  As a result of his new pitch he said:

“(I) have not had the slightest trouble with my arm this year.  I have worked hard to get control and perfect the spit ball.”

The magic was short-lived.  Dorner earned a return to the big leagues in 1906 but was a combined 8-26 with the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Beaneaters.  Overall he was 29-62 in parts of four seasons with Boston.

Gus Dorner

Gus Dorner

He didn’t fare much better in the minor leagues, going 25-29 his last three seasons as a professional.  After his release from Boston in May of 1909, he finished the season with the American Association’s Kansas City Blues with a 9-18 record.  The last two years of his career were spent with the Wilkes-Barre Barons in the New York State League and the Harrisburg Senators in the Tri-State League.

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Memorial Day—Major League Baseball’s First World War Casualty

27 May

By the time he enlisted in the United States Army in July of 1917, Edward Leslie “Harvard Eddie” Grant had retired from baseball to practice law in Boston.

He attended Harvard, but only played baseball as a freshman; he was declared ineligible after being paid for playing with a semi-pro team.  After that Grant played intramural baseball at Harvard and played with Northeastern outlaw teams during the summer.

In 1905 Grant made his Major League debut when the visiting Cleveland Naps recruited him to fill in for two games at second base for Hall of Famer Napoleon Lajoie against the Boston Americans—he was 3 for 8 and made one error.

He was with the Jersey City Skeeters in the Eastern League in 1906, hitting .322, which earned him a contract with the Philadelphia Phillies.  He would spend the next nine seasons in the National League, also playing for the Cincinnati Reds and New York Giants.  Grant was never a star, but he was popular with fans and the press.  The New York Times said:

“He was a handy utility player and could fill in any position on the infield.  While never a heavy batsman, he was skillful fielder and a smart baserunner.”

1910 Advertisement for the Vetterlein Brothers Cigar Company; the Saboroso Cup mentioned in the ad was presented to the phillies or Athletics player with the highest batting average.

1910 Advertisement for the Vetterlein Brothers Cigar Company; the Saboroso Cup mentioned in the ad was presented to the Phillies or Athletics player with the highest batting average.

Grant was among the first wave of prominent athletes to join the military, making his enlistment news.  A wire service article under the headline “Eddie Grant Joins Uncle Sam’s League” appeared in numerous papers across the country.

On October 5 1918, he would become the first Major League player to be killed during World War I, The Associated Press said:

“Captain Edward Grant, former third baseman of the New York National League Club, and attached to the 307th Infantry, was killed by a shell when leading a unit to the aid of the famous ‘Lost Battalion.’

“The battalion was surrounded for five days in the Argonne Forest and Captain Grant was killed in one of the attempts to reach it.”

Grant was originally buried in the Argonne Forest, and his body was later moved to the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery.

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“The Greatest Play Ever Made”

2 Aug

Most fans know that the first confirmed major league unassisted triple play was turned by Neal Ball of the Cleveland Naps July 19, 1909, and that one credited to Paul Hines of the Providence Grays against the Boston Red Caps May 8, 1878 has been disputed.

What most don’t know is that the first confirmed unassisted triple play in professional baseball was turned on August 18, 1902 by Hal O’Hagan of Rochester in an Eastern League game in Jersey city, New Jersey.  The New York Times called it “The Greatest Play Ever Made in Baseball.”

Patrick Henry “Hal” O’Hagan had two brief stays in the major leagues.  He played in one game as a twenty-two-year-old rookie with Washington in 1892, and trials with Chicago and New York in the National League and Cleveland in the American League in 1902.

After being released by the Giants in mid-July, O’Hagan was signed by Rochester to manage and play first base.

John Butler was batting for Jersey City with George Shoch on second and “Mack” on first (every contemporary newspaper account identified the runner on first this way, it was probably catcher/1st baseman Frank McManus).  Butler attempted a sacrifice bunt as The Times reported “O’Hagan ran in and caught the ball within a few inches of the ground, a seemingly impossible catch.”

According to the glowing account: “Having in his quick-thinking mind the possibility of a triple play, O’Hagan, with the coolness and agility which are part of a baseball player’s earning capacity, ran back and placed his foot on the initial bag thus completing a double play.”  O’Hagan then ran to second as Shoch returned from third, “It was a hot race, but O’Hagan, ball in hand, reached the bag first, thus dismissing the side.”

Diagram of the play published in The New York Times and several newspapers across the country

O’Hagan continued playing until 1908, finishing his career with Lynn in the New England League.  He passed away on January 14, 1913 in Newark, New Jersey at 43 years old.

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