Washington DC Baseball

[ValKehl]

To further honor Byddy Myer for his 1935 AL Batting Championship, here's a Myer card you don't often see, his 1934 R304 Al Demaree card:

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The final averages: Myer .349026, Vosmik .348387, Foxx .345794.Had a .330 career batting average. 1934 All-Star. 1926 AL batting champion. Had more than 200 hits four times. In 1964, was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. Debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1923. Leading batter on the 1933 Washington Senator team that won the AL pennant.

[GeoPoto]

. . . Another highlight of this baseball season in Washington took place on April 30, 1937, when the Senators were mired in their early slump. They had just dropped a pair of games at Griffith Stadium to the Yankees (Cecil Travis had suffered his ankle injury in the first game), and in the final game of the series, Joe DiMaggio made his first appearance of the season. DiMaggio was already the hottest ticket in baseball. At age 22, he was coming off a 46-167-.346 sophomore year.

Enlightening as to just how good a season "Joltin' Joe" had just had is the fact that his totals for home runs, runs scored (151), and slugging percentage (.673) were figures he would never surpass in the 11 years of his golden career still ahead of him. DiMaggio had been a member of a world championship club in each of his first two years. In his first appearance of 1937, he connected for a pinch single in the seventh inning off Bobo Newsom, but Newsom won his first game of the year with a complete-game five-hitter as the Senators salvaged their only win of the three-game set.

The highly promising roster of players Clark Griffith had assembled, seemingly enhanced by the addition of the Ferrell boys and Al Simmons, was a major letdown for the old man. His ballclub dropped three places in the standings, managing only to place ahead of some of the most infamous teams in the entire history of both the Philadelphia A's and St. Louis Browns. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

[GeoPoto]

Player #159A: W. Benjamin "Ben" Chapman. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1936-1937 and 1941. 1,958 hits and 287 stolen bases in 15 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .383. 4-time All-Star. 1932 World Series champion. 4-time AL stolen base leader. He managed the Philadelphia Phillies in 1945-1948. His playing reputation was eclipsed by the role he played as manager of the Phillies, opposing Jackie Robinson's presence in MLB, including shouting racial epithets. His best season as a player was 1931 for the Yankees as he posted a .396 OBP with 61 stolen bases, 120 runs scored, and 122 RBIs in 686 plate appearances.

Deveaux outlines Chapman's brief, initial stint in Washington: The man Washington got (in a trade with the Yankees during the 1936 season) in exchange for Powell (Jake Powell, a temperamental outfielder who had alienated Griffith and the Washington fans), Ben Chapman, also had an interesting, but much longer, career in baseball. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, on Christmas Day, 1908, the 27-year-old Chapman was a converted infielder who'd been moved to the outfield so that New York could maximize the benefit from his outstanding speed and throwing arm. Chapman went on to rack up great numbers on some very good Yankees teams of the early 1930s. With the arrival of Joe DiMaggio in the spring of '36, however, he had outworn his welcome. Moving him to Washington meant the Yanks could open up centerfield for DiMaggio, who'd been playing in left. But Chapman was certainly a welcome addition in the Washington outfield, scoring an awesome 91 runs in just 97 games, and batting .332. . . .

. . . The following day (11 June 1937), Griffith pulled off a much more important coup, landing the celebrated Ferrell brothers from the Red Sox in exchange for Bobo Newsom and centerfielder Ben Chapman. Bobo was allowing nearly six runs per nine innings in 1937, and Chapman had only 12 RBIs in 35 games and his average was a puny .262. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

[GeoPoto]

We stay with Deveaux regarding the acquisition of Rick Ferrell and his brother, Wes: In return (for Bobo Newsom and Ben Chapman), the Senators were getting a sibling battery the likes of which has not since been seen in the major leagues. Catcher Rick Ferrell, a .296 career hitter (Hall of Fame, 1984), still just 31, had hit .312 in '36 and was at .308 this season. He was known for his good eye at the plate and was a crackerjack receiver.

[GeoPoto]

Player #161A: Wesley C. "Wes" Ferrell. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1937-1938. 193 wins and 13 saves in 15 MLB seasons. 2-time All-Star. 1935 AL wins leader. He pitched a no-hitter in 1931. His 37 career home runs are the MLB record for a pitcher. He debuted with the Cleveland Indians in 1927-1933. His erratic behavior caused concern. He last played with the Boston Braves in 1941. He is a member of the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame. He is a member of the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. His brother Rick is a member of the MLB Hall of Fame.

Deveaux continues: The brothers were North Carolina farm boys and Rick Ferrell, one of the best catchers of his time, was the more mild-mannered of the two. Three years younger than Rick, Wes Farrell was as handy with a guitar and a banjo as with a pitchfork or a baseball. Younger than Bobo Newsom (who'd won 47 big-league games to this point), Wes Farrell had already racked up six 20-win seasons in the majors. Included were two 25-win years, in 1930 and '35, when he led the league.

Wesley Cheek Ferrell seemed to have a lot more cheek than his older brother. He was a hothead who would at times fly into rages even if he was just having a bad day at the card table. Teammate Billy Werber told of how he'd seen him stomp on an expensive watch after some setback on the field. In 1932, Wes's manager at Cleveland, Roger Peckinpaugh, fined him for refusing to come out of a ballgame. In '36, Wes had a run-in with another old Nat, Joe Cronin, his manager at Boston, who fined him for doing exactly the opposite and leaving a game without permission. Later, while managing in the minor leagues, Wes would be suspended for smacking an umpire, and on another occasion for pulling his team off the field.

Apart from the fact that he'd won 20 or more in six of eight seasons, Wes Farrell also arrived in Washington carrying the reputation of being the best-hitting pitcher in the history of baseball. His lifetime .280 average and 38 home runs are still all-time records. In one memorable contest involving the Senators in late July 1935, he slammed two homers off Bobo Newsom while pitching the Bosox to victory -- remarkably, he hit two home runs in the same game on five different occasions. A week before he had victimized Bobo, he had pinch hit for the immortal Lefty Grove in the ninth inning with two men on base and the score 6-4. The pitcher was Tommy Bridges, who had 21 wins, four shutouts, and who led the league in strikeouts that year. Wes homered, for the victory. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)