Player #28D: Clark C. "The Old Fox" Griffith. Pitcher for the Washington Senators in 1912-1914. Debuted with the St. Louis Browns in 1891. 237 wins and 8 saves in 20 MLB seasons. Was 1898 MLB ERA leader. Managed the Chicago White Stockings (1901-1902), the New York Highlanders (1903-1908), the Cincinnati Reds (1909-1911), and the Washington Senators (1912-1920). Was principal owner of the Washington Senators from 1920 until his death in 1955. In 1946, was inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame.
We return to Deveaux's account of Griffith's development: At age 13, Clark Griffith became sickly, a victim of malaria, then prevalent in the Missouri lowland country. His mother was advised to move him out of the area, which she did. Resettled with relatives in Bloomington, Illinois, Clark, who had been the mascot of the local Stringtown, MO., team, got more serious about baseball. The sport had been invented only about 40 years earlier -- this was at a time when the batter needed seven balls for a walk, and a strikeout was achieved even if the catcher, who was the only player who wore a glove, caught the ball on a bounce. The Illinois climate worked wonders for Clark's health, and at 16 he had already earned a local reputation in Bloomington, hometown of big-league pitching ace Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn.
In 1888, Griffith signed to play for Bloomington, which held a franchise in the Inter-State League of the era. He lost his first game in bizarre fashion -- he gave up just five hits but himself committed five of his team's ten errors. Nonetheless, he did become the top pitcher in the league, and at age 18, Clark Griffith was already about to get his big break. An exhibition game was arranged with Milwaukee of the superior Western League. As the winner of that game, Griffith was offered a $225-a -month salary with Milwaukee, and his professional career took off. He joined a team which featured Jimmy McAleer, who 23 years later would create a vacancy with the Nationals that would bring him to the capital and alter the face of baseball in Washington, D.C.
By the end of the following season, Griffith was the best pitcher Milwaukee had, finishing the season with a record of 25-11. Charles Comiskey, then managing the major-league American Association's St. Louis Browns, signed him, starting Griffith on a protracted tour that would include seven big-league stops. He won 14 games as a rookie for the Browns in 1891, but then was traded to the Boston Americans for a pitcher named Jack Easton who would win just five more games in the major leagues. Now a teammate of future Hall of Famers Hugh Duffy, Mike "King' Kelly, and Dan Brouthers, Griffith went 3-1 and played on a pennant winner. However, the seven games he pitched in for Boston were his last for the team. The American Association disbanded, and for 1892, the National League would be the only game in town. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)
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