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Old 02-07-2023, 03:13 AM
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Default Nemo Leibold

Player #102A: Harry L. "Nemo" Leibold. Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1923-1925. 1,109 hits and 136 stolen bases in 13 MLB seasons. 1917 and 1924 World Series champion. He had a career OBP of .357. He debuted with the Cleveland Naps in 1913-1915. His best season statistically was 1919 with the Chicago White Sox as he posted a .404 OBP with 81 runs scored in 523 plate appearances.

Leibold's SABR biography takes us through his 1920 season: A scrappy outfielder, Nemo Leibold had a 13-year major-league career and played on four World Series teams, winning a championship with the Chicago White Sox in 1917 and another with the Washington Senators in 1924. Later a distinguished manager in the minor leagues from 1928 to 1948, Leibold is best known for passing through the Black Sox Scandal of 1919 with his reputation and honor intact. . . .

. . . For the 1913 season, Leibold joined manager Joe Birmingham’s Naps (a name honoring the team’s star player, Nap Lajoie) and was given the title of “smallest man in the league” (he was 5'6'') by Sporting Life. Teammate Jack Lelivelt began calling Leibold “Nemo” based on the popular comic strip “Little Nemo,” and the nickname stuck with Leibold for the rest of his playing career. Teaming with Shoeless Joe Jackson and Jack Graney in the outfield, Nemo took over center field by midseason and finished with a .259 batting average in 286 at-bats. “[Leibold] should be one of the best flychasers in the American League next season,” Sporting Life predicted. . . .

. . . In 1919 the White Sox got off to a fast start and won their second pennant in three seasons. Under new manager Kid Gleason, Leibold excelled, platooning in right field with Shano Collins, but seeing most of the playing time and batting .302 in 434 at-bats. His 72 walks led the team and his .404 on-base percentage trailed only Shoeless Joe Jackson among the regulars.

The White Sox were to face the Cincinnati Reds in the best-of-nine World Series. Washington Senators manager and co-owner Clark Griffith predicted that Chicago would win the Series and praised Nemo: “[Leibold is] hard to pitch to and has a good eye. If the balls are bad, he won’t take a cut at them. If they are in, he is liable to crack for two or three as he is a single.”

Playing against right-handed pitchers in the Series, Leibold went hitless in his first 13 at-bats (with two walks) before lining a single in the deciding Game Eight loss. He finished the Series with just one hit in 18 at-bats.

With rumors of a fixed World Series resonating throughout baseball in 1920, a grand jury was convened in Chicago in September to investigate the allegations. Despite the disruptions, the 1920 White Sox played well and were in first place to begin the last month of the season. “It was a reeling blow to us when the investigations proved the 1919 Series had been fixed,” Leibold recalled almost 40 years later. “We could not believe that eight of our teammates let us down.” . . .

. . . Summoned by the grand jury to testify, Leibold revealed that friends from Detroit had contacted him about a rumored fix and wanted an inside scoop, but he never wrote to them. Under oath, Leibold said, “[I told them] I was in a spot where I couldn’t advise you either way, so I just didn’t answer. That was the only thing I could do.” Leibold said he had no knowledge of a fix. “I roomed with Buck [Weaver] throughout the 1919 and 1920 season and I never had any inkling that there was anything wrong,” he said. Leibold, who suffered a broken left hand in 1920 that limited his batted average to .220, was never implicated in the scandal.

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