Heinie Manush
Player #136D: Henry E. "Heinie" Manush. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1930-1935. 2,524 hits and 110 home runs in 17 MLB seasons. 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. First and last player to be ejected from a World Series game. Had 241 hits in 1928. Coach for the Washington Senators in 1953-1954.
Again, Manush's SABR biography takes us back ti the 1933 pennant-winning season: The Senators faced the New York Giants in the 1933 World Series. The Giants were led by a trio of Hall of Famers: pitcher Carl Hubbell, right fielder Mel Ott, and first baseman-manager Bill Terry. Apart from Cronin, the Senators could not get their bats going during the Fall Classic. That included Manush, who after his stellar season managed just two singles in the Series as the Giants won in five games. Before the start of the third game, Manush scrambled to retrieve the ceremonial first pitch thrown by President Franklin D. Roosevelt from his box seat. Ably supported by Cronin, Roosevelt threw the ball and his off-line toss set off a mad scramble. Manush bulled his way through a bunch of souvenir-seeking ballplayers to come up with the treasured keepsake. Southpaw Earl Whitehill’s tosses were more on the money as he scattered five hits and shut out the Giants 4-0. In appreciation of his sterling performance, Manush presented Whitehill with the “FDR ball,” which Earl would treasure for the rest of his life.
It was a thrill to be in the World Series, but Manush was terribly disappointed in his performance. During the Series, he took it out on the umpires. In Game 3, the Senators had the tying run on second with two out in the sixth inning, when Manush hit a ball past a diving Bill Terry that Howie Critz somehow grabbed and flipped to Hubbell to nip Manush — that is, according to umpire Charlie Moran. It was an extremely close play, and an enraged Senators outfielder and his infuriated manager hotly debated the call! The home plate umpire finally broke up the fierce confrontation by ordering Cronin and Manush to take their positions in the field. While Cronin reluctantly sauntered out to shortstop, Manush gave Moran one more verbal blast on his way out to right field and was tossed from the game. It took all of Cronin’s strength to restrain his right fielder from attacking Moran. After being dragged off the field, Manush had to be physically restrained from throwing things at the first-base umpire. Washington fans showed their displeasure at the call by heaving hundreds of soda bottles in the umpire’s direction. Manush recalled the play years later. “It actually was more than an argument,” he said. “Moran had every right to chase me when I tell you what I did. I was too smart to lay a hand on Moran when I was arguing the call. But when he bellied up to me and asked me what I wanted to make of it, there was a temptation that was too great. Moran, like the other umps in those days, was wearing a black bow tie, the kind that comes with an elastic band. What I did was grab the tie and let it snap back into Moran’s neck. That’s when he gave it to me.”
Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who was at the game, disagreed with the umpire’s decision to kick Manush out, and ruled from then on that no player in the World Series could be thrown out without first getting the commissioner’s almighty permission.
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02-27-2024, 05:25 AM
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