Washington DC Baseball

[ValKehl]

Prior to the game on Saturday vs. the Phillies, the Wash. Nationals held an on-field ceremony to honor Ryan Zimmerman and retire his jersey number. A good player but not a HOF candidate, Zimmerman has been the face of the Nats franchise from almost when the team moved to DC from Montreal. I think this read, which appears in today's Wash. Post, will interest all Washington fans, and hopefully others as well. I have copied and pasted this piece becaise I believe the Post has a paywall.


A century before Zimmerman, Walter Johnson transformed D.C. baseball

By Frederic J. Frommer
Updated June 18, 2022 at 8:00 p.m. EDT|Published June 17, 2022 at 10:01 a.m. EDT

When the Nationals celebrate Ryan Zimmerman and his career at Nationals Park on Saturday, they paid tribute to a player who has been the face of Washington baseball in a way no one has in a century, since Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson.

Like Johnson, Zimmerman, who announced his retirement in February, played his entire career here, slogged through many years of bad baseball, and helped lead his team to a World Series title in the twilight of his career.

Zimmerman made his debut at the age of 20, 98 years after Johnson’s first game with the Washington Senators at the age of 19. Johnson finally got a chance to play in the World Series when he was 36 and the entire nation rallied around the underdog Senators, who beat the New York Giants in seven games.

Zimmerman was 35 when the Nats upset the Houston Astros in the 2019 World Series, also in seven games. Those remain the only World Series titles for Washington, 95 years apart. Zimmerman is also retiring 95 years after Johnson did in 1927.

The Senators and the Nats were nearly equally bad when Johnson and Zimmerman started their careers. In his first five seasons in the big leagues, Johnson pitched for a team that finished in last or second-to-last place in the American League every season. In the first five seasons Zimmerman played for the Nats, the team finished in the bottom two in the National League East Division.

Twice in those periods, their teams had the worst record in baseball. The Nats got to restock off those fallow years by drafting Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper with back-to-back No. 1 draft picks, but there was no draft back when Johnson played, making a rebuild much more challenging.

Both players dated back to the beginning of the Washington teams. The Nats made Zimmerman their first draft selection after moving here from Montreal in June 2005, and he made his debut three months later. The Senators scouted Johnson playing semipro baseball in Idaho and signed him in June 1907 during their seventh season.

“Secures A Phenom,” a Washington Post headline declared on June 30, 1907. “Johnson Is His Name and He Hails from the Wooly West.” He debuted for the Senators that August. They both put up spectacular numbers in their first abbreviated first seasons. Zimmerman hit .397 in 20 games, while Johnson posted a 1.88 earned run average in 14 games.

Zimmerman played his entire career with one team, a feat almost unheard of in this era of free agency, but it was more common when Johnson played. Zimmerman helped bridge generations of Washington baseball fans, many of whom lived 33 years without a local team. As he told me after the Nats won the 2019 World Series for my book on Washington baseball history, “You Gotta Have Heart”:

The team has been here long enough where I’ll have 20-year-old or 25-year-old guys or girls come up to me and be like, “Hey thanks, you know you’ve been my favorite since I was a little kid,” which makes me feel really old, but also it is really cool because you have that again now.

Being here for so long, I’ve talked to some people who said they used to go to Senators games with their parents. These people went to games with their dad or mom when they were four or five or six years old, but their kids are now grown, and they never had a baseball team to do that with their dad or mom. So you missed that whole generation.

One of the most important things this World Series did was restore baseball back to D.C. It’s almost like some closure to baseball coming back.

Both Zimmerman and Johnson knew when it was time to retire. Johnson, 39, went 5-6 with a 5.10 ERA in his final season, although he hit .348 and slugged .522 in 46 at-bats. Zimmerman, 37 when he retired, hit .243 last year, but he did have some pop left in his bat, homering 14 times and driving in 46 RBIs in just 255 at-bats.

ohnson had arguably the best career of any big league pitcher in history and holds the record for most shutouts, with 110. Zimmerman was not that kind of transformational player, but he retired as the all-time Nats leader in homers, hits, RBIs and games played. On Saturday, his No. 11 was retired, the first time a Nats player has received that honor.

Johnson remained a fixture in the region, as Zimmerman, known as “Mr. National,” plans to do. “Although my baseball career has come to an end, my family and I will continue to be heavily involved in the DMV community,” he said.

A few years after retiring, Johnson became manager of the Senators. In three of those four seasons, the Senators had a winning percentage of .597 or better but never made it back to the World Series. Later, he entered politics, winning a seat on the Montgomery County Commission and nearly pulling off an upset victory as a Republican candidate for Congress in 1940. There is also a high school named for him in Bethesda.

Both excelled in unassuming ways, without seeking the spotlight. When Johnson retired, he said he “simply does not want to be in the way next season.”

“Walter Johnson, more than any other ball player, probably more than any other athlete, professional or amateur, became the symbol of gentlemanly conduct in the battle heat,” wrote Washington Post sports columnist Shirley Povich in 1946, following the death of Johnson at the age of 59.

“The big fellow from Coffeyville, Kan.,” wrote New York Times sports columnist Arthur Daley, “was a gentleman of the highest type, a distinct credit to his sport.”

Although players today are not often described as “gentlemen,” the sentiments behind those comments describe Zimmerman. He told The Post that when people see him and thank him for being a role model, “I feel like I don’t know why you’re thanking me. All I did was play baseball. I got to play baseball for a job. That is the best way to put it. I shouldn’t be being thanked. I feel like I should be thanking them.”

Frederic J. Frommer, a writer and sports historian, is the author of several books, including “You Gotta Have Heart: Washington Baseball from Walter Johnson to the 2019 World Series Champion Nationals.”

[GeoPoto]

Thanks Val.

Player #23: Lewis L. "Lew" Drill. Catcher with the Washington Senators in 1902-1904. 231 hits in 4 MLB seasons. His career OBP is .353. His last MLB seasons were 1904-1905 with the Detroit Tigers. He declined a contract offer for the 1906 season because he could make more money working as a lawyer.

Drill's SABR biography picks up his 1903 season: With (William "Boileryard") Clarke back in the fold, Drill had less opportunity to play in 1903. He batted .253 in 51 games and kept up his studies while playing ball, earning his law degree from Georgetown in June. After the season he and Bob Blewett, a classmate at Georgetown and a former pitcher with the New York Giants, opened a law office in Seattle; one report stated, “Both men are out of baseball for good.” Drill must have reconsidered: He was one of the first to report for Senator's spring training in 1904.

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[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

Prior to the game on Saturday vs. the Phillies, the Wash. Nationals held an on-field ceremony to honor Ryan Zimmerman and retire his jersey number. A good player but not a HOF candidate, Zimmerman has been the face of the Nats franchise from almost when the team moved to DC from Montreal. I think this read, which appears in today's Wash. Post, will interest all Washington fans, and hopefully others as well. I have copied and pasted this piece because I believe the Post has a paywall.

Thanks, Val, for posting this nicely done and apropos article by Fred Frommer, who has become the unofficial historian of the original Nats.

[GeoPoto]

Wyatt A. "Watty" Lee. Outfielder and Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1901-1903. 30 wins in 549.1 innings pitched over 4 MLB seasons.

In 1903 he had an 8-12 record with a 3.08 ERA in 166.2 innings pitched. He finished up with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1904.

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[ValKehl]

George, I'm greatly enjoying seeing the pics of your vintage Washington cards and reading your informative write ups. Here's another "Watty" Lee card to augment your last post.

[ValKehl]

Delete - wrong forum!

[GeoPoto]

Val, that's a very nice Lee! Thank you for posting it. I don't have Lee, but I do have:

Player #25: Albert L. "Al" Orth. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1902-1904. 204 wins and 6 saves in 15 MLB seasons. He was the MLB wins leader in 1906. He was known as "The Curveless Wonder" relying on control and differing speed. His best season may have been 1901 with Philadelphia as he posted a 20-12 record with a 2.27 ERA in 281.2 innings pitched. He umpired, when necessary, as a player and in one game umpired and pinch-hit in the same game. He debuted with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1895-1901. He finished his career with the New York Highlanders in 1904-1909. He debuted as an umpire in the NL in 1912 and in 1917 was the umpire when Toney and Vaughn each pitched 9 innings of no-hit baseball, the only time it has happened.

Orth's SABR biography relates how his time in Washington ended as his discovery of a new pitch came too late: Like many of his Philadelphia teammates, following the 1901 season Orth jumped to the American League, signing with the Washington Senators. Orth again posted the lowest walk rate in his league in 1902, with just 40 base-on-balls allowed in 324 innings. Unfortunately, Orth only struck out 76 batters that year, finishing with a 19-18 record and subpar 3.97 ERA. He was even worse in 1903, winning 10 games against 22 losses while posting a horrendous 4.34 ERA. After starting the 1904 campaign 3-4 with a 4.76 ERA, Orth was traded to the New York Highlanders.

Shortly after his arrival with the Highlanders, Orth turned his season around, helping to keep New York in the pennant race until the last day of the season with an 11-6 record and league-average 2.68 ERA. Orth’s turnaround was probably due in part to teammate Jack Chesbro, who rode the spitball to a 41-win season that year. Orth himself said he first used the spitball at the end of the 1904 season and considered the pitch “more effective than a curve” with a “quicker break.” Orth threw it “regularly” in the 1905 season, as he posted an 18-16 record with a 2.86 ERA for the sixth place Highlanders.

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[GeoPoto]

Player #26: Albert K. "Kip" Selbach. Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1894-1898 (NL) and 1903-1904 (AL). 1,807 hits and 334 stolen bases in 13 MLB seasons. He had a career OBP of .377. He led the NL in triples in 1895. Among his many good seasons was 1900 with the New York Giants as he posted a .425 OBP with 98 runs scored and 36 stolen bases in 611 plate appearances. His final seasons were with the Boston Americans in 1904-1906.

From Selbach's SABR biography: During 1902 it became known that the American League would not have a team in Baltimore in 1903. On August 26 Clark Griffith – acting as an agent for the league – signed Selbach, Billy Gilbert, and Jimmy Williams; all expected to play for the new team that was thought to be placed in New York. “Selbach and Williams said they are under guaranteed two-years’ contract to the Baltimore Club, which they would insist upon being fulfilled to the letter. Selbach says he called upon Johnson and Griffith merely to see if the American League would voluntarily increase his salary as a reward for his loyalty.”

In early December Selbach himself said he had not signed with Griffith. There were rumors that there wouldn’t even be a team in Washington and that the AL would place a team in Pittsburgh instead. Concerns among Washington area fans were assuaged on December 28, when Selbach signed a two-year contract – with the Washington Senators. Since he remained popular in the area (because of his previous stint with Washington's NL team), that seemed like a bonus.

Note that the back of the card was blank until its early owner took advantage of the spot to attach return instructions should it ever become lost.

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[Rad_Hazard]

Here my my 2 Washington cards:

[GeoPoto]

Thank you, Rad Hazard, for posting two nice OJ cards featuring Washington players.

Player #75D: Howard S. "Howie" Shanks. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1912-1922. 1,440 hits and 185 stolen bases in 14 MLB seasons. His best season was 1921 with Washington as he posted an OBP of .370 with 81 runs scored and 69 RBIs in 647 plate appearances. He finished his career with the New York Yankees in 1925.

We finish from Shanks' SABR biography and his life and death road to the big leagues: “My boy, prepare for the finish. You ain’t got more than a couple of weeks to live.” That is what a doctor told Howard Shanks in 1910. Shanks was told he had consumption (tuberculosis). He had just finished his second year of professional baseball, playing at East Liverpool, Ohio. Barney Dreyfuss of the Pittsburgh Pirates was interested in him, but Shanks only weighed 130 pounds at the time, and someone saw something that concerned them regarding his overall health. When they saw the medical report, the Pirates lost interest. For his part, Shanks went home, to prepare for death or one of the greatest comebacks of all time. He went on to play 14 seasons of major-league baseball and, though he died at the relatively young age of 51, it would be safe to agree with Shanks that “Either that doc didn’t know his business or Monaca (his hometown) is some health resort.” . . .

. . . In 1911, having survived the diagnosis, and put on about 40 pounds, he played for the second-place Youngstown Steelmen and hit .291 with nine homers in 124 games, while committing only three errors. Clearly, he was healthy. He stood 5-feet-11 and is listed as weighing 170 pounds. As early as May, he was being looked over by Jimmy McAleer. “The lad is about the best young outfielder I have seen this year…I had been tipped off some time ago to this player, and so I thought I’d go down and look him over. The lad is marvelously fast in the field and seems to know just what to do with himself. I can have him if I want him, and most likely I’ll take him, too, after a few weeks.” McAleer was unable to act right away, because Shanks was so popular with Youngstown fans that manager Bill Phillips did not want to let him go. (Washington selected him in that year's Rule 5 draft.

Note: Here we feature a putative Howie Shanks card from 1921, the W461-1 issued in his name, which actually pictures Wally Schang of the New York Yankees. Schang, thus, is the only player in the set technically featured more than once.

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[GeoPoto]

The 1922 Washington Senators won 69 games, lost 85, and finished in sixth place in the American League. They were managed by Clyde Milan and played home games at Griffith Stadium.

Smiles summarizes the early optimism surrounding Washington going into the 1922 season: . . . The Senators looked strong in March, and as Opening day approached the scribes rated them as serious contenders. "So wise a diagnostician as Babe predicts more trouble for his champions (the Yankees) from the Capital City, strange to say. Tris Speaker, manager of the Indians, and Lee Fohl of the St. Louis Browns, both of whom have high pennant hopes, figure Old Fox Griffith's club and not New York the one that must be headed in order to annex the laurel crown."

From another story that same day: "The acquisition of Peck (Peckinpaugh) just about made the ballclub. The Senators were weak at short for years. He fits in nice and pretty and the team is all ready to go. The players feel they have a good chance to win the pennant and we are inclined to string along with them."

. . . Another new attendance record was set as more than 25,000 saw the Senators open with a 6-5 win over the Yankees. The crowd was loud, animated and colorful. President Harding was seen to clap his secretary of state heartily on the back during the Senators' seventh-inning rally. The president kept a scorecard even with Walter Johnson Jr. sitting on his knee for the first three innings. The first lady wore out a pair of white gloves with her clapping. The crowd was "made up almost one-half of women in gayly decked hats and clothing, the mass took on the appearance of the spectrum. A splotch of gay red, a mass of green, somber black, grays in abundance, the peculiar mixture of colors which the flapper fan will wear to games this year all blend into a living, moving panorama of lights and shades."

Babe Ruth, under suspension for three days, walked into the stands alone in "spitter clothes to cheers and he smiled grimly as he took his seat." Ban Johnson entered later and sat next to the Babe.

(But) the spring analysis was way off. After that Opening Day win, the Senators lost eight of their next nine . . . They never recovered from that disastrous start. (Bucky Harris by Jack Smiles.)

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