Washington DC Baseball

GeoPoto · #1 12-15-2022, 04:10 AM

Val, no reason to hesitate -- thanks for adding the beautiful Coupon. Speaking of Val's:

Player #84A: Valentine J. "Val" Picinich. Catcher with the Washington Senators in 1918-1922. 743 hits and 26 home runs in 18 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1916-1917. His most productive season was 1928 with the Cincinnati Reds as he posted a .343 OBP with 35 RBIs in 357 plate appearances. His last season was 1933 with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Picinich's SABR biography tracks his time in Washington: For most of five seasons, Val Picinich was Walter Johnson�s personal catcher. He saw action during 18 major-league seasons, never playing in more than the 96 games he played for Cincinnati in 1928 � almost certainly his best year � and only playing as many as half his team�s games in six of the seasons. He caught three no-hitters in his big-league career. He was relatively compact � 5-feet-9 and 165 pounds, right-handed, and hit for a lifetime .258 batting average, quite good for catchers of his time, in 1,037 games in the majors. His career on-base percentage was .334. In April 1918, the Washington Evening Star dubbed him �a chunky chap of only average height, but is as strong as an ox and is a willing worker.� . . .

. . . Clark Griffith of the Washington Senators had been impressed with what he�d seen of Picinich�s work, and � knowing that catcher Ed Gharrity might have to join the service at any time � arranged with Atlanta (the Crackers of the Southern Association) at the end of April 1918 to deliver Picinich on demand. On May 26 he was traded to Washington for three players, intended to serve as backup to Eddie Ainsmith. He arrived just in time to get into the final inning of the second game on May 29. In the July 5 game, he picked one of the Yankees off third base and then singled in the winning run in the ninth inning for a 2-1 win.

Picinich played in 47 games for the 1918 Senators, batting .230 with 12 RBIs. The 1918 season ended early because of the World War; on August 1 Picinich reported to the Navy. He�d enlisted in mid-July. He was back on the Senators� bench on August 24, on leave from the Navy, and joined the team for eight remaining games, while on furlough. He caught both games on August 25 � one of them Walter Johnson�s 22nd victory of the season � and figured in scoring three runs.

Yeoman third class Picinich was stationed in New York, and with the end of the war, he was told to expect an early discharge. Griffith believed in Picinich; the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that he regarded Picinich as �one of the coming star maskmen of the game� and might make him Walter Johnson�s battery partner. From the time he joined the Washington team for spring training in Augusta � still only 22 years old � Picinich was slated to become first-string catcher (though he faced some competition from Sam Agnew).

For the next four seasons, Picinich caught for the Senators. He enjoyed a very good season in 1919, batting .274, hitting his first three homers, and driving in 22 runs in 80 games. Much was expected of him for 1920, but Gharrity returned and Picinich played in only 48 games, not helping his cause by hitting .203. He did, however, catch the July 1, 1920, game when Walter Johnson no-hit the Boston Red Sox, 1-0. The third no-hitter he caught was for the Red Sox, in 1923.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1671098875

GeoPoto · #2 12-16-2022, 04:08 AM

Player #74D: Edgar C. "Sam" Rice. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1915-1933. 2,987 hits and 34 home runs in 20 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. 1920 AL stolen base leader. He was inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in 1963. Led the Senators to three AL pennants (1924,1925, and 1933). Best known for controversial "over the fence" catch in the 1925 World Series. He had many excellent seasons, but one of his best was 1930 as he posted a .407 OBP with 121 runs scored in 669 plate appearances. He had 63 stolen bases in 1920. He last played in 1934 with the Cleveland Indians. His early life was marred by tragedy when his wife, two daughters, parents, and two sisters were all killed by a tornado in Indiana.

Smiles provides an example of how attitudes were evolving in 1919: As the 1919 season opened, Rice showed little rust from his summer away from the game. Batting cleanup and back in his customary right field spot to start the season, Rice had his first three-hit game just five games into the season, in a 4-2 victory over the Red Sox. In late May, he made three spectacular catches in a row against the Yankees, in a game that saw him also smack three base hits. By mid-summer, Sam had really found his groove, putting together a seventeen-game hitting streak in July.

Rice was beginning to come into his own as a hitter and an outfielder, but was doing so in an odd transition year for major league baseball.

Maybe the culture was ripe in 1919 for a scandal like the one that was to soon devastate the game. In the aftermath of the World War, some Americans were still attempting to sort through their feelings about fierce competition. In the post-victory glow, brotherhood among Americans seemed to be preferred over cutthroat competitiveness, even on the field of play. That was illustrated by the reaction to Rice's actions at the plate in a mid-August game against the Red Sox.

In the seventh inning of a tight game, Rice came to the plate. Senators base runners stood on first and second, and the customs of the game in those last throes of the "dead-ball era" dictated that he sacrifice both teammates up a base. Boston third baseman Joe "Moon" Harris, a future teammate of Rice's, accordingly crept up onto the grass.

Like Rice, Harris was a veteran of the war in Europe. He had missed the entire 1918 campaign in service to the cause.

"Did Rice bunt?" reported the Washington Post. "He did not. Instead, he crossed Harris by whistling a line drive past him at a rate of ten miles a minute."

Because both men were veterans of the same war, it was felt that Rice had a gentleman's obligation to take care of Harris in the situation. Instead, he had embarrassed the Boston third baseman by slamming the ball past him.

Or so the newspaper felt.

"Sam Rice ought to be ashamed of himself," the Post said, "to take advantage of a fellow overseas veteran like Joe Harris as he did in the seventh."

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1671185154

ValKehl · #3 12-16-2022, 09:11 PM

George, your W514 of Sam Rice is gorgeous - by far the nicest I've ever seen!

Here are 3 off-condition, but scarce, back variations of this card that I'm thrilled to have in the master set of Rice's cards that I'm working on:

GeoPoto · #4 12-17-2022, 04:07 AM

Wow, Val. Very impressive. Thanks for sharing your rare examples. Makes you wonder how many different backs there once was. I'm curious whether you have seen other W514 backs with printed messages (as opposed to stamped)?

Player #85: Frank M. "Wildfire" Schulte. Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1918. 1,766 hits and 92 home runs in 15 MLB seasons. 1907 and 1908 World Series champion. 1911 NL MVP. 1910 and 1911 NL home run leader. 1911 NL RBI leader. He debuted with the Chicago Cubs in 1904-1916. His best season was 1911 with Chicago as he posted a .384 OBP with 107 RBI's and 105 runs scored in 690 plate appearances. He played on four pennant winners in Chicago and hit .321 in the four World Series. His last season was with Washington in 1918.

Schulte's SABR biography hits some of the highlights of his career: Frank M. Schulte was the slugging right fielder for the great Chicago Cubs teams of 1906-10. After his first start on September 21, 1904, �Wildfire� remained with the Windy City club until 1916, and outlasted the likes of Mordecai Brown, Frank Chance, Johnny Evers, and Joe Tinker, who by the end of Schulte�s days in Chicago, was managing the club. . . .

. . . While performing solidly during regular seasons, Wildfire hit full stride during his four World Series appearances. He owns a .309 lifetime average in the Fall Classic, hitting safely in all ten contests in the 1907 and 1908 championships and in all but one game in both the 1906 and 1910 season cappers. Wedged in his four Series appearances is Schulte�s thirteen game hitting streak, a record mark in his day that remains good enough to place him in a tie for fifth (with Harry Hooper) all-time in that category as of 2018.

No look at Schulte�s career is complete without mentioning his blockbuster 1911 campaign. Though the Cubs dropped to second in the final standings that season, Wildfire�s individual exploits earned him a new automobile, the prize for being voted the National League winner of the Chalmer�s Award, a short-lived honor that is roughly equivalent to today�s MVP award. On his way to establishing ownership of the �tin lizzy� (which ironically caught on fire near his plantation sometime later) Schulte mounted one of the era�s great assaults on National League pitching.

He had led the Cubs in homers in 1910 with ten, but, perhaps aided by a somewhat livelier �bulb� in 1911, the Cub right fielder clubbed twenty-one round trippers while driving home 121, both tops in the league. His league bests that year also included 308 total bases and a .534 slugging percentage. He was fourth in hits (173), fifth in runs (105), and became the first player ever to top the twenty mark in the categories of home runs, triples (21), doubles (30), and stolen bases (23). This feat was not duplicated until 1957 when Willie Mays similarly scorched the National League. For good measure, Schulte became the first player ever to clout four grand slams in one season, hit for the cycle on July 20, smashed a homer and a double in the same inning on August 15, and, perhaps surprisingly to modern fans weaned on sluggers who can�t and don�t bunt, was second in the league with thirty-one sacrifices. Finally, despite playing all 154 Cubs games that season, Wildfire even found time to get hitched; he married Mabel Kirby on June 26 in Chicago.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1671271330

ValKehl · #5 12-17-2022, 07:44 PM

George, I am aware of there being a couple of known W514 cards with a printed ad on the back for Robinson Caruso Salted Peanuts that were issued by a Lynchburg, VA, company, but I've never seen one of these cards in person. Here's the link to info re these cards: http://boblemke.blogspot.com/2015/11...f-w514-ha.html

Kawika · #6 12-17-2022, 08:05 PM

Here are a few Wildfire Schulte cards for the heck of it. Nothing in Senators flannels however.

GeoPoto · #7 12-18-2022, 04:11 AM

Thanks again to Val and David for contributing.

The 1920 Washington Senators won 68 games, lost 84, and finished in sixth place in the American League. They were managed by Clark Griffith and played home games at Griffith Stadium.

Deveaux tells us about Washington's struggles in 1920: The Washington Nats, in the middle of the pack offensively, featured the worst pitching staff in the league and finished sixth in 1920, 29 games behind the Indians. Clark Griffith's skills in recognizing talent were beginning to show results all the same. The previous year, Griff had nearly signed Pie Traynor, a future Hall of Famer then at third base for the Pirates. The management of the Portsmouth club of the Virginia League had apparently doubled the price on Traynor despite an earlier agreement.

In the fall of 1919, Griffith was more fortunate. Both he and Joe Engel went to Buffalo to scout an infielder who played for a shipyard team in Baltimore and who had been highly recommended to them by Joe Judge. In the doubleheader they witnessed, this player, Stanley "Bucky" Harris, had an outstanding day at the plate, and did so with two fingers taped together because one was broken -- Harris wasn't going to miss a chance to show what he could do. Needless to say, Bucky Harris was signed, and as a rookie in the big leagues in 1920 he hit an even .300 and fielded reliably.

There is no telling what 32-year-old Walter Johnson might have accomplished in 1920 had he been at the top of his game. The Senators provided plenty of runs, but the Big Train responded with the worst campaign of his career. Afflicted with a sore arm after more than two weeks of rail travel while training in the South, he missed a season-opening assignment for the first time since 1911. He would wind up a disappointing 8-10. On May 14, he did register the 300th win of his career, a 9-8 decision over the Tigers, but kept alternating good performances with bad throughout the season. Not one Washington starter had better than a .500 record -- Tom Zachary logged the most innings and charted the best mark on the staff, 15-16. A Quaker who farmed tobacco in his native North Carolina, Zachary's smooth delivery would bring 15 or more wins to the Nats in three of the next four years. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1671358263

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