Washington DC Baseball

[ValKehl]

Here's another E210 Type 1 card of Sam Rice, but with a "ghost" back, along with Rice's E210 Type 2 card:

[GeoPoto]

Val: Thank you for showing the Type 2 and the ghost.

Player #74L: Edgar C. "Sam" Rice Part 2. 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.

. . . Removing a few bothersome teeth was kind of a catch-all solution in the rudimentary sports medicine era of the 1920's, but in Rice's case, it seemed to work. Relieved of the pain and accompanying sluggishness on the field, Rice's batting average began a steady climb. So did the Senators, though an Independence Day massacre at New York probably killed any delusions of a return to championship form (the Yankees drubbed Washington 12-1 and 21-1 in the same afternoon).

At the same time, Rice entered one of the most blistering stretches of his career. Over a sixteen-game span, he hit .467. Finally, on the last day of July, Rice reached the .300 mark for the season, a remarkable turnaround considering his career seemed to be in serious jeopardy just a few short weeks before. . . .

. . . Rice's production at the plate steadied and he ended the season batting .297 with ninety-eight runs scored, including at least one in sixteen consecutive games down the stretch. (Sam Rice by Jeff Carroll.)

In addition to an E126, I'm also showing my other E210-1 just because I think it looks awfully good for its grade (there is a bit of paper loss on the back):

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1688721381
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1688721384
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1688721387

[ValKehl]

I can't resist showing my E126 with a ghost back again because it's one my favorite cards of Rice:

[GeoPoto]

Player #120: Tristam E. "The Grey Eagle" Speaker. Outfielder for the Washington Senators in 1927. 3,514 hits, 436 stolen bases and 117 home runs in 22 MLB seasons. 3-time World Series champion (1912, 1915, and 1920). 1912 AL MVP. 1916 AL Batting champion. 1912 AL home run leader. 1923 AL RBI leader. Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. Cleveland Guardians Hall of Fame. 1937 inducted to MLB Hall of Fame. Holds MLB career records for doubles (792) and outfield assists (449). His career OBP is .428. Speaker played center field for the Boston Americans/Red Sox in 1907-1915 and the Cleveland Guardians in 1916-1926. With Hooper and Lewis was member of Boston's "Million-Dollar Outfield". He also managed the Cleveland Guardians in 1919-1926.

Deveaux explains Tris Speaker's brief time in Washington: The Senators did have another (besides Walter Johnson) most distinguished player in their midst for the first time at their training camp in Tampa. Tris Speaker, soon to be 39, seventh all-time in batting average as the 21st century begins, had been signed to a $35,000 contract on January 31. The Cleveland Indians had replaced Speaker as manager and had then cleared him to sign with any team. Speaker had recently been embroiled in controversy. Pitcher Dutch Leonard (this was the lefthanded Dutch Leonard, who was about 17 years older than the righthanded Dutch Leonard who would later pitch for Washington) had accused both him and Ty Cobb of conniving to fix a game between the Indians and the Tigers back in September 1919.

Leonard's charges were never substantiated, but the resulting investigation had a lot to do with finally bringing down Ban Johnson, whose grip on the league's operations had been slipping. Johnson would resign in October after 27 years as president, rather than risk being fired at a general meeting requested by the team owners. Clark Griffith took advantage of the brouhaha surrounding the investigation of the two star players, enticing Speaker with the hefty one-year contract in return for outfield insurance. The pact was sealed four days after Commissioner Landis absolved the two star players of involvement in any wrongdoing. Speaker hit .389 in 1925, but had slipped to .304 in '26.

Griffith could always make room for a career .344 hitter, though. Speaker played a role in shaping the Senators' long-term future in 1927 but, unfortunately, not in a positive sense. "Spoke" was high on a 30-year-old shortstop named Emory "Topper" Rigney, of the Red Sox. Speaker contended that with Rigney, a .270 hitter in '26, at short instead of Buddy Myer, Ossie Bluege could move to second and the Nats would be much improved as a result. Bucky Harris got talked into this and in turn coaxed Clark Griffith into making the trade with Boston.

This, Griffith would admit in later years, was the worst deal ever made under his administration. Within a year and a half, the Nats would give up five players to get Myer back. Topper Rigney batted only .253 in 150 at-bats in 1927, and it was his major-league swan song. He was released after just 45 games with the Senators, while Myer continued to improve and would lead the league in stolen bases in 1928. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1688807186
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1688807189
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1688807192

[GeoPoto]

Player #98C: J. Thompson "Tom" Zachary. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1919-1925 and 1927-1928. 1924 and 1928 World Series champion. 186 wins and 23 saves in 19 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1918. In Washington's World Series-winning 1924 season, he posted a 15-9 record with a 2.75 ERA in 202.2 innings pitched. In 1949 with the New York Yankees, he went 12-0, an MLB record that still stands for most wins without a loss in one season. He also gave up Babe Ruth's 60th home run in 1927. He finished his career with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1936.

Deveaux's account of the Bambino's home run record: The Senators became even more indelibly linked with the Yankees when, at season's end, they arrived at Yankee Stadium for the last three games (of the 1927 season). Babe Ruth was three home runs shy of breaking his record of 59, set in 1921. Lord knows he'd been trying, but the closest he'd been to approaching 59 in the six years since was 47. Until now. On September 29, Ruth chalked up number 58 when he got hold of a curveball that submariner Hod Lisenbee tried to sneak by him.

What followed may well be one of the most dramatic beginnings to any major leaguer's career. Young Paul Hopkins, graduated four months earlier from Colgate University, had been working out with the Nationals for three weeks when Bucky Harris, with the bases loaded, finally called upon him. Hopkins had no idea whose turn it was to bat. Seventy-one years later, he still recalled standing on the mound wondering who the first batter would be.

When Paul Hopkins found out the first man he would face in the major leagues would be none other than Babe Ruth, he was nervous, he admitted later, but not scared, since he felt he was capable of getting anybody out. The youngster threw nothing but curves, most of them slow. The Babe ripped foul balls down both lines, and the count got up to 3-and-2. Then Hopkins threw yet another curve, extra slow, and Ruth had to pull up a bit before launching a rocket toward the right field stands, a grand slam for his 59th homer of the year. Paul Hopkins may never have recovered from the blow, although he would always remember striking out the next batter, Lou Gehrig. When he got back to the bench, his self-image shattered, he said he sat down and cried because he couldn't get Babe Ruth out. Hopkins' major-league journey lasted all of 27 innings.

The next day, with the score knotted at two runs apiece in the eighth inning, Tom Zachary had the task of keeping Ruth from driving in the potential game-winning run, which was standing on third in the person of Mark Koenig, who had tripled. Zachary, reacquired by the Nats from the St. Louis Browns at midseason and 4-7 the rest of the way for Washington, hadn't done too well thus far this day, yielding a walk and two singles to the Bambino. The Babe unleashed a mighty wallop on a 1-1 pitch, a low inside fastball that barely stayed fair. "Foul ball!" yelled Tom Zachary, but fair it stayed.

There was never any doubt about the distance on home run number 60, and the sphere came to rest way up in the bleachers, about 15 rows from the top. The game ended with the score still 4-2 Yankees a few minutes later, when pinch-hitter Walter Johnson flew out to the Babe in right field. "Let's see some other son of a bitch match that!" challenged the Babe, as the Yankees prepared for the beginning of the World Series five days later against the Pirates in Pittsburgh.

Gentle Tom Zachary, when pressed later on in life to give his impressions of surrendering Ruth's 60th homer, declared, "If you really want to know the truth, I'd rather have thrown at his big, fat head." (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)

We finish back with Zachary's SABR biography for his most lasting "accomplishment": . . . On July 7 (1927) he was traded back to the Senators for pitcher Alvin “General” Crowder. Zachary picked up three wins but then went on a six-game losing streak in August and early September, which was followed by a string of no-decisions. On September 25 he shut out the Browns for his first win since August 4. His next start would be in New York on September 30.

Babe Ruth had 57 home runs entering the final series against the Senators. He smashed two homers and drove in six on September 29. The dingers tied his career high of 59 and he had two games left to set a new standard. Zachary had faced the Babe many times since 1919. The Babe had hit eight home runs off his offerings, including two earlier in the season. “But few recall how many times I struck ol’ Babe out.”

Zachary claimed that pitchers always bore down when facing Ruth. He would joke that if pitchers had tried that “hard against everyone else, they would have pitched many of the weaker hitters out of the league.” The Babe walked on four pitches in the first inning. He singled and scored on a Bob Meusel sacrifice fly in the fourth to cut the Washington lead in half. He singled and scored on a Meusel single in the sixth to tie the game. The game was still tied in the eighth when Mark Koenig slammed a one-out triple. Ruth connected on Zachary’s third pitch and sent the ball curving towards the right field corner. It settled into the seats “no more than a foot inside” fair territory according to Senators catcher Muddy Ruel and plate umpire Bill Dinneen. New York won the game, 4-2, sending Tom to his 13th loss of the year.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1688894052
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1688894056

[GeoPoto]

The 1928 Washington Senators won 75 games, lost 79, and finished in fourth place in the American League. They were managed by Bucky Harris and played home games at Griffith Stadium.

Smiles summarizes Washington's 1928 season: In March, amid whispers that Bucky (Harris) was too soft as a manager, Griffith ordered him to impose stricter discipline in spring training. Bucky laid down the law at camp. Bucky said he would no longer be "a good fellow" but intended to tighten the reins, saying, "I feel my job is at stake. I don't believe I ever before took baseball as seriously as I am taking it this year. Looking back I can see where on several occasions, conditions confronted me which I now feel were partly my fault. I had my own heart wrapped up in the game and the team and took a little too much for granted in assuming that my players looked at things in the same manner. . . .

. . . A few days later Griffith said the Senators would contend with the Yankees for the A.L. pennant. The team's strength, he said, were the nine men on the roster who were part of the 1924 and 1925 championship teams. Of the nine -- Ruel, Marberry, Zachary, Bluege, Judge, Rice, Goslin, Tate and Harris -- only Goslin would have a season reminiscent of 1924 and 1925 in 1928. He led the A.L. in batting at .379 and the team in home runs with 17 and RBIs with 102. Ruel hit .257. Bucky had a horrendous season. Beset by nagging injuries, he batted .204 in only 99 games. . . .

. . . The collapse of the Senators was completed in 1928. They fell below .500, at 75-79, and finished 26 games behind the Yankees, who won another 101 games.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1688980377
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1688980380

[GeoPoto]

Player #90E: Leon A. "Goose" Goslin Part 1. Left fielder for the Washington Senators in 1921-1930, 1933, and 1938. 2,735 hits and 248 home runs in 18 MLB seasons. 1936 All-Star. 1924 and 1935 World Series champion. 1928 AL batting champion. 1924 AL RBI leader. 1968 inducted to the MLB Hall of Fame. He drove in the game-winning, walk-off run to win the 1935 World Series for the Detroit Tigers. With Gehringer and Greenberg, was one of the Detroit "G-Men". In 1936 he had an inside-the-park HR when both outfielders (Joe DiMaggio and Myril Hoag) collided and were knocked unconscious. He had one of his best seasons for the WS-winning Washington Senators in 1924 as he posted a .421 OBP with 100 runs scored and 129 RBIs in 674 plate appearances.

Spring training 1928 took place at the fairgrounds in Tampa, Florida, a location providing ample diversion for the fun-loving Goslin. A high-school track team was working out and Goose delighted in challenging runners to impromptu races. He approached a group of teens practicing the shot-put, picked up a 16-pound weight and proceeded to toss it like a baseball – for the next 30 minutes. The next morning his right arm was so strained that he couldn’t comb his hair.

The arm was swollen and discolored as the season opened. Goslin was sent to Atlantic City for salt-water baths, followed by ice packing, massaging, rest, and even a cast (although x-rays showed no break). Another diagnosis revealed that his collarbone was out of placement, prompting a trip to a bone-setter in Michigan. To Griffith’s chagrin, nothing worked. Goose’s throwing arm remained a liability all season and it became a ritual for infielders to run deep into the outfield to retrieve his weak throws. Despite the arm woes, his average was as high as. 432 in late June.

Babe Ruth gets you a quart of Yuengling's ice cream or a skooter skate, which was an early form of roller skate/skate board with an art deco design:

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1689067295
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1689067299
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1689067302
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1689067305
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1689067308
https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1689067311