The ’72 Red Sox lost out on
the AL East title by only half a game to Detroit
and its quickly-aging line-up. So hopes were pretty elevated in ’73 as the Sox
came back with a line-up that was the same except for the addition of Orlando
Cepeda to handle the new job of designated hitter. Orlando did a bang-up job pretty much from
Day 1 and the Sox began the season 4-0. But they then lost six straight and
were a .500 club through the first few months, mostly due to ineffective
pitching and an injury to second baseman Doug Griffin. But nobody was running
away with the division and though they were in fifth place to start July they
were only six back. But a 10-3 run to kick off the month got them briefly into
second place. Luis Tiant was building up a nice comeback season; the Sox moved
Bill Lee from the pen to the rotation; and that big brawl with the Yankees sort
of energized things. But at the same time the Orioles were taking off as well
and some late-summer internal strife had both Reggie Smith and Rico Petrocelli
asking to be traded. So in the end the Sox put up their second-straight second-place
finish – though they finished eight back this time – with a pretty good record.
But it wasn’t enough to let manger Eddie Kasko keep his job and Reggie would
get his wish, getting sent to St.
Louis in the first trade that would compile the team
that would go to the Series in a couple years.
This is a big, big post so
again it will be split into two.
Roger “Doc” Cramer was born
and grew up near Atlantic City,
NJ. After playing ball in high
school, he worked as a carpenter and continued to play in the area for a
semi-pro team put together by his family when he was spotted by an Athletics
player in a local tournament in ’29 when he was 23. Signed on the player’s
recommendation by Connie Mack, Doc hit .404 that summer in D ball and went 2-2
on the mound. That was it for his time as a pitcher and in ’30 he got off to a
.347 start in Double A before being called up to Philly in September for a
couple games. The next couple years he was an outfield reserve for the pennant
winners, hitting .232 and .260 as his workload increased a bit. He went one for
two with a couple RBI’s in the Series that second season. In ’32 Doc worked his
way into the line-up and by the end of the season he had replaced the aging Bing
Miller as center fielder. He hit .336 that year and settled into that role as
over the next three seasons he led the AL
in at bats each year. He put up his big power year in ’33 with a .295/8/75 season
while scoring 109 runs. But Doc was primarily a singles guy and the next two
seasons he hit .311 and .332 as the team got progressively worse as Connie Mack
had to jettison the team’s stars during the Depression. In ’36 it was Doc’s
turn to split and he went to Boston
where he took over center as well, averaging .302 and 100 runs scored during
his five seasons there. Twice he led the AL
in at bats and once in hits while being named an All-Star four consecutive
seasons. In ’41 Dom DiMaggio was the new
kid in camp and Doc never got along too well with Joe Cronin, Boston’s
manager, so he was sent to Washington
for Gee Walker. After a discounted .273 season in DC in ’41 he went to Detroit where for the war
years he would again be the regular guy in center. Those four seasons Doc
averaged .283/2/46 years and in ’45 he returned to the Series, leading the
winners with a .379 average. He then took on a reserve role the next two years
before finishing up top as a player/coach in ’48 at age 42. After a season each
back in the minors playing (.274) and coaching Doc was done. He hit .296 with
2,705 hits and only 345 K’s in his 9,140 at bats, made five All-Star teams, and
hit .387 with six RBI’s in nine Series games. He is currently 64th all-time
in hits and 26th in singles. Defensively he is fifth all-time in
games, putouts, and assists in center field. From ’51 to ’53 Doc was the White
Sox hitting coach. He then returned to the Jersey
shore where he took up his off-season work as carpenter full-time. He passed
away there in 1990 at 85.
Ted Williams certainly needs
no introduction so this will be short. Ted grew up in San Diego, where he was the state’s Mr.
Baseball his junior year. That summer of ’36 he was signed by the San Diego PCL
team and hit .271 in his 42 games before returning to school to graduate. He
returned the next spring to hit .291 with 23 homers and was signed by Boston in exchange for
some players and cash. In ’38 Ted got sent to Double A Minneapolis where his
.366/43/145 season won him his league’s triple crown. It was then all Boston as
he put up an amazing .327/31/145 rookie year and never looked back. His first
four seasons he led the AL in runs and OBA three times; and homers, average,
RBI’s, and total bases twice. He had that huge .406/37/120 year – with a .553
OBA! - in ’41 and followed that up with another Triple Crown season of
.356/36/137 in ’42 before he enlisted to fly planes in the Pacific in WW II. He
returned to win MVP in ’46, another Triple Crown season in ’47, and a ’49 in
which he missed doing the trifecta by less than a percentage point on his
average in what may have been his biggest season (.343/43/159) and second MVP
year. In ’50 he got hurt in the All-Star game and he missed nearly all of ’52 and
’53 to fly planes again, this time in Korea. He stuck with the Sox
through the ’60 season, hitting a homer in his final at bat. His numbers are phenomenal: .344 with 512 homers, 1,798 runs, 1,839 RBI’s, and a record-.482
OBA in about 15 full seasons. He was an All-Star 17 times, led the AL in runs
four times; doubles twice; homers and RBI’s four times; average six times; walks
eight times, and OBA twelve times. About the only blight was his .200 average
in the ’46 Series, his only post-season work. Ted retired to Florida to fish and talk baseball in ’61 until
talked back into baseball to manage the Senators/Rangers from ’69 to ’72. His
first year he won AL Manager of the Year as he took the Nats to the team’s first
winning record. He finished 273-364 in that role and thereafter did some
informal coaching, some rep work for Sears, lots of fishing, and did the
autograph tours. He amped that up in the Nineties when his son John Henry was
his manager. Things got a little ugly around then with various members of Ted’s
family claiming various rights to him and – after he passed away in 2002 – his name
and body. Ted was 83 when he passed away that year and was inducted into the
Hall in ’66.
Like Doc Cramer and Ted
Williams, Tris Speaker was both a pitcher and outfielder while growing up in Texas. He also rode in
rodeos and it was doing that that got his right arm broken twice and pretty
much forced him to be a lefty both batting and throwing. After graduating high
school in 1905 he enrolled at what is now Texas Wesleyan
University where he
played a year and then did the big self-push to local baseball teams and got
himself signed to a local D ball one. Though he bombed as a pitcher – 2-7 in his
eleven games – he did hit .268 in his half season and in C ball in ’07 he hit
.314 and stole over 30 bases. Those numbers got him signed by Boston
who used to do spring training in Little
Rock. That town had a Single A team and in lieu of
paying their rent that year, the Sox gave the team Speaker with a $500 option
to buy him back. That they did after Tris hit .350 and got pulled up for
good later that year. Tris didn’t start terribly well at the plate but his
fielding was pretty exemplary, partly from workouts with teammate Cy Young. In ’09
he took over center field and for the next seven seasons he averaged .342 with
34 doubles, 15 triples, 74 RBI’s, and 38 stolen bases a year. The year with all
the hits he put up a .383/53/12/90/52 season to win AL MVP and also led the
league with his ten home runs and .464 OBA. A masterful defender, Tris would
play a very shallow center, cutting off lots of potential hits and putting up
some big DP numbers for an outfielder, including two unassisted ones. Dogged by
rumors he was in the Klan (also suggested by Tris in an interview), some fractious
clubhouse relationships (including with new star Babe Ruth), and a holdout, Tris was
sent to Cleveland
after the ’15 season for Sam Jones, Fred Thomas, and cash. In his eleven
seasons with the Tribe, Tris stepped up most of his numbers, posting average
seasons of .354/44/10/81/14 while also managing the team every year from ’19 to
’26, going 617-520 during that time and bringing home a Series title in ’20. After
the ’26 season Tris and Ty Cobb were accused of throwing a game several years
earlier by a former teammate and each was basically forced from his team by the
league (the accusation was proven unfounded). Speaker was signed immediately by
the Senators for whom he hit .327 and then finished out his career in ’28 with
the A’s, joined there ironically by Cobb. Tris finished his career with a .345
average with a record 792 doubles, 222 triples, 436 stolen bases, 3,514 hits, a
.428 OBA, and 1,531 RBI’s. He hit .306 with a .398 OBA in 20 Series games,
winning three rings. He struck out less than 400 times and defensively is first
all-time for assists and double plays for an outfielder, and second in putouts.
He was admitted to the Hall in ’37. In ’29 and ’30 he managed and played – he hit
nearly .400 – in the minors and also managed in ’33 for a team of which he was
a partial owner. Baseball-wise he announced for both Chicago
teams in ’31 and ’32 and for Cleveland
from ’35 to ’46. He then coached for the team on a part-time basis from ’47 to ’58.
Away from baseball he had his own wholesale liquor company and was a sales rep
for a steel company. In ’58 he had a heart attack after a fishing trip back in Texas that proved fatal.
He was 70.
Johnny Pesky (nee
Paveskovich) grew up in Portland, Oregon, where after high school he continued playing ball
for company teams, one of which happened to be owned by Boston owner Tom Yawkey. Johnny was signed by
the Sox in ’40 when he was 21 and both that summer and the next he hit .325 in
B ball and Double A, respectively. His defense at shortstop was pretty
impressive as well and in ’42 he was named starting shortstop and set a record
by pounding out 205 hits his rookie season. With that went 105 runs and a .331
average that had him finish third in the AL MVP race. He then departed the next
three years for WW II duty and returned in ’46 to hit .335 with 208 hits, 43
doubles, and only 29 K’s in his only All-Star year. In ’47 he again led the AL in hits with 207
while hitting .324. In ’48 Vern Stephens and Billy Goodman arrived and Johnny
moved to third base where his average fell to .281 but he scored 124 runs, his
season’s best. He rallied to hit over .300 the next three seasons while also
averaging over 100 runs scored. In ’50 he recorded his highest OBA at .437 and
in ’51 returned to shortstop. In ’52 a poor start to his season got him sent to
Detroit in a big trade with Walt Dropo and Fred Hatfield (among others) for
Hoot Evers, George Kell, Johnny Lipon, and Dizzy Trout. With the Tigers his
average bounced a bunch but he still hit only .225 for the season, and while he
revived a lot more in ’53 with a .292 average while playing second, he was only
getting in about half the games and he finished things up with Detroit and the Nats the following year.
Johnny ended things with a .307 average with a .394 OBA and only 218 strikeouts
in over 4,700 at bats. In his one Series in ’46 he hit .233 in seven games. He
stayed close to ball thereafter: as a player/coach in the Yankees system ( he
hit .343 in ’55); a minor league manager for Detroit (’56-’60), Boston (’61-’62
and ’90), and Pittsburgh (’68); an MLB coach for the Pirates (’65-’67) and
Boston (’75-’84); and Boston manager (’63-’64 and ’80). His record in the
minors was an excellent 664-583 and in Boston
147-179. After ’85 he held various admin and part-time coaching roles with the
Sox until he was quite old, leaving the bench in 2005. He passed away last year
at 92.
Earl Webb’s dad was a coal
miner as was Earl by the time he was finished with school, which occurred any
time between when he was eleven and 17, depending on the source. He played local
and company ball in his late teens, primarily as a pitcher, and drew notice
from several area pro teams but was too intimidated by what he viewed as big
cities to go play for them. He got over that in ’21 when he was 23 and went
12-8 in D ball while hitting .282 while also playing outfield. In ’22 he went
8-6 with a high ERA but pitched well in an exhibition game against the Giants,
who signed him the next year. He then spent two seasons on their A team where
his pitching floundered – a combined 17-33 – but for whom he hit a combined
.335 before a late ’24 sale to Double A Toledo - .333 – and a brief NY stint
for a couple games, though he didn’t play. He remained in Toledo in ’25 where
he was now exclusively a fielder and hit .329 with eleven homers and after the
season was sent back to NY for Hack Wilson (?!!) in August. He got only a
couple at bats before he was sent to Louisville,
another Double A team, after the season. He hit .333 with 18 homers through
August when he was sent to the Cubs. For Chicago
in ’27 Earl had a pretty good rookie year at 29, hitting .301 with 14 homers
while playing right field. He was pretty inept as an outfielder (by his own
admittance) and the next year was moved to a reserve role, hitting .250 before
being moved to the PCL in ’29. That year he hit .357 with 56 doubles and 37
homers in the league’s extended season (188 games) and after it he was taken by
Cincinnati in
the Rule 5 draft. He then went to Washington and then Boston before the ’30 season opened. Moving
up to the Sox he had a .323/16/66 year with 30 doubles before he exploded in ’31
with his record-setting doubles amount in a .333/14/103 year. In ’32 he didn’t
come close in the power department to his record year and mid-season he was
sent to Detroit
for Dale Alexander and Roy Johnson and finished the year with .285/8/78 numbers
with 28 doubles. His last MLB season was a ’33 split between Detroit and the Nats. Earl finished with a
.306 average with a relatively ordinary 155 doubles in his 2,161 at bats. He
also had 333 RBI’s and a .381 OBA. He spent the next four seasons in the
minors, hitting well above .300 the first three and then left ball for a
full-time gig in mining, both as a foreman and as manager of his company’s
baseball team. He passed away from coronary thrombosis in ’65 when he was 67.
Chick Stahl was born and
raised in Indiana
in a huge family. He played ball in school and thereafter for lots of semi-pro
teams while working a bit for his dad’s carpentry business. He was signed by Roanoke, a B team, in
1895 when he was 22 and for whom he went 8-11 with a 3.16 ERA on the mound and
hit .311 while also playing center field. He was purchased by Buffalo, an A team, in ’96, gave up pitching,
and hit .340 with 23 triples. He was signed by the Boston NL franchise, the
Beaneaters, and put up a big rookie year in ’97, hitting .354 with 13 triples,
four homers, and 97 RBI’s. His sophomore year was a bit of a discount with a
.308/8/3/52 season, but he bounced back the next two seasons to average
.320/17/6/67 with 30 steals. In ’01 his manager Jimmy Collins moved over to the
new Boston AL team and Chick joined him and the next
two seasons averaged .313/14/4/65 while still playing an excellent center
field. Between those two years a woman he did not know pulled a gun on him and
threatened to shoot him and then went away in a well-publicized trial. In ’03 Chick
had a pretty much lost season as he broke his leg sliding and missed about half
the year. He returned in time to play in the Series, though, and hit .303 with
three triples in beating Pittsburgh
in eight games. He returned with three healthy seasons from ’04 to ’06, getting
all those triples the first year, and taking over as manager midway through ’06.
But in ’07 he resigned as manager because he did not like cutting people during
spring training and in late March he overdosed on carbolic acid, which killed
him pretty much immediately. Only 34, it was always believed the death was a
suicide and many reasons were posited: overall depression; the sting of being a
losing manager – he was 14-26 in ’06; an affair with a married woman; and
finally an affair with a guy friend who’d killed himself in the same manner a
few weeks earlier and asked to be buried next to Chick. Pretty sad story.
Jimmy Foxx is covered on the Oakland page. The
pitchers will get covered on the next post.
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