Baseball...numbers, stories and analysis

1917 and Wars...Literal and Figurative

Ed. Note:  Sorry for the delay in between postings...started a new job, then a newer job, which has be working crazy hours. And, well, life happens.

     1917 saw the United States become involved in the 'War to End All Wars'. As a quick refresher, the U.S. Decided that it would not intervene in the war, and President Woodrow Wilson won re-election by keeping America out of the conflict, while trying to negotiate a peaceful settlement among the warring nations.

     Wilson's main concern was the submarine attacks on passenger ships, like the RMS Lusitania, which was sunk by a U-Boat in 1915. President Wilson negotiated a settlement with Germany, but let them know that the U.S. Would not tolerate 'unrestricted submarine warfare in violation of international law'.

     Germany complied for a time, but in January, 1917, the resumed their aggression.

Furthermore, they reached out to Mexico, and invited them to join with the Central Powers, in exchange, Germany would aid Mexico in a war with the United States in an effort to reclaim Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

     This message was intercepted and made public to the American public, as the President classified it an Act of War. Congress officially declared War in April, 1917.

     Baseball would feel the effects of the war effort. Attendance was down across the league. The Washington Senators would draw less than 90,000 fans in 77 home games. The American economy was beginning to suffer, and the looming threat of players being lost to conscription, enlistment and other war efforts led to an uneasiness throughout organized ball.

     On an historic note, Boston Braves catcher Hank Gowdy became the first Major Leaguer to enlist, seeing action in France with the 166^th Ohio regiment.

     Baseball also was dealing with 'wars' of their own, but obviously to a much lesser extent. The first being the threat of a strike by the 'Players Fraternity'.

     The Players Fraternity was essentially a union, founded in in 1912 by former player Dave Fultz. It was established to help players get protection, to help insure that terms of the player contracts were fulfilled. It was an entity that was looking out for the best interest of the players.

     The 'strike' that was threatened was ostensibly to abolish the '10 day Clause', in which a team could stop paying a player who suffered an injury after 10 games of inactivity, but they would still be under contract to their team, due to baseball's reserve clause.

     After several negotiations, the Fraternity decided, on February 14^th, 1917 to not go through with the work stoppage, after gaining several concessions from the ownership committee. The Fraternity, however, was then stripped of power as the owners decided to sever any ties with the Players Fraternity from that point forward. The Fraternity disbanded in 1918.

     But, in one of those baseball coincidence, two months later, on April 14^th, Marvin Miller was born.

     Miller would become a labor attorney, who would grow to lead the Major League Baseball Players Association from 1966-1983. During that period he negotiated the very first Collective Bargaining Agreement with the owners in 1968, and led through three strikes and two lockouts.

     He represented Curt Flood in his battle to negate baseball's Reserve Clause, and helped bring about Free Agency in baseball. Flood refused a trade from St. Louis to Philadelphia, challenging the system in which, he felt, players were considered chattel.

     During a game against the Reds at the Polo Grounds, Giants Manager John McGraw had some words with Bill “The Singing Umpire” Byron. When the game was over, McGraw approached Byron and said,”Take your hands out of your pockets, and I'll show you who's the better man.”

     More words were exchanged, and according to sportswriter Sam Crane, Byron's hands came out of the pockets, and fists were thrown.

     “The umpire went down, his mouth bleeding profusely. He made no attempt to regain his feet.”

McGraw was fined $500 and suspended for sixteen days.

     There was also an historic battle that seems to have been forgotten, and still remains somewhat controversial.

     The Boston Red Sox were playing the Washington Senators. George Herman Ruth, the Babe, was the Sox starting pitcher, and was not having a good day from the get-go.

     His first pitch to Ray Morgan was called a ball, and Ruth disagreed. So much so that he walked halfway to the plate to tell the umpire so.

     The next two pitches were also called balls, with Ruth being a little more aggressive in his displeasure at the umpire's decision, and encroaching even closer to the plate. Probably, given the combative nature of the situation, it didn't matter where the next pitch was going to be.

     When the fourth pitch was called ball four, Ruth advanced to the plate, (as Foster took first base on the walk) and engaged in an argument with the home plate umpire, Brick Owens. During the heat of the argument, Ruth slugged Owens in the nose. Obviously, he was immediately ejected from the game and subsequently fined and suspended.

     Scrambling now, Red Sox manager Jack Barry quickly got pitcher Ernie Shore ready to fill in for Ruth.

     Shore quickly picked Foster off of first base. He then proceeded to retire the next twenty-six batters in order. Shore had been credited with an asterisked perfect game, the reasoning was that he was responsible for the 1^st out of the game, even though he reached on Ruth's walk, and then the next 26 in order.

     Some that since the first runner was on base, the perfect game should be nullified, since a truly 'perfect game' would not have ANY base runners.

     In 1991, Major League Baseball revisited the perfect games, and decided that this was not a true perfect game, so game is now officially recorded as a 2-pitcher no-hitter.

     (As an aside, the view of Major League Baseball now says that a perfect game is a game where a pitcher competes nine innings, no more or no less, and no batter reaches base. That being said, David Palmer of the Expos lost a 5 inning perfect game, Pedro Martinez lost credit for a perfect game, although he was perfect for nine innings, but allowed a hit in the tenth, and Harvey Haddix lost a twelve inning perfecto because he allowed a hit in the 13^th)

     Ruth was in his last season as a full time pitcher. But he was still a dominant pitcher. How dominant was he?

     He finished with a 24-13 record, and an ERA of 2.01. But, Ty Cobb made 672 plate appearances in 1917, striking out just 34 times, or 5.1% of the time. Ruth was responsible for 4 of those 34, 11.8% of the strikeouts for the league's leading hitter, who finished with a .388 average.

     On to the season at hand, the Chicago White Sox won the American League pennant seemingly with ease. The finished nine games ahead of Boston. However....

     There is a theory that the White Sox made the Tigers know that they would be 'appreciative' of Detroit's less than spectacular performance during a Labor Day series between the clubs. The Tigers did win two of the four games, but the two losses were easy victories for the Pale Hose. Allegedly a 'bundle of cash' was left for the Tigers at the end of the series.

     It is very hard to substantiate these claims, especially a hundred years later, but there was allusions to this during testimony by Chick Gandil and Charles Comiskey during the “Black Sox” trial in 1920.

     Also during this time, and up into the 1920's, it was not unusual for a team wining a crucial series from a team in the second division to leave certain...shall we call them gratuities...to the losing team.

     That being told, the Sox were the only team in either league to win 100 games. Offensive production was still down across the majors. The pitchers held a 17.7% statistical advantage over the hitters, and the American League hurlers were, on average, 12.6% better than their National League rivals.

     The top teams in both offense and pitching for each league were as follows:

       Pitching:

American League	Wins	Runs per 9 innings	National League	Wins	Runs per 9 innings
White Sox	100	2.919	Giants	98	2.883
Red Sox	90	2.894	Phillies	87	3.239
Indians	88	3.459	Cardinals	82	3.664

       Batting:

American League	Avg	Runs scored	National League	Avg	Runs Scored
Tigers	.259	639	Giants	.261	635
White Sox	.253	656	Reds	.264	601
Indians	.245	584	Phillies	.248	578

     And then the overall top 5 power rankings for both leagues combined stands as:

White Sox	World Series Champions
Giants	National League Champions
Red Sox	2nd in American League
Phillies	2nd in National League
Indians	3rd in American League

     The White Sox won the World Series over the Giants in six games. It was the second World Series Championship for the White Sox. Pitcher Red Faber went 3-1 in the Series.

     On to other highlights from the season...

     For the third place Cleveland Indians, infielder Sam Chapman established a record with 67 sacrifice hits in a season.

     For the Yankees, first baseman Wally Pipp established a record for the lowest batting average for an American league home run champion. He hit .244. That record would stand until Harmon Killebrew batted .242 while leading in homers.

     Pipp is the answer to a great trivia question,but not the one your thinking. He was the first Yankee to lead the American league in homers in consecutive seasons.

     For the Phillies, pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander won thirty games for the third consecutive season.

     In St. Louis, Browns pitcher Ernie Koob and Bob Groom each pitched a no-hitter against the pending World Champion Chicago White Sox. And they did it on consecutive days. The only time that has been accomplished.

     And Cardinals outfielder Walton Cruise became the first to hit a ball out of Braves Park. He was also the second, accomplishing that as a member of the Braves in 1921.

     Pirates outfielder Carson Bigbee gathered six hits in an extra inning game. 

     And the Pirates played a record four consecutive extra-inning games.

     And For the Tigers, Ty Cobb led the league in doubles and triples for the third time in his career. No other American Leaguer has done it more than once. (Stan Musial did it four times in the NL)

     It was Cobb's fifth time leading in Total bases and stolen bases in the same year. Snuffy Stirnweiss is the only other American Leaguer to accomplish this feat once.

     Let's delve into the player performances for 1917...

     Looking at the National League batters first, our initial top ten rankings are:

PLAYER	TEAM	Runs	RBI	SB	AVG	RCG
Edd Roush	Reds	82	67	21	.341	1.07
Rogers Hornsby	Cardinals	86	66	17	.327	0.99
Gavvy Cravath	Phillies	70	83	6	.280	1.01
Benny Kauff	Giants	89	69	30	.308	1.00
Heinie Zimmerman	Giants	61	100	13	.297	1.04
George Burns	Giants	103	43	40	.302	0.93
Heinie Groh	Reds	91	53	15	.304	0.92
Hal Chase	Reds	71	86	21	.277	1.01
Possum Whited	Phillies	69	70	10	.280	0.91
Casey Stengel	Dodgers	69	73	18	.257	0.91

     And then as we compare these to their team performances, we get this list:

Rogers Hornsby	Above
Max Carey	Pirates	82	51	46	.296	0.85
Edd Roush	Above
Casey Stengel	Above
Gavvy Cravath	Above
Red Smith	Braves	60	62	16	.295	0.82
Walton Cruise	Cardinals	70	59	16	.295	0.91
Les Mann	Cubs	63	44	14	.273	0.91
Zack Wheat	Dodgers	38	41	5	.312	0.72
Ed Konetchy	Braves	56	54	16	.272	0.83

     This brings our final top ten National League hitter to this list:

Rogers Hornsby

Edd Roush

Gavvy Cravath

Benny Kauff

Heinie Zimmerman

Max Carey

Heine Groh

Casey Stengel

Hal Chase

George Burns

     Switching to the American League, where there was more offense, our initial list of top performers would be:

Ty Cobb	Tigers	107	106	55	.383	1.36
Bobby Veach	Tigers	79	110	21	.319	1.18
Tris Speaker	Indians	90	60	30	.352	1.04
Joe Jackson	White Sox	91	82	13	.301	1.15
Happy Felsch	White Sox	75	99	26	.308	1.11
Eddie Collins	White Sox	91	66	53	.289	1.01
Braggo Roth	Indians	69	72	51	.285	0.97
Joe Harris	Senators	40	65	11	.304	0.94
Ray Chapman	Indians	98	36	52	.302	0.85
Sam Rice	Senators	77	69	35	.302	0.94

     And then, against their team's average performances, we get this list:

Ty Cobb	Above
Tris Speaker	Above
George Sisler	St. Louis Browns	60	52	37	.353	0.81
Bobby Veach	Above
Wally Pipp	Yankees	82	70	11	.244	0.92
Sam Rice	Above
Joe Jackson	Above
Joe Judge	Senators	62	30	17	.285	0.88
Braggo Roth	Above
Joe Harris	Above

     Combining and calculating, that brings our top ten overall performers to this list:

Ty Cobb

Bobby Veach

Tris Speaker

Joe Jackson

Happy Felsch

George Sisler

Braggo Roth

Eddie Collins

Joe Harris

Sam Rice

     Now we'll take a look at the pitching, where the American League pitchers held a 12.6% advantage over the National League hurlers, and where overall, the pitchers were 17.7% better than the hitters, we get this initial list of top ten National Leaguers, featuring Rune per Game (RPG):

Pitcher	Team	W-L	ERA	RPG
Pete Alexander	Phillies	30-13	1.83	2.48
Ferdie Schupp	Giants	21-7	1.95	2.28
Slim Sallee	Giants	18-7	2.17	2.92
Pol Perritt	Giants	17-7	1.88	2.55
Hippo Vaughn	Cubs	23-13	2.01	2.95
Fred Toney	Reds	24-16	2.20	3.05
Rube Marquard	Dodgers	19-12	2.55	3.25
Art Nehf	Braves	17-8	2.16	3.01
Wilbur Cooper	Pirates	17-11	2.36	2.90
Lefty Tyler	Braves	14-12	2.52	3.05

     And then against their team's averages, we get this list:

Fred Toney	Above
Pete Alexander	Above
Hippo Vaughn	Above
Rube Marquard	Above
Art Nehf	Above
Lefty Tyler	Above
Leon Cadore	Dodgers	13-13	2.45	2.93
Jeff Pfeffer	Dodgers	11-15	2.23	2.84
Ferdie Schupp	Above
Pete Schneider	Reds	20-19	2.10	3.45

     With that being stated, crunching the numbers brings us this top ten total National League pitching ranking:

Pete Alexander

Ferdie Schupp

Hippo Vaughn

Fred Toney

Wilbur Cooper

Slim Sallee

Pol Perritt

Rube Marquard

Art Nehf

Lefty Tyler

     And now over to the mighty American League pitchers. Our initial top ten list begins with:

Ed Cicotte	White Sox	28-12	1.53	1.97
Carl Mays	Red Sox	22-9	1.74	2.52
Babe Ruth	Red Sox	24-13	2.01	2.57
Jim Bagby	Indians	23-13	1.99	2.55
Stan Coveleski	Indians	19-14	1.81	2.35
Walter Johnson	Senators	23-16	2.21	2.90
Dutch Leonard	Red Sox	16-17	2.17	2.69
Reb Russell	White Sox	15-5	1.95	2.90
Ernie Shore	Red Sox	13-10	2.22	3.02
Bob Shawkey	Yankees	13-15	2.44	3.09

     A quick word here about Ed “Knuckles” Cicotte...

     He was one of the premiere pitchers in the American League, going 208-149 over his career. He was the top AL pitcher in 1917, leading the league with a 1.53 ERA, and in innings pitched with 346 and 2/3rds.

     He struggled in 1918, but bounced back in 1919 to win 29 games against just 7 losses.

     His salary for 1919 was $6,000, but with a promised $10,000 bonus for winning thirty games. He fell one game short.

     However, according to legend, owner Charles Comiskey allegedly instructed manager Kid Gleason to sit Cicotte for the last five games of the season, depriving Ed that opportunity to win that thirtieth game, and saving Comiskey the bonus money.

     Many point to this occurrence as the impetus for Cicotte's participation in the “Black Sox” scandal on 1919, where the White Sox threw the World Series against the Reds.

     In that Series, Cicotte won one game, and lost another.

     For his part in the scandal, Cicotte, along with seven others, were permanently expelled from baseball.

     Also of note that the top three on this list all deserve to be noted.

     Babe Ruth, of course, for being, well, Babe Ruth. Another dominant pitcher who held the American League record for the lowest ERA (1.75 in 1916) by a left-handed pitcher in the regular season, which was subsequently broken by Ron Guidry (1.74)in 1978

     And Carl Mays, a wicked sidearmer, who's notoriety comes from baseball tragedy.

In 1920, Mays who was pitching for the Yankees at the time, lost control of a fastball that struck Indians shortstop Ray Chapman in the temple. Chapman died as a result of the massive head trauma.

     But back to the statistics at hand, this is the list as compared to to their team performances:

Walter Johnson	Above
Win Noyes	Athletics	10-10	2.95	3.98
Bob Groom	Browns	8-19	2.94	3.09
Jing Johnson	Athletics	9-12	2.78	3.58
Carl Mays	Above
Ed Cicotte	Above
Bullet Joe Bush	Athletics	11-17	2.47	3.90
Jim Bagby	Above
Babe Ruth	Above
Stan Coveleski	Above

     That will bring our final top ten best pitchers in the AL to:

Ed Cicotte

Carl Mays

Babe Ruth

Jim Bagby

Walter Johnson

Stan Coveleski

Dutch Leonard

Reb Russell

Ernie Shore

Bob Shawkey

     So with all this information in mind, and no post season awards to speak of, here are my top five votes for each award.

National League

Grover Cleveland “Pete” Alexander

Player of the Year

Pitcher of the Year

Ferdie Schupp

Rogers Hornsby

Offensive Player of the Year

Edd Roush

Gavvy Cravath

American League

Ty Cobb

Player of the Year

Ed Cicotte

Pitcher of the Year

Carl Mays

Babe Ruth

Bobby Veach

     Thanks for reading...hope you enjoyed!