Baseball...numbers, stories and analysis: 1930...offense, a new ball and the birth of a phrase

1930, and the opulence of offense, and the birth of an idiom

(partially revisited)

(original text in blue)

Someone once said that is hard to look back on past baseball seasons without commentary on the historical significance of those years. With that being said, it should be noted that the first ever night baseball game was played on April 28th in Independence, Kansas; the Twinkie was invented, and Farm Cow Ollie became the first cow to be milked in an airplane. (She may also be the ONLY one)

Prohibition was in full effect in 1930, and the great depression was gripping the nation. Babe Ruth of the Yankees was paid $80,000. Someone pointed out that the Babe was getting paid more than President Herbert Hoover, and he famously responded, "I had a better year than he did."

Prosperity was hard to find in America...unless you were a big-league hitter. And if you were in the National League, even better. The league averaged a .303 batting average, with 5.68 runs per game, while the American League ‘struggled’ to a .288 clip and ‘only’ 5.41 runs per game.

The flip side of that is the atrocious pitching stats. The AL pitchers finished with a 4.65 Earned Run Average while the NL finished with a 4.97 rate. The Phillies pitcher were historic in their ineptitude. They allowed 1199 runs, which remains the record for the modern era. Their season ERA was 6.71, which is the record for any era.

How bad were they in 1930? If you remove their season statistics from the league average, and recalculate, the NL Earned Run Average reduces to 4.72.

Over two days, July 23^rd and 24^th, the Phillies scored fifteen runs in consecutive games…and lost both. The first, 16-15 against the Pirates. The second was 19-15 against the Cubs. That game against the Cubs remains the most runs scored in a game with neither team hitting a home run.

Part of the reason for the offensive surge can be attributed to a new ball that was introduced this year. It featured a tighter core, a change in the cork center, and a lowering of the stitches on the seam, which made it a little harder for pitchers to get a good grip. The balls were a little more readily available as well, so scuffed and damaged balls were replaced with a little more frequency than in previous seasons

With the depression in full swing, it's hard to imagine anyone with more than they needed. But in baseball, that's exactly what seemed to happen. Many look to the 1930 season as the best season for hitters, and it's hard to disagree. The combined leagues' batting average that year was .296, the highest ever in the modern era; averaged 5.55 runs scored per game, again the highest in the modern era; and the pitchers had an ERA of 4.81, worst in the modern era.

Bill Terry became the last National League hitter to hit over .400. (.401 to be exact). Hack Wilson set the NL home run record with 56 homers; a record that stood for 68 years until Mark McGwire slammed 70. Wilson still holds the major league record for RBI with 191, averaging 1.23 RBI per game. Terry also tied the National League record for hits, matching the 254 that Lefty O’Doul amassed the season before.

Chuck Klein of the Phillies had a very good season at the plate. He became the first player to reach 50 doubles and 30 homers twice. He joined Rogers Hornsby as the only other player to amass 40 homers and 140 singles in the same season. His 155 runs scored remains the National league record. And during 1930, the twenty-five-year old became the quickest player to have reached the one thousand career hit plateau, doing so in six hundred eighty-three games.

In the history of the National League, five men have gotten 240 hits or more in a season. It happened three times in 1930, Bill Terry, Chuck Klein and Babe Herman.

As of this writing, there have been just seven teams in the modern era (1901-present) that have scored 1,000 or more runs. It happened twice in 1930, with the Yankees and the Cardinals achieving that feat. More incredibly, this would be the first of the Yankees scoring four digits in runs score for three consecutive seasons.

No steroids, no performance enhancing drugs. Just an impressive offensive season. Bad pitching? Maybe. But Casey Stengel used to say, "Good pitching stops good hitting, and vice-versa". Lefty Grove, Carl Hubbell, Ted Lyons and Wes Ferrell were active pitchers that year, as was 43-year-old Grover Alexander and 36-year-old Burleigh Grimes (the last of the legal spitball pitchers)

During the 1930 season, the Dodgers had home runs negated for runners overtaking each other on the basepaths. Both times, the runner was Babe Herman.

A few years later, when he was asked about the incidents, Herman allegedly replied, “I never could figure out what their hurry was.”

Cleveland Indians shortstop Joe Sewell had a fever and missed the May 1^st contest. That broke his streak of playing in 1,103 consecutive games. Lou Gehrig, with 743 consecutive games played at this point, would take over as the longest active streak. Sewell struck out twice in a game against Pat Caraway of the White Sox, and then would strike out just one more time during the season, which covered 395 at-bats.

Boston Braves rookie Wally Berger became the first rookie to hit 30 homers in a season. He establishes a new rookie home run record with 38, and a new rookie runs batted in record with 119.

The Cubs Hack Wilson, mentioned earlier, remains the only National League hitter to hit 50 or more homers, and bat better than .350 in a season. Teammate Gabby Hartnett set the record for the most home runs by a catcher with 37, broken by Roy Campanella in 1953.

Hack Wilson

Gabby Hartnett

The Cubs are the only team to have two players who reached 100 walks and 200 hits in the same season, Hack Wilson and Woody English.

Cincinnati Reds pitcher Ken Ash earned a win over the Cubs with one pitch.

In a tie game, he was called on to relieve, facing Charlie Grimm. The first pitch, “Jolly Cholly” hit into a triple play. Ash was pinch-hit for during the next half inning, in which Cincinnati took the lead that they never relinquished…giving the win to Ash.

White Sox outfielder Carl Reynolds homered in each of the first three innings of a game, the second of a double-header against the Yankees on July 2^nd. That hadn’t been done again until many Machado of the Orioles accomplished the same in 2016.

In the waning days of the season, as it played out, the American League pennant race was over, the Philadelphia A’s were preparing for their World Series match-up against the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Yankees had just been in Philly for a three-game series, winning two of the three. In a weird scheduling situation, the last day of the season was a Sunday, and the Yankees were scheduled to travel to Boston to play the Red Sox.

With the Yankees entrenched in third place, and guaranteed their third-place bonus money, there really wasn’t a whole lot to play for. Yankee manager Bob Shawkey had planned on taking a ‘skeleton crew’ to Boston for the season finale, leaving starting catcher Bill Dickey at home, along with a couple of pitchers who had started the previous two days.

Babe Ruth approached Shawkey with a modest proposal. He asked Shawkey if he could pitch the last game of the season. With literally nothing to lose, Shawkey agreed.

Lou Gehrig, hearing of Babe and Shawkey’s plan, decided to join in, and asked if he could take the Babe’s spot in left field. Again, Shawkey agreed.

With the batting line-up the same, Ruth third, Gehrig fourth. With Babe on the mound, Gehrig in left and Harry Rice at first, the Yankees took on the Sox in front of an estimated crowd of jut over 10,000 fans.

The game lasted an hour and forty minutes. Babe got two hits, Gehrig three. The Yankees won the game 9-3. Amazingly, Babe Ruth, in his first mound appearance in eleven years, pitched a complete game victory, winning 9-2. Both runs he allowed were earned. He walked two, struck out three, and gave up eleven hits.

But here’s the kicker…

It was a total surprise. There was no time to put out any sort of advance notice that Babe Ruth would be pitching the final game of the season. In Boston, no less, where he began his very storied career. If there was notice, I am sure that the attendance would have doubled, or even tripled. But it didn’t.

It was a total surprise. And since Babe didn’t take his usual place in the field, left-field, the whole situation of him starting ‘came out of left-field’.

According to legend, this is where that idiom originated, and if true, it would have a conception date of September 28, 1930.

The Cardinals went 22-4 in their last 26 games to win the pennant. Thirty-year-old George Watkins established a new National League record for hitting, with a .373 average. In fact, all eight of the Cardinals regulars batted .300 or better, a feat which hasn’t been accomplished since.

Watkins would become the second player to homer in their first World Series at-bat.

The season statistics are all over the place, which you will see in a minute. The team leaders in pitching were:

American League	National League
A’s	Dodgers
Senators	Cardinals
Yankees	Giants

Lefty Grove of the A’s won pitching’s triple crown, by leading the league in wins, strikeouts and earned run average. Very impressive considering the onslaught of hitting throughout the league. His league leading 2.54 ERA was .77 better than the runner up, Wes Ferrell at 3.31.

More impressive than that, however, was National League ERA champion Dazzy Vance, whose 2.61 was 1.26 runs better than runner up Carl Hubbell at 3.87. Essentially, Vance gave up 1 1/4 less runs per game than his closest competitor.

And the leaders in team offense were:

Yankees	Cardinals
A’s	Cubs
Senators	Giants

And then the overall team ranking, or ‘power ranking’ would be:

A’s	American League Champions
Cardinals	World Series Champions
Senators	2^nd in AL
Yankees	3^rd in AL
Dodgers	4^th in NL

The Cardinals faced the A's in the World Series, with Philadelphia winning in 6 games, behind the slugging of Al Simmons and Jimmie Foxx.

Al Simmons, born Alois Szymanski, was one of the unsung stars of the 'live ball era'. He had the misfortune of playing at a time where his contemporaries were named Ruth, Gehrig and Foxx. But he held his own against them. He finished his storied career with a .334 batting average, falling just a few hits short of the 3,000 mark. He is ranked twenty-third on the all time batting average ranking, ahead of players like Stan Musial, Wade Boggs and Rod Carew.

Now, we’ll recap the top pitching performances in the National League, which was the weaker of the two leagues, underperforming the American League pitchers by 9.1% statistically.

The top ten initial pitchers were:

Pitcher	Team	W-L	ERA
Dazzy Vance	Dodgers	17-15	2.61
Burleigh Grimes	Braves/Cardinals	16-11	4.07
Carl Hubbell	Giants	17-12	3.87
Pat Malone	Cubs	20-9	3.94
Bill Walker	Giants	17-15	3.93
Freddie Fitzsimmons	Giants	19-7	4.25
Dolf Luque	Dodgers	14-8	4.30
Clarence Mitchell	Giants/Cardinals	11-3	4.02
Charlie Root	Cubs	16-14	4.33
Socks Seibold	Braves	15-16	4.12

Then comparing to their team performances, bearing in mind the terrible Phillies pitching staff, it is amazing that Phil Collins was able to finish over .500, and that he was able to notch 16 wins. Herewith:

Phil Collins	Phillies	16-11	4.78
Ray Benge	Phillies	11-15	5.70
Dazzy Vance	Above
Socks Seibold	Above
Pat Malone	Above
Tom Zachary	Braves	11-5	4.58
Ray Kolp	Reds	7-12	4.22
Charlie Root	Above
Red Lucas	Reds	14-16	5.38
Bob Smith	Braves	10-14	4.21

These bring us to this ultimate top ten list for pitchers for the National League:

Dazzy Vance

Phil Collins

Pat Malone

Burleigh Grimes

Socks Seibold

Carl Hubbell

Charlie Root

Dolf Luque

Bill Walker

Tom Zachary

Over to the American League, where our initial top ten list is as follows:

Lefty Grove	A’s	28-5	2.54
Wes Ferrell	Indians	25-13	3.31
Lefty Stewart	Browns	20-12	3.45
General Crowder	Yankees/Browns	18-16	3.89
Ted Lyons	White Sox	22-15	3.78
Sad Sam Jones	Senators	15-7	4.07
Vic Sorrell	Tigers	16-11	3.86
George Uhle	Tigers	12-12	3.65
Firpo Marberry	Senators	15-5	4.09
Earl Whitehill	Tigers	17-13	4.24

Then compared to their team performances, we get this list:

Lefty Stewart	Above
Wes Ferrell	Above
Ted Lyons	Above
Lefty Grove	Above
Vic Sorrell	Above
George Uhle	Above
Danny MacFayden	Red Sox	11-14	4.21
Earl Whitehill	Above
Pat Caraway	White Sox	10-10	3.86
General Crowder	Above

That brings us this overall list of top ten American league pitchers:

Lefty Grove

Lefty Stewart

Wes Ferrell

Ted Lyons

General Crowder

Sad Sam Jones

Vic Sorrell

George Uhle

Earl Whitehill

Firpo Marberry

To the offensive side, we’ll start with the National League, who took advantage of the weak pitching, and performed at a whopping 76.6% better rate than the pitchers, and a 3.9% increase over their American league contemporaries, we get this initial top ten list:

Hitter	Team	HR	RBI	AVG	RCG
Hack Wilson	Cubs	56	191	.356	1.81
Chuck Klein	Phillies	40	170	.386	1.85
Kiki Cuyler	Cubs	13	134	.355	1.77
Babe Herman	Dodgers	35	130	.393	1.55
Bill Terry	Giants	23	129	.401	1.59
Chick Hafey	Cardinals	26	107	.336	1.58
Frankie Frisch	Cardinals	10	114	.346	1.69
Mel Ott	Giants	25	119	.349	1.46
Pie Traynor	Pirates	9	119	.366	1.54
Lefty O’Doul	Phillies	22	97	.383	1.41

Then, as compared to their team average performances, we get this top ten list:

Chuck Klein	Above
Hack Wilson	Above
Wally Berger	Braves	38	119	.310	1.19
Babe Herman	Above
Harry Heilman	Reds	19	91	.333	1.06
Kiki Cuyler	Above
Bill Terry	Above
Tony Cuccinello	Reds	10	78	.312	1.06
Pie Traynor	Above
Joe Stripp	Reds	3	64	.306	1.04

Combining, crunching and comparing, we get this final top ten National League hitters list:

Chuck Klein

Hack Wilson

Babe Herman

Kiki Cuyler

Bill Terry

Chick Hafey

Frankie Frisch

Mel Ott

Pie Traynor

Lefty O’Doul

Now to the American League, where our initial top ten list is as follows:

Al Simmons	A’s	36	165	.381	2.04
Lou Gehrig	Yankees	41	173	.379	1.79
Babe Ruth	Yankees	49	153	.359	1.85
Jimmie Foxx	A’s	37	156	.335	1.61
Mickey Cochrane	A’s	10	85	.357	1.42
Ed Morgan	Indians	26	136	.349	1.55
Goose Goslin	Browns/Senators	30	100	.326	1.50
Joe Cronin	Senators	13	126	.346	1.56
Heinie Manush	Senators	7	65	.362	1.50
Earle Combs	Yankees	7	82	.344	1.49

Note that Al Simmons was responsible for creating an average of over 2 runs per game.

Then, as I compare hitter’s performances to their team averages, we get this next list:

Goose Goslin	Above
Al Simmons	Above
Carl Reynolds	White Sox	22	104	.359	1.34
Charlie Gehringer	Tigers	16	98	.330	1.41
Earl Webb	Red Sox	16	66	.323	0.87
Lou Gehrig	Above
Babe Ruth	Above
Ed Morgan	Above
Dale Alexander	Tigers	20	135	.326	1.31
Red Kress	Browns	16	112	.313	1.23

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

Al Simmons

Lou Gehrig

Babe Ruth

Goose Goslin

Jimmie Foxx

Ed Morgan

Mickey Cochrane

Joe Cronin

Charlie Gehringer

Heinie Manush

1930 was the last year in which there was no official post season awards given. The Sporting News did present a ‘Player of the Year’ honor for each league. Those were awarded to Joe Cronin of the Washington Senators and Bill Terry of the New York Giants.

My top five post season vote, though, differs from them. Herewith, beginning with the National League: