Baseball...numbers, stories and analysis: July 2020

1920, aftermath and possibilities…

Hindsight and afterthoughts are a great tool when reflecting on things.

While we know now that the 1919 World Series was won by the gamblers first and foremost, the 1920 baseball season began with the same wide-eyed innocence as the previous seasons held. And, most seasons since.

Throughout most of the season, it was business as usual. Sure, there were rumors about gamblers affecting the outcomes of games, but hadn’t there always been? The great suspicion that surrounded the 1919 Series piqued more curiosity than in previous seasons, but the powers that were seemed content to let it pass.

Then August happened.

August and September of 1920 was one of the most tumultuous two month stretch in the early history of baseball, for two distinctly different, yet compelling events.

The first was an August 16^th game at the Polo Grounds in New York, where the Yankees were hosting the Cleveland Indians. Submarine pitcher Carl Mays was on the mound for the Yankees, going for his hundredth career win.

Mays was a very good pitcher, but a very irascible person. He was found of ‘brushing players back’ if he felt they were too close to the plate. He was known for his control, averaging less than three walks per nine innings. He pitched in twenty-six World Series innings without walking a batter.

He was not very popular with other players, either teammates or opponents. But he was close with new teammate Chick Fewster of the Yankees. Mays had come over from the Red Sox during the previous off-season, in a deal that would have a big headline grabber, except for the Yankees purchase of Babe Ruth from the Sox during that same time.

Getting back to Fewster, in the spring he was hit just above the ear by a fastball delivered by Brooklyn Robins pitcher Jeff Pfeffer. Fewster laid on the ground for at least ten minutes before he could regain consciousness. At that time, he had no recollection of what had happened. He spent the next few weeks confined to a wheelchair, unable to speak.

Fewster was able to fully recover and is an asterisk in the record books as being the first Yankee to bat at Yankee Stadium.

For the first half of the Season, Mays had seemingly lost the ability to pitch inside, with the fear that he may hurt someone. He was able to overcome this, and by the time August had come around, he was back in form.

In the top of the fifth, Indians shortstop Ray Chapman stepped up to the plate. The right-handed batter dug in, ready for the offering from Mays. Mays threw, and reacting to the crack of the bat, pounced from the mound to field the ball, and threw it to first base to retire Chapman. Yankee first baseman Wally Pipp caught the ball but realized there was a problem.

The crack of the bat that Mays and Pipp reacted to was in fact the sickening thud of the ball striking Chapmans skull. Ray took a few steps and then collapsed. Home plate umpire Tommy Connolly saw blood “pouring” out of Chapman’s ear and ran to the stands shouting for a doctor.

Indians manager Tris Speaker, who was on deck, immediately rushed to Chapman’s aid, followed by the rest of the Indians, and several Yankees players. Ray was awake, but unable to speak. He tried to walk to the Indian’s clubhouse, which was in centerfield at the Polo Grounds, but was unable to. He collapsed at second base and was carried off the field.

Reaching the clubhouse, Chapman was reported to have said, “Tell Mays not to worry”.

As his condition deteriorated, an ambulance was called to take him to St. Lawrence Hospital, where they performed an operation to remove a one-and-a-half-inch piece of Chapman’s skull. The doctor observed that the brain had been damaged on both sides of the brain, first on the left side from the impact, and then on the right side from the impact into the skull.

Chapman’s wife was summoned to New York after the injury, arriving just before dawn, but it was too late. Her husband passed away at 4:40 AM.

Mays was notified the next morning, and was questioned by the New York County district attorney, but was cleared of any charges. Some sportswriters speculated that Mays would be affected by the death of Chapman, but it didn’t appear to be the case, as Mays went on to win twenty-six games, and then twenty-seven the next year.

The Indians, however, did take the incident very hard. Player-manager Tris Speaker collapsed at Chapman’s wife’s parents house before the funeral and suffered a nervous breakdown. He was ordered to stay in bed and lost fifteen pounds. Jack Graney, who was Ray’s roommate became hysterical and had to be restrained. He later collapsed at the funeral.

Neither Speaker nor Graney were able to serve as a pallbearer for their teammate.

Several Yankees also attended the funeral.

Bad luck seemed to befall the immediate families of those involved. Katy Chapman, Ray’s wife, would never attend another baseball game for the rest of her life. She was three months pregnant when Ray did. Their daughter, Rae, would catch the measles and die the following year. Katy would take her own life seven years later.

Carl Mays’ wife suffered from an eye infection and died at age thirty-six.

Carl would live for another fifty years, and although he was implicated in a plot to throw a World Series game or two, he never was charged or accused.

On the field, the Indians went on a cold streak, losing eight of their next eleven games, but recovered enough to regain first place, and battle to a pennant, in an exciting finish, two games over the White Sox, and three over the Yankees.

But Chicago was where everyone was looking and watching…

First, there were still questions left unanswered about the 1919 World Series outcome. White Sox owner Charles Comiskey offers a reward of $20,000 for anyone with ‘A single clue' pertaining to his team being guilty of laying down against the Cincinnati Reds. No one came forward.

Comiskey went so far as to hire a detective to investigate the suspected players, and only found that Chick Gandil, who had retired by this time, bought a new house and a new car. But that was not made public, and the business had seemed to pass from everyone’s minds.

Early in 1920 Cubs outfielder Lee Magee, who was under contract for the 1920 season, was released before the season started, and his contract voided. Magee sued for lost salary. Testimony during the trial found that Magee had helped to ‘fix’ games, and that he collected monies from gamblers. He lost his case, and earned a lifetime ban from baseball.

On August 31^st, Cubs President Bill Veeck received a telegram, alerting him that the team was set to throw a mid-week game against the Philadelphia Phillies. Veeck was concerned about the possibility of impropriety, enough so that he ordered manager Fred Mitchell to pull the scheduled starter, Claude Hendrix, and replace him with ace Pete Alexander.

Veeck further offered Alexander a five-hundred-dollar bonus if he earned the win that afternoon. He didn’t, and the Phillies bested him 3-0.

What was later discovered was that Hendrix, through an intermediary in Kansas City, had placed a large bet on the Phillies to win. This also rekindled the talk of the White Sox involvement in throwing the 1919 Series once again.

Veeck was determined to find out more, so he hired private investigators to probe the case, and the turned up little. Veeck then turned to the writers, who did not find much more, but instead drum up public support for the Cook County grand jury to become involved, which led to Billy Maharg.

At this point, things began accumulating quickly. The Grand Jury sent out many subpoenas to many players, managers and celebrities. Giants pitcher Rube Benton said that he knew about the fix, and named several players involved, including Ed Cicotte and Lefty Williams. Lefty Williams’ wife sent a letter affirming that she had placed large bets against the Sox during the Series.

Billy Maharg (which is Graham backwards, leading many to speculate an alias was being used) was a former major leaguer, kind of. He was one of the players that was used as a replacement player for the Detroit Tigers in 1912, in the game where the Tigers struck in support of Ty Cobb.

Maharg, who played third base in that game, took a ground ball to the face and broke some teeth. He also played in one game for the Phillies in 1916, for whom he acted as an assistant trainer during the season. He was hit-less in his two major league at-bats.

The Philadelphia North American newspaper ran an interview with Maharg, who recounted the entire story, naming names and details. Maharg received no money from the fixers, and was essentially shut out of any payoff, so perhaps there was an ax to grind on his behalf.

The Maharg interview broke on September 27^th. On September 28^th, Eddie Cicotte confessed to the Grand Jury, which led to the indictment of the eight players, who were immediately suspended for the remainder of the season, at the very least.

The eight each received a telegram from Comiskey, in which the ‘Old Roman” told them:

‘You and each of you are hereby notified of your indefinite suspension

As a member of the Chicago American league baseball club…If you

Are innocent of all wrongdoing, you and each of you will be reinstated;

If you are guilty, you will be retired from organized baseball for the rest

of your lives if I can accomplish it.”

We now know these events as the “Black Sox” scandal, leading to the expulsion off the eight Sox players that were involved, even though none were found guilty by a court of law. Some conspirators were urged to leave the country. Some moved far from Chicago and ignored any subpoena’s that may have come their way. Baseball was licking its wounds but did crack down on the appearance of impropriety involving relations between players and known gamblers, but no so much the owners.

But that is a story for another day…Back to the 1920 season…

The timing of these suspensions was very fortuitous for Cleveland, as they were in a three-way race for the pennant with the White Sox and the Yankees. While the Yankees were able to keep pace with the Indians, they still fell three games shy. The Sox and Indians were neck and neck going into the last weekend of the season, the Indians split a four-game series with the Tigers, but the White Sox dropped all three of their games against the Browns, losing the pennant by two games.

An argument can easily be made that the suspensions of the Sox players had an adverse effect on the pennant race for sure. One might also extrapolate that there may have been money to be made by the alleged crooked Sox players, if they played their cards right.

The fact that the suspensions were not handed down by the league office, but rather by the White Sox owner, shows the severity and seriousness of the charges, and the realization the baseball needed to police itself if it were to be considered a legitimate entity.

And we will never know if the Sox made the Series, if they would have played on the level. According to several sources, the Sox, along with other players and teams, were taking money from the gambling element throughout the 1920 season as well.

But back to the Indians. In just two months, after burying a teammate, having their manager suffer a breakdown, to rally themselves to a position to win a pennant, and then to catch an unprecedented break from their closest rival’s misfortune, the Indians were riding a high note into the Fall Classic.

The Indians faced the Brooklyn Robins in the Series, and established several firsts on their way to a Series victory:

Manager Tris Speaker became the first pennant winning manager who had previously won a batting title.

Larry Gardner set an American League record by driving in 118 runs with only 3 home runs.

Jim Bagby, Sr. became the first pitcher to homer in a World Series game.

Elmer Smith hit the first World Series Grand Slam home run.

Bill Wambsganss performed the first (and only) World Series unassisted triple play.

That Series marked the first time that brothers opposed each other in the Fall Classic, Doc Johnston of Brooklyn and Jimmy Johnston of Cleveland.

And in a very weird event, Cleveland native Rube Marquard, a pitcher for the Brooklyn Robins, was arrested and fined for attempting to scalp tickets to Game Four of the World Series. For $350. He was fined a total of $4.80, which included court costs.

But all season long, baseball’s attention was on New York, and the Yankees headline acquisition, Babe Ruth. And the Babe did not disappoint. He shattered slugging records. He hit fifty-four homeruns, establishing a new single season record. It was his second consecutive season of setting new single season record for homers. He would accomplish this a third time in 1921.

He finished thirty-nine home runs ahead of his second-place finisher.
He broke his own record of 29, set in 1919, by 25. that was an 86% increase over the record. If someone were to break the current home run record of 73 in a season by the same percentage, they would have to hit 136 homers.
Ruth was the first to hit fifty home runs in a season, and as such, was the first to hit fifty homers with an average of .350 or higher. That has been done six times, three of those by Ruth. (And before you ask, Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Mantle and Hack Wilson were the others)

He established a new walk record, with 150, and set the bar with an .847 slugging percentage, which remains the American League record.

Yet the Yankees, were still a little bit pitching shy, which landed them in third place. But their time was most definitely on the horizon.

Some point at 1920 as the first of the ‘live ball’ era, signaling the end of the ‘dead ball’ era. Some hypothesized that baseball ‘juiced’ up the ball to create more offense in the wake of the Black Sox scandal. This is not the case, because as we just discussed, the investigation and subsequent suspensions did not happen until the season was almost at a close. But the ball was different.

But there were three important rule changes regarding the ball.

First, a movement was made to ban the ‘spitball, or shine ball’, which allowed pitchers to put substances on the ball in order to alter its flight on the way to the plate. Each team was allowed to grandfather in pitchers who could still use those pitches, but that was it. Depending on which league, either one or two pitchers per team were designated as spit-ballers.

Their effectiveness, though, may have been impacted by another rule, which called for clean baseballs to be used. In previous seasons, the possibility of using just one or two balls for the whole game was a reality. It wasn’t until 1916 that foul balls into the stands were not expected to be returned to the field of play.

Now, newer, cleaner, brighter baseballs were used with more regularity, which afforded the hitters a better chance to see the ball. And, after the Chapman incident, the public was clamoring for umpires to be much more diligent on replacing ‘dirtier’ balls.

Lastly, the new balls were tightly wound around a cork center, using higher grade Australian wool, and winding machines to gain more uniformity with the balls. Anecdotal evidence points to these balls as being ‘juiced’, or ‘rabbits’, but there was no scientific evidence to back these facts.

The offense was up in both leagues. The National League teams scored 8% more runs than the previous year, but it wasn’t home run powered. The league leader, Cy Williams of the Phillies, hit just fifteen dingers. The American League batters finished with a .284 batting average, led by the St. Louis Browns who hit .308 as a team, which remains the AL record today.

We’ll take a quick look at the top offense in both leagues, featuring their runs scored ranking:

American League	National League
Indians 856 runs (1^st)	Cardinals 675 runs (2^nd)
Yankees 837 runs (2^nd)	Giants 682 runs (1^st)
White Sox 794 runs (4^th)	Brooklyn 660 runs (3^rd)

You can see the scoring discrepancy in runs scored between the leagues.

Then the pitching rankings, we have this list:

Yankees	Brooklyn
Indians	Giants
White Sox	Pirates

And then the overall power rankings give us this list:

Cleveland	World Series Champions
Yankees	3^rd in AL
Brooklyn	NL Champions
White Sox	2^nd in AL
Giants	2^nd in NL

While New York was slugging their way to a third place American League finish, the offensive powerhouse was the St. Louis Browns. While they finished in fourth place, twenty-one and a half games from first place, they finished with a .308 team batting average.

They were led by George Sisler, whose 257 hits was the major league standard until 2004. He still holds several records based on his 1920 performance. He still holds the record for hits by a first baseman. And he remains the only player to hit over .400 in a season while striking out less than twenty times. He hit.407 with nineteen strikeouts.
Sisler produced 240 runs, which made up 30% of the Brown's team offense.

For the Yankees, pitcher Bob Shawkey was the first Yankee pitcher to lead the league in Earned Run Average.

Cleveland Indians third-baseman Larry Gardner attempted to steal twenty-three bases and was successful only three times. His 13% success rate remains the lowest for any player with more than fifteen attempts.

Chicago Cubs ace Pete Alexander became the first to lead his league in wins for a team with a losing record, twice. He did it with the 1914 Phillies as well). Bob Feller is the only other pitcher to accomplish this feat twice. Alexander won the pitching Triple Crown in 1920.

The White Sox became the first team with four twenty-game winners in their rotation (Ed Cicotte, Dickie Kerr, Lefty Williams and Red Faber. The Indians had three twenty-game winner themselves (Jim Bagby, Ray Caldwell and Stan Coveleski), and the Giants (Art Nehf, Fred Toney and Jesse Barnes). It is the only time that three teams had three or more twenty-game winners.

In Detroit, outfielder Bobby Veach did something the great Ty Cobb never did, he hit for the cycle. Veach was the first Tiger to accomplish that feat. On that same day, New York Giants first baseman George Burns also hit for the cycle. It was the first time two player hit for the cycle on the same day. That happened for the second time in 2008, when Steven Drew of the Diamondbacks and Adrian Beltre of the Mariners did it.

Tigers rookie Sam Hale established an all-time American League rookie record with seventeen pinch-hits.

In Washington, the great Walter Johnson wins his three-hundredth career game, and later would pitch his only career no-hitter.

The Philadelphia Athletics endured an eighteen-game losing streak.

The Red Sox batters managed to walk a record twenty times in a game against the Tigers, but still lost the game 13-12 in twelve innings.

New York Giant second-baseman Benny Kauff was involved in a legal issue, and only played fifty-five games before being traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League. Kauff was arrested and charged with auto theft, for being involved in a scheme where a car was stolen, repainted and sold by Kauff to another party. Kauff maintained his innocence, claiming it was two of his employees that had perpetrated the crime, and that Kauff was an unwilling participant, selling the car in good faith.

The jury believed him, and he was acquitted.

Baseball, and more importantly, Commissioner Landis thought that enough questions about Kauff’s integrity were revealed, that Kauff should no longer be a participant in organized baseball and was therefore given a lifetime banishment.

Following that theme, Phillies first-baseman Gene Paulette was also given a lifetime ban after the discovery of his receiving gifts from gamblers in St. Louis and was alleged to have offered to ‘throw games’ during that 1919 season. He was with the Cardinals in 1919, then traded to Philadelphia, possibly the Cards way of dealing with potential appearances of impropriety.

On May 1st, the Brooklyn Robins and the Boston Braves met in the longest game in major league history. The 26-inning game ended in a 1-1 tie. Both starting pitchers were credited with complete games: Joe Oeschger and Leon Cadore.

Pirates pitcher Babe Adams averaged 0.62 bases on balls per nine innings pitched. He walked just 18 in 263 innings.

Two other events occurred in 1920 that were baseball related, just not in the major leagues.

In high school baseball, at a tournament in Chicago’s Wrigley Field, Lane Tech was hosting the School of Commerce from New York City. The junior first-baseman for New York opened eyes and got a lot of people talking about his hitting prowess when he hit a ball out of the Stadium and onto the street outside. It would not be the first time that Lou Gehrig’s prodigious power would be displayed at a major league ballpark, and definitely not the last.

The other event, a bigger deal, was the formation of the Negro National League, led by Rube Foster. The teams included the Chicago American Giants, Chicago Giants. Cuban Stars, Dayton Marcos, Detroit Stars, Indianapolis ABC’s, Kansas City Monarchs and the St. Louis Giants.

Now, on to the statistical review of the season, starting with the National League pitchers. While the offense told the story in the American League, the National league pitchers fared 5.3% better than the National League hitters, they were also 25.3% statistically better than the American League hurlers.

The top ten initial; rankings for NL pitchers is as follows:

Pitcher	Team	W-L	ERA	RA
Pete Alexander	Cubs	27-14	1.91	2.35
Burleigh Grimes	Brooklyn	23-11	2.22	2.99
Babe Adams	Pirates	17-13	2.16	2.84
Wilbur Cooper	Pirates	24-15	2.39	3.11
Bill Doak	Cardinals	20-12	2.53	3.13
Dutch Ruether	Reds	16-12	2.47	2.95
Fred Toney	Giants	21-11	2.65	3.27
Jeff Pfeffer	Brooklyn	16-9	3.01	3.39
Sherry Smith	Brooklyn	11-9	1.85	2.77
Dolph Luque	Reds	13-9	2.51	2.82

And compared to their team’s average performances, we get:

Pete Alexander	Above
Bill Doak	Above
Lee Meadows	Phillies	16-14	2.84	3.79
Hippo Vaughn	Cubs	19-16	2.54	3.38
Joe Oeschger	Braves	15-13	3.46	3.73
Babe Adams	Above
Wilbur Cooper	Above
Dutch Ruether	Above
Burleigh Grimes	Above
George Smith	Phillies	13-18	3.45	4.13

Combining and compiling brings us to this NL top ten pitchers list:

Pete Alexander

Babe Adams

Bill Doak

Wilbur Cooper

Burleigh Grimes

Dutch Ruether

Fred Toney

Dolph Luque

Jeff Pfeffer

Lee Meadows

Over to the American League, our initial pitcher ranking is:

Stan Coveleski	Indians	24-14	2.49	3.14
Jim Bagby	Indians	31-12	2.89	3.23
Bob Shawkey	Yankees	20-13	2.45	2.96
Urban Shocker	Browns	20-10	2.71	3.55
Carl Mays	Yankees	26-11	3.06	3.66
Ed Cicotte	White Sox	21-10	3.26	3.80
Red Faber	White Sox	23-13	2.99	3.84
Herb Pennock	Red Sox	16-13	3.68	4.05
Dickie Kerr	White Sox	21-9	3.37	4.12
Lefty Williams	White Sox	22-14	3.91	4.36

And against their team averages, that top ten list is:

Ed Rommel	Athletics	7-7	2.84	3.51
Urban Shocker	Above
Howard Ehmke	Tigers	15-18	3.25	4.43
Walter Johnson	Senators	8-10	3.13	4.26
Dixie Davis	Browns	18-12	3.17	3.91
Herb Pennock	Above
Stan Coveleski	Above
Jim Bagby	Above
Bob Shawkey	Above
Scott Perry	Athletics	11-25	3.62	5.15

Making these the top ten AL pitchers:

Urban Shocker

Stan Coveleski

Jim Bagby

Bob Shawkey

Carl Mays

Ed Cicotte

Red Faber

Ed Rommel

Walter Johnson

Herb Pennock

Now, looking at offense starting with the National Leaguers, who were outpaced by the AL hitters. How much so? In using a runs created per game played, the NL leader, Rogers Hornsby, was fifteenth in the combined statistics. Fourteen AL players created a higher average than he did.

That initial National League top ten list:

Player	Team	HR	RBI	AVG	RCG
Rogers Hornsby	Cardinals	9	94	.370	1.21
Ross Youngs	Giants	6	78	.351	1.07
Edd Roush	Reds	4	90	.339	1.12
Frankie Frisch	Giants	4	77	.280	1.18
Zack Wheat	Brooklyn	9	73	.328	1.03
Hi Myers	Brooklyn	4	80	.304	1.03
Cy Williams	Phillies	15	72	.325	0.98
Dave Robertson	Cubs	10	75	.300	0.99
Milt Stock	Cardinals	0	76	.319	1.04
Jake Daubert	Reds	4	48	.304	0.99

And comparing their performances against their team’s, we get this:

Cy Williams	Above
Rogers Hornsby	Above
Irish Meusel	Phillies	14	69	.309	0.94
Edd Roush	Above
Possum Whited	Pirates	1	74	.261	0.94
Ross Youngs	Above
Max Carey	Pirates	1	35	.289	0.83
Dave Robertson	Above
Zack Wheat	Above
Billy Southworth	Pirates	2	53	.284	0.79

That helps us get to this top ten National League hitters:

Rogers Hornsby

Edd Roush

Ross Youngs

Cy Williams

Zack Wheat

Frankie Frisch

Irish Meusel

Hi Myers

Dave Robertson

Jake Daubert

To the American League, where the hitters were 25.2% better than the National League hitters, and where they performed 41.5% better than the pitchers, we get this initial list:

Babe Ruth	Yankees	54	135	.376	1.68
George Sisler	Browns	19	122	.407	1.56
Tris Speaker	Indians	8	107	.388	1.57
Joe Jackson	White Sox	12	121	.382	1.47
Baby Doll Jacobson	Browns	9	122	.355	1.36
Happy Felsch	White Sox	14	115	.338	1.33
Elmer Smith	Indians	12	103	.316	1.34
Eddie Collins	White Sox	3	76	.372	1.24
Ty Cobb	Tigers	2	63	.334	1.32
Ray Chapman	Indians	3	49	.303	1.29

And against their teams:

Babe Ruth	Above
Ty Cobb	Above
George Sisler	Above
Joe Dugan	Athletics	3	60	.322	0.99
Bobby Veach	Tigers	11	113	.307	1.26
Tim Hendryx	Reds Sox	0	73	.328	1.28
Tillie Walker	Athletics	17	82	.268	0.97
Joe Jackson	Above
Steve O’Neill	Indians	3	55	.321	0.77
Tris Speaker	Above