Speaker goes to the wall
Retelling the 1920 Indians story
Going into 1920, Indians fans had reason to wonder if Tris Speaker would be up to the challenge of continuing his stellar play and leading the Indians to championship quality baseball.
His previous season might look good by modern standards but it must have been distressing for the man considered one of the best centerfielders of all time, this side of Ty Cobb.
He slumped to .296, the first time he dipped below .300 in a full time season at a time when batting average was the gold standard for hitting. As a manager, the Tribe finished at 84–55, second behind the cheating White Sox.
Still, the Plain Dealer writers were telling fans he was the leader they were hoping for.
“…there is not an Indian who does not swear by him. They are for him because they know positively that he is for them, that he plays no favorites and asked them to do nothing he would not do himself. If harmony ever existed in the ranks of a big-league club it is present with the Indians today, and Tris Speaker is the reason.”
Just telling folks is rarely convincing. On April 27, 1920, Speaker showed them.
He didn’t just try to run through a wall for the team, he also caught a ball.
“It was the greatest catch in the history of League Park and admitted by Speaker to be his greatest endeavor,” the PD’s Henry P. Edwards told readers. “That means it was the greatest ever as Speaker is the last word in outfielders.”
Hyperbole? More than a century later, I could find no reason to dismiss anything Edwards said.
Even when praise of Speaker’s fielding is proved to be somewhat false, there is still plenty of awesome facts to validate the legend.
In 1995, the Baltimore Sun went after claims that Babe Ruth once hit a ball through the legs of a pitcher and over Speaker’s head for a home run.
It was an attempt to capitalize on Speaker’s known trait of playing extremely shallow, sometimes appearing to be a fifth infielder. He was playing for Washington and near the end of his career.
“In 1927, (Ruth) hit a line drive at Senators pitcher Hod Lisenbee, who jumped to avoid being hit. The ball nicked the underside of Lisenbee’s thigh and, hit with tremendous power, took a huge hop when it landed just beyond the infield, bouncing over the head of center fielder Tris Speaker, who had been sneaking in hoping to pick off a runner on second (a favorite ruse of his). Ruth wound up with an extra-base hit.
“So, the absurd story … was not far from the truth. Ruth had indeed managed the seemingly impossible feat of hitting a ball between a pitcher’s legs and over the center fielder’s head. Just not on the fly, and not for a homer.”
Speaker later explained he was playing the odds.
“I know it’s easier, basically, to come in on a ball than go back,” he explained years later. “But so many more balls are hit in front of an outfielder, even now, that it’s a matter of percentage to be able to play in close enough to cut off those low ones or cheap ones instead of cheap ones in front of him. I see more games lost by singles that drop over the infield than a triple over the outfielder’s head. I learned early that I could save more games by cutting off some of those singles than I would lose by having an occasional extra-base hit go over my head.”
Baseball Reference’s list of career centerfield assists notes that Speaker leads with 450. Ty Cobb is next at 275. He has 262 more assists than Willie Mays. And 309 more than Ken Griffey Jr.
All of this sets up the amazing details of Speaker’s catch on April 27, 1920.
Back to Edwards, whose story was next to the cartoon above.
“There were two on with two out when (Joe) Jackson came to bat. He had made a single that drove in two runs and a home run over the right field wall. This time Pitcher Jim Bagby sought to prevent Jackson from duplicating his four-sacker. He pitched two outside the further corner. Jackson made no effort at either. Bagby sought to get the next on the outside but failed. It was a fast ball and Jackson met it squarely and sent it on a line to deep right center.
“Speaker gave it one look and then tore for the wall beyond the second exit gate with all his speed. With one more step to go, he gave a glance over his shoulder, grabbed the ball which was travelling with rifle-ball speed, threw out both hands, hit the wall, bounded back and still gripped the ball. Forty-five hundred spectators arose to express their enthusiasm for the most phenomenal catch they ever had witnessed and to applaud the player who made it.”
Edwards had less than one column to tell his story and, unlike most of his reports, he dedicated all of his space to one catch.
“It was the proximity of the wall that made Speaker’s catch so remarkable,” Edwards wrote. “Tris probably had gone further when he had to consider the danger of colliding with the concrete as well as figure on making the catch, a catch that meant victory or defeat.
“There probably was not a single person, even Speaker, who thought there was a chance to make the catch. The Chicago base runners certainly didn’t, for both sped for home while Jackson had passed first and was well on his way to second when Spoke grabbed the ball.”
It was deed that sealed the meaning of what the PD said about loyalty to the manager before the season.
“That favoritism has no chance to exist with Speaker at the helm is a known fact with the redskins. A certain member of the team and a very close personal friend of the manager was fined last fall for failing to run out an infield hit. Two other pals received vigorous lectures for minor offenses this spring. As a result, there is not an Indian today but who knows that when Speaker says he wants a thing done his way, the player must do his best, that there is no chance to loaf on the job and rely on oldtime friendships to escape punishment.”
The 3–2 victory left the Indians 7–2 and a half game behind the White Sox.
A replay of this game using Strat-O-Matic appears below.
Previous blog posts:
The Spitter Starts Sliding Out of Baseball
It Happens Every Spring — in Cleveland Anyway
Cleveland Fans Party — Tribe Style
Throwing it around in the old days
I make no money from this blog. Please consider sharing it on your social media. New editions come every Wednesday. Let me know if you want an email notice when it is posted. DavidAScott@gmail.com
The following have helped me tremendously with editing, error correction and technical advice:
David Bodemer
Ken Krsolovic
Joe Shaw
Vince Guerrieri
Thanks to all of you!
Dave Scott was a newspaper writer and editor for 40 years. He is a lifelong baseball fan and a member of the Society for American Baseball Research for decades, although SABR records might indicate I skipped my dues on occasion! DavidAScott@gmail.com I owe a great debt to the Cleveland Public Library for its excellent resources.
Another roll of the dice
Four runs in the first and another in the second removed much of the drama about of this game, which ended 6–4.
The White Sox scored pairs of runs in the third and fifth innings, but never really solved Stan Coveleskie, who went the distance and improved to 4–0 on the young season.
Red Faber took the loss, allowing 14 hits in his eight innings.
The top two hitters in the Indians lineup, Jack Graney and Ray Chapman, each had three hits.
Because of time constraints, this game was played with Strat’s autoplay feature. I hope to have a Netplay each week, so if you are a Strat-O-Matic player, let me know you would like to play. DavidAScott@gmail.com
Additional sources include:
“Deadball Stars of the American League”, particularly the Speaker article by Don Jensen, SABR.
Baseball Reference
The Plain Dealer
