Rabbit Maranville

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Rabbit Maranville
Maranville in 1914
Shortstop / Second baseman / Manager
Born: (1891-11-11)November 11, 1891
Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died: January 6, 1954(1954-01-06) (aged 62)
Woodside, New York, U.S.
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 10, 1912, for the Boston Braves
Last MLB appearance
September 29, 1935, for the Boston Braves
MLB statistics
Batting average.258
Hits2,605
Home runs28
Runs batted in884
Teams
As player

As manager

Career highlights and awards
Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction1954
Vote82.9% (14th ballot)

Walter James Vincent "Rabbit" Maranville (November 11, 1891 – January 6, 1954) was an American

Brooklyn Robins, and St. Louis Cardinals between 1912 and 1934. At the time of his retirement in 1935, he had played in a record 23 seasons in the National League, a mark which was not broken until 1986 by Pete Rose.[1]

Maranville was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1954, mainly on the strength of his defensive abilities.[2]

Career

Maranville finished third in the MVP voting in his first full season, playing for the

Philadelphia A's in the World Series. That year, Maranville was the Braves' cleanup hitter, despite batting just .246 and hitting four home runs. Following the series, he and several of his teammates went on a vaudeville tour, reenacting plays from the World Series while also singing and telling stories. Maranville was demonstrating a stolen base to an audience in Lewiston, Maine, when he accidentally slid off the edge of the stage and fell onto a drum in the orchestra pit, suffering a broken leg.[3] Maranville played only 11 games in 1918, spending most of the year in the United States Navy during World War I.[4]

Goudey baseball card of Walter "Rabbit" Maranville, 1933

Maranville threw and batted right-handed; he stood 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m) tall and weighed 155 lb (70 kg). Over a lengthy career which spanned both the

RBI and 291 stolen bases. As a shortstop, he finished his career with a positional record 5,139 putouts.[5] He moved to second base in 1924 after the Pirates installed Glenn Wright at the shortstop position.[4] He won his only World Series championship in 1914 as a member of the Braves, and won his only other National League
championship in 1928 as a member of the Cardinals.

Maranville was known as one of "baseball's most famous clowns" due to his

Pullman car, dumping water on sleeping players' heads, saying, "No sleeping under Maranville management, especially at night."[7] After 53 games with him as the manager, the Cubs were in last place with a 23–30 record.[8] Not long after that, he was out on the street outside Ebbets Field in Brooklyn mimicking a newsboy hawking papers. He cried out, "Read all about it! Maranville fired!" And so he was—the next day.[7]

1926 was a struggle for Maranville. Having been claimed off waivers by the Brooklyn Robins, he spent the first half of the season with them but was released halfway through the year. The Cardinals signed him that November but assigned him to the Rochester Tribe of the International League in 1927. Maranville realized he would have to make a change in his lifestyle if he wanted to continue playing in the major leagues. "Either I had to lay off the booze and get serious with the game or it would be the end of me."[9]

On May 24, 1927, Maranville resolved to stop drinking. Later that year, Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey stated, "Walter is a changed man ... it is apparent that he has seen the light ... his change in attitude is remarkable."[9] Called up by St. Louis at the end of the year, he played in nine games for them in late September before spending all of 1928 on their roster.[9]

Even at age 41, when Maranville batted .218 in 143 games and hit no homers, he finished in a tie for 12th in the 1933 NL MVP voting.[10] He missed the entire 1934 season after breaking his left fibula and tibia in a collision at home plate during an exhibition game.[11] Maranville attempted a comeback in 1935 but was unable to play like he used to.[9]

Rabbit Maranville (center) as manager of the Montreal Royals between two players, 1938

Following the end of his major league career, Maranville turned to managing, including stints as a minor league manager for Montreal Royals, at Albany, Elmira, and Springfield, Massachusetts.[12] With Elmira in 1936, he served as a player-manager, batting .323 in 123 games.[9]

After managing in the minor leagues, Maranville was employed by youth baseball programs in Detroit and Rochester. Then, he directed a baseball school sponsored by the New York Journal-American newspaper.[9][12] He enjoyed working with children and always cautioned them against adopting the same wild lifestyle he had pursued during his earlier career.[9]

Death and legacy

Maranville died of a heart attack shortly after midnight on January 6, 1954, at his home in Woodside, New York.[12] Death was nearly instantaneous.[12] He was 62 years old. Maranville was buried in the Holy Family Section B, Lot 206, Grave 5, of the St. Michael's Cemetery in Springfield, Massachusetts.[13]

Maranville was inducted into the

Baseball Hall of Fame in 1954, just months after his death,[14] along with Bill Terry and Bill Dickey, in his 14th year of eligibility.[15]

See also

Further reading

  • Russo, Frank (2014). The Cooperstown Chronicles: Baseball's Colorful Characters, Unusual Lives, and Strange Demises. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
    ISBN 978-1-4422-3639-4
    .

References

  1. ^ "Rabbit Maranville Statistics and History". baseball-reference.com. Retrieved on May 14, 2017.
  2. ^ "Rabbit Maranville". Baseball Hall of Fame. Retrieved June 20, 2022.
  3. ^ Russo, p. 63
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Russo, p. 64
  5. ISBN 1-892129-34-5
    .
  6. ISBN 0743227220
    .
  7. ^ a b c Nash, B. & Zullo, A. The Baseball Hall of Shame 3, 1987; p. 134
  8. ^ "Rabbit Maranville Managerial Record". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Russo, p. 65
  10. ^ "1933 Awards Voting". baseball-reference.com. Sports-Reference, LLC. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
  11. ISBN 978-0-8108-8533-2
    .
  12. ^ a b c d "Rabbit Maranville Dies at 62; Sparkplug of '14 'Miracle' Braves," Brooklyn Eagle, vol. 113, no. 5 (January 6, 1954), pp. 1, 15.
  13. ^ Russo, pp. 65–66
  14. ^ Russo, p. 66
  15. ^ "1954 Hall of Fame Voting". baseball-reference.com. Sports-Reference, LLC. Retrieved March 23, 2023.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rabbit Maranville.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rabbit_Maranville&oldid=1189969181"