Tris Speaker
Tris Speaker | |
---|---|
Center fielder / Manager | |
Born: Hubbard, Texas, U.S. | April 4, 1888|
Died: December 8, 1958 Whitney, Texas, U.S. | (aged 70)|
Batted: Left Threw: Left | |
MLB debut | |
September 14, 1907, for the Boston Americans | |
Last MLB appearance | |
August 30, 1928, for the Philadelphia Athletics | |
MLB statistics | |
Batting average | .345 |
Hits | 3,514 |
Home runs | 117 |
Runs batted in | 1,529 |
Doubles | 792 |
Managerial record | 617–520 |
Winning % | .543 |
Teams | |
As player
As manager
| |
Career highlights and awards | |
MLB Records
| |
Member of the National | |
Baseball Hall of Fame | |
Induction | 1937 |
Vote | 82.1% (second ballot) |
Tristram Edgar Speaker (April 4, 1888 – December 8, 1958), nicknamed "the Gray Eagle", was an American professional
After playing in the
Speaker played with the
Early life
Speaker was born on April 4, 1888, in Hubbard, Texas, to Archie and Nancy Poer Speaker.[4] As a youth, Speaker broke his arm after he fell from a horse; the injury forced him to become left-handed.[5] In 1905, Speaker played a year of college baseball for Fort Worth Polytechnic Institute. Newspaper reports have held that Speaker suffered a football injury and nearly had his arm amputated around this time;[6] biographer Timothy Gay characterizes this as "a story that the macho Speaker never disspelled [sic]."[7] He worked on a ranch before beginning his professional baseball career.[8]
Speaker's abilities drew the interest of Doak Roberts, owner of the Cleburne Railroaders of the Texas League, in 1906. After losing several games as a pitcher, Speaker converted to outfielder to replace a Cleburne player who had been struck in the head with a pitch.[5] He batted .318 for the Railroaders. Speaker's mother opposed his participation in the major leagues, saying that they reminded her of slavery.[9] Though she relented, for several years Mrs. Speaker questioned why her son had not stayed home and entered the cattle or oil businesses.[10]
He performed well for the Texas League's
Major league career
Early years
Speaker became the regular starting center fielder for Boston in 1909 and light-hitting
Speaker's best season came in 1912. He played every game and led the American League (AL) in doubles (53) and home runs (10). He set career highs with 222 hits, 136 runs, 580 at-bats, and 52 stolen bases.[14] Speaker's stolen base tally was a team record until Tommy Harper stole 54 bases in 1973.[20] He batted .383 and his .567 slugging percentage was the highest of his dead-ball days. Speaker set a major league single-season record with three hitting streaks of 20 or more games (30, 23, and 22). He also became the first major leaguer to hit 50 doubles and steal 50 bases in the same season. In August, Speaker's mother unsuccessfully attempted to convince him to quit baseball and come home.[21] In Fenway Park's first game, Speaker drove in the winning run in the 11th inning, giving Boston the 7–6 win.
The
Traded to the Indians
After 1915, Red Sox president
For many years, this was considered the worst trade in Red Sox history, and was thought to be far more damaging to the Red Sox than the sale of
With an annual salary of $40,000 (equal to $1,120,000 today), Speaker was the highest paid player in baseball.
While in Cleveland, Speaker participated in diverse activities off the baseball field. Speaker enrolled in an aviator training program in 1918.
Stint as player-manager
From the day that Speaker arrived in Cleveland, he was effectively assistant manager to Lee Fohl, who rarely made an important move without consulting him. George Uhle recalled an incident from 1919 during his rookie year with the Indians. Speaker often signaled to Fohl when he thought that a pitcher should be brought in from the bullpen. One day, Fohl misread Speaker's signal and brought in a different pitcher than Speaker had intended. To avoid the appearance of overruling his manager, Speaker let the change stand. Pitcher Fritz Coumbe lost the game, Fohl resigned that night and Speaker became manager. Uhle said that Speaker felt bad for contributing to Fohl's departure.[35]
Speaker guided the 1920 Indians to their first World Series win. In a crucial late season game against the second-place White Sox, Speaker caught a hard line drive hit to deep right-center field by Shoeless Joe Jackson, ending the game. On a dead run, Speaker leaped with both feet off the ground, snaring the ball before crashing into a concrete wall. As he lay unconscious from the impact, Speaker still held the baseball.[36] In the 1920 World Series against Brooklyn, Speaker hit an RBI triple in the deciding game, which the Indians won 3–0.[37] Cleveland's 1920 season was also significant due to the death of Ray Chapman on August 17. Chapman died after being hit in the head by a pitch from Carl Mays. Chapman had been asked about retirement before the season, and he said that he wanted to help Speaker earn Cleveland's first World Series victory before thinking of retirement.[38]
During that championship season, Speaker is credited with introducing the platoon system, which attempted to match right-handed batters against left-handed pitchers and vice versa. Sportswriter John B. Sheridan was among the critics of the system, saying, "The specialist in baseball is no good and won't go very far... The whole effect of the system will be to make the players affected half men... It is farewell, a long farewell to all that player's chance of greatness... It destroys young ball players by destroying their most precious quality — confidence in their ability to hit any pitcher, left or right, alive, dead, or waiting to be born."[39] Baseball Magazine was supportive, pointing out that Speaker had results that backed up his system.[39]
The
At the time of his 1926 resignation, news reports described Speaker as permanently retiring from baseball to pursue business ventures.[43] However, Speaker signed to play with the Washington Senators for 1927.[44] Cobb joined the Philadelphia Athletics. Speaker joined Cobb in Philadelphia for the 1928 season; he played part time and finished with a .267 average.[45] Prior to that season, Speaker had not hit for a batting average below .300 since 1908.[14] Speaker's major league playing career ended after 1928. He retired with 792 doubles, an all-time career record.[14] Defensively, Speaker holds the all-time career records for assists as an outfielder and double plays as an outfielder.[16] He remains the last batter to hit 200 triples in a career.
Later life
In
After his playing and managing days, Speaker was an entrepreneur and salesman. By 1937, Speaker had opened a wholesale liquor business and worked as a state sales representative for a steel company.[53] He chaired Cleveland's boxing commission between 1936 and 1943. Newspaper coverage credited Speaker with several key reforms to boxing in Cleveland, including the recruitment of new officials and protections against fight fixing. Under Speaker, fight payouts went directly to boxers rather than managers.[54] Speaker sorted out a scheduling conflict for a 1940 boxing match in Cleveland involving former middleweight champion Teddy Yarosz.[55] Yarosz defeated Jimmy Reeves in ten rounds and the fight attracted over 8,300 spectators.[56]
In 1937, Speaker sustained a 16-foot fall while working on a flower box near a second-story window at his home. Upon admission to the hospital, he underwent facial surgery. He was described as having "better than an even chance to live" and was suffering from a skull fracture, a broken arm and possible internal injuries.[57] He ultimately recovered.[58]
In 1939, Speaker was president of the National Professional Indoor Baseball League. The league had teams in New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis.
Death
Speaker died of a heart attack on December 8, 1958, at the age of 70, at Lake Whitney, Texas. He collapsed as he and a friend were pulling their boat into the dock after a fishing trip. It was his second heart attack in four years.[67] Speaker was buried at Fairview Cemetery in Hubbard, Texas.[68]
After Speaker's death, Cobb said, "Terribly depressed. I never let him know how much I admired him when we were playing against each other... It was only after we finally became teammates and then retired that I could tell Tris Speaker of the underlying respect I had for him." Lajoie said, "He was one of the greatest fellows I ever knew, both as a baseball player and as a gentleman."[69] Former Boston teammate Duffy Lewis said, "He was a team player. As great a hitter as he was, he wasn't looking out for his own average ... Speaker was the bell cow of our outfield. Harry Hooper and I would watch him and know how to play the hitters."[70]
Legacy
S is for Speaker,
Swift center-field tender,
When the ball saw him coming,
It yelled, "I surrender."
—
Immediately after Speaker's death, the baseball field at the city park in Cleburne, Texas, was renamed in honor of Speaker.
In 2008, former baseball players' union chief Marvin Miller, trying to defend the recently retired catcher Mike Piazza against claims that he should not be elected to the Hall of Fame because of association with the use of steroids, on the basis that the Hall of Fame has various unsavory people in it, opined that Speaker should be removed from the Hall of Fame because of alleged membership in the Ku Klux Klan. Miller said, "Some of the early people inducted in the Hall were members of the Ku Klux Klan: Tris Speaker, Cap Anson, and some people suspect Ty Cobb as well. I think that by and large, the players, and certainly the ones I knew, are good people. But the Hall is full of villains."[76] Miller's comment about Anson has no basis, other than speculating that he could have been a Klansman since he was a racist during his playing career, which ended in 1897, although he was umpiring games with black players by 1901, including featuring the all-black Columbia Giants. Miller, age 91 at the time the 2008 article appeared, is the earliest source for declaring that it is factual that Anson was a member of the Klan, based purely on an Internet search of sources that try to link Anson to the Klan. By contrast, Speaker-Cobb-Rogers Hornsby biographer Charles C. Alexander, a Klan expert in his general history writings, told fellow baseball author Marty Appel, apparently referring to the 1920s (Anson died in 1922), “As I’ve suggested in the biographies, it’s possible that they [Speaker, Cobb and Hornsby] were briefly in the Klan, which was very strong in Texas and especially in Fort Worth and Dallas. The Klan went all out to recruit prominent people in all fields, provided they were native born, Protestant and white.”[77]
Baseball historian Bill James does not dispute this claim in apparently referring to Speaker and possibly Cobb, but says that the Klan had toned down its racist overtures during the 1920s and pulled in hundreds of thousands of men, including Hugo Black.[78] James adds that Speaker was a staunch supporter of Doby when he broke the American League color barrier, working long hours with the former second baseman on how to play the outfield.[79]
Regular season statistics
G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI |
SB |
CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | TB | SH |
HBP |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2789 | 10195 | 1882 | 3514 | 792 | 222 | 117 | 1529 | 432 | 129 | 1381 | 220 | .345 | .428 | .500 | .928 | 5101 | 309 | 103 |
Managerial record
Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Games | Won | Lost | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
CLE | 1919 | 61 | 40 | 21 | .656 | 2nd in AL | – | – | – | – |
CLE | 1920 | 154 | 98 | 56 | .636 | 1st in AL | 5 | 2 | .714 | Won World Series (BKN) |
CLE | 1921 | 154 | 94 | 60 | .610 | 2nd in AL | – | – | – | – |
CLE | 1922 | 154 | 78 | 76 | .506 | 4th in AL | – | – | – | – |
CLE | 1923 | 153 | 82 | 71 | .536 | 3rd in AL | – | – | – | – |
CLE | 1924 | 153 | 67 | 86 | .438 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
CLE | 1925 | 154 | 70 | 84 | .455 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | – |
CLE | 1926 | 154 | 88 | 66 | .571 | 2nd in AL | – | – | – | – |
Total | 1137 | 617 | 520 | .543 | 5 | 2 | .714 |
See also
- Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame
- List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
- List of Major League Baseball batting champions
- List of Major League Baseball annual doubles leaders
- List of Major League Baseball doubles records
- List of Major League Baseball hit records
- List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career stolen bases leaders
- List of Major League Baseball player-managers
- List of Major League Baseball career triples leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career doubles leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career total bases leaders
- List of Major League Baseball triples records
Notes
- ^ "Career Leaders & Records for Batting Average". Baseball Reference. Retrieved 2012-12-14.
- ^ Gay, p. 130
- ^ 100 Greatest Baseball Players by The Sporting News : A Legendary List by Baseball Almanac
- ^ Speaker, Tristram E. Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved July 31, 2013.
- ^ a b Speaker, Tris (May 19, 1916). "How I Became the Highest-Priced Star in Big Leagues". Toledo News-Bee. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ Vaughan, Doug (September 19, 1939). "On The Rebound". The Windsor Daily Star. Retrieved December 16, 2012.
- ^ Gay, p. 41
- ^ Snyder, Dean (August 1, 1921). "Tris Speaker Throws a Mean Rope". The Southeast Missourian. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
- The Gazette Times. June 29, 1912. Retrieved August 5, 2013.
- ^ Gay, p. 48
- ^ Jim Sandoval, Bill Nowlin, Can He Play? A Look at Baseball Scouts and their Profession, 2011, page 2
- ISBN 978-1583414811.
- ^ "Red Sox Paid Rent with Tris Speaker". The Day. April 12, 1916. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Tris Speaker Batting Statistics". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved October 3, 2013.
- ^ "Tris Speaker, Outfielder, Dies; Ex-Star for Red Sox and Indians". The New York Times. December 9, 1958. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
- ^ a b c d "Tris Speaker Fielding Statistics". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved October 3, 2013.
- ^ "Tris Speaker Swings Last Bat". The Vancouver Sun. December 9, 1958. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
- ^ "1910 American League Team Statistics and Standings". Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved July 31, 2013.
- ^ "1911 American League Team Statistics and Standings". Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved July 31, 2013.
- ^ Browne, Ian. "Harper reflects back on racial turmoil in Boston". MLB.com. Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved October 4, 2013.
- ^ "Speaker's Mother Wants Him to Quit". The St. Petersburg Independent. August 27, 1912. Retrieved December 16, 2012.
- ^ Richards, Steve (September 29, 1999). "Speaker: First Sox Who Got Away". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on October 11, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2013. via HighBeam Research.
- ^ "Tris Speaker World Series Stats". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
- ^ "Tris Speaker Sold to Cleveland Club" (PDF). New York Times. 9 April 1916. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
- ISBN 9781582612201.
- ISBN 9780385513548.
- ISBN 0253207479.
- ISBN 978-0786467969.
- ^ Johnson, Bill. "League Park (Cleveland)". Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved October 3, 2013.
- ^ Pluto, Terry (August 1, 1995). "For Speaker, 3,000 a Hit". The Cedartown Standard. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
- ^ Williams, Joe (February 9, 1928). "Speaker Longs to Cavort on One More Championship Club". Toledo News-Bee. Retrieved July 31, 2013.
- ^ "Speaker Seeks to be Aviator" (PDF). New York Times. 21 October 1918. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
- ^ Gay, p. 181
- ^ Snyder, Dean (August 1, 1921). "Speaker Throws a Mean Rope". Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ISBN 0-88736-235-4.
- ISBN 978-1613213018.
- ^ "Speaker Again Stars; Indians are Champions". The Milwaukee Journal. October 12, 1920. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
- ^ "Chapman Planned to Retire After Helping Speaker Win His Pennant". The Deseret News. August 18, 1920. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ a b c Steinberg, Steve (June 22, 2010). "Manager Speaker". The Baseball Research Journal. Archived from the original on March 29, 2015. Retrieved July 30, 2013. via HighBeam Research.
- National Baseball Hall of Fame. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
- ^ Evans, Billy (December 27, 1926). "Charges Against Cobb And Speaker Made By Pitcher "Dutch" Leonard Were Prompted By Personal Grudge". Beaver Falls Tribune. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ISBN 1582618402.
- ^ "Speaker Resigns Cleveland Indian Post". The Milwaukee Sentinel. November 30, 1926. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "Griffith Grabs Veteran With Phone Talk". The Milwaukee Sentinel. February 1, 1927. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ISBN 0743241746.
- ^ "Tris Speaker Signs to Manage Newark Team in Minor Loop". The Washington Daily Reporter. November 12, 1928. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "Tris Speaker Minor League Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "Tris Speaker Quits Newark". San Jose Evening News. November 27, 1930. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "Blues Are Sold". St. Joseph Gazette. January 28, 1933. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ Levy, Sam (May 28, 1933). "Tris Speaker Bawled Out Manager in His First Regular League Start". The Milkwaukee Journal. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "Speaker Deplores Lack of Color in Baseball". The Milwaukee Journal. May 14, 1936. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "Tris Speaker". Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved July 31, 2013.
- ^ McCann, Richard (March 17, 1937). "Tris Speaker's Three Jobs Keep Him Hustling Like a Browns' Outfielder". The Telegraph-Herald. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "Tris Speaker Quitting Boxing Body". St. Petersburg Times. October 31, 1943. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- Toledo Blade. March 25, 1940. Retrieved October 4, 2013.
- ^ "Teddy Yarosz Scores Easy Victory Over Jimmy Reeves". The Daily Times. April 16, 1940. Retrieved October 4, 2013.
- ^ "Tris Speaker May Recover from His Injury in Fall". Reading Eagle. April 12, 1937. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
- ^ "Tris Speaker to Speak at Oldtimers Banquet". Reading Eagle. January 20, 1952. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "Indoor League Is Organized". The Milwaukee Journal. November 15, 1939. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "National Indoor Baseball League Halts Activities". Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. December 23, 1939. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "Editorials: Tris Speaker". Lewiston Evening Journal. December 9, 1958. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "Tris Speaker Awarded Medal For His Service". The Portsmouth Times. April 14, 1944. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- Portsmouth Times. July 12, 1942. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
- ^ Gay, p. 271
- ^ "Veeck Adds Tris Speaker as Good Will Ambassador". The Milwaukee Sentinel. January 24, 1947. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
- ^ "Texas Sports Hall of Fame". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "Tris Speaker, Baseball Immortal, Dies in Texas". Schenectady Gazette. December 9, 1958. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ a b "Tris Speaker Funeral Today". St. Petersburg Times. December 11, 1958. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "Cobb Pays Great Tribute To Old Rival". Toledo Blade. December 9, 1958. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "Lewis is Shocked by Speaker's Death". The Milwaukee Journal. December 9, 1958. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
- ^ "Line-Up For Yesterday by Ogden Nash". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
- ^ "Yogi Wins Tris Speaker Award". Ocala Star-Banner. January 6, 1963. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players". Baseball-Almanac.com. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
- ^ "The All-Century Team". MLB.com. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
- ^ "Line-Up For Yesterday by Ogden Nash". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved July 31, 2013.
- ^ Jaffe, Jay (May 29, 2008). "Prospectus Hit and Run". Baseball Prospectus. Baseball Prospectus. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
- ^ Appel, Marty. "Historian puts spotlight on Cobb and Speaker"., Sports Collectors Digest, December 21, 2007. Anson biographer Rosenberg did the Internet search on July 22, 2016, and added the citation to Alexander's article, to point out Miller's imbalance in weighting Anson versus Cobb, plus the juxtaposing of a Bill James comment that lacks a page citation and which likely is not referring to Anson on this subject. For Anson umpiring games with black players, see Rosenberg, Howard W. "Fantasy Baseball: The Momentous Drawing of the Sport's 19th-Century 'Color Line' is still Tripping up History Writers"., The Atavist, June 14, 2016
- ISBN 9781439106938. Retrieved 2008-12-31.
- ISBN 978-160844-798-5. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
References
- Gay, Timothy M. (2007). Tris Speaker: The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend. Globe Pequot Press. ISBN 978-1599211114.
Further reading
- Jensen, Don. "Tris Speaker". SABR.
- Tris Speaker at the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
External links
- Tris Speaker at the Baseball Hall of Fame
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet
- Tris Speaker managerial career statistics at Baseball-Reference.com
- Tris Speaker at IMDb
- Tris Speaker at Find a Grave