How many bases does it take to score a run?

Its a simple question, and four is of course the answer. It has been the subject of the research I am doing lately. I presented on the subject today at the Pacific Northwest SABR chapter meeting today. In a basic way, I presented my Total Bases Acquired formula. This is a formula I've devised based on combining offensive elements that have, when simply added together and then divided by games played, at least as high a correlation to team runs scored as OPS.

TBAq/G= [Total Bases + Walks + Hit By Pitcher + Reach on Error + Stolen Bases]/Games Played

Its a relatively simple formula, and quite similar to one Henry Chadwick used called TBA, which was total bases divided by games.

Now, this does not necessarily predict individual runs, but what it does do is predict team runs. Also, you can see with it that any team, by hook or by crook, pretty much that you have to simply produce bases to score runs. Interestingly enough, the more bases you produce, the efficiency with which you produce runs increases. Thus as your bases increase, the number of bases needed to score a run decreases, magnifying the impact of added bases.

Here are the teams in the MLB as of today. First is their runs scored per game, in the third column you'll see their TBAq. In between the two is something I call the Base Efficiency, which is how many bases it takes that team to score a single run. And these are only bases acquired without also creating an out, so a hit, walk, hit by pitch, reaching on error, or stolen base. The BEFF is reached by dividing TBAq and Runs Per Game. Next you see what would have been the expected bases based on their actual runs scored. If there is a negative, that means that team is inefficient in converting their acquired bases to runs. Thus, we could say Washington should have only needed 17.19 bases to produce 3.9 runs per game. However, it took them 18.27 bases, thus as a team, they have to produce more bases than say Toronto in order to score an equal number of runs. It doesn't mean their a good ball club, just that they make do better with what they've got. One thing that is interesting in this year of pitching dominance, is that 66% of teams are under-performing right now in terms of their ability to convert bases to runs (the model I use goes back to 1998). Some of those teams will see their run scoring increase. More than likely, it will be the teams with the high percentage differential as well as being near the top in runs produced. Basically, they have the crude oil needed to produce the gas in the first place, so that will show through.

		RUNS	BEFF	TBAqG	exp base	diff	% diff
2012	WSN	3.90	4.686	18.27	17.19	-1.08	-5.91%
2012	TOR	4.73	4.007	18.95	19.16	0.20	1.07%
2012	TEX	5.25	3.965	20.82	20.38	-0.43	-2.07%
2012	TBR	4.38	4.152	18.19	18.33	0.14	0.78%
2012	STL	4.86	4.118	20.02	19.46	-0.55	-2.76%
2012	SFG	4.03	4.379	17.65	17.50	-0.14	-0.82%
2012	SEA	4.02	4.233	17.02	17.48	0.46	2.72%
2012	SDP	3.37	5.063	17.06	15.94	-1.12	-6.56%
2012	PIT	3.24	4.806	15.57	15.64	0.06	0.41%
2012	PHI	4.29	4.274	18.33	18.12	-0.22	-1.18%
2012	OAK	3.80	4.607	17.51	16.96	-0.55	-3.14%
2012	NYY	4.76	4.325	20.59	19.23	-1.36	-6.61%
2012	NYM	4.52	4.040	18.26	18.66	0.40	2.18%
2012	MIN	4.25	4.314	18.33	18.02	-0.31	-1.70%
2012	MIL	4.31	4.408	19.00	18.16	-0.84	-4.40%
2012	MIA	3.67	4.854	17.81	16.65	-1.16	-6.52%
2012	LAD	4.35	4.195	18.25	18.26	0.01	0.07%
2012	LAA	4.03	4.428	17.85	17.50	-0.34	-1.93%
2012	KCR	3.82	4.678	17.87	17.01	-0.87	-4.84%
2012	HOU	4.25	4.165	17.70	18.02	0.32	1.80%
2012	DET	4.42	4.249	18.78	18.42	-0.36	-1.91%
2012	COL	5.21	3.936	20.51	20.29	-0.22	-1.06%
2012	CLE	4.32	4.262	18.41	18.19	-0.23	-1.22%
2012	CIN	4.41	4.283	18.89	18.40	-0.49	-2.59%
2012	CHW	4.78	3.991	19.08	19.27	0.20	1.03%
2012	CHC	3.69	4.637	17.11	16.70	-0.41	-2.40%
2012	BOS	4.98	3.969	19.77	19.75	-0.02	-0.10%
2012	BAL	4.56	4.225	19.27	18.75	-0.51	-2.65%
2012	ATL	4.66	4.030	18.78	18.99	0.21	1.11%
2012	ARI	4.27	4.409	18.83	18.07	-0.76	-4.03%

Another thing I'm interesting in is strikeouts. Did you know that players will have a higher OPS in games in which they strikeout vs games in which don't. Also, K's are way up the last few years. That K phenomenon shows up in the OPS of players even when you add in hits, like even 1 or 2 hits a game. In fact, its still about even for players in games in which they go 2 for 4 and have a K vs a game in which they go 2 for 4 and have a different kind of out. Some, at the top end have a higher OPS (all are high in that circumstance, since they start with a .500 BA and probably have a walk). What I think this has to do with is a strikeout is evidence of a pitcher advantage. There is no way to measure that advantage until you see it stretched out over 1,500 at bats. In the short term, strikouts don't make a difference, an outs an out. But just as a hit is not a hit, an out is not an out.

Old Time Baseball

another day

Baseball Comics

HBP?

delays delays

Okay, so I haven't posted for awhile. I have been in the throws, the troughs, of research on a separate project. Its a sabermetric thing. Soon, so soon, will I be getting back. But, in the meantime, I will do some quick posts.

Game 23, May 1, 1924

In the 23^rd game of the year, the Indians finally saw their fortunes turn around against the pesky Bees. They managed to beat back the "Mormon tossers", as the newsman refers to Salt Lake, 2 to 1. Former Cleveland pitcher Jim Bagby pitched a winning side for Seattle, bringing their record to 9 wins and 14 losses, and put them at 1 win against two losses in the current series.

Game 22, April 30, 1924

Another quick posting here just to get caught up. So in the 22^nd game of the year, the second game of the fourth series, the Seattle Indians dropped another one. This time they gave the nameless reporter of the Seattle Daily Times another chance to expound on his idea that to win, you have to hit in bunches. That is, string together hits, move the runners along. And really, that's true. That was the basics of dead-ball strategy, and it goes by different names these days, small ball for instance, but essentially that's baseball. In a nutshell. Of sorts. The Indians out-hit the honeycomb of hitters the Bees brought to the ballpark, but couldn't convert those bases to runs.

This one went down 5 to 3, Salt Lake taking the victory. Looks like from the column description that LaZerre, or Tony Lazzeri as he has become known to history, was picking up his defensive game with a nice throw to home plate. The 60 home runs he would hit next year would be an historic achievement. He would, of course, go on to great things with the New York Yankees. Although that team already had Babe Ruth and Bob Meusel, the team that would be soon known as one of the greatest ever was about to form. Lou Gehrig was playing his first full season of pro ball in Hartford with the Eastern League, and 1924 was the rookie year for Earle Combs. Lazzeri would arrive in 1926 go to 7 World Series in the next 11 years, winning 5. He would mostly bat 5th or 6th. However, he was good enough in 1930 that he replaced Lou Gehrig at cleanup for a few weeks. Well, maybe it was more Gehrig slumping.

So, I digress, now the Indians are once again flirting with the basement, but soon would make their charge.

The starting lineup was the standard in the 1 through 7 holes. Frank Tobin was the catcher and Suds Sutherland pitched for the Indians. Jimmy Welsh picked up another at-bat, pinch hitting for Tobin in the 7^th inning, and then Earl Baldwin worked behind the plate to finish out the game for the Indians.

I've included some extra scans below from the front sports page of the Seattle Daily Times for this days reporting. The Times had acquired a nice long range camera that year, and was now able to do really nice photo essays, bringing fans closer to the action. At this time, advances in wireless and wired telegraphy, photography, and printing processes, created what we know today as the mass media. The Times named their camera 'Aunt Eppie', for some reason I don't know. But, as I wrote in a previous posting where they premiered its usage, I believe its related to a character in a comic by Fontaine Fox.

Anyway, here we see reports about French boxer George Carpentier and, below that, a far more important article. If you are interested about the intersection of race and sports in American society, the way the potential Jack Dempsey/Harry Wills fight played out is an education unto itself. You can see in the column there are two conflicting reports.

This story will play out over the summer. But, I should point out, all of these stories have race as an underlying subject. After all, the team is called the Indians. We could almost look at that history as the aspirations of race played out in the dialogue about the integration of baseball while the reality of race played out in the boxing ring. 

Of course, what we need to think about then is what does the competitiveness and the desire to see a good fight by the fans represent something of the character of America? Or the rest of the world? After all, no one denies the exclusionary aspects of racism, but think for a bit about those who integrate, if even for only dollars? The Tex Rickards of the world, or the fans who didn't care as long as the punches being thrown were the best? As we look at history, we must be careful to not overemphasize the negative, because that is simply projection.

The reality is, when Jack Johnson beat Jim Jeffries, it was the people in power who were scared. The match itself happened because the marketplace demanded Johnson's aspirations be fulfilled. Of course, we can't ignore what happened to Johnson afterwards, but lets not forget those events did not occur in the arenas and gambling dens. Racism requires a fixed outcome. The free market doesn't. In a free market, which is of course not freedom, the value of the object being exchanged is simply free to move up and down. Then of course there's the racist free market, but that's another story entirely.

By that I mean, there's the apparent market, but its actually fixed at the outset through advantages that maintain the fixed position which power desires or rather necessitates so that it may continue to exist. I think what we actually see over time in resistance and revolution is the gradual alteration. The exchange price of freedom moves slowly through history, but it moves. Some of these ideas were best expressed by a study that was done starting in 1924 by Robert and Helen Lynd. Remember, its always back to 1924. The results of this study would be published in 1929. The Lynd's focused on Muncie, Indiana. Mainly, they developed the idea that social institutions functioned as buffers which maintained apparent rightness of our social structures.

The institutions, our political parties and machines, churches, schools, social clubs, etc., create a resistance to change.  This, of course, includes the newspapers. Marxist theoreticians had similar ideas. The Middletown studies were seen by Marxists to confirm the views held by Gramsci, and further back, to Engels. Engels idea at the root of this was that there was a false consciousness which functioned to keep the proletariat and working classes from realizing their revolutionary potential. It was this idea, expanded by Gramsci as the concept of ideological hegemony and then elucidated by the Lynd's as social institutional buffers, that attempted to explain why the working classes essentially remained as such. That is, when things didn't change, an explanation was needed to explain the lack of change.
Of course, things did change. It just took a lot longer. Eventually, baseball would have to change. However, when baseball integrated, it also wiped out the Negro Leagues as the best players in those teams gradually integrated into professional minor leagues owned and organized by interests related to Major League Baseball. Then the mere fact of integration became the 'apparent' equality or nature of the system. That freedom had happened. Something else though, African-American ownership of its baseball teams had disappeared. Real integration would have been to include a minority owned team.

Game 21, Salt Lake Bees at Seattle

Well, these things keep taking longer and longer so I am going to just post the next two or three series in full order without the transcriptions of the dailies. I will still scan all the stories and the box scores, and maybe highlight something here and there, and maybe do a few other things to make this run on a little further.

For the 21^st game of the season, the Indians welcomed the Salt Lake City Bees to Seattle. The Bees had opened quite the can of Bonneville Park whoop-ass on the Indians. Now, we get to see if the Indians can take advantage of their own home field. As luck would have it, the rain gods were not in Seattle's favor, as they lost 2 to 0 in a rain-out.

As usual, the scribes of sportswriting's golden era had fun with this one, making up a nice little story to go with the rain out.

Seattle's Starting Lineup:

Billy Lane, Center Field

Cliff Brady, Second Base

Sam Crane, Shortstop

Brick Eldred, Right Field

Elmer Bowman, First Base

Ray Rohwer, Left Field

Ted Baldwin, Third Base

Earl Baldwin, Catcher

Wheezer Dell, Pitcher

George Steuland came into the game in the fifth to run for Wheezer Dell. Dell was replaced on the mound by Vean Gregg. George Cutshaw then batted for Gregg, and Jimmy Welsh batted for Earl Baldwin. Then the rain was just too much. Read the Salt Lake part of the box score, some pretty legendary names there.

Okay, almost back into the swing

Well, I've been doing a bunch of research on leadoff hitting. Trying to get that in order. I am almost ready to go back and continue transcribing the 1924 Indians season. In the meantime, here's the 1948 Cleveland Indians in the World Series

Recap

Well, things have slowed down here a bit for the 1924 Seattle Indians blog. I didn't realize how much work it would be when I started trying to provide an in depth recap for every single game. Nonetheless, I am committed to that, as I think it is the best way to understand the season and place the 'information' in context. For instance, Sacramento pitcher 'Chief' Moses Yellow Horse was the first full-blooded Native American to play MLB baseball. That is, as far as anyone knows. However, there is so much more going on in that statement than one can imagine. For instance, the distance of time from today to April 1924, 88 years, is the same distance from that time to 1836. I don't know about you, but the last 88 years of my family is pretty important to where I ended up today. So what happened to Moses Yellow Horse's family, and did he carry that with him from Oklahoma to Pennsylvania to Sacramento? In 1924, the Indian Citizenship Act became law on June 2. How many baseball players in history had an act of Congress push citizenship on them? 1836 was a year roughly in the middle of the first phases of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Those 'removals' took place between 1831 and 1838 initially. That's the Trail of Tears. There were more tears, however. Among them were the Pawnee of Nebraska, who were 'relocated' in the 1870s to Oklahoma, which was now the Indian Territory. But, of course, that land was needed and eventually you end up with the State of Oklahoma. But, Chief Yellowhorse, as he was called, this is his history. His family. His world. More on all of this later. I think all of these games highlight such stories, and its good to have the context of where people came from and what the world was like in which they lived. I'm not a professional historian, but I am a slow one.

Recap: Still, we are following the Seattle Indians here, on their way to a championship season. I am slowing down here while I do some research on contemporary baseball. I will be starting another blog for all that other stuff.

Date	Opponent	Location	Result	Record
Tuesday, April 8, 1924	Los Angeles Angels	Washington Park, LA	Lost, 5-1	0-1
Wednesday, April 9, 1924	Los Angeles Angels	Washington Park, LA	Lost, 6-5	0-2
Thursday, April 10, 1924	Los Angeles Angels	Washington Park, LA	Lost, 8-3	0-3
Friday, April 11, 1924	Los Angeles Angels	Washington Park, LA	Won, 9-5	1-3
Saturday, April 12, 1924	Los Angeles Angels	Washington Park, LA	Lost, 5-3	1-4
Sunday, April 13, 1924	Los Angeles Angels	Washington Park, LA	Lost, 4-1	1-5
Sunday, April 13, 1924	Los Angeles Angels	Washington Park, LA	Won, 20-1	2-5
Monday, April 14, 1924	None	Travel: LA to SLC		2-5
Tuesday, April 15, 1924	Salt Lake City Bees	Bonneville Park, SLC	Snow Out	2-5
Wednesday, April 16, 1924	Salt Lake City Bees	Bonneville Park, SLC	Lost, 9-8	2-6
Thursday, April 17, 1924	Salt Lake City Bees	Bonneville Park, SLC	Rain Out
Friday, April 18, 1924	Salt Lake City Bees	Bonneville Park, SLC	Lost, 13-6	2-7
Saturday, April 19, 1924	Salt Lake City Bees	Bonneville Park, SLC	Lost, 9-8	2-8
Saturday, April 19, 1924	Salt Lake City Bees	Bonneville Park, SLC	Won, 13-11	3-8
Sunday, April 20, 1924	Salt Lake City Bees	Bonneville Park, SLC	Lost, 15-11	3-9
Sunday, April 20, 1924	Salt Lake City Bees	Bonneville Park, SLC	Lost, 11-4	3-10
Monday, April 21, 1924	None	Travel: SLC to SEA
Tuesday, April 22, 1924	None	Off Day
Tuesday, April 23, 2024	Sacramento Senators	Home, Coast League Park	Won, 9-2	4-10
Wednesday, April 24, 2024	Sacramento Senators	Home, Coast League Park	Won, 11-5	5-10
Thursday, April 25, 2024	Sacramento Senators	Home, Coast League Park	Won, 9-1	6-10
Friday, April 26, 2024	Sacramento Senators	Home, Coast League Park	Won, 7-6	7-10
Saturday, April 27, 2024	Sacramento Senators	Home, Coast League Park	Won, 3-2	8-10
Saturday, April 27, 2024	Sacramento Senators	Home, Coast League Park	Lost, 13-5	8-11
Sunday, April 28, 2024	Sacramento Senators	Home, Coast League Park	Lost, 4-1	8-12

Game 20, Monday, April 28, 1924

The photograph above is from a Tuesday, April 29, 1924 edition of the Seattle Daily Times. I’m not sure which edition, probably an early one since it details the previous day’s games. They had a new ‘long-range’ camera that year they had nicknamed Aunt Eppie. I’m pretty sure that has to do with the size of the camera. Aunt Eppie was also a recurring character in the Toonerville strips which appeared on the sports pages of the time. Could also be from some other cultural source, but I am not well read enough to know that..yet. The photo above is from the Monday, April 28, game between the Seattle Indians and visiting Sacramento Senators. This game was the final one is their 7 game weeklong series. In the PCL of the time, teams played each other each week for a weeklong series, and often used Monday as the travel day between series. In this instance, the game was played on the Monday since Sacramento only had to travel to Portland for its next series. The Indians’ next opponent was the Salt Lake City Bees, who would be coming up from Portland.

Here is the caption for the exciting photo essay: “Aunt Eppie disagreed with the Seattle fans and the Sacramento players in yesterday’s game between the Indians and the Solons. Her first effort (Photograph No. 2) shows that Billy Lane was out at second in the first inning when he tried to steal after a pitch out had spoiled Sammy Crane’s chance at the hit and run. McGinnis is putting the ball on Lane, who is still two feet from the base. Her second effort (No. 3) shows that McNeeley ran out of the base line to avoid being touched by Elmer Bowman, whereupon Umpire Carroll called him out, much to the disgust of the Sacramento players. 1-Earl McNeeley, star of the Solon attack and defense in the series which closed yesterday. 4-M. H. Sexton, head of the minor baseball leagues, who will be a Seattle visitor Friday, Saturday and Sunday.”  I’ve cropped the picture of Sexton and put it off to the side. For more about Sexton and his history with the game, read here.

Canfield Tames Ambitious Indians

Tribe Wastes Its Hits and Loses 4 to 1

Steuland’s Wildness Has Him in Trouble-Seattle Has Men on Bases in Every Inning Off Southpaw.

THE Seattle tribe lost a baseball game yesterday 4 to 1, the left-handed shoots of young Mr. Carroll Canfield of Sacramento taming them effectively in the well known pinches. Canfield allowed eleven hits, walked two men and his mates made a pair of boots behind him, yet he emerged with only one run scored off him in nine innings.

The small Monday crowd was kept constantly in hot water by the display of the Indians. Every minute it thought runs were going to come trooping across the platter in droves, but in every minute but one it got fooled.

Opposed to Canfield was George Steuland, coming back after having pitched on Friday. George was wild-not so awfully wild, to be sure, but just wild enough to give a smart team like the Senators plenty of opportunities. His big curve was missing the corners by inches and the Solons, up there letting everything go by until they absolutely had to hit, worked him for six bases on balls in as many innings.

Steuland is Cool.

In spite of his trouble with his control Steuland looked exceptionally good on the mound. He is as cool as a cucumber in the pinches, has every faith in his own aility to pull out of holes with ordinary support, and did pull out of several such predicaments by some nice work.

Kopp scored the first run on him when he poked the ball into left field for a single with the count of three and one on him. He stole second. Crane held him there while he threw out Hemingway, but Siglin doubled to left on a three and two count scoring the fleet “Koppie”.

Two walks to Hemingway and Siglin in the fifth were wiped out with a speedy double play, Ted Baldwin to Brady to Bowman, but in the sixth another base on balls, to Cochrane, paved the way for a pair of runs. Mollwitz sacrificed and McNeeley dropped a Texas League double on the right field foul line for a run. McGinnis poked another Texas leaguer over second and McNeeley, setting sail for the plate, scored when Billy Lane was unable to hold the catch, made at his shoe tops and at full speed.

The last Solon run came on a good clean shot across second by Shea, Cochrane’s force of him, Mollwitz’s sharp single, and a ball that took a bad bound off Ted Baldwin’s shoulder, and McNeeley’s sacrifice fly to Rohwer.

McNeeley Has Big Week

This lad McNeeley, by the way, had a wonderful week here.

In seven games he scored ten runs on twelve hits, for an average of .444.

He handled 25 chances in center field, eight in Sunday’s second game and five more yesterday.

He looks like the best bet in Sacramento’s outfield.

Indians Waste Hits

While the Solons were making the most out of the little they drew, the Indians, with Mr. Canfield acting as the chief drawback to their ambitions, were wasting aplenty. They had men on base in every inning, yet were able to push a man over that last rubber platter but once in the nine.

The Solons outsmarted them right off the bat after Billy Lane had opened with a single. A pitch-out with Crane at bat caused Lane to be nipped stealing, and with a poor throw at that. Billy started his slide too soon and didn’t quite make the bag.

Incidentally, it was the first time all week that Cliff Brady had failed to sacrifice, two fouls forcing him to hit, whereupon he flied out.

Crane followed with a single to left, stole second, but died there when Brick Eldred grounded out.

Brick, the chief of the Sand Blowers, finished an unbroken run of hitless times at bat of ten with yesterday’s game.

Bowman opened the second with a beaten-out bund, much to the surprise of the natives, who have figured him slow. It was perfectly placed. Rohwer forced him, then was picked off stealing, following which Ed Hemingway kicked Ted Baldwin’s ground ball. Earl Baldwin forced him.

Canfield got the first two men up in the next two innings, so that Brady’s single in the third and a walk and a beautifully executed hit and run play by Ted Baldwin on the hitting end and Ray Rohwer on the running end were wasted when Crane and Earl Baldwin couldn’t deliver.

Lane and Brady singled together in the fifth, but Crane and Eldred failed.

Rohwer walked again with one out in the sixth, but the Baldwins flew out.

The one Indian run came in the seventh, when Lane and Brady again singled together, Lane taking third on Hemingway’s high throw. Crane’s sacrifice fly scored Lane.

Bowman singled to open the eighth, but a signal “ball up” caused him to go out stealing.

Grimly the Indians held on and staged a young rally in the ninth. Earl Baldwin singled to start things. George Cutshaw, who had won Sunday’s first game with a pinch blow, batted for Steuland and walked. Emmer and Jimmy Welsh, both fleet of foot, were put in to run for the pair, but Lane and Brady had run out of hits by this time and Same Crane popped to Mollwitz.

Brucker Sees Game

Earl Brucker, rookie catcher, hurt in Sunday’s second game, watched the game from the grandstand.

Dr. A. Rocke Robertson, who had attended him, released him from the hospital at noon yesterday, supposing he’d go to his hotel and stay.

Brucker would probably have asked for a uniform if he hadn’t been met with the reception he was. He still a bit dizzy, but expects to be in a suit again perhaps today or tomorrow.

Two Pitchers Hurt.

Two Indian pitchers, Bill Plummer and Harvey (“Suds”) Sutherland, are on the hospital list yet, though Sutherland may be able to work this afternoon. Plummer’s arm is bound up with an injured tendon in the elbow, while Sutherland has been bothered with an ankle injured rounding first base in the opening game.

Steuland came back after only two days of rest for the game yesterday, but he is strong enough to carry considerable work, and will probably get it. Vean Gregg and Wheezer Dell will probably start early games against the Salt Lake Bees, who arrived here this morning to start a seven game series this afternoon.

Games 18 and 19, Sunday, April 27, 1924

Because of the short travel distance from Seattle to Portland, Seattle was able to schedule their home opening series against the Sacramento Solons from Wednesday to Monday. Opening Day had featured a long parade that wound through downtown Seattle before heading over to Rainier Avenue South and the Coast League Park. I am going to try to rebuild the attendance numbers, because it seems as if Seattle was really drawing good crowds. Although they played a large number of double headers, attendance seems to fluctuate between 5,000 and 8,000 fans on weekdays, and upwards of 10,000 on weekends. I found a Sporting News article from the summer of that year exclaiming an attendance of 51,000 for 3 weekend games.

My point is, the PCL had clubs like Seattle that drew on par with some MLB clubs. It speaks to the quality of baseball being played as much as the popularity. In Lyle Kenai Wilson’s Sunday Afternoons at Garfield Park, he quotes an article from 1911 I believe, that states attendance for a game between a Nisei club team and a Negro League club that drew 4,000 fans at Seattle’s Woodland Park. Now, the two details I find most interesting about that are the place and the population. The place, Woodland Park, which at that time of electric trains and somewhat segregated neighborhoods in the city, meant the 4,000 people coming through the gate were a mix of Nisei, Issei, and African-American, as well as the locals who lived around the Woodland Park neighborhood, which is lots of Scandinavians at that time. Now, the other part is the sheer number of 4,000. I remember going to Mariner games in the Kingdome in the early 80’s with fewer fans. We see this in 1924 as well. In another post on the Meiji University baseball team tour of that year, one of the biggest contests for that team was plying the Nippon AC baseball club. That game took place at the Coast League Park instead of a smaller venue. Crappy baseball, even if it’s part of a major cultural event, doesn’t draw a crowd. If you're getting 4,000 people, your playing good. I think if you look at the makeup of the teams in the semi-pro and city leagues, you gain an important insight into the demographic makeup of a place and the way those populations interact, more so than the big club. The semi-pro leagues were always integrated, that's part of baseball history going back to the time of proto-ball before the Civil War. The melting pot was often a chunky soup. Baseball, as a source of information, can thus tell us about race and society. I mean, after all, this team I’m writing about is called the “Indians”. That means something deeper than itself.

On Sunday, April 27, 1924, a Seattle crowd reported at 12,000 got to witness a double header filled with excitement and dismay across an 18-inning afternoon. Certainly, fans got to see both sides of a team that would go from worst to first, though on this day they saw the best first, and worst last.

By the end of that Sunday slate of games Seattle was still one spot out of the basement, but you could definitely see the makings of a contender.

Standings of Teams in Coast League, as of Sunday April 27^th:

Team                                       Won    Lost     Pct.

San Francisco                          13       8        .619

Vernon                                    13        8        .619

Salt Lake                                11        9        .550

Los Angeles                            11       10       .524

Oakland                                  10      11        .476

Portland                                   9       12        .429

Seattle                                      8       11       .421

Sacramento                              7       13       .350

Sacramento and Seattle would have more game to play on Monday before the start of the fourth week of the season. On this Sunday, they split the fifth and sixth games of their series. Seattle won its fifth straight in the early game 3 to 2. Sacramento finally picked up a game by winning the late game 15 to 5.

Ray Rohwer, maybe the last great left fielder ever to play professional baseball in Seattle (perhaps his trade at the end of the season could be looked as Seattle’s own lost and unknown, and position-specific Curse of the Bambino), had his consecutive plate appearances reaching first base streak snapped at 13. I found the hitting stats published in newspapers for the 1924 PCL season. They came out in December. It tracks games, at-bats, runs, hits, stolen bases, home runs, triples, doubles, sacrifice hits, runs batted in, caught stealing and batting average. As we have seen from looking through the narratives from the dailies and looking into the box score, guys like Rohwer must have had a significant on-base percentage. I will be trying to rebuild those types of statistics as this project moves along.

The staff writer highlights the pinch-hitting ability of George Cutshaw, showing his reputation to be, as the term would come later when cars became more ubiquitous, a clutch-hitter. Although, and maybe this is because the writers were stationary, I’m not sure when they started traveling with the teams, Cutshaw had actually had a pinch-hit at-bat in the fifth game of the Salt Lake series, going 0-1 in what was apparently a forgettable 15 to 10 loss on Sunday, April 20. Although, perhaps by “yesterday’s opportunity to hit, his first” was meant to indicate his first hit rather than simply his first at-bat. Cutshaw would get 53 at-bats in 43 games that year, with his average declining from its current .500 down to .245. Truly, his wisdom would have more teeth than his batting.

Although, just this one win would make a difference at the end of a 200-game season.

On a sadder note, catcher Earl Brucker suffered an injury when Earl McNeeley, who would end the season with a heroic moment in the 1924 World Series, swung his bat all the way around as Brucker dived forward. The bat hit Brucker on the head, behind the left ear. I don’t know what happened to Brucker after that. We’ll see, but the promising young catcher would eventually make his way to the majors in 1936. Eventually, he would even get to manage on an interim basis for the Reds. I am not sure if this injury contributed to his delayed shot at the top, but his record in Baseball Reference is sporadic for several years. He played in 1925 and 1926 for Lincoln in the Western League, then nothing for the next four years. Then, in 1930, he starts making his way back up through the minors. It may be that these injuries contributed to his difficult in playing, or that he played semi-pro ball. Probably he worked for a living to support a young son.  But, eventually he would land that spot on a major league roster. I’m sure after his struggles, under the presumption he struggled, that must have been quite a day. I will look around, see if I can find evidence of him playing semi-pro ball.I do know that he and his son, Earl Brucker, Jr., eventually ran a race track in El Cajon. Brucker, Sr. was also a legendary high school player in San Diego.

Another story developing that year was how the pitching staff had come together. I read an article in a recent Baseball Research Journal about the development of the five-man pitching rotation. Here is a picture with a little blurb about the development of Seattle’s starting pitching staff that year. 1 is Bill Plummer, the youngest Seattle pitcher that year and about whom I’ve written before. He would eventually marry the sister of one of his teammates and have a son in the 1940s. That boy, also called Bill, would later back up Johnny Bench and have a disastrous season as a manager of the Seattle Mariners. 2 is Suds Sutherland, who was obtained in a trade for Harry Gardner, a pitcher that had been obtained as part of the same acquisition in December 1922 that brought Ray Rohwer to Seattle. 3 is George Steuland, late of the Chicago Cubs in an off-season acquisition, and previously managed by Wade Killefer’s brother Bill for that venerable franchise. 4 is Jim Bagby, just 4 short years removed an historic season and World Series with Cleveland’s 1920 champions. I don’t know if anyone has written a book about the 1920 Cleveland team, but it should happen (Bagby's son, Jim Bagby, Jr., also has a place in baseball history). 5 is Vean Gregg, who had been the best pitcher in the PCL in 1923, resuscitating a career once thought lost to arm injury. Gregg was one of the top pitchers of the early 1910s, and although he would get one final shot at the majors, this year was giving him his real final shot at glory.

Wade Killefer used his pitchers both in relief and as starters, juggling them around to meet the needs of the 7-game work week that saw usually between 54 to 70 innings of pitching needed. For instance, although Gregg was a veteran and the best pitcher in the PCL probably, so far in 1924 he had been used in relief as well as starting. Other pitchers on the staff were Wheezer Dell, who had been obtained from Vernon on waivers in 1923, Texan Carl Williams, local boy made good Vic Pigg, and Percy Lee Jones. Wheezer Dell and George Cutshaw were teammates on the 1916 Brooklyn Robins team that made the World Series.

As Reported in the Seattle Daily Times, Monday, April 28, 1924:

Win Clever Victory In First But Show Terribly in Second

Rohwer Stopped by Southpaw Thompson-Charlie Hall Beats Seattle With Well-Pitched Game.

THE Seattle team’s winning streak was stopped after its fifth victory over Sacramento yesterday and a banner Sunday crowd went home sorely disappointed at the showing of their athletes. The Indians won the first game 3 to 2 after apparently being beaten again, then turned around and got all the bad baseball possible out of their systems in the second, which they lost 13 to 5.

            More 12,000 people, a bigger crowd than opening day, attended the games, cheering the showing of the Indians in the first encounter, but showing considerable disgust in the second. Large numbers of the crowd left in the late innings of the second game.

            Ray Rohwer, Seattle left fielder, who had gone thirteen consecutive times at bat, making seven hits and drawing six bases on balls in that time, was stopped by the left-handed shoots of Thompson, the Sacramento pitcher in the first game, but came back with two singles off  Charlie Hall n the second encounter.

            The first game goes down in the books to the winning credit of Vean Gregg for it is pitchers who get credit for wins and losses, but to George Cutshaw, veteran of 15 years of baseball, goes credit for the winning runs.

            George went to bat in the pinch in the seventh inning with Indian runners roosting on second and third and Sacramento leading, 2 to 0. He delivered a healthy single to left, on the second ball pitched to him, scoring the pair and sewing up the game. A boot by Catcher Shea of the Solons let the winning run come across an inning later.

            When Cutshaw was with Brooklyn in the National League he was noted for just those stunts. He went along for nearly ten years, never a lusty hitter, but oh, such a bad actor in the pinches. Let the Superbas be a run or two behind, let a runner or two be on base waiting to score, and it was George Cutshaw’s time to act.

            It was with that in mind, because he needed a sound head out on the coaching lines with him and because if Cliff Brady was hurt there was no one left to take his place that Wade Killefer signed Cutshaw this spring. His coaching has been high- lass right along and yesterday’s opportunity to hit, his first, shows that he may be mighty valuable before the year is over.

First Game Well Played

            The first game was a splendidly played contest and the big crowd was in great humor when it was over.

            Sergeant Jim Bagby started for Seattle, with Lefty Thompson opposing him. For four innings they battled without a run being scored.

            Bagby looked fine. His control was splendid and the Solons didn’t hit a ball hard off of him all the time he was on the mound. Thompson, too, had everything for six innings, but when he broke he went sky high.

            McNeeley beat out a hit to deep short to open the fifth inning for Sacramento. McGinnis poked one at Elmer Bowman and in swinging hurriedly to make a force play at second Bowman threw high and wide. Crane made a great leaping catch but both runners were safe. Thompson sacrificed them along.

            Merlin Kopp, who had driven in a flock of Sacramento runs Saturday, dropped a lazy fly squarely on the right field foul line, scoring the two runners. Bagby came right back and stopped the Solons in the sixth and seventh, and then the Indians got busy.

            Elmer Bowman started the rally with a drive to left. Ray Rohwer forced him and Ted Baldwin followed with a double to left center on which Rohwer took third.

            Here it was that Manager Killefer called Cutshaw in to bat for Frank Tobin. Cutshaw looked over a bad ball, then hit a curve ball on the inside corner sharply to left, scoring the pair.

            The Indians won the game in the eighth on a single by Billy Lane, a base on balls to Brady, a sacrifice by Crane, an intentional pas issued to Brick Eldred and Bowman’s tap to third. Hemmingway fielded it cleanly, forced Lane at the plate but Catcher Shea in attempting to double Bowman at first threw into right field, Brady scoring the winning run.

           

Second Was Dismal

            The second game was as dismal as the first was thrilling. Everything imaginable in the way of bad baseball was inserted into the program by the Indians.

            Percy Lee Jones started to pitch, was wild as a hawk and after two runs had been chalked up and he had the bases full in the third with no one out Vic Pigg took up the pitching.

            Pigg caused Mollwitz and McNeeley to force men at the plate. It looked for a moment like he was going to pull the Indians out of that hole. But “Cooey” McGinnis, the midget shortstop of the Solons, dropped a long fly between Lane and Eldred for two bases, scoring Smith, Mollwitz and McNeeley.

            From that time on things got worse instead of better. Pigg was both wild and ineffective, the Solons scoring in every inning except the seventh and ninth.

Newcomers Get Chance

            Manager Wade Killefer sent Catcher Brucker, Shortstop Frank Emmer, First Basemen Jimmy Walsh and Outfielder Frank Osborne into the game, after the fifth inning.

            Osborne performed the unusual stunt of driving two balls over the right field fence, both foul, however, and then doubled to right in his first trial. Jimmy Walsh followed with another double to the same field, but Osborne thought the ball was going to be caught and was held at third on the hit.

            Emmer and Osborne both figured in a belated Seattle rally in the ninth that netted three runs.

            The Sacramento team plays here this afternoon following which Salt Lake City opens a seven-game series tomorrow afternoon.

1887 Dixon Baseball Team, Miller County, Arkansas