Baseball's Untold History: The Wild Side

By Michael Lynch

Take a walk on The Wild Side with Seamheads.com’s Mike Lynch, who digs deep into his archives of obscure baseball history to present some of the most amazing and unusual characters and events the game has ever seen.

Meet gamblers, brawlers, and cheats, odious owners, vindictive wives, obsessive fans, odd ball All Stars, and more, whose on-field exploits and sideline shenanigans earned them a permanent place in baseball’s Hall of Really?!

- The umpire who tossed out two batters...in the same at bat
- The top-notch catcher who ended up murdering his family and then turning the gun on himself
- The Hall of Famer who stole another player’s bat and unabashedly claimed it as his own
- The player who narrowly missed being killed by a train, only to try to kill a policeman later that same year
- The woman who taunted a pitcher from the top of a tree and rattled him into ruining his record-setting streak
- The player who was thrown out in the first 16 steal attempts of his career
- The inside story behind the shocking trades of Tom Seaver and Frank Robinson that rocked the baseball world

• Language: English
• Publisher: Summer Game Books
• Release date: Jul 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781938545559

Michael Lynch

Multi-published romance and women's fiction author brings you the treasured children's stories written by their father, Michael J. Lynch who died in 1970. Their author pen name is dedicated to him and their mother, Katherine - the K and M in K.M. Daughters.

Book preview

Introduction

Welcome to Volume III of Baseball’s Untold History. Volume I, Baseball’s Untold History: The People, focused on characters of the game that I found interesting for one reason or another—St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Austin McHenry, who appeared destined for stardom before he died of a brain tumor; Chalmer Bill Cissell, who was acquired by the Chicago White Sox for a record sum of $123,000 and, after a largely unsuccessful career, worked as an electrician at Comiskey Park; and George Sisler, who could have been one of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ greatest players, but was granted free agency before his professional career began and ended up with the S. Louis Browns.

Volume II, Baseball’s Untold History: The World Series also featured interesting characters of the game, but focused (obviously) on their World Series feats, or lack thereof. Ed Doheny won 16 games for the pennant-winning 1903 Pirates, but attacked his doctor with a wood stove leg and ended up in an asylum before the Fall Classic, where he spent the rest of his life; Clyde McCullough batted in the 1945 World Series despite missing the 1944 and ’45 seasons while serving in the Navy; And Tigers southpaw Mickey Lolich, who homered in his first World Series at-bat in 1968, but never homered at any other time in his 16-year career.

In Volume III, Baseball’s Untold History: The Wild Times, you’ll read about:

•   The bat boy who stole $2,500 in cash and jewelry from Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics during an exhibition game in Baltimore

•   The obscure Deadball Era pitcher whose wife shot her actual husband to death

•   The speedy infielder who raced a horse around the bases. And almost won

•   The pitcher who suffered a stroke while pitching to Babe Ruth and the Yankees, but lived to be 79

•   The manager and players who were almost hit by a train during a spring training hike in 1902, one of whom became a legend, another of whom tried to kill a policeman later that year

•   The umpire who ejected two batters in the same at-bat for arguing balls and strikes

•   The pitcher who administered CPR on two different fans in the 1970s

•   The batter who had to hit three times in one official at-bat

All of the material in this book was culled from years of researching other topics. As I gathered relevant material I would save old newspaper accounts of interesting finds that I knew I could use for future articles and books. That opportunity eventually presented itself and this volume is the result of those efforts.

Some of the stories included in this volume barely relate to baseball, but were so fascinating I had to include them. My favorite of those is the case of Lulu Prince-Kennedy who shot her husband Philip to death on January 10, 1901 after only a month of marriage. Her crime would have gone unnoticed by me had she not claimed to be the wife of Kansas City Blues hurler Case Patten, who would go on to have an undistinguished career with the Washington Senators and Boston Red Sox from 1901-1908.

Prince-Kennedy and Patten had, in fact, had a relationship while the pitcher was toiling for Kansas City in the summer of 1900, but he hadn’t considered it to be serious and left for his New York home after the season. Prince-Kennedy eventually admitted that she and Patten had never married, which quite possibly spared the pitcher his life. Philip Kennedy wasn’t so fortunate. The murder and subsequent trial reads like a dime store novel with enough twists and turns to fill a soap opera.

The stories contained within range from tragic, to humorous, to unbelievable, and all are true. In addition to the above, you’ll read about the woman who shouted obscenities from a tree outside the ballpark to rattle the opposing pitcher. And it worked! You’ll read about two separate altercations during the 1916 World Series that left one man dead on a saloon floor, and opposing team owners at each other’s throat over obstructed-view seats.

You’ll read about the league president who sold a team out from under its owners after said owners fired their manager, who happened to be one of the president’s closest friends. And you’ll also learn about the dangerous way in which a team attempted to thwart an opposing spitballer’s disgusting habit of licking the baseball.

Like I said, unbelievable but true! Enjoy!

Mike Lynch

February, 2017

Boston, MA

I

GAMBLERS, BRAWLERS, AND CHEATS

Behind the Eight Ball: Buck Weaver’s First Gambling Scandal

George Buck Weaver is most known for being banned from baseball for life for having guilty knowledge of the 1919 World Series fix, which resulted in the banishment of eight Chicago White Sox players, including Shoeless Joe Jackson. But that wasn’t the first time Weaver had experienced problems due to gambling.

According to the August 31, 1915 edition of the Chicago Tribune, Weaver had lost his poolroom license when a police raid discovered several baseball enthusiasts shooting dice in a back room of Weaver’s pool and billiard parlor in the south side of Chicago. BUCK MUFFS; OUT A POOL LICENSE screamed the Trib. Shortstop Weaver’s Billiard Room Closed Because Of Alleged Gambling. Weaver was in Lafayette, Indiana playing pool with teammate and future Black Sox co-conspirator Happy Felsch when he heard the news.

I don’t understand it, he said. I told them some time ago not to gamble. The manager of the billiard parlor insisted the gamblers were patrons of a barber shop that was subletting space in the parlor, but Mayor Big Bill Thompson held Weaver responsible because the property was in his name. Weaver had his license reinstated on September 8, allegedly after promising the chief of police and Mayor Thompson that he’d play better on the diamond and lead the White Sox to a pennant.

He kept his promise to a certain extent—the White Sox played at a .625 clip after Weaver’s license was reinstated, a .025 point improvement over their previous mark, and he added 10 points to his batting and on-base averages and three to his slugging—but he also committed errors more frequently, and the White Sox finished in third place, nine-and-a-half games behind the eventual world champion Boston Red Sox.

Alas, a year later Weaver closed down his billiard parlor and filed for bankruptcy to seek relief from creditors who were owed a hair more than $1,000.

Byrd’s Eye View

White Sox backup catcher Byrd Lynn told reporters in 1920, We lost the pennant because certain players…didn’t want us to win. He and reserve infielder Harvey McClellan kept an eye on players accused of fixing the 1919 World Series and discovered a pattern.

We soon noticed how carefully they studied the score board— more than even the average player does in a pennant race and that they always made errors which lost us the game when Cleveland and New York were losing. If Cleveland won—we won. If Cleveland lost—we lost. The idea was to keep up the betting odds, but not to let us win the pennant.

Even American League President Ban Johnson weighed in with an opinion. I heard several weeks ago a vague statement that the White Sox would not dare win the pennant this season, Johnson told a Cook County Grand Jury in late September, because the gambling syndicate would tell what they knew of the conduct of certain players in the World’s championship games in 1919.

Lynn and McClellan may have been on to something. September began with the teams in first and second place, only a half-game apart, and that’s when the coincidental results started to appear. The teams played on the same day 19 times (not counting the three times they played each other), and 16 times they had the same result. In fact, from September 13 to September 27, the last game played by the crooked players before they were suspended, the teams played on the same day 10 times and both went 9-1 in those games.

You’d expect two teams who won 63% of their games to have similar concurrent winning streaks, but at no other time during the season were they so in sync. Whether or not the suspected culprits of the 1919 gambling scandal also threw the 1920 AL pennant race has never been adequately proved, but there’s enough circumstantial evidence to make a solid case against them.

Hey Matty, Wanna Bet?

September 14, 1919: When I say that in trying to fix a ball team you would almost certainly find one or two honest players…My own personal opinion is that you would look a long way before you would find any ball player who would consent to throw a game.— Christy Mathewson.

The legendary hurler wrote that in his syndicated column more than two weeks before the Chicago White Sox took the field against the Cincinnati Reds in Game One of the 1919 World Series. Matty wasn’t referring to the White Sox, however, but rather accusations by some that certain National League teams were throwing games to the Reds during the regular season. Mathewson asserted that every player and manager was out to win, not only out of pride but in order to command better salaries.

In summation he credited the Reds’ scoring punch and ability to get runs when they need them. Indeed, the Reds finished second in the National League in runs per game with 4.13, and led the league in fewest runs allowed per game, run differential and defensive efficiency.

They went on to beat a White Sox team that was considered the best in American League history before the 1927 Yankees claimed the mantle, and though Mathewson may have been correct about senior circuit teams being honest, he and everyone else would soon find that one only had to look as far as Chicago to find crooked players.

Lenny Randle: The Spring Training Slugger

By all accounts Lenny Randle was one of the game’s true gentlemen; a popular, free-spirited, class act who always played hard and worked even harder. He came from a family of seven who were raised in Compton, California and taught the value of hard work and an education by a father who worked as a shipyard boilermaker and a mother who worked in a shirt factory.

Five of the seven earned college degrees, including Lenny who played football and baseball for Arizona State University from 1968-1970. He served as a kick returner and specialist for football coach Frank Kush, and starred at shortstop and second base for Bobby Winkles. Arizona State won a national championship with Randle at second base in 1969, and he earned All-America honors in 1970.

Randle was selected by the Washington Senators with the 10th overall pick in the 1970 amateur draft, was sent to Triple-A for a brief time, and made his major league debut on June 16, 1971. He struggled through his first three seasons, hitting only .205 in 159 games for the Senators/Texas Rangers, but became a versatile and valuable member of the Rangers in 1974 when he batted .302 with 26 steals. He played third base, second base, all three outfield positions, designated hitter, and shortstop, and finished 21st in AL MVP voting.

Under manager Billy Martin, the Rangers went 84-76 and finished in second place, only five games behind the eventual world champion Oakland A’s. But Martin was fired 95 games into the 1975 season and replaced by Frank Lucchesi, a 48-year-old former minor league outfielder, who played for 13 years and began managing in the minors in 1951 at only 24 years old.

Lucchesi had a great deal of success as a minor league manager and, after leading the Eugene Emeralds to a Pacific Coast League Southern Division title in 1969, was hired to pilot the Philadelphia Phillies in 1970. Lucchesi has been described as colorful and personable, and the original Mr. Nice Guy,but also tempestuous, and fiery, and was considered to be among a group of violent-tempered former players who demanded that you do it their way.

Under Lucchesi, the Phillies finished fifth in the National League East in 1970 and sixth in 1971, and they were in sixth place with a record of 26-50 in 1972 when Lucchesi was replaced by Paul Owens. Lucchesi managed the Oklahoma City 89ers of the Triple-A American Association in 1973, then served as a coach under Billy Martin in Texas in ’74 before taking over managerial duties halfway through the ’75 season.

The Rangers played better under Lucchesi, but it was too little, too late and they finished 19 games out of first place. Randle had another productive season, appearing in a team-high 156 games, leading the team with 676 plate appearances, and playing seven different positions, even catching six innings against the California Angels on June 21.

But Lucchesi, Randle, and the Rangers all struggled in 1976. Texas came in fourth in the AL West with a 76-86 record and Randle suffered through a poor season in which he batted .224 with only 18 extra-base hits in 142 games. But there was hope for Texas on the horizon; second baseman Bump Wills, son of former Dodger MVP and All-Star Maury Wills, was tearing up the minors and appeared to be a legitimate prospect.

Wills was the sixth pick of the 1975 amateur draft after starring at, ironically enough, Arizona State University. He hit .307 for Pittsfield of the Eastern League in 1975 with a very good .377 on-base percentage, then broke out in 1976 when he batted .324 with 26 home runs and 95 RBIs while playing an excellent second base. The writing was on the wall for Randle who wanted a chance to compete for the Ranger’s second base job in 1977, but during the off season the Rangers announced that Wills was going to be their starting second baseman.

The Rangers had also signed free agent veteran perennial All-Star shortstop Bert Campaneris to a five-year contract, which allowed them to move arguably the team’s most valuable player, then three-time All-Star shortstop Toby Harrah, to third base. Former AL Rookie of the Year and All-Star Mike Hargrove was at first base and a trade that sent 1974 AL MVP outfielder Jeff Burroughs to the Atlanta Braves in December brought back two more outfielders with whom Randle would have to compete for playing time.

Former Texas Ranger and nice guy Lenny Randle was shipped to the New York Mets after atacking manager Frank Lucchesi.

When Lucchesi played Wills almost exclusively during spring training, Randle began to refer to himself as the Phantom Ranger and insisted that the Rangers were trying to get rid of him. If I wanted to be a reserve, he argued, I’d join the National Guard. Then when the Rangers traded for 22-year-old outfielder Claudell Washington, who’d made the AL All-Star team in 1975 at the tender age of 20, Randle claimed I may have to start throwing punches.

Finally, in late March, Randle had had enough and stormed out of camp, only to be intercepted by teammates Gaylord Perry, Bert Blyleven, and Hargrove, who convinced Randle to stay with the team. Lucchesi showed no sympathy toward the versatile player, though, and said that he was sorry that [Randle] had been talked out of leaving camp.

If Lenny Randle came in this office and said he was leaving, I’d say ‘good luck,’ put on my glasses and sit down and not say another word. I would not say ‘sit down and let’s talk this over,’ he told reporters after he learned of Randle’s attempted defection.

I’m getting sick and tired of guys making $80,000 a year and moaning and groaning about their jobs, Lucchesi continued. I’m sick and tired of these punks saying play me or trade me. Let ‘em go find a job.