Ray Schalk: a Baseball Biography
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Ray Schalk ALSO BY BRIAN E. COOPER Red Faber: A Biography of the Hall of Fame Spitball Pitcher (McFarland, 2007) Ray Schalk A Baseball Biography BRIAN E. COOPER McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Cooper, Brian E., 1954– Ray Schalk : a baseball biography / Brian E. Cooper. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7864-4148-8 softcover : 50# alkaline paper 1. Schalk, Ray. 2. Baseball players—United States— Biography. I. Title. GV865.S352C66 2009 796.357092—dc22 [B] 2009027457 British Library cataloguing data are available ©2009 Brian E. Cooper. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. On the cover: Chicago White Sox catcher Ray Schalk in 1924 (Library of Congress) Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com To my wife, Ann. She deserves a place in the Patience Hall of Fame. Acknowledgments I greatly appreciate these individuals and institutions for their assistance and cooperation with this project. First, my thanks to these individuals: Mirdza Berzins; Mark Braun; Deborah Brinson; Roy Brinson; Gene Carney; Ralph Christian; Bill Dees; Jim Eisenbarth; James Elfers; David Fletcher; Lillian Hendricks; Mary Lee Hostert; Will Hoyer; Jarrell Jarrard; Richard C. Lindberg; Peter Morris; Mike Nola; Bill Nowlin; Michelle Romanus; James Schalk; Lee Simon; Bob Sokol; Chris Steinbach; Brian Stevens; and David Valenzuela. I also thank these institutions: Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Springfield, Illinois; Bottomley-Ruffing- Schalk Baseball Museum, Nokomis, Illinois; Buffalo (New York) News; Carnegie-Stout Public Library, Dubuque, Iowa; Center for Dubuque History, Dubuque, Iowa; Chicago History Museum; Chicago Public Library; DePauw University, Greencastle, Indi- ana; Elmhurst (Illinois) Public Library; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Litchfield (Illinois) News-Herald; Litchfield Community School District; Montgomery County (Illinois) Clerk’s Office; National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, New York; Old Timers’ Baseball Association of Chicago, Inc.; Retrosheet.org; Society for American Baseball Research; Shoeless Joe Jackson Virtual Hall of Fame; Telegraph Herald/Woodward Communications, Inc., Dubuque, Iowa; and Tri-County Histor- ical Society, Cascade, Iowa. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgments. vi Preface . 1 1. “Put in Schalk!” . 5 2. Milwaukee . 15 3. “Here is your pitcher, Doc White” . 22 4. “Cracker” . 32 5. Domesticated on the World Tour . 44 6. Sophomore Star . 55 7. “We don’t serve kids in here!” . 71 8. Two Games from Glory . 83 9. Ray and Lavinia . 91 10. American League Champs . 96 11. Giant-Killers . 105 12. A Dynasty Interrupted. 117 13. Glory Before the Fall . 130 14. Black Sox . 140 15. Divided We Fall. 155 16. Thrown Down . 161 17. A Team to Dismember. 174 18. Rebuilding for the Second Division . 181 19. “The Human Dynamo” . 191 20. Ray Down and Kid Out . 200 21. Passed Over, Battered and Benched . 206 vii viii Table of Contents 22. Cracker’s Comeback . 214 23. Transitions . 223 24. Goodbye. 242 25. A New Role . 250 26. Shuffle Off to Buffalo. 259 27. Indianapolis and Milwaukee . 266 28. Businessman, Volunteer and Celebrity . 270 29. Turmoil on the Home Front . 277 30. Cooperstown Calls. 283 31. Final Inning . 292 Epilogue . 297 Appendix . 299 Chapter Notes. 303 Bibliography. 317 Index . 321 Preface Of the nearly 200 major league players enshrined in the National Base- ball Hall of Fame, few receive as much criticism as Ray “Cracker” Schalk. He is a convenient target. After all, his lifetime batting average is a mere .253, the lowest among position players in the Hall. Certainly, had Schalk been able to add another 10 or 20 points to his batting average—not playing with all those bruises, concussions and broken and dislocated fingers might have made the difference—today’s critics could throw stones at Rabbit Maranville (.258) instead of Schalk. However, if earning a place in the Hall were just a matter of offensive production, selections could be left to a computer program. Addi- tional considerations include defense, on-field leadership and other contri- butions to the game—all areas where Schalk excelled. Going into this project, I did not intend to interject my opinion on the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee’s 1955 decision to enshrine Schalk. This book was not written to diminish or elevate him to superstar status. I decided that his many attributes and the controversy would just be part of the biog- raphy of an outstanding player and interesting man; readers could decide for themselves whether Schalk “deserved” Cooperstown. When Schalk broke into major-league baseball in 1912, many experts predicted that this son of a janitor wouldn’t last long. At no more than 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds—many accounts said he was much shorter and lighter than that—Cracker hardly fit the mold of a big-league catcher. After all, experts wondered, how could he handle the rigors of the position— especially the bone-jarring collisions with baserunners hell-bent on reaching home plate? Though baserunners knocked him out a few times, Schalk became an expert at avoiding collisions and tagging opponents as they slid by. When it came to catching high popups, he had no peer. Would-be base- stealers thought twice when he was behind the plate. Schalk proved that speed and smarts behind the plate helped a team more than brawn. For a decade after his retirement, he held the major league record for catching 1 2 Preface appearances. So much for the argument that Schalk was too small to be durable. I chose Schalk for my second biography as I completed my first—on Urban “Red” Faber, another White Sox star and Hall of Famer. Schalk and Faber were teammates from 1914 until 1928, when they were part of some of the best and some of the worst White Sox teams ever. Among the Hall of Fame batteries, none played as many seasons together as Red and Cracker. For four decades in retirement, the two men remained friends who resided near each other on Chicago’s South Side. To me, it seemed only fitting that both be featured in full biographies for the first time. Schalk caught my interest for other reasons. He was raised in downstate Illinois, less than an hour’s drive from my birthplace. He starred in my favorite major-league city, Chicago. He caught a baseball dropped from the 36-story Tribune Tower, home of the newspaper that helped inspire my career choice. He was the first catcher known to have recorded a putout at second base. He was once robbed and held captive at gunpoint. He was known and respected by the elite of the game—to the point of being one of Ty Cobb’s few friends. He coached or managed at various levels for four decades, during which time he engaged in more than one on-field fistfight. Then there was the Black Sox scandal. Schalk had a unique perspective on the World Series of 1919, when teammates conspired with gamblers and intentionally lost to the Cincinnati Reds. Schalk was the first of the honest players—the so-called Clean Sox—to know something was up; after all, he could tell immediately when his pitchers ignored his signals and when they grooved the ball to Reds hitters. Cracker was so angry and frustrated that he physically attacked one of his hurlers after one Series game and got tossed out of another contest for getting physical with an umpire. After initially airing his complaint that teammates “threw” the Series, Schalk changed his story. He denied it all. The reversal reflected his loyalty to Sox owner Charles A. Comiskey, who hoped to clamp a lid on the conspiracy and keep his star- laden team intact. Even after the cover–up failed and Shoeless Joe Jackson and seven others received lifetime suspensions, Schalk maintained his silence. Comiskey had his reputation to protect. Further, Cracker saw what happened to his friend Buck Weaver. The infielder received the same punishment as the conspirators, even though he played his best, because he sat in on the Black Sox’ discussions but didn’t report it. That to his dying day Cracker refused to tell what he knew about the scandal not only frustrated fans and researchers, it diluted his prominence in baseball history. Cracker’s 18-year career spanned the Deadball and Lively Ball eras, which fell on either side of 1920. In the Deadball period, teams won with pitching, Preface 3 defense and speed. When he was considered the best backstop anywhere— to that point in the game’s history, perhaps the best ever—any offensive con- tribution from the catcher was considered a bonus. He was on the field for his defense and handling of pitchers. As the Black Sox left the game, the Lively Ball period arrived, courtesy of Babe Ruth, the home-run machine. Though it was not my intent to judge Schalk’s worthiness for the Hall of Fame, after my research I concluded that the Veterans Committee made the right call in 1955. That opinion is based not on his limited offensive abil- ities, certainly, but because of his defense, his leadership and other attributes that—excuse the cliché—don’t show up in box scores. Add to that the count- less tributes and testimonials by players, umpires and sportswriters. He was usually the shortest man on the field, but Schalk was the yardstick against whom other catchers were measured.