Ifwinter comes, can spring be far be­ hind? Not in the land of baseball, TNPII where winter is but latent spring, a warm climate for reflection on pastjoys and anticipation of new ones. TNP's intrepid weather prediction: Min­ nesota's winter (made over as re-Twin) will be unusually balmy this year. As the pennant race and postseason play recede into perspective, their accounts added to the game's swelling ledger, the old gods take to the field with renewed vigor. This is their season: Move over, Kirby and Ozzie; come on ==================~ back, Babe and Lou. For in the mindofthefan, as in Stuart THE _ Leeds' lovely drawing on the cover, the snow may fall but National ~ Pastime the grass is ever green. A REVIEW 01" BASEBALL HISTORY This issue of The National Pastime is filled with the special pleasures of the hot-stove league: The Hidden-Ball Trick, Nicaragua, and Me, Historical Excavation: What ever happened to Eddie jay Feldman 2 Gaedel? Was Honus Wagner a racist? What was the real Bill Veeck Park: A Modest Proposal, Philip Bess 5 story behind the Willard Hershberger suicide? Was Sena­ Eddie Gaedel: The Sad Life of Baseball's Midget, tor catcherJim French a hidden star? These teaser ques­ jim Reisler 9 tions only point to the articles by, respectively,Jim Reisler, Little Known Facts, Conrad Hom 10 Adie Suehsdorf, Jarnes Barbour, and Merritt Clifton-let Honus Wagner's Rookie Year, A.D. Suehsdorf 11 them speak for themselves. Ossie Bluege: The Quirkless Man,jane Levy 18 Statistical Rumination: The fault, dear reader, is not in Spring Training Pioneers, Gene Karst 22 ourselves, but in our stars-that's the turnJohn Holway "Macmillan," Frank V. Phelps 28 works on the Bard in his stimulating look at astrological Lee Allen,joseph M. Oveifield 36 influences on baseball performance. In the sabermetric The Pitcher as Fielder,jim Kaplan 41 area, one of the hottest questions of recent years has photo Gallery, Mike Mumby and Mark Rucker 45 concerned clutch hitting, paralleling the old conundrum Let's Save The Hall of Fame,john McCormack 53 about the curve ball: Does it truly exist or is it an optical Diamond Stars,john B. Holway 56 illusion? Bob Kelly makes his case on behalf of clutch The Death ofWillard Hershberger,james Barbour 62 pitching; check it out. See also our format innovation for Pardon My French, Merritt Clifton 66 this edition (everything old is new again): the reprinting Why the System of Batting Averages Should be ofa significant but neglected article oflong ago, this time Changed, F.C. Lane 68 a 1916 piece by F.C. Lane that you'd think was written by Acrostic Puzzle,jtj]rey Neuman 75 Bill James or Pete Palmer. "Safe at Home," Karl Lindholm 76 ControverS)l: Can baseball bridge the gap between Nic­ Poetry by Dr. Lucien Stark 80 aragua and the U.S.?Jay Feldman thinks so, and relates a Clutch Pitchers Do Exist, Bob Kelly 81 neat bit of inter-American cooperation. Should we rip Playing Managers, Fred Stein 83 some plaques offthe walls ofthe Hall ofFame, or estab­ Acrostic Answer 88 lish a separate wing for super-superstars? John McCor­ mack has some provocative suggestions. And what about Editor: John Thorn Macmillan's Baseball EnC}'clopedia? Mixing fast-food Associate Editor: Mark Alvarez metaphors, is Big Mac more doughnut or hole? Surely the PICTURE CREDITS Stuart Leeds: front cover. Dennis Goldstein: back one book that anyserious baseball fan must own, Big Mac cover, 25, 44 (right). Syracuse University: inside front cover.John Thorn: has a fascinating history, detailed for the first time, and inside back cover. Cynthia Ciesenek: 3. National Baseball Library, splendidly, by Frank V. Phelps. Cooperstown, NY: 13, 17,24,26,29,30,31,33,44 (left), 54, 65, 71, 73, 74, 81, 86, 87. Michigan Historical Collections, Bentley Historical Profiles: Ossie Bluege, a lion inwinter, is deftly captured Library: 16. Gene Karst: 23. Mike.Mumby: 45-52. byJane Levy. AndJoe Overfield looks back affectionately at Lee Allen, the unique individual whose knowledge and THE NATIONAL PASTIME (ISSN 0734-6905, ISBN 0-910137-25-0), Winter 1987, Vol. 6, No.1. Published by the Society for American spirit infuse not only the Macmillan Enryclopedia but Baseball Research, Inc., P. O. Box 10033, Kansas City, Mo. 64111. SABR itself. Editorial and Advertising Offices, 18 Virginia Avenue, Saugerties, NY Special thanks for their help with this issue go to Mark 12477. Postage paid at Manhattan, Kansas. Copyright © 1987the Society for American Baseball Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in Alvarez, Mark Rucker, Paul Adomites, and as always the whole or in part without written 12ermission is I2!!]ro2!h!!lib!J!iMte;!,!d~.---------r ==---gaOO people af1\g-Fress. fIRST PRlNTING-Ag Pre"", Mallhatlan, Kansas. A REVIEW OF BASEBALL HISTORY araguan countryside, playing base­ ball and distributing the many thou­ The Hidden- sands ofdollars worth ofeqUipment donated by individuals, schools and three major league teams (Oakland A's, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Ball Trick, Mariners). For ballplayers, we had everything from young, semipros to aging, over-the-hill types like myself to my fifteen-year old son, a high school student-athlete sponsored by Nicaragua, then-Oakland A's outfielder/first baseman Dusty Baker. We played a variety of Nicaraguan ballclubs, in­ cluding a farmworker-cooperative's and Me team, a regional championship team, and even a First Division (equivalent JAY FELDMAN ofmajor league) team. To say that Nicaraguans are crazy for baseball is a monumental understatement-sort of like saying that Romeo really liked Juliet. Base­ ball is a passion in Nicaragua, a pro­ found expression of the national HE HIDDEN-BALL TRICK is ball!" And you've been foiled again. character. There's a saying in Nic­ one ofbaseball's most diffi- "How the heck do they do it?"you aragua that every boy is born with a T cult and least-witnessed de- wonder to yourselfas you lob the ball glove andball in his hand ("Nad6 con fensive ploys. I've always been fasci- back to the mound. And this under- un guante y una bola en la mano"). nated by this rarely executed maneu- lines one of the main reasons why As such, baseball is one of the main ver, and by the audacious cunning working the hidden ball trick is so bridges between our cultures. needed to pull it off. It's not exactly difficult: You not onlyhave to fool the There were many wonderful mo­ illegal, but it's just renegade and baserunner, you also have to hide ments in the course ofour whirlwind sneaky enough to titillate my an- your move from the rest ofhis team- tour, but without a doubt, the out­ archistic tendencies. It's also some- mates and their fans. standing highlight ofmy trip came in thing ofa mystery. In fact, it wasn't Since high school, except for the the mountain town of Boaco, in our until I visited Nicaragua that I dis- occasional game of over-the-line or third game, where-you guessed covered what the hidden ball trick is some similar ersatz diversion, my it-I executed, at long last, a bona really all about. diamond exploits have been limited fide, honest-to-goodness, no-doubt­ Accomplishing the hidden-ball to softball-good hands at shortstop, about-it hidden-ball trick. trick was an unrealized ambition of but the arm, legs and eyes have all In Boaco, we were greeted by a mybaseball career (which ended, for gone-until late 1985,when I had the brass band, beauty queens and fire­ all intents and purposes, twenty-five good fortune to be involved in a Wal- works, and we were paraded through I years ago when I graduated from ter Mitty-type adventure called the streets to the ballpark. The entire .I high school). Not that I didn't try-in "Baseball for Peace." This excursion population of the city turned out, sandlot and Babe Ruth League, we was a ten-day, nonpartisan good~11 with people hanging offthe rooftops. were forever looking to steal an out tour of Nicaragua for players, fans, When we reached the stadium, they with the hidden ball. The problem and writers. lined us up along the foul line, World was that we were so pathetically ob- The idea behind "Baseball for Series style; we were presented witha vious about it. You know the scene: Peace" was to promote under- trophy, and the local Little Leaguers You go to the mound and "confer" standing between the people of the pinned boutonnieres on our shirts. with the pitcher, who US and Nicaragua through our com- The crowd sang the Nicaraguan surreptitiously-or so you and he mon national pastime. Ping-pong national anthem, and then, to our think-slips you the horsehide. As diplomacy, if you will. From De- you're nonchalantly trotting back to cember28, 1985, toJanuary7, 1986,a This piece is excerptedfrom Hot Corner: A position, some sharpie on the other rag-tag group offifteen North Amer- Nicaraguan Baseball Adventure by Jay I _c__----tteatttyreHs,'£Watch-ont;-he's-gorthe---rC"8.TI'r1,-.'lrnstormea arounat~-~--~------"~~'~--'-I'" THE NATIONAL PASTIME utter amazement, over the p.a. came the familiar strains of "The Star­ Spangled Banner." Ofall the things we'd been treated to in Nicaragua, this was the most unexpected, and one of the most moving. Here were people whose lives are daily threatened by the U.S.-backed contra forces, but who were still willing to look beyond that. They somehow dug up a recording of our national anthem because they wanted to honor us in the traditional manner.