PAUL WANER
"It is probable that Paul Waner devoted as much thought to batting as any ballplayer, including Cobb, Collins or Hornsby. He had splendid reflexes and he was blessed with the gift of being able to think with the pitcher. A left-handed batter, Paul was another exponent of the feet together type of batting. He stood well back of the plate, his right foot about three inches in front of his rear, both toes parallel to the line of the batter's box but about five inches inside it. He took a full stride and raised his right leg slightly as he stepped into the pitch, about four inches but nothing like the exaggerated leg-lift of Mel Ott.Big Poison was what the profession calls a 'clothesline hitter.' His drives to the outfield were so straight you could hang out the wash on them. As a result of this, Paul didn't hit many home runs. Most of his career was spent in two ball parks where the right field fence was a good distance from the plate, Forbes Field and Braves Field, and only three times did he go into double figures with his home run production, fifteen in 1928 being his top mark.
Waner had exceptional speed and could beat out bunts and drag hits any time he caught an infield which was not on its toes. For a time, he was the fastest man in the National League going to first base and, as a consequence, every infield play on him was close. It was his speed, plus his ability to hit line drives between the fielders, which enabled him to twice lead the National League in triples and twice in doubles. He is the only National Leaguer who hit fifty or more two-baggers in three different seasons.
Although it was Waner's misfortune to play only once in a World Series, and that in his sophomore year, he was essentially a team player. A great hitter, he was not 'hit crazy.' It is Paul's own opinion that he might have earned his 3,000th hit sooner than he did had he gone chasing after bad pitches. Waner believes that, under normal conditions, a base on balls is as valuable to a club as a base hit and he wouldn't throw away a pass by selfishly trying for base hits.
'It's possible to get base hits by swinging at bad balls, of course,' said Waner. 'I got my share of base hits off them in my career but the percentage is against you. A consistent .300 hitter should be able to hit four of ten good pitches safely but he'll be lucky to hit one of ten bad pitches safely.'
On the afternoon of June 19, 1942, while Waner was having an undistinguished season with the Braves, Pittsburgh visited Boston. In the course of an extra-inning game, Paul went one-for-five against Rip Sewell and Lloyd Dietz. That one hit, a single, played no part in the final result but it was important enough to Waner to have play halted and the ball given to him for a souvenir. It was Base Hit No. 3,000. Paul became the second National Leaguer in modern history to reach that total, Hans Wagner being the other. Cap Anson was a National Leaguer who achieved that total in the nineteenth century. The four American Leaguers to reach that total already have been mentioned in this book- Cobb, Speaker, Collins and Lajoie. No major leaguer has made the grade since Wagner.
When Paul Waner's parents gave him the middle name of Glee, they acted with a prescience given to few mortals, for fun really was Paul's middle name. He wasn't a roisterer on the scale of Babe Ruth by any means but he liked late hours and friends who would stay up late with him. He was a convivial athlete but by no means a rowdy.
One of the favorite Waner stories goes back to May 20, 1932, when he appeared at Wrigley Field with the Pirates. As he went to the bat for the first time he turned to Gabby Hartnett, the Cub catcher, and made a request.
'I didn't get too much sleep last night, Gabby,' said Paul, 'and I don't think I'm going to be able to follow the ball against that center field background. Please see that nobody throws close to my head.'
Gabby assured Paul that he knew precisely how he felt and that no harm would come to him. None did, either, but a lot did to the Cubs for all Waner did that afternoon was to hit four two-base hits, tying the major league record for one game! That feat has been accomplished exactly fifteen times in the last fifty years!"
-Tom Meany, Baseball's Greatest Hitters (Baseball Digest, June 1950)
LEFTY O'DOUL
T'WAS FUDGER O'DOUL IN '33: His Key Hit in Series Illegal, He Confesses
"It took him almost two decades to confessing, but Francis J. O'Doul, keeper of the San Francisco Seals, now admits he could have been the prize umbay of the 1933 World Series between the New York Giants and the Washington Senators instead of a gilt-edged hero.
Francis fudged, he didn't boney down, but he picked up all the marbles in a riotous second game of a roaring series that swept through five pulsating phases before the Giants, then under fiery Bill Terry, were coronated kings of the baseball empire.
The Polo Grounders from Coogan's Bluff had won the opener, 4-2, in Big Town, but were trailing, 0-1, in the sixth inning of the second game when the man in the green suit got into the act. Alvin Crowder, Washington's 24-15 right-hander, had become involved in a spectacular duel with Prince Hal Schumacher, Terry's 19-12 marvel of the mound, and 35,461 nail-gnawers were loving it.
Then the Giants exploded. Joe Moore singled the first pitch thrown at him to open the sixth and the coin was in the nickelodeon to be sure. Hughie Critz forced Moore at second for the first out on an unsuccessful bunt, but Terrible Terry, one of the great 'money' players in the business, doubled, and Crowder was crowding catastrophe. Master Melvin Ott, later to manage the Giants, was deliberately walked to load the bases, and ... let the Spalding Official Baseball Guide of 1934 take over from here:
'At this juncture, Terry halted the game to substitute O'Doul as a pinch hitter for Davis (George, cf), also a strategical maneuver, but one which carried the crowd into a series of cheers, as vigorous as the boos which had greeted Ott's premeditated pass. It was O'Doul's first and only appearance of the series. He came up to the plate swinging two of his pet bats over his shoulder and the crowd went wild with enthusiastic hope as it recognized the National League batting champion (.398, Brooklyn) of the previous year.
'His time at bat was the turning point of the game, and, as it turned out, of the Series as well. O'Doul began inauspiciously, for he fouled and had a strike called him by the umpire. He let the next one go by, just outside the plate, after apparently wanting to strike at it. The crowd could see him fairly itching to do so, but he let it pass when it might have been called a strike against him. The next was another foul, the ball striking Sewell (Luke) on the arm. Still with two strikes against him, he swung hard and cracked the next pitch like a shot over Crowder's head into center field for a clean single. Critz and Terry scored and the crowd rose the occasion vocally.'
Six runs resulted from the rally, and O'Doul represented one of them, completing the cycle from third on a perfectly executed squeeze bunt by the lumbering Gus Mancuso.
From here, Francis, the fudger, takes over:
'I wasn't going to let Crowder throw a ball past me, you can bet on that. So, with each pitch, I crowded the plate a little closer, a little closer. Finally, I was darn near standing on the thing, and when Crowder threw the pitch I wanted I went after it as though it was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It was on the outside corner, and I know, now, that in my anxiety to hit it, I stepped across the plate, which was illegal to such an extent that I put myself in jeopardy of being called by Umpire George Moriarty.
'However, George didn't see it, nor did anyone else, and I certainly wasn't going to call his attention to it,' said Francis J., looking dreamily across the room as though he could still see that line drive soaring majestically over the head of the startled Crowder.
'You know,' smiled O'Doul, 'if I had missed that pitch it would have bored a hole straight through me. I was squared off and ready for that baby, believe me.'
The Giants muscled to victory on the strength Skipper 'Lefty's' wallop, 6-1, although it was not to completely wipe Washington out of contention. The next afternoon, October 5, with the scene changed to the Nation's Capital, Earl Whitehill blanked the Giants, 4-0.
But, the Polo Grounders prevailed in the next two starts. King Carl Hubbell worked an eight-hitter for 2-0. Schumacher and Crowder opposed each other in the fifth game, but both gave way to relief hurlers before the Giants won, 4-3, this time without the help of the man in the green suit, Francis the Fudger."
-Bob Stevens, condensed from the San Francisco Chronicle (Baseball Digest, July 1950)
HANK SAUER (Yankee Prospect of the Past)
"Hank divided 1949 between the Reds and the Cubs. In 138 games he hit .275, drove in 99 runs and slammed 31 homers.
After four full seasons in the minors, Hank spent parts of 1941 and 1942 with Cincinnati. He went back to the minors for two years, then was in military service for two more. In 1947 with Syracuse he hit .336 with 50 homers. He joined the Reds for 1948.
Hank is one of the league's best sluggers."
-1950 Bowman No. 25
ALLIE CLARK
"Allie burned up the Grapefruit circuit with his healthy hitting in 1950 spring training. He started in organized baseball in 1941 and has played for Newark, Norfolk and San Diego. He came to the majors with the Yankees toward the end of the 1947 season and was traded to the Indians at the completion of that campaign. Allie has three years of military service to his credit."
-1950 Bowman No. 233
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