Sunday, December 26, 2010

Happy Boxing Day!

Jack Johnson! The winner! And NEW Heavyweight Champion of the World!
I say this or something like this every year. One hundred two years ago, a referee (0r somebody) said it in Australia when Jack Arthur Johnson pummeled champion Tommy Burns into a stupor. Burns' share of the purse was 30 or 35 thousand dollars or something like that... I don't recall the exact amount. He would later say it wasn't worth it, a heavyweight statement, since $30000 was a fortune on Dec. 26, 1908.

Jack Johnson's take? A handshake from his corner men... and the biggest prize in boxing, the Heavyweight Championship of the world. Jack was paid nothing, and reputedly chased Burns around the world, trying to goad the champ into a fight for the title. Until the day after Christmas 1908, Burns was wise enough not to pick up the challenge.

Boxing Day is a minor holiday in the British Commonwealth. It has nothing to do with fisticuffs. It is a day that citizens remember, thank and gift the public servants who deliver packages ('boxes') to the rest of us. Not a bad idea, given that in many parts of the globe it is the busiest and hardest time to be a mailman, due to the holidays and the horrible holiday weather.

But ironically it was on Boxing Day that Johnson caught up with Tommy Burns, in 1908. As a Canadian, Burns knew of Boxing Day. I don't know if he caught the significance of the irony or if he just decided that the running from Johnson had to finally stop. Anyway, Burns granted Johnson an audience, and of course paid dearly for it. Johnson, a skilled boxing technician with power, speed and strength, toyed with the smaller Burns for 14 rounds, telling Burns, "Hit me here, Tahmy!" repeatedly, pointing to various spots on his own body. Finally in the 14th Johnson tired of the shenanigans and pummeled the helpless champ relentlessly. In a display of how things went in those long ago days, police stepped into the ring, shut off the cameras, and then stopped the bout. IN other words, they were more distressed that the world might SEE a Negro pummeling a white man than the actual pummeling itself.

To Burns' credit, he did not quit. I don't think he even went down, though we would have to ask the witnesses in those long ago, pre-ESPN days.

Regardless, Johnson was crowned the winner and new champion. He subsequently made and squandered a fortune or two. Of course he was also the first Negro Heavyweight Champion (that is the vernacular of 1908). Much has been made of this, as it should be. But it is interesting... boxing actually was the first major sport to grudgingly allow this kind of pioneering change, far ahead of say, baseball, football and basketball, sports which refused integration of black and white peoples for decades to come. And it also must be noted, that Jack Johnson himself refused, for his own seven year reign, to allow another Negro to challenge him for the title.

Anyway, congrats, Lil Arthur! Whatever happens today you are champeen. And like Abe Attell, the crooked ex-champ and bag man for gambler Arnold Rothstein (in Eight Men Out) says, "Ain't nothin' ever gonna take that away"...

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Wally Schang

When I stumbled upon the fact that 42-year old Wally Schang had played out the string in the single-A Texas League I was amazed. I was also a bit saddened. Then I was heartened.

Wally Schang is perhaps only dimly remembered today, by avid baseball historians and his descendants, if there are any. And that's a shame. Schang, if not a Hall of Fame catcher, is probably better than many players who are in the Hall. First and foremost, he was a consistent winner. He played on World Series teams in Philadelphia (1913-14 Athletics), Boston (1918 Red Sox), New York (1921,1922, 1923 Yankees), and back in Philadelphia (1930 Athletics) again. Granted, the 1930 Athletics probably would have won with or without Wally... they had another pretty good catcher named Mickey Cochrane. But the point is, winning baseball and Wally Schang seemed to meet up time and time again... too often and in too many different settings to be a mere coincidence. Wally, who hailed from South Wales, New York, played 1842 major league games in a 19 year major league career, mostly as a catcher. He hit .284 lifetime with six .300 seasons including four straight years (1919-22). Schang also had an outstanding lifetime On Base Percentage of .393. He handled Hall of Famers such as Eddie Plank, Herb Pennock, Waite Hoyt, and a young southpaw named George Ruth with the 1918 World Champion Red Sox.

And apparently, when the major leagues were finished with Wally Schang, Wally refused to let go of baseball entirely. He began a long descent through the minors, as lots of ex-major leaguers did in those days. As mentioned in an earlier article, Schang teamed with George Sisler and fellow ex-Yankee Aaron Ward on the 1932 Shreveport/Tyler team in the Texas League. This was single-A ball. Single-A is now the lowest rung on the baseball ladder, but it wasn't back then. And alas, Wally went lower, finding himself on the Joplin Miners in 1934. Joplin was a Class C team, belonged to the Western Association, and was affiliated with his old team, the Boston Red Sox. If any of you recognize the name Joplin, it is probably because it also would later have on its roster an 18-year old Oklahoman named Mickey Mantle.

Wally continued to play parts of seasons until he was in his fifties, at classifications between A and D. As I said at the top, at first I was a bit saddened at the thought of a great catcher hanging on. But then I got to thinking... maybe he wasn't hanging on at all. Maybe , as Bill James said about old-time minor leaguers, he was just playing baseball. And what's wrong with that? What's wrong with a man playing the game he loves, simply for the love of playing? A few years back, Hall-of-Famer and all-time base thief Rickey Henderson was caught playing baseball with the San Diego Surf Dogs, an independent team. He was well into his forties. Newspaper articles lamented the great Rickey, humbled and hanging on. And Rickey was probably having the time of his life, playing in games that no one but his team cared about, the way we all did as kids when you chose up sides and played till it got dark.

I wish the minor leagues were like they used to be... taking in ex-major leaguers and all-time greats and mixing them with up-and-comers like Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams and the DiMaggio brothers. Wouldn't it be great to see a 44 year old Albert Pujols lining hits into the Missouri twilight during the twilight of his career? And perhaps mentoring a future star or two in the process? I'll bet in the old days the George Sislers, Wally Schangs and Aaron Wards acted as unofficial coaches toward the youngsters. And I venture to guess that some of those old-timers enjoyed that aspect of their careers as much as any.

I know I would. If I could.

The Father Of Our Country

What do George Sisler and George Washington have in common?
Both could flat out HIT!

George Sisler played 299 games in the minors and hit .299... at ages 38 and 39, after his Hall of Fame major league career.

He had hit .400 over three major league seasons (1920-22) and .361 over his first eight, all with the St. Louis Browns. Then on the heels of his spectacular 1922 season (.420), sinusitis adversely affected his eyesight. He missed all of 1923 with double vision. Thereafter he continued his career with less spectacular results, hitting .320 (1924-30) with several clubs.

After he left the big leagues, George Sisler played with the Rochester Red Wings, a double-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals (1931). Then he played at single-A Shreveport/Tyler in the Texas League (1932) before bowing out entirely.

Sisler's teammates on that independent Texas League squad included former NY Yankee stars Aaron Ward (35) and Wally Schang (42), as well as future major leaguer Wally Moses (21) and another youngster by the name of George Washington. The 25-year old Washington hit Texas League pitching at a sterling .350 clip in 89 games.

Looking up George Washington's entire career, he played 16 minor league seasons, several at double-A, which was the highest minor league level in those days. George hit a robust .347 (2295 for 6623) over 1793 games, proving that the father of our country could rake!

Did George Washington ever get a shot at the big time? YES! He played parts of two seasons (1935-36) with the Chicago White Sox, hitting .268 with 11 bombs and 66 ribbies. Then he went back to the minors and continued his great career until 1950. After hitting .278 for the Dallas Eagles the 43-year old George Washington retired. Since Washington was born in Linden, Texas in 1907, and died there in 1985, perhaps he went home in 1950 to put a cap on his career before retiring.

Apparently both George's felt what Jim Bouton once said; that after gripping a baseball all of those years they realized that it was the other way around.

(Stats are from Baseball Reference.com)