Boston Red Sox: The dead zone era All-Stars: 1919-1932
The Boston Red Sox were dead and well buried in the 1922-32 time frame with a series of miserable last-place finishes. Who was the best of the worst?
What exactly was the dead zone in Red Sox history? That period started just after the 1919 season when Boston sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. Ruth was just part of the great diaspora from Boston to New York that eventually led to years of Red Sox misery. How bad did it get? In 1926 a fire destroyed part of Fenway Park and it was not rebuilt. No money and no fans.
In 1920 the Red Sox won just 71 games and 402, 445 fans showed up. Then it really hit the skids. Between 1922 and 1932 the Red Sox finished last in the American League nine times. A seventh and sixth-place finish completed the nightmare. By 1932 a bad team and a depression plummeted attendance to 182,150. Every season from 1922-1932 the team was well below league average in attendance.
Researching this period there are certainly interesting points that surface. The first is the dearth of talent. A second is no one stayed around that long. A third is the St. Louis Browns as a constant trading partner and lastly, is the nicknames such as Baby Doll Jacobson. Despite the poor performances, there were some players who surfaced that had respectable seasons and careers. This is their moment – an All-Star team from that troubled time.
Pitching
In the past, I have started with position players but this time around it will be the strength of the Red Sox in the Dead Zone period and that is the pitching. As baseball depressing as COVIV-19 is the arms that Boston sent elsewhere with elsewhere being the New York Yankees is tragic.
Right-hander Red Ruffing twice led the AL in losses with the Red Sox. A miserable 19-47 record in 1928-29 but Ruffing was rescued with a trade to the Yankees. As a Yankee (231-124) Ruffing made it to the HOF and with the Red Sox (39-96). Ruffing spent two years in the military late in his career or he might have bagged 300 wins.
Another member of the HOF based on his Yankee production is my lefty entry Herb Pennock. Pennock came to Boston via the A’s and established himself as a productive part of the staff after missing out on the 1918 World Series and season due to military service. Slowly the pieces of that great Red Sox team went south as did Pennock’s record. In 1922 Pennock went 10-17 and off to the Yankees where Pennock flipped that record to 19-6.
Honorable Mention: In 1921 Sad Sam Jones went 23-16 for the Red Sox and was rewarded by being shipped to you know who. Fellow righty Bullet Joe Bush was 16-9 in his 1921 Red Sox season and the following year 26-7 for the *sigh* Yankees. Waite Hoyt was shipped to NY in time to go 19-13 in 1920 and eventually to the HOF. Likewise, Carl Mays doesn’t fit the timeframe but is representative of another arm sent to the Yankees where Mays twice led the AL in wins. Enough is enough. On to position players.
First Base
The Red Sox actually acquired a former batting champion in Dale Alexander and was not disappointed as Alexander hit .372 for the 1932 Red Sox. Alexander was nicknamed “Moose” and the righty hitter was one of the best in the AL breaking in with a .345 average in 1929 and leading the AL in hits with 215. If there was a ROY Award it would have been Alexander. Then came tragedy after a trade to Boston.
Alexander suffered a serious burn situation on his leg and a knee injury that limited his mobility. If the AL had a DH in 1933 Alexander would have played, but being on the field was a defensive handicap. Alexander continued in the professional ranks in the minors played until 1942 and hitting just like he did in MLB.
Honorable Mention: George Burns (without Gracie Allen) came to the Red Sox in 1922 for two seasons. The right-hand hitting and slick-fielding Burns hit .317. When traded to Cleveland, Burns won an MVP Award in 1926. A good argument can be made for Burns being in the HOF. Steady lefty Phil Todt played seven of his eight MLB seasons (1924-30) for the Red Sox hitting .259.
Second Base
Right-hand hitting and average fielding Bill Regan takes second base. Regan played the first five years of his six-year career with the Red Sox hitting .270 for a series of teams that were less than spectacular.
One oddity is Regan hit just three home runs in 274 games at Fenway Park but hit fours in spacious Comiskey Park in just 40 games. Regan also hit .292 in equally spacious Braves Field in 33 games since the Red Sox would occasionally play there.
Regan was traded to the Pirates where he hit just .202 in 1931 and was gone from MLB but not baseball. In that cash strapped Great Depression years any slippage meant a quick exit but the minors offered steady employment and that was Regan who played four more seasons in the high minors.
Honorable Mention: Should Bill Wambsganss where for Boston in his two seasons (1924-25) hit .258.
Third Base
Right-hand hitting Howie Shanks moved around the diamond but for two seasons with Boston (1923-24), it was primarily at third base. Earlier in his career, Shanks was considered an excellent outfielder and a master of positional play.
Shanks is certainly representative of the lack of talent in Boston for this period hitting just .256 with only three home runs in 203 games. He came to Boston late in his career after a lengthy 11 years with the Senators where he once led the AL in triples – a season in which he hit .302.
Shanks did have a rescue plan but it was the Red Sox that implemented it by trading Shanks to the New York Yankees for the 1925 season. Shanks former team – the Senators – had won the pennant in 1924 and maybe this would offer Shanks that opportunity? The Yanks collapsed and finished seventh and Shanks was gone.
Honorable Mention: Otis Miller played two full seasons for the Red Sox (1930-31) hitting .274. The right-hand hitter grabbed my attention based on his place of birth – Belleville Illinois the home of The Belleville Basher – Brian Daubach! A little more research and it turns out Miller was elected to the U.S. House and later his son was.
Shortstop
Right-hand hitting Hal Rhyne held down short for the Red Sox for four seasons (1929-32) hitting .246. Rhyne’s first made it to MLB in 1926 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and made it to the World Series in 1927 going 0-4 as the Murder’s Row cut though the Pirates like locust on a Kansas wheat field.
Rhyne was quite a cross-country traveler in the days before aviation took hold as he was a San Fransisco Seal on several occasions in his Boston and Pittsburgh stays. Cross country train travel. Ouch! Rhyne was a member of the Seals 1935 team hitting .294, but his teammate was Joe DiMaggio who hit .398. Years later Rhyne coached for the Seals.
Rhyne’s MLB career ended after one year with the Chicago White Sox after the Red Sox traded him away. A lifetime .250 hitter with just two home runs in 2031 at-bats.
Honorable Mention: Baseball has had several Rabbit’s and the Red Sox had one in Rabbit Warstler who hit just .227 in five Boston seasons.
Catcher
What a bleak position for the Red Sox in the 1920s and into the 1930s but right-hand hitting Val Picinich played three seasons for the Red Sox (1923-25) in the middle of his 18-year career. Picinich hit .268 for Boston with little power – only 26 career home runs. Picinich never caught more than 100 games in any season.
Picinich does have a unique presence in baseball history as a personal catcher. Some pitchers are more comfortable with certain catchers and for Picinich the pitcher who longingly looked to him was Walter Johnson. In his time with the Senators Picinich was only absent from two of The Big Train’s starts.
Honorable Mention: Right-hand hitting Charlie Berry has a claim to fame that no other catcher or baseball player has – Berry once led the NFL in scoring with 74 points for the Pottsville Maroons. But as a catcher Berry hit .269 for the Red Sox between 1928-32. In 1932 Berry had 56 CS% for the best in the AL.
Outfield
In 1924 left-hand hitting Ike Boone hit .337 and in 1925 showed it was no fluke and hit .330 so the Red Sox rewarded Boone by sending him to the minors where he hit .380 for the Pacific Coast League Missions. Boone won five minor league batting titles for five different teams. So how do you get shipped to the minors? Unfortunately, Boone is another of a long (very long) list of pre-DH players who were defensive disasters.
Enter another hitter who pounded out a .315 average in his four Red Sox seasons (1922-25) in right-hand hitting Joe Harris. Harris was a lifetime .317 hitter who the Red Sox traded to the Senators in 1925. Harris and the Nats made it to the World Series where Harris put on quite a display in a losing effort by hitting .440 with three home runs in the series
More from Red Sox History
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- Contemporary Era Committee doesn’t elect any former Red Sox to Hall of Fame
- Johnny Damon calls Red Sox out, reveals hilarious way he skirted Yankees’ grooming policy
- Remembering the best Red Sox Thanksgiving ever
- Red Sox World Series legends headline 2023 Hall of Fame ballot
A left-hand hitter who is in the record books is Earl Webb with a single-season best of 67 doubles. Webb could just flat-out hit with a .321 average with the Red Sox between 1930-31. Webb in his seven MLB seasons hit .306. The “Earl of Doublin’” had the expected liability – defense.
Honorable Mention: Ira Flagstead was a superior defensive player in center field for the Red Sox and as an added bonus the righty could hit with a .295 average in seven seasons with Boston stretching from 1923 to 1929. In 1923 Flagstead led all AL ball hawks in assists with 31. Flagstead was a fan favorite at Fenway Park in the 1920s.
Next. MLB forcing 2020 is an awful idea. dark
Switch-hitting Jack Rothrock was a rock (sorry) for the Red Sox between 1925-32 hitting .278. Rothrock was fading and claimed by the White Sox in 1932 and did nothing, but suffering sometimes has dividends and after a season in the minors, Rothrock joined the fabled St. Louis Cardinals and hit .284 as a member of a World Series champion.