Buddy Lewis Had 1,000 Hits At Young Age
ALSO: STILL NO PLACE FOR STEROIDS GUYS IN COOPERSTOWN
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
The Padres haven’t reached consecutive postseasons since 2005-2006 . . .
The Mets have made the playoffs only 11 times in their history, dating back to their debut in 1962 . . .
Although they apparently considered Zack Greinke too old and too expensive, the Kansas City Royals made 45-year-old lefty Rich Hill a rotation candidate when they signed him to a minor-league contract this week . . .
Greinke will turn 42 in October . . .
This will be the seventh straight season the Pirates had a losing record and the sixth straight under GM Ben Cherington . . .
Only the Rockies have lost more games than the Nationals since Washington won a world championship as a wild-card team in 2019 . . .
Major League Baseball’s fan value page reveals ticket discounts, concession deals, and family packs — but the Dodgers section features a promotional schedule highlighting bobblehead days that make ticket prices more expensive . . .
Among players who have homered at least once on their own bobblehead days are Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout, Jose Ramirez, Aaron Judge, and even Anthony Rizzo . . .
Juan Soto’s first bobblehead night with the Mets is scheduled for Aug. 16.
Leading Off
Buddy Lewis of the Nats One of Six Players to Reach 1,000 Hits Before Age 25
By Andrew Sharp
John “Buddy” Lewis, the Senators’ All-Star third baseman in the late 1930s, was the fourth major-leaguer to reach 1,000 hits before his 25th birthday. The first three who reached the same milestone before Lewis and the two since are all in the Hall of Fame.*
Because he missed three-and-a-half seasons in his prime to become a decorated pilot in World War II, Lewis did not make it into Cooperstown. But he did hit .297 for his career, all with Washington. He became the regular third baseman at age 19 in 1936, and went on to score more than 100 runs four times.
Lewis played in al1 156 Senators games in 1937 and led the league with 668 at-bats. The left-handed batter made the All-Star team in 1938, a year when he scored 122 runs and drove in 91, hitting in the No. 2 hole.
Before Lewis entered the military after the 1941 season, his career batting average through six full seasons stood at .301, with three years of on-base percentages of .386, .393 and .402, a stat that didn’t garner much attention in that era.
His 15 hits in four consecutive games, July 25-28, 1937, stood as the American League record until Julio Rodriquez of the Mariners set a new major-league mark of 17 hits in four straight games in 2023. The previous National League and MLB mark was 16, set by Milt Stock of Brooklyn, then known as the Robins, in 1925.
Often a liability in the field, Lewis in August 1937 tied the post-1900 record of four errors in a game by a third baseman. A quote attributed to him on his Baseball-Reference Bullpen Page: “It got so that every time I threw to first, the right-field bleacher fans would duck.” He eventually moved to right field.
As an Army Air Force pilot, Lewis flew a C-47 cargo plane in 368 missions over the Himalayan “Hump” from India to occupied Burma. Six hundred American planes were lost and 1,600 GIs died during similar missions. Lewis was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross three times and other medals before being discharged in July 1945.
According to the comprehensive SABR Bio Project essay by Wayne Corbett, as soon as Lewis was mustered out at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, he took a train to D.C. and was back in the Washington outfield six days later.
The Tigers, Senators and Yankees were in a surprising pennant fight when Lewis rejoined the team. The Yankees soon fell out of the race, but the Nats nipped at the Tigers’ heals the rest of the way. With Lewis providing a needed offensive jolt, the Nats soon put together the first of two seven-game winning streaks.
Lewis hit .333 in 69 games with a .423 OBP. The Nats ended the season with a chance to forge a tie for first if the Tigers were swept in a final-double header a few days later against St. Louis. Alas, another returning veteran – slugger Hank Greenberg – hit a ninth-inning grand slam in the first game, clinching the pennant for Detroit. The second game wasn’t needed, and Washington ended the season 1.5 games behind.
In 1946, Lewis had a solid season: .292 with a .357 OBP. A highlight was a 17-game hitting streak. He was off to a similar start in 1947, and was named a starter in the A.L.’s All-Star outfield along with Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. After he injured a hip, he slumped and finished at a career low .261 average. He also no longer exhibited the aggressiveness and outgoing nature he had before the war. Today, he might be diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress.
In any case, although just 31, he decided to retire. “I had changed so much that baseball didn’t mean as much to me as it did before the war,” he told Rick Van Blair for a 1992 article in Sports Collectors Digest. Lewis left with his career average still over .300.
After a season away, running the car dealership he owned in his native Gastonia, N.C., Lewis was persuaded by Clark Griffith to return in 1949. The rust showed. He was injured in May, and ended with a .245 average on a last-place team with the worst record of any under Griffith’s ownership. This time, Lewis retired from the majors for good.
Lewis got married in 1951 and had two daughters and a son. He became active in American Legion baseball as an administrator and coach.
Along with his teammate and close friend Cecil Travis, who war injuries shortened his own career, Buddy Lewis was a mainstay for Washington teams that often were competitive in the mid- to late-1930 and again in 1945-46.
Esteemed sabermetrics guru Bill James rates Travis and Lewis high on his short list of players who well might have made the Hall of Fame, were it not for the time they lost to the war.
Lewis lived to age 94 in Gastonia, where he died on Feb. 18, 2011.
*The other five (youngest to get there first) are Ty Cobb, Freddie Lindstrom, Mel Ott, Al Kaline and Robin Yount.
Andrew Sharp is a retired newspaper journalist and a SABR member who blogs about D.C. baseball at washingtonbaseballhistory.com
Cleaning Up
Rose Controversy Continues Even After He’s Gone
By Dan Schlossberg
Just because Commissioner Rob Manfred declared death automatically removes players from baseball’s ineligible list does not mean Pete Rose will reach the Hall of Fame.
Far from it.
Banned for gambling in 1989, the career hit king has also been nailed for tax evasion and alleged sexual misbehavior with a minor, among other things.
Character — or the lack of it — is supposed to be the standard for decisions on Hall of Fame candidates. While it’s true that numerous incumbents with plaques in the gallery were guilty of unsavory stunts, nobody has ever been excommunicated.
But why make the Rogues Gallery bigger?
That’s what the 16-member Classic Era Committee will have to decide when it votes for the Class of 2028. But first Rose has to clear the committee that creates the ballot.
If he and Shoeless Joe, poster boy of the Black Sox Scandal, both make the ballot, it’s a better bet (to use a gambling phrase) that the former outfielder clears the final vote. He led both teams with a .375 batting average during the ill-fated 1919 World Series and allegedly didn’t accept money from gamblers trying to fix the Fall Classic for the Cincinnati Reds against the Chicago White Sox.
If Jackson were tanking, would he have hit so well?
As for Rose, he not only gambled on the game — violating a cardinal rule — but also lied about it for at 15 years or so. All he had to do was come clean and he could have gained forgiveness. But Rose instead consigned himself to a lifetime of selling his signature in a Main Street store during Induction Weekend.
And where does this whole fiasco leave Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens & Company? Both were bypassed by writers during their time on the “regular” ballot and by the latest version of the old Veterans Committee when their names came up again.
If Bonds, Clemens, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, and Alex Rodriguez cheated, they distorted baseball history — not to mention all the records celebrated in Cooperstown.
Their achievements, whether or not artificially induced, are celebrated throughout the various exhibits in the storied baseball museum.
That’s more than enough.
Despite his seven MVPs, Bonds is still second to Hank Aaron, who hit his home runs fairly. And Clemens, with his seven Cy Youngs, does not have as many strikeouts or no-hitters as Nolan Ryan, who earned his way to Cooperstown with natural ability rather than unnatural substances.
Neither Bonds nor Clemens was ever suspended — only suspected — but when a player’s head suddenly seems too big for its body, something’s not Kosher in the State of Denmark, as Yogi Berra might say.
Voters on the various Eras Committees, which vote every three years on a rotating basis, have no obligation to enshrine Pete Rose, Barry Bonds, or anyone else whose names pop up on the ballot. But they do have an obligation to maintain the purity and tradition of America’s national pastime.
Steroids guys soiled that purity and deserve their lifetime punishment.
HtP weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is on a book tour, promoting The New Baseball Bible and Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron. He also finds time to write for forbes.com, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, and Memories & Dreams, among others. Dan’s email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Extra Innings: Sale Sails In Return To Fenway
Last night, the Boston Red Sox became the first team to face reigning Cy Young Award winners in consecutive games . . .
Starting a 10-game homestand at Fenway Park, the Sox faced former teammate Chris Sale one night after losing to Detroit’s Tarik Skubal . . .
Sale, who yielded only a solo home run in seven innings, got a 4-2 win after the Bosox bullpen walked five batters in the top of the ninth . . .
The unfortunate losing pitcher was fellow All-Star Garrett Crochet, like Sale a 6’6” lefty Boston obtained from the Chicago White Sox for four players . . .
The Sox then sent the oft-injured Sale to Atlanta with $17 million after the 2023 season to defray his salary for highly-touted infielder Vaughn Grissom, who had a dreadful first season in The Hub . . .
Sale, who once started three straight All-Star Games for the American League, won the first Cy Young of his career after moving to the National League . . .
Like a souffle not quite ready for prime time, the 2023 Braves went from a record slugging team to oh-so-ordinary overnight and are still struggling to score . . .
The first team to post a .500 slugging average, the ‘23 Braves were also the first with 300+ homers and 100+ stolen bases.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.