Baseball History Podcast

Clifford Carlton Cravath, nicknamed both “Gavvy” and “Cactus”, was born March 23, 1881 in Escondido, California.

Cravath was the home run king of the deadball era.  Employing a powerful swing and taking advantage of Baker Bowl’s forgiving dimensions, the Philadelphia clean-up hitter led the National League in home runs six times, establishing new twentieth-century records for most home runs in a season and career.  He set marks Babe Ruth would break soon after with the introduction of the lively ball.

Welcome to the Baseball History Podcast: Featuring This Week in Baseball History, baseball dictionary and a tour of baseball cities.  I’m your game announcer Bob Wright.

This is game 16 of the 2010 baseball season

In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 3 week of April.

April 20

1920 Phillies player-manager Gavvy Cravath pinch hits a three-run homer beating the Giants,

3-0. It will be his last major league home run.

Clifford Carlton Cravath, nicknamed both “Gavvy” and “Cactus”, was born March 23, 1881 in Escondido, California,

Cravath was the home run king of the deadball era.  Employing a powerful swing and taking advantage of Baker Bowl’s forgiving dimensions, the Philadelphia clean-up hitter led the National League in home runs six times, establishing new twentieth-century records for most home runs in a season and career.  He set marks Babe Ruth would break soon after with the introduction of the lively ball.

Cravath preached what he practiced.  He stated, “Short singles are like left-hand jabs in the boxing ring, but a home run is a knock-out punch.  It is the clean-up man of the club that does the heavy scoring work even if he is wide in the shoulders and slow on his feet.  There is no advice I can give in batting, except to hammer the ball.  Some players steal bases with hook slides and speed.  I steal bases with my bat.”

It was during his semi-pro days that he gained the nickname “Gavy.”  There are many stories about its origin, but it’s apparently a contraction for the Spanish word gaviota, which means “seagull.”  During a Sunday game in the early 1900s, Cravath reportedly hit a ball so hard that it killed a seagull in flight.  Mexican fans shouted “Gaviota.”  The English-speaking fans thought it was a cheer and the name stuck.  It’s pronounced to rhyme with “savvy,” so sportswriters of the period added the extra “v,” but Cravath himself spelled it G-A-V-Y.  The Southern Californian also had another nickname, “Cactus” (because of his western background and prickly personality), but he apparently didn’t care for it and never included it in his signature.

Cravath entered the professional ranks with the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League in 1903.  Playing initially in right field and later at first base, he helped the Angels claim three pennants over the next five years.  At the end of the 1907 season, based on his .303 batting average and 10 home runs, Cravath was selected team Most Valuable Player and sold to the Boston Red Sox.  He departed California for what was known out west as “the Eastern Leagues.”  Isolation on the West Coast had already cost him precious years; at 27 he was considered old for a major-league rookie.

Not fitting the mold of the stereotypical Deadball Era fly chaser, Cravath had difficulty breaking into a Boston outfield that soon became dominated by the fleet-footed Tris Speaker and Harry Hooper.

Throughout his career Cravath remained sensitive about his relative lack of speed.  He once said, “They call me wooden shoes and piano legs and a few other pet names.  I do not claim to be the fastest man in the world, but I can get around the bases with a fair wind and all sails set.  And so long as I am busting the old apple on the seam, I am not worrying a great deal about my legs.”

Cravath was batting .256 with only a single home run when the Red Sox sold him to the Chicago White Sox in August 1908.  A slow start in Chicago in 1909 got him traded again; this time to the lowly Washington Senators.

Washington manager Joe Cantillon also was the owner of the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association, and he sent Cravath to Minneapolis after the new outfielder went hitless in six at-bats for Washington.  Learning to hit to the opposite field to take advantage of Nicollet Park’s short porch, the right-handed hitting Cravath batted .326 with 14 home runs in 1910.  The following year he led the Association with a .363 batting average, and his 29 home runs were the most ever recorded in organized baseball.

But despite his impressive numbers, Cravath couldn’t escape the minors, a victim of the Deadball Era’s draft rules.  It took a clerical error to get him back to the big leagues.—the Millers inadvertently left out the word “not” in a telegram to Pittsburgh.  In a controversial decision, the National Commission ruled that Minneapolis could not retain Cravath because of the mistake.

The 31-year old slugger received his second chance at the majors in 1912 with the Philadelphia Phillies, who purchased his rights for $9,000.  This time the more experienced Cravath proved that he belonged in the big leagues, batting a respectable .284 with 11 home runs and 70 Runs Batted In in his first season with the Phillies.  Displaying a strong, accurate arm, he also led National League outfielders with 26 assists.

Cravath’s best year in the majors arguably was 1913 when he led the majors with 19 home runs and 128 runs batted in.  He led the league with 179 hits and placed second in batting average at 341.  His 128 runs batted in established a National League record that wasn’t broken until Rogers Hornsby drove in 152 in 1922.

Cravath followed up that performance with another solid season in 1914, batting .299 with 100 runs batted in and winning the second of his six home-run titles with 19 homers—all 19 of them hit at home.  Defensively, he led National League outfielders again with 34 assists.

In 1915 Cravath smacked 24 home runs, a figure that established a 20th-century record and gave him as many as 12 of the other 15 major-league teams hit collectively that season.  There’s no question that Baker Bowl’s cozy dimensions helped him do it.  With a short left-field power alley and a right-field fence only 272 feet from home plate, Cravath took advantage of his home park as much as any other player in history—79% of his 1915 home runs and 78% of his career home runs came at Baker Bowl.

He led the National League in home runs hit at home seven times in his career but never turned the trick on the road; in fact, he never hit more than five on the road in any season.  Despite those statistics, Cravath reacted defensively when commentators suggested that he owed his impressive home-run totals to Philadelphia’s short right field.  He later told F. C. Lane, “That right-field fence was never any farther away than it was when I joined the club.  And while we are on the subject, let me make a point.  That fence isn’t always a friend to the home-run slugger. I have hit that fence a good many times with a long drive that would have kept right on for a triple or a home run if the fence hadn’t been there.  There are always two sides to every fence.”

Putting aside his 24 home runs, Cravath did much more in 1915 to help the Phillies win their first pennant in their otherwise dismal history.  For the third time in his career he was the National League’s leading outfielder in assists, and he also led the league with 89 runs scored, and 115 runs batted in.

In the 1915 World Series the Red Sox respected Cravath’s right-handed power so much that they didn’t pitch their young lefthander, Babe Ruth, who was coming off an 18-8 season.  Cravath knocked in the deciding run in the Series opener at Baker Bowl but failed to drive in another run in the next four games as Philadelphia lost all four by a single run.

Cravath finished second in the National League home-run race in 1916, belting 11 to finish one behind the league leaders.  Had he hit one extra long ball, he would have led the National League in home runs for seven consecutive years—a feat that was never accomplished until Ralph Kiner did it from 1946 to 1952.

In 1917 Cravath tied for the National League lead with 12 home runs.  During the war-shortened 1918 season, it took only eight home runs for Cravath to win his fifth home-run title, but he posted career lows in batting average and slugging percentage.

The 38-year-old Cravath rebounded in 1919 to put together one last magnificent season.  Playing just 56 games in the outfield, he won his sixth and final National League home-run crown with 12 homers in only 214 at-bats.  Meanwhile In the American League, Babe Ruth shattered the single-season mark Cravath had set in 1915 by blasting 29 home runs.

Midway through the 1919 season, with the team buried at the bottom of the National League standings, the Phillies fired manager Jack Coombs.  Cravath reluctantly agreed to take his place and guided the Phils to just 29 victories in 75 games over the rest of the season.

Invited to return to the helm in 1920, Cravath played even less frequently than he had in 1919, though he still managed to lead the National League with 12 pinch-hits.  The Phillies actually improved in 1920, finishing with a 62-90 won-lost record, but ended up in last again.

But the wins weren’t frequent enough for the Phillies management, which released him after the 1920 season.  Cravath decided to retire as an active player, prompting sportswriter Robert W. Maxwell to proclaim, “Gavvy is the greatest home run-clouter in the history of baseball and has piled up a record that might never be equaled.”  Cravath’s career home-run record of 119, however, was quickly shattered by Babe Ruth in 1921, and it stood as the National League record only until 1923, when it was surpassed by Cy Williams.

Cravath managed in the Pacific Coast League in 1921, then spent one year as a minor league scout.  Returning to Laguna Beach, California, he became active in the real-estate business accumulating property.

In September 1927 Cravath was elected judge, and for the rest of his life enjoyed saying that he claimed the gavel quite by accident.  He and two friends didn’t like the sitting judge in Laguna Beach so they drew straws to determine which of the three would run against him.  Cravath drew the short straw and won the election by an almost 3:1 ratio.  Lacking any formal legal training, he claimed that he based his decisions on principles of sportsmanship he’d learned on the diamond.

Judge Cravath became known as a crusty jurist and stories abound from his years on the bench. Once, when two young robbers appeared before him and asked permission to join the armed forces as part of a probation sentence, Cravath said, “When I see a man in uniform walking down the street, I look at him with pride. You haven’t earned the right to wear such a uniform bearing the honor of our country. Six months in county jail.”

Gavy Cravath died at age 82 on May 23, 1963 in Laguna Beach, CA. Few residents at the time realized that in a prior life, the Honorable Clifford C. Cravath had set major-league home-run records that it took the mighty Babe Ruth to break.

A large part of this biography comes from the SABR Baseball Biography Project written by Bill Swank.  It can be found online at http://bioproj.sabr.org

In this inning we’ll open up the Baseball Dictionary

Under the letter: P

Utility Player

A substitute who can play any one of several positions as needed.  Utility players tend to be grouped into three categories: the rookie trying to break into the everyday lineup; the mid-level player backing up a superstar; or the veteran extending his career.

For those of you that want to stick around, here’s an

Extra Inning

Catching up on some comments and emails:

The first comment was left at BaseballHistoryPodcast.com and is from Steve.  Here is what he has to say:

I just came across your podcast here, and I am enjoying listening.  I am unable to download Episode 15 through itunes or the Zune software.  It doesn’t play on libsyn either.  Is there anyway I can get a hold of this to listen to it?

Thanks for the show.

Well Steve, it appears that you are the first one to mention the little naming glitch from that show back in April 2006.  When I was preparing the file to send to you I listened to a few seconds of it; it was painful.  I know that my voice hasn’t improved since then but my enthusiasm has improved.  I guess I’ve learned something about recording over the past 4 years.  Next month I will be posting the 300 episode of BHP.

The next comment from the BHP website comes from an anonymous listener.  To avoid spam comments, I have to approve or decline each comment.  This one left me with a dilemma; I wanted to just delete it but just couldn’t bring myself to do it.  So, here is the comment from “Name With Held”.

Listening to your Bo Jackson podcast right now.  Why are you passing off Wikipedia as original material?  You’re just reading Jackson’s Wikipedia page.  Why not publish a podcast that says “go to Wikipedia” and save us the trouble?

And here is my answer to the person who didn’t have enough courage to put his or her name with the comment:

I have NEVER claimed to have original material in Baseball History Podcast.  Occasionally in the Extra Inning segment I mention the various sources that I use for BHP.  My main sources are Baseball Library, SABR Biography Project and Wikipedia.  If I use SABR Biography Project, like I did for this episode, I give attribution to SABR and to the writer at the end of the player biography.

If a player that I select player is not in SABR than I am left with Baseball Library and Wikipedia.  I try to take most of the material from Baseball Library but sometimes use most of what is in Wikipedia.

I am not a baseball expert or researcher.  I am a baseball fan that has been putting together this modest little podcast for four years.  As is, I spend anywhere from 4 to 8.5 hours per week producing the show.  I have a lot of admiration for the people that contribute to Baseball Library, SABR Biography Project and Wikipedia.  Without their efforts I would not be able to do this podcast.

30,000 to 40,000 downloads per month and 1.5 million total downloads in 4 years tells me that somebody out there must get some enjoyment from BHP.  All of the wonderful emails that I have received from listeners all over the world reinforce that feeling.  On average, 2 listeners per month contribute segments to BHP; those listeners must receive some satisfaction from BHP.

I have never taken any money for my efforts with BHP.  I do this because of my interest in baseball and history.  I have learned so much over the last four years about players, that in some cases, I had never heard of; and I’ve learned so much more about players that I am familiar with their names and careers.

And, to you, Name With Held, you are more than welcomed to go direct to Wikipedia and read about any baseball player that you want to.  As for me, I will continue to attach MY NAME to every episode of Baseball History Podcast.

Having said all of that, I feel so much better.  And with that I, Bob Wright, will sign off with:

If you would like to a part of Baseball History Podcast, submit your written contribution for the tour segment.  I will only be doing the tour when one is sent in by a listener.  You can do the segment on any stadium or team; past or present; Minor League, Major League, Negro League or any league outside of the US.  Write about 1 page in a conversational tone, send it to me, I will record it, and you will get the credit.

You can email me at baseballhistory@gmail.com.

You can follow me on Twitter; I’m BaseballHistory.

Look for the new BHP web site at Baseball History Podcast at baseballhistorypodcast.com.

Well, that’s it for today’s game of Baseball History Podcast.  I’ll see you later at the ballpark.