Francis Joseph O’Doul, nicknamed “Lefty”, was born on March 4, 1897, in San Francisco, CA.
Lefty O’Doul was known first as a pitcher and then as one of the game’s best hitters. After leaving the majors, he managed in the Minor Leagues for more than 20 years, amassing more than 2,000 wins. He was recognized as one of the game’s great hitting instructors; men would travel far to have him critique their skills.
Welcome to Baseball History Podcast, featuring baseball biographies. I’m your announcer Bob Wright.
This is game 24 of the 2011 baseball season.
In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 3 week of June.
June 16
1933 Last year’s National League batting champ, Lefty O’Doul, and pitcher Watty Clark, a 20-game winner last season, are traded by the Dodgers to the Giants for first baseman Sam Leslie.
Francis Joseph O’Doul, nicknamed “Lefty”, was born on March 4, 1897, in San Francisco, CA.
Lefty O’Doul was known first as a pitcher and then as one of the game’s best hitters. After leaving the majors, he managed in the Minor Leagues for more than 20 years, amassing more than 2,000 wins. He was recognized as one of the game’s great hitting instructors; men would travel far to have him critique their skills.
O’Doul was drafted by the New York Yankees on September 21,1918. The left-handed pitcher entered spring training in 1919 fresh from playing winter ball, in shape and ready to play. He impressed quite a few in camp, posting a mark of 8 3/5 seconds sprinting 75 yards; however, he hurt his arm during a throwing contest.
He appeared in only 19 games for New York, pitching only three times, but remained with the club all season pinch-hitting, tossing batting practice and doing whatever was needed. His day-to-day services that year went mostly unnoticed. For example, prior to a doubleheader one day, rain was pouring down. Figuring the games would be cancelled, O’Doul and teammate Chick Fewster took off for Belmont Park race track. Returning home later, they noticed a newspaper, which posted the score of the first game with an update of the second game. Fearing reprisal, the two quietly slipped into the clubhouse the following day. Manager Miller Huggins never said a word; he hadn’t missed them.
O’Doul appeared in only 13 games for the Yankees in 1920, but again stayed on the roster all season. In January 1921 he was optioned to San Francisco of the Pacific Coast League, by way of the Vernon club. O’Doul had his breakout season for San Francisco that year. In 47 game, he posted a 25-9 record and a 2.39 Earned Run Average. He also batted .338 in a total of 74 games. On December 6 the Yankees exercised their option on O’Doul, and brought him to spring training.
Once again the Yankees gave O’Doul little playing time. He appeared in only eight games in 1922; however, he was with the pennant-winning club the entire season. On June 23 the Yankees traded Chick Fewster, Elmer Miller, Johnny Mitchell, $50,000 and a player-to-be-named to the Red Sox for Joe Dugan and Elmer Smith. O’Doul found out on September 29 that he was the player-to-be-named. Miller Huggins decided to leave him off the postseason roster despite the fact he was the Yankees’ only lefthanded pitcher. He remained with the club to pitch batting practice and sit on the bench during the World Series. The Yankees formally released him to Boston on October 12.
O’Doul spent all of 1923 with the Red Sox, pitching in 23 games, including his only major league start on April 21, the fourth game of the season. Five days later, O’Doul notched his only big league victory, a 5-4 win over the Yankees. But on July 7, as Cleveland was clobbering Boston 23-7, he gave up a record 13 runs in the sixth inning.
On February 2, 1924, the Red Sox sent the 26-year-old O’Doul to Salt Lake City of the Pacific Coast League. He appeared in 140 games, showcasing a .392 batting average and a 7-9 won-loss record.
Suffering chronic arm trouble, he gave up pitching and became a full-time outfielder, but he acknowledged his deficiencies with the glove. One of his favorite stories, true or not, concerned a man who signed O’Doul’s name to a bad check in a bar. O’Doul told the bartender, “The next time somebody comes in here and says he’s me, take him out in the back and have somebody hit a few balls to him. If he catches them you know he’s a phony.”
With Salt Lake in the Pacific Coast League in 1925, O’Doul hit .375 with 309 hits and 24 home runs. On September 12th he was purchased by the Chicago Cubs for $50,000, but he never played for the club. He continued in the Pacific Coast League in 1926 batting .338 with 20 home runs, followed by 1927 when he battied .378 with 33 home runs.
On October 4 he was drafted by the New York Giants. Returning to the majors at age 31, O’Doul broke his ankle in the seventh game of the 1928 season, and missed six weeks. He managed to hit .319 in 94 games in left field. On October 29 he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies.
O’Doul, a left-handed hitter, was among the elite in 1929, finishing second in the Most Valuable Player voting. He played in every game for the Phillies, hitting a league-leading .398, and adding 122 Runs Batted In and 32 home runs.
O’Doul had another outstanding year in 1930, batting .383 with 97 Runs Batted In and 22 home runs. Nevertheless, he was traded to the Dodgers after the season. He hit .336 for Brooklyn in 1931.
On January 21, 1932, he signed a new contract for $4,000, even though it called for a 5 percent pay reduction. He even enclosed a note with it thanking Brooklyn management for treating him nicely during 1931 when he was in a batting slump. Salaries were being cut all around the majors because the Depression was hurting attendance.
O’Doul hit .368 in 1932 to capture his second batting title. But when his average dropped to .252 in the first 43 games of 1933, he was traded to the Giants in June. He joined the Giants for the pennant drive, batting .306 in 78 games. The Giants won the pennant and met the Washington Senators in the World Series. He made his only at-bat count. In the sixth inning of Game 2 he pinch hit after Mel Ott was intentionally walked to fill the bases. O’Doul singled to knock in Hughie Critz, and Bill Terry and later scored. The six-run inning led to a 6-1 New York victory.
After 83 games with the Giants in 1934, O’Doul’s major league career ended with some stellar figures: a .349 batting average, .413 on-base percentage, and .532 slugging percentage in 3,264 at bats.
San Francisco offered O’Doul the job managing his hometown Seals. He went on to manage the Seals through 1951. On November 3, 1937, San Francisco owner Charlie Graham gave him a contract to manage the club “for life.” The Seals won the championship in 1935 and took four straight pennants from 1943-1946. O’Doul was mentioned many times as a potential major league manager, but it never happened. After leaving San Francisco, O’Doul continued managing other Pacific Coast League teams through1957.
On September 16, 1956, at age 59, O’Doul went to bat for his Vancouver Mounties against Sacramento. The opposing manager pulled in his outfielders. O’Doul knocked the ball over the centerfielder’s head for a triple and later scored.
After the National League Giants relocated to San Francisco, O’Doul served as a part-time hitting instructor from 1958-1961. He was a renowned baseball teacher, especially of hitting. Over the years, O’Doul tutored some of the best in the game. Joe and Dom DiMaggio started their careers with his San Francisco clubs. His many other pupils included Ted Williams, Willie Mays and Willie McCovey.
In October 1932 O’Doul went back to Japan for nearly three months to help train ballplayers at the colleges. He coached the hitters and outfielders, Ted Lyons taught pitching and Moe Berg showed his catching skills. The Americans also participated in exhibition games that drew crowds of well over 60,000. One day, O’Doul and Lyons were walking along Tokyo’s waterfront with a camera taking “moving pictures.” They were arrested for violating Japan’s strict espionage laws. After they were identified, the American ballplayers were cordially treated at the precinct and happily granted unlimited access with their camera; however, they were arrested again by an officer in another precinct.
O’Doul may have made his greatest contributions to baseball with his many trips to Japan. He trained countless Japanese in the skills of the game and fostered communication and interaction between those in the Japanese and American games both before and after the Second World War. He is also credited as one of the founders of Nippon Professional Baseball. For his efforts, O’Doul was the first American elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.
O’Doul retired from managing after the 1957 season at age 60. Shortly thereafter, he opened a restaurant in San Francisco. Lefty O’Doul’s is still a popular hangout and is one of the oldest continuous sports bars in the country, if not the oldest.
He was always readily identifiable for his attire and was nicknamed “The Man in the Green Suit” for his penchant of wearing such an outfit daily.
Lefty O’Doul died on December 7 in San Francisco, CA at age 72.
A large part of this biography comes from the SABR Baseball Biography Project written by Brian McKenna. It can be found online at http://bioproj.sabr.org
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Well, that’s it for today’s Baseball History Podcast. I’ll see you later at the ballpark.
