Another One That Got Away.
By Derek Bunker
Many people are aware of the famous sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees. But what many fans are unaware of is the fact that the Sox didn’t stop there. Harry "No No Nannette" Frazee was selling and the Yankees were buying. There were a variety of deals which took place between the 2 teams in the early 1920’s. The first Yankee championship team with Ruth, 1923, had 11 former Red Sox players. That wasn’t by accident. And it is also no accident that the Sox had a winning percentage that decade of .388. The funny thing is, though, that the Red Sox could have used one of the lopsided deals to their advantage.
In July of 1922, the Red Sox traded 3B Joe Dugan (an excellent player) and OF Elmer Smith to the Yankees for OF Elmer Miller, SS Chick Fewster, SS John Mitchell, and P Lefty O’Doul.
Miller, Fewster and Mitchell were fodder. O’Doul was a lefty (of course) relief pitcher. The problem with his game was that relief wasn’t his specialty. He had been in the majors for a couple of years and was somewhat ineffective. His career ERA of 4.87 reflects this. He later had the distinction of pitching for the Sox versus Cleveland. That was the game in which the Sox gave up an AL record 27 runs in a 27-3 loss. O’Doul pitched three innings and gave up 16 runs on 11 hits. He also walked 8 batters. After the season, the Sox released him and he wandered back to his hometown of San Francisco.
But the story does not end there. When he returned home, O’Doul decided to try his hand as an outfielder with the SF Seals of the Pacific Coast League. He played there for 4 years and played well. In 1928, he signed with the New York Giants as an outfielder. He spent the season with them and was traded to the Phillies at the end of the season. This is where the fun starts.
O’Doul had a huge breakout season as an outfielder in 1929. He played in 154 games and hit .398 and set a NL record with 254 hits. To put this in perspective, Ted Williams never had more than 194 hits in a season and Stan Musial had a high of 230. O’Doul easily won the batting title.
In 1930, the last place Phillies traded him to Brooklyn after he hit .383. In 1931, he was invited on an All Star trip to Japan. He followed that up in 1932 with another NL batting title, hitting .368 for the Dodgers. He was on the NL All Star team in 1933 and went on another All Star trip in 1934. HE then retired at the age of 37.
O’Doul returned to San Francisco and became manager of the Seals. He remained manager until 1951. During that time he developed a young player named Joe DiMaggio and sent him to the Yankees.
The bottom line is they stole a guy from the Yankees that probably could have battled Ruth every year for top honors in the league for 10 years. Ruth hit more homers than the Red Sox team did in 1929. O’Doul hit .349 for his career with 113 homeruns and 542 RBI. He did this in 970 games. Imagine if the Sox had turned this guy into a position player in 1923. Imagine if he could have played in the 2,292 games that Ted Williams did. You can’t help but think he would have done some damage. Unfortunately, the Sox weren’t focused on winning games then, and if they had been we probably wouldn’t have to wonder now.
