Multiple Outs

Three-Dot Friday 9.12

a couple of SF kids at the 1941 World Series (photo credit unknown)

When Aaron Judge hit two home runs on Thursday night to tie Joe DiMaggio for fourth on the all-time New York Yankees home run list with 361, I thought, hmm, does Joe D. have the most home runs for anybody born in San Francisco?

I was quickly reminded that the Yankee Clipper was actually born in Martinez (the city is the likely origin of the name of the Martini, although that is debated) and raised in San Francisco. This then sent me on an odyssey with “multiple outs,” which is how magicians define tricks that can have multiple correct endings, depending on how the participant chooses to do things….

For instance, since Joe D. was not born in SF, the question could be “Most home runs by somebody born in the Bay Area,” for which I initially thought the answer was San Mateo’s Barry Lamar Bonds… but Bonds was born in Riverside, in the southern part of the state, and raised in San Mateo. So that still left the actual Bay Area/San Francisco question.

Which just depends on how many “multiple outs” you want to have. The Bay Area-born answer is then DiMaggio. The San Francisco-born answer is current Texas Rangers shortstop Marcus Semien with 253 (prior to Friday’s games), who grew up across the bay in El Cerrito and went to high school in Berkeley…

And the San Francisco-born and San Francisco-high school answer becomes Dolph Camilli, called one of the strongest players of his time and also one of the friendliest. He was born in the city almost exaclty a year after the great 1906 quake and fire, on April 23, 1907, went to Sacred Heart High School in the city and hit 239 homers in a solid 12-year career with the Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, Brooklyn Dodgers, and a cameo with the Boston Red Sox. He took NL MVP honors in 1941 with a league-high 34 homers and 120 RBI for the pennant winning Dodgers, who then lost to Joe D. and the Yankees in the ’41 World Series…

I’m sure the stat guys of today would go berserk on Camilli’s MVP victory, considering he won based solely on the home run and RBI totals. His own teammate, center fielder Pete Reiser, was better in nearly every other batting category, leading the league with a .343 average and 117 runs scored, second in hits with 184, and also led in the modern stats of slugging percentage and wins above replacement. Yet, Reiser finished second to Camilli by a healthy margin and only received two first place votes…

nobody mentions Dolph’s fielding, and there’s a good reason… (courtesy: MLB/Dodgers)

Camilli was most notable at the time for striking out “a lot,” which is a funny coincidence given Monday’s column diversion into strikeouts. Camilli struck out 94 times his rookie season of 1934, which at the time was tied for the NL all-time record, and that “free-swinging” style caused the Cubs to trade him to the Phillies just six weeks into the season. The very next year he set the new NL record with 113 K’s and ultimately became the first player in history to strike out at least 100 times in three different seasons. That 1941 MVP season he also struck out a new league-record 115 times and became the NL’s all-time leader in career strikeouts, passing Rabbit Maranville’s 756 (Babe Ruth had set the then-all-time record with 1330).

For comparison, Seattle’s Cal Raleigh, likely to win the American League MVP this season, has never had fewer than 122 strikeouts in any of his four full seasons and already has 679 career strikeouts…

Camilli’s major league career ended abruptly in mid-1943 when the Dodgers traded him, ironically, to the New York Giants, the future MLB club in his hometown. Camilli, however, was Dodger blue through-and-through and refused to play for Brooklyn’s rivals, going home to the Bay Area instead. He said later, “I hated the Giants. This was real serious; this was no put-on stuff. Their fans hated us, and our fans hated them. I said nuts to them, and I quit.”

(There is no easily-findable record of Camilli’s reaction when the Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958, though we can be reasonably certain he wasn’t very pleased. He was eventually inducted into the Dodgers team Hall of Fame in 1984, and the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.)

After sitting out the rest of ’43, he was hired to be player-manager for Pacific Coast League’s Oakland Oaks. He did pretty well the first season, but 1945 wasn’t so hot. He was fired in mid-June and the Boston Red Sox, at the tail end of World War II, was desperate for players and asked him to come back and be their first baseman. At age 38 he played half the season, got two more home runs, and called it a major league career for good…

But despite the MVP, the strikeouts and all he did at the plate, probably the most significant thing he ever did on a major league diamond occurred in 1935, just his second full season the bigs…

He was the first baseman for the Phillies at the old Baker Bowl on May 30, 1935, and the Phils were hosting the Boston Braves in the Memorial Day doubleheader. (Even though it was on a Thursday, until the 70’s when they officially changed most federal holidays to make three-day weekends, Memorial Day was always celebrated on May 30^th.) In game one, the third man up in the top of the first inning was Babe Ruth, who was at the tail end of his epic career.

Ruth had been unceremoniously dumped by the Yankees after the 1934 season. Ruth had re-written the home run record book while with New York, slugging 659 with them in 15 seasons (which means Aaron Judge would have to hit 298 more just to tie him for the franchise record). Ruth had basically insisted the Yankees make him manager for years, and their response was essentially, “Dude, you can’t even manage you.” They released him, and he signed with the Braves for 1935. He had started his major league career in Boston with the Red Sox as a pitcher and part-time slugger, helping them to three World Series titles, including back-to-back in 1915-’16. (Much more on that entire 1916 season, including the New York Giants winning an MLB-record 26 in a row, in my book…)

Ruth had just hit three home runs in a game in Pittsburgh on May 25^th to get to 714 career dingers, but pulled a muscle playing left field during first game of the next series in Cincinnati and every game became more painful than the one before. During the final game of that series, Reds hitters simply started intentionally hitting every ball to left field in the 5^th inning to mess with him and he could not catch up to anything. The Reds scored five runs in the inning and he left the game fuming…

So that was what Ruth was going through when he stepped to the plate at the Baker Bowl for the second game of that series. Film exists of that at-bat against Phillies starter Jim Biven. Ruth swings hard as usual, makes light contact and it looks like he aggravates his injured leg even more, as he twists himself into a knot and never leaves the batters box. The film stops there, but the ball bounded weakly to first, where Camilli picked it up and tagged the bag.

Ruth tried to play left field in the bottom of the inning. Camilli walked and eventually scored the game’s first run. With two on and two out, Phillies second baseman Lou Chiozza hit a fly to left, but Ruth couldn’t get to it and the ball bounced past him and to the wall. Both runs scored and Chiozza looked to be on the way to an inside-the-park home run as Ruth struggled to get to the ball.

Ruth eventually got there and got the ball to relay man Pinky Whitney, the Braves shortstop, who fired to catcher Al Spohrer and Chiozza was out on the relay. The inning was over, and Ruth was credited with an assist.

Instead of going to the dugout, Ruth turned and headed for the visitor’s clubhouse in center field. The crowd of 18,000-plus (mind-bogglingly, the Baker Bowl’s max capacity in it’s history) stood and applauded, realizing Ruth was coming out of the game.

Ruth knew he was done as a player, and after an argument with Braves ownership the next day about money (of course), he retired/was fired a few days later. Camilli had unknowingly been the last player to end a Babe Ruth at-bat…

But yet Ruth stayed in for the next half-inning, and was the first fielding player to touch the ball for the last out he was ever involved in. So, you see, even the end of Babe Ruth’s career has multiple outs…

Babe Ruth with the Braves in 1935. He is 40 years old in this photo. (Courtesy: Baseball Hall of Fame)