A LOOK BACK AT THE MAX MORRIS TRADE
With rumours flying that the Brooklyn Kings and an unnamed Federal Association team are on the verge of a major trade that my source claims could rival the Max Morris deal I thought it would be worthwhile to look back at that 1919 deal between Cleveland and St Louis.
Max Morris was just 24 years old in the late fall of 1919 but he was already a legend. Morris had helped the Foresters win a pennant in 1917 - their first since 1901- and had just taken up hitting full-time. He was 83-72 as a pitcher including a pair of twenty-win seasons but had also slugged 13 homers and hit .342 playing primarily in the outfield in 1919 and won his second consecutive Whitney Award as Continental Association MVP.
After the deal the string of Whitney Awards and the legend would continue to grow. He would win 5 more MVP awards, three triple crowns and completely rewrite the record book with his homerun displays. Morris doubled his homerun output to 26 in his first season with St. Louis but that was just the beginning as he would sock 53 round-trippers in 1921, 59 in 1922 and then an amazing 60 in 1923. Still going strong at age 35 Morris hit at least 50 homers in a season five times and has 521 for his career. His most satisfying moment likely came in the 1920 series when he hit .350 but was held homerless as the Pioneers beat his old club Cleveland to win their only Series (so far anyways) with Morris.
But what about the four players (and $10,000 cash) the Foresters acquired from St Louis in the deal. How did their careers fare?
P MILT SEXTON - A second round pick out of Henry Hudson in 1917, Sexton threw a no-hitter in college. At the time of the trade he was a promising 23 year old lefthander coming off a breakout second season in the majors, compiling a 15-8 record with a 2.86 era and a Federal Association best .43 k/9. Big things were expected of him in Cleveland but that 1918 season would be the zenith of Sexton's career as he won just 4 games in a Cleveland uniform and spent most of the 1920's pitching in AAA. The Foresters released him in 1926 and he signed with San Diego of the Great Western League where he remains at age 34. Sexton did post a 66-23 record for the Conquistadors and helped them win two GWL titles.
OF
JOHN HILL - was a 25 year old outfielder taken in the 10th round by St Louis out of Travis College in 1914. He made the big leagues in 1918 and played 111 games in the season before the trade, slashing .291/.317/.392. Hill would spend 4 seasons as a backup outfielder with the Foresters, appearing in 395 career games and slashing .308/.351/.448 before being released in 1926 after spending two years in the minors. He retired at that point.
SS
JAMES GERHARDT - Bayou State product was taken in the third round of the 1917 draft by the Pioneers. OSA named him the 27th best prospect in the year proceeding the deal, a season he spent hitting .337 with 10 homers in Class A. He spent a couple of more seasons in the minors after the trade, finally making his Cleveland debut in 1922 at the age of 26. He never progressed beyond a utility infield spot in Cleveland, hitting .286 with 4 homers in 219 career games before being released prior to the 1927 season. Since then he has played for a pair of independent teams including this season with Houston of the Lone State Association.
3B
JIM CATOR - Along with Sexton, the prize piece in the deal was Cator. Drafted 2nd overall out of Central Ohio University by the Pioneers in 1915. He was rated as high as the 10th best prospect in the game (1918) and was 11th heading into the 1919 season. He was 24 and played most of the season at AA Dayton, hitting .326 and helping his team win a league title. He did not play in St Louis in 1919 but did get a total of 14 FABL games under his belt from brief call-ups the previous two years.
In Cleveland, Cator immediately was handed the starting 3B job and had a great rookie season, slashing .339/.410/.485 in 129 games and finishing second in CA Whitney Award voting. Cator also enjoyed an outstanding Series, going 9-for-18 in the loss to the Pioneers. He looked to be the solid hitting third baseman the Foresters had really lacked since Bill Fitzgerald manned the hot corner at the turn of the century and helped Cleveland win it's first pennant in 1901.
Cator was solid in 1921- his 27 year old season - but just a little less productive than he was as a rookie. From there it was all downhill as he struggled at the plate and with nagging injuries in 1922 and was relegated to a back up role until 1926, when he regained the starting spot at 3B. Cator would hit .289 in '26 and .282 with a career best 12 homers in 1927 but by 1928 he was in AAA much of the season and released at the end of the year. At age 35, Cator just finished his second season with Hollywood of the Great Western League and unlikely to ever be back in FABL. His big league career consisted of 832 games, a .297 batting average and 37 homers.
SUMMARY
Just looking at the individual numbers it is clear that St Louis won the deal very handily. There is no doubt Morris put bodies in seats at Pioneers Field to make back the $10,000 St Louis ownership included in the trade many, many times over. However, aside from the first year after the trade - when they both made the Series and the Pioneers prevaled in 5 games neither organization has done much.
The Pioneers won a second pennant with Morris in 1921 but have finished as high as second only once since and 6 times in the past nine years ended up in the second division so despite all of his individual accomplishments Morris has been unable to bring a consistent winner to St Louis.
It has been much the same in Cleveland in the 11 years since the deal. A pennant in 1920 followed by finishing just 1 game out of first in an incredible 1921 Continental Association race that saw Montreal beat Brooklyn in a 1 game playoff with Cleveland a game back, Philadelphia 2 back, Baltimore 3 off the pace and Chicago 4 games back. In other words we could have very easily see a Cleveland-St Louis rematch in '21. The Foresters also had very close calls in 1923, 1925 and 1927, finishing within 6 games of first place each time so one could easily say the Foresters fared better than St Louis since the deal. Saying that, however, is clearly ignoring that fact the Cleveland would likely have celebrated several more pennants during that time frame had they hung on to Morris - he was worth an average of about 8 WAR a season from 1921 to 1927.
Hindsight is always 20/20 and yes Morris wanted out of Cleveland, but it is clear dealing Morris cost the Foresters at least one pennant and perhaps more. Morris did get himself a World Series ring in St Louis, but might have had a handful had he elected to remain a Forester.