FRANK SIMPSON
In real life Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak is one of those special records in baseball, and one that may never be broken. FABL has it's great hitting streak as well but it sits at 47 games and has stood for three and a half decades since Rich Rowley of Toronto hit safely in 1900. A couple of years back Philadelphia Keystones outfielder Lee Smith challenged Rowley's mark, but ultimately fell 3 games short. In FABL it is only in the minor leagues that DiMaggio's streak was surpassed and that was by a 31 year old journeyman named Ollie Miller, who had a 57 game streak in 1908 while playing for Evansville of the Class A Heartland League. 31 at the time, Miller's big league career had already ended with him playing just 141 games over two seasons for Washington and Toronto, batting just .231 for his big league career. The previous Heartland League standard was also quite impressive but lasted just one season as Al Eide of Lincoln had a 54 game streak. Eide was 27 at the time and would make his FABL debut the following season with the New York Stars. The Garden View, Pennsylvania native would end up playing 1,334 games in the big leagues with the Stars and Washington, finishing with a .281 career batting average.
But while those streaks are certainly impressive, in this write-up I want to talk about a player who, despite having just 76 professional base hits and none in the major leagues, owns one of the most impressive hitting streaks in baseball history. Perhaps the greatest accomplishment in college baseball was Frank Simpson's 53 game hitting streak that spanned the 1926 and 1927 AIAA seasons. His is one of just 5 streaks in organized baseball to surpass the half century mark and is the only one achieved after the end of the so-called Dead Ball Era. Prior to Simpson run at Opelika State the AIAA record for consecutive games with at least one hit was 43, established by Bob Garrett of Lubbock State in 1915.
Code:
HITTING STREAKS OF 50 GAMES PLUS ALL LEVELS
Ollie Miller 57 1908 Heartland League Evansville
Al Eide 54 1907 Heartland League Lincoln
Bill Williams 54 1908 Middle Atlantic Lg Reading
Bill Smith 53 1919 Eastern Association Dayton
Frank Simpson 53 1927 AIAA Opelika State
COLLEGE HITTING STREAKS
Frank Simpson 53 1927 Opelika State
Bob Garrett 43 1915 Lubbock State
Lee Sparks 41 1925 Grafton
Jack Manzella 36 1925 Travis College
Simpson's career never lived up to the expectations after the hitting streak. A first baseman in college, he played in just 21 games his first two seasons with the Wildcats and went 4-for-6 in 7 plate appearances as a sophomore but started every game his senior year and hit .409, tied for fourth in the Continental Conference as he helped lead Opelika State to it's first of two National Titles. It should be noted that Simpson was originally named to the 1927 All-American team as a catcher until it was discovered in the league history that he only played first base that season so he was subsequently replaced on the team by Bill Holland of St. Matthews.
Despite his outstanding season he was not highly touted in the 1927 FABL draft and did not get selected until the 21st round when the Boston Minutemen picked him. Simpson's stay in the Minutemen organization was very brief as he was cut in the spring in 1928 before ever playing a game at any level in the organization. However he caught on, literally with the Philadelphia Keystones, who signed him with plans to use the first baseman as a catcher. He would spend 5 seasons catching in the Keystones organization but never advance past Class B, finishing with 136 pro games and a .253 career batting average.
I looked back at my draft list for 1927 and he did not make my scouting director Rube Carter's top 100 list or my list of roughly 200 names that I saved for that draft so obviously his scouting report must have been bad. It was in the early years for human GMs in our world so perhaps we all relied much more on the scouting reports as you figure a .407 average, even playing just the 1 season, should have been noticed and drafted a little higher by someone. It was at the peak for offense in college ball as AIAA clubs posted team batting average totals that had not been seem for well over a decade. Here are the players who hit over .400 that college season.
Code:
1927 AIAA BATTING LEADERS
NAME AVG SCHOOL DRAFTED
Ted Parker .436 St Patrick's 1928 Round 8
Ray Barnes .425 Boulder State 1929 Round 1 pick 11
Sam Orr .425 Henry Hudson 1929 Round 1 pick 5
Ken Allen .415 St Matthew's 1929 Round 4
Harry Humphrey .413 Whitney College 1927 Round 1 pick 3
Johnny McCann .411 St Blane 1929 Round 3
Frank Simpson .409 Opelika State 1927 Round 21
Steve Clarke .409 Chicago Poly 1929 Round 2
Johnny McCann .407 Georgia Baptist 1929 Round 3
Charlie Steele .406 St Pancras 1928 Round 6
Ron Wilson .402 St Matthew's 1929 Round 5
Nellie Dawson .402 Wisconsin State 1929 Round 1 pick 13
So as you can see from above Frank Simpson was one of only two draft eligible players in 1927 to hit over .400 and he did not get selected until the 21st round of the draft. The poor scouting assessment obviously proved accurate because of his very brief career but one has to wonder if he went in the first couple of rounds would he have been given more of a chance?
Either way, Frank Simpson will be remembered for one incredible accomplishment in the college ranks.