FABL BIO OF THE DAY
It's been a while since I have posted a FABL player biography so I thought I would make up for it by looking at 9 people in today's write-up. The recent
Ballad of the Brothers Barrell episode is tracking the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris so I figured this would be a good time to catch up on the 9 players who started for the American squad in their 4 inning exhibition (a 5-0 victory) with a team of French players.
The nine starters for the victorious American side that day were not professional's at the time of course, but rather were college ballplayers. The lineup, which was selected by legendary college coach Frank Christian, was certainly not a college all-star team but did have some players who would enjoy decent pro careers. Here are the players who took the field for the American team that day in Paris.
Code:
1924 US OLYMPIC BASEBALL CLUB
POS NAME HOMETOWN SCHOOL
P Jim Morales Durham, NC Brunswick
C Frank Haab Grand Forks, ND Wisconsin State
1B Dick Horner Wonder Lake, IL St. Matthew's College
2B Whitey Robinson Milwaukee, WI Northern Mississippi
SS Don Ward Marcellus, NY Bayou State
3B Neal Mesker Minneapolis, MN Northern Mississippi
LF Jim Renfroe Shawnee, KS Mississippi A&M
CF Al Brewer Vancouver, BC Brunswick
RF Les Woodward Scottsdale, AZ Lubbock State
Christian has been talked about before on these pages. He was a legendary college coach at Lubbock State after whom the College Player of the Year Trophy is now named. Christian's brother John was also a long-time coach, in both football and baseball, at Noble Jones College and later for Red River State. The team Christian assembled had a decidedly southern twang to it as 5 of the players came from schools in the Deep South including Les Woodward, an outfielder on Christian's Lubbock State Hawks. Because it was an exhibition sport nationality did not matter much as the team actually included a Canadian born player and a pitcher who was from Cuba but grew up in Durham, North Carolina. It is also interesting to note how injuries played a role in diminishing the major league career's of several of the team members.
The most successful of the group would have to be Jim Renfroe so let's start with a look at his career:
JIM RENFROE
It's too bad Jim Renfroe had so many health issues during his career, otherwise he quite possibly would be in the discussion for All-Star candidates every year. He was the star of the US team in 1924, homering in the game and appeared destined to enjoy an outstanding big league career.
Renfroe was from Mississippi A&M and a big part of the reason, along with the Lightbody boys, Bud Rogers and Clarence Hall among others that the Generals earned the nickname Outfield U. Originally taken 10th overall in 1923 by Montreal I guess the signs of what was to come were evident very quickly when he suffered an off field shoulder injury a week after the draft that sidelined him for a month. He refused to sign with the Saints and went back to A&M for another year and, as it turned out, an opportunity to compete in the Olympics before being taken 2nd overall by the Brooklyn Kings in the 1924 draft. In July of 1927 while still working his way up through the minors as Brooklyn was in a pennant race they would ultimately win, the Kings sent him to Pittsburgh with another top prospect in Jim Pool in exchange for veteran reliever Leon Thompson and a minor league third baseman John Wilder plus a 4th round draft pick that would turn out to be Loren Morgan -another Mississippi A&M outfielder, but he never made the big leagues.
Thompson and Wilder did their job to help Brooklyn win it's pennant. Thompson pitched in 12 games for the Kings, going 1-1 with a 3.83 era, while Wilder had the best stretch of his fairly uneventful career, batting .336 with 6 homers down the stretch. Thompson would win 12 games the following season as a starter but the Brooklyn native would accomplish little else and is now playing in the Lone Star League while Wilder lasted just one more season with the Kings before being moved on to Baltimore in a deal that would land the Kings top prospects Johnny Jacob (who like Renfroe has seen a promising career derailed by injuries) and Ron Rattigan, who would be a big piece in the later deal that brought Milt Fritz to Brooklyn and ultimately seems to have finally solved the Kings third base issues with the subsequent departure of Fritz to Montreal for John Langille.
As for Renfroe, if there is a body part that can get injured he has probably had it hurt. Knees, groin, thumb, quads, hip, calf, ankle, finger, blurred vision and back stiffness highlight as ailments Renfroe has dealt with but the big one was a knee injury in 1931 that cost him a full year and likely robbed him of what little mobility he had left. He was a gifted defensive outfielder in his early days and even after the injuries piled up was still pretty good. The 121 games he played in 1928 at the age of 25 was the high water mark for his career, one which saw him play in just 624 big league games over 8 seasons, but in 1928 he hit .276 and led the Federal Association in triples with 17 despite missing over a month of the season. One can't help but think his career could have been so much more had he been blessed with good health. Renfroe is still active and presently playing AAA ball in the Cleveland Foresters system but clearly his best days are well behind him.
DON WARD
Of the 1924 Olympians it is Don Ward who has played the most big league games. The now 32 year old shortstop is presently back with the Cleveland Foresters, the club that originally drafted him out of Bayou State, and is a veteran of 814 FABL games and counting. Ward is batting .348 so far this season and is a lifetime .307 hitter.
He spent four years as the everyday shortstop at Bayou State and helped the Cougars reach the finals of the College World Series as a senior before Cleveland selected him 5th overall in the 1924 FABL draft, 3 slots after Renfroe went to Brooklyn. Like Renfroe it was the second time Ward was drafted as the Chicago Cougars selected him 16th overall in 1923 but he elected not to sign and returned to Bayou State to complete his education. Ward would make his big league debut three years after being selected by Cleveland, hitting .301 with 9 homers in 141 games for the 1927 Foresters while playing outstanding defense at short. Shifted to third base for 1928 due to another rising young shortstop in the Foresters system at the time by the name of Russ Combs, Ward got off to a great start with a .361 average thru the first 17 games in '28 and it looked like he was on the cusp of stardom until, like Renfroe, injury hit. For Ward it was a broken kneecap and it ended his 1928 season. He would return in 1929 and play the full year with Cleveland but his average dipped to .277. At that point the Foresters decided they liked another former college first round pick in Jake Moore more than Ward and they dispatched the former Olympian to the New York Gothams in exchange for a 6th round draft pick that would turn out to be career minor league catcher Dick Miller.
Ward rebounded quickly in his new surroundings, hitting .317 in 1930 and .322 the following season while providing well above average defense for the Gothams. However, he struggled a bit at the plate in 1932 and by 1933 was relegated to a backup role with Johnny McDowall taking over the regular third base duties at Dyckman Stadium. Prior to the 1934 season the Gothams sent him to independent Portland of the Great Western League for a promising young pitcher by the name of Sergio Gonzales, who would eventually join Ward back in Cleveland a year later. Ward made the most of his year in exile in the minors - the first time he had been out of the big leagues since 1926 - and after hitting .304 for the Green Sox his contract was purchased by the Foresters last winter, bringing him back to where his pro career began.
LES WOODWARD
Woodward was the only one of Frank Christian's players on the Lubbock State Hawks to join his coach in Paris for the 1924 Games. Like Ward and Renfroe he has played in over 600 FABL games so far in his career but unlike them he has been relatively injury free during that time with just one injury lasting over a week. Woodward was a freshman on Lubbock State's 1922 National Championship team and hit .317 with 23 homers in 117 career college games before being selected in the second round of the 1924 draft by the Chicago Chiefs.
Woodward has been a Chief ever since although currently, at age 31, he is playing for their AAA farm team in Fort Wayne. He had been a starter in the Chicago outfield on and off during his career and has spent sometime on the big league roster every year since 1928 but has played just 16 games for the Chiefs this season. He owns a lifetime .312 average with 43 homers in 646 games with Chicago.
FRANK HAAB
Catcher Frank Haab was the only other member of the '24 Paris team to play any meaningful time in the major leagues. Like Renfore and Ward, he was a college senior in 1924 and elected to return to Wisconsin State and have a chance to play in the Olympics instead of signing with the Chicago Cougars, who had drafted him in the second round in 1923. It was likely tough for a Wisconsin State player to turn down the opportunity to join a Chicago team but Haab's patience paid off as he was selected 18th overall by the New York Stars a year later.
Haab would never suit up for the Stars though as he was traded twice while still a minor leaguer and eventually made his big league debut with the Montreal Saints in 1927. The Saints had long been searching for a solid catcher - a search that raged on until likely finally being solved in 1935 with the trade for top prospect Tom Bird and the drafting of college sensation Adam Mullins - and in 1927 the hope was Haab would be the answer especially after he hit .319 in 65 games as a 25 year old. That would prove to be the high water mark of Haab's career as he spent several seasons as a backup in Montreal but hit just .269 and seemed to get worse at the plate every year. Montreal dealt him to Pittsburgh along with a 2nd round pick in exchange for another catcher by the name of Curt Sequillante during spring training last year and Haab hi .221 in 30 games as the Miners backup in 1934. He was waived over the winter and the New York Stars signed him and placed him with AAA Los Angeles but he was recently released after hitting .235 in 36 games for the AAA Knights. Now a free agent it appears this might be the end of the line for the 33 year old.
JIM MORALES
The only other member of the 1924 Olympic team to play at least one major league game was the pitcher. Jim Morales was just a freshman in 1924 and coming off what would prove to be the best year of his career following a 10-1, 2.87 season that saw him lead his Brunswick College club to a College World Series title. After his four shutout innings in France, Morales would return to Brunswick for two more seasons but won just 9 games combined before being selected by Washington in the second round of the 1926 draft.
He spent 5 seasons in the minors before his break came in 1931 when the Cleveland Foresters selected him in the Rule V draft. Morales had a 1.17 era in 4 relief appearances for Cleveland to start the season before the "24 Olympic Jinx" hit and he blew out his elbow in May and was sidelined over a year. Cleveland released him after yet another series injury in 1932 and he went back to Washington, playing his other 2 FABL games in 1933 - going 1-1 with a 5.17 era in 2 starts. He has split time between AAA and AA since then and is still just 30 years old so perhaps he will get another chance someday soon with the Eagles.
Morales posted some pretty good numbers in college and looked like a pretty solid prospect but it appears an injury at the wrong time robbed him of his chance to be a solid big leaguer. But he always has Paris to look back upon now.
DICK HORNER
I am really starting to think there just might be some sort of injury jinx associated with the 1924 Paris team. We have already discussed Jim Renfroe's chronic injuries, Don Ward and Jim Morales hit with them at seemingly the worst time possible and now I present for you the case of Dick Horner. Now I am not saying Horner was going to be a solid major league player but it appears the now 32 year old might have missed his opportunity to get some FABL playing time because of blowing out his knee in AAA on opening day 1932.
Let's back up first to where his career starts. He spent 4 seasons of high school ball playing a key role for Waco (TX) and led the team to the playoffs in the old Feeder League system as a sophomore while finishing among the nation leaders in homers as a junior with 14 in 39 games. The Brooklyn Kings selected Horner in the fourth round of the 1921 FABL draft but he elected to attend St. Matthew's College instead. Horner focused on his studies initially and did not play ball until his junior season. He hit .343 with 8 homers that year and obviously caught the attention of Olympic Coach Frank Christian but also of the St Louis Pioneers, who selected him in the second round. The Pioneers already had the game's greatest slugger in Max Morris patrolling their outfield and probably thought Horner could be a great piece to hit either in front of or behind Morris.
But for some reason Horner was overlooked in his early days in the Pioneers system, appearing in just 14 Class A games as a rookie pro in 1925 and starting just 59 between Class B and A the following year. He showed some offensive flashes such as hitting.374 in 68 games at B in 1926 and .331 in 1928 when he finally got a chance to play every day in Class A. But by then he was 25 years old and the Pioneers had other shiny young prospects to focus their attention on so Horner was cut loose just before opening day 1930. He quickly caught on with independent AAA Richmond and after hitting .328 in limited action he was moved to another AAA Indy club or the 1931 season. It was with Syracuse at age 28 that Horner finally got another chance to play regularly, hitting .304 with 18 homers in 122 games. He returned to Syracuse for the 1932 season and might have caught the attention of FABL scouts had he not suffered a season ending injury on opening day that year. Once healthy, Horner picked up right where he left of before the injury with a strong start to the 1933 season until once again his body gave out and he missed the final two months of the season. He had one last hurrah this year with a Class A Indy league team but was recently released and it appears his career is over.
So it might be a stretch to say the injury cost Horner a shot at the big leagues but it might have played a factor as perhaps he would have had his contract purchased by a FABL club if his 1931 season had been as successful as his '32 campaign was before the second injury. Although most of the anger, if there is any that Horner might feel about never getting to the big leagues should be directed at the Pioneers organization for never giving him a real shot to develop in the minors early in his pro career.
AL BREWER
Since it was just an exhibition sport it appears no one had any worries about Canadian Al Brewer suiting up for the US Team in the 1924 Paris Games. A teammate and the best friend of Brunswick pitcher Jim Morales, it seems easy to believe Brewer was only on the US team at Morales' insistence and Brewer's pedestrian college stats certainly appear to confirm that. He was a sophomore at Brunswick that season and hit just .210 but he would improve the following season, batting .270 before missing the end of his draft year season with a fractured thumb. Brewer did apparently show the Philadelphia Keystones enough that they decided to select him in the third round of the 1925 FABL draft despite a college career slash line of just .227/.323/.298.
That Brewer has remained in the Keystones system ever since is probably a testament to his outstanding work ethic and old fashioned values and he has spent the past two seasons in AAA but at age thirty his opportunity to make an appearance in a big league game seems to have passed him by. He too suffered a serious injury with a broken elbow coming in 1933 when he was in the midst of an outstanding start to the season at AA New Orleans, but no one would ever make the case that injury is why Brewer did not, at least as of yet, making the big leagues.
WHITEY ROBINSON
Second baseman Whitey Robinson never played a game for a major league affiliate but has enjoyed a 10 year and counting career with three different independent teams in the Great Western League. He began his baseball journey as a teen spending four season with Pittsburgh High School in the old feeder league system before being selected by the hometown Pittsburgh Miners in the 6th round of the 1922 draft. They failed to agree on a contract suitable enough to keep Robinson from going to college so he enrolled at Northern Mississippi, where after sitting out the 1923 season as a freshman he played alongside his Olympic teammate Neal Mesker. Brooklyn selected Robinson in the 8th round of the 1924 draft but released him after spring training and he would sit out all of the 1925 and most of the 1926 season before catching on in the Great Western League, where he has spent most of the past decade as a reserve middle infielder.
NEAL MESKER
Like his college teammate Whitey Robinson, Neal Mesker was pretty healthy for his entire career but also like Robinson, he was just not that good of a ballplayer - at least when discussing FABL quality talent. Mesker and Robinson were teammates on a very bad Northern Mississippi team in 1924 but he displayed enough that the Baltimore Cannon selected him in the fourth round of the draft. Mesker would spend 10 seasons in the Cannons organization peaking with 14 games at AAA in 1927. He spent the vast majority of his time at AA Erie for whom he hit .268 and is the AA Cannons all-time franchise leader in games played with 566 as well as topping the club in several other career offensive categories. He retired at the conclusion of the 1934 season.
SUMMARY
So as you can see few of the 1924 Olympians really ended up accomplishing much in pro baseball although injuries certainly played a role in part of that for several of them. Perhaps it was a difficult assignment convincing some players to give up their entire summer as there were certainly a number of top players available that did not join Christian on the trek to Paris. I think of names like Woody Armstrong, the future Montreal Saint who had a dominant freshman campaign in 1924 for Chicago Poly or Renfroe's teammate Doug Lightbody at Mississippi A&M, who led the college ranks with 19 homers that season as a sophomore but it mattered not as it was obvious that the French team, even with an American Manager in long-time St Blane Fighting Saints bench boss Ray Harvey overseeing things, was no match for the American contingent. One might even make an argument that the best baseball player in the 1924 Olympics did not even play the sport that year as decathlete Dan Barrell would eventually enjoy the beginnings of a solid career with the Brooklyn Kings despite giving up baseball temporarily while at Chicago Poly to focus on football, track and his studies.