Cribbed from THIS article on SABR Bio by Dennis Auger.
Don’t judge a book by its cover, goes one old saying.
It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog, goes another.
Both apply in spades to Hobe Ferris.
5’8” and 160-odd pounds with a lifetime .239 batting average and .265 on-base percentage as well as a reputation for slick fielding at second base that, according to the Washington Post, “made Larry Lajoie look like a second-rater.”, Hobe seems your typical all glove, no bat middle infielder.
Dig a bit deeper and you’ll find this isn’t necessarily so.
Despite his lean statistics and diminutive stature, Ferris was one of the hardest hitters in the American League. Twenty-eight percent of the right-hander’s 1,146 career hits went for extra bases, a ratio exceeded only by 10 other American Leaguers during the Deadball Era, and higher than such renowned sluggers as Ty Cobb, Frank Baker, Elmer Flick, and Jimmy Collins. During his nine-year major-league career, Ferris ranked in the league’s top five in triples and home runs three times each.
If the stories are to be believed, he hit with his fists almost as hard as he did with the bat.
Albert Ferris was born in England (the date is disputed, but thought to be December 7, 1877), and immigrated to the United States a couple of years later. At a game in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, in 1898, Hobe filled in for a shortstop who had failed to show and handled 22 chances perfectly, thereby winning him the position. He reported to Pawtucket of the New England League the following year, where he finished with a .295 average and won accolades for his fielding. Another strong season at the plate and in the field followed in 1900 for Norwich in the Connecticut League, where he played shortstop and batted .292 with 31 extra-base hits.
Hobe was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds before the 1901 season, but jumped to the American League to play for the Boston Americans. Forced to play second in the offseason after shortstop Freddy Parent signed with the club, Ferris committed 61 errors in 1901, the second highest total by a second baseman in American League history (after Detroit 2B Kid Gleason’s 64 that same year). At the plate, the 23-year-old Ferris batted .250, drove in 63 runs, and led all AL rookies with 15 triples. He had another excellent offensive year in 1902, hitting eight home runs (tied for seventh best in the league) and 14 triples while driving in 63 runs and was much-improved defensively as well, committing 22 fewer errors and showing brilliant range.
At the same time, however, he was garnering a reputation as a troublemaker, especially with umpires. He received his first suspension from American League president Ban Johnson in May of that year. It would not be his last.
Still, he was an integral part of the Boston club as it captured the 1903 American League pennant. Despite his batting average slipping to .251, Hobe hit a career-high nine home runs and scored a career-best 69 runs. In the Americans’ World Series triumph over Pittsburgh, Ferris recovered from a poor showing in the first game, in which he made two errors (and briefly raised suspicions that Boston had thrown the game), to make a spectacular unassisted double play on a Honus Wagner line drive in Game Two, preserving a 3-0 Boston victory. In the eighth and final game, Ferris drove in all three Boston runs off Deacon Phillippe to secure the franchise’s first world championship.
Another pennant followed in 1904 and, while he slumped badly at the plate (finishing the season with a .213BA, he figured prominently in Boston’s narrow victory in the American League pennant race, scoring from second base on a fly ball and error in a showdown end-of-season series with the New York Highlanders to give Boston a 1-0 victory. The next three seasons were lean ones at the team level as the aging Boston roster unraveled, but Ferris continued to rank among the league leaders in extra-base hits (despite not hitting for much average) and provide superlative defence at second base.
The beginning of the end for Hobe was an incident in September of ’06 in which he and teammate Jack Hayden got into a mid-game fight that ended with both men being arrested (though neither pressed charges against the other) and Hobe suspended for what was left of the campaign. After one more season in Boston, Hobe was traded to the Browns.
That 1908 season – perhaps Hobe’s best as a professional, as he posted career highs in batting average (.270), on-base percentage (.291), and RBIs (74), as well as a retrospectively-calculated 4.1 WAR – would also prove his swansong. With Jimmy Williams already established at second base for his new club, Ferris shifted to third, where he combined with shortstop Bobby Wallace to form what one writer called “the stonewall defense.”
1909, however, was a different story entirely, as Ferris’s average plummeted to .216. At its conclusion, hewas released to Minneapolis of the American Association, where he spent the next four seasons before drawing his release. Hobe then played one season for Wilkes-Barre of the New York State League before once again being released. His only involvement in the game after that was the occasional appearance at the semipro level. He settled in Detroit, where he spent the remainder of his life.
On March 18, 1938, in the middle of relating to his wife a newspaper account of ex-Tiger Fatty Fothergill’s hospitalization, Hobe Ferris died of a heart attack. He was 60 years old.
Hobe is a Foundation Member of the Footnote League, picked 20th overall by the Phillies in the Inaugural Draft in 1901. He spent that year at Hazleton, where he won the PSL World Series, before being traded in the offseason to the Cards. He spent four seasons at St. Louis, mainly in a utility role, winning the FL World Series in 1903 before the club released him at the end of last season.
The Reds signed him as a Free Agent in the preseason and so far in the ’06 campaign he has hit .260 with 1 HR and 13 RBI from the #3 spot in the lineup. This is his age-34 season, so I’m not sure he’ll be around the league much longer, but I hope he continues to shine brightly for as long as he remains. Tempus effulgeo, Hobe!
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