Shortened Season of 1918: How the Great War Begat the Great Bambino
With the baseball season on hold, we look back at the war-shortened season of 1918 and how the circumstances helped create the legend of the Great Bambino, Babe Ruth.
Since the National League of Professional Baseball began play in 1876, there have been a lot of schedule changes. We will work our way down to how a shortened season helped create Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees’ legend Babe Ruth, but first…
In 1876 there were eight teams and they were scheduled to play each other 10 times. Despite having 70 games scheduled, the final standings don’t quite add up.
1876 National League Standings
- Chicago White Stockings: 52-14 (66 games)
- St. Louis Brown Stockings: 45-19 (64 games)
- Hartford Dark Blues: 47-21 (69 games)
- Boston Red Stockings: 39-31 (70 games)
- Louisville Grays: 30-36 (69 games)
- New York Mutuals: 21-35 (57 games)
- Philadelphia Athletics 14-45 (60 games)
- Cincinnati Red Stockings: 9-56 (65 games)
This list brings up a few questions. One, how much did they revere their socks back then? We don’t respect our socks enough nowadays. Also, if the season had 70 games scheduled, why did only one team play 70?
Most games were played in the late afternoon or early evening, to accommodate the working gents of the time, as a result, many games would encounter weather or the setting sun. The games would be canceled, after all, ‘tis just a game… or ‘twas just a game. ‘Twisn’t like that anymore.
Today, we are taking a closer look at just three of the many players who were impacted by the shortened season of 1918. The season was prematurely ended on September 2 as ordered by the War Department. For some players it meant the end of their careers, some the end of their lives, but for one it was the beginning of a legend.
The Great War and “Shoeless Joe”
When the United States declared war on Germany in April of 1917, there were only about 100,00 volunteer troops available.
in 1918, Newton Baker (former Mayor of Cleveland and Secretary of War in 1918) and Draft-Lottery Director Enoch Crowder became two of the biggest names in the baseball world. When America engaged in the Great War, Crowder founded the Selective Service System, enabling the President to authority to draft men aged between 21-30 as soldiers.
Baker and Crowder deemed baseball to be a nonessential activity and issued a “work or fight” order to players. Players had to work in a job that supported the military effort or go overseas and fight. The American League’s defending champion White Sox lost several stars to the war efforts, including “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, and fell to sixth place. “Shoeless” Joe was the first-star player to avoid enlistment by finding work building battleships.
Joe signed up to play on their baseball team. He reportedly drew large crowds and also drew the heckling and the ire of some fans who thought him a coward. Even the local media piled on to Joe for jumping ship to a shipyard when his draft-exemption request was denied. Joe was married and supporting his aging parents but was still placed in class 1 of the draft. Even White Sox owner Charles Comiskey publicly scolded his star player for not being patriotic.
Joe may have faced public ridicule and lost respect, but Red Sox player-manager Jack Barry lost a lot more by enlisting.
The Great War and Jack Barry
The eventual World Champions of the 1918 season, the Boston Red Sox, would win the title without their player/manager, Jack Barry. After winning two World Series in ’15 and ’16 as a player, Barry led the Sox to a second-place finish in 1917 as a player/manager. Unfortunately for Barry, he lost the 1918 season when he enlisted with the Naval Reserve. Barry would lose his managing job to Ed Barrow after Barrow led the Red Sox to the 1918 World Series title.
Upon Barry’s return from service, he had lost both his managerial job and his spot at second base. He was traded to the Athletics where he ultimately decided to retire from the game at 32-years-old. Not only did he miss out on the 1918 World Series title as a player/manager, he lost his job and ultimately his playing career.
Barry would go on to coach his alma mater Holy Cross for 40 successful years. His first season at the helm Holy Cross finished with a school-record 30 wins. Barry led them to a College World Series in 1952 and finished as the winningest coach in college baseball history with a .806 winning percentage.
The Red Sox and their new manager had plenty of holes to patch up as the Sox lost five players (including Barry) during the 1918 season. His creativity would force him to think outside the box of conventional baseball wisdom. Barrow’s big idea would forever change the course of history.
The Bambino Band-Aid
Babe Ruth was the team’s best pitcher. In 1916 he started a league-leading 40 games, winning 23 of them and posting a league-leading 1.75 ERA. His ERA+ registered at a 158. The Babe also allowed the fewest hits per nine in the league in 1916.
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His success continued in 1917 as he led all of baseball in complete games with 35, pitching in 326.1 innings and posting a 2.01 ERA.
In 1918, he still pitched to a 2.22 ERA but Barrow required his services in the outfield during his off days, due to the player shortage. Ruth hit .300 with 11 triples, 26 doubles, and blasted a league-leading 11 homers. He drove in 61 runs, stole six bases, and walked 58 times in just 382 plate appearances. This was all while still maintaining his starting pitching duties and competing in a war-shortened season.
The rest was history, as Babe Ruth would continue the transition to a full-time outfielder’s role the following year (also a shortened-season as players returned from war), registering 543 plate appearances, hitting 29 homers and posting a 1.114 OPS. He still pitched in 133.1 innings in 1919. Once the Yankees acquired Babe Ruth in 1920 he pitched in just 31 more innings over the remainder of his career.
Babe Ruth’s final pitching statistics stand at 1221.1 innings pitched, a 94-46 record, 2.28 ERA, with 107 complete games.
Ruth had never received more than 136 at-bats in a season prior to the1918 season. That means he played four full seasons before the world even began to realize what the man could do with a baseball bat.
Babe still holds the all-time record for career slugging percentage (.690) and OPS (1.164). He finished with 714 career home runs and led the American League in homers in 12 different seasons. He led the league in runs eight times, RBI leader in five campaigns, and led the league in walks eleven times.
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It almost sounds ridiculous to wonder “what could have been?” when talking about the Great Bambino. It’s incredible to think about what his numbers might have looked like had he been a full-time hitter from the get-go. Then again, converting from one of the top pitchers in the game to becoming the greatest power hitter in the game is all a part of the charm of the legend of Babe Ruth.