https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Home-Run-Baker/
Original article written by David Jones
researched and compiled by Carrie Birdsong
John Franklin Baker was born on March 13, 1886, the
second son of Franklin A. and Mary C. Baker, on a farm just outside Trappe,
Md., a tiny community located just a few miles east of the Chesapeake Bay. Frank’s mother was a distant relative of
Confederate General Robert E. Lee, and though Frank’s father spent his life
toiling in anonymity on the farm, Baker later remembered his as a prodigiously
strong and good-humored man. “He never
saw a trick in the circus he couldn’t perform,” Frank remembered. “He [once] cartwheeled the length of the
street in front of our house and finished off by landing on his feet in an
upright position.”
Though the younger Baker never had his father’s flair
for showmanship, he did inherit the old man’s strength and athletic ability,
which was first put to good use as a pitcher and outfielder for the Trappe High School baseball team. In 1905, Baker’s
exploits with a local amateur team caught the eye of Trappe native Preston Day,
who recommended the youngster to future major leaguer Buck Herzog, them managing
a semipro outfit in nearby Ridgely.
After looking Baker over, Herzog signed Frank to a $5 per week contract and moved him to third base.
The following year, Baker earned $15 per week playing
for the semipro Sparrows Point Club in Baltimore, and in 1907 he turned down an
offer to play in the Texas League and instead signed with an independent club
in Cambridge, Md. At the end of the
season received a tryout with Baltimore of the Eastern League, but after Baker
collected just two singles in 15 at-bats, manager Jack Dunn concluded
that he “could not hit” and released him.
In 1908, Baker joined the Reading Pretzels of the Class B Tri-State League,
where he batted .299 in 119 games. In
September, Connie Mack, the manager of the Philadelphia Athletics who
was looking for a third baseman to replace the aging Jimmy Collins, bought
his contract.
After batting .290 in 31 at-bats at the end of the
1908 season, Baker was handed the starting job at third base at the outset of
the 1909 campaign. He was an instant
success, supplying a much-needed dose of offense to the middle of the
Philadelphia attack. On May 29, Baker
became the first man to hit a boll over the right field fence at the newly
constructed Shibe Park, one of his four home runs for the season. For his rookie year, Baker finished with a
.305 batting average and .447 slugging percentage, good for fourth best in the
American League. His 85 RBI placed him
third in the league, and his 19 triples led the circuit. The young slugger also proved himself to he a
deft handler of the stick, finishing third in the American League with 34
sacrifices.
A left-handed batter (though he threw from the right
side), Baker positioned himself with his left foot firmly planted on the back
line of the batter’s box, and his feet 18 inches apart in a slightly closed
stance. At 5’11”, 173 lbs., Baker did
not cut an imposing figure at the plate, but the ease with which he managed his
famed 52-ounce bat spoke volumes about his physical strength. Asked to explain Baker’s power, Jake
Daubert commented, “Frank Baker doesn’t look so big, but he has big
wrists.” Observers noted that when Baker
swung, he seemed to give the ball an extra push by violently snapping his
wrists at the point of contact.
Baker also acquitted himself well on the base paths
and in the field though, like Honus Wagner, he appeared clumsy in his
movements. Bowlegged and husky, the
lumbering Baker ran “like a soft-shell crab” according to one observer. Nonetheless, he stole 20 or more bases every
year from 1909 to 1913, and in his rookie season he led all third basemen in
putouts, an accomplishment he repeated six more times during his 13-year
career.
Baker’s outstanding rookie campaign was a major factor
in the Athletics’ surge in the standings.
Winning 27 more games than they had in 1908, the Mackmen finished in
second place, just 3 ½ games behind the Detroit Tigers. In late August, the upstart A’s had actually
enjoyed a 1 ½ game lead in the standings, before dropping three straight at
Detroit’s Bennett Park. It was in
the first game of the pivotal series that Baker took part in one of the
most controversial plays of the era when Detroit superstar Ty Cobb
spiked him in the forearm as Baker was trying to tag Cobb out at the third
base. Frank had the wound wrapped and
was able to stay in the game, but the play infuriated Mack, who went so far as to call
Cobb the dirtiest player in baseball history.
But a few days later, a photograph of the play taken by William Kuenzel
of the Detroit News showed Baker reaching across the bag to tag Cobb,
who was sliding away from the third baseman.
The photograph vindicated Cobb and led the Detroit Free Press to
declare that Baker was a “soft-fleshed darling” for complaining about the play.
Although he would continue to develop into one of the
league’s best players, helping the Athletics win their first World Series in
1910 and batting .334 in 1911 with a league-leading 11 home runs, as a result
of the Cobb spiking the mild-mannered Baker carried a reputation for being
easily intimidated on the field. It was
this alleged weakness that John McGraw and the New York Giants tried to
exploit in the 1911 World Series, with disastrous results.
In the bottom of the sixth inning of Game One, the
Giants’ Fred Snodgrass was on second and saw a chance to take third when
Fred Merkle struck out on a pitch in the dirt.
Following a strong throw from the catcher, Baker was blocking the base
with the ball when Snodgrass went into the bag hard, spikes high, severely
gashing Baker’s left arm. Initially
signaling an out, the umpire called the play safe when he saw the ball rolling
on the ground. The trainer came out to
patch up Baker’s wounds, and the Giants went on to win 2-1. But the tone had been set, and Baker took his
revenge with his bat.
With the score tied at 1-1 in the bottom of the sixth in
Game Two, Baker came to bat with one man on base and two outs, facing Giants’
lefthander Rube Marquard. After
running the count 1-1, Marquard threw Baker an inside fastball, which the
slugger blasted over the right field fence for a two-run home run. That proved the difference, as the A’s held
on to win the game 3-1 and even the Series.
The following afternoon, Giants’ ace Christy Mathewson
carried a 1-0 lead into the top of the ninth inning, when Baker came to the
plate and again smashed a home run to right field, tying the score.
When the game moved into extra innings, the Giants
once again tried to intimidate Baker. In
the bottom of the tenth, Snodgrass again tried to take third, this time on a
passed ball. Again, Baker blocked the
base with the ball as Snodgrass came into the bag hard, spiked high, cutting
into the third baseman’s arm a second time.
This time Baker held onto the ball.
The A’s went on to win the game in eleven innings, with Baker’s infield
hit contributing to the winning two-run rally.
After the game, a Philadelphia reporter approached the “battle-scarred
hero,” seeing the odor emanating from the bandages on Baker’s wounds. When pressed, Baker finally broke his
silence, and blurted out, “Yes, Snodgrass spiked me intentionally. He acted like a swell-headed busher.”
The A’s went on to win the series 4-2, with Baker
leading his team with nine hits, five runs batted in, and a .375 average. His inspired play forever dispelled the
notion that he could be intimidated on the diamond, but more importantly,
Baker’s two dramatic home runs on consecutive days off two future Hall of Fame
pitchers propelled him into the upper echelon of baseball legends. Henceforth, for the rest of his life and
beyond, he would be known as “Home Run” Baker.
The nickname would become something of a curiosity for future
generations, weaned as if they were on a version of the game where home runs
were a routine occurrence. But in the
context of Baker’s time, when it was only the rare slugger who could hit as
many as 10 home runs in a season, the name connoted mythic power and strength.
Despite his newfound fame, Baker stayed a rugged
individualist, retiring to his Maryland farm every offseason where he kept in
shape by chopping wood and hunting for quail.
Sportswriters who managed to track him down for a hot stove feature soon
learned that the quickest way to get Frank to open up was to go hunting with
him. “Frank is the best shot in Talbot
County, and he’s wild about duck shooting,” one friend explained. “Whenever you look at him he’s either just
shot fifteen or twenty ducks or is just going to, and he’ll call you blessed if
you save him the trouble of bringing up the subject. After that, he’ll discuss anything under the
sun with you.”
From 1912 to 1914, Baker continued to lead the league
in home runs every season, and also collected his first RBI title in 1912, with
a career-high 130, and a second in 1913, when he drove in 117 runs. Continuing to rank among the league leaders
in assists and putouts, Baker was also widely regarded as one of the game’s
best fielding third basemen. His
all-around superlative play helped the Athletics win two more AL pennants and
another World Championship in 1913, with Baker once again torching the Giants
with a .450 batting average, one home run, and 7 RBI in the five-game
Series. After the Boston Braves shut
down Baker and the Athletics in the 1914 Series, Mack began selling off his
championship team. Baker locked into a
three-year contract, and tried to renegotiate for a higher salary, but Mack
refused.
Both were stubborn men of principle and would not
budge from their respective positions.
Baker announced he would be perfectly happy back on the farm, “batting a
few out with the boys.” Twenty-nine
years old at the peak of a Hall of Fame career, which is exactly what he
did. In 1915 he played for the Trappe
town team, the Upland club in suburban Pennsylvania, Atlantic City, and the
Easton (Maryland) club of the independent Peninsula League. Many local towns held Home Run Baker Days,
presenting their hero with gifts in return for his services for the day’s game.
Under pressure from Ban Johnson, Connie Mack
sold Baker’s contract to the Yankees for the 1916 season, ending the slugger’s
lengthy holdout, but after a year’s absence from the major leagues Baker was no
longer the dominant offensive force, he had been just two years earlier. He put together four solid seasons for New
York, but never led the league again in any significant offensive
category. Despite his fading skills,
Baker was admired by his teammates for his work ethic and imposing locker-room presence.
Though Baker never led the league in home runs while a Yankee, he still
anchored an offensive attack dubbed “Murderer’s Row” before Ruth even joined
the team. In 1919, aided tremendously by
the Polo Grounds, the Yankees smashed a major league-leading 47 home runs, 10
of which came from Baker’s heavy stick.
Following the 1919 season, during the winter that New
York became intoxicated by the news that Babe Ruth had been bought from the
Boston Red Sox, Baker was humbled by personal tragedy. An outbreak of scarlet fever struck the Baker
home, killing Frank’s wife, the former Ottilie Tschantre. His two infant daughters also caught the
disease, though they eventually recovered.
Quarantined, paralyzed by grief, and preoccupied with taking care of his
family, Baker announced that he had lost interest in baseball and would not
play in 1920. But within a few months, Baker was itching for baseball again. He
played a few games for his old Upland club, and after a trip to New York in
August, agreed to return to the Yankees for the 1921 season.
The game was changing as Baker took on the role of a
part-time player, and his teammate, Babe Ruth, redefined the home run. Perhaps envious of Ruth’s fame, Baker
bemoaned the “rabbit ball: that made the home run a more frequent
occurrence. “I don’t like to cast
aspersions,” Baker later confided to a reporter, “but a Little Leaguer today
can hit the modern ball as far as grown men could hit the ball we played with.” Baker decided to hang up his major league
spikes after playing in just 66 games during the 1922 season. He married Margaret Mitchell of Baltimore and
returned to his Maryland farms.
Though Baker was looking to devote more time to his
passions of family, farming, and duck hunting, he was pressed into service as player manager of the Easton Farmers of the Class D Eastern Shore League in
1924. It was there that he discovered Jimmie
Foxx. After Baker sold Foxx to
Connie Mack, Baker was unceremoniously sacked as manager during the 1925
season, partly due to the “paltry” prize had received for the young slugger.
Continuing to work the family farms while raising his
four children, Baker also served his community on the Trappe Town Board, functioned
as a tax collector, was director of the State Bank of Trappe, and was active in
the volunteer fire department. He never
lost his love for baseball and was an avid supporter of organized Little League
when it began. Inexplicably, considering
that for many years Baker’s record was the greatest of any third baseman in
baseball history, enshrinement in the Hall of Fame eluded him. When finally selected by the Veterans
Committee in 1955, the taciturn Baker responded, “It’s better to get a rosebud
while you’re alive than a whole bouquet after you’re dead.” Humble as ever, in his later years the man
who had first popularized the home run and helped his teams win three world
championships told a reporter, “I hope I never do anything to hurt baseball.”
Baker died of a stroke on June 28, 1963, and was
buried in Spring Hill Cemetery of Talbot County in Easton, Md.
This biography originally appeared in SABR’s “Deadball Stars of the American League” (Potomac Books, 2006), edited by David Jones.
Sources
For this biography, the author used several contemporary sources, especially those found in the subject’s file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.
* Full Name: John Franklin Baker
* Born: March 13, 1886, at Trappe, MD (USA)
* Died: June 28, 1963, at Trappe, MD (USA)
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