Your 1914 Montgomery Rebels!

 

1914 Game Ad

A hundred and ten years has passed since the 1914 Montgomery Rebels took the field in what was essentially a swan song for baseball in Alabama's capitol city.

After the '14 season The Rebels would lose their franchise in the Southern Association and not see upper level affiliated baseball for nearly 30 years. Montgomery would not field a team at all in 1915 and only weakly in 1916 - starting a drought that would last until deep into the Jazz Age. From the start of the first world war until just three years before the stock market crash the city would host major league teams in spring training games and negro league teams but not have a team of its own.

Montgomery ca 1914

However, in 1914 the Rebels were still a potent team of veteran players. Composed of many former and future major leaguers, the Rebs enjoy a prime spot as a travel hub in the era of train trips. They make short trips to the other cities in the Southern Assoc., taking on opponents in the usual places like Atlanta and Birmingham as well as longer rides to Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans.

Led by manager Bob Gilks, Montgomery fields a roster around big league names like Jud Daley and Heinie Jantzen. They arent houshold names now, but a hundred years ago Montgomery fans knew they had a team full of character and major league experience.

 BOB GILKS

Manager

Old Judge Gilks Cleveland card

Bob Gilks was brought to Montgomery as skipper, previously he had managed Shreveport in the Southern Assoc. and is familiar with the league and its teams.

Robert Gilks is a veteran of the game, having made his last major league appearance over twenty years before. His career .230 average in five seasons as a third baseman and left fielder, nine wins and nine losses as a pitcher for the Cleveland Blues & Spiders and Baltimore Orioles don't due justice to the man and his baseball reputation.

A teammate of Wee Willie Keeler on John McGraws great Orioles teams of 1892-3, Bob Gilks has a baseball pedigree beyond statistics.

Gilks

He gained fame as the first outfielder to perfect a short-hop trap in order to get a force play on a runner, often resulting in a double play. He is one of the first outfielders to record an unassisted double play.

Gilks shows form

Bob Gilks was the first major league player ever to have two bases-loaded doubles in the same game (August 5, 1890).

As a pitcher, Gilks is listed among the saves leaders, having led that category in 1888. He may not have known.

In 1909 Gilks appears with three different teams and at the age of 44 is seemingly at the end of his playing career. But while he doesnt take the field for Montgomery, Bob Gilks makes a comeback, he joins Atlanta for two games and gets one hit in six at bats for the 1918 Crackers at the age of 53.

 After his time in Montgomery, Gilks will be a scout for the Yankees, covering southern teams.

 HEINIE JANTZEN

RIGHT FIELD

Jantzen in 1910

Walter "Heinie" Jantzen spent 1912 with StLouis, batting a meager .185 with one home run in 31 errorless games with the Brownies before being purchased by Montgomery, along with Charlie Snell and Joe Kutina, in November.

All three would appear for the Rebels in 1913, with Heinie playing in 135 games and finishing second on the Rebels in homers, earning him an invitation to return in 1914.

JUD DALEY

FIRST BASE

Daley w/Brooklyn

In his second stint at Montgomery, Daley was with the team in 1909-11 under skipper Ed Greminger.

In 1910 Daley was second in the league in batting average, trailing only Shoeless Joe Jackson.

Daley

He returns to the team after a two year taste of the majors with Brooklyn of the National League. Daley batted a respectable .250 in 80 games over the two seasons he spent with New York, swatting one homer.

Having also played with Nashville and New Orleans, Daley has become a veteran of the southern circuit.

He will have a nice 1914 summer for the Rebels, dependable at age thirty he appears in 155 games while putting up a .308 batting average.

PAT DONAHUE

CATCHER

Donahue with A's

The veteran catcher brings a big league influence to handling the pitching staff. Three seasons with Boston and appearances with Cleveland and the Philly A's mean the Rebels are throwing to Cy Young's catcher, Eddie Ciccotte's target, Smokey Joe Wood's signal caller.

Known as a capable backup, Donahue had played his last big league game at the age of 25 and was kicking around the minors when Montgomery signed him ahead of the 1913 season.

However he contracted "malarial fever" midseason and had to be sent home at the start of August. Still, he returns to Montgomery in 1914 and will play in over 100 games, hitting .235 and an umpire.

Yes, he did hit an umpire.

Pat Donahue

In an onfield dispute with an umpire named Fifield, Donahue struck the ump which resulted in the catchers suspension without pay.

1910 with A's

The next season Pat will be asked to return to the Rebels, albeit at a reduced salary. Donahue rejects the offer and plays instead with the Knights of Columbus in the Montgomery City League.

His playing days end in 1917 when the team he is with is involved in a serious train accident, resulting in Donahue losing some of his fingers. He began umpiring in 1919 and later would offer scouts a tip on a young pitcher named Bob Feller.

JACK LIVELY

STARTING PITCHER

Lively with Tigers

Also making a homecoming of sorts, Alabama native Henry "Jack" Lively has had much success, including major league experience, since he last wore the Rebels uniform. At Montgomery, Lively returns to the scene of the crime, his no hitter against Little Rock in 1909 helped propel him to the major leagues.

Posting a 7win-5loss season in 1911 for the Detroit Tigers, Jack made about 14 big league starts and completed ten of them, including a 16 inning outing. Unfortunately his 4.59 ERA for the season will become his career total as he will be sent back to the minors after just one season.

Jack won 31 w/Oakland!

While with the Tigers, Lively is Ty Cobbs roommate, despite rumors that the Georgia Peach didn't have a roommate due to his not getting along with teammates. In fact Cobb and Lively would develop a long friendship during their time in Detroit. The two even enjoyed hanging out at the White House together with President Taft in 1911.

Tiger Jack

B-Ref lists him as having a batting appearance in 1912 for Montgomery, but but didn't pitch in a game.

Lively 1911

As covered in a previous blog, Lively was a hard thrower who also featured a spitball and is likely the first player to throw a knuckleball. He is also a strong batter, often used as a pinch hitter and frequently hits higher in the batting order - very rare in his era.

In 1914 Lively rejoins the Rebels, logging 170 Innings pitched, third on the staff. While putting up a record of 9-9 isnt overwhelming, he provided a steady arm in his 25 games. His 1914 season's WhIP ratio of 1.118 is excellent, proving he kept runners off the basepaths.

KARL BLACK

STARTING PITCHER

Karl Black w/Tuscon

A switch hitting pitcher in his first season in upper level pro ball after three years of seasoning in various D-Leagues, Black was given the ball by the Rebels often in 1914. Unfortunately he was hit hard and posts a record of 10 wins against a staggering 29 losses, leading the league in that futile category.

w/'27 Oilers

Karl Black's struggles highlight the Rebs weak pitching staff, none of the starters finish with a winning record and only one reliever tallies more wins than losses.

Karl Black won't make the majors in his 20 year career, but will find his home in Tulsa from 1922-27 winning over 100 games and a championship with them.

Lautenschlager was his real last name, for many years he held the record for longest name in baseball.

No matter what he called himself, he was a workhorse for the teams he played with, winning 275 games in over 800 appearances on his way to 4400 Innings Pitched. The stint with Montgomery was no different, his 300+ Innings Pitched lead the team and most other starters on the team barely log half as many innings.

RED KLEINOW

CATCHER 

catcher Kleinow

John "Red" Kleinow is a well known major league catcher and comes to the Rebels after playing the previous season in the short-lived outlaw Federal League with the Cleveland Green Sox under manager Cy Young.

Red in action

At 36 years old (b.1877) he is in his last pro season, an eight year major leaguer with New York and Boston (AL) and Philadelphia (NL). Red appears in over 500 games. His big league stats arent overwhelming, but he was known as a good hitting catcher and has 42 stolen bases in his career.

Red's modern gear

He caught Jack Chesbro, HOF pitcher for the NY Highlanders and was the backup to HOF catcher Deacon McGuire.

Kleinow is one of the first catchers in the major leagues to wear the new style chest protector.

Red plays in twenty games for Montgomery, batting .191. In June he is dropped from the active roster and is given a job scouting players for the Rebels.



Palmer Snedecor - first base - b.1891
a veteran of southern and texas leagues, the Bham native was with the Rebels for most of 1913 and all of 1914. He batted .236 with two homers in 1914.

Both Palmer Snedecor and Dutch Hollander were sent to Mgm from the St.Louis Browns after failing to make the big league team out of spring training.

Howard Baker - 

second base
b.1880

Howard W Baker w.Nashville 1916

This is Howard W. Baker, not Howard F. Baker. The former Baker is the career minor leaguer 2b/OF who played for Montgomery and Bridgeport. The latter is a one time major league 3b who also played for Bridgeport. Yes, Bridgeport had two Howard Bakers at one time, in 1918!

The Howard Baker who played for Montgomery was born in 1880, eight years before the other guy. Howie is another journeyman on the 1914 Rebels roster at age 34, though his .289 average shows he was one of the more consistent hitters in Montgomery's lineup during the 1914 season.

And for Howard, there is plenty more left in the tank, as Baker continues his career well into his forties. Too old for military service during WW1, he finds a home in wartime baseball with the Eastern League starting in 1918. He will play for three different teams in the E.L. over the next six seasons, making the move from second base to the outfield.

They finally pry his spikes off after his 19th season. He accumulated over 2000 hits and 40 deadball era home-runs in his career.

1913 Pittsfield Electrics, Howard W Baker, second from left, hit .307

William Hollander - Shortstop

Hollander with Oakland

Bref knows little about Bill Hollander, three seasons listed, Scranton-Mgm-Albany, no birthdate.

However William Hollander's lifetime stats from 1911-1915 dovetail perfectly with Bill Hollander's career 1915-1920. So if we put two and two together we find Hollanders bio to contain a birthdate: Dec 9 1891 in York PA. It also lists his nickname as "Dutch" but we didn't need the internet to figure that one out!
For Montgomery in 1914 Dutch hit .237 in 120 games and knocked 11 triples.









Bill Elwert - Third Base
another Rebel on the wrong side of 30 for baseball, Elwert has been a staple of the Montgomery lineup since he arrived in 1911 and hit .303 rapping out 135 hits in 139 games. The 1914 campaign will be his last in Montgomery, he hits just .239 in 118 games as a 34 year old and moves on to the Texas league the following year.


Francis Gribbens - utility
Bref offers no help, but in fact Gribbens was born in 1905 and passed away in 1961. He is listed as catching, as well as playing some third base and second base with Mgm in 1914, at the plate batting .221 as the second backup backstop. Which we needed when our starter socked an ump and got suspended!

Gribbens is one of the Montgomery players featured in the popular tobacco cards of the era, a late addition to the popular set started in 1909.



W.E.Parker - unknown dates, unknown position
Parker joins the Rebels in 1914 and bats .220 in 83 games. Parker was a letterman in baseball for Maine University in 1912.


Cotton Knaupp - second base

Knaupp w.Pelicans

Cotton Knaupp in 1923

born Henry Antone Knaupp in San Antonio during 1889, the Rebels second baseman had already appeared sparsely in the major leagues, 31 games in two seasons for the Cleveland Naps in 1910-11.

With the Naps, named for star second baseman Napoleon Lajoie, Deacon McGuire is the Cleveland manager, Shoeless Joe Jackson a teammate of Knaupps during his big league time.

Cotton Knaupp

In 1916 Knaupp will etch his name into history as the only man in the Southern Assoc to turn an unassisted triple play while with New Orleans.

Cotton hit .213 for Montgomery in 1914, splitting time between the Rebels and Pelicans. A southern player for many years, Knaupp would appear in over 1500 Southern Assoc. games.


Pop Shaw - outfielder

Shaw plays in 30 games for the Rebels, batting .296 in just over 100 at bats. A career .330s hitter, little is written about his career as a fly chaser.

In the late 1920s Shaw acted as a scout, signing Ivy Andrews to play for Mobile and setting him on track for a big league career with the Yankees. Later he umpired games and scouted for major league teams such as the Cardinals under Sam Breaden. St.Louis had a chance to sign a young Willie Mays but passed on him in spite of Shaw's report "'If you're coming to see Willie Mays, be sure and bring a bunch of balls with you. He's gonna lose some for you"

1911 Johnson City Soldiers w.rookie Pop Shaw

CHARLIE CASE - pitcher

Charlie Case

Case comes to Montgomery in 1913 from Nashville, winning 11 and losing 15 between the two. In 1914 he is back with the Rebels and at age 34 is finding that he is throwing the ball harder than ever but its just not getting there as fast. Case loses 14 of the 24 games he is in for Montgomery, winning only 8 in spite of being very stingy when it comes to base hits.

Charlie Case is a major league veteran, however he is eight years removed from his last game with the Pirates in 1906. His big league numbers are good, 23 wins 19 losses and his ERA of 2.93 is excellent. Yet his stay in the majors is short, just four seasons starting in 1901 with Cincinnati and ending after three seasons with Pittsburgh.

His only appearances on the major league leaders boards aren't good ones to be on, he was in the top ten in Wild Pitches and Hit By Pitch in 1905. In 46 career starts, Case pitched the game to completion 36 times.


Holt McDowell - Outfielder -
info unknown - making his debut in 28 games with Mgm in 1913, Holt bats .209 in 21 games in 1914 before being shipped to C-league Albany NY. In Albany he would have more success on both sides of the ball, his average went up .200 points and he won four games in Relief for the Albany Babies.

Herb McLeod - Starting Pitcher
D.Herbert McLeod appears in 24 games for Montgomery in 1914 and struggles with a 7-14 win loss record. He walks 58 and allows more than a hit an inning, over matched in his first taste of A-level baseball.
Herb will split the next season between Nashville and Shreveport before hanging up his spikes.


HARRY CHAMPLIN - Shortstop/Third Base

Champlin in 1914

1920 w.Portsmouth

Harry J. Champlin is getting his first shot at A-Level ball, the top class below the majors at the time.

He is a part time player, making it into just 23 games for the 1914 team. He swats one homer in about 75 at bats and while he hit over .300 for D-league Thomasville earlier in the year, he can only muster a .132 average against the Southern Associations tough pitching.

Born in 1891, he becomes a stalwart in the Virginia League where he helps win a pennant in 1920 as the backup infielder to a future Hall of Famer,
young Pie Traynor.



RED DAY - pitcher
Virgil Manson "Red" Day was born in September of 1888 and Montgomery was his first affiliated ball. Also known as "Professor", red haired Virgil Day spent his offseason as a teacher and a farmer in his home state of Arkansas. He would play for the Rebels and in Atlanta as an effective starting pitcher, winning 45 games over three seasons.

For Montgomery in 1914, Red Day is the young pitcher who allows alot of hits, alot of walks, quite a few runs and subsequently - loses 11 games while winning only 6.

After the first world war breaks out, Red Day spends a year away from the game and when he returns his last couple seasons are at lower levels. Later he would teach and become an umpire little league, semi-pro and American Legion ball. His career line is good, 73 wins against 58 losses.

A member of the El Dorado Baseball Hall Of Fame, Red Day is described as a robust outdoorsman, known for his fairness as an umpire and his love of bringing the game to young players. 

PHIL BUSCHER - pitcher

Phillip Buscher took the hill 18 times for the Montgomery Rebels logging 140 Innings pitched in 1914, winning five games upon arriving here.

But by Mid-season he is sent to Erie Pa, picking up 1 win and 3 losses in the Canadian League.

Soon after his arrival to Erie he beat the Cleveland Naps in an exhibition game in Washington Dc.

V.Roth 1915

Vincent Roth - Pitcher

Roth w.Hornets

With three wins and no losses in his four games with Montgomery, Vincent Roth has the distinction of being the only Rebels pitcher in 1914 with a winning record.

The Cleveland native was born in 1892, and passing away in 1971 makes him the longest lived of the '14 Rebels. In 1917 Roth is made manager of the Augusta team in the South Atlantic league, where he would hit .313 and play first base.

Roth comes to Montgomery from Thomasville midseason along with Harry Champlin where the pair helped the Thomasville Hornets capture the pennant.

Thomasville Hornets 1913 Champs with Champlin and Roth

 

Red Nelson -Pitcher

Red Nelson

Red Nelson wasnt always Red Nelson - he was born Albert W. Horadovsky in Cleveland in 1886.

Another veteran moundsman on the Rebels staff, having spent the previous three seasons with St.Louis (AL), Philadelphia (NL) and Cincinnati.  The 28 year old Nelson has a 10w-12L mark in 39 career games when he arrives in Montgomery.

Nelson got off to a hot start in the big leagues, winning seven of his first eight starts, including a shutout against Hall of Fame pitcher Ed Walsh.

At old timers game

Red Nelson was the pitcher who surrendered Shoeless Joe Jackson's only inside-the-park home run in the majors in the first game of a 4th of July doubleheader.

After an illness cost him a spot on the Browns roster, he caught on with the Phillies for 1912 and 1913. During the 1913 season the Phils dealt him to the Reds where Red was a part timer in just a handful of games.


Signing with the 1914 Rebels, Red Nelson got into nine games, winning one and losing five. His stats say he pitched efficiently, allowing just 46 hits in 63 innings for Montgomery.

Sporting Life says Red Nelson works in the offseason as a brakeman on a freight train.

Charlie Wheatley - Pitcher

Wheatley

Charles D. Wheatley, a young right hander from Kansas, has a nice record in three minor league seasons - 23wins and 18 losses for teams in Nebraska, Illinois and Missouri.

He then becomes a teenage bigleaguer. In 1912 - at just 19 years of age, Charlie makes his debut with Hughie Jenning's Detroit Tigers on September 6th in a 2-4 loss to the St.Louis Browns.

Wheatley made five starts for the Detroit team, walking more batters than he struck out as the Tigers played out the string in 6th place. Even though he is just 19, he is just the ninth youngest player in the league.

On Sept.27th Wheatley enters the Tigers record books, in a game at Cleveland he sends five wild pitches to the backstop - a team record unequaled until Jack Morris matched it on August 8th 1987. Wheatley, who remembered it as being seven wild ones, later said of that game "That was a day I was experimenting with a rough part of the cover and sailing the ball. If you could do it, the ball would hop at the plate."
 His major league career ended exactly a month after it began, in a loss to the White Sox on Oct 6th. Wheatley's 6.14 season ERA and 45 hits allowed in 35 innings probably didn't endear him to teammate Ty Cobb. Charlie only allowed one home run, meaning Cobb had extra work chasing Wheatley's mistakes after the Georgia Peach had praised Wheatley to Tigers brass before the season.

A durable hurler who had posted over 180 Innings each year before coming to the Rebels, Wheatley spent a few weeks with the Providence Grays in July of the 1913 season.

The Providence Grays are a very talented team, their top pitcher is Bill Bailey who, just two years before, was the Rebels top pitcher. Perhaps it was Bailey who had a hand in getting Wheatley to Montgomery. Charlie Wheatley's 2.13 ERA in 1913 is excellent against Western League and International League hitters, which is how his resume' reads when the Rebels sign him for 1914.

In 1914 Charlie Wheatley appeared in 11 games for Montgomery, but the results were generally not good. Wheatley was tagged with seven losses against just one lone victory in 68 Innings Pitched. He tended to give up a hit per inning, and the 21 year old had the usual trouble rookies have in finding the strike zone resulting in over 30 free passes.

Wheatley reportedly injured his arm while boxing in the winter following his big league time and never was the same pitcher again. Indeed he sat out of pro ball in 1915 before returning to the minors.

Charlie Wheatley would go on to better things - he was an inventor who designed valve equipment for industrial pipelines, described as a pioneer in the field. He and his brother organized the Charles Wheatley Valve Co in the 1950's, in 1970 they sold the company for ten million dollars.

In 1981 Wheatley designed a device to keep coffee fresh.

One of Charlies early teammates was Dwight Eisenhower!



CARL EAST - Right Fielder/Pitcher

Carl East

Carl broke into baseball in 1912 with Lindale in Georgia. Lindale was managed by Lillian Duke, the only woman to manage in professional baseball. He was a minor league staple across the South, compiling the fourth highest career batting average among minor leaguers. He served in WW1 and returned to the game for another 12 seasons.

He wound up his playing days with Anniston in the Georgia-Alabama League, where he hit .434 and led all minor leaguers in batting average. He would go on to become president of the Ga-Al league in 1946.


In between Lindale and Anniston, Carl W. East made the major leagues.
Twice.

Carl w.Millers

With the Browns of St.Louis he had his day in the summer of 1915, getting one at bat in a game he started as a pitcher in the first game of an August doubleheader.

That afternoon Carl East tossed three and a third innings against the Philadelphia Athletics, striking out one while walking two and allowing six runs on six hits before manager Branch Rickey lifted him from the game.

The Browns would sweep the doubledip, though East didnt last long enough to earn a victory, the decision going to relief pitcher George Sisler. Yes, the Hall of Fame first baseman was a pitcher for the Browns for one season before taking up at first base and setting batting records.


Nine years later Carl East would return to the bigs with Washington for twice as much action - two games. He played right field at Yankee Stadium as the Senators faced the Yankees in May of 1924.

East bats lefty, threw righty

Carl had jumped his first contract with the Senators and played for the Fairbanks Fairies in the outlaw Midwest League before his second chance with the Senators finally got him back onto a big league roster. Its said he had a disagreement with Washington team pres Clark Griffith during this two day stint and what it was about is not known, but Carl East never played in the majors again.

With the Montgomery team Carl spent 1914 as a double threat, pitching in 12 games he won five and lost five. At the plate his 1914 batting stats are good, hitting .279 in 61 at bats between Mgm and Thomasville, and his career .367 average in over 800 games suggests he was more than just a good hitting pitcher!

POSTSCRIPT
In 1915 the Rebels players would be scooped up wholesale by Little Rock. Daley, Lively, Elwert, Gribbens, Jantzen and Pop Shaw all appear for the Travelers after the Montgomery team folds the tent.