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1918 Retirees
At the bottom is a list of all the players who hung up their cleats and put away their gloves and bats for good after the 1918 season. First, a few notes on some of the guys:
• Pitcher Babe Adams, 36 years old, had a nice career with the Nogales Apaches, finishing his nine-year stint with a 150-95 overall record and a lifetime 2.92 ERA. This Babe was 32-8 in 1910 (earning Top Hurler honors) and went 24-13 in 1914. He also was the league's Rookie of the Year in 1909 (20-14). Imagine if he would have come into the league earlier...
• Prescott pitcher Lew "King" Brockett didn't have a royal career from an overall record standpoint (44-57). His career best season was 18-16 back in 1911. But Lew was the King in 1910 when he threw TWO no-hitters, including one against Cottonwood in the playoffs. His first came against Jerome in June. He only had five shutouts his entire time in the AZL...
• Catcher Hick Cady didn't have much of a career in the AZL's Major Leagues (just 18 games for Grand Canyon back in 1912). But he had some notable injuries, like getting teeth knocked out, breaking his nose and bruising some fingers. None of the injuries kept him out for long (broken nose = one week out, and that's it). He was one tough cat you wouldn't want to mess with in a back alley or a bar brawl...
• RF Watty Lee had exactly 2,000 hits during his career, with 330 doubles, 92 triples and 24 homers. His 2,000th hit came against Prescott's Claude Thomas on Sept. 11, 1917. Lee suited up for just two games in 1918 before being sent down to train the younger kids on Flagstaff's Triple A team.
"It was just God's will for me to have exactly 2,000 hits," Lee said. "It's a nice round number." His career batting average was .281 in 18 years with Grand Canyon, Kayenta and Flagstaff...
• 2B Oscar "Jake" Dugey had just nine Major League at-bats -- and none for hits, so he retires with a .000 average. "But I made the Big Show," he said...
• Bisbee pitcher Harry Gaspar retired with a 154-154 record and two Top Hurler Awards (1911 when he was 29-11 and 1912 when he was 24-15). Gaspar was a perfect 4-0 in four post-season starts (all in 1911), posting a nice 1.22 ERA.
• CF Charlie Hanford of the Phoenix Dust Devils drove in seven runs two times against Tombstone during his career and had a 23-game hitting streak in 1917.
• In addition to having a great name, pitcher Orval Overall posted 242 wins (11th all-time in AZL) and a career ERA of 3.21. He went to six All-Star games with Grand Canyon and had a no-hitter in 1910 while with the River Runners. He still holds the Arizona League record for season strikeouts (321), set back in 1911 with Grand Canyon.
Overall was the 1905 Rookie of the Year (14-13, 3.19 ERA), though interestingly he got traded from Yuma to Grand Canyon that June. "Whew, I'm glad. I just did not like Yuma at all," he would later say.
He retires tied with Doc White on the career list for shutouts. Each had 46. Doc is a Hall of Famer. Should Overall get in? He barely misses the cut using the default standards set by the game...
• 2B Hack Simmons' first career hit was a triple for Flagstaff back in 1910. But ol' Hack only managed 59 more hits in his career, spending most of his time in AA or AAA...
• Pitcher Burt Humphries threw a no-hitter for Bisbee in 1915, then got traded later in the season to Jerome. He was 15-21 that season and finished with a 104-108 career record (3.33 ERA). Humphries' best year was 1916, when we finished 23-14...
Babe Adams retires ...
Johnny Beall retires ...
Lew Brockett retires ...
Bobby Byrne retires ...
Hick Cady retires ...
Watty Lee retires ...
Gus Fisher retires ...
Oscar Dugey retires ...
Art Kores retires ...
Red Killefer retires ...
Harry Gaspar retires ...
Jimmy Lavender retires ...
Elmer Knetzer retires ...
Elmer Koestner retires ...
Otto Hess retires ...
He will be in the Hall Of Fame!
Charlie Hanford retires ...
Jack Lapp retires ...
Bill Schwartz retires ...
Gene Ford retires ...
Art Hoelskoetter retires ...
Orval Overall retires ...
Joe Kutina retires ...
Rip Vowinkel retires ...
Frank Jude retires ...
Lefty Leifield retires ...
George Moriarty retires ...
Jim Nealon retires ...
Jim Pastorius retires ...
Ed Konetchy retires ...
Glenn Liebhardt retires ...
Mike Mitchell retires ...
Fred Osborn retires ...
Tex Pruiett retires ...
Grover Land retires ...
George Perring retires ...
Jack Ryan retires ...
Eddie Higgins retires ...
Jack Lelivelt retires ...
Ed Sweeney retires ...
Bill Mckechnie retires ...
Roy Mitchell retires ...
Charlie Mullen retires ...
Hub Northen retires ...
Lou Schettler retires ...
Hack Simmons retires ...
Frank Truesdale retires ...
Bert Whaling retires ...
FLG: Pete Wilson retires ...
FLG: Jack Lewis retires ...
JER: Bert Humphries retires ...
JER: Henry Thielman retires ...
He will be in the Hall Of Fame!
PRE: Bill Steele retires ...
PRE: Christy Mathewson retires ...
He will be in the Hall Of Fame!
PRE: Zinn Beck retires ...
SED: Bob Rhoads retires ...
BIS: George Mullin retires ...
CAR: Gavvy Cravath retires ...
NOG: Joe Tinker retires ...
NOG: Jim Kelly retires ...
TEM: Howie Camnitz retires ...
He will be in the Hall Of Fame!
TEM: Slow joe Doyle retires ...
TOM: Carl Druhot retires ...
TUC: Chief Wilson retires ...
YUM: Fred Carisch retires ...
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