Hal Chase
Encyclopedia
Harold Homer Chase nicknamed "Prince Hal", was a first baseman
in Major League Baseball
, widely viewed as the best fielder at his position (see below, however). During his career, he played for the New York Highlanders
(1905–1913), Chicago White Sox
(1913–1914), Buffalo Blues (1914–1915), Cincinnati Reds
(1916–1918), and New York Giants
(1919).
No lesser figures than Babe Ruth
and Walter Johnson
named him the best first baseman ever, and contemporary reports describe his glovework as outstanding. He is sometimes considered the first true star of the franchise that would eventually become the New York Yankees. In 1981, 62 years after his last major league game, baseball historians Lawrence Ritter
and Donald Honig
included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time.
games in which he played.
Chase faced allegations of wrongdoing as early as 1910, when his manager, George Stallings
, claimed that Chase was "laying down" in games. This claim was later made by Stallings' successor as manager of the Highlanders, Frank Chance
. Yet, during this era, gambling was so rampant that whenever a player was not at his best, particularly in a big city such as New York, there were claims of players laying down, whether it was true or not. Stallings' claims may have resulted from a feud between him and Chase. While Chance allegedly made the same claim, he later told management that Chase was giving his all, but his abilities were in a state of decline.
Following a spell in the short-lived Federal League
, he went to the Reds, where he led the league in hitting. After Buck Herzog
was fired as Reds manager in 1917, Chase was again passed over for management in favor of Christy Mathewson
. Midway through the 1918 season, Chase allegedly paid pitcher
Jimmy Ring
$50 ($ today) to throw a game against the Giants. Mathewson got wind of it and suspended Chase for the rest of the season. Mathewson brought formal charges against Chase for fixing games, but National League
president John Heydler
acquitted him. Heydler had told sportswriter Fred Lieb
in private that he believed Chase had bet on baseball, but did not have enough evidence to convict him.
Following Chase's acquittal, he was traded to the Giants. It has long been rumored that the Giants acquired him after Mathewson let it be known he wanted nothing to do with Chase. However, this story is belied by the fact that Mathewson signed on with the Giants (where he had starred for many years as a pitcher) as assistant manager to John McGraw; moreover, after McGraw took a leave of absence from the team near the end of the 1919 season, Mathewson named Chase as first base coach.
After the end of the season, an unknown individual sent Heydler a copy of a $500 ($ today) check that Chase received from a gambler for throwing a game in 1918—the same year that he had acquitted Chase for throwing games. Armed with this evidence, Heydler ordered Giants owner Charles Stoneham
to release Chase. Since no American League
team would sign him (on the advice of Detroit Tigers
manager Hughie Jennings
), Chase was now effectively blackballed from the major leagues.
have never been confirmed. In 1920, while playing for the minor Mission League, he attempted to bribe Spider Baum, a pitcher for the Salt Lake Bees
of the Pacific Coast League
, to lose a game to the Los Angeles Angels
. He also allegedly bribed an umpire. It turned out to be one of the last games he played in organized baseball. In the aftermath of the Black Sox Scandal, newly-appointed Commissioner of Baseball
Kenesaw Mountain Landis
never formally banned Chase from the game. However, any chance of Chase's return to organized baseball effectively ended with Landis' August 1921 announcement that no player who threw a game or promised to throw a game would ever be allowed in baseball.
For a time, Chase was player-manager of an outlaw team in Douglas, Arizona
that included Buck Weaver
, Chick Gandil
and Lefty Williams
. It was part of a league run by S.L.A. Marshall, who later said that Chase admitted to throwing a game. A few months later, he tore both Achilles tendon
s in a car accident. He later drifted to Mexico, where in 1925 he began making plans to organize a professional league. When American League president Ban Johnson
got word of it, however, he pressured Mexican authorities to deport Chase.
Chase spent the rest of his life drifting between Arizona and his native California, working numerous low-paying jobs. Later in life, he expressed considerable remorse for betting on baseball. He died in a Colusa hospital at the age of 64.
quotes a poem entitled "You Can't Escape 'Em":
Sometimes a raw recruit in spring is not a pitching find;
He has not Walter Johnson
's wing, nor Matty
's wonderous mind.
He does not act like Harold Chase upon the fielding job,
But you may find in such a case, he hits like Tyrus Cobb
.
Douglas Dewey and Nicholas Acocella's book on Chase, The Black Prince Of Baseball, talks about Chase's defensive abilities at length. He apparently made many spectacular plays that burnished his reputation as a glove wizard, but also committed 402 errors at first in just ten seasons, making his career fielding average only .980, four points below average for the period (since Chase was known to throw games, it's impossible to know how many of these misplays were intentional).
A more recent work by Bill James, Win Shares
, suggested Chase was only a C-grade defensive player at first base. Analyst Sean Smith says on the Baseball-Reference.com website that Chase was actually below average defensively, costing his teams 65 runs versus an average first baseman. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/chaseha01.shtml
First baseman
First base, or 1B, is the first of four stations on a baseball diamond which must be touched in succession by a baserunner in order to score a run for that player's team...
in Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
, widely viewed as the best fielder at his position (see below, however). During his career, he played for the New York Highlanders
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
(1905–1913), Chicago White Sox
Chicago White Sox
The Chicago White Sox are a Major League Baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois.The White Sox play in the American League's Central Division. Since , the White Sox have played in U.S. Cellular Field, which was originally called New Comiskey Park and nicknamed The Cell by local fans...
(1913–1914), Buffalo Blues (1914–1915), Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the National League Central Division. The club was established in 1882 as a charter member of the American Association and joined the National League in 1890....
(1916–1918), and New York Giants
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....
(1919).
No lesser figures than Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...
and Walter Johnson
Walter Johnson
Walter Perry Johnson , nicknamed "Barney" and "The Big Train", was a Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He played his entire 21-year baseball career for the Washington Senators...
named him the best first baseman ever, and contemporary reports describe his glovework as outstanding. He is sometimes considered the first true star of the franchise that would eventually become the New York Yankees. In 1981, 62 years after his last major league game, baseball historians Lawrence Ritter
Lawrence Ritter
Lawrence S. Ritter was an American writer whose specialties were economics and baseball.Ritter was a professor of economics and finance, and chairman of the Department of Finance at the Graduate School of Business Administration of New York University. He also edited the academic periodical...
and Donald Honig
Donald Honig
Donald Martin Honig is a novelist, historian and editor who mostly writes about baseball.While a member of the Bobo Newsom Memorial Society, an informal group of writers, Honig attempted to get Lawrence Ritter to write a sequel to The Glory of their Times. Ritter declined but gave Honig his blessing...
included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time.
Corruption
However, despite being an excellent hitter and his reputation as a peerless defensive player, Chase's legacy was tainted by a litany of corruption. He allegedly gambled on baseball games, and also engaged in suspicious play in order to throwMatch fixing
In organised sports, match fixing, game fixing, race fixing, or sports fixing occurs as a match is played to a completely or partially pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. Where the sporting competition in question is a race then the incident is referred to as...
games in which he played.
Chase faced allegations of wrongdoing as early as 1910, when his manager, George Stallings
George Stallings
George Tweedy Stallings was an American manager and player in Major League Baseball. His most famous achievement – leading the Boston Braves from last place in mid-July to the National League championship and a World Series sweep of the powerful Philadelphia Athletics – resulted in a nickname he...
, claimed that Chase was "laying down" in games. This claim was later made by Stallings' successor as manager of the Highlanders, Frank Chance
Frank Chance
Frank Leroy Chance was a Major League Baseball player at the turn of the 20th century. Performing the roles of first baseman and manager, Chance led the Chicago Cubs to four National League championships in the span of five years and earned the nickname "The Peerless Leader".Chance was elected to...
. Yet, during this era, gambling was so rampant that whenever a player was not at his best, particularly in a big city such as New York, there were claims of players laying down, whether it was true or not. Stallings' claims may have resulted from a feud between him and Chase. While Chance allegedly made the same claim, he later told management that Chase was giving his all, but his abilities were in a state of decline.
Following a spell in the short-lived Federal League
Federal League
The Federal League of Base Ball Clubs, known simply as the Federal League, was an American professional baseball league that operated as a "third major league", in competition with the established National and American Leagues, from to...
, he went to the Reds, where he led the league in hitting. After Buck Herzog
Buck Herzog
Charles Lincoln "Buck" Herzog was an American infielder and manager in Major League Baseball who played for four National League clubs between 1908 and 1920. He played for the New York Giants, the Boston Braves, the Cincinnati Reds, and the Chicago Cubs...
was fired as Reds manager in 1917, Chase was again passed over for management in favor of Christy Mathewson
Christy Mathewson
Christopher "Christy" Mathewson , nicknamed "Big Six", "The Christian Gentleman", or "Matty", was an American Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He played his entire career in what is known as the dead-ball era...
. Midway through the 1918 season, Chase allegedly paid pitcher
Pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...
Jimmy Ring
Jimmy Ring
James Joseph "Jimmy" Ring was a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Cincinnati Reds , Philadelphia Phillies , New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals . Ring batted and threw right-handed.Ring was used sparingly by the Cincinnati Reds from 1917-18...
$50 ($ today) to throw a game against the Giants. Mathewson got wind of it and suspended Chase for the rest of the season. Mathewson brought formal charges against Chase for fixing games, but National League
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
president John Heydler
John Heydler
John Arnold Heydler was an American executive in Major League Baseball.-Biography:Born in La Fargeville, New York, he began working as a printer, eventually being employed at the U.S. Government Printing Office....
acquitted him. Heydler had told sportswriter Fred Lieb
Fred Lieb
Frederick Lieb was an American sportswriter and baseball historian. He and his wife Mary were especially close to Lou Gehrig. Walter Brennan's character in the movie The Pride of the Yankees was loosely based on him...
in private that he believed Chase had bet on baseball, but did not have enough evidence to convict him.
Following Chase's acquittal, he was traded to the Giants. It has long been rumored that the Giants acquired him after Mathewson let it be known he wanted nothing to do with Chase. However, this story is belied by the fact that Mathewson signed on with the Giants (where he had starred for many years as a pitcher) as assistant manager to John McGraw; moreover, after McGraw took a leave of absence from the team near the end of the 1919 season, Mathewson named Chase as first base coach.
After the end of the season, an unknown individual sent Heydler a copy of a $500 ($ today) check that Chase received from a gambler for throwing a game in 1918—the same year that he had acquitted Chase for throwing games. Armed with this evidence, Heydler ordered Giants owner Charles Stoneham
Charles Stoneham
Charles A. Stoneham was the owner of the New York Giants baseball team, New York Giants soccer team, the center of numerous corruption scandals and the instigator of the "Soccer Wars" which destroyed the American Soccer League.-Business ventures:Stoneham began his career as a board boy, updating...
to release Chase. Since no American League
American League
The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major...
team would sign him (on the advice of Detroit Tigers
Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are a Major League Baseball team located in Detroit, Michigan. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Detroit in as part of the Western League. The Tigers have won four World Series championships and have won the American League pennant...
manager Hughie Jennings
Hughie Jennings
Hugh Ambrose Jennings was a Major League Baseball player and manager from 1891 to 1925. Jennings was a leader, both as a batter and as a shortstop, with the Baltimore Orioles teams that won National League championships in 1894, 1895, and 1896. During the three championship seasons, Jennings had...
), Chase was now effectively blackballed from the major leagues.
Out of organized baseball
Rumors of him being the middleman between the players and the gamblers in the Black Sox ScandalBlack Sox Scandal
The Black Sox Scandal took place around and during the play of the American baseball 1919 World Series. Eight members of the Chicago White Sox were banned for life from baseball for intentionally losing games, which allowed the Cincinnati Reds to win the World Series...
have never been confirmed. In 1920, while playing for the minor Mission League, he attempted to bribe Spider Baum, a pitcher for the Salt Lake Bees
Salt Lake Bees
The Salt Lake Bees are a Pacific Coast League minor league baseball team based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Bees serve as the Triple-A affiliate of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. They play their home games at Spring Mobile Ballpark, known to fans as the Apiary, which was...
of the Pacific Coast League
Pacific Coast League
The Pacific Coast League is a minor-league baseball league operating in the Western, Midwestern and Southeastern United States. Along with the International League and the Mexican League, it is one of three leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one step below Major League Baseball.The...
, to lose a game to the Los Angeles Angels
Los Angeles Angels (PCL)
The Los Angeles Angels were a team based in Los Angeles, California that played in the Pacific Coast League from 1903 through 1957, after which they transferred to Spokane, Washington to become the Spokane Indians. Los Angeles would later become the host city to a Major League Baseball team, the...
. He also allegedly bribed an umpire. It turned out to be one of the last games he played in organized baseball. In the aftermath of the Black Sox Scandal, newly-appointed Commissioner of Baseball
Commissioner of Baseball
The Commissioner of Baseball is the chief executive of Major League Baseball and its associated minor leagues. Under the direction of the Commissioner, the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts...
Kenesaw Mountain Landis
Kenesaw Mountain Landis
Kenesaw Mountain Landis was an American jurist who served as a federal judge from 1905 to 1922 and as the first Commissioner of Baseball from 1920 until his death...
never formally banned Chase from the game. However, any chance of Chase's return to organized baseball effectively ended with Landis' August 1921 announcement that no player who threw a game or promised to throw a game would ever be allowed in baseball.
For a time, Chase was player-manager of an outlaw team in Douglas, Arizona
Douglas, Arizona
Douglas is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. Douglas has a border crossing with Mexico and a history of mining.The population was 14,312 at the 2000 census...
that included Buck Weaver
Buck Weaver
George Daniel "Buck" Weaver was an American shortstop and third baseman in Major League Baseball who played his entire career for the Chicago White Sox...
, Chick Gandil
Chick Gandil
Charles Arnold "Chick" Gandil was a professional baseball player. He played for the Washington Senators, Cleveland Indians, and Chicago White Sox of the American League. He is best known as the ringleader of the players involved in the 1919 Black Sox scandal...
and Lefty Williams
Lefty Williams
Claude Preston "Lefty" Williams was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball. He is probably best known for his involvement in the 1919 World Series fix, known as the Black Sox scandal.-Career:...
. It was part of a league run by S.L.A. Marshall, who later said that Chase admitted to throwing a game. A few months later, he tore both Achilles tendon
Achilles tendon
The Achilles tendon , also known as the calcaneal tendon or the tendo calcaneus, is a tendon of the posterior leg. It serves to attach the plantaris, gastrocnemius and soleus muscles to the calcaneus bone.- Anatomy :The Achilles is the tendonous extension of 3 muscles in the lower leg:...
s in a car accident. He later drifted to Mexico, where in 1925 he began making plans to organize a professional league. When American League president Ban Johnson
Ban Johnson
Byron Bancroft "Ban" Johnson , was an American executive in professional baseball who served as the founder and first president of the American League ....
got word of it, however, he pressured Mexican authorities to deport Chase.
Chase spent the rest of his life drifting between Arizona and his native California, working numerous low-paying jobs. Later in life, he expressed considerable remorse for betting on baseball. He died in a Colusa hospital at the age of 64.
Chase defensively
In his day, Hal Chase was almost universally considered one of the best fielders in the game—not just at first base, but at any position, even compared to catchers and middle infielders. In his Historical Baseball Abstract, Bill JamesBill James
George William “Bill” James is a baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics...
quotes a poem entitled "You Can't Escape 'Em":
Sometimes a raw recruit in spring is not a pitching find;
He has not Walter Johnson
Walter Johnson
Walter Perry Johnson , nicknamed "Barney" and "The Big Train", was a Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He played his entire 21-year baseball career for the Washington Senators...
's wing, nor Matty
Christy Mathewson
Christopher "Christy" Mathewson , nicknamed "Big Six", "The Christian Gentleman", or "Matty", was an American Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. He played his entire career in what is known as the dead-ball era...
's wonderous mind.
He does not act like Harold Chase upon the fielding job,
But you may find in such a case, he hits like Tyrus Cobb
Ty Cobb
Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb , nicknamed "The Georgia Peach," was an American Major League Baseball outfielder. He was born in Narrows, Georgia...
.
Douglas Dewey and Nicholas Acocella's book on Chase, The Black Prince Of Baseball, talks about Chase's defensive abilities at length. He apparently made many spectacular plays that burnished his reputation as a glove wizard, but also committed 402 errors at first in just ten seasons, making his career fielding average only .980, four points below average for the period (since Chase was known to throw games, it's impossible to know how many of these misplays were intentional).
A more recent work by Bill James, Win Shares
Win Shares
Win shares is the name of the metric Bill James describes in his 2002 book Win Shares.It considers statistics for baseball and basketball players, in the context of their team and in a sabermetric way, and assigns a single number to each player for his contributions for the year. A win share...
, suggested Chase was only a C-grade defensive player at first base. Analyst Sean Smith says on the Baseball-Reference.com website that Chase was actually below average defensively, costing his teams 65 runs versus an average first baseman. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/chaseha01.shtml
Quotes
- On why he bet on baseball: "I wasn't satisfied with what the club owners paid me. Like others, I had to have a bet on the side and we used to bet with the other team and the gamblers who sat in the boxes. It was easy to get a bet. Sometimes collections were hard to make. Players would pass out IOUs and often be in debt for their entire salaries. That wasn't a healthy condition. Once the evil started there was no stopping it, and club owners were not strong enough to cope with the evil."
- On his legacy: "You note that I am not in the Hall of Fame. Some of the old-timers said I was one of the greatest fielding first basemen of all time. When I die, movie magnates will make no picture like Pride of the Yankees, which honored that great player, Lou GehrigLou GehrigHenry Louis "Lou" Gehrig , nicknamed "The Iron Horse" for his durability, was an American Major League Baseball first baseman. He played his entire 17-year baseball career for the New York Yankees . Gehrig set several major league records. He holds the record for most career grand slams...
. I guess that's the answer, isn't it? Gehrig had a good name; one of the best a man could have. I am an outcast, and I haven't a good name. I'm the loser, just like all gamblers are. I lived to make great plays. What did I gain? Nothing. Everything was lost because I raised hell after hours. I was a wise guy, a know-it-all, I guess."