Although they are largely forgotten now, the 1922 Browns were different. The Browns won at a .604 clip and led the league in many offensive categories, including batting average, slugging percentage, runs scored, triples, stolen bases, and walks. The Browns also led the league in most of the important pitching stats, including team ERA, strikeouts and saves. In '22, the Browns had a .420 hitter (Hall-of-Famer First Basemen George Sisler, who won the American League batting title that year), the American League's Home Run leader (Left Fielder Ken Williams), and a 24 game winning pitcher with the wonderful name of Urban Shocker. Yet somehow, the Browns finished one game behind the Yankees for the American League pennant, due in no small part to several close calls and wacky incidents involving Eddie Foster. This is the story of the Browns' and Eddie's close calls.
In 1922, Eddie Foster was a 34 year old veteran infielder who had been playing baseball of varying degrees of professionalism for at least 17 years. Foster had played most of his big league career in Washington, until he was sent to Boston in 1920. Generously listed at 5'6" tall, Eddie was known as a slap hitter who was especially good at placing the ball in hit and run situations. Foster led the league in at bats four different times and finished in the top ten for hits in a season four different times as well. Foster even had a twenty one game hitting streak in 1918, which was the longest consecutive game hitting streak in the league that season. Eddie was possibly even better known as a slick fielder who regularly bare handed balls to throw out runners in time. Four different years, Eddie finished in the top ten in the league in fielding percentage. Hall-of-Fame pitcher Walter "Big Train" Johnson was said to have credited much of his early success as a pitcher to Foster's defense behind him.
In mid-August of 1922, with St. Louis a half game ahead of New York in the standings, Browns veteran third basemen Frank "Governor"² Ellerbe suffered a serious leg injury that would keep him out of the lineup for almost all of the rest of the season. The Browns desperately needed a third basemen, so on August 14th, 1922, Ellerbe's old Washington teammate Eddie Foster was acquired on waivers by the Browns from the Boston Red Sox. While playing for Washington in 1919, Ellerbe and Foster had roomed together on road trips, and Ellerbe shared this colorful anecdote about rooming with Eddie on hot summer nights:
"Nights were just as hot as the daytime, the hot air coming off those wheat fields out there in the West. Anyway, why Eddie was just stripped naked and turned the bathtub full of water as cool as he could get it. He jumped in the bathtub and jumped back in bed. I said: 'Eddie, you're going to wet that bed all over.' 'Yeah, Gov, it'll dry off too quick (to matter)!' ... Two or three (times) a night some times, he'd jump in that tub and then jump back in bed."³
Although still considered a very solid ballplayer, Eddie was definitely closer to the end of his career than he was to the beginning. All those years playing baseball had undoubtedly taken a physical toll on him, because Foster had spent much of the first 2/3 of his 1922 season with Boston on the bench. The aches and pains evidently bothered him enough that Foster was reported to have said before that 1922 would be his last season as a regular player. While complimenting his skills, one St. Louis sportswriter opined that "The main trouble with Eddie is that he is naturally lazy, even worse than the average ball player, and is perfectly willing to sit on the bench or coach while the youngsters perform." Browns manager Fohl even told Foster he intended to use him as a team coach in the spring of 1923. Clearly, Foster was in the twilight of his playing career.
However, with the race being so tight and the Browns evidently in great need of a third basemen, St. Louis manager Lee Fohl was reported to be "elated" at Eddie Foster's signing and said he would start him at third base as soon as he reported to the team. Sports pages around the country generally lauded Eddie's acquisition. St. Louis sportswriter L.C. Davis even devoted his weekly poem to Eddie's acquisition:
"The Brownies, determined to capture the flag
Have added a guy to their roster
To plug up the hole at the difficult bag
None other than old Eddie Foster
Although he may not be a Frisch or a Groh
He's clever and steady as infielders go
The Brownies went into the enemy's camp
And got him on waivers from Boston
And few men are possessed of three men of the stamp
Of Ellerbe, Foster and Austin
Though one is a cripple and one is passe
Of infielding talent they're quite an array
In lieu of a national bank or a mine
The Brownies secured him by waiver
And thousands of customers freely opine
That Eddie will be a life saver
The purchase involving no bundle of swag
They cannot accuse us of buying the flag."⁴
No doubt getting to play every day on a pennant contender reinvigorated the "ancient legs" of Eddie Foster. Eddie's first game with the '22 Browns came in his old stomping grounds in Washington on August 16th, where he was cheered loudly at his first at bat. In the second inning, he came to bat again with runners at first and third. According to one of the St. Louis papers' recap, Eddie took a first pitch strike while assuming a batting stance that indicated he was going to try to slap the ball to the right base side, a favorite trick of Foster whenever a runner was on at first. On the next pitch, the runner at first started for 2nd and, when the shortstop moved to cover 2nd, Eddie switched his batting stance back and slapped the ball through the shortstop's vacated position, "completely outwitting the wily" [Washington shortstop] "Roger" [Peckinpaugh]. One indication that he was excited to be playing was that, in his first 28 at bats in Washington and later at Philadelphia, Eddie had 11 hits and three walks. In a doubleheader in Philadelphia on August 19th, on his third day with the team, Foster had five hits and two walks in ten plate appearances.
No doubt a big factor in Eddie's hitting success with the Browns was where he batted in the lineup. As soon as he reported to the team, Manager Fohl had Eddie batting second in front of Hall-of-Famer George Sisler, who batted third. In 1922, George Sisler had maybe the greatest season any Major League hitter has ever had. Not only did he bat .420 for the season, Sisler also set what was then a Major League record hitting streak of 41 straight games (later famously broken by Joe DiMaggio) AND would have broken his own record for most hits in a 154 game season had he not been injured.⁵ And as great a hitter as Gorgeous George was, Sisler was maybe even better defensively. The Sizzler is broadly considered one of the greatest defensive first baseman in the history of the league. He was particularly well known for making athletic catches of throws that weren't necessarily right on line. To paraphrase Eddie Foster, "When Sisler is covering first it's pretty hard to throw 'em where he ain't." A testament to Sisler's defensive prowess is that his statue in front of Busch Stadium in St. Louis does not feature him batting; he's fielding.
Eddie continued to play well in the Browns' next series in Boston, where he got another standing ovation at his first at bat, and, according to the Boston Globe, "played a whale of a game at third." According to the St. Louis Star on August 24th:
"Our late Eddie Foster just rounds out the Fohl quartet. He isn't the fastest chap in the world, but he knows where to play the batters, what to do with the ball when he gets it, and he doesn't flinch when the apple comes at him with a lot of zip attached.
Getting Edward for the waiver price was about the smartest thing that one L. Fohl has done in a flock of moons."
Foster got five hits in the Boston series, before getting pulled for a pinch runner in the third game when he "pulled a charley horse." Probably not coincidentally, this is the day that Foster told the newspapers that 1922 would be his last season as an everyday player.
Up a half game in the standings on August 25th, the Browns came to New York for a critical four game series with the Yankees. Eddie continued to do well at the plate and in the field, despite not feeling well. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
"Eddie Foster hopped and hobbled about the field with all the enthusiasm of a boy mascot. If the Browns were not playing the Yanks at this time Foster would be out of the game, resting an injured right foot, but with every game counting heavily in the race for the championship, he remains in the line-up as long as he has strength to run down to first base."
This was a big series. It should be noted here that the American League pennant race of' '22 was the closest pennant race in may years. According to newspaper accounts, there were large crowds on hand at the Polo Grounds for the first two games, fans at one point even coming through the fence and standing on the field, which was evidently customary at the time. Newspapers in St. Louis and New York devoted a lot of coverage in their papers to the series.
The Yankees won big the next day, putting the Browns now a half game back. Sunday's game was rained out, so the critical fourth and final game of the series was moved to Monday the 28th. That day's game was a nail biting extra inning affair that would produce the first of what author Eddie Godin refers to as "Eddie Foster incidents." In the top of the 10th, with the score tied 1-1, Eddie Foster came to bat with men on first and second and two outs. He then roped a double down the left field line that bounced once and rolled all the way to the left field wall, scoring the man at second and giving the Browns the lead. However, as Eddie reached 2nd, the umpire ruled that the ball was foul. Browns manager Lee Fohl, who was standing in the third base coaching box, raised sand with the umpire and argued for a long time, but to no avail. Foster then popped out to end the threat. Years later, George Sisler was quoted as saying "I can still see in my mind where the ball hit. It was a fair ball."
Losing the series in New York put the Browns a game and a half out of first. The Browns then continued on their road trip to Cleveland, where they took two out of three, before dropping another one run game in extra innings. The Browns then went to Detroit. The Browns won the first two games, with Foster hitting a double and then scoring the winning run in the second game of the series. The third game of the Detroit series would feature another "Eddie Foster incident." In the top of the 11th, with the score tied, the bases loaded and two out, Eddie hit a ball down the left field line again that looked sure to drop. However, Detroit's left fielder made a sensational bare handed catch, robbing Foster of what would have likely been a bases clearing double and a game winner. The Tigers won and the Browns went two games back of the Yankees.
"That they have maintained their steady pace and have refused to be discouraged by 'bad breaks' is a great tribute to their cool courage... McManus, Gerber, Foster and Ken Williams are more noticeable in their battling, perhaps, but the whole club is working together with just one object in view - the Ban Johnson pennant for 1922."
The pennant race was doing wonders for Eddie's game. Local sportswriters continued to sing hosannas to Foster. One paen to Eddie in the Post-Dispatch's September 4th edition was titled "Foster a Life Saver":
"Eddie Foster has been to the Browns in the past two weeks what Joe Dugan has been to the Yanks. He has won ball games and he has kept the other fellow from winning.
Foster is one of the smartest batters in the game. Infielders declare that with a man on bases [and] Foster up they have to think fast and keep their heads if they hope to break up his hit and run. He will, if he gets a fair share of good luck, show the fans something new in the art of punching the ball through the infield. Foster is playing as fine a game as he ever played in his career of a decade."
Picture Caption: From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 8/27/22, p. 18. The caption underneath says "Veterans all, but still wonders in their way. Left to right: 'Pepper' Jim Austin, whose chatter at third when he's in the game, is inspiring to hear: Lee Fohl, the year's Miracle Man among managers: Eddie Foster, whose acquisition filled a serious gap at third. Note the typical Boston crowd in the background." LOL
The Browns returned to St. Louis for a season ending home stand. Their first day back was a doubleheader against Cleveland on Labor Day. A large crowd gave Eddie a standing ovation on his first at bat in town, and Foster rewarded them with scintillating play in the field. According to the Post-Dispatch:
"Foster romped around on his ancient legs like a spring chicken. And he won a home in the hearts of the fans. In each game he turned his back to the plate and raced toward the pavilion⁶ to capture a long foul as it was dropping over his shoulders."
Foster also had the play of the day. According to the Post-Dispatch again in a section of the game recap titled "Foster's Arm Still There":
"Eddie raced over to the foul line and stopped with his bare hand a hot grounder off the bat of Joe Wood⁷. Without stopping to set himself, Foster whirled and let the ball go. Sisler fastened a spike in the bag and leaned far out and to the side and turned the star play of the day into a putout."
As previously mentioned, Eddie Foster liked to bare hand baseballs. At any rate, the Browns won both games of the doubleheader that day handily. The next day, the Browns got out to a seven run lead, but then more high drama for Eddie Foster and his squad would ensue. I'll let L.C. Davis, in another of his poems in the Post-Dispatch, describe the Browns come back from there:
"The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Brownie boys that day,
The Indians had uprisen in a most ferocious way.
They donned their paint and feather and unlimbered all their guns
And overwhelmed the Brownies who had led by seven runs.
Then from ten thousand throats or more there issued urgent pleas,
Five thousand had the willies and the rest had heart disease.
Then up stepped Patrick Collins in the semifinal frame
And landing on the leather put the Brownies in the game.
When a sacrifice by Tobin had advanced pinch runner Durst
On a "hit-by-pitcher," Foster took a journey down to first.
Then "Sis" beat out a bounder putting a man on every base
Then Williams flied to Connelly sending Durst across the plate.
And when the dust had settled there was Foster hugging third,
While to a pitch of frenzy all the customers were stirred.
On Sewell's chuck to center Eddie Foster crossed the pan
And the Yanks were running second while the Browns were in the van."
"And when [Detroit Tigers pitcher Howard] Ehmke had two strikes on Eddie Foster there was a mad rush for the exits. 'We'll have to make it all up during the Yankee series,' was the tune the crowd sang as it started to depart.
Foster Shows His Nerve
But Foster was not yet through. He stood up there at the plate as confidently, as earnestly as if the winning run had been on third. He fouled off several and struck at not a single bad pitch. Umpire Guthrie, very new and unpolished at the business, called a ball six inches outside the plate a strike, but even that did not take away Foster's ability to wait 'em out. With the call three and two Foster displayed remarkable will power and daring. The ball curved over and was so near the plate that there would have been no dispute if Guthrie had waved Foster out. But he moved not his right arm and Guthrie waved Foster to first."
Sisler then came up next and smashed a triple to the wall in right center, scoring Eddie Foster from first and tying the score. Pandemonium ensued at Sportsman's Park, the crowd becoming a "howling, insane mob." Per the Post-Dispatch again:
"The score was tied, air was full of straw hats, cushions, newspapers and whatever else the frenzied spectators happened to have in their hands.
Spectators on the field raced about kicking straw hats to pieces as fast as they were thrown out by those in the stands. Cushions were hurled back to the stands and promptly returned. Men beat each other on the back and women threw their arms around strange men, their men, anybody's man. A woman in the upper grand stand cheered so loud or felt her joy so keenly that tears streamed down her cheeks."
The Browns then loaded the bases and Sisler was eventually sent home with the winning run by Browns second basemen Marty McManus on a base hit up the middle. Although Sisler "effectively ended straw hat season in St. Louis" that day, the Browns' win turned out to be a pyhrric victory since Sisler had injured his shoulder earlier in the game reaching for an errant throw at first. Gorgeous George would be out of the lineup for the next four games and would not be himself for the rest of the season. His shoulder bothered him so bad that he had to use two hands to catch the ball from then on, warning his teammates not to throw the ball low under any circumstances. The injury would have almost certainly robbed Sisler of much of his hitting power as well, which is especially galling considering Sisler had hit in his 40th consecutive game that day. Even more than the "Eddie Foster incidents" and other close calls throughout the course of the season, Sisler's injury was probably the biggest factor in the Browns ultimately finishing second. Even without Sisler, the Browns pulled out the last game of the Detroit series and still managed to take two of three from hapless Boston and were now only a half game back in the standings.
Picture Caption: Goofing Off At Work, 1922 Edition. He's singing into a victrola while the boss is coming around the corner. From the St. Louis Star, 9/12/22, p. 16.
"Everywhere you go you hear such questions. The barber asks the customer, the elevator man asks the newsboy, bank tellers can't cash a check without some gloomy or optimistic remarks. The butcher boy talks so much baseball he brings you the liver meant for the the neighbor's bull pup. Caddies aren't worth their hire. They gather under each tree and are so busy arguing about the Browns that they lose a ball on every fairway. Conductors are so busy craning their necks at sports finals that they don't notice if you gave them last week's transfer or drop a cent into the box instead of a token.
Baseball and the Browns have taken hold of the city. From now until the affair is settled one way or the other everything must be relegated to the classification of non-essential industry."
Picture Captions: Top: From the St. Louis Star and Times, 9/16/22, p. 4. Bottom: From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 9/18/22, p. 1. Late in his career, Eddie Foster was a very religious fellow, so much so that his Boston teammates nicknamed him "Deacon Foster." They even had pennant fever at church. I bet Sunday School was packed that day!
The stage was now set for the Yankees to come to St. Louis on Saturday, September 16th for a three game series which sportswriters would dub "The Little World Series." No St. Louis team had ever won a pennant to that date, so in the midst of a very close race, fan interest was naturally intense. Lines formed at the ticket booth at 6:00 in the morning for a mid-afternoon game. Tickets were being scalped for more than $100.00, a large sum at the time. Back then, Sportsman's Park was configured to hold a capacity crowd of 18,000; for the Yankee series, around 30,000 would be on hand in the stadium each day, sitting and standing literally anywhere they could find a space. Practically the entire St. Louis police force was called in an attempt at crowd control. In the stadium, fan booster clubs passed out cowbells and small cheerleader megaphones. The crowd no doubt put the noisemakers to work when they saw Sisler come to bat in the first.
Picture Caption: Top: From the 9/16/22 St. Louis Star, p. 2. "This picture, which shows only a part of the line, was taken at 8:00 A.M." Bottom 3 Panes: From the St. Louis Star and Times, 9/17/22, p. 3. Notice the fans seated on the field and the cheerleaders in the top frame, and also the idiots sitting on the roof of the right field pavilion and the public address announcer announcing the lineups through a "megaphone" at home plate in the bottom frame. "The din was terrific" was undoubtedly an understatement. The cheerleaders led the crowd in cheers that were similar to the cheers of college student sections at football games.
Game 1 of the Yankee series was a pitchers' duel. The Browns offense got baserunners on, but had trouble pushing them across. In the bottom of the ninth, with the Browns trailing the Yankees 2-1, Eddie Foster came to bat. According to the front page recap of the game in the St. Louis Star the next day:
"Foster, the Brownie third basemen, hit a fly ball toward center field. [Whitey] Witt, the center fielder, and [Bob] Meusel, right fielder, raced to catch it. For a moment, it seemed destined to be a safe hit. Then, like a flash, Meusel was under it. Witt ran to back him up."
At about the time Meusel caught the ball, Yankee center fielder Whitey Witt was hit in the head by a soda pop bottle thrown from the outfield bleachers. Witt fell to the ground, bleeding and unconscious. Pandemonium then ensued as teammates, police and spectators swarmed around Witt. Witt was then carried unconscious from the field back to the dugout for medical attention. He eventually came to and was diagnosed by the team doctors with a "mild" concussion. Play eventually resumed, but the crowd's enthusiasm had waned noticeably, with many fans, if the newspaper accounts are to be believed, then rooting for the Yankees to just finish the game off quickly, which they duly did.
The pop bottle incident was front page, above the fold news across the country. Large cash rewards were offered for the identity of the bottle thrower. A ten year old boy later came forward and admitted to getting "too excited" and throwing the bottle, claiming he meant no ill intent. The lucky boy avoided serious trouble. Browns fans were embarrassed and sensitive about their image afterwards, which no doubt explains why one of the umpires that day, Billy Evans, felt the need to say "I do not think anyone should take the act as representative of the attitude of the crowd."⁸
The Browns rode the strong pitching of Hub Pruett⁹ to beat the Yankees the next day to get back to within a half game in the standings. The all important third game of the series was another one run game. Eddie Foster was hitless that day. The Yankees came back and took the lead in the top of the 9th. When the last hitter flied out, Sportsman's Park got deathly quiet and the Browns fell back to a game and half back.
The Yankees series took the wind out of the Browns' sails. The Senators came to town next for a three game series. Hall-of-Fame pitcher Walter "Big Train" Johnson was on the mound for the Senators. Eddie managed to get two hits off of his old teammate, "but both of his raps were wasted for lack of punch in the pinch." The Browns led 2-1 going into the top of the 9th, but the Senators scored 3 runs in the 9th and ultimately won 4-3. This loss put the Browns two games back. The now thoroughly disheartened Browns then lost to the Senators again the next day, which was unfortunate, considering the Yankees also lost both days.
Afterwards, the Browns went on to win six of their last seven games, but it wasn't enough, as the Yankees clinched the American League pennant on the next to the last day of the season. How close were the Browns? From mid August through the end of September, the Browns were 4-10 in one run games. If they could've won even just one of those one run games, they'd have tied the Yankees in the standings. As it was, the Giants went on to sweep the Yankees in the World Series, which was played entirely in the Polo Grounds. Yankee Stadium, a/k/a "The House That Ruth Built," would not be opened until the next year. Many in St. Louis felt strongly that the Browns would've given the Giants a better series.
Sportswriters and fans in St. Louis assumed that the Browns would be right back in contention the next season. However, in the winter of 22/23, George Sisler came down with a bad case of influenza. After Sisler underwent minor surgery to clear his nasal passages in the spring of '23, his eyesight was affected and more surgery was eventually required to correct his vision. As a result of the surgeries, Sisler missed the entire 1923 season and the Browns finished in the bottom half of the league. Instead, it would be the Cardinals who beat the vaunted Yankees in 1925 and forever afterwards, St. Louis would be a Cardinals town. The Browns eventually did win the American League in 1944, but then lost the World Series to the Cardinals (of course). In 1953, the Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles, the only team of that era to move their franchise East rather than West.
Despite saying 1922 would be his last season playing ball, Eddie Foster came back for the 1923 season after all. Just as he had been promised, he mostly coached in the spring as the team toured the south playing exhibition games against Texas League teams. According to a write up in the March 16th edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "Eddie Foster, the veteran third sacker, has not engaged in any of the fielding practices so far. Eddie devotes all his time to instructing the new comers bidding for the hot corner job and slipping pointers to Frank Ellerbe, who is Foster's roomy." However, as it became clear that Sisler would not be in the lineup for the opening game of the season, and when it became apparent that the rookies the Browns had brought in for training camp were not ready, Foster wound up being forced into significant playing time. With his body wearing down and without Sisler batting behind him, Foster's numbers dipped and his playing time eventually dwindled. Eddie retired at the end of the '23 season. A solid career would end without an appearance in the World Series, but, for at least one season, Foster and the Browns got close. It was almost the right time.
Hey thanks for reading. Some footnotes and a bibliography can be found below if you're still awake.
Footnotes:
- St. Louis was the home of the Brown Shoe Company, the largest shoe manufacturer in the world at that time.
- Frank Ellerbe, who played football and baseball at both Sewanee and Wofford, was nicknamed "Governor" because his father, William Haselden Ellerbe, had been governor of South Carolina from 1897 to 1899. William Ellerbe died when Frank was three years old.
- From p. 131 and 132 of Godin's book about the 1922 season. See Bibliography for book details below.
- The "They cannot accuse us of buying the flag" quote can be explained as follows: Then, as now, much of the hated New York Yankees' success was due to their superior financial resources, which they used to vastly outspend the competition to get the best talent. Just prior to the Yankees series with the Browns in August, for instance, the Yankees needed an outfielder, so they spent a great deal of money and got Eddie Foster's former Red Sox teammate, "Jumping" Joe Dugan (nicknamed "Jumping Joe" because Dugan had the habit of just leaving, or "jumping" from a team whenever he got unhappy. I guess the Yankees' money made him happy). The Yankees' practice of throwing money at ballplayers was considered so unsporting at the time that local St. Louis businessmen and other St. Louis luminaries wrote letters of protest to League Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis.
- Ichiro Suzuki broke Sisler's single season hitting record in 2004, but, asterisk*, Ichiro did it in a 162 game season and also had more at bats through 154 games due to Sisler sitting out games in his hit record season of 1922. To be fair, though, Ichiro acknowledges this and reveres Sisler. Ichiro even made a point of visiting George Sisler's grave in 2009 while Ichiro was in St. Louis for the All-Star Game. UNRELATED EDITORIAL NOTE: I love Ichiro.
- Sportsman's Park in St. Louis had a covered area (areas?) in or near the outfield in the corner (corners?) called the pavilion (Was there more than one pavilion? I'm not really sure, and I couldn't find that information easily).
- Cleveland pitcher "Smoky" Joe Wood got his name because his fastballs had smoke on them. Joe Wood was one of only a handful of pitchers to win 30 games in a season. 1922 was his final season (and incidentally, his best as a batter). Wood's style of throwing the baseball put a lot of strain on his arm, causing him to be injured often. It is generally considered by baseball experts that Wood would have been a Hall-of-Famer had it not been for his injuries.
- Sidebar: Billy Evans was umpiring a game in St. Louis in 1907 when he had been hit in the head by a full soda bottle. His skull was fractured and he was unconscious for 72 hours. He was unconscious for three days!!!!!! How did ol' boy even live through that? Anyway, the bottle thrower that day was also a kid and Evans refused to press charges, so that bottle thrower was another lucky boy. Umpire Davis was a brave fellow to continue umpiring games in St. Louis. Under the circumstances, he was mighty charitable in his disposition toward the St. Louis crowd too. Fun Fact: Apparently, Billy Evans had a newspaper column called "Billy Evans Says." After Eddie Foster's retirement was announced, Umpire Evans devoted an entire column to Eddie on January 5th, 1924, lauding Eddie as "one of the finest characters that has ever graced the major leagues." Evans lauded Foster's honesty in the column, pointing out that Foster had been one of the few men to know that a former Yankee teammate, a pitcher named Russell Ford, used an emery board to scuff the baseball to get better movement on his pitches. When Foster batted against Ford later in his career in a game, he struck out three times, but never told on or complained about Ford's emery board. Evans went on to say "Those three strikeouts would have been enough for many a player to have told the truth to the heavens. However, Foster, in confidence, had been told how Ford was making the ball act up and he was loyal to that confidence. For three years while Ford was going big guns, Eddie Foster, on another team, with a full knowledge of the secret of Ford's success, kept his peace." My great-grandfather wasn't a snitch!
- Hubert "Shucks" Pruett was a college student at the University of Missouri at the time (he was nicknamed "Shucks" because that's the worse "swear" word he would say). Shucks played baseball to pay for his college and later medical school education. Pruett later became a gynecologist in the St. Louis area. The Yankees' lone run in the game on the 17th was on a Babe Ruth home run, which is ironic considering that the Browns pitched Pruett on the 17th because Babe Ruth had a hard time hitting his pitches. In 1948, just prior to Ruth's death, then Dr. Pruett bumped into Ruth in St. Louis and told the Babe something like "Thanks for keeping me in the league," to which Ruth replied something like "If there had been more pitchers like you, I wouldn't have stayed in the league."
Bibliography:
Borst, Bill. St. Louis Browns: The Story of a Beloved Team. Reedy Press LLC, 2017.
Godin, Roger A. The 1922 St. Louis Browns - Best of the American League's Worst. McFarland, 1991.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspapers, August and September 1922, accessed via newspapers.com
St. Louis Star And Times newspapers, August and September 1922, accessed via newspapers.com
https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/SLB/1922-schedule-scores.shtml and baseball-reference in general.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_St._Louis_Browns and just Wikipedia generally.
