Skip to main content

Sunday School: History Lesson 3

Another Sunday, another lesson. This week, we'll talk about a premiere slugger from the Deadball Era, Gavvy Cravath. Clifford "Gavvy" Cravath joined the Phillies in 1912, when he was 31 years old. The "Deadball Era" was a stretch in the early 1900's, when pitchers were known to throw many trick pitches and games were regularly played with a single mis-shapened ball. These factors made hitting for distance quite a challenge.

Gavvy was a rightfielder. He batted right and threw right. Born on March 23, 1881, Gavvy became the first major leaguer from the San Diego area. While playing ball in his younger days in California, Cravath picked up his nickname by hitting a seagull (which is gaviota in Spanish) with a batted ball.

Gavvy's pro career began with the Angels of the Pacific Coast League. He made his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox in 1908. Prior to that season, Cravath's contract had been sold to Boston, where he bacame a 27-year-old rookie. Then began a series of moves for Gavvy and tough road to Philadelphia. In August of 1908, Gavvy's contract was sold to the Chicago White Sox. In 1909, Cravath started off quite slowly with the White Sox and he was traded to the Washington Senators, who sent Gavvy to the minor league Minneapolis Millers. In 1910 and 1911, Cravath excelled with the Millers, leading the American Association in batting avg., hits, HR, and doubles BOTH seasons.

Rules at the time, made it rather difficult for Gavvy to reach the majors again, and reportedly a clerical error in a telegram was his real ticket to Philadelphia in 1912. He replaced veteran John Titus as the everyday RF. In 1913, Caravath batted .341 with the Phillies and led the NL in hits, homeruns, total bases and RBI.

Cravath led the National League in homeruns 6 times from 1913-1920. In the Phillies' World Series season of 1915, Gavvy led the league in many offensive categories, including HR's and RBI. At the time, Gavvy's 24 homers in 1915 was a MLB record for a single season in the 20th century. The Phillies lost the 1915 World Series to Cravath's former team, the Boston Red Sox in 5 games.

In 1919, Cravath took over as player/manager of our Phils midway through the season. The Phils roster, in those days was quite weak, and two straight last place finishes in 1919 and 1920, led the Phillies to fire Gavvy. He then went on to play and manage two more season in the minors, after which, he retired to his native California, where he later served as a Laguna Beach city judge for more than 35 years.

Comments

IRONPIGPEN said…
My attendance at church and my grades in school would have been much higher would they have spent more time with history lessons like this!

Popular posts from this blog

Lidge Shaky, T-Mac Honored in Trenton

TRENTON, NJ- Brad Lidge made his second rehab appearance for the Double A Reading Phillies on Thursday night and it didn't go as well as the veteran reliever or the team had hoped. Lidge struggled with his command and turned in a rather poor outing for the club that entered the night in a playoff race, 1 game behind division rival Trenton for the Wild Card spot in the Eastern Division. On the disabled list since spring training with a strained right rotator cuff, Lidge experienced an elbow strain when he was working back from that issue in late May. In his outing against the Yankees affiliate in Trenton, Lidge displayed difficulty with his control as he threw three wild pitches, hit two batters, walked another and gave up a single, all while letting up two earned runs on 28 pitches in 2/3 of an inning. After the disappointing performance, Lidge was composed and focused on some positive aspects, having reached 89 and 90 MPH on scouts' radar guns, according to some reports. ...

Jason Knapp Q&A

PhoulBallz .com was fortunate enough to meet with Phillies prospect Jason Knapp just one day after he caught the attention of the baseball world with his 7 shut out innings, 14 strike out performance against the Indians' Lake County team. - I asked Jason, the Lakewood BlueClaw , for some thoughts about his big game... I had pretty good command of three pitches (fastball, curve, change up). I was on the same page with my catcher, D'Arnaud , and I ended up, ya know, I felt pretty good. - In a great performance like that, how much credit goes to Travis D'Arnaud , the catcher? More than you might expect, definitely. I didn't shake him off once. He told me what to throw and I do what I'm told. And if it works out, a lot of the credit goes to the catcher. - Does the lack of run support (Lakewood has scored 3 total runs in his 3 starts), in your few starts, increase your stress level, or enhance your focus? No, I just try to go out and do my job every outing. Ya know, we...

Eric B Needs to be Cut (and My Name is Rakim)

While the Phillies are on a hot streak this month, one player on the team is not. Eric Bruntlett is 1-for-12 in July. Since the start of May, Bruntlett's apex in batting average has been .167 on June 14th. Bruntlett's ineptitude can be tolerated no longer. Get rid of this guy NOW! Eric B. is the 2009 Endy Chavez. Remember Endy...the guy who in 2005 managed just 2 hits in his final 42 games played as a Phillie? That is about the sort of output the Phillies are getting from Bruntlett, and it's time to fix this void. Julio Lugo was designated for assignment last week by the Red Sox and is expected to become a free agent. The Metropolitans are rumored to be interested. Why wouldn't the Phillies be interested in a guy who could surely outhit Bruntlett? Lugo was hitting .284 through 37 games played this season with Boston. Suspended Lehigh Valley IronPig Pablo Ozuna is eligible to return next Wednesday. Ozuna is batting .294 through 51 games at triple A. Miguel Cairo is also...