Looking at the numbers, Otis Lawry played in a total of 71
games for the 1916-17 Philadelphia Athletics. He was born in Maine in 1893, and
attended the University of Maine, then joined Philadelphia in June 1916. The
1916 Athletics were one of the worst major league teams ever, so he got into 41
games as a poor-hitting (no extra-base hits), error-prone second baseman who
played a little outfield. In 1917 he hit even worse, playing in 30 games,
mostly off the bench. Seemingly in over his head, he never played in the majors
again.
But there is of course more to Otis’ story than that, but I
can’t find it written anywhere, so I’ll take a stab at it.
The first trace of Otis that I can find is in the Boston Herald of May 22, 1904, when he
was ten years old. He was one of a list of winners who gave the correct answer
to the Prize Puzzle Picture in the newspaper’s children’s section. He chose the
Fielder’s Mitt for his prize, over such choices as Fielder’s Glove, Catcher’s
Mitt, Baseball, Bat, Mask, Bat Bag, Club Bat Bag, Score Book, Ankle Supporter,
Wrist Supporter, Boy’s Watch, Ping Pong Set, Telescope, Camera, Air Rifle,
Writing Desk, Boxing Gloves, Burnt Wood Outfit, Magic Lantern, Whitely
Exerciser, Po-lo-lo [?], Soldiers on Parade, Halma, Pocket Knife, Sewing
Machine, Pit, Iron Train, Steamboat, Train on Track, Umbrella, Magneto, Medical
Induction Coil, Bell Outfit, Passepartout Set, Work Box, Typewriter, Hammock,
and many more.
In the 1910 census, when Otis was sixteen, he was listed as
a salesman in a drug store, while his father Silas was the manager of a
furniture shop.
At the University of Maine Otis led the team in batting
average for three years, playing second base and shortstop, and becoming the
team captain. In his sophomore year the school annual included the line “Why
does Mr. Otis Lawry wish to take Ancient History with the Freshman class?” The
meaning of the joke is no doubt lost to time. In 1915, after his junior year,
there was a report that Pat Moran of the Phillies was interested in him and
would meet with him during the World Series, but nothing came of that. His
senior annual stated that his major was chemistry and his nickname was “Rabbit”
and had this description of him:
Not "Rabbit" Maranville but his understudy. This little red-headed runt broke into the lime light very soon and has not stopped yet. He is leaving a record behind that will never be broken for some time to come. He never used to care for the fair sex, but since coming to college he has changed his attitude about 360 degrees, and now he can’t keep away from them. Bangor is his favorite stamping ground, but just whereabouts we do not know. If you wish to find out for yourself ask him. [If he changed his attitude 360 degrees, wouldn’t that put him back where he started?]
In April 1916 he signed a contract with Connie Mack of the
Athletics, reporting to the team in June after graduation. Big things were
expected of him. One report that June said “Lawry is a secondbaseman, a track
athlete and a dead ringer for Eddie Collins, in both appearance and his style
of play.” It was widely reported when former major leaguer Monte Cross, who had
become the Maine baseball coach in 1916, said “I am not exaggerating when I say
that Lawry is the fastest man who ever wore a baseball shoe.”
On July 3 it was reported that Otis was getting over
tonsillitis, and apparently that wasn’t the only health issue he had to deal
with, as on September 23 he was referred to as “Otis Lawry, a brilliant
collegian, who has been prevented by illness and injuries from demonstrating
his true worth as a second baseman.” Apparently his poor 1916 showing was
attributed to his health problems and his stock was still high. After the
season, a Vermont newspaper stated “Young Otis Lawry of Connie Mack’s Athletics
is now considered one of the speediest men in the game, getting to first base.
Whenever the former University of Maine infielder believes he has a chance of
getting to first head of the ball he never hesitates in sliding into the base.
When the Athletic pilot completes the reconstruction of his team it is a pretty
safe bet that young Lawry will be among the members of the new machine.”
During spring training in 1917 there was a report that Otis
had twisted his ankle, and then a Philadelphia paper had this to say about him:
“Oats" is the smallest man on the squad and looks as if he could exist a couple of days on a ham sandwich. He seems to be an enemy of all food, but that is in appearance only. Lawry can outeat any man on the club. His appetite is enormous and four or five meals a day are nothing in his young life. The other knife and fork athletes run for cover and turn green with envy when they hear him in action. "Oats" enjoys his food, but he has another motive in using his appetite. He has a desire to become robust and weigh more than 138 pounds. He is determined to put on more weight this season and assume the graceful lines of Ping Bodie. The only thing that can stop him is a kink in his eating arm and the high cost of living.
Each pound that he adds to his calf and shoulders will give him just that more leverage when he takes his bat from his hip for a swing at the pill. For this reason the other A’s do not so much begrudge the young eater the inroads he makes in the food. The only thing they fear is that his gnawing pangs of hunger may result in puffiness and a clouding of the batting eye.
Otis was the starting second baseman for the Athletics for the first five games of the 1917 season, during which time he had a batting average of .105 (and an on-base percentage of .105, and a slugging percentage of .105). After that he didn’t play much, and when he did it was off the bench, except for a four-game stretch in June. In August he went home to Maine for his military physical, but he was rejected, and the fact of his rejection was published in dozens of newspapers—though it was never reported what the reason was. On August 16 it was reported that he had been released to the Baltimore Orioles of the International League, though he got into one more game with the A’s on August 20, pinch-hitting and driving in a run on a squeeze play. In 29 games with the Orioles he hit .396, then he went back to Philadelphia and got into five more games in late September.
On Christmas 1917 Otis married Clara Heath. In mid-January
1918 there were two stories involving him. One was that after the completion of
a trade he was now the permanent property of the Orioles, and the other was
that he was teaching math at a seminary in his home town and was retiring from
baseball. But that didn’t stick, and at the end of February it was said that
the Cincinnati Reds were interested in him. Instead he played second base for
the Orioles, had a good year (“considered the International League’s leading
baserunner last year and one of the cleverest infielders ever to play in this
city”), and at the end of the season was drafted by the Detroit Tigers. But the
Tigers never paid Baltimore the draft price and he reverted to the Orioles,
where for the 1919 season he was moved to the outfield, a move he was in favor
of, thinking it would help his hitting. He did hit .364 that year, with 13
triples, though very few doubles or homers, and the Orioles won the first of
what would be seven consecutive International League pennants; Otis seems to
have spent a good chunk of August in Maine due to an illness his wife had.
In 1920 he played in a career-high 153 games, and through 1923 he was a solid-hitting regular outfielder for the pennant-winning Orioles. The 1920 census shows Otis, Clara, and their two-month-old son living with Otis’s parents and twenty-year-old brother, with Otis listed as a ballplayer and Silas as a manufacturer of wood tables. In 1921 he spent some time in the hospital after being hit in the back of the head by a throw, and a month after that he was scheduled to have a 100-yard race against Maurice Archdeacon of Rochester. Also that year there was a rumor that he would be going to the New York Giants, and in 1923 there was a similar rumor about the Red Sox. In June of 1924 he was traded to Jersey City, also in the International League, but there was a delay in his reporting there due to another one of his wife’s illnesses. In Jersey City he was moved back to second base.
In 1925 there were more rumors that the Red Sox and the Braves were interested in the now-31-year-old Otis, but instead he was unable to agree to a contract with Jersey City and went home to Maine, where he managed a semi-pro team in his home town. In 1926 he continued to hold out, and in June his rights were sold to Toronto of the International League (“For some unaccountable reason Otis is said to be willing to play in Toronto and not in Jersey City.”—The Jersey Journal). He played in 82 games for Toronto, mainly at second base. Early in the 1927 season he was traded from Toronto to Rochester, where he hit .316, mostly back in the outfield. In 1928 he ended up back with Jersey City, though even after signing a contract he fought with the club about the date on which he would report to spring training, as he wanted to stay in Maine, tending his general store, as long as possible. He missed some time in June with a sprained wrist, and in July, after hitting just .246 in 73 games as the Jersey City second baseman, and suffering from neuritis, he was released.
In the 1930 census Otis and Clara are still in Fairfield but
no longer living with his parents. They have five sons ranging from ten years
to fifteen months and an eighteen-year-old servant girl, and Otis is listed as
the proprietor of a tobacco store. In 1940 he is a liquor store auditor. In
1948 there is notice of the birth of a son to Mr. and Mrs. Otis C. Lawry of
Fairfield, but this baby would be the grandson of our Otis. I found no more
news of our Otis until his death in 1965, just short of his 72nd
birthday.
No comments:
Post a Comment