Slim Embry pitched in one game for the 1923 White Sox.
Charles Akin Embry was born August 17, 1901, in Columbia,
Tennessee, south of Nashville. In the 1910 census the family is living at 1702
Hayes Street in Nashville; father Wiley, 34, born in Tennessee, is a bookkeeper
for the state comptroller, mother Alma is 28, born in Virginia, sister
Elizabeth is 11, and Charles is eight. In the 1920 census, they live at 1403
Greenwood Avenue in Nashville. Wiley and Alma are now 43 and 39, so they’ve
gotten closer in age, and sister Elizabeth A. is now known as Mary E. There’s a
younger sister, Elma, who is eight, and a teenage nephew and niece are also
living with the family. Wiley is now a clerk for the criminal court, Mary E. is
a 20-year-old high school teacher, and 16-year-old nephew John Craige is a
mechanic in a garage. Charles is a student, either just finishing high school
or already at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
The first newspaper mention of Charles (known as “Slim”—he’s
listed online as having been 6-2, 184) I found was in the Parisian of Paris, Tennessee, on Friday, May 20, 1921:
Paris “All Set” For Biggest Baseball Career of Existence
We’re “all set,” said Bob Murray, secretary of the Paris Baseball Club on Wednesday night, following the signing of Carl Eubanks, former Southern league catcher and “Slim Embry” pitcher from the Vanderbilt team, and the City of Paris will soon enter upon its greatest real baseball career with the opening games here next Monday with Hickman. On Friday of this week the team will journey to Hickman for a couple of games, “airin’ out,” so to speak, although it is not expected much of a showing will be made in those two games, because the definite lineup will not have been effected, as it was not planned to start the season until the initial game here next Monday…
Following on the heels of Eubanks will be “Slim” Embry, now pitching for the famous Vanderbilt Commodores. Vanderbilt has won 14 games this season and lost only 4; Slim has been the mainstay. He will not make his contract effective until June 4th, but will probably twirl the apple in the opening game with Dyersburg Thursday of next week.
This must have been an amateur team, since Slim retained his
eligibility to pitch for Vanderbilt. On May 27 the Parisian reported that he was arriving in town that day, and a
month later he was mentioned as winning a game against Hickman, but that was
it. In 1922 the Anniston Star
reported on April 6 that he had pitched a two-hit shutout for Vanderbilt
against Cumberland University, and on April 28 the Athens Red and Black, the school newspaper of the University of
Georgia, reported:
VANDERBILT BRINGS SLUGGING CREW HERE TODAY
…In “Slim” Embry, who will open against the Bulldogs today in the rifle pit for the invaders, the McGuginites have a most effective moundsman. In fact, Mr. Embry, of the elongated structure, has lost just exactly two and no fractions games in this and the past season. The lone brace of decisions lost by the slim person were, one to Mercer, and one to Princeton, both last season. The reader will deduce correctly that Embry is undefeated this season. The struggle he lost to the Princeton nine was played in Princeton, and Embry only yielded the winners three bingles.
Though none of the other Vanderbilt pitchers come up to the pace set by “Slim,” their worth is far from negligible at that…
In fact, Slim had just lost another game to Mercer two days
previously, but apparently the news had not yet reached Athens.
In the 1922 Nashville City Directory, Chas A Embry is listed
as a law student at Vanderbilt, living with his family at 1907 Division Street.
On March 10, 1923, it was reported that he had signed a contract with the St.
Louis Browns and was to report on June 15; in the meantime he continued to
pitch for Vanderbilt and served as team captain. The St. Louis report in the Sporting News of June 7 included the
following:
One of the new men soon to report is Slim Embry, the Vanderbilt University star, and regarded as the greatest college pitcher in the South. He is due next week and will join the Browns in the East. He may be heard from at an early day if he shows all that is promised.
On June 14 the Cleveland
Plain Dealer reported that “[Browns’ manager Lee] Fohl has only one new man
in his squad right now, it being Charles Embry, a big righthand pitcher from
Vanderbilt university.” But I found no further references to Slim at St. Louis
that season, and he played no games for them. He may have been on the major
league roster all summer without getting into a game; if he played in the
minors there is no record of it. Either way, on September 28 he was claimed by
the Chicago White Sox after being placed on waivers by the Browns.
On Monday, October 1, Chicago hosted Ty Cobb and the Detroit
Tigers. The Tigers scored eight runs in the top of the first, and led 10-0 when
Slim took the mound in the fifth, the Sox’ fourth pitcher of the game. He
lasted 2 2/3 innings, allowing six runs, three of them earned, on seven hits,
with two walks and one strikeout. The final score was 16-5; Slim scored one of
Chicago’s runs after drawing a walk in his one plate appearance.
That was it for Slim for the season, and for his
professional baseball career. On December 15 it was reported that the White Sox
had sent him to Shreveport of the Texas League, but apparently he retired
instead and started his law practice in Nashville. In the 1924 city directory
he is listed as a lawyer with an office in the Stahlman Building, residing with
his parents at 1907 Division. By the 1926 directory he is married, to the
former Hermione Dunlap, and they are living in the Hillsboro Apartments. By 1928
they are living at 3510 Gillespie Avenue and his office is at 234 3rd
Ave. N; on January 25 of that same year Charles got called “Slim” in print for
the last time in his life, that I found anyway, in the Knoxville News-Sentinel:
RAIL-LITES ARE BEATEN
By United Press.
NASHVILLE, Jan. 25.—The Rail-lites of Chattanooga, erstwhile undefeated bidders for the Tennessee Independent basketball title, suffered their first reverse of the year here last night when the Nashville Y.M.C.A. Ramblers, led by “Slim” Embry, former Vanderbilt university star, crushed them by a score of 28-14…
Embry was a whirlwind at hole guard.
In the 1930 census Charles and Hermione are at 3510
Gillespie, have a two-year-old son, Charles H., and a baby daughter Hermione C.
They own the house, which is valued at $8000, and they own a radio set. In the
1931 directory Charles is still at the 3rd Ave office, but the firm
name is listed, this one time: Cherry, Davenport, Embry & Norman. By 1935
Charles’ work address is 216 Union, and by 1937 he is at 313 Church and the
family is living on Bellevue Drive in the suburb of Belle Meade. In 1939 his
office changes to 311 Church.
In the 1940 census the family is at the Bellevue Drive
house, which they own and which is valued at $6500. Their ages are given as 38,
36, 12 and 10, and the children are listed as having been born in South
Carolina. Also part of the household is Isabelle Hoskins, a 20-year-old,
single, Negro cook who worked 75 hours the previous week and was paid $260 in
1939. Charles worked 60 hours the previous week and 40 weeks in 1939. Hermione
is listed as having completed four years of college.
In the 1941 directory the residence is listed as “ws
Bellevue dr 3 s Deer Park dr (BM);” since Bellevue Drive and Deer Park Drive
intersect I’m guessing they lived on the corner. By 1943 they’ve moved, and the
listing is “es Pembroke av 7 s Windsor dr;” again Pembroke Drive and Windsor
Drive intersect, and in future directories the residence is simply listed as
“Pembroke Av BM.” In 1944 Charles is listed as being with Embry & Williams,
still at 311 Church, and Hermione has gone back to work, as a dietician at the
Walter O. Palmer School. Charles’ parents are still at 1907 Division, and Wiley
is still a deputy criminal court clerk. In 1947 Hermione is a librarian for the
state, and while Wiley is still at the criminal court he and Alma are living
with Charles and Hermione—and with Charles Jr., who gets a listing as a
student.
Meanwhile, Charles had been involved in some legal cases
that made the news. From an Associated Press story of June 10, 1933:
Seek to Take Youth to Flint
Legal Tangle Looming Over Question of Extradition
NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 10.—While Michigan authorities planned to seek immediate removal to that state of Balfe MacDonald, 17, charged with slaying his mother in Flint, two defense attorneys from MacDonald’s home city arrived in Nashville early today by plane and joined local counsel.
The attorneys, Ralph M. Freeman and Clifford A. Bishop, went immediately to the county jail, where they conferred for more than half an hour with MacDonald and his 16-year-old companion, William Terwilliger. The two youths were arrested a week ago on federal charges of attempted extortion.
Upon leaving the jail at dawn, Freeman and Bishop said their plans would not be made until after a conference later in the day with the Nashville defense lawyers, Jack Norman and Charles Embry…
Balfe ended up serving seven years for manslaughter. From
the AP, February 26, 1934:
HELD IN BAIL
NASHVILLE, Tenn., Feb 26—(AP)—T.P. Tucker, 62, today awaited a move for his release on bond from the county jail, where he is being held on a murder charge in connection with the burning to death of his wife in a garage at their home Friday night. Last night he declined to amplify an earlier statement that he was innocent. His attorneys, Jack Norman and Charles Embry, said they would ask that bond be set in Criminal Court today.
In October 1935 Charles was involved in the defense of
Frances A. Robinson, who was tried on conspiracy charges, along with her
father-in-law, after her husband kidnapped “Louisville society belle” Alice
Speed Stoll in what was later described as “Louisville’s crime of the century,”
and which came to involve J. Edgar Hoover and Melvin Purvis. Mrs. Robinson and
her father-in-law were acquitted, but when her husband was eventually captured
he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
In 1938 Charles was in the news again, gaining the acquittal
of a Lexington attorney “charged with perjury as the outgrowth of a recent
Henderson County bond fraud trial.” In 1939 he was involved in the defense of
Bill Frazier, charged with the murder of “wealthy Greek business man” George
Johnson, and in 1944 he unsuccessfully defended two Nashville brothers, Willie
and Paul York, who were convicted of murdering a police officer who had pulled
them over in a truck full of stolen goods. But by then Charles was not well. He
died at age 46 on October 10, 1947, after suffering for four years from
tuberculosis. His Associated Press obituary appeared the next day:
Charles Akin (Slim) Embry, 46, Nashville attorney and former pitcher for the St. Louis Browns, died of a heart attack tonight at his home here.
A native of Columbia, Tenn., the son of Mr. and Mrs. Wiley B. Embry, he completed law school at Vanderbilt university in 1923.
For one season he played baseball with the St. Louis Browns, but returned to Nashville to practice law after he was sold to the Chicago White Sox in 1924 [not quite how it happened].
He married the former Miss Hermione Dunlap, of Spartansburg, S.C. in 1924.
The Sporting News
reported his death on October 22:
Charles Akin (Slim) Embry, a former pitcher once owned by the St. Louis Browns and Chicago White Sox, died of a heart attack at his home in Nashville, Tenn., October 10. A native of Columbia, Tenn., Embry completed law school at Vanderbilt University in 1923, and, following his retirement from the diamond, practiced in Nashville.
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