Harvey “Gink” Hendrick was a first baseman-outfielder for
several teams, chiefly the Dodgers, from 1923 to 1934.
Harvey J. Hendrick (the “J” was never seen again after the
1910 census) was born November 9, 1897, near Mason, a small town in western
Tennessee, NE of Memphis. He was the second of two sons of farmer Richard and his
second wife Nannie Harvey. In the 1900 census the family is living on a farm,
which they own free and clear, in Fayette County. Richard is 46, Nannie is 38,
Richard’s son Willie from his first marriage is 15, Garland is six, and Harvey
is two; also living with them is Richard’s 86-year-old mother, Sallie, who will
pass away about two months later.
In 1910 they are still in Fayette County, presumably on the
same farm. Willie is gone, Garland, now listed as Richard G., is 16, and Harvey
is 12; the fifth member of the household is 20-year-old African-American
servant Joe Upchurch.
Harvey graduated from high school and went on to Vanderbilt
University, where he was on the football team in 1917. Throughout his college
years he was typically referred to as “Hendricks,” a problem that would
continue to pop up during his major league career. On September 11, 1918, he
filled out his draft registration card, giving his address as RFD #2, Mason,
his occupation as student S.A.T.C., and his employer as US Government at
Sheridan Lake, Illinois. The S.A.T.C. was the Student Army Training Corps, the
forerunner of the ROTC, and Sheridan Lake seems to indicate he was at Fort
Sheridan on Lake Michigan. He gave his appearance as tall, medium build, gray
eyes, and dark hair.
On December 14, 1918, Harvey entered the military, which is
interesting because the war had ended a month previously. I did not find a
discharge date, but by September 1919 he was back at Vanderbilt and on the
football team. In the 1920 census, taken in January, he is not listed with his
family, and he does not turn up anywhere else either. He was listed as being in
attendance at a fraternity dance in April, then he was playing football again
in October, which was when I first found him referred to as “Gink” Hendrick.
Vanderbilt went 4-3-1 that season, scoring 135 points in the eight games, Harvey
leading the team with 36, twice what anyone else scored. He also lettered in
baseball, basketball, and track, where he was a member of the mile relay team
that set a conference record.
During the winter Harvey signed a pro baseball contract with
the Memphis Chickasaws of the Class A Southern Association, giving up his
fourth year of football eligibility at Vanderbilt. He changed his mind and then
changed it again, and began the 1921 baseball season with the Chicks. At the
end of May he was waived by Memphis and claimed by fellow SA teams Chattanooga
and Mobile, being awarded to Chattanooga. He played in 141 games that year
between Memphis and Chattanooga, all in the outfield, hitting .270/.299/.388
with 27 doubles, ten triples, six home runs, and 18 stolen bases in 570
at-bats. This was enough for him to be drafted by the Boston Red Sox after the
season, the Covington (Tennessee) Leader speculating on November
3 that “He will probably be included in the Boston lineup next season in event
of his decision to play ball another year.” That same edition of the Leader
reported that Harvey was serving as an assistant football coach at Byars-Hall
High School.
In March 1922 Harvey went to spring training with the Red
Sox in Hot Springs, Arkansas. On February 23 the Leader said that
“Hendrick is confident that he can stick in major league company and before the
season is over his friends believe he will be performing in the regular Boston
lineup.” But the Boston Post reported on March 13:
Big Harvey Hendrick didn’t look so well playing right field, although he did have some tough fence bouncers to handle. He made one miserable muff of a fly ball, but atoned for it later on by pasting the ball over the right field fence for a homer with two men on. Having failed to get anyone excited about his outfielding today, Harvey now will go to work to convince that it merely was an off day. It is known he can do better.
On March 23 the Boston Herald mentioned that, if
demoted, Harvey would like to go back to the Southern Association, but on the
31st he was sent to the Galveston Sand Crabs of the Texas League,
also Class A. The highlight of his season was reported on in the June 8 Covington
Leader:
HENDRICK-SHELTON
Mr. and Mrs. S.R. Shelton, of this city announce the marriage of their daughter, Miss Lyda, to Mr. Harvey Hendrick on Wednesday, the seventh day of June, 1922, at Shreveport, La.
The bride is an accomplished and charming young lady. She is very popular here in social circles and has a wide circle of friends.
The groom is a son of Mr. R.T. Hendrick, of Mason, Tenn. He is at present connected with the Galveston Baseball Club of the Texas League, and is regarded as one of the star players of that circuit. His many friends bespeak a brilliant base ball career for him. During the fall and winter months Mr. Hendrick is engaged in the cotton business.
Mr. and Mrs. Hendrick will reside temporarily in Galveston, Texas.
On July 27 the Leader reported that Mrs. Hendrick was
in town visiting her parents; as of September 7 she was still there, “quite
ill,” but improving. On September 14 they reported that Harvey “arrived here
last week to attend the bedside of his wife, who is at present convalescent in
a Memphis hospital. Mr. Hendrick will not return to Texas, as the base ball
season will close in that circuit this week.” Meanwhile Harvey had been having
a good year for Galveston; he was leading the league in total bases and extra
base hits as of mid-August, though he later fell off the pace in both
categories. He ended up hitting .311 and slugging .496 with 33 doubles, 11
triples, 16 homers, and 22 stolen bases in 559 at-bats in 134 games, all in the
outfield, and had 24 assists to lead the league. The November 2 Leader
said:
Mr. Harvey Hendrick, of this city, left Monday morning for Dyersburg to act as coach to the Dyersburg football squad. Mr. Hendrick is a former Vanderbilt star and his work is a valuable asset to any team.
In January 1923 the Red Sox traded Harvey and minor league
pitcher George Pipgras to the Yankees for backup catcher Al DeVormer and cash.
In February various newspapers ran a profile of Harvey by Ernest J. Lanigan,
part of his “Major League Debutantes 1923” series. This mentioned that Harvey
was 6-1 ½, 190 pounds, batted left and threw right, played semi-pro baseball
for two years before becoming a professional, and played three years of
football, one of basketball and one of track at Vanderbilt. On April 8 his
picture appeared in the Madison Wisconsin State Journal, with the
headline “HUGGINS PRAISES FINE BATTING OF NEW OUTFIELDER” and the caption:
The New York Americans have picked up a mighty fine outfielding prospect in Harvey Hendricks. The big fellow hits left handed and has been one of the batting sensations of the spring training at New Orleans. [Manager Miller] Huggins regards him as a great hitter.
Hendricks was secured by the Yankees from Galveston in the Texas League. While the youngster has shown great promise at the bat, his fielding is still very crude, and he has much to learn in that department of play before being ready for a regular berth.
Harvey made the team, and made his major league debut in the
third game of the season, on April 20 at home against the Red Sox. With the
Yankees down 3-2 with one out and a runner on first in the bottom of the ninth,
he pinch-hit for Sad Sam Jones against Bill Piercy; he tried to sacrifice but
forced the runner out at first, then was pinch-run for by Hinkey Haines, also
making his debut, and the Yankees came back to win 4-3. Harvey pinch-hit twice
more in April and once in May, then got his first hit on June 1, pinch-hitting
for Jones again in the bottom of the 8th of a 5-0 home loss to the
Red Sox, singling off Jack Quinn and eventually getting forced out at third.
After three more pinch-hit appearances Harvey got to play in
the field for the first time on June 16, replacing Bob Meusel in left in the
ninth inning of a 9-4 home win over the Browns. On July 9 in St. Louis Harvey
replaced Meusel in left immediately after Bob struck out in the top of the
first, and in the fourth he got his first two RBI, singling in Joe Dugan and
Babe Ruth. Meusel sat out the next week, and Harvey started in his place in
Chicago July 11-12-13. He had his biggest game of the year on the 12th,
going 3-for-5 with a double against Ted Blankenship and Ted Lyons. After that
he was used almost exclusively as a pinch hitter until the final four-game
series, at home against the Athletics, when he started in left field and went
6-for-16 with 6 RBI, and hit two homers, against Rube Walberg and Eddie Rommel.
Spending the entire season with the Yankees, he played in just 37 games and hit
.273/.294/.485 in 66 at-bats. The Yankees won the pennant (duh), and there was
speculation that in the World Series against the Giants Harvey would start in
right in place of Elmer Smith since he had been hitting better than Smith
lately, but instead Meusel returned (from what or where I’m not sure) and
played left—whenever Smith played he would be in right and Ruth would move from
right to left. Harvey only made one appearance in the series, pinch-hitting for
Everett Scott in the bottom of the eighth in game one and flying out against
Rosy Ryan.
In 1924 Harvey again spent the season with the Yankees,
being used in a similar manner to 1923. He appeared solely as a pinch hitter
before June 15, and almost exclusively as a pinch hitter after July 10; in
between he started 12 games in left in place of Meusel. He hit .263/.291/.303
in 76 at-bats in 40 games. On October 14 the syndicated “Sports Done By Brown”
column listed the winter plans for the Yankee players, including “Harvey
Hendrick will be a floor walker in a haberdashery in Covington, Ky.”
In December the Yankees placed Harvey on waivers, and he was claimed by the Cleveland Indians. He was late reporting to Lakeland, Florida, for spring training because Lyda was ill again, then the day after he got there he was sidelined with a sore arm.
He made the team, but through June 4 he had
gotten into just 22 games, exclusively as a pinch hitter; at that point he was
sent down to the Providence Grays of the Class AA International League. The Cleveland
Plain Dealer reported on the 7th:
In farming Harvey Hendrick out to Providence, Cleveland parts, temporarily at least, with its luckiest player.
Earlier in the season Hendrick went in as a pinch hitter and the opposing pitcher immediately wild-pitched in the winning run. A few days later Harv went in again and drew a base on balls that forced in the winning run. On another occasion he got a lucky single, while in another instance he sacrifice flied the tying run in.
Then came last Thursday’s game in which Hendrick hit a very fluky triple that scored three runs and won the game from St. Louis.
In sending Hendrick to Providence, however, it is understood that Manager Speaker has insisted that club use the ex-Indian on first base, it apparently being Spoke’s wish that Hendrick be developed in that position so that when he is recalled he will be able to alternate with [at this point the page is cut off, but presumably it was George Burns].
On August 18 the Plain Dealer reported:
Harvey Hendrick, purchased from the Yankees last winter and sent to Providence, where he has been used at first base, will be tried out by Speaker at the initial sack. Hendrick has been batting around .330 in the International league, most of his hits being singles, thus showing he has not had to depend upon short fences to get his safe blows.
Interesting logic there, explaining why singles are best.
Harvey finished the International League season with Providence, and hit
.318/.358/.456 in 434 at-bats; of his 138 hits, ten were doubles, 13 triples,
and eight homers. He did play first base exclusively. Then he was recalled to
Cleveland, where he got three starts at first, batting fifth in the order; he
went 2-for-12, which lowered his season average with Cleveland from .375
(6-for-16) to .286.
In January 1926 the Indians sold Harvey to the New Orleans
Pelicans, which meant he was back where he started, in the Southern
Association. From the March 3 New Orleans Item:
HENDRICK SHOWS FANS HE CAN WALLOP OLD ONION
New Pelican First Sacker Poles Ball Over Wall in Deep Right Field During First Workout
…Perhaps—we should say doubtless, Harvey is a much better outfielder than a first baseman. But there are so few good first sackers and such a flock of outfielders, that maybe the switch is a wise one…
His fielding record wasn’t anything to brag about and Harvey isn’t.
“I was strange at the position in the first two months and made most of my boots in that period,” says Hendrick. “Toward the close of the season, though, everybody told me I was doing fine and I think I did improve some. If I can start where I left off, I won’t do so bad. Excuse me while I hit, it’s my turn.”
Harvey did play first for New Orleans. On May 2 the New
Orleans Times-Picayune called him “probably the best base runner in the
league;” on May 23 he was leading the league with a .407 average; on June 6 he
was still at the top of the list, the Atlanta Journal reporting that
fact under the headline “Gink Hendrick Still at Top of Swat List.” On June 20
the New Orleans States opined:
To write the leading outstanding player of the league would be to write the name of Hendrick. He is the leader in practically every department of the game.
Two days later the Item reported that “The Pelicans
will have to worry along without Harvey Hendrick for a few days as the big
fellow was called home yesterday to attend the funeral of his father-in-law,
J.R. Shelton at Covington, Tenn.” Harvey was featured in the “Looking ‘Em Over
With Fred Digby” column in the Item of June 27:
Hendrick’s Team Spirit, Coupled With Unusual Ability, Makes Him Most Valuable Player in League
The New Orleans club boasts more leaders in the various departments of play than any two teams in the Southern association, including…but when fans talk and experts write about the Pelicans, Harvey Hendrick is the individual who gets the bulk of the credit for the success of the pacemakers.
And the latest official averages show Hendrick is the big star of the team—really, the big star of the circuit. Harvey boasts a bat average slightly under the .400 mark; he has scored 70 runs in 69 games; his total base mark of 183 is the highest in the country; besides being the first hitter in the game to make 100 safeties this season, the Pelican star is leading all hitters with 114 hits; his 13 triples is the high mark in this department and his 23 two-baggers is two shy of the league’s leaders.
In addition to this great record on offense, Hendrick is the leading fielding first baseman in the Southern though he is a comparative beginner at the position. He has started more double plays than any first sacker in the circuit and has more assists to his credit than any of the veterans at his position.
Because of his great speed Hendrick has beaten out numerous infield taps. He isn’t just a swinger, either, and can bunt with any hitter.
Some fans have asked why Harvey doesn’t use his speed to steal more bases. The answer is that to steal in most instances would be taking unnecessary chances as Deal, Tucker and Ostergaard, who hit behind Hendrick are three of the best in the league and can be depended upon to drive the big fellow around. Proof of their ability in this direction is shown in the number of runs Hendrick has scored.
Hendrick is a constant threat to the opposition and a game isn’t ever conceded to the enemy by the fans, or the Pelicans, as long as Harvey has a time at bat coming to him.
The big fellow has been such a factor in so many rallies that won games seemingly hopelessly lost that the confidence of the fans, and his teammates, is but a natural result.
We doubt if any Pelican in the history of the New Orleans club was ever quite as popular as Hendrick. Fans here are quick to get the right slant on a ball player and Harvey was a favorite from the beginning.
The bleacherites call him “Bubbling Over” because of the big fellow’s great speed on the paths. The nickname fits Hendrick. He isn’t only bubbling over with speed, either. He is bubbling over with all the qualities that go to make a great ball player.
One might gather form the statistics that Hendrick is playing baseball only to set up a fine record and to attract individual praise and glory, but such is farthest from the truth.
For Hendrick’s team spirit is one quality which has endeared him to his teammates and to Larry Gilbert. He is “Bubbling Over” with the spirit that wins ball games and will win the pennant for the Pelicans.
On July 24 the Pelicans sold Harvey to the Brooklyn Dodgers,
to report to them for spring training 1927. On August 8 he was knocked
unconscious when he was hit near the eye by a pitch. From the next day’s Item:
HENDRICK ASKS TO PLAY IN FINAL ‘NOOGA GAME
Beaned, Harvey Doesn’t Want to Stay on Bench; Deal Ready to Return to Game.
By Fred Digby
Fear that the Pelicans would be without the services of their star first-sacker and the league’s best hitter, Harvey Hendrick, as a result of the blow in the forehead, was dispelled Monday when Manager Gilbert said that Hendrick was insisting on getting into the final game with the Lookouts this afternoon. McKenty’s pitch opened a gash in Hendrick’s head, just above the right eye and it took three stitches to close the wound. The big fellow lost a lot of blood, though, and Gilbert will try to persuade him to rest until Wednesday’s game in Little Rock.
As it turned out Harvey missed the Monday game and got back
in the lineup on Wednesday. At this point he was leading the league with a .390
average, but he slipped after that and wound up at .370 (231 for 624), fourth
in the league. He hit 40 doubles, 24 triples and 11 homers for a .564 slugging
percentage. He and batting champion Tommy Taylor of Memphis tied for the league
MVP award.
It was reported during spring training 1927 that the Dodgers
were grooming Harvey to replace Zack Wheat, who they had released during the
off-season, and essentially he did, except that he began the season as the
regular right fielder whereas Wheat had played in left. In July and August he
played first base, then in early September he moved to left field. He hit
.310/.350/.424 in 458 at-bats in 128 games, with 18 doubles, 11 triples and
four home runs, and finished third in the league with 29 stolen bases. He
played 64 games in the outfield, 53 at first, and one at second.
From the Knoxville News, February 14, 1928:
What would you do if you were a major league manager and had a .300 hitter? Quite right, you would use him. What would you do if he happened to be the only .300 hitter on your club? You’d have to use him. Harvey Hendrick, the lone .300 hitter on the Brooklyn club last season, isn’t sure, however, that he’s going to have a regular job this season. He can play the outfield and first base but the Robin outfield is loaded and the club spent a lot of money for Bissonette, a minor league first baseman. If he makes the grade the lone .300 hitter of 1927 may have to sit on the bench.
Harvey began the season playing left field and batting
third, but after a few games third baseman Howard Freigau was benched and
Harvey was moved into his position, where he stayed for most of the season. On
June 7 the Sporting News ran an article on Brooklyn’s recent problems:
UNCLE ROBBY SEEMS TO BE IN DOUBTFUL STATE
Shift of Hendrick Back to Third Draws an Analysis of What’s Required; from Tom Rice’s Pen.
…That sort of thing keeps Manager Robinson wondering what to do next. One of the things he has done has been to send Harvey Hendrick back to third base. Harvey was thought to be through as a third baser, on the ground that he never was a first class fielder of any kind, and less of a third baseman than most any other kind.
Harvey committed three errors in the morning game with the Giants at Ebbets Field on May 30, and the Giants won by 9 to 1. With the usual luck of a fellow already up against it all of Hendrick’s errors came in Giants rallies. One of them spoiled a put out, after which the Giants made five unearned runs, and Hendrick received considerable censure, as did the manager.
On the other hand, Manager Robinson asserts that Hendrick makes a lot of fine plays between errors, and is a better third baseman, made over from an outfielder, than was James Harle Johnston, when that eminent Tennessean was moved from the outfield back to third base in Brooklyn and remained there for most of the remainder of his major league life.
Hendrick is mechanically good, with no one on bases. Among his assets is a whale of a throwing arm, and he gets the ball away fast and accurately, but the position does not come natural to him. In pinches he has to think, instead of automatically doing the right thing. A fielder who has to lose that fraction of a second figuring the play is a handicap to his playmates and himself. Hendrick may be the mechanical equal of what Jimmy Johnston was, but it is almost a cinch that he has not Johnston’s baseball instinct, and never will automatically do the right thing at the right time.
The odd thing about this story is that Harvey had not been
moved off of third base—he had been the regular since April and would be until
mid-August. After the game of August 16, hitting .302/.383/.453, he was used
strictly as a pinch hitter and pinch runner until September 10, when he became
the regular center fielder. He finished the season hitting .318/.397/.478, with
15 doubles, ten triples and 11 home runs in 425 at-bats in 126 games, with 16
stolen bases. His fielding percentage at third base was .913, last in the
league, but he had a respectable range factor.
Harvey started 1929 playing mostly against right-handed pitchers. After the first game of a doubleheader on May 22, his batting average stood at .415, tops in the league. He had started 18 of his teams’s 28 games—eight at first, four at third, four at shortstop, and two at center field. Throughout his career he would alternately be praised for being able to play multiple positions and criticized for not playing them very well. He was the regular first baseman for the next month, then moved to right field until being benched at the end of June, hitting .350. On June 25 his photo, along with Kiki Cuyler, Babe Herman, Frankie Frisch (as Frish) and Evar Swanson (as Evan) appeared in several newspapers as the National League’s “five niftiest base bandits.”
In late July Harvey became a semi-regular again, playing mostly
left field. He hit .354/.404/.560 with 25 doubles, six triples and 14 homers,
and 14 stolen bases, in 384 at-bats in 110 games, and became the first major
league player to hit a home run in each of the league’s eight parks in one
year. He started 41 games in the outfield, 38 at first, seven at third, and
four at shortstop.
From the Sporting News, January 16, 1930:
ROBINS NOW READY TO LISTEN TO OFFERS
M’WEENY AND BRESSLER TAGGED FOR TRADES BY BROOKLYN CLUB
Departure of Latter Would Provide Job for Hendrick; Bissonette Again Undergoes Operation
BROOKLYN, N.Y., Jan.13.—
…The reason for Bressler’s expected change of scenery is the probability that rangy Harvey Hendrick, the man without a permanent place in the Robin lineup, will be anchored in left field during most of the season. Gink is, at last, to fall heir to a regular position, after having done odd jobs now for two seasons.
It is really a cause for wonder that Hendrick has managed to play a consistent brand of ball, in spite of the fact that he was moved around so frequently. He has been a .300 hitter most all of his baseball life. Last season his work in 110 games yielded a modest batting average of .354, a mark exceeded by only one other Brooklyn player—Babe Herman, himself. A driving hitter, Hendrick slugged 82 runs across the plate, and would probably have driven in over a hundred had he played oftener. And Harvey is one of the leading base stealers in the league, being a veritable flash on the paths.
And yet the Gink was not a regular last year. After mid-season he appeared in 43 games in Bressler’s place in left field. During the summer, when Del Bissonette was most seriously affected with sinus trouble, it was Hendrick who was the regular first baseman of the club. He played 39 games at the initial sack.
Since 1928, Hendrick has been the regular third baseman of the Robins almost as much as anybody else, and so when Wally Gilbert suffered a batting slump in 1929, it was only natural that Manager Robinson should shift Gink to the hot corner for a while. He also appeared as a shortstop in four contests. Such versatility must have its reward. At one stage of last season, both Butch Henline and Hank DeBerry were out of the game with minor injuries, and Val Picinich was forced to shoulder the whole burden behind the bat. When asked what he would do in the event that Picinich were hurt, Robinson replied, “I’ll use Hendrick; he has said he’s willing to try.”
Continual changing of positions is often more of a detriment than an aid to good play, though it is spectacular. Perhaps that is why Hendrick often fielded bunts at third base like an outfielder, and why he handled ground balls in the outer reaches like a shortstop. Present plans indicate that he will be in left field from the opening gong, but Harvey can’t depend as yet on a regular assignment. As soon as somebody in the Brooklyn infield is hurt, in will come Harvey galloping, on first aid duty.
In the 1930 census, taken on April 12, Harvey and Lyda are
living on Main Street in Covington with her widowed mother, Ruth, and her
brother, James, a retail clothier; Harvey is listed as a ballplayer. Harvey
began the 1930 season playing left field against right-handed pitchers. On
April 30, in his “Hit on the Line” column, Thomas Holmes of the Brooklyn
Eagle wrote:
The Robins argue about the best hitter of the Giants. Votes are evenly divided between Bill Terry and Mel Ott. But the Giants are almost unanimous in rating the best hitter of the Robins. They fear Harvey Hendrick more than Babe Herman. Ball players, you know, aren’t overcome with the importance of averages.
The next day Holmes’ column dealt with what the Brooklyn
players do on the train:
…Hank DeBerry’s ears are buried in a profound-looking volume. Harvey Hendrick shakes his head doubtfully. Harvey doesn’t read because he’s afraid reading will hurt his batting eye. In another space Clise Dudley pores over a Western story, but that doesn’t matter. He’s a pitcher anyway…
Through the games of May 8 Harvey was hitting just .250, and
his playing time decreased after that. Through July 19 his average was down to
.202 (and this in a year in which the National League as a whole hit .303) and
articles were being written about his slump, which was blamed on rheumatism,
charley horses, sinus trouble, and his eyes. On July 21 he hit a walk-off
three-run pinch-hit homer with two out in the bottom of the ninth, prompting
Murray Robinson to write in his “As You Like It” column in the next day’s Brooklyn
Standard Union:
Harvey Hendrick, lanky utility man of the Robins, has been Gink to the ball-players for many years. Why? Well, you don’t need three guesses as to why they call him “Gink.”
Gink for years, he was king for a day yesterday when he slammed that homer over the wall with two on and two out in the ninth to win the first game from the Cardinals…
So delighted were Uncle Robbie and his cavalcade that they were at last willing to believe, if only for a day, what Gink has maintained steadfastly and doggedly since 1924. Given a half-ounce of encouragement, Harvey will always say:
“The biggest mistake the Yankees ever made was when they let me go!”
The August 2 Brooklyn Daily Times reported:
The Dodgers have a new mascot who will make his bow to Ebbets Field this afternoon. The youngster is Tommy Prendergast, of 1518 Huntington st., Philadelphia. Tommy is under the guidance of Harvey Hendrick, and the fleet Dodger will show the youngster the big town until the Dodgers depart. The newly acquired mascot was discovered in Quakertown during the Phils-Dodger series. He is 10, stands three feet nine inches and weighs 42 pounds. Robby may take him on the Western trip.
The Brooklyn Eagle gave its version of the story the
following day, which gave the boy a different first name and age and also made
it sound a little less like kidnaping:
The little gent lugging bats back to the Brooklyn bench is Mickey Prendergast, 11 years old, from Philadelphia…He will be the first official mascot the Robins have had since Eddie Bennett, who officiated in 1920, the year the Robins last won the flag…Mickey has been working in the Philadelphia park, serving as bat boy for the visiting teams…He is at present the ward of Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Hendrick… [all elllipses part of the original story]
From September 11 onward Harvey was playing against
right-handed pitchers again; often, due to injuries, he was in center, between
Ike Boone in left and Babe Herman in right, an outfield that was looked back on
in later years as one of the all-time worst defensively. He hit .257/.344/.419
in 167 at-bats in 68 games.
During the off-season there was a lot of trade speculation
involving Harvey, but nothing happened. He had a rough spring training 1931, first
missing time after being hit in the ankle by a grounder, then getting hit under
the eye by a foul tip, resulting in stitches and missing the first few weeks of
the regular season. On May 5 he pinch hit and popped out, then two days later
he was sold to the Reds. The May 9 Syracuse Herald ran a short item by
Nick Altrock in which the coach-clown, or his ghost writer, wrote:
This guy Harvey Hendrick couldn’t have picked up more tough luck if he walked under a hook and ladder truck. He just got sold from the Robins to the Cincinnati Reds. That is what you’d call leaping out of the frying pan into a blast furnace.
That Cincinnati club shows how bad the unemployment situation is. They have nine off days in every 10. They are so far down in the National League it will take archaeologists to dig them up…
The Reds obtained Harvey to play first base in place of their highly-touted rookie Mickey Heath, who had broken his arm. Heath then developed rheumatic fever and missed the rest of the season, so Harvey played first in every one of the 137 games the Reds played after his arrival, by far the most stable season of his career. And he responded at the plate; a 12-for-17 stretch at the end of May and beginning of June put his batting average at .402, leading the league. He last saw .400 on June 16, but continued to lead the league for most of the month.
The Associated Press ran a story on
him, here as it appeared in the June 29 Helena Independent:
WHY HARVEY HENDRICK IS LEADING AT PLATE
By Gayle Talbot, Jr.
New York, June 28.—(AP)—There is nothing mysterious about the hitting of Harvey Hendrick since he joined the Cincinnati Reds a month ago, says his new manager, Dan Howley.
“Harvey always could hit,” explains the genial foreman of the Reds. “He just never had a real chance to prove it until he joined us and got a regular job. Always before he was in and out of the lineup, playing first base one day and the outfield the next, or maybe pinch-hitting. No player can do his best under those conditions.
“The day Harvey joined us from Brooklyn, I took him aside and told him he was my regular first baseman and to get in there and hit that ball. Before I knew it he was leading the league. Not only that, but he’s been playing a bang-up game at first base.”
What Hendrick’s batting has meant to the Reds may be gauged from the fact that the club has gained 130 points in the team standing during the last month.
“We’re still in last place, but we lack a lot of being a last place outfit,” Howley said. “Ask any of these teams we’ve played lately. Right now my pitchers are going as good as any in the league, the infield is clicking and I have three sweet outfielders in Cullop, Crabtree and Douthit.
“Getting back to Hendrick,” and Howley will get back to his big first baseman at every opportunity, “there’s one of the finest fellows you’ll meet. You might think, after the way Brooklyn treated him, that he would hold a grudge against his old club, but the first time the Robins came to Cincinnati after he joined us, Hendrick sat and jawed with Uncle Robbie for an hour before the game.
“Then he went out and beat the socks off them that afternoon. In fact, he did it three afternoons running.”
On August 4 a short AP item ran in various papers:
Harvey Hendrick, Cincinnati outfielder [sic], is being tough on an old roommate. Hendrick, who formerly wore the uniform of the Brooklyn Robins, has batted .727 against “Lefty” Bill Clark this season. Clark and Hendrick shared a room together for three years as fellow Robins.
Harvey ended the season at .315, well down the list of
leaders, with a .379 OBP and .414 slugging percentage. He hit 32 doubles, nine
triples and one home run, and led the league’s first basemen in double plays as
the Reds tied the team record.
In January 1932, an AP Reds forecast said that if Mickey
Heath “comes through as expected he will crowd the heavy-hitting but aging
Harvey Hendrick off the initial cushion,” while the UP’s version stated that:
“They were woefully weak at the plate with Harvey Hendrick, first baseman
acquired from Brooklyn in mid-season, furnishing most of what little batting
punch they had. Hendrick will be back on the job this coming season with a
stronger supporting cast.” In February the Reds picked up first and second
baseman George Grantham from Pittsburgh, which was puzzling to observers since
they already had Tony Cuccinello at second and Harvey and Heath at first.
On February 25 Harvey’s brother Richard Garland passed away;
one week later, on March 3, Lyda gave birth to son James Harvey in Covington. Harvey
waited a few days after the birth and then left for Tampa for spring training.
On April 11, opening day, Harvey was traded to the Cardinals, with pitcher
Benny Frey and cash, for Chick Hafey. He started the season exclusively as a pinch-hitter,
got a handful of starts in right field in mid-May, then started playing third
base regularly toward the end of the month. On June 5, though, with the
Cardinals needing to cut down their roster and the Reds having sent down the
struggling Mickey Heath, Harvey was sold back to Cincinnati. He was hitting
.280/.299/.319 in 72 at-bats in 28 games.
With the Reds Harvey again played strictly first base,
missing about a week in July with a fractured rib but otherwise in the lineup
every day. He finished the season at .294/.335/.406 with 32 doubles, three
triples and five home runs in 470 at-bats in 122 games. In October he was one
of the “other baseball celebrities” attending a public luncheon at Hotel
Peabody in Memphis to honor local boy Bill Terry. In November Donie Bush was
hired as the new Reds manager, and he announced that he would be moving George
Grantham from second to first, freeing Harvey to possibly play third, or serve
as a pinch-hitter. On November 26 Harvey’s father died.
In January 1933 Jim Bottomley was traded from the Cardinals
to the Reds, and as part of the deal Harvey was transferred to the Columbus Red
Birds, the Cardinals’ affiliate in the Class AA American Association. The Sandusky
Star-Journal reported on January 13:
HARVEY HENDRICK REFUSES TO SIGN
Will Quit Baseball Before Going to Columbus, He Tells Owner.
COLUMBUS, Jan. 13—Harvey Hendrick, heavy-hitting first baseman purchased by the Columbus American Association club from the Cincinnati Reds, may never wear a Columbus uniform.
L.S. MacPhail, president of the Columbus club, admitted today he had given up an attempt to persuade Hendrick to play with the Red Birds. He said he would put Hendrick on the baseball market, hoping to make a profitable deal in players or cash.
“Although every club in the National League waived on Hendrick, several clubs would like to have him,” MacPhail said. “Hendrick knows this and insists he’ll quit baseball rather than play in the minors while he still is in demand in the majors.”
MacPhail had counted upon Hendrick to fill the position made vacant by the promotion of First Baseman Pat Crawford to the St. Louis Cardinals.
“Under our salary limit, I can’t pay Hendrick a major league salary,” MacPhail stated. “Of course we could, under baseball law, force him either to play in Columbus next season or to quit organized baseball. But we’re hoping for a pennant in Columbus and I don’t believe you can win pennants with dissatisfied players.”
The January 19 edition of the Sporting News had two
stories about Harvey at the top of the front page. The main one was:
CUBS GET HENDRICK AS SUB FOR GRIMM
VETERAN BOUGHT FROM COLUMBUS AFTER RELEASE FROM REDS
CHICAGO, Ill.—Purchase of Harvey (Gink) Hendrick by the Chicago Cubs from Columbus, where he had been sent only a few days before by Cincinnati, revived the idea that Charley Grimm will be a bench manager at least part of the time next summer. The notion had been about buried following mid-winter insistence by Boss Charley that he intended to play first base every game in 1933.
Announcement of Hendrick’s purchase carried the statement that the player is to serve as understudy to Grimm, as a pinch-hitter and a general handy man.
The deal is looked upon as a rather spontaneous one. When the Cubs were negotiating the transaction which brought Babe Herman to Chicago from Cincinnati for $75,000 cash and four experienced players, Hendrick was on the Reds’ roster. Several names were mentioned in the dickering between the two clubs, in addition to the five who actually figured, but never once was there a hint that the Cubs wanted Hendrick, though it was known at the time that if Cincinnati did not land Bottomley, Grantham would supplant Hendrick as the Reds’ regular first baseman.
The purchase of the giant Tennessean, therefore, was something of a surprise in Chicago baseball circles and doubtless a happy surprise to Hendrick, himself, who is 35 years old and has been doing considerable bouncing around, what with his trip from the Dodgers to the Reds in 1931 and a round trip between Cincinnati and St. Louis last season followed by his transfer to Columbus earlier in the past week.
Hendrick failed to reach the .300 mark in his hitting last season, his average of .293 falling almost 20 points below his nine-year major league average. Harvey likes to hit in Wrigley Field, however, and he is expected to get plenty of opportunity to swing next summer, whether or not he is given many fielding chores…
That same day, the “Sport Snap Shots—Framed By Phil” column
in the Xenia Evening Gazette said about Harvey:
…Too valuable a player to be retired altogether from fast company in baseball, Harvey is insufficiently valuable to earn and keep a regular position in the lineup. His spot is that of an unhappy medium who is handy to have around in an emergency…
Harvey has been described as an excellent “business” first baseman, can help out at third as he did for the Cards last summer, and is perfectly at home in the outfield. He remains a dangerous hitter, despite the irregularity of his playing, and is usually popular with fans wherever he goes.
Harvey started the season pinch-hitting, then played a few games in right field in mid-May when Babe Herman was injured. The May 21 “Heard in the Pressbox” column in the Chicago Daily Times said: “That Harvey Hendrick, the Cubs’ good utility man, gets his hitting power from his exceptionally strong wrists, instead of a full swing.” The rest of the way, except for a few games in left in place of Riggs Stephenson, Harvey filled in for Charlie Grimm and his bad back as needed, and pinch-hit. The highlight was a home game on July 23 against the Phillies, when he hit a one-out pinch-hit grand slam in the bottom of the tenth for a 9-5 win.
For the year he hit
.291/.346/.455 with 13 doubles, three triples, and four homers in 189 at-bats
in 69 games.
On November 21 Harvey was traded to the Phillies, along with Mark Koenig, minor league pitcher Ted Kleinhans, and cash, for Chuck Klein, a move that was very unpopular among Philadelphia fans. He started the 1934 season as a pinch-hitter, then spent the month of May playing regularly, mostly in left but with a few games at first and one in right.
Hitting around .400,
late in the month he started to appear in the lists of leaders in the
newspapers, but as June began he suddenly went back to the bench and stayed
there, starting only a few games at third in July; then, on September 4, the
Phillies released him, along with Hack Wilson. Harvey hit .293/.344/.362 with
34 hits (26 singles, eight doubles) in 116 at-bats in 59 games.
Immediately there were reports that Harvey was going to be
hired as playing manager of the Albany Senators of the Class AA International
League. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on September 8 that he had
received an offer but wouldn’t say whether he would accept it; apparently he
didn’t. At some point in 1934-35 Harvey and Lyda had their second son, Richard.
The March 30, 1935, the Memphis Commercial Appeal
reported that the Louisville Colonels of the Class AA American Association were
trying to sign Harvey to be their first baseman. On April 29 they were still
reporting it:
Colonels Want Hendrick
Louisville’s Colonels, who offered Harvey (Gink) Hendrick, ex-Memphis first sacker, $2,000 to sign a contract with them this spring, only to be refused, are still trying to snag Hendrick, but have had only bad luck thus far.
Hendrick, who is now a big coal man in Covington, can’t see the Louisville offer, although he says he’d like to play ball this year somewhere. Hendrick is far from washed up and there are worse first sackers in the Big Time today than the ex-Vanderbilt speed merchant.
Gink may weaken before long and accept the Louisville offer, which is said to be an excellent one.
This was the last talk of the possibility of Harvey playing
baseball again. On May 30 the Commercial Appeal reported that Lyda’s
brother, James E. Shelton, and his partner, H.D. McGaughey, had filed for
bankruptcy, individually and as a firm, and that James’ largest creditor was
Lyda, “who holds his note for $3,710.” On September 5 the same newspaper
reported that Harvey was “proudly exhibiting a lifetime pass” for all National
League games, awarded to him by league president Ford Frick. In October the Commercial
Appeal noted that Lyda, identified of course as “Mrs. Harvey Hendrick,” had
hosted the Wednesday Bridge Club; there would be many similar items over the
next several years.
On March 10, 1936, Ed Hughes’ column, entitled “Ed Hughes’
Column,” in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle was devoted to “Fighting Players,”
and included the sentence “Frank Snyder, the Giant, was considered an ugly
customer with his fists and Harvey Hendrick, the old Dodger, was also rated a
good man to let alone.” On July 12 the Commercial Appeal reported that:
Gink Hendrick, former major leaguer, is playing softball in Covington. Hendrick takes a hefty swing at the ball, and if he ever starts connecting, well, Covington homes will be rocking from the blast.
Later that summer Harvey, Lyda and the boys moved into their
own home, at 225 Main Street in Covington. On September 3 the Brooklyn Times
Union mentioned that Harvey had been in attendance at the previous day’s
Cubs-Dodgers game at Wrigley Field. On June 11, 1937, it was reported that he
was playing softball for the Coca-Cola team of Covington. On January 17, 1939,
an AP story by Drew Middleton on baseball’s upcoming alleged centennial ended
with:
We would like to see a bronze plaque inscribed with some of baseball’s deathless phrases: Gink Hendrick’s “from now on it’s every man for their self,” and the holdouts’ plea, “Not a nickel less, I can make lots of dough in my old man’s butcher shop.”
On July 7 the Commercial Appeal mentioned that Harvey
had sat on the bench for the Southern Association all-star game in Memphis, and
on August 27 they stated that:
When Gink Hendrick, pride of Covington, was playing pro baseball, the fans had trouble distinguishing him from a doctor or lawyer. Gink made his bow with the Chicks in 1920.
I’m not sure what they were trying to say there. The 1940
census, taken May 25, shows Harvey, Lyda, eight-year-old Jimmie, and
five-year-old Richard living at 225 Main Street, which they own, valued at
$10,000. Harvey is a merchant in coal and oil, who worked 40 hours the previous
week, 52 weeks in 1939, and had an income of zero, with a “yes” under the
column “income from other sources.” Whatever that means.
From the Commercial Appeal, October 30, 1941:
HARVEY HENDRICK, 43, DIES AT COVINGTON
Funeral Services To Be Held This Afternoon
Special to The Commercial Appeal
COVINGTON, Tenn., Oct. 29.—Harvey Hendrick, 43, World War veteran [actually no, his army stint was after the war was over], Covington business man, and former player for the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers, died at his home here early Wednesday morning. Mr. Hendrick, a son of Mrs. Nannie Hendrick, and of the late Richard T. Hendrick, was born in Fayette County two miles from Mason.
He attended Fitzgerald-Clark School at Tullahoma and Vanderbilt University. He was proprietor of and operated a grain and coal business and owned several filling stations here. He also possessed considerable farm lands in Fayette County.
He started his professional baseball career of 14 years with the Memphis Southern League [actually Southern Association] team, going from Memphis to Chattanooga and to Galveston, Texas. He then joined the New York Yankees and participated in two World Series with them [actually one—they weren’t in the World Series in 1924]. He was with the Brooklyn Dodgers for four years, and was afterwards with Cleveland, the Phillies, Chicago Cubs and New Orleans [he was with Cleveland and New Orleans before the Dodgers, and they left out Cincinnati and St. Louis].
The Rev. Morris H. Stroud will conduct funeral services at 3 o’clock Thursday afternoon at the First Methodist Church, of which Mr. Hendrick was a steward. Burial will be in Munford Cemetery.
Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Lyda Shelton Hendrick; two sons, Richard and Jimmy Hendrick of Covington; his mother, Mrs. Nannie Harvey Hendrick, of Fayette County, and a half-brother, William Hendrick of Memphis.
All Harvey’s obituaries conspicuously omitted a cause of
death. But it’s on his death certificate: Immediate cause of death: gunshot wound
R temple. Suicide. Means of injury: 32 pistol.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hendrha01.shtml
