Frank Smykal was an infielder who played in six games for
the 1916 Pittsburgh Pirates.
Frank John Smejkal was born October 13, 1889, in Chicago, to
Joseph and Barbara Smejkal, both born in Bohemia, at the time part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire but now part of the Czech Republic. Joseph and Barbara
were married in Chicago in 1880, then had seven children between 1881 and 1892,
Frank being the fifth. In the 1900 census the family lives at 482 Marshfield
Avenue in Chicago, in a house they own with a mortgage. Joseph is a lawyer and
oldest son Harry is a dry goods clerk, while the others are not employed.
The first newspaper mention of Frank I found was in the Chicago Daily News of February 6, 1908, when photos were run of some of the players on Crane High School’s indoor baseball team. (Frank is identified as the shortstop, and is labeled with a 2 in the photo reproduced here.)
From the Daily
News about a year later, February 11, 1909:
BASEBALL PLAYER EXONERATED
Smejkal of Crane School Is Found Innocent of “Pro” Charges.
Charges of professionalism against Frank Smejkal, a Crane high school baseball player, accused of having received money for his services with the Murray indoor-ball team, were disproved yesterday when Manager Paul Kenny of the west side school team secured an affidavit from Rollo E. Smith of the Murray club, saying that Smejkal had played no professional ball with his team. The charges against the Crane player were made two weeks ago and it was thought the Cook county board of control would suspend him at its next meeting.
This was not the last time Frank would face such charges. He graduated from Crane High in 1909—unusually, just a few months away from his 20th birthday—and entered the University of Illinois, majoring in agriculture. The 1910 census shows the Smejkals in a house, owned free and clear, at 1329 S. Laundale Avenue. Oldest daughter Laura is no longer living at home, but the other six still are, including doctor Harry and civil engineer Joseph Jr. By the time the census was taken in April Frank was playing second base for Illinois. Then, after school ended, he played second under the name of “DeHaven” in the Class D Minnesota-Wisconsin League, starting with Eau Claire and moving to Wausau, and hitting .241 in 88 games.
But he got caught, as
related a year later in the September 10, 1911, Syracuse Herald, among
other papers:
Had to Suspend His Own Star for Playing Professional Baseball
Here’s a hot story on George Huff, athletic director of the University of Illinois, who during the summer season acts as official scout for the Chicago Cubs. Last summer President Murphy of the Cubs heard of a promising infielder in the Minnesota-Wisconsin league, who was burning up the base paths after his long drives and fielding like a veteran.
The reports coming to the Cub boss were so persistent and so frequent that he finally decided the phenomenon was worth looking up, and commissioned Huff to go over and size up the youngster. “Well, did you see your man?” asked Murphy when Huff returned.
“Yes, I saw the man all right,” said Huff.
“How did he look?” asked Murphy.
“Great,” was the reply.
“But you never heard of him before,” continued Murphy.
“Never heard of him before?” retorted Huff. “No, I never heard of him before under the name he is playing and I wish I hadn’t heard of him this time. That’s the second baseman of my college nine, and the best player I had. Now he will lose his place for playing professional ball.”
De Haven, the youngster who is covering second base for Darby O’Brien’s Duluth club, is the young star in question. Huff discovered him playing baseball while with the Wausau club last season. His real name is Frank Smejkal. After Huff discovered him in professional baseball Frank was banished from the college league.
F. DeHaven appeared on the Eau Claire reserve list after the
1910 season. As the above story suggests, Frank returned to the
Minnesota-Wisconsin League, now Class C, as DeHaven in 1911, playing for Eau
Claire and then Duluth. But at some point that season he got into 31 games at
second base for the Lexington Colts of the Class D Blue Grass League and hit
.252—but not as DeHaven and not as Smejkal, but as Frank Smykal. After the
season Smykal appeared on the Lexington reserve list, while no team had DeHaven
reserved.
From the September 22 Champaign Daily News:
CANDIDATES TO GET CHANCE
Football Aspirants Will Show Mettle at West End Park.
Champaign high school football candidates will be given a chance to show their mettle at West End park at 2:30 o’clock tomorrow afternoon. The playing of several aspirants for positions at that time will probably determine their future prospects for making the team…
Frank Smejkal of the University has been chosen as coach and on Thursday afternoon he took charge of the squad. His coaching met with approbation from the candidates, and his choice promises to be a popular one. He has had several years football experience in Chicago…
Frank played for the Grand Forks Flickertails of the Class C
Central International League in 1912, as DeHaven, but no stats are available.
In 1913, still a student at Illinois, he played 69 games at shortstop for the
Ottawa Senators of the Class C Canadian League, as Smykal. Sporting Life
reported on August 2:
Frank Smykal, the Chicago youth with Ottawa, is the best short fielder seen in Hamilton since the palmy days of Marr Phillips, 25 years ago. July 1 (Dominion Day) the little star poled out two hits off Schaeffer, of Berlin, in the morning struggle, and in the afternoon encounter smashed out two more off pitcher Bramble, Berlin’s star, besides accepting 15 out of 16 chances for the holiday’s doubleheader.
That doubleheader was not indicative of Frank’s hitting,
though, as he finished at .195/.273/.260.
In 1914 the Canadian League was elevated to Class B, and
Frank was back with Ottawa, though the Senators sent him to the Fort Wayne
Railroaders of the Central League, also Class B, for a few weeks in June before
recalling him. Reporting on the recall, Sporting Life called him “Little
Frank Smykal, that little bit of aggressiveness from Chicago.” June was also
the month that Frank received his BS in agriculture from Illinois. For Fort
Wayne he hit .222/.290/.317 in 19 games, all at second base, while at Ottawa he
hit .244 with a .287 slugging percentage in 97 games, all at shortstop. He led
the league’s shortstops in fielding percentage at .941, while the other
regulars at the position ranged from .914 to .857.
Frank appeared on the Ottawa reserve list after the season,
and he signed a new contract with them in February 1915. He played 107 games,
all at shortstop, leading the league in fielding percentage at .926. He also
had the best offensive season of his career, hitting .282 with a .360 slugging
percentage in 408 at-bats.
By November 9 Frank had a job as an assistant State
Veterinarian; on that date he was part of a group of officials who went to the
dairy farm of Mrs. Scott S. Durand and slaughtered her 57 Guernsey cows because
they were allegedly diseased. Mrs. Durand, who insisted that her cows were not
diseased, also insisted that Frank shot at her three times. He was then part of
the group that Mrs. Durand sued for $100,000, though the matter was apparently
eventually dropped.
In the spring of 1916 Frank was purchased by the Chattanooga
Lookouts of the Class A Southern Association. On April 2 the Chattanooga
Daily Times reported:
A discovery was made yesterday. It is that Smykal is not Smykal. In fact, he’s Frank J. Smejkal, of Chicago, and cashes all his checks under that name. The youngster prefers to play ball as Smykal, however, and as such he probably will remain.
Frank shared the shortstop position with Lookouts manager
Kid Elberfeld, the 41-year-old former longtime major leaguer, until he was
released back to Ottawa at the end of April with an .074 batting average in ten
games. However, the Canadian League folded before its season even started, and
Frank eventually turned up with the Warren (Pennsylvania) Warriors of the Class
D Interstate League, quite a drop from Chattanooga. He played 58 games for
Warren, 55 at second base, and hit .251/.302/.324; then the league disbanded.
Frank then got picked up by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Pirates’ regular shortstop, the 42-year-old Honus
Wagner, and his backup, Alex McCarthy, were both out with injuries, so they
were desperate enough to try a guy who hadn’t hit much at Class D, as long as
he could field the position. Frank debuted in a doubleheader at home against
the Braves on August 30, batting seventh in the order in both games, and went
1-for-4 with a walk, a hit-by-pitch, and a sacrifice bunt, and fielded 10 of 11
chances. The next day’s Pittsburgh Daily Post reported:
Frank J. Smykal, a recruit shortstop, made his debut in fast company and put up a highly pleasing game. The youngster played three seasons for the Ottawa club in the Canadian league, but he enlisted this spring with the Warren club. After the Interstate league blew up, Smykal returned to his home in Chicago, and friends of [Boston manager] Jimmy Callahan tipped the Pirate pilot off to the fact that this lad was ready to be looked over.
Smykal is 22 [26] years old, stands five feet, seven inches tall, and tips the beam at about 148 pounds. He has been practicing at Forbes Field for several days and seemed to show much promise. With Hans Wagner and Alex McCarthy both on the crippled list, Callahan decided yesterday to try the kid in the short field. The result was amazing. The recruit put up an excellent game and appeared to know exactly what to do with the ball every time he got his hands on it.
On the 31st, again against the Braves, Frank went
1-for-2 with a walk, with one error in two chances. The Pittsburgh Press
said:
Young Frank Smykal played another good game at short for the Pirates yesterday. This recruit has made a good impression on his mates. He was picked up when both Wagner and McCarthy were injured, and has jumped into the breach in a pleasing manner. He seems to be a good judge of a pitched ball, and has offered at very few bad balls.
Hans Wagner is especially pleased with his understudy’s work, and says he has noted that Smykal seems to know just what to do in every emergency…
The September 1 Ottawa Citizen noted that Frank had made
the big time, and mentioned that “He did good work for Warren in the Inter
State League, but got in wrong with the management when he tried to start a
strike among the players.” In that day’s game, against Cincinnati, Frank went
0-for-3 with a strikeout, with one error in six chances, and suddenly he wasn’t
good enough. From the September 2 Press:
Manager Callahan was hopeful that Alex McCarthy would be fit to resume his position at shortstop today. Frank Smykal, the youngster who has been filling in during the incapacitation of Wagner and McCarthy, fell down badly yesterday, and the team will be much strengthened if McCarthy can play.
McCarthy played short in both games of a doubleheader on the
2nd, with Frank getting into the second game after Alex was
pinch-hit for. Frank then stayed on the bench while McCarthy was the sole
shortstop until September 9, when Wagner returned. On the 10th Frank
pinch-hit for thirdbaseman Hooks Warner in the seventh and walked, then stayed
in the game at third; he came up again in the ninth and singled in a run, then
scored one, as the Pirates scored six and won 8-7.
And then the Pirates were done with him. From the September
16 Sporting Life:
Smykal, minor league lad, who subbed at short once or twice, is a youth out of the beaten path. Imagine any minor leaguer coming home with $700 in his inside kick, representing his season’s earnings in a small league. Good boy, Smyk.
That last game gave Frank a .300 major league batting
average, and a .500 on-base percentage. He fielded .842 at shortstop and 1.000
(one assist) at third.
Frank was still working for the Illinois Board of Health; he
was mentioned in a May 1917 story as one of the investigators into a smallpox
scare in East St. Louis. On July 5 he married Marguerite Walter, and the
Chicago city directory for that year shows them living at 1401 S. Lincoln
Avenue. By then the US had entered World War I, and on August 20 Frank was
mentioned in a Rockford Register-Gazette story about a delegation from
the state meeting with Rockford’s mayor about ensuring sanitary conditions at Camp
Grant; Frank’s position was given as Farm Sanitary Adviser. The next day he was
named as the sanitary officer at Fort Sheridan and the Great Lakes Naval Training
Station. At some point he apparently entered the army, though I found no
details about it. On March 2, 1918, Marguerite gave birth to son Walter, in
Houston, Texas, which I guess fits in with army service.
Frank vanished from the Illinois newspapers until April
1919, when, as a field representative of the state Department of Health, he
made a tour of small towns in conjunction with Health Week, meeting with local
authorities about community health. That same month the Ottawa Citizen
speculated that he might play with Hamilton of the Michigan-Ontario League, but
that didn’t happen. In May he appeared in an article in the Springfield Daily
Illinois State Register about the annual convention of the Illinois State
Medical Society, identified as the farm sanitation advisor of the department of
health. In August he was in charge of the rural hygiene exhibit at the state
fair.
At this point Frank was not yet a doctor, though he may have
been in medical school. The 1920 census, taken in January, lists him as a medical
student; he and Marguerite are one of three households renting at 442 Irving
Avenue. In August 1921 he was the supervisor of programs and publicity, and
supervisor of the maintenance staff, for the Better Babies conference at the
state fair.
In July 1923, by which point he had finished medical school,
Frank briefly returned to pro baseball, under his real name, with the Decatur
Commies of the Class B Three-I League. From the Decatur Daily Review of
July 9:
Now a little information about the Commies’ new third sacker. His name is Frank Smejkal. He is an experienced ball player having been with the Ft. Wayne Ind. Club in the old Central League of 1914. In 1916 he was with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Dr. Smejkal who holds a state position does not intend to remain with the Commies only until manager Charlie Miller is able to secure a third sacker from a Class A league.
Smejkal has been playing four games a week in Chicago and being an old Illinois man was induced by Postmaster Jake Hill to come down and help out the locals.
In the game Sunday he cracked out a double, drew a walk or two and put down a beautiful bunt that should have gone for a hit. The Evas taking a hopeless chance to peg at another base when they saw it wasn’t possible to get the Doctor at first.
Frank played third base in 17 games for Decatur, hitting
.194 in 62 at-bats, with five of his 12 hits being doubles. On September 1 the Decatur
Daily Review reported that he was back in Chicago, playing semi-pro ball. In
1926 he became a supervising physician at the Chicago Municipal Tuberculosis
Sanitorium. In May 1928 the Chicago Daily News reported that Marguerite
had been elected one of the vice-presidents of the Woman’s Allied Drug Club,
though there was no explanation as to what the Drug Club did. In 1929 Frank became
an associate professor of medicine at Chicago Medical School.
The 1930 census shows Frank, Marguerite, 11-year-old Walter,
and a boarder, 25-year-old postal clerk John Walter, presumably a relative of
Marguerite’s, paying $77 a month rent at 5101 N. Lowell Avenue, which they
shared with their landlord and his family. On June 27, 1936, the Daily News
home and garden page ran a sketch and a floor plan of the Smejkal’s house at
5822 Kolmar. From the March 10, 1938, Oak Park Oak Leaves:
Lincoln Mothers’ circle will meet Tuesday in Lincoln gymnasium. The speaker will be Dr. Frank J. Smejkal, who is supervising physician at the Municipal Tuberculosis sanitorium. He will speak on “Early Diagnosis and Management of Pulmonary Tuberculosis.” The drum and bugle corps will play and a social hour with refreshments will follow.
The 1940 census shows the family at the 5822 Kolmar house;
Frank is a physician who worked 48 hours the previous week, and earned over
$5000 the previous year. 22-year-old Walter is attending college and has no
occupation (he too will become a doctor). On April 27, 1942, 52-year-old Frank
filled out a draft registration card; it adds nothing new as to home or job,
but he describes himself as 5-7, 175 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes, ruddy
complexion, with a mole “over right super-ciliary ridge.”
From the Chicago Daily News, Saturday, August 12,
1950:
Dr. Frank J. Smejkal Funeral Tuesday
Services for Dr. Frank J. Smejkal, senior physician on leave of absence from the Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium, will be held Tuesday.
Dr. Smejkal, 60, died Friday night in Hines hospital. He had been inactive since he suffered a stroke two years ago and had been in the hospital for a month.
Dr. Smejkal had been on the medical staff of the sanitarium since 1926, and on the staffs of Swedish Covenant hospital and Bohemian Home for Children and the Aged.
He was a veteran of World War I, a member of the state Tuberculosis Board and an associate professor of medicine at Chicago Medical School.
Surviving are his widow, Marguerite; a son, Dr. Walter Frank Smejkal, and five brothers and sisters.
Services will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the Bohemian National Cemetery auditorium, 5255 N. Pulaski rd.
https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/S/Psmykf101.htm
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/smykafr01.shtml
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