{"id":17,"date":"2008-09-27T18:21:33","date_gmt":"2008-09-28T01:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2007\/09\/25\/who-you-ask-is-harry-heilmann\/"},"modified":"2011-03-02T20:45:08","modified_gmt":"2011-03-03T03:45:08","slug":"who-you-ask-is-harry-heilmann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/27\/who-you-ask-is-harry-heilmann\/","title":{"rendered":"Who, You Ask, is Harry Heilmann?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m currently finishing up my second book, “It Ain’t So: An Alternative History of the Chicago Black Sox,” but I’d like to contribute something to the site, so here’s the first post I made when we launched Seamheads.com almost a year ago.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 1913 San Francisco, an 18-year-old bookkeeper would see his fate take a serendipitous turn for the better simply because he had done a friend a favor and agreed to play a game of baseball for $10. Filling in for the Hanford team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sick third baseman, the bookkeeper slammed an eleventh-inning double, winning the game, and earning the adulation of fans and a Northwest League scout who happened to be in attendance. The scout signed the teenager to a professional contract and the Hall of Fame career of outfielder Harry Heilmann was underway.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Harry Edwin Heilmann was born in San Francisco on August 3, 1894. He first learned baseball on neighborhood sand lots and eventually played for his school teams, attending the college of the Sacred Heart and later St. Mary’s, where he planned on pursuing a degree in medicine. While in school Heilmann excelled in football, basketball\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhe was named to the all-California basketball team\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand track, where he threw the shot-put and ran the low hurdles. Then came that fateful day in 1913.<\/span><\/p>\n

After hitting .305 for Portland in 1913, Heilmann was acquired by the Detroit Tigers in the minor league draft for $700 and signed a contract to play for Detroit starting in 1914. He enjoyed some success in spring training, blasting a grand slam against Chattanooga of the Southern League on April 2, but the 19-year-old failed miserably during the regular season, hitting only .225 in 69 games. His outfield play didn’t help his cause either as he posted an .870 fielding percentage in 31 games (he also played 16 games at first and six at second). Heilmann had a particularly bad day against the Philadelphia Athletics early in the 1914 season as recounted by John J. Ward in Baseball Magazine<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

“In the first inning of a game with the Athletics he achieved every error possible for an outfielder to make,” wrote Ward. “He fumbled Schang’s single sufficiently for the fleet-footed catcher to reach second, then threw wildly, enabling Wally to reach third, and finished his disastrous work by dropping Murphy’s high fly.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The Tigers released Heilmann on January 27, 1915 to San Francisco of the Pacific Coast League under the condition that he be sent back to Detroit at the conclusion of the PCL season. In return the Tigers agreed not to recall the slugger before then. Local writers wasted no time singing Heilmann’s praises. “Heilmann was the chap most closely watched,” reported the Los Angeles Times <\/em>after the Seals’ first practice in late February. “The San Francisco lad made good in every respect. His throwing across the diamond opened the eyes of even the veterans.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Heilmann\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fielding was shaky at times\u00e2\u20ac\u201dHarry A. Williams wrote in the Los Angeles Times<\/em>, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Heilman (sic) pulled off some plays here early in the season that made him look a bit bad\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut Seals manager Harry Wolverton left no doubt that he was impressed with the young first sacker. “Detroit is sure to recall Heilman (sic) next season,” Wolverton told Williams. “He is a terrific hitter and a sensational fielder. All that he needs is experience. Unless something goes wrong he is likely to develop into one of the greatest first basemen in the country.” Heilmann was hitting .349 at the time and was one of four San Francisco regulars topping the .300 mark, making them the favorites to win the PCL championship.<\/span><\/p>\n

On August 9 Heilmann was batting .365, only five points behind league leader Jack Ness of the Oakland Oaks. Two days later the Tigers exercised their option on him and signed him to a contract that guaranteed he’d be in Detroit for the 1916 campaign. “…Heilmann while by no means the finished product, looks to be some wonder,” wrote Williams. “Another year under Wolverton would be the best thing that could happen to him, but so many major league teams could utilize his natural hitting ability that it is doubtful whether he returns to the coast again until old age sets in.” <\/span><\/p>\n

Less than a week later he passed Ness for the PCL batting lead, but began suffering from dizzy spells that kept him out of San Francisco’s lineup for the remainder of the season. He finished the season with a .365 average and finished second in the batting race to Salt Lake second baseman Anthony “Bunny” Brief, who batted .366 in 84 games.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Harry
\nHarry Heilmann lost the 1915 PCL batting title by one point but he had multiple batting titles in his future<\/span><\/p>\n

Prior to the 1916 season Williams’ opinion of Heilmann was more tempered. “Harry Heilman (sic), although still awkward and ungainly, like a colt, will probably bat his way into a job with Detroit provided he is in good health. However, his condition is regarded as doubtful, and it is not certain that he will do much more than get into a uniform.” The 6-foot-1, 195 pound, right-handed slugger was indeed in good health and earned a spot in the starting lineup with a solid spring. <\/span><\/p>\n

“Heilman (sic)…is now in good shape and has been lamming the ball in great style this Spring,” reported the Boston Globe<\/em> at the end of March 1916. Baseball Magazine<\/em> was even more enthusiastic, claiming that “Heilman (sic) is said to have ripened into a genuine star.” <\/span><\/p>\n

He began the season at first base and got off to a hot start, leading the American League in slugging with a .621 mark a week into the season, and through the end of April he was hitting .318. On May 10 it was reported that Sam Crawford, a 36-year-old 18-year veteran, was being sent to the bench by Tigers manager Hughie Jennings, who announced he was moving Heilmann to Crawford’s right field spot to make room for hot-hitting “Tioga George” Burns at first base. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sam
\n36-year-old Sam Crawford, a career .309 hitter, was relegated to the bench early in 1916 to make room for younger sluggers like Heilmann and George Burns<\/span><\/p>\n

“Sam has not been hitting to form and I am afraid he has finished his career as a regular,” Jennings told reporters. Indeed Crawford recorded only 426 at-bats over his final two seasons, after averaging 575 AB a season from 1901 to 1915. <\/span><\/p>\n

Midway through June, Heilmann was still batting .311 and was acclimating himself to the outfield, but he began to slump at the plate<\/span> and he was hitting only .275 on July 27. B<\/span>ut he endeared himself to the city of Detroit when he dived into the Detroit River the night before and saved a girl from drowning after the car her father was driving plunged into the river.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>“Detroit fans would be unanimous in recommending Harry Heilmann for a Carnegie medal for his gallant rescue of a maiden who was going down in the Detroit River,” wrote the Boston Globe<\/em>.<\/p>\n

After that he rebounded at the plate and raised his average, finishing his first full season in the majors at .282, and he ranked among the top 10 in the American League in doubles (30), RBIs (73), and slugging (.410).<\/p>\n

1917 went much the same for the right-handed slugger, who batted .281 with a career high five home runs and 86 RBIs. He finished fourth in runs batted in, giving the Tigers a trifecta of RBI men near the top of the leader boards as Bobby Veach paced the league with 103 and Ty Cobb tied for second with 102. Only Chicago center fielder Happy Felsch, who drove in 102 runs, kept Detroit from hoarding the top three spots.<\/p>\n

Heading into the 1918 season there were rumors that the Yankees were looking to add another bat to their lineup and Heilmann’s name came up, but New York purchased George Burns from Detroit instead and traded the first baseman to Philadelphia for outfielder Ping Bodie. Burns’ departure had J.V. Fitz Gerald of the Washington Post<\/em> wondering whether Jennings would move Heilmann back to first base. “Taking Heilman (sic) from the outfield to the infield would leave a hole in the outer garden that will prove hard to fill…Heilman (sic) played some games at first base last season and showed he is a capable first sacker.” Heilmann ended up splitting time at first with Lee Dressen, a 28-year old journeyman who’d had prior major league experience with the Cardinals in 1914 and had been acquired from St. Paul in the offseason, and in right field with George Harper.<\/p>\n

But he ended up playing in only 79 of Detroit’s 126 games as he, like so many others in 1918, enlisted in the military (Heilmann served in the Navy) to support the United States during World War I. Heilmann batted only .276 in 1918, but he tied his career high in home runs with five (in only 286 at-bats) and displayed an excellent command of the strike zone that portended future success, fanning only 10 times all season.<\/p>\n

Heilmann was moved to first base on a full-time basis in 1919 and he was abysmal, fielding at a .979 clip and committing 31 errors, but he recorded his first .300 season, hitting .320, and established career highs in almost every offensive category. He finished fourth in RBIs again, driving in 93, and ranked among the top 10 in numerous offensive categories. He followed with a 1920 campaign that saw him bat .309 and set a career high with nine home runs, but, once again, his fielding failed him and for the second consecutive season he led all A.L. first sackers in miscues.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Tiger first baseman was not yet one of the elite hitters in the league<\/span>\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhis OPS was almost 200 points lower than Cobb’s and 150 points below that of Tris Speaker\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut from 1914 to 1920 only 10 A.L. hitters bettered Heilmann’s OPS of .765 and only 12 created more runs per game. But 1921 would see Heilmann join the ranks of the elite and he would remain there for most of the rest of his career.<\/p>\n

The first six years of his career took place during the “Dead Ball Era,” but that was about to end.<\/p>\n

While a dramatic increase in offense would suggest that there was a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lively ball\u00e2\u20ac\u009d era beginning in 1920, this is not the case. Major League Baseball\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s offensive explosion in the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Roaring Twenties\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was directly related to the limited ban of the spitball in the winter of 1919-20 and the league\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s insistence that fresh balls be introduced into games more frequently, after <\/span>Cleveland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Ray Chapman was killed by an errant Carl Mays fastball. <\/span>It was speculated that Chapman had had a difficult time reacting to the pitch because he could not see the ball, which had been stained by tobacco juice and licorice.<\/p>\n

\"ray-chapman-3.jpg\"
\nPopular Indians shortstop Ray Chapman died on August 17, 1920 after being hit in the head by a Carl Mays pitch<\/span><\/p>\n

No hitter benefited more from these changes than Harry Heilmann did, as he was transformed into a superstar, virtually overnight. The rise in offense demanded that outfielders employ new strategies, forcing them to spread out and play deeper.<\/span> <\/span>The line drive hitting Heilmann took advantage of the gaps that were created. <\/span><\/p>\n

The 1921 season ushered in several changes for the Detroit Tigers and Heilmann. Ty Cobb replaced manager Hughie Jennings and took over a team that had finished the 1920 season with a dismal 61-93 record, finishing 37 games behind the first-place Cleveland Indians. Cobb\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first order of business was to return Heilmann to the outfield permanently.<\/span> <\/span>He then began to refine his teammate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s batting style, teaching Heilmann to crouch more, use his wrists to drive the ball and shift his weight to his front foot. Cobb, the teammate, had never bothered to help Heilmann in the past\u00e2\u20ac\u201d”he [Cobb] didn’t care whether I hit or not,” Heilmann claimed, “he just figured it wasn’t any of his business, I guess”\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut Cobb, the manager, took an active role in Heilmann\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s development and it paid off in spades. “He wasn’t much on homers because he didn’t loft the ball as a rule,” wrote John Kieran 11 years later. “He specialized in line drives that threw off fire and smoke…”<\/span><\/p>\n

The Tiger outfielder improved his batting average by a staggering 85 points, leading the league at .394 and edging his new manager by five points for the batting title.<\/span> <\/span>Not only did he pace the American League with 237 hits, but he scored 114 runs, drove in 139 and became the first right-handed hitter to lead the A.L. in batting since Nap Lajoie in 1910.<\/p>\n

While Heilmann was achieving new success on the field, he was doing equally well off it, going into the insurance business and making a very nice living. Then he got into real estate and purchased business property, buildings, and apartment houses in Detroit. Needless to say, life for Harry was very good.<\/p>\n

A broken collarbone slowed Heilmann down in 1922, but he was able to manage a .356 average, while slamming a career-high 21 homers in only 455 at-bats.<\/span> <\/span>Heilmann would never top his power output of 1922, but his best days were yet to come.In 1923 Heilmann reached the .400 mark for the first and only time in his career, hitting a league-leading .403, and continuing a strange trend that would find him winning batting titles in odd-numbered years.<\/span> <\/span>He rapped out 211 hits, scored 121 runs and knocked in 115 RBIs, and, for the second time, bested a legend, finishing 10 points ahead of Babe Ruth in the batting race.<\/p>\n

Ruth would get his revenge in 1924, winning his only batting crown with a .378 average as Heilmann slipped to .346.<\/span> <\/span>Despite his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153slump\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, the Detroit outfielder tied Cleveland\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Joe Sewell with a league-leading 45 doubles, while finishing among the top five in runs, triples, total bases and RBIs. <\/span>The\u00e2\u20ac\u0153slug\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, as his teammates affectionately dubbed him due to his lack of speed, even threw in 13 stolen bases for good measure.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Harry
\nHarry works on his defense during the 1917 season<\/span><\/p>\n

Heilmann, who was never known for his defense, also had a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153career year\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the outfield, improving his fielding percentage to .970, while throwing out 31 base runners and starting six double plays. He would never throw out more than 18 base runners in a season for the remainder of his career.<\/span><\/p>\n

1925 looked to bring an end to Heilmann\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s odd-numbered dominance as he headed into September 50 points behind league-leader Tris Speaker in the race for the batting title.<\/span> <\/span>Amazingly, he caught Speaker and trailed him by only one point on the final day of the season. <\/span>Heilmann surged ahead with a 3-for-6 performance in the first game of a doubleheader, while Speaker sat out his game with a leg injury. <\/span>Refusing to sit out the second game to ensure his victory over Speaker, Heilmann finished the 1925 season by going 3-for-3 to win his third crown with a .393 average.<\/p>\n

Again, the right-handed hitter couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hold his crown for more than one season when he finished third in the 1926 American League batting race behind teammate Heinie Manush and Babe Ruth, hitting .367.<\/span> <\/span>He extended his streak of 40-double, 100-RBI seasons to four, however, when he slammed out 41 and drove in 103, respectively.<\/p>\n

Off the field, Heilmann became involved in a potentially volatile situation when disgruntled pitcher Dutch Leonard wrote a letter to him in the winter of 1926, implicating Ty Cobb (as well as Tris Speaker and Joe Wood) in a gambling scandal.<\/span> <\/span>Heilmann showed the letter to Tigers owner Frank Navin and the story went public. <\/span>Commissioner Landis eventually cleared the accused men, using the opportunity to humiliate American League president Ban Johnson, with whom he had a running feud. Johnson was made aware of the accusations in September and allowed Cobb and Speaker to quietly resign, each citing different reasons for retiring from baseball. Cobb announced he couldn’t lead the Tigers to a winning record “under current circumstances” and that he wanted to leave the game while he was still “among the best.” Speaker announced he was leaving due to declining skills\u00e2\u20ac\u201dan odd claim considering he’d just hit .304 with 52 doubles and posted a .981 fielding percentage, finishing second only to Bibb Falk among outfielders. He also had an offer to become an executive for a Cleveland business.<\/p>\n

\"speaker_cobb2.jpg\"
\nTris Speaker (L) and Ty Cobb were accused of gambling on a Tigers-Indians game during the 1919 season, but they were cleared of all wrong-doing by Kenesaw Mountain Landis<\/span><\/p>\n

Johnson ruled that Cobb and Speaker would never be allowed to play for or manage a team in his league again. But Landis exonerated them and allowed them to return. Ironically both were signed by two of Johnson’s oldest friends\u00e2\u20ac\u201dCobb by Athletics owner\/manager Connie Mack and Speaker by Senators owner Clark Griffith. Apparently, Heilmann\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s friendship with Cobb was not tainted by this episode, as they remained close until Heilmann\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death. <\/span><\/p>\n

1927 would see Heilmann’s fourth and final batting title come to fruition, when he duplicated his amazing feat of 1925, battling Philadelphia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Al Simmons to the wire, before overtaking him on the season\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s final day.<\/span> <\/span>Heilmann fell behind Simmons when the Athletics\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 left fielder went 2-for-5 against Washington to raise his average to .392. In the first game of a doubleheader against St. Louis, Heilmann amassed four hits to pass Simmons and, refusing as he did in 1925 to sit out the second game, collected three more hits to finish at .398.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alas, his incredible run came to an end at the age of 34 as his average dropped 70 points to .328 in 1928. His seven-season dominance saw him achieve a .400 batting average and fall only nine hits short of achieving that lofty perch three more times.<\/p>\n

But just as Heilmann had achieved overnight success in 1921, he would achieve an overnight decline after 1930 as arthritis began to take its toll on his wrists in 1929.<\/span> <\/span>He managed to hit .344 in 1929, finishing 25 points behind league-leader Lew Fonseca of Cleveland, while driving in 100 runs for the seventh consecutive season, but was able to play in only 125 games. Meanwhile the stock market crash depleted his fortune. “From the height of popularity and prosperity, he [Heilmann] went all the way down the slope,” wrote John Kieran. “He was back where he started fifteen years earlier except that he was no longer young and he had lost his health.”<\/p>\n

In 1930, Heilmann hit .333 in 459 at-bats and belted the second highest total of home runs in his career when he smashed 19 while playing for <\/span>Cincinnati. He also became the first player to homer in every major league park in use during his career.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Suddenly, Heilmann\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s career was over.<\/span> <\/span>He sat out the 1931 season before attempting a brief comeback in 1932. Newspapers trumpeted his triumphant return on March 3, “Harry Heilmann, sparkplug of the 1930 attack who was out all last season with arthritis in his wrists, participated in practice for the first time in a year. The former American League batting champion slugged the ball to all corners of the lot and appears to have recovered from his illness.” But Heilmann amassed a mere 31 at-bats in only 15 games before calling it quits for good and becoming a coach.<\/p>\n

“With the Reds, Harry reached mean low water,” Kieran wrote in 1932. “He went along for a while, something like a thin, pale shadow of the stalwart slugger of earlier days…Those were bleak days for Handsome Harry.”<\/p>\n

After 17 major league seasons, Heilmann hung up his spikes, having collected 2,660 hits, 542 doubles, 151 triples, 183 home runs, 1,291 runs scored and 1,539 runs batted in.<\/span> <\/span>To this day, his .342 batting average is second only to Rogers Hornsby\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s .358 among right-handed hitters, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tied with Babe Ruth for sixth all time among modern day hitters.<\/p>\n

Ira Smith waxed poetic about Heilmann in Baseball’s Famous Outfielders<\/em>, stating that the Tiger star was “Always a ‘team player’ and gave managers no worries. Courageous and a fine competitor. Modest and personable, he was extremely popular. Possessed many virtues, including loyalty, kindness, tolerance and generosity.” <\/span><\/p>\n

Fred Lieb named Heilmann to his 1901-1925 All-Time All-Star Team, putting him in the utility spot (Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, and Babe Ruth were named to the starting outfield). <\/span>Heilmann went on to a distinguished career as a broadcaster, where he made his living from 1933 until 1951 when he developed lung cancer and became ill. Ty Cobb, who was not generally known for his generosity, spearheaded an effort to have Heilmann inducted into the Hall of Fame before the 1951 All-Star Game, but Cobb\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s request was denied. Heilmann did not live long enough to enjoy his induction ceremony, as he died the day before the game at the age of 57. One year later, in 1952, he would be officially inducted into the Hall of Fame.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m currently finishing up my second book, “It Ain’t So: An Alternative History of the Chicago Black Sox,” but I’d like to contribute something to the site, so here’s the first post I made when we launched Seamheads.com almost a year ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}