It has been a rough few weeks here. My senior Great Pyrenees had to be euthanized. He had been undergoing treatment for cancer since before Christmas, but it was ineffective. His health took a turn for the worse and we made the choice to end his suffering. On top of that, I have had cascading plumbing issues associated with my barn mostly due to the half-assed work prior owners did. Some repairs I did myself, but others required more specialized skills. I won't bore you with the details but suffice it to say I am about done with country living and wouldn't mine moving back into town where I don't have to deal with fixing someone else's work. I've lived here 20 years. You would think I would have found it all by now.
Not a lot of hobby activity, although I did manage to get 3 of the remaining 4 cards I needed to complete my 1958 set. The only remaining card is #310 - Ernie Banks. The card is of sufficient cost that I probably will hold off on chasing after it until my life and checkbook return to something resembling normalcy.
Anyways, onward. Here we have Roger Peckinpaugh, another noteworthy, but not all time great, player. He was something the opposite of our previous subject, Riggs Stephenson. Where Stephenson was a good bat attached to a weak fielder, Peckingpaugh was considered one of the best shortstops in the Dead Ball Era, while generally packing a below average offensive punch at the plate.
Some interesting facts about Peckinpaugh:
- He was the youngest manager ever in MLB history when he took over the New York Yankees on an interim basis for the last 20 games of the 1914 season. He was 23 years old.
- Born and raised in Ohio, he started his major league career with Cleveland when the team was known as the Naps.
- In a case of be careful what you ask for, he was traded from the Yankees to the Washington Senators after the 1921 season when Babe Ruth, while complaining about skipper Miller Huggins, suggested Peck would be a better choice for manager.
- While with the Washington Senators, he was part of a formidable double play combo with player-manager Bucky Harris and acted as an unofficial assistant manager. They won the World Series in 1924 and the AL pennant the following year.
- Despite what amounted to league average hitting, Peck's fielding and leadership led to him being the 1925 AL MVP. When sorted by the modern WAR metric, he would have been in 20th place among all the players recieving MVP votes that year.
- He returned to Cleveland as a manager twice. First from 1928 through the first 51 games of the 1933 season and again for the 1941 season. He was succeeded in 1942 by 24 year old player manager Lou Boudreau, who I've featured here previously.
- After leaving baseball, he became a manufacturer's rep for Cleveland Oak Belting. a company that appears to still be in business. One of their current product lines is conveyor idlers, a component that my employer uses in their quarries.
What I am listening to but probably shouldn't: Maggie's Song by Chris Stapleton
