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Another Edition of Baseball’s Lopsided Trades:

Yankees Deal Urban Shocker To the Browns!

As I continue my series on lopsided trades, today I’ll be featuring a real whopper that was consummated near the end of the Dead Ball Era (1918) and had ramifications well into the 1920s.  It’s certainly one of the most one-sided deals in major league history. I learned about the details of the trade while reading a great book sent to me by Victoria Martin, The St. Louis Browns, The Story of a Beloved Team. 

An Ill-Advised Trade

On January 22, 1918, the Yankees traded a talented young right-hander named Urban Shocker to the St. Louis Browns for a washed-up Eddie Plank and infielder Del Pratt. The deal was engineered by Yankee manager Miller Huggins and was one he surely came to regret. Although they did get three decent years out of Pratt, Eddie Plank never pitched a game for the Yankees.

I also learned that, thanks to the Yankees and this lopsided trade, Urban Shocker, the player the Browns obtained in the trade, quickly developed into one of the

most dominant pitchers in the American League and became one of the greatest Browns’ pitchers in their history. 

Over his seven seasons with the Browns, all Shocker did was go 126-80 (.612) with a 3.19 ERA. To make matters worse, from 1920 to 1923, he posted four straight years with 20 or more wins. Over this period, he went a stellar 91-51 (.640), with a 3.16 ERA. His 27 wins in 1921 led the American League, as did his 149 strikeouts in 1922.  At the time of his retirement, he was the Browns’ all-time leader in career wins and shoutouts. As one of the last pitchers to legally throw the spitball, it’s hard to imagine how good the Yankees of the early 1920s would have been had this deal not been made. 

Back to the Yankees

Then on December 17, 1924, 104 years ago yesterday, the Yankees tried to atone for the terrible trade.  Shocker returned to the Yankees in exchange for Bullet Joe Bush and two other pitchers. While not as dominant as he was with the Browns, he still had some good years left, going 19-11 in 1926, and 18-6 in 1927.  Overall, in his six seasons with the Yankees, he went 61-37 (.622) with a 3.14 ERA. 

A Cerebral Pitcher

In a SABR review of Steve Steinberg’s biographical book, Urban Shocker, Silent Hero of Baseball’s Golden Age, he was described as a “cerebral pitcher with the nerve of a burglar”: 

Shocker’s reputation was established early in his career. He read several newspapers each day, studying the box scores to discern which hitters were hot. He was also a keen observer while on the mound, intuiting a batter’s intentions by the way he waggled the bat or by the placement of his feet in the box. “I doubt there is another pitcher in the game,” wrote St. Louis sports editor Sid Keener, “who studies his batters as carefully as Shocker and gives them just what they don’t want.”

Unfortunately, Shocker developed a heart condition early in life. Due to its severity, some reports said he had to sleep either sitting or standing up. By the early fall of 1927, he was too ill to maintain his spot in the Yankee rotation. After his release in 1928, he contracted pneumonia and passed away shortly after on September 9, 1928, aged 37 as the result of heart failure exacerbated by the disease. 

We Can All Recall Bad Trades

All baseball fans can recall trades our favorite team made over the years that still leave a bitter taste in our mouths. As a Cub fan, I know that Brock for Broglio will never be forgotten.  But today’s feature of Urban Shocker for a washed-up Eddie Plank is a real humdinger!

Gary Livacari 

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Information: Excerpts edited from the “St Louis Browns: The Story of a Beloved Team; Steve Steinberg’s biography, Urban Shocker, Silent Hero of Baseball’s Golden Age; and excerpts edited from Urban Shocker Wikipedia page

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