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Another Edition of Baseball’s Forgotten Stars:
Lynwood “Schoolboy” Rowe
“The one ambition of my life has always been to win my first big-league game.” –“Schoolboy” Rowe
It’s time for another edition to my ongoing series of Baseball’s Forgotten Stars. “Schoolboy” Rowe fits right in. He’s a great example of a star from days gone by who has been largely forgotten over the passage of time.
A Great Baseball Nickname
Lynwood “Schoolboy” Rowe, shown above with fellow Arkansans Dizzy and Paul Dean during the 1934 World Series, was born in Waco, Texas and brought up in El Dorado, Arkansas. He was an all-around athlete in high school, competing in tennis, golf, football, and baseball; but his first love was always baseball, as the above quote attests. Exactly how he got his unusual nickname isn’t clear. Some say he got it by playing in an adult church league when he was only 14. Others say it came from his days as a newsboy, peddling papers on the streets of his hometown. Whatever its origin, in a game known for zany, off-beat nicknames, it remains one of the most memorable.
Schoolboy was one of the game’s biggest stars in the mid-1930s who early on showed unlimited promise. Rivaling his fellow Arkansan Dizzy Dean with an unpredictable, whacky personality and a flare for the dramatic, he drew large crowds wherever he pitched. He loved mingling with fans and would spend much time before and after games signing autographs.
A Real Baseball Eccentric
A known eccentric off the field, he was steady on the mound and kept hiscomposure at all times. In a career shortened by injury, he’s one of baseball’s many players who never reached full potential. The “what-if” question will always be applied to Schoolboy Rowe. What would he have accomplished if he had been injury-free? We’ll never know. But for a brief three-year stretch, 1934-’36, he was unquestionably one of the game’s finest young pitchers.
Schoolboy’s Career
Schoolboy pitched 15 seasons in the major leagues (1932-’49) for the Tigers (1932–‘42) Dodgers (1943), and Phillies (1943, 1946–‘49). Over his career, Rowe went 158-101 (.610), with a 3.87 ERA, 913 strikeouts, and 22 shutouts. The 6’4”, right-hander was a three-time All-Star, and a member of three Tigers’ pennant winners, including a World Series championship in 1935. Rowe had a complete arsenal of pitches. His pinpoint control was complemented with a blazing fastball, a hard, sweeping curve, and a deceptive change.
Schoolboy Rowe joined the Tigers in 1933 along with Hank Greenberg. He appeared in just 19 games in his rookie year, going 7-4. He followed this with a break-out year in 1934 (24–8), including an American League record sixteen consecutive wins. Rowe had another strong year in 1935 (19–13), with 21 complete games, and a league-leading six shutouts as the Tigers won their second consecutive pennant. Rowe added a third outstanding season in 1936 (19–10). But a sore arm limited him to just 31 innings in 1937 and 21 innings in 1938 and a return trip to the minors. He rebounded in 1940, going 16-3, leading the American League with a .842 winning percentage as the Tigers won their third pennant in a seven-year stretch.
Rowe was also an outstanding hitting pitcher, posting a .263 lifetime average, with 18 home runs, and 153 RBI’s. In the Tigers’ pennant years of 1934 and ’35, Rowe contributed to the winning cause with .303 and .312 averages respectively.
A bit of a flake with an abundance of Southern charm, Schoolboy Rowe became a fan favorite in Detroit. Like most ballplayers, he was superstitious and was known to carry good-luck charms in his pockets during games. He always picked up his glove with his left hand, and occasionally was known to even talk to the ball.
Devoted to His Highschool Sweetheart!
Rowe was particularly popular with female fans due to his Hollywood good looks
and for his highly publicized devotion to high-school sweetheart, Edna Mary
Skinner. During his 16-game win streak in 1934, a reporter asked him for the secret of his success. Schoolboy responded in his typical home-spun matter:
“I’d just eat a lot of vittles, climb on that mound, wrap my fingers around the ball and say to it, ‘Edna, honey, let’s go.'”
Prior to the 1934 World Series, the Detroit News brought Edna to Detroit. Pictures of Edna and Schoolboy posing with Babe Ruth were published in the newspapers, as the nation became caught up in their highly publicized romance. They married shortly after the 1934 World Series.
Two Years Lost to Military Service
During WWII, he was assigned to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station (1944-’45) where his former manager, Mickey Cochrane, led an All-Star baseball team that included Schoolboy, Bob Feller, Johnny Mize, Dom DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto, and Billy Herman. After the war, he proved he still had some good years left, going 52-39 over five seasons with the Phillies. He was released after the 1949 season. After retiring, he spent two seasons as the Tigers’ pitching coach and later worked as a Tigers scout. He also spent some years managing in the minor leagues.
Schoolboy Rowe died of a heart attack at age 50 on January 8, 1961 in El Dorado, Arkansas. He will forever be remembered as one of the greatest right-handed hurlers in Tigers history; and, like his contemporary Dizzy Dean, he will be remembered as one of baseball’s great, enduring characters.
Gary Livacari
Sources: SABR biography of Schoolboy Rowe by Gregory Wolfe; and excerpts edited from the Schoolboy Rowe Wikipedia page; Stats from Baseball-Reference.com
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