Lefty O’Doul Photo Gallery
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Another Edition of…
The Most Lopsided Trades in Baseball History: “Lefty” O’Doul for Freddy Leach, October 29, 1928!
“Should I get credit for Joe DiMaggio? Heck, I was just smart enough to leave him alone!” –Lefty O’Doul’s modest response to those who gave him credit for the emergence of Joe DiMaggio on the San Francisco Seals
Exactly 88 years ago today, the Giants traded Lefty O’Doul to the Phillies for the aforementioned Freddy Leach. That’s right…Freddy Leach…and, no, I’ve never heard of him either!
After hitting .319 as a platoon player for the 1928 Giants and a subsequent postseason trade to the Phillies, O’Doul teamed up with Phillies’ star Chuck Klein in 1929, and the result was one of the best offensive years in baseball history. He led the National League with a .398 batting average, a record-setting 254 hits, 32 home runs, 122 RBIs, and a phenomenal 152 runs scored. His hits total broke the previous National League record of 250 set by Rogers Hornsby in 1922. The record stood until 2004 until broken by Ichiro Suzuki. O’Doul was the runner-up to Hornsby for the 1929 MVP award.
After batting .383 with 22 homers during the 1930 season, O’Doul was traded to the Dodgers. In 1932, he batted .368 to win another league batting title. After a slow start in 1933, O’Doul was traded back to the Giants where he rallied to hit .306 the rest of the way. He played just one more year before retiring in 1934.
Over parts of 11 seasons in the major leagues (1919-1934), O’Doul played for the Yankees, Red Sox, Giants, Phillies, and Dodgers. He hit .349 with 113 home runs, 542 RBIs, .465 on-base percentage, and .542 slugging average. His .349 career average is currently fourth all-time, behind only Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, and Shoeless Joe Jackson. He has the highest batting average of any player not in the Hall of Fame. He was an All-Star (1933), and a member of the World Series champion Giants (1933). He struck out only 122 times in 3658 plate appearances, an average of one every 27 at-bats.
What’s amazing about O’Doul’s offensive output is that he started his career in 1917 as a left-handed pitcher with the PCL San Francisco Seals. He made it to the majors in 1919 and had some modest success with the Yankees and Red Sox from 1919 to 1923 as a reliever. In one notable game on July 7, 1923, he gave up 16 runs over 3 innings of relief. Fourteen of the runs came in the 6th inning, setting the major league record for most runs allowed by a reliever in one appearance (only three of the 16 were earned runs).
Following the 1923 season, O’Doul developed a sore arm. The Giants returned him to the Pacific Coast League, where he was converted to a power-hitting outfielder. In 1927 he became one of four Pacific Coast League hitters to have a 30 home runs, 30 stolen bases season. He returned to the majors as an outfielder in 1928 and enjoyed seven highly productive seasons.
Following his major league career, he began an extraordinarily successful managing career in the Pacific Coast League. From 1935 to 1951, with the Seals and several other teams, he became the most successful manager in PCL history. One of his notable accomplishments was being credited with the development the young Joe DiMaggio, He was also a vital figure in the establishment of professional baseball in Japan and was called the “Father of Japanese Baseball.” He also served as baseball’s goodwill ambassador around the world before and after World War II
His name and popularity live on in his hometown of San Francisco, where the popular restaurant and bar he founded still operates as Lefty O’Doul’s Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge on Geary Boulevard and still serves his original recipe for Bloody Marys. O’Doul was inducted into the San Francisco Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1981 and the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002. With his .349 career batting average, he is often mentioned as a possible Hall of Fame candidate But with only 11 years in the majors and his lack of longevity as a hitter, he has fallen sort of the necessary votes.
Gary Livacari
Photo Credits: All from Google Search
Information: Excerpts edited from the Lefty O’Doul Wikipedia page.
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