Right from the get-go, Otto Hess was a two-way player. Okay, okay, okay, not from the very get-go, but in his second year of professional baseball he took on the two-way player cause. It’s unclear what caused this to be the course of action because in 1902 with the American League’s Cleveland Bronchos he was […]
Tag: two way players
Bridging the Two-Way Gap: Dale Gear
Dale Gear had dabbled with being a two-way player through most of the beginning of his career. In 1898 with the Kansas City Blues of the A-level Western League he took the plunge the rest of the way. That year he played 1 game at first base, 2 games at second base, 1 game at […]
Bridging the Two-Way Gap: George Sisler
Long before his 1922 season as the American League Most Valuable Player playing first base for the St. Louis Browns George Sisler spent time as a two-way player. Well, he spent one season as a dedicated two-way player and followed that year up with sporadic pitching appearances until 1928. But, for one year the Browns […]
Bridging the Two-Way Gap: Leon Day
Two-way players were commonplace in the Negro Leagues. There were many reasons for this, most of which I have gotten into before. To keep it short, there were lots of two-way players in the Negro Leagues and that’s why the Babe Ruth to Shohei Ohtani narrative is a false one. When we are on this […]
Bridging the Two-Way Gap: Johnny O’Brien
The two-way player idea has always been tilted towards position players becoming pitchers. They can hit already, hopefully, and they have the important distinction of being a position player with a strong throwing arm. The ability of a middle infielder to throw the ball hard is often what gets teams talking about giving a position […]