Ray Caldwell's Busy Day

July 10, 1917 New York Yankees vs. St. Louis Browns Boxscore

On this date in 1917, Yankees pitcher, Ray Caldwell had a day to remember on the field and a day to forget off of the field.  The day started with his 10-day suspension being lifted by New York Yankees manager Bill Donovan. He then went out and pitched 9 plus innings of shutout baseball in relief.  He was also arrested, and he found out that he had been offered to the St. Louis Browns in a trade, but they had rejected him.

Caldwell was an interesting character whose skills on the mound could be compared to Walter Johnson one day and on the next day his erratic off the field behavior would bring up comparisons to Bugs Raymond or Rube Waddell.  In fact, Caldwell did pick up the nickname Rube.  He had a knack for disappearing from the team without any word and then reappearing a few days later.

At the beginning of August in 1916, Caldwell was suspended 15 days and fined $100 by Donovan for breaking training rules.₁ A few days after Caldwell had pitched, Donovan had penciled him into the lineup to play left field, but at game time Caldwell was nowhere to be found.  At the time of his suspension, the team was in St. Louis where Caldwell decided to stay when the team traveled on to their next series in Detroit.  After completing his 15-day suspension, he failed to report back to the team, and Donovan announced that the suspension was extended for the rest of the season.₂ Caldwell remained in St. Louis and it was reported that he checked in a sanitarium, probably to deal with his drinking problem.  After writing several letters to Donovan to try and be reinstated to the team, Donovan informed Caldwell that when he was ready there was a train ticket waiting for him to take him home to New York.

With Caldwell done for the season, trade rumors started to crop up in the newspapers.  It was reported that he was going to the Boston Braves for Hall of Famer Johnny Evers, who was at the end of his career, if Caldwell could clear waivers in the American League.  It was also reported that the Yankees turned down an offer from the Chicago White Sox of Nemo Leiblod, Shano Collins, Jack Fournier, and Eddie Murphy.₃ Next, the newspapers reported Caldwell might go to the Cleveland Indians for Ray Chapman. If the trade had gone through, Chapman might have ended up as a teammate of Carl Mays, instead of dying in 1920 as a result of a pitch thrown by Mays. Yankees owner Captain Huston was adamant that Caldwell would not be traded or sold, and if he wanted to play baseball it would be only for the Yankees. Huston had this to say about the situation:

If Ray Caldwell wishes to be a man and forget the past we will meet him half way. If he does not, then it is his misfortune. He will remain with New York. It is up to him to decide whether or not his earning capacity improves or ends. Caldwell is not a vital factor to the success of our club. On the other hand, our club is a very vital factor to the athletic career of this pitcher. We hope he fully appreciates the full significance of this plain truth. 4

Caldwell returned to the Yankees for the 1917 season, but even before day one he was causing more trouble.  On February 24 it was expected that he was going to travel from New York to Macon, Georgia with a group of Yankees players and coaches for the start of spring training.₅ However, when the group left Caldwell was again nowhere to be found.  A far fetched rumor was put out there that he had joined the French Army and was off to fight in World War I.  The team sent letters to his home in Salamanca, New York, but only received replies from his wife, who he had been separated from, stating that his whereabouts were unknown.₆

Caldwell was finally located when Robert A. Martin, manager of the Panama Agencies Company baseball team, wrote to the Brooklyn Eagle Newspaper.  In the letter he said that Caldwell was pitching in Panama under the name of Ray Collins.₇  It was against the rules of the American League to play baseball outside of the league without permission, which is why Caldwell tried to keep his true identity secret.  Arriving late to spring training on March 3, he walked into the team hotel in Macon to the shock of many people.  When asked where he had been he, said he had just come from New York where he was taking care of some business.  However, the tan he was sporting suggests that he had been in a tropical place like Panama.₈

He pitched the season opener for the Yankees against the Boston Red Sox and took a beating, giving up 10 runs and taking the loss.  In his next 13 starts he dominated with 11 complete games, a 1.99 ERA and an opponent OPS of .506.  The night of June 28 Caldwell slipped into his old ways of disappearing and got into trouble again. After pitching the second game of the doubleheader that day in Boston, he did not show up at the team hotel and the following day he failed to show up at the ball park.  He called one of the players to tell Donovan that he would not be there and was informed that he had been suspended for 10 days and fined $100.

On July 10, Caldwell had no idea what a busy day he was going to have.  He made his comeback from his latest suspension to pitch what might be one of his greatest games.  The game was in St. Louis against the Browns and went 17 innings.  Ray Fisher gets the start for the Yankees and Eddie Plank starts for the Browns.  Neither one would complete the seventh inning.  Fisher would be replaced by Slim Love who gave up the tying hit to Del Pratt in the eighth inning for a score of 5-5.  Caldwell came into pitch in the eighth inning and threw 9.2 innings of shutout baseball.  He gave up five hits, two walks, and faced 33 batters, while getting the win. Browns' pitcher Allan Sothoron also came on in relief and matched Caldwell zero for zero for eight innings.  The Yankees were able to break through against Sothoron in the 17th inning with two runs and take the win by a score of 7-5.  The 17 inning game was the longest game of the year by innings at that point in the season, and lasted only three hours and thirty-nine minutes.

As great as Caldwell had done on the field, his off the field adventures that day were maybe more interesting.  Different reports say it happened before or after the game, but he was arrested for larceny of a diamond ring worth $150.  That is equivalent to about $3,000 in current 2018 dollars.  According to Lucy L. Dick, Caldwell visited her on June 30. About the same time, he went missing after the doubleheader in Boston. When questioned Caldwell said he did have the ring but it was in Cleveland, Ohio.  How or why it was in Cleveland is a mystery.  Caldwell was released on bond and when he later returned the ring the charges were dropped.  The missing ring did not stop Dick from getting married before it was returned to her. What was Caldwells relationship to Lucy Dick?  Were they a couple and was Caldwell stealing the ring to try and stop her from getting married?  There are a lot of questions that the newspapers of the time left unanswered.

In addition, on that day Caldwell found out that the Yankees had changed their mind about trading him.  The team offered him to the St. Louis Browns for Del Pratt, the same man who had tied the game in the eighth inning.  The Browns badly needed a top line pitcher but they rejected the offer of Caldwell because his behavior of disappearing was just too unpredictable.  Five days later the Browns would accept a trade of Lee Magee from the Yankees for Armando Marsans.

In August of 1917 his wife Nellie T. Caldwell filed suit against him for separation and was awarded $250 a month in alimony, which he failed to pay.  A month later the police arrived at the Polo Grounds and arrested Caldwell for nonpayment.  With a little help from a unknown friend Caldwell was able to post his $1,000 bond.₉

Caldwell would pitch one more season with the Yankees before being traded to the Boston Red Sox in the off-season before 1919 in a seven player deal.  His time with the Red Sox would be short since they released him in the beginning of August.  He was picked up less then a month later by the Cleveland Indians.  In just his fourth game for the Indians and his first game against the Yankees since leaving that team, he would pitch a no-hitter, while facing only 29 batters.  His last days were spent in Salamanca, New York where he would pass away in 1967 at the age of 79.

Des Moines Register March 5, 1917 P. 6

Sources

1) "Ray Caldwell Placed on Suspended List" Wisconsin State Journal, 2 August 1916, p. 7.
2) "Make Caldwell Suspension Last for Rest of Year"Bridgeport Times and Evening Farmer, 18 August 1916, p. 16
3) "Refuse Big Offer For Ray Caldwell" The Pittsburgh Press, 6 August 1916, Sports Section Page 2
4) "Donovan Will Manage Yankees Again Next Year" The News Journal, 20 October 1916, p. 21
5) "Yankees Are Off For Macon Grind" The Washington Post, 24 February 1917, p. 12
6) Horn, Blinkey. "Rube Marquard Here, Favors Chance of Robins to Repeat" The Tennessean, 2 March 1917, p. 12
7) Rice "Ray Caldwell Pitching on Panama Canal Team" The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 26 February 1917, p. 9
8) Lieb, Frederick G. "Caldwell Reports in Perfect Health" The Sun, 4 March 1917, section 2 page 3
9) "'Slim' Caldwell Arrested by Wife" New-York Tribune, 14 September 1917, p. 6