Forgotten Stars Pt. 1: Bill Werber

When a team that has as long a history as the Red Sox it is natural to have players who have been largely forgotten.  These are some players who simply do not get mentioned anymore or are largely forgotten.

(As much as I would love to, I do not own this card)

Boston's fortunes were beginning to change after 1932, the lowest point in team history.  Tom Yawkey had bought the team and was beginning to sink money into it to try to become competitive.  Just over three months after taking the reins, Yawkey bought some players from the Yankees.  Players coming over from the Yankees had generally not performed well in Boston, but this time it worked out.  Yawkey purchased former star George Pipgras and up-and-coming third baseman Bill Werber for $100,000.00 or $25,000.00 less than the Yankees paid former owner Harry Frazee for Babe Ruth.

Werber was no Babe Ruth but he was a very successful third-baseman for the Red Sox for a few years.  As a 25 year old rookie he hit .259/.312/.379 with three home runs and 39 RBIs but stole 15 bases.  He had the best season of his career in 1934 hitting .321/.397/.472 with 11 home runs, 67 RBIs, and a league leading 40 stolen bases.  

Werber would go on to have two more largely successful seasons as the Red Sox third-baseman and lead the league in stolen bases again in 1935.  Werber was then dealt to the Athletics for Pinky Higgins.  

Werber arrived in Boston at a time that fans were desperate for someone to root for.  He was a good third-baseman who possessed a lot of speed.  He was largely forgotten even at the time because Yawkey was busy picking up star player after star player.  The team went from cellar dwellers to the home of future Hall of Famers Lefty Grove, Joe Cronin, Jimmie Foxx, and Rick Ferrell.  But Werber was one of the first pick-ups to make an impact, acquired just three days after Ferrell.

10-10-10-10 Seasons in Red Sox History

I was curious about some of the big power/speed seasons in Red Sox history, I will have a post about 20/20 seasons soon (Boston has not had a 30/30 season), so I did some more research. Today however, I was more interested in how many players have had a season in which they had ten or more doubles, triples, home runs, and stolen bases. The triples part is the hard part. You have to have decent power to drive the ball and speed in order to move all the way to third base. So, I formulated a hypothesis as to which players I would see and then did the research.

First Trivia: There are two players that had two such seasons. Who are they?

My hypothesis: I expected to see Nomar Garciaparra, Jackie Jensen, one of the three of Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio, or Johnny Pesky, Tris Speaker, and at least one other Dead Ball Era player.

The Results:
Nomar Garciaparra (2003): 37 doubles, 13 triples, 28 home runs, 19 stolen bases.
Johnny Damon (2002): 34 doubles, 11 triples, 14 home runs, 31 stolen bases.
Nomar Garciaparra (1997): 44 doubles, 11 triples, 30 home runs, 22 stolen bases. And it was his rookie year.
Jackie Jensen (1956): 23 doubles, 11 triples, 20 home runs, 11 stolen bases.
Bobby Doerr (1940): 37 doubles, 10 triples, 22 home runs, 10 stolen bases.
Billy Werber (1934): 41 doubles, 10 triples, 11 home runs, 40 stolen bases. Largely forgotten great player in the 1930's.
Tris Speaker (1912): 53 doubles, 12 triples, 10 home runs, 52 stolen bases.
Jake Stahl (1910): 19 doubles, 16 triples, 10 home runs, 22 stolen bases. Ah, the Dead Ball Era.
Buck Freeman (1902): 38 doubles, 19 triples, 11 home runs, 17 stolen bases.
Buck Freeman (1901): 23 doubles, 15 triples, 12 home runs, 17 stolen bases.

Trivia Answer: As you can see both Nomar Garciaparra and Buck Freeman did it twice.

Results: It's pretty rare to see these seasons. Most players do not hit a lot of triples. It's weird that there were four seasons in the first twenty years of the franchise's existence, then after 1956, there was not another one for over forty years. Garciaparra was an incredible player in his rookie season. My hypothesis was correct, although I did not guess that it would be 1956 that Jensen did it. Also, I was surprised that Doerr was the only player who did it. Pesky did not have much power, but I thought he may have hit ten home runs. I am very surprised that DiMaggio did not do it. Four Dead Ball Era players is surprising.