The Toledo Mud Hens
Since the inception of the American Association in 1902, the Toledo Mud Hens took the leagues’ top-spot on one single occasion. In 1927, the Mud Hens captured first-place in one of the most dramatic finishes in American Association history, ekeing out the top-spot in the final week of the American Association season.
But first, here is a look at the early history of the Mud Hens of the American Association.
During their inaugural season of the American Association in 1902, the Mud Hens wound up in last place with a record of 43-98 at Armory Park under team president and field manager Charles Strobel.
Leading Toledo’s hit-toppers was outfielder-pitcher Charles Coggswell who put a .312 batting average on the boards. Outfielder Pat Meaney was a close second with his .307 mark.
Lefty Homer Mock brought 14 victories to the Hens in 324 innings of work along with 2 shutouts. Right-hander Harley McNeal won 11 games in 316 innings.
Toledo entered the first-division among American Association teams in 1906 while compiling a record of 79-69 under manager J. Edward Grillo.
In 1907, the Mud Hens landed in second-place, a scant 2 games behind the front-running Columbus Senators. Bill Armour’s Hens finished the season with a 88-66 record.
Led by outfielder Harry Armbruster’s .322 batting average, the Hens compiled a league-leading .279 team batting average in 1907.
Charlie Chech topped Toledo twirlers with 25 wins against 11 losses (.694) in 314 innings of toil.
Toledo left Armory Park in 1909, heading for new digs at the double-decked Swayne Field in 1909 during the same week that Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field was inaugurated.
The year 1910 saw another second-place finish for the Mud Hens as the team put together a 91-75 record.
Only Charles T. “Piano Legs” Hickman achieved a batting average over .300 with his .317 mark in 598 at-bats. He also led the Hens in doubles (25), triples (15) and home runs (4) under managers Ducky Holmes and Harry Hinchman.
21-year old lefty Earl Yingling was the team’ only 20-game winner with a record of 22-9 (.710) in assisting the Toledo charge in 1910.
Two years later the Hens hung on to another second-place finish in the American Association with a record of 98-66 under manager Topsy Hartsel in 1912.
Shortstop Ray Chapman led Toledo hitters with a .310 average, scoring 101 runs while swatting 22 doubles and 13 triples.
Righty Fred Falkenberg led the Hens’ mound corps with 25 wins against only 8 losses (.758) with 309 innings of work under his belt. But the fine-tossing Toledo left-hander Harry Krause grabbed the league’s high winning percentage of .760 with his 13-4 record through 169 innings in 1912.
Owing to a strategy to dissuade a Federal League team from occupying the city of Cleveland, Mud Hens’ owner Charles Somers, who also owned the American League’s Cleveland Indians, transferred the Toledo club to Cleveland for the 1914 season. During that season the American Association Toledo Mud Hens were known as the Cleveland Bearcats. In 1915 the team became known as the Cleveland Spiders. In 1916 the club returned to Toledo where they were known as the Toledo Iron Men, a moniker which lasted through the 1918 season, the whole while remaining members of the American Association.
Under Roger Bresnahan, the Toledo Mud Hens showed respectability in 1920, finishing in third-place in the Association. That year the team featured the strong-hitting outfielder Albert Wickland (.334) who smacked a team-leading 15 triples.
Right-hander Jim Middleton showed his stuff with a 26-14 record while maintaining a splendid 2.93 ERA under Roger Bresnahan in 1920.
In 1926 a new generation of Toledo baseball began to make waves at Swayne Field. Finishing in fourth-place was considered a recovery, and better things were in the offing.
In 1927, the Mud Hens were out of the mud, capturing their first American Association crown in the club’s history.
Perhaps the ultimate testimony to the smarts of Casey Stengel, the Hens put together a 101-win, 67-loss season, slipping past both Kansas City and Milwaukee (tied for second-place) by 2 games. They didn’t call him “The Old Professor” for nothing.
Leading the flock for front-running Toledo was first-baseman Roy Grimes who smashed out 239 hits in 650 at-bats for the Hens, averaging a fat and sassy .368. At age 39, outfielder Bobby Veach put up a bloated .363 in 623 at-bats while driving in a league-leading 145 at-bats.
Left-hander George Milstead garnered 16 wins against 11 losses through 215 innings of work with 64 strikeouts and an ERA of 3.81, the most on the Hens’ staff. Mainstay Emilio Palmero, pitching in his 10th season in the American Association, posted 14 wins against only 5 losses in his first year in a Mud Hens’ uniform. Walt Huntzinger came close, with a record of 13-5.
In the playoffs, Toledo squared off against Bill Clymer’s Buffalo Bisons, taking 5 tilts out of 6 to become the Junior World Series Champions. You know there was some celebrating in the Glass City that night!
The following season Toledo was back to their old ways, finishing up in sixth-place with a record of 79-88 under Casey Stengel.
Not until 1953 would the Toledo American Association entry win a league championship when they were newly known as the Sox.
A third-place finish in 1930 was the result of their first .500+ team since the ‘27 team as Toledo went 88-66 after losing 100 games the previous season.
Other notable Toledo teams include the 1937 squad which tallied 89 wins against 65 losses under Fred Haney, missing out on top-spot honors by a single game to the Columbus Red Birds. The Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Hens 4 games to 2 in the first round of the league playoffs, ending Toledo’s chances for a return to the Junior World Series.
It would be several season before the Mud Hens would return to the first division in the American Association.
In 1942 the Hens placed fourth with a record of 78-73, with Haney at the helm. Fred Haney’s Hens defeated Milwaukee 4 games to 2 in the first round of the Association playoffs but succumbed to Columbus without a win in the final round.
Toledo put up a good showing in the next two years, going 76-76 under Jack Fournier in 1943 while landing in fourth-place.
In 1944, Ollie Marquardt held the Hens reigns in sterling fashion, bringing Toledo’s toilers to a second-place finish with a record of 95-58 as they finished 7 games in back of Milwaukee. This was the last time they would occupy a first-division finish in the original American Association, which ended in 1952 after Milwaukee moved to Toledo in order to make room for the Milwaukee Braves. The original Toledo Mud Hens moved to Charleston, West Virginia midway through the 1952 season.
All in all, Toledo’s showing in the American Association may have left something to be desired, but the team left a solid legacy in the 51-year period from 1902-1951.
Through 1953, Toledo produced two pitchers who led the league in wins: Fred Sanford with 15 in 1946 (tied with Harry Taylor of St. Paul and Ewald Pyle of Milwaukee), and Gene Conley with the Toledo Sox in 1953 with 23.
During their 51-year span in the original American Association, the Mud Hens sported 6 heavy hitters who won the league batting championship: In 1923, outfielder Bill Lamar was the first to do so, as he sported a .391 average in 489 at-bats. Lamar’s staggering hitting put him second among all-time Association hitters to Milwaukee’s George Stone who hit .405 in 1904. In 1926 outfielder Bevo LeBourveau hit a plump .377 in 584 at-bats, seventh all-time (1902-1952) while leading the Hens with 17 homers. In 1928 Bobby Veach’s .382 in 566 at-bats grabbed attention as the outfielder placed fourth all-time in league history (1902-1952). In 1929 league hitting honors belonged (disputably) to outfielder Art Ruble who appeared in only 88 games with 367 at-bats while walloping a wholesome .376. Ruble’s .376 qualified him as the league’s top hitter in 1932 while with Minneapolis, eighth all-time. Then in 1930, Bevo LeBourveau struck again with his .380 average in 526 at-bats and an even 200 hits. After a substantial stretch of time, Toledo’s final league-leading hitter came to the fore in 1948 as outfielder Glenn McQuillen posted a .329 average in 538 at-bats.
As a team, Toledo's Mud Hens sported four clubs to capture the league's top honors in hitting:
1907 .279
1908 .264 (tied with St. Paul)
1930 .315
1938 .288
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Contact Rex Hamann at Pureout@msn.com
copyright 2005 by Rex Hamann and the American Association Almanac.
