- Bill Wambsganss
William Adolf Wambsganss (
March 19 ,1894 -December 8 ,1985 ) was asecond baseman inMajor League Baseball . From 1914 through 1926, Wambsganss played for theCleveland Indians (1914-23),Boston Red Sox (1924-25) and Philadelphia Athletics (1926). He batted and threw right handed. He is best remembered for making one of the most spectacular defensive plays inWorld Series history, anunassisted triple play .Career
In a 13-season career, Wambsganss posted a .259
batting average with sevenhome run s and 519 RBI in 1492games played . Due to the alphabet-soup nature of his surname, Wambsganss was often called "Wamby" by headline writers.A native of
Cleveland, Ohio , Wambsganss was the regularsecond baseman of the Cleveland Indians for 10 years. A fine fielder throughout his 13-year career overall, he amassed 4,269 assists with 3,420putout s and turned 605double play s. He committed only 375 errors in 8,064 chances for a significant .954fielding percentage .On
October 10 ,1920 , Wambsganss made history when he turned the onlyunassisted triple play ever inWorld Series history, in Game Five against the Brooklyn Robins.Batting from the second or eight spot, from 1919-23 Wambsganss averaged 74.2 runs per year, with a high 89 runs in 1922, as he also hit a career-high .295 in 1918 and .290 in 1923, his last season with Cleveland, when he was sent to the Boston Red Sox in the same trade that brought good-hitting
first baseman George Burns to the Indians. In 1924 with Boston Wambsganss hit .275 and collected career-highs in hits (174) and runs (93). After a sub-par season in 1925 he was sold to the Philadelphia Athletics. He finished his major league career with the A's in 1926, batting .352 in 54 games. A year later, he played for Triple-A Kansas City of the American Association.Bill Wambsganss died in
Lakewood, Ohio , at age 91.WS historic triple milestone
*In the fifth inning of Game Five of the
1920 World Series played atLeague Park , Wambsganss caught a line drive batted byClarence Mitchell , stepped on second base to retirePete Kilduff , and tagged Otto Miller coming from first base, to complete the first triple play, completely unassisted, in World Series history. Earlier in the game, Wambsganss' teammate Elmer Smith hit the first grand slam in World Series history off Brooklyn Robinspitcher Burleigh Grimes , in the first inning with none out. The historic blast scoredCharlie Jamieson , Wambsganss,Tris Speaker , and Smith. After managing to score a run in the ninth inning, Brooklyn fell to the Indians in an 8–1 loss. Cleveland winning pitcher Jim Bagby also helped himself by hitting a three-run home run in the third. It was the first home run hit by a pitcher in modern World Series history.Quotation
*When interviewed in the 1960s by
Lawrence Ritter , for his classic oral history, "The Glory of Their Times", Wambsganss recalled: "Funny thing, I played in the big leagues for 13 years, 1914 through 1926, and the only thing that anybody seems to remember is that once I made an unassisted triple play in a World Series. Many don't even remember the team I was on, or the position I played, or anything. Just Wambsganss-unassisted triple play! You'd think I was born on the day before and died on the day after" – Retrieved from [http://oldballgame.freeservers.com/joeweb61.html Old Ball Game] .ee also
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The Glory of Their Times References
* [http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/yr1920ws.shtml Baseball Almanac]
* [http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/W/Wambsganss_Bill.stm] Baseball Library
* [http://www.baseball-reference.com/w/wambsbi01.shtml] Baseball Reference
* [http://www.thedeadballera.com/Obits/Wambsganss.Bill.Obit.html] The Deadball Era
* [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/I?bbpix:1:./temp/~ammem_n6DX::displayType=1:m856sd=cph:m856sf=3b43716:@@@bbpi] Library of the Congress
* [http://www.baseball-reference.com/w/wambsbi01.shtml Baseball Reference entry]External links
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