All-Time Indians: Bobby Wallace

ati - All Time Indians
Name: Roderick John Wallace Position: Short Stop & Starting Pitcher
Tribe Time: 1894-1898 DOB: 11/04/1873
Accolades: Hall of Fame (1953)
Hitting G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB BB SO SB OBP SLG AVG OPS
Best Season (1897) 130 516 99 173 33 21 4 112 260 48 32 14 .394 .504 .335 .898
Spiders Career 363 1369 215 391 67 40 8 239 562 128 85 23 .350 .411 .286 .761
Pitching W L W% ERA G GS CG SHO IP H ER HR BB SO K/9 WHIP
Spiders Career 24 22 .522 3.89 56 47 37 3 400.0 466 173 6 156 119 2.7 1.56

Remember the great Cleveland baseball team of ’97? No not the powerful team featuring Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez, but the one from 1897 featuring a whole different style of play. A key member on that team and the ones before was the Hall of Famer, Bobby Wallace.

Wallace was originally signed as an amateur out of Pennsylvania by the Cleveland Spiders in 1894 as a pitcher. In that first season, Cy Young threw 408.2 innings while Nig Cuppy tallied 316, leaving just under 400 innings for the other ten pitchers used. Of these rarely used hurlers, Wallace pitched only four times, but was actually one of the Spiders more consistent starters, keeping a 5.19 ERA in 26 innings.

The following year, he was included among the regulars as the Spiders used just six starters all year. Wallace was the third most used behind the same two men, throwing 228.2 innings including 22 complete games and a shut out. This breakout season lead to another stint in the rotation in 1896, but it would be his last time he was regularly used as a pitcher.

Wallace hit slightly better than the average pitcher in 1895 and when he was posting his best career numbers as a pitcher in 1896 (3.34 ERA in 145.1 IP), he also had an OPS of .623, playing 27 games in the outfield. With Young, Cuppy, Jack Powell and the new-coming Zeke Wilson in the rotation, the Spiders didn’t have enough starts to give Wallace and they turned a mediocre pitcher into a Hall of Famer with a change of perspective.

In 1897, the Spiders moved Wallace from the outfield and mound to third base and he quickly became one of the best defenders at the hot corner in baseball history. Not just a fielder, now that he was able focus exclusively on his bat and glove, he hit .335 with 21 triples and 33 doubles in 130 games. He immediately became the top hitter on the team, surpassing fellow Hall of Famer Jesse Burkett in production with 112 RBI, nearly double the next best hitter on the team.

Wallace wouldn’t quite repeat his success in 1898, but he would have another fine year with 25 doubles, 13 triples and 99 more RBI. The former pitcher had a .715 OPS in 154 games leading to a .761 career OPS with the Spiders. Given the age, this number was incredible and ranks among the top ten in players who played for Cleveland prior to 1901.

Then, the biggest moment in the history of Cleveland baseball happened. With a roster full of future Hall of Famers including Wallace, Young, Burkett and more, the Robison brothers Stanley and Frederik conspired to combine the Spiders and St. Louis Browns into one super team called the St. Louis Perfectos. As their top hitter, Wallace was included in the move, leading to the worst team in baseball history, the 1899 Cleveland Spiders.

With the Perfectos, then the Cardinals, Wallace blossomed. They moved him to short stop where he wasn’t quite as effective as he was at third, but was still a positive defender. He also continued to hit, batting .265/.328/.348 over his next 2,020 games. Like many players in 1902, Wallace jumped to the American League, but he didn’t leave St. Louis as he joined the expansion (in 1901) St. Louis Browns. While his final six seasons played beyond the age of 39 were largely ineffective, from 1897 through 1912, he averaged 23 doubles and 8 triples per year while batting .273/.336/.365 over 16 seasons.

When looking back at early Cleveland baseball history, the what-ifs are compounding, starting with the sell off of the Spiders that lead to the dissolving of that club and the ultimate creation in 1900 of the Cleveland Lake Shores and in 1901, the American League Cleveland Blues. Had the sell off of players not occurred, players like Wallace would have lead the Spiders into the 20th century and very possibly would have lead them to the World Series much earlier than 1920.

In 1912 and 1913, Wallace was player-manager for the Browns, but went 57-134 over parts of two seasons, leading him to be only a player in his last few seasons. After retiring as a player, he got another chance to lead as a minor league manager, then member of the Cincinnati Reds coaching staff in 1926 until he was made manager of the Reds in 1937. After finishing out that season 5-20, he was replaced before the next season and stayed in the organization as just a scout until he died at the age of 86 in 1960.

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