All-Time Indians: Doc Johnston

As a franchise, the Indians have been comparatively weak as far as power production is concerned and that can at least be partially blamed on the lack of quality first basemen. In fact, only seven first basemen in team history have played in at least 700 games for the Indians and Doc Johnston was the second to do so. Of course, he didn’t add much to the team’s power numbers with just eight home runs over his seven seasons, but he still provided a steadying force at the corner for the Indians (and Naps) from 1912 through Cleveland’s first championship season.

Johnston had an odd trek through the Major Leagues but it all started when he broke into the Majors in 1909 with the Cincinnati Reds. After just three games, it was back to the minors and Johnston spent the next two seasons between Chattanooga, Buffalo and finally New Orleans where he caught the eye of the Naps scouts. Signed into Cleveland in 1912, Johnston eventually took over the starting first base role from Art Griggs, who himself had just taken over for the exiting great George Stovall. Johnston played in just 43 games in that first season in Cleveland, but with a .280/.326/.390 line he impressed enough to become the full time starter in 1913.

That year, he batted just .255 with two home runs although he did hit 31 other extra base hits in 133 games. While nowhere near the quality of starting right fielder, Shoeless Joe Jackson who batted .373, Johnston was still one of the top hitters on the dead ball era team. The following season, however, his limited power disappeared and his average dropped another ten points, leading to an ultimate replacement by Jay Kirke, who would also start at first in 1915. Giving up on Johnston, the newly named Indians sold the first baseman to the Pittsburgh Pirates for $7,500. In the National League, he batted just .243 for two seasons and despite slugging five home runs in 1915 (good for ninth in the NL and more than a third of his career home runs), the Pirates also gave up on the light hitting corner man, sending him to the unaffiliated Birmingham Barons for a player to be named later.

After spending 1917 with Birmingham and 1918 with the minor league Milwaukee Brewers, the Indians decided to give Johnston one more chance in the big leagues. Johnston was purchased from the Brewers in an effort to fill a hole at first that had been taken up by three different starting first basemen over the past three seasons. Still just a part timer, Johnston hit just .227 with 14 extra base hits across 74 games in 1918, showing little of the promise he did during his first two seasons. Of course, if his career had ended at this point, Johnston wouldn’t be a name to remember and things were about to turn around.

The Indians were a top club in 1919, ultimately falling just short of the World Series behind the Chicago Black Sox. Johnston was the starting first baseman again, playing in 102 games and batting over .300 for the first time in his career. While he still didn’t provide any power (just 21 extra base hits), he lead the team with 21 steals (only Stovall would finish his career with more steals as an Indians first baseman than Johnston’s 89) and scored 42 runs as the Indians had an incredible lineup one through eight.

In 1920, things were even better in Cleveland as everything worked out at the same time. Hall of Famers Tris Speaker and Stan Coveleski lead the team while Joe Sewell provided an incredible transition taking over for the tremendous short stop Ray Chapman, who was killed after being hit by a pitch during the season. Doc Johnston also had his greatest career season as one of teams longest tenured players (both Jack Graney and Steve O’Neill also played with Johnston on the 1912 Naps team), batting .292 with 36 extra base hits and a career high 71 RBI. As the Tribe went onto their first World Series, Johnston would start in four of the seven games (in the best of nine series) with two hits and a run in game five and another hit and two walks against the Brooklyn Robins in the conclusive game seven.

After the all-time high of becoming a world champion, Johnston would continue his success through one more season, batting .297 in 1921 with 46 RBI and 53 runs scored. Finally, after more than a decade of promise, the Indians finally got three seasons of prime play after Johnston reached his 30’s. Despite this success, Johnston was placed on waivers and selected by the Athletics, leading to another two years of turmoil at the first bag before the player who would eventually become the Indians first MVP, George Burns, took over in 1924. As for Johnston, he would play just 71 games for Philadelphia, batting .250 before being ultimately let go. He would never return to the Majors, although he did continue on with independent teams until 1928, when he was 40 years old. In 1961, the 76 year old from Cleveland, Tennessee died in his home state in Chattanooga.