Tris Speaker: Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 1937

Born: April 4, 1888

1905: Played College Baseball for Fort Worth Polytechnic Institute

1905: Suffered severe football injury. Doctors wanted to amputate his left arm. He refused and recovered.

1906: Played in Minor Leagues and was sold to the Red Sox the following year.

Debut: September 12, 1907. He played in 7 games. In 1908, he played in 31 big league contests.

1909: He became a starter for the Red Sox

1910: Part of the “million dollar outfield” with Harry Hooper and Duffy Lewis.

1912: Red Sox won the World Series

1912: AL MVP

1914: Twice pulled off an unassisted double play from the outfield

1915: Red Sox won the World Series

1916: Sold to Cleveland Indians after refusing to take a pay cut

1916: Won batting title

1919-1926: Managed the Indians (617-520 record)

1920: Indians won the World Series

1925: 3000^th hit off Washington Senators pitcher Tom Zachary

1926: Forced to resign as manager amidst a gambling scandal. He was later cleared.

1927: Signed with the Senators

1928: Signed with the A’s and retired at season’s end.

1929-31: Minor league manager

1933: Became part owner of the Kansas City Blues. Became involved in a liquor distributorship and chaired the Cleveland Boxing Commission.

1937: Elected to Hall of Fame on second ballot

1939: Elected president of the National Professional Indoor Baseball League. The league quickly folded for lack of fans.

1947-58: Worked for Cleveland Indians as a scout, coach, and advisor. He became a personal coach for Larry Doby. Also worked with children’s charities.

Died: December 8, 1958

Accomplishments:
.345 career hitter (5^th all-time)

1912 MVP

3x World Champion

1916 Batting champ (.386)

Hit .380 or better: 5x

3514 career hits

792 career doubles (1^st all-time)

283 career strikeouts and 1381 walks

.928 career OPS (.428 OBP, .500 SLG)

Led league in games played in 1914 (158)

Led league in hits 2x

200 or more hits: 4x

Led league in doubles: 8x

50 + doubles: 5x

222 career triples (6^th all-time)

1912 HR champ (10)

4x OBP leader

Led league in slugging in and OPS in 1916 (.502, .972)

1914 TB leader (287)

Most career OF assists (449)

As a Manager:

617-520 record with Cleveland (.543)

1920 World Champions