Wally Schang: 3-Time World Series Champion Backstop, Not in the Hall of Fame

132 years ago today, on August 22, 1889, Walter Henry Schang was born in South Wales, New York, a farming town about 25 miles from Buffalo. Wally Schang would grow up to become one of the best catchers in all of baseball for the first 60 years of recorded history. While he never got serious consideration for the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, a close look at his record tells us that he’s arguably the best backstop from the first half of the 20th century who did not ultimately get enshrined in the Hall.

A couple of years ago, while researching a piece about the Hall of Fame candidacy of Thurman Munson, I was reminded of the excellent career of Schang. Like Munson, he won multiple World Series titles and was an excellent postseason performer. Unlike Munson, Schang played until he was 41 years old. Munson tragically passed away at the age of 32 in a self-piloted plane crash.

This is a brief look at a great baseball career with an analysis of whether he deserves another look at Cooperstown when the “Early Baseball” Eras Committee convenes this December to determine potential Hall of Famers who played between 1871 and 1949.

Cooperstown Cred: Wally Schang (C)

• Philadelphia Athletics (1913-17, 1930), Boston Red Sox (1918-20), New York Yankees (1921-25), St. Louis Browns (1926-29), Detroit Tigers (1931)
• Career: .284 BA, .393 OBP, .401 SLG, 59 HR, 705 RBI, 1,506 Hits
• Career: 117 OPS+, 47.9 WAR (Wins Above Replacement)
• Won 3 World Championships with 1913 A’s, 1918 Red Sox, 1923 Yankees
• 154 career double plays turned as a catcher (T-7th most in baseball history)

(Cover photo: Philly Sports History)

This article was originally posted on August 22, 2019. It has been updated in advance of the 2022 Early Baseball Committee vote.

Philadelphia Athletics (1913-17)

Wally Schang was one of 9 children of Frank and Mary Schang and one of three brothers to pursue the game of baseball professionally. Playing semipro ball in 1912, he attracted the attention of almost all of the Major League Baseball clubs. It was Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics that wound up with his services, starting in the 1913 season.

As a 23-year old rookie, Schang appeared in 79 games but was instantly impressive, hitting .266 with 3 home runs at a time when both hits and homers were scarce. Schang impressed both offensively and defensively and finished 8th in the A.L. MVP balloting despite barely playing half of the team’s games.

The Athletics went 96-57 to win the American League pennant, led by four future Hall of Famers, second baseman Eddie Collins, third baseman Home Run Baker and pitchers Eddie Plank and Chief Bender. Although the A’s had two veteran catchers (Ira Thomas and Jack Lapp), Mack started Schang in four out five of the team’s 5-game World Series victory over the New York Giants. Schang responded to the challenge by hitting .357 with a home run and 7 RBI.

Schang’s sophomore season numbers (.287 BA, 3 HR, 45 RBI) don’t leap off the page but they were the best among all American League catchers in 1914 (this was the dead ball era). He finished 10th in the MVP vote and helped the A’s back to the World Series. The team, however, was unexpectedly swept in 4 games by the Boston Braves, with Schang hitting just .167.

After the surprising Fall Classic defeat, the A’s were broken up (think of an early 20th century version of the 1997-98 Florida Marlins). Plank and Bender departed for the Federal League, Baker held out for the entire season and Collins was sold to the Chicago White Sox. Schang played well from 1915-17 even as his team finished last in the A.L. for all three seasons. In 1916, the switch-hitting Schang became the first player in baseball history to hit home runs from both sides of the plate.

Boston Red Sox (1918-20)

After the 1917 season, Wally Schang was traded to the Boston Red Sox. The BoSox had replaced the A’s as the A.L.’s dominant team, winning the World Series in 1915 and ’16. In Boston, Schang became teammates with another two future Hall of Fame players, outfielder Harry Hooper and a 23-year old left-handed pitcher named George Herman Ruth, who had gone 65-33 with a 2.02 ERA from 1915-17, making him arguably the third best hurler in the game next only to emerging legends Pete Alexander and Walter Johnson.

In 1918, manager Ed Barrow used Ruth in the outfield when he wasn’t pitching and Ruth responded by essentially inventing the “launch angle,” leading the majors with 11 home runs and a .555 slugging percentage. The Red Sox won the A.L. pennant and faced the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. Although he started only two of the six games, Schang hit .444 in the series and was involved in several key defensive plays. The Red Sox won the series in 6 games, with Schang tagging out the Cubs’ Eddie Pick to end Game 3:

With the Sox leading 2-1 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Chicago’s Charlie Pick singled putting the tying run on first. Pick stole second and on the next pitch broke for third on a ball that got away from Schang. Wally reacted quickly and fired to third beating the sliding Cub to the bag. But Pick’s hard slide knocked the ball out of third baseman Fred Thomas’s glove. As Thomas argued with the umpire, Pick raced for home. Thomas retrieved the ball and threw a strike to Schang who was waiting for Pick to arrive. The Cub may have had more success running into a brick wall. When the dust settled, Schang was standing over the fallen Cub, ball in hand, having tagged Pick with the final out of the game.

— Don Geiszler (in Wally Schang’s SABR Bio)

Although Schang had arguably his best season in 1919 (.306 BA, .436 OBP, 52 RBI, 15 SB, all career bests), the team finished a disappointing 5th place in the A.L. After the season, of course, Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth to the New York Yankees. It was Schang’s good fortune that he too was dealt to New York after the next season.

New York Yankees (1921-25)

Ruth had become a bonafide hitting star in his final year with Boston (29 HR, 113 RBI) but, in New York, he did things that were previously unheard of in Major League Baseball, hitting 54 home runs while driving in 135. Ruth’s 54 taters were 35 more than the 19 swatted by George Sisler, who had the second most in baseball.

In 1921, now 31 years old, Wally Schang fit right into manager Miller Huggins’ lineup. Schang started 128 games behind the dish, 31 more than his previous career high. He also hit .316 with a .428 on-base percentage. He wasn’t quite Ruthian, but Schang did hit 6 home runs along with 30 doubles. In 1922, Wally finished 13th in the MVP vote, thanks to a .319 average, 52 RBI and 55% of all would-be base stealers gunned down.

The Yankees won the A.L. pennant in each of Schang’s first three seasons in New York. In 1921 and ’22, the team played at the Polo Grounds, sharing the ballpark with John McGraw’s New York Giants, who defeated the Yankees in the World Series in both ’21 and ’22. In the ’21 Fall Classic, Schang gunned down nine runners who attempted to steal.

In 1923, the first season in the new Yankee Stadium (the House that Ruth built), Schang had a mediocre regular season by his standards but shined in October, hitting .318 in the Fall Classic, one in which the Yankees finally defeated the Giants. The 6-game series win gave Schang his third World Series championship. Overall, Schang gunned down 14 out of 23 would-be base stealers in those three Fall Classics with the Yankees.

Schang bounced back with the stick in 1924 but the Yankees fell 3 games shy of the Washington Senators in the A.L. Schang had the worst season of his career in 1925 (.240 BA, .310 OBP in just 73 games played). At the end of the season, he was traded to the St. Louis Browns.

Final Years in St. Louis (1926-29), Philadelphia (1930), Detroit (1931)

Wally Schang had a renaissance campaign in 1926, his age 36 season. He established career highs in batting (.330), slugging (.516), and home runs (8). He also led the A.L. by throwing out 57% of all runners attempting to steal.

As a catcher in his late 30’s, Schang averaged just 96 games played and 326 plate appearances in his four years in St. Louis. His numbers offensively slowly declined over the years. In 1928 and ’29, however, even as he hit a middling .286 and weak .237, Schang continued to be an on-base machine, posting OBPs of .448 in ’28 and .424 in ’29.

Still, at the end of the 1929 season, the Browns traded the now 40-year old Schang back to Mack’s Athletics. In 1930, as a backup to future Hall of Famer Mickey Cochrane, Schang appeared in just 45 games, hitting just .174 in 116 plate appearances. The A’s won the World Series for the fifth time in Mack’s reign as owner/manager but Schang did not appear in it.

Schang was released by Philadelphia after the season. In 1931, his final campaign (with the Detroit Tigers), the switch-hitting backup backstop hit just .184 in 91 plate appearances. He was released on June 29th, less than 8 weeks prior to his 42nd birthday.

The Hall of Fame Case For Wally Schang

Let’s be honest. Wally Schang’s numbers don’t immediately leap off the page and scream “Hall of Famer!!” For his career, he hit .284 with 59 home runs, 705 RBI and 1,506 hits. However, when you put his statistics into the context of the position he played and the fact that he spent his first several MLB seasons in baseball’s dead ball era, all of a sudden they look more impressive. Additionally, when viewed through the filter of modern metrics we know today (such as OPS+ and WAR), Schang starts to shine.

First, let’s put Schang’s career into context by comparing him to the Hall of Fame backstops who spent their entire careers in the first 61 years of recorded baseball history. There are just four Cooperstown-inducted backstops who fit this criteria: Buck Ewing, Roger Bresnahan, Ray Schalk, and Biz Mackey (from the Negro Leagues). We’ll rank these five backstops by career plate appearances, with the caveat that Mackey’s statistics are incomplete.

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If the eye spends some time gazing at these numbers, Schang looks pretty darned good compared to all four Hall of Famers; he looks especially good (and superior) to Schalk, who is most famous for being a “clean” member of the 1919 Chicago White Sox, the team that threw the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds (the “Black Sox” scandal).

Schalk, it should be known, made his reputation as a defensive backstop. His Hall of Fame plaque in fact does not mention anything he did offensively. That’s appropriate because there’s nothing that he did with the bat worth mentioning. Defensively, thanks to his durability, Schalk led the A.L. in games caught 7 times and led the league in putouts 9 times. He also threw out 51.6% of all would-be base stealers, the 10th best mark in baseball history. Still, his election to the Hall of Fame Class of 1955 has long been derided by experts as a mistake by that Veterans Committee.

Ewing is included here because he had more games as a catcher than at any other position. Ewing, however, who played from 1880-97 mostly in the old National League, only caught 636 games (compared to 1,431 for Schang).

Wally Schang and Roger Bresnahan

The most germane comparison for Schang is with Bresnahan. While Schang’s numbers look a little better, it’s important to know that Bresnahan primarily played from 1901 to 1915 (he had 16 PA in 1897 and 2 in 1900). This is a critical difference because, by starting his career 12 years earlier, Bresnahan spent his first several MLB seasons behind the plate without the benefit of some of the “tools of ignorance” that we take for granted today.

In the early 1900’s, catchers typically played in only two out of every three games, given days off to recover from the inevitable bruises. Bresnahan, in 1907 and ’08, introduced shin guards and then the padded face mask. The new protective gear allowed him to catch 140 games in ’08, after having averaged 109 games caught in the previous seven campaigns.

Anyway, Bresnahan and Schang were very similar offensive players; both catchers understood the strike zone and thus had very high on-base percentages. Both also could run a bit. Bresnahan stole 212 bases in his career; Schang swiped 121 bags.

Wally Schang Compared to Other Catchers (1901-31)

Even with the introduction of new equipment in 1907 and ’08, the catching position in the early decades of the 20th century did not typically lend itself to long careers. From 1901 (Bresnahan’s official rookie year) to 1931 (Schang’s final campaign), only 13 backstops managed to log at least 4,000 plate appearances. By comparison, 30 first basemen from ’01 to ’31 came to the plate at least 4,000 times.

So, how does Wally Schang compare to the other catchers? For rate stats, I’m going to use just the 13 players with 4,000 PA; for counting stats, all backstops are relevant.

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As we can see, Schang was the dominant hitting catcher for the first 32 years of the 20th century. Bresnahan had a higher OPS+ but Schang’s counting stats are superior because he played into his 40’s while Bresnahan was done at the age of 36.

Either way, Bresnahan was a National League player, spending the best years of his career with the New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals. Schang played exclusively in the Junior Circuit. Given the comparison we’ve already seen with Schalk, it’s plain that Wally Schang was the best catcher for the first three decades of American League history. If you’re looking for an elevator pitch for the Hall of Fame, “best catcher in the first 30 years of the A.L.” is not a bad line.

What about 1932-1949?

OK, on the previous graphic you may have noticed that Wally Schang had the third most home runs, behind Gabby Hartnett and Mickey Cochrane. If you compare Schang to these two Hall of Famers (plus Bill Dickey, Rick Ferrell and Ernie Lombardi, who all debuted between 1928 and 1931 respectively), you will see why at least four of those five backstops are enshrined in Cooperstown and Schang is not.

So, now let’s look at the same graphic except that we’ll cover the entire first half of the 20th century. Again, the ground rules are a minimum of 4,000 PA for rate stats. 25 catchers qualify using that standard.

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Needless to say, Schang’s numbers don’t look quite as robust when compared to the catchers who began their careers after he did. However, we should remember that none of those other backstops had to hit during the dead ball era. That’s a big difference; it’s reflected in Schang holding his own with the fourth highest WAR of the first half of the century.

What about Rick Ferrell, a Veterans Committee inductee in 1984?

Wally Schang v Rick Ferrell

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Well, this is pretty clear. Among catchers, Wally Schang would have been a much better choice by the 1984 Veterans Committee than Rick Ferrell. In truth, Ferrell wasn’t the best Ferrell as a Hall of Fame candidate. His brother Wes won 193 games and is arguably the 3rd best hitting pitcher in baseball history (behind Babe Ruth and Shohei Ohtani). Wes had a 60.1 combined pitching/hitting WAR compared to Rick’s WAR of 30.8.

Schang’s World Series Prowess

Wally Schang’s career World Series slash line (.287 BA/.362 OBP/.404 SLG) is not extraordinary. However, timing is everything. Schang appeared in the Fall Classic 6 times, winning with Philadelphia in 1913, Boston in 1918 and New York in 1923. In the three World Series victories, Schang’s performance was much greater: his slash line was sublime (.356 BA/.420 OBP/.489 SLG).

Of the 19 catchers with at least 10 games played in World Series winning seasons, only Johnny Bench (.984) and Yadier Molina (.912) have a higher OPS than Schang’s mark of .909.

And then there’s this. According to research done by a website championing the Hall of Fame candidacy of Thurman Munson, Wally Schang threw out 21 base runners in his World Series appearances, third most in postseason play only to Munson and Jorge Posada. Munson gunned down 24 would-be base thieves in just 30 games; Schang did it in 32 games. Posada gunned down 33 runners but, with three tiers of playoffs, he needed 124 games to do it. (More about Posada’s Hall of Fame candidacy can be found here).

Schang, in those 32 World Series games, had a 50% success rate throwing out potential base stealers.

Comparing Schang to other non Hall of Famers from 1871-1949

Wally Schang has never gotten any traction as a potential Hall of Famer. Suffering in comparison to Cochrane, Hartnett, Dickey (who were all voted into Cooperstown by the Baseball Writers Association of America between 1947 and 1955), Schang never received more than 4.1% of the vote in 5 turns on the BBWAA ballot.

While he certainly would have been a better Veterans Committee choice than Schalk in 1955 or Ferrell in 1984, that doesn’t matter today. How does Schang rank as a candidate against every other player not in the Hall of Fame who played between 1871 and 1950? The Early Baseball Committee will be deliberating this question in December.

Comparing players across eras is a tricky business, especially across the 19th and 20th centuries, but we’ll use WAR as a one-stat guidepost to get us started. Here are the top 10 position players who are not in Cooperstown from 1871-1949 as ranked by WAR (the Baseball-Reference version):

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On this list, let’s remind the reader that Shoeless Joe Jackson was Ray Schalk’s teammate on the 1919 Black Sox. Although there is some controversy about whether the illiterate Jackson was duped into participating in the throwing of the ’19 World Series, he was banned from baseball for life. To the best of my knowledge, he’s never been considered by any iteration of the Veterans Committee.

On the top of this list is Bill Dahlen, a shortstop whose career spanned the centuries (he played from 1891 to 1911). He’s the obvious candidate based on WAR and has earned at least 50% of the vote on two previous committee ballots (in 2013 and 2016).

Is there any reason why one would elevate Schang above the other 9 players with a superior WAR? Yes, there is one reason. Schang was a catcher. Generally speaking, catchers have shorter careers than other players. WAR is a counting stat; the longer you play, the more WAR you get. Schang has the 13th highest WAR among all catchers in baseball history. The only catcher with a higher WAR who is not in the Hall of Fame is Joe Mauer (who just retired recently and is not yet eligible).

On the list above, Dahlen is the 9th ranked shortstop by WAR; Jack Glasscock is ranked 18th among shortstops. Sherry Magee and Bob Johnson are 15th and 17th respectively among left fielders; Jimmy Sheckard is 26th. Stan Hack, Heine Groh, and Larry Gardner were all third basemen. By WAR, they’re ranked 21st, 27th, and 28th in baseball history.

What about the Pitchers?

Of course, we’ve just listed position players from 1871-1949. There are also 20 starting pitchers with a WAR that is higher than Schang’s career mark of 47.9. Leading among the pitchers is Jim McCormick, who posted a 76.0 WAR (an eloquent case made here by guest author Jay Wiley), and Bobby Mathews, who won 297 games.

There is a bit of an apples to bowling balls aspect when comparing a 19th century pitcher to an early 20th century catcher. 19th century hurlers tossed an ungodly amount of innings, thanks to a shorter distance from the mound to home plate (the current distance of 60 feet, 6 inches didn’t come into place until 1893).

If this fall, Wally Schang finds himself on the ballot with a 19th century hurler, I’ll take more time to revisit their relative merits for a Cooperstown plaque.

Final Thoughts

So, to wrap up, here are the bullet points in the Hall of Fame case for Wally Schang:

1. Best hitting catcher in the American League from 1901-1931 (by almost all metrics).
2. Only catcher to win the World Series with three different franchises.
3. Hit .356 with a .909 OPS in those three World Series victories.
4. Highest WAR for any eligible catcher not already in Cooperstown

If you made it through this entire piece, I think you’ll agree with the conclusion that Schang was a more worthy candidate than one of his contemporaries (Ray Schalk) and another catcher whose career followed (Rick Ferrell). Considering that those two men are considered by most experts to be poor selections, that’s not reason enough to want to confer a Cooperstown plaque to Schang.

At this point, 56 years after he passed away in Dixon, Missouri, the urgency is gone. There are many other candidates from between 1871 and 1949 (both among players and pioneers) who also have legitimate Cooperstown credentials. Still, if Schang does happen to make the Early Baseball Eras Committee ballot this December, the voters could do far worse than checking his name.

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