Because of his fabulous fielding, shortstop Dave Bancroft was nicknamed "Beauty." He ranks third among all-time major league shortstops-behind Herman Long and Hughie Jennings - in career chances per game and second, behind only Jennings, in career putouts per game.
Bancroft led the National League in putouts three times, in assists twice, in double plays twice, in fielding percentage once, and in fielding range five times. On July 13, 1918, Bancroft made 13 putouts in a 21-inning game.
At age 17 Bancroft had tried out for Winona of the Class C Minnesota-Wisconsin League. "On the day before the season started, the manager came into the clubhouse and laid brand-new uniforms on a table," Bancroft said. "I kept looking and I didn't find one for me, so I knew I didn't make the team. I cried all the way home."
But he didn't give up, and in 1909 Bancroft caught on with Duluth in the same Class C league. He hit only .210 but led the circuit in putouts and assists. He spent 1910 and 1911 with Superior and then played from 1912 to 1914 with Portland in both the Pacific Coast League and the Northwest League. In 1914 he led the Pacific Coast League with 453 putouts.
The Philadelphia Phillies acquired him in 1915, and they promptly leaped from sixth place to their first pennant. Manager Pat Moran contended that it was his slick-fielding rookie shortstop who made the difference. Bancroft played a steady shortstop for Philadelphia for the next four seasons, but the Phillies finished in second place the next two years, slipped to fifth in 1918, and then plummeted to last place in 1919.
In 1920 New York Giants Manager John McGraw became convinced that Bancroft was just what his team needed to take the pennant. He asked Giants owner Charles Stoneham to offer Phils President William Baker $100,000, shortstop Art Fletcher, and pitcher Bill Hubbell for Bancroft.
When Stoneham called Baker on June 7, 1920, with the proposition, Baker could hardly contain himself. After all, this was the largest amount of cash ever offered in NL history-and he would have parted with Bancroft for far less. "I'll take the nine o'clock train tomorrow and will be in your office to discuss the trade," he told Stoneham. True to his word, Baker arrived at Stoneham's office promptly and completed the deal on June 8. Later, Baker returned $5,000 of his newfound wealth to New York for another infielder.
With New York, Bancroft quickly established himself as an intelligent player. "Now we'd better go over our signs, young fellow," he was informed on his arrival by Giants catcher Frank "Pancho" Snyder. "They may be new to you, and you've got to know them."
"Have you changed them lately?" asked Bancroft. "No, they're the same, but-," Snyder responded. "Well, never mind," Bancroft replied. "I know them already. I knew them when I was with the Phillies."
Bancroft failed to deliver a pennant to McGraw in 1920 but played a key role in three consecutive NL championships from 1921 through 1923. A .260 hitter in Philadelphia, Bancroft found his stroke in New York. He hit .318 in 1921, .321 in 1922, and .304 in 1923.
Bancroft was a tough player. In 1923 he showed up for duty with a high fever but insisted he was capable of playing. After the game he collapsed in the Polo Grounds clubhouse and a doctor was summoned.
"Call an ambulance," said the physician. "The man has pneumonia." An incredulous McGraw said, "Imagine, he played nine innings with pneumonia."
On November 12, 1923, the Giants traded Bancroft to the Braves, and he became Boston's playing manager, replacing Fred Mitchell, who became a Boston scout. McGraw had several motives for dealing his star shortstop. Bancroft was still one of his favorites and McGraw hated to see him go, yet he was not about to prevent Bancroft from becoming a manager. In addition, the Giants had a young shortstop named Travis "Stonewall" Jackson; Jackson, a future Hall of Famer, waiting in the wings.
Joining Bancroft in the trade to Boston was outfielder Casey Stengel, who had performed brilliantly for New York in the 1923 World Series. "The paths of glory lead only to the Braves," quipped Stengel.
In 1924 newly installed Boston Manager Bancroft fined catcher Earl Smith $500 for tossing a chair out of a Philadelphia hotel room window. In July the Braves sold Smith to Pittsburgh, but he didn't forget the fine. He wanted his $500 back, and Bancroft saw no reason to return it.
One day in Pittsburgh in 1927, Bancroft was crossing the plate on a run when Smith smashed him in the jaw and knocked him unconscious. Smith was suspended for 30 days and fined another $500. When the Pirates visited Boston, Bancroft attempted to have Smith served with papers for $15,000 in damages. The catcher climbed over the Braves Field fence to avoid the process server, leading to this headline in The Sporting News: "Blackguards Always Are Cowards."
Under Bancroft, who earned $20,000 a season with Boston, the Braves finished eighth, fifth, seventh, and seventh. Boston owner Judge Emil Fuchs absolved Bancroft of any blame but replaced him with former catcher Jack Slattery following the 1927 season. And even though Bancroft hit better than .300 two of his four seasons as a player-manager, some felt that his double duties caused too much strain. "I feel that [Bancroft] cared immensely about playing shortstop and about going up there to bat in his turn," contended Boston Herald sportswriter Burt Whitman, "but he never did enjoy himself thoroughly as a manager. He was the ballplayer first and last, not the manager."
In 1928 Bancroft went to Brooklyn as a player, but following the 1929 season he was released. He returned to the Giants as a player-coach in 1930. Bancroft played little, earning a .059 average in 10 games, and he retired as a player in 1930. He remained with the Giants in a coaching capacity, often filling in for the ailing McGraw until 1932, when McGraw retired, and first baseman Bill Terry became New York's manager.
Bancroft managed second-place Minneapolis in the American Association in 1933, succeeding Donie Bush. Noted Minneapolis sportswriter Charles Johnson said that Bancroft knew "the technical side of the game up and down. Like Bush, he was always a smart fiery player. As John McGraw's trusted assistant for three years, he rated with the best brains in the game."
In 1936 Bancroft managed Sioux City of the Western League to a fifth-place finish in a six-team circuit. In 1947 he managed St. Cloud of the Class C Northern League and led them to a pennant by 10 full games.
In 1971 Bancroft was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. "I was more surprised by my election than anything that ever happened to me," Bancroft said. "But my wife wasn't. She thought it should have come a little sooner."
Bancroft died in Superior, Wisconsin, in October 1972 after a long illness.
Taken from Total Baseball by John Thorn and Pete Palmer.
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