Muddy Ruel Herold Dominic Ruel Bats Right Throws Right Height 5'9 Weight 150 Born February 20, 1896 St Louis, MO Died November 13, 1963 Palo Alto, CA (Heart Attack)

Batting  

 Year Ag Tm     G   AB    H  2B  3B  HR    R  RBI   BB    K HBP  IW  SB  CS    BA  lgBA   SLG lgSLG   TB 
+-----------+----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+
 1928 32 SAH       340   83  18   1   2   33   41                     1      .244  .278  .321  .376  109 
 1929 33 SAH        59   13   2   0   1    2    4                     2      .220  .265  .305  .391   18 
 1930 34 SAH       213   53   5   1   4   26   27                     6      .249  .280  .338  .430   72 
+-----------+----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+
  3 Seasons        612  149  25   2   7   61   72                     9      .243  .278  .325  .399  199
+-----------+----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+
 Career High       340   83  18   1   4   33   41                     6      .049  ----  .338  ----  109
+-----------+----+----+----+---+---+---+----+----+----+----+---+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+
 Year Ag Tm     G   AB    H  2B  3B  HR    R  RBI   BB    K HBP  IW  SB  CS    BA  lgBA   SLG lgSLG   TB 

Transactions January 1, 1928: Drafted 14th round (109th overall) by Sahara.

Biography Although only 5 feet 8 inches tall and 150 pounds, spry, Muddy Ruel was a formidable obstacle when he blocked home plate. He was perhaps best known as the battery-mate of the great Walter Johnson when he was in his heyday with the Washington Senators. But he was also known as one of the smartest and hardest working catchers in the American League, where he spent all of his active playing years. The soft-spoken, scholarly catcher, whose name was Herold D. Ruel, was born in St. Louis and while playing with the old St. Louis Browns managed to get a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis. As a lawyer, he was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court in 1929, and became an expert on the complexities of baseball law. The knowledge of the law and his 19 seasons as an active player, won him a job in 1946 as first assistant to the Commissioner of Baseball, Albert B. Chandler. Although the origins of baseball nicknames are vague at best, Muddy's probably sprang from the Mississippi, where he either fell in the mud once, or because along the flatlands of St. Louis many of the ballparks are soggy, and Muddy, squatting on his thin haunches, would often touch the ground. He broke into baseball with the Browns in 1915, and during his active career, he played in a total of 1,470 games and compiled a lifetime batting average of .275. He led the league's catchers in fielding for three successive years, from 1926 through 1928. After being traded from the Browns, he caught for the Yankees from 1917 through 1920, when he was traded to the Red Sox. Two years later, he began his career with the Senators. Ruel always maintained that his greatest thrill in baseball came during the 1924 World Series when the Senators, with Johnson on the mound and Ruel behind the plate, defeated John McGraw's New York Giants, 4-3, in a thrilling seventh and deciding game. Ruel, at bat in the twelfth inning with the score tied, 3-3, popped up to catcher hank Gowdy, in what looked like an easy out. However, Gowdy tripped over his mask and dropped the ball. Ruel, who had been hitless in the first six games, then doubled, and eventually scored the winning run when Earl McNeely hit a sharp grounder that took a bad hop over the head of third baseman Freddy Lindstrom. Ruel remained with the Senators through the 1930 season, then played briefly with the Red Sox, Tigers, Browns, and White Sox before retiring as an active player in 1934. He spent 10 more years as a coach for the White Sox, then, after a year as assistant commissioner, he became field manager of the St. Louis Browns in 1947, with whom he spent one season. Later he was a coach for the Cleveland Indians, farm director of the Detroit Tigers, and, from 1954 until 1957, the general manager of the Tigers.