Wiley Woodcock

Wiley Woodcock

by Martín Abresch




Statistics

The best-fielding outfielder in the history of the league, at his peak Wiley Woodcock also one of the best hitters in the game. His 1917 season ranks among the very best player seasons in league history.

Woodcock was born in a small town north of Nashville, Tennessee, and when he was young, his family moved into the city. His athletic talentparticularly his running speedbecame obvious as a teenager. He competed in track and field, and set the state record in the 400-yard dash.

When he was just 14 years old, he and a friend rode the rails from Nashville to St. Louis to see the Games of the III Olympiad. We wanted to see the events at Francis Field, Woodcock later recounted, They were running hurdles that day. We tried to climb a fence, but security caught and tossed us. Lloyd and I werent about to come all that way for nothing. We hit on the right tack when we managed to pinch a couple of towels and sneak in through the athletes entrance. They thought we were errand boys for the hurdlers. Harry Hillman, who won a pair of golds, got wise to what we were doing, but he just gave us a wink and told us to stay well back of the track.

Woodcock took to baseball rather late. He attended the University of Tennessee and it was there, while competing for the Volunteer track and field team, that Woodcock caught the eye of baseball head coach Frank Moffett. He liked my quick first step, and wanted to see how well I could shag fly balls. Id played pickup games as a kid, of course, but didnt even have a glove then. To say that Woodcock was a natural at shagging fly balls would be an understatement. His batting stroke, on the other hand, was choppy. As a freshman he hit just .204. Moffett worked with him on his strokehe was a patient man, and he taught me patienceand by his junior year the ball was flying off his bat.

The Cincinnati Packers signed Woodcock out of college in 1912, but he found himself stuck behind Roscoe Cone. One of the better hitters in the league, Cone led the league in slugging in 1914. Woodcock worked his way into spot-starting, and late in 1915, an injury to Cone gave Woodcock the chance to start on the regular.

Woodcock did not waste his chance. In 1916, he hit .297 with a league-leading 30 triples. He slugged .473, second best in the league, and he stole 72 bases. His defense in center field was a revelation, and he earned a reputation for turning sure-fire doubles into fly outs.

I dont know how many times Id see him run down a ball in the gap to squash a rally, then come to the plate the next inning and hit a double himself, said teammate Bloop Best, It was hard work getting a hit in those days, and it was a lot harder for teams coming to Cincinnati. Our pitchers loved him.

The one true star on the Packers team, Woodcock led Cincinnati to a league-high 96 wins. In a hard-fought Championship Series facing the New York Knickerbockers, he hit .417, but New York won in six games.

Woodcock had his best seasonand one of the great seasons in baseball historyin 1917. Once again flashing his superlative defense, he also proved to be the leagues best batsman. He led the league with a .388 on-base percentage, a .472 slugging percentage, 84 walks, 89 runs scored, and 11 home runs. Those 11 home runs accounted for half of his teams season total and equaled the home run totals of the Detroit and Cleveland teams.

Injuries shortened Woodcocks 1918 season, but he bounced back in 1919 to lead the league with 116 runs scored, 27 triples, 86 walks, and 65 stolen bases.

The league began to change in 1920, moving from the Deadball Era into the era of the Live Ball. Woodcocks defense continued to be exceptional, but young hitters began surpassing him at the plate. His next nine seasons were up and down, with little in between. In four good seasons, Woodcock hit .305. In five bad seasons, he hit .241. He posted career bests in home runs (17 in 1922) and batting average (.322 in 1923).

In 1922, Cincinnati tied St. Louis after 158 games, then beat the Explorers, 3-2, in a one-game playoff. (A frustrated St. Louis would go on to trade for Brock Rutherford in the offseason and win the division each of the next eight seasons.) Philadelphia beat Cincinnati in the World Series in five close games. Woodcock hit just .238.

Cincinnati released him after the 1925 season, and Woodcock spent two lackluster seasons in Buffalo. He returned to Cincinnati for a final go-round in 1928 but hit just .225 with 5 extra base hits in 448 at-bats, but managed to reach the 2,000 hit plateau on July 28.

Woodcock finished his career with over 1,118 runs scored and 2,046 hits. Playing primarily in the Deadball Era, he hit .277 for his career with a .354 career on-base percentage. He led the league in runs scored (1917, 1919), triples (1916, 1919), home runs (1917), walks (1917, 1919), stolen bases (1919), on-base percentage (1917), and slugging percentage (1917). He won Player of the Week twice.

In 1957, Wiley Woodcock was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

More bios

Home