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1923-1929 |
A boxer
turned ballplayer, Ira James “Pete” Flagstead became a 13-year
major-league outfielder who hit .290 over the course of his career, mostly
spent with the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox from 1917 through 1930.
He was raised a long way from the major leagues of the day, in Olympia,
the capital of the state of Washington.
William Flagstead’s father, Thomas, worked aboard boats. Born in 1831, he
came to the United States in time to be included in the 1870 census, which
listed him as a fisherman in Muskegon, Michigan, a sizable city on Lake
Michigan. Ten years later, Thomas was a sailor. It was the profession that
William held in 1900, a sailor on the Great Lakes living in Muskegon with
his wife, Bella, young Ira, and two other sons, Willie (a couple of years
younger than Ira) and Harold, three years younger than Willie. A daughter,
Dorothy, was born after Willie. According to the 1910 census, Bella worked
as a servant for a private family.
In Muskegon, the family lived across the street from a baseball field and
it’s not surprising that by the age of 16, Ira was the catcher on the
Muskegon Independents town team. A degree of wanderlust took him west,
setting out with a suitcase but without a plan and he wound up in the
Northwest, working in a lumber mill in Littlerock, Washington. He later
moved to Olympia to work in a mill and then as a steamfitter.
In the Washington capital, Ira was the catcher for the Olympia Senators
beginning in 1913. He’d been offered a tryout with Seattle
but declined, since the pay was less than he was making.
Ira registered for the draft in World War I in May 1917. He was working at
the time for the Marlin Hardware Company in Olympia, as a steamfitter.
That same year, he began his baseball career. But it had been boxing that
first caught his fancy. He worked with a 20-pound sledge hammer in the
foundry and he was almost 25, feeling fit and tough. He’s listed as
5-feet-9 and weighing 165 pounds when he played baseball – stocky. But he
weighed a lot less as a teenager, and it was as a lightweight (130-135
pounds) that he first climbed into the ring at Lacey, Washington. Stepping
into the ring to fight him was a so-called “lightweight” who may have
weighed 175. According to an undated, unattributed news clipping found in
Flagstead’s player file at the Hall of Fame, it was at that moment that he
decided he was going to quit boxing. But first he had to fight:
The battle started. Ira shed his fist off the face of the opposing
“lightweight” so often that it looked as if it were raining boxing gloves.
He bounced ’em off the body of this giant so fast that it sounded like
the rataplan of gunplay. But the lummox was big. He was tough. He cast off
punches like a duck shakes water. He stayed through the entire 15 rounds.
Then the referee, who resembled justice only in that he was blind, said
‘draw.’
Flagstead turned instead to baseball and became a catcher on the foundry
ball team. “Flaggy” was good, and he came to the attention of Frank
Raymond, the manager of the Tacoma Tigers, a Class B team in the
Northwestern League. It was May 1917. He started out batting so well that
another ballclub took immediate notice: the Detroit Tigers. It was former
White Sox catcher Billy Sullivan who signed him. Sullivan was working for
Detroit and had come to scout Herm Pillette. He saw Tacoma beat Seattle in
14-inning game, 2-1, with Flagstead driving in both runs. Sullivan paid
$750 for his contract and reported to Detroit on July 17.
Flagstead debuted with the Tigers on July 20, coming into the game to hit
for right-fielder George Harper in the seventh and playing through the
ninth (a 3-1 loss to the Yankees), having two at-bats but no hits. He
appeared in four games in 1917, collecting four at-bats without a hit and
striking out once. He played in parts of two games in the field, but
handled no chances. It was back to Tacoma and by the end of the year he
had played in 56 games for Tacoma as an outfielder, hitting an impressive
.376, fourth best in the league. He was eagerly anticipated in
Chattanooga.
In 1918, Flagstead started the season playing first base and batting third
for the Chattanooga Lookouts in the Southern Association, doubling and
scoring in the ninth inning of the opener, against the Atlanta Crackers.
The season was more of the same
� a league-leading .379 average,
although only in 49 games in this war-shortened season. Contemporary
sources say he hit .381. He joined the artillery at Camp Custer, Michigan,
rising to the rank of sergeant first class. His unit was due to deploy
overseas when the armistice was signed. He was discharged on January 27,
1919
In 1919, Flagstead joined Detroit for the season. The Tigers had enough
catching, so he was tagged for outfield work by manager Hughie Jennings.
It was thought that he might have a very good season, and he didn’t
disappoint, starting off with two singles and a double in his first game,
on April 26.
Flagstead came batted .331 and walking 35 times (plus getting hit seven
times) for an on-base percentage of .416. He had a little power, better
than average for the era, with five home runs. His .331 average was fifth
in the American League as was his on-base percentage (ranking above him in
the league’s top five were Ty Cobb and Bobby Veach.) His slugging
percentage placed him sixth. As early as the turn of the year, news
stories began to mention that Red Sox owner Harry Frazee had his eyes on
Ira. (See, for instance, the
Boston
Globe of January 9, 1920.)
He experienced the proverbial sophomore slum in 1920, his average
plummeting to .235. Detroit added a proper shortstop in Topper Rigney, who
also hit .300, and another reserve outfielder in Bob Fothergill.
Consequently, Flagstead played only half as much in 1922 as he had in
1921, just 44 games, and hit .308. The Tigers just had so many superb
ballplayers, particularly in the outfield slots, that they had a .300
hitter as a utility player. Flagstead did have the opportunity to play a
pretty full year in 1923, but it was mostly for the Boston Red Sox. He’d
gotten in one pinch-hit at-bat with the Tigers on April 24, four days
before he was traded. When the trade happened, on April 28, it was
Flagstead for Ed Goebel, also an outfielder, who never appeared in a game
for either Boston or Detroit.
For Boston, manager Frank Chance had Flagstead take over the lion’s share
of the work as the team’s regular right fielder (filling in a lot for
Shano Collins), and Ira hit .312 in 109 games with a career-high eight
home runs. Only left-fielder Joe Harris hit more. It was the first of six
full seasons he played for the Red Sox, some of the worst seasons in Red
Sox history. The team was so deep in the cellar that it hardly ever saw
the light of day. Yet Flagstead averaged .295 in 2,941 Boston at-bats and
drove in 299 runs.
He made a good impression from the start, hitting a home run in his debut
on May 10, but the White Sox beat the Red Sox, 9-7. One of the bigger RBIs
came on September 14, in the game in which Red Sox first baseman George
Burns pulled off an unassisted triple play. Flagstead made “several
wonderful catches” in right field, and the hard-fought game with the
Indians went into extra innings tied 2-2. Cleveland took a 3-2 lead in the
top of the 12th, but Flagstead came up with the bases loaded in the bottom
of the 12th and hit a “sizzling drive” to left field which scored the
tying and winning runs.
Except
for 1923, Flagstead played center field almost exclusively from that point
on. There was one disappointing day, when his errant ninth-inning throw on June
5 cost the Red Sox the ballgame. But his 31 outfield assists led the league in
1923, as did his 24 in 1925. He was a bit of a reckless outfielder, it seems,
crashing into walls. A bit of hyperbole, of course, but none other than Babe
Ruth claimed that Flagstead deprived him of as many as 10 home runs a year.
Flagstead was living in Littlerock, Washington, as 1924 began, and made his way
to San Antonio for Red Sox spring training, arriving on the evening of March 14
and reporting to manager Lee Fohl. His place in center field was secure and he
did nothing to jeopardize the status. He played in 149 games in 1924, hitting
.307 (with a .401 on-base average), tapped as Boston’s leadoff hitter. He drove
in 43 runs, but scored 106, by far tops on the team. August 20 was his best day;
his four hits (including a double and triple) figured in three runs of Boston’s
5-4 win over the Indians, as did at least one sensational shoestring catch in
the field.
During
the offseason, back in Washington state, Flagstead had one of his brothers pitch
to him using cheap, nonregulation baseballs – because they were a bit smaller
and therefore trained his eye better. He was reported in good physical shape
just one day after arriving at spring training, and it paid off: he appeared in
148 games, though he tailed off in average (.280, after five straight seasons
hitting above .300). He drove in 18 more runs than in
�24 but
scored 22 fewer. His eye was in fine shape on May 8, however, when he was
1-for-1 in a game but scored five runs (he walked five times.) Part of the
problem with his average followed Flagstead’s being beaned by Benny Karr of the
Indians on May 14. He was hitting .323 at the time and missed only a few games,
but he rarely hit as high as .300 again.
Flaggy set a record on April 19, 1926, in the second game of the Patriot’s Day
doubleheader against the visiting Athletics, by taking part in three double
plays in one game, all from center field. July was not a good month, though. He
was suspended indefinitely on July 12 for something he’d said in a prior game to
Umpire Harry Geisel (he was back by the 15th, however), and then he suffered a
broken collarbone on July 31 making a diving catch of a low liner, and was out
for the rest of the season. He’d hit .299 and was on track for his fourth year
in a row of solid baseball.
Flagstead reached base 37.4 percent of the time in 1927, batting .285, and hit
.290 in 1928, playing in 131 and 140 games respectively. He was reliable and
steady, though at age 33 and 34, his average had tailed off.
He was a popular player in Boston at a time when the team offered little to
attract fans. A July 26, 1928, column in
The Sporting
News persuasively made the case: “He is one of the reasons why the
fans here have always been so patient with the Red Sox. It is not so easy to
razz and rough ride a ball club which has the hustling, sincere Pete Flagstead
playing center field.” Fans had held a “day” for Flaggy on July 21, and he was
presented with $1,000 in gold and an automobile. “Harry Hooper was never more
popular than Flaggy in Boston, and that’s saying quite a mouthful because there
have been few players anywhere who have such a degree of popularity as Hooper
enjoyed here for years.” The car came in handy, given Flagstead’s residence in
the Northwest and his love of driving. He also enjoyed sightseeing in the cities
he visited, often taking tour buses and visiting sights like the Bronx Zoo and
the Smithsonian.
In 1929, the Red Sox were ready to go with Jack Rothrock in center field and so
floated the 35-year-old Flaggy on waivers early in the season (even though he
was hitting over .300 at the time). He was claimed by the Washington Senators on
May 25.
There was one more year of baseball in Flagstead’s future, though. He played in
the Pacific Coast League for Seattle and Portland in 1931, hitting .231 in 68
games. It was time to move on. Flagstead returned to Washington, where he and
his wife Reita enjoyed fishing and raised game roosters and English call ducks.
He played more leisurely ball in Olympia, and had the talent to help land his
Timber League team in the playoffs three years in a row. He was recognized by
both his birth state (in the Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame) and his adopted
state (Washington Sports Hall of Fame).
Flagstead took ill in August 1939 and died in his sleep the following March 13
at the very young age of 46.
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