Dutch Ulrich and Peck Lerian: Two Baltimore Buddies, Two Phillies, Two Tragic Endings

Growing up in Baltimore, both Frank (Dutch) Ulrich, born in 1899 and Walter (Peck) Lerian, born in 1903 loved baseball. Frank. originally Franz, was born in Austria, immigrating to the United States as a child, hence his nickname. Lerian was born in Baltimore into a strict German Catholic family. He earned his nickname because of the way he threw a baseball as a catcher. Walter would snap off his throw in a manner that resembled a chicken snapping up corn from the ground, hence he became "Peck." 

Peck Lerian

Dutch and Peck met in 1922, when each was playing for the Brooks All-Stars, a Baltimore area semi-pro team. According to Lerian biographer, T. Scott Brandon, the first time Peck caught Ulrich, he immediately recognized that Ulrich had much better speed, movement, and control than the other Brooks' pitchers. He determined to get to know the new pitcher better and the two became close friends.

Ulrich soon signed a professional contract, joining the Moline Plowboys in the Class B Three-I League and began his climb to the Major Leagues. Lerian had already signed a professional contract with the Baltimore Orioles and had spent one season in 1921 with the Baltimore affiliate at Waynesboro, North Carolina in the Class D Blue Ridge League, but when he wasn't satisfied with Baltimore's offer for 1922, he sat out the year figuring he could make more money playing semi-pro baseball and basketball, while staying closer to home. Peck's father had died when he was just six and he felt he needed to be close by to help his mother and younger sister.

Turning down the Baltimore offer meant that Lerian had to sit out a full year of pro ball, but in 1923, he signed a contract with a new team, the York White Roses of the Class B New York Pennsylvania League and was back on track as a professional ball player. He moved steadily up the minor league ladder until he reached New Haven in the Class A Eastern League. At New Haven he developed a reputation as a fine defensive catcher with a powerful arm. 

While in the minors, Peck also perfected what he called the "Cigar Store Indian" play. With a runner approaching the plate, Lerian would stand still as a statue, decoying the runner into thinking the throw was not coming to the plate. At the final second, Lerian would spring into action, grab the throw in his specially modified catcher's mitt and swipe a tag at the startled runner. He used the play often throughout his career. 

Meanwhile, Dutch Ulrich, four years older than Lerian, was pitching extremely well with Waterbury in that same Eastern League. William F. Baker of the Phillies noticed and purchased Dutch from the Brasscos in 1925. Ulrich went 19-27 with a respectable 3.48 ERA for the lowly Phillies over the next three seasons and appeared to be coming into his own as a Major League pitcher by the end of 1927.

In early spring training of 1928, regular Phillies catcher Jimmie Wilson was injured and Phillies' President Baker sent his manager Burt Shotton to hunt for a bargain priced backstop. Shotton traded three minor leaguers for Lerian and Peck signed his first Major League contract in March of 1928. Playing in Philly would mean Peck was close to home and it also looked like Peck would be reunited with his friend Dutch Ulrich as battery mates with the Phillies. 

Alas, that was not to be. Ulrich missed all of spring training with what was diagnosed as double pneumonia and would never play again. It turned out the pneumonia was just part of the story. Ulrich had been battling tuberculosis. While Ulrich improved a bit in the summer and began training in hopes of a return, he relapsed and died in February 1929. He was 28.

Sharing catching duties with the newly acquired Spud Davis, who came over in a trade that sent incumbent catcher Jimmie Wilson to St. Louis, Lerian had an excellent rookie campaign, hitting .272 and providing rock solid defense. Rogers Hornsby called Lerian, "the best young catcher I have seen come up in quite a while."

His hitting fell off some in 1929, but his defense was so good that he maintained the starting catcher's job throughout the season. The Phillies, somewhat surprisingly, had what was for them a good season, finishing fifth. The New York Times designated Peck as the top defensive catcher in the National League. Rumor had it that the New York Giants' manager John McGraw was interested in acquiring Lerian. He called Peck, "the future catching star of the National League."

The last game of the 1929 season was a record setter. The Phillies' Chuck Klein and the Giants' Mel Ott were tied with 42 home runs each. Klein hit a home run off Carl Hubbell to take the lead, after which the Phillies' pitchers walked Ott six straight times. Klein's home run broke Rogers Hornsby's National League home run record. Batting right after Klein's homer, Lefty O'Doul stroked his 251st hit of the campaign, breaking another of Hornsby's records. No one then knew this would be the last game Lerian ever played.

After that season ending game, Lerian stuck around to watch the Philadelphia A's defeat the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. He returned home to Baltimore on October 15. After attending church on Monday, October 21, Lerian was standing at the trolley stop at Fayette and Mount Streets, when the driver of a Hecht's Department Store delivery truck swerved to avoid a car that was coming at him, jumped the curb, and struck Lerian, crushing him against a brick wall. It took more than an hour to extricate Lerian from the rubble. He was rushed to the hospital, where friends from St. Martin's Parish lined up to offer blood for a transfusion. Before the transfusion could be completed, however, Peck Lerian died of his injuries. He was 26.

The entire Phillies organization was shocked. President Baker said, "To think that such a fine young fellow who was in the prime of his life just a few hours ago can be suddenly taken out of life." The Hecht's company was eventually ordered to pay Lerian's mother $22,500. The truck driver was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and given probation. Without their young catcher, the Phillies fell back into the National League cellar in 1930.

Lerian is buried in New Cathedral Cemetery in Baltimore in a grave with a modest marker, saying simply, "Lerian." Ironically, it is the same cemetery where his admirer John McGraw was buried in a large mausoleum five years later.

Two Baltimore friends. Two fine ballplayers. Two Philadelphia Phillies. Two tragic endings. Baseball can be a strange game indeed.

Baker Bowl Brawl: "Lefty" Weinert Battles Casey Stengel to a Draw

Philadelphia native, Philip Walter "Lefty" Weinert, pitched for parts of six seasons in the major leagues, was a regular with the Phillies in 1922 and 1923, was the first Jewish player to appear for the Chicago Cubs in 1927, and was a teammate of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig on the 1931 New York Yankees. He may be best remembered today, however, for being the pitcher who, on May 7, 1923, was attacked by a raging Casey Stengel during a game at Baker Bowl.

Weinert signed with the Phillies right out of West Philadelphia High School and spent most of the 1919 season with the Reading Coal Barons in the International League. Despite a 6-15 record at Reading, Weinert made his major league debut with the Phillies that year on September 24 at the reported age of 17.* He worked four innings in relief and gave up 11 hits and nine runs. 

Lefty spent parts of 1920 and 21 with the Phillies, and finally made the team as the fourth starter in 1922. On September 27 of that year, he pitched one of the finest games of his career, a 10-inning complete game victory at the Polo Grounds over the World Champion New York Giants, winning 5-3. Weinert scattered eight hits and allowed just two earned runs. Teammate Russ Wrightstone won the game with a home run in the tenth.

On May 7, 1923, Weinert was called into a game against the Giants at Baker Bowl in the top of the first inning. Lee Meadows, the Phillies starting pitcher had already given up five runs without recording an out. Weinert worked his way out of the inning, allowing one more run. The Phillies were behind 6-0 before coming to bat. 

In the second inning, Weinert got the first two outs, when Casey Stengel came to the plate. It was the first time Weinert had ever faced Stengel. At this point in his career Stengel, a left-handed batter, was platooned and rarely faced left-handed pitching. Weinert and Stengel had been teammates for a brief time in 1920 and 21 with the Phillies, before the Phillies traded Stengel to the Giants. Stengel was not a happy player with the Phillies and whether there was any bad blood between Weinert and Stengel is not clear. At any rate, Weinert promptly plunked Stengel on the shoulder with a pitch. An unhappy Stengel took his place at first base. The New York Daily News reported that Weinert hit Stengel "accidentally."

Weinert singled and scored on a Walter Holke double in the second, but the Giants got to Weinert for three more runs in the third and the score stood at 9-1 as the Giants came to bat in the fourth. With one out Stengel came to the plate again. The first pitch was high and tight. Stengel had seen enough. He threw his bat at Weinert and then charged the mound, and, according to the Jewish Baseball Museum, was spewing anit-semitic epithets on the way.** Weinert met him as he came out and "after a brief exchange of taunts" the two grappled and hammered each other with body blows as their teammates tried futilely to break them apart. Finally, four of Philadelphia's Finest had to come out of the stands to break up the fracas. 

After his brawl with Lefty Weinert,
Casey Stengel is escorted off Baker Bowl field by Philadelphia Police

Both Stengel and Weinert were "banished in disgrace by umpires McCormick and Derr." The Giants eventually won the game 13-8. After reviewing the umpires' report on the fighting incident, National League President, John Heydler, suspended Stengel for 10 games. Weinert was not suspended. Whether this incident earned Stengel a place in manager John McGraw's doghouse, or whether he was injured in the fracas is not known, but Stengel did not start another game for the Giants for two months.

Weinert had a tough 1923 season going 4-17 with a 5.42 ERA for the last place Phillies and labored in the minor leagues for most of the next three seasons. He resurfaced in September 1927 with the Chicago Cubs. In his first outing for the Cubs he pitched a complete game, beating the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-1. The only run he allowed was unearned. It was the closest Lefty ever got to a major league shut out. The Jewish Baseball News reported that this was the "very first Jewish appearance" for the Cubs franchise.

After pitching for the Cubs again in 1928, it was back to the minors for Weinert, until he was purchased from the Louisville Colonels by the New York Yankees in 1931. Weinert pitched in 10 games for the Yankees before being released again. He hung on for a few more years in the minors before finally hanging up the spikes after the 1936 season.

Still calling Philadelphia his home, Weinert was hired as the baseball coach for Villanova College in 1946. He coached the  Wildcats for four seasons and was later a scout for the Phillies, Dodgers, and Indians. He retired to Florida, where he was killed in an automobile accident in 1973. He is buried in Lakeview Memorial Park in Cinnaminson, New Jersey just across the bridge from the site of the old Baker Bowl and his famous brawl.

*While most reports show Weinert was 17 at the time and born in 1902, his grave marker indicates he was born in 1900, which would mean he was actually 19. This makes sense since he had graduated from high school the year before.

**I could not independently corroborate this. Newspapers reported verbal taunts, but did not specify the character of the taunts. You can read what the Jewish Baseball Museum reported here.

The Phillies Other Cliff Lee

I imagine most readers of this blog are familiar with left-handed pitcher Cliff Lee, who, in two different stints with the Phillies, compiled a 48-34 record, as part of his career record of 143-91. Lee was particularly memorable in Philly because of his post-season work in 2009 where he helped the Phillies get to the World Series with playoff wins over the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers, and then recorded two more wins over the New York Yankees in that ill-fated World Series. 

What many Phillies fans may not know is that there was another Cliff Lee who played for the Phillies during the 1920s. This Cliff Lee, a right handed throwing and hitting first baseman/outfielder/catcher, is the living embodiment of obscure. When you go to this Cliff Lee's page on baseballreference.com and click on "player info", the page opens on the information page for Cliff Lee, the pitcher. That seems unjust and a little mean. This blog entry is my meager attempt to rescue "old" Cliff Lee from baseball obscurity.

Cliff Lee was born in Lexington, Nebraska on August 4, 1896. He grew into a lanky 6'1" and 175 pounder and began his professional career at 17 as a catcher with the Muscatine Buttonmakers in the Class D Central Association. After two years with the Buttonmakers, he moved to the Marshalltown Ansons of the same league, and then made the leap to the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League. He split time between catching and the outfield. After hitting .359 for Portland, he was a Rule 5 selection of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He made his major league debut for the Pirates on May 15, 1919, getting two hits, including a double against the Phillies in a 5-0 Pirates win. 

After two years as a back up catcher/pinch hitter for the Pirates, Lee was placed on waivers and picked up by the Phillies. With the Phillies, Lee was converted to a first baseman, although he also played some outfield and caught occasionally, and he got a chance to play regularly. He was a solid and consistent hitter for the Phillies for three years, hitting .308, .322, and .321 in 1921, 1922, and 1923 respectively. His best year was 1922 when he was third in the league with 17 home runs (behind Rogers Hornsby and teammate Cy Williams) and eighth in the league in OPS+ at 125. He was top 10 in the league in slugging percentage in both 1922 and 1923.

On May 30, 1922, Lee hit the first home run ever launched over the left field wall at 27 year old Baker Bowl. According to the report in the Philadelphia Inquirer, "It was a tremendous drive. When bat met ball it sounded like the crack of a 45 caliber rifle. When [the ball] disappeared over the wall onto Lehigh Avenue, one wild roar arose from the delighted spectators." Lee also hit another home run in the game, but his two homers and five RBIs were not enough to help the Phillies avoid a 16-7 loss.

Lee's greatest game in the major leagues came just two months later on July 26, again at Baker Bowl, but this time in a 12-7 Phillies win. In this game the Phillies were up against future Hall of Famer and former Phillie, Eppa Rixey, now pitching for the Cincinnati Reds. In the first inning, Lee smashed a three run homer off Rixey to help the Phillies to an early 5-0 lead. Then in the bottom of the eighth, with the score narrowed to 8-7, Lee connected with another Rixey offering for another three-run home run. Lee added a single to his homers on the day for a final line of three hits in five at bats, two home runs, and six RBIs.

In 1924, Lee was relegated to back up duty and let it be known he was none too happy about it. In June he was sold to the Cincinnati Reds in a straight cash deal. After just a handful of games with the Reds, he was sent to St. Paul in the American Association to complete an earlier deal Cincinnati had made. He surfaced the following year with the Cleveland Indians and had another solid year, hitting .322 as a part time player. His final year in the big leagues was 1926 when he appeared in only 21 games for the Indians. That year he missed a month after suffering a severe gash to the thigh when he was spiked by the Detroit Tigers' Heinie Manush.

Lee spent his final four years of professional ball in the minor leagues, first with the Newark Bears in the International League and then with the Seattle Indians in the Pacific Coast League. 

This Cliff Lee may not have been the quality player that the later Cliff Lee was, but he was a pretty good hitter for his time. Lee was especially effective against left handed pitchers, compiling a lifetime .340 average against southpaws.  And, of course, he will always be the first player ever to hit the ball clear over the left field wall at Baker Bowl.

Dick Allen and the 1967 All-Star Game

In the summer of 1967, during the break between my sophomore and junior years of college, I was sharing a basement apartment on New Hampshire Ave. in Washington, DC, with my good buddy from high school, Bruce Ingraham. The apartment wasn’t much, but it had the distinct advantage of being a half block from Dupont Circle, the very heart of the youth culture of 1960s Washington, often called the Greenwich Village of DC. At any time of the day or night on the Circle you could hear folk music, jazz, bluegrass, or Caribbean and African rhythms, or listen to a group of people protesting the Vietnam War or debating civil rights issues, or the latest William Burroughs novel. You could get a good high by just breathing in the “grass” fumes as you walked across the circle.

DC also had the advantage of having a drinking age of 19. As a just-turned 20-year-old, this was my first experience of being able to walk into a bar, any bar, and ordering a beer. I can honestly say that this boy from more restrictive Pennsylvania took full advantage of this unique opportunity.

I had not seen much baseball that summer. Our apartment did not have a television and Bruce was not a baseball fan, but I was determined to take in the 1967 All-Star Game, which was to be played on July 11 in the brand new Anaheim Stadium, home of the Angels in Anaheim, California. I hadn’t missed an All-Star Game in at least 10 years, and I wasn’t going to miss this one, with my Phillies hero, Dick Allen, in the starting lineup.

I decided to take in the game at my new favorite watering hole, the Ben Bow Inn on Connecticut Avenue. The Ben Bow was a dimly lit, narrow joint that resembled, as one might expect of a place named after a tavern in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, a ship’s galley. It hosted an eclectic mix of patrons ranging from beat poets to rednecks, students to businessmen, gay liberationists to motorcycle gang members. Most importantly, at the moment, it had a television tuned to the All-Star game and Michelob Dark beer on tap.

I was about halfway through my first Michelob, when Allen, batting fifth in the order, stepped to the plate to lead off the top of the second inning. There was no score in the game. The pitcher was the Minnesota Twins' ace Dean Chance, getting a chance to start the All-Star game in the town where he had been a star pitcher for the Angels for many years. Allen worked the count to 1-1 and then smashed a low and away breaking ball to deep center field. Tony Oliva, playing centerfield, raced back and then gave up as the ball disappeared over the fence. The announcer was gob smacked that Allen could hit that pitch that far. You can see it all happen here.

https://youtu.be/0jo64akEI9U

I let out a loud "WHOOP," as the ball cleared the fence, which brought the disapproving eyes of several patrons down on me. Washington was in those days an American League town, the home of the recently reconstituted Washington Senators, and the former home, until 1961, of what was now Chance's and Oliva's team, the Twins. Anyway, I calmed down and smiled into my beer. 

Allen's solo home run stood up until the bottom of the sixth, when Orioles' immortal Brooks Robinson took the Cubs' (and former Phillie) Ferguson Jenkins deep . The score remained tied at 1-1 as the night rolled on. Allen had three more at bats and struck out all three times. Phillies lefthander, Chris Short, entered the game in the ninth inning, and to my great pleasure, pitched very well, shutting the American Leaguers down on one hit and one walk. In the tenth, with the winning run on second base, Short struck out Angels shortstop Jim Fregosi. 

By the twelfth inning I was well into my fourth beer and counting my change to see if I could afford another. Thankfully, the National League finally broke through when the Cincinnati Reds' Tony Perez connected against the Kansas City A's' Catfish Hunter. The New York Mets' Tom Seaver came on in the bottom of the twelfth and worked around a one out walk to the Boston Red Sox' Carl Yastrzemski, to lock down the National League victory.

I drained my beer, left my last quarter on the bar,  and walked happily, and a bit unsteadily, out into the late night.

The 15-inning game was the longest game by innings since All-Star games began in 1933. That record was tied in 2008 when the game at Yankee Stadium also went for 15 innings with the American League prevailing 4-3. Both the 1966 and 1967 All-Star games finished with a 2-1 score and both went into extra innings. The lowest scoring All-Star game ever played happened one year later in 1968. That game ended 1-0, with Willie Mays scoring on a groundout in the first inning for the only run of the game.

A Brief Encounter with Whitey: Connie Mack Stadium 1957

I was never much of an autograph hound. Never lined the fence at the ballpark with the other kids before a game with pen and program outstretched hoping to attract a ball player's attention.  Never went down to the bullpen to shout at a player to toss me a ball. Never went to see ballplayers at their personal appearances or winter caravans. It wasn't my thing. I didn't want to bother the players. For that reason, I never had a close encounter with a professional ballplayer of any stripe, until one drizzly, soggy day at Connie Mack Stadium.

Even though I was a huge Phillies fan and lived about 25 miles from that ballpark at 21st and Lehigh, and even though my grandparents lived in Juniata Park about four miles from the park, I only got to two or three games a season. My dad worked a lot and money was tight. But June 8, 1957, the day after my 10th birthday, was one of those days I got to go to the game. It was Keystone School Safety Day and if you were a school safety you got in free and I was a safety at school and so there I was with about 8,000 other kids to see the game.

We took a school bus down to the game and were chaperoned by teachers and parents. My dad was among them. I had my glove with me just in case a foul ball came my way. I was nervous that the rain might lead to a postponed game. We were seated high up in the lower grandstands behind those annoying pillars at old Connie Mack. The stands provided some protection from the occasional light rain that was falling and, of course, a slightly obstructed view of the field.

As we got into our seats, I looked out on the field, which gleamed the bright spectacular green of moist grass. The sky was ominously gray. Another ominous scene was the sight of the umpires and Phillies manager, Mayo Smith and Cubs manager, Bob Scheffing, walking around inspecting the field. The PA announcer proclaimed, "Ladies and Gentleman, this game will be delayed 1/2 hour due to the wet grounds." A collective groan went up, but I was pleased. At least it looked like there was a chance they might  play. 

With the rain falling steadily now, the good seats close to the field were practically empty as fans sought shelter. I asked my dad if I could go down closer to the field. He said, "OK, but be careful and don't bother anybody." A couple of other safeties and I hustled down the steps to the chain link gate on the right hand side of the first base dugout (the Phillies dugout) to see what we could see. No matter how far we leaned over, we could not see into the dugout, but I did notice that the field was a different shape than I expected. Instead of being flat, it was rounded, higher in the center of the field and slopping toward the foul lines. My dad later explained this "turtle back" shape was to help the field drain after a rain.

Just then a  Phillies player hopped out of the dugout and came over to open the gate where I was standing. He raised the latch and, as I stood wide mouthed and motionless, he said, "Excuse me, son." and opened the gate toward me. I knew immediately it was Richie Ashburn. Even though baseball wasn't on tv as much those days, my baseball card collection contained several images of him form over the years. He looked much bigger to the ten-year-old me than his baseball card statistics would indicate, 5'10" and 170 pounds. He looked broad, even husky. Definitely a man among those boys at the fence.

I shuffled back a little and Ashburn came through the gate. He didn't smile. He didn't look up. He just dipped his shoulder in that characteristic way of his (which you can see immortalized in his statue in Ashburn Alley at Citizens Bank Park), and bolted up the steps to the concourse above, his spikes click-clacking on the concrete as he went. As he moved away from me, I noted how white his uniform looked and how marvelous that big red number 1 looked on his back.

At about that moment, the PA system crackled to life again and the announcer intoned, "Ladies and Gentleman, today's game between the Phillies and Cubs has been postponed due to wet grounds. Please hold on to your rain checks, which will be honored at a later game." That was it. All the kids around me groaned. I trudged back up the steps, slump shouldered,, where my dad greeted me with, "I'm sorry son."

I blurted, "Dad, did you see that. That was Richie Ashburn. He walked right by me and he talked to me and he was right there, like I could have touched him." 

"I saw that. Good for you. We better be getting out there to the bus. Maybe we can get to a game later this year." 

"Yeah, OK, dad."

In 1957, the Phillies teased their fans with an early run at the pennant. In fact on that June 8th day when I "met" Richie Ashburn, the Phillies were in third place just one game behind the league leading Cincinnati Reds, and had won nine of their last 12 games. By mid-July the Phillies were tied for first place. It all turned out to be a mirage, however, as their hitting faltered down the stretch. They finished the season in fifth place, 18 games behind the pennant winning Milwaukee Braves. 

Ashburn had a good, but not great year. His average dipped to .297, the first time in 5 years he had hit below .300, but he did lead the league in walks with 94 and collected more than 500 putouts in the outfield for the fifth time in his career.

It was a brief encounter for sure, but to this 10-year-old it was a memorable one and remains the closest I have ever gotten to a future Hall of Famer.