Background
Tris Speaker was born on April 4, 1888 in Hubbard, Texas, United States. He was one of eight children born to Archie Speaker, a carpenter, and Nancy Jane ("Jennie") Poer, a homemaker.
1949
The Cleveland Indians spring training camp at Tucson, the celebs: Tris Speaker, one of baseball's all-time greats and now an advisor to the club; Lou Boudreau, manager of the Indians, Hank Greenberg, vice-president and formerly one of the greatest sluggers in the game, and Bob Hope, comedian of stage, screen and radio, as well as part owner of the Indians.
1909
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Portrait of American baseball player Tris Speaker, outfielder for the Boston Red Sox from 1907 to 1915, swinging a bat.
1909
Boston Red Sox center fielder Tris Speaker, ready for his turn at bat.
1912
AL MVP Award
1912
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Informal three-quarter length portrait of Hall of Fame outfielder Tris Speaker of the American League's Boston Red Sox, sitting in front of grandstands on the field at Comiskey Park, Chicago.
1913
Tris Speaker in action
1920
Tris Speaker, player-manager of the Cleveland baseball team, chatting before the opening game in Brooklyn with C. C. Cunningham of Texas and Duffy Lewi.
1921
Portrait of American baseball player Tristram 'Tris' Speaker, centerfielder for the Cleveland Indians, wearing his uniform and posing as if about to catch a baseball.
1927
Tris Speaker in a Washington Senators uniform for the first time.
1946
4 Jersey St, Boston, MA 02215, United States
Tris Speaker wishes good luck to manager Joe Cronin of the Boston Red Sox before Game 3 of the 1946 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals at Fenway Park on October 9, 1946 in Boston, Massachusetts.
1948
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Tris Speaker talks with Fred Clarke before Game 2 of the 1948 World Series between the Cleveland Indians and Boston Braves at Braves Field on October 6, 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts.
1949
The Cleveland Indians spring training camp at Tucson, the celebs: Tris Speaker, one of baseball's all-time greats and now an advisor to the club; Lou Boudreau, manager of the Indians, Hank Greenberg, vice-president and formerly one of the greatest sluggers in the game, and Bob Hope, comedian of stage, screen and radio, as well as part owner of the Indians.
1951
Jimmie Foxx, the newest member of Baseball's Hall of Fame, is caught between Tris Speaker and Ty Cobb and gets a congratulation that makes him cry "uncle."
1958
Tris Speaker, Paul Waner, and Stan Musial
1201 Wesleyan St, Fort Worth, TX 76105, United States
In 1905, Speaker played a year of college baseball for Fort Worth Polytechnic Institute (now Texas Wesleyan University).
Tris Speaker at bat.
Tris Speaker seated, poses as an outfielder for the Philadelphia Athletics.
Tris Speaker as a Washington Senator.
Augusta, Georgia, United States
Big three of the Phila Athletics. From left to right: Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, and Eddie Collins, at the Giants training camp, Augusta, Georgia.
Clearwater, Florida, United States
Tris Speaker, the former Big League star, and now manager of the Newark, New Jersey baseball team, as he was watching the Brooklyn Dodgers- Phillies game from the seat on the fence in Clearwater, Florida.
Tris Speaker
Tris Speaker speaking with his mother.
Tris Speaker giving Carroll Hardy hitting instructions.
Tris Speaker with teammates
Tris Speaker and announcers at a standing microphone.
Tris Speaker in his early years
baseball player manager athlete
Tris Speaker was born on April 4, 1888 in Hubbard, Texas, United States. He was one of eight children born to Archie Speaker, a carpenter, and Nancy Jane ("Jennie") Poer, a homemaker.
Speaker's father died when he was ten and he was very close to his mother throughout his life. He broke his right arm as a youngster while breaking horses and so learned to throw and hit left-handed. He then broke his left arm playing football and doctors wanted to amputate. He refused and simply gave up football, instead concentrating on baseball. He pitched for two years for Fort Worth Polytechnic Institute (now Texas Wesleyan University), and in the summer following his sophomore year, he played for a semiprofessional team in Corsicana, Texas.
Doak Roberts, owner of the Cleburne team in the North Texas League, discovered Speaker while scouting an outfielder on his team. Speaker was the winning pitcher and hit two home runs, so Roberts gave him a contract of $50 a month and $1 train fare to Waco, where Cleburne was playing. Speaker pocketed the $1 and hopped a freight, reporting to manager Benny Shelton at 6:30 A. M. Shelton started Speaker on the mound that day and he lost 3-2. He subsequently lost several more games, including one by a 22-4 score.
At this juncture, Speaker convinced Shelton to shift him to the outfield where he hit .263 and stole 33 bases in 87 games. The following year the North and South Texas Leagues merged and Roberts moved his franchise, along with Speaker, to Houston. There Speaker batted .318 and was purchased late in the season by the Boston Red Sox for $750 over the objections of his mother, who thought he was being "sold into slavery." He appeared in seven games for the Red Sox but only managed three hits in nineteen at-bats. The Red Sox did not think enough of Speaker to send him a contract over the winter, so in the spring of 1908 he traveled to nearby Marlin, Texas, where the New York Giants trained, and was twice rebuffed by legendary Giants' manager John McGraw, who thought he had more outfielders than he could use.
Speaker then paid his own way to the Red Sox camp in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Red Sox did sign him again but left him with the Little Rock franchise of the Southern League at the end of spring training as partial payment for the stadium rent. The Red Sox retained the option to re-purchase Speaker for $500 and did so in September after he hit .350 to lead the league. The Little Rock owner, Mickey Finn, had offers from the Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Washington Senators, but felt honor bound to the Red Sox.
Speaker batted .309 in 1909, his first full major league season and the first of eighteen seasons he would hit above .300. By 1910 he was a full-fledged star, batting .340, and in 1912 he hit .383 for the season and led the Red Sox to a World Series victory against the Giants, who had snubbed him only four years previously. With Boston he anchored what is often thought of as the greatest outfield in history with Duffy Lewis and Harry Hooper. That outfield also led the Red Sox to the 1915 American League pennant and another World Series victory in 1915, this time over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Even with the 1915 World Championship, Red Sox owner Joe Lannin tried to cut Speaker's salary because the war with the rival Federal League was over and Speaker had batted "only" .322 the previous year. The predictable salary impasse led to Speaker's trade to the Cleveland Indians on the eve of the 1916 season for $50,000, along with pitcher Sad Sam Jones and infielder Fred Thomas. Speaker responded by hitting .386 for his new team, ending Ty Cobb's extraordinary string of nine straight batting titles. He also led the league in hits, doubles, and slugging average.
The Indians named Speaker player-manager in July 1919, and he led the club to a long-awaited pennant and World Series victory in 1920. That year Speaker batted .388, second to George Sisler's .407, and he again led the league in doubles with fifty.
The 1920 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers was a memorable one, involving Bill Wambsganss's unassisted triple play and the first grand-slam home run in Series history by Elmer Smith. When the Indians clinched the World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers, Speaker raced from his position in centerfield and climbed into the stands behind the third-base line to embrace his mother.
On January 15, 1925 Speaker celebrated his marriage by batting .389 for the season. In 1926 a gambling scandal broke involving Speaker and Ty Cobb, both of whom were accused by former pitcher Dutch Leonard of conspiring to fix a game in 1919. American League president Ban Johnson suspended both players, but commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis investigated and exonerated the two. In a strange twist, however, Landis insisted on placing both players with new teams, meaning both had to resign their managerial positions, Cobb with Detroit and Speaker after eight years as Cleveland's player-manager. Thus, Speaker played the 1927 season with the Washington Senators before joining old rival Cobb with the Philadelphia Athletics for both of their final years.
Speaker managed the Newark Bears of the International League in 1929 and 1930, where he batted .355 and .419 as a spot player. He then broadcast games in Chicago before becoming involved in the wholesale liquor business in Cleveland. He also served as chairman of the Cleveland Boxing Commission and later briefly became co-owner and manager of the Kansas City Blues of the American Association before returning to the broadcast booth, this time in Cleveland. The Indians later employed him as a scout, batting instructor, and advisor.
Tris Speaker was one of the founders of Cleveland's Society for Crippled Children and he helped to promote the society's rehabilitation center, Camp Cheerful.
Baseball historian Bill James stated, that Speaker was a staunch supporter of Larry Doby when he broke the American League color barrier, working long hours with the former second baseman on how to play the outfield.
Quotations:
"If you put a baseball and other toys in front of a baby, he'll pick up a baseball in preference to the others."
"It would be useless for any player to attempt to explain successful batting."
"Luck is the great stabilizer in baseball."
"(Babe) Ruth made a grave mistake when he gave up pitching. Working once a week he might have lasted a long time and become a great star."
"The American boy starts swinging the bat about as soon as he can lift one."
"The Babe was a great ballplayer, sure, but (Ty) Cobb was even greater. Babe could knock your brains out, but (Ty) Cobb would drive you crazy."
"When I was a rookie, Cy Young used to hit me flies to sharpen my abilities to judge in advance the direction and distance of an outfield-hit ball."
Tris Speaker was rumored to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan for some time.
Speaker's buoyant personality won him widespread popularity both in baseball and outside the sport.
Physical Characteristics:
Tris Speaker was 5 ft 11 inches (180 cm) tall and weighed 193 lb (87 kg). He had large, powerful hands, and a voice "like rolling thunder."
In 1937, Speaker sustained a 16-foot fall. Upon admission to the hospital, he underwent facial surgery. He was suffering from a skull fracture, a broken arm and possible internal injuries.
Tris died of a heart attack in 1958. It was his second heart attack in four years.
Quotes from others about the person
Ty Cobb: "Terribly depressed. I never let him know how much I admired him when we were playing against each other... It was only after we finally became teammates and then retired that I could tell Tris Speaker of the underlying respect I had for him."
Nap Lajoie: "He was one of the greatest fellows I ever knew, both as a baseball player and as a gentleman."
Duffy Lewis: "He was a team player. As great a hitter as he was, he wasn't looking out for his own average... Speaker was the bell cow of our outfield. Harry Hooper and I would watch him and know how to play the hitters."
In 1925, Tris Speaker married Mary Frances Cuddihy of Buffalo. The couple had no children.