Published May 13, 2022
By Phil Reyburn
Camp
Point, Illinois native, Chester David Thomas not only played Major League
Baseball for 10 years, but he was also on the winning team in four World
Series. His big league career began in 1912 with Boston Red Sox where he played
through 1917. The 1918 – 1921 seasons
were spent with the Cleveland Indians. During his time with the Red Sox, the
team won three World Championships, 1912, 1915, and 1916. While he was with the
Indians, the 1920 club took the World Series from the Brooklyn Robins.
Around 1842, Chester’s grandfather,
David Thomas, emigrated from Ohio and settled in Adams County’s Camp Point Township.
David’s middle son, Lafayette, was Chester’s father. Lafayette married Emma Seals
in Quincy on July 1, 1875. They would have two sons. Chester David born January
24, 1888, at Camp Point was the youngest.
Sometime after Chester’s birth the
family left Camp Point, moving to Shelbina, Missouri. The
Quincy Daily
Journal
wrote that “on the fenceless lots” of Shelbina, Chester “learned
how to play the national game and before he was 20 years old, he was playing
professional baseball.” The
Quincy Whig
reported: “Chester Thomas,
catcher of the Red Sox, is a Shelbina boy. The people are proud of him. He
tried twice to get on a local ball team but failed on each occasion.”
It appears that in his late teens,
Chester’s family moved to Barber County in south central Kansas. Here he finally
made the local squad. However, Chester saw more opportunity on the West Coast,
and in 1908 he joined San Jose of the California State League. The next three
years he played in the Class A Pacific Coast League which was one step from the
Major Leagues. In 1909 and 1910, he was with Oakland club, ending up with the
Sacramento team in 1911.
From the back of Chester’s 1911 OBAK baseball card:
“THOMAS, is the best hitting catcher in the Coast League. He has been in the
game but a few years and is showing remarkable form. He has developed into a
first-class receiver, has a fine arm and gets the ball away fast.” While in the
Pacific Coast League, Thomas developed a reputation “as a smart backstop who
could pull many a pitcher out of a tough spot.”
The accolades were backed up with numbers, and the
Boston Red Sox invited Thomas for a further look when during spring training in
1912. Thomas both “demonstrated his skill at pegging out runners at second and
showed strong at-bats, all done with banter and bluster,” reported the
Boston
Post
.
Thomas stuck with the Red Sox but was a little-used backup
catcher. He made his first big league appearance on April 24 pinch-hitting in
the ninth inning. Future Hall of Famer, Walter Johnson, got Chester to ground
out.
Playing in 13 games, Thomas spent the 1912 season on
the bench or warming up pitchers. However, the team won the World Series, and each
Red Sox player’s share of the receipts came to $4,024.68. Thomas used his money
to buy his parents a farm.
In the 1913 and 1914 seasons Thomas played in 38 and
66 games, respectively. George Herman Ruth joined the 1914 Red Sox as a rookie
pitcher and appeared in five games. The 1915 season was Thomas’ breakout year
as he got into eighty-six games and became the Red Sox primary catcher.
For several seasons, the Red Sox practiced a theory
that catchers and pitchers worked best in set pairs. Management decided that
Thomas and Ruth would be a good match. Both were brash, loud, and ready to take
on anyone.
In his years on the Red Sox bench, Thomas was the team’s
chief bench jockey—harassing and baiting opposing players and umpires. His
plate appearances were occasionally mixed with fisticuffs. No matter whether he
was batting or catching, opponents found Thomas distracting and irritating.
When the 1915 season opened, Thomas was the Red Sox’s everyday
catcher, working well with the veteran pitchers while forming a solid
relationship with Ruth. With Thomas behind the plate Ruth went 18 and 8.
After a two-year absence, the Red Sox returned to the
World Series where they defeated the Philadelphia Phillies four games to one.
Nineteen sixteen was Thomas’ best year. He appeared in
ninety-nine games and batted a career high .264 while his batterymate, Ruth won
twenty-three games. A Boston
Evening Record
sports reporter claimed that
“The wonderful form of George Ruth may be justifiably traced to Thomas.” The
scribe added: “Ruth has become accustomed to look to Chubby Chester for
advice.”
The 1916 Fall Classic saw the Red Sox claim the World
Series in five games from the Brooklyn Robins.
In the off-season Chester married a Chicago cabaret
singer, Dixie Love. The April 3, 1917,
Daily Herald
carried a photo
captioned “Wives of Diamond Stars Ride Horses While Husbands Train.” Mrs. Thomas
and Mrs. Ruth are shown on horseback while uniformed Chester and Babe stand
between them.
As a pitcher Babe Ruth had his best season in 1917,
going 24 and 13. Thomas’ batting average tailed off to .238 while he appeared
in eighty-three games. On a brighter note, Thomas led the American League
catches with a .986 fielding percentage.
When the season ended, Boston dealt Thomas to the
Philadelphia Athletics, who in turn sold him to the Cleveland Indians. The four
years Thomas spent with Cleveland he was used sparingly, spending most of his
time as a third base coach and an occasional pinch hitter. During his tenure
with the Red Sox, Thomas batted .417 as a pinch hitter; and consequently, he
acquired the sobriquet—Pinch Thomas.
On July 25, 1921, The Cleveland Indians gave Thomas
his unconditional release.
The Society for American Baseball Research compilation
of Babe Ruth’s battery mates reveals that Thomas caught sixty-eight of Ruth’s
starts, more than any other catcher. He was behind the plate for ten of Babe’s
17 shutouts.
Chester David “Pinch” Thomas died December 24, 1953 in
Modesto, California.
Sources
“Big
Money To Red Sox.”
Quincy Daily Herald
, October 17, 1912.
Boston
Evening Record
, June 30, 1916.
“Chet
Thomas Married.”
Quincy Daily Whig
,
December 29, 1916.
“Diamond
Dust.”
Quincy Daily Herald
, January 30, 1909.
Encyclopedia
of Baseball Catchers-Babe Ruth’s Battery
Find
A Grave Memorial for Chester David “Pinch” Thomas; David Thomas; and Lafayette
Thomas.
“GAB,”
Quincy Daily Journal
, July 12, 1922.
Hurlbert,
Joanne. “Pinch Thomas,” Society for American Baseball Research,
https://sabr.org/biopro/person/pinch-thomas/
Lemke,
Bob. “Tales of T212 #17: Chester ‘Pinch’ Thomas.” November 8, 2009. Bob Lemke’s
Blog.
“Local
Brevities.”
Quincy Daily Journal
,
February 19, 1917.
Pinch
Thomas Stats|Baseball – Reference.com
Pinch
Thomas WIKIPEDIA & WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
“Red
Sox Who Are Ready for the World Series.”
Quincy Daily Whig
, October 8,
1916.
“Shelbina
Boy Boston Player.”
Quincy Daily Journal
, October 10, 1916.
“Thomas
Released.”
Quincy Daily Herald
, July 25, 1921.
“Thomas’
Traffic-Cop Signals To Aid Indians In Rush For Pennant.”
Quincy Daily Herald
,
April 6, 1921.
Wilson,
Walt. “Catching Hall of Fame Pitchers-Babe Ruth’s Battery Mates,” Society for
American Baseball Research,
https://batteries.sabr.org
“Wives
of Diamond Stars Ride Horses while Husbands Train.”
Quincy Daily Herald
,
April 3, 1917.
