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Ginger Beaumont
| Burlington Little League PO Box 159 Burlington, Wi 53105 Kelley Albrecht President 262-210-7890 Hintz Park Concessions answering machine for rain-out information 767-0127 |
1951
Ginger Beaumont:
The date is Oct. 1, 1903. The setting is Boston's Huntington Avenue Park. A crowd
of 16,242 - tremendous for that era - jams the old wooden structure, as the Boston
Red Sox are about to meet the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first modern-day World
Series.
Approaching the plate is Clarence Howeth "Ginger" Beaumont, who is a long way
from his home of Honey Creek, Wisconsin. Beaumont flies out to center and
makes history, as the first batter in World Series history.
Beaumont went on from there to finish a 12-year career, 1899-1910, with a .311
batting average and 254 stolen bases. He won the 1902 National League batting
average with a .357 average. Honus Wagner put Beaumont on his all-time team.
Beaumont has his best seasons as Wagner's teammate on the Pirates. He also
played for the Boston Braves and Chicago Cubs.
by Daniel Ginsburg
If Ginger Beaumont is remembered today, it's usually for being the first batter in
modern World Series history. In the early days of the Deadball Era, however, he
was considered baseball's finest leadoff man, a lifetime .311 hitter who was good
enough to be named by both Bill Klem and Honus Wagner as the center fielder on
their all-time teams. When contemporary observers spoke of Beaumont, they
tended to focus on his surprising speed (he was once clocked from home to first
in 4.4 seconds)--surprising because his typical playing weight was 190 lbs. on a
5'8" frame. "He was an excellent base runner, being very fast on his feet, but
nobody who saw him for the first time ambling along on his way to the batter's box
would admit this," wrote sportswriter John Gruber. "A lazier or more
indifferent-appearing player, emphasized by a burly body, could not be conceived.
But when he hit the ball he was off like a streak, which astonished the uninitiated
and made him one of the wonders of the century."
Clarence Howeth Beaumont was born to Thomas and Mary (Jones) Beaumont on
July 23, 1876, in Rochester, Wisconsin. A right-handed thrower who batted from
the left side, he began his baseball career in 1896 as a semipro catcher, playing
with teams from Rochester, East Troy, Wampum, Burlington, and Beloit College.
Connie Mack, who was then managing Milwaukee of the Western League, signed
Clarence to his first professional contract late in the 1898 season when the
Brewers were hit by a rash of injuries. Because Mack needed an outfielder,
Beaumont (whose speed made him a natural candidate) made the shift from
catcher to fly chaser and batted .354 with 11 stolen bases in 24 games.
That performance didn't go unnoticed by National League clubs, and Cleveland,
Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore all expressed interest. After the season, Mack
engineered a bogus sale of Beaumont to the Louisville Colonels to avoid losing
him in the October draft (Barney Dreyfuss, who later became the young outfielder's
employer, returned him shortly thereafter), then traded him in December to the
Pittsburgh Pirates for pitcher Bill Hart and third-baseman Bill Grey. An account of
the trade referred to Clarence as a "brilliant and promising young player" and
stated that Milwaukee fans "bid farewell to Beaumont with profound regret."
Less than a year removed from semipro ball, the 22-year-old Beaumont began his
big-league career primarily as a pinch hitter and spare outfielder under manager
William Watkins. In late May, however, right-fielder Patsy Donovan replaced
Watkins. Donovan gave Clarence a chance to play regularly, and by the end of June
the rookie had nailed down the center-field job, much to the displeasure of the
man he replaced, Tom McCreery, who was openly hostile to his young challenger
until Donovan intervened. On July 22 Beaumont accomplished a feat that has yet to
be matched, collecting six hits in six times at-bat and scoring six runs against
Phillies lefthander Wiley Piatt. What is even more remarkable is that none of his
safeties left the infield. For the season Beaumont batted .352, sixth in the NL, and
stole 31 bases, but he wasn't even the best rookie on the Pittsburgh team; that
honor belonged to third-baseman Jimmy Williams, who batted .355 with
considerably more power.
At the end of the 1899 season Barney Dreyfuss bought a half-interest in the Pirates
and merged them with the best of his players from Louisville. The result was a
powerhouse and the beginning of what Beaumont later referred to as "my happiest
years in baseball." Beaumont was Dreyfuss' kind of player; he didn't smoke or
drink and devoted much of his free time to youth baseball in Pittsburgh. Up until
then the speedy outfielder was usually known as "Clarry" or "Beau," but Dreyfuss
nicknamed him "Ginger" due to his red hair (though some claimed it was due to
his speed and hustle), and the nickname stuck with Beaumont throughout his life.
In 1900 Ginger Beaumont suffered through a sophomore slump, batting just .279,
but for the next five years he was one of baseball's most dangerous hitters. In 1901
he finished among the NL's Top 10 in batting average (.332) and stolen bases
(36), and the following year he won the NL batting title with a .357 average while
finishing first in hits (193), third in runs (100) and on-base percentage (.404), and
fourth in total bases (226) and stolen bases (33). Beaumont had another
outstanding season in 1903, batting .341 and leading the NL with career-high
marks in runs (137), hits (209), and total bases (272). Of course the highlight of
that season came on October 1 in front of 16,242 screaming fans at Boston's
Huntington Avenue Park. Stepping in to face the great Cy Young, Beaumont lofted a
fly ball to center field that was caught by Boston's Chick Stahl, thus becoming the
first batter in the history of the modern World Series. For the eight-game Series
Ginger batted .265 and led the Pirates with six runs scored.
Beaumont put together another strong season in 1904 when he batted .301 and
led the NL for the third consecutive season in hits (185), but in 1905, though his
.328 batting average ranked fourth in the NL, he began to suffer from knee
problems that limited him to 103 games. The knee worsened in 1906, when
Ginger appeared in only 80 games and batted .265 with just one stolen base.
Concerned about Beaumont's physical condition, Dreyfuss traded him and fellow
veterans Claude Ritchey and Patsy Flaherty to the Boston Nationals in December
1906 for infielder Ed Abbaticchio. It was a trade that clearly benefited Boston.
Ginger recovered in 1907 to play in 150 games and lead the NL for the fourth time
in hits (187) while finishing third in the batting race with a .322 average.
Beaumont's knee injury finally started to take its toll in 1908. The former speedster
who in his prime had legged out numerous bunts and infield hits saw his running
speed decline, and with it his batting average. Ginger batted in the .260s in both
1908 and 1909, and Boston traded him to the Chicago Cubs in February 1910 for
rookie pitcher Fred Liese and cash. Beaumont spent the 1910 season as an extra
outfielder and pinch hitter on the pennant-winning Cubs, batting .267 in 76 games.
In his return to the World Series he appeared three times as a pinch hitter, walking
once and scoring a run. Ginger didn't get along well with manager Frank Chance,
and the Cubs released him in March 1911. He finished his baseball career in
1911 with St. Paul of the American Association, batting .249 in a part-time role.
After leaving baseball, Ginger Beaumont concentrated on running his 180-acre
farm in Honey Creek, Wisconsin, which he had purchased in 1904 (probably with
his pay from the first World Series) and renamed Centerfield Farm. He and his
wife, Norma (Vaughan) Beaumont, whom he had married in November 1901,
enjoyed the "simple life." They raised two daughters and one son and became
fixtures in their community. In 1914 Ginger was elected a supervisor of Walworth
County. He had saved his money during his playing career and by all accounts
was comfortably well-off later in life. Ginger's health began to deteriorate in 1948
when he suffered a stroke, and a second stroke in 1950 confined him to a wheel
chair for the last years of his life. In 1951 Beaumont was inducted into the
Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame as a charter member. Two stars of the 1903 World
Series, Deacon Phillippe and Cy Young, unveiled his plaque at the ceremony.
Ginger Beaumont died at the age of 79 on April 10, 1956, in Burlington Hospital,
near his Wisconsin farm. His obituary in The Sporting News called him "one of the
game's all-time great outfielders." The Beaumont Little League in Burlington bears
his name, and in 1968 the Old-Timers Athletic Club of Racine erected a flagpole
and plaque in his memory. Beaumont was the subject of campaigns in the 1940s
and 1980s for enshrinement in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, but at this
point that supreme honor appears unlikely to come his way.
Ginger Beaumont:
The date is Oct. 1, 1903. The setting is Boston's Huntington Avenue Park. A crowd
of 16,242 - tremendous for that era - jams the old wooden structure, as the Boston
Red Sox are about to meet the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first modern-day World
Series.
Approaching the plate is Clarence Howeth "Ginger" Beaumont, who is a long way
from his home of Honey Creek, Wisconsin. Beaumont flies out to center and
makes history, as the first batter in World Series history.
Beaumont went on from there to finish a 12-year career, 1899-1910, with a .311
batting average and 254 stolen bases. He won the 1902 National League batting
average with a .357 average. Honus Wagner put Beaumont on his all-time team.
Beaumont has his best seasons as Wagner's teammate on the Pirates. He also
played for the Boston Braves and Chicago Cubs.
by Daniel Ginsburg
If Ginger Beaumont is remembered today, it's usually for being the first batter in
modern World Series history. In the early days of the Deadball Era, however, he
was considered baseball's finest leadoff man, a lifetime .311 hitter who was good
enough to be named by both Bill Klem and Honus Wagner as the center fielder on
their all-time teams. When contemporary observers spoke of Beaumont, they
tended to focus on his surprising speed (he was once clocked from home to first
in 4.4 seconds)--surprising because his typical playing weight was 190 lbs. on a
5'8" frame. "He was an excellent base runner, being very fast on his feet, but
nobody who saw him for the first time ambling along on his way to the batter's box
would admit this," wrote sportswriter John Gruber. "A lazier or more
indifferent-appearing player, emphasized by a burly body, could not be conceived.
But when he hit the ball he was off like a streak, which astonished the uninitiated
and made him one of the wonders of the century."
Clarence Howeth Beaumont was born to Thomas and Mary (Jones) Beaumont on
July 23, 1876, in Rochester, Wisconsin. A right-handed thrower who batted from
the left side, he began his baseball career in 1896 as a semipro catcher, playing
with teams from Rochester, East Troy, Wampum, Burlington, and Beloit College.
Connie Mack, who was then managing Milwaukee of the Western League, signed
Clarence to his first professional contract late in the 1898 season when the
Brewers were hit by a rash of injuries. Because Mack needed an outfielder,
Beaumont (whose speed made him a natural candidate) made the shift from
catcher to fly chaser and batted .354 with 11 stolen bases in 24 games.
That performance didn't go unnoticed by National League clubs, and Cleveland,
Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore all expressed interest. After the season, Mack
engineered a bogus sale of Beaumont to the Louisville Colonels to avoid losing
him in the October draft (Barney Dreyfuss, who later became the young outfielder's
employer, returned him shortly thereafter), then traded him in December to the
Pittsburgh Pirates for pitcher Bill Hart and third-baseman Bill Grey. An account of
the trade referred to Clarence as a "brilliant and promising young player" and
stated that Milwaukee fans "bid farewell to Beaumont with profound regret."
Less than a year removed from semipro ball, the 22-year-old Beaumont began his
big-league career primarily as a pinch hitter and spare outfielder under manager
William Watkins. In late May, however, right-fielder Patsy Donovan replaced
Watkins. Donovan gave Clarence a chance to play regularly, and by the end of June
the rookie had nailed down the center-field job, much to the displeasure of the
man he replaced, Tom McCreery, who was openly hostile to his young challenger
until Donovan intervened. On July 22 Beaumont accomplished a feat that has yet to
be matched, collecting six hits in six times at-bat and scoring six runs against
Phillies lefthander Wiley Piatt. What is even more remarkable is that none of his
safeties left the infield. For the season Beaumont batted .352, sixth in the NL, and
stole 31 bases, but he wasn't even the best rookie on the Pittsburgh team; that
honor belonged to third-baseman Jimmy Williams, who batted .355 with
considerably more power.
At the end of the 1899 season Barney Dreyfuss bought a half-interest in the Pirates
and merged them with the best of his players from Louisville. The result was a
powerhouse and the beginning of what Beaumont later referred to as "my happiest
years in baseball." Beaumont was Dreyfuss' kind of player; he didn't smoke or
drink and devoted much of his free time to youth baseball in Pittsburgh. Up until
then the speedy outfielder was usually known as "Clarry" or "Beau," but Dreyfuss
nicknamed him "Ginger" due to his red hair (though some claimed it was due to
his speed and hustle), and the nickname stuck with Beaumont throughout his life.
In 1900 Ginger Beaumont suffered through a sophomore slump, batting just .279,
but for the next five years he was one of baseball's most dangerous hitters. In 1901
he finished among the NL's Top 10 in batting average (.332) and stolen bases
(36), and the following year he won the NL batting title with a .357 average while
finishing first in hits (193), third in runs (100) and on-base percentage (.404), and
fourth in total bases (226) and stolen bases (33). Beaumont had another
outstanding season in 1903, batting .341 and leading the NL with career-high
marks in runs (137), hits (209), and total bases (272). Of course the highlight of
that season came on October 1 in front of 16,242 screaming fans at Boston's
Huntington Avenue Park. Stepping in to face the great Cy Young, Beaumont lofted a
fly ball to center field that was caught by Boston's Chick Stahl, thus becoming the
first batter in the history of the modern World Series. For the eight-game Series
Ginger batted .265 and led the Pirates with six runs scored.
Beaumont put together another strong season in 1904 when he batted .301 and
led the NL for the third consecutive season in hits (185), but in 1905, though his
.328 batting average ranked fourth in the NL, he began to suffer from knee
problems that limited him to 103 games. The knee worsened in 1906, when
Ginger appeared in only 80 games and batted .265 with just one stolen base.
Concerned about Beaumont's physical condition, Dreyfuss traded him and fellow
veterans Claude Ritchey and Patsy Flaherty to the Boston Nationals in December
1906 for infielder Ed Abbaticchio. It was a trade that clearly benefited Boston.
Ginger recovered in 1907 to play in 150 games and lead the NL for the fourth time
in hits (187) while finishing third in the batting race with a .322 average.
Beaumont's knee injury finally started to take its toll in 1908. The former speedster
who in his prime had legged out numerous bunts and infield hits saw his running
speed decline, and with it his batting average. Ginger batted in the .260s in both
1908 and 1909, and Boston traded him to the Chicago Cubs in February 1910 for
rookie pitcher Fred Liese and cash. Beaumont spent the 1910 season as an extra
outfielder and pinch hitter on the pennant-winning Cubs, batting .267 in 76 games.
In his return to the World Series he appeared three times as a pinch hitter, walking
once and scoring a run. Ginger didn't get along well with manager Frank Chance,
and the Cubs released him in March 1911. He finished his baseball career in
1911 with St. Paul of the American Association, batting .249 in a part-time role.
After leaving baseball, Ginger Beaumont concentrated on running his 180-acre
farm in Honey Creek, Wisconsin, which he had purchased in 1904 (probably with
his pay from the first World Series) and renamed Centerfield Farm. He and his
wife, Norma (Vaughan) Beaumont, whom he had married in November 1901,
enjoyed the "simple life." They raised two daughters and one son and became
fixtures in their community. In 1914 Ginger was elected a supervisor of Walworth
County. He had saved his money during his playing career and by all accounts
was comfortably well-off later in life. Ginger's health began to deteriorate in 1948
when he suffered a stroke, and a second stroke in 1950 confined him to a wheel
chair for the last years of his life. In 1951 Beaumont was inducted into the
Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame as a charter member. Two stars of the 1903 World
Series, Deacon Phillippe and Cy Young, unveiled his plaque at the ceremony.
Ginger Beaumont died at the age of 79 on April 10, 1956, in Burlington Hospital,
near his Wisconsin farm. His obituary in The Sporting News called him "one of the
game's all-time great outfielders." The Beaumont Little League in Burlington bears
his name, and in 1968 the Old-Timers Athletic Club of Racine erected a flagpole
and plaque in his memory. Beaumont was the subject of campaigns in the 1940s
and 1980s for enshrinement in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, but at this
point that supreme honor appears unlikely to come his way.