The back page of the Reds 1919 scorecard features a collection of autographs. (this book is on eBay from seller seaweed2270). So wonderful that many of autographs are somewhat legible—and the variety of styles! It makes me wish we all signed our names like this today.
The 1919 World Champion Reds team was the one that defeated the White Sox in the disputed “Black Sox Scandal” World Series. The White Sox conspired to throw the series. Do Reds fans dismiss this 1919 team, because they didn’t truly win the World Series that year? That 1919 team, overshadowed by the Black Sox.
It would be fun to have a 1919 World Champions t-shirt. Of course, they didn’t make such a thing back in 1919. Someone today would have to design a what-if replica. There is shirt that says, “I wanna party like it’s 1919.” Pretty hilarious, because you want to read it like Prince’s song, “I wanna party like it’s 1999.”
The cover of the 1919 World Series program features the Reds manager, Pat Moran.
Try doing a reverse image search on Google, and you’ll end up with this “Lord of the World” book cover from 1907.
Back to the autograph page in the yearbook. Here’s a list of all the names produced on that page. And some trivia points for some players to help make them come alive a bit.
In the first column, the names are:
- Pat Moran (Manager) His first year as manager of the Reds. Former Reds manager Christy Mathewson left the club late in the 1918 season to enlist in the United States Army for World War I.
- Heinie Groh (3B) Lead the team with 5.4 WAR. Lead NL with .823 OPS. Led the NL with 171 putouts and 22 double plays. Groh was famously quoted about the 1919 World Series as saying “I think we’d have beaten them either way.” Inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1963.
- Sherry Magee (LF) is the most veteran Reds player with 16 years of experience (11 years with Philadelphia). This would be his last season. Magee was seriously ill for two months and concluded his major league career by pinch-hitting twice during the 1919 World Series, resulting in two hits.
- Bill Rariden (C)
- Ray Fisher (SP) spent the 1918 season enlisted in the United States Army
- Morrie Rath (2B) Lead Reds with 2.2 dWAR
- Ed Gerner (SP) Rookie, youngest Red at 21 years old
- Rube Bressler (LF, RP) Inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1963.
- Charlie See (PH) Rookie
- Edd Roush (CF) Hall of Famer. Lead NL with .312 AVG, 4.2 WPA, 3.6 WPA/LI. Lead Reds with 5 HR, 162 hits, 71 RBI
- Pat Duncan (LF)
The second column:
- Jake Daubert (1B) led Reds with 79 runs. Led NL with 39 sacrifice hits. 1st season with the Reds. Was 1913 MVP with the Dodgers. Oldest Red at 35 years old. Inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1966.
- Jimmy Ring (SP) worst WAR on Reds with -0.6
- Hod Eller (SP) led Reds with 137 strikeouts
- Nick Allen (C)
- Roy Mitchell (RP) worst pitching WAR on Reds with -0.5
- James L Leuth?
- Ivey Wingo (C)
- Greasy Neale (RF) led Reds with 28 stolen bases and 51 strikeouts. Most Reds hits in World Series with 10. World Series winning RBI in game 8, 5th inning.
- Larry Kopf (SS) lead Reds with 41 errors. Inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1965.
- Hank Schreiber (3B)
- Slim Sallee (SP) led Reds with 21 wins. Reds picked him up off of waivers from the New York Giants before the 1919 season began.
- Dolf Luque (RP) From Cuba. Inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1967.
- Dutch Ruether (SP) led the Reds pitchers with 4.6 WAR and 1.82 ERA
Missing are:
- Manuel Cueto (RF) played in 29 games
- Mike Regan (P) played in 1 game
- Wally Rehg (P) played in 4 games
- Jimmy Smith (PR) played in 28 games
- Billy Zitzmann (LF, PH) played in 2 games
The best signature of this group would have to be Ray Fisher.
If you search eBay for Ray Fisher autographs, you’ll also find the Ray Fisher who played Cyborg in the 2021 movie “Justice League”
Looks like this Ray Fisher wants to party like it’s 1999.
This program also has a scorecard inside.
This scorecard is relatively blank, so you could print it out and score the final game of the 1919 World Series. By the sixth inning the Reds were up 10-1, of course, because the White Sox were throwing the series. But oddly enough, in the bottom of the 8th inning the White Sox started to come back 10-5.
The Reds logo/typeface from the cover of the scorecard doesn’t seem to be used anywhere else online. Maybe I’ll use it for my 1919 World Champions t-shirt.