Braggo

Stealing home six times in a season

Braggo

Braggo Roth is the sort of player that only replayers tend to know about.

If you only glance at his Baseball Reference page, you’ll think that Roth was a journeyman utility player, somebody who had a hard time staying in the lineup for a full season and who bounced around from club to club.

It’s true that Roth played for 6 different clubs during his short 8 year career, and that he was basically all washed up by injuries at the ripe old age of 28.

However, for a brief moment in 1917, Roth was a pretty well regarded offensive player.

You see, Roth managed to steal home a whopping six times in 1917.

This wasn’t recognized at the time, by the way. And even the modern age of Stathead doesn’t have an easy way to search for times that individual players stole home.

I only know about this feat because of Roth’s SABR biography, which contains this brief line:

And, after a little bit of digging, I was able to find the game Roth tied the record.

The Nationals (or Senators) were in Cleveland on a road trip in late August 1917 when it happened. Cleveland was about nine games out of first place, while the Senators were sinking like a rock.

This was back in the deadest part of the deadball era, back when games were won and lost on baserunning plays and errors. In fact, on August 26th, the Indians managed to barely beat Washington because of defensive misplays:

Above from The Plain Dealer, August 27, 1917, page 9

And so, in keeping with the times, the Indians went absolutely nuts on the basepaths the next day. And this says it all:

This game was played at an excruciatingly slow pace:

Well, slow for the times, that is. These days a 3 hour 10 minute game wouldn’t make headlines.

Anyway, Roth’s sixth steal of home in 1917 came in the bottom of the fifth inning, and just so happened to be his fourth stolen base of the afternoon:

Above from The Plain Dealer, August 28, 1917, page 9

And, yes, it was a triple steal with the bases loaded - one of those plays you simply don’t see anymore these days.

It seems that Roth and the others took advantage of pitcher Jim Shaw not paying any attention to what was going on:

From The Washington Post, August 28, 1917, page 8

And the crazy thing is that Shaw’s stolen base wasn’t even the first steal of home in that game:

From The Washington Herald, August 28, 1917, page 8

As much fun as baseball is today, it’s simply nothing like how it was in the deadball era. This game must have been crazy to watch.

Anyway, that was the game that tied the record. And it’s a record nobody seems to remember.