John McGraw's First Suspension

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John McGraw’s First Suspension

The first of many times Ban Johnson suspended John McGraw was on May 17, 1901.

From The Baltimore American, May 18, 1901, page 4

From The Baltimore Morning Herald, May 18, 1901, page 4

From The Baltimore Sun, May 18, 1901, page 6

This was because of an incident that took place back on May 7, 1901. The Orioles were in Philadelphia when John McGraw was thrown out of the ball game for arguing balls and strikes.

From The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 8, 1901, page 6

From The Baltimore Sun, May 8, 1901, page 6

Now, the really significant thing here isn’t just the fact that McGraw was suspended. It’s the fact that Ban Johnson seems to have gone out of his way to make an example of McGraw.

You see — Clark Griffith, pitcher and manager of the Chicago White Stockings, was thrown out of a ballgame the very next day for the same thing.

From The Chicago Daily Tribune, May 9, 1901, page 6

Note that the presence of two umpires in that Cleveland - Chicago game had no effect.

Griffith, who would later own the Washington Senators, was suspended by Johnson as well. However, his suspension apparently didn’t include his duties on the mound:

From Sporting Life, May 18, 1901, page 7

It’s not clear what day this “suspension” began. The Chicago papers made no mention of it. If it was for 5 games, however, it’s clear that it was completely ineffective. Here is Griffith’s pitching log from May:

Can you tell that there was a suspension anywhere here?

We need to keep this in mind when we consider McGraw’s decision to abandon the Baltimore Orioles in July 1902. As tempting as it is to follow the historic trend and make McGraw the villain, there is a good case here that Johnson treated him unfairly. And, of course, this wasn’t the first time McGraw would be suspended by Johnson.