Matt Batts
Discovering a Forgotten Phenom
Matt Batts
After his heroics in this 13 inning thriller, I wanted to get to know Matt Batts a little bit better.
Researching these somewhat obscure players from the past is actually quite fascinating. Batts came from what was at the time a rural part of Texas, had an arm like a cannon, excelled in numerous sports, and finally decided on a baseball career. He was a standout in his early days with the Boston Red Sox, but wound up blocked by an all-star catcher, and wound up traded to one of the worst franchises in the sport. A player that I thought was obscure and little known turned out to be a potential star that never really got the chance he deserved.
Batts is one of the players fortunate enough to have a well written SABR biography. I’ll try not to duplicate too much of that biography in my notes here. Instead, I’ll focus on whatever insight we can gain from his stats and references in contemporary newspapers.
Sportsman
Interestingly enough, you can find references to Batts before his baseball career started in various Austin, Texas newspapers.
The earliest references to Batts I could find on newspapers.com refer to his football playing abilities. It’s not surprising that he was a good football player; Baseball Reference lists him at 5’11” and 200 pounds, which isn’t quite as big as Tiny Bonham, but still fairly large.
This refers to his star play for the San Antonio Technological Academy football team:
And here’s another one from another Austin newspaper:
He was already playing catcher by that time, as this article shows. He would have been 17.
This article seems to predict a college football future, which didn’t really pan out:
And, finally, there’s the issue of Batts setting the high school javelin record for the state of Texas, which he allegedly still holds (I’m not quite sure how to look that one up):
Batts was pretty clearly a good catching prospect, considering his clear natural talent for throwing things.
I haven’t been able to locate many articles about Batts’ play in college, other than this brief mention in an article about a late 1941 semi-pro tournament:
Minor League Career
One thing that I have a hard time figuring out is exactly when the Red Sox signed Batts. I can’t seem to find any newspaper records of the signing. That’s not unusual for baseball transactions, but it is a bit disappointing that the Texas newspapers didn’t seem to cover the event.
The earliest mention of Batts playing professionally refers to his start in the minor leagues with Canton, Ohio, in 1942:
I could probably go on and on, reporting brief minor league mentions and looking at what he did early on in his career. Batts wound up enlisting, served in the army, and was finally discharged in 1946, when he was farmed out again. He shows up in the sports pages again while playing with Lynn, Massachusetts:
Early Major League Success
Batts’ first major league at bat was with the Red Sox on September 10, 1947. He struck out in a hurry:
Batts caught quite a bit of attention the next day, though:
The smaller New England papers were equally jubilant:
Matts played well that September — well enough to earn the backup spot to Birdie Tebbetts in 1948. A quick glance at his game log will tell you why:
The Red Sox fans needed something to cheer for that fall. Boston sports sections were filled with snide jabs at the clubs’ lack of success like this:
Career
Batts was the quintessential journeyman catcher. He played well for Boston in 1948, came a bit back down to earth in 1949, and found himself with the St. Louis Browns by 1951. He toiled in relative obscurity in Detroit, Chicago, and Cincinnati after that, never really earning a regular starting job.
A quick look at his 1948 game logs will make you wonder why he didn’t get more game time, however:
Now, the 35-year-old Tebbetts was an all-star and finished 11th in the MVP voting in 1948. There is an argument, though, that Batts might have fared better had he been promoted to the regular starting role. That’s an idea to consider playing around with should you choose to replay the 1948 season.
I mean, seriously — Batts was hitting .350 at one point that summer, with a little bit of power and a good batting eye. That’s really good for the 8th spot in the order — and we’re not talking about a fluke due to a small sample size, either.
As fate would have it, though, Batts would forever be the backup in Boston, until he was dealt to the hapless St. Louis Browns in 1951.
The Trade
This was a big trade, by the way. Big enough to earn a spot on the first page of The Boston Globe, under Korean War news:
As you can see, the press essentially reported this as a straight up Batts-for-Moss trade. The Batts SABR biography reports that this was originally supposed to be an even more complicated 3 team deal that didn’t quite pan out.
The St. Louis papers I could find, by the way, were a little bit less dramatic about this deal:
Batts apparently also had a few words of criticism for his ex-teammates:
In the end, Les Moss never quite lived up to his potential, hitting extremely poorly in half a season with the Red Sox in 1951 — and returning to the Browns in 1952.
As for Batts — he continued to play the backup role, and started moving from team to team.
I think we could write a full article on this trade alone. The Red Sox, who had famously scored 1000 runs in 1950 while finishing a distant 3rd, were clearly looking to improve. Tebbetts, now 37, was sold to Cleveland in December 1950, and Batts wasn’t hitting at all in early 1951:
Still, I’ve got to wonder what might have been had he stayed in Boston. Batts wasn’t exactly playing full time, either, starting in only 8 of Boston’s first 24 games that season. Boston was attempting to use the 36-year-old Buddy Rosar in that position — Rosar was in his final major league season — and occasionally used the Cuban Mike Guerra as well, who we’ve seen a lot of already in our replay.
I wonder if Batts had injury troubles in early 1951. The best way to research this would be to comb through those Boston newspapers day by day, which is a project for another time.
Conclusion
I could go on and on with this research. It goes to show you how interesting even the most obscure players can be.
Batts was a high school athletic phenom from Texas who wound up spending his best years in New England. He had an absolutely amazing arm, and, in my opinion, would have likely seen more major league success if he wasn’t playing behind a veteran all star.
Nothing will make your replay come alive quite like researching the players that play a big part in it. I know that I’ll think differently now when I see the young Texan’s name on the bench, or when I go for him when it’s time for a pinch hitter.