Spencer Adams

A Utah kid who played with the best of all time.

Spencer Adams

I ran across this post on Twitter a few days ago:

It took me a little while to figure out who this player was. After a little bit of searching, I realized that this is Spencer Adams.

Now Adams wasn’t really much of a major league player, as you can see here:

However, it is quite interesting to note that Adams did play on two pennant winning teams (the 1925 Senators and 1926 Yankees), appeared in two World Series, and, as stated above, was apparently roommates with Lou Gehrig.

There’s not much information about him on the Baseball Reference Bullpen:

Now, after I started to write this article, I realized that there is already a fairly good biogrpahy of Adams out there — see here. Having said that, I think we can do more.

Frankly, this looks like a case ripe for my kind of research — especially since I’m also from Utah. Let’s see what we can find.

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The Early Days

It’s interesting to note that Adams shows up first in articles about Football in the old Utah newspapers. See this from 1916, for example:

From The Weekly Reflex (Davis County, Utah), September 28, 1916, page 1

Now, Utah has long been known as a football state. Still, it surprises me to see that there is so little information in print about Adams’ early baseball career.

I mean, I was able to find extensive information about his graduating high school class, for crying out loud:

From Davis County Clipper (Utah), May 3, 1918, page 1

I was able to find an article about a near death experience he had while driving in Salt Lake City later that year:

From Salt Lake Herald, September 29, 1918, page 12

The gossipy nature of these early newspapers never ceases to surprise me. I can see that Adams was sick for a brief time in fall 1918, for example:

From The Weekly Reflex (Davis County, Utah), November 7, 1918, page 8

I was also able to find information about his marriage:

From The Weekly Reflex (Davis County, Utah), September 30, 1920, page 1

Adams would have been 22 at the time he was married, which doesn’t strike me as unusual for the early 1920s.

There was also this about the birth of his first child:

From The Weekly Reflex (Davis County, Utah), June 30, 1921, page 4

Now, it is clear that Adams was engaged in sports other than baseball. I’ve got no idea what sport this small clipping from the Salt Lake Telegram is referring to:

From Salt Lake Telegram, March 4, 1919, page 4

It turns out that Adams did some amateur boxing:

From The Weekly Reflex (Davis County, Utah), March 25, 1920, page 4

He was also an active wrestler:

From Salt Lake Telegram, March 30, 1920, page 4

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Baseball In Utah

The earliest reference I could find to his baseball playing in Utah comes from this brief article in 1919:

From The Weekly Reflex (Davis County, Utah), May 29, 1919, page 5

I’m assuming that Golden Adams was Spencer’s brother, especially since it seems that they went to play minor league baseball together with Tremonton in northern Utah:

From Davis County Clipper (Utah), May 6, 1921, page 1

Where is Tremonton? It’s a rural community about 50 miles north of Layton:

Tremonton’s population in 1921 was probably less than 1,000, according to Wikipedia:

Tremonton fielded a team in the 1921 Northern Utah League, a Class D league that I think folded at the end of the season. We might want to look closer into that in the future.

What is clear, though, is that the Northern Utah League finished its 1921 season — and Adams was the leading hitter:

From The Salt Lake Tribune, September 3, 1921, page 14

From The Salt Lake Tribune, September 3, 1921, page 14

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Seattle

Adams went to Seattle in the Pacific Coast League for the 1922 season:

From The Bellingham Herald (Washington), February 4, 1922, page 2

This is one of those reasons why we need a “fog of war” for games like OOTP. That Salt Lake Tribune article isn’t clear, but it does seem that Adams hit only .432 in Class D. Seattle apparently thought he hit .480. Please also note that the Northern Utah League does not show up in the 1922 Reach Guide, which must have complicated things.

Now, Adams was anything but a star player for Seattle. That much was clear from the beginning of the season:

From Seattle Union Record, April 29, 1922, page 5

Rumors floated around that summer that Adams was going to be let go:

From Seattle Union Record, June 20, 1922, page 5

I’m not entirely sure why, but Adams started to develop a following in those early years. Take, for example, this letter to the sporting editor of The Seattle Star:

From The Seattle Star, July 26, 1922, page 11

And, for whatever reason, Adams started to attract some major league attention:

From Seattle Union Record, August 16, 1922, page 5

A quick glance at the 1922 Yankees page on Baseball Reference will tell you why. The Yankees did have Everett Scott as the day-to-day shortstop, but didn’t really have much of a replacement for him.

As it turns out, though, Adams stayed with Seattle until the end of 1922.

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Spencer Adams Day

The Seattle Indians played a game against the Salt Lake Bees in Ogden, Utah, of all places, on September 21, 1922. This was declared Spencer Adams Day:

From The Ogden Standard Examiner, September 3, 1922, page 10

From The Ogden Standard Examiner, September 21, 1922, page 12

From Seattle Union Record, September 21, 1922, page 5

The celebration seems a bit over the top in hindsight, especially since it was for a kid in his early 20s who was hitting something like .260. Part of me wonders if this wasn’t an experiment to see if it would potentially be worth getting a Northern Utah League going again.

From Ogden Standard Examiner, September 22, 1922, page 13

And here is a picture of him receiving a watch from the Mayor:

From The Ogden Standard Examiner, September 24, 1922, page 19

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The Big Leagues

Adams wound up sold to Pittsburgh that winter:

From Seattle Union Record, December 6, 1922, page 5

From The Salt Lake Tribune, December 9, 1922, page 14

I’m not sure I entirely understand why the Pirates made this move. The Pirates still had Rabbit Maranville playing shortstop. Maranville was only 30 at the time, and wound up handling the position for a number of years before eventually moving on. As was the case with the Yankees, my guess is that the Pirates were hoping for a solid young backup.

As I go through these articles, Adams strikes me as one of those “good field, no hit” infielders:

From Pittsburgh Daily Post, March 15, 1923, page 11

Then again, Adams did have his share of blunders when he finally got a chance to start. Take this game on May 11th, for example:

From Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 12, 1923, page 11

While Adams did well hitting in the 5th spot, going 2 for 5, the article only mentioned a few blunders he made in the field.

I haven’t found any evidence of injuries or other problems to account for Adams’ relative lack of playing time in 1923. It seems that he was simply not good enough yet for the major league level:

It’s kind of hard to judge just how good or how bad Adams really was. Aside from a 5 game span in mid-July, Adams simply didn’t play regularly at any point in the season. I haven’t been able to locate any evidence of poor play in the newspapers from that time, and am honestly perplexed.

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Oakland

Adams found himself traded to the Oakland Oaks at the end of the 1923 season:

From Oakland Tribune, December 13, 1923, page 27

Now, remember that this was in the days of the independent minor leagues, back when this sort of thing wasn’t all that unusual. Adams wasn’t “sent down” to the minors. Instead, he was traded, along with two other players, for veteran Ray Kremer. Kremer, who was 28 years old when this trade was announced, was an instrumental pitcher for the Pirates throughout the late 20s and 30s — and, by the way, received an original National Pastime card.

Though Adams played the entire 1924 season in the Pacific Coast League, I haven’t found any evidence of any additional special days or celebrations for him when he would show up in Utah. The Bees were still in the Pacific Coast League in 1924, by the way, and boasted a team that included Tony Lazzeri.

Adams hit fairly well in Oakland, managing a .273 batting average in 200 games and 806 at bats. According to The 1925 Spalding Guide, Adams spent the season at second base, compiling a .952 fielding percentage.

Apparently that was good enough to attract the interest of the Washington Senators, who had just lost the 5th game of the World Series when Adams’ purchase was announced:

From Oakland Tribune, October 9, 1924, page 29

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Second Chance

That started Adams’ second chance.

It wasn’t much of a chance, honestly. The Senators barely played him, using him primarily as a pinch runner and only allowing him to start regularly at second base after the pennant had been clinched:

Now, you might think that Adams’ poor performance is the reason why he rode the bench. I’d argue, however, that a player isn’t going to feel comfortable at the major league level if he’s playing a few nnings here and there four or five times a month. Adams started to come alive in September once he started playing regularly. It’s clear to me that he had the talent and the potential to feature at this level — he just didn’t have the chance.

However, the Senators had 28-year-old Bucky Harris at second base and 34-year-old Roger Peckinpaugh at shortstop. And so, like our good friend Matt Batts, Adams wound up eating pine on the bench, watching the more established stars get all the playing time.

In January 1926, Adams found himself with the Yankees:

From Daily News (New York), January 21, 1926, page 30

Adams, now 28, never really found a starting job with the Yankees, nor did he have much of a chance at one. Second base was clearly his natural position, but he found himself on the bench behind the younger Tony Lazzeri — who, as I mentioned before, played in Salt Lake City when Adams was in Oakland. Shortstop was in the steady hands of 21-year-old Mark Koenig, giving Adams a bench role at best:

Aside from 4 scattered starts at second base, almost all of Adams’ appearances were as a pinch hitter or a pinch runner.

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The End

By the time Adams wound up with the St. Louis Browns in 1927, his best days were clearly behind him. He was pushing 29 years old, had never landed a stable starting major league role, and hadn’t played regularly since his 1924 stint in Oakland.

The Browns sold him to Milwaukee after he put up a less-than-stellar performance in 1927, playing in only about half of his team’s games. After a few years in the minor leagues, Adams was out of organized baseball for good.

It’s kind of hard to judge his career based on how little time he saw in the major leagues. His fielding percentages were never great. He was quick, and was apparently respected enough as a hitter to be used in a pinch hitting role throughout his career. However, he was never good enough as a hitter to win down a starting infield role.

I’ve searched high and low for newspaper stories about Adams and Gehrig rooming together, but have found nothing. I was able to find this interesting anecdote about Adams and Moe Berg, however:

From Miami Daily News And Metropolis (Flordia), July 18, 1927, page 10

Adams wasn’t entirely forgotten in Utah. You can find numerous mentions of his family in the Ogden newspapers throughout the years. There were also occasionally feature pieces like this one:

From The Ogden Standard Examiner, July 23, 1950, page 6

I’m not quite sure about the “13 years” part, since Baseball Reference’s final minor league listing for Adams is with the Mobile/Knoxville team in the Southern Association in 1931. It’s possible that he played for additional teams afterwards, but I’m not sure where to find that information if it exists. We also know that he played for Seattle in 1922, not 1921.

Even mentions of Spencer Adams day were few and far between after 1922. I did stumble across this brief mention in an otherwise unrelated article:

From The Ogden Standard Examiner, June 25, 1963, page 10

I’m not sure we can say that Adams “starred” as anything. He was part of the game, though — and there have been many men who would have given anything just to have a single at bat.

In the end, though, the moral here is that you don’t want them to throw a day at the ballpark in your honor when you’re only 24 years old. That might be a sign that you peaked early.