CHAPTER 9

The Stock Market Crash, Dizzy Dean, and The Dixie Series of 1931

On Thursday, October 24, 1929, just one week after the Athletics’ championship celebration at the Penn A. C., at some point mid-morning, the stock market experienced a wave of selling. Banking executives and other experts assured everyone that the losses sustained in this sell-off were temporary and that the resulting drop in stock prices was too low and that they would rebound. Things remained calm on Friday but on Monday, October 28, the Dow declined by 13 percent. The following day, now referred to as Black Tuesday, the market dropped by another 12 percent. By mid-November the market had lost half of its value and was continuing to slide. Although the stock market crash, and the Great Depression that was to follow would have a major impact on the national pastime, it was not evident in those last few months of 1929, apart from the impact that it had on individual members of the league’s teams. Mickey Cochrane, for example, was quoted as saying that he would now be using his World Series check to “pay off the margin on his stocks.”¹ Years later Walter French, in an interview with sportswriter Jim Baily, recalled that “most of us on the A’s lost most of our investments when the stock market crashed.”²

On December 3, 1929, Connie Mack announced that Walter French, along with pitcher Lefty Yerkes, and infielder Jimmy Cronin were being sent to the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League in exchange for two pitchers Percy Mahaffey and George Snider. The Beavers became a farm team of the Philadelphia Athletics in 1924 after A’s owners John and Thomas Shibe purchased the team along with its ballpark, Vaughn Street Park. In 1929, the Beavers changed their name to the Portland Ducks for one season and they finished in last place. The Beavers were formed in 1903 and were one of the charter members of the Pacific Coast League. In the early 20th century the Pacific Coast League was considered by many to rival the big leagues and was often thought of as a third major league. According to the Baseball Hall of Fame over 60 Hall of Fame players got their start in the PCL.

When word reached Walter about his move to Portland, he was spending the winter in Birmingham, AL. The Prattville Progress reported that “Mr. and Mrs. Walter French have purchased the W.N. Smith home and lands in northeast Prattville and will make their home here. Mr. French is a member of the Philadelphia Athletics and ranks as one of the star players of the United States. His native home is New Jersey. Mr. and Mrs. French are quite a desirable asset to our town and will be met with a warm welcome by all our people.”³

Seemingly unfazed by the news from Philadelphia, Walter confirmed that he had used his World Series bonus money to purchase a farm near Prattville, AL. “When baseball gets through with me, I am going to settle down in Alabama and live the life of a farmer” he told the Birmingham News. “However,” he continued, “I hope this will be sometime yet to come as I love to play baseball and would like to finish up my career in the Southern League.”⁴

Playing in the Southern League would have to wait. Walter headed off to Portland to join the Beavers who were coming off a dismal 1929 season where they finished with a record of 90–112. The season ran from late March to October. Due to the more moderate climate in the region, the regular season schedule for the teams in the Pacific Coast League called for each team to play between 170 and 200 games in the season.

In early April, Sid King sportswriter for the Eugene Guard was giving his scouting report on the team and wrote “Walter French, noted especially for his speed is another acquisition from the Athletics as are Jimmy Cronin and Caroll Yerkes. With these men on hand manager Larry Woodall has some chance of turning out a winning combination and if he does, he will just about own Portland after this year.”⁵ Of the 33 players on the Beavers Roster in 1930, 21 had played in the major leagues.

One of Walter’s teammates in Portland was Carl Mays. Mays was a right-handed pitcher who had a 15-year major league career which included seasons with the Red Sox, Yankees, Cincinnati Reds, and the New York Giants. He won 20 or more games five times with his best season being 1921 when he won 27 games for the Yankees. Many experts say that Mays was one of the best pitchers not to be in the Hall of Fame.

Sadly, Mays is most known for one pitch he threw to Ray Chapman, shortstop of the Cleveland Indians on August 16, 1920. Mays was, what is still called today, a submarine ball pitcher, which means that rather than throw with an over-the-top arm slot, or with even a sidearm delivery, Mays released the ball below his waist, in an underarm fashion. He was also known to throw a spitball and to take advantage of any blemishes to the baseball to get even more movement on his pitches.

The scene was the Polo Grounds in New York, and Mays was pitching for the Yankees against Cleveland. Chapman was the leadoff batter for the Indians in the fifth inning and on the first pitch by Mays he was struck squarely in the head. Tris Speaker, who was in the on-deck circle and the home plate umpire Tommy Connolly immediately called for help realizing that his injury was serious. Mays later said that when the ball hit Chapman it made a noise so loud that he thought it had hit his bat and so when the ball bounced back in his direction, he picked up the ball and threw to first. Chapman was rushed to the St. Lawrence Hospital where at just before five o’clock the next morning he died. The newspapers reported that Carl Mays was overcome with grief when he was told of Chapman’s death.

Chapman’s death resulted in some important rule changes for baseball. From that point on, umpires were required to replace balls that had been blemished or scuffed up in any way. Previously one or two balls would be used for an entire game regardless of its condition, resulting in a softer, discolored ball, the path of which became harder for the batter to see as the game went on. Fans were even required to return balls hit into the stands until 1921. After the rule change, any blemish on the ball required the umpire to replace it, which meant that the batter had the advantage of hitting a harder and easier to see ball. After 1920 the spitball was also banned. The repercussions of the death of Ray Chapman marked the beginning of the end of the Dead Ball era in baseball.

The 1930 season for the Beavers was even worse than it had been in 1929. The team finished in last place with a record of 81–117. However, for Walter French, the season was a very successful one. After playing such a limited role for the A’s in 1929 he played in a team high 160 games for Portland and came to bat 644 times. He led the team in hits with 199 and finished the season with a batting average of .309.

Over the next few years, the impact of the Great Depression on baseball, as with the rest of society, would be severe. A few new innovations to the game would be born out of necessity due to the decline in attendance at games after the 1930 season. One of those innovations came in 1930 with the introduction of night baseball. The first game in organized baseball, played under permanent lights took place in Independence, Kansas on April 28, 1930, between the Muskogee Chiefs and the Independence Producers of the Western Association. A few days later in Des Moines, IA another game was played under permanent lights. In the Negro League night games were also played in the early days of the decade using portable lights that the teams brought along with them. Starting in 1930 teams like the Kansas City Monarchs began traveling with their own set of lights so that they could stage the more lucrative night games at home and on the road. Major League Baseball, however, did not introduce night baseball until 1935. One of the earliest adopters of night baseball was the Pacific Coast League who started playing games under the lights in certain cities in 1930. On June 10, 1930, the league’s first night game was played in Sacramento, California between the Sacramento Senators, and the Oakland Oaks. By the end of 1931 every park in the league would be equipped with lights for night games.

In early September the Portland Beavers played a night game against the Los Angeles Angels at Wrigley Park. The Angels were purchased by Chicago Cubs owner William Wrigley in 1921 and after trying to get the city of Los Angeles to improve the existing home of the Angels, Washington Park, he built a new ballpark modeled after the Wrigley Field in Chicago and named it Wrigley Park. The ironic thing about the fact that Wrigley Park was one of the earliest venues to play night games, is that Wrigley Field in Chicago was the last to do so, not introducing night baseball and lights until 1988 when the Cubs hosted the New York Mets in August of that year.

In the Sunday, September 7, 1930, edition of the Los Angeles Times, their rotogravure section was dedicated to covering the series between the Angels and the Portland Beavers. The three-game series played under the lights earlier in the week was labeled the “Night Blooming” Series. Featured on the entire top half of the front page of the rotogravure section was a picture of Walter French at bat for the Beavers awaiting a pitch. Also pictured is Angels Catcher Bill Skiff and Umpire Monroe Sweeney. “Night Baseball” read the headline “A Horsehide that Goes Out Nights.” The full caption read “Fielder French of Portland ready to take a swing at a night evader, while catcher Skiff of Los Angeles and Umpire Sweeney apply the owl eye to the on-coming baseball. Taken during the current Wrigley Park ‘Night Blooming’ series.”⁶

The photo was taken by legendary Los Angeles photojournalist E. J. Spencer. Spencer came to prominence in 1912, when a man named Carl Warr walked into the City Jail in Los Angeles. Strapped to his body was a contraption attached to numerous sticks of dynamite. He sat down in the outer office of the police chief and threatened to explode his device. The police tried to negotiate with Warr as others cleared the building of the staff and of those prisoners housed in the jail. Hearing word of this event, E. J. Spencer rushed to the scene and then calmly walked into the jail where he came face to face with the “mad bomber” who kept threatening to detonate his device. Spencer calmly set up his camera on a chair and took Warr’s picture. He then gathered up his equipment and left the building. A short time later the police subdued Warr and defused his bomb. The next day Spencer’s photo ran on the front page of the Los Angeles Examiner under the headline “Examiner Photographer Hazards Death to Snap the Dynamiter.”

Despite the impact the Great Depression was having on the United States’ economy, attendance at Major League baseball games remained high in 1930 topping 10 million for the first time ever. However, attendance plummeted in 1931and 1932, with gate levels dropping by nearly 70 percent over that two-year span. Attendance would not top 10 million again until 1945.

Sensing what was coming, teams began to pare down their rosters. Major League teams reduced their rosters from 25 players to 23 during this period. Trying to economize, minor league teams such as those in the Pacific Coast League looked for ways to reduce their payrolls.

The annual meeting of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues was held in Montreal Canada the first week of December in 1930. The reason for holding the meeting north of the border was to allow the attendees to enjoy an alcoholic beverage without being in violation of the Volstead Act which prohibited the production and sale of alcohol in the United States. There were two big story lines. First, was the ongoing debate between the major leagues and minor leagues over what was called the “Universal Draft,” the practice which allowed the big-league clubs to draft players from high school, college and minor league teams for as little financial outlay as possible. The second big story coming out of the meeting was the sudden death of William Frazer Baker, owner of the Philadelphia Phillies, who passed away from a heart attack while attending the meeting.

Lost in these stories was an announcement that Thomas Turner, President of the Portland Beavers had released both Walter French and Jimmy Cronin and so despite having turned in a great season in 1930 Walter was given his walking papers by the Portland club. Reflecting on it years later, Walter told the Arkansas Gazette that “I think maybe they let me go just because they did not want to pay my travel expenses to the West Coast the next Spring. The Depression was on and I was living in Alabama at the time, and they did not want to pay my travel expenses.”⁷

A few weeks later, the tragic news reached Walter that his oldest brother, 39-year-old Joseph French, had taken his own life on New Year’s Eve. Joseph had graduated from Rutgers and was considered one of the most knowledgeable arborists in the South Jersey area. At the time of his death he was working at the Willowdale Farm and living on site with his wife Helen, in what is now Cherry Hill, NJ. He had a history of depression and had been hospitalized for what was called at the time “a nervous breakdown.” After leaving a note to his wife saying that he found no “use in living” and that he considered himself a “failure” he took a shotgun to on the outbuildings on the property and shot himself.

After returning from his brother’s funeral Walter began to contemplate his options for the upcoming season. He was about to contact the Southern League team in Birmingham when he saw an item in the Sporting News saying that the Little Rock, Arkansas team was looking for players. The Sporting News was first published in 1886, and although it eventually branched out to cover several sports, its primary focus was on baseball, to the point where it was known as the “Bible of Baseball” and so it was a good resource for out of work ballplayers looking to catch on with a team. Walter contacted the Little Rock Travelers and on March 27, 1931, the Associated Press reported that “Manager Harry Strohm of the Little Rock Travelers says he expects to give Southern pitchers plenty to worry about this year. Starting the tentative batting order is Walter French, center fielder, a newcomer who hit .310 with the Portland, Ore., Pacific Coast club last year.”⁸ Walter was paid $800 per month to play in Little Rock.

The 1931 Travelers were the last club to play at old Kavanaugh Field which had been built in 1907 and previously known as West End Field. The field had been best known for being the spring training site for the Boston Americans led by their star pitcher Cy Young in 1907 and 1908.

Walter started in centerfield for the Travelers and usually batted in one of the first three spots in the order. He quickly became a fan favorite due to his style of play. He ran the bases hard and his play the field was outstanding. He soon established himself as the best player on the Travelers. Consistently having multiple hit games, stealing bases, and making one great catch after another.

One team that he played particularly well against was the Birmingham Barons, with whom they were battling for first place throughout the season. On May 16, he had three hits in a 6–5 win over the Barons. He also had an outstanding day in the field as reported by the Birmingham News. “Walter French, one of the smartest outfielders seen here this year, went hither and yonder to take hits away from the Milans. He raced over in deep right center for Eisemann’s wallop in the second, hoofed it over in left center for Eisemann’s second drive in the fourth, and outraced Moore’s drive in deep right center in the ninth”⁹ the newspaper reported. On June 17 he had three hits in a game won by the Barons by a score of 5–4 but once again Walter showcased his defensive abilities. “Walter French raced from center over into right center to take a triple away from Andy Moore in the eighth. Moore cracked one right on the nose and it headed as straight as a bullet travels for the wire fence. French came sprinting across the outfield like a streaking comet catching the ball with his extended gloved hand, not more than three feet off the ground.”¹⁰ Birmingham manager Clyde Milan told the Birmingham News that “French’s catch of Moore’s low liner was as fine a catch as I ever saw.”¹¹ On August 25, the Travelers beat the Barons by a score of 9–4 and according to form, Walter once again had three hits and made a great play in the outfield. “There might have been a great deal more trouble in the eighth however, had not Walter French turned in one of the best catches of the season to rob Woody Abernathy of an extra base hit,” the Birmingham News reported. “Two men were on base at the time and both of them would have scored, had that ball escaped Walter.”¹²

On August 31, the Travelers played a doubleheader against the first place Birmingham team, winning the first game 11–3 and the second game 7–2. Walter led the way for his team collecting six hits in the two games.

When the 1931 season came to a close Walter French ended up leading the Southern League with 674 at bats and 235 hits for a batting average of .345 which was in the top 10 for the league. He also had 51 stolen bases which led the league. His 235 hits for a single season remained the team record for 50 years. He was named the Travelers’ Most Valuable Player for 1931.

The sweep of Birmingham in the final series of the season turned out to be too little too late for the Travelers as they finished the season in second place behind the Barons, who were headed for the Dixie Series against the Houston Buffaloes, winners of the Texas League. The Dixie Series, sometimes referred to as the “Little World Series,” was the annual matchup of the winner of the Southern League with the champions of the Texas League.

While the rest of the Travelers were cleaning out their lockers and heading home for the offseason, a trip home to Prattville would have to wait for Walter French. The rules at the time for the Dixie Series allowed the two teams participating, if they so desired, to select an “extra” player from some other team in their respective leagues. For Birmingham the choice of an “extra” was made easier when Andy “Scrappy” Moore announced that he would be leaving the team to start his new job as head football coach at the University of Chattanooga, now called the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. With Moore’s departure the Barons needed a centerfielder and what better choice could they make than Walter French who had played so well against them in the regular season. On September 8, the Birmingham News reported that “Walter French will take Andy Moore’s place in the Barons’ lineup in the Dixie Series. The Houston and Birmingham clubs reached an agreement on Monday whereby both could add an extra man to their roster for the series. Houston will select a pitcher to replace Tex Carelton who suffered a broken index finger on his pitching hand. Walter French, who is the leading base thief on the Southern League should fit right into the Barons’ lineup … French is considered the greatest all-around centerfielder in the league and his speed should come in handy.”¹³

The smart money was on the Texas League champion Houston Buffaloes. They had won 108 games in 1931 against only 51 losses. Houston was a farm team affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals and two of that organization’s top prospects were the team leaders. Pitcher Dizzy Dean, at the time a 21-year-old rising star in the Cardinals’ organization, had won 26 games for the Buffs in 1931. The future Hall of Famer would go on to be one of the best pitchers in the game, winning 30 games in 1934, and a key member of the famous Cardinal team nicknamed the “Gashouse Gang.” Always a colorful character, one of Dean’s favorite expressions was “it’s not bragging if you can back it up.”

Also on the Cardinals in 1934 was Dizzy Dean’s brother Paul, also a pitcher. Before the season started Dizzy predicted that he and his brother would win 40 games during the season. That was the year that Dizzy won 30 games and his brother Paul won 19, which more than backed up his prediction.

Dizzy was not the only future Hall of Famer on the Houston club. Outfielder Joe “Ducky” Medwick led the Buffs with a .305 batting average and 19 home runs on the season. Medwick too would be a member of the “Gashouse Gang” and part of the Cardinals’ team that won the World Series in 1934.

The first game of the Dixie Series was played on September 16. Squaring off were the young star pitcher for Houston, Dizzy Dean and 43-year-old Birmingham pitcher Ray Caldwell, who was coming off a 19-win season. Caldwell had started his career in 1908 with the New York Highlanders, who eventually became the Yankees. His won-loss record over his first four years, 32–38, was deceiving because he received some of the worst run support any pitcher had ever seen. At one point he pitched 52 consecutive scoreless innings and over that span his team did not score a single run. By 1914, Caldwell had hit his stride and finished that season with a record of 18–9 with a 1.94 earned run average. Sportswriters were singing his praises. Grantland Rice compared him to Christy Mathewson and there was even a rumor that the Washington Senators had contemplated offering to trade Walter Johnson for Caldwell. Caldwell was every bit as colorful as his young opponent, but his career was hampered by alcoholism. Pitching for the Cleveland Indians in 1919, in a game against the Athletics, he was one out away from a complete game victory when a storm rolled in off Lake Erie. Just as he was about to pitch to what he hoped would be the final batter, he was struck by lightning. When his teammates got to him, they recalled later that his uniform was smoldering. Tris Speaker, the Indians’ player-manager, called for medical help, but Caldwell refused to leave the field until he got the final out.

Game 1 proved to be a great pitching duel with both pitchers holding their opponents scoreless into the eighth inning. Finally, Bill Bancroft hit a double off Dizzy Dean in the bottom of the eighth inning to score the game’s only run and giving the Barons a 1–0 lead in the series.

Houston bounced back in Game 2 behind the pitching of 25-year-old Dick McCabe, who was the player borrowed from their Texas League rival in Fort Worth, before the start of the series. McCabe pitched a brilliant game and shutout the Barons 3–0 to even the series at 1–1.

To this point in the Dixie Series, Walter French, despite all the hype around his selection as the Barons’ “extra player,” had yet to play but before Game 3 the Birmingham News announced that the Barons’ Manager Clyde Milan planned to insert Walter French into the lineup hoping to get the team’s offense untracked. “Walter French, the borrowed outfielder from Little Rock will start in centerfield for the Barons and bat in second place” the newspaper reported. “It will be up to Walter French to start the Barons off hitting, something they haven’t done with any regularity to date in the series.”¹⁴

Game 3 however, was more of the same for the Barons as they were once again shutout, this time by a score of 1–0 behind the pitching of 42-year-old George Payne, who had finished the regular season with a record of 23–23 and a 2.75 earned run average. In its wrap-up of the game the Birmingham News reported that “Walter French, Art Weis, and Judge Abernathy made sensational catches, but they didn’t give Hasty any help with their bats.” The catch made by Walter came on a ball hit to deep centerfield by Joe Medwick. “French went up in front of the temporary bleachers in right center and took Medwick’s powerful line drive out of the darkness.”¹⁵

Now down two games to one the Barons were faced with the prospect of having to beat Dizzy Dean to prevent themselves from going down three games to one. Once again Walter French was in the lineup playing centerfield and batting second. He did manage one hit against Dean but it was nowhere near enough as Dizzy shutout Birmingham by a score of 2–0.

It is hard to overstate how bad the offense was for the Barons to this point in the series. They had been shutout in three of the first four games, and in the one game that they were not shutout they had only scored one run. So dismal was their offense during that four-game stretch that they had only 36 balls hit out of the infield.

On the following day, Clay Touchstone, a right-handed pitcher who finished the regular season with a record of 15–11 with a 4.76 earned run average, saved the day for the Barons. He held Houston to one run and sent his team back to Alabama with a chance to tie the series with a 3–1 victory.

In Birmingham for Game 6, the Barons’ bats finally came alive as they roughed up four Houston pitchers for 23 hits and 14 runs, as they defeated Houston by a score of 14–10. Walter French had his best offensive game of the series finishing with three hits in six trips to the plate. He also scored three runs. In one inning, in his typical fashion he singled, stole second and came around to score on a double by Butch Weis.

Back in Houston on September 25 the stage was set for a climactic Game 7. Once again Dizzy Dean was on the mound for the Buffs and Clyde Milan tabbed right-hander Bob Hasty to pitch the game for the Barons. Walter French was playing centerfield and batting second.

Dean got off to a hot start striking out five batters in the first two innings but on this occasion, he could not keep the Barons off the scoreboard. As the Barons came to bat in the top of the ninth inning, they clung to a slim 3–2 lead. To that point in the game, Walter French had one hit in four trips to the plate. When he came to bat in the ninth inning there were two men, Bill Eisemann and Bob Hasty, on base. To that point of the game the Birmingham News reported that Walter and Dizzy Dean had been “carrying on a hot kidding match”¹⁶ as both players were verbally needling each other from the bench. Walter planted a swinging bunt down the third base line and Eddie Hock in his haste to get the speedy French made a wild throw to first which got past the first baseman and rolled into right field. Eisemann and Hasty both scored. Walter was not credited with a hit for his effort but the Birmingham News maintained that he “should have had a hit, as he had Hock’s throw beat by a step.”¹⁷ After the Barons got one more insurance run off Dizzy Dean, Clyde Milan sent Bob Hasty out to finish the game. After getting the first batter to foul out, Eddie Hock laid down a perfect bunt for a single and advanced to second when Hasty threw low to first base attempting to get him out. The next batter, Earl Smith, singled to centerfield which brought Hock home. After he had given up a hit to the next batter, Clyde Milan had seen enough and replaced Hasty with his game one pitcher Ray Caldwell. The first batter Caldwell had to face was Joe Medwick and the veteran pitcher struck out the future Hall of Famer. He then induced Peel to hit a routine ground ball to second to end the game and gave his team the Dixie Series title. The series in 1931 marked the twelfth playing of the Dixie Series and the Barons’ victory was only the third time the team from the Southern League had won.

By the spring of 1932, the Great Depression was dramatically impacting all segments of American society. Attendance at Major League baseball games had dropped from 10.1 million in 1930 to 8.4 million for the 1931 season. Ballplayers at every level of organized baseball were being forced to take significant pay cuts. Although their second-place finish in 1931 drove their attendance to 113,738, up from the 78,688 fans that saw the sixth place 1929 team play, the Travelers’ players were forced to accept a pay cut. Years later, Walter recalled that “when I first went to the Southern League, the established players were making $700–$800 per month. Because of the Depression we all took a cut down to about $300–$400 the next year. That was it; take it or leave it.”¹⁸

Night baseball also debuted in the Southern Association in 1932. Nicknamed “Moonshine Baseball” the Associated Press stated that night baseball was “at the cross-roads in the Southern Association as the stepchild of hard times and is in good standing in only two cities—Atlanta and Little Rock. Night baseball started down in Arkansas when the Little Rock Travelers needed some customers and figured a few nightstands might attract some weary bridge players, the capital crowd, and others. It was successful and the Travelers are going to stick with it.”¹⁹

Walter French had an equally impressive season in 1932 for the Little Rock club. He played in all of the team’s 152 games, came to bat a team leading 628 times, collected 211 hits, also tops on the team, and included 25 doubles, eight triples, and three home runs for a team leading batting average among players with at least 100 at bats of .336. The Travelers finished in third place with a record of 77–75 and attendance had dropped lower than it had been in 1929 with only 72,856 fans attending games in the newly constructed Travelers Field.

Walter was back for the 1933 season with the Little Rock Travelers which began on Sunday April 11 at Memphis where they were visiting the Memphis Chicks.

It should be noted that hitting a home run was a very rare occurrence for Walter French. In his major league career, he only had two homers and he hit 17 in the minors. Most of those were inside the park home runs.

On opening day Memphis scored the game’s first run in the second inning and pushed across another in their half of the third. The Chicks maintained their 2–0 lead into the top half of the sixth inning. With Travelers’ outfielder George Gerken on base, Walter French came to the plate. On one of the first pitches he saw, he swung hard and made perfect contact with the ball, driving it over the fence in deep right field, to tie the score. The game went into extra innings and the Travelers scored a run in the top of the tenth inning and held the Chicks scoreless in their half of the inning to win the opening day game.

Almost immediately following his performance in the season’s first game, Walter found himself mired in a batting slump. Looking back on that period years later he recalled that “I was not going good for Little Rock, but it was just a slump like players go through.”²⁰

The general manager of the Travelers beginning in 1931 was Ray Winder. Winder had served in administrative positions with several minor league teams before coming to Little Rock beginning in 1921 with the Chickasha Chicks in Oklahoma. What Walter saw as “just a slump” Winder must have seen as something else, because a few weeks after his heroics on opening day, Walter was notified that he had been traded to the Knoxville Smokies.

The announced trade of the team’s most popular player did not sit well with the Little Rock fans. Their displeasure only got worse as Walter promptly came out of his slump in his first days in Knoxville.

The Knoxville Journal, on the other hand, expressed the joy that the fans in Knoxville felt with this new addition to their ballclub. “The announcement that Walter French, fresh from Little Rock ranks, has been added to the Knoxville roster comes as a rare treat. French, a daring baserunner and ball hawk extraordinary, packs plenty of the thing called color,”²¹ the paper reported. The Associated Press reminded the fans that “French led the Southern Association in 1931 and 1932 in the largest number of hits and in 1931 for stolen bases.”²²

The owner of the Smokies was a man named Col. Bob Allen. His title was not earned in the military but was a social title given at the time to prominent citizens and those considered to be “Southern Gentlemen.” Allen had played professional baseball for several teams as a young man and did some managing as well before becoming a success in the lumber industry. Allen had been the owner of the Little Rock Travelers but sold the team in January of 1931, just before Walter’s arrival there, and purchased the Nashville Volunteers for $50,000. The Volunteers soon found themselves in last place in the league. Attendance was dismal and Allen soon became “cash strapped” and so in June, he sold the club to Faye Murray, another Nashville businessman. However, in December of 1931, he and his son Edgar, who had joined his father’s business, purchased the Mobile, Alabama franchise and moved it to Knoxville before the start of the 1932 season.

From the minute Walter stepped on the field in a Knoxville uniform his batting slump ended. Sportswriter Bob Murphy, writing in the Knoxville Journal, said “a good slogan for everyone to adopt would be as French goes, so goes the Smokies.”²³ He continued “of all the colorful athletes ever to wear a Smoky uniform the most colorful of all is now cavorting at Smithson Stadium. Walter French is the name.” The cause of all the praise from Murphy was the fact that in his first 16 trips to the plate for Knoxville, Walter had 13 hits and there were two disputed plays where he was called out at first where hometown fans were convinced that he had been safe. “That same French,” Murphy wrote, “has stolen more bases since he joined the club than the rest of the team has totaled all season. He has fielded like a demon, thrown out two men at the plate on successive days, scored almost every time he got on base, and in short served as a real inspiration to a Knoxville team that has been kicked about something terrible all season.”²⁴

Meanwhile, the Great Depression was keeping down attendance at all levels of professional baseball. In 1933, in an effort to boost attendance, a Major League All-Star game was conceived. Given the opportunity to vote for their favorite players, the game drove up fan interest in the sport when it was hard for the average person to afford to attend a game. The Chicago Tribune held a contest to award a $500 prize to the fan who could come the closest to picking the starting teams. The game was played at Comiskey Park in Chicago and all the proceeds from the game went to a charity supporting retired ballplayers facing financial ruin due to the effects of the Great Depression. The crowd at the game, estimated to be 49,000 saw the American League win the game by a score of 4–2, with a two-run home run in the third inning by Babe Ruth being the game’s highlight. Of the 42 players, managers, and coaches participating in that first All-Star game, 25 would eventually wind up in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Among Walter French’s former opponents on the field were Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Tony Lazzeri. Of his former teammates with the Athletics Jimmy Dykes, Al Simmons, Lefty Grove, Jimmie Foxx, Eddie Collins, and manager Connie Mack all took part in the game.

Back in Knoxville, Walter French continued his excellent play throughout the year. In early August, with the team in first place, Smokies’ owner Col. Allen, was praised for the moves he made earlier in the season adding offensive stars like Walter French and Bill Allington and pitcher Climax Blethen. Associated Press writer W. J. Davis called Allen’s efforts “one of the most remarkable pieces of work done this year in minor league baseball.” The Knoxville team was what their hometown paper the Knoxville Journal described as the “sensation of the second half of the season.”

On Sunday, August 6, the Smokies honored Walter French between the games of a doubleheader with the Birmingham Barons. “Honor to whom honor is due” the Knoxville News-Sentinel reported, “That’s the reason that they are going to hand a bouquet of orchids to Walter French, the Smokies’ right-fielder, and the Southern League’s most versatile player, when the Taylorites meet the Birmingham Barons in a double-header at Caswell Park starting at 2:00 p.m. today. Frenchy, who is practically tied for the league batting honors, is the leading base-stealer and who also hovers close to the top in several other departments. He has been a spark plug since he became a Smoky. He will be presented with a wristwatch between the doubleheader today for having led all members of the club in hitting in their last home stand.”²⁵

As the season wore down, however, the Smokies’ hot streak came to an end and they finished in third place. Walter finished the year with a .351 batting average and his hit total was tops in the league for the third consecutive season. In December when the post season awards were announced for the Southern Association, Walter French was named the league’s Most Valuable Player. The MVP was decided by a vote of the sportswriters who covered the Southern League, and was sponsored by the Sporting News, which was still the official baseball publication of the time. He received 41 votes from the writers, a full 10 votes clear of Lance Richbourg, of Nashville who received 31 votes. James Isaminger, veteran Philadelphia sportswriter reported the news to the local fans in the Delaware Valley. “Walter French, (Fritz to many Moorestonians) one of Connie Mack’s forgotten outfielders is still good enough to be named the most valuable player of his league,”²⁶ he wrote.

Although the Smokies were not in contention in either half of the next season, Walter was once again a contender for the league’s Most Valuable Player. He led his team in hits with 180, which was fifth best in the entire league, and finished with a batting average of .311. Marvin Thomson, sports editor of the Knoxville Journal laid out a compelling case for Walter. “You can’t name a player in the league who has meant as much to his team, who has fielded as sensationally, who has delivered in as many pinches, who has been the sparkplug and inspiration to his team’s drive …” he wrote. “Who has stolen as many bases as Wally French?” he continued, “Who has got as many hits? Who has featured with as many thrilling catches? Who has been a bigger inspiration to his team than Walter French?”²⁷

While all teams in organized baseball were looking for ways to economize during the Depression years, Colonel Allen took it to the extreme. “Allen believed in running his baseball operation like a bank. While some owners relied on giveaways and promotions to attract fans, Allen felt that the product on the field should be the main attraction.”²⁸ Walter’s assessment of Allen was that he was “the tightest man that ever ran a ball club.” After two seasons, in which he was the league’s MVP and a top contender for the honor in another season, Allen told Walter that he was going to cut his salary for the 1935 season.

After refusing Colonel Allen’s offer, Walter returned to the town where he began his professional baseball career when he caught on with the Williamsport Grays in the Eastern League.