Frank Baker Stats & Facts
Home Run Baker
Position: Third Baseman
Bats: Left • Throws: Right
5-11, 173lb (180cm, 78kg)
Born: March 13, 1886 in Trappe, MD us
Died: June 28, 1963 in Trappe, MD
Buried: Spring Hill Cemetery of Talbot County, Easton, MD
High School: Trappe HS (Trappe, MD)
Debut: September 21, 1908 ( 3,114th in major league history)
vs. CHW 4 AB, 1 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB
Last Game: September 29, 1922
vs. BOS 1 AB, 0 H, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB
Hall of Fame: Inducted as Player in 1955. (Voted by Veteran’s Committee)
View Home Run Baker’s Page at the Baseball Hall of Fame (plaque, photos, videos).
Full Name: John Franklin Baker
Nicknames: Home Run
View Player Info from the B-R Bullpen
View Player Bio from the SABR BioProject
Nine Other Players Who Debuted in 1908
Donie Bush
Larry Gardner
Frank Baker
Amos Strunk
Buck Herzog
Rube Marquard
Slim Sallee
Hippo Vaughn
Joe Jackson
The Frank Baker Teammate Team
C: Wally Schang
1B: Stuffy McInnis
2B: Eddie Collins
3B: Joe Dugan
SS: Jack Barry
LF: Duffy Lewis
CF: Rube Oldring
RF: Babe Ruth
SP: Waite Hoyt
SP: Chief Bender
SP: Jack Coombs
SP: Eddie Plank
RP: Rube Waddell
M: Connie Mack
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Notable Events and Chronology
Babe Ruth wasn’t the first home run king to make a splash in the “Big Apple,” that honor belongs to Frank “Home Run” Baker. A legendary figure in Philadelphia, Baker—coming off an incredible stretch (1911-14) that saw him capture four consecutive AL home run crowns—had sat out the 1915 season due to a salary dispute. The slugging third baseman, who like Ruth was known to swing a bat that weighed upwards of 50 ounces, hit .335 while averaging 35 doubles, 14 triples, 11 HRs, 113 RBI, and 33 SBs per season during the four-year span of long ball supremacy. Needless to say, New York was abuzz with anticipation in the spring of 1916. Yankee fans who had yet to see a winning season since dropping the Highlanders moniker in 1912, held high hopes that the undisputed “Maharaja of Mash” could lift their club out of the doldrums.
Things got off to an auspicious start, as the newly acquired slugger stole the show in his first spring training game. The New-York Tribune wrote: “Frank Baker saluted the center field fence with a colossal clout this afternoon . . . the debut of the Home Run King in Yankee livery must be classified as a success.” Upon arriving in New York that April, Baker was bombarded by the press, anxious for a catchy quote or anecdote from their slugging savior. Among the more interesting of the Baker-related pieces to appear in print that spring was one in which the 30-year-old veteran chose Walter Johnson, Ed Walsh, and Dutch Leonard as the “hardest pitchers I ever faced.” Baker was quoted as saying, “Johnson is the present-day wonder, [but] Walsh was the king in his prime.”
As fate would have it, the Yankees faced Walter Johnson and the Senators in the April 12 season opener. “The Big Train” was his usual self, striking out 10 over 11 innings of five-hit ball as Washington came away with a 3-2 victory. It wasn’t all bad news, however: Mr. Baker collected two hits, stole a base, and made a pair of nifty plays in the field. In the end, New York finished the season with their first winning record (79-75) in six years. Despite appearing in only 100 games, Baker did his part, hitting .269 with 10 HRs and 15 SBs. In fact, had he played a full season, Baker would’ve easily won his fifth home run crown and set a new career-high in the process (he topped out at 12 HRs in 1913). As it stood, teammate Wally Pipp (12) was the only AL batsman to hit more big flies in 1916.
Biography
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Factoids, Quotes, Milestones and Odd Facts
Best Season: 1912
The slugging third sacker led the AL in homers (10) and RBI (130), while slugging .541. He batted .347 (6th) and posted a .404 OBP (6th). He swiped 40 bases, had 40 doubles, and 21 triples. Though it was the only year the A’s failed to win the pennant between 1910 and 1914, Baker’s efforts were not the reason.
Full Bio
Frank Baker was one of the best World Series performers in history. In 25 World Series games he collected 33 hits, batted .363, slugged .538, hit three home runs, scored 15 runs, and batted in 18. He played on four Philadelphia A’s pennant winners, winning three World Series titles with Connie Mack. Baker collected nine hits in three straight Series.
Baker was the cleanup hitter on the great A’s teams that included Eddie Collins, Jack Barry, Stuffy McInnis, Harry Davis, Chief Bender and Eddie Plank. Along with Collins, McInnis, and Barry, he formed the famed $100,000 Infield.
In the 1911 Series, Baker earned his famous moniker. In Game Two he hit a two-run blast off Rube Marquard in the sixth inning that beat the Giants 3-1. The next day in Game Three he hit a solo-homer in the ninth off Christy Mathewson, tying the game, which the A’s eventually won in the 11th. Baker’s homers on back-to-back days was quite unusual in an era when 7-12 homers was a league-leading figure for an entire season. The A’s won the 1911 World Series and the 1913 Fall Classic as well. Baker batted .450 in the 1913 set.
Following the disappointing 1914 sweep at the hands of the Braves in the World Series, Mack broke up his team and sold off his stars. Baker was the only man Mack kept, but he refused to report and sat out the entire 1915 season in a contract dispute. Instead he played for Upland, Pennsylvania’s semipro team. In 1916 he was sent to the New York Yankees, where he finished in the top five in home runs each season from 1916 to 1919.
In 1920, Baker’s first wife died, leaving him with two daughters to care for. He chose to sit out the entire season but returned in 1921 to help the Yankees win their first pennant. He appeared as a utility player in both the 1921 and 1922 World Series. He retired after the ’22 campaign with a .307 lifetime average and a modest (by today’s standards) 96 career home runs. Yet, from 1909 to 1919, no player in the AL hit more homers than Baker, and only Ty Cobb had more RBI.
Home Run Leaders, 1908-1922
Babe Ruth… 197
Gavy Cravath… 119
Tilly Walker… 116
Cy Williams… 108
Rogers Hornsby… 99
Frank Baker… 96
Where He Played
Third base (1,548 games). Baker never appeared at another position in the regular season. He was the best third baseman of the first 25 years of the 20th century.
Nicknames
Home Run
“Home Run” was earned after his performance in the 1911 World Series, hitting homers in back-to-back games against the Giants.
Similar Players
None
Related Players
Eddie Collins, Stuffy McInnis
Post-Season Appearances
1910 World Series
1911 World Series
1913 World Series
1914 World Series
1921 World Series
1922 World Series
Notes
Baker finished in the top ten in MVP voting three times. Had there been a World Series MVP he most likely would have won two of them.
Transactions
February 15, 1916: Purchased by the New York Yankees from the Philadelphia Athletics.
Replaced
38-year old Jimmy Collins, who retired following the 1908 season. That means, Baker, a future Hall of Famer, replaced another Hall of Fame third baseman.
Replaced By
“Jumping” Joe Dugan
Best Strength as a Player
Hitting for extra bases and hitting in the clutch.
Largest Weakness as a Player
Base stealing. Baker was, like many players with average or less-than-average speed in his era, a poor percentage base stealer.
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