Austin McHenry: Giant Killer?

While revising the Austin McHenry biography I wrote last November (to be featured soon on SABR’s BioProject web site) I noticed that the Evening State Journal and Lincoln Daily News out of Nebraska referred to McHenry as “the particular jinx of the New York Giants.”  Back in the day, we had to take the paper’s word for it, but thanks to the fantastic work being done at Retrosheet.org we can check for ourselves.

Austin McHenry made his major league debut for the St. Louis Cardinals on June 22, 1918 but didn’t face the New York Giants for the first time until July 19 when he went 2-for-4 with two runs and a double in St. Louis’ 5-2 win.  The win didn’t do much for the Cards who were in seventh place, 21 1/2 games behind the first-place Cubs and 16 games behind the second-place Giants, but McHenry got off to a good start against John McGraw’s club.

He faced them eight more times in 1918, going 5-for-26 with two runs, two sacrifice flies, a double, and a stolen base, and found himself on the losing end of seven of the eight contests.  He finished the 1918 season with a .261 average in 80 games, but hit just .233 (7-for-30) in nine games against the Giants.

He earned more playing time in 1919 and faced the Giants 17 times, and this time he did much better, hitting .313 with eight runs and five RBIs on six doubles, two triples, and a stolen base, but the Cardinals dropped 13 of those contests.  In their four wins, McHenry went 0-for-3 in a 5-2 victory on June 18; 3-for-5 with three runs and an RBI in a 12-8 win on July 9; 1-for-3 with a run in a 6-2 win on August 5; and 2-for-4 with an RBI and a stolen base in an 8-4 win on August 6.

He knocked in the go-ahead run on August 6, but none of his other hits were game winners.  He did, however, manufacture an 11-game hitting streak against the Giants that began on July 8 and didn’t end until his last appearance against the McGraws on September 13 when Art Nehf tossed a nifty three-hitter at the Cards.  During the 11-game streak he batted .362 with seven runs and five RBIs.

Though I wouldn’t consider McHenry a Giants “jinx” at this point in his career, his .313 batting average against Giants pitchers in 1919 was 33 points higher than his average against the rest of the National League, and he rapped out six doubles in 17 games vs. the Giants, while recording only 13 in his other 93.  McGraw was clearly impressed.  It was toward the end of the ‘19 season when the media began to report about McGraw’s interest in acquiring McHenry and reporters began to speculate that the Cards’ prized outfielder would eventually land in the Big Apple.

Branch Rickey refused to part with McHenry, however, and Austin took particular delight in torturing Giants hurlers in 1920, doing most of his damage against them in front of their fans.

Opponent	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	AVG	OBA	SLG	OPS
Boston	21	72	6	28	0	11	.389	.443	.486	.929
Brooklyn	19	75	7	15	1	5	.200	.221	.333	.554
Chicago	20	72	12	22	2	10	.306	.342	.486	.828
Cincinnati	20	79	12	20	0	7	.253	.298	.316	.614
New York	21	77	14	22	6	18	.286	.313	.597	.910
Philadelphia	14	46	7	14	1	4	.304	.319	.413	.732
Pittsburgh	22	83	8	21	0	10	.253	.279	.337	.616
Totals	137	504	66	142	10	65	.282	.316	.423	.739

As you can see, McHenry hit 10 home runs in 1920 and six of them came against the Giants.  He knocked in almost one run per game against them and slugged almost .600, 111 points higher than he slugged against the runners up Braves and Cubs.  And, as I said before, he had particular success at the Polo Grounds.

Venue	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	AVG	OBA	SLG	OPS
Polo Grounds	10	34	7	9	4	12	.265	.306	.676	.982
St. Louis	11	43	7	13	2	6	.302	.318	.535	.853

He did well in St. Louis too, hitting .302 against the Giants in 11 games, but two-thirds of his homers and RBIs came in New York and he slugged .676 at the Polo Grounds. Here are his best games against the Giants in 1920:

May 22, 1920 (New York at St. Louis): McHenry goes 2-for-4 with a walk and a run, starts the bottom of the ninth with a lead-off double, and scores the Cardinals’ first run of the game on a Joe Schultz single.  The Cards tie the game at 2-2 on a Rube Benton error, then win it in the 10th on a single by Jack Fournier, a walk to McHenry, a Doc Lavan sacrifice, and a grounder by Cliff Heathcote.

June 12, 1920 (St. Louis at New York): McHenry goes 1-for-4 and belts his first homer of the season, a solo shot off Benton in the seventh that accounts for St. Louis’ second run in a 2-0 victory.

July 13, 1920 (New York at St. Louis): McHenry goes 2-for-4 with a double, a run, and a sacrifice, and scores the Cards’ second run of the game, which trims the Giants lead to 4-2.  The Cards tie the game with two in the bottom of the eighth, but the Giants win with two in the top of the 12th.

July 14, 1920 (New York at St. Louis): McHenry goes 2-for-3 with a triple and scores the Cardinals’ only run in a 7-1 loss to Art Nehf.

July 28, 1920 (St. Louis at New York): McHenry goes 3-for-6 with a run, an RBI, and a stolen base in a seesaw battle that goes 14 innings before the Giants pull out a 6-5 win when Ross Youngs singles in George Burns in the bottom of the 14th.

July 29, 1920 (St. Louis at New York): McHenry goes 2-for-3 with a walk, a run, and a three-run homer off Nehf that ties the score at 3-3 in the sixth, only to see the Giants plate three of their own in the bottom of the frame in a 6-3 win.  New York Tribune writer W.O. McGeehan is duly impressed, calling McHenry the “hero of Major Branch Rickey’s lost battalion” and referring to him as “astonishing.”

July 30, 1920 (St. Louis at New York): McHenry continues his astonishing display against the Giants when he enters the game in the ninth as a pinch hitter and launches a Fred Toney offering into the left field seats with a man on base, giving the Cardinals a 7-6 lead.  “The astonishing Austin McHenry was sent in as a pinch hitter, and the astonishing Austin poled a home run into the left field bleachers, to the great disgust of Frederick Toney, who gave a grunt and seemed to subside for the day,” writes McGeehan.  But Bill Sherdel can’t hold the lead and the Giants plate two in the bottom of the ninth for a come-from-behind 8-7 win.

August 23, 1920 (New York at St. Louis): McHenry goes 1-for-4 with a run and belts a two-run homer off Nehf in the sixth to cut the Giants’ lead to 6-3, but New York tacks on four more and wins easily by a count of 10-3.  McHenry’s homer turns out to be a gift from Giants left fielder George Burns who has his glove on the drive but loses control as the ball pops over the fence and into the stands.  It’s McHenry’s seventh homer of the season, four of which have come against the Giants.

August 24, 1920 (New York at St. Louis): McHenry doesn’t homer, but goes 4-for-4 with a run and an RBI in the Cardinals’ 6-4 win over the Giants.  The Cards put the game away with a five-run third and never look back.  Sherdel comes on in relief and tosses 5 2/3 scoreless innings for the win.

August 26, 1920 (New York at St. Louis): McHenry continues his mastery over the Giants’ hurlers and wallops a two-run homer into the left field seats off Toney with Milt Stock on base to give the Cards a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning.  “Stock walked and then up stepped the athletic Mr. McHenry and carressed one of Toney’s choicest floaters for a home run over the left field fence,” writes the New York Times.  “Spittin’ Bill” Doak does the rest and holds the Giants to only one run for a 2-1 victory.  Toney leaves the game due to a finger injury and is relieved by Benton, who is eventually relieved by Jesse Winters.  The three Giants hurlers allow only three hits; McHenry gets two of them.

September 14, 1920 (St. Louis at New York): McHenry goes 2-for-5 with a triple and a homer and drives in five of the Cardinals’ nine runs in a 9-3 win over the Giants.  He drives in the first two runs of the game when Ross Youngs attempts to make a shoestring catch of McHenry’s short fly to right but fails and allows the ball to get by him for a three-bagger.  Then McHenry extends St. Louis’ lead from 6-2 to 9-2 with a three-run drive into the left center field seats off Winters in the top of the ninth.  It’s his ninth homer of the year and sixth against the Giants.

It’s clear at this point that McHenry owned the New York Giants and I suppose it’s not preposterous to insist he had a “jinx” over them, but without looking at every other opposing player there’s no way to know what his overall impact was on the Giants’ failure to cop the 1920 National League pennant.  Suffice it to say that he obviously enjoyed facing Giants pitching.

He came into his own in 1921, batting .350 with 17 homers and 102 RBIs, and finished second in the N.L. in hitting and slugging behind teammate Rogers Hornsby.  He also finished in the top five in doubles, homers, RBIs, total bases, and extra-base hits, and was one of only six N.L. batters with 200 hits.  And though he turned Brooklyn pitchers into his personal punching bag that season, he still dominated Giants slabmen as well.

Opponent	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	AVG	OBA	SLG	OPS
Boston	22	84	11	29	2	17	.345	.409	.500	.909
Brooklyn	22	86	17	36	3	14	.419	.451	.628	1.079
Chicago	20	73	13	24	3	16	.329	.355	.548	.903
Cincinnati	22	85	12	28	2	13	.329	.352	.482	.834
New York	22	79	14	29	3	14	.367	.398	.608	1.006
Philadelphia	22	90	11	31	2	16	.344	.372	.489	.861
Pittsburgh	22	77	14	24	2	14	.312	.396	.468	.864
Totals	152	574	92	201	17	102	.350	.393	.531	.924

As you can see his runs, home runs, and RBIs were more evenly distributed in 1921, but his OPS was especially high against the New York teams.  What’s interesting, though, is that he performed at his worst at the Polo Grounds, and turned Chicago’s Cubs Park (Wrigley Field) into his new play pen.

Venue	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	AVG	OBA	SLG	OPS
Polo Grounds	11	41	7	11	2	6	.268	.302	.463	.765
Cubs Park	9	33	8	14	3	13	.424	.457	.788	1.245

He also enjoyed hitting at Ebbets Field (.478/.500/.674) and was a much better hitter on the road (.377/.414/.592)  than at home (.324/.369/.472), although his home numbers were also very good.

McGraw obviously recognized McHenry’s dominance over his pitchers as evidenced by the intentional walks issued to the Cards slugger in the first two games in which he faced the Giants in the 1921 season.  In fact, McHenry was intentionally walked three times that year and all three came against the Giants.

May 10, 1921 (St. Louis at New York): McHenry goes 1-for-4 with an RBI and is intentionally walked in the bottom of the fifth with one out and runners on second and third, loading the bases for Doc Lavan.  The Giants cling to a 6-5 lead at the time, and the move pays off as Lavan pops out to first and Pickles Dillhoefer grounds out to second.  The Cardinals plate two in the seventh against relief pitcher Slim Sallee and hold on for a 7-6 win.

May 11, 1921 (St. Louis at New York): McHenry goes 0-for-3 but is respected again by McGraw when the Giants manager has him intentionally walked for the second straight game.  With runners on second and third and two outs in the sixth, Fred Toney issues the free pass to load the bases, and again the move pays off as Lavan flies out to left to end the inning with the Cards clinging to a 1-0 lead.  The Giants score in their half of the sixth and tack on three more for a 4-1 win.

May 12, 1921 (St. Louis at New York): McHenry goes 1-for-4 with two runs and an RBI and smacks his second homer of the season, a solo shot off Jesse Barnes in the fifth that puts the Cards on the board for the first time.  Charles Taylor of the New York Tribune adopts an Irish theme for the next day’s column and calls McHenry’s homer “a most unforgiveable Irish trick” and writes “…this particular Mick drove out a graceful home-run into the left field stands.”  St. Louis scores two in the ninth but loses 7-5.

June 11, 1921 (New York at St. Louis): McHenry goes 3-for-4 with a double, a run, and an RBI in an 8-3 Cardinals win that pulls them within 5 1/2 games of the second-place Giants.

June 12, 1921 (New York at St. Louis): McHenry goes 3-for-4 for the third straight day, and doubles, triples, and knocks in a run in St. Louis’ 4-3 win.  The Giants score two in the top of the ninth to take a 3-2 lead, but the Cards rally with two of their own in the bottom of the frame for the victory.  The Cards pull to within 4 1/2 of the Giants in the standings.

June 13, 1921 (New York at St. Louis): McHenry records another three-hit game, his sixth in his last eight contests, going 3-for-4 with three runs, an RBI, and a stolen base in St. Louis’ 10-1 pasting of Art Nehf and the Giants.  The performance puts McHenry’s average on the year at .404, the first and only time he’ll be at or over .400 all season.  The win also pulls the Cardinals to within 3 1/2 games of second place.

July 12, 1921 (St. Louis at New York): Heading into the game, McHenry has a 13-game hitting streak in progress, but since he last faced Giants pitching a month ago, his average has dropped 54 points.  He goes 1-for-3 against Barnes with a double and a run, recording one of St. Louis’ four hits and scoring half of their runs in an 8-2 loss that puts them in a fourth-place tie with Brooklyn, 12 games out of first.

July 13, 1921 (St. Louis at New York): McHenry extends his hitting streak to 15 games with a 2-for-4 performance in which he scores one of the Cardinals’ four runs off Nehf in a 9-4 loss that drops St. Louis into fifth place.  McHenry’s streak is broken the next day when he goes 0-for-4 against Giants spot starter Rosy Ryan.

August 3, 1921 (New York at St. Louis): McHenry almost single-handedly beats the Giants with a 2-for-3 effort in which he singles in the go-ahead run in the third to give the Cards a 2-1 lead, then provides insurance with a solo homer off “Shufflin’ Phil” Douglas in the bottom of the sixth to stake St. Louis to a 3-1 lead in a game they’d eventually win 3-2.  The win does little for the Cardinals, who are still in fifth place, but it drops the Giants to 2 1/2 games behind the first-place Pirates.

August 4, 1921 (New York at St. Louis): McHenry goes 1-for-3 against Nehf in a game the Cardinals win 1-0 when Rogers Hornsby drives in Joe Schultz with a sixth-inning single.  The win pulls St. Louis into a fourth-place tie with Brooklyn and knocks the Giants 3 1/2 games out of first.

August 5, 1921 (New York at St. Louis): McHenry does his best to beat the Giants again, going 2-for-4 with a double and a run against Toney, but New York holds on for a 2-1 win.

August 20, 1921 (St. Louis at New York): The Cards pound the Giants 10-1 but McHenry has only a fourth inning single off Nehf during a 1-for-5 day that drops his average to .338, the lowest it’s been since May 15.

August 21, 1921 (St. Louis at New York): McHenry goes 1-for-3 with a sacrifice against Toney in a 7-4 loss to the Giants.

August 22, 1921 (St. Louis at New York): McHenry has only one hit for the fifth straight game, but it’s a big one, as he takes 22-year-old rookie Red Shea deep in the first for a three-run homer that follows a Milt Stock sacrifice fly and stakes the Cards to an early 4-0 lead.  Shea and Ryan hold McHenry hitless for the rest of the game but Bill Pertica tosses a three-hit shutout for a 6-0 win.

August 23, 1921 (St. Louis at New York): McHenry breaks out with a three-hit game, slaps his 28th double of the season off Barnes, scores twice and knocks in a run in a wild affair won by the Cards, 10-7.  He pushes his average back to .340 and has it dip below that mark only twice in his last 38 games.

September 24, 1921 (New York at St. Louis): McHenry knocks in three of the Cards’ eight runs with two hits, including his eighth triple of the season, and a sacrifice in an 8-4 St. Louis victory.  The hits boost his average to .348, the highest it’s been since August 10.

September 25, 1921 (New York at St. Louis): McHenry doubles and draws an intentional walk in four trips to the plate against Douglas but the Cards lose 5-2.  The Giants are up 3-1 going into the bottom of the seventh, but the Cardinals rally on consecutive one-out singles by Jack Fournier, Milt Stock, and Hornsby that cuts the lead to 3-2.  Heinie Mueller grounds out to first, moving Stock to third and Hornsby to second with two outs and McGraw orders an intentional walk to McHenry to load the bases.  Again Lavan fails to come through and grounds out to end the threat.

September 26, 1921 (New York at St. Louis): In his last appearance of the season against the Giants, McHenry singles in three trips to the plate against Nehf, who beats the Cardinals 4-1 for his 20th win of the season.  The hit extends McHenry’s modest hitting streak to seven games and he’ll extend it to 12, which is where it stands when the season ends.  Despite McHenry’s success against McGraw’s club in 1921, the Giants overtake the Pirates and win their seventh N.L. pennant in the modern era and second World Series title.

McGraw, by now tired of being pummeled by McHenry, offered Rickey $50,000 for the slugger, doubling the previous high offer of $25,000 by the Reds, but the Cardinals exec refused to budge, expecting McHenry to form a nucleus with Hornsby, Doak, Sherdel, and Jesse Haines that would someday challenge for the National League pennant.

But nineteen twenty-two proved to be a tragic year for McHenry on every level.  Not only was he not able to replicate his brilliant 1921 performance, but he learned that he had a brain tumor that required surgery in mid-October and led to his premature death in November at the tender age of 27.  Though he appeared in only 64 games, his splits remained consistent with his past performance as he batted better on the road (.325/.360/.504) than he did at home (.281/.323/.430).  He also continued to pound the hell out of the ball at Cubs Park, batting .464 with a .500 on-base percentage and a slugging percentage of .679.

But he no longer had a mastery over Giants pitching, nor did he pose a special threat at the Polo Grounds.  In fact, his worst performances came against the Giants, although in a small sample size.

Opponent	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	AVG	OBA	SLG	OPS
Boston	8	24	3	6	0	2	.250	.280	.375	.655
Brooklyn	9	36	3	10	0	6	.278	.278	.306	.584
Chicago	13	54	11	20	2	8	.370	.404	.611	1.015
Cincinnati	9	30	2	7	0	5	.233	.324	.367	.691
New York	7	27	0	4	0	3	.148	.143	.222	.365
Philadelphia	7	28	6	14	2	11	.500	.563	.857	1.420
Pittsburgh	11	39	6	11	1	7	.282	.326	.436	.762
Totals	64	238	31	72	5	43	.303	.344	.466	.810

His two favorite opponents were Philadelphia and Chicago and he loved hitting in Baker Bowl and Cubs Park.  Half of his eight hits in Philadelphia went for extra bases (two doubles and two homers) and he slugged 1.143 in four games there.  He slugged .679 in seven games in Chicago.  Meanwhile, he went only 4-for-27 with two doubles in seven games at the Polo Grounds.

May 9, 1922 (New York at St. Louis): McHenry enters the game hitting .320 and goes 1-for-4 with a double off Ryan, who shuts out the Cards, 6-0, and improves to 3-1 on the year.

May 10, 1922 (New York at St. Louis): McHenry goes hitless in four trips to the plate against Nehf and commits his sixth error of the season in a 3-2 loss to the Giants.  His error doesn’t contribute to the loss, but he comes up with a man on base twice in the game and grounds out both times.  His average drops to .301.

May 11, 1922 (New York at St. Louis): McHenry doubles off Douglas in the second for his only hit in three trips to the plate, but the day belongs to Bill Doak, who allows a lead-off bunt single to Dave Bancroft, then throws nine hitless innings in a 2-0 Cardinals win.  Bancroft is erased on a steal attempt and the only Giants to reach base thereafter are Heinie Groh, Frankie Frisch, and Frank Snyder, all of whom draw walks.

May 12, 1922 (New York at St. Louis): McHenry goes 1-for-5 and sees his average drop to .297, but his hit is a “big” one as he drives in the winning run off Nehf in the bottom of the 10th inning to lead the Cards to a 7-6 win.  The Giants tie the game in the top of the ninth off Sherdel, but McHenry bounds a slow roller up the third base line with two outs and Stock on third in the bottom of the 10th.  Groh, thinking the ball might go foul, lets it roll to a dead stop in fair territory and the Cards win.  “Heinie simply did nothing, hoping the ball would roll foul,” writes the New York Tribune, “but it didn’t, Mr. Austin McHenry being credited with a safe hit and Mr. Groh with an addled piece of headwork.  He looked very foolish and might have gotten either Stock at the plate or McHenry at first had he picked up the ball instead of giving it the absent treatment.”

June 18, 1922 (St. Louis at New York): In a rain-shortened affair, McHenry goes 0-for-3 against Toney but the second-place Cards win 4-2 and pull to within 5 1/2 games of the first-place Giants.

June 19, 1922 (St. Louis at New York): McHenry goes 1-4 with two RBIs on a single and a sacrifice fly against Douglas, and helps the Cards to a 5-4 win over the Giants that cuts St. Louis’ deficit to only 4 1/2 games.  McHenry’s first inning single scores Jack Smith to give the Cards a 1-0 lead, then he lines a sac fly to right in the third to score Smith and give the Cardinals a 3-2 lead.  St. Louis scores twice more in the inning, then holds on for a 5-4 win.

July 28, 1922 (St. Louis at New York): McHenry makes the final start of his career and goes 0-for-4 against Ryan in an 8-4 loss to the Giants at the Polo Grounds.  It’s his first game in more than a month since Rickey sends him home to rest after recognizing that McHenry isn’t himself in a game against the Reds on June 26.  McHenry has been misjudging fly balls and fears he is going blind.  His eyesight is being affected by a brain tumor that hasn’t yet been diagnosed and won’t be until October.  After a month’s rest at his home in Blue Creek, Ohio, McHenry rejoins the Cardinals, but it’s clear he’s still not healthy.

On July 31, Rickey brings McHenry in to pinch hit for Jack Smith in the seventh inning of a 5-1 game against the Brooklyn Robins at Ebbets Field, and McHenry delivers a run-scoring single off Sherry Smith to push the lead to 6-1 before leaving for Eddie Dyer, who comes in to pinch run.  The Cardinals win 6-2 and pull to within a half game of the first-place Giants.

Rickey sent McHenry home again where his tumor was diagnosed and operated on to no avail.  He died on November 27, 1922 at the age of 27.  The Cardinals caught the Giants and held first place on a few occasions in August 1922, but they faded down the stretch and finished in a third-place tie with the Pittsburgh Pirates, eight games out of first.

From 1920-1922 the Giants didn’t suffer as much at the hands of McHenry as did the Phillies, Cubs, and Braves, but based on his 1920 performance against the McGraws and the fact that 28% of his career homers came against the Giants, it’s easy to see why he earned a reputation as a Giant killer.

Opponent	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	AVG	OBA	SLG	OPS
Philadelphia	43	164	24	59	5	31	.360	.393	.530	.923
Chicago	53	199	36	66	7	34	.332	.364	.543	.907
Boston	51	180	20	63	2	30	.350	.406	.478	.884
New York	50	183	28	55	9	35	.301	.325	.546	.871
Brooklyn	50	197	27	61	4	25	.310	.333	.457	.790
Pittsburgh	55	199	28	56	3	31	.281	.336	.407	.743
Cincinnati	51	194	26	55	2	25	.284	.325	.397	.722
Totals	353	1316	189	415	32	211	.315	.355	.478	.833

NOTES: Pre-1920 splits and dailies weren’t available at www.retrosheet.org, so numbers before 1920 are estimates based on box scores from the New York Times.