Baseball’s Deadball Era is full of colorful names, statistical quirks, and stories that seem like they belong in the movies. Bobby Veach stood just 5-foot-11 and weighed only 160 pounds. Believe it or not, the slim left-handed hitter was actually one of the best power bats of his era.
Robert Hayes Veach
Born: June 29, 1888, in St. Charles, KY
Died: August 7, 1945, in Detroit, MI
Yankees Tenure: 1925
Veach’s story starts in the Kentucky coal fields. A latecomer to baseball, he did not discover the game
until he was 13-years-old. Shortly thereafter, he left school to work alongside his father and brother in the coal mines.
After a few years balancing work and baseball in Kentucky, Veach moved to Illinois to play semiprofessional ball at 17. It took several more stops before he finally got his opportunity, but in 1912, at 24-years-old, his contract was purchased by the Detroit Tigers and he made his major league debut.
Playing alongside Ty Cobb and Sam Crawford, Veach helped form one of the greatest outfields in baseball history. From 1912 through 1923, he patrolled left field while often playing in the shadow of Cobb’s stardom. During that stretch, Veach slashed .311/.370/.444, good for an .814 OPS. In fact, he is one of only two players with at least 2,000 career hits and a lifetime batting average above .310 who is not enshrined in Cooperstown. The other is Manny Ramirez.
Veach may very well be one of the best players left out of the Hall of Fame. He led the league in RBIs three times while topping the 100-RBI mark in three other seasons. He also led the league in doubles twice, triples once, and tied Cobb for the league lead in hits one season. At the end of his career, Veach owned a .310 batting average and a .370 on-base percentage.
Unlike a fine wine, Veach’s time in Detroit soured rather than improved with age. From everything I could gather, Veach viewed baseball as a game, a craft, and a job he genuinely enjoyed compared to the alternatives he had experienced growing up. That outlook often rubbed one of baseball’s fiercest competitors, Cobb, the wrong way. So once Cobb was named manager of the club, he wanted Veach gone.
After several unsuccessful attempts to move him, Cobb finally got his wish when the Red Sox purchased Veach in a deal whose conditions were never publicly released. Veach spent the 1924 season in Boston along with the first five at-bats of his 1925 season.
Following that lone appearance in 1925, the Yankees acquired Veach and Alex Ferguson from Boston in exchange for Ray Francis and $9,000. The 1925 season was largely a lost one for New York as Babe Ruth missed nearly 100 games because of an intestinal abscess.
For the Yankees, Veach hit .353/.400/.474 in 130 at-bats across 56 games. As the club slipped in the standings, management began turning toward a younger core that included Lou Gehrig, Earle Combs, and Mark Koenig. That youth movement ultimately placed the veteran Veach on waivers.
The Washington Senators claimed him. Marking his third team of the year. While his end-of-the-season cameo did not go particularly well, the Senators reached the World Series, giving Veach his first opportunity to experience October baseball.
Following a season in which he played for three different clubs, Veach’s major league career came to an end. His playing days, however, did not. He spent several more seasons in the minor leagues, including a memorable run with the Toledo Mud Hens. Veach hit above .360 in three consecutive seasons and won the American Association batting title in 1928 at 40 years old.
A husband and father of four, Veach returned to the other line of work he knew after hanging up his spikes: coal. Rather than working in the mines himself, he purchased and managed a coal company.
Though his time in pinstripes was brief, Bobby Veach was still a Yankee. Join me in wishing him a happy birthday!
See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.
