Transaction of Today...September 7, 1937...The Boston Bees purchased Milt Shoffner from Scranton
In many regards, Milburn James Shoffner experienced his greatest professional success as a Boston Bee. Of his 25 major league victories, 15 came with the Braves' organization. More than half of his major league innings came as a Bee. His only two major league shutouts - also as a Bee. And even though saves were not recognized at the time, Shoffner would later be retroactively awarded three saves when he played for Boston's National League team. They would be the only saves he would have as a major leaguer.
Yet, his most memorable moment in The Show came long before he joined the Braves organization. No, that moment came suddenly as Shoffner was summoned from the bullpen on July 20, 1929. He had been in the majors for a week by that point, but given rest after a heavy workload in the International League prior to getting brought up by Cleveland. He had yet to face a major league better until that day on the twentieth of July. Scheduled for the New York Yankees was Leo Durocher, a man more known for his later skills as a manager than his ability as a hitter. It might not be surprising that, in a 8-5 game, the Yankees were looking for some added insurance and went to the bench to replace the career .247 hitter. But what may have been surprising is that stepping in as a pinch hitter to face the new hurler was Babe Ruth.
Imagine that if you will. You're a 23-year-old straight from the minors. You've never thrown a major league pitch. Oh, and the first batter you'll face is the career leader in home runs at the time.
Shoffner was the son of a minor league pitcher himself. He grew up in the game, learning from his father and passing on a chance to play college ball with Colgate in order to start his career. It didn't take long for him to land his first professional baseball job in Grand Rapids with the Black Sox. He'd later run into trouble when, during a spring training game, he hit a batter in the head. Later on, someone took revenge on Shoffner and attacked him with an object, possibly a baseball bat, breaking the pitcher's skull and forcing him to miss time. The assailant was never brought to justice.
The southpaw would recover and spent the next two-and-half years refining his craft in the minors before the Indians called him up. He was as much of a prospect as you might see in a time before we really talked about prospects. The lefty had lowered his ERA from 5.13 in his first season to 2.82 in his third year before heading up to Cleveland. His reward? Facing the intimidating Babe Ruth.
In the middle of a 46-homer campaign, Ruth was 34 but still several years from slowing down at the plate. He'd pass 500 homers that season - the first player in his history to reach that mark. Shoffner leaned on his fastball and a curve against the greatest player of the era. The count was worked full and the cocky kid from Sherman, Texas went with the breaking ball. The Sultan of Swat swung and completely missed. You wouldn't have blamed Shoffner for just leaving the field, retiring, and basking in the glory of a career with one batter faced, one batter struck out, one Colossus of Clout sent back to the dugout.
But Shoffner stayed on and would later yield three runs as guys like Lou Gehrig did what Ruth could not. Shoffner struggled to harness his control and, unsurprisingly, he failed to impress in his time in as an Indian. After 47 games in the majors, including 17 starts, Cleveland had enough of the lefty, sending him back to the minors with a career 7.03 ERA. He'd play for Newark and Albany before finding a new home in Scranton which is also home to a pretty good paper company. Shoffner would pitch for Scranton for much of 1932-37, logging over a thousand innings for the Miners. But every year he excelled with Scranton meant he was a year older and his major league dreams were dying.
That was until Boston came calling in late 1937. Convinced there might be something left in the 31-year-old's left arm, the Bees brought him up and he immediately started against the Phillies the next day. 2,248 days had passed since his last game in the majors with Cleveland back in 1931. Nevertheless, Shoffner came to pitch and threw a three-hitter with a pair of walks and five K's in a 1-0 win with Debs Garms scoring the only run for Boston. I'm told that's a real name.
Boston brought back Shoffner in 1938 and, despite missing time with an appendix, set new highs in nearly every pitching category while pitching 26 times and starting 15 games. He'd return in 1939 and continue to perform well, but Boston was going nowhere and needed to get younger. They waived Shoffner at midseason and he landed with the Reds, continuing to perform in the same swingman role he had with Boston. He'd make 20 more appearances for the Reds in 1940. The Reds made the World Series both years, though Shoffner never pitched in the Fall Classic. When the Reds won the title against the Tigers in 1940, Shoffner would forever be known as a World Champion.
He was dealt that winter to the Giants, but he never made an appearance for them and spent the next year-and-half in the minors before he was drafted into the army and became a warrant officer.
After the war, Shoffner gave umpiring a try, but never got to the bigs that way. Shoffner moved back to the Cleveland area where his major league career began all those years ago and lived out the rest of his life before dying in 1978.
Shoffner had a 3.23 ERA as a Bee, a 6.21 ERA with the Indians and Reds. For modern Braves fans, you might think of him as a 1930's Jesse Chavez. That said, nothing Shoffner ever did with the Bees was as memorable as striking out Babe Ruth to open his career or winning a World Series ring to end it.
(Major thanks to Chris Rainey and his article on Milt Shoffner for SABR. Read more about Shoffner there.)